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Catching Up To Germany, The “Climate Leader”

By Francis Menton | Manhattan Contrarian | June 15, 2024

Here in New York, our leaders fancy us to be the “climate leader.” After all, our legislature has enacted the “Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act” of 2019, setting out the most aggressive mandatory emissions-reduction targets of all the U.S. states. Allegedly, 70% of our electricity will come from “renewables” by 2030. Nobody can top us!

But can we really catch up to Germany? Germany was in the “climate leadership” game before almost anybody else had even heard of it. It was all the way back in 1990 that Germany adopted its first emissions-reduction target — 25 to 30 percent fewer CO₂ emissions by 2005, compared to 1987 levels. In 2000, while New York was still in its climate diapers, Germany passed its Renewable Energy Act, granting large subsidies for the development of wind farms. In 2010 Germany adopted its “Energiewende” legislation with mandatory emissions-reductions targets of 80-95% by 2050. All along, the country has been on a crash program to build wind turbines and solar panels for well over 30 years.

So sorry, New York. Germany is the true “climate leader.” Perhaps we should check in on how it is going over there.

In a piece on January 3, Reuters provided the statistics from Germany for the most recent full year, 2023. The headline is “Renewable energy’s share on German power grids reaches 55% in 2023.”

The share of renewables on Germany’s power grids rose by 6.6 percentage points to 55% of the total last year, the sector’s regulator said on Wednesday, as Europe’s largest economy moves closer to its 2030 target. . .  [of] 80% of its [electricity generation].

The achievement elicited some self-congratulatory happy talk from Environment Minister (and Green Party member) Robert Habeck:

“We have broken the 50% mark for renewables for the first time,” Economy Minister Robert Habeck said in a statement. “Our measures to simplify planning and approvals are starting to take effect.”

Read a little farther, though, and you find out that only 43.2% of the 55% came from wind and solar generators. Most of the rest (8.4%) came from “biomass,” otherwise known as wood chips imported from the U.S. — probably not what you were thinking of as the supposedly emissions-free “renewables.” (The remaining 3+% consists of hydro and some unspecified “other renewables.”).

Perhaps you are wondering, despite Habeck’s happy talk, how can it be that after 30+ years of a crash program, with enormous subsidies, to build wind and solar generators to provide electricity, Germany is only up to getting 43% of its electricity from those sources? Is there maybe some problem? If you are wondering about those things, you will not find the answer here.

And then there’s the question of whether a huge build-out of wind and solar electricity generation might have any collateral consequences for a modern industrial economy. For example, might wind and solar generation be more expensive than electricity generation by fossil fuels? Here are the latest consumer electricity price data from Eurostat, covering the second half of 2023. Key quote:

For household consumers in the EU (defined for the purpose of this article as medium-sized consumers with an annual consumption between 2 500 Kilowatt hours (KWh) and 5 000 KWh), electricity prices in the second half of 2023 were highest in Germany (€0.4020 per KWh), Ireland (€0.3794 per KWh), Belgium (€0.3778 per KWh) and Denmark (€0.3554 per KWh).

Somehow, great “climate leader” Germany has the very highest consumer electricity prices in all the EU. The 40.2 euro cents per kWh is equivalent to 43 U.S. cents at the recent exchange rate of 1.07. The latest data from the U.S. EIA gives the average U.S. consumer electricity price as 16.68 cents per kWh for March 2024. That makes the German electricity price more than two and a half times the U.S. price.

Aren’t wind and solar generation supposed to be cheaper than fossil fuels? Somehow that doesn’t seem to be working out. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that no matter how much wind and solar you build, you can’t get rid of any of the fossil fuel generators, because you need them all for backup of intermittency. So you end up paying for two redundant systems.

Then there is the effect of high energy prices on economic growth. How’s that going in Germany? Here’s a February 23 report from Euronews, with the statistics from Germany for the 2023 year:

Year-on-year GDP growth was -0.2% in Q4 2023, a notch better than Q3 2023’s -0.3% and also in line with market expectations. For the full year 2023, Germany’s GDP shrank 0.3%.

U.S. GDP growth for 2023 was reported as 2.5% by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

A guy named Theodor Weimer, head of the Deutsche Börse, gave a speech in April to a group of Bavarian business leaders. The speech became public when it was released on YouTube last week, and it was then covered by the Telegraph. Key quote:

The coalition government led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz was, [Weimer] argued, a “catastrophe,” Germany was “economically on the way to becoming a developing country” and “one thing is clear: our reputation in the world has never been so bad.”

And finally, in the European elections just held last week, the German Green Party has been reported one of the biggest losers, going from 21 seats to just 12, a loss of 9, or almost half of the prior total.

Well, maybe being the “climate leader” is not so great after all. At least, maybe, the people are starting to catch on. Here in New York, it will take a while longer.

June 23, 2024 Posted by | Economics, Malthusian Ideology, Phony Scarcity | , , | Leave a comment

Hey, Jim Jordan: Ask Fauci Who His Bosses Were!

To get to the bottom of Covid censorship, we must understand who was in charge of the global pandemic response.

llustration by Anthony Freda
By Debbie Lerman | June 13, 2024

As recently reported by Reclaim the Net, Anthony Fauci is being called to testify by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan for his “alleged role in the Biden White House’s censorship initiatives.”

Right away a glaring issue emerges: The censorship of dissenting COVID narratives started all the way back in late January-early February 2020, with Fauci implicated in the censorship as early as February 2, 2020. The Committee tacitly acknowledges this by requesting documents dating back to 2019, even as it frames the inquiry politically as a “Biden Administration censorship” problem.

In fact, the entire disastrous, unscientific lockdown-until-vaccine pandemic response was initiated and insidiously perpetrated by the Task Force, which was housed in the Trump White House, in the Office of the Vice President (OVP).

The group responsible for pandemic policy within the Task Force was not HHS or NIAID, where Fauci worked, or any other public health agency. It was the National Security Council (NSC).

All communications about Covid had to go through OVP/NSC.

We know from the Twitter files and subsequent investigations that the Intelligence Community (FBI, CIA, DHS, CISA) was heavily involved in censoring Americans on many issues, starting at least as far back as 2016. Foreign military/intelligence agencies of allied countries collaborated on censoring the U.S. population.

So if anyone is truly interested in who initiated and enforced censorship of dissenting Covid voices, they should ask the following questions of Fauci under oath:

Who was responsible for the US government’s Covid response policy, including censorship of dissenting views?

We know from official government documents that Covid pandemic policy was set by the National Security Council (NSC), NOT the public health agencies. But who exactly on the NSC was in charge? Who wrote the policy?

  • Dr. Fauci: Did you participate in crafting the pandemic response policy with the National Security Council, including censorship of dissenting views?

Why were Covid meetings classified?

On March 11, 2020 Reuters reported that “The White House has ordered federal health officials to treat top-level coronavirus meetings as classified.” Reuters sources said “the National Security Council (NSC), which advises the president on security issues, ordered the classification.”

Furthermore, government officials said “dozens of classified discussions about such topics as the scope of infections, quarantines and travel restrictions have been held since mid-January.”

  • Dr. Fauci: Why were the Covid response meetings classified? Were you present in those meetings? Were censorship plans discussed in those meetings?

Who was in charge of government communications about Covid?

According to the US Government’s COVID-19 Response Plan, starting on February 28, 2020 “all federal communication and messaging” about the pandemic had to go through the Office of the Vice President, which housed the Task Force, which was led by the National Security Council.

  • Dr. Fauci: In your role on the Task force, were you in charge of crafting the communications about the pandemic? If not, who on the Task Force was in charge of messaging?
  • Were you in charge of efforts to censor messaging that questioned or contradicted Task Force/NSC policy?
  • If not, who was in charge of designing and enforcing the censorship efforts on behalf of the Task Force/NSC?

Why was the CDC forbidden from communicating about the pandemic?

Although it was supposed to play a leadership role in pandemic communications, starting on February 28, 2020 the CDC was actually “not permitted to conduct public briefings,” according to a Senate report.

It sounds like the agency that was supposed to be in charge of communicating with the public about the pandemic was itself being CENSORED by the Task Force/NSC.

  • Dr. Fauci, who forbade the CDC from conducting public briefings about the pandemic?
  • Why were CDC communications with the public completely shut down?
  • Was this part of the overall efforts by the Task Force/NSC to censor any messaging that contradicted their policy?

Why was the intelligence community so heavily involved in Covid censorship?

Many deeply and carefully investigated reports show extensive involvement of military/intelligence agencies and personnel in Covid censorship efforts.

Here are just a few examples:

How Twitter Rigged the Covid Debate, by David Zweig

Pentagon Was Involved in Domestic Censorship Scheme, by Alex Gutentag

The Virality Project Was a Government Front to Coordinate Censorship, by Andrew Lowenthal and Alex Gutentag

  • Dr. Fauci, were you coordinating with the FBI, CIA, DHS, CISA or any other intelligence entity to censor messaging that questioned or contradicted Task Force/NSC policy?
  • Why were intelligence agencies involved in censoring Covid messaging?

Were international NGOs and the WHO involved in censorship of American citizens?

Here’s one of the earliest known instances of Covid censorship from all the way back in February 2020, in which the following international cast participated:

As reported by US Right To Know :

on Sunday, February 2, 2020 at 11:28am

Farrar flagged a ZeroHedge article [now archived] in an email to Fauci and Collins, raising the possibility of virus=bioweapon. In the email, he mentioned that the WHO leaders were in the process of making an important decision. He said they might “prevaricate” which means “avoid telling the truth.”

Regardless of whether they prevaricated or not, just two and a half hours later, at approximately 1:57pm ZeroHedge was suspended on Twitter.

  • Dr. Fauci, was your correspondence with Farrar, involving the leaders of the World Health Organization, in any way related to the suspension of ZeroHedge on Twitter?
  • If so, which of you was responsible for conveying the message to Twitter about the suspension?
  • Were international organizations like the WHO, and NGOs including the Wellcome Trust, involved in Covid censorship activities in coordination with U.S. officials/agencies?
  • Were you involved in any international Covid censorship activities?

June 23, 2024 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Deception, Full Spectrum Dominance | , , | 1 Comment

Israel and Hezbollah on the brink of war

By Steven Sahiounie | Strategic Culture Foundation | June 23, 2024

The Middle East is sitting on a powder keg, and every minute that passes brings heightened tensions between Israel and Hezbollah.

Canada, the U.S., Great Britain and Kuwait have all warned its citizens in Lebanon to evacuate.

The impending war is caused by Israeli refusal of a ceasefire in Gaza. Hezbollah says they will continue to stand in solidarity with the Palestinians of Gaza as the continuing genocide is perpetrated by Israel, but as soon as a ceasefire begins, Hezbollah’s response will cease.

Hezbollah is a Lebanese resistance group which is heavily armed. Most experts agree that the military might of Hezbollah and Israel are quite comparable on many levels, but Israel has air superiority.

Israel has a sophisticated air defense system, the ‘Iron Dome’. However, this system can be overwhelmed by Hezbollah if they were to launch a massive amount of missiles at Israel, and all agree that Hezbollah has a huge arsenal of missiles.

If the ‘Iron Dome’ was inundated by missiles launched from Lebanon, the effectiveness of the Israeli defenses would stop, and Israel could suffer destruction on a scale it has never experienced before. We have witnessed the destruction of Israeli missiles on Gaza, and homes and buildings across Israel could face a similar disaster.

Hezbollah demonstrated it has an air defense system, but it has been secretive in showing the capabilities of its defense from Israeli jets; however, on at least one occasion Hezbollah utilized their air defenses to repel an Israeli jet flying over Lebanon.

Amos Hochstein, the U.S. special envoy dispatched recently to Israel and Lebanon in hopes of averting a war between Israel and Hezbollah, came back empty-handed. Hochstein had been successful in a negotiation between Israel and Lebanon in 2022 over the maritime borders, but this time he was not negotiating with the Lebanese government alone, but with the most powerful resistance group in the Middle East.

The root cause of all conflicts in the Middle East emanate from the brutal Israeli occupation of Palestine, which has stripped away all human rights, and civil rights, from about six million Palestinians, while the six million Jews in Israel live in a quasi-democracy with human rights and civil rights comparable to most western democracies.

U.S. President Joe Biden and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken have repeatedly told Israeli officials the U.S. does not want to see a wider war in the Middle East, where other nations could be involved should Lebanon face destruction.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned Israel would “turn Beirut into Gaza” in the event of a war.

Experts agree that Biden would continue to support Israel even in the face of a war on Hezbollah. The international community has come out against Israel and its genocide on Gaza, but Biden continues to support war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by Israel.

Biden has sponsored a ceasefire plan, but Israel refused it, and experts suggest that the Biden plan was not designed by Washington to succeed, but was drafted only as an exercise in buying time for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Israeli public and military are divided on the war on Gaza. Many are demanding Israel stop the war and get the hostages out after almost 9 months of captivity. Others support the war on Gaza as part of the Zionist plan to eliminate all non-Jews and create one Jewish nation from the ‘river to the sea’.

Netanyahu firmly demands the continuation of the war on Gaza and demands that Hamas be destroyed, but his military leaders have said that is an impossible task, as Hamas is an ideology, that of resistance to occupation, which is guaranteed to all people through the Geneva Convention.

On June 18, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said plans for an attack in southern Lebanon had been approved and steps had been taken to “accelerate readiness in the field.” The statement came from Major General Ori Gordin, the head of IDF Northern Command, and Major General Oded Basiuk, who heads the IDF’s Operations Division.

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz threatened Hezbollah that they faced “destruction” amid “all-out war” at the Israel-Lebanon border.

Katz’s threat came after Hezbollah published a surveillance video that it took by a drone over various Israeli military, infrastructure and civilian installations, including some in the Israeli port city of Haifa.

“In an all-out war, Hezbollah will be destroyed and Lebanon will be severely hit,” Katz wrote on X.

On June 21, Hezbollah said it fired dozens of rockets into northern Israel in retaliation for a deadly air strike in south Lebanon that Israel said killed one of the group’s operatives. Hezbollah also claimed several other attacks on Israeli troops and positions over the course of the day.

In a meeting with visiting Israeli officials in Washington, Blinken underscored “the importance of avoiding further escalation in Lebanon and reaching a diplomatic resolution that allows Israeli and Lebanese families to return to their homes”, according to a statement.

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah had warned “no place” in Israel would “be spared our rockets” if a wider war began, in a TV address on Wednesday. He also threatened Cyprus if it opened its airports or bases to Israel “to target Lebanon”. Cyprus houses two British bases, including an airbase.

Israel invaded and brutally occupied Lebanon from 1982 to 2000. Its withdrawal was a victory for Hezbollah. In 2006, Israel launched a second war on Hezbollah which saw Israel prevented from invading by the might of Hezbollah, and in the following years the resistance group has gotten much stronger militarily.

Dozens of Israeli towns are now deserted, with around 60,000 Israelis evacuated to temporary accommodation, while about 90,000 have also fled from southern Lebanon.

Israel has launched roughly four times as many attacks as Hezbollah over the course of the conflict, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, a Wisconsin-based research group specializing in conflict data analysis. Last week, Israel made its deepest attack yet into Lebanon, striking 75 miles north of the border.

Israeli troops have also deployed white phosphorus in Lebanon, a substance that burns at high temperature and can be used to create smokescreens to obscure troop movements, but can cause respiratory damage and deadly burns. Its use near civilian areas is a violation of international humanitarian law.

“It’s not a question of if it will happen but when it will happen,” Avichai Stern, the mayor of Kiryat Shmona, the largest town in Israel’s north, said in an interview, and added, “We have to wipe them out.”

The war between Israel and Lebanon can be avoided if Israel will stop the unrelenting attacks on Gaza, which have resulted in over 36,000 deaths, mostly women and children.

June 23, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Militarism, War Crimes | , , , | 2 Comments

Ex-DoD Analyst Derides Bid to Upgrade Outdated B-52s With Nukes

By Svetlana Ekimenko – Sputnik – 23.06.2024

The defense policy bills for fiscal year 2025 in both the US Senate and House include funding to enhance the nuclear weapon capabilities of approximately 30 B-52H Stratofortress bombers. However, the Pentagon is not enthusiastic about the proposal and instead favors a more expensive option of investing in a next-generation nuclear-capable bomber.

Congress’ bid to restore the B-52 bombers’ nuclear capabilities comes in the wake of repeated disappointments in developing US hypersonic standoff weapons, retired US Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski told Sputnik.

“Putting nukes back on the upgraded B-52 is a band aid that covers that,” said the former analyst for the US Department of Defense.

“It is important to note that Congress and the Pentagon have already approved and funded engine, avionics and radar upgrades for the nearly 60-year-old B-52 airframe. The B-52H models will be designated B-52J’s, upon upgrade. This was justified several years ago with the B-52Js as a delivery mechanism for planned AGR-183 hypersonic missiles – a missile tested by the Air Force, but one that is no longer being funded in the FY2025 defense budget,” she underscored.

Dozens of the Pentagon’s hypersonic missile projects for the Army, Air Force, Navy, and DARPA have suffered setbacks, despite a desperate race to catch up with Russia and China in this field.

The hypersonic weapon that was in development by the Pentagon, the Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW), had been mired in delays and test failures. The weapon was to be fired from beneath the wing of a B-52 Stratofortress bomber and also contain a glide vehicle. The ARRW program, launched in April 2018, was to achieve operational deployment in 2022. However, in November 2023, after conducting two test flights in August and October 2023, the Fiscal Year 2025 budget provided no funding for procurement or further research and development of the AGM-183, effectively ending the project.

“The initiative will be costly and profitable for the defense industry, and in practical terms it keeps the B-52 in the game for tax-payer dollars. It is somewhat practical, as nuclear re-arming of the new B-52J model, as it completes other B-52 upgrades, fits well in the Boeing and Northrup Grumman industrial base,” noted Kwiatkowski.

It’s really all about the Congressional lobbyists, the ex-DoD analyst pointed out, clarifying that in the House, “Congressman Mike Rogers is the second-highest recipient of defense lobby money; In the Senate, Deb Fischer’s top donor is Northrup-Grumman a major missile developer, and Boeing, the maker of the B-52, is her fourth-largest donor.”

The conventional B-52H Stratofortress bombers had been part of the US nuclear triad close to a decade ago. However, under the New START treaty with Russia, the planes were stripped of these capabilities. With the treaty set to expire in February 2026, there is a drive to “beef up the US nuclear arsenal”. Congress has been advocating making the old bombers nuclear capable again, but the idea does not appear to be viewed favorably in the Pentagon.

“The treaty expires in 2026, and… We need to be prepared to face a nuclear environment without any treaty limitations,” said House Armed Services Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Ala., as he introduced the amendment to the passed FY25 defense policy legislation. In line with that bill, the Air Force would start upgrading the bombers within a month after the accord expires. Accordingly, it is hoped that the restoration of the B-52’s nuclear capabilities might be completed by 2029.

Democrat Congressman Adam Smith of the Armed Services Committee had voiced opposition, and was cited as saying:

“The Department of Defense is not interested in doing this… What they’re interested in doing is investing in the B-21, which is the next generation nuclear-capable bomber. This would cost a great deal of money. Also, they’re currently trying to extend the life of a number of B-52s out to 2050, which they think they can do. This would be another added expense to that.”

The Senate Armed Services Committee also voted to advance its version of the bill on restoration of nuclear capabilities of the fleet of bombers dating back to the 1960s.

Kwiatkowski dissected the features of the B-52 bomber that originally made it a suitable aircraft for nuclear warheads’ deployment during the Cold War, singling out such aspects as “manned crews, ability to fly long distances, with refueling carried out in safe airspace.”

These aspects, as well as the “relatively long lead time from launch of aircraft to actual release of nuclear weapons allowed time for recall, and the application of better intelligence and diplomacy,” she said, adding:

“Today, the push is for unmanned or smaller crews to fly the upgraded B-52 (reducing the need for human decision-making and debate once launched), and today, no airframe that flies as slow and ‘unstealthy’ as the B-52 would be safe after take-off and in flight, given intelligence and defensive capabilities of the target countries and their allies.”

The New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty entered into force in 2011. Ten years later, Russia and the US negotiated an extension until February 2026. Amid NATO’s proxy war in Ukraine, Moscow suspended its participation in the accord on February 21, 2023.

At the time, President Vladimir Putin during his February 2023 speech to the Federal Assembly referenced everything from Washington’s unilateral withdrawals from milestone strategic weapons treaties, to NATO’s enlargement towards Russia’s borders in violation of previous verbal agreements.

Moscow added that it would continue to comply with quantitative restrictions on strategic offensive arms and exchange notifications with Washington about ballistic missile launches. In June, the US announced its “countermeasures” in response to Russia’s suspension of the treaty. Both sides say they continue to abide by New START’s numerical limits.

Karen Kwiatkowski stated that it is clear why the Department of Defense is against the proposition of upgrading the outdated bomber aircraft fleet. She indicated that the DoD recognizes the vulnerabilities and the high cost associated with such a project.

“Upgrading the B-52 is largely a political statement rather than a serious “pillar” in the old concept of US nuclear triad. Nuclear armed B-52s, instead of serving as a signal to an enemy that nuclear war can be prevented even after launch as it was throughout the Cold War, today would simply be a late-to-the-party nuclear suicide drill,” remarked the retired US Air Force officer.

She lamented the fact that there are currently “no statesmen in the West interested in preventing nuclear war, as we had during the Cold War.” No matter how much the range of the B-52 is upgraded, these outdated planes will never be able to “fully capitalize on the current advances in technology and stealth,” remarked the expert.

“Pentagon thinking has one foot in the past (a triad that includes bombers because we have always done it that way) and one foot in the future – irreversible attacks and hostage-holding strategies via high-speed, radar-evading missiles and other weapons launched from land, sea and space. This straddling of past and future delivers the B-21 [Raider aircraft] – a platform that is profitable for manufacturers but unlikely to truly function as planned in coming decades. But that is where US defense path dependency has brought us,” Kwiatkowski pointed out.

On a personal note, the former DoD analyst suggested it would be both “cheaper and wiser” to upgrade the B-52 with its human pilots than the B-21 Raider, which is “little more than another unmanned stealth missile.” After all, she summed up, such a platform would not provide any “additional ability, stability or political motivation for political leaders to approach an actual nuclear war cautiously and wisely” in the multipolar world.

“If war is politics by other means, a manned nuclear weapon that can be aborted mid-flight is better than an AI-driven nuclear event that politicians will later claim “wasn’t their fault” or was “hacked,” said Kwiatkowski.

June 23, 2024 Posted by | Militarism | | Leave a comment

Investigation confirms Israeli tank killed six-year-old Hind Rajab

The Cradle | June 23, 2024

An investigation by open-source analysis firm Forensic Architecture concluded that a six-year-old Palestinian girl, Hind Rajab, and several of her relatives were killed by an Israeli tank gunner opening fire on their car.

Hind and her relatives were killed on 29 January while fleeing their neighborhood in Gaza City after the Israeli military issued evacuation orders for the area. Their bodies were finally recovered 12 days later.

Forensic Architecture mapped a total of 335 bullet holes in the Kia sedan they were killed in.

The investigation, carried out in cooperation with Earshot and journalists from Al-Jazeera’s Fault Lines, also found that two Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) medics who tried to save Hind were also killed by Israeli tank fire.

While the deaths of most Palestinians killed by Israel in its genocidal war in Gaza pass unnoticed, Hind’s killing gained international attention when the PCRS published the audio of the call for help made by Hind’s cousin, 15-year-old Layan Hamadam.

After the adults in the car had been shot and killed, Layan desperately used a cell phone to call the PRCS dispatcher.

Layan said, “They are shooting at us. The tank is next to me. [We are hiding] in the car. We’re next to the tank.”

Layan screams until her voice stops abruptly twenty seconds into the call.

During the call, a total of 64 gunshots are heard within just 6 seconds, indicating a firing range of 750–900 rounds per minute. This range of rounds per minute is consistent with Israeli army-issued weaponry, such as the M4 assault rifle or the FN MAG machine gun on a Merkava tank.

Israel has tried to claim that its tanks were not in the area where Hind, Layan, and their relatives were killed. Israel instead suggested they were killed by gunfire from Hamas. But Forensic Architecture notes that the firing range observed in the call exceeds that of the AK-47 assault rifles most commonly used by Hamas.

By measuring the sound of the bullet traveling at supersonic speed and comparing it to the sound of the blast from the muzzle of the gun reaching the recording device at the speed of sound, Earshot was able to determine that the tank firing at Hind and Layan’s car was located between 13 and 23 meters away.

“At such proximity, it is not plausible that the shooter could not have seen that the car was occupied by civilians, including children,” Forensic Architecture writes.

The “ballistic analysis supports the final words of Layan Hamada: the gunfire came from a tank that was next to them.”

After the Israeli tank gunner killed Layan, six-year-old Hind was the only person left alive in the car. PCRS dispatchers sent paramedics Yusuf al-Zeino and Ahmed al-Madhoun in an ambulance to rescue her. When they reached the site of Hind’s car, they were immediately killed.

Forensic Architecture reported the ambulance was destroyed using a 120mm M830A1 High Explosive Anti-Tank Multi-Purpose-Tracer (HEAT-MP-T) round.

“Our assessment of the position of the tanks at the time of the attack, together with the direction of the shot, suggests that the ambulance was likely hit by ammunition from an Israeli tank,” Forensic Architecture wrote.

June 23, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , | Leave a comment

Advantage Hezbollah

By Alon Mizrahi | June 23, 2024

Remember last week’s video from Hezbollah, with the drone over Northern Israel?

Well, there’s a new one, and it is also very interesting. It doesn’t look like footage from a drone, but rather like satellite imagery.

But this is not Google Earth or some nonsense like that. No publicly accessible satellite service will show you Israel’s top security sites. Try it. You’ll get nothing. It’s all blurred out.

So by publishing this Hezbollah accomplished two goals: first, they know many Israeli secrets and their specific locations. Second, they have access to high-quality satellite imagery.

This means Hezbollah can not only potentially hit sensitive sites with high accuracy. What it also means, and is just [as] problematic for Israel, is that Hezbollah may be able to track the movements of Israeli forces deep in Israeli territory in relative real-time. A capability no enemy of Israel ever had while directly involved in an armed conflict against it.

We know that Iran has dozens of satellites in space, some capable of state-of-the-art high resolution. When Israel fought Hezbollah in 2006 Iran had no such capability. Today it is a major international satellite powerhouse, using domestically-developed missiles and launchers.

June 23, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Militarism, Video | , , | Leave a comment

Here’s Why The US Is Unable To Secure A Gaza Ceasefire

By Robert Inlakesh | Al Mayadeen | June 22, 2024

It’s time to be serious about the reasons behind the US government’s inability to secure a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. This comes down to unrealistic expectations, a refusal to concede a loss, incompetence and a pro-Israeli Lobby that controls many levers of power.

Weeks have passed since US President, Joe Biden, spoke in favor of a ceasefire and presented an Israeli proposal as “a road map to an enduring ceasefire and the release of all hostages.” Not long after this, the American military provided a supporting role to the Zionist military operation in Gaza’s Nuseirat, which allegedly resulted in 3 Israeli captives being killed and 4 re-captured, but most notably inflicted a civilian massacre that killed at least 274 Palestinians, injuring around 800 others.

The US temporary pier project, which was supposed to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, has been removed for a third time from the besieged coastal enclave, following allegations that immediately after its previous re-attachment it was used during the Nuseirat massacre. This project cost the American taxpayer hundreds of millions of dollars and has barely facilitated a trickle of the much needed aid, calling into question its true intended application.

On top of all of this, US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, traveled once again to West Asia on a trip that was publicly announced to be geared towards concluding the ceasefire proposal that was voted through by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Blinken immediately decided to put himself in front of the cameras and tell the media that the Israelis had accepted the proposal and that Hamas was hindering its implementation due to their inability to answer “yes or no”. However, Hamas, unlike the Zionist entity, were the only side to actually issue a legitimate response to the UNSC’s resolution on the ceasefire proposal.

At this point, when the Secretary of State began openly lying and making excuses for the Zionist regime, it was clear that his administration had given up on the proposal and were preparing themselves to continue protecting the Israelis publicly. The Zionist regime never accepted the ceasefire, which was allegedly their own, with not a single one of their leaders issuing a statement uttering an acceptance. In fact, the very opposite has been the case, while Hamas has welcomed the ceasefire push and responded positively, the Zionists have been repeatedly asserting their desire to continue the genocide in Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has repeatedly made it clear that his intention is to pursue the destruction of Hamas and only ever issued statements regarding releasing the Israeli captives.

All of this was so predictable, because Netanyahu has no incentive at all to end the war in Gaza, other than the threat of a wider regional war. The US government supports him no matter what he does. So he need only shrug off any pressure coming from a rather weak and pathetic American administration that will unconditionally support the Zionist regime at any cost.

There are, however, layers to this catastrophe from the US government’s side. Starting with the fact that Washington cannot accept the impending strategic defeat it faces and wishes to try to extract a win by any means necessary. The United States is now experiencing the shrinking of its influence in the region, as a new multi-polar order emerges where nations around the world are given other economic partners as alternatives to the tyranny of the American so-called “rules based world order”. This order is rooted in maintaining the cultural and physical supremacy of the collective West, where Washington commands the world as the dominant liberal democracy that seeks to teach everyone else how to behave.

In line with attempting to hang onto the idea that they are still living in a world that resembles the period immediately following the Cold War, they clearly believe that the Palestinian cause will die down in its popular support and that they can return to a similar situation to the one that existed prior to Al-Aqsa Flood. In line with this way of thinking, to which the Arab client regimes still also desperately cling, the US continues to pursue Arab regime normalization with the Zionist entity. This way of thinking is predicated on the idea that Hezbollah, Ansarallah and the Palestinian resistance will suddenly disappear, which is out of touch with reality.

The Palestinian resistance have turned Gaza into a graveyard for its invaders, while Lebanese Hezbollah pummels their military sites and burns the northern settlements, meanwhile, the Yemeni resistance has succeeded in consistently embarrassing the US naval forces and imposing its blockade on the Zionist entity.

While the US could end this war any time it chooses, it is filled with incompetent and money-driven careerists who are incapable of long-term strategic thinking. If the Americans shut this war down earlier on, there was a window of opportunity to save their own power, image, and at least temporarily the future of the Zionist entity. Now, they have undermined both their own future and the existence of the Israeli regime in ways that are irreversible.

Joe Biden is essentially a human vegetable, who is clearly not physically capable of commanding such an important international issue at a time when other major geopolitical challenges are also ongoing. Perhaps if the self-professed Zionist was mentally sound and not simply a shell of his former self, he could have had more of an impact, beyond placing himself in front of cameras to deliver pro-Israeli propaganda.

Then we have Antony Blinken, who is tasked with standing up to Benjamin Netanyahu and is failing abysmally, assuming he is even employing the courage to try at all. The Israeli PM is a man that is well connected in the United States, not only with the billionaire class there, but also with the intelligence services too. Netanyahu is many things, a liar, a war criminal and a certified narcissist, but he isn’t stupid and knows how to operate from his position of power in a way that no other Israeli politician can. Blinken is clearly in no way cut out for the task in front of him and presents himself as a weak, incompetent, Secretary of State.

Although there may be people in the Biden administration who see the predicament they currently find themselves in and seek to maneuver strategically, they are clearly incapable of leading their government to a position that would save its own interests.

If we look at the elected officials, the vast majority of the US Congress and Senate are bought and paid for, whether this is by the military-industrial complex, AIPAC, or both. These officials are therefore useless, serving only their special-interest donors and/or seeking to climb the ladder of political power as the parasitic social climbers they are. Then we have both major Parties, who are heading towards a national election in which they need every billionaire and special-interest group to donate.

What the US’s current state of politics does is ensure that pockets are lined on all sides; however, you can’t run a successful country on the whims of mega-corporations and billionaires with special loyalties. It appears that a combination of weak politicians, incompetency, cognitive decline in the case of the President, the Israeli lobbying efforts, delusional misconceptions about their own capabilities, combined with a racist lack of regard for Palestinian life, has allowed for Washington to bow down to the demands of the Israeli PM.

Unfortunately, the approach that the US government adopted after October 7 of permitting a genocidal assault in order to try and save the image of the defeated US-Israeli regional alliance, continues.

As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slowly sinks to the bottom of the ocean, so too does he drag down the Zionist entity, while grabbing onto the hand of the US, pulling both down with him. Washington, meanwhile, holds on and chooses to believe that air bubbles exist at the bottom of the ocean.

June 23, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , , | 1 Comment

Canada suggests taking in Israeli settlers amid escalation in North

Al Mayadeen | June 23, 2024

The Canadian government has suggested that Israeli settlers migrate to its territory due to the escalation in northern occupied Palestine between Hezbollah and “Israel” and the security threats faced by the settlers for more than eight months, Israeli media reported.

Canada’s proposal comes amid the difficulty in evacuating the Israeli settlers from areas within the range of Hezbollah’s rockets and following reports from Lebanese officials that US officials had informed them that the number of Israeli settlers displaced from northern occupied Palestine due to the escalation could exceed 200,000.

Analysts familiar with the Israeli situation suggest that this news highlights the severe internal crisis within “Israel” and indicates that allied NATO countries, like Canada, view the situation as dire and frightening to the extent that the solution might involve the migration of some settlers to these countries.

Israeli media have reported that the situation in northern occupied Palestine along the border with Lebanon is “unbearable” for tens of thousands of settlers whom the Israeli authorities have not evacuated.

Since the start of the Israeli war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, and the consequent fighting with Hezbollah on October 8, Israeli media have reported a significant number of settlers leaving occupied Palestinian territories and a substantial increase in “reverse Jewish migration.”

In a related context, Israeli media highlighted that half a million people left “Israel” in the first six months of the war, while moving into the Israeli entity has significantly decreased compared to the period before the war.

In February, about 20,000 people left the occupied Palestinian territories, and in March, about 7,000 others left. According to Israeli media, adding the number of arrivals and departures in April to the overall figure, the gap in favor of those leaving reached about 550,000 people.

June 23, 2024 Posted by | Aletho News | , , , , | 3 Comments

Lebanon denies Telegraph claims, invites officials for airport tour

Al-Mayadeen | June 23, 2024

The Air Transport Union in Lebanon (UTA) denied in a statement The Telegraph’s report in which it claimed that “Hezbollah stores missiles and explosives at Lebanon’s main airport,” saying that these clams were made without any proof offered.

The UTA called The Telegraph’s unfounded claims “mere illusions and lies aimed at endangering Beirut Airport and its civilian workers, as well as travelers to and from it, all of whom are civilians.”

Moreover, the Air Transport Union held the media outlet, as well as “those who report on it and spread its falsehoods” responsible for the safety of those who work at Beirut Airport in all its facilities “including the passenger terminal, departure and arrival, the apron, maintenance, and civil air cargo.”

Additionally, in its statement, it called on all Lebanese, Arab, and foreign media outlets to come to Beirut Airport “with their camera crews and verify for themselves, otherwise, we consider what is being promoted by suspicious media outlets as incitement to kill us.”

On his part, Lebanon’s Caretaker Minister of Public Works and Transport, Ali Hamieh, proclaimed, in a press conference, that “Beirut Airport has been subjected to disinformation for years,” adding that instead of publishing a “ridiculous” and baseless report citing anonymous sources, the British daily “should have opted for checking in with the British Department of Transport, which conducted a field visit of the airport on January 22, 2024.”

“This is the primary authority responsible for transportation matters at the airport,” he stated.

Questioning the paper’s credibility, Hamieh asked, “Is it conceivable that a reputable newspaper would change its sources within an hour?”

Additionally, the caretaker minister called on all media outlets and all ambassadors or their representatives to visit the airport tomorrow at 10:30 am for a tour of all airport facilities to make sure that the airport is strictly a civilian infrastructure and that no weapons are being smuggled through it.

“We have nothing to hide,” he maintained.

Moreover, Hamieh informed the press, “We are in the process of filing a lawsuit against the newspaper and we will announce the details later.”

June 23, 2024 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Fake News, Mainstream Media, Warmongering | , , | Leave a comment

Trump Vows to Settle Ukraine Conflict Even Before Taking Office If Reelected

Sputnik – 23.06.2024

Former US President Donald Trump has vowed to settle the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine even before his inauguration in case he wins the 2024 presidential race.

“Before I even arrive at the Oval Office, shortly after we win the presidency… I will have the horrible war between Russia and Ukraine settled,” Trump said on Saturday during a rally in Philadelphia.

During his speech, Trump also vowed to prevent World War III.

The US presidential election will be held on November 5. The main rivals in the race are US President Joe Biden, a Democrat, and his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump.

Earlier in the week, Trump said in an interview with the All-In podcast that it is understandable that Russia would be bothered by NATO troops on its border, adding that NATO’s eastward expansion was a key reason for the Ukraine conflict. Trump vowed to not put US troops on the ground in Ukraine if he returns to the White House.

June 23, 2024 Posted by | Militarism | , , , | Leave a comment

Ukraine attacks Crimea with US-supplied missiles – Russian MOD

RT | June 23, 2024

The Ukrainian military has launched several US-made ATACMS long-range missiles armed with highly controversial cluster munitions on Russia’s Crimea, resulting in numerous civilian casualties, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said.

The strike was first reported by Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhaev on Sunday, who said that the attack killed at least three people, including two children. He also estimated the number of injured at almost 100 people.

The Russian Defense Ministry has confirmed the Ukrainian attack, which it said took place at around noon local time. Officials said that the shelling involved five ATACMS missiles, four of which were destroyed mid-air.

The remaining one, however, was damaged by air defenses, veered off course and detonated over the city of Sevastopol. As a result, the falling fragments of cluster munitions led to numerous civilian casualties, the statement read.

Сluster munitions – which scatter dozens of smaller bombs when denotated – are banned in more than 100 countries, including the UK, France, and Germany. This type of weapon is considered extremely dangerous to civilians, as the munitions typically spread over large areas and can remain unexploded in the ground for many years.

Neither the US, Ukraine, nor Russia has signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions. However, in the summer 2023 then-Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said that Moscow would not deploy this type of weapon against Kiev for humanitarian reasons. He warned, however, that Russia might potentially reverse this policy.

The US announced in July 2023 that it would provide Ukraine with cluster munitions, sparking outrage in Moscow. At the time, US President Joe Biden called the decision “very difficult” but justified, arguing that the deliveries were needed to fuel a Ukrainian counteroffensive that subsequently failed with heavy losses for Kiev.

Ukraine has previously attempted to target the peninsula with ATACMS missiles, with one of the most notable attacks taking place in late May. Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov said that a total of ten ATACMS aimed at the strategic Crimean Bridge were shot down, saving hundreds of lives.

June 23, 2024 Posted by | Militarism | , | Leave a comment

IS A DRAFT ON THE HORIZON?

The Highwire with Del Bigtree | June 20, 2024

Is the military draft coming back? Will women be required to register for selective service? With a world war with Russia seeming to be more likely as the days pass, we break down the latest controversial proposals by America to increase readiness.

June 23, 2024 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Militarism, Video | , , | Leave a comment