The Evening Blues - 3-14-22
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features blues and jazz singer Nina Simone. Enjoy!
Nina Simone - I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free
“It was miraculous. It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. It merely required no character.”
-- Joseph Heller
News and Opinion
The US And Ukraine Have Every Reason To Lie About The War
The Washington Post has a new article out titled “Intelligence points to heightened risk of Russian chemical attack in Ukraine, officials say,” and I challenge you to find me any Russian state media with two opening paragraphs that are more brazenly propagandistic and bereft of journalistic ethics than these:
“The United States and its allies have intelligence that Russia may be preparing to use chemical weapons against Ukraine, U.S. and European officials said Friday, as Moscow sought to invigorate its faltering military offensive through increasingly brutal assaults across multiple Ukrainian cities.
“Security officials and diplomats said the intelligence, which they declined to detail, pointed to possible preparations by Russia for deploying chemical munitions, and warned the Kremlin may seek to carry out a ‘false-flag’ attack that attempts to pin the blame on Ukrainians, or perhaps Western governments. The officials, like others quoted in this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the matter.”
So Russia is preparing to stage a chemical attack, and also the Russian chemical attack might look like Ukrainians or western governments committing a chemical attack, and also the evidence for this is secret, and also the details are secret, and also the government officials advancing this claim are secret, and also Russia’s military offensive is faltering. Gotcha.
The third paragraph is even better:
“The accusations surfaced as Russia repeated claims that the United States and Ukraine were operating secret biological weapons labs in Eastern Europe — an allegation that the Biden administration dismissed as ‘total nonsense’ and ‘outright lies.’”
This paragraph is awesome in two different ways. First, it’s awesome because The Washington Post goes out of its way to inform readers that Russia’s claims have been dismissed as “total nonsense” and “outright lies” after having literally just reported completely unevidenced claims by anonymous government officials with no criticism or scrutiny of any kind. Secondly, it’s awesome because at no point during the rest of the article is any mention made of Victoria Nuland’s incendiary admission before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that Ukraine has “biological research facilities” that the US is “quite concerned” might end up “falling into the hands of Russian forces”.
Over and over again throughout the article The Washington Post takes great care to inform readers that Russian claims about biological weapons are not to be trusted, with allegations from Moscow described as “unproven accusations” made with “no verifiable evidence“, “absurd and laughable“, “outrageous claims”, “utter nonsense”, “sinking to new depths” and “baseless“.
This, again, after uncritically reporting completely unsubstantiated allegations by government officials and sheltering them from any accountability by granting them the cover of anonymity. Unproven claims by the Russian government are laughable absurdities presented without evidence; unproven claims by the US government are just The News.
The Washington Post also refers to past Russian dismissals of alleged chemical weapons attacks in Syria as false flags used to frame Damascus, while of course making no mention of the mountains of evidence that this has indeed occurred. It also says the UN human rights office “has received ‘credible reports’ of Russia using cluster bombs” which “could constitute war crimes”, making no mention of the USA’s abundant use and sale of these same munitions.
Democracy Dies in Darkness.
1/ Our Community Guidelines prohibit content denying, minimizing or trivializing well-documented violent events. We are now removing content about Russia’s invasion in Ukraine that violates this policy. https://t.co/TrTnOXtOTU
— YouTubeInsider (@YouTubeInsider) March 11, 2022
The fact that this Russian false flag narrative is being shoved forward with so much propagandistic fervor, not just by The Washington Post but also by government officials and CIA media pundits, makes it all the more concerning that we’re seeing things like YouTube banning the denial of “well-documented violent events” involving Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. We could soon see a chemical weapons incident occur in Ukraine, after which Silicon Valley platforms ban all accounts who express skepticism of the official western narrative about what happened.
The US-centralized empire is censoring and propagandizing as though it is in a hot war with Russia currently. Officially the US and its allies are not at war, but the imperial narrative management machine is behaving as though we are. This makes sense because when two nuclear-armed powers are fighting for dominance and know a direct military confrontation can kill them both, other types of warfare are used instead, including propaganda campaigns and psychological warfare.
There is a widespread general understanding in the west that Russia stands everything to gain by lying about what happens on the ground in Ukraine and cannot be taken at its word about occurrences during this war. There is much less widespread understanding of the fact that both Ukraine and the United States stand everything to gain by lying about this war as well and cannot be trusted either.
The Washington Post’s own reporting says that behind the scenes western governments see Russian victory in this war as a foregone conclusion. Ukraine’s only chance at stopping Russia in the near term would be if it could persuade NATO powers to take a more direct role in combat, like setting up a no-fly zone as President Zelensky has persistently pleaded with them to do. One way to get around NATO’s rational resistance to directly attacking the military forces of a nuclear superpower would be to appeal to emotion via atrocity propaganda. By circulating a narrative that Russia has done something heinous which cries out to the heavens for vengeance, regardless of the risks entailed.
The United States would also benefit from circulating atrocity propaganda about Russia, in that it would further consolidate international support behind the agenda to economically strangle the nation to death in facilitation of the empire’s struggle for unipolar planetary hegemony. Even before the invasion the US was already pushing the narrative that Russia has a list of dissidents, journalists and “vulnerable populations such as religious and ethnic minorities and LGBTQI+ persons” who it plans on rounding up and torturing.
To be clear, it is not conjecture that the US and its proxies make use of atrocity propaganda. The infamous Nayirah testimony for example helped manufacture consent for the Gulf War when a 15 year-old girl who turned out to be a coached plant falsely told the US Congressional Human Rights Caucus that she’d witnessed Iraqi soldiers taking babies out of incubators in Kuwait and leaving them on the floor to die.
Atrocity propaganda has been in use for as long as war and media have coexisted, and it would be incredibly naive to believe it won’t continue to be. Especially by power structures with a known history of doing so.
For this reason it is necessary to take everything claimed about what happens in Ukraine with a planet-sized grain of salt, whether it’s by Russia, Ukraine, or the US and its allies. Be very skeptical of anything you hear about chemical attacks or any other narrative that can be used to get military firepower moving in a way that it otherwise would not. All parties involved in this conflict have every reason in the world to lie about such things.
Yes, Ukraine DOES Have Biolabs - Admits US Government. w/Glenn Greenwald
Regarding war crimes, Russian and American
United States Vice President Kamala Harris, speaking at a press conference in Romania on Friday, pointed her finger at Russian actions in Ukraine and declared, “We are clear that any intentional attack or targeting of civilians is a war crime. Period.” ... There should be no objection to the investigation of war crimes charges against Russia, on one condition: that this apply not only to war crimes by opponents of the United States but also to those committed by the United States itself. American presidents and military leaders must be brought to trial for the murder of countless civilians deliberately targeted by US imperialism.
What has been done to Mariupol does not begin to approach the magnitude of the crimes perpetrated by US imperialism around the globe. Washington has deliberately attacked and targeted innocent civilians the world over. To list the war crimes of the US empire would fill the pages of a lengthy book. Among the chapter headings we would find the names Wounded Knee, Bud Dajo, My Lai, Fallujah, and photo after painfully familiar photo of the corpses of men, women and children surrounded by US soldiers leaning on their rifles.
One could select at random any conflict in which the United States has taken part at any point in the past 30 years and find numerous war crimes for which Washington has been responsible but for which no one has been held accountable. ... The media is coldly indifferent, and a stony silence greets each new revelation. There are no meaningful investigations launched; no rapid fire questions from courageous reporters. The American media reserves its unfelt sorrow for the victims of the enemies of Washington. ...
Washington declares its profound concern to document Russia’s war crimes, but Julian Assange has been mercilessly persecuted because he exposed the crimes of the United States. For his courageous publication of material detailing such crimes as the murder of Iraqi civilians by US forces, his life has been effectively stripped from him. Washington demands his permanent silencing and will stop at nothing to see him dead. The hypocrisy extends yet further. The United States, which is calling for charges against Putin, does not acknowledge the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court over its own combatants. No American has been prosecuted by the ICC for war crimes, and the US government has obstructed all attempts to do so. ...
There is no statute of limitations on war crimes. If Putin is to be sent to the Hague for his crimes, Clinton, Bush, Obama, Trump and all their accomplices in the US killings of civilians should join him in the dock.
Krystal Ball: Are We SLEEPWALKING to NUCLEAR WAR?
Russia sends message with Yavoriv strike
Russia’s deadly multiple missile strike on Ukraine’s military base in Yavoriv, less than 15 miles from the border with Poland, was clearly designed to send a message. Not only can Russian forces strike the western limits of Ukraine, killing at least 35 people near where western arms will be crossing into the country, but the Kremlin does not care if US or other volunteer fighters were training there.
A day earlier, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov had said its military would treat arms shipments to Ukraine from Nato countries as “legitimate targets”. The facility, well known as a location where Nato forces trained Ukrainians in years before the war began, is near the most direct route between Rzeszow airport, where western arms are being flown in, and the city of Lviv.
It is a place where foreign volunteers are said to have congregated as they start training with Ukraine’s armed forces. But even if the base is not used or heavily used for either purpose, it is a site long viewed with suspicion by Russia.
I'm shocked to hear this:
EVIDENCE: Media Misleading US Public On Ukraine
Biden adviser rejects Republican call to ‘close skies’ over Ukraine
A senior Republican senator on Sunday urged the US and Nato to “close the skies” over Ukraine, hours after a logistics hub and training base for foreign fighters 11 miles from the Polish border was struck by Russian forces, killing 35. “The message coming loud and clear is close the skies,” said Rob Portman, a senator from Ohio on a visit to Poland. “Because the skies are where the bombs are coming, whether it’s the missile attacks or the airplane attacks or with artillery.”
The US intelligence community has assessed that any attempt to create a no-fly zone would risk escalation. The US has also turned down a Polish offer to supply jets to Ukraine via an American airbase in Germany. Asked if supplying Ukraine with Russian-made MiG-29s could trigger a third world war, Portman told CNN’s State of the Union he “didn’t know why that would be true”.
“The Russians have complained about everything,” he said. “Vladimir Putin has said that the sanctions are an act of war.” Russia, Portman said, “complained when we provided Stingers directly from the US government, which can knock down an airplane and have been successful in doing that at lower altitudes. We have given [Ukraine] helicopters.
“… What we have heard directly from the Ukrainians is they want [the jets] badly. They want the ability to have better control over the skies in order to give them a fighting chance. So I don’t understand why we’re not doing it.” Portman welcomed an indication from Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser, that anti-aircraft systems could be provided.
Sullivan repeated Joe Biden’s opposition to the transfer of “offensive” weapons while underlining commitment to supplying “defensive” arms, telling CBS’s Face the Nation the US and allies “believe in our capacity to continue to flow substantial amounts of military assistance, weapons and supplies to the front in Ukraine.
Oliver Stone, Abby Martin DEPLATFORMED From YouTube
Wall Street’s Sleazy Profiteering Off Of Ukraine War – Even Infuriates NBC Host
These Members of Congress Could Make a Profit on US Arms Shipments to Ukraine
Some members of Congress stand to personally profit off Russia's war on Ukraine. At least 18 federal lawmakers or their spouses hold stock in Raytheon Technologies and Lockheed Martin, which manufacture the weapons Western allies are sending Ukraine to fight Russian invaders, according to an Insider analysis of federal financial records.
The stock holdings by members of Congress come as the U.S. is preparing to send billions of dollars in defense aid to Ukraine. Both companies' stock -- especially that of Lockheed Martin -- have risen since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. ...
Among those investing in the defense contractors is Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who bought between $1,001 and $15,000 in Lockheed Martin shares on February 22. Two days after her purchase, Greene wrote in a Twitter thread: "War is big business to our leaders." ...
Other federal lawmakers have traded stock in the defense contractors in recent weeks. Republican Rep. Diana Harshbarger of Tennessee and her husband made three separate Raytheon trades worth up to $15,000 and Democratic Rep. Lois Frankel of Florida sold up to $15,000 in Lockheed Martin stock but retained shares in the company.
[See article for full details and annotated list of congressional perps. The following are mentioned:
- Sen. John Hickenlooper
- Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse
- Thomas Daffron, a former longtime Hill chief of staff and the husband of Republican Sen. Susan Collins
- Abigail Perlman Blunt, a lobbyist for Kraft Heinz who is also the wife of retiring Republican Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri
- Sen. Shelley Moore Capito
- Sen. Gary Peters
- Martha Stacy, the wife of Democratic Sen. Tom Carper
- John Axne, the husband of Democratic Rep. Cindy Axne
- Rep. Kevin Hern
- Rep. Fred Upton
- Rep. Steve Cohen
- Rep. John Curtis
- Rep. David Price
- Rep. Dwight Evans
- Margaret Kirkpatrick, who is married to Democratic Rep. Rep. Earl Blumenauer
-js]
Congressman McCarthy Smears Journalist Over Ukraine Then Backtracks
Biden adviser warns China will face consequences if it helps Russia evade sanctions
Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan, who is due to meet China’s top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, in Rome on Monday, warned on Sunday that Beijing will “absolutely” face consequences if it helps Moscow evade sanctions over the invasion of Ukraine. The White House national security council declined to comment, however, on reports that Russia has asked China for military equipment since its invasion of Ukraine on 24 February.
The Financial Times, Washington Post and New York Times reported the request on Sunday, citing US officials. ... The Washington Post said the unidentified US officials did not state the kind of weaponry that Russia requested or how China responded. ...
“We are communicating directly, privately to Beijing, that there will absolutely be consequences for large-scale sanctions evasion efforts or support to Russia to backfill them,” Sullivan said. “We will not allow that to go forward and allow there to be a lifeline to Russia from these economic sanctions from any country, anywhere in the world.”
A senior US administration official said the war in Ukraine would be a “significant topic” during Sullivan’s meeting with Yang, which is part of a broader effort by Washington and Beijing to maintain communication and manage competition between the world’s two largest economies.
How US-backed Maidan coup, Russiagate led to war in Ukraine
Kamala NATO gaffe. Venezuela will sell oil BUT Biden needs to recognise Maduro.
White House faces oil standoff with Saudi Arabia and UAE as prices soar
Joe Biden’s hardline stance on Russia has won him widespread plaudits, but with the most serious oil shock in decades now a reality, the US president’s attempt to cushion the blowback continues to meet resistance from the two allies he needs most. Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, Mohammed bin Salman, and his counterpart in the United Arab Emirates, Mohammed bin Zayed, are yet to agree to a phone call with the west’s most powerful man – a scenario all but unthinkable during previous administrations.
Biden’s immediate priority is for both countries to help exert maximum economic pressure on Russia by cranking up their oil output. Each capital is a major supplier of oil, with excess capacity, which would soften the effect on US consumers through fuel prices before midterm elections in November that threaten Democratic control of Congress. With relations between the Middle East oil powers and Washington at their lowest ebb in modern times, though, a reckoning is due that may realign the regional order on terms that favour Riyadh and Abu Dhabi. Both leaders have made it clear that they will settle for nothing less, and are ready to extract their price.
As if to show the Biden administration what it could do, the UAE ambassador to Washington, Yousef al-Otaiba, last Wednesday said it favoured production increases “and will be encouraging Opec to consider higher production levels”, leading oil prices to fall by 13% the next day. But no action to increase supply followed and by the week’s end the price per barrel was back up to almost $130 (£100), an uncomfortably high level for Biden to take to the midterms.
'Brutal Display of Impunity': Saudi Regime Executes 81 People in Single Day
The government of Saudi Arabia has executed 81 people—including seven Yemenis and a Syrian national—over the past 24 hours in what is believed to be the largest mass execution in the kingdom's history.
Citing the country's interior ministry, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday that most of those executed were Saudis.
"More than half were from the minority Shiite Muslim population," the Journal added. "The interior ministry didn't disclose how the men were killed. Executions in the past have involved beheading by sword in the kingdom, which remains among the world's top executioners despite recent efforts to curb the use of the death penalty."
In response to the mass killing, the human rights group Reprieve said in a statement that "the world should know by now that when [Saudi Crown Prince] Mohammed bin Salman promises reform, bloodshed is bound to follow."
"Just last week the crown prince told journalists he plans to modernize Saudi Arabia's criminal justice system, only to order the largest mass execution in the country's history," the group said. "There are prisoners of conscience on Saudi death row, and others arrested as children or charged with non-violent crimes. We fear for every one of them following this brutal display of impunity."
"[British] Prime Minister Boris Johnson is due to visit Saudi Arabia soon, to beg for Saudi oil to replace Russian gas," Reprieve continued. "We cannot show our revulsion for Putin's atrocities by rewarding those of the Crown Prince. Johnson must speak up and condemn these killings."
Those executed over the past 24 hours were accused of a variety of crimes, including "pledging allegiance to foreign terrorist organizations." But the Saudi judicial system is notoriously unfair, frequently wielding its authority to silence and punish political dissidents.
"Saudi Arabia's anti-terrorism law criminalizes any form of dissent," noted Rula Jebreal, a foreign policy analyst and a visiting professor at the University of Miami. "Peaceful activists, feminists, and critics are branded 'terrorists'—evidence against them [is] extracted by torture."
On Friday, Saudi blogger Raif Badawi was finally released after serving 10 years in prison for allegedly "insulting Islam"—a case that helped galvanize global criticism of the Saudi regime's atrocious human rights abuses.
Despite the country's record, the United States in recent years—including during the Biden administration—has continued to supply the oil kingdom with weapons that it is currently using to wage a deadly war against Yemen, creating the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.
Last weekend, Axios reported that U.S. President Joe Biden is weighing a spring visit to Saudi Arabia to "help repair relations and convince the kingdom to pump more oil" amid fears of a supply shortage during Russia's assault on Ukraine. The Biden administration has faced backlash over the past year for refusing to punish the Saudi regime for its role in the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi.
Irish Politicians GO OFF On Western Hypocrisy Over Ukraine
Iran FIRES MISSILES Near US Consulate In Biden Test
Iran claims responsibility for missile strike near US consulate in Iraq
Iran has claimed responsibility for a missile barrage that struck early on Sunday near a sprawling US consulate complex in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil, saying it was retaliation for an Israeli strike in Syria that killed two of its Revolutionary Guards. ...
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on their website that they launched the attack against an Israeli “strategic centre of conspiracy” in Erbil. They did not elaborate, but in a statement said that Israel had itself been on the offensive, citing the strike in Syria. ...
One Iraqi official in Baghdad initially said several missiles had hit the US consulate in Erbil and that it was the target of the attack. Later, Lawk Ghafari, the head of Kurdistan’s foreign media office, said none of the missiles had struck the US facility but that areas around the compound had been hit. A statement by the interior ministry of Iraq’s Kurdistan region said the missiles were launched from outside Iraq, from the east, without naming Iran.
The US defence official said it was still uncertain exactly how many missiles were fired and exactly where they had landed. A second US official said there was no damage at any US government facility and that there was no indication the target was the consulate building, which is new and currently unoccupied.
Economist: How Biden Can Lower Gas Prices NOW
Oh looky, americans are starting to understand how market capitalism works...
82% of US Voters Believe Inflation Is Fueled by Corporations 'Jacking Up Prices'
On the heels of fresh data showing that the U.S. inflation rate jumped to a new 40-year high last month, a new survey found that more than 80% of American voters believe costs are rising in part because "big corporations are jacking up prices" while raking in record profits.
Released Friday by the advocacy group Fight Corporate Monopolies, the poll showed that 82% of registered U.S. voters blame big companies for at least some of the recent inflation spike and want elected officials to "take on powerful CEOs and rein in corporate greed to lower prices."
"Rising prices is the top economic issue for most voters, and they want elected officials to challenge corporate greed to lower prices," Helen Brosnan, executive director of Fight Corporate Monopolies, said in a statement. "Political leaders should directly address rising prices, release plans to combat corporate greed's role in driving prices higher, and put forth arguments that center CEOs and big corporations."
The new survey, based on a sample size of 1,000 respondents, comes as progressives in Congress continue spotlighting corporate price-gouging as a key culprit behind rising prices nationwide even as the White House abandons that narrative, despite data indicating it resonates with voters.
With gas prices surging amid Russia's onslaught against Ukraine, Democrats in the House and Senate introduced legislation on Thursday that would impose a "windfall tax" on oil companies in an effort to "curb profiteering."
Amazon Deforestation Hit Record High in February—Up 62% From 2021
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon reached a record high for the month of February, jumping by nearly two-thirds over last February's level, according to official data released Friday.
Satellite images released by the Brazilian space agency INPE's DETER monitoring program show 199 square kilometers (77 square miles) of the Amazon rainforest was lost to deforestation last month—the highest rate recorded in February since the agency began keeping records in 2015 and a 62% increase from last year during the same month.
Environmentalists find the data particularly alarming since February is considered the rainy season in the Amazon and generally sees the lowest rates of deforestation throughout the year.
As Indigenous communities and global environmentalists have been sounding the alarm on the imperiled rainforest, deforestation has skyrocketed under Brazil's right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro. While the Amazon covers land in nine countries, approximately 60% of the forest lies in Brazil, which has reached its highest level of deforestation in more than a decade.
"This absurd increase shows the lack of policies to combat deforestation and environmental crimes in the Amazon, driven by the current administration. The destruction just isn't stopping," said Romulo Batista of Greenpeace Brazil in a statement.
Deforestation is predominantly caused by animal agriculture, soy production, logging, mining, and major construction, and has greatly impacted the nearly one million Indigenous people from over 300 tribes who live in the Brazilian Amazon.
"We are going to be eating the rainforest in our burgers," Holly Gibbs, a land use scientist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, told the Washington Post. "This is our moment as Americans to step forward and leverage some pressure to save the world, by helping to save the Amazon, which is critically important for the future of our planet."
Research published this week in the journal Nature Climate Change found that the world's largest rainforest was quickly reaching its "tipping point" and that the Amazon "has been losing resilience since the early 2000s, risking dieback with profound implications for biodiversity, carbon storage, and climate change at a global scale."
Millions suffering in deadly pollution ‘sacrifice zones’, warns UN expert
A UN expert has warned of the creation of pollution “sacrifice zones” across the world, where tens of millions of people are suffering strokes, cancers, respiratory problems and heart disease as a result of toxic contamination of the environment. “There are sacrifice zones all over the world, in every region: in the north, in the south, in the east, in the west, in rich countries, in poor countries,” David Boyd told the Guardian.
Boyd, the special rapporteur on human rights and the environment, cited physical health issues, including cancer, heart disease, respiratory illness, strokes and reproductive health problems, as well as “incredible mental health problems associated with living in these places because people feel exploited, they feel stigmatised”. All of this infringed their human rights, Boyd said. “Their rights to life, their rights to health, and … their right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. You cannot reconcile that fundamental right to a healthy environment with these absolutely horrific environmental conditions.”
In a report due to be presented to the UN human rights council on Thursday, Boyd says pollution contributed to twice as many premature deaths as Covid-19 in the first 18 months of the coronavirus pandemic. Giving the death toll from pollution in that period is a staggering 9 million, the report adds: “One in six deaths in the world involves diseases caused by pollution, three times more than deaths from Aids, malaria and tuberculosis combined and 15 times more than from all wars, murders and other forms of violence.
“The toxification of planet Earth is intensifying,” Boyd’s report warns, pointing out that even as some harmful chemicals are banned or abandoned, overall production of chemicals doubled between 2000 and 2017, and will double again by 2030. And while everyone was affected to some degree, some communities were being hit far more than others.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
What Happens After the Russia-Ukraine Conflict?
US, NATO Rush Manpads Into Ukraine, Downplay Proliferation Risks
Ukrainian Official: Israel’s Bennett Told Zelensky to Take Putin’s Deal to End War
The absurd push to send unusable military hardware to Ukraine
As The Invasion of Ukraine Goes On, Pressure To Escalate Goes Up
Challenge-Response - How Russia Is Countering 'Western' Moves Against It
Day Sixteen of the Russian-Ukrainian War: Changing Realities, Changing Mood
9/11 attacks: US to miss deadline to release FBI probe documents
Julian Assange set to marry in Belmarsh prison March 23
Venezuela unlikely to make up for banned Russian crude: experts
Progressives Worldwide Applaud New Hope for Chile as President Gabriel Boric Sworn In
Beto O’Rourke calls Texas governor Greg Abbott an ‘authoritarian’ and ‘thug’
What is causing US utility bills to rise and will it persist in warmer months?
Ukraine, Russia, Sanctions Q & A
Glenn Greenwald: Zelensky Is Right To Push For Negotiated Peace DESPITE US Resistance
Facebook ALLOWS Threats Of Russians, Praise Of Neo-Nazis
Facebook OKs Violent Speech – But Only Against Russians!
Saagar Enjeti: MSNBC Liberals Say Putin Is WORSE Than Hitler
Video: Unhinged Officials Push No-Fly Zone & World War III
FRANCE 24: Diplomacy efforts step up: Russia and Ukraine hint at progress, more talks scheduled
DuckDuckGo DESTROYS Brand By Embracing Censorship
Kim Iversen Is SUSPENDED From YouTube Over Segment On Covid Therapeutic Study
A Little Night Music
Nina Simone - My Baby Just Cares For Me
Nina Simone - Feeling Good
Nina Simone - Blues For Mama
Nina Simone - Mississippi Goddam
Nina Simone - Gin House Blues
Nina Simone - Backlash blues
Nina Simone - The House of The Rising Sun
Nina Simone - Love Me Or Leave Me
Nina Simone - I put a spell on you
Nina Simone - I Shall Be Released
Comments
No better way to start out the news than with something from
Caitlin Joe.
Too bad that it will go unseen by the majority of Americans.
In other news do these administration idiots ever think of the consequences of their actions.
This come not from an intern but a high ranking official.
Adewale "Wally" Adeyemo (born May 20, 1981)] is a Nigerian-American government official serving as the United States deputy secretary of the treasury. He was the first president of the Obama Foundation and also served during the Obama administration as the deputy national security advisor for international economics from 2015 to 2016 and deputy director of the National Economic Council.
evening humphrey...
heh, in keeping with the neocon bent of u.s. government, biden should privatize this proposed piracy on the high seas by issuing letters of marque and reprisal.
i have to admit, right after the braying about no-fly zones, this is just about as stupid an idea. kudos to wally the moron.
Somewhat related in that it could bypass US sanctions.
The Eurasian Economic Union is not what I would consider a minor world player.
heh...
if this is arranged, it looks like the u.s. can get its war on with china and potentially save billions every year in military aid to israel and egypt.
Nina Singing as Typing Goes On
Thanks, Joe. Conscious thinkers here understand a longing to be free.
Jarek posted this: From r/Volunteers For Ukraine
"Yes, I was here today and blown off the top bunk of my bunk bed in the barracks by the first missile.
This is where all the foreign legion troops are, the 35 killed were all Ukrainian mostly due to a direct hit on their barracks next to mine. The base is destroyed, the weapons depot destroyed, possibly the end of the legion. About 60 people with their heads on straight including myself left after the attack. They’re sending untrained guys to the front with little ammo and shit AKs and they’re getting killed. The guys who stayed got bombed again in the afternoon and casualties aren’t clear. If you still want to to join them I’m not sure what the process will be since literally all the infrastructure supporting the training/assignments of volunteers is all destroyed. The guys who are there now will all be going to Kviv and many will die, the legion is totally outgunned and has a few crazy Ukrainian leaders. After the attack one officer wanted to march everyone to Kviv and fight. Absolute insanity. Stay home."
Jarek:
It suddenly all became very real for “the guys”. They are deserting en masse. They still believe in Globo-Homo, but die for it? Globo-Homo is about feeling good. How are you going to feel good without your legs? Or your head?
They wanted to be initiated into manhood, perhaps. But realized they were just sheep for the slaughter, lead by shepherds who didn’t care about them or perhaps not even themselves. Should have joined the US Marines instead. Or maybe taken a weekend seminar with face painting and drumming. Find that wild man inside…..
Vlad smiles. He knows. He fought in WW1 and has been fighting for over a century. A Highlander, an Immortal. He would tell if asked. But no one will ask or knows how to ask.
This is first person testimony from the NATO Training Facility right on the edge of Poland/Ukraine. Jarek is the person posting the comment.
______________________________________________________________-
PHOTOS and details About What Has Been Destroyed. OMG.
https://thesaker.is/three-important-missile-strikes/
Russia does not need to use nuclear----ever. It already has superior long range low flying missiles, apparently called Kaliber.
NYCVG
From the comments
The missile was intercepted in mid-air and did not reach its direct target, but even the aerial detonation of the missile, which was equipped with shrapnel cluster munitions, had terrible consequences.
One photo looks like someone was decapitated and I couldn’t figure out how that happened. Shrapnel cluster bombs would explain it. We use bombs that shred people’s bodies in our war zones. Gawd like I tell Sam every damn day humans are sick. She says that she is glad that she is a dawg. I wish I could join her. I hate knowing what we do.
https://southfront.org/kyivs-forces-launch-ballistic-missile-at-center-o...
Lots of videos.
“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt
evening nycvg...
thanks for the info. interesting stuff!
yeah, real freedom would be a great thing. it seems a long ways off these days.
Thanks for Nina Simone videos
Thanks for Nina Simone videos showing her singing.
Thanks for posting so longish newspieces, that I couldn't read them.
It made for a nice evening experience.
Nothing for Ungood and get a break. Breaks are healthy.
So, who is givging up first and kills himself, Putin or Biden or Shikspack/EB
fans.
Not me, that's for sure.
I am just tired. It is exhausting to watch and read media from two different countries/continents.
https://www.euronews.com/live
evening mimi...
glad that you got a break. i don't know if my stamina or stomach for the crazy is as great as the people behind the empire. so far, it's vile but i can't look away. we'll see how long that lasts.
kudos and thanks
you know that I give you all the kudos needed for you to go on. Thanks for everything.
https://www.euronews.com/live
We are about to enter McCarthyism 2.0!
Longer version
OMG! Whoopi wants to bring back the espionage act charges for anyone who doesn’t get behind the war talk. President Wilson threw Eugene Debs in prison for being against WW1. My gawd what the fck happened to her? She used to stand FOR human rights. Now she’s just a puppet mouth!
Yes Whoopi people are being told to hate Putin you dummy! I hope she finds out that yes indeedy we are supporting Nazis in Ukraine. They would want to kill her if she visited there. Have to find a way to lower my disgust for Americans who have bought into the propaganda. How can they not see that they are being pushed into the 2 minutes of hate out of 1984?
“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt
more rhythmic version...
Celebrities First
Clickbait as a first consideration. Tulsi! Whoopi!
Distraction and more distraction.
FWIW---I do not believe that there is any nuclear threat at all. Of course, a Big Mistake is possible as long as these weapons exist.
The Pentagon wants us to look away from 1) Covid Truths coming out 2) Russia's unstoppable, undetectable hypersonic long-range below the radar missiles that can reach all corners of the world without warning 3) How In-Essential we are becoming to the Global financial systems.
We can analyze each and every move the USA makes and it will still come down to when the climb-down back-track begins. Other than to publicly cut Ukraine loose, as Biden did weeks ago. Bit by bit the USA will be retreating. We know Why. And we can guess the How. Call a Loss a Victory.
What I do not know is the When.
NYCVG
wow...
give those women the tailgunner joe award for exceptional selective blindness and idiocy. i wonder how many americans are taken in by this bullshit.
Well it’s true then and Hillary was right
Tulsi is a Russian asset because she told Tucker that we shouldn’t have bio labs in Ukraine or elsewhere. Also Glenn of course is a Russian asset and a Putin apologist. Funny how the shitlibs don’t remember just a few short years ago that they were called Saddam apologists for not believing that he had WMDs. Romney called Tulsi a traitor for saying that. He knows that she isn’t either, but is just riling up the
runesrubes who believe the propaganda.Defend this Jen.
A hospital in Germany is refusing to treat Russian and Belarusian people and Russians in Thailand have had their credit cards cut off so they can’t eat or stay in hotels. Lots of people think that this is okay to do because Putin is bad. They should count their lucky stars that the world doesn’t treat them like this because lots of us would be dead because of how bad our own presidents have been. 53 countries destroyed either through war or coups since 1945. Buy a mirror America!
GTH autocorrect!
“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt
evening snoopy...
yep, seems like anybody with a lick of common sense is or will soon be accused of putin puppetry. just great.
wow, so dick lugar (one of my favorite names in american politics, perfect for the villain in a novel), obama and sam (not so holy) nunn were behind the bioweapons labs in ukraine. too bad that facts don't matter anymore.
wow, i guess the west is showing the ukrainians how much they care about ukrainian (non-ethnic russian) civilians by abusing russian civilians all over the world. way to go, knuckle-draggers!
Personally, I know the
"putin puppet" accusation started in 2016. Thought it was a joke the first time it was leveled against me. The HRC campaign saw Putin puppets everywhere in the Trump campaign and self-styled lefty bloggers borrowed it to accuse Jill Stein and then contributors to their blogs who viewed Russiagate as nonsense. Difference today is Republicans and rightwingers have joined the Russiagate chorus. So, the madness has spread. Basically to all those that believed the WMD scam.
Good early sign from Colombia
Congressional elections favored the left
another take
evening gj...
glad to hear that the pink tide may be visiting colombia!
Can anyone explain this to me?
https://southfront.org/us-trains-isis-cells-to-deploy-them-in-terrorist-...
How can the soldiers train the people that they were told were their enemy? Don’t they remember that same group was killing their friends not too long ago? Or that their grandfathers once fought against the Nazis that they are now working with? Just following orders won’t work if the world ever gets the stones to prosecute America. It’s not going to be the biggest stick in the forest one day. I just don’t get this mindset to do what they should know they shouldn’t do. Little help?
“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt
It is actually quite simple as the US leadership has no morals.
It is nothing new. There was Iran-contra, WMD in Iraq. They have no problem with supplying the Islamists in northwestern Syria since they are against Assad same as the rebels in an tanf since they serve a useful purpose.
heh...
it's part of the current american fp doctrine: the enemy of my enemy is my friend.
I don’t mean the leaders
Just the regular Joe's that are doing the training. I know our leaders are dunces but don’t the troops have a brain and can understand that what they are doing? Or is it military training that makes them just follow whatever orders they get? I wonder what I’d do if I was wearing their shoes?
“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt
heh...
i can't figure out why anybody would voluntarily sign up for the military, but i would guess that anybody with one brain cell to rub against another knows that taking orders from idiots is part of the job.
It seems as if more than one country is capable of cyber warfare
https://www.timesofisrael.com/government-sites-crash-after-massive-cyber...
Well what do you know….
I’m sure that gas prices will be falling as fast as they rose right? It’s the 2nd day that they have fallen. I saw one station selling it for $4.49 for regular.
“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt
This is who the US and its allies arm arming.
https://www.newsweek.com/ukraine-nazi-collaborator-birthday-holiday-anti...
Tulsi responds to Romney
Thread
Still thankful for what she did to Kamala at the debate. A one blow knock out and Kamala was out of the race.
“When out of fear you twist the lesser evil into the lie that it is something good, you eventually rob people of the capacity to distinguish between good and evil.”
~ Hannah Arendt
My tiny donation to her campaign
(only the second time I've ever donated to a political campaign) was worth it.
wrt Stepan Bandera -
This was denounced by the west, and in January 2011, President Viktor Yanukovych annulled the award. Dec 2018 the Nazi Banderites took it a step further by making his birthday a national holiday and the west sort of ignored it.
heh...
it would be interesting if gabbard's response was amplified by the media, but it probably won't be. inconvenient facts.
Seems fitting for dementia joe.
For those that just fell off the turnip truck:
This is too funny to miss!!!
That makes me think of the heroic Ukrainian navy.
If this is Russian propaganda,
at least they present it with videos of the alleged abandoned Ukrainian ships. American viewers had to imagine the claim that a Russian destroyer was sunk.
Not implausible to me that the Ukr captains and sailors aren't part of the Nazi militias and figured that the best way to hold onto their jobs was to go AWOL for a while.
It looks to be authentic to me.
I would call it beneficial news rather than blatant propaganda like we see in the MSM.
Edited to add from a blue checkmark yet.
Like this.
Had to stop checking
Daily Mail for my junk news fix because it turned into Kiev Ken and people weren't laughing at as they had "Baghdad Bob."
I just happened to pick that particular example by chance.
there were plenty more to be found here.
https://twitter.com/i/events/1483255084750282753?timeline=top-commentary
“10 to 14 days” is the new Friedman Unit?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedman_Unit
The U.S.’s aim: keep Germany and Russia at each other’s throats…
…because a united, peaceful Eurasia cannot be dominated by Washington D.C.?
Analysis from 2015: the U.S. is building a cordon sanitaire around Russia to isolate it, and that’s why “we” (= Washington D.C.) were so intent to colonize Ukraine; that’s why “we” in 2022 are now actually happy to have maneuvered Germany into a position where her national-identity-hating elite is forced to go all in on NATO and self-destructive war against Russia.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGdcQMaLinE
Follow-up talk by the same analyst, George Friedman:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeLu_yyz3tc