Bulletin N° 1155

"US-NATO Conflict with Russia over Ukraine"

https://www.wsws.org/en/topics/militarismCategory/ukraine-russia-war

by World Socialist Web Site

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“Yugoslavia: The Avoidable War”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TL9RO3Qe1A&si=5Ugmn5IEqDydrBiz

by George Bogdanich

(2:45:31)

Yugoslavia offers evidence that gullible reporters and canny government officials exaggerated the violence in Bosnia to create a dramatic, easy-to-understand scenario of Serbs as aggressors and Muslims as victims, when in fact both sides (and the Croats, as well) were equally vicious in their commission of atrocities. Some Muslim leaders may even have orchestrated the slaughter of their own people in order to garner sympathy and thereby force a U.S. military intervention. The reasons behind the inevitable U.S. exertions, according to Bogdanich, range from appeasement of America's few Muslim allies to a sort of pathological (or at least politically motivated) need to play hero. Bogdanich presents subjective assertions under the guise of objectivity, missing his opportunities to command attention with overt wit or irony—such as making a direct connection between the alleged purposeful prolonging of the war by Muslims, and the way that other European countries had exploited the area's ethnic divisions in order to maintain a strategic buffer.

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“The U.S. War on Yugoslavia (1999)”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ6QpjPTaG8

by Michael Parenti

(1:17:26)

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"Peace on Planet Earth: Cancel Your NATO Membership. It's Easy? 'Say Goodbye' to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)"

https://www.globalresearch.ca/peace-on-planet-earth-cancel-your-nato-membership-its-easy-say-goodbye-to-the-atlantic-treaty-organization-nato/5874098

by Prof Michel Chossudovsky

Read Article 13 of the Washington Treaty which describes the procedure.

“Article 13

“After the Treaty has been in force for twenty years, any Party may cease to be a Party one year after its notice of denunciation has been given to the Government of the United States of America, which will inform the Governments of the other Parties of the deposit of each notice of denunciation.

A NATO Member State may cease to be “A Party of NATO ” one year after its notice of denunciation has been given the the Government of the U.S.A” (emphasis added)

A  NATO member state may decide to “WITHDRAW from NATO.”

We are at a dangerous crossroads in our history which is characterized by a system of alliances of nation-states (namely NATO) which unequivocally supports and finances the United States military agenda. The latter also includes an option to conduct nuclear war. A 1.3 trillion dollar nuclear weapons program, slated to increase to 2 trillion by 2030.

While Article 13 of the Washington Treaty appears to be simplistic, one can expect numerous pressures and fraudulent actions with a view to preventing a NATO member state from canceling its NATO membership.

What is crucial is to fracture and weaken NATO: an intergovernmental alliance of 32 member states.

There is also the issue of cross-cutting alliances and coalitions, namely countries which are members of NATO, while also having alliances or agreements with so-called enemies of NATO.  Turkey is a NATO member state which has economic and strategic alliances with both Russia and Iran.

The withdrawal from NATO of one or more member states could have a significant impact. It creates a precedent, which would encourage more NATO member states, “to say goodbye.”

How to Reverse the Tide of War: “Say Goodbye to Nato”

Subject : Happy New Year in the face of “THE BIG LIE” !

Grenoble

January 1, 2025

Dear Colleagues and Friends of CEIMSA,

For the past several weeks, leading up to Christmas, I’ve been reading books on the European Middle Ages --including Brian Tierney’s collection of documents, The Middle Ages, Sources of Medieval History (1983), Marc Bloch’s social history, Feudal Society (1961), R. W. Southern’s study of personalities and influences in Western Europe, The Making of the Middle Ages (1964), from the late tenth century to the early twelve hundreds, and Morris Bishop’s sweeping panoramic, The Middle Ages (1968), describing cultural changes in Europe during the thousand years from the fall of Rome to the Renaissance.

Long-term history has always been an interest of mine, although I recognize that we all live in “the short-term,” and that we cannot understand our lives if we ignore contemporary history and what the French call, l’histoire immédiate, which frames contextual understanding in the complexity of simultaneous events. Nevertheless, the proverbial failure to see the forest for the trees compels us to look at a wider, and much wider, context with which we can determine the true meaning of what we seek to understand (and this new comprehension, of course, offers the utilitarian advantage of choosing courses of action which might enable us to live better lives by modifying the social context in which we presently live. The slope is slippery, however, and fraught with dangers. Our present state of one-crisis-after-another, we might agree, has been brought upon us by venal opportunists who are all too ready to engage “collateral damage” in pursuit of their immediate rewards, at high costs to others. (This thinking has achieved the status of social science theory in our present period of late capitalism (e.g. “Zero-Sum Society, by Lester C Thurow).

“The Middle Ages” --a term imposed from the “exterior” and which was never used by the people living at the time (in the middle of what?)-- is an attempt to classify a period of western European history between approximately 500 A.D. and 1500 A.D. “The Dark Ages” is another convention generally used by historians to designate that period of medieval history beginning with the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 A.D., extending to the effort to re-centralize European government with the crowning of Charlemagne by Pope Leo III in Rome, as Imperator Romanorum on Christmas Day in 800 A.D., and ending with the debacle of this imperial effort by the 11th century, after internecine warfare had broken out between the three heirs of the Emperor and their respective kingdoms were weakened across western Europe.

“High Middle Ages” is the term used by historians to designate the period which followed for the next two-and-a-half centuries after “The Dark Ages,” recognizable from about 1050 A.D. to 1300 A.D. Of this period, Morris Bishop writes in Chapter 2 of his book, that “The state of Christendom after a thousand years of Christianity may well have tested the believer’s faith.” It was the period of the Crusades, which was inspired by the militancy of Pope Gregory VII and later animated by an anti-pacifist Roman Catholic Chruch; it included the rarely mentioned conquests of non-Christian property owners in Europe druinig the same period of military mobilization --convenient targets, more lucrative and less distant than those residing in the Holy Lands. 

Christ’s homeland was held by the infidel. Holy Rome, the caput mundi, was a city of ruins, physical and moral. Only two hundred fifty miles from Rome lay the Moslem island of Sicily. Italy itself was not a nation; it was a collection of little principalities, each in perpetual conflict with is neighbors. France was in effect, a coalition of mighty, landowning nobles, who elected the least of their number as king. Except for th northern mountain strongholds of Navarre and Leon, Spain was still dominated by Moslems. England maintained a precarious peace in an unstable compound of Anglo-Saxons and Danes. In Germany duchies, which were practically independent, no sooner elected a king than they rebelled against him. The Scandinavian kingdoms were pirates’ nests, sending warriors abroad to assail and plunder peaceable weaklings.

Still, one could point to certain gains, to certain justifications for hope. The Western world, for all its troubles, was in a little better shape than it had been a century earlier. Many of the menaces froml without and within had been checked. The period of disintegration had passed; there was a tendency for political units to coagulate, gaining strength in the process. One can readily perceive on a map of Europe in the year 1000 the outlines of the major modern states. All the fury and bloodshed of another thousand years have not changed them very much.

The year 1000 may be taken as a turning point. Around the time of the millennium a new era began with a population explosion that resulted in social and labor disturbances in both town and countryside and the reclamation of wild land throughout western Europe. In Spain the Christians began extending their conquests southward; the Germans continued absorbing Slavic territories in the east; and the knights of Normandy and northern France conquered England, southern Italy, and Sicily, and then –with (the first crusade in 109-- the Holy Land as well. Towns and cities grew to keep pace with rising commerce, attracting the surplus peasant population and creating markets for farm produce. New agricultural techniques increased the yield per acre, encouraging families to expand and consume the yield. Business, industry, art, letters, and scholarship prospered. Western Europe took the initiative away from the lands of rthe east and south. The great High Middle Ages had begun.

The eleventh and twelfth centuries were a period of advance and innovation. Men built cities, castles, and cathedrals, created wealth, wrote poems, fought in crusades. By the thirteenth centuriey they had become free to make life in Europe safer and more comfortable. The previous centuries had been creative; the thirteenth century was to be logical and legalistic. Scholars in the new universities proposed philosophical ideas and systems, as men of the Western world had not done since the Hellenistic age. Thomas Aquinas and his contemporaries ordered the affairs of God and of man. A spirit of optimism and self-satisfaction was widespread. People came to believe that their little cosmos had at last gained stable equilibrium.

The optimistic spirit of the thirteenth century was encouraged by rising material prosperity. Even the peasants could afford chimneys and tallo candles and metal kitchenware. The bourgeois lived in high houses, with fine wall hangings and bed furnishings, with solid chests fitted with hinges and locks, and with windows of glass instead of oiled linen. (In this period cash accounts of student banquets at the University of Bologna often included an item for broken windows –pro vitris fractis.)

The female sex gained status. Previously women had been merely unpaid domestic laborers or symbols of sin. Now they attained dignity and commanded respect. The concept of chivalry and the code of courtly love elevated women, or at least upper-class women. They had leisure to learn to read and to enjoy the long poetic romances that were written for them. Women’s conversation was prized, their friendship sought, en tout bien tout honneur. Social life, as we know the term, really began in the thirteenth century. The well-to-do burger’s wife aped the aristocrats’ manners and aided her husband’s reputation by ostentatiously displaying her wealth. The petty bourgeoisie was a real helpmate, assisting in thre shop, raising her children, supervising thr household and the apprentices, who, according to their contracts, were entitled to her material care. The peasant woman changed little, however; she continued to labor daylong in the fields, unaware of any social evolution.

One mark of the transformation was the appearance everywhere of new towns and cities: Newtons, Newports, and Newburys in England, Villeneuves in France, Neustadts in Germany. These towns purchased corporate rights and liberties from the feudal lords on whose lands they were located. Their enterprising burghers laid them out with regard for commerce and the amenities of life, and walled them against armed greed.

The new prosperity of these towns was based on commence; commence was based on industry, and industry on obscure developments in technology. Improvements in agricultural techniques created surpluses that fed the cities’ growing populations. New tools and devices contributed to the development of small-scale manufacturing. The humble spinning wheel appeared in the thirteenth century –the first example of belt transmission of power. The same period saw the advent of the mechanical weight-driven clock, which altered people’s conception of time by dividing day and night into twenty-four equal hours, making possible standardized measurements of time and modern science itself. (Previously there had been twelve hours from sunrise to sunset, and every day the length of the hours and minutes varied.) Navigation was transformed by the introduction of the compass and the fixed rudder. We are ill informed about medieval technology, but we have only to regard the dizzy engineering of a cathedral or the wide arches of a seven-hundred-year-old bridge to recognize the sills of their builders.

To be sure, the commercial prosperity did not alter the lot of the lowest classes of society. The peasant had his constant enemies –warfare, taxation, epidemics, famine. During the reign of Philip Augustus of France (1180-1223), eleven famine years are recorded. People in the country ate roots, bark, and carrion, and died. The poor of the cities were no better off. They suffered from the added menaces of city diseases, fires (Rouen burned six times in twenty-five years), and the dismal and prolonged periods orf unemployment.

The first two centuries of the new millennium saw the gradual rise of a few lands to nationhood. Of these the foremost was France, which gained an intellectual and cultural dominance that it has preserved almost continuously ever since. French achievements in philosophy and science, in literature, in art and architecture, and in the refinements of social life set the tone of feudal society throughout western and central Europe. By the end of the twelfth century the French language was spoken in every court and was the official tongue of the principalities that the crusaders had established in the eastern Mediterranean. The courtly life of French nobles was imitated everywhere. French literature, art, and architecture were taken as models. Paris was the great school of philosophy, attracting students from every part of the medieval world and sending them back to their own countries filled with new ideas. (pp.41-45)

The political evolution of medieval Europe, after the turn of the 13^th century, was far from uniform for emerging national identities. Bishop writes towards the end of his second chapter:

Throughout the High Middle Ages the history of France stood in strong contrast with that of England. England’s road to national unification was relatively smooth; France’s was agonizingly difficult. In the eleventh century the king of France, the theoretical but almost powerless feudal overlord of many mighty dukes, could rule effectively only in his own personal domain, which hardly covered the area from Paris to Orléans. The French kings struggled for centuries to acquire power over more territory, using all sorts of means: marriage, confiscation, war. Their program demanded constant aggressiveness. Even on his own domain the king had to exercise his rights in every village annually or lose them. For custom made law, and ‘twice made a custom.’

The great dukes of France were practically independent; their deference to the king was merely social. The duchy of Aquitaine was five times the size of the royal domain. It had its own capital and court at Poitiers, its own Provençal language and culture. Old traditions, submerged in the north, persisted there. Indeed, Roman culture never quite died out in the south. Until quite recent times the people of Provence ate Roman food, played Roman games, built columned churches, carved sarcophagi and ruled themselves by Roman law.

The French kings steadily pacified and unified their realm, extended royal power, reduced the independent nobles, promoted economic well-being. The greatest among them and the greatest agent of France’s rise was Philip II, commonly called Augustus, who succeeded to the throne in 1180. (p.66)

During “The Age of Faith” in 13^th-century medieval Europe, when, according to Bishop, the dominant ideology was la raison du plus fort, “[t]he church’s teachings were masterfully codified …by Thomas Aquinas, the Dominican monk, scholar, and saint.” In chapter 5, he explains:

In an age of faith, tales of miracles abounded, and they were solemnly recounted from the pulpit and by the fireside. Eagerness to see wonders brought the wonders to life –bleeding statues, miraculous cures, resurrections, reversals of nature’s laws. Men were not the only beneficiaries of the saints’ intercession. A parrot, even, carried off by a bird of prey, spoke the familiar words of his mistress: ‘Sancte Thoma adjuva me (Saint Thomas, help me),’ and Saint Thomas immediately released the parrot.

The power’s of heaven were rivaled and often thwarted by the powers of hell. Life was an unceasing battle with the devil and his minions, who were always nearby, ready to pounce. After all, their home was directly underfoot, only a second’s flight away. They too had their rights and obligations. Said Saint Francis: ‘The demons are our Lord’s bailiffs, whom he hath set apart to exercise men.’ Satan could even befool mankind by assuming the form of Christ or of the Virgin. It was thought that insanity was caused by possession by an unholy spirit, the victim might be whipped, tortured, or burned to force out his impious inhabitant. One of the lower ranks of the clergy was that of the exorcist.

Men and women were not only the victims of the devil, often they were supposed to be his active agents. Having made a pact with the Evil One, they flew by night to horrid assembles, or covens, where they coupled with demons without much satisfaction, for the diabolical members are icy cold. In return they were enabled to cast spells on their neighbors, rendering them impotent or causing them or their cattle to waste away and die. Since most of our information about witchcraft comes from confessions that were made under torture, we cannot e sure how reliable it is. No doubt sole remnants of old country paganism persisted as an underground cult, and some angry, embittered men and old, hysteric women did believe themselves to be warlocks and witches. At any rate, the church and even wise Saint Thomas Aquinas accepted without question the existence of witchcraft. Joan of Arc was convicted of necromancy and burned as a witch in 1431.

Jews were also classed among the enemies of good Christians. Stories of the ritual murders of Christian children, committed by the Jews in following their hellish rites, received wide circulation. Perhaps these originated in the Jews’ slave-trading activities in the early Middle Ages –a time when Jewish dealers may have bought children from poor parents and shipped them off to Moslem lands. (Unwanted children were often sent into the forest to die, as the story of Hansel and Gretel recalls; parents could easily explain their disappearance by blaming it on the Jews.) In Norwich Cathedral in England one can see a very apologetic plaque commemorating the boy William of Norwich, who in the twelfth century was said to hve been stolen by Jews and crucified. In compensation he was made a saint.

Notable among church institutions was the cult of relics. The basis of the cult is reasonable and natural: when the soul of a holy man ascends, his body remains with us as perpetual token of his stay on earth. His clothing, his intimate possessions, are reminders of him, impregnated with his spirit. Do we not treasure objects the beloved has touched and loved? Every historical museum is a reliquary; crowds stand humbled before George Washington’s false teeth, Abraham Lincolns ‘stovepipe hat. The adoration of relics was legitimate, psychologically as well as canonically.

Relics were, and still are, required for the consecration of a new Roman Catholic church. Men signed treaties and took oaths upon relics. The knight carried them in his sword hilt, the merchant in bag at his neck. Inevitably the relics acquired magical properties. Touching one was the best cure for disease.

The possession of relics was very profitable to a church which could then become a shrine, a center of pilgrimage. The competition for superior relics was fierce. Baldwin II, emperor of Constantinople, sold for a large sum to Saint Louis one of the greatest treasures of Christendom –the crown of thorns—for which Saint Louis built the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris as a reliquary. The pious who were unable to acquire a relic as great might hope to have others associated with Christ: his swaddling clothes, one of his teeth, drops of his bloody sweat, a piece of bread chewed by him, the sponge offered him on the cross, a basket used at the miracle of loaves and fishes.

Inevitably, pious frauds and thefts abounded. …. (pp.145-148)

We look at the brief historical description above in an honest attempt to begin to understand from whence we come ….

The 19+ items below reflect conversations now occurring in the Anglophone social media, as we enter a new year fraught with new dangers and opportunities. Without an awareness of class struggle, we are indeed left unarmed and without a compass to indicate the direction in which we are being driven. We encourage CEIMSA readers to look beyond the words of corporate capitalist representatives and to examine the deeds of our ruling-class institutions --the history, the motives, and the effects they are inflicting on us today.

Sincerely,

Francis McCollum 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
http://www.ceimsa.org

a.

« La trahison de l’Ukraine signerait l’arrêt de mort du projet européen »

https://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2024/12/26/la-trahison-de-l-ukraine-signerait-l-arret-de-mort-du-projet-europeen_6468555_3232.html

Dans une tribune au « Monde », un collectif de personnalités et de citoyens parmi lesquels Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Ariane Mnouchkine, le général Vincent Desportes et Adam Michnik, appelle à la mise en place d’une coalition entre États européens accordés sur quelques mesures vitales pour un pays qui défend sa liberté et protège les nôtres.

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“Foreign Intervention and the Ukraine Crisis (2014)”

https://www.bitchute.com/video/ZmVMvqDIgT79/

with James Corbett

(18:51)

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“CIA coup in Ukraine: Neo-Nazis Took Over The Government [2014]”

https://www.bitchute.com/video/PyGIB0uZzhNU

by Patriot Vibes

(7:28)

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The Corbett Report: Ukraine Archives

https://corbettreport.com/?s=ukraine

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“The 2014 coup in Ukraine”

https://www.wsws.org/en/topics/event/2014-coup-ukraine

by World Socialist Web Site

To understand the current US-NATO war against Russia over Ukraine, it is critical to review the background and implications of the 2014 far-right coup in Kiev, which overthrew the pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych. The coup was openly supported by US and European imperialism and implemented primarily by far-right shock troops, such as the Right Sector and the neo-Nazi Svoboda Party.

The coup was the temporary culmination of long-standing efforts by US imperialism to install a puppet regime on the borders of Russia and brought the world a major step closer to a war between the largest nuclear powers, the US and Russia. The regime change prompted the outbreak of an ongoing civil war in the east of Ukraine, between Russian-backed separatists and the US-backed Ukrainian army, that has claimed the lives of tens of thousands and displaced millions.

In the US, the coup was a catalyzer for an ever more aggressive campaign against Russia and a significant shift to the right among layers of the upper middle class. US imperialism and NATO have funded the Ukrainian state and far-right forces with billions of dollars.

The German ruling class seized upon the coup as a pretext for aggressively stepping up its campaign to remilitarize and justify the crimes of fascist forces. For the first time since the end of World War II, representatives of a German government were seen on photos with avowed Ukrainian neo-Nazis.

Internationally, pseudo-left forces such as the International Socialist Organization (ISO) in the US, the New Anti-capitalist Party of France (NPA), and the Russian Socialist Movement (RSM) supported the coup, falsely proclaiming it a “revolution.” The ICFI and WSWS alone advanced a principled, socialist opposition to this imperialist operation, warning the working class of its dangerous consequences. This topic page brings together key statements by the WSWS and ICFI on the coup, its implications, and the history of the fascist forces that were now brought to the fore as key props of imperialism.

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“The US Empire's Struggle for Survival: A Desperate Crossroad”

https://www.youtube.com/live/Q8rzdW0qOTI

by Dialogue Works, with Nima Alkhorshid and Richard Wolff

(1:04:04)

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b.

“How is Israel antisemitic and why does it attack Jews?”

https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/how-israel-antisemitic-why-attack-jews

by Joseph Massad

The pro-Israel witch hunt on western university campuses has one main goal: to erase any distinction between Judaism, the Jewish people, Zionism and the Israeli government.

The story of the antisemitic basis of Zionism has been told time and again, and it is one that I have written about multiple times in this publication.

This includes the ideological affinity of the foundational Zionist ideas with antisemitism, whereby both believe that European Jews are not European but a separate Oriental people.

They both also hold that Jews should not live among European Christians, that they are indeed a separate race and a separate nation, or as the antisemitic Protestant fundamentalist and Zionist British foreign minister Arthur Balfour described them, "a people apart".  

The alliances that the Zionist movement brokered since its inception with antisemitic European politicians and regimes to advance its claims are an inseparable part of the history of the movement.

This legacy of the Zionist movement, however, did not end with the establishment of Israel in 1948.

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“‘You Feel Like You Are Subhuman.’ Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza. Amnesty International”

https://www.globalresearch.ca/israel-genocide-against-palestinians-gaza/5875115

by Amnesty International, Executive Summary

“Here in Deir al-Balah, it’s like an apocalypse. There is no room for you to pitch a tent; you have to set it up near the coast… You have to protect your children from insects, from the heat, and there is no clean water, no toilets, all while the bombing never stops. You feel like you are subhuman here.” —Mohammed, a 42-year-old father of three, speaking in June 2024 about his experience of displacement from Rafah to Deir al-Balah governorate.

On 7 October 2023, Israel embarked on a military offensive on the occupied Gaza Strip (Gaza) of unprecedented magnitude, scale and duration. Since then, it has carried out relentless aerial and ground attacks, many of them with large explosive weapons, which have caused massive damage and flattened entire neighbourhoods and cities across Gaza, along with their life-supporting infrastructure, agricultural land, and cultural and religious sites and symbols deeply engrained in Palestinians’ collective memory. Israel’s military offensive has killed and seriously injured tens of thousands of Palestinians, including thousands of children, many of them in direct or indiscriminate attacks, often wiping out entire multigenerational families. Israel has forcibly displaced 90% of Gaza’s 2.2 million inhabitants, many of them multiple times, into ever-shrinking, ever-changing pockets of land that lacked basic infrastructure, forcing people to live in conditions that exposed them to a slow and calculated death. It has deliberately obstructed or denied the import and delivery of life-saving goods and humanitarian aid. It has restricted power supplies that, together with damage and destruction, led to the collapse of the water, sanitation and healthcare systems. It has subjected hundreds, if not thousands, of Palestinians from Gaza to incommunicado detention and acts of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment that had apparently resulted in at least 53 deaths by August 2024. The unlawful acts inflicted on Palestinians simultaneously, for months without respite, have had a profound, cumulative impact on the mental and physical health of Gaza’s entire population: those who survived were left weakened, hungry or traumatized, with likely permanent effects on their mental and physical health.

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“Finding the Unmentionable: Amnesty International, Israel and Genocide”

https://www.globalresearch.ca/amnesty-international-israel-genocide/5875031

by Dr. Binoy Kampmark

It was bound to happen. With continuing operations in Gaza, and increasingly violent activities being conducted against Palestinians in the occupied territories, human rights organisations are making increasingly severe assessments of Israel’s warring cause.  While the world awaits the findings of the International Court of Justice on whether Israel’s campaign, as argued by South Africa, amounts to genocide, Amnesty International has already reached its conclusions.

In a 296-page report sporting the ominous title “You Feel Like You Are Subhuman”, the human rights body, after considering the events in Gaza between October 2023 and July 2024, identified a “pattern of conduct” that indicated genocidal intent.  These included, among other things, persistent direct attacks on civilians and objects “and deliberately indiscriminate strikes over the nine-month period, wiping out entire families repeatedly launched at times when these strikes would result in high numbers of casualties”; the nature of the weapons used; the speed and scale of destruction to civilian objects and infrastructure (homes, shelters, health facilities, water and sanitation infrastructure, agricultural land”; the use of bulldozing and controlled demolitions; and the use of “incomprehensible, misleading and arbitrary ‘evacuation’ orders’”.

The report does much to focus on statements made from the highest officials to the common soldiery to reveal the mental state necessary to reveal genocide.  102 statements made by members of the Knesset, government officials and high-ranking commanders “dehumanized Palestinians, or called for, or justified genocidal acts or other crimes under international law against them.”  The report also examined 62 videos, audio recordings and photographs posted online featuring gleeful Israeli soldiers rejoicing in the “destruction of Gaza or the denial of essential services to people in Gaza, or celebrated the destruction of Palestinian homes, mosques, schools and universities, including through controlled demolitions, in some cases without apparent military necessity.”

From its alternative universe, the Israeli public relations machine drew from its own agitprop specialists, working on mangling the language of the report.  The formula is familiar: attack the authors first, not their premises. 

“The deplorable and fanatical organisation Amnesty International has once again produced a fabricated response that is entirely based on lies,” came the howl from Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oren Marmorstein.

Other methods of repudiation involve detaching Hamas and its war with Israel from any historical continuum, not least the fact that it was aided, supported and backed by Israel for years as a counter to Fatah in the West Bank.  Isolating Hamas as a terrorist aberration also serves to treat it as alien, artificially foreign and not part of any resistance movement against suffocating Israeli occupation and strangulation.  They, so goes this argument, are genocidal, and countering such a body can never be, by any stretch, genocidal.  The pro-Israeli group NGO Monitor abides by this line of reasoning, calling allegations of genocide against Israel “a reversal of the actual and clearly established intent of Hamas and its allies (including its patron, Iran), to wipe Israel off the map”.

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“Three Declarations of Genocide and the U.S. Responses”

https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/12/24/three-declarations-of-genocide-and-the-u-s-responses/

by L. Michael Hager

Three recent reports by respected international humanitarian organizations

have generated global approbation; and negative reactions

by both the Israeli and U.S. governments.

– Amnesty International

Amnesty International (AI) issued its 296-page report (‘You Feel Like You Are Subhuman: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza”) on December 4th. Israel immediately called it “a fabricated report that is entirely false and based on lies.” The US. State Department echoed the Israeli government in disagreeing with  the report.  Spokesperson Vedant Patel declared: “We have said previously and continue to find that the allegations of genocide are unfounded.” He gave no reasons for that opinion.

Reviewing the nine-month period from October 7, 2023,  AI concluded that Israel committed prohibited acts under Articles II (a), (b), and (c) of the Genocide Convention of 1948, specifically the killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, and deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction in whole or in part.

After describing the Genocide Convention’s definition of genocide, AI examined both the specified prohibited actions and the requirement of intent. The Report concluded that both benchmarks were met. In his December 7 Counterpunch article (“The Worst of International Crimes,”) Jeffrey St. Clair quoted  portions of the report that detailed the destruction of life and infrastructure, successive evacuations of residents and the denial of food and humanitarian assistance. The ICC arrest warrants of Prime Minister Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Gallant expressed international condemnation of the same war crimes cited in the AI Report.

Human Rights Watch

Not to be outdone, Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued its 179-page report (“Extermination and Acts of Genocide: Israel Deliberately Deprives Palestinians in Gaza of Water”) on December 19. It focused not on bombs and bullets, but rather on the deprivation of water for the inhabitants of Gaza.

The HRW report cited Israel’s: “Extensive damage and destruction of water and sanitation infrastructure, including the apparently deliberate, systematic razing of the solar panels powering four of Gaza’s six wastewater treatment plants by Israeli ground forces, as well as Israel soldiers filming themselves demolishing a key water reservoir” Based on such findings, Human Rights Watch blamed Israel for causing the deaths of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza by systematically restricting and targeting Gaza’s water supply.  According to HRW, such actions amounted to “acts of genocide.”

Israel’s Foreign Ministry denounced the report, accusing Human Rights Watch of “once more spreading its blood libels in order to promote its anti-Israel propaganda,” It claimed that Israel has worked to facilitate the flow of water and humanitarian aid into Gaza throughout the war. throughout the war. The State Department spokesman  said that the U.S. “disagreed with” HRW’s accusation that Israel was carrying out “acts of genocide” by damaging water infrastructure.

Doctors Without Borders

A third report (33pages) published by Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on December 19 is entitled “Gaza: Life in a Death Trap.”  It centers on the systematic destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system and the repeated forced evacuations of residents. In the  words of the report, “MSF has witnessed 14 months of repeated attacks on civilians, the dismantling of essential civilian infrastructure including healthcare facilities and a systematic denial of humanitarian assistance, seemingly underpinning Israel’s campaign to unravel the very fabric of society.”

The report continued, “MSF has witnessed 14 months of repeated attacks on civilians, the dismantling of essential civilian infrastructure including healthcare facilities, and a systematic denial of humanitarian assistance, seemingly underpinning Israel’s campaign to unravel the very fabric of society in Gaza….The consequences of these impediments are made even more harmful due to the uniqueness of a war being waged on a besieged area from which nobody can escape.”

According to MSF Secretary General Christopher Lockyear, “What our medical teams have witnessed on the ground throughout this conflict is consistent with the descriptions provided by an increasing number of legal experts and organizations concluding that genocide is taking place in Gaza.”

In response, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman  accused MSF of “lying and misleading the public.” The U.S. response likewise denounced the report.  State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said with respect to MSF: “Even within their report, they make pretty clear that they don’t have the legal authority to determine intentionality.”

Why has the U.S. government repeatedly denied allegations of Israeli genocide in Gaza?  In the immediate aftermath of the October 7 Hamas attack, when he pledged to “stand with” its U.S. ally. Biden may have been driven by his decades-long admiration of Israel. The IDF’s scorched earth bomb and missile attacks on Gaza have continued unabated throughout the Gaza Strip; and Israel has severely limited the provision of water, food, medicines and other humanitarian aid.  Now the death toll (not counting those buried under the rubble) has risen to more than 45,000. Yet Biden has repeatedly refused to stop arming the IDF.  His massive transfers of U.S.-made lethal weapons have enabled Netanyahu, now an indicted war criminal facing ICC arrest warrants, to intensify his relentless bombardments on Gazan civilians.

+

“Genocide in Gaza: Western Moral Collapse in the Age of Hyper-Imperialism”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYaZbRnAj2g

by Palestine Deep Dive, with Vijay Prashad

(1:05:20)

“This is not just an Israeli genocide - this is an Israeli, European and US genocide!” Vijay Prashad exposes the moral decline of the global north in the age of hyper-Imperialism and its continued war against “defiance” found in the global south. In a recent report published by Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research titled Hyper-Imperialism: A Dangerous Decadent New Stage, Prashad argues the global north has heightened its reliance upon force to insist on obedience.  Read the report: https://thetricontinental.org/studies...

+

“Pope Francis: ‘I Think of Gaza, of so Much Cruelty; of the Children Machine-Gunned’”

https://scheerpost.com/2024/12/23/juan-cole-pope-francis-i-think-of-gaza-of-so-much-cruelty-of-the-children-machine-gunned/

by Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On the Sunday before Christmas, Pope Francis said, “May the weapons be silenced and Christmas carols resound!” according to Kristina Molare at the Catholic News Agency.

The Pope continued, in a clear condemnation of the Israeli government, “With sorrow I think of Gaza, of so much cruelty; of the children machine-gunned, the bombing of schools and hospitals… So much cruelty!”

He said, “Let us pray for a ceasefire on all war fronts, in Ukraine, the Holy Land, in all the Middle East and the entire world, at Christmas.”

On Saturday, he had been equally forthright on Israel’s atrocities in Gaza, saying, “Yesterday they did not allow the Patriarch (of Jerusalem) into Gaza as promised.”

“Yesterday children were bombed. This is cruelty, this is not war.”

The Pontiff underlined, “I want to say it because it touches my heart.”

(Latin Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa did ultimately manage to visit Gaza City on Sunday to conduct mass for the Christian Palestinian refugees from Israeli bombardment there, in coordination with Israeli authorities. But apparently until the Pope spoke out, the Israeli military had denied him permission.)

Francis’s increasingly outspoken condemnation of Israel has caused several controversies this fall. In a new book first published in Italian in November, the pope called for a painstaking investigation of whether Israel is guilty of genocide in Gaza (see below for an excerpt from my earlier analysis of these passages).

On December 7, artisans from the Bethlehem Christian community presented a nativity scene at the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall. The installation was headed by Johny Andonia, 39. At the last moment, he decided to wrap the baby Jesus in a keffiyeh

, the patterned scarf that is commonly worn by men in the Levant, Iraq and Arabia, but which has come to symbolize the Palestinians in particular. He said the scarf was a symbol to demonstrate the “existence” of Palestinians. After an outcry from Israel and its supporters ensued, the scarf was removed after three days.

Bethlehem in Palestine has a population of 29,000 about 3,000 of them Christians. Palestinian Christians have suffered from Israeli colonial brutality like all other Palestinians.

I wrote on November 21,

Pope Francis has a new book, Hope never disappoints. Pilgrims towards a better world. . . The Pope mentions Gaza on several occasions in the book. At one point he expresses concern about migration crises around the world, colored as they are by “violence and hardship,” in the Sahara, the Mexican-US border, and the Mediterranean, “which has become a large cemetery in the past decade.” He adds, “also in the Middle East,” because of the “humanitarian tragedy” in Gaza . . .

The Catholic leader laments that so many Ukrainians have been forced to flee, and praises countries that took them in, such as Poland. He then turns to the Middle East, where, he says, we have seen something similar . . .

Francis said he was thinking especially of those who leave Gaza in the midst of the famine that has hit the Strip. Experts estimate that about 100,000 Palestinians from Gaza managed to flee to Egypt before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu occupied the Rafah crossing with Israeli troops.

Then Pope Francis dropped his bombshell. According to some experts, he wrote, “what has been happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide.”

He insisted that a painstaking investigation be carried out to determine whether the situation fits the technical definition formulated by jurists and international organizations. He is likely referring to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and the Genocide Convention of 1948, on the basis of which the International Court of Justice is deliberating on whether what the Israelis are doing in Gaza is a genocide . . .

His last mention of Gaza comes in a passage where he recalls a photograph of a Palestinian grandmother in Gaza, her face not visible, holding in her arms the lifeless body of her five-year-old granddaughter, who had just been killed in an Israeli bombing, along with other family members. He notes that the image has been called “The Pieta of Gaza.”

+

“Did Israel explode a small nuclear bomb in Syria? Spike in radiation report says…”

https://www.india.com/news/did-israel-explode-a-small-nuclear-bomb-in-syria-spike-in-radiation-report-says-7490316/

by Abhijeet Sen

Reports have added that the European Union's Radioactive Environmental Monitoring found that the amount of radiation increased in Turkey and Cyprus hours after the intense blast, pointing towards a small nuclear attack.

+

“Israeli Attacks in Gaza Kill at Least 32 More Palestinians Over 24 Hours”

https://scheerpost.com/2024/12/23/israeli-attacks-in-gaza-kill-at-least-32-more-palestinians-over-24-hours/

by Dave DeCamp

Gaza’s Health Ministry said Sunday that Israeli attacks killed at least 32 Palestinians and wounded 54 over the previous 24-hour period as children were slaughtered across the Strip.

The ministry’s numbers only account for dead and wounded Palestinians who arrived at hospitals and don’t factor in those missing under the rubble or in besieged areas rescuers are unable to access.

“There are still a number of victims under the rubble and on the streets, and ambulance and civil defense crews cannot reach them,” the ministry said.

Israeli attacks on Sunday included the bombing of a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in Gaza City. According to Gaza’s Civil Defense, the strike killed at least eight Palestinians, including four children.

Israeli strikes also targeted Jabalia, northern Gaza, which has been under total siege since early October as part of an ethnic cleansing campaign. According to Al Jazeera, the strikes killed at least five Palestinians, including four children.

Another child was killed by an Israeli drone attack on a group of people in the Burej refugee camp in central Gaza.

Overnight Israeli strikes hit a home in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza. According to the Palestinian news agency WAFA, at least five were killed, and women and children were among the dead.

A day earlier, Al Jazeera reported that an Israeli strike that hit a home in Jabalia on Friday evening killed at least 12, including seven children. “All of the martyrs are from the same family, including seven children, the oldest aged six,” Gaza’s Civil Defense said in a telegram post about the strike.

Later on Sunday, Israeli strikes hit the al-Mawasi camp, which Israel has labeled a so-called “safe zone” but has come under repeated IDF attacks. At least seven were killed in the camp by strikes that targeted tents.

The Health Ministry said the latest violence brought its recorded death toll since October 2023 to 45,259 and the number of wounded to 107,627.

In October, a group of American healthcare workers who volunteered in Gaza estimated in an open letter to President Biden that the US-backed Israeli onslaught has killed at least 118,908 Palestinians, a total that includes indirect deaths caused by the Israeli siege. Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, who led the letter, told Antiwar.com in a recent interview that the estimate was the bare minimum they came up with by looking at the available data.

+

The Whitney Webb Archives

https://www.bitchute.com/search?query=Webb&kind=video&sensitivity_id=normal&duration=all&sort=new

+

“Schools are No Place for the ADL”

https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/12/23/schools-are-no-place-for-the-adl/

by Marcy Winograd

Launched in 1913 to counter antisemitism and discrimination, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) now resembles a mythological shapeshifter that presents alternately as a civil rights organization and a pro-Israel propagandist.

In its “No Place for Hate” program that caters to both elementary and secondary schools, the ADL’s stated mission is to empower students, teachers and parents to “stand against bias and bullying …” with school-wide pledges, projects and games aimed at celebrating diversity and stamping out hate in the halls, in the cafeteria, in the reading circle, anywhere that hate may manifest.

In Norse mythology, the jealous god Loki is a shapeshifter who appears alternately as a salmon or an old woman. Disguised as the old woman, Loki–the god of darkness– carves an arrow out of mistletoe to trick the blind god Hodr into hurling an arrow at his exalted twin brother, Baldr–the god of light.

The ADL is not a salmon or a singular old woman, but a cunning policy advocate that despite allegations of spying on social justice movements and targeting Arab-led organizations has popularized its “No Place for Hate” lessons in 2,000 schools, reaching 190,000 educators and 1.8 million students–according to the ADL website.

In the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) of over 500,000 students, No Place for Hate schools either currently or previously included Roosevelt High School, Amelia Earhart Middle School, Benjamin Franklin Elementary School, Mark Twain Elementary School and others. The LAUSD Office of Student Civil Rights links to the ADL under “Tools for Educators,” which in turn links to an article attacking American Muslims for Palestine for “being at the core of the anti-Israel and anti-Zionist movement in the United States.” In 2022, LAUSD board member Scott Schmerelson, now board president and often a champion of public education, authored a resolution instructing the superintendent to invite the ADL to update and revise curriculum.

While selling schools on activities to bolster respect and community, the ADL–analogous to the shapeshifter in mythology – engineers the death of debate over Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish nationalist state in historic Palestine.

In a No Place for Hate lesson on scapegoating, the ADL writes, “Debates about the legitimacy of Israel’s existence or demonization of Israelis create an unsafe climate for Jewish students and interrupt opportunities for critical thinking for all students.” Notice how the ADL wrongly mixes debate over a nation state’s political ideology with demonization of individuals in that state–all in the same sentence to discourage critical analysis and evaluation .

Schools that subscribe to this sort of speech suppression, ruling out debate over an ethnostate colonizing, annihilating and terrorizing Palestinians, are like the blind brother who hurls a lethal dart –only this time the weapon of propaganda pierces the institution of education to silence inquiring minds wrestling with the devastation live-streamed on their cell phones.

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“Syria Left Alone by an Abandoning World. Russia’s Redline. The End Game Is ‘Greater Israel’?”

https://www.globalresearch.ca/%E2%80%A8syria-left-alone-abandoning-world/5874837

by Peter Koenig

Important article first published on December 19, 2024

The overthrow of Bashar al-Assad was long in the making and has nothing to do with a civil war. There has never been a fight of the Syrian people against Assad. But President al-Assad fought against foreign-infiltrated and paid mercenaries, terrorists, including US-created Al Qaeda and IS / ISIS.

The traditional allies like Russia, Iran, and Iraq, suddenly disappeared. Russia made a semblance of fighting alongside the already badly damaged Syrian Air Force – to no avail. Then the Russians left, or rather, became busy evacuating their air bases in Syria. In time, before they would fall into the eager hands of Israel and its allied terrorist bands.

The connection between the Zionist-Israeli war against Palestine, then Lebanon and now Syria, next possibly Iran and Saudi Arabia and the Ukraine war becomes ever clearer. Jordan is already in Israel’s back-pocket. Without a fight. It is all about the Big War for Greater Israel. “Greater Israel” is the hidden agenda in the Great Reset and especially the UN Agenda 2030.

Both of these “guiding documents” were created under control of the Zionist supremacists.

Greater Israel, driven by worldwide Zionism, is also behind the “normally” illegal agreement between the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the UN of 2019.

For years, NATO has been successful in provoking again and again Russia, with ever more aggressive advances surrounding Russia, but preparing Ukraine for a senseless and hopeless war against Russia. This war eventually happened, with President Putin falling for the bait in February 2022, invading the predominantly Russian Donbass area for salvaging them from the murderous Ukrainian Azov Nazi troops.

While adamantly opposing western weapon deliveries to Ukraine, hence supporting Russia, Mr. Erdogan was officially accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza. However, silently the Turkish PM supported the idea of a Greater Israel. Because, as part of a deal, Turkey was to incorporate northern Syria, which was long prepared as a 30-km wide “buffer zone,” under the pretext of preventing migration from Idlib to Turkey. 

The buffer zone served Turkey for years to transport stolen petrol from Syrian wells to Turkey and sell it to European customers. 

All the talk about a ceasefire, and the eventual truce agreement signed between Turkey and Russia in Moscow on March 5, 2020, was just a make-believe farce for Turkey, which, under Erdogan, has proven to be an unfaithful ally to just about any country to whom Turkey wanted to appear as trustworthy. Such betrayals include Russia as well as the US and NATO, of which Turkey is a prominent member.

The NATO-provoked Russia-Ukraine conflict was the beginning of a senseless war, fought with western weapons and with western advice, and eventually with western mercenaries, if not specialized western troops, that had no other purpose than keeping Russia busy with Ukraine, losing tens of thousands of soldiers to western weapons so that Greater Israel could now march on – literally undisturbed.

The over a million Ukrainians senselessly killed shall not even be mentioned. All for the establishment of Greater Israel. All life is sacred, but none is as sacred as that of the Chosen People.

Some very smart psychological research must have been carried out by CIA-DARPA (the Pentagon-linked semi-secret thinktank, “Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency”), Mossad and MI6 – on President Putin. They have carefully studied his hesitancy on self-imposed “red-lines”, his eagerness to belong to the “west”, and concluded, the west could do almost anything and Putin’s reactions would just be half-hearted. 

The last one of those half-hearted warnings was the Russian launching of the world’s most advanced supersonic multi-warhead, multi-directional, ultra-state-of-the-art Oreshnik long-range missile, towards a relatively harmless weapon-depot in Dnipro, Ukraine, on November 21, 2024. And that after Russia having been attacked by western made ATACMS (US), and Storm Shadows (UK-France) – which were Mr. Putin’s latest Red Line.

Putin’s unimpressive reaction gave the signal that the final war on Syria could start and be finished in a few days. The end game was fast. It started on November 27, 2024 by Syrian “opposition forces”, meaning US, Israel, UK, and possibly also Turkey funded and created terrorist forces like ISIS, Al-Qaeda, and other mercenaries. 

+

“‘Beginning of End’ For Zionism”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16EjsiOyb_s

with Israeli Historian Ilan Pappé

(57:04)

Read my exposé of the BBC's coverage of Israel and Palestine here: https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/bbc-ci...

+

“Israel is Digging its Own Grave”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2n-X6Qy8-s

with Nimo Alkhorshid, Jeffrey Sachs, and Col. Larry Wilkerson

(35:02

+

“B.D.S.”

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzQXKqmtQDWgvwfmgZngGqgPKkst?projector=1&messagePartId=0.1

Pas de Genocide sous le Sapin !

=======

c.

“Putin’s Stunning Ultimatum To Netanyahu & Israeli Military Over Syria Landgrab; ‘Get Out Now…’”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajuVYRrZ0HM

by Times Of India

(4:09)

Russian President Vladimir Putin lambasts Israel for taking leverage after the Assad govt fall in Syria. Putin said Israel is the main beneficiary after Syrian rebels toppled the Assad regime. President Putin also urged Netanyahu to leave the Syrian territory, but doubted that IDF will do so. Watch.

+

“THIS VIDEO HAS GONE VIRAL IN BRITAIN”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xykFy0C6nD4

by OpenmindedThinker Show, with George Galloway

(17:04)

+

“Syria: Western Hypocrisy, Israeli Expansion & The Fall of Assad”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd69J8GRMIQ

by Double Down News, with David Hearst is editor-in-chief of Middle East Eye

(9:39)

+

“Russia VS Nato, The CLASH Has Begun! US Empire's DELUSIONS Push The West Into CHAOS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00MpPy_yQ_c

with Richard D.Wolff

(1:00:43)

+

“A BRILLIANT MOVE: Putin Utterly Outplayed The West in SYRIA┃Israel Framed The US after Putin's Call”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dq8J2yXWCwA

by BORZZIKMAN

(10:55)

+

“Another Cauldron ‘The Russians Entered Zelenivka,’ ‘Unstoppable Koreans’”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYEt0ZYsr40

by Military Summary

(16:57, with transcript)

+

“Impeachment of President in Seoul, Political Insanity in Kiev: “Thrilled by the Prospect of Thermonuclear War”? Who is Pulling the Strings?”

https://www.globalresearch.ca/neo-nazi-junta-thrilled-prospect-thermonuclear-war/5875836

by Drago Bosnic

Independent media have been warning about the dangers of thermonuclear annihilation for decades. Recently, I’ve had  discussing the issue with Prof. Michel Chossudovsky, who has been fiercely antiwar his entire life and is involved in countless peace movements and organizations around the world. Unfortunately, what we’ve learned so far is that the dangers of a global confrontation are lost on many people, particularly (and most disturbingly) those in power. One of the latest such cases was seen in South Korea, where the deeply unpopular President Yoon Suk Yeol tried to (ab)use his powers to gain absolute political control by prompting the government to launch swarms of drones at nuclear-armed North Korea. This nearly resulted in a direct confrontation between the two countries.

Yoon ordered his now-former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun to launch a swarm of drones at Pyongyang in order to provoke an attack which would then be used as a pretext for a nationwide martial law. It’s virtually guaranteed that the United States was also involved, as the opposition is getting “too cozy” with China and has shown readiness for dialogue with North Korea. On December 14, Yoon was impeached by the Parliament in Seoul, suspending his presidential powers (of 300 MPs, 204 voted in favor, including 12 members of his own party). Now, even the Constitutional Court of Korea is discussing his permanent removal from office. The scandal shook not only millions of South Koreans, but also people around the world, as the government turned out to be their actual enemy while pointing fingers at the neighbor to the north.

On the other hand, while reason prevailed in Seoul, total insanity is still ruling in other US/NATO vassals and satellite states. Namely, we all know how dangerously delusional the Neo-Nazi junta is. However, even after a decade of near-constant escalation, we’ve never really gotten used to the suicidal depravity of those running it. For years, the Kiev regime has been talking about acquiring thermonuclear weapons, which is completely unacceptable to several global powers, including Russia that has been adamant about it for around three decades. Still, this keeps coming up, with the political West covertly supplying the materials needed to build such weapons. More recently, it culminated with American propositions that the Neo-Nazi junta be given not only thermonuclear warheads, but also the previously banned medium-range missiles.

Now, many might discard all this as just pure scaremongering. However, the latest statements coming from the Neo-Nazi junta suggest that this is far more serious. Namely, Yevhen Karas, the leader of the infamous S14, an extremist organization linked to the CIA-backed “Svoboda” and “Right Sector”, is absolutely thrilled by the prospect of a thermonuclear war. According to Karas, pushing Russia to the brink would be “good”, because nuclear war would “force everyone to support Ukraine and turn away from Russia”. In his opinion, voiced in an interview with “Radio Bayraktar” on December 16, the Kiev regime “wouldn’t lose in case of a nuclear strike”. It should be noted that Karas is the commander of the “Reid”, 413th Separate Battalion which mostly uses drones and that precisely these unmanned systems would be most affected.

“Nuclear war is good. After a nuclear strike, nothing worse will happen, and finally, we will no longer whine about it. That’s it – it happened, we keep on fighting,” he stated, adding: “We won’t lose in case of a nuclear war. Because of it, India and China will move away from Russia and it will force the whole West to support us. I’m for nuclear war. I think that after ‘Stalker 2’ we are prepared for it better than anyone on the planet.”

Karas also noted that, after a nuclear war, “we” (it’s not entirely clear who he’s referring to) can focus on AI and robots, obviously not realizing how thermonuclear weapons function. Namely, the EMP effect of a nuclear explosion fries electronics and also disrupts signals and communications. Not to mention the sheer magnitude of physical destruction caused by such a conflict. However, the illogic doesn’t end there in the case of Karas, as he thinks that the Kremlin won’t use thermonuclear weapons because that’s “good for Ukraine”. He obviously never heard top-ranking officials in Moscow (including President Vladimir Putin) warn against escalation, because Russia would be forced to respond either way. More importantly, the political West which initiated the conflict in Ukraine, wouldn’t be spared in any way.

For years, the Kremlin has been warning against attempts to cause a localized nuclear conflict between Moscow and the Neo-Nazi junta, but the latter thinks this is still possible and that it can even “win”. Such dangerous delusions could lead to hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of additional casualties in NATO-occupied Ukraine, or worse, billions in case of a global escalation. This is precisely what happens when the political West keeps giving unconditional support to various extremist organizations led by psychopaths. And if you think Karas isn’t one, just contemplate the fact that he thinks “Ukraine is ready for nuclear war” because of “Stalker 2”, a post-apocalyptic video game. For years, analysts and regular people alike have been warning such extremists think life is like “Call of Duty” and other video games.

Obviously, this was supposed to be hyperbole. However, it seems Neo-Nazis like Karas really think that video games can “help” a person prepare for a post-apocalyptic scenario. For any remotely sane person, it’s very difficult (if not impossible) to fathom the sheer magnitude of such dangerous delusions. However, the one good thing about statements such as the one Karas made is that the whole world can see what we’re dealing with when it comes to the Kiev regime.

=======

d.

“Road From Damascus”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oC1QDVRJRN8&list=PLY7pocjzGAMN_Fx1Va3tA0pENTn_0Wvlt&index=3

with George Galloway

(2:14:20)

+

“As Israel Further Occupies Syria, Western-Backed ISIS Patch-Wearing Terrorists Begin Executions”

https://www.bitchute.com/video/7ZzlD8XarT15

by

(4:26:58)

+

“Is Israel on the Brink of Collapse?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYWFdBEzk0s&si=f3HlwdTT2Y-DmvHj

with Chris Hedges and Alastair Crooke

(12:32)

=======

e.

“Israel Gives Biden His Marching Orders: Syrian land will be annexed into ‘Greater’ Israel”

https://www.globalresearch.ca/israel-gives-biden-marching-orders/5875015

by Philip Giraldi

My former CIA colleague Larry Johnson has a real ability to clarify the significance of the constantly growing deep dark hole that Joe “Mumbles” Biden, he of failing mental capacity, has hurled the American people into. Larry wrote on December 12^th that

“There is still plenty of time before Donald Trump is inaugurated for Joe Biden’s team of cretins to start World War III. I think the biggest risk is that Israel may be emboldened to attack Iran and try to destroy sites, and may be encouraged to do so by the Biden lackeys. In short, American interference, at the behest of Netanyahu’s Israel, has left the Middle East in ruins, with over a million dead and open wars raging in Libya, Sudan, Somalia, Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine, and with Iran on the brink of a nuclear arsenal, being pushed against its own inclinations to this eventuality. The collapse of the Assad regime has prompted a punishing military response from Israel, which has launched airstrikes at military targets across Syria and deployed ground troops both into and beyond a demilitarized buffer zone for the first time in 50 years.”

+

“Mr President, Will Netanyahu Mousetrap You Into War With Iran?”

https://scheerpost.com/2024/12/17/mr-president-will-netanyahu-mousetrap-you-into-war-with-iran/

by Ray McGovern, Robert Scheer

In this week’s episode of “Playing President,” Ray McGovern, 27-year CIA veteran and briefer of five presidents, continues to make sense of the world to “President” Scheer, who prepared for this role through his decades as a journalist, including in-depth interviews with five presidents from Nixon to Clinton. In the universe of “Playing President,” however, Scheer is not a journalist, but instead plays the President of the United States attempting to navigate the geopolitical landscape of governance and media with the help of his trusty daily briefer from the CIA, Ray McGovern.

=======

f.

“THE SCENE OF THE CRIME: A journey to Vietnam”

https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/the-scene-of-the-crime?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1377040&post_id=153620423&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjo4MTI5MzM4OCwicG9zdF9pZCI6MTUzNjIwNDIzLCJpYXQiOjE3MzUyMTg0NDgsImV4cCI6MTczNzgxMDQ0OCwiaXNzIjoicHViLTEzNzcwNDAiLCJzdWIiOiJwb3N0LXJlYWN0aW9uIn0.D6hKULAz8IiEybpPEueaHWPwy_pnSse5IKrxgGwxsOk&r=1ceedo&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=emailby by Seymour Hersh

This, sadly, is yet another holiday season marked by war and death throughout the Middle East, Ukraine, and especially in Gaza. And so I thought, in keeping with the glum spirit of our time, I would fill in the off week with an old, but relevant, piece, originally published in the New Yorker in 2015, about the horrid My Lai massacre that I initially disclosed as a lowly Washington freelance journalist in the fall of 1969. I had traveled to Vietnam a decade after the war ended but could not bear the thought of going to My Lai and seeing the ditch full of innocents who, as I reported, had been executed by members of an American infantry company. I would later learn—I wrote two books about the massacre—that there were some at the top of the Army’s chain of command who realized early on that those slain in the ditch were prisoners of war and, as such, under the Geneva Conventions, were entitled to protection, housing, food, and the right to send and receive mail. All had stayed quiet until I stumbled onto the story. I was ambivalent about going to see the ditch—how many tears can one shed?—but David Remnick, the editor of the New Yorker, thought it would be important to remind readers about what had happened on that day, March 16, 1968. Turned out that the past was very present at My Lai.

=======

g.

“On Cam: Deadly Blast In NATO Nation; Dozen Killed As Munition Plant Goes in Smoke”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PntQsizOnJs

by Times Of India

(3:05)

A massive explosion rocked the ZSR explosive production facility in Turkey’s Balıkesir province on Tuesday morning, killing 12 and injuring 3 in the Karesi district's Kavaklı neighborhood. Click to find out more : #TurkeyBlast #BalikesirExplosion #FactoryBlast #NATO #EmergencyResponse #ZSRExplosion #KaresiIncident #JusticeProbe #BreakingNews #DeadlyBlast

+

“NATO in RAGE: The Newest Su-57M With a Flat Nozzle Engine Entered The BATTLEFIELD and Downed F-16”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWSaTluDE7c

by Borzzikman

(9:15)

On December 26, 2024, while the whole world was discussing the crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines passenger jet in the Kazakh city of 'Aktau', Russian radars and tracking devices detected the launch of enemy air-to-air missiles over the southern part of Ukraine. Later it turned out that these missiles were launched by 12 warplanes of the Ukrainian Air Force. It is reliably known that several American F-16 fighter jets were also among these combat planes.

=======

h.

“What Happened in Syria is SHOCKING & No One’s Allowed To Talk About It”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMf6VJOvdBo

by Double Down News

(11:43)

+

“Ukraine's Drones Strike Russia - Houthis Hitting Tel Aviv”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifXF06hKZfY&si=4oNSfgmJrIG-ffZt

with Nima Alkhorshid, Scott Ritter, and Larry Johnson

(1:20:46, with transcript)

+

“Houthi Ballistic Missile 'Shakes' Israel: Tel Aviv Stares At $10 Million Worth Damage”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2qaibz06ew&si=gatapoIr5Koi0R0E

by Times Of India

(3:57)

A Houthi missile strike in central Israel caused significant destruction to an elementary school and surrounding buildings near Tel Aviv, incurring damages worth NIS 40 million ($10.8 million). Israel faces escalating financial losses from missile attacks, with damage estimates from recent strikes nearing $1.4 billion. Despite partial interceptions by the IDF, missile attacks from the Houthis and other adversaries continue to exact a heavy toll.

+

“Tit-For-Tat Houthi Strikes Take Syria Revenge | Iran Celebrates Relentle

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Shg8xBmOhLg

by Times Of India

(3:54)

A spokesman for the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), Brigadier General Ali Mohammad Naeini, emphasized the impact of Yemen's Ansarullah movement's missile attacks on Israel, which have shifted Israel's strategic calculations. Naeini stated that these "prompt" and powerful strikes by Ansarullah have demonstrated the movement's growing self-reliance and independence, showcasing its unmatched ability to retaliate against Israel's actions. This comes amidst Israel's aggression against Syria and ongoing missile strikes on the occupied territories.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS : #syria #syriacrisis #hama #hts #hayattahriralsham #syriancrisis #golani #hindustantimes

+

“After Tel Aviv Airport, Houthi Drone 'Directly Hits Israel-linked' Ship In Arabian Sea”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFouFzshIBshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Shg8xBmOhLg

by Hindustan Times

(4:37)

The Houthi rebels announced that their drone had 'directly hit' Denmark-flagged Santa Ursula ship in the Arabian Sea on December 27. The announcement came after claims that Houthi ballistic missiles had targeted Tel Aviv and disrupted air traffic at the Ben Gurion airport. However, Maersk denied the claims made by the Iran-backed rebels.

Watch : #houthirebels #drone #arabiansea #santaursula #israellinked #ship #vessel #denmark #maersk #ukmto #yahyasaree #abdulmalikalhouthi #houthis #middleeast #Israel #bengurionairport #telaviv #idf #ballisticmissile

=======

i.

“Lessons Learned and a Path Forward: COVID Select Subcommittee Final Report”

https://www.globalresearch.ca/covid-select-subcommittee-final-report-findings/5875093

by Dr. Alejandro Diaz

On December 4th, 2024, the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic released a 500-page report (Read Here.) concluding the 2-year investigation into the COVID Operation. This after-action review describes congressional findings on fraudulent practices during the pandemic, particularly by government actors and government grantees. The report cites specific names and the responsibilities thereof.

The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic was originally constituted as the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis by the 116th Congress to oversee the pandemic response by the first Trump Administration in April 2020. However, it wasn’t until the 118th Congress that the subcommittee’s activities resumed and was renamed what it is today.

Since February of 2023, the Subcommittee, as per its final report, has conducted more than 30 transcribed interviews and depositions, held 25 hearings and meetings, and reviewed more than one million pages of documents.

+

“Trumps "Bleach" Conference Alluded To The Antidote For Future Pandemics”

https://pierrekorymedicalmusings.com/p/trumps-bleach-conference-alluded?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=645524&post_id=153589720&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ceedo&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

by Pierre Kory, MD, MPA

Globally ridiculed for his comments, Trump was erroneously thought to be referring to chlorine dioxide, a treatment nationally deployed by Bolivia which led to the best outcomes in South America.

Let’s start by recapping what one news site called “Trump’s Craziest and Most Surreal’ Press conference. You know, the one where literally everyone across the world thought Trump was either out of his mind or a complete imbecile for thinking that “bleach” could be injected as a treatment for Covid. . . . .

+

“Bolivia's Use Of Chlorine Dioxide Led To The Best Outcomes In South America”

https://pierrekorymedicalmusings.com/p/bolivias-use-of-chlorine-dioxide?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=645524&post_id=152249629&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ceedo&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

by Pierre Kory, MD, MPA

Chlorine dioxide is a broad antimicrobial that is safe for ingestion. Bolivian MP's passed a law supporting widespread use to combat Covid. This action led to a massive reduction in deaths.

+

“The Facts About Vax + More on CHD.TV”

http://support.childrenshealthdefense.org/site/MessageViewer;jsessionid=00000000.app30120a?dlv_id=24488&em_id=25083.0&NONCE_TOKEN=BC6B2903879294D6E3A6B40D30E1A1B0

by CHD.TV, December 28^th, with Polly Tommey and Paul Thomas

+

“The New Neuroscience of Sleep and Dreams”

https://www.globalresearch.ca/new-neuroscience-sleep-dreams/5875023

by Dr. Joseph Mercola

Dr. Rahul Jandial’s 25 years as a neurosurgeon reveals that dreams are deeply connected to neurological functions, with brain imaging showing distinct patterns between waking and dreaming states

During sleep, your brain’s executive network (prefrontal cortex) becomes less active while your imagination network dominates, allowing for emotionally intense and illogical dream experiences

Your brain remains highly active during sleep, with electrical patterns similar to wakefulness. This “paradoxical sleep” serves to maintain brain health and adaptability

Lucid dreaming, where people become aware they’re dreaming, has been scientifically validated through brain scans and even enabled researcher-dreamer communication through eye movements

Dreams with lingering emotional effects are particularly worthy of reflection, as they provide unique insights into your subconscious mind and waking life experiences.

=======

j.

“With Nuland in NED, Get Ready for More Color Revolution Bonanza”

https://www.globalresearch.ca/nuland-ned-more-color-revolution-bonanza/5875855

by Drago Bosnic

On September 13, the Washington DC-based National Endowment for Democracy (NED) announced that the infamous Victoria Nuland is joining their Board of Directors,“effective immediately”. She had already been on the board in the 2018–2021 timeframe, but as her State Department career came first, it seems she wasn’t as active as is usually expected from top-ranking officials. However, as is typically the case with the vast majority of monstrous neocon war criminals, Nuland was the perfect candidate for the job. NED Chairman Kenneth Wollack didn’t hide how thrilled he was that they were getting some “backup”, praising Nuland’s “distinguished career across multiple administrations” and adding that “she brings the experience and expertise that will contribute measurably to NED’s mission and work”.

Obviously, the warmongering oligarchy in Washington DC adores someone like Victoria Nuland. Her “distinguished career” indeed spans decades, both under the Biden and Obama administrations. During her tenure, relations between Russia and the United States reached a point lower than ever before, including the peak of the (First) Cold War. Nuland’s most fateful “career moments” came when she was the Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs from 2013 until 2017, particularly in late 2013/early 2014. In effect, her aggressive style of “diplomacy” pushed Ukraine into a decade-long bloodbath, as she was one of the architects of the infamous Maidan coup. This disastrous color revolution launched Nuland’s career into orbit, to the absolute pleasure of every warmonger in Washington DC.
From 2021, she was the Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, as well as the Acting Deputy Secretary of State from 2023 before formally retiring in early 2024. That was exactly the time when the NATO-orchestrated Ukrainian conflict escalated, forcing Russia to respond with a strategic counteroffensive (SMO). Nuland was happy that she could help make things even worse, even effectively admitting that the US was engaged in all sorts of terrorist activities, including the attack on the Nord Stream pipelines and the Pentagon-run biolabs in NATO-occupied Ukraine and around the world. Obviously, for her, these were all “perfectly legitimate biological research facilities” that were “completely harmless” as long as they were not in “the wrong hands” (presumably any other except American).
Nuland’s snarky boastfulness about the terrorist attack on the pipelines, which, in her words, became “a hunk of metal at the bottom of the sea”, clearly indicates who’s behind it. Still, this never prevented the mainstream media machine and top-ranking Western officials from openly blaming Russia for it, which is only the tip of the iceberg of absurd lies the political West has been disseminating about the Eurasian giant. However, what’s far more disturbing is Nuland’s remark just before the monstrous Crocus City Hall terrorist attack that killed 145 civilians. Namely, on the second anniversary of the SMO, she threatened Russia, saying that the so-called “military aid” provided to the Neo-Nazi junta will ensure that “Putin faces some nasty surprises on the battlefield this year”. Days later, she left the State Department.
In other words, Nuland is the bringer of death, destruction and chaos, at best. Unfortunately, her renewed NED appointment went largely unnoticed, but the consequences of it are already visible. Interestingly, the NED effectively told us what she would be doing there. On the occasion of her reactivation as a member of the board, NED President and CEO Damon Wilson said that “as NED partners face increasing threats from autocrats around the world, Ambassador Nuland’s experiences will help the Endowment sharpen its approach to supporting democracy advocates”, adding that “her life-long commitment to democracy will be a valuable addition to the NED Board at this consequential moment for our mission”. Now, you’re probably wondering – what exactly is their “democratic mission”?

+

“7 Countries in 5 Years” – Regime Change in Iran Coming Soon?”

https://www.globalresearch.ca/regime-change-iran-coming-soon/5875124

by Gavin OReilly

In the early hours of last Sunday morning, a seismic geopolitical shift occurred when the 24-year Presidency of Syria by Bashar al-Assad came to an end in dramatic fashion.

Beginning just 11 days previously, an offensive led by the Western-backed Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group resulted in the capture of vast swathes of government-controlled territory, including, perhaps most notably, the key city of Aleppo. One of the first major cities to be captured by opposition groups amidst the outset of the conflict, Aleppo would be liberated in December 2016 in an offensive by the Syrian Arab Army, with Russian air strikes playing a key role in support. Thus, for the city to once again fall into the hands of insurgents was a foreboding sign.

As the militants subsequently began to close in on the capital Damascus, it soon became apparent that Assad’s fate was sealed. Leaving the country alongside his family on a chartered flight shortly afterwards, the former Syrian President would be granted asylum in Moscow, bringing to an end a 13-year coordinated attempt by various powers to topple his government.
In March 2011, following Assad’s refusal two years prior to allow US-ally Qatar to build a pipeline through his country, citing his relationship with Russia as a factor, a plan was put into action to remove the Syrian President from power. Amidst the wider Arab Spring protests taking place at the time, the CIA and MI6 began a covert operation to arm and train Salafist militants opposed to Assad’s secular rule. Joining Washington and London in this endeavour would be Saudi Arabia and Qatar, who would have been the starting points for the proposed pipeline, Turkey, who would have been its entry point to Europe, and Israel, owing to Syria’s membership of the Axis of Resistance and its key role as a conduit between Iran and Hezbollah.
Indeed, two years into the proxy war on Syria, both Iran and Hezbollah would launch a requested intervention in the hopes of preserving Assad’s government, as would Russia another two years later, again at the request of Damascus. Though both interventions undoubtedly played a key role in extending Assad’s far longer than had he acted in isolation amidst the beginnings of the conflict, it would ultimately be the militants, centred in a stronghold in the northwest city of Idlib, who would claim victory last Sunday, leading to a situation that historically does not bode well for either Syria or the wider region.
In 2003, following the US-Anglo invasion of Iraq and subsequent overthrow of Saddam Hussein, the country would be plunged into chaos, creating a power vacuum that, combined with the subsequent destabilisation of neighbouring Syria, would ultimately lead to the emergence of ISIS in 2013. In 2011, at the same time as the Syrian regime-change operation, a similar operation would occur in Libya, owing to Muammar Gaddafi’s proposed Gold Dinar currency. On top of the similar Western support for militant groups vying to remove Gadaffi’s rule, a No Fly Zone would also be imposed by NATO against Tripoli, causing the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, once the most prosperous nation in Africa, to collapse within eight months. Like Iraq, Libya would also be plunged into chaos, with the refugee crisis greatly exacerbated as a result. Syria, another Arab state now joining the list of having its ruler forcibly removed by Western interests, now looks set to suffer a similar fate of extreme instability and sectarian strife. The only noticeable difference being that Assad did not suffer a similar fate as his Iraqi and Libyan counterparts – Hussein being hanged in Baghdad in December 2006, and Gaddafi being lynched on a Libyan street in October 2011.
The removal of Assad from power now also signifies that a dramatic push from the West and Israel to enact regime-change in another long-time target may now be imminent – that target being Iran.

+

“Will Putin Fight or Surrender?”

https://www.globalresearch.ca/putin-fight-surrender-paul-c-roberts/5875249

by Paul C. Roberts

In his meeting the other day with the Russian Defense Ministry Board, Putin discussed the accomplishments of the past year and measures needed to ensure Russia’s security from Washington’s aspirations for world dominance.

“We see the US administration and the collective West relentlessly trying to preserve their dominance, pushing their rules on the global community and manipulating them as they see fit.”  Washington, Putin said, is engaged “in an effort to weaken our country and inflict a strategic defeat.”  

That is true, but why is Putin helping Washington succeed?  . . . .

+

“USA and Russia; Difficult path to a lasting peace”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w16FkVqfWj0

with Alex Christoforou and Alexander Mercouris

(44:26)

The video discusses potential Trump-Putin talks in Slovakia, Russia's negotiation positions on Ukraine, and the limited time window for a peace deal. It explores Trump's negotiation options and the challenges of reshaping European security architecture.

=======

k.

“Three factors causing German economic collapse”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzukY91Q-y4&si=J3-kWNRkgnOsj3Ui

with Alex Christoforou and Alexander Mercouris

(17:20)

The video discusses three factors causing Germany's economic collapse: the Euro system, cutting off Russian gas imports, and long-term economic stagnation. It also covers the upcoming German elections and potential outcomes.

+

“The Collapse has Begun: Start Preparing Yourself”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qotmCF7c14

by Richard Wolff

(16:03)

+

“The Collapse of the US Empire”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NmVbztjAp4

by WTFinance, with Anthony Fatseas and Richard Wolff

(40:48)

During our conversation we spoke about the economics of 2024, what to expect in 2024, the potential for another roaring twenties, the collapse of the US empire, actions to prevent such an event and more. I hope you enjoy!
0:00 - Introduction
1:30 - Economics of 2024
12:40 - Inwards looking US and Roaring twenties?
23:05 - Large migration and wage increase?
28:20 - Actions to change trajectory?
35:15 - One message to takeaway from conversation?

=======

l.

“Mainstream Propaganda Machine. Galvanizing US Public for War with Iran. Worldwide Military Escalation?”

https://www.globalresearch.ca/mainstream-propaganda-us-public-war-iran/5875191

by Drago Bosnic

As we all know, the warmongering oligarchy in Washington DC is obsessed with conflicts, death and destruction. It’s also deeply connected with the US Military Industrial Complex (MIC), with much (if not most) of the American political elite directly benefiting from global instability that pushes arms sales worldwide. This is precisely why the United States spent less than 20 years in peace (out of under 250 years of existence).
However, in the last several years, the most aggressive country in the history of the world seems to have hit the wall. Its strategic planners have turned out to be barbaric madmen on the loose, antagonizing multiple nuclear-armed adversaries simultaneously, nearly pushing the world into a catastrophe of unimaginable proportions. As a result, the upcoming administration, seemingly far less keen on pursuing such conflicts, promised a dramatic shift in US foreign policy.
However, don’t get your hopes up just yet. Namely, while Donald Trump certainly doesn’t want to see America blown up to kingdom come, he still has a massive political elite of warmongers, war criminals, plutocrats and kleptocrats to deal with. In order to make them happy, Trump will need to give them a “more manageable” war. And just like during his first presidency, Venezuela and Iran are “on the table”.

Image: Edmundo González in 2024 (From the Public Domain)

In the first case, Washington DC thinks it can arbitrarily “elect” Venezuelan presidents, as was the case with Juan Guaido back in 2019. And although he seems to have fallen out of favor since then, the US never has issues finding replacements. Namely, on November 19, State Secretary Antony Blinken declared that Edmundo Gonzalez retroactively “won” and that Venezuelans “spoke resoundingly on July 28” and made him “the president-elect”, insisting that “democracy demands respect for the will of the voters”.
Now, if you think that this is largely inconsequential, as Blinken is part of an outgoing administration, you’d be wrong, because many Republicans are just as hostile to sovereigntist governments, particularly in Latin America. For instance, Marco Rubio, the most likely candidate as Blinken’s successor, openly supports overthrowing Maduro.
Other prominent GOP members who are after Venezuela include Elliott Abrams, who was the US Special Envoy tasked with ensuring a coup in the country precisely during the nearly fateful 2019-2021 period.
It’s still unclear whether Trump would reappoint Abrams to any position, but if he does so, it would certainly indicate that he’s recommitting to America’s aggression on Venezuela.
However, even if he doesn’t do it, having Rubio as State Secretary is bad news enough, as he openly called on the Venezuelan military to overthrow Maduro.
This uncertainty leads us to the second option – Iran.The notion that Tehran might be attacked doesn’t come from pure speculation.
Pentagon “War Games” Ruebek (Russia), Churya (China), Irmingham (Iran) Nemazee (North Korea)
It has been in the works for decades,(See also Global Research Video, Lux Media below). 
 Video: Four Enemies of America

=======

m.

“A Dangerous World”

https://www.youtube.com/live/GJ1Opi9Ti1U

with Judge Napolitano and Scott Ritter

(30:03)

+

“Neocons Pushing Trump Into IRAN WAR. Devastating Consequences”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18nE5j9F3tU

by Neutrality Studies, with James Carden, and Col. Macgregor

US neocons have had Iran on their regime change and war planning list for 50 years. Now they are in the final preparation for the great push to make war all but inevitable for the incoming Trump administration. The warmongers are working in over-drive

+

“Did Russia Just Set a HUGE Trap in Syria?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVMfckVQ7Hg

with Alex Krainer

(48 :40)

+

“Did Russia and Iran Just Make a SECRET DEAL on Syria?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoUa26T9J-Q

by CapitalCosm, with Larry Johnson, Alex Krainer, Tom Luongo, and

(1:09:35)

✅Follow Larry Johnson: https://sonar21.com/

✅Follow Alex Krainer: https://isystem-tf.com/ https://alexkrainer.substack.com/

✅ Follow Tom Luongo: https://x.com/TFL1728 https://tomluongo.me/

+

“US Military Supported Syrian Rebel Offensive That Toppled Assad Government”

https://scheerpost.com/2024/12/24/us-military-supported-syrian-rebel-offensive-that-toppled-assad-government/

by Ben Norton

Syrian rebel commanders have boasted that the US military helped them overthrow the government of Bashar al-Assad.

They acknowledged this in a report published by major British newspaper The Telegraph, titled “US ‘prepared Syrian rebel group to help topple Bashar al-Assad’”.

The article revealed that a rebel group armed, trained, and funded by the United States, based in the south of Syria, collaborated with rebranded al-Qaeda in the north to jointly topple the Syrian government.

According to the report, the US military helped to create a Syrian militia called the Revolutionary Commando Army (RCA). The US and UK armed and trained the RCA. The Pentagon paid its fighters a salary of $400 per month, which The Telegraph noted was “nearly 12 times what the soldiers in the now defunct Syrian army were paid”. (This was because illegal unilateral Western sanctions on Syria had crushed the country’s economy, causing high rates of inflation that decimated local purchasing power.)

The US military knew that an offensive was being planned to topple Assad, The Telegraph reported. The Pentagon pressured disparate rebel groups and mercenaries in southern Syria to unify behind the US-funded RCA.

In the lead-up to the assault, which was launched in November 2024, US military officers met with Syrian rebel commanders in the Al-Tanf base that the US had built on the border with Iraq.

The Pentagon told the Syrian rebels to “be ready” for the impending offensive. An RCA commander recalled in an interview with The Telegraph, “We were just told: ‘Everything is about to change. This is your moment. Either Assad will fall, or you will fall’”.

While the United States was overseeing the Syrian rebel operations in the south, NATO member Turkey was doing the same in the north.

When extremist Salafi-jihadist rebels took over Syria’s second-most populous city, Aleppo, in late November, French state media outlet France 24 reported, “Opposition sources in touch with Turkish intelligence said Turkey, which supports the rebels, had given a green light to the offensive”.

US allied with Al-Qaeda in Syria

Washington claims the fighters it sponsored in Syria were so-called “moderate rebels”, but they were in fact allied with rebranded Al-Qaeda.

The Telegraph wrote that there is evidence that “indicates not only that Washington knew about the offensive led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which toppled the Assad regime on Dec 8, but that it had precise intelligence about its scale”.

HTS is a rebranded version of Syrian Al-Qaeda, which was previously called Jabhat al-Nusra, before it changed its name in 2017.

An RCA commander said his US-backed rebel group and HTS “were co-operating, and communication between the two forces was being co-ordinated by the Americans at Al-Tanf”, The Telegraph reported.

The British newspaper noted the “irony” that “the US has been in an effective alliance with a group like HTS, which was al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria until it broke away in 2017”.

Jake Sullivan, the Biden administration’s national security advisor, published an email to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton back in 2012, when he served as her aide, admitting that “AQ [Al-Qaeda] is on our side in Syria”.

After the Syrian war broke out in 2011, the CIA launched one of its largest covert programs in history, called Operation Timber Sycamore, in which the spy agency spent nearly $1 billion per year arming and training anti-government rebels. According to the Washington Post, this made up roughly $1 out of every $15 in the CIA’s budget.

Many of these US-backed rebels went on the join Al-Qaeda and ISIS, or gave their US weapons to the extremist groups.

US diplomats meet with former Al-Qaeda leader in Syria . . . .

+

“Israel Vs Iran War: Mossad Boss Tells Netanyahu To Gun For Tehran After Houthis Wreck Tel Aviv”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-qNb89kJks

by Times Of India

(3:42)

Mossad boss David Barnea has reportedly suggested that Israel must attack Iran instead of the Houthi rebels in retaliation to their recent attacks on Tel Aviv. Ynet reported that Barnea said, 'We must go for the head, Iran.' His comments came on Sunday during a meeting. The recent attack by Houthi rebels near Tel Aviv has reportedly forced Israel to spend $10 million on damages.

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“Over 200 Casualties In Germany Car Attack; ‘Supporter Of Israel’ Behind Deadly Rampage”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wbpn9tAOfsU

by Hindustan Times

(3:44)

In a shocking twist, the German Christmas market killing's suspect has alleged pro-Israeli links and is reportedly also an anti-Islamic individual. The 50-year-old perpetrator belongs to Saudi Arabia and moved to Germany in 2006.

Watch the video to know more : #germany #germanychristmasmarket #madgeburg #madgeburgattack #germanymarket #germanyattack #israel #israelattacks

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o.

NEWS FROM THE UNDERGROUND

“In memory of those who “died suddenly” in the United States and worldwide, December 16-23, 2024”

https://markcrispinmiller.substack.com/p/in-memory-of-those-who-died-suddenly-december-16-23-2024?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=383085&post_id=153584909&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ceedo&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

by Mark Crispin Miller

Actors Brian Press (Beauty and the Beast), David Murphy (90 Day Fiancé), Waymond Lee (Workaholics); comic Terry Ree; singer-songwriter David Mallett; baseballer Rickey Henderson; 39 infants; & more”

+

“50 Hollywood actors who died so far in 2024”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GK_zoU9dD9M&si=-Hb3cgY0rVA4gblj

by listoholic

(13:32)

+

“Mariah Carey cancels Pittsburgh show; Goo Goo Dolls cancel South Africa tour; Southside Johnny quits performing; Trump strategist collapses at the podium; UK: Max George halts gigs over ‘heart issues’”

https://markcrispinmiller.substack.com/p/mariah-carey-cancels-pittsburgh-show?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=383085&post_id=153337435&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ceedo&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

by Mark Crispin Miller

Like athletes and actors (among others), musicians were REQUIRED to get the jab (though all too many were quite proud to do so, some even disallowing the unjabbed into their shows)

+

“Julian Lennon has skin cancer; Randy Moss has liver cancer; Ryne Sandberg's cancer has come back; Montell Jordan and Adrian Wojnarowski both have prostate cancer; rocker Doug Aldrich has throat cancer”

https://markcrispinmiller.substack.com/p/julian-lennon-has-skin-cancer-randy-moss-has-liver-cancer?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=383085&post_id=153381667&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ceedo&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

by Mark Crispin Miller

US Senate chaplain Barry Black in hospital after brain bleed; Springbok center Andre Snyman "navigates brain tumor diagnosis"; drummer Clayton Holyoak's daughter, 5, has leukemia; and more

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p.

“Ukraine War Takes Dangerous Turn: Kim Jong Un Shocks Zelensky With Deadly Twist”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CAbjZempM0

by Hindustan Times

(3:51)

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is reportedly taking a hands-on approach to the training of soldiers set to support Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, according to South Korean intelligence reports. This move comes in the wake of significant casualties sustained by North Korea’s inexperienced forces on the Ukrainian battlefield, underscoring the harsh realities of their deployment. Despite these setbacks, intelligence suggests that Kim Jong Un is preparing to bolster his military’s presence by forming and training a new special operations force.

+

“British Army Officers Were Blown Up Into Pieces In DERGACHI┃RUSSIA Took Full Control of DACHENSKOYE”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0ulJHLG6F8&si=ofx6CoYqyk_KoX6b

by Borzzikman

(9:22)

The situation of the Ukrainian Army and NATO forces continues to deteriorate rapidly along the entire combat contact line. It is reported that the Russian Army has achieved significant success in all key areas of the front over the past five days. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation also officially confirmed this fact. In particular, a few hours ago, the Russian Defense Ministry officially announced the liberation of two strategically important settlements in the Kharkiv region and the Donetsk People's Republic

=======

q.

« 2024 Year in Review »

https://corbettreport.com/2024solutions/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

with James Corbett

(1:23:52)

+

“How Fascism Came to America”

https://scheerpost.com/2024/12/23/chris-hedges-how-fascism-came/

by Chris Hedges

For over two decades, I and a handful of others — Sheldon Wolin, Noam Chomsky, Chalmers Johnson, Barbara Ehrenreich and Ralph Nader — warned that the expanding social inequality and steady erosion of our democratic institutions, including the media, the Congress, organized labor, academia and the courts, would inevitably lead to an authoritarian or Christian fascist state. My books — “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America” (2007), “Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle” (2009), “Death of the Liberal Class” (2010), “Days of Destruction, Days of Revolt” (2012), written with Joe Sacco, “Wages of Rebellion” (2015) and “America: The Farewell Tour” (2018) were a succession of impassioned pleas to take the decay seriously. I take no joy in being correct.
“The rage of those abandoned by the economy, the fears and concerns of a beleaguered and insecure middle class, and the numbing isolation that comes with the loss of community, would be the kindling for a dangerous mass movement,” I wrote in “American Fascists” in 2007. “If these dispossessed were not reincorporated into mainstream society, if they eventually lost all hope of finding good, stable jobs and opportunities for themselves and their children — in short, the promise of a brighter future — the specter of American fascism would beset the nation. This despair, this loss of hope, this denial of a future, led the desperate into the arms of those who promised miracles and dreams of apocalyptic glory.”
President-elect Donald Trump does not herald the advent of fascism. He heralds the collapse of the veneer that masked the corruption within the ruling class and their pretense of democracy. He is the symptom, not the disease. The loss of basic democratic norms began long before Trump, which paved the road to an American totalitarianism. Deindustrialization, deregulation, austerity, unchecked predatory corporations, including the health-care industry, wholesale surveillance of every American, social inequality, an electoral system that is plagued by legalized bribery, endless and futile wars, the largest prison population in the world, but most of all feelings of betrayal, stagnation and despair, are a toxic brew that culminate in an inchoate hatred of the ruling class and the institutions they have deformed to exclusively serve the rich and the powerful. The Democrats are as guilty as the Republicans.
“Trump and his coterie of billionaires, generals, half-wits, Christian fascists, criminals, racists, and moral deviants play the role of the Snopes clan in some of William Faulkner’s novels,” I wrote in “America: The Farewell Tour.” “The Snopeses filled the power vacuum of the decayed South and ruthlessly seized control from the degenerated, former slaveholding aristocratic elites. Flem Snopes and his extended family — which includes a killer, a pedophile, a bigamist, an arsonist, a mentally disabled man who copulates with a cow, and a relative who sells tickets to witness the bestiality — are fictional representations of the scum now elevated to the highest level of the federal government. They embody the moral rot unleashed by unfettered capitalism.”
“The usual reference to ‘amorality,’ while accurate, is not sufficiently distinctive and by itself does not allow us to place them, as they should be placed, in a historical moment,” the critic Irving Howe wrote of the Snopeses. “Perhaps the most important thing to be said is that they are what comes afterwards: the creatures that emerge from the devastation, with the slime still upon their lips.”
“Let a world collapse, in the South or Russia, and there appear figures of coarse ambition driving their way up from beneath the social bottom, men to whom moral claims are not so much absurd as incomprehensible, sons of bushwhackers or muzhiks drifting in from nowhere and taking over through the sheer outrageousness of their monolithic force,” Howe wrote. “They become presidents of local banks and chairmen of party regional committees, and later, a trifle slicked up, they muscle their way into Congress or the Politburo. Scavengers without inhibition, they need not believe in the crumbling official code of their society; they need only learn to mimic its sounds.”
The political philosopher Sheldon Wolin called our system of governance “inverted totalitarianism,” one that kept the old iconography, symbols and language, but had surrendered power to corporations and oligarchs. Now we will shift to totalitarianism’s more recognizable form, one dominated by a demagogue and an ideology grounded in the demonization of the other, hypermasculinity and magical thinking.
Fascism is always the bastard child of a bankrupt liberalism .  .  .  .

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« Entretien avec Jean-Luc Mélenchon »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qotmCF7c14

by La France insoumise

(1 :12 :48)

Touche Pas à Mon Peuple !, c'est le podcast de la France insoumise. Pour cet épisode hors-série, nous recevons Jean-Luc Mélenchon pour un entretien exclusif. Revenant d'abord sur les moments politique marquants de l'année 2024, Jean-Luc Mélenchon aborde le génocide en cours à Gaza, la réaction des États et des différentes forces politiques, revenant sur la position prise dès le début par la France insoumise : défendre la Paix en se basant sur le droit international. Il revient également sur la crise politique traversée par notre pays depuis plusieurs mois maintenant, de la dissolution de l'Assemblée nationale en juillet à la censure de Barnier, en passant par la victoire du Nouveau Front populaire aux élections législatives. Enfin, Jean-Luc Mélenchon aborde également la question de la violence en politique, pointant la responsabilité de l'extrême droite et du gouvernement. Dans une deuxième partie d'entretien, le co-président de l'Institut La Boétie revient sur le début de son parcours militant, sur l'identité politique de la France insoumise et donne ses conseils aux jeunes qui commencent leur parcours militant en 2025. Il donne également l'objectif des Insoumis·es pour l'année qui vient : la victoire ! Un entretien exclusif où l'on parle de politique bien sûr, mais aussi d'histoire, de philosophie, de culture...

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“Russia's Bombshell Reveal On Macron; 'France Reached Out To Putin For Secret...' | Ukraine War”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDjsPziy3H0

by Times Of India

(3:16)

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov disclosed that France has offered to help facilitate secret talks regarding the Ukraine conflict, excluding Ukraine from the dialogue. Lavrov revealed that French diplomats approached Russia through closed channels, proposing a dialogue on Ukraine's future. While Russia is open to discussions, Lavrov expressed doubts about taking France's initiative seriously, citing ambiguous actions like France's support for sending peacekeepers and training Ukrainian troops.

Click to know more : #russia #france #ukraineconflict #sergeilavrov #nato #peacetalks #ceasefire #frenchoffer #usadministration #diplomacy #putin #ukraine #militaryoperations

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“‘BE CAREFUL! This Is Serious...’ - Richard Wolff's Last WARNING”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bxfW-jNbf0&si=sKUpLGHi6_Pv2uwQ

by FREENVESTING

(28:50)

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“Richard Wolff Explains Why America Is Entering A Horrific Financial Crisis”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEEivjQnUcw

by FREENVESTING

(21:45)

+

“If you like "News from Underground" (or hate it, but get something out of it), please read this post”

https://markcrispinmiller.substack.com/p/if-you-like-news-from-underground-please-read?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

by Mark Crispin Miller

I started “News from Underground” way back in 2005, Bush/Cheney having just been “re-elected,” and I having lately shown in detail why that victory was a fraud (just like their first one in 2000). Starting with “None Dare Call It Stolen,” a Harper’s cover story on the disaster in Ohio, I went on to write Fooled Again for Basic Books; and as I toured the country, speaking in book stores and doing a lot of local media (mostly friendly), my reputation was undergoing a surprising change. Though I’d written several op-eds for the New York Times (two of them refuting points of propaganda from Operation Desert Storm), was often featured as a talking head on NPR and PBS, and had regularly published in such journals as The Nation, The New Republic, HuffPost and The Atlantic, I now was suddenly untouchable, or unprintable, by both the corporate and left-liberal press, having been branded a “conspiracy theorist.”

+

“How US media launders events in Syria”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r83gxl7QunY&si=CdzMc9LxIRnQZSCY

with Ali Abunimah

(18:51)

=======

r.

The Truth Barrier

“Gaza Horrors: I Got A FB Friend Request From A Reporter in Gaza Named Hani Aburezep: Here Are Some Of His Dispatches”

https://celiafarber.substack.com/p/gaza-horrors-i-got-a-fb-friend-request?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=257742&post_id=153690158&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1ceedo&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email

by Celia Farber

=======

s.

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