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The Middle East at an inflection point

BY M. K. BHADRAKUMAR | INDIAN PUNCHLINE | NOVEMBER 28, 2023 

It has been a perennial hope and expectation that Israel would abandon the path of repression, colonisation and apartheid as state policies and instead accept a negotiated settlement of the Palestine problem under pressure from its patron, mentor, guide and guardian — the United States. But that  proved delusional and the remains of the day is a chronicle of dashed hopes and hypocrisy. The big question today is whether a paradigm shift is possible. That is also the dilemma facing US President Joe Biden at 80.  

History shows that while catastrophic events have myriad negative effects, positive effects are also possible, especially in the long term. The French-German reconciliation after two world wars is, perhaps, the finest example in modern history, and it planted the germane seeds of the European integration project. Certainly, the collapse of the Soviet Union gave impetus to the Sino-Russian rapprochement, which morphed into a “no limit” partnership.

However, for such miracles to happen, visionary leadership is needed. Jean Monnet and Konrad Adenauer were indeed political visionaries — and, in a different sort of way, the two consummate pragmatists Boris Yeltsin and Jiang Zemin were as well. 

Does it look as if Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu belong to that pantheon? When Biden met with Netanyahu and his war cabinet in Tel Aviv on October 18, he assured them: “I don’t believe you have to be a Jew to be a Zionist, and I am a Zionist.” Therein lies the paradox. For, how could you possibly be an Irish Catholic and a Zionist at the same time? Sinn Féin, which is on course to top Ireland’s next election, is embracing Palestinians and condemning Israel. Of course, there are no surprises here.

Biden is torn between conflicting faiths. Suffice to say, when Biden speaks about a two-state solution, it becomes hard to believe him. On Netanyahu’s part, at least, he doesn’t even feel the need to pay lip service to a two-state solution, after having systematically buried the Oslo Accord and embarked on the journey towards a Jewish theocracy in what was once the state of Israel. Make no mistake, Greater Israel is here to stay and the world opinion regards it as an apartheid state. 

There is a great misconception that Biden is under pressure from American opinion on the conflict in Gaza. But the fact of the matter is that support for Israel has all along been rather thin in America and had it not been for the Israel Lobby, it would have probably ceased a long time ago. Curiously, something like one third of American Jews, especially the youth, don’t even care for the Israel Lobby. 

That said, it is also a fact that Americans have generally a favourable opinion about Israel. Their problem is really about Israel’s aggressive policies — this is despite the absence of any open media or academic discussion in the US regarding the state repression of Palestinians or the colonisation of West Bank. 

A defining moment came when Netanyahu taunted and humiliated President Barack Obama on the Iran nuclear deal by consorting with the Congress against the presidency in an audacious attempt to derail the negotiations with Tehran. 

In recent years, Israel’s image has been tarnished in liberal opinion following the ascendance of right-wing forces and the overtones of racist attitudes including among Israeli youth. Indeed, Israel has been an increasingly illiberal country even toward its own citizens. Due to such factors, Americans no longer take an idealised view of Israel as a morally upright country battling for existence.    

Meanwhile, there has been a marked erosion of support for Israel within the Democratic Party. But this needs to be put in perspective, for, there has been a countervailing rise in  support for Israel among Republicans. Thus, although “bilateral consensus” on Israel is dissipating, paradoxically, the Israel Lobby still wields influence. 

That is because the Israel Lobby traditionally didn’t much pay attention to rank and file Americans but instead focused on the power brokers and indeed worked hard to shore up their support. Therefore, it must be understood that what Biden cannot but factor in is that the elites in the Democratic Party establishment remain deeply committed to relations with Israel although the support within the party for Israeli policies may have waned and American opinion finds the bestiality of Israeli conduct in Gaza revolting. 

The elites fear that the Lobby will target them if there are any signs of them wavering in their support for Israel. Put differently, the political elites do not place American national interests above their own personal or career interests. Thus, the Israel Lobby always wins on the Palestinian issue and in extracting generous financial support for Israel with no strings attached. Make no mistake that the Lobby will go to any extent to have its way whenever the crunch time comes, such as today.  

Biden is hardly in a position to displease or annoy the Israel Lobby on a day of reckoning. So, why is he making big promises to President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi of Egypt that “under no circumstances will the United States permit the forced relocation of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank, or the besiegement of Gaza, or the redrawing of the borders of Gaza”? 

The answer is simple: these are fait accompli that have been forced upon the US and Israel by the Arab States in their finest hour of collective security, none of whom is willing to legitimise Israel’s genocide or its roadmap of ethnic cleansing. Didn’t even little Jordan say ‘no’ to Biden?

Biden is making hollow promises. In reality, what matters is that the Israel Lobby will go to extraordinary lengths to protect the emerging Greater Israel. Again, it costs Biden nothing by affirming support for a two-state solution. He knows it will be aeons before such a vision takes life, if at all, and if South Africa’s experience is anything to go by, the journey will be fraught with much bloodshed. 

Most important, Biden knows that Israel will not accept a two-state solution as per the Arab Initiative crafted by Saudi Arabia’s King  Abdullah, which is a finely balanced matrix of mutual interests with an historical and long term perspective. In an historic speech addressing the Arab League on the day of its adoption, then Crown Prince Abdullah said with great prescience: “In spite of all that has happened and what still may happen, the primary issue in the heart and mind of every person in our Arab Islamic nation is the restoration of legitimate rights in Palestine, Syria and Lebanon.”

The high probability is that Israel will hunker down with the help of its Lobby in the US and would rather prefer to be a Pariah in the world community, to a two-state solution that demands abandonment of the  Zionist state built around Greater Israel. The only game changer could be if Biden is willing to make the US force its will on Israel — through coercive means, if necessary.

But that requires the courage of conviction and a rare ingredient in politics — compassion. Biden’s hugely successful half century in public life was almost entirely devoted to realpolitik and there are no traces of conviction or compassion in it. A legacy cannot be built on ephemeral considerations and expediency. 

November 28, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , | 3 Comments

Americans don’t want to keep funding Ukraine – congresswoman

RT | November 28, 2023

Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has said that any spending bill pairing US border security with more military aid for Ukraine amid the conflict with Russia would be “a slap in the face” of the American people.

US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced on Sunday that he will hold a vote on President Joe Biden’s request for $106 billion in military assistance for Ukraine and Israel during the first week of December.

The Biden administration has so far failed to push through its supplementary ‘national security’ proposal, with Schumer saying that “the biggest holdup” is opposition from the Republicans, who insist that additional aid to Kiev should be combined with funding for security on the US-Mexico border.

“Our border is the worst national security crisis in US history,” Greene wrote on X on Tuesday. According to AP, illegal crossings on the US-Mexico border surpassed a daily average of more than 8,000 people in September. However, the flow has subsided by around 14% since then.

“Ukraine is not the 51st state,” she said. “US border security should not be paired with funding for the losing war in Ukraine.”

The congresswoman slammed the Democratic Party for resisting the Republican push for more spending and increased security on the border. “Democrats want the daily invasion into America, they don’t want to fix it,” she wrote.

“Americans do not support the war in Ukraine and don’t want to continue funding Ukraine,” Greene said. “So any bill pairing our own border security with more billions for Ukraine is a slap in the face to the American people.”

The Biden administration has provided Ukraine with more than $76 billion in military and other assistance since the start of the conflict between Moscow and Kiev in February 2022. However, it has recently said that the money is running out, as some Republicans refuse to back any new aid packages for Ukraine. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who visited Kiev last week, announced a new tranche of arms and ammunition worth just $100 million.

READ MORE: Origin of US weaponry used by Hamas must be investigated – congresswoman
The US public also appears be souring on support for Ukraine, with a recent poll AP-NORC showing that around 45% of Americans believe that Washington is sending too much money to Kiev.

November 28, 2023 Posted by | Corruption, Militarism | , | Leave a comment

It pays to be friends with Zelensky: $75m yachts reveal sudden wealth of the Ukrainian leader’s inner circle

In the Midst of Brutal War: Extravagance and Proxy Intrigues Ignite Global Outrage

By Andrei Datsyuk | The Islander | November 21, 2023

In the heart of Eastern Europe, where the tumult of war clashes with the allure of Western support, a seismic scandal unfolds, casting a long shadow over Ukraine’s leadership. President Volodymyr Zelensky, once seen as a beacon of hope against corruption, is now ensnared in a scandal involving the alleged purchase of two luxury yachts, “Lucky Me” and “My Legacy,” worth a combined $75 million. This lavish expenditure, facilitated in the opulent settings of Abu Dhabi and Antibes, starkly contrasts with Ukraine’s dire war reality and raises damning questions about the integrity and criminal liability of its leadership amidst heavy reliance on Western aid.

In a striking expose, an independent journalistic inquiry has brought to light an egregious display of opulence by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s closest associates. Boris and Serhiy Shefir, two of Zelenskyy’s confidants, have been implicated in the purchase of two ultra -luxury yachts, with a jaw-dropping combined cost of $75 million. These purchases, completed in October 2023 in Abu Dhabi and Antibes, raise severe concerns about corruption at the highest levels of Ukrainian leadership. The extravagance is particularly alarming given the context: these funds, likely derived from Western aid allocated for Ukraine’s war effort against Russia, appear to have been diverted for personal luxury, highlighting a disturbing (criminal) misallocation of resources intended for the nation’s defence.

Journalist Shahzad Nasir, in a revealing video exposé, has brought to light a scandalous facet of corruption within the Ukrainian leadership at the absolute highest levels:

An explosive expose has brought to light allegations of massive corruption at the highest levels of Ukraine’s leadership

The Ukrainian leadership’s reputation has been further marred by a recent corruption scandal involving high-ranking military officials. Key army chiefs have been caught misusing US aid, intended for the nation’s defense, to indulge in extravagant purchases of luxury vehicles and properties in Spain. This egregious misuse of funds starkly contrasts with the plight of Ukrainian soldiers facing ammunition shortages on the frontlines. President Zelensky’s response, firing these officials, appears as a belated effort to address corruption. This pattern of corruption, increasingly visible to the public, points to a troubling common denominator: the Zelensky administration. This revelation challenges the integrity of Ukraine’s governance in a time of crisis, casting a shadow over Zelensky’s leadership.

The juxtaposition of Zelensky’s associates’ extravagant yacht purchases with the corruption scandal in Ukraine’s military casts a glaring light on a pattern of corruption and misallocation at the heart of the nation’s governance. Amidst the backdrop of brutal war, these revelations not only underscore a profound disconnect in Ukraine’s leadership but also hint at a systemic graft, where the nation’s resources and Western aid are diverted for personal gain at a time when national solidarity, unity and responsible leadership are desperately needed.

Boris and Serhiy Shefir, emerging from the same roots as President Zelensky, have risen to prominence and power. Born in the same city as Zelensky, Kryvyi Rih, they share a bond that transcends the professional; a camaraderie rooted in shared experiences and a collective rise to prominence through the “Kvartal-95 studio.” However, their proximity to power and recent indulgence in lavish lifestyles, amidst the grim realities of a nation ripped apart by an unnecessary war, a war provoked by Ukraine via its master in Washington, raises grave questions about corruption and misallocation within Ukraine’s elite. This ostentatious display of wealth, in stark contrast to the country’s dire needs, highlights the troubling nexus of personal enrichment and power in Ukrainian politics, where the welfare of the nation is seemingly secondary to the luxuries of the few.

“Lucky Me” Purchase Documents
“My Legacy” Purchase Documents

Appointed as the first assistant to President Zelenskyy in 2019, Serhiy Shefir’s deeper entanglement in Zelenskyy’s covert financial dealings soon came to light. Investigative reports by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project unveiled Shefir’s pivotal role in managing Zelenskyy’s offshore network, spanning the British Virgin Islands, Cyprus, and Belize. This web of deceit, exposed by the Pandora’s Archives, revealed Shefir as the clandestine custodian of Zelenskyy’s wealth, executing high-value property purchases in London. Notably, Shefir acquired a lavish three-bedroom apartment on Glenworth Street and a luxurious two-bedroom flat in Chalfont Court, totaling over £3.78 million ($5.78 million). These revelations, too significant for even Kiev-aligned Ukrainian media to ignore, underscore a staggering level of corruption, implicating the highest echelons of Ukrainian leadership in a scandalous misuse of power and wealth.

Ukraine’s chronic struggle with corruption is deeply rooted in its history. The oligarchic power structures have long cast a shadow over the nation’s governance, epitomized by the infamous Burisma scandal and the contentious dismissal of Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, allegedly to protect Hunter Biden. This particular episode underscores the intricate web of political power and corporate interests in Ukraine, igniting international scrutiny and raising critical questions about external influences on the country’s legal and judicial processes. These ongoing issues of systemic corruption erode both domestic confidence and international trust in Ukraine’s institutions.

The lavish lifestyles and controversial financial dealings of President Zelensky and his associates have cast a shadow over Ukraine’s already fragile trust in governance. This juxtaposition of opulent yacht purchases and unchecked personal spending amid Ukraine’s reliance on Western aid paints a grim picture of leadership. The implications of this misallocated aid extend beyond Ukraine’s borders, stirring unrest in the Middle East and spotlighting the interconnectedness of Ukraine’s internal politics with global geopolitical dynamics.

The recent shopping extravaganza by Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska in New York City amplifies concerns over the misuse of American aid. These actions not only raise questions about the ethical conduct of Ukraine’s first family but also signal the potential role of Ukrainian corruption in fuelling regional instability. This crisis transcends national boundaries, posing a significant challenge to global stability and the fight against corruption.

As Ukraine endures the horrors of war, with over half a million lives lost in an unnecessary conflict, the populace struggles for daily survival. In stark contrast, their leaders, basking in luxury, exhibit an alarming indifference. The yachts “Lucky Me” and “My Legacy” serve as a poignant emblem of this leadership’s blatant disconnect from the nation’s suffering. At this pivotal moment, Ukraine faces a crucial decision: embrace democratic ideals and tackle corruption, or persist on a path where power and luxury eclipse the urgent needs of a nation in agony. This choice will not only dictate Ukraine’s future but also mirror its dedication to the democratic principles it professes, amidst a climate of contempt and apathy from its rulers. Reports like these fuelling righteous anger don’t bode well for Zelensky as he clings to power amid swirling rumours of coups, underscoring the volatile and uncertain nature of his tenure.

November 28, 2023 Posted by | Corruption, Deception | | Leave a comment

After Hungary rejects billions in aid to Ukraine, European Council President flies to Budapest to meet with Orbán

Magyar Nemzet | November 28, 2023

European Council President Charles Michel flew to Budapest on Monday in an attempt to smooth over current disagreements with Hungary, reports daily Magyar Nemzet.

On the European Council agenda, there are three summits in December: one with China on Dec. 7, one on the Western Balkans on Dec. 13, and on the heels of the second, the European Council proper summit from Dec. 14 to Dec. 15. This last is the one that will be the most critical, with aid to Ukraine and the country’s potential EU membership topping the agenda.

Neither side revealed details of the two-hour meeting: Prime Minister Viktor Orbán only posted a handshake image with Michel, with the laconic text: “Useful consultations ahead of the December EU summit with the president of the European Council.”

However, political analyst Zoltán Kiszelly told daily Magyar Nemzet that the meeting probably revolved around a letter from Viktor Orbán, in which the prime minister wrote that until a strategic evaluation of aid to Ukraine is carried out, his country is not ready to make new commitments.

“So, we should not rush into Ukraine’s admission negotiations or the €50 billion loan without an impact assessment, and the heads of state and government who make the fundamental decisions have not discussed this,” Kiszelly said.

According to him, Michel knows that if the strategic debate were to take place and the case studies were to be carried out, it would become clear that Kyiv cannot even account for the €85 billion it has so far spent on Ukraine. It would also turn out that, in the case of membership, Ukraine would take everything in agricultural or cohesion aid and most EU member states would become contributors.

“This is what Brussels wants to avoid,” Kiszelly said.

“The more details the European public learns, the less they would support Brussels’ ambitions. And we see everyone from Dutch farmers to Polish truckers protesting against Ukraine. The Brussels elite is imposing the consequences of its decisions on the people of Europe,” he added.

The European Commission is racing to push Ukraine into the EU, and disburse ever higher sums of money to a non-EU member state. Hungary, in turn, has been denied €10.4 billion in EU recovery funds that had been earmarked for the country over alleged rule of law violations.

November 28, 2023 Posted by | Economics | , , | 1 Comment

Main National TV Station Pumps INSANE Propaganda

Ivor Cummins | November 20, 2023

Our National main TV station just aired an INSANE piece of WEF/UN-style propaganda – it’s a parody of itself! Nonetheless I have a great time taking it down hardcore ;-) Please share widely – you can download vid here too, to share elsewhere: https://we.tl/t-ul4uOAkqMg

NOTE: My extensive research and interviewing / video/sound editing, business travel and much more does require support – please consider helping if you can with monthly donation to support me directly, or one-off payment: https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=69ZSTYXBMCN3W

– alternatively join up with my Patreon – exclusive Vlogs/content and monthly zoom meetings with the second tier upwards: https://www.patreon.com/IvorCummins

November 28, 2023 Posted by | Deception, Fake News, Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Malthusian Ideology, Phony Scarcity, Science and Pseudo-Science, Video | | Leave a comment

Israel must stand trial for committing ‘4 core international crimes’ in Gaza: Iran deputy FM

Press TV – November 27, 2023

An Iranian deputy foreign minister says the Israeli regime should be brought to justice for all four core international crimes it committed against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip during its latest large-scale military operation.

Reza Najafi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, made the remarks in the 28th session of the Conference of the States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention in The Hague, the Netherlands, on Monday.

“During the past eight weeks, the Israeli regime has committed all four core international crimes, namely genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression repeatedly and concurrently,” he said.

“This entails the international responsibility of the Israeli regime and its supporters as well as the individual criminal responsibility of all those who ordered and committed such crimes or facilitated, aided and abetted their commission, including by providing the required means,” he added.

The senior Iranian diplomat emphasized that all those responsible for the crimes against the Gazans shall be held to account and be brought to justice.

Since the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza on October 7, more than 15,000 Palestinian civilians have been killed only in Gaza while over 6,000 are still missing and more than 36,000 are wounded, Najafi said, adding that over 70 percent of those killed, missing or wounded are women and children.

He reiterated that in addition to these figures, the “horrifying” reports and “heart-breaking” images of Israel’s barbaric invasion once again revealed, clearly and undeniably, the very “murderous” nature of the regime which possesses weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), including chemical weapons in its stockpiles.

Najafi emphasized that Israel’s crimes along with a call by a regime’s minister for dropping even a nuclear bomb on the Gaza Strip once again proved the serious danger of the Israeli chemical weapons for the regional and international peace and security.

He stressed the importance of making every effort for the speedy universalization of the Chemical Weapons Convention, particularly by compelling the Israeli regime to join it without any precondition or further delay.

Israel is the sole possessor of nukes in the Middle East. The regime, which pursues a policy of deliberate ambiguity about its nuclear weapons, is estimated to possess 200 to 400 nuclear warheads in its arsenal.

Unlike Iran, Israel has not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and continues its unsupervised nuclear activities with the support of the United States and European countries.

November 27, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Timeless or most popular, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

Palestinian surgeon recounts ordeal following Israel’s use of white phosphorus, incendiary bombs in Gaza

Press TV – November 27, 2023

A British-Palestinian surgeon has recounted harrowing healthcare-related ordeals the Palestinian civilians went through during Israel’s onslaught on the besieged Gaza Strip, which was initiated after Palestinian resistance groups launched Operation al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity, the largest retaliatory attack in decades.

Professor Ghassan Abu Sitta, who traveled with Doctors Without Borders via Egypt to Gaza on 9 October to work in the besieged territory’s hospitals as a surgeon, said in a press conference in London on Monday that he had seen evidence of war crimes, including the use of white phosphorus on civilians.

Sitta, who worked in both al-Shifa and al-Ahli hospitals in Gaza, said fragmentary missiles were used by the Israeli occupation army to attack Gaza, causing unique injury patterns and amputations.

At the burns unit in al-Shifa Hospital, he said, some 40 to 45 percent of the wounded were children and the primary target of the Israeli bombing was residential homes.

Stressing that incendiary bombs were used against Palestinian civilians, Sitta said he treated 100 patients with 40% of their body surface area burnt but no other injuries.

“Phosphorus burns burn through to the inner core of the body and only stop when they have no exposure to oxygen,” he added. “So the patient would be puckered with burns that bore right into the ribs, the bones.”

The British-Palestinian surgeon said he “increasingly” saw white phosphorous burn wounds while he worked in the besieged Gaza Strip.

“When the land invasion happened, we started getting patients increasingly from the north with white phosphorous burns,” Sitta told reporters. “Once you’ve seen them you know what they are. The flesh of these patients turns to Swiss cheese, with black burns from phosphorous pellets.”

Sitta underlined that a 15-year-old boy was “showered” with pellets of white phosphorous while running away which left his back with chemical burns.

Israel ‘deliberately’ targets civilians

Speaking at the press conference, the surgeon said the Israeli military “deliberately” targeted civilians in schools, hospitals and places of worship.

“Patients reported the wiping out of entire families and have described them as massacres,” he said, adding that there were between 700 and 900 children with amputations by day five of their visit to Gaza.

Sitta said he had witnessed Palestinian casualties shot by snipers in Gaza and that necessity had forced them to conduct several surgeries without anesthesia, including one on a nine-year-old girl.

At a hospital in Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, Sitta also said he witnessed a phone call by the Israeli army to the director of the hospital, who was informed that unless he evacuated within two hours, the hospital would be targeted.

“One of the most horrific scenes I witnessed was when, after an air raid, the dead and the wounded were brought in, members of the staff would be running frantically in the emergency department, looking at the faces of the wounded and the dead to see whether their relatives had been among the dead and the wounded,” he said.

“In many cases their children had been among the dead and the wounded.”

Sitta also said there was a “huge explosion” in another day and “the ceiling in the operating room fell on top of us, luckily I wasn’t injured.”

He added, “The ambulances were on fire, some of the cars were on fire, and the forecourt, which had been lit by fire, was full of bodies and parts of bodies.”

The British-Palestinian surgeon said 160 doctors and nurses lost their lives during the occupation’s aggression on the Gaza Strip.

Israel waged the war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas conducted Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

Since the start of the aggression, the Tel Aviv regime has killed nearly 15,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and left vast swathes of the coastal enclave in ruins.

It has also imposed a “complete siege” on the territory, cutting off fuel, electricity, food and water to the more than two million Palestinians living there.

November 27, 2023 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , | 1 Comment

Separate Tech and State

By Ron Paul | November 27, 2023

Some libertarians dismiss concerns over social media companies’ suppression of news and opinions that contradict select agendas by pointing out that these platforms are private companies, not part of the government. There are two problems with this argument. First, there is nothing unlibertarian about criticizing private businesses or using peaceful and voluntary means, such as boycotts, to persuade businesses to change their practices.

The second and most significant reason the “they are private companies” argument does not hold water is the tech companies’ censorship has often been done at the “request” of government officials. The extent of government involvement with online censorship was revealed in emails between government and employees of various tech companies. In these emails the government officials addressed employees of these “private companies” as though these employees were the government officials’ subordinates.

Government officials using their authority to silence American citizens is a blatant violation of the First Amendment. Yet some conservative elected officials and writers think the solution to the problem of big tech censorship is giving government more power over technology companies. These pro-regulation conservatives ignore the fact that it would be just as unconstitutional if a conservative administration was telling tech companies who they must allow to access their platforms as it is when progressives order social media companies to deplatform certain individuals. Furthermore, since the average government official’s political views are closer to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez than to Marjorie Taylor Greene, giving government more power over social media companies is likely to lead to more online censorship of conservatives.

Instead of giving government more power over social media, defenders of free speech should work to separate tech and state. An excellent place to start is pushing for passage of the Free Speech Protection Act. Unlike other legislation, such as the PATRIOT Act and the Affordable Care Act, this bill is accurately named. Introduced by Kentucky Senator Rand Paul and Ohio Representative Jim Jordan, this bill makes it a crime for any federal employee or employee of a federal contractor to use his position to communicate with a social media company to interfere with any American’s exercise of First Amendment protected rights. Violators of this law would face fines of at least 10,000 dollars as well as suspension, demotion, or even termination and a lifetime ban from working with the federal government.

In addition to working to pass the Free Speech Protection Act, those who object to the big technology companies’ “content moderation” policies should abandon big tech for more free speech friendly platforms. Many of the newer social media companies were started to meet the demand for a “content moderation”-free alternative to the dominant companies. Senator Paul himself stopped posting videos on YouTube because of its suppression of free speech. While my Liberty Report still airs on YouTube, its main platform is Rumble. It is wonderful to do a show on any topic I choose without worrying about being canceled.

Big tech censorship is a problem created by big government. The solution lies not with giving government more power but with separating tech and state. Passing the Free Speech Protection Act and making big tech pay a price for cooperating with big government by leaving to use sites like Rumble are two excellent places to start.

November 27, 2023 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance | , | Leave a comment

White House funding massive phone surveillance program

Press TV – November 27, 2023

US Senator Ron Wyden has expressed “serious concerns about the legality” of a secretive phone surveillance program funded by the White House to track trillions of domestic phone records every year across the United States.

According to a letter sent by Wyden to the Department of Justice (DOJ) on Sunday, the DAS (Data Analytical Services) program has been collecting information from countless phone calls nationwide.

The mass surveillance program, formerly called Hemisphere, allows officials to simply ask for phone records of not only criminal suspects, but of their spouses, children, parents, and friends.

In the letter, obtained by tech news site Wired, Wyden warned that “troubling information” he had received “would justifiably outrage many Americans and other members of Congress.”

“While I have long defended the government’s need to protect classified sources and methods, this surveillance program is not classified and its existence has already been acknowledged by the DOJ in federal court.”

Hemisphere was first exposed in a New York Times report in 2013. At the time, it was understood that the program was used solely for drug-related investigations.

Four billion new records are being added to its database every day, according Wired.

Wyden’s letter also indicates the program is being used by law enforcement agencies across the country — from local police and sheriff’s departments, all the way up to federal agencies — for any of their investigations.

November 27, 2023 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance | , | 1 Comment

Germans are assaulted, murdered, and raped in huge numbers by migrants, according to federal crime data

BY JOHN CODY | REMIX NEWS | NOVEMBER 27, 2023

Last year, 47,923 Germans were victims of violent immigrants, according to statistics from the German federal government, with one top police union official describing the data as “frightening.”

This data comes directly from the Federal Criminal Police Office’s (BKA) situation report on serious crimes committed by foreigners who came to the country as refugees and asylum seekers. The troubling figures from the BKA show an 18 percent increase from the previous year. Although foreigners make up a far smaller share of the overall population, around 13 percent, they are committing a tremendous amount of crime against German citizens.

On the other side, 12,061 foreigners were victims of a suspect with German citizenship.

However, it is important to note that Germans in the crime statistics are not exactly ethnic Germans. Everyone with German citizenship, including, for example, ethnic Turks or ethnic Moroccans, is considered German in statistics. So, it is unclear how many of these foreigners were attacked or raped by ethnic Germans and how many were attacked or raped by foreigners who received German citizenship or are the children of first- or second-generation immigrants.

Based on the current data, Germans are four times more likely to be attacked by an immigrant than vice versa.

All of these violent crimes are classified by the BKA as rape, assault, murder, and robbery. When the 47,923 German victims are broken down into specific categories, the data shows that 258 Germans fell victim to murder, attempted murder or manslaughter committed by immigrants, with 38 of these victims dying, while the others survived the attacks. On the other side, 89 immigrants were victims of crimes that involved at least one German perpetrator, with five of them losing their lives.

Those most willing to attack Germans are those whose asylum applications were rejected, along with immigrants from North African countries like Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. While this group makes up only 0.8 percent of migrants, they account for 8.5 percent of all asylum seekers suspected of committing a violent crime.

The chairman of the Federal Police Union, Heiko Teggatz, said the crime data showing the rate of violent crime committed by migrants is “frightening.”

“What many have always suspected has now been proven. There is no more room for whitewashing. The federal and state governments must now act consistently and exhaust all possibilities to deport such criminals,” he said.

Under a new law that would dramatically increase foreigners receiving German citizenship, the country’s crime statistics are expected to become skewed. In fact, many of these foreigners would then be classified as “Germans” in the crime statistics, and if they were to assault a foreigner or another German, they would be listed as a “German” suspect.

November 27, 2023 Posted by | Civil Liberties | , | 1 Comment

West ‘screwed over’ Ukraine – ex-Zelensky aide

RT | November 27, 2023

The West has essentially thrown Ukraine under the bus in its conflict with Russia by failing to provide Kiev with the necessary amount of military aid, Aleksey Arestovich, a former aide to President Vladimir Zelensky, has claimed.

Writing on Telegram on Sunday, Arestovich weighed in on the differing views of Ukrainian officials as to why Kiev’s conflict with Moscow is still in full swing despite several major attempts at peace.

According to the former presidential aide, the West bears most of the blame for the situation.

“The real responsibility lies with those who promised Ukraine real support for waging a real, big war and did not provide it. In other words, they screwed us over.”

Arestovich claimed that Ukraine “had won its war” by managing to survive in the first few months of the conflict. “This war of ours could have well ended with the Istanbul Agreements,” he suggested, referring to the talks in the Turkish city in the spring of 2022, which initially made some progress but stalled after then-British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s visit to Kiev. The negotiations collapsed but Russia maintains it is open to diplomatic engagement with Kiev.

After the Istanbul talks, the conflict entered another phase in which Ukraine had no chance of winning without securing massive Western arms supplies, including warplanes and long-range missiles, the former official continued. “But nothing came. We paid a huge price for that.”

Arestovich suggested that the West would now try to force Ukraine to accept the loss of several regions, which overwhelmingly voted to join Russia in a series of public referenda last autumn.

He also suggested that, while Kiev found itself in a tough spot mostly due to the West’s inaction, the Ukrainian leadership’s “stupidity and corruption has given them many formal and informal reasons to screw us over.”

Arestovich’s remarks came amid Ukraine’s faltering counteroffensive, which has been underway since early summer but has failed to gain any significant ground. Last month, Moscow said Kiev had lost more than 90,000 troops since the start of the push, with Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu claiming that Ukrainian casualties had reached more than 13,000 soldiers in November alone.

Earlier this month, Valery Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s top general, admitted that hostilities had reached a stalemate, an assessment rejected by Zelensky. Meanwhile, on Sunday, Mariana Bezuglaya, a senior Ukrainian MP, blasted Zaluzhny over the lack of a strategic plan for 2024 and called on the military leadership to step down.

November 27, 2023 Posted by | Militarism | , , | Leave a comment

Three hundred thousand Israelis have fled abroad since 7 October

By Gilbert Doctorow | November 27, 2023

The opening discussion on yesterday’s edition of Sunday Evening with Vladimir Solovyov centered on the number of Israelis who have fled abroad since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. The host quoted the figure 300,000 and put it into a context that is very closely watched in Russia: how many of their own compatriots fled abroad in the first year of the Special Military Operation in Ukraine, most of them in the days immediately following the announcement of a partial mobilization in September of that year.

The flight of several hundred thousand Russians abroad was trumpeted by mainstream Western media, which even sent journalists to remote places in Kazakhstan and Georgia to interview the draft-dodgers. We were told that the young Russians who fled were highly concentrated in IT and that their loss would do irreparable harm to Russian industry and to the war effort. These young men at the start of their professional careers tended to move to the Near Abroad, where they hoped to find employment easily given the universal demand for their technical skills and where they could receive remittances from their parents and friends via the existing banking system, whereas in the West they would be cut off from such sources of funds.

Both at the very start of the Ukraine war and in smaller numbers straight up to this past summer, there were also high visibility Russians in the business world, in the creative arts and especially in the entertainment industry who moved out of Russia to express their disapproval of the Putin ‘regime’ and its armed aggression.  Some were quiet about their motives, but others spoke out openly, saying they could no longer live in a country that invaded its neighbors and violated international law. This group was older, wealthier than the IT nerds and chose to move out into the greater world where they might continue to enjoy the creature comforts to which their money made them accustomed. Since London and Paris were longer welcoming to Russians of any and all stripes, a good many chose to settle in Israel, both Jews and non-Jews alike. Russia has a visa free regime with Israel and many direct daily flights to Tel Aviv. Other well-to-do Russians moved to Dubai.

As for the first group of Russian ‘war exiles,’ most were disappointed by the professional opportunities they found in the former Soviet republics. Pay was low, the cost of housing was high and rising with each additional refugee arrival looking to rent. Meanwhile, back in Russia it became clear that there were exemptions available for really talented programmers and the likelihood of any further conscription was minimal now that more than 400,000 Russian men were volunteering for military service out of both rising patriotism and very attractive monetary rewards for service in the combat zone. As a result, a great many of the draft dodging young men slowly and quietly packed up and moved back to Russia.

For the second group of Russians, the stars and wealthy, the onset of the Israel-Hamas war put them in a most awkward situation. The Financial Times was quick to alert us that on 8 October Alfa Bank founder Mikhail Fridman, who had left his London mansion and a good part of his frozen-assets fortune behind to resettle in Israel earlier this year, had taken the first available flight out of Israel and flew back to Moscow, for a ‘temporary’ respite. Abrupt departure from Israel was also the path taken by the aging star Alla Pugacheva, another rather recent ‘settler’ in Israel, ostensibly there for medical treatment at the spas. Pugacheva flew out to Cyprus. We may assume that high-living Russians constituted a significant minority share of the 300,000 folks who fled Israel for safer climes at the start of the war. Hence the particular interest in the subject among Moscow’s chattering classes.

This entire issue of what Russia media today amusingly call the релоканты, ‘relocators’ in English, touches a deep chord among the opinion leaders who appear on the Russian talk shows. We may assume that the topic also figures large when ordinary Russians in Moscow and elsewhere break bread together.

Should these people upon their return be shipped out to Magadan, where the Russian Far East meets the Pacific ocean, best known as a transit hub in the Stalinist gulags? None other than Chairman of the Russian State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin publicly proposed this fate for them. But Volodin had in mind only those who used their time outside Russia to defame the country, not those who quietly sipped their champagne in restaurants by the sea in Tel Aviv.

No doubt kitchen talk in Russia runs close to what Solovyov says on air: that Russian cultural leaders who moved abroad in protest at the bestial nature of their homeland, like the celebrated authors Lyudmila Ulitskaya or Vladimir Sorokin, must be eating their words as they witness the utter brutality of the Israeli Defense Forces pursuing their atrocities in Gaza.

Coming back to the figure of 300,000 Israelis who have fled the country since the start of the war, Solovyov noted, with justice, that if you project the ratio of these turncoats to the general Israeli population of 9 million onto Russia, with its 145 million plus inhabitants, then the number of Russians who fled after 22 February 2022 would have been 4.5 million, while the actual numbers of Russians were between 10 and 15 times less. His inescapable conclusion is that Russians are far more patriotic than Israelis are.

The rest of the Sunday night program was largely devoted to fleshing out the argument that Russians have been far too self-deprecating, far too unappreciative of their own strength and their own achievements since the start of the war in Ukraine. The ability of the country within the scope of two years to institute a war economy that has increased many fold the output and delivery to the front lines of latest technology tanks, artillery, kamikaze and surveillance drones, fighter jets is very impressive, especially when set out in detail by a military expert, a retired Lieutenant General who was a panelist on the show. The ability of Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin and his cabinet to manage the domestic civilian economy was also hailed. Russia is now feeding itself from a vastly strengthened agribusiness sector and is steadily expanding the array of consumer products produced at home, while importing from China and elsewhere in the East other products, including more than half of all new cars sold in Russia, that are often of higher quality and carry price tags way below what had been imported from Europe before the war.

For reasons that will not surprise attentive readers, none of these achievements gets much attention in Western media. However, the Chinese are watching closely. A delegation of Russian parliamentarians who went to Beijing this past week in an annual visit was exceptionally received by Chinese President Xi, who according to protocol, does not meet with foreign legislators. Russian output in Q3 of this year reached 5% growth. That matches the relatively low pace of the Chinese economy this year. But for Russia it is a new high in this millennium. The open question on the Solovyov show was how to emulate the Chinese model of relations between the central bank and the government in order to sustain financing of the economy needed to continue at this pace and not have a relapse to 1.5% annual growth, which is the scenario being prepared by the bank director Nabiullina. This is an issue in Russian political discourse that will not go away.

©Gilbert  Doctorow, 2023

November 27, 2023 Posted by | Economics, Progressive Hypocrite | , | Leave a comment

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