“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”
Pablo Picasso

This past week was the 2 year anniversary of the military coup in Myanmar. Or as the State Department refers to the country Burma. A National Unity Government has been established outside the country and has control of the United Nations seat for Myanmar. Military efforts have not been as well supported by the international community.

West giving billions to Ukraine and nearly nothing to Myanmar Asia Times Jan 31, 2023

The difference with the West’s response to Ukraine’s war against Russia could not be more stark. While the two conflicts are not completely analogous, it is nonetheless striking how much Ukraine has galvanized the international community, while Myanmar has almost completely been ignored.
...
Part of this has to do with the visibility of a central, iconic leader. With ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other public figures locked up, Myanmar’s resistance forces have no recognizable public face.
...
By contrast, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s transformation into a wartime commander has resulted in a huge global profile. He has given carefully scripted speeches to foreign parliaments and rousing addresses to both the Ukrainian people and key international meetings.
...
Ukraine has mastered the digital battlefield, too. Its leaders have simplified the narrative and calibrated it in a powerful way to emphasize a “good” versus “evil” struggle in which Western democracies are compelled to offer both symbolic and material support.
...
Geography matters, too. In a global strategic sense, Myanmar has almost always been an afterthought in the West.

In contrast, for a century or more, Ukraine has been a constant site for strategic competition, especially in the duels between Western powers and the government in Moscow. The attacks on Ukraine over the past decade by a nuclear-armed Russia are therefore seen by Western powers as a first-order geopolitical threat.
...
Historically, weapons smuggled into Myanmar to support anti-government armies have used neighboring countries, most notably Thailand and India, as the gateways. Today, however, the leaders in Bangkok and New Delhi are reluctant to get too entangled in Myanmar’s mess. They also have their own insurgencies to keep an eye on.

When weapons and materiel do flow into Myanmar today, they are moved quietly, with as much deniability as can be marshaled. With no Western government publicly supplying the resistance with weapons, the fighters are resorting to crowdfunding to buy weapons and using explosives pieced together with salvaged metal.
...
There are two parallel genocide cases relating to Myanmar and Ukraine winding their way through the International Court of Justice in The Hague. The Ukraine case, still less than 12 months old, has received formal interventions by almost all Western states, 33 in total.

By contrast, the Myanmar case relating to the Rohingya was launched in 2019 and not a single country has formally intervened, despite several countries indicating they may do so.
...
The invasion of Ukraine has clearly demonstrated, for the first time in many years, that Western military force can be successfully used to support a democracy under siege.

If only a small fraction of the support to Ukraine was provided to Myanmar’s resistance fighters, they could be given the chance to one day build a thriving democratic state in the heart of Asia.

Why do I need to read a foreign website to learn about a peace protest and not from my local or state news sites? Oregon is supposed to be a progressive state. The march will proceed from the Lincoln Memorial to the White House . There is still time to order official garments to coordinate your look with the other marchers.

A new force for peace appears in the US Asia Times January 30, 2023

On February 19, Washington, DC, will witness a protest against the war in Ukraine that marks a sharp departure from past demonstrations. It also marks a new departure for anti-war, anti-Empire forces here in the US.

The lead demand of this broad coalition is simple and direct: “Not one more penny for war in Ukraine.” It is a demand that emphasizes what we in the US can do to end the war, not what others can do. After all, the only government we Americans have the power to influence is our own.
...
Above and beyond that demand, the potential power of this unique and promising movement arises from the nature of the sponsoring organizations – the People’s Party, a new progressive party, and the Libertarian Party. It is in fact what much of the press would term a “right-left” coalition, spanning a spectrum broad enough actually to bring the proxy war in Ukraine to an end.

Fittingly, the organizers are calling the protest “Rage Against the War Machine.”
...
The People’s Party is probably the less known of the two sponsoring organizations, because it’s newer. Its founder and national chairman is Nick Brana, a lead organizer of the protest.
...
The Libertarian Party is better known. It has been around longer and, though small, is the third-largest political party in the US by voter registration. The present national chairwoman, Angela McCardle, is the other lead organizer of the DC protest.
...
The demands of the demonstration

It is worthwhile to look at all 10 of the demands of the February protest, which are found here. But the first four deserve special attention because they spell out the spirit and leading ideas of the movement. Here they are as worded on the website for the protest:

Not One More Penny for War in Ukraine.
The Democrats and Republicans have armed Ukraine with tens of billions of dollars in weapons and military aid. The war has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions, and is pushing us toward a nuclear WW3. Stop funding the war.

Negotiate Peace.
The US government instigated the war in Ukraine with a coup of its democratically elected government in 2014, and then sabotaged a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine in March. Pursue an immediate ceasefire and diplomacy to end the war.

Stop the War Inflation.
The war is accelerating inflation and increasing food, gas and energy prices. The US blew up Russian gas pipelines to Europe, starving them of energy and deindustrializing their countries. End the war and stop increasing prices.

Disband NATO.
NATO expansion to Russia’s border provoked the war in Ukraine. NATO is a warmongering relic of the Cold War. Disband it like the Warsaw Pact.

The other six demands are: Global Nuclear De-Escalation; Slash the Pentagon Budget; Abolish the CIA and Military-Industrial Deep State; Abolish War and Empire; Restore Civil Liberties; and Free Julian Assange.

This US coalition holds great significance for East Asia. The US proxy war, using Ukrainians as cannon fodder to weaken and break up Russia, is the prelude to an assault on China, with Taiwanese as cannon fodder.

A little of China's past history in world events.

Forgotten history: China as Holocaust sanctuary Asia Times Feb 1, 2023

In 1938, in early July, the representatives of 32 countries met at Évian-les-Bains, France, to decide whether to let in Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany.

The Jews had already been stripped of their citizenship by the Nuremberg Laws and had been designated “enemies of the state.” To their eternal shame, most of the countries participating refused, not wanting, as the US representative put it, to “import a Jewish problem” to their own countries.

Only the tiny Dominican Republic agreed to allow in Jewish refugees. (Scholars point out that Zionist leaders like David Ben-Gurion did not support the Evian process in order to force migration to Palestine.) Again, in 1943, at the Bermuda Conference, the US and the UK refused to allow entry of Jews.
...
The world in essence became cleaved into two: countries forcing Jewish people out, and countries refusing to let them in.

During this horrific period, it’s also a fact that China became the only place on the planet that allowed continuous, open, unconditional sanctuary to fleeing Jews.

The visas were issued by Feng-Shan Ho (story at Vad Vashem site.) a diplomat for the Republic of China lead by General Chiang Kai-shek.

Chinese Visas in Vienna

Feng-Shan Ho, the Chinese Consul-General in Vienna, was given the title of Righteous Among the Nations for his humanitarian courage in issuing Chinese visas to Jews in Vienna in spite of orders from his superior to the contrary.

Unlike his fellow-diplomats, Ho issued visas to Shanghai to all requesting them, even to those wishing to travel elsewhere but needing a visa to leave Nazi Germany.

MHo refused to abide by the instructions of his superior, the Chinese ambassador in Berlin, Chen Jie. Chen Jie, hoping to cement closer ties between China and Germany, had forbidden Ho to issue visas on such a large scale, estimated to run into the hundreds, perhaps even thousands. Although visas were not required for entrance to Shanghai, such a document was, as noted, a prerequisite for Jews wishing to leave Nazi Germany. It is believed that the “demerit” which was entered in Ho’s personal file, in 1939, at the Chinese Foreign Ministry was linked to his insubordinate behavior towards his immediate superior, the ambassador in Berlin, on the issue of the visas. After a long diplomatic career, Ho retired in 1973, and died in 1997, at the age of 96.

It was only after his passing that evidence by survivors who benefited from Ho’s aid began to reach Yad Vashem.the Soviet Union. Many others made use of their visas to reach alternate destinations, including Palestine, the Philippines, and elsewhere, such as the parents of Secretary-General of the World Jewish Congress and Vice Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council, Dr. Israel Singer, who traveled to Cuba.

Between 2002 and 2003 Ray McGovern mentioned in an interview most of the information he presented in briefing papers to Presidents during his career was collected by reading a wide variety of newspapers. It changed my reading habits. Expanding internet news sites has made it possible to expand the variety of sources without needing deep pockets for subscriptions or frequent visits to the library.

Still learning from him. The video starts when discussing President Kennedy's assassination for 11 minutes. McGovern mentions Alan Dulles plan for Bay of Pigs in Cuba was to force the United States military into the conflict when the group invading was overwhelmed by Castro's forces. Kennedy refused to be baited into sending troops. The rest is history, but tactics keep repeating. Not sure if we have had a conflict since then where committed troops was always proceeded by "special operations" starting trouble that spiraled out of control.

Ray Credico, Joe Laurie and Ray McGovern Jan 28, 2023 (1 hour 34 min)
[video:https://youtu.be/KnkM4JMs7DI?t=3947]

0-7:41 about Consortium News
7:41 to 12.
11:36 to 12:45 - Biden and his handlers
17:04 to 25:59 Syria, Putin and Obama 2013, and Ukraine
26:14 to 32:08 Ukraine
32:08 to 47:47 How classified documents are handled shifting to Julian Assange
47:47 to 54:03 possible New Church committee and investigations
56:28 to 1:05:47 Has the CIA done anything positive? Yes, finishing with needs to be abolished today.
1:05:47 to 1:16:42 Kennedy assassination then and now
1:16:58 to end Ray's opinion about Consotium News and his health since his recent surgery

Identifying which of the non-elected leaders in Washington DC are pushing for continuing the conflict in Ukraine or shifting to China.

Kremlin and White House deny Biden offered Putin ‘20% of Ukraine’ Russia Times Feb 3, 2023

On Friday, Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov also dismissed the report, describing it as a “hoax.”
...
From what the two German politicians told NZZ, the peace offer hinted at a split in Washington regarding the conflict. While Burns and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan want to wrap up the fighting in Ukraine quickly to focus on China, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin are committed to backing Kiev.

This weeks Judging Freedom Interviews
Scott Ritter weekly interview with Judge Napolitano Feb 3, 2023 (25:56 min)
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qA7SoH-QmDA]

Col Doug Macgregar weekly interview with Judge Napolitano Feb 1, 2023 (26:33 min)
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmIKBEiaRyA ]

Oh almost forgot - that balloon suspected to be from China.

A Chinese balloon exposes a massive vulnerability Asia Times Feb 4, 2023

On February 2, a high-altitude Chinese balloon assumed to be loaded with sensitive surveillance gear traveled over Alaska, Canada, and the northern United States. It turns out to have been one of several over time – and the Pentagon watched it travel over Montana, home of one the US military’s land-based, nuclear-tipped Minuteman III missile fields.
...
The Pentagon apparently had not planned on having this discussion. The security establishment would have stayed mum had not a passenger on a civilian airliner exposed what is now understood to be one Chinese incursion among others. The Biden administration needs to explain the political rationale for keeping China’s intrusions secret as well as why there was no official American protest.

What is on your mind today?