Bulletin N° 867
IMPORTANT NOTE: Due to an Internet malfuction, all
links below are placed between brackets [____] but are sometimes not visible until
they are clicked.
"Queen
Victoria's Empire: Engines of Change"
Part 1/16
click here : [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZE5kFXyQFo ]
(3h39min)
At the time of Queen Victoria's birth in 1819, England was an agrarian society. Within a few short decades, this small island nation would be transformed into an industrial superpower, with an empire spanning the globe. Queen Victoria's Empire is both the story of this remarkable time, and an engaging portrait of a Queen who ruled over a one-fifth of the world's population. It is the story of the influential figures that would shape a distinctively British imperialism: Gladstone, Disraeli, Livingstone, Rhodes, and Prince Albert, Victoria's husband. Whether driven by profit, passion, or noble ideals, these figures would fuel an expansion unequaled in history, forever changing Britain and the lands it controlled. Personal accounts, lush reenactments, and evocative cinematography from former outposts of the Empire, including India and Africa, recount the dramatic clash of personalities and cultures that would drive Victoria's remarkable 64-year reign.
Subject : The Capitalist Conspiracy,
Part 4: The “Thin Edge” of Neoliberalism Wedges itself into Society at
Different Points, to the Benefit of the Ruling Class and their “Power Elite”.
November 25, 2019
You’ve probably heard the tale of the English farmer who was fascinated by scientific experiments. He wanted to gradually change the eating habits of his horse so that the horse would eventually require no food at all. Each day, he reduce the diet of this animal, until one morning he gave his horse only one straw to eat. That evening the horse died.
***
Recently I was talking with a
well-informed friend, comparing our sources of information for understanding
world events, when he suddenly blurted out in a most ad hominem fashion: “Well, if capitalism must exploit, plunder and
fatally harm people somewhere in the world, at any given time (by periodically
displacing the misery it inflicts on populations in order to produce maximum
profits for the capitalist investors), I would rather that it be done to you than to me. And, I
suppose, we both would prefer that it be done to people somewhere on the other
side of the world, out of our view, than to us.”
I accused my fine friend of simply
stating what every billionaire knows. “But it’s irrelevant," I continued,
“since we have no control over it.”
“That’s what you think!” he replied.
The conversation quickly degenerated into a discussion reminiscent of my sophomore year of high school, when we would argue about the existence of God. It was obvious that my friend felt he was among the select, brought here to benefit from the abundance while others went without. These were his ends that he used to justify any means necessary to acquire his comfort and his privilege.
The ideology of neoliberalism has penetrated deep into society, dividing all sorts of groups, including friends and family.
***
The conundrum my old
friend raised was not unlike the chilling paradox identified by the famous
German-Italian sociologist [ Robert
Michels] (1876-1936)], in his classic study, [ Political
Parties: A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies of Modern
Democracy ] (1911), which contains a description of the [ "iron law of
oligarchy,” ] a theory that political
parties, including those considered socialist, cannot be democratic because
they quickly transform themselves into bureaucratic oligarchies.
To escape this paradox – namely, that we accomplish one thing while believing we are working for its opposite – Marxists over the years have sought to demonstrate that the ruling ideas in any given period of history are no more than the ideas of the ruling class at that moment in time and place.
We now will look at the writing of the
American drummer from Portland, Oregon; the former internet-based entrepreneur
and freelance composer, [Joseph Plummer], who
recently has contributed to this idealist tradition of viewing the corporate
capitalist system as an instrument of
social control rather than as an economic relationship constructed to
provide society with goods and services and at the same time secure the means to produce private profits for the
owners of capital. Looking beyond the
private profit motive, the author of [Tragedy
& Hope 101: The Illusion of Justice, Freedom and Democracy]
(2016) offers a critical assessment of the late Georgetown University
Professor Carroll Quigley’s extensive study of the “NETWORK” of
elites which, he argues, has historically conspired, since
the era of Queen Victoria, to conquer "all the inhabitable portions
of world" and to establish its political control over this Anglophone
Empire .
This book begins with a short
introduction written by [G. Edward Griffin], in
which he alerts the reader:
Be forewarned. The journey you are about to begin is not for
the fainthearted. If you are comfortable with the illusions that currently pass
for political reality, this book is not for you, because, once you discover how
the deceivers perform their magic, the comfort of ignorance is no longer
possible. Once the bell is rung it cannot be unrung.(p.viii)
Plummer succeeded in writing a concise
and easily readable book of 200 pages, covering a vast and complex subject,
which extends back to Cecil Rhodes and the Boer Wars, more than one hundred
years ago. This book is well organized, constituting an introduction, nine
chapters and a conclusion, all containing helpful headings and subheadings. The
author could not have made his research more accessible to the public if he had
read the manuscript to us out loud.
In the first chapter, “Democracy,”
the author introduces Carroll Quigley and the difficulties he encountered after
publishing T&H in 1966. Despite
his high credentials, Quigley recounts:
The original edition published by
Macmillan in 1966 sold about 8800 copies and sales were picking up in 1968 when
they ‘ran out of stock,’ as they told me (but in 1974, when I went after them
with a lawyer, they told me that they had destroyed the plates in 1968). They
lied to me for six years, telling me that they would re-print when they got
2000 orders, which could never happen because they told anyone who asked that
it was out of print and would not be reprinted. They denied this until I sent
then Xerox copies of such replies to libraries, at which they told me it was a
clerk’s error. In other words they lied to me but prevented me from regaining the
publication rights by doing so. [Rights revert back to the copyright holder if
the book is out of print, but not if the book is simply out of stock.]
. . . Powerful influences in this country want me, or at least my work,
suppressed.(pp.2-3)
Quigley provided many examples of
Network infiltration and manipulation. . . . Because the IPR provided
priceless insight into the deceptive nature and true power of the Network,
we’ll briefly cover it here. . . .(p.6)
He goes on to quote Cleon Skousen, author of [The Naked Capitalist] (1972):
As I see it, the great contribution
which Dr. Carroll Quigley unintentionally made by writing Tragedy and Hope
was to help the ordinary American realize the utter contempt which the network
leaders have for ordinary people. Human begins are treated en masse as
helpless puppets on an international chess board where giants of economic
and political power subject them to wars, revolutions, civil strife,
confiscation, subversion, indoctrination, manipulation and deception.(p.14)
Henry Kissinger personifies the
essence of the Network mind-set. In his book, Diplomacy, he introduces
his readers to the amoral concepts of raison d’état . . . and Realpolitik.
The basis of both concepts, Kissinger explains, is that individual men
can be judged negatively on moral grounds, but governments cannot. When it
comes to government action, the only suitable judgment is based on whether or
not the government achieves its ends. Throughout his book, Kissinger praised
those who are wise enough to govern by these concepts and practically mocks
those who object on so-called “moral” grounds.(p.15)
In praise of Cardinal de Richelieu (a
seventeenth-century French statesman), Kissinger wrote:
Though privately religious,
[Richelieu] viewed his duties as minister in entirely secular terms. Salvation
might be his personal objective, but to Richelieu the statesman, it was
irrelevant. ‘Man is immortal , his salvation is hereafter,’ he once said. ‘The
state has no immortality, its salvation is now or never. In other words, states
do not receive credit in any world for doing what is right; they are only
rewarded for being strong enough to do what is necessary.(pp.15-16)
There is a very logical reason why coercive power prefers
secrecy and deception: if the goal is to exploit and dominate others (without
suffering the natural consequences of doing so), then transparency and honesty
are not an option. As such, the basic template of coercive power (often
hidden, always deceptive and exercised in the name of something other than
itself) is common throughout history. If ‘the name of God’ is beyond reproach,
then intelligent rulers will exercise their power in the name of God. If
invoking the name of democracy, or the state, or the emperor
will empower them, they will act in the name of any of these. This is the
unchanging characteristic of those who effectively rule the masses: they will say
and do anything to establish a system that serves their interests.
Stated another way: morality will never stop an individual or
group that’s willing to lie, steal, intimidate, imprison, torture, or kill in
pursuit of their aims. (p.26)
Rhodes feverishly exploited the diamond and goldfields of
South Africa, rose to be Prime Minister of the Cape Colony (1890-1896),
contributed money to political parties, controlled parliamentary seats both in
England and in South Africa, and sought to win a strip of British territory
across Africa from the Cape of Good Hope to Egypt.(pp.32-33)
I contend that we are the finest race
in the world and that the more of the world we inhabit the better it is for the
human race. Just fancy those parts that are at present inhabited by the most
despicable specimens of human beings what an alteration there would be if they
were brought under Anglo-Saxon influence.(p.33)
Chapter 4 of Plummer’s book is
entitled “Money: The Unlimited Instrument.” Here the author discusses Quigley’s
description of how money has been combined to be used as an instrument of
control by a group that employs ‘financial capitalism’ to monopolize business
and control governments.
In time, they brought into their
financial network . . . commercial banks and savings banks, as well as
insurance companies, to form all of these into a single financial system on an
international scale which manipulated the quantity and flow of money.
Just to clarify: these men did not own
the money that citizens placed in commercial and savings banks. They did not own
the money that citizens paid into retirement funds, insurance funds, or trust
funds. However, as already mentioned, they didn’t need to own the money. All
they needed was the power to control it, and that they had. As
long as an institution within their’ ‘financial network’ held the funds, they
could direct those funds toward increasing their power. They, alone, determined
how and where that enormous, international pool of money would be invested.
(p.69-70)
___
*NOTE: It’s worth noting that this period of
‘financial capitalism’ clearly predated the Rhodes-created network that Quigley
describes in both The Anglo-American Establishment and Tragedy and
Hope. As such, it’s reasonable to suggest that the real roots of the Rhodes
network (and the real power) existed long before Cecil Rhodes entered the
picture. However, since this book focuses on the proven conspiracy
(identified and exposed by Quigley), a detailed account of what existed before
Rhodes will have to be told elsewhere.(p.69)
The “proven conspiracy” that is the
subject of Quigley’s study involves laying the groundwork for new investment
opportunities before the First World War. Plummer explains:
In chapter 3, we covered President Taft’s undoing: he refused to support
the Network’s plan to create a central bank in the United States. And since the
Network couldn’t fully ‘dominate the political system’ of the United States
without control of its ‘credit and money supply,’ Taft was toppled and Wilson
was installed. Shortly after taking office, Wilson signed the Federal Reserve
Act into law, and the central bank was born.
However, this isn’t the full story of how the Federal Reserve
System came to be. Just as citizens were misled into believing that they chose
Wilson in the 1912 election, they were also misled into believing the Federal
Reserve Act was written to protect them from predatory international bankers.
The sad truth is, predatory international bankers secretly wrote the
legislation themselves and used government to turn their wishes into law.
This is a piece of the puzzle that Quigley seems to have
missed. He acknowledges that Network titans like Rockefeller and Morgan had
enough power to cause a financial panic whenever they chose. He admits that
they used their power to their own advantage, wrecking ‘individual
corporations, at the expense of the holders of common stocks.’ He even admits
that J. P. Morgan precipitated the ‘panic of 1907.’ But the fact that heir
power could have been used to both take out competition and incite pubic
demands for ‘monetary reform’ (reform that would be directed by the Network
itself) is not covered. It’s a glaring omission.
In short, the Network needed a central bank to ‘dominate the
political system’ of the United States, but it needed another crisis to finally
sell the scheme. With that perspective in mind, the panic of 1907 looks very
different. First J. P. Morgan causes the panic (which, to this day, is
rarely mentioned), then he and Rockefeller halt the panic (for which, to
this day, they’re still portrayed as saviors), and out of the suffering
and chaos, ‘public demands’ for legislative intervention finally reach critical
mass. ‘The government’ then forms a monetary commission to investigate and
solve the problem (headed by none other than Network insider and US senator,
Nelson Aldrich), and the commission decided that a central bank is needed to
solve the nations’ woes. From there, it was simply a matter of writing the
legislation and handing it off to the ‘right’ politicians.(p.78-79)
The political culture within the United States was such at the turn of the twentieth century that the general public was skeptical of banks and downright hostile to the motivations of bankers. This process of handing their ‘reform bill’ to ‘the right politician’ in Congress met a snag. Frank A. Vanderlip, president of National City Bank of New York (now Citybank) – the most powerful bank in New York at the time – years later explained what happened in a Saturday Evening Post article, published in 1935, “From Farm Boy to Financier”:
There was an occasion near the close
of 1910, when I was as secretive – indeed as furtive – as any conspirator . . .
. I do not feel it is any exaggeration to speak of our secret expedition in
Jekyll Island as the occasion of the actual conception or what eventually
became the Federal Reserve System. . . . Discovery, we knew, simply must
not happen, or else all our time and efforts would be wasted. If it were to be
exposed publically that our particular group had got together and written a
banking bill, that bill would have no chance whatever of passage by Congress. .
. although the Aldrich Federal Reserve plan was defeated when it bore the name
of Aldrich, nevertheless its essential points were all contained in the plan
that finally was adopted.(cited on p.81)
The political machinations were not yet finished however, and another deceitful act had to be performed in the public theater.
With its legislation successfully written, Taft ousted, and Wilson in the
White House, it would seem that the Network could rest easy. However, there was
one more swindle needed to guarantee passage of the Federal Reserve Act. To
help garner public support, the very same people who helped author the
legislation on Jekyll Island began speaking out publically against
it.(p.83)
Plummer goes on to cite a passage
from G. Edward Griffin’s book, The
Creature from Jekyll Island, to unravel this tissue of deceit produced by
the secret “Network” of bankers:
As the Federal Reserve Act moved
closer to its birth . . . both Aldrich and Vanderlip threw themselves into a
great public display of opposition. No opportunity was overlooked to make a
statement to the press – or anyone else of public prominence – expressing their
eternal animosity to this monstrous legislation. . . . Since Aldrich was
recognized as associated with Morgan interests and Vanderlip was President of
Rockefeller’s national City Bank, the public was skillfully led to believe that
the [big bankers were] mortally afraid of the proposed Federal Reserve Act. The
Nation [magazine] was the only prominent publication to point out that
every one of the horrors described by Aldrich and Vanderlip could have been
equally ascribed to the Aldrich Bill as well. But this lone voice was easily
drowned by the great cacophony of deception and propaganda.(cited on p.83)
After an interesting discussion on the “suspension” of the gold standard after the outbreak of the WW I, which guaranteed unlimited access to money in order to finance the War, Plummer concludes chapter 8 of his work, with a commentary on the political power that accompanied the consolidation of central banking before the War.
If ‘monopoly capitalism’ is all
powerful because it can self-finance, manipulate the price of goods within
its market, and use its inflated monopolistic profits to wield monetary
influence, then there are no words to sufficiently describe the power of
‘financial capitalism.’
·
Not
only can financial capitalist manipulate the price of goods in a particular
market, they can manipulate the price of goods in any market. (Real
estate, food, energy, stocks, bonds, education. . .anything that has a price
will be affected by those who manipulate the quantity and flow of money.)
·
Not
only do financial capitalists enjoy the influence of monopolistic profits, they
enjoy (the influence of having monopolized the creation of money itself. Stated
another way: when a ‘monopoly capitalist’ accumulates his first billion
dollars, it’s only because others have borrowed that billion dollars into
existence from the Network’s banking system.(p.89)
By way of conclusion of this chapter
on “Money: The Unlimited Instrument”, Plummer is critical of Quigley, who, he
believes, was unable to break completely from the Network’s dogma.
If Quigley
truly understood the Network’s banking system, he would have never fallen for
the lie, undoubtedly perpetuated by the Network itself, that banking power
peaked in the 1930s. The exact opposite is true. It wasn’t until the 1930s that
international bankers began chipping away at the limitations of gold and
inching the world ever closer to a purely debt-based standard.
As powerful as the Network’s position was under the gold
standard, it has increased immeasurably under their 100-percent debt-based
standard.(pp.89-90)
Two problems present themselves with
the idealist school of history: one is methodological,
where we see writers “cherry-picking” supportive statements from prominent
capitalist interests to demonstrate their power to produce change to their advantage.
This is a violation of the first principle of Marxist investigation: “We do not judge a person by who he says he
is, but rather by what he actually does”.
“Just as one does not judge an individual by what he thinks about himself, so one cannot judge such a period of transformation by its consciousness, but, on the contrary, this consciousness must be explained from the contradictions of material life, from the conflict existing between the social forces of production and the relations of production. No social order is ever destroyed before all the productive forces for which it is sufficient have been developed, and new superior relations of production never replace older ones before the material conditions for their existence have matured within the framework of the old society.” (from Economic Manuscripts).
The 20 + items below contain
articles and essays which will serve to challenge us to dig beyond the headline
of the corporate media and seek to understand deep seismic changes that are
happening in society beneath the surface of our everyday life. The features of
these changes are not always what they appear to be, and the authors of the
works below offer critical insights into the complexity of the changes we are
encountering, into how and why the public is so often misguided by faux amis (“false friends”) and “useful
idiots”.
Francis Feeley
---
Professeur honoraire de l'Université Grenoble-Alpes
Ancien Directeur des Researches Université de Paris-Nanterre
Director of The Center for the Advanced Study of American Institutions and Social Movements
(CEIMSA-in-Exile)
The University of California-San Diego
a.
What does this tell us about our culture?
U.S. has wasted $6.4 trillion on wars since 2001, study says
click here : [ http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52587.htm
]
The post-9/11 wars have
expanded to more than 80 countries
American
taxpayers have spent $6.4 trillion on post-9/11 wars and military action in the
Middle East and Asia, according to a new study.
The
report comes as the Trump administration works to withdraw the U.S. military presence
from war-torn Syria.
The
post-9/11 wars will continue to rise as the U.S. pays the on-going costs of
veterans’ care and for interest on borrowing to pay for the wars,”
In
March, the Pentagon estimated that the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria have cost each taxpayer $7,623
through fiscal 2018.
+
click here : [ The Costs of the War On Terror
]
(11:18)
The
amount of money spent on these wars cannot fully convey their sheer
wastefulness. Wars are always expensive, and they usually end up being much
more expensive than anyone anticipates at the beginning, but when those wars
are unnecessary and useless it makes the exorbitant cost that much more
sickening. The money and resources expended on almost twenty years of failed
wars could have been put to any number of more productive uses. Instead, that
vast sum has been poured down the drain. As it is, the U.S. has little or
nothing to show for the massive malinvestment that it has made in fighting
these wars. These wars have not made the U.S. more secure, they have created
more enemies than they destroyed, and they have set fires in their respective
regions that will take years to burn out. As staggering as the $6.4 trillion
figure is, it doesn’t capture how ruinous these wars have been. The U.S. will
continue to pay for these wars long after they are over in more ways than
one. |
A
full reckoning of the costs of our wars has to include the millions killed,
displaced, and the wreckage of multiple countries. These are the truly
senseless losses that could have been avoided. The report [ details
these costs ] as well:
+
Impeach the Government: Rogue
Agencies Have Been Abusing Their Powers for Decades
click here : [ http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52574.htm
]
by John W. Whitehead
How
a nation of sheep gives rise to a government of wolves.
“When
a man unprincipled in private life[,]
desperate
in his fortune, bold in his temper . . .
despotic
in his ordinary demeanour
—
known to have scoffed in private at the
principles
of liberty — when such a man is seen to
mount
the hobby horse of popularity — to join in
the
cry of danger to liberty — to take every opportunity
of
embarrassing the General Government & bringing
it
under suspicion — to flatter and fall in with
all
the non sense of the zealots of the day
—[ It may justly be suspected that his object is
to throw things into confusion that he may ‘ride the storm and direct the
whirlwind.’”]—Alexander Hamilton
By all means, let’s talk about
impeachment.
To allow the President or any rogue
government agency or individual to disregard the rule of law whenever, wherever
and however it chooses and operate “above the law” is exactly how a nation of
sheep gives rise to a government of wolves.
To be clear: this is not about
Donald Trump. Or at least it shouldn’t be just
about Trump.
This is a condemnation of every
government toady at every point along the political
spectrum—right, left and center—who has conspired to expand the federal
government’s powers at the expense of the citizenry.
For too long now, the American
people have played politics with their principles and turned a blind eye to all
manner of wrongdoing when it was politically expedient, allowing Congress, the
White House and the Judiciary to wreak havoc with their freedoms and act in
violation of the rule of law.
“We the people” are paying the
price for it now.
We are paying the price every day
that we allow the government to continue to wage its war on the American
People, a war that is being fought on many fronts: with bullets and tasers,
with surveillance cameras and license readers, with intimidation and
propaganda, with court rulings and legislation, with the collusion of every
bureaucrat who dances to the tune of corporate handouts while on the
government’s payroll, and most effectively of all, with the complicity of the
American people, who continue to allow themselves to be easily manipulated by
their politics, distracted by their pastimes, and acclimated to a world in
which government corruption is the norm.
Don’t keep falling for the Deep
State’s ploys.
This entire impeachment process is
a manufactured political circus—a shell game—aimed at distracting the public
from the devious treachery of the American police state, which continues to
lock down the nation and strip the citizenry of every last vestige of
constitutional safeguards that have historically served as a bulwark against
tyranny.
Has President Trump overstepped his
authority and abused his powers?
Without a doubt.
Then again, so did Presidents
Obama, Bush, Clinton, and almost every president before them.
+
Why Aren’t Americans Rising Up Like We Are
Seeing Across the Planet?
click here : [ http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52561.htm
]
by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J. S. Davies
The waves of protests breaking out in country
after country around the world beg the question: Why aren’t Americans rising up
in peaceful protest like our neighbors? We live at the very heart of this neoliberal system that is force-feeding the systemic
injustice and inequality of 19th-century laissez-faire capitalism to the people
of the 21st century. So we are subject to many of the same abuses that have
fueled mass protest movements in other countries, including high rents, stagnant
wages, cradle-to-grave debt, ever-rising economic inequality, privatized health
care, a shredded social safety net, abysmal public transportation, systemic
political corruption and endless war.
We also have a corrupt, racist billionaire as
president, who Congress may soon impeach, but where are the masses outside the
White House, banging pots and pans to drive Trump out? Why aren’t people
crashing the offices of their congresspeople, demanding that they represent the
people or resign? If none of these conditions has so far provoked a new
American revolution, what will it take to trigger one?
In the 1960s and 1970s, the senseless Vietnam
War provoked a serious, well-organized antiwar movement. But today the U.S.’s endless wars just rage on in the
background of our lives, as the U.S. and its allies kill and mutilate men,
women and children in distant countries, day after day, year after year. Our
history has also witnessed inspiring mass movements for civil rights, women’s
rights and gay rights, but these movements are much tamer today.
The Occupy Movement in 2011 came closest to
challenging the entire neoliberal system. It awakened a new generation to the
reality of government of, by, and for the corrupt 1 percent, and built a
powerful basis for solidarity among the marginalized 99 percent. But Occupy
lost momentum because it failed to transition from a rallying point and a decentralized,
democratic forum to a cohesive movement that could impact the existing power
structure.
The climate movement is starting to mobilize
a new generation, and groups like School Strike for the Climate and Extinction
Rebellion take direct aim at this destructive economic system that prioritizes
corporate growth and profits over the very survival of life on Earth. But while
climate protests have shut down parts of London and
other cities around the world, the scale of climate protests in the U.S. does
not yet match the urgency of the crisis.
So why is the
American public so passive?
+
Recession ahead: Hedge fund
billionaires sound alarm
click here : [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM_nXu_eFjA&feature=youtu.be
]
Consumer
and corporate debt are both at an all-time high and owners of the largest hedge
funds are sounding the alarm about markets the world over. “Boom Bust” host
Christy Ai joins Rick Sanchez to discuss the volatility in the economy and why
we should be very worried. Thousands of teachers are striking in Indiana,
forcing the closure of schools across the state. “On Contact” host Chris Hedges
discusses the state of the US labor movement. He argues that unions have been
the only vehicle for improving the lives of US workers and that striking is
their most successful tactic. Investigative journalist Ben Swann discusses
Prince Andrew's "horrific" BBC interview about the accusations
against him by Epstein victim Virginia Roberts Giuffre. Comedian Anders Lee of
"Redacted Tonight" discusses the increased police presence on NYC
subways. RT America's Natasha Sweatte reports new research into the treatment
of alcoholism. Plus, RT America's Steve Christakos joins for "Jock
Talk."
+
Noam Chomsky: Democratic Party Centrism
Risks Handing Election to Trump
click here : [ https://truthout.org/articles/noam-chomsky-democratic-party-centrism-risks-handing-election-to-trump/
]
interview with Noam Chomsky
===========
Sacred
right to suck up to power’: Pilger blasts ‘cruel’ media coverage of Julian
Assange
John
Pilger blasted The Guardian while launching a book about Julian Assange, FILE
PHOTO. © REUTERS/Neil Hall
click here : [
https://www.rt.com/news/474181-pilger-blasts-guardian-assange-coverage/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Email
]
+
[ Media
blackout on Assange, and how to help him (and write to him) ]
From Elizabeth
Woodworth:
Not reported by ANY corporate media was the October 2 London protest to protect
Julian Assange, led by Pink Floyd’s [ world famous co-founder, Roger Waters ]
and award-winning journalist John Pilger, in front of Britain’s Home
Office. About 1,000 people attended.
Roger
Waters, one of the top UK performers of all time (“Dark Side of the Moon”), described
the media blackout last Monday on RT: [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=8&v=RRgE3w6F0wQ
]
This is incredible, given
that Assange was interviewed in 2010 by Sir David Frost (the only person to
have interviewed all US presidents and UK prime ministers for many
decades) on [ Al Jazeera
]
There are no charges
against Assange. At [ the Westminster magistrate’s extradition
hearing six days ago ] John Pilger was present and
reported that Assange could barely speak or think. Assange was not
permitted to see his defence documents while in this “court”. John’s
description is utterly appalling.
The truth about
Julian’s character was recently reported by the Ecuadorian diplomat at the
Ecuadorian embassy in London, who was with Julian for six years: [https://jacobinmag.com/2019/10/julian-assange-fidel-narvaez-ecuador-moreno
]
The media is now entirely complicit as the UK bows to US dominance, while turning its back on its own laws in an atrocious violation of human rights. Julian needs a network of people to co-ordinate a grass-roots movement to press for his freedom — but most people as of 2019 have never heard of Assange, thanks to the presstitute media. Paul Craig Roberts has just mounted a petition on his website:
[ https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2019/10/27/85082/
]
Until something major
gets organized, it is possible to write to Julian with
encouragement. His prisoner
number must be included on the envelop or the letter will not be delivered in
Belmarsh maximum security prison, where he is not permitted to speak to
other prisoners.
Here is what is
recommended for writing to him: Apparently, because he gets a lot of mail, it
should be a short letter, telling him anything you have done, or want to do, to
try to help him.
Mr. Julian Assange
Prisoner # A9379AY
HMP Belmarsh
Western Way
London SE28 0EB UK
Best to all,
Elizabeth Woodworth
Victoria, Canada
+
Arbuthnot Out as Assange’s Judge, Says WikiLeaks
Lawyer Jen Robinson
click here : [ https://consortiumnews.com/2019/11/16/arbuthnot-out-as-assanges-judge-says-wikileaks-lawyer-jen-robinson/
]
+
From: Al Burke [mailto:editor@nnn.se]
Sent: Friday, November 15, 2019 12:30 PM
Subject: U.N. expert: Sweden collaborating in a “a concerted effort to
silence Assange”
U.N.’s special rapporteur on torture and other serious crimes
repeats:
Sweden guilty of collaborating in “a concerted effort to
isolate, demonize, harass and, ultimately, to silence Julian Assange”.
For the second time in less than half a year, the U.N.’s special
rapporteur on torture etc. has accused Sweden of serious crimes against the human
rights of Julian Assange.
The first time was on 23 May, when rapporteur Nils Melzer wrote to the four
governments, among them Sweden, which for nearly a decade have collaborated in
plaguing and persecuting Assange. The Swedish government responded with a brief
letter consisting largely of untruths, evasions and glaring
omissions.
Nils Melzer therefore wrote a follow-up letter to the government to convey
“additional observations and clarifications, and to reiterate or further detail
my queries”. That letter was sent on 12 September and, in accordance with U.N.
praxis, made public after 60 days
The follow-up letter includes Melzer’s conclusion that “the manner in which the
preliminary investigation against Mr. Assange has been conducted by the Swedish
prosecution appears to have contributed significantly, if not decisively, to
various patterns of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment which Mr. Assange has
been exposed to since 2010”.
Among other things, “the Swedish prosecution appears to do everything to
maintain the unqualified ’rape suspect’ narrative it has been disseminating,
while at the same time avoiding to expose the evidentiary merits of this
narrative to transparency and independent public scrutiny”.
For these and other reasons, rapporteur Melzer concludes that “acts or
omissions of the Swedish authorities defeat the presumption that the
preliminary criminal investigation against Mr. Assange has been, and currently
is being, conducted in good faith and in compliance with the fundamental
principles of due process and of justice”.
There “appears to have been a deliberate, sustained and concerted effort by the
United States, Sweden, the United Kingdom and, more recently, Ecuador, with a
view to isolating, demonizing, harassing and, ultimately, silencing Mr.
Assange.”
Why? “I am gravely concerned that Mr. Assange is being prosecuted and
abused for having published evidence for serious misconduct of State officials,
including international crimes involving torture and other cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment or punishment, whereas the incriminated officials
themselves are being granted impunity in flagrant violation of the most basic
principles of justice, human dignity and the rule of law.”
That and much more is documented in a detailed bill of particulars, including
sections on:
• Proactive manipulation of
evidence
• Disregard for exculpatory
evidence
• Disregard for requirements of
necessity and proportionality
• Pervasive procedural procrastination
• Arbitrary detention and
torture.
The government responded on 11 November with a brief note which referred the
U.N.’s rapporteur to the above-noted disgraceful reply to his first letter:
“The Government has no further observation to make”.
Nils Melzer’s follow-up letter
is available in PDF format at
click here : [ https://julian-assange.se/docs/MelzerSweden-2.pdf ]
Related Reading
From Hammarskjöld to Assange
[ https://www.julian-assange.se/english/torture.htm ]
Sweden & Assange
[ http://www.nnn.se/nordic/assange.htm ]
FAQ: U.N. Special Rapporteurs
[ https://www.aclu.org/other/faqs-united-nations-special-rapporteurs ]
OHCHR profile of Nils Melzer
[ https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Torture/SRTorture/Pages/NilsMelzer.aspx
]
Media vs. Melzer: Censorship by Omission
[ https://www.julian-assange.se/docs/melzer-media.pdf ]
Nils Melzers correspondence with USA concerning Julian Assange
[ https://julian-assange.se/docs/Melzer-USA.pdf ]
_________________________
Al Burke
E-mail: [editor@nnn.se ]
Internet:
[ http://www.nnn.se ]
Tel. +46/(0)8 - 731 9200
+
“Mealy-mouthed
bunch of bulls**t”: Waters decries hypocrisy of Swedish prosecutors, says no
evidence Assange EVER injured anybody
click here : [ https://www.rt.com/news/473923-roger-waters-assange-sweden/
]
with Roger Waters
+
U.N. Rapporteur: Julian Assange Has
Faced Psychological Torture; He Should Not Be Extradited to U.S.
click here : [ https://www.democracynow.org/2019/11/22/nils_melzer_julian_assange
]
+
Doctors Petition UK Home Secretary Over Julian Assange
click here : [ https://consortiumnews.com/2019/11/23/doctors-petition-uk-home-secretary-over-julian-assange/
]
+
“In Defense of
Julian Assange”: Why WikiLeaks Founder’s Case Threatens Press Freedom
click here : [ https://www.democracynow.org/2019/11/22/julian_assange_tariq_ali_margaret_kunstler
]
===========
c.
Netanyahu
Kills Palestinians to Keep Opposition
From
Forming Government
[ https://therealnews.com/stories/netanyahu-kills-palestinians-keep-opposition-forming-government
]
with Marc Steiner and Jeff Halper
+
From: GAZA PALESTINE [mailto:anahona366@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2019
Subject: I need you to support humanity ... the harsh conditions we face in the Gaza Strip ... you are the one who can support us out of this ordeal...
Don't stop our work I beg you.
These days we are exposed to very harsh situations in our work, which we have been doing for about a year and 10 months.
Our job is to help the wounded in the Gaza Strip.
Since
the beginning of the Great Return marches east of the Gaza Strip.
These marches are peaceful marches to demand the lifting of the unjust siege on the Gaza Strip for almost 14 years, but these peaceful marches did not like the Israeli Zionist army, where he began to kill demonstrators and injured them very difficult. 60,000 people, more than 10,000 injured, are in a difficult and bad condition and need daily care.
We started our journey and our mission to treat these wounded in the field under severe danger and heavy shooting and we were exposed to many difficult situations and injuries as well as killing where the Israeli occupation forces killed more than 10 nurses working in the east of the Gaza Strip and wounded more than 100 nurses, including 5 of my team and I also was injured more than once with minor injuries.
Without your presence with us and the presence of Professor Mark, who began to help us and a group of his friends and there are also many friends such as Simeon and Garth and Dorothy and David and Peugeot Holm and Sarah and Tim and Ryan and many of the names that stood next to us. And talk about my humble group.
These days, we are under great pressure and maybe stop work. The work has become increasingly difficult these days because of the lack of support and the difficult economic conditions of the people inside the Gaza Strip who were supporting us from within the Gaza Strip.
We need emergency assistance and the necessary assistance from you to stand with us to get equipment to help us for months to come so that we never stop this work and until we help the wounded inside the Gaza Strip.
I want to say that we are very sorry for everyone who bothered him because of this mail, but our work is very difficult requires me to send this mail.
I wish you our support to get gauze, iodine, medicine, some antibiotics and some other tools to help the injured. Thank you.
Nurses in Gaza Strip
You can support us at the following link
click here : [ https://gogetfunding.com/do-not-support-muslims-do-not-support-the-palestinians-only-support-humanity/
]
+
From: Moshé Machover [mailto:ananmoshik@icloud.com]
Sent: Sunday, November 24, 2019 12:56 PM
To: M Machover
Subject: Fwd: Newsletter de l’AURDIP du 24 novembre 2019
Begin forwarded message:
From: AURDIP [ <contact@aurdip.fr>
]
Subject: Newsletter de l’AURDIP du 24 novembre 2019
Date: 24November2019 at 00:10:54 GMT
To: [ moshe.machover@kcl.ac.uk
]
|
+
Le 22/11/2019, à 21:45, Moshé Machover a écrit :
Giyora Neumann: J’ai Dit Non à L’armée Israélienne
click here : [
https://matzpen.org/english/2009-12-31/giyora-neumann-jai-dit-non-a-larmee/
]
by Ehud Eingil
+
Finally
the USA Supports the One State Solution
click here : [
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52582.htm
]
by
Gilad Atzmon
At
present, the land is ruled over by a racist, tribal and discriminatory ideology
through an apparatus that calls itself ‘The Jewish State’.
===========
d.
How Western Media Bias Allows
Israel to Getaway with Murder in Gaza
click here : [ http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52572.htm
]
by Ramzy Baroud
An
Israeli attack on Gaza was imminent, and not because of any provocations by
Palestinian groups in the besieged, impoverished Gaza Strip. The Israeli
military escalation was[ foreseeable ] because it factors neatly in Israel’s
contentious political scene. The war was not a question of “if”, but “when”.
The answer came on November 12, when the Israeli military launched a major strike against Gaza, killing an Islamic Jihad Commander,[ Bahaa
Abu al-Ata,
along with his wife Asma. ]
More
strikes followed, targeting what the Israeli military described as Islamic
Jihad installations. However, the identities of the victims, along with damning
social media footage, pictures, and eyewitness accounts indicate that civilians
and civilian infrastructure were bombed and destroyed as well.
As
of November 14, when a truce was announced, 32 Palestinians have been killed
and over 80 wounded in the Israeli aggression.
+
UN report on
Israeli settlements speaks the truth – but the world refuses to listen
click here : [ http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52573.htm ]
by Robert Fisk
Hamas is not spared
criticism: the Islamist militia in charge of Gaza stands accused of ‘beatings,
arbitrary arrest and detentions, and torture and ill treatment’ of hundreds of
Palestinian protesters. But the opposition to Lynk is not down to his
even-handedness
He’s a very tall man with bright eyes and a broad smile, and he holds out
a great paw when he greets you. But Michael Lynk is no gentle giant.
He may teach human rights law at the Western University in London,
Ontario, but as the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied West
Bank and Gaza,
he has to endure the fury of Israel
and its acolytes abroad – not least in his native Canada – and, two years ago,
even the enmity of his own country’s foreign minister.
In his
latest UN report, he reminds readers that the creation of
Israel’s “civilian settlements” in occupied territory is a breach of
the Fourth Geneva Convention and a “war crime” under the Rome Statute. So you
can see why the 67-year old Lynk, a labour lawyer by training, has been having
a tough time since his appointment to the voluntary, unpaid UN post three years
ago.
+
Trump’s New Policy on
Israeli Settlements Is Illegal and Self-Serving
click here : [ https://truthout.org/articles/trumps-new-policy-on-israeli-settlements-is-illegal-and-self-serving/ ]
by Marjorie Cohn
===========
Chapter
3: Israeli Settlements and International Law
View of an Israeli checkpoint, seen from the road
between Ramallah and Hebron, 14 September, 2017. © Amnesty International
click here : [ https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2019/01/chapter-3-israeli-settlements-and-international-law/ ]
·
Israel and Occupied Palestinian Territories
·
War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity
The situation in the OPT is primarily governed by two international legal
regimes: international humanitarian law (including the rules of the law of
occupation) and international human rights law. International criminal law
is also relevant as some serious violations may constitute war crimes.
+
U.S. Contravenes International law
Jewish settlements not illegal, Pompeo
announces in historic US policy shift
The Trump administration announced on Monday that it does not view Israeli
settlements in the West Bank as illegal.
click here : [ http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52563.htm
]
by
ICH and Agencies
US
Ambassador to Israel David Friedman said that the announcement Monday could actually
advance peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
The US policy,
Pompeo said, was “based on the unique facts, history and circumstances
presented by the establishment of civilian settlements in the West Bank.”
+
Retired CIA analyst explains Israel's destructive role in
US policies
click
here : [ http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52579.htm ]
by Ray McGovern
Ray McGovern served as a CIA analyst for 27 years, from
the administration of John F. Kennedy to that of George H. W. Bush. Ray’s
duties included chairing National Intelligence Estimates and preparing the
President’s Daily Brief, which he briefed one-on-one to President Ronald
Reagan’s five most senior national security advisers from 1981 to 1985. He
received the Intelligence Commendation Medal at his retirement.
+
If Americans Knew
click here : [ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXLRhe7EQV3rg-bdK0cr1zw
]
“If Americans Knew about the numerous human rights violations and other treacherous
behavior carried out by the state of Israel, they might feel differently about
the overwhelming financial and military support given to them by our
government.”
f.
US
and Israel were lone votes against UN resolutions opposing space arms race, nuclear
Middle East, Cuba embargo
click here : [ https://thegrayzone.com/2019/11/08/us-israel-un-resolutions-space-arms-race-nuclear/
]
by Ben Norton
Important
breakthroughs have arrived at the United Nations seeking to prevent an arms
race in outer space and create a nuclear weapons-free Middle East. There are
just two main obstacles: the United States and Israel.
While Washington and
corporate media outlets portray China and Russia as aggressive warmongering
rogue states, their votes at the UN show which nations are actually expanding
dangerous militarism into new frontiers.
China and Russia
joined dozens of other countries in sponsoring resolutions at the UN General
Assembly (UNGA) that sought to prevent armed conflict in space. Most of the
international community supported these historic peace measures. The only
consistent outliers were the US and Israel.
+
“ON JEFFREY
EPSTEIN: REVISITED”
click here : [
https://youtu.be/d8XakrokKRw ]
with George
Galloway
+
Prince Andrew: The Epstein scandal has become a 'major
disruption' - BBC Newsnight
click here : [
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFMngPfGnOU
]
with KirstyWark
+
Prince Andrew BBC meltdown.Why did Royal Family let this
interview take place?
click here : [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWskH7r8jrw&feature=youtu.be ]
with Alex Christoforou and Alexander Mercouris
===========
Putin
Dismantles American NATO "Protection" Racket
click here :
[ http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52610.htm
]
Putin: The United
States will have to take some steps to change the quality of its relations with
its European allies even in NATO. It is no longer enough to say: “We are
protecting you, so pay us.” - "It's simply nonsense, bull*hit."
===========
h.
click here : [ Historians For Peace]
From: Jim O'Brien via H-PAD
Sent: Monday, November 18, 2019
Subject: [H-PAD] H-PAD Notes 11/18/19: Yemen war; links to recent articles of interest
Congressional Bulletin
This feature of some H-PAD mailings indicates some Congressional initiatives on issues of concern to participants in H-PAD, along with recommended actions.
Congressional Alert on Yemen!!
While impeachment is blanketing other issues, many crucial items are pending. Negotiations between House and Senate leadership are underway on the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The House bill includes an amendment that would end US support to, and participation in, the Saudi-led coalition's military operations in Yemen. The Senate version of the NDAA did not include this prohibition. Now that the bill is in conference, it is vitally important that the Democratic leadership in the Senate support this House amendment.
Whether or not Minority Leader Charles Schumer is your Senator, please call his office and urge him to support this amendment. We suggest that you use this number, which has been provided by the Friends Committee on National Legislation: 1-833-786-7927. This will provide you with additional information and maintain a count of calls to Sen. Schumer's office.
H-PAD legislative coordinators:
Carolyn Rusti Eisenberg
Prasannan
Parthasarathi
Links to Recent Articles of Interest/
click here : ["The Whistleblowers of the My Lai Massacre" ]
By Howard Jones, History News Network, posted November 17
The author is an emeritus professor of history at the University of Alabama and author of My Lai: Vietnam, 1968 and the Descent into Darkness (Oxford U. Press, 1917, paperback 1919).
click here : [ "The President and the Blob" ]
By Andrew J. Bacevich and Rajan Menon, Boston Review, posted November 11
A trenchant critique both of President Trump's Syria decisions and of longtime bipartisan policies that have led to repeated disastrous involvements in the Middle East. The authors are, respectively, an emeritus professor of history and international relations at Boston University and a professor of political science at City College of New York.
click here : [ "When 'High Body Count' Was an American War Policy" ]
By Nick Turse, The American Conservative, posted November 11
On the mass killings of Vietnamese civilians aimed at giving the US leverage in the peace talks starting in late 1968.
click here : [
"Why
We Must Reclaim 'Armistice Day'" ]
By Danny Sjursen, The American Conservative, posted November 11
"The original spirit was 'Never again.' Now in an era of forever war, we celebrate vets with a mere 'thank you.'" The author is a retired US Army major who formerly taught history at West Polint.
click here : [
"The
Berlin Wall Fell and the U.S. Learned the Wrong Lessons. It Got Us Donald
Trump" ]
By Andrew Bacevich, CommonDreams.com, posted November 8
The author, a retired colonel in the US Army and professor emeritus of history and international relations at Boston University, is president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.
click here : [
"The
Massacre That Spawned the Alt-Right" ]
By Shaun Assael and Peter Keating, Politico, posted November 3
On
the organized murder of five anti-Klan activists in Greensboro, NC forty years
ago (Nov. 3, 1979) by Ku Klux Klan and Nazi party members.
click here : [
"How
Richard Nixon Captured White Rage - and Laid the Groundwork for Donald
Trump" ]
By Scott Laderman, Washington Post, posted November 3
The author teaches history at the University of Minnesota, Duluth.
click here : [
"William Loren
Katz: Teacher, Author, Editor and Activist (1927-2019)" ]
By Alan Singer, History News Network, posted October 31
A
tribute to the author of more than forty popularly written US history books,
who died October 25 at age 92. Alan Singer is a historian and chair of Hofstra
University's Department of Teaching, Learning and Technology.
click here : [
"Killing Your Own
Frankenstein Is Not Heroic" ]
By Jeremy Kuzmarov, Oklahoma Observer, posted October 30
On the US raid that killed ISIS leader Abu Kakr al-Baghdadi. The author teaches history at Tulsa Community College.
click here : [
"The
Ukraine Whistleblower and the Rise of Partisan Whistleblowing" ]
By Hannah Gurman and Kaiten Mistry, Foreign Policy in Focus, posted October 17
The authors teach at New York University and the University of East Anglia, respectively. They are co-editors of the forthcoming Whistleblowing Nation: The History of National Security Disclosures and the Cult of State Secrecy.
Thanks for Rusti
Eisenberg and an anonymous reader for suggesting articles included in the above
list. Suggestions can be sent to jimobrien48@gmail.com.
+
From:
newsfromunderground@googlegroups.com On Behalf Of Mark Crispin Miller
Sent: Thursday, November 14,
2019
Subject: [MCM] Ukraine for
dummies: An invaluable corrective to the lunacy of Adam Schiff, the New York
Times, and all other such CIA tools
COLUMN, FOREIGN POLICY, INTERNATIONAL, RUSSIA, UKRAINE
Ukraine For Dummies
[
https://consortiumnews.com/2019/11/14/ray-mcgovern-ukraine-for-dummies/
]
by Ray McGovern
There was
no excuse for Congress’ ignorance of Ukraine. Here is a guide to help.
By RayMcGovern
Special to Consortium News
At Wednesday’s
debut of the impeachment hearings there was one issue upon which both sides of
the aisle seemed to agree, and it was a comic-book caricature of reality.
House
Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff led off the proceedings with this: “In
2014, Russia invaded a United States ally, Ukraine, to reverse that nation’s
embrace of the West, and to fulfill Vladimir Putin’s desire to rebuild a
Russian empire…” [emphasis added—with astonishment—by MCM]
Five
years ago, when Ukraine first came into the news, those Americans who thought
Ukraine was an island in the Pacific can perhaps be forgiven. That members of
the House Intelligence Committee don’t know — or pretend not to know — more
accurate information about Ukraine is a scandal, and a consequential one.
As Professor
Stephen Cohen has warned, if the impeachment process does not deal in objective
fact, already high tensions with Russia are likely to become even more dangerous.
So here is a kind
of primer for those who might be interested in some Ukraine history:
·
Late
1700s: Catherine the Great
consolidated her rule; established Russia’s first and only warm-water naval
base in Crimea.
·
In 1919, after
the Bolshevik Revolution, Moscow defeated resistance in Ukraine and the country
becomes one of 15 Republics of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).
Khrushchev: Gave
Ukraine away. (Wikipedia)
·
In 1954, after Stalin’s death the year before, Nikita
Khrushchev, a Ukrainian, assumed power. Pandering to Ukrainian supporters, he
unilaterally decreed that henceforth Crimea would be part of the Ukrainian SSR,
not the Russian SSR. Since all 15 Republics of the USSR were under tight rule
from Moscow, the switch was a distinction without much of a difference — until
later, when the USSR fell apart..
·
Nov.
1989: Berlin wall down.
·
Dec. 2-3,
1989: President George H. W. Bush
invites Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to summit talks in Malta; reassures him
“the U.S. will not take advantage” of Soviet troubles in Eastern Europe. Bush
had already been pushing the idea of a Europe whole and free, from Portugal to
Vladivostok.
To view this discussion on the web visit [ https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/newsfromunderground/CAGxB6W9D7T-QmizGPjyQeH9-7GCBy7qknXwoDFB6L%3D4bhAnvKw%40mail.gmail.com. ]
+
From: newsfromunderground@googlegroups.com On Behalf Of Mark Crispin
Miller
Sent: Thursday, November 14, 2019
Subject: [MCM] On the desperate charade by the House Democrats
A very good
takedown of the wild "pantomime" by the the House Democrats,
struggling to revisit
"Russia-gate" via "Ukrainegate," while covering up
the vast corruption of their
party's (putative) front-runner, and the players promoting both of those
preposterous conspiracy theories.
While I recommend
this piecafflicted "our free press" across
the board, both corporate and left/liberal. Casting what's e
highly, though, I also have to note that Lawrence's grim
concluding observation is a symptom of the weird historical amnesia
that has long now happening as a CIA-driven coup, Lawrence makes this fearful
chickens-coming-home-to-roost suggestion: "Maybe it was fated that
what America has been doing abroad the whole of the post-war era
would eventually come home."
No doubt it was;
but to argue that it's only happening now
betrays a staggering ignorance—or repression—of the by-now-indisputable fact that "it" happened over half a century
ago, in broad daylight, when the CIA and other state agencies pulled off a
very gruesome and transparent coup in Dallas, thereby predetermining
the outcome of the 1964 election, and then proceeded to ensure the
outcome of the 1968 election by the same bloody means, in Los Angeles;
and those two fateful murders aren't the only ones from way back then
(and since) that (ought to) call to
mind "what America ha[d] been doing abroad since World War
II,."What all such murders tell us is that our democracy was shattered long
ago—andcannot be restored unless we finally face up to that history, so we can change it.
MCM
CAMPAIGN
2020, COLUMN, INTELLIGENCE, POLITICS, TRUMP
ADMINISTRATION, U.S., UKRAINE
The Impeachment Pantomime
[ https://consortiumnews.com/tag/patrick-lawrence/
]
November
12, 2019 • [ 22 Comments ]
by Patrick Lawrence
The
political theatrics that begin Wednesday raise several questions. For starters,
will Joe Biden be investigated for mounting evidence of corruption? And why is
the corporate media turning the CIA “whistleblower” into a
phantom in plain sight?
By [ PatrickLawrence ]
Special to Consortium News
Now that
“Russiagate” has failed and [ “Ukrainegate” ] neatly takes its
place, many questions arise. Will the Democratic Party, this time in open
collusion with the intelligence apparatus, succeed in its second attempt to
depose President Donald Trump in what might fairly be called a bloodless coup?
Whatever the outcome of the thus-far-farcical impeachment probe, which is
[ to be conducted publicly ] as of
Wednesday, did the president use his office to pressure Ukraine in behalf of
his own personal and political interests? Did Trump, in his fateful telephone
conversation last July 25 with Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, put
U.S. national security at risk, as is alleged?
All good questions.
Here is another: Will Joe Biden, at present the leading contender for the
Democratic presidential nomination, get away with what is almost certain to
prove his gross corruption and gross abuse of office when he carried the
Ukraine portfolio while serving as vice president under Barack Obama?
Corollary line of inquiry: Will the corporate media, The New York Times in the lead, get away with self-censoring what is now irrefutable evidence of the impeachment probe’s various frauds and corruptions? Ditto in the Biden case: Can the Times and the media that faithfully follow its lead continue to disregard accumulating circumstantial evidence of Biden’s guilt as he appears to have acted in the interest of his son Hunter while the latter sat on the board of one of Ukraine’s largest privately held natural gas producers?
Still from C-SPAN video of House of
Representatives debate on Sept. 25, 2019. (Wikimedia Commons)
Innuendo & Interference
It is not difficult to imagine that Trump
presented Zelensky with his famous quid pro quo when they spoke last summer:
Open an investigation into Biden père
et fils and I
will release $391 million in military aid and invite you to the White House.
Trump seems to be no stranger to abuses of power of this sort. But the
impeachment probe has swiftly run up against the same problem that sank the
good ship Russiagate: It has produced no evidence. Innuendo and inference, yes.
Various syllogisms, yes. But no evidence.
There is none in the transcript of the telephone
exchange. Zelensky has flatly stated that there was no quid pro quo. The
witnesses so far called to testify have had little to offer other than their
personal opinions, even if Capitol Hill Democrats pretend these testimonies
are prima facie damning. And the witnesses are to one or another degree of
questionable motives: To a one, they appear to be Russophobes who favor
military aid to Ukraine; to a one they are turf-conscious careerists who think
they set U.S. foreign policy and resent the president for intruding upon them.
It is increasingly evident that Trump’s true offense is proposing to renovate a
foreign policy framework that has been more or less untouched for 75 years (and
is in dire need of renovation).
Ten days ago [ Real Clear Investigations suggested ] hat the “whistleblower” whose
“complaint” last August set the impeachment probe in motion was in all
likelihood a CIA agent named Eric Ciaramella. And who is Eric Ciaramella? It
turns out he is a young but seasoned Democratic Party apparatchik conducting
his spookery on American soil.
Ciaramella has
previously worked with Joe Biden during the latter’s days as veep; with Susan
Rice, Obama’s recklessly hawkish national security adviser; with John Brennan,
a key architect of the Russiagate edifice; as well as with Alexandra Chalupa, a
Ukrainian-born Democratic National Committee official charged during the 2016
campaign season with digging up dirt on none other than candidate Donald Trump.
For good measure, Paul Sperry’s perspicacious
reporting in Real Clear
Investigations reveals
that Ciaramella conferred with the staff of Rep. Adam Schiff, the House
Democrat leading the impeachment process, a month prior to filing his
“complaint” to the CIA’s inspector general.
This information comes after Schiff stated on
the record that the staff of the House Intelligence Committee, which he heads,
had no contact with the whistleblower. Schiff has since acknowledged the
Ciaramella connection.
Phantom in Plain Sight
No wonder no one in Washington will name this
phantom in plain sight. The impeachment probe starts to take on a certain reek.
It starts to look as if contempt for Trump takes precedence over democratic
process — a dangerous priority. Sperry quotes Fred Fleitz, a former National
Security Council official, thus: “Everyone knows who he is. CNN knows. The Washington Post knows. The
New York Times knows.
Congress knows. The White house knows…. They’re hiding him because of his
political bias.”
Here we come to another question. If everyone
knows the whistleblower’s identity, why have the corporate media declined to
name him? There can be but one answer to this question: If Ciaramella’s identity
were publicized and his professional record exposed, the Ukrainegate narrative
would instantly collapse into a second-rate vaudeville act — farce by any other
name, although “hoax” might do, even if Trump has made the term his own.
There is another half to this burlesque. While
Schiff and his House colleagues chicken-scratch for something, anything that
may justify a formal impeachment, a clear, documented record emerges of Joe
Biden’s official interventions in Ukraine in behalf of Burisma Holdings, the
gas company that named Hunter Biden to its board in March 2014 — a month, it is
worth noting, after the U.S.–cultivated coup in Kiev.
There is no thought of scrutinizing Biden’s
activities by way of an official inquiry. In its way, this, too, reflects upon
the pantomime of the impeachment probe. Are there sufficient grounds to open an
investigation? Emphatically there are. Two reports published last week make
this plain by any reasonable measure.
+
Ukrainian
Indictment Claims $7.4 Billion Obama-Linked Laundering,
Puts Biden Group
Take At $16.5 Million
[ http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52585.htm ]
by Tyler Durden
“Biden was receiving payment for his
services, with money raised through criminal means and money laundering.”
===========
i.
Vladimir Putin: “US Do
llar Will Collapse
Soon”
[ http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52560.htm ]
by Tyler
Durden
+
“Capitalism will
eat democracy -- unless we speak up”
[ https://youtu.be/GB4s5b9NL3I]
with Yania Varoufakis
+
Visualizing $69
Trillion of World Debt in One Infographic
[ https://www.visualcapitalist.com/69-trillion-of-world-debt-in-one-infographic/ ]
+
From: RichardWolff [ mailto:rdwolff@att.net
]
Sent: Thursday, November 14, 2019 4:32 PM
Subject: Part Two: Foreword to Benjamin Mays Autobiography
Thought this might amuse you.
-rw
Capitalism Is a Blessing
|
[ https://www.intelligencesquaredus.org/debates/capitalism-blessing
[ rdwolff.com | democracyatwork.info ]
On Thursday, November 14, 2019, 10:25:47 AM EST,
Justice Initiative <hmcgray@earthlink.net>
wrote:
|
===========
j.
From: Anne de Sybel
Sent: Monday, November 11, 2019 11:56 AM
Subject: "Mon parrain, Black Panther" notre nouvelle
création
|
|
|
|
+
From: DE MONTLIBERT
Christian (SAGE) [ mailto:demontli@unistra.fr ]
Sent: Wednesday, November 13, 2019
Subject: publication:
Je suis heureux de vous annoncer la sortie de mon dernier livre
<Résistances au néolibéralisme> aux éditions du Croquant. J'ai essayé ,
là, de replacer les différentes études de manifestations (grèves ,
défilés, occupations de locaux...) que j'avais menées durant ma "carrière
de sociologue" dans leur contexte historique de défaisance de l'Etat
social et d'avancée du neéolibéralisme (des années 70 aux années 2010): désindustrialisation qui casse "la classe ouvrière",
financiarisation qui, en faisant la part belle au capital
économique, engendre un chômage de masse, managérialisation qui vise l'intériorisation par chacun
chacune des manières de voir, de faire et de sentir propres à
l'individualisme concurrentiel.
Amicalement Christian de Montlibert
===========
k.
From: Richard Greeman [mailto:rgreeman@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2019 7:48 PM
Subject: Yellow Vests Year I.
French Yellow Vests Celebrate First Birthday, Converge With Planned
Labor Strikes
[ https://www.laprogressive.com/yellow-vests-birthday/ ]
by Richard Greeman
Montpellier, France, Nov. 18, 2019
+
From: Richard Greeman [mailto:rgreeman@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, November 15, 2019 2:57 PM
Subject: Bulletins de Moscou: Répression
Here is the lede on my eyewitness report on the Yellow Vests’ First Anniversary Party, which is planned for this WE and will include both partying in the middle of traffice circles and carrying out blocades at strategic points all over France. I will send the report at the beginning of next week after participating (to the extent that my octogenerian caracass may permit) in the festivities.
To do so, I need a favor from you. Could you send me ASAP a paper or card or somesuch that I can use as ID if I get arrested. Since my resident status here is at this moment being processed with the usual bureaucratic lenteur, I use my US passport as ID and would like some sort of press creds to explain my presence on the scene and perhaps make them hesitate to arrest me.
The government is definitely cracking down and wants the YV to disappear. In MPL last SATURDAY the copies drove 500 peaceful demonstrators (average age 57) into a trap, surrounded them and gassed them and roughed them up and took and photographed their papers and confiscated their stuff. Fortunately, thanks to showing up late at the main square (La Comédie), nothing happened to me. But since I could smell gas I moved away. But a few minutes later, the cops attacked everyone in the square including tourists and shoppers! Mayhem as you can see in attached video.
Also check out the Birthday video.
Let me hear from you as soon as possible. Having fun,
Blue terror Nov 9 I was there video etc
[
https://www.facebook.com/sousmarinsjaunes/videos/565102817627651/?v=565102817627651 ]
This weekend the
Yellow Vests of France are celebrating their first anniversary, a full year of
resistance, as France enters a social crisis provoked by Macron’s accelerated
neo-liberal attacks on public services, wages, social equality, the
environment, and now retirement benefits – the last straw in the shreading of
France’s historical French social contract.
On Nov. 1-3 the self-organized movement held its fourth nation-wide Assembly of Assemblies here in Montpellier. This AofA’s brought together 500 Yellow Vests delegated by over 200 local groups from all over, and it ended with near-unanimous appeals for international solidarity with popular risings from Algeria to Chile and for convergence with the nationwide, unlimited labor strikes that are scheduled to begin on Dec. 5. It is hoped that this combined movement will develop into a general strike to shut down the country, force Macron to rescind his counter-reforms, and open the way for greater participatory democracy, social equality and environmental justice – the Yellow Vest agenda. [Personal disclosure: I was one of three delegates from Montpellier’s Convergence34 group.]
Contrary to the impression given by the media here, the Yellow Vests of France have not “gone away.” Au contraire this weekend we will be celebrating our first anniversary: fifty two weeks of spontaneous, self-organized demonstrations, blockages and protests. A full year of keeping Macron’s neo-liberal government off balance by publicly protesting its rampant privatizations and cuts in social services, a year of holding open the door of public protest against the government’s supposedly “inevitable” counter-reforms, following the Spring 2018 defeat of the French unions’ feeble attempts to slow the Macron steam-roller through months of piddling partial strikes and one-day national mobilizations that only demoralized the working class.
Despite unprecedented government repression and negative (or no) coverage in the media, this leaderless social movement, which began “out of no-where” on Nov. 17, 2018, has stubbornly persisted for a year. Initially supported by over three quarters of the population, the Yellow Vests have endured month after month of slanted media coverage, which focussed on symbolic Black Block vandalism against symbols of capitalism (“mob violence”), ignored massive police brutality directed at peaceful, middle-aged demonstrators, and caricatured us as anti-Semites and fascists. Naturally our popularity has declined and our numbers have diminished. Would you put on a yellow vest and demonstrate every Saturday with the near-certainty of being tear-gassed, if not maimed by a flash-ball or arrested and sentenced to a humungous fine and prison-term?
Liberté pour Azat Miftakhov!
Le syndicat
“Solidarité universitaire”(adhéré à la Confédération du Travail de Russie, KTR)
soutient la campagne pour la mise en liberté du jeune doctorant Azat Miftakhov
persécuté par les raisons politiques.
Azat
Miftakhov est mathématicien de 26 ans et militant anarchiste. Après les études
brillantes à l’école et à l’université, il a commencé à préparer son doctorat à
la faculté de mathématique et de mécanique de l’Université Lomonossov de
Moscou. Il devrait soutenir sa thèse de doctorat cette automne, mais son
activité a été interrompu par l’arrestation et la mise en prison.
Azat a
été arrêté par “les forces de l’ordre” le 1 février 2019. Pendant deux jours il
a été retenu de force dans la banlieue est de Moscou et torturé (les traces de
torture sur son corps ont été officiellement enregistrées). L’enquête lui avait
imputé d’abord la fabrication d’une bombe, mais Azat a tout nié malgré les
tortures. La police a dû le libérer, mais tout de suite l’a arrêté de nouveau,
cette fois pour suspicion de briser la fenêtre du local du parti dirigeant “La
Russie Unie”, un an auparavant. Il a été inculpé d’abord du vandalisme, mais
puis l’enquête a requalifié l’inculpation en hooliganisme – sciemment, pour
maintenir Azat en prison. Il nie sa culpabilité bien que la police fait
pression sur sa sœur de 16 ans et ses parents.
Nous vous invitons de diffuser largement
l’information sur cette affaire, d’écrire les letters de protestation aux
autorites russes, l’organiser les piquets de grève, de faire ls campagne de solidarité
avec Azat. En Russie les droits de l’homme sont violés et c’est un cas frappant
de cette violation, ensemble nous sommes en mesure de nous faire entendre et de
les défendre.
+
Emmanuel Macron
furious after new wave of yellow vest protests descended into chaos
by Romina McGuinness
===========
l.
Bolivia coup led by
Christian fascist paramilitary leader and millionaire – with foreign support
[ https://thegrayzone.com/2019/11/11/bolivia-coup-fascist-foreign-support-fernando-camacho/ ]
by Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton
Bolivian coup leader Luis Fernando Camacho is
a far-right multi-millionaire who arose from fascist movements in the Santa
Cruz region, where the US has encouraged separatism. He has courted support
from Colombia, Brazil, and the Venezuelan opposition.
From: Medea Benjamin, CODEPINK [ mailto:info@codepink.org
]
Sent: Tuesday, November 19, 2019
Subject: I’m in Bolivia. Why isn’t the U.N?
|
Dear francis, For the past week, I have been in Bolivia. I came at the request of
local activists who are
panicked about the situation in their country, afraid that things are
spiraling out of control. They are engaging in peaceful protests to reverse
the coup that happened November 10th, but the protests have been met with
tear gas and even live ammunition. Unfortunately, mainstream media and even some progressive outlets are
refusing to recognize that what happened a week ago was a coup and are not covering the coup regime’s racism and
violence. Already, 24 protesters have been killed and nearly 600 have been
wounded; hundreds more have been rounded up on jails, where the conditions
are abysmal. People are appalled at t how racist and hateful the coup regime
is. To
draw more attention to this conflict we have launched a petition urgently asking
the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, to
come here. Will you add your name? On the same day that I arrived in Bolivia, Bachelet spoke out. "I
am really concerned that the situation in Bolivia could spin out of
control," she said, while also voicing concern about the widespread
arrests taking place. "This situation is not going to be resolved by
force and repression," she said. "All sectors have the right to
make their voice heard — this is the basis for democracy." But if Bachelet really wants to be
helpful, if she really wants to see the situation resolved and the people
protected, why isn’t she here on the ground with me? Tell
Bachelet to join me immediately. She should
witness the situation with her own eyes. I am on the streets alongside thousands of Bolivians — despite the coup
regime’s violence — demanding the resignations of the coup regime and
insisting on a return to democracy. However, the coup regime appears
determined to hang onto power for as long as it can.
Coup leader and self-appointed interim president of Bolivia, Jeanine
Añez, appointed a whole new cabinet and already begun changing Bolivia’s
foreign policy, despite having no such mandate. The coup regime’s interim
Interior Minister issued a decree exempting the country’s police and military
from criminal charges that would otherwise arise as a result of their
treatment of the protesters. It is terribly scary, but I am proud to be among
the crowds of indigenous people marching for their country.
A month ago, Bolivia was a stable country with a growing economy and
decreasing poverty and inequality. Now, chaos and violence have gripped the
country, as racism and religious discrimination are rearing their ugly heads.
The indigenous Wiphala flag has been ripped off government buildings and
uniforms, while the coup regime brags about the supremacy of Christianity and
the Bible over the Pachamama (the Andean goddess representing mother earth)
and calls sacred indigenous traditions “satanic.” The people of Bolivia need the international community
to come here to witness--and stop--the repression and slide to a police
state. Please join me in telling U.N. Human Rights Chief Michelle
Bachelet to join me here on the ground in Bolivia.
[
In solidarity with the Bolivian people, ] P.S. CODEPINK has drafted a press release, written an article, held a webinar, made a video and started a petition describing why the
events in Bolivia should be called a coup. Please check these materials out
and listen to me live on CODEPINK radio on Thursday,
November 21 at 11 am EST and for a CODEPINK Facebook Live webinar on Wednesday,
November 20 at 12 pm EST. I have also been livestreaming
everyday. |
“On the Bolivia
Coup Against Evo Morales: US is Unhappy With Democracy in Latin America!”
[ https://youtu.be/COhKjGqi8sQ ]
with Greg Palast
‘Stop the
massacre!’ Evo Morales appeals to Bolivian military as 5 killed in crackdown by
‘interim’ government
[ https://www.rt.com/news/473594-morales-massacre-coup-protesters/
]
Bolivia’s
ousted leader Evo Morales pleaded with his country’s military to stop firing on
unarmed demonstrators protesting the coup-imposed interim leadership, after
several activists were killed in clashes with security forces.
“We ask the armed forces and the Bolivian Police
to stop the massacre,” Morales said in a tweet late on Friday. “The uniform of
the institutions of the Homeland cannot be stained with the blood of our
people.”
+
Bolivia’s New Self-Declared “Interim President” Believes Indians Are
“Satanic”, Shouldn’t Be Allowed in Cities
by Marko
Marjanović
+
It’s About
Overturning Democracy In Bolivia–It’s A Coup d’Etation Salad
with Greg Palast
+
As Bullets Rain Down on Protesters, Bolivia’s
Armed Forces
Are Granted Full Immunity
===========
m.
Sujet : - Lendemain douloureux - APPEL à la solidarité -
Quatrième film
- par Yanis YOULOUNTAS
Date : Mon, 18 Nov 2019
Lendemain du 17 novembre 2019 à Athènes : un goût de sang dans la bouche
par Yannis Youlountas
Voir :
[ http://blogyy.net/2019/11/18/lendemain-du-17-novembre-2019-a-athenes-un-gout-de-sang-dans-la-bouche/
]
------------------------------------------------
"Nous n’avons pas peur des ruines"
APPEL POUR EXARCHEIA ET POUR SOUTENIR LE QUATRIÈME FILM (AUTOMNE 2019)
Voir tous les détails du Nouveau point sur l'appel :
[ http://lamouretlarevolution.net/spip.php?rubrique15
]
L’appel continue. Merci de votre aide, quelle que soit la façon.
Merci à toutes et tous, quel que soit le montant. Et merci également à
celles et ceux qui n’ont pas pu nous aider mais qui ont partagé l’info.
Le plus urgent est d’arriver à assurer un solide fond d’urgence pour
Exarcheia et de parvenir à financer, au moins la moitié, le film "Nous
n’avons pas peurdes ruines" (car nous ne sommes pas en mesure
d’emprunter des sommes importantes).
Rappelons que toutes les marges de "Nous n’avons pas peur des ruines"
seront ensuite reversées à des lieux et collectifs solidaires autogérés
en Grèce, comme pour les films précédents.
--------------------------------
POUR SOUTENIR EXARCHEIA ET LA PRÉPARATION DU 4ÈME FILM :
Si vous voulez soutenir nos actions à Exarcheia et/ou la préparation du
4ème film, "Nous n’avons pas peur des ruines", trois possibilités
s’offrent à vous :
1) PAR VIREMENT
IBAN de ANEPOS : FR46 2004 1010 1610 8545 7L03 730
BIC : PSSTFRPPTOU
Merci de mentionner en objet du virement : Appel Exarcheia et/ou 4e film
2) PAR PAYPAL
3) PAR CHÈQUE
Ordre : ANEPOS (uniquement). N’ajoutez rien sur l’ordre, mais mentionnez
au dos du chèque ou en pièce jointe :
"Appel Exarcheia et/ou 4e film"
À envoyer à :
ANEPOS
Action Solidarité Grèce
BP 10 - 81540 SORÈZE - FRANCE
Vous pouvez aussi ajouter des messages de soutien qui seront transmis au
collectif de votre choix ou à l’assemblée principale des collectifs du
quartier.
===========
n.
Iran's protests:
All you need to know in 600 words
[ https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/11/iran-protests-600-words-191118060831036.html ]
+
Ghosts
of Mossadegh: The Iran Cables, U.S. Empire, and the Arc of History
Prime Minister
Mohammed Mosaddegh rides on the shoulders of cheering crowds in Tehran's Majlis
Square, outside the parliament building, after reiterating his oil
nationalization views to his supporters on Sept. 27, 1951. Photo illustration:
Elise Swain/The Intercept; photo: AP
+
The bloodbath in Baghdad
[ http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52583.htm ]
by Bill Van Auken
+
Israeli attack on Damascus kills 2 civilians as Syrian air defenses
destroyed most missiles
[ http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52581.htm ]
by SANA
Iran: Over 100
Feared Dead in Protest Crackdown as Authorities
Impose Internet
Blackout
[ https://www.democracynow.org/2019/11/20/iran_fuel_price_protests_internet_shutdown ]
with Negar Mortazavi,
Iranian-American journalist and diplomatic correspondent for The Independent
(U.K.) based in Washington, D.C.
+
US dirty hands behind violent protests in Iran?
[ http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52588.htm ]
by Stephen Lendman
All sovereign independent
countries not subservient to US interests are on its target list for regime
change — by preemptive wars, color revolutions, old-fashioned coups, targeted
assassinations, economic terrorism, and/or other hostile actions.
Color
revolutions are a US specialty. So-called spontaneous uprisings are
well-planned in advance by the CIA, the undemocratic National Endowment for
Democracy, and other US agencies.
A
color revolution was first used to oust Serbia’s Slobodan Milosevic in 2000.
Opposition elements were recruited and trained by the US for what played out.
Toppling
Milosevic was the prototype for similar actions to follow in numerous countries
— succeeding in Georgia, twice in Ukraine, and against other targeted
governments, failing elsewhere, notably in Iran.
Iranian
authorities accused the US, UK, and Western media of fomenting unrest. Since
the country’s 1979 revolution, ending a generation of US-installed fascist
tyranny, the Islamic Republic has been a prime US target for regime change.
January
2018 protests in Tehran and elsewhere in Iran followed a similar pattern.
Carefully planned and staged, there was nothing spontaneous about them.
Armed
insurgents were responsible for about 20 deaths, numerous injuries and
disruptive violence, President Hassan Rouhani saying at the time:
“The enemies
of the Islamic Republic of Iran are angry with the glory, success,
and the progress of the Iranian nation, and they have vowed to get the regional
troubles into Iran, but, sure, the people and officials of the Islamic Republic
of Iran will respond to them.”
Russia’s
Foreign Ministry slammed what went on, saying: “External interference
destabilizing the situation (in Iran) is unacceptable.”
Events
were similar to late 2013, early 2014 Euromaidan violent protests in Kiev. The
Obama regime’s coup involved snipers, killing, and injuring hundreds of
civilians and police, firing on them with automatic weapons from Kiev’s
Philharmonic Hall.
US-installed
fascist tyranny in Europe’s heartland replaced Ukraine’s democracy, the
country used as a dagger aimed at Russia’s heartland. |
CIA
color revolutions involve paramilitaries and/or other anti-government elements,
including insurgents from other countries.
Tactics
include orchestrated mass protests, shootings, Molotov cocktail bombings,
arson, and other vandalism against state facilities, barricades of burning
tires and/or rubbish, blocking roads, and other hostile actions.
===========
o.
The Hugely
Important OPCW Scandal Keeps Unfolding.
Here’s Why No One’s Talking About It.
[ http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/52570.htm ]
&
by
Caitlin Johnstone
The Organisation for
the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons is now hemorrhaging evidence that the US
and its allies deceived the world once again about yet another military
intervention, which should be a front-page story all over the world. Yet if you
looked at American news media headlines you’d think the only thing that matters
right now is indulging the childish fantasy that Donald Trump might somehow
magically be removed from office via supermajority consensus in a
majority-Republican Senate.
CounterPunch has published [ an
actual bombshell of a report ] by journalist Jonathan Steele containing
many revelations about the OPCW scandal which were previously unknown to the
public. Steele is an [ award-winning reporter ]
who worked as a senior foreign correspondent for The Guardian back before that outlet was [ purged
of all critical thinkers on western imperialism ]; he [ first
waded into the OPCW controversy last month ] with a statement
made on the BBC revealing the existence of a second whistleblower on the
organisation’s investigation into an alleged chemical weapons attack in Douma,
Syria.
If you haven’t
been following this story you can [ click here
for a timeline of events ] to fully
appreciate the significance of these new revelations about the Douma incident,
but just to quickly recap, in April of last year reports surfaced that dozens
of civilians had been killed in that city by chemical weapons used by the
Syrian government under President Bashar al-Assad. This immediately drew skepticism
from people who’ve been paying attention to the narrative manipulation campaign
against Syria, since Assad had already won the battle for Douma and had no
strategic reason to employ banned weapons there knowing that there would be a
military strike in retaliation from western powers. True to form, a few days
later the US, France and the UK launched airstrikes on the Syrian government.
===========
p.
From: S. K.
[mailto:srebrenica.historical.project@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday,
November 19, 2019
Subject:
Srebrenica Historical Project: Real-time official silence about Srebrenica
"genocide"
Postbus 90471,
Den Haag, The Netherlands
+381 64 403 3612 (Serbia)
E-mail: srebrenica.historical.project@gmail.com
Contemporaneous US Government consultations were
strangely silent on Srebrenica genocide
[ http://srebrenica-project.org ]
===========
q.
Activist Scott
Warren, Facing Federal Charges for Aiding Migrants, Says He Won’t Be Deterred
[ https://www.democracynow.org/2019/8/19/no_more_deaths_scott_warren
]
+
Arizona activist
who gave migrants humanitarian aid
acquitted in second trial
[ https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/20/arizona-activist-migrants-trial-scott-warren
]
+
CAPITOL POLICE ATTEMPTED TO ARREST CODE PINK
ACTIVIST MEDEA BENJAMIN FOR ALLEGEDLY
‘ASSAULTING’ CONGRESSWOMAN DEBBIE WASSERMAN
SCHULTZ
===========
r.
From: newsfromunderground@googlegroups.com On Behalf Of Mark Crispin
Miller
Sent: Wednesday, November 13, 2019
Subject: [MCM] News from Underground now marked as a
"deceptive site"
The crackdown
continues.
MCM
Posted on Facebook by Maggie Zhou:
The censors are using all the strong arming
tactics to prevent truthful news from spreading. When you try to visit the
excellent website by professor Mark Crispin Miller ("News From
Underground") with cutting edge news and brief commentaries, you have to jump
through the hoop first by ignoring the warning message "Deceptive site
ahead"! ... You can sign up for his email newsletter to be up-to-date.
===========
s.
Fights &
arrests as 1000+ antifa-like protesters swarm Ann Coulter event at UC Berkeley
(VIDEOS)
===========
t.
From: newsfromunderground@googlegroups.com On
Behalf Of Mark Crispin Miller
Sent: Friday, November 22, 2019
Subject: [MCM] Why we "forget" what happened
on this day in 1963—and do so at our peril
... because it's
still happening.
MCM
Unspeakable Memories: The
Day John Kennedy Died
[https://www.globalresearch.ca/day-john-kennedy-died/5695615
]
By Edward Curtin
Global Research, November 22, 2019
Region: USA
Theme: History, Intelligence, Media Disinformation
There is a vast literature on the assassination
of President John F. Kennedy, who died on a November 22nd Friday like this
in 1963. I have contributed my small share to such writing in an effort
to tell the truth, honor him, and emphasize its profound importance in
understanding the history of the last fifty-six years, but more importantly,
what is happening in the U.S.A. today. In other words, to understand it in its
most gut-wrenching reality: that the American national security state will
obliterate any president that dares to buck its imperial war-making machine. It
is a lesson not lost on all presidents since Kennedy.
Unless
one is a government disinformation agent or is unaware of the enormous
documentary evidence, one knows that it was the CIA that carried out JFK’s
murder. Confirmation of this fact keeps arriving in easily accessible forms for
anyone interested in the truth. A case in point is James DiEugenio’s
recent posting at his website, KennedysandKing, of James Wilcott’s
affidavit and interrogation by the House Select Committee on Assassinations,
declassified by the Assassinations Record Review Board in 1998. In that
document, Wilcott, who worked in the finance department for the CIA and was not
questioned by the Warren Commission, discusses how he unwittingly paid Lee
Harvey Oswald, the government’s alleged assassin, through a cryptonym and how
it was widely known and celebrated at his CIA station in Tokyo that the CIA
killed Kennedy and Oswald worked for the Agency, although he did not shoot
JFK. I highly recommend reading the document.
I
do not here want to go into any further analysis or debate about the
case. I think the evidence is overwhelming that the President was
murdered by the national security state. Why he was murdered, and the
implications for today, are what concern me. And how and why we remember and
forget public events whose consequences become unbearable to contemplate, and
the fatal repercussions of that refusal. In what I consider the best book
ever written on the subject, JFK
and the Unspeakable:Why He Died and Why It Matters (2009), James W.
Douglass explains this in detail, including the James Wilcott story.
Realizing what
I am about to say might be presumptuous and of no interest to anyone but
myself, I will nevertheless try to describe my emotional reactions to learning
of John Kennedy’s murder so long ago and how that reverberated down through my
life. I hope my experiences might help explain why so many people
today can’t face the consequences of the tragic history that began that day and
have continued to the present, among which are not just the other
assassinations of the 1960s but the lies about the attacks of September 11,
2001 and the subsequent endless and murderous “war on terror” with its
mind-numbing propaganda and the recent anti-Russia phobia and the blatant
celebration of the so-called “deep-state’s” open efforts to overthrow another
president, albeit a very different one.