Bulletin N° 791
We recommend this classic 1957 anti-war film by Stanley Kubrick, based on the novel of the same name by Humphrey Cobb.
"Paths of Glory"
https://www3.fmovies.se/film/paths-of-glory.7jpy/l18jvn
&
https://putlockerfree.video/watch-paths-of-glory-1957-movie-online-free-4029.html
Subject
: and more on War . . . .
27 March 2018
Grenoble, France
Dear Colleagues and Friends of CEIMSA,
If the history of events leading up to the First and
Second World Wars can teach us anything, it is about the paralytic disbelief of la classe dominée in the face of an approaching war; a total
underestimation of the malignant chicanery of the ruling classes who repeatedly
have defended their capitalist interests by initiating wars of mass
destructing that have cost the lives of tens of millions of ordinary people,
while making a small class of capitalist investors fabulously wealthy. The number of
victims in these wars is staggering, and the audacious decision-making process
by military and civilian personnel is mind numbing. This god-like power over
the rest of mankind, who have been culturally eviscerated - rendered passive and
confused by fear and disinformation - is unacceptable!
The threat
of a global conflagration, on the one hand, and the real
thing, on the other, are two different enterprises. The first aims to produce fear and
submission (always within the framework of a profit-seeking enterprise) that will disarm if possible the targeted population of the future foot soldiers; the second
is a morose operation of fratricide
for both the victims and their executioners, which always ends badly for the
99% who have been manipulated to support the killing of one another.
The 26 items below offer CEIMSA readers more
information about ruling class strategies,
tactics and logistics in the expansion of today’s corporate capitalist wars on
poor nations, who signify new investment opportunities to further exploit
“surplus populations”; and about growing
popular resistance to corporate propaganda and psychological
warfare which aims to disarm the designated victims so they will submit to the
imperatives of imperial conquest at home and abroad, and always at a great
cost to their collective well being . . . .
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.
Today we’re in the streets with more
than a million people in the March for Our Lives. We’re following the lead of
young people who say enough. These brave youth are bringing fresh energy to the
resistance and making breakthroughs on common sense gun control that no one
thought was possible just months ago. This bodes well for the struggle ahead.
At
the recent Strategy Summit hosted by the Congressional Progressive Caucus Center,
Chris Shelton, President of the Communications Workers America declared: “The
fight for our country’s future starts with The Resistance, standing up every
day against the petulant, racist, fascist-coddling, phony populist, pro
corporate, lying lunacy that cascades out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue on an
hour-by-hour basis.”
That about sums it up for us. We know what’s wrong. We owe it to
the students leading today’s marches to do something
to make real change happen.
Our
experience on the doors tells us that working people and a governing majority
will stand with us if we share a positive message that really resonates with
them. They want to hear a visionary message about progressive populist politics
-- not just a list of what we are against.
People’s
Action is doing this with our Rise Up: From Protest to Power platform. We are
serious about fighting for racial, gender, economic
and environmental justice that repairs the damage Trump and the Right have done
to our democracy.
+
Millions marched to protest gun violence
and demand reform
https://www.alternet.org/activism/6-best-moments-march-our-lives
+
The Powerful
Silence of the March for Our Lives
Three of the young women who spoke
on Saturday made silence awkward. And shameful. And, in all that, striking.
“One Life Is Worth All the Guns in America”:
Students Demand End to Violence at March for Our Lives
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/3/26/one_life_is_worth_all_the
==========
b.
The U.S. Doubles Down as Empire Declines
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-u-s-doubles-down-as-empire-declines/
by Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese
US
empire is in decline. Reports of the end of the US
being the unitary power in world affairs are common, as are predictions of the
end of US empire. China
surpassed the United States as the world economic leader, according to
Purchasing Power Parity Gross National Product, and Russia
announced new weapons that can overcome the US’ defense systems.
What
is happening in the United States, in response, is to do more of what has been
causing the decline. As the Pentagon outlined in its post-primacy
report, the US’ plan is more money, more aggression and more surveillance.
Congress voted nearly unanimously to give the Pentagon tens of billions more
than it requested. Military spending will now consume 57% of federal
discretionary spending, leaving less for basic necessities. The Trump
administration’s new nominees to the State Department and CIA are a war hawk
and a torturer. And the Democrat’s “Blue Wave” is composed of security state
candidates.
The US
is escalating an arms race with Russia and China. This may create
the mirror image of President Reagan forcing Russia to spend so much on its
military that it aided in the break-up of the Soviet Union. The US economy
cannot handle more military spending, worsening austerity when most
people in the US are in financial distress.
==========
c.
Empire Files: War With North
Korea - Propaganda vs. Reality
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=767&Itemid=74&jumival=21253
On top of overtly
genocidal threats, the Trump Administration has announced new terms: that they
"will never accept a nuclear North Korea." But, the Democratic
Peoples' Republic of Korea already has nuclear weapons. Does that mean a war is
imminent?
==========
d.
US Empire: Global Imperialism and Internal
Colonialism
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/49045.htm
by James Petras
Introduction:
The dynamic of contemporary US imperialism is
built around two structural features: the drive toward global military
expansion, conquest and occupation backed by the intensification of
exploitation of domestic labor and pillage of the domestic economy.
March 21, 2018 "Information
Clearing House" - In this paper we will challenge the notion
that overseas economic exploitation has transferred income to ‘buy-off’ the
domestic working and middle classes, in the course of consolidating imperial
hegemony.
We will argue that the empire is no longer based
on robust overseas growth but rather the empire today is a costly and declining
proposition.
We will proceed to outline the costs of
militarized imperialism and the relative economic decline of the empire.
|
We
will then turn to analyzing how the US imperial state has resorted to
financing the empire though its regressive tax, regulator and budgetary
policies. |
We will conclude by refuting the notion that the
US turn to protectionism will revive the US economic empire.
==========
e.
15 Years. More
Than 1 Million Dead. No One Held Responsible
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/49047.htm
The War in Iraq's latest anniversary passed in all-American
silence.
by Charles P. Pierce
The most tragic
and infuriating piece of writing of the week came in Tuesday’s New York Times. It carried a very plain and
simple headline:
"Fifteen Years Ago, America Destroyed My
Country"
My short visit only confirmed my conviction and fear that the
invasion would spell disaster for Iraqis. Removing Saddam was just a byproduct
of another objective: dismantling the Iraqi state and its institutions. That
state was replaced with a dysfunctional and corrupt semi-state. We were still
filming in Baghdad when L. Paul Bremer III, the head of the Coalition
Provisional Authority, announced the formation of the so-called Governing Council
in July 2003. The names of its members were each followed by their sect and ethnicity.
Many of the Iraqis we spoke to on that day were upset with institutionalization
of an ethno-sectarian quota system. Ethnic and sectarian tensions already
existed, but their translation into political currency was toxic. Those unsavry characters on the governing council, most of whom
were allies of the United States from the preceding decade, went on to loot the
country, making it one of the most corrupt in the world.
Except for Sinan Antoon’s richly deserved jeremiad, the 15th anniversary of
the worst foreign policy disaster in modern American history went sailing by
largely unremarked, at least in this country. After all, over here, everyone
was too busy keeping track of the latest news involving the vulgar talking yam
the country had installed as president, how he was still truckling to Russian
oligarchs, how he was still being run to ground by Bob Mueller, and about how
he was being outwitted and out-lawyered by a lady
from the adult entertainment industry.
+
Light at the End of the Tunnel?
==========
f.
‘Hostiles’
and Hollywood’s Untold Story
https://consortiumnews.com/2018/03/16/26319/
by
Jada Thacker
Hollywood’s
recent attempt to depict Frontier life captures the reality of “hostiles”
shooting various weapons at one another, but the real history is more
interesting, Jada Thacker explains in this essay.
A
theatrical poster for the recent American Western movie “Hostiles” depicts its
principal characters – a Frontier widow, a hardboiled Indian fighter, and an
Indian chief – with a helpful blurb stating the story’s theme with the subtlety
of a striking rattlesnake: “We are all hostiles.”
Some
critics think the movie somehow ought to have been a different one – that it
should have included a bit more of this, or a bit less of that…whatever. Maybe
they have a point. Though it hardly seems fair to ding
“Hostiles” for being an imperfect example of the ideal Frontier fantasy.
But
it is fair to criticize a movie for being a perfect example of a movie genre
that consistently ignores the most essential themes of the American Frontier.
“Hostiles” succeeds brilliantly as the latest addition to a very long list of
movies that focus laser-like attention on hostile Frontier characters, rather
than on the consequences of Frontier hostility.
==========
g.
Has
Russia Had Enough?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/49051.htm
by Paul
Craig Roberts
This
morning I watched a briefing the Russian Foreign Ministry provided for the
diplomatic community where international toxic substances experts presented
information concerning the alleged nerve agent used in the alleged attack on Skripal and his daughter. This information has been known
for some time, and none of it has been reported in the Western presstitute media.
In the
briefing the Russians once again relied on facts and existing agreements that
govern the investigation of such events and asked why the British were
demanding explanations from Russia when the British refuse to comply with
established procedures and refuse to produce any evidence of what the British
allege to have occurred.
The
response from the US and French embassy representatives was simply to state
that they needed no evidence to stand in solidarity with their British friends,
that Russia was guilty by accusation alone, and that they would hold Russia
accountable.
+
“No, Putin Isn’t Bluffing on Nukes”
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/49058.htm
by
Scott Ritter
==========
h.
Pentagon
Admits Missile Defenses Powerless
in
Face of Russian Hypersonic Weapons
In
testimony before the US Senate Armed Services Committee, StratCom commander Gen. John Hyten
struggled to find the right words before admitting that there is
nothing in the US arsenal that could stop Russia's new hypersonic weapons.
"We
have a very difficult – well, our defense is our deterrent capability. We don't
have any defense that could deny the employment of such a weapon
against us, so our response would be our deterrent force, which would be
the triad and the nuclear capabilities that we have to respond
to such a threat," Hyten said, responding
to Senator Jim Inhofe's question about what kind of defense the
US could mount against the threat of hypersonic missiles.
+
US Can't Stop Hypersonic Weapons,
Air Force General Says
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/49043.htm
by Jeanna Bryner
==========
i.
Reformer or War Criminal? Saudi Crown Prince Welcomed in U.S. as Trump Touts
Weapons Deals
https://www.democracynow.org/2018/3/22/reformer_or_war_criminal_saudi_crown
==========
j.
Senate Fails to Stop US Support
for Saudi Attacks on People of Yemen
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/49040.htm
by Alex Ward
The US Will Therefore Continue to Help
Commit War Crimes in Yemen.
A bipartisan effort to end US involvement in a bloody, three-year war in
Yemen failed in a close Senate vote on Tuesday afternoon.
The vote demonstrated growing pushback on
President Donald Trump’s coziness with Riyadh, which is leading the war effort
in Yemen. That same day, the president met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin
Salman, who was visiting Washington during a
country-wide tour. A disparate group of senators — Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Mike
Lee (R-UT), and Chris Murphy (D-CT) — drafted and introduced the resolution
to stop America’s support for the bloodshed. “This is one of the great
humanitarian disasters of our time,” Sanders told Vox
in an interview last week. But the GOP-controlled Senate voted to table — that
is, kill — the resolution that says America shouldn’t
assist Saudi Arabia in its three-year fight against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. By a 55-44 margin, a majority of
Republicans and some Democrats effectively said the US can still help Riyadh,
by refueling
its planes and providing intelligence in the Saudi’s brutal
air campaign.
==========
k.
Illegal
Wars: The New American Way
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-u-s-doubles-down-as-empire-declines/
by Maj. Danny Sjursen
Maj. Danny Sjursen
is a U.S. Army officer and former history instructor at West Point. He served
tours with reconnaissance units in Iraq and Afghanistan...
The
President is authorized to use the Armed Forces of the United States
as he determines to be necessary … in order to …
defend the national security
of the United States against the continuing threat
posed by Iraq. …
—H. J. Res 114 (107th):
Authorization for the Use of Military Force Against
Iraq, Oct. 18, 2002
It’s all so obvious to a detached
observer. Nonetheless, it remains unspoken. The United States of America is
waging several wars with dubious legal sanction in domestic or international
law. The U.S. military stands astride the Greater Mideast region on behalf of
an increasingly rogue-like regime in Washington, D.C. Worse still,
this isn’t a Donald Trump problem, per se. No, three successive
administrations—Democratic and Republican—have widened the scope of a global
“war” on a tactic (terror), on the basis of two at best vague, and at worst
extralegal, congressional authorizations for the use of force (AUMF). Indeed,
the U.S. is veritably addicted
to waging undeclared, unwinnable wars with unconvincing legal sanction.
==========
l.
Chomsky: 'The Republican Party Is the Most Dangerous
Organization in Human History'
https://www.alternet.org/visions/chomsky-republican-party-most-dangerous-organization-human-history
by Lynn Stuart Parramore
The renowned linguist and cognitive
scientist on where we stand as an economy, as a country, and as human beings.
==========
m.
Meet The Man Behind Cambridge
Analytica, Who Made Trump President
(video)
This is the story of
Robert Mercer, the far-right billionaire that is a major investor in Cambridge Analytica that data scrubbed Facebook
for Trump, brought Bannon to the White House, and
made his daughter the major owner of Breitbart News
and board member of Cambridge Analytica
==========
n.
The Untold Story of John
Bolton’s Campaign
for War With Iran
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/49062.htm
by
Gareth Porter
“Everyone knows Bolton is a hawk. Less understood is how he
labored in secret to drive Washington and Tehran apart.”
In my reporting on U.S.-Israeli policy, I have tracked
numerous episodes in which the United States and/or Israel made moves that
seemed to indicate preparations for war against Iran. Each time—in 2007,
in 2008,
and again in 2011—those moves, presented in corporate media as presaging
attacks on Tehran, were actually bluffs aimed at putting pressure on the
Iranian government.
But the strong likelihood that Donald Trump will now choose
John Bolton as his next national security advisor creates a prospect of war
with Iran that is very real. Bolton is no ordinary neoconservative hawk. He has
been obsessed for many years with going to war against the Islamic Republic,
calling repeatedly for bombing Iran in his regular appearances on Fox News,
without the slightest indication that he understands the consequences of such a
policy.
==========
o.
The Russian Military Warns:
a Major War in
Syria Is Imminent
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/49056.htm
by Arkady Savitsky
“Experience
has shown that the US will strike first and think about explanations later.”
On March 17, the Russian General Staff warned about an
imminent attack on Syria. The statement did not elaborate. Of course, some
information is classified but an independent and impartial analysis of publicly
available information leads one to the same conclusion. Let’s look at the
facts.
There are warships deployed by US Navy in the Red Sea, the
Mediterranean, and the Persian Gulf. They are ready to launch roughly 400
long-range Tomahawks against a target in the Middle East on any given day.
Sea-launched cruise missiles were used to strike Syria in April. Anything that
is at all related to the military operations on the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean is
hush-hush information, but it’s an open secret that the strategic bombers based
there can launch at least a hundred cruise missiles and then use other
high-precision munitions in a follow-up attack. On average, one bomber carries
20 AGM-86
ALCMs. Five bombers are believed to be normally stationed on this island
that is off-limits to inquisitive outsiders. This means that at least 500
cruise missiles can be fired on short notice.
==========
p.
Paul Craig Roberts: Can Nuclear War Be Avoided?
https://southfront.org/paul-craig-roberts-can-nuclear-war-avoided/
by Paul Craig Roberts
Two
factors are driving the world to nuclear war. One is the constant stream of
insults, false accusations and broken agreements that the West has been dumping
on Russia year after year. The other is Russia’s response, or, perhaps more
correctly, the lack thereof. Articles documenting Washington’s betrayals and
provocations of Russia are available online and on my website. There is no
point in repeating them here. I have pointed out that the Russian government’s
factual, diplomatic, and legal responses actually produce more provocations and
insults. See, for example, https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2018/03/17/war-is-on-the-horizon/
Stephen Lendman agrees (http://stephenlendman.org/2018/03/russia-expelling-23-uk-diplomats-way-inadequate/
) and so does Peter Koenig ( https://thesaker.is/russias-reaction-to-the-insults-of-the-west-is-political-suicide/
).
Russia
has two alternatives to the self-defeating response the government has chosen.
One, recommended by Peter Koenig and myself, is to turn her back on the West,
cleanse herself of all Western embassies, businesses, media, and NGOs, and
cease relying on Western communication systems and bank clearing mechanisms.
The West has nothing Russia needs. The West is exhausted and corrupt. The
future lies in the East of which Russia is a part. Russia should focus on the
partnership with China and relationships in the East and simply stop responding
to blatantly false accusations and provocative insults.
Russia
can be part of the West only if Russia surrenders to Washington’s hegemony. One
would have thought that by now the Russian government would have figured out
that Washington is determined to marginalize and isolate Russia, discredit
Russia’s government, dislodge Putin and install a puppet like May, Macron, and
Merkel, and failing these efforts to push Russia to the point that her only
alternatives are to surrender or go to war.
==========
q.
The Central Bank Bubble's
Bursting:
It Will Be Ugly
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-03-21/central-bank-bubbles-bursting-it-will-be-ugly
by Tyler Durden
Central
Banks over the last decade simply created credit out of thin air. Snap a
finger, and credit magically appears. Only central banks can perform this type
of credit magic. It’s called printing money and they have gone on the record
saying they are magic people.
The global economy has been living through a period of central bank
insanity, thanks to a little-understood
expansion strategy known as quantitative easing, which has destroyed
main-street and benefitted wall street.
==========
r.
China
urges U.S. away from 'brink'
as
Trump picks trade weapons
by Ryan Woo, Adam Jourdan
“China
doesn’t hope to be in a trade war, but is not afraid of engaging in one,” the
Chinese commerce ministry responded in a statement.
==========
s.
China
warns U.S. it will defend own trade interests
FILE PHOTO: Containers are seen at the Yangshan
Deep Water Port, part of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, in Shanghai, China
February 13, 2017. REUTERS/Aly Song
by Ryan Woo, Hallie
Gu
The
United States has flouted trade rules with an inquiry into intellectual
property and China will defend its interests, Vice Premier Liu He told U.S.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a telephone call
on Saturday, Chinese state media reported. The call between Mnuchin
and Liu, a confidante of President Xi Jinping, was
the highest-level contact between the two governments since U.S. President
Donald Trump announced plans for tariffs on up to $60 billion of Chinese goods
on Thursday.
The deepening rift has sent a chill
through financial markets and the corporate world as investors predicted dire
consequences for the global economy should trade barriers start going up.
Several U.S. chief executives attending a high-profile forum in Beijing on
Saturday, including BlackRock Inc’s Larry Fink and
Apple Inc’s Tim Cook, urged restraint. In his call with Mnuchin,
Liu, a Harvard-trained economist, said China still hoped both sides would
remain “rational” and work together to keep trade relations stable, the official
Xinhua news agency reported
==========
t.
US
warship triggers fury in Beijing after sailing near to disputed South China Sea
islands
by Chris Baynes
American
navy accused of 'serious political and military provocation'
==========
u.
As
Facebook Ire Grows, Senator Says Zuckerberg
"Ought
to Be Subpoenaed"
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg delivers the keynote address at Facebook's F8 Developer Conference on April 18, 2017, at McEnery Convention Center in San Jose, California. (Photo: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)
b
As the damning details of Facebook's
largest-ever data breach at the hands of pro-Trump data firm Cambridge Analytica continue to pour in -- and as the social media giant's share price continues to plummet as a result -- Sen.
Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) on Monday called on CEO Mark Zuckerberg
to "testify under oath" before Congress to explain why his
company took so long to notify users that their information had been
compromised. "Zuckerberg ought to be subpoenaed
to testify if he won't do it voluntarily," Blumenthal, a member of the
Senate Judiciary Committee, told reporters late Monday, echoing demands of other lawmakers. "He owes it to the
American people who ought to be deeply disappointed by the conflicting and
disparate explanations that have been offered."
+
The
Mind-Benders: How to Harvest Facebook Data, Brainwash
Voters, and Swing Elections
==========
v.
The Rise of the Weaponized
AI Propaganda Machine
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/49060.htm
by Anderson and Brett Horvath, Illustration by Cody Fitzgerald
There’s
a new automated propaganda machine driving global politics. How it works and
what it will mean for the future of democracy.
March 22, 2018 "Information Clearing House"
- “This is a
propaganda machine. It’s targeting people individually to recruit them to an
idea. It’s a level of social engineering that I’ve never seen before. They’re
capturing people and then keeping them on an emotional leash and never letting
them go,”
said professor Jonathan Albright.
Albright, an assistant professor and data scientist at Elon University, started digging into fake news sites after
Donald Trump was elected president. Through extensive research and interviews
with Albright and other key experts in the field, including Samuel Woolley,
Head of Research at Oxford University’s Computational Propaganda Project, and
Martin Moore, Director of the Centre for the Study of Media, Communication and
Power at Kings College, it became clear to Scout that this phenomenon was about
much more than just a few fake news stories. It was a piece of a much bigger
and darker puzzle — a Weaponized AI Propaganda
Machine being used to manipulate our opinions and behavior to advance specific
political agendas.
By leveraging automated emotional manipulation alongside
swarms of bots, Facebook dark posts, A/B testing, and
fake news networks, a company called Cambridge Analytica
has activated an invisible machine that preys on the personalities of
individual voters to create large shifts in public opinion. Many of these
technologies have been used individually to some effect before, but together
they make up a nearly impenetrable voter manipulation machine that is quickly
becoming the new deciding factor in elections around the world.
Most recently, Analytica helped
elect U.S. President Donald Trump, secured a win for the Brexit
Leave campaign, and led Ted Cruz’s 2016 campaign surge, shepherding him from
the back of the GOP primary pack to the front.
==========
w.
Paul Jay On The Trump
Administration: One of the Most Dangerous Times in Human History
(Interview on Ausust 25,
2017)
Comment: “I think the (place?) we call "America" is finished. I mean, the
remnants of what once was will still be here...but it'll start looking more and
more like how Mexico has functioned for the last 110 years or more. In Mexico,
rich, white, Europeans and their descendents have systematically suppressed any
form of social, economic, and/or political advances of and/or for the
indigenous people (which, by the way, is most of the population of Mexico mind
you) of Mexico. Meanwhile, U.S. Neo-Cons/Corporatados/politicians
(a.k.a. The Club) force NAFTA down the throats of the poor, working
poor, and working class of Mexico...and a few short years later... subsequently
also forcing CAFTA down the throats of the poor, working poor, and the working
class of the Central American countries destroying the livelihoods of millions
of people.
“Then,
bigoted, and might I mention, poorly educated white, working class
"Americans" who also are misled by the corporate, Wall Street traded
(news?) companies who spew disinformation in the form of political and
religious propaganda, guide these unaware consumer zombies to repetitively spew
the lies of their corporate mind/thought/opinion
controlling masters like the caged parrots they are when more and more
disenfranchised (and literally terrorized) unemployed "Latinos"
immigrate to "El Norte" (for those of you who don't understand
Spanish: The North...a.k.a. the U.S.A.) in order to find work so they can
live...and feed their families.”
==========
x.
From: Mark Crispin Miller
Sent: Thursday, 22 March, 2018
Subject: [MCM] Who's been making chemical
weapons in East Ghouta? The world's "free
press" won't say....
A must-read article.
MCM
"Moving into the East Ghouta
village of Al Shiffuniyya in the past few days, the
Syrian army found a chemical weapons factory abandoned by Jaish
al Islam. The material includes shelves loaded with bottles of chemicals,
rows of plastic barrels, what seemed to be an underground mixing chamber, a
large metal drum with the manufacturer’s logo stamped on the side (‘Hill-Rom Mediplus Air Plant’), a sheaf of dockets bearing the logo
of Jaish al Islam and what seemed to be instructions
for the mixing of chemicals. Founded in 1829 the Hill-Rom company
manufactures medical equipment under the slogan ‘Bring home into the
hospital.’ How its products (other machines bore the company’s name)
ended up in East Ghouta is
an obvious question, to which the answer might lie in Hill-Rom’s operations in
Saudi Arabia, the chief backer of Jaish al Islam.
"Foreign reporters were present in
East Ghouta to report on the opening of the
‘humanitarian corridor.’ None seemed to have responded to the Syrian
government’s invitation to visit Al Shiffunia. Sharmine
Narwani went and duly reported on what she saw in the
factory, as well as the lush crops being grown outside in what is
supposed to be a food-starved region under siege: Sharmine
Narwani, Vanessa Beeley and Eva Bartlett, with their reporting and
commentary, have completely exposed the fraudulent nature of mainstream
‘reporting’ on the crisis in Syria. The list of corporate media outlets which
completely ignored this hard evidence of the manufacture of chemical weapons
included the following, in no particular order, according to a survey of their
internet sites: Al Jazeera, Washington
Post, the New York Times, the BBC, the Guardian, the ABC network (the
US) and the ABC (Australia), CNN, CBC (Canada) and the Daily
Telegraph (London)."
All The Shit That’s Fit to Print against Syria and Russia
https://ahtribune.com/world/north-africa-south-west-asia/syria-crisis/2182-skirpal-east-ghouta.html
by
Jeremy Salt
==========
y.
Hillary
Clinton and the Brutal Murder of Gaddafi
https://www.counterpunch.org/2016/10/21/hillary-clinton-and-the-brutal-murder-of-qaddafi/
On
October 20, 2011, Libya’s Muammar al-Gaddafi was brutally murdered by a mob of
NATO-backed ‘rebels’, after first being beaten and violated in the most
barbaric fashion. History leaves no doubt that not only was the Libyan leader
murdered on this day but Libya itself.
The
regime-change crew who dominate Western governments
have a long indictment sheet against their names. Since 9/11 they have wrought
havoc and human misery on a grand scale in their determination to reshape and
own a world that has never been theirs to own. Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya – Syria
currently embroiled in a pitiless conflict for its survival as a secular,
non-sectarian state – this is the miserable legacy of nations which speak the
language of democracy while practising the politics
of domination.
Of
the aforementioned victims of Western imperialism, there is a strong argument
to be made that Libya’s destruction constitutes an especially grievous crime.
After all, in 2010, the year before it experienced its ‘revolution’, the United
Nations Development Programme considered Libya
a high development country in the Middle East and North Africa. In concrete
terms this status translated to a literacy rate of 88.4%, a life expectancy of
74.5 years, gender equality, and various other positive indicators. In
addition, Libya enjoyed 4.2% economic growth in 2010 and could boast of foreign
assets in excess of $150 billion.
==========
z.
On Being
Demonized in Your Own Country
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/on-being-demonized-in-your-own-country/
Understand
this: I’m an American veteran. I’m also a Muslim-American in a country in
which, in these years, that hasn’t exactly been the happiest category to fall
into. Now, let me tell you a little story.
Recently,
I had an ominous dream. It was noon on a grey, cold January 20th, 2020, and
Donald Trump was being sworn in for his second term as president. Massive
inaugural crowds cheered him exuberantly as a gentle snow fell upon a sea of
MAGA red-hats and TRUMP banners waving in front of the Capitol.
In
my dream, however, the Capitol wasn’t quite the same as I remembered it from my
days stationed there as a young Navy sailor. It seemed almost war-torn as
clouds of dark smoke billowed up on the horizon and the sound of gunfire could
be heard somewhere in the distance. In my dream — don’t ask me how — I could
also hear the terror-filled voices of people screaming or crying out for help
as ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents, clad in black uniforms,
stormed local Washington homes and businesses, arresting people and loading
them onto large unmarked cargo trucks.