Evening Blues Preview 4-23-15

This evening's music features Texas blues guitarist Phillip Walker.

Here are some stories from tonight's post:

We might get a reprieve from the authoritarian surveillance state thanks to internecine fighting amongst republicans. Go to it fellas!

GOP infighting threatens NSA bill

Republicans are in a state of disarray on surveillance reform, with Congress barreling toward a May 31 deadline to extend or curtail some of the NSA’s key powers.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr want to reauthorize the bulk collection of phone records — the most controversial program revealed by Edward Snowden’s leaks. Presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Rand Paul want to effectively end it, as do many House Republicans. Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, who will be a key player in any legislation, hasn’t decided what to do.

The split highlights the persistent divisions between libertarian-leaning Republicans who see NSA spying as a threat to Americans’ privacy and GOP national security hawks who don’t want to tamper with the U.S. intelligence apparatus. Even with the ticking clock — which many lawmakers hoped would force a decision after a similar effort failed last year — GOP members are far apart on the issue. ...

It’s the second congressional effort to reform surveillance practices since Snowden’s leaks revealed the vast nature of the NSA’s operations. But if lawmakers don’t do anything this time, key parts of the PATRIOT Act will expire, including the provision the government has used to justify bulk data collection. Tech companies rattled by the disclosures about NSA surveillance via their Internet services have been pushing for changes and want more flexibility to disclose the government orders they receive. ...

One option for reform could come from Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). The former Judiciary chairman introduced a bill last year that won a few Republican votes but ultimately failed in the upper chamber. Leahy is likely to reintroduce a similar measure this year, and reform advocates hope GOP members — faced with the prospect of sunsetting NSA authorities — will be forced to accept some changes.

Obama incinerates some more innocent civilians with his fleet of flying death robots:

American and Italian Hostages Killed in US Drone Strike, White House Reveals

A U.S. drone strike in January killed two hostages, an Italian and an American, being held by al Qaeda in Pakistan, the White House revealed on Thursday. ...

According to the statement, the failed counterterrorism operation targeted an al Qaeda-associated compound in the border region of Afghanistan and Pakistan, where authorities said they had "no reason to believe either hostage was present." ...

In a televised address on Thursday morning, President Barack Obama said he "takes full responsibility" for the deaths.

For years, the White House has rebuffed criticisms of its counterterrorism operations and refused to divulge information about civilians killed in U.S. drone attacks. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism estimates that between 2004 and 2015, as many as 960 civilians may have been killed by U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan, including up to 207 children.

Alka Pradhan, an attorney with the international human rights group Reprieve who represents other civilian victims of drone attacks, noted in a statement that Dr. Weinstein and Mr. Lo Porto "are far from the first innocents to die by our drones, and in no other case has the US apologized for its mistake."

US Claims Russian Military Buildup Along Ukraine Border

Offers Neither Evidence Nor Details on Deployments

With their prototypical lack of evidence and a conspicuous lack of any details, the US State Department is once again accusing Russia of a military buildup along the Ukrainian border. ...

The allegations also included claims that Russia had put some of the air defense systems inside Ukrainian territory, though they did not offer details on this, and it’s unclear from the allegations if this deployment was purported to have occurred in rebel Donetsk or in Crimea, the later of which Russia annexed last year but which the US regularly refers to as “Ukrainian territory” for the sake of such allegations.

Why Didn't Bush/Cheney Prevent 9/11? - John Kiriakou

Hillary the Hawk

Announcing her latest campaign for the presidency, Hillary Clinton declared she was entering the race to be the champion for “everyday Americans.” As a lawmaker and diplomat, however, Clinton has long championed military campaigns that have killed scores of “everyday” people abroad, from Iraq to Yemen. As commander-in-chief, there’s no reason to believe she’d be any less a hawk than she was as the senator who backed George W. Bush’s war in Iraq, or the Secretary of State who encouraged Barack Obama to escalate the war in Afghanistan. If her nomination is as sure a thing as people say, then antiwar organizing needs to start right away.

Hillary has already won the support of those who continually agitate for war. “I feel comfortable with her on foreign policy,” Robert Kagan, a co-founder of the neoconservative Project for the New American Century, told The New York Times last summer. “If she pursues a policy which we think she will pursue,” he said, “it’s something that might have been called neocon, but clearly her supporters are not going to call it that; they are going to call it something else.”

We’re going to call it what it is: More of the same sort of murderous policies that destroyed Iraq, destabilized Libya, killed women and children with cluster bombs and drones in Yemen, and legitimized the undermining of democracy in Honduras. There’s little chance the Republicans will nominate someone better, but given Clinton’s record as a senator and Secretary of State – the latter giving us a very good idea of how she would approach foreign affairs once in office – it will be hard for them to find anyone much worse. ...

When Barack Obama became president, the antiwar movement became his first casualty – followed by a group of Pakistanis droned to death three days after his inauguration. We should never lose hope that we can bring about positive change, but actually changing the world for the better requires being aware that whoever sits in the White House come January 2017 is not going to be our friend.

Horse Race Comedy Extra:

Hillary Clinton Calls For 'Toppling' The 1 Percent

Hillary Clinton believes that strengthening the middle class and alleviating income inequality will require "toppling" the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans, according to a New York Times profile published on Tuesday.

The Times article quoted a host of Clinton confidants characterizing Clinton's economic policy record as a populist agenda akin to that of Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). That includes a view that the ongoing accumulation of massive wealth at the top of the spectrum is holding back the broader economy.

In a meeting with economists this year, Mrs. Clinton intensely studied a chart that showed income inequality in the United States. The graph charted how real wages, adjusted for inflation, had increased exponentially for the wealthiest Americans, making the bar so steep it hardly fit on the chart.

Mrs. Clinton pointed at the top category and said the economy required a “toppling” of the wealthiest 1 percent, according to several people who were briefed on Mrs. Clinton’s policy discussions but could not discuss private conversations for attribution.

The Clinton campaign told HuffPost they could not confirm the precise language of the quote, but did not distance themselves from its populist essence.

Sen. Warren to Those Promising TPP Would Be So Great: 'Prove It.'

Senator explains that real reason TPP remains so secret, even as Congress begins voting on measures to ram it through, is because 'if the American people saw what was in it, they would be opposed to it.'

Prove it. Let the American voters, the press, and the global public see and read the fine print of this so-called "free trade" deal.

That's the basic message contained in a new statement released by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) after President Obama said earlier this week that she and other opponents of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) were "wrong" when it came to their objections to the pending 12-nation agreement.

"The Administration says I'm wrong – that there’s nothing to worry about," Warren wrote in a blog post addressed to constituents and the general public on Wednesday. "They say the deal is nearly done, and they are making a lot of promises about how the deal will affect workers, the environment, and human rights. Promises – but people like you can't see the actual deal."

Recommended:

Reading I.F. Stone on Earth Day: Why We Still Won’t Get Anywhere Unless We Connect the Dots

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Roger Fox's picture

Ethyl
,
S.D. Myers
,
Pope & Talbot
, AbitibiBowater,
Metalclad
,
Feldman
Karpa
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Corn Products
International
,
ADM/Tate & Lyle
,
Cargill
, TCW Group
,
Mobi
l Investments
, RDC
, St. Mary’s
, TECO
,
Clayton/Bilcon

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FDR 9-23-33, "If we cannot do this one way, we will do it another way. But do it we will.

Roger Fox's picture

Robert French, chief justice of the high court of Australia, highlighted his concerns about the impact of ISDS clauses on our judicial systems, when he quoted Professor Brook Baker of North Eastern University law school’s assessment of the Eli Lilly case:

"After losing two cases before the appellate courts of a western democracy should a disgruntled foreign multinational pharmaceutical company be free to take that country to private arbitration claiming that its expectation of monopoly profits had been thwarted by the court’s decision? Should governments continue to negotiate treaty agreements where expansive intellectual property-related investor rights and investor-state dispute settlement are enshrined into hard law?"
- See more at: http://www.occupy.com/article/why-support-tpp-when-it-will-let-foreign-c...

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FDR 9-23-33, "If we cannot do this one way, we will do it another way. But do it we will.

Unabashed Liberal's picture

most recent endeavor is to control the Presidential Debates--making sure that no other candidates, aside from their hand-picked, toxic corporatist/neoliberal ones, are allowed a platform during the upcoming Presidential Debates.

I hope to have more to post on this topic, soon. But things are definitely getting "curiouser and curiouser."

I ran across a WaPo piece last evening that announced that (in February) Vin Weber signed onto the Bush campaign.

Yet, he's part of, if not spearheading, the effort [which formally began in January of this year] to allow a "so-called" Independent Presidential candidate to participate in the Presidential debates.

Here's what one blog says about the effect that the "Change The Rule" drive will have on the Libertarians, Greens, and Justice Party, if it is successful. (I'll have to do further digging to verify their allegations.)

“Change the Rule” would rig debate rules against ballot-qualified third parties

(My Note: The list below contains a number of No Labelers. But more on that outfit, later.)

Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., former CIA director Gen. Michael Hayden, former Sens. Bob Kerrey and Joe Lieberman, former Gov. Christine Todd Whitman and retired Gen. Stanley McChrystal are all among the 50 high-profile signatories of Change The Rule’s open letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates.

They are advocating the inclusion of a qualified third candidate in the debates. Change the Rule is a project of Level the Playing Field, a successor effort to Americans Elect which is also funded by billionaire Peter Ackerman.

Like the Our America Initiative lawsuit against the CPD from Gary Johnson, Jill Stein, and the Libertarian and Green Parties, CTR says the current process is rigged against the inclusion of a third candidate, unfairly dominated by Republicans and Democrats, and that the starting point should be which candidates have secured ballot access in enough states to represent a possible winning majority of 270 Electoral College votes. Four candidates- Barack Obama, Mitt Romney, Gary Johnson, and Jill Stein- met that threshold in 2012.

Unlike the Our America Initiative lawsuit however, Change the Rule would not include all such candidates in the debate. Instead they propose to include only a single independent or third-party candidate, based on which one gathered the most petition signatures in their ballot access drive. This is a rule which would effectively guarantee the inclusion of the weakest alternative candidate who is on the fewest ballots, among those who make it over the 270+ EV threshold. It would severely handicap existing parties like the Libertarians and Greens for having performed too well in previous elections.

This is an incredible move--especially since "No Labels" picked up almost 60 US Congressional seats in just the 2014 midterms!

(I still haven't had a chance to check on the 9 "too close to call" races, but will do so ASAP.)

The good news is that "maybe" more folks will take these two Dem Establishment/corporatist 'outfits'--The Aspen Institute and No Labels, much more seriously.

I heard Vin Weber being interviewed by XM radio host Michael Smerconish last evening.

Here's a screenshot of Smerconish's "Poll Question" from last night--haven't updated it, but it stayed in this neighborhood for at least 4-5 hours.

Survey Vote (Smerconish Show, April 22, 2014).png

Just imagine how many well-meaning progressives could fall for this attempt at denying any real alternate voice(s) in the Presidential debates.

As an aside, the very first caller after the Weber interview was a Nadar supporter--jazzed up about the attempts of "Change The Rules."

The real implication(s) seemingly went right over his head!

Mollie

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

gulfgal98's picture

I know you have spent some time researching the No Labels people so I am really looking forward to your analysis of this.

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

Unabashed Liberal's picture

to follow this endeavor to it's conclusion.

Hopefully, the FEC will nix this attempt, and there will be little more to say.

But, I'll try to get the word out, in the meantime.

Vin Weber was interviewed yesterday because he was trying to "get the public" behind their petitioning of the FEC. (his own words)

And, I agree with Al. I just hope that we can counter their attempt.

Mollie

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

Big Al's picture

on a pig and sell it as prime rib. People buy it.

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Big Al's picture

innocent women and children in his illegal drone war. What bullshit. He goes on TV to take "full responsibility"
for killing a couple Americans, something cops do every day, and the focus is on that and not the illegal
and immoral imperialist war in Pakistan and Afghanistan. But he said it, the buck stops there, it's on him, he's
the war criminal.

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gulfgal98's picture

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Do I hear the sound of guillotines being constructed?

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." ~ President John F. Kennedy

link

Earlier this week Saudi Arabia announced the end of the first phase of its military campaign in Yemen. And in a celebratory gesture Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, one of the country's richest men and a member of the Saudi royal family, tweeted to his 3m followers on Twitter: "In appreciation of their role in this operation, I'm honoured to offer 100 Bentley cars to the 100 Saudi [fighter] pilots".

The offer immediately split opinion. More than 28,000 people shared his post and over 5,000 liked it. The prince was hailed for his "generosity" and several Saudis commented that the pilots deserved luxury automobiles - and much more - for their military service.

But many outside Saudi Arabia, particularly in Yemen, found his offer outright offensive - and so an online backlash began. "100 Bentley cars to 100 pilots who bombed Yemen. Not single ambulance to its hospitals they devastated" remarked one Yemeni on Twitter.

Another Yemeni who had previously shared photos showing the destruction of his home following a Saudi air strike tweeted: "Prince Al Waleed gave 100 Bentleys to Saudi pilots. I got my apartment blown up. Yet I bet my spirits are higher than all those pilots."

Others pointed to the disparity between people's lives in Yemen, one of the world's poorest countries, and those who live in relatively rich Saudi Arabia. "So that's what it's all about, what was it 100 or 200 lives for a Bentley, that's how cheap human life is," a Jordanian tweeted.

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joe shikspack's picture

it's going to be very ugly.

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lotlizard's picture

Of course, they can buy themselves all the good press they want — controlling, as they do, a huge media empire.

It's Saudi selbstbeweihräucherung, as the German expression goes.

In churches with a lot of ceremony, you know how there's often a robed acolyte who, as a gesture of extra reverence, is swinging an incense burner?

That's what "beweihräucherung" refers to (weihrauch = incense; rauch = smoke) with the added prefix selbst = "self."

So, the metaphor is of someone thinking they can exalt themselves by enveloping themselves in a self-made rhetorical cloud of "holy smoke."

That's one really helpful insight I continue to get from reading Asad AbuKhalil's blog "Angry Arab News Service".

Supposedly serious, trustworthy U.S. news organizations (New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, CNN, etc.) are always quoting from Saudi-owned media — without once informing readers and viewers of the very relevant fact that the source quoted is, in fact, Saudi-owned. Or that — as even a cursory glance at their biographies and resumés would confirm — the individual writers or commentators are nothing more than Saudi cronies or hired mouthpieces.

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mimi's picture

"selbstbeweihräucherung". So vivid. Smile

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mimi's picture

in its attempt to "honor" his pilots for killing people. Bad

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link

(AP) — A United Nations report said on Friday that civilian causalities have mounted since the start of the Saudi-led offensive against Shiite rebels in Yemen, with more than 500 civilians killed in the nearly monthlong conflict, including at least 115 children.

Maybe if the Saudi bombers could target children the prince might have to up the ante to two Bentleys

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someone was going to do it

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell introduced a bill Tuesday night to extend through 2020 a controversial surveillance authority under the Patriot Act.

The move comes as a bipartisan group of lawmakers in both chambers is preparing legislation to scale back the government’s spying powers under Section 215 of the Patriot Act.

It puts McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.), the bill’s co-sponsor, squarely on the side of advocates of the National Security Agency’s continued ability to collect millions of Americans’ phone records each day in the hunt for clues of terrorist activity.

In filing the bill, McConnell and Burr invoked a Senate rule that enabled them to bypass the traditional committee vetting process and take the bill straight to the floor. No date has been set for such consideration.

The move provoked a swift response from Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (Vt.), the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, who has been working with other panel members on legislation to end the government’s mass collection of phone and other records for national security purposes.

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Has the best news
From all the best sources, IMO! TY.

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Evening Blues digs up the news that the MSM buries. Hi Syd.

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Unabashed Liberal's picture

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Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

joe shikspack's picture

evening syd!

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Pluto's Republic's picture

Here are a few more stories I was looking at today:

Poland stops dialogue after Ukraine glorifies Nazi collaborators

Thursday, Apr 23, 2015

Poland's president ruled out any further “historic dialogue” with Ukraine following its glorification of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) as fighters for independence.

Polish President Bronisław Komorowski has condemned the Ukrainian Rada's recent recognition of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) as fighters for independence.

“There could be no reconciliation between Poland and Ukraine without a dialogue,” the president said in his interview with TVN24 news channel. Glorification of Ukrainian Nazi Collaborators is a Slap in Poland's Face.

The move came several hours after Komorowski's visit to Ukraine and his call for reconciliation between the Polish and Ukrainian people, following their difficult and complex common history.

US embassy in Kiev surrounded in protest over interference

Thursday, Apr 23, 2015

A crowd of demonstrators gathered at the U.S. embassy in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, protesting against Washington's interference in the country's internal affairs, local press reported Thursday.

At least 500 people attended the rally chanting slogans against controversial measures including the appointment of foreigners including a former U.S. state department official to senior position in Ukraine's new government, which protestors say is as a result of following instructions from the White House.

Demonstrators say U.S. interference has led to more violence, and also condemned the fact that hundreds of U.S. paratroopers have started training national guard units in Ukraine.

So far, Washington has provided US$75 million worth of military aid to Ukraine.

US judge allows 'Muslims killing Jews' ads on buses

Wednesday, Apr 22, 2015


Similar AFDI advertising campaigns have run in other US cities, including in Washington DC [File: AFP]

A United States federal judge has ordered New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) to display on its buses a controversial ad that refers to Muslims killing Jews, rejecting the argument that the ad could incite "terrorism" or imminent violence.

In his ruling, published on Tuesday, US District Judge John Koeltl in Manhattan said the ad from the American Freedom Defense Initiative (AFDI), which had previously run in Chicago and San Francisco, was protected speech under the First Amendment of the US Constitution.

The ad portrays a menacing man wearing a scarf around his head and face, includes a quotation "Killing Jews is Worship that draws us close to Allah" attributed to "Hamas MTV", and then states, "That's His Jihad. What's yours?"

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IMAGINE if you woke up the day after a US Presidential Election and headlines around the the world blared, "The Majority of Americans Refused to Vote in US Presidential Election! What Does this Mean?"
mimi's picture

What's our Jihad???

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joe shikspack's picture

thanks for the news stories! that story about the protest in kiev against us interference is quite interesting. there's something that they'll never report here.

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mimi's picture

Our risky game in Ukraine
Then this is from a serious news paper in Germany:
Who killed Buzina and Kalashnikov?
Speculations after two murders in Kiev: Were radical nationalists involved or was it a Russian provocation?

Someone has to explain to me what the LaRouche people are all about. To me they seemed crazy, but I don't understand what they are. Never took care of finding out.

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Pluto's Republic's picture

…but like you, I never bothered to look it up.

I read most news sources, anyway. (Although Kiev Post may be the sickest publication I've ever read.)

There's a global propaganda war going on. Mostly a war between the Anglo press and the rest of the world. And a news blackout for Americans. For example, this from Poland:

News Source: http://wiadomosci.wp.pl/kat,1027139,title,Korwin-Mikke-snajperzy-z-Majda...

Straight from the horse’s mouth, but not on your lying western TV screen. Polish liberal-conservative member of the EU parliament Janusz Korwin-Mikke spills the beans about who was behind the Maidan massacre.

Not really surprising, but surprising is that a Polish MP is openly admitting it.

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IMAGINE if you woke up the day after a US Presidential Election and headlines around the the world blared, "The Majority of Americans Refused to Vote in US Presidential Election! What Does this Mean?"
mimi's picture

unlike you I am not skillfull and trained to read most news sources and so I am grateful to learn from those, who do. I had a reason why I am asking for LaRouche. Yesterday night when I searched for more sources on the Ukrainian issue I ran into this article, which got me so confused I gave up reading it and I only later realized it was a LaRouche publication.
Facing Terror under a Kiev Regime - ‘Both Nazi and Fascist’
I can't understand what's going on here.

Natalia Vitrenko, doctor of economics, is a prominent political figure in Ukraine. She is currently chairman of the Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine (PSPU) and head of the All-Ukraine Public Women’s Organization Dar Zhizni (Gift of Life). She also served as People’s Deputy of Ukraine in the second and third convocations of the Supreme Rada (Parliament). She replied in writing on April 20, 2015 to questions sent to her by EIR.

The interview followed official threats to Dr. Vitrenko and her colleagues, and assassinations of leading opponents of the Kiev regime in mid-April (the box reprints her April 16 public statement). Lyndon LaRouche has declared that if any harm comes to Dr. Vitrenko, Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland should be held responsible.

Is that "Progressive Socialist Party ... " a right-wing "ahem" progressive socialist party or a left-wing "ahem" progressive socialist party"?

If LaRouche is a Bircher (and right-wing idiot) then my questions is how this article plays fuzzy with "progressive socialism".

The Progressive Socialist Party, as well as the women’s organization Dar Zhizni, both of which I head, campaigned actively against neo-Nazism and neo-fascism in Ukraine. We led street protests throughout Ukraine, organized conferences at the regional, national, and international level, and I waged a grueling, three-year court fight against the neo-Nazi decree #75/2010,[3] issued by President Yushchenko. We published books and newspapers, posted material online, and warned the world community about the threat ensuing from the political rehabilitation of Nazism and fascism in Ukraine.
...
Literally from the first day of the Euromaidan, Dec. 1, 2013, its ideological nature was absolutely clear from the numbers 88 and 14,[4] the red-black Nazi flags[5] and slogans, the swastika, Celtic cross, and Wolfsangel symbols, and the portraits of collaborationists who had been agents of Hitler’s Abwehr (Konovalets, Bandera, Shukhevych). The main slogan of the Euromaidan was the Banderite cry “Glory to Ukraine—to the heroes glory!”, which had been adopted at the Second Conference of the OUN in April 1941 as the equivalent of Hitler’s “Heil Hitler!—Sieg heil!”

and ..

As for the legality of the activity of our women’s organization, it is guaranteed under Article 36 of the Constitution of Ukraine, as well as the Ukrainian Law on Public Organizations. There have been no claims of illegal activity against our organization. There is only the SBU falsification, disseminated for the purpose of persecuting me personally, as well as the activists of our organization.

I am truly grateful to the Schiller Institute and the activists of the LaRouche movement for their support. For two decades now, we have been fighting together for a progressive transformation of humanity, and for peace. This is extremely important for me, and for the Ukrainian public. Those wielding authority in Ukraine now understand, that they will not be able to do away with me quietly.

So what is this strange Schiller Institute. Look who is member of that one.

So you fight against the Neo-Nazis in Ukraine as a "Progressive Socialist" together with the Bircher influenced right-wing Schiller Institute, which has members in the US and Germany?

What the hell is going on here? Can you imagine how much I hate all of this?

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