Bulletin
N° 790
“Masters of War”
Bob Dylan
(Video)
https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=masters+of+war&&view=detail&mid=5F5DBC49E260526FDF905F5DBC49E260526FDF90&rvsmid=A180E9606B37BB9973FDA180E9606B37BB9973FD&FORM=VDRVRV
Subject :
Trumping Class Struggle with
Nationalist Wars.
21
March 2018
Grenoble,
France
Dear
Colleagues and Friends of CEIMSA,
One
hundred years ago, millions of ordinary Europeans slaughtered each other in a
four-year blood-let over the capitalist competition for Imperial
expansion, and in the end Germany was deprived of all of its colonial possessions.
Twenty years later, the imperialist war was rekindled, and before the conflagration
was over, tens of millions of men, women and children around the world were
killed or mutilated, either directly or indirectly by disease and
starvation. Had these wars not sought to increase private profits for capitalist investments they
would not have been fought; had the owners of corporate capital been obliged to
risk their own lives in battle, there would have been no battles, no
casualties.
The
necessary structures to prevent catastrophic war will not be created until
war itself is no longer profitable to the owners of capital. Until that day,
human sacrifice on the Altar of Private Profits will be “normal”
behavior and with predictable regularity corresponding to the economic cycle of
“bust and boom.” These murderous activities continue today, and the usual
victims are those who remain caught in the web of a political economy created
for the predatory practices of private corporate interests.
The
32 items below offer CEIMSA readers
perspectives on capitalist strategies, tactics and logistics in today’s war
economy, where the voices of the victims are routinely displaced by corporate
propaganda and psychological warfare, programmed to colonize the minds of those
who might feel an urge to resist ruling class hegemony and imperial conquest.
Sincerely,
Francis
Feeley
_______
Professor
emeritus of American Studies
University
Grenoble-Alpes
Director
of Research
University
of Paris-Nanterre
Center
for the Advanced Study of American Institutions and Social Movements
The
University of California-San Diego
a.
Good Enemies Are Hard To Find:
Therefore Worry
https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/03/16/good-enemies-are-hard-to-find-therefore-worry/
by
Andrew
Levine
Why
is the American political class so intent on reviving the Cold War?
Why does Israel have it in for Iran?
These
are complicated questions; many factors are involved. But there is “a fact of
life,” as it were, that bears on the answers to both questions: that to keep
their regimes – their distinctive ways of organizing cultural, economic, and
political institutions — going, the United States and Israel need enemies, and
the ones most readily at hand no longer seem up to the task. One reason why
Russia has again become America’s enemy, and Iran Israel’s, is that good
enemies are hard to find.
When
the Soviet Union imploded, America’s political and economic elites found
themselves facing a problem that they had not seen coming: how to make do
without a rationale that had served them well for as long as anybody could
remember. Almost from the moment World War II ended, Americans were made to
understand that an Evil Empire threatened the Land of the Free. That
implacable foe, the Soviet Union was, by any reckoning, a worthy antagonist,
and an enemy for all seasons — of limitless scope and world-class capabilities.
==========
b.
The science of satire and lies:
Watching Colbert
can fight right-wing brain rot
by Sophia A. McClennen
The
mainstreaming of lies in the Trump era is hurting our cognitive abilities.
Research says satire can save us
In a National Rifle Association (NRA) TV ad from February of this year a
man stands in front of a TV screen that airs a series of clips. Among them is a
shot of John Oliver saying the words “National Rifle Association” and another
of Alec Baldwin impersonating Donald Trump on Saturday Night
Live. The rest of the shots are of talk shows, pundits or cable news
reporting. As the clips roll, the man takes a sledgehammer to the TV and
smashes it. Then a slogan appears: “The truth is our greatest weapon.”
It is a stunningly stupid ad. And
it helps explain why the right keeps going after comedians.
==========
c.
Going
Down With the Bad Ship U.S.A.
https://blackagendareport.com/going-down-bad-ship-usa
Glen
Ford
==========
d.
School Shootings: Who to Listen to
Instead of Mainstream Shrinks
by
Bruce
E. Levine
I
have never spoken with a school shooter, but I’ve talked with many teenage boys
and young men who—though behaviorally nonviolent themselves—emotionally connect
with the anger, alienation, and hopelessness of school shooters. Regardless of
whether they received poor or excellent grades, these teenage boys and young
men all tell me that high school was an oppressive experience. When we talk
about Trump’s support for arming school teachers, they make caustic remarks
such as: “Prison experts have long known that it’s a bad idea for prison guards
to carry guns.”
Cynical
about virtually all societal institutions, these young people tell me that NRA
leaders care only about the NRA and gun profits and couldn’t care less about
them. And they have no hope that gutless politicians’ gun control laws will
decrease school shootings. These teenage boys and young men are acutely
sensitive to the variety of ways adults try to coerce compliance, and they
dislike both self-identified “conservatives” and “liberals.” For these young
people, conservatives’ religion and militarized society and liberals’ schools
and shrinks are different faces of the same oppressive box.
==========
e.
Kim Dotcom: The Deep State, WikiLeaks,
and Seth Rich
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/49013.htm
Watch
"The government is not really
for the people anymore. The government is for commercial interests, it's all
about business, it's all about their donors"
==========
f.
From: Bill Blum
Sent: Thursday, 15 March, 2018
Subject: Anti-Empire Report #156, March 16, 2018
Anti-Empire
Report #156, March 16, 2018
https://williamblum.org/aer/read/156
==========
g.
The “Pimps”, “Whores” and
“Johns” of the Military Industrial Empire
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/49006.htm
by Philip A Farruggio
We have
regressed as a nation, as a culture, so quickly that even the 60s,
70s and 80s look like ‘the good old days’… and they weren’t. This Military
Industrial Empire is run by the Pimps. They push
their Whores, the political system and the mainstream media, out into
the streets of our great nation, where they proposition
the Johns, the majority of our populace.
The
biggest Lie that they con the Johns with is
that we are a Democracy, and that their vote matters. Of course,
what they fail to inform the Johns of is that only the Two
Party/One Party system is what counts. The second biggest Lie is
that we live in a ‘Free Enterprise system’ where any John can
rise to the top of the economic ladder with both hard work and diligence. Then
the Lie continues by saying that people have a right to earn
as much as they can, and that ‘The rich pay all the taxes and deserve a break.’
Tell that to the millions of Johns at the gas pump each day,
by asking them to look at how much of each gallon of gas goes for taxes.
You channel surf
on the boob tube and see what the so called ‘News channels’ are covering. The
Democratic leaning channels (CNN and MSNBC to name a few) are all over
this Russia gate, ready to fan the fires of a new Cold
War. Hours and hours of this, and let me ask you this, was what
was leaked by whomever during the 2016 campaign actual
TRUTH? If so, then who in the hell cares who leaked it! When you go to
the right wing Republican leaning channels, they continually defend this
‘Reality Star President’ and his far right ‘Think tank’ regressive policies and
plans to continually aid the ‘Less than 1 % of us’. Of course, the Whores of
media, as well as the elected Whores, will bang the drum for more military
spending and more of the ‘Big Stick’ mentality worldwide… which is
already bankrupting our cities and destroying our moral compass!
==========
h.
Lies Can Lead To War
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/48968.htm
by Paul Craig Roberts
Notice
that the governments of the US, UK, France, and Germany did not require any evidence to decide that the Russian
government used military-grade nerve gas to attack two people on an English
park bench and a UK policeman. It makes no sense. There is no Russian motive.
The
motive lies in the West. It is the latest orchestration in the ongoing
demonization of Russia. The demonization is a huge boost to the power and
profit of the military/security complex and prevents President Trump from
normalizing relations. The military/security’s budget and power require a major
enemy, and Russia is the designated enemy and will not be allowed to escape
that assigned role.
+
UK Scientists Refused Government Pressure To
Say
Nerve Agent Was Made By Russia
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/49003.htm
by Craig Murray
Boris Johnson Attempt to Refute My Sources on Porton Down the Most Hilarious Fail
==========
i.
Don't Push Russia
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/49004.htm
by the Saker
Hold my
Beer And Watch This!
If cornered or attacked Russia will strike back -- hard! The
terrifying truth is the west does not understand that.
==========
j.
Guardian Rips-Off Goebbels - Fascist Propaganda For Better Anti-Russian Smears
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/49010.htm
by Moon Of Alabama
Just recently the Rothschild organ The Economist depicted
the Russian president Putin as a dangerous octopus.
The idea was not original at all. Russia has been the favored
target of this denigrating comparison for more
than a century.
==========
k.
War Is On The Horizon
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/49009.htm
by Paul Craig Roberts
Have Washington and its British vassal set a stage for
testing whether Russia has the stomach for war?
How else do we interpret the announcement by General Sergey Rudskoy, chief of the Operational Directorate of the
Russian General Staff, that “we have reliable information at our disposal that US instructors have trained a number of militant groups in the vicinity of
the town of At-Tanf, to stage provocations involving
chemical warfare agents in southern Syria. They are preparing a series of
chemical munitions explosions. This fact will be used to blame the government
forces. The components to produce chemical munitions have been already
delivered to the southern de-escalation zone under the guise of humanitarian
convoys of a number of NGOs. The provocations will be used as a pretext by the
United States and its allies to launch strikes on military and government
infrastructure in Syria.”
==========
l.
‘Not proxy’: Lavrov says US, British, French special forces ‘directly involved’ in Syria
war
https://www.rt.com/news/421582-lavrov-foreign-special-forces-syria/
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov
has condemned the illegal presence of US coalition troops in Syria, saying the
Western forces deployed on the ground amount to “a direct involvement in the
war.”
“There
are special forces on the ground in Syria from the US – they no longer deny it
– the UK, France and a number of other countries,” Lavrov said in an interview to the Kazakh state broadcaster
published on the Russian Foreign Ministry's website on Saturday. “Thus, it’s not so much of a ‘proxy war,’
but rather a direct involvement in the war,” the diplomat stressed.
==========
m.
From:
"Mark
Crispin Miller
Sent: Wednesday, 14 March, 2018
Subject: [MCM] Some urgent truths about
whatever—and whoever—killed Sergej Skripal
Please
send this far and wide.
MCM
Doubts
about “Novichoks”
http://syriapropagandamedia.org/doubts-about-novichoks
The following briefing note is developed from ongoing research
and investigation into the use of chemical and biological weapons during
the 2011-present war in Syria conducted by members of the Working Group on
Syria, Media and Propaganda. The note reflects work in progress. However, the
substantive questions raised need answering, especially given the seriousness
of the political crisis that is now developing. We welcome comments and
corrections.
Authors: Professor Paul McKeigue
and Professor Piers Robinson (piers.robinson@sheffield.ac.uk/+447764763350)
Working Group on Syria, Media and Propaganda (syriapropagandamedia.org).
Novichoks and the Salisbury
poisoning:
In the House of Commons on 12 March the Prime Minister stated
that:
It is now clear that Mr Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a
military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia. It is part of a group
of nerve agents known as Novichok. Based on the
positive identification of this chemical agent by world-leading experts at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down, our knowledge that Russia has previously
produced this agent and would still be capable of doing so, Russia’s record of
conducting state-sponsored assassinations and our assessment that Russia views
some defectors as legitimate targets for assassinations, the Government have
concluded that it is highly likely that Russia was responsible for the act
against Sergei and Yulia Skripal.
The Prime Minister said if there is no “credible response” by
the end of Tuesday 12 March, the UK would conclude there has been an “unlawful
use of force” by Moscow.
Summary of key issues that need to be addressed
1) There are reasons to doubt that these compounds are military
grade nerve agents or that a Russian “Novichok”
program ever existed. If they were potentially usable as chemical weapons,
people on the OPCW Scientific Advisory Board who were in a position to know the
properties of these compounds would have recommended that they be added to the
list of Scheduled Chemicals. They have never been added.
2) Synthesis at bench scale of organic chemicals such as
the purported “Novichoks” is within the capability of
a modern chemistry laboratory. Porton Down itself
must have been able to synthesize these compounds in order to develop tests for
them. The detection of such a compound does not establish Russian
origin.
Details
(1) Doubts about the history of the “Novichok”
Programme
The history of the alleged “Novichok”
program remains unclear. The original source for the story that a new class of
organophosphate compounds was developed as chemical weapons under the name Novichok in the Soviet Union during the 1970s and 1980s is
from Vil Mirzayanov, a
defector in the 1990s. Mirzayanov described the
chemical structures of these compounds and stated that the toxicity of an agent
named Novichuk-5 “under optimal conditions exceeds the effectiveness of VX by
five to eight times”. Mirzayanov alleged that Russian
testing and production had continued after signing the Chemical Weapons
Convention in 1993.
However, a review by Dr Robin Black, who was until recently head
of the detection laboratory at the Defence Science
and Technology Laboratory (Porton Down), emphasizes
that there is no independent confirmation of Mirzayanov’s
claims about the chemical properties of these compounds:
In recent years, there has been much speculation that a fourth
generation of nerve agents, ‘Novichoks’ (newcomer),
was developed in Russia, beginning in the 1970s as part of the ‘Foliant’ programme, with the aim
of finding agents that would compromise defensive countermeasures. Information
on these compounds has been sparse in the public domain, mostly originating
from a dissident Russian military chemist, Vil Mirzayanov. No independent confirmation of the structures
or the properties of such compounds has been published. (Black,
2016)
The OPCW’s Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) appeared to doubt the
existence of “Novichoks”, and did not advise that the
compounds described by Mirzayanov, or their precursors,
should be designated as Scheduled Chemicals that should be controlled under the
Chemical Weapons Convention:-
[The SAB] emphasised that the
definition of toxic chemicals in the Convention would cover all potential
candidate chemicals that might be utilised as
chemical weapons. Regarding new toxic chemicals not listed in the Annex on
Chemicals but which may nevertheless pose a risk to the Convention, the SAB
makes reference to “Novichoks”. The name “Novichok” is used in a publication of a former Soviet
scientist who reported investigating a new class of nerve agents suitable for
use as binary chemical weapons. The SAB states that it has insufficient
information to comment on the existence or properties of “Novichoks”. (OPCW,
2013)
The Scientific Advisory Board included Dr Black, and several
other heads of national chemical defence laboratories
in western countries. These labs would have presumably made their own
evaluation of Mirzayanov’s claims and specifically
would have done their own experiments to determine if compounds with the
structures that he described were of military grade toxicity. Such studies can
be done quickly and efficiently in vitro using methods
developed for drug discovery (combinatorial chemistry and high-throughput
screening). It is reasonable to assume that if these labs had found that these
compounds were potentially usable as chemical weapons, the Scientific Advisory
Board would have recommended adding them to the list of Scheduled Chemicals as
the Chemical Weapons Convention requires.
Until independent confirmation of Mirzayanov’s
claims about the toxicity of these compounds is available, and there is an
adequate explanation of why the OPCW Scientific Advisory Board did not
recommend that the compounds purported to be “Novichoks”
and their precursors be designated as scheduled chemicals, it is reasonable to
question whether these compounds are military grade nerve agents, or that a
Russian “Novichok” programme
ever actually existed.
(2) Who Could Have Synthesized the ‘Novichok’
Compounds?
The Prime Minister stated that:
There are, therefore, only two plausible explanations for what
happened in Salisbury on 4 March: either this was a direct act by the Russian
state against our country; or the Russian Government lost control of their
potentially catastrophically damaging nerve agent and allowed it to get into
the hands of others.
However, Mirzayanov originally claimed
that the Novichok agents were easy to synthesize:-
One should be mindful that the chemical components or precursors
of A-232 or its binary version novichok-5 are ordinary organophosphates that
can be made at commercial chemical companies that manufacture such products as
fertilizers and pesticides. (Mirzayanov, 1995).
Soviet scientists had published many papers in the open
literature on the chemistry of such compounds for possible use as insecticides.
Mirzayanov claimed that “this research program was
premised on the ability to hide the production of precursor chemicals under the
guise of legitimate commercial chemical production of agricultural chemicals”.
As the structures of these compounds have been described, any
organic chemist with a modern lab would be able to synthesize bench scale quantities
of such a compound. Indeed, Porton Down must have
been able to synthesize these compounds in order to develop tests for them. It
is therefore misleading to assert that only Russia could have produced such
compounds.
References
Vil S. Mirzayanov, “Dismantling the
Soviet/Russian Chemical Weapons Complex: An Insider’s View,” in Amy E.
Smithson, Dr. Vil S. Mirzayanov,
Gen Roland Lajoie, and Michael Krepon,
Chemical Weapons Disarmament in Russia: Problems and Prospects, Stimson Report
No. 17, October 1995, p. 21. https://www.files.ethz.ch/isn/105521/Report17.pdf
OPCW: Report of the Scientific Advisory Board on developments in
science and technology for the Third Review Conference 27 March 2013. https://www.opcw.org/fileadmin/OPCW/CSP/RC-3/en/rc3wp01_e_.pdf
Robin Black. (2016) Development, Historical
Use and Properties of Chemical Warfare Agents. Royal
Society of Chemistry. http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/chapter/bk9781849739696-00001/978-1-84973-969-6
+
Maria Zakharova
blows apart poisoning hoax:
US should “be put under question”
http://theduran.com/maria-zakharova-blows-apart-poisoning-hoax-us-should-be-put-under-question/
by Alex
Christoforou
“Novichok” nerve agent most likely originated in the UK,
Slovakia, Czech Republic or Sweden.
+
See
video : http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/49018.htm
==========
n.
US training
Syria militants for false flag chemical attack as basis for airstrikes –
Russian MoD
https://www.rt.com/news/421589-us-preparing-syria-provocations-airstrikes/
Russia’s
Defense Ministry says “US instructors” are training militants to stage false
flag chemical attacks in south Syria. The incidents are said to be a pretext
for airstrikes on Syrian government troops and infrastructure.
“We have reliable information at our
disposal that US instructors have trained a number of militant groups in the
vicinity of the town of At-Tanf, to stage
provocations involving chemical warfare agents in southern Syria,” Russian General Staff spokesman
General Sergey Rudskoy said at a news briefing on
Saturday.
“Early in March, the saboteur groups
were deployed to the southern de-escalation zone to the city of Deraa, where the units of the so-called Free Syrian Army
are stationed.”
“They are preparing a series of chemical
munitions explosions. This fact will be used to blame the government forces.
The components to produce chemical munitions have been already delivered to the
southern de-escalation zone under the guise of humanitarian convoys of a number
of NGOs.”
The
planned provocations will be widely covered in the Western media and will
ultimately be used as a pretext by the US-led coalition to launch strikes on
Syria, Rudskoy warned.
+
Syria Preparing for a
Major US Military Attack
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/49019.htm
by Mohammad Ayesh
Russian troops have already been deployed to 'critical locations'
to deter Washington
Damascus has taken a series of measures to prepare for an anticipated US
military strike, Western diplomats told Saudi
newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat.
==========
o.
US Planning to Launch Attack Against Syrian Army
'Very Soon' - Source
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201803191062696904-us-syria-army-attack-iraq/
In late 2017,
troops from the Syrian Army and other allied ground forces liberated parts of
the eastern province of Deir ez-Zor,
effectively reestablishing a land route stretching from Iran to Syria and
Lebanon, where the formidable Hezbollah political party and militia is based.
Speaking
to Sputnik reporter Suliman Mulhem,
a Syrian analyst reported that a largescale US
military operation is set to be launched against the Syrian Army
near the Syria-Iraq border "very soon."
+
US plans to remain
in Syria ‘for a long time,
if not forever’ – Lavrov
https://www.rt.com/news/421265-us-remain-syria-forever/
Some fficials in Washington are aiming to maintain a foothold in
Syria for a long time, “if not forever,” using chemical weapons provocations to
achieve this objective, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov
said. There are no grounds “to doubt
the willingness of some US officials to keep a foothold [in Syria] for a long
time, if not forever, and contribute to the collapse of the Syrian Arab
Republic,” Lavrov said at a news conference in
Moscow on Wednesday.
Islamists
in E. Ghouta plan to stage false flag chemical attack
– Damascus
“Various methods” are being used, including “information
revealed via [Russia’s] Defense and Foreign Ministries, which says that other
provocations involving chemical weapons are being prepared,” the foreign minister said, noting that one such “staging” might take place in Eastern Ghouta.
On March 5, Lavrov said Russia had evidence that the US involvement in Syria had nothing to do with combatting terrorism. Speaking during a visit to Namibia, the foreign minister asserted that Washington is willing to keep the Al-Nusra Front terrorist group as a “plan B” to change the leadership in Damascus, according to Interfax.
Some policymakers in the American capital, he said, are “harboring plans to disintegrate the Syrian
state.” In February, Lavrov told Euronews that “the US clearly has a strategy that, I think, consists of stationing
its armed forces in Syria forever.”
The US pursues the same goal in Iraq and Afghanistan “despite all of its earlier promises.”
The Americans are working “to cut a
huge chunk of Syrian territory from the rest of the country” while setting up
puppet local authorities in that area and “trying in every way to establish an
autonomous entity under Kurdish authority,” Lavrov
said.
==========
p.
From: Mark Crispin Miller
Sent:
Wednesday, 14 March, 2018
Subject:
[MCM] Now Mother Jones is telling us that RUSSIA is behind
the "myth" that GMOs are bad for us
Shades of Operation CHAOS, 1967-74.
MCM
From Dick Atlee:
I shouldn't have been gob-smacked when I received the daily Mother Jones notification
of food-related articles. I KNOW Mother Jones is pretty pathetic on the issue
of GMOs, as well as on the current suicidal Russia-baiting frenzy. But I
honestly didn't think I'd see them combined:
https://www.motherjones.com/food/2018/03/is-russia-using-the-gmo-debate-to-troll-americans/
It is the exact analog of what I had to go through in the 50s-60s, of
being called a Communist because I was part of the peace movement, and the
Russians kept talking about Peace. Now it's the Russian-related press talking
negatively about GMOs, while the all-knowing American press's articles are
overwhelmingly positive -- so it's obvious the Russians are trying to
manipulate us poor Americans in yet another arena.
And again, as with the 2016 Russian-meddling "intelligence estimate,"
RT and Sputnik are being trotted out as prime candidates. As we all know, the
vast majority of Americans spend most of their time glued to their monitors and
TVs, watching RT and Sputnik and being brainwashed, just as that vast majority
of Americans were brainwashed to vote for Trump.
I suppose it's going to be vaccines next. And maybe supplements?
Please feel free to forward the article reference to any GMO-interested people
who you think might need protection from those devilish Russkies.
Dick's letter to Amy Thomson, the "journalist" who wrote that
article.
Hi, Ms. Thomson,
I read with interest your piece on allegations of a link between Russian
propaganda and growing American distrust of GMOs.
MoJo's (particularly Tom Philpott's) dismissal of GMO dangers was the principal
reason for my parting company with the magazine a number of years ago. I've
been working on the issue for quite a few years (http://dickatlee.com/gmo),
and there's a widespread understanding in the world that GMOs and their
associated pesticides are a bad deal on a broad range of issues --
environmental, health, legal, geopolitical, and others. The U.S. is one of the
few places where public awareness of the problem has only recently been
catching up.
There is plenty of solid research on the potential and actual dangers of
GMOs (alone or due to glyphosate, dicamba,
etc). However, most of this research has been done outside the U.S. because of
the well-documented literally vicious attacks by Monsanto and other ag-chem entities on such research and researchers. So it is
no surprise that there might be much less negative coverage of GMOs within the
U.S. than outside it. Oddly, you have chosen to focus the locus of negative
coverage on the Russians, rather than other non-U.S. sources.
For me, this is personal. I grew up in the peace movement in the 50's and
early 60's. My classmates would call me a Communist because, after all, the
Russians were always talking about peace. The exact same dynamic is in play now
and, as it did in those days, it is narrowing our society dangerously. You
can't say anything the Russians are saying without being accused of being a
Russian propagandist, or at least stooge.
The wording of the intelligence community anti-Russian statements
never involves actual public proof. It is always "Such and such is CONSISTENT with Russian statements/behavior," just
like my peace-advocating "Communist" behavior 60 years ago was. This
has spread from the evidence-free (so far) accusations of Russian hacking of
the DNC to advocates of peace in Syria to advocates for vaccine safety, and
now, with your help, it looks like the canard is being pushed all the way to
GMOs.
Before mainlining the Russians-did-it
(everything) narrative, it might be worth sitting back and looking at where the
power to control the media lies before concluding (or even implying) that
anything different from what the American media says must be Russian-related.
I'm sure you're well aware of the influence of the pharmaceutical and ag-chem industries. But look back also at Watergate-famous
Carl Bernstein's 1977 Rolling Stone exposé on how the "intelligence
community" fits into that picture:
http://www.carlbernstein.com/magazine_cia_and_media.php
and the CIA's original weaponization
of the term "conspiracy theory"
http://www.jfklancer.com/CIA.html
At the very
least, it's wise to take with a grain of salt the "intelligence
community" assertions that are keeping this Russia meme afloat.
For 20 years
after the fall of the USSR we lived in relative nuclear safety, with no stupid
head-butting with the Russians. We got along fine. However, the resurgence of
that insanity has returned us to hair-trigger nuclear alert and assertions of a
U.S. right to a nuclear first strike that would in the end kill us all. Your
article is just another click in that ratchet. I hope you'll think about it in
this larger context.
Thanks.
Dick Atlee
==========
q.
From: Jim
O'Brien
Sent: Thu, 15
Mar 2018
Subject:
[H-Pad] H-PAD Notes 3/15/18: H-PAD broadsides on the Verso Press blog; links to
recent articles of interest
https://www.historiansforpeace.org/
Note: Verso Books has begun posting H-PAD "Broadsides for the Trump Era" in its blog. So far the following have appeared in the blog: Ellen Schrecker's McCarthyism 1947-1960, Jeremy Kuzmarov's The U.S. War on Drugs from its Origins to the Age of Trump, and Linda Gordon's https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/3688-broadside-for-the-trump-era-the-ku-klux-klan-of-the-1920s
Links to Recent Articles of Interest
“America’s Phony War: Blitzkrieg Overseas, Sitzkrieg in the Homeland”
By William J. Astore, TomDispatch.com, posted March 15
The author, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, taught history for fifteen years at military and civilian schools.
"Talking Sense about Immigration: Rejecting the President's Manichaean Worldview"
By Aviva Chomsky, TomDispatch.com, posted March 13
The author teaches history at Salem State University.
"It's Too Late to Worry about 'Normalizing' Trump. Decades of Policy Did That for Him"
By Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone, posted March 12
By Lawrence Wittner, History News Network, posted March 11
The author is an emeritus professor of history at SUNY Albany.
"In Winston Churchill, Hollywood Rewards a Mass Murderer"
By Shashi Taroor, Washington Post, posted March 10
"God Wills It! The War on Terror as the Launching of an American Crusade"
By James Carroll, TomDispatch.com, posted March 8
Provides detailed comparisons with the original Crusades
"How Washington Provoked - and Perhaps Lost - a New Nuclear-Arms Race"
By Stephen F. Cohen, The Nation, posted March 7
The author is an emeritus professor of history at Princeton University and New York University.
"America's Forgotten History of Illegal Deportations"
By Alex Wagner, The Atlantic, posted March 6
“There Are Echoes of the Fugitive Slave Act in Today’s Immigration Debate”
By Harold Meyerson, The American Prospect, posted March 6
“Recalling PeteSeeger’s Controversial Performance on the Smothers Brothers Show 50 Years Ago”
By Peter Dreier, Portside.org, posted March 2
Thanks to Rusti Eisenberg and an anonymous reader for suggesting articles that are included in the above list. Suggestions can be sent to jimobrien48@gmail.com.
==========
In memory: Rachel Corrie
- Death of an Idealist
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/48992.htm
Watch -
Channel 4 Documentary
Rachel Corrie was a 23-year-old American peace protestor who was
crushed to death by Israeli occupation forces.
==========
s.
50 Years After My Lai Massacre in Vietnam, Revisiting the Slaughter
the U.S. Military Tried to Hide
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/3/16/50_years_after_my_lai_massacre
t.
Fifteen Years
After Iraq Invasion, Torture Has a New Address
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/49007.htm
by William
Rivers Pitt
“I would
bring back waterboarding, and I'd bring back a hell
of a lot worse than waterboarding.”
—Donald
Trump, 02/16/2016
Fifteen years
ago this week, George W. Bush and his pack of unprosecuted murderers
transformed the city of Baghdad into a bowl of fire, "Shock &
Awe," in what was a massive war crime right there on live television. I
call it a war crime justly: It was an act based entirely on lies founded in
greed and lust for power, for which not one person has been called to account.
Millions of
human beings have been butchered, maimed, displaced and undone in those 15
years since the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq. The war there has
actually been going on in one form or another for 27 years now. Yet no one is held accountable
even as we slog, year after year, through the drifting ashes of aftermath.
We simply don't talk about it.
We are allowed, within the narrow confines of permissible debate, to rub
our collective woes together and wonder how so much could go so wrong so fast.
The physical shock of September 11 doesn't explain it, but the manner in which
that day was used against us certainly fills in the blank spaces. They used it
to start a war that has now become several wars, and a few people you'll never
meet continue to swim in the profits.
==========
u.
Paul Craig Roberts:
“World War 3 Is Approaching”
http://theduran.com/paul-craig-roberts-world-war-3-is-approaching/
“In a nuclear
war the “collateral damage” would be the life of all humanity.” – Fidel Castro
by Alex Christoforou
==========
v.
Map Shows Why
Russia Developed
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/48990.htm
Watch
Mike Maloney explains how NATO/USA has eaten away at Russia's defenses.
==========
w.
The Implications
of Russia's
New Weapon Systems
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/48991.htm
by Andrei Martyanov
During the August
2008 Russo-Georgian War, the operations of Russia’s 58th Army were
termed as “coercion into peace”. It is an appropriate term once one recalls
what truly was at stake then. Russians did win that war and, indeed, coerced
Georgia into a much more peaceful mood. In Clausewitzian
terms the Russians achieved the main object of the war by compelling the enemy
to do Russia’s will. Russians, as the events of the last 19 years showed, have
no illusions anymore about the possibility of any kind of reasonable civilized
conduct from the combined West, least of all from the United States which still
continues to reside in her bubble which insulates her from any outside voices
of reason and peace. The American global track record of the last few decades does
not require any special elaborations—it is a record of military and
humanitarian disasters.
==========
x.
Sunday, 18 March
France 'does
not recognize' Russian vote in Crimea
https://www.thelocal.fr/20180318/france-does-not-recognise-russian-vote-in-crimea
France said
on Sunday it would not recognize Russia's election in the Crimea peninsula,
four years to the day after Russia formally annexed the territory from Ukraine
in a move slammed by the West as illegal. "Challenging borders by force is
contrary to international law, including commitments made by the Russian
Federation," the French foreign ministry said in a statement. "France
does not recognize the organization of Russia's presidential election in Crimea
today," it added as Russians vote in an election overshadowed by a furious
row with Britain and its allies over the poisoning of a former Russian double
agent in England. Sunday marks exactly four years since President Vladimir
Putin, who is seen as a virtual certainty for a fourth term, signed a treaty
declaring Crimea part of Russia after taking control of the former Soviet
territory following the ouster of a Russian-backed president in Ukraine's
capital Kiev. It is Russia's first
presidential election since the annexation, which prompted pro-Russian rebels
in eastern Ukraine to take up arms against the state, sparking a conflict that
has claimed more than 10,000 lives.
==========
y.
“We Don’t Even
Know if a Novichok Program Existed!”
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/49012.htm
(Video-6 min.)
with John Pilger
“Skripal
case is a carefully-constructed drama”
+
Are 'Novichok' Poisons Real? - May's Claims Fall Apart
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/48966.htm
The British
government claims that 'Novichok'
poisons, developed 30 years ago in the Soviet Union, affected
a British double agent. But such substances may not exist at all. The British government
further says that the Russian government is responsible for the incident and
has announced penalties against the country. A comparable
incidents happened in 2001 in the United States. Envelopes with
Anthrax spores were sent to various politicians. Some people died. The White
House told the FBI to blame al-Qaeda but the Anthrax turned out to be
from a U.S. chemical-biological weapon laboratory. The case is still
unsolved.
The
'whistle-blower' Vil Mirzanyanov
who 'revealed' the 'Novichok' program and its poisons
published chemical formulas that should enable any decent laboratory to
reproduce them. But neither the existence of the claimed program nor the
existence of the alleged substances were ever accepted by the scientific
community. The Russian government says it does not know the program nor the alleged poisons.
==========
z.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/48964.htm
by Paul Craig Roberts
Russians are
having a difficult time comprehending their Western enemy or even understanding
that Russia has an enemy that seeks the destruction of Russia.
Has it occured to Russia that it is very strange that the UK, a
country of no military significance, a country that could be completely
destroyed forever in a few minutes by Russia, would concoct false charges
against the Russian government, announce these charges publicly without
providing any evidence whatsoever, bring the unsupported charges to the UN,
issue an ultimatum to Russia, dispel Russian diplomats and seize Russian assets
on the basis of mere allegations, all the while refusing any evidence and any
cooperation with Russia, as required by law, in the investigation of the
charges?
Russians, both government, media and youth brainwashed by American propaganda and the Washington-funded NGOS that the Russian government permits to operate against itself in Russia, seem to think that the many accusations and threats issued against Russia are some kind of mistake that can be rectified by recourse to evidence and law. Apparently, after all these years the Russians still do not understand that Washington and its vassals have no interest whatsoever in facts or law.
==========
z-1.
When Dealing
with a Bear, Hubris is Suicidal
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/48967.htm
by The Saker
Assuming mankind finds a way not to destroy itself in the near future and assuming that there will still be historians in the 22nd or 23rd centuries, I bet you that they will look at the AngloZionist Empire and see the four following characteristics as some of its core features: lies, willful ignorance, hypocrisy, and hysterics. To illustrate my point I will use the recent “Skripal nerve-gas assassination” story as it really encompasses all of these characteristics.
=======
z-2.
The Empty Piety of the American Press
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/48965.htm
by Chris Hedges
The press,
giddy with its newfound sense of mission and purpose, is carrying out a moral
crusade against Donald Trump. The airwaves and print have shed their
traditional claims of “impartiality” and “objectivity.” They fulminate against
Trump, charging—falsely—that he was elected because of Russian interference and calling him a liar, ignorant and incompetent. They give airtime to his
bitterest critics and bizarre associates, such as Omarosa Manigault-Newman, a onetime star of “The Apprentice” and now a fired White House aide, and Stormy
Daniels, the porn actress who says she had a sexual relationship with Trump. It
is great entertainment. It is great for ratings. It is great for profits. But
it is not moral, and it is not journalism.
The empty
piety is a mask for self-interest. It is accompanied by the veneration of the
establishment politicians, generals, intelligence chiefs, corporate heads and
hired apologists who carried out the corporate coup d’état that created our
system of “inverted totalitarianism.” The corporate
structures that have a stranglehold on the country and have overseen
deindustrialization and the evisceration of democratic institutions, plunging
over half the country into chronic poverty and misery, are unassailable. They
are portrayed as forces of progress. The criminals on Wall Street, including
the heads of financial firms such as Goldman Sachs, are treated with reverence.
Free trade is equated with freedom. Democratic politicians such as Barack Obama—who assaulted civil liberties, transferred trillions
of dollars upward to reigning oligarchs, expanded the drone wars to include
targeted assassinations of American citizens, and used the Espionage Act to
silence investigative journalism—are hailed as champions of democracy.
Deference is paid to democratic processes, liberties, electoral politics and
rights enshrined in our Constitution, from due process to privacy, that no
longer exist. It is a vast game of deception under the cover of a vacuous
morality.
Those cast
aside by corporate capitalism—Noam Chomsky calls them “unpeople”—are rendered invisible and reviled at the same time. The
“experts” whose opinions are amplified on every issue, from economics to empire
and politics, are drawn from corporate-funded think tanks, such as the Heritage
Foundation and the American Enterprise Institute, or are former military and
intelligence officials or politicians who are responsible for the failure of
our democracy and usually in the employ of corporations. Cable news also has
the incestuous habit of interviewing its own news celebrities. Former CIA
Director John Brennan, one of many former officials now on the airwaves, has
morphed into a senior national security and intelligence analyst for NBC and
MSNBC. Brennan was the architect of the disastrous attempt to spend hundreds of
millions of dollars to arm “moderate” rebels in Syria, oversaw the huge
expansion of our drone wars and instigated the canard that Russia stole the
last U.S. presidential election. The most astute critics of empire, including Andrew Bacevich, are banished, as are critics of
corporate power, including Ralph Nader and Chomsky. Those who decry the waste
within the military, such as MIT Professor Emeritus Ted Postol,
who has exposed the useless $13 billion anti-ballistic missile program, are
unheard. Advocates of universal health care, such as Dr. Margaret Flowers, are
locked out of national health care debates. There is a long list of the
censored. The acceptable range of opinion is so narrow it is
almost nonexistent.
===========
America's
Phony Middle East Wars
https://www.alternet.org/world/americas-phony-middle-east-wars
by William Astore
While we meddle overseas, our homeland crumbles.
z-4.
Former CIA
Chief Brennan Running Scared
https://consortiumnews.com/2018/03/19/former-cia-chief-brennan-running-scared/
by Ray McGovern
==========
z-5.
An
information apocalypse is coming. How can we protect ourselves?
z-6.
Warming may
spell extinction for iconic wildlife