The Evening Blues - 4-18-23
Hey! Good Evening!
This evening's music features Chicago blues piano player Lovie Lee. Enjoy!
Lovie Lee - Nobody Knows My Troubles
"Three things cannot long be hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth."
-- Confucius
News and Opinion
The Teixeira Documents Are Being Kept Secret By Media
So, back when the DNC was hacked and documents were leaked showing that the DNC had been helping Clinton and kneecapping Sanders, I found it interesting that most of the media focused on “the Russians did it!” rather than on the content of the leak, which was, after all, in the public interest to know.
The same thing is going on with the Texeira documents. WSWS has a particularly good article on this:
While about 60 or so documents have been made public so far, US media outlets indicate they have access to far more. The Washington Post reported Thursday, “The Post also reviewed approximately 300 photos of classified documents, most of which have not been made public.”
And the Post and the other media outlets are responsible for maintaining this secrecy. They are not reporting information that undermines and contradicts the official line from the Pentagon, State Department and White House.
Rather, the Post is selectively releasing sections of the documents with an aim to facilitate US war propaganda. An article published Thursday by anti-China war propagandist Josh Rogin declared, “The most shocking intel leak reveals new Chinese military advances.”
None of this is particularly surprising if you were an adult who was paying attention during the Iraq War and especially the run-up to it. The media actively colluded with the state to promote the war and actively got rid of prominent journalists who had the gall to oppose it and call out the lies. ...
The New York Times, during the 2004 election, knew that Bush had been spying on Americans in dragnet fashion: both illegal and likely to be unpopular. It held publication until after the election and explicitly said that it did so because it didn’t want to influence the election. ...
In the same way, the Texeira documents being withheld almost certainly contain revelations that would hurt the current government support for continued help to Ukraine to fight Russia.
Pentagon Leaker Jack Teixeira Is A HERO; Public Deserves To Know
Rep. Gaetz Resolution Would Make Biden Disclose Number of US Troops in Ukraine
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) on Monday introduced a resolution that would require President Biden to disclose the number of US troops inside Ukraine and share all documents outlining US military assistance for Kyiv with the House. ...
“The Biden Administration and other allied countries have been misleading the world on the state of the war in Ukraine. There must be total transparency from this administration to the American people when they are gambling war with a nuclear adversary by having special forces operating in Ukraine,” Gaetz said in a statement.
Brazil's President CALLS OUT Biden For Encouraging War In Ukraine
Russia jamming U.S. smart bombs in Ukraine, leaked docs say
American-made smart bombs are falling victim to Russian electronic jamming in Ukraine, causing them to miss their targets, according to leaked documents and confirmed by a Defense Department official.
In some cases, the weapons were also failing to detonate due to a technical issue, which Ukrainian troops have since addressed. ...
The Pentagon in December began sending Kyiv advanced equipment that could convert unguided air-dropped munitions into precision-guided “smart bombs” that can hit Russian targets with a higher degree of accuracy.
The guided bombs can be launched by a variety of aircraft such as bombers and fighters, and are called Joint Direct Attack Munitions or JDAMs. The longer-range version being sent to Ukraine is called a JDAM-Extended Range, or JDAM-ER.
But the weapons have experienced higher-than-expected dud rates and have missed their targets on the battlefield, according to a leaked slide prepared by the Joint Staff and confirmed by a U.S. official, who was granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive issue.
Putin visits frontline, prepares defense and offense
Corporate Media Are the Anti-WikiLeaks
It was impossible to imagine four years ago when WikiLeaks Editor Julian Assange was hauled out of the Ecuadorian embassy in London and thrown in Belmarsh Prison that corporate media, which had smeared Assange, could stoop to new lows of government servitude. But it has now happened with the arrest of Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old Air National Guardsman, for allegedly leaking top secret government documents. The leaks exposed a number of significant lies told by both the U.S. government and corporate media about the ongoing war in Ukraine. ...
But how did major media react? The New York Times worked with Aric Toler, a U.S. and U.K. government-funded Bellingcat staff writer, to publicly expose accused leaker Teixeira less than a day after federal authorities had identified him. But the Times and The Washington Post had described Texiera without naming him before the Department of Justice had, in effect doing the F.B.I.’s job for them by tracking down the leaker.
According to the affidavit supporting the prosecution of Teixeira, who held a top security clearance, the F.B.I. subpoenaed Discord, an application often used by gamers to communicate, and where the documents were alleged to have been originally leaked. The information handed over by Discord then lead to Teixeira’s arrest.
The leak itself and the arrest of the alleged source is significant enough, but what makes this story disturbing is the role of the media in actively finding and exposing Teixeira, revealing his identity instead of protecting him.
The media frenzy appeared unanimous in its focus on identifying the leaker more than reporting on the newsworthy content of the material.
Lavrov’s Brazil visit highlights Lula’s neutral foreign policy despite US dismay
Russia’s minister of foreign affairs, Sergei Lavrov, is due to arrive in Brasília on Monday for talks with his Brazilian counterpart, Mauro Vieira, in the latest of a series of bilateral encounters likely to ruffle the US.
Lavrov arrives just as Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, returns from a state visit to China, and both missions are part of a diplomatic reset Lula has pursued since returning to power this year, as he strives to recover Brazil’s international reputation after his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, dismantled Brazil’s established tradition of cooperation.
For Brazil, that means rebuilding and maintaining ties with all partners, regardless of geopolitical tensions elsewhere.
“To return to international politics, Brazil must have positive relationships with all countries,” said Rubens Duarte, coordinator of Mundolab, a Brazil-based research centre for international relations. This is coherent with Brazil’s traditional pursuit of multilateralism, he added.
It is a pragmatic approach too: Brazil’s top trading partners are China and the US, while the South American country relies heavily on Russia for fertiliser imports.
Lula Puts Biden, Bernie To SHAME, Calls For Peace In Russia-Ukraine War: Sabby Sabs
FBI arrests two New Yorkers accused of running covert Chinese police station
The FBI has arrested two men accused of running a covert station for China’s police force in New York, and using it as a base to track Chinese dissidents living in the US.
The station, in Manhattan’s Chinatown, was allegedly set up in February 2022 and operated by Beijing’s ministry of public security (MPS) as part of a campaign of transnational repression against Chinese pro-democracy activists and other political opponents around the world.
The justice department also announced charges on Monday against 40 MPS officers and four others for allegedly running an internet troll operation against dissidents in the US, creating fake social media accounts to harass them and recruiting an employee at an unnamed US telecoms company to have a pro-democracy activist removed from the platform. The officers, thought to be in China, are alleged to be members of an MPS unit, the “912 special project working group”, dedicated to the pursuit of dissidents abroad.
The alleged secret police station in New York was raided in October, and on Monday morning the FBI arrested two New Yorkers suspected of running it. China has insisted that the New York site and similar offices around the world are run by volunteers and are not connected with the police. Breon Peace, the US attorney for the eastern district of New York, said there was now evidence of direct ties.
Enslavement of African migrants ‘big business’ in Libya thanks to EU funding — UN
An investigation by the United Nations has concluded that money provided by the European Union to state entities in Libya has facilitated crimes against humanity ranging from forced labor and sexual slavery to torture.
Through its financial support of the Libyan Coast Guard and the Libyan Directorate for Combating Illegal Migration (DCIM), the European Union has aided and abetted crimes against humanity, according to a recent UN report.
On March 27, 2023, the United Nations released the findings of a three-year investigation, confirming that “arbitrary detention, murder, rape, enslavement, sexual slavery, extrajudicial killing and enforced disappearance” has become a “widespread practice” in the once-prosperous nation of Libya, which was plunged into civil war by NATO’s regime change war over a decade ago.
While crimes against humanity were found to be widespread throughout the country, the report homed in on the plight of migrants and blamed the European Union for enabling the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity to enact abuses against Africans seeking asylum in Europe.
The report stated in its introductory section: “The Mission found that crimes against humanity were committed against migrants in places of detention under the actual or nominal control of Libya’s Directorate for Combating Illegal Migration, the Libyan Coast Guard and the Stability Support Apparatus. These entities received technical, logistical and monetary support from the European Union and its member States for, inter alia, the interception and return of migrants.”
After pension reform, France's Macron promises govt action plan in next 100 days
Chile takes on ‘moral duty’ of finding the disappeared of Pinochet regime
This September will mark the 50th anniversary of Augusto Pinochet’s bloody coup which overthrew Chile’s democratically elected government. During the 17-year regime which followed, an estimated 40.000 people were tortured, and more than 3,000 killed. Only 310 of the forcibly disappeared have been identified and estimates for those still missing range from 1109 to 1469.
This March, Chile’s president, Gabriel Boric, announced the launch of a new plan to find the missing, part of his government’s electoral pledge to address human rights violations committed during the dictatorship. “We have a moral duty to never stop looking,” he said on a visit to a memorial site in the north of Chile, where the bodies of 20 victims of Pinochet’s murderous campaign were unearthed in 1990.
The National Search Plan is the first time in Chile’s democratic history that a government has backed a permanent search effort for the forcibly disappeared. A monumental task lies ahead: during the regime, political prisoners were abducted and executed throughout the country: from the vast northern desert, to the dense forests of the south. More than a hundred were taken in helicopters and cast – still alive – into the sea.
The National Search Plan not only aims to find and identify the forcibly disappeared, but also to bring justice to the families affected by Pinochet’s atrocities. ...
Pinochet himself died in 2006, never having faced justice, despite his arrest in London in 1998. He spent a year and half under house arrest – during which Margaret Thatcher sent him a gift of Scottish single malt whisky – and was eventually freed on “humanitarian grounds”. He died with over 300 pending charges against him.
"Poverty, by America": Author Matthew Desmond on How U.S. Punishes the Poor & Rewards the Wealthy
McCarthy to Wall Street: GOP Will Hold Economy Hostage to Cut Aid Programs
U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told the New York Stock Exchange on Monday that his caucus will not pass legislation to raise the debt ceiling unless it includes steep federal spending cuts and work requirements for key aid programs, a position that Democratic lawmakers slammed as dangerous and foolish hostage-taking. ...
The Wall Street audience, though, applauded McCarthy's (R-Calif.) speech, in which he attempted to blame President Joe Biden for a looming debt default that would have catastrophic impacts on the U.S. and global economies. McCarthy also pledged to oppose any new tax increases, a message that appeared to go over well on Wall Street. ...
"If you agree, join us," McCarthy told the Wall Street audience. "Join us in demanding a reasonable negotiation and responsible debt ceiling agreement that brings spending under control."
The Republican leader said the GOP measure will also include new work requirements for recipients of federal nutrition assistance and Medicaid—mandates that experts say could deprive millions of families of food aid and health coverage. (Most SNAP and Medicaid recipients who are able to work already do so.)
Minnesota appeals court upholds Derek Chauvin’s murder conviction
The Minnesota court of appeals on Monday upheld the most serious murder conviction against the former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, for the killing of George Floyd.
Chauvin is serving a 22-and-a-half-year sentence on the second-degree murder count, arising from the death of Floyd on 25 May 2020. ...
Chauvin’s attorney, William Mohrman, asked the appeals court to throw out Chauvin’s convictions for reasons including massive pre-trial publicity. He also argued that legal and procedural errors deprived Chauvin of a fair trial. Prosecutors said Chauvin got a fair trial and just sentence.
Worth a peek.
What happened when US police teargassed protesters
Investigators have created a 3D simulation of the Portland police bureau’s (PPB) extraordinary use of teargas during a major protest event on 2 June 2020.
Forensic Architecture (FA), a research agency that investigates human rights violations, worked with weapons experts to analyze hundreds of videos from that evening, along with internal police files, invoice records, manufacturer data and photos of teargas canisters. The analysis reveals that the city’s downtown was blanketed with gas at more than 50 times the level federal regulators consider “immediately dangerous to life or health”.
The findings, about the day local activists called Teargas Tuesday, forcefully contradict the department’s assertions in internal reports at the time, in which officers defended their “heroic actions”, saying police showed “extreme restraint”, “observed no injuries” from the spraying and used teargas to target specific individuals.
The model is the first of its kind to calculate the chemical concentrations in the air and deposits on the ground during a major teargas event in the US. It builds on existing reports and litigation alleging the months-long teargas use during the summer of protests caused severe injuries, long-term health problems, menstrual irregularities and environmental hazards.
The research renews pressure on the scandal-ridden police department and raises significant public health and civil rights concerns at a time when law enforcement agencies in the US and across the globe are escalating their use of teargas on crowds, including against protesters for abortion rights and police accountability
Family of Lashawn Thompson Demands Justice After He Was "Eaten Alive" by Insects in Atlanta Jail
Suspect Andrew Lester CHARGED After Shooting 16 Yr Old Through Door; Woman KILLED In Similar Event
Police charge white man for shooting Black teen boy who had wrong address
A white homeowner in Kansas City, Missouri, has been charged with armed assault after he shot a Black teenager who rang his doorbell by mistake, authorities announced on Monday.
Andrew Lester, 85, is also facing a charge of armed criminal action after shooting Ralph Yarl, 16, twice on Thursday. The teenager, a high school junior, was going to pick up his younger twin brothers from a play date when he went to the wrong address. Zachary Thompson, the prosecuting attorney, announced the charges late on Monday after intense local protests and widespread outrage over the police’s decision to briefly detain Lester before releasing him without charges.
Lester was not in custody early Monday evening, but there was a warrant out for his arrest, Thompson said. Charging documents said that Lester came to the door when the doorbell rang and then shot the boy in the head, before shooting him again, and that no words were exchanged before he opened fire.
Yarl was recovering at home after being released from a Kansas City hospital on Sunday, where he was being treated for gunshot wounds to his head and chest, his family said. Lee Merritt, an attorney for the family, told the Guardian that Yarl suffered a fractured skull, a traumatic brain injury involving swelling, post-concussive syndrome and injuries to his arm. “The family is elated that Ralph didn’t succumb to his injuries, but now they’re angry about the failure of the justice system to show any value or appreciation of his life,” Merritt said in an interview on Monday morning before the charges were announced.
Kansas City police had insisted earlier that they could not take further action until they spoke to the seriously injured boy.
Judge rejects Trump request to delay rape trial over negative publicity
Donald Trump’s rape trial will begin next week as scheduled after a federal judge rejected a request for a one-month delay, saying the former president cannot make public statements to promote pre-trial publicity and then claim it is prejudicial to him and reason to delay.
Lewis A Kaplan, a federal judge in Manhattan, said the civil trial on claims against Trump by the columnist E Jean Carroll will begin as scheduled on 25 April. Trump denies the rape or knowing Carroll.
Kaplan rejected arguments by Trump’s attorney Joe Tacopina that the former president’s recent indictment in New York state court on criminal falsification of business records charges created such negative publicity that a one-month cooling-off period was needed before the rape trial could begin.
Kaplan said: “There was, of course, a great deal of media coverage – some of it invited and, indeed, provoked by Mr Trump – first of the apparently impending indictment, then the indictment itself, and finally the arraignment. ...
“It does not sit well for Mr Trump to promote pretrial publicity and then to claim that coverage that he promoted was prejudicial to him and should be taken into account as supporting a further delay,” the judge said, adding that he was also concerned that the request was a “delay tactic by Mr Trump”.
Biden Aides TERRIFIED He's Too Old To Run
New Report Details Harmful Impact of Air Pollution at Every Stage of Life
Air pollution negatively affects every stage of human life, from impairing fetal development and physical as well as intellectual growth during childhood to accelerating bodily and cognitive decline in adulthood.
That's according to a new report, released Monday by the Environmental Research Group at Imperial College London (ICL), which synthesizes the findings of more than 35,000 studies on the connections between air pollution and ill health published over the past decade by scientists from around the globe.
The review of research from the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Agency for Research on Cancer, and other institutions puts an emphasis on investigations "carried out in the United Kingdom, London, or cities with similar air pollution climates."
"Numerous studies across Europe, including several conducted in London, have shown direct impacts of contemporary air pollution in our city," says the report. "These include evidence that air pollution exposure is having impacts during pregnancy and affecting birth outcomes, that school children are experiencing slower lung development, worsening of asthma symptoms, and poorer mental health, and that Londoners are suffering more disease in later life and dying earlier because of the air they breathe."
"While headline figures on the health impact of air pollution focus on the equivalent number of premature deaths, the wider impacts are hiding in plain sight in the contribution of air pollution to the burden of chronic diseases," the report continues. "These affect our quality of life and have a large cost to society through additional health and social care costs, as well our ability to learn, work, and contribute to society."
"Perhaps the most important new finding is evidence related to both the impact of air pollution on brain health, including mental health and dementia, and early life impacts that could lead to future health burdens within the population," it adds. "Both represent significant but currently unquantified costs to society and the economy."
ICL's analysis of studies published since 2012 details how air pollution, which WHO describes as a global public health emergency, harms people from conception to old age.
Canada to pay $800m to settle land dispute with five First Nations
Canada has agreed to pay C$800m (US$600m) to settle a land claims dispute with five First Nations, an acknowledgment it failed to honour a treaty signed more than a century ago – and the latest in a string of deals reshaping the relationship between government and Indigenous communities. Over the weekend, officials with both the federal and British Columbia governments admitted successive administrations had broken their promises to the Blueberry River First Nations, the Doig River First Nation, the Halfway River First Nation, the Saulteau First Nations and the West Moberly First Nations.
The nations signed Treaty 8 in 1899, which promised them access to their traditional hunting grounds and the ability to generate income from the land. But a protracted refusal by the province and the federal government to make good on the agreement forced the nations to spend more than two decades battling for compensation. ...
In 2021, the British Columbia supreme court sided with Blueberry River after a multi-year legal fight, finding the province had violated the nation’s treaty rights by allowing fossil-fuel development in the region, which had prevented the nation from being able to live off the land.
That court decision culminated in a January agreement with the province that would see new protections for wildlife, a halt to logging in old-growth forests, new compensation for the community and limits on how much land resource companies can disturb. The provincial government has also agreed to establish a C$200m restoration fund to support “healing” of the land from years of industrial disturbance. ...
The province said it will transfer 109,385 acres of crown land under the settlement to the 3,300 people living within the five First Nations.
Also of Interest
Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.
The Totalitarian Dystopia Is Already Here: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix
British Media’s Deception on ‘Disinformation’
Patrick Lawrence: Macron’s Europe
JPMorgan Chase’s Deposits Declined by 57 Times that of Citigroup Over Past 12 Months
Chris Hedges: Taking Back Our Universities From Corporate Apparatchiks
DISASTER CAPITALISM: Bank Execs DROOL Over Ukraine Profits
BOMBSHELL! Government Is Reading Our DMs – Says Elon Musk
Chinese Defense Minister in Moscow. Preparing for the battle to come
A Little Night Music
Lovie Lee - Flip, Flop, And Fly
Lovie Lee - Lovie's Boogie
Lovie Lee - Tricky Woman
Lovie Lee - I Dare You
Lovie Lee - The Mule
Lovie Lee with Carey Bell - Naptown
Lovie Lee - Good Candy
Lovie Lee - Iko Iko
Lovie Lee - Woke Up This Morning
Lovie Lee with Carey Bell - Sweet little girl
Comments
"Taiwan" buys US missiles
Taiwan to buy 400 Harpoon missiles from US to thwart Chinese attack
https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4866753
Is Taiwan buying them, or the US taxpayer?
Earlier Defense News article on the push for financing US arms to Taiwan is informative on how the budget process for weapons sales goes in DC.
https://www.defensenews.com/congress/2023/04/06/pentagon-to-use-new-taiw...
I had missed this great interview (below) with Tim Shorrock on why the so called "deal" reconciling South Korea with Japan, isn't a deal at all. It's a humiliating capitulation by South Korea's far right administration. Tim really gives a great summary of historical background on US-South Korea-Japan relations to show how this is so. I've rarely seen this topic so well explained to a US audience.
Tim can't make every historical or political observation in a relatively short video interview. Japanese brutalization of Koreans began in earnest during the Tonghak uprising in 1894-95. Most commentary simply refers to the 1910-1945 colonial administration of Korea by Japan. Also the political divide between those collaborators who prospered during the Japanese colonial oppression of Korea and those who opposed them in the Independence Movement, isn't just between North and South Korea. The political divide still exists today in South Korea between ordinary South Koreans and current ruling elites who inherited their wealth from collaborationist families and the colonial government officials who served them and the Japanese.
The later class of privileged intelligentsia, government bureaucracy, and military officers, if you will, served those business ruling elites in the sequential dictatorships of South Korea that protected them from the public seeking justice. They are still there fighting their rear guard ideological pro-Japanese mission. They label anyone who opposes them as a communist or communist sympathizer. In their minds, there is no difference among a labor organizer, a socialist, and a communist. If you oppose the corporate chaebol or their overtures toward Japan, you are red. This is a major element on what is going on with the Yoon administration today. Most democrats are regarded as red, that is communist sympathizers, specifically supporters of North Korea's communists. It is an overly simplistic ideological perspective on the right.
I've been watching Taebaeksanmaek (1994) on youtube, an old South Korean movie on the brutal turbulent period in South Korea after WWII and before the Korean conflict. It's long, didn't finish it yet. It's not a pleasant film although I recall reading some critics considered it one of South Korea's classics. The movie is for adults, there is a lot of violence, rape, etc. English subtitles. I don't think a movie like this could be made before 1994. The movie isn't for everyone but it shows how there was a civil war going on in South Korea before the Korean war, and what it was like. The war was between those who wanted independence, from the US sponsored government of Lee Syngman, that basically arose out of the US occupation and the prior Japanese colonial administration.
Thanks for EBs Joe! Always looking forward to your news and commentary.
語必忠信 行必正直
Japan blast suspect...
Japan blast suspect Kimura filed lawsuit over election rules
SCMP (AFP) April 18
https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/3217455/japan-blast-sus...
語必忠信 行必正直
LDP and the Moonies
There was a lot of mostly unstated sympathy among Japanese for the motives of Abe's assassin - he came from what had been a fairly well to do situation but his mother had basically given away the family fortune to the (renamed) Unification Church. Not so sure what people think of this latest guy - more along the lines of him being a bit crazy/obsessed.
There was considerable (by Japanese standards) pushback against public funds being used for an elaborate state funeral for Abe - it was scaled back somewhat and quite a few (ruling party) LDP politicians were found to have questionable relations with the Moonies and were scrambling to deny/minimize/deflect...
Attempted or successful assassinations are not all *that* rare in Japan:
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2022/07/08/national/crime-legal/assass...
evening soryang...
thanks for the news and the video. i enjoyed listening to shorrock. i had heard a lot of what he said about the historical wrongs done by the japanese to the koreans, but a lot of his commentary about how the u.s. has interacted with groups in korea is stuff that i really haven't heard much about.
i'm sure that whoever it is that makes land-based harpoon missiles will have a gaggle of lobbyists swarming the capitol and they will likely have success in getting their allocation since there's nothing that our congressworms would rather spend their declining pile of appropriated budget dollars on than weaponry. (as opposed of course to things that people need - food, clothing, housing, medical care, education, etc.)
If weapons are going to Taiwan
we can at least have some assurance they won't be sold off to the black market to enrich corrupt generals.
And only used for defensive purposes. (Unless there's a planned invasion of the PRC that has managed to remain really, really secret)
Bringing Taiwan back
...into the US-Japanese co-dominion security perimeter after Nixon let it go for strategic regions is an expansionist encroachment on legitimate Chinese national security interests. This encroachment on Chinese security operates in the same way that Maidan and attempts to bring Ukraine within the NATO perimeter was an encroachment into Russian legitimate national security interests.
I understand there are now 200 US military advisors in Taiwan.
200 US military trainers now in Taiwan
80% of instructors are from US army to train Taiwan Army on how to counter PLA tactics
https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/4866003
語必忠信 行必正直
Like Maidan?
The Maidan coup was against a popularly elected government to install corrupt Nazi thugs.
In contrast, the government of Taiwan is a popularly elected one - and even the more pro-PRC elements there have been unwilling to enter into any of the PRC's unification proposals. The Taiwanese electorate has made it pretty clear that they want to be left alone. The PRC, by it's ongoing provocations and threats has made it very clear that they are unwilling to do so.
China's 'legitimate security interests' are under threat? Really?
What, the US and Japan are preparing to launch an invasion? Maybe in league with the Kazakhstanis, Brunei and Mongolia to launch a pre-emptive strike?
The Chinese military buildup of recent years is beyond anything seen since the German re-armament of the 1930's. It's clearly designed for the blockade and/or invasion of Taiwan and beyond that enforcing the PRC's dubious territorial claims in the South China Sea and projecting power into the Indian Ocean. China is not under threat here, it is the other countries of the region.
The only people with a legitimate claim to Taiwan are the people who live there. Everyone aside from the PRC leadership seems to be fine with that. If the Taiwanese want to maintain their own governance and separate status then that's all that should matter - and ought to be respected.
Your interpretation
...completely disregards the history of the region and who has imperial designs on China. It's the traditional imperial powers of Japan and the US. Taiwan was a Japanese colony for half a century, and then was occupied by US forces forces until the 70s. It is the US that interfered in an internal Chinese war. It wisely choose to abandon that policy in the seventies, and now decades later has returned to the unrealistic cold war perspective which brought on the Korean and Vietnam wars.
It is the US that is projecting its power into the Chinese littoral seas in an atavistic return to the colonial perspectives of the 19th and early 20th Centuries. Such views and policies if unchanged will result in war. The geo-political designs of Japan and the US have nothing to do with "democratic values." Japan is basically a one party state, and South Korea is reverting to dictatorship. In another case of deja vu, we have a Marcos in power in the Philippines opening up more US bases with a view toward fighting a war in the East China Sea and South China Sea.
(Source- The Coming War on China, John Pilger, youtube)
The US-Japanese goal is to return to the old imperial gunboat diplomacy and bring Taiwan back into their first island chain so they can prepare their "strangle China" strategy.
Chinese claims in the South China Sea are based on the EEZs there that they are entitled to under international law. The US has no literally no business interfering in disputed claims to reefs and low water elevations in the disputed EEZs. It has nothing to do with "freedom of navigation." The Japanese designed the legalist strategy that is used to camouflage their imperial perspective. They stage managed the so called mandatory arbitration under UNCLOS at the PCA. The decision is void for lack of jurisdiction and violating its own rules. Even Taiwan disputes the 2016 UNCLOS arbitration. According to Japan and the US every war they have been involved in is "lawful."
Taiwan is a part of China. It's a simple as that.
語必忠信 行必正直
With regards to the Typhoon missiles I am not disputing the
content but there is always a certain level of propaganda contained depending on the source. Timing is everything!
https://www.thedefensepost.com/2023/04/11/boeing-harpoon-missile-award/
Nothing would surprise me by the way that this incident is
being handled by the compromised MSM.
https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news/russia-ukraine-war-news-04-18-23/in...
evening humphrey...
i would imagine that the information that stoltenberg thinks is manipulated and what a rational being thinks is manipulated is very different.
Maybe it isn’t CT then
Simplicius has a new sitrep He sure puts a lot of effort into his work and admits that he isn’t always sure if something is true or not, but the Ukraine welding people into tanks looks to be true. simplicius addresses the leaks too.
Thanks for the news, Joe. I think there is a lot of actual information in the leaks, but figuring it out from the propaganda will take time.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
evening snoopy...
interesting sitrep report, thanks!
regarding the expected ukronazi springish offensive, i suspect that it will happen or not based upon ukraines ability to force men into the field - and then whatever happens will be spun. unless russia makes a conclusive victory on the battlefield, utterly routing the ukronazis, the war will continue interminably.
On the bombing of the NATO base
It’s rumored that 200 people from NATO were in the bunker and only 40 bodies have been recovered. It’s in Russian, but I could translate it. This might be why Ukraine hasn’t started its offensive, but simp has info saying that it will happen between now and may 9th so who knows.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
heh...
if that did happen, i suspect that it may be decades before it is admitted by the west.
How to explain the deaths then?
Even if it’s only 40 people who died they have to explain why they did. If it’s 200 that’s a lot of deaths to explain and there are more people from certain countries that did. I saw a headline on a person who died in Ukraine, but it said that he wasn’t involved in fighting Russia. A few people have died after telling their families that they were going to go help Ukraine defend themselves from Russia, but there are plenty more people who are there incognito.
So many lies….
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
yep...
yep, 40 people sounds like a lot (and it is a lot to die in a stupid imperial war) but, the police in the u.s. murder more than 25 times that number every year and you almost never hear about it.
The witch that simply won't go away or shut up.
What about the rules during the primary with Bernie?
heh...
hillary knows that rules are for losers and for lawyers to argue about in our two-tiered legal system where the rich, powerful and well-connected operate with impunity.
Ha Ha
From the woman who will never be president! Gawd I’m so thankful that her coronation was derailed and she will never be fulfil her biggest dream! It was with her presidency in mind that McCain and Graham promised the Nazis that they would be fully armed once Obama left office. The war would have started 4 years ago if she had won. Sweet dreams derailed! And boy if that picture doesn’t capture the essence of her soul! Yee gawds might make a train want to take a dirt road.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
Sweet Dreams
This could be HRC's theme song. All she has is sweet dreams, since she was bested by Donald Trump. I doubt she would appreciate Patsy Cline's voice, after her snide comments regarding Tammy Wynette.
One of these days the "brass balls" might just fall off.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/18/politics/us-warns-russia-zaporizhzhia-nuc...
heh...
i can see the people at rosatom scratching their heads now. "look misha, some trolls in the u.s. government have taken up their crayons and sent us a letter."
Good evening Joe, thanks for the Evening Blues.
I wonder how many Divisions Matt Gaetz has?
Really? How? It can demand that he do so and if he doesn't? Contempt of Congress allegation by Gaetz versus National Security and military/official sekrets allegation by Biden easily drags on for a year or two.
Heh. US/NATO touches something and it turns to shit. Quelle surprise. How was that not forseen? Because hubris and stupidity and "exceptional". And the EU foots the bill? No shit, somebody has to, right. They want that Libyan sweet light crude, n'est ce pas?
be well and have a good one
That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --
evening el...
perhaps gaetz would have been more effective if his resolution was to suspend any funding for u.s. troops on ukrainian soil. that would be enforceable by congress. not that the congressworms would vote for it. but that's another story.
have a great evening!
Shudder! I just hope that Biden stays healthy till the election.
I didn't bother listening to what she had to say as the gestures were than enough.
yep...
she's only a heartbeat away from the presidency. it's like the dan quayle problem all over again.
Lets make a deal! Looks good to me.
Not my favorite site but still.
https://southfront.org/margarita-simonyan-offered-to-exchange-whelan-kar...
Yoon is nuts
Yoon says S. Korea could provide non-humanitarian aid to Ukraine
April 19, YNA
https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20230419003051315
Yoon also made a comment suggesting that he has adopted the US position on Taiwan completely. Another of Yoon's recent statements reveals not only his irrationality but his recognition that his fellow South Koreans don't support his foreign policy:
"Even if only one percent of citizens support my foreign policy, I will do what I have to do."
There is old Chinese admonition about the incompetence of a leader who intentionally chooses to alienate his much more powerful neighbor. In this instance, there are two, Russia and China. China is still making symbolic gestures of openness to a positive relationship with South Korea, specifically the economic relationship with South Korea's hi tech industries. Yoon's present course, if unchanged, ultimately will alienate China or cause a rift with his chaebol/corporate supporters. Yoon is literally willing to dissipate defense sector resources and commercial interests for US objectives rather than those that are distinctly in the greater interest of South Korea. There are mutual US-South Korean security interests; in fact, I would say there are mutual US-Korean interests. However, they are not identical.
Here Yoon tries to make it sound like he's somehow conscientiously placing limits on the unpopular tri-lateral (military) alliance posture he has recently adopted with Japan and the US as contrasted with the centrally important bilateral relationship with the US:
The irony here is that Yoon has signaled his willingness to adopt what is in essence a NATO "partner" kind of role, by supporting the NATO war effort in Ukraine. At the same time, he wants a larger role in nuclear war planning with the US in the Korean theater that goes beyond what technically non-nuclear NATO states have.
Unbelievable.
語必忠信 行必正直
Dmitry Medvedev has a response for Yoon.
Thanks for the Russian response
A blunt threat to the blundering Yoon.
Apart from the direct threat of Russian support for North Korea militarily at least in terms of war materials (or technology), the immediate upfront cost of Yoon's policies is to lose diplomatic support from Russia in any effort to negotiate the outstanding issues between North and South Korea. Yoon has clearly abandoned any prospect of negotiations with North Korea that would amount to anything but a surrender to US all or nothing terms. Even so, what incentive is there for Russia to encourage North Korea to act with restraint and keep dialogue with South Korea open if South Korea is supporting Ukraine militarily? .
語必忠信 行必正直