Be a Community Journalist with our Community Journalist's Notebook [link]. Send news & info to [NorthbayMDS@) gmail.com]! Previous Northbay Uprising News Scripts [link] Archived links are available even if the original is taken down, stored at (archive.org), (archive.today). News links are provided for educational purposes only, and do not constitute an endorsement of political tendencies, or of foreign governments.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE CO FOUNDER OF THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY FOR SELF DEFENSE, HUEY P NEWTON (B. FEB 17 , 1942). CARRY ON...
Radical Brownies of Oakland
[https://www.facebook.com/pages/Radical-Brownies/875969742435827]
* "Radical Brownies: The Most Inspiring Young Women You've Ever Seen; The Oakland-born girls' group teaches social justice and empowers young girls of color." (2015-02-11) [http://www.eastbayexpress.com/oakland/radical-brownies-the-most-inspiring-young-women-youve-ever-seen/Content?oid=4191905] [https://archive.today/3fCW0] [begin excerpt]:
The idea was born when Anayvette Martinez, a community organizer in East Oakland schools, recognized that her fourth grade daughter was yearning to be part of a girls' group and gain a solid sense of sisterhood outside of school. Martinez began dreaming of what a girls' group would look like that embodied her family's radical political values. She found other great Oakland organizations for youth, but none that specifically served young girls of color with the values she envisioned. So she decided to build one.
She asked educator Marilyn Holinquest, whom she met in the Ethnic Studies graduate program at San Francisco State University years ago, to co-lead the project and contribute her teaching expertise. From there, she simply asked around in her network to see if her friends' daughters would like to join. "A lot of families were like 'Oh my God, I totally have always wanted a space like this for my daughter," said Martinez. Quickly, the group grew to twelve girls before they decided to cap the admissions.In December, the troop began meeting twice a month to embark on its unit-based curriculum. The lesson plans draw from a mixture of topics that Martinez and Holinquest wish they had been introduced to as young girls of color: contemporary political issues and movements taking place in the world, and collaboration with other social justice groups in their community. Amid the many anti-racial-injustice rallies taking place in Oakland in recent months, it only made sense that one of the first units should be about the Black Lives Matter movement.
At the end of this month, the girls will be receiving their Black Lives Matter badges, which Martinez and Holinquest had custom-made. For the final step, a Black Lives Matter organizer will personally present the badges to the girls, and Alicia Garza, one of the co-founders of the movement, will give a final lesson to the troop. Garza will be the first of many local female role models that Martinez and Holinquest plan to introduce to the troop. A large part of their mission is to teach the girls to be "fierce community advocates," and be unwavering in their solidarity with others who align with their values. "We really want them to understand that on a core level, in their bones," said Holinquest.
Although the troop is only a few months old, the initiative has been receiving an overwhelming wave of nationwide media attention, and an outpouring of community support along with it. Martinez said she had a feeling it would be popular in the Bay Area, but had no idea it would blow up to the extent that it has. Despite being flooded with requests for chapters in other cities and local requests to join, the leaders plan to spend the rest of the year focusing on developing the curriculum and the "Radical Brownies culture" with their current full troop. But they definitely intend to expand in the future. Everything they are developing is designed to scale up so that when they are ready, they will have lesson plans to share and training guides for troop leaders. They are currently reaching out to organizations for financial sponsorship, but eventually plan to become their own nonprofit. They welcome the support, but want to move slowly now to go fast later. "We have a vision of creating something really different and sustainable for us and for the community," said Martinez.
[end excerpt]
===*===*===
WORKER'S DEFENSE COMMITTEE
* "Dock workers, shippers face off at the Port of Oakland" (2015-02-18) [http://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/Dock-workers-shippers-face-off-at-the-Port-of-6086072.php] [https://archive.today/VRnEP]:
West Coast ports are badly congested. Ships are backed up, unable to find a berth to unload their cargo. Longshore contract negotiations are deadlocked between the shipowners and terminal operators of the Pacific Maritime Association and dockworkers represented by the International Longshore and Warehouse Union. With big retailers and agribusiness screaming, President Obama has sent in Labor Secretary Tom Perez.
The PMA’s tough negotiating ploy has intentionally created a port crisis. The PMA, echoed by the business press, claims greedy workers engaging in work slowdowns are to blame. Yet the employers, after dragging out negotiations for nine months, have closed ports this past holiday weekend. They previously had ended night work to stop paying overtime and shift premiums, thus employers have slashed available work time in one week by 75 percent. In 2002, when PMA locked out longshore workers and shut down West Coast ports, the media conflated it with a workers’ strike. Is this a bad media rerun?
What’s really brewing here is an assault on one of the last bastions of union power left in the United States, the ILWU. In the last five years, the ILWU has faced union-busting attacks by mining titan Rio Tinto and the ABCD grain monopolies (Archer Daniels Midland, Bunge Limited, Cargill Inc. and Louis Dreyfus Commodities), which control 90 percent of the world’s grain distribution. In both cases, the union conceded key contract provisions, and now maritime monopolies are smelling blood.
Two of the biggest global port employers, Ports America Inc. and Stevedoring Services of America were until recently owned in large part by the insurance monolith AIG and Goldman Sachs, respectively. This is “Wall Street on the waterfront,” and they’re out to gut the power of the ILWU, the union hiring hall, and curtail union action by using arbitrators.
Yet when longshore workers stop work, it’s often because of safety issues in a dangerous industry whose rate of work-related fatalities exceeds that of firefighters.
When Bay Area longshore workers shut down ports to protest Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s union-busting activities, that state’s AFL-CIO called the ILWU “the moral compass of the labor movement.” And when Oakland police nearly killed Iraq War veteran Scott Olsen during an Occupy movement protest, 30,000 outraged demonstrators marched into the port, closing it in protest and in solidarity with longshore workers battling the nonunion Export Grain Terminal in Longview, Wash. Shades of the 1934 San Francisco General Strike frightened West Coast port employers.
ILWU longshore jobs pay decent wages and benefits, but far less than employers claim. If a rising tide can lift all boats, then these jobs and benefits will continue to set standards for other workers. But, if Wall Street on the waterfront breaks the ILWU, wages and living standards will be driven down for all.
Don’t forget the lesson of PATCO, the air traffic controllers union destroyed by Ronald Reagan, while other unions sat idly by. The consequences devastated the entire labor movement. And, in 2012, President Obama sent Coast Guard vessels against the ILWU protesting a scab ship at the Export Grain Terminal. Longshore workers need to use their power to stop concessionary contracts, and all working people should have their back.
---
Global Day of Action for the Right to Strike, 18 February, 2015, 09.00 - 17.00, Globally in Africa and Arab countries, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Inter-Americas [https://archive.today/Rn5nj]
* "The right to strike and the ILO: the legal foundations" (2014-03), a 122-page ITUC legal report, confirming that the right to strike is protected under international law, as employers try to overturn decades of jurisprudence at the International Labour Organisation.[https://web.archive.org/web/20150216224831/http://www.world-psi.org/sites/default/files/documents/research/ituc_final_brief_on_the_right_to_strike.pdf]
* "PSI Emergency Resolution on the Right to Strike" (2014-06-01) [http://www.world-psi.org/en/psi-emergency-resolution-right-strike] [https://archive.today/5l7Vd] [begin excerpt]: The Executive Board of Public Services International expresses deep concern with the continuous attacks on trade union and worker’s rights. We strongly refute the suggestion that limitations to collective bargaining are acceptable under any circumstances. As public services unions we are committed to protect citizens and users by ensuring they always have access to quality public services, included through regulating essential services. But when a conflict persists workers have only one effective democratic right: the strike. [end excerpt]
* "Global campaign in support of the right to strike for all workers" (2014-06-24) [http://www.world-psi.org/en/global-campaign-support-right-strike-all-workers] [https://archive.today/aLrIv] [begin excerpt]:
Many governments have already introduced the worst private-sector practices in public sector employment conditions and today 50% of public service workers are in precarious employment, a majority of whom are women.
A full-time job with a decent wage and full social security coverage is again a distant dream for millions of workers.
Therefore Freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining is at the core of many of struggles that we are supporting. In the last year, PSI has denounced trade union rights violations in countries all over the world, including in Algeria, Botswana, Chile, Columbia, Croatia, Ecuador, Egypt, Fiji, Georgia, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Jordan, South Korea, Lebanon, Paraguay, Peru, Swaziland, Turkey, Tunisia, Portugal and others.
[end excerpt]
===*===*===
* A write-in campaign in indignation over lack of ballot options [http://www.timeslive.co.za/world/2015/02/20/black-atheist-comedian-running-for-california-state-senate] [https://archive.today/RFw08]
* "Partisan Advocate Fears Calif. Court May Side with Voters" (2015-01-16) [https://web.archive.org/web/20150122100951/http://ivn.us/2015/01/16/partisan-advocate-fears-calif-court-may-side-voters/] [begin excerpt]: On Thursday, January 15, oral arguments were made before the California State Appeals Court in San Francisco in the case Rubin v. Bowen. Third parties continue to challenge the nonpartisan, top-two open primary in the state, claiming that the system violates the association rights of political parties and disenfranchises third-party voters in the general election.
Richard Winger, who runs the site Ballot-Access.org, wrote a post on the oral arguments, implying that third parties were poorly represented from the start. He focused on the first question, which dealt with the voting rights of independent voters before Proposition 14, the top-two measure authored by the Independent Voter Project and approved by voters in 2010.
Mr. Winger’s entire argument against Top-Two is founded on the notion that third-party rights trump the rights of individuals — that a third party’s supposed right to be on the general election ballot is greater than the right every voter is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution to equal and meaningful access to the election process. This is a right that should not be conditioned on the requirement to associate with a private organization in any manner. [end excerpt]
===*===*===
Child Poverty Solutions Within Reach
Basic Facts About Low-Income Children: Children Under 3 Years, a fact sheet from the National Center for Children in Poverty, illustrates some sobering news. More very young children live in low-income and poor American families than do older children, and the numbers are even higher for Black and Hispanic children [https://archive.org/details/BasicFactsAboutLowIncomeChildrenAge3AndUnder2013].
Yet a new Children's Defense Fund report, Ending Child Poverty Now, shows that by investing an additional 2% of the federal budget into existing programs and policies that increase employment, make work pay, and ensure children's basic needs are met, the nation could reduce child poverty by 60% and lift 6.6 million children out of poverty [https://web.archive.org/web/20150219055216/http://www.childrensdefense.org/library/PovertyReport/EndingChildPovertyNow.html].
(Thanks to Zero to Three for sharing these resources [http://www.zerotothree.org/].)
* "How to Save the Middle Class When Jobs Don’t Pay Enough" [http://www.shareable.net/blog/how-to-save-the-middle-class-when-jobs-don%E2%80%99t-pay-enough] [https://web.archive.org/web/20150219031346/http://www.shareable.net/blog/how-to-save-the-middle-class-when-jobs-don’t-pay-enough]:
There’s long been a notion that, because money is a prerequisite for survival and security, everyone should be assured some income just for being alive.
And yet, with one exception, Americans have been unable to agree on any plan that guarantees some income to everyone. The reasons lie mostly in the stories that surround such income. Is it welfare? Is it redistribution? Does it require higher taxes and bigger government? Americans think dimly of all these things.
But then, there’s the exception. Jay Hammond, the Republican governor of Alaska from 1974 to 1982, was an independent thinker who conceived of, and then persuaded Alaska’s legislators to adopt, the world’s first system for paying equal dividends to everyone. In Hammond’s model, the money comes not from taxes but from a common resource: North Slope oil. Using proceeds from that gift of nature, the Alaska Permanent Fund has paid equal yearly dividends to every resident, including children, ranging from about $1,000 to over $3,000. (Bear in mind that a family of four collects four same-sized dividends.) While this isn’t enough to live on, it nicely supplements Alaskans’ other earnings. And paying such dividends regularly for more than 30 years has bolstered the state’s economy, reduced poverty, and made Alaska one of the least unequal states in America.
It’s also unlikely that the jobs of the future will pay more (adjusted for inflation) than today’s. In unionized industries like autos and airlines, two-tier contracts are now the norm, with younger workers paid substantially less than older ones for doing the same work. Nor is the picture brighter in other industries. In the Labor Department’s latest list of occupations with the greatest projected job growth, only one out of six pays more than $60,000 a year. The implication is clear: without some form of supplementary non-labor income, we can kiss our middle class goodbye.
One further reason for looking north to Alaska is the current stalemate in American politics. Solutions to all major problems are trapped in a tug-of-war between advocates of smaller and larger government. But dividends from common wealth bypass that bitter war. They require no new taxes or government programs; once set up, they’re purely market based. And because they send legitimate property income to everyone, they can’t be derided as welfare.
Consider what $5,000 per person per year would mean. If a child’s dividends were saved and invested starting from birth, they’d yield enough to pay for a debt-free college education at a public university. In midlife, $5,000 per person would add 25 percent to the income of a family of four earning $80,000 a year. In late life, it would boost the average retiree’s Social Security benefit by about 30 percent. Thus, dividends from common wealth would provide a badly-needed boost for poor and middle class families during what promises to be a lasting shortage of good-paying jobs.
Surprisingly, the core idea behind Alaska’s dividends is over two centuries old. In his 1796 essay “Agrarian Justice,” American patriot Thomas Paine distinguished between two kinds of property: “natural property, or that which comes to us from the Creator of the universe—such as the earth, air, water … [and] artificial or acquired property, the invention of men.” The second kind of property, Paine argued, must necessarily be distributed unequally, but the first kind belongs to everyone equally. It is the “legitimate birthright” of every man and woman, “not charity but a right.”
And Paine went further. He proposed a practical way to implement that right: create a “National Fund” to pay every man and woman a lump sum (roughly $17,000 in today’s money) at age 21, and a stipend of about $1,000 a month after age 55. Revenue would come from what Paine called “ground rent” paid by landowners. He even showed mathematically how this could work. Presciently, Paine recognized that land, air, and water could be monetized not just for the benefit of a few but for the good of all. Further, he saw that this could be done at a national level. This was a remarkable feat of analysis and imagination, and it’s time to apply it broadly.
Today, Paine’s core idea—that everyone has a right to equal income from common wealth—can be applied not just to natural resources but also to the creations of society. Consider, for example, the immense value created by our legal, intellectual, and financial infrastructures, the Internet, and our economy as a whole. This value isn’t created by single individuals or corporations; it’s created collectively and hence belongs equally to all. In a fairer economy some of it would actually be distributed to all. The ideal mechanism for doing this would be common wealth dividends—simple, transparent, direct (not trickle down), built on co-ownership rather than redistribution, and politically appealing.
And here’s the best part. If Paine’s idea and Alaska’s model were applied at sufficient scale, the implications would be vast. The current tendencies of capitalism to widen inequality and devour nature would be self-corrected. Instead of plutocracy and climate change, our market economy would generate widely-shared, earth-friendly prosperity. And it would achieve these goals automatically, without much need for government intervention.
[end excerpt]
===*====*===
SAN PABLO BAY ECOLOGICAL PRESERVATION ASSOCIATION
* "Researchers Develop New Instrument to Monitor Atmospheric Mercury; Instrument detects minute quantities of mercury to help better protect public health" (2015-01-30) [http://www.rsmas.miami.edu/news-events/press-releases/2015/researchers-develop-new-instrument-to-monitor-atmospheric-mercury/] [https://archive.today/SpfC9]
---
* "Train Derailment In West Virginia Sends Oil Tanker Into River" (2015-02-16, Associated Press newswire) [https://archive.today/4g3Pm]
---
* "Coast Guard handles oil spill cleanup at Shell Martinez wharf" (2015-02-15) [http://beniciaheraldonline.com/coast-guard-handles-oil-spill-cleanup-at-shell-martinez-wharf/] [https://archive.today/cAArO]
---
* "Sea lions dying off on coast of California" (2015-02-14) [http://www.timesheraldonline.com/20150214/sea-lions-dying-off-on-coast-of-california] [https://archive.today/6wC7t]
---
* "Caltrans' Construction of Bypass Collapses: Workers Hurt; Alkaline Cement in Salmon Stream" (2015-02-19, Bay Area Coalition for Headwaters) [https://archive.today/yHoKv] [begin excerpt]:
Flatiron is also the contractor on the San Francisco Bay Bridge retrofit project, now notorious for the use of substandard Chinese steel, broken bolts, bent columns and leaks. The Willits Bypass collapse is Flatiron’s eighth major accident in two years. Caltrans itself has recently been investigated by a state Senate Committee, revealing a pattern, among other things, of ignoring worker concerns and “cutting off the heads” of whistleblowers.
The much contested and protested Willits Bypass has been beset by controversy from its inception in the 1970s. The six-mile, four-lane super freeway is routed through sensitive wetlands, salmon-bearing streams and a Native American archeological district. Construction began in early 2012 amid lawsuits and public protest including nonviolent civil disobedience. Environmental groups and many residents say the project is too big, too expensive and environmentally and culturally destructive, pointing out that a smaller, less destructive design is available that would also save time and money. [end excerpt]
* "At least 3 people sent to hospital in Willits bypass bridge collapse" (2015-01-22) [http://www.pressdemocrat.com/home/3422794-181/at-least-3-people-sent?page=0] [https://web.archive.org/web/20150219065425/http://www.pressdemocrat.com/home/3422794-181/at-least-3-people-sent?page=0] [begin excerpt]:
State Fish and Wildlife officials will be studying the effects of the concrete spill on creeks in the construction zone. The lime in wet concrete is alkaline, thus toxic to aquatic life, said Fish and Wildlife Warden Steve White. Water samples were gathered Thursday and a dam was being built on Haehl Creek to limit contamination. The creek’s water will be routed to nearby Baechtal Creek so that it bypasses the contaminated area and limits the damage, White said. He said he had not observed any fish deaths so far, but he was unable to access all of Haehl Creek on Thursday because of thick underbrush. Biologists will be searching the waterways for dead fish Friday, he said.
The 5.9-mile bypass has been beset by lengthy delays and cost overruns. The project, already two years behind schedule, is 50 percent complete. Lawsuits and protests by opponents, who say the project is unnecessary and damaging to the environment, have contributed to the delay.
The collapse turned an approximately 150-foot section of bridge into a giant pile of sticks and steel and dumped wet concrete — which is toxic to fish — into a stream.
The collapsed bridge is part of the estimated $275 million bypass Caltrans is constructing to re-route Highway 101 around Willits.
Workers were pouring concrete into a section of falsework, which is the frame of the bypass, at East Valley Street sometime after 2 p.m. when the bridge section collapsed, Caltrans spokesman Phil Frisbie Jr. said. There was conflicting information about the number of injuries and where the people were standing when the bridge collapsed.
[end excerpt]
===*===*===
SAN PABLO BAY SOVEREIGNTY Think-tank
11th International Permaculture Convergence Cuba 2013 videos
[https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJd48r8cihenmW1FfXic-1Sb7qWxbWf6u]
Next International Permaculture Convergence will be in London Sept 2015
[https://www.ipcuk.events]
Eastbay Permaculture Guild [http://eastbaypermacultureguild.weebly.com] [https://www.facebook.com/groups/eastbaypermaculture/]
PLACE for Sustainable Living, check on FaceBook, or [http://aplaceforsustainableliving.org]
Ecology Center Seed Swap - March 7 @ EC in Berkeley, 7-9pm, ecologycenter.org
Permaculture Action Tour:
Ryan Rising returned from a six week tour of 33 cities with the Polish Ambassador concert events where participants learn about permaculture and engage in a local community action project after the concert. The goal is to provide "Pathways to Action" and many successful projects were completed. See [www.permacultureaction.org]
Future Venues include: the Envision Festival and Lucidity Festival
---
*"Vermonters Lobby for Public Bank—And Win Millions for Local Investment Instead; Advocates didn’t get the public bank they wanted. But the compromise they reached in the end was still a rare and significant win over Wall Street banks" (2015-02-07) [http://www.yesmagazine.org/commonomics/vermonters-lobby-public-bank-win-millions-for-local-investment] [https://web.archive.org/web/20150120101254/http://www.yesmagazine.org/commonomics/vermonters-lobby-public-bank-win-millions-for-local-investment]
---
Renaissance Community Coop (RCC) [http://renaissancecoop.com/]
* Renaissance Co-op Documentary (part 2 of 3) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=InHamgv0lK0]
* "New North Carolina Coop to Turn a Food Desert into a Food Oasis" (2015-02-09) [http://www.shareable.net/blog/new-north-carolina-coop-to-turn-a-food-desert-into-a-food-oasis] [https://web.archive.org/web/20150219031807/http://www.shareable.net/blog/new-north-carolina-coop-to-turn-a-food-desert-into-a-food-oasis]: In 1998, when the Winn-Dixie grocery store in Northeast Greensboro, North Carolina closed, it created a food desert—a community without easy access to food. For years, area residents tried to get another grocery chain to come in, but none wanted to come to the predominantly African-American, low-income town.
The community finally came up with a solution—one that didn't rely on an outside company to come in. They put into motion a plan to open a food cooperative.
Scheduled to open later this year, the Renaissance Community Coop (RCC) will be a full grocery store, bringing area residents access to fresh fruit, vegetables and other staples. It’s a welcome addition to a town that came in second place for food insecurity in the U.S.
RCC will also bring an estimated 32 jobs to the area. Minimum wage in North Carolina is $7.25 per hour but the starting wage at RCC will be $10 per hour. In an area where median household income is $21,000, a secure, fair-wage job could prove transformational for families.
At this point, the RCC has raised over $1 million. To reach its goal, it will need about $600,000 more, which it hopes to secure through economic-development incentives from the city. More than 300 people have paid $100 to become lifetime coop members.
The Greensboro community has a long history of community activism and engagement. Neighbors have, among other things, organized to block a proposed landfill, and stop development of a juvenile detention center. RCC organizers are confident that the community spirit, not to mention the area’s pressing need for access to food, will provide the necessary support to sustain the coop, which has become a source of immense pride for the community.
As one member explains in the following video, at first she thought, “Hey, this might be possible.” As time went on, she thought, “This is possible.” Now, she says enthusiastically, “We’re at the point of, ‘It’s going to happen.’”
===*===*===
FREE 'EM ALL
* "I Was Found Innocent After 16 Years, Then Sent Back to Prison" (2015-02-12) [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lorenzo-johnson/i-was-found-innocent-afte_b_6670426.html] [https://archive.today/20ARV]
===*===*===
NORTHBAY COPWATCH
* "Subversion of social movements: What the ‘Intelligence Community’ is reading" (2015-02-12) [https://tonyseed.wordpress.com/2015/02/12/subversion-of-social-movements-what-the-intelligence-community-is-reading/] [https://archive.today/CqT4V] [end excerpt]:
The International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence is a “medium for professionals and scholars to exchange opinions on issues and challenges encountered by both the government and business institutions in making contemporary intelligence-related decisions and policy.”
First published in January 1986, the journal covers a wide variety of topics, from factual information such as “The Exorbitant Cost of Counterterrorism” to the weightier dilemmas, like “To Render or Intern: Counterterrorism Methods of the FBI, SIS and CIA.”The March 2013 edition featured an article entitled, “Subversion of Social Movements by Adversarial Agents,” written by Eric L. Nelson. Nelson’s profile provided with the article says he is a former counterintelligence agent with a U.S. Government and former police officer “in one of America’s most violent cities.” He has three master’s degrees and was completing his “individualized” Ph.D. in Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of California when he wrote the paper.
Nelson outlines “thirteen suppressive or subversive methods” to bring about “social movement failure.” Failures are classified as either “petit” or “complete,” depending on whether the targeted movement or organization is merely demoralized and shaken up, or completely “brought down.”
The article begins with the author’s definition of “social movements,” characterized as “shar(ing) a desire for structural change, and a willingness to do something about it.” Examples are given: Iron Workers picketing a non-union construction site; people in Spain protesting against banks and austerity; Ukrainian FEMEN activists protesting sulfuric acid attacks on women while visiting Turkey. Social movements, he explains, can include “matters of politics, religion, ethnicity, labor, economy, and justice, among others.”
The purpose of his article, is “to examine the intentional subversion of social movements by agents of the organization upon which the social movement is trying to force change.”
The article prefaces the subversion methods with an explanatory note: “Not all social movements need urgent attention, or vigorous suppression. Some are less threatening, and may be targeted for subversion using less drastic methods. Thus, the potential subversive actions range from nugatory to substantial. Most can be operationalized either covertly or in the open.”
The methods, each of them explained and illustrated, are: 1) Suppress Information Flow; 2) Suppress Recruiting Efforts; 3) Reduce Recruiting Opportunities 4) Develop Attractive Alternatives; 5) Tempt Members to Leave; 6) Reverse Recruiting Using Demoralizing Information; 7) Operationalize Secure/Faux Concessions; 8) Expertly Directed, Incessant Proactive Manipulation of Media; 9) Resource Depletion; 10) Stigmatization; 11) Divisive Disruption; 12) Intimidation; and 13) Intrapsychic Wounding.
[end excerpt]
Part of the process of fragmenting a social justice movement is by promoting an individualistic ideology that uses the same vernacular of the targeted movement. An example is contained in the following link [https://archive.today/ELqet].
An individual is persuaded in re-directing their mental resources in a purely personal endeavor for self-improvement and fellowship with others who are also persuaded to follow the inward-focused ideology, and are therefore rendered inoperative.
---
* "Spies for Hire: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing" book by Tim Shorrock (2008) [https://books.google.com/books?id=F52N9M2ALpsC&pg=PAi] free online access to a documentary on the privatisation of domestic and international clandestine security agencies
===*===*===
UNITED STATES FASCISM WATCH
* Lawyer Who Shielded HSBC for the Largest Drug-and-Terrorism Money-Laundering Case as Next US Attorney General? "Loretta Lynch is Condoleeza Rice With A Law Degree" (2015-02-11) [http://www.blackagendareport.com/node/14671] [https://archive.today/zmNwT]
---
* "Tell the FEC Not to Amp Up Internet Regulation" (2015-01-12) [https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/01/tell-fec-not-amp-internet-regulations] [https://archive.today/3JLyV]
* "Targeting Political Speech for the Next Election; After failing to rein in online opinions with regulation in California, a government official vows to go national" (2014-11-04) [http://www.wsj.com/articles/ronald-rotunda-targeting-political-speech-for-the-next-election-1415145765] [https://archive.today/bk7H8]
* "FEC latest front in Democrats’ multi-pronged assault on internet freedom" (2015-02-10) [https://hotair.com/archives/2015/02/10/fec-latest-front-in-democrats-multi-pronged-assault-on-internet-freedom/] [https://archive.today/Ue579]
* BEFORE THE FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSION In the Matter of Checks and Balances for Economic Growth, STATEMENT OF REASONS OF VICE CHAIR ANN M. RAVEL [https://web.archive.org/web/20150123021559/http://eqs.fec.gov/eqsdocsMUR/14044363872.pdf]:
Political advertising has become commonplace on the Internet, and that trend only stands to increase as citizens turn more frequently to the Internet and mobile devices for information and entertainment. But while the world changes, the Commission has not adapted with it and has failed to acknowledge the importance of providing transparency to the public no matter what the medium of political communication. A re-examination of the Commission's approach to the Internet and other emerging technologies is long overdue.
Today, the Commission publicly released the file in an enforcement matter concerning the disclosure and disclaimer requirements for certain Internet advertisements. The Commission here deadlocked on whether there should be any reporting for particular political advertisements disseminated only online.' Some of my colleagues seem to believe that the same political message that would require disclosure if run on television should be categorically exempt from the same requirements when placed on the Internet alone. As a matter of policy, this simply does not make sense.
In the past, the Commission has specifically exempted certain types of Internet communications from campaign finance regulations. In doing so, the Commission turned a blind eye to the Internet's growing force in the political arena.
The Commission's paramount
concern may have been not to inhibit a technology that was well-suited for mass-communication
by individual citizens. But the Commission failed to take into account clear indicators that the
Internet would become a major source of political advertising — dominated by the same political
organizations that dominate traditional media. Since its inception, this effort to protect individual bloggers and online commentators has been stretched to cover slickly-produced ads aired solely on the Internet but paid for by the same organizations and the same large contributors as the actual ads aired on TV.
Additionally, in 2014, the distinctions between the Internet and other modes of communication are not what an earlier group of Commissioners may have anticipated. In fact, as nearly everyone now knows, you can watch TV on the Internet. Cable companies even advertise the ability to access the same content—including ads — on your smartphone, tablet, laptop, desktop, or TV. So why hasn't the Commission reevaluated its approach to keep up with the changing times?
Unfortunately, in its earlier efforts at dealing with the Internet's impact on campaign finance, the Commission received only limited feedback from those most knowledgeable with the relevant issues — Internet developers and technology entrepreneurs. When devising policies with far reaching impact, it is incumbent on the Commission to consult the relevant community of professionals, and the public, to inform our decisions.
As a Commission, we need to consider the changing role of technology in our elections and recognize how technology is changing our politics. For that reason, next year, I will bring together technologists, social entrepreneurs, policy wonks, politicos, and activists — from across the spectrum — to discuss new and emerging technologies and how the Commission's current approach may or may not fit with future innovations. Such a dialogue will permit the Commission to develop a firmer understanding of emerging technologies and help us as policymakers to make better decisions. I encourage my colleagues to join me in this effort.
* FEC Public Hearing on the McCutcheon v. FEC Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, February 11, 2015 [https://archive.today/U7vR7] [https://web.archive.org/web/20150218052108/http://www.fec.gov/press/press2015/pdf/20150210release.pdf]
---
* "REPUBLICAN FCC MEMBER WARNS NET NEUTRALITY IS NOT NEUTRAL" (2015-02-09) [http://www.breitbart.com/big-hollywood/2015/02/09/republican-fcc-member-warns-net-neutrality-is-not-neutral/] [https://archive.today/cayOM], satirical photo from Ajit Pai [https://archive.today/D7u3n]
---
* "CNN Peddles Propaganda About 'Completely Mad' Putin" (2015-02-12) [http://fair.org/blog/2015/02/12/cnn-peddles-propaganda-about-completely-mad-putin/] [https://archive.today/mYZEl]
* "NYT Whites Out Ukraine’s Brown Shirts" (2014-02-11) [https://consortiumnews.com/2015/02/11/nyt-whites-out-ukraines-brown-shirts/] [https://archive.today/rVGEp]
---
* "Hillary Clinton’s Spiritual Adivsor Doug Coe And His Curious Admiration For Nazis And Communist Killings" (2008-03-25) [http://thedailybanter.com/2008/03/hillary-clintons-spiritual-adivsor-doug-coe-and-his-curious-admiration-for-nazis-and-communist-killings/] [https://web.archive.org/web/20140804205744/http://thedailybanter.com/2008/03/hillary-clintons-spiritual-adivsor-doug-coe-and-his-curious-admiration-for-nazis-and-communist-killings/#WIh9Tsprgzg9ZWJr.99]
---
Sometimes, clues are found in articles wholly unrelated to the study of fascism, as in the following excerpt originally written to provide insight into a region that contains controversial artifacts.
[https://web.archive.org/web/20150214073350/http://www.examiner.com/article/u-s-forest-service-employees-vandalize-native-american-town-site]:
Union County, GA, where Track Rock Gap is located, suddenly became a “hot news topic”in May of 2012 when one of its several neo-Nazi groups, a KKK chapter, applied to the Georgia Department of Transportation to sponsor a section of a four lane expressway running through the county. Reporters from around the nation gave the impression in newscasts that Union County was filled with characters out of the movie, Deliverance. In fact, Union County has long been known as a progressive, prosperous county that has one of the last Democratic-run county governments in northern Georgia. In recent years, however, aggressive, often illegal, actions by the Neo-Nazi's have given their groups disproportionate influence in governmental agencies, particularly law enforcement.
---
Fear-mongering in the monopolist media against captive nations...
* "Conservatives hilariously overreact to ‘horrifying,’ ‘fascist’ black power group for Oakland girls" (2015-02-17) [http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/02/conservatives-hilariously-overreact-to-horrifying-fascist-black-power-group-for-oakland-girls] [https://archive.today/BhMn6]
* "Right-Wingers Toss Their Cookies over “Radical Brownies” in Oakland" (2015-02-18) [http://www.allgov.com/usa/ca/news/top-stories/right-wingers-toss-their-cookies-over-radical-brownies-in-oakland-150218?news=855710] [https://archive.today/xNxlt]
* Photo showing young girls in a new community youth organization, posted unedited at Fox & Friends First [https://archive.today/MhF89]: [begin post] #BrewOnThis: There's a new Girl Scout troop in California, but these girls aren't selling cookies or learning to sew. They call themselves the “Radical Brownies” [https://archive.today/a1emW] and they wear berets that pay homage to the Black Panther party, and they spread the Black Lives Matter message. What do you make of this?! Is this the right message to be sending to young girls?? [end post]
Among the comments are those by people who believe that the "white Christian nation" is under oppression by "communist black muslims", a common belief among those who are loyal consumers of the Fox News cable-TV channel. Here are examples:
* "Hitlers Youth. Literally the Brownshirts"
* "Sadly these are all normal kind little girls that are being formed into tools for evil."
* "If white "folks" or Christians, created their own sub group of Girl Scouts.... They would be forced to comply to the standards of the left!"
On that last note, the following are examples about how opposite the reality is. It is mystifying that the person believes what they do, that they understand themselves to be the oppressed!
* "Boy Scouts' Membership Change May Grow Christian Youth Clubs" (2015-05-24) [http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/may-web-only/boy-scouts-membership-change-may-grow-christian-youth-clubs.html] [https://archive.today/3lgT9]
* "Pathfinders (Seventh-day Adventist)" (wikipedia.com, retrieved 2015-02-19) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathfinders_(Seventh-day_Adventist)] [https://archive.today/kDjdX]
===*===*===
Towards a Bolivarian Republic of Colombia
* "Insurgencia por la paz, Diálogos de Paz (Insurgency for the Peace, Dialogues of Peace)" complete documentary (in Spanish) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKn0U5RMmSM]
* "FARC Aims to Become a Political Movement" (2015-02-08) [http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/FARC-Aims-to-Become-a-Political-Movement-20150208-0013.html] [https://archive.today/81BMl] [begin excerpt]:
Peace talks between the FARC and the government of Colombia resumed earlier this month, with the two parties discussing the rights of victims of the conflict. This is the fourth of five agenda items being discussed, with parties having already reached an agreement on three other items. Talks have been ongoing since 2012.
The FARC is proposing a series of measures that it feels is necessary in order to guarantee that a violent armed conflict will not be repeated in the country. Among them were a number of measures to be acted upon immediately by the Colombian government, such as the implementation of a bilateral cease-fire and the suspension of mining and energy projects that run the risk of forcibly displacing people.
Many of the proposals made by the FARC in the latest round of negotiation address the factors that contribute to the existence of armed conflict in the country. The rebel group is calling for the demilitarization of Colombian society and a deep reform of the armed forces of the country. Specifically, they are calling for a reduction in the budget of the armed forces — to 2 percent of GDP — and an end to the doctrine of “National Security” which the FARC argues turned the armed forces into a counterinsurgency body instead of one that defends national sovereignty.
For their part, the FARC said that in order to avoid a repeat of violence, they would continue to work toward the end of the conflict, are willing to become a political movement, would actively participate in the building of truth and historical memory, and would share its experiences in building direct, community democracy.
The FARC also called for measures that would guarantee the right to political mobilization and social protest. In a previous attempt to end the armed conflict, thousands of activists from the Patriotic Union, a political party affiliated with the FARC, were assassinated by paramilitary groups.
In order to avoid a repeat of those political murders, the FARC called for the creation of a “Permanent Constitutional Commission” that would be tasked with defending human rights and protecting social activists. [end excerpt]
* "FARC’s Struggle for Agrarian Rights, against Imperialism" (2014-12-06) [https://archive.today/vXFoM], original in Spanish [https://archive.today/4GdP1]
---
* "Las mujeres en las FARC-EP hemos ganado reconocimiento" (2015-01-28) [http://www.mujerfariana.org/index.php/vision-de-mujer/247-las-mujeres-en-las-farc-ep-hemos-ganado-reconocimiento] [https://archive.today/0WMFe]
* "Rosas y Fusiles, mujeres de las FARC-EP" (2014-05-23) [http://www.mujerfariana.org/index.php/nos-gusta/110-rosas-y-fusiles-mujeres-de-las-farc-ep] [https://archive.today/EpFOR]
* Farianas: Mujeres de las FARC-EP [http://www.mujerfariana.org]
* "Somos FARC, ejercito del pueblo" video channel for the Bloques Ivàn Rìos and Martin Caballero. [https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn6V-wKGFfe9c6Qaop7vlKQ]
* Website of the FARC-EP Bloque Martin Caballero [http://resistencia-colombia.org/]
* "Las mujeres en las Fuerzas Especiales de las FARC-EP (The women of the Special Forces of the FARC-EP)" (2014-09-04) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WXNpRY7tdE]
===*===*===
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (ALBA)
* "Saint Lucians to Study Medicine for Free in Venezuela" (2015-02-18) [http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Saint-Lucians-to-Study-Medicine-for-Free-in-Venezuela-20150218-0038.html] [https://archive.today/RDcFR]
---
* "Latin America Stands Firm with Venezuela against US Sanctions" (2015-02-11) [http://www.telesurtv.net/english/contenidos/2015/02/11/noticia_0019.html] [https://archive.today/sTHVI]
* "Whispering Venezuela?" (2015-02-16) [http://www.telesurtv.net/english/opinion/Whispering-Venezuela-20150216-0036.html] [https://archive.today/TX8wT] [begin excerpt]:
To my eyes, Venezuela has sought a libertarian, non violent, and even participatory path more so then any other large scale project in the world. I would think that would merit major attention, assessment, lesson learning, and support, and certainly not silence much less hostility.
Neighborhoods organized, albeit with great difficulty, into councils, and councils into larger communes. Isn't this what an anti authoritarian, non violent, participation-advocating left wants?
Grass roots missions to solve social problems? Expanded education and health care? Democracy defended and plebiscites repeatedly taken and enacted? Do these and many other positive trends mean the Bolivarian project is flawless? Of course not. Do they mean that concern and criticism are unwarranted? Of course not. Do they mean the Bolivarian effort will succeed without doubt? Of course not. But the alternative to being a mindless sycophantic booster need not and should not be being silent or derogatory.
And in any case, why should Venezuela's project being less than perfect deter people from feeling outrage at the right wing and corporate opposition in Venezuela and at U.S. machinations seeking Venezuela's collapse? Why should the Venezuelan project being less than perfect prevent support for the best of Venezuela's efforts as well as constructive criticism of whatever one finds wanting?
Is it that some folks believe the flaws of the Bolivarian process are so damning that however well motivated it may be it is going to fail, intrinsically, and since it is going to fail, they don't support it? This too, seems unlikely. After all, the probability of failure is only enhanced by lack of critical and wise support. If people fear failure, why wouldn't they work to avert that outcome, even if they feel averting it will be very hard? Isn't the duty of the revolutionary to make the revolution — and to defend efforts in that direction? Surely it is not, instead, to support only sure things.
Unlike the above two unlikely possibilities, is it that some whisperers and dismissers feel, "wait just a minute, Venezuela doesn't match my understanding of revolution, or even of a project moving positively. Venezuela is instead, to my eyes, just another statist, authoritarian, aberration." Thinking this, such a person will understandably decide not to support Venezuela, though perhaps also not to criticize at a time when doing so would fuel violent right wing agendas. But, I have to wonder, is thinking this due to first hand knowledge? Is thinking this due to extensive examination? Do non supporters have convincing data? Do they have something actual to point at?
What policies and commitments of Venezuela give them an impression that the endeavor isn't in a positive direction or, worse, the impression that it is contrary to positive aims? It can't be the councils, communes, or grassroots missions, so what is it?
This is where a conundrum arises. For I just don't see what gives this analogy weight. For example, can any whisperers or dismissers who believes they are wisely refraining from supporting authoritarian centralism point to new Bolivarian laws that are reactionary and repressive, other than regurgitating manufactured nonsense from mainstream propaganda?
Toward Venezuela, now is a time for aid, support, listening, learning, and, when quite confident, also providing humble and hopefully helpful advice for overcoming problems.
* The War on Venezuela's Democracy Making the Economy Scream
[http://econwaronvenezuela.telesurtv.net/] [https://archive.today/xdbjY]
* "The Distorted 'Democracy' of Leopoldo Lopez" (2015-01-29) [http://www.telesurtv.net/english/analysis/The-Distorted-Democracy-of-Leopoldo-Lopez-20150129-0022.html] [https://archive.today/R2iwT]
Lopez studied in private and Ivy League schools in the United States, having graduated from the private secondary boarding school, the Hun School of Princeton in New Jersey, as well as Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. In his own words, and to his credit, many years before the Occupy movement popularized the term - Lopez acknowledged his own class background. “I belong to one percent of the privileged people, and achieving a good education will hopefully enable me to do something to help my country,” Lopez told a student paper while studying in Princeton.
After finishing his studies in the U.S., Lopez returned to Venezuela, taking up a lucrative analyst position at state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) between 1996-1999. During this time, the semi-privatized company was a boon for those like Lopez who had connections with Venezuela’s political establishment. An investigation concluded that Lopez “stole money and trafficked influences,” syphoning resources to his political movement. Lopez’s actions would lead to his being suspended from holding office.
However, before his suspension Lopez was elected to be the mayor of Chacao, the wealthiest of Caracas’ five municipalities. In a city sprawling with dense, improvised housing, Chacao is a testament to the spatial, class divide, registering a poverty rate of only 4.67 percent, according to the 2011 census.
According to investigative journalist Eva Golinger, in 2002 Lopez began making frequent trips to Washington, D.C., to “to visit IRI (International Republican Institute) headquarters and meet with officials in the Bush administration.” The IRI, one of the three foundations of the ill-named National Endowment for Democracy (NED), have been pumping tens of millions of dollars to opposition groups in Venezuela, including Justice First.
In April 2002, Lopez was among those who led an opposition march which was re-routed toward the Miraflores Palace in Caracas, where thousands of Chavez supporters were also demonstrating. Dozens of people were killed in the ensuing events, which have been shown to have been a premeditated, orchestrated massacre to justify the coup and kidnapping of then President Chavez.
In the days that followed, Lopez participated in a witch hunt for officials from the Chavez government, including the illegal detention of Minister of Interior and Justice Ramon Rodriguez Chacin. It is astonishing to remember that Lopez did this while still occupying the office of Mayor.
Lopez, who is now being categorized as a “democrat,” was also among the signatories of the Carmona Decree, which dissolved all of the country’s democratic institutions including the National Assembly, Supreme Court, Attorney General, and even the Constitution, creating an actual dictatorship under the installed ‘presidency’ of Pedro Carmona, the head of the country’s business federation.
If not for the December 2007 amnesty granted by President Chavez himself, Lopez might have long been sentenced to serve jail time.
In 2008, an investigation by Venezuela’s Comptroller General found that Lopez had used his position in PDVSA to obtain US$160,000 in illegal donations for his political party back in 1998. Not only was Lopez adviser to the state firm at the time, but his mother, Antoinette Mendoza, was director of public affairs for the oil company.
In 2011, Lopez put himself forward as presidential candidate but later removed his name as he was still barred from holding office due to the corruption charges. His party, which was launched with much fanfare, came in fourth within the opposition coalition.
In the same year, he met numerous times with former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, purportedly to request his "advice" on "security.” Uribe, who has openly acknowledged working on a continental level against left-wing governments, is being questioned in the Colombian senate for alleged ties to paramilitary groups that have been accused of mass atrocities. Uribe’s own administration was marred with human rights violations including the infamous “false positives” scandal, as well as civil rights violations such as spying on judges, opposition politicians and others.
[end excerpt]
* "Britain and Canada Involved in Foiled US Venezuelan Coup Plot" (2015-02-16) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/britain-and-canada-involved-in-foiled-us-venezuelan-coup-plot/5431523] [https://archive.today/bUOnK]
* "OAS Chief Part of Extreme Right Wing, Venezuelan Diplomat Says" (2015-02-17) [http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/OAS-Chief-Part-of-Extreme-Right-Wing-Venezuelan-Diplomat-Says-20150217-0011.html] [https://archive.today/6p71x]
* "What is Behind the Coup Attempt in Venezuela?" (2015-02-15) [http://www.telesurtv.net/english/opinion/What-is-Behind-the-Coup-Attempt-in-Venezuela-20150217-0036.html] [https://archive.today/BGyq6]
* "Venezuela Foils Obama’s Coup Plot" (205-02-14) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/venezuela-foils-obamas-coup-plot/5431160] [https://archive.today/hsXww]
* "The War on Venezuela’s Democracy: A Thwarted Coup Attempt" (2015-02-14) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-war-on-venezuelas-democracy-a-thwarted-coup-attempt/5431239] [https://archive.today/28jqd]
* "Timeline: The Anatomy of a Venezuelan Coup" (2015-02-13) [http://www.telesurtv.net/english/analysis/Timeline-The-Anatomy-of-a-Venezuelan-Coup-20150213-0006.html] [https://archive.today/kFtIy]
* "Venezuelan Opposition Leaders Released 'Transition' Statement" (2015-02-13) [http://www.telesurtv.net/english/analysis/Key-Opposition-Leaders-Released-Transition-Statement-before-Thwarted-Coup-20150213-0004.html] [https://archive.today/X98lh]
* "Venezuelan Legislator Gives Details on Thwarted Coup" (2015-02-13) [http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Venezuelan-Legislator-Gives-Details-on-Thwarted-Coup--20150213-0001.html] [https://archive.today/Mn79i]
* "Coup Plot in Venezuela Thwarted" (2015-02-12) [http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Coup-Plot-in-Venezuela-Thwarted-20150212-0030.html] [https://archive.today/dLhqY] [begin excerpt]: Coup plotters planned on assassinating the Venezuelan president and installing a de facto government. Those involved were being paid in U.S. dollars, and one of the suspects had been granted a visa to enter the United States should the plot fail, Maduro said. Venezuela’s president stated that the coup plotters already had a “transitional” government and program lined up once the plan, which included bombings on the Miraflores Palace and the teleSUR offices in Caracas, as well as assassinations of members of the opposition, Maduro and others, was carried out. The four-stage plan involved creating an economic assault on the country, creating an international debate around a supposed humanitarian crisis, a political coup involving officials who would turn on the government, and finally a military coup that would lead to the installation of the transitional program. Maduro stated that the plot, which was scheduled to coincide with anti-government demonstrations planned for the one-year anniversary of the start of violent, opposition-led demonstrations which began last Feb. 12, was uncovered after military officials who had been approached to participate reported the schemes to authorities. [end excerpt]
* "Venezuela’s Right-Wing Rampages: 2014’s Wave of Violence" (2015-02-12) [http://econwaronvenezuela.telesurtv.net/?p=104] [https://archive.today/hvJdn]
* "Venezuelan Guarimbas: 11 Things the Media Didn't Tell You" (2015-02-11) [http://www.telesurtv.net/english/analysis/Venezuelan-Guarimbas-11-Things-the-Media-Didnt-Tell-You-20150211-0025.html] [https://archive.today/CYpzX]
* "The Right-Wing Opposition's War on Democracy in Venezuela" [http://www.telesurtv.net/english/multimedia/The-Right-Wing-Oppositions-War-on-Democracy-in-Venezuela-20150122-0027.html] [https://archive.today/V22QN]
* "Economic War on Venezuela" (2014-02-10) [http://econwaronvenezuela.telesurtv.net/?p=33] [https://archive.today/jMVzB]
* "Venezuelan Business Sector Acknowledges Role in 2002 Coup" (2015-02-10) [http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Venezuelan-Business-Sector-Acknowledges-Role-in-2002-Coup-20150210-0005.html] [https://archive.today/TzHlL]
* "Venezuela: Coup in Real Time" (2015-02-01) [http://www.telesurtv.net/english/opinion/Venezuela-Coup-in-Real-Time-20150201-0015.html] [https://archive.today/ceXbT]
* "5 Ways the US is Interfering in Venezuela" (2015-01-21) [http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/5-Ways-the-US-is-Interfering-in-Venezuela-20150121-0033.html] [https://archive.today/mIGIZ]:
There is hard evidence that the United States government has been trying to destabilize Venezuela since the election of socialist President Hugo Chavez in 1998 to the current government of President Nicolas Maduro. Let’s count down the top 5 ways.
1. The 2002 coup: Intelligence documents showed that the CIA and Bush administration officials were involved in helping the 2002 coup plotters overthrow the democratically-elected government of Hugo Chavez.
2. Sanctions: Obama signed a law in 2014 allowing him to sanction Venezuelan officials for alleged involvement in putting down violent right wing student protests.
3. National Endowment for Democracy: The United States National Endowment for Democracy has channeled multimillion dollar funding into right-wing opposition political parties.
4. Student movement funding: United States agencies, USAID, NED, IRI, NDI, Freedom House, AEI and ICNC have funneled money into right-wing student groups who aim to destabilize the government, under the guise of “democracy.”
5. Yon Goicoechea: The libertarian, U.S.-based Cato Institute awarded the $500,000 “Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty” to Venezuelan opposition student leader Yon Goicoechea who led student-organized street violence against Venezuela's democratically-elected government.
---
* "Venezuelan Opposition Protestors Attack Reporters, Army Officer" (2015-02-18) [http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Venezuelan-Opposition-Protestors-Attack-Reporters-Army-Officer-20150218-0050.html] [https://archive.today/GTRuz] [begin excerpt]: Violent opposition protestors attacked a member of the National Bolivarian Armed Forces (FANB) as well as two journalists, in the affluent Caracas borough of Chacao Wednesday. A small group set up a guarimba, a violent street barricade at around 2 p.m. local time, after a demonstration to one year since right wing leader Leopoldo Lopez's was arrested for inciting violence that killed 43 people. The military official was attacked by a group of the protestors, who surrounded the unarmed official, repeatedly punching him in the head. A store employee where the military official was attacked tried to close the store to protect the man. Meanwhile, the Venezuelan Public Ministry is investigating the attacks against journalist Jean Carlos Corrales Mendoza and cameraman Leonardo de Leon Gonzalez from Zurda Konducta, a youth-oriented television show on state television, as they were filming today's right wing protests. According to preliminary reports, the crew was covering the demonstration when a group of people began to chase and throw bottles, sticks and stones toward them. The police immediately came to the aid of the television crew who were injured with blunt objects. [end excerpt]
---
* "Sabino Romero's Widow Testifies Amidst Threats" (2015-02-03) [http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/11180] [https://archive.today/3RuNc] [begin excerpt]: Dozens of activists gathered outside the Ministry of Justice in the capital today in solidarity with Lucia Martinez de Romero, the widow of assassinated indigenous Yukpa leader Sabino Romero. Today she testified in the trial of Angel Antonio Romero Bracho, (aka “Manguera”) accused of murdering the indigenous chief or "cacique". Lucia herself also suffered multiple gunshot wounds the night of March 3, 2013 when her husband was shot and killed by hired assassins reportedly acting in the service of wealthy cattle ranchers. Lusby Portillo, 66, Coordinator of the Zulia-based Homo Et Nature Society, explained what is at stake in today’s proceedings: “Today there is a trial against the physical murderer, who shot and killed [Sabino] and wounded Lucia Martinez. Five police officers from Machiques have already been tried and given seven years of prison... They gave them seven years, because there was influence on the part of the cattle ranchers, who paid so that the court would decide a minimum sentence of seven years". Portillo is one of the principal activists to have followed the case over the past 23 months. He told Venezuelanalysis that many indigenous activists feared that a miscarriage of justice would take place unless supporters continued to draw attention to the case. One witness today also noted that the family of Manguera began to threaten Lucia before she was due to testify. [end excerpt]
---
* "Venezuela arrests '7 police agents' and rabbi's bodyguard in connection with Caracas synagogue attack" (2009-02-08, Reuters newswire) [https://archive.today/gmNZr] [begin excerpt]: Armed men broke into Venezuela's Tiferet synagogue last week, daubing the walls with slogans like "Jews get out" and destroyed religious objects. The attack produced a deluge of condemnation of President Hugo Chavez, a vocal critic of Israeli foreign policy who last month expelled Israel's ambassador over the war in Gaza. Members of the U.S. Congress said in a letter that Chavez had fostered a climate of fear against the Jewish community, and the World Jewish Congress was also critical. Chavez insists he respects all religions and condemned the attack on the synagogue, which he blamed on armed groups opposed to his government. This week he said investigators had found a videotape of the assailants in the temple and predicted arrests would quickly follow. Representatives of World Jewish Congress met with Venezuelan officials on Friday and said the government had promised to clamp down on anti-Semitic acts. [end excerpt]
---
* "South African officials have called into question Irwin Cotler’s relationship to Nelson Mandela, but his connection to Israel is clear" (2015-02-08) [http://www.telesurtv.net/english/analysis/The-Hypocrisy-of-Leopoldo-Lopezs-New-Lawyer-20150206-0023.html] [https://archive.today/2q8G9] [begin excerpt]
Venezuelan opposition figures were quick to gloat about their latest international ally. Irwin Cotler, a long-time Canadian Member of Parliament for the Liberal party, reportedly signed on to become part of the legal team for former Venezuelan politician Leopoldo Lopez, who is currently jailed for his role in the deadly rioting that rocked Venezuela in early 2014.
Carlos Vecchio, a leading member of Lopez’ political party, Popular Will, boasted that “(Nelson) Mandela’s lawyer in considering going to Ramo Verde”, the jail where Lopez is being held. Quickly, the international press – who have been exceptionally busy of late printing any stories that puts the Venezuelan government in a bad light – picked up the story, also referring to the Canadian lawmaker as THE lawyer for the famed South African liberation movement head.
Virtually no media picked up the declarations from South African leaders negating a connection between Cotler and Mandela.
"Irwin Cotler was not Nelson Mandela’s lawyer and does not represent the Government or the people of South Africa in any manner," the Ambassador of the Republic of South Africa to Venezuela Pandit Thaninga Shope-Linney, said Thursday.
Indeed, Cotler is also an advisory board member of the board of UN Watch, which also has disproportionate focus on monitoring activity at the United Nations relating to Palestinian rights. Unsurprisingly, the organization – which also counts former members of the U.S. government in its board – has historically been opposed to the governments of the Bolivarian Revolution, as evidenced by the group’s intense lobbying efforts against Venezuela's bid for a seat on the U.N. Security Council and the declarations from the head of U.N. Watch upon the death of President Chavez, called the former leader a “symbol of evil.”
Having served as Justice Minister during the Liberal government of Jean Chretien, Cotler was responsible for Bill C-36, Canada's Anti-Terrorism Act passed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks on New York in 2001. The law was condemned by a slew of lawyers as well as civil and human rights organizations, and has been used to permit massive surveillance on activists since.
Even while in opposition, Cotler has been conspicuously silent during flagrant abuses of civil rights by authorities in Canada.
In 2010 Canada was host to the G20 Summit, during which police arbitrarily arrested over a thousand people in what the Ontario Ombusman, Andre Marin, referred to as "a time period where martial law was set in the city of Toronto, leading to the most massive compromise of civil liberties in Canadian history."
In addition to the mass arrests – which included accusations of physical and sexual assault on protesters by police – several activists were preemptively arrested after police infiltrated groups and discovered that they intended to cause property damage, e.g. breaking windows of banks, in Toronto. Two of the arrested were sentenced to jail time, even though their arrests did not even allow them to participate in any demonstrations.
Cotler and his Liberal Party's did not condemn this mass violation of civil rights which took place in the country's largest city and in plain sight.
Two years later, as hundreds of thousands of Quebec post-secondary students went on strike to protest an increase in tuition fees, the government responded with heavy handed police tactics on protesters, including attacks on restaurant patrons and leading to several serious injuries of peaceful protestors.
The Quebec government later passed a law which specifically prohibited gatherings of more than 50 people. Bill 78 was condemned by students, trade unions as well as the Quebec Human Rights Commission.
[end excerpt]
===*===*===
Republic of Cuba (ALBA)
Compare the following article with how the USA treats dissidents engaging in civil-disobedience.
* "Cuban dissidents arrested before free-speech demonstration in Havana" (2014-12-30) [http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/30/cuban-dissidents-arrested-yoani-sanchez-demonstration] [https://archive.today/hYrd4] [begin excerpt]:
The crackdown came around lunchtime on Tuesday, just hours before local performance artist Tania Bruguera was due to stage an open-microphone event in Havana’s most politically sensitive square.
Police had denied Bruguera a permit for the “Yo tambien exijo,” [I also demand]” demonstration and warned activists not to participate, but several had indicated their willingness to participate in this test case for public dissent. The authorities did not give them a chance. Blogger Yoani Sanchez reported that her husband, Escobar – a senior editor of a dissident website 14ymedio.com – and Avila, the leader of the opposition group Somos Mas, were detained. Sanchez was later said to be held at home by police. Police also detained Rodiles, the head of Citizen Demand for Another Cuba, a group that expressed support for the open microphone demonstration.
But the authorities took a low-key approach in the first week after the 17 December announcement of improved ties. At the weekly silent protest march four days later by the Damas de Blanco protest movement, there were none of the usual arrests and violence.
Bruguera’s planned “participatory performance” would, however, have been more of a challenge. She planned to give anyone a one-minute platform to discuss their views of Cuba’s future outside the government headquarters near the site where Fidel Castro used to give lengthy speeches to audiences of hundreds of thousands of people.
[end excerpt]
Unlike the hundreds of peace and justice advocates across the USA tortured by police while detained for even permitted protests, those who were arrested seem to have suffered no physical damage.
Photo from [https://archive.today/R2iwT]: Cuban opposition blogger, Yoani Sanchez (R). Last year, one of Sanchez’s posts was acknowledged to have been crafted at the U.S. State department.
NEW AFRIKA PEACE MOVEMENT & the GREEN CHARTER COMMITTEE
* "Washington Drives an “Imperial Wedge” Between Congo and China" (2015-02-06) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/washington-drives-an-imperial-wedge-between-congo-and-china/5429886] [https://archive.today/HZGPL]
* "UN to formally end support for DR Congo operation" (2015-02-14) [http://www.africadaily.net/reports/UN_to_formally_end_support_for_DR_Congo_operation_999.html] [https://archive.today/sas45]
---
* "The Re-Colonization of Africa" (2015-02-06) [http://www.commondreams.org/views/2015/02/06/re-colonization-africa] [https://archive.today/DCIe8]
---
* "Is Boko Haram a CIA Covert Op to Divide and Conquer Africa?" (2015-02-14) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/is-boko-haram-a-cia-covert-op-to-divide-and-conquer-africa/5431177] [https://archive.today/7MhlV]
---
* "Cuban Doctors Have Saved 260 Lives in Sierra Leone" (2015-02-19) [http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/Cuban-Doctors-Have-Saved-260-Lives-in-Sierra-Leone-20150219-0001.html] [https://archive.today/3QpJP]
===*===*===
WORLD FASCISM WATCH
* "A Storm’s Brewin’: Are Spy Agencies Funding Weather Weapon Research?" (2015-02-16) [http://sputniknews.com/europe/20150216/1018338165.html] [https://archive.today/npMOQ]
====*===*===
Republic of France (EU)
* "Petition against McCarthyist censorship in French university libraries" (2015-02-03) [http://www.petitions24.net/petition_against_censorship_in_french_university_libraries] [https://archive.today/Nmp27]:
A user of the Sorbonne University's Pierre Mendès France Library recently proposed to a librarian that the library acquire the French edition of Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War 1939-1953 by Geoffrey Roberts, professor at the University of Cork in Ireland and Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. The book was published in French in 2014 by Editions Delga, and originally published in English in 2006 by Yale University Press. The proposal received the following response: “The proposed work, although it was written by a university professor, does not in principle seem to us to display the historical and scientific neutrality required for it to be included on our shelves. Nor do the other books published by the same publishing house.”
When the library directors were contacted about the incriminated book, as well as about the prerequisite conditions for a publisher's books to be admitted onto the library's shelves, a series of evasive answers was given. A visit to the shelves in question, those devoted to the history of Soviet Russia and the USSR, reveals that for over fifteen years, books containing unprofessional journalism and anti-Soviet propaganda have been systematically acquired, such as those by Bernard-Henri Lévy and André Glucksmann, as well as outright holocaust-denying books, such as those by Ernst Nolte. On the other hand, important scholarly works published in French during the same period have not been acquired, such as those by Arno Mayer, Michael Carley and Alexander Werth, whose famous Russia at War 1941 to 1945, republished in French in 2011, remains absent.
This censorship is taking place in a particular context. For example, on January 21, 2015, Polish Foreign Minister Grzegorz Schetyna claimed, in order to justify the fact that Russia had not been invited to the commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz this year, that it was the Ukrainians and not the Soviet army that had liberated the concentration camp. And on January 8 Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk claimed – without receiving any more public outcry than the Polish foreign minister – that the Soviet Union had invaded Germany in June of 1941.
These gross falsehoods have not been answered with any official reaction. This passivity is made possible only by the lack of historical knowledge within public opinion, partly a result of the censorship that has extended into the university. While this censorship lay tacit and insidious for a long time, it has now attained such a level that the Sorbonne University library no longer attempts to dissimulate it, in its prohibition of a well-known university professor and the entire catalog of a progressive publisher.
We demand that this blatant violation of university ethics be brought to an end, and that the Pierre Mendès France Library at the Sorbonne University respect diversity and pluralism in its acquisitions of scholarly publications. We demand also that this respect extend to all other university libraries.
No to McCarthyist censorship in university libraries!
* Book Review: "Stalin's Wars: From World War to Cold War, 1939 - 1953" [https://archive.today/JNd83] [begin excerpt]: On 22 June 1941 a German army of 3 to 4 million troops stormed over the border to wipe out the Soviet Union. Stalin's Wars is an evaluation of the war effort of the peoples of the USSR and their leaders, who defeated the invasion and drove the Nazis all the way back to Berlin. The Soviet victory, if it is not the jost stupendous achievement in military history, must come close. The immense scale of the forces arrayed on each side, and the toll in life, are breathtaking. Geoffrey Roberts's book focuses on the Great Patriotic War and after. Roberts concludes, firstly, that Joseph Stalin was a highly effective and successful war leader. He sees criticisms of Stalin's military leadership as rooted in anti Soviet Cold War polemics and in the de Stalinization campaign inside the USSR from Khrushchev onwards. Secondly, Roberts believes Stalin was committed to the grand alliance with Britain and the United States and wanted to see it continue after the war. Stalin strove to avert the break up of the Big Three. Thirdly, Roberts sees relaxation of repression as begun in Stalin's time. The transition away from the repression that peaked in the mid or late 1930s was begun during Stalin's last years, 1945–53. Roberts is a bourgeois historian. In the 1980s his politics moved further rightwards. He now supports, by his own admission, a "liberal, democratic, humane and socially responsible capitalism." He was a signer of the Euston Manifesto. In this reviewer's opinion, the importance of this book is much greater than its judgments about the war making successes and failures of Stalin and his circle. The book is compelled to make larger generalizations about politics and history. Stalin's Wars continues a major trend in bourgeois historiography that, after 1991, refuses to accept the Cold War shibboleths. Bourgeois historians, though still holding many anti communist assumptions and prejudices, are freer to reject the image of "Stalin as Lucifer," or "Stalin as another Hitler." [end excerpt]
===*===*===
Republic of Ukraine
* "GMO and Europe’s “Bread Basket”. Monsanto’s Land Grab in Ukraine" (2015-02-07) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/gmo-and-europes-bread-basket-monsantos-land-grab-in-ukraine/5430023] [https://archive.today/x6F7j]
* "Ukraine Agrees To Monsanto Land Grab For $17 Billion IMF Loan" (2015-02-13) [https://www.popularresistance.org/ukraine-agrees-to-monsanto-land-grab-for-17-billion-imf-loan/] [https://archive.today/o2Zf5]
* "Has the IMF Annexed Ukraine?" (2015-02-15) [http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article41004.htm] [https://archive.today/4ApPN]
* "IMF Loans to Ukraine: Deadly “Economic Medicine” Aimed at Total Destabilization" (2015-02-17) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/imf-loans-to-ukraine-deadly-economic-medicine-aimed-at-total-destabilization/5431677] [https://archive.today/XKK51]
---
* "Ukraine’s Economy is Collapsing, Currency Drops 50 Percent in 48 Hours" (2015-02-09) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/ukraines-economy-is-collapsing-currency-drops-50-percent-in-48-hours/5430535] [https://archive.today/EDDwy] [begin excerpt]: Ukraine is essentially broke, and barely had an economy to begin with. It’s already been talking with theIMF about a $15 billion bailout as its reserves havedwindled down to $6.42 billion, just enough to cover 5 weeks of imports. The hryvnia (Ukraine’s currency) fell from 16.8 to 24.4 per dollar on Tuesday, and then on Friday to 25.3 per dollar. Ultimately the hryvnia dropped 50 percent in under a 48 hour period, despite the central banks adjusting interest rates to combat such a drop. [end excerpt]
---
* "Russian draft resolution on Ukraine passed by UN Security Council" (2015-02-17) [http://rt.com/news/233243-un-council-resolution-ukraine/] [https://archive.today/oWQLQ]
* "Le Pen says Washington attempting to start ‘war in Europe’ " (2015-02-09) [http://rt.com/news/230503-le-pen-us-lackey/] [https://archive.today/bAgmE]
" ‘Observed in general’: France, Germany, Kiev & rebels agree truce holding" (2015-02-15) [http://rt.com/news/232443-ukraine-donbass-semblance-peace/] [https://archive.today/ETu0B]
* "Putin: West already supplies arms to Kiev, but Moscow optimistic about Minsk deal" (2015-02-17) [http://rt.com/news/233231-putin-ukraine-conflict-west] [https://archive.today/xMSFz]
* "Poroshenko reveals true nature of the ceasefire for Ukraine" (2015-02-12) with English subtitles [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAVFhPu5fio]
* "Debalcevo is ours. We won't leave." (2015-02-16) [http://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/2052007.html] [https://archive.today/sNVXr] (translated from the original in Russian) [begin excerpt]:
Kiev refused the offer by the DPR representatives to create a "green corridor" for withdrawing Ukrainian security personnel from Debalcevo. The official representative of the Ukrainian General Staff Vladislav Seleznyov announced this. "There are Minsk agreements according to which Debalcevo is ours. We won't go," – TASS gives his words. [https://archive.today/269Pm] (in Russian). Well, actually the Minsk agreements in their second edition don't determine the status of Debalcevo in any way, so Seleznyov here is, to put it mildly, lying. As for whether to go or not to go from Debalcevo – this is certainly the junta's own business. If they don't want to go and to accept the offer of the "green corridor" made by the DPR command, well, then they will be picked out of there and carried out of there feet first, as it was already done with the "cyborgs" in the airport, the corpses of which are still being dug out in the ruins of the new terminal. Of course in the situation when the DPR demands the surrender of Debalcevo and the junta doesn't want to get out of there, this cannot end in any way other than shooting (today they say that near Chernukhino they barely missed Graham Philips [https://archive.today/tgkP5] (in Russian), but he lucked out). However, in the coming days we may expect massive diplomatic consultations and maneuvers around the fate of Debalcevo. It is also worth noting that Baloga, the former ally of Yushenko, spoke about an offer in the spirit of "To hell with this Debalcevo, let's not repeat the situation with the airport". But such proposals are currently not in the political mainstream in Ukraine. The propaganda is rushing to forge the next myth of "Ukrainian Stalingrad" near Debalcevo, which will end just as senselessly and bloody as the previous myth about "cyborgs". People die for propaganda phantoms.
Actually, even without Debalcevo the cease-fire is one foot in the grave.
The results of shelling Gorlovka in the Komsomolets district, 02/02/2015 [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuUPHcFP8Zw].
About the shelling of Zorinsk [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmWpViVXCcg].
About the shelling of the Donetsk airport [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7-wtwEtdVM].
[end excerpt]
* "Kiev, following the DPR, announced its refusal to start withdrawing heavy weapons" (2015-02-16) translated from the original Russian at [https://archive.today/H2vCp] [begin excerpt]:
The Ukrainian security personnel announced that they are not ready to withdraw heavy weapons from the front line, explaining this by enduring attacks by the militia fighters. The DPR representatives refused to start withdrawing the artillery earlier on Monday. The special operation's representative Andrey Lysenko said that the sites for pulling back heavy weapons in accordance to the Minsk agreements were prepared, but now the Ukrainian side cannot do it due to the militia fighters not observing the point about the cease-fire. "A condition for withdrawing heavy weapons away from the line of contact is the fulfillment of the first point of the Minsk agreements — this is the cease-fire. 112 attacks — this is not an indicator of a cease-fire, so for now we are not ready to withdraw heavy weapons, although we did prepare the corresponding sites and the corresponding work on transferring heavy weapons and vehicles away from the line of contact was done. That is, we are prepared for this, but first there should be a cease-fire," — said Lysenko. Earlier on Monday the representative of the Ministry of Defense of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) Eduard Basurin, who was included into the extended sanction list of the EU several hours ago, said that the militia fighters also are not ready to start withdrawing heavy weapons, that is to implement one of the principal demands of the last Minsk agreements.According to the document, developed with the participation of the heads of France, Germany, Ukraine and Russia, on the second day after the ceasefire should begin withdrawal of heavy weapons (caliber 100 mm) from the front line, with a minimum width of the corridor should be not less than 50 km. At midnight on February 15 ceasefire came into effect. But the silence did not last long, according to the Ukrainian military, about three hours. By morning, the parties have accused each other of numerous violations and shelling.
[end excerpt]
* "Kiev's army pulling heavy weapons closer to Debaltsevo to unblock trapped troops — Basurin" (2015-02-17) [http://tass.ru/en/world/778230] [https://archive.today/ngfjO] [begin excerpt]: Ukraine’s army is pulling heavy weapons closer to Debaltsevo with obvious aim to unblock troops trapped in the Debaltsevo pocket, Eduard Basurin, a spokesman for the defense ministry of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR), said on Tuesday. "According to reconnaissance data, after dark Ukraine’s troops are pulling heavy artillery systems and multiple launch rocket systems to their positions near the settlements of Artemovsk, Svetodarskoye and Luganskoye," the Donetsk News Agency quoted him as saying. [end excerpt]
---
* "Western Military Intervention in Ukraine, Media Disinformation regarding the Donbass (Novorossiya) Military Leadership" (2015-02-06) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/western-military-intervention-in-ukraine-media-disinformation-regarding-the-donbass-military-leadership/5429805] [https://archive.today/QSAjN] [begin excerpt]:
As I am writing this the Ukrainian Rada has passed a law allowing foreign armies into Ukraine.
They are currently discussing whether to combine armies with Lithuania and Poland. This vast force increase will provide equipment and personnel to cover Kiev’s heavy losses in the war Poroshenko is waging in Donbass. I don’t know what combining armies with NATO member countries will ultimately mean. I do know that both countries are very close to following in Ukraine’s Ultra-National footsteps internally because of pressure from their own nationalist diasporas.
[end excerpt]
* "Poland kicks off unprecedented military spending spree" (2015-02-15, AFP newswire) [https://archive.today/h8Bhk]
---
* "Pro-Kiev Commander: 'We Will Burn Down Crimea, With All Its Residents' " (2015-02-17) [http://sputniknews.com/europe/20150217/1018385027.html] [https://archive.today/5jEGq]
* "Russian Federal Security Service seizes caches with weapons for mass riots in Crimea; Two caches with weapons and rounds of ammunition prepared by officers of the Ukrainian Berkut special police department were confiscated in the city of Yalta" (2015-02-17, ITAR-TASS newswire) [http://tass.ru/en/russia/778149] [https://archive.today/WhwPp]:
Officers of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) in Crimea have seized caches of the Right Sector Ukrainian ultranationalist far-right movement that were designed for organization of mass riots, the head of the regional FSB department in Crimea and Sevastopol Viktor Palagin said Tuesday. "Two caches that were prepared here for the Right Sector, for organization of mass disorders and opposition to power bodies, have been seized," Palagin said at an extended meeting of the Crimean prosecutor’s office’s board. He said two caches with weapons and rounds of ammunition were confiscated in the city of Yalta. They had been prepared by officers of the Ukrainian Berkut special police department, who supported the Ukrainian side in spring 2014.
* "Ukraine develops special programs to discredit Crimean authorities — security service" (2015-02-17) [http://tass.ru/en/russia/778137] [https://archive.today/hQVww] [begin excerpt]: According to the FSB department head, one of the projects developed by Ukraine is the campaign to form among the local creative community the groups of persons "who would support Ukraine and discredit the Russian Federation." Another project codenamed "Crimean Gambit" envisages the creation of "a system of integration of the pro-Ukrainian Crimean residents into the republic’s power bodies and municipalities with the further use of these officials as informers and for sabotage," said the FSB Crimea department chief. [end excerpt]
* "Sarkozy: Crimea cannot be blamed for joining Russia" (2015-02-08, RT News) [http://rt.com/news/230283-sarkozy-crimea-russia-blamed/] [https://archive.today/HvFQ7]
---
Evidence for the "invasion" of the eastern jurisdiction of the Republic of Ukraine (Novorossiya) by the Federation of Russia is based on articles posted by USA-subsidized private analysts, who knowingly admit using anonymous sources. The following article is an example and is originally from a website that sells "professional analysis", these are mercenaries who have an incentive to "produce intelligence" in order to make a comfortable living in the middle-class of North America while helping to justify a war that has killed 50,000 innocent people.
* "Putin plans to escalate conflict in Ukraine after Donetsk and Luhansk 'elections' " (2014-11-01) [https://archive.today/tht25] [begin excerpt]:
Predictions of a full-scale attack by the combined forces of the Russian Federation together with the LPR and DPR terrorist organizations in several directions have been made by InformNapalm team Timur Melik and military correspondent Roman Burko in their general summary for November 1, 2014. They have observed a mass rotation of personnel of militant groups, with local “militia” replaced by Russian servicemen. Local residents confirm the presence of many Russian servicemen in Donetsk. It is most likely that the Russian soldiers are replacing hard-to-control militants. The InformNapalm team and Roman Burko point to an increase of personnel and armored vehicles in Alchevsk, Bryanka, Perevalsk, Horlivka, Yenakijeve, and formation of reserves in Rovenky, Antratsyt, Snizhne, and Krasnyi Luch. [end excerpt]
---
* "Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) use Social Media for searching people who support DPR and LPR. For example a post in Facebook can be used for criminal prosecution" (2015-02-16) [https://archive.today/OXy2M]
* "5yrs for ‘denying Russian aggression’: Ukraine may criminalize anti-war speech" (2015-02-12) [http://rt.com/news/231555-ukraine-bill-agression-denial/] [https://archive.today/1oa1Z]
* "If Russia Is Ukraine's Enemy Why Are 1.2 Million Ukrainian Men Seeking Refuge in Russia? Economic migrants, war refugees, draft evaders... They're all voting with their feet" (2015-02-04) [http://russia-insider.com/en/2015/02/03/3097] [https://archive.today/fZQTb] [begin excerpt]:
Here is a number that may shock some western European and American zombies, 20,000…
20,000 increase in Ukrainian men a week seeking refuge in Russia, to avoid Porky’s military draft.
1.193 million Ukrainian men, conscription age, now staying in Russia. 2.5 million Ukrainian nationals (refugees) currently being taken care of (feed, clothed, etc…) in Russia.
ITAR TASS Reports… “About 2.5 million Ukrainian nationals, including 1.193 million men of conscription age, are staying in the territory of Russia,” the FMS told TASS. More than 850,000 people have arrived from Ukraine’s south-eastern regions. About 440,000 people who were forced to leave south-eastern Ukraine have applied for a refugee status, temporary shelter or temporary residence permit,” the FMS press service went on to say. Russia has 531 temporary refugee centers in its territory for 27,000 Ukrainian refugees.
[end excerpt]
* "Ukrainian parliament passes law allowing army deserters to be shot" (2015-02-05) [http://rt.com/news/229739-ukraine-army-shoot-defectors/] [https://archive.today/5Zhno]
* "When Ukrainians Choose Not to Die in a War" (2015-02-06) [http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/02/06/when-ukrainians-choose-not-to-die-in-a-war/] [https://web.archive.org/web/20150206132351/http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/02/06/when-ukrainians-choose-not-to-die-in-a-war/] [begin excerpt]:
The current war situation in eastern Ukraine and the decision of the government in Kyiv to begin a new, fourth wave of military conscription and mobilization is unleashing a firestorm of mass opposition and refusal to fight. Protest is rising in all the regions of the country. For sure, there are still nationalist fanatics and far-right militarists exercising violence and intimidation against antiwar protests, but their capacity to stamp out protest is diminishing.The protests have been sparked, first of all, by the fact that many Ukrainians do not accept the interpretation of the war as offered by the government. They don’t necessarily see foreign (ie Russian) aggression. They only know that when a Ukrainian soldier lifts his gun or artillery barrel, it is a compatriot, a fellow Ukrainian, who appears in the gunsight.
Secondly, many people don’t want to die for the current government which they view as composed of extreme nationalists and neoliberals. They are unwilling to be cannon fodder dying for the interests of Ukrainian oligarchs whose only apparent interest is to pursue a civil war, siphon Western financial aid and suppress opposition to their rule. A young woman recently voiced this sentiment searingly at a rally held in her village in south-central Ukraine [https://archive.today/W6C9U].
Last but not least, many ordinary workers and farmers, (contrary to middle-class, urban dwellers), preserve entrenched, regional identities. They consider their homeland to be a region such as Donbas, Bukovyna, Transkarpathia or Volhynia as much as, or perhaps even more importantly, it is the entity called ‘Ukraine’. It is harder to sell to such people the war’s patriotic, pro-Ukraine and anti-Russia message. The astonishing fact that almost no one is coming voluntarily to the military recruitment offices in this fourth, latest round of conscription is causing panic in the government and top army command of Ukraine. They are appealing, as always, to patriotic and nationalist sentiments, but this is falling increasingly on deaf ears.
Men of conscription age are fleeing in the thousands, crossing Ukraine’s borders in all directions, or taking cover internally, to escape the clutches of the military recruiters. President Poroshenko has been obliged to order that, henceforth, only those men of military age with papers confirming they are duly registered with their military registration office will be permitted to leave the country.
“Each day, new facts about mass, draft evasion are emerging” reports the Ukrainian daily Korrespondent. It writes, “In the first wave of military mobilization in 2014, 20 per cent of those who showed up for the conscription call did so voluntarily. In the second wave the same year, it was ten per cent. This year, only six per cent of those conscripts showing up for the call to service have done so voluntarily“.
In the Trancarpathia region in western Ukraine, entire villages have scattered across various borders to escape conscription of their menfolk. The head of the village council of Kosiv district in Ivano-Frankivsk region reports that the entire population of the village booked buses and have moved to Russia to wait out the war. In the village of Colchino, authorities could find only three of the 105 eligible males to whom to serve papers. Chief Recruitment Officer for Trancarpathia, O.Boyko, told Korrespondent, “It may seem a paradox, but from the western Ukrainian region of Ternopyl, people have fled to Russia in order to escape army conscription.”
Many people are selecting east European countries as temporary refuges. Yuri Biryukov,an adviser to the Ukrainian president, has admitted, “In the last 30 days, 17 per cent of the total number of reservists of the entire region of Chernivtsy (western Ukraine) have crossed borders into other countries”.
The population learned that 240 call-up papers were en route to be served in their village. Within minutes, Timer explained, some 500 people gathered on the village square. Six officers of the recruitment office arrived with the papers but they found a less than welcome reception among the local people. When officials declared that refusal of conscription is punishable by criminal prosecution, the people began to shout “No war” and “We want peace”. They reminded the officers that Ukraine has not declared martial law and that the Minsk ceasefire agreement of last September has not been formally renounced by the Ukraine government. They called the new wave of military mobilization illegal and the recruiting officers were forced to leave the village.
Anti-war protests are continuing in the areas of the Donbas region that are controlled by Ukrainian troops. In the city of Kramatorsk in Donetsk region, women staged a spontaneous rally in late January chanting “No war!” In a video of the protest [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsdudy9_p8o], at the 1’45” mark, we get a glimpse at how desperate the recruitment tactics of the authorities have become. A woman asks the military officer present, “Why are they beating on our doors at night and taking our men away to the army?”
In recent weeks, the neighbouring, small city of Debaltsevo has become the epicenter of the military clash between Donbas self-defense forces and the Ukraine army and militias. Thousands of Ukrainian troops are at risk of encirclement and capture. Most of the town’s residents have fled. There are only some 6,000-8,000 residents who are left, and they are living without electricity, heating and water supply. They are reduced to cooking their food over open fires.
The online Ukrainian media outlet Expres.ua reports that the mayor of Debaltseve was recently arrested by the Ukrainian Secret Service, accused of having sympathies with the pro-autonomy forces of Donbas. In the face of all this, the people rallied at the end of January, blaming the Ukrainian troops for their plight and demanding that they leave.
[end excerpt]
* "Donetsk republic says more than 2,300 Ukrainian servicemen killed over past 25 days, The Ukrainian army has also lost a combat helicopter, 179 tanks, 149 armored vehicles, 135 artillery weapons" (2015-02-11) [http://tass.ru/en/world/777039] [https://archive.today/Vg0RC]
* "DPR artillery destroys UAF convoys attempting to break in and out of the 'cauldron' " (2015-02-12) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDjUc7y9EY8] with English subtitles
2015-01-17 contradictions in who bombed civilian bus in the People's Republic of Donetsk, as shown by the conflicting statements by rival twitter groups, one fascist (Euromaidan), and one not (Antimaidan):
* Antimaidan: “OSCE refuted version about militias firing at bus near Volnovakha” (the bus was shelled by the Ukraine Armed Forces)
* Euromaidan: “OSCE: bus near Volnovakha was shelled from the “DPR” controlled territory” (the bus was shelled by militias, not by Ukraine Armed Forces)
The Ukraine Armed Forces (and deputized neo-Nazi death squads in the National Guard) continue to bomb civilian areas:
* "Ukrainian Artillery shelled peaceful civilians at bus station in the city of Donetsk" (2015-02-11):
- Videos [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xO3jHvtXuWA] [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7WORGbZU9U0]
- Photos [https://archive.today/b4oAI]
The fascist Republic of Ukraine continues to bomb residential areas as collective punishment for self-defense against the fascist death-squads. These bombings are not targeting specific points, these are scatter-shot across entire cities!
* "The photo-report from Uglegorsk" (2015-02-12) [https://archive.today/uo5Vd]:
As the fascist Republic of Ukraine continues to bomb the civilian regions of the Union of People's Republic of Novorossiya, their official statements continue to blame the Federation of Russia for the bombings! The following article "proves" their statements, and is originally posted at a private-contractor analyst's website in support of the Republic of Ukraine which serves as "intelligence" for the USA State Department:
* "Dramatic escalation of fighting in Ukraine before Minsk talks" (2015-02-11) [https://archive.today/5JtE7]
* "Summaries of Donetsk and Lugansk republics for 01/22/2015" [http://novonews.info/1343-svodki-doneckoy-i-luganskoy-respublik-za-22012015.html] [https://archive.today/0pm3E]:
Donetsk People’s Republic Intelligence Agency informs:
“Donbass” battalion vehicles arrived to Artyomovsk to commit provocations under the DPR flag. According to the info received from the residents of the occupied Artyomovsk (56 km north to Donetsk) the movement of automobile vehicles column (up to 4 trucks) with the flags of Donetsk People’s Republic and personnel wearing uniform with the militia markings was spotted in evening in the railway station area. Donetsk People’s Republic Ministry of Defense Press Service informs that there are no DPR troops in Artyomovsk or its outskirts. According to the DPR intelligence info those were militants of Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs “Donbas” battalion, that is deployed in the settlement, disguised as the militias. We suppose that provocation against the peaceful civilians living on the territory Artyomovsk district is being prepared to accuse the militias of it.
---
* "Croatia denies sending its citizens to fight in Donbas" (2015-02-13) [http://tass.ru/en/world/777381] [https://archive.today/46aPQ]
* "Moscow urges Croatia, other countries to stop mercenaries’ involvement in Ukraine" (2015-02-12) [http://tass.ru/en/russia/777274] [https://archive.today/vMafT]
---
* 17th February 2015, city Mariupol, occupied territory of Donetsk republic.
Money of US and EU taxpayers in the work.
Yesterday participants of art center "Isolation", in particular Sergey Zakharov presented their art work, "The House of Cards of Putin." On the enlarged playing cards were printed the stylized images of politicians and commanders from Donetsk and Lugansk republics. The artistic value of these stylizations are doubtful, these pictures can make any student who has studied the graphics program. One of the US agencies to promote democracy paid to the art center for this "art." Members of this art center are not able to work and earn money in other ways, except for creation such a tastelessness on request the US or the EU. "Radio Liberty wrote that Sergey Zakharov was in the thrall of the supporters of "Donetsk People's Republic. Because of "art works" in the streets of Donetsk which criticized Donetsk republic. This information from well known source of impudent propaganda is most likely a bad fiction to advertise this tastelessness.On cameras of journalists of Kiev junta and Western media, including camera of the "Radio Liberty" [Svoboda] Sergei Zakharov knocks card of Putin from the base of the pyramid and destroys a card pyramid. Thus artists, who have been brought up on US policy, "defeat" Donetsk and Lugansk republics.
In reality, the military units of Donetsk and Lugansk sconsisting of former miners and builders defeat army of Kiev junta.
Such actions pro-fascist minority of Mariupol support the genocide of the former population of Eastern Ukraine. Besides, thus way, these "artists" deny the popular character of the liberation struggle against the Kiev junta.
Video of "Radio Liberty" [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KynglA9SDk0]
---
* "The Fallujah Option for East Ukraine" (2015-02-06) [http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/02/06/the-fallujah-option-for-east-ukraine/] [https://archive.today/hAE0Y]
---
* "US Ambassador Pyatt caught spreading falsehoods" (2015-02-11) [http://fortruss.blogspot.com.au/2015/02/us-ambassador-pyatt-caught-spreading.html] [https://archive.today/ig9eA]
* "Former US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton stated that the OSCE reports on the absence of Russian military in Ukraine were questionable" (2015-02-14) [http://sputniknews.com/politics/20150214/1018252288.html] [https://archive.today/nVE92]
* "BBC Reporter Almost Killed by Ukrainian Shell While Accusing Rebels of Shelling BBC Propagandist runs from incoming Ukrainian artillery, but calls it "outgoing" rebel shelling" (2015-02-17) [http://russia-insider.com/en/tv_media_watch/2015/02/17/3576] [https://archive.today/dPb2H]
* "German TV channel under fire over fake ‘Russian tanks in Ukraine’ footage" (2015-02-17) [http://rt.com/news/232963-germany-russia-tanks-ukraine/] [https://archive.today/3Wu8h]
* "German TV Channel in Trouble After Being Caught in Ukraine War Lie" (2015-02-17) [http://sputniknews.com/europe/20150216/1018353538.html] [https://archive.today/DqKYX] [begin excerpt]: The segment, which described the alleged movement of Russian tanks and missile systems into eastern Ukraine, featured a photo with the caption "Russian armored vehicles moved through Isvarino in the Lugansk region, February 12, 2015," citing "Ukrainian army spokesman Andrei Lysenko in Kiev." The only problem is that the image in question was actually taken several years earlier, in 2009, and in South Ossetia, not Ukraine. [end excerpt]
* "How Stupid Do They Think We Are? Misleading Public Opinion on Russia and NATO" (2015-02-14) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/how-stupid-do-they-think-we-are-misleading-public-opinion-on-russia-and-nato/5431251] [https://archive.today/pkVI8] [begin excerpt]:
Newsweek magazine headlined on February 5th, “‘Biggest NATO Reinforcement Since Cold War’ Sets Frontlines Against Russia,” and reported that, “According to general Charles Wald, former-deputy commander of U.S. European Command, … ‘The question for Europe is:
“is Putin creeping further and further west?’”
Wald is quoted as saying that the case of Ukraine especially worries him. This article continues:
“‘Is this a precursor to Russia moving into Moldova? Nagorno Karabakh has been bubbling up, and the Georgia issue is still unresolved. NATO has essentially set these [new military] bases in its frontline states,’ Wald says, referring to the countries’ proximity to Russian territory.”
So: Russia is moving too close to NATO countries, according to the U.S. ‘Defense’ Department.
But it’s a blatant lie.
This Newsweek story is ‘news’ that’s published in a mainstream U.S. ‘news’ source, which people pay bad money for — it’s worse than a waste, it’s their being charged for U.S.-Government propaganda.
As regards the reader-comments to this Newsweek article, here’s a typical sequence of these reader-comments, so that you can see how American readers responded to this piece of sheer American propaganda:
- Bong Valencia: Everybody needs to stop calling Ukraine’s enemies as Russian[backed rebels. Let’s call a spade a spade. Let’s call them Russians! They came from and were sent by Russia.
- Kevin Quinn: But they LIVE in what’s called ‘eastern Ukraine’ and have been there in some cases for centuries. That is Kyiv”s main point. And theirs. Some have received military training in the Soviet forces, as well as the UA. Some of the younger have been trained in ‘militia camps’ – safe in Russia.
- Sergy K, Harvard Kennedy School: Kevin Quinn there are at most 15% of locals, 85 % came from Russia, and the military organizers came from Moscow
- Михаил Бочаров: Sergy K, Where did you take those percentage from? Maybe from The History Of Russian State by N.M.Karamzin or Primary Chronicle Where Did Russian Land Come From or The History Of Kiev Rus? Look these books through in the Harvard Kennedy School Library or at least use Google ”Russian-speaking population in Ukraine”.
- El D Den: My hope is NATO destroys Russia once and for all.
Noting the claim of one reader there (“Sergy K”) to be from Harvard’s Kennedy School, the present reporter looked to see whether there is, actually, any “Sergy K” who has been associated with that supposedly august and supposedly authoritative School. This is what I came up with:
[http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/experts/203/sergei_konoplyov.html]
[http://belfercenter.ksg.harvard.edu/files/disc_paper_99_08.pdf]
So: apparently, an ‘expert’ at Harvard’s Kennedy School, and even one whose sole published work deals with Ukraine, does, indeed, actually think that 85% of the fighters against the Kiev-based Ukrainian Government’s invasion of Ukraine’s Donbass region are Russian soldiers, not residents.
[end excerpt]
* "Which Is Propaganda, Which Is News-Reporting? “Obama Considers Arming Pro-US Troops” in Ukraine" (2015-02-15) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/which-is-propaganda-which-is-news-reporting-obama-considers-arming-pro-us-troops/5431318] [https://archive.today/eiRtu]
* "Busted: Kiev MPs try to fool US senator with ‘proof’ of Russian tanks in Ukraine (PHOTOS)" (2015-02-13) [http://rt.com/news/232067-fake-photos-russian-army/] [begin excerpt]:
MPs in Kiev hoodwinked a US senator, presenting his office with photos of columns of Russian military hardware allegedly roaming Ukrainian territory. The photos turned out to have been taken during the conflict in South Ossetia back in 2008.
The photos were “presented to the Armed Services Committee from a delegation from Ukraine in December,” told The Washington Free Beacon Senator Jim Inhofe’s communications director Donelle Harder.
The Americans planned to publish the photos with credits to the Ukrainian MPs, and “they were fine with that,” the spokesperson said.
Yet, after thorough checking, images of the Russian convoys turned to be taken years ago, in 2008 during Georgia - South Ossetia war.
The list of members of the Ukrainian delegation that attempted to fool Senator Jim Inhofe does not include high-ranking Ukrainian officials, with probably the sole exception of the commander of the Donbass volunteer battalion Semyon Semenchenko, who visited Washington demanding arms and training for his servicemen.
The new photos, allegedly “taken between August 24 and September 5 in the midst of a Russian-backed incursion into Eastern Ukraine … clearly display Russian troops entering Ukraine with advanced military hardware and weapons.”
Senator Inhofe expressed the hope that the new, particularly graphic images, could “act as a wake-up call to the Obama administration and American people” and push the US Congress to back up Senator Inhofe’s bill to supply the Ukrainians with American lethal aid.
[end excerpt]
Read the original article, and the retraction concerning the faked photos provided by fascist members of the Republic of Ukraine's Central Council, at [https://archive.today/Wbfgc].
---
* "Kiev Ambassador to Germany: Neo-Nazis are part of our forces. Without them Russia would defeated us" (2015-02-18) [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcR9jl4AM3A]
* "Ukrainian-Americans: When Nazi Hands Rock American Cradles" (2015-02-15) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/ukrainian-americans-when-nazi-hands-rock-american-cradles/5431451] [https://archive.today/DWbSQ]
* "Ukrainian nationalists behind Waffen SS ads" (2010-03-18) [http://rt.com/politics/ukrainian-nationalists-behind-waffen-ss-ads/] [https://archive.today/yyh0N]
* "NATO financed Battalion Azov of Ukrainian national guard in Mariupol" photo (2015-02-16) [https://archive.today/3RygQ]:
(2015-02-17) [https://archive.today/NDWqP]: Fighters of People's Army of Donbass captured a flag of so-called Ukrainian patriots in the settlement Shirokino
Posted 2015-02-18 [https://archive.today/mhr7b]
BEFORE: EU financed pro-US forces of Ukrainian "AZOV" battalion with their battle flags during their campaign against DNR near Mariupol in February 2015
AFTER: Novorossiya Armed Forces captured one of the battle flags of pro-US Ukrainian forces near Mariupol in February 2015
John McCain is going mad from the fact that he backed the wrong side... "Nazis? I said NO Gawddam Nazis!"... oh, wait... he likes Nazis. Guy is just crazy.
===*===*===
"New patch for ukrainian Battalion "Azov' " (2015-02-09) [https://archive.today/THiWL]
2015-02-03 [https://archive.today/rU7zP]
* "Attempt to break the boundaries stopped with weapons" (2015-02-17, State Border Committee of the Republic of Belarus) [http://gpk.gov.by/news/gpk/16140/] [https://archive.today/b3Oaa] translated from the original Russian: Tonight at the site of the Pinsk border detachment in Kobrin district on the Ukrainian side by unknown group attempted to break through the border. Group offenders as part of about 20 people with horses was stopped by the Belarus border detail. In response to the aggressive actions of the offenders used by border guards service weapon. According to the trail among the attackers may have wounded. Violators, throwing on our territory 4 horses, hastily retreated back to Ukraine. About the incident started a joint investigation with the Ukrainian border guards. The issue of a criminal case.
---
* "The dumbest sanction ever" (2015-02-16) [http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-dumbest-sanction-ever.html][https://archive.today/6NR6X]:
Nevermind that Europe really cannot afford alienating Russia and nevermind that Merkel and Hollande have just thanked Putin for his role in bringing about Minsk-2, the Eurocretins have passed yet more sanctions against Russia. But that is not the worst. The worst is that including in the sanctions list was Iosif Kobzon, an immensely popular singer (in Russia and the Ukraine), who was born in a Jewish family near Kramatorsk and who spent his youth in the Donbass. Kobzon's "crime"? It was double: not only did Kobzon dare to fully support the Novorussians (with humanitarian aid and messages of support), he traveled to Donetsk to sing in a concert while the city was bombed by the "anti-terrorist" forces and he even invited Zakharchenko on-stage to sing with him.
Clearly, Kobzon is a very dangerous terrorist. See him committing his worst crime: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7xlgdX6r3g].
Somewhere I can even understand the Eurocretins: here is a famous Jewish personality who is a local of the Donbass and who categorically rejects the official AngloZionist narrative about this war. That is, indeed, very offensive to them. But while I can understand the rage and frustration of the European plutocrats, I still marvel at their stupidity. The problem is that Kobzon is immensely popular. Make sure to read his Wikipedia entry to get all the details of his very interesting career. In fact, he is so popular that he even has his own statue in Donetsk! The second problem is that the only reason Kobzon has to travel to the EU is to get medical treatment. Now, this treatment will be denied to him which is ugly enough. But imagine what this will look like if something happens to him. Kobzon was born in 1937, that makes him 77 years old, not exactly prime youth, and to make things worse, it appears that Kobzon suffers from an advanced stage of prostate cancer. Of course, Kobzon can get treatment not only in Russia, but anywhere else outside the "Axis of Kindness", but since his condition is that severe a fatal outcome is a real possibility. Now how will that look if Kobzon dies while being denied treatment in the EU? Even if he is successfully treated in Russia, Israel or China - what about the very notion of denying a cancer-patient his treatment on account of his singing and delivering humanitarian aid?
Yet again the EU leaders have shown their total lack of common sense combined with a no less total lack of common decency. That latest sanction is a monument of stupidity at best, and a vicious petty and ugly crime at worst.
Oh, and needless to say, the "Euro-Charlies" won't even notice any of that.
Personally I never never liked Kobzon or his music. But today I see him as a hero (though his first heroic act was in 2002 - see the Wikipedia entry).
===*===*===
Union of People's Republics of Novorossiya
* "In Donetsk, a rally was held in honor of the birth of the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Republic" (2015-02-12) originally in Russian [http://dnr-online.ru/news/v-donecke-proshel-miting-v-chest-rozhdeniya-donecko-krivorozhskoj-respubliki/] [https://archive.today/uToX4]: Donetsk, Novorossiya.
The DPR authorities and residents of Donetsk celebrated the anniversary of the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic and laid flowers to the monument of its founder Comrade Artyom. The official celebration of the anniversary of the Republic's proclamation of 1918 was held at the state level for the first time. “People, who know and remember their history, will always be revered and respected. Those people, who try to rewrite history, have no future,” – 1st Deputy head of the Donetsk city administration Igor Ponomarenko said. People enjoyed performances of the musicians of the Donetsk Philharmonic Hall. There was also a trade fair in Donetsk, locals could buy food products at the price lower than at the stores. View video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOek6V5YWbU]---
* "The LPR Emergencies Ministry has evacuated over 40 civilians from Chernukhino" [http://lug-info.com/news/one/spasateli-mchs-lnr-evakuirovali-iz-chernukhino-esche-bolee-40-mirnykh-zhitelei-video-1558] [https://archive.today/h2Yii] (2015-02-12) Lugansk People's Republic.
19 people were evacuated on the 11th of February, 21 were evacuated today. Evacuated civilians, most of which are elderly people, left the village on their own as the Ukrainian army doesn’t allow the LPR rescuers to arrive in the village. [Note: People reach the NAF checkpoint on their own or the NAF take them there, then the LPR rescuers evacuate people to cities and settlements]
People were taken from the combat zone and accommodated in Alchevsk. As of today, there are 337 refugees, including 80 children and 3 disabled people, there.
People are evacuated under ceaseless shelling of the Ukrainian army, which refuses to provide a humanitarian corridor.
---
The Union of People's Republics of Novorossiya was 'recognized' by state television in the Republic of france, one of the EU partners in the "peace dialogue" producing the Minsk Agreement of February 2015.
---
* "Lugansk dairy "The Village" will resume in the coming days" (2015-02-17) [https://archive.today/2gSab], translated from the original Russian: The Lugansk milk plant “Stanitsa” is preparing to resume its production, the LPR Minister of Agriculture and Foodstuffs Yuri Roschupkin told a briefing on Wednesday.
“The Lugansk milk plant has begun to purchase milk in the Donetsk People’s Republic. Raw milk processing will start within the next few days. So, we will see products of our milk plant very soon,” – Yuri Roschupkin said.
“We are experiencing the shortage of dairy products, because our main suppliers are located in the north areas that are temporarily occupied by the Ukrainian army. At the moment, the economic blockade prevents these supplies. The Donetsk People’s Republic is now the only supplier of dairy products,” – he added.
---
* "Running Lutugino roller mill - the first step to recovery, says Tsypkalov" (2015-02-11) [http://lug-info.com/news/one/zapusk-lutuginskogo-valkovogo-kombinata-pervyi-shag-k-vosstanovleniyu-ekonomiki-schitaet-tsypkalov-1539] [https://archive.today/31oOc]:
Lutugino, Lugansk People's Republic.
The LPR authorities visited the Lutugino Research and Production Combine Roll Company. In summer 2014, the Ukrainian army used the plant as a military warehouse. When Ukrainian soldiers were leaving Lutugino, they made an attempt to destroy the plant, but staff of the plant managed to restore most of the departments and equipment. The workers have been already receiving orders from other factories.The Lutugino Research and Production Roll Company used to be a key enterprise in the steel industry of Ukraine. It supplied the major Ukrainian steel companies with the most important element of rolling mill.
The LPR authorities have promised to help the Lutugino Combine Roll Company with restoration as much as possible, as engineering is a key part of the LPR economy.
---
* "Renovation work in Debaltseve unfold February 19 - Mayor of the City" (2015-02-18) [https://archive.today/nR2ko]:
Donetsk People's Republic, Novorossiya.
The Head of the DPR Alexander Zakharchenko has appointed Alexander Afendikov as a mayor of Debaltsevo. “The reconstruction of Debaltsevo will begin tomorrow. We will establish canteens and temporary shelters with electricity and heating for civilians. The centers of humanitarian and financial aid will also be opened,” – Alexander Afendikov told a briefing at the Donetsk News Agency press center today.
According to the Head of the DPR Emergencies Ministry Alexey Kostrubitsky, half of the Debaltsevo residents (around 5000 people) still remain in the town. They are sitting in basements without water, electricity and heating. Seriously ill people will be evacuated from Debaltsevo tomorrow. Those, who leave the town, will be placed in Donetsk, Shakhtersk and Khartsyzsk.
“Our main task is to resume the work of emergency services, because the Ukrainian army has taken all equipment of these services out of the town. People were abandoned, nobody saved or helped them,” – Alexey Kostrubitsky said.
---
* (2015-02-12) [http://dan-news.info/defence/na-vyxode-iz-debalcevskogo-kotla-v-storonu-ukrainy-silovikov-zhdut-zagradotryady-minoborony-dnr.html] [https://archive.today/AOSuM]
“The Ukrainian soldiers in the Debaltsevo cauldron have the chance to save their life if only they surrender to the NAF. If they try to go to the area controlled by the Ukrainian army, they will run into the barrier troops of the Kiev junta [barrier troops are squads who stand in the 2nd line and shoot the retreating deserters, enemy recon, etc], the DPR Defense Ministry spokesman Eduard Basurin told a briefing at the Donetsk News Agency press center.“We have repeatedly called on the encircled Ukrainian soldiers to surrender. We guarantee them a peaceful breaking out of the encirclement and life. If they go in another direction, they will be shot by the barrier troops,” – Eduard Basurin stressed.
“Senior officers have saved their bacon and not informed their subordinates that those are in the encirclement. They are indifferent to the fate of guys. But we are not bloodfirsty, we offer them to save their life peacefully,” – he added.
The armed forces of Novorossiya carried out a special operation in the Debaltsevo cauldron. They used “leaflet shells” for distribution leaflets among the Ukrainian troops with calls to lay down arms and surrender peacefully.
“I’ll state it once again, personnel of the UAF have been left to the mercy of fate by their commanders,” – Eduard Basurin said.
It is worthy of note that the Ukrainian Defense Minister Stepan Poltorak denied the Debaltsevo cauldron on the 11th of February. He made a public statement that the Ukrainian army is successfully carrying out military tasks near Debaltsevo and the Debaltsevo encirclement is a myth.
According to the DPR Defense Ministry, losses of the Ukrainian army overnight were as follows: 4 killed, 15 injured, 2 IFVs and 3 vehicles.
[end article]
(2015-02-17) [https://archive.today/TYRmq] translated from the original Russian:
Minister of Defense of the DPR Vladimir Kononov commented on the bodies on Ukrainian troopers abandoned in the Donetsk airport. The hands of the dead troopers had been tied.
“As you can see they had been tying the hands of their troopers – the bands are yellow and blue – these are not the bodies of our troopers. The corpses were found in the destroyed APC. They had probably refused to obey the orders or, as it often is the case in their units, they had been arrested for some obscure reasons. Today they will be transferred to the morgue. It will be difficult to identify them, though. The bodies stayed here for about two weeks. Strange as it may seem, the Ukrainian side is not contacting us with requests to pass them the bodies of their troopers. Moreover, the exchange of captives took a negative turn. The Ukrainian side attempts to present as war prisoners the people, who took part in the referendum or those who supported the Donetsk People’s Republic and had been detained. At the moment we discovered 21 bodies of Ukrainian troopers. They had been partially recovered from the rabble of the terminal building and from the destroyed armoured vehicles”.
---
* "NAF captured AZOV APC" (2015-02-17) [https://archive.today/vje6k]: Novorossiyas Volunteers from South Ossetia captured NATO financed Ukrainian APC of Battalion "Azov" near Mariupol 17.02.2015 [http://rusvesna.su/news/1424183500] [https://archive.today/muYFH].
===*===*===
Republic of Macedonia
* "Moscow hopes for thorough investigation into failed coup in Macedonia - foreign ministry; Macedonia’s leadership said leader of the biggest opposing Social-Democratic Union and foreign intelligence services were involved in the failed attempt" (2015-02-01) [http://tass.ru/en/world/774723] [https://archive.today/ZCdG1]: Moscow hopes for a thorough investigation into the failed attempted of coup in Macedonia, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. On January 31, Macedonia’s law enforcement authorities reported they prevented an attempt of a coup. The country’s leadership said leader of the biggest opposing Social-Democratic Union and foreign intelligence services were involved in the failed attempt. "We express hope for a thorough investigation into it in the interests of stability and security in Macedonia" the foreign ministry said. "We are calling on all political forces of that country to act in compliance with the constitution-based democratic institutions, to solve the problems by means of a dialogue. Aggravation of the situation in friendly Macedonia may cause dangerous escalation of ethnic conflicts in the country. This situation proves once again the importance of Russia’s suggestion the OSCE should adopt a document banning anti-constitutional coups," the foreign ministry said.
---
* "Washington Behind Terrorist Attacks in Macedonia" (2001-07-23) [http://www.antiwar.com/rep/chuss6.html] [https://archive.today/BNkVg]
===*===*===
Republic of Greece (EU)
* "Greek Envoy in Moscow: Paving the Way for Tsipras Visit" (2015-02-14) [http://sputniknews.com/radio_red_line/20150214/1018261200.html] [https://archive.today/QqKvJ]
* "New Greek govt furious over EU 'unequivocal' anti-Russia statement" (2015-01-28) [http://rt.com/news/226947-greece-russia-statement-ukraine/] [https://archive.today/3YUdr]
---
* "The Lazard Banker Shaping Greece’s and Ukraine’s Financial Fate" (2015-02-04) [http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-lazard-banker-shaping-greece-and-ukraines-financial-fate-1423067028] [https://archive.today/HiWhL], and a detailed breakdown about the article [https://archive.today/mPJxx]
---
* "The Pro-Worker, Pro-Growth Experiment in Greece Is Under Threat" (2015-02-18) [http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/29169-the-pro-worker-pro-growth-experiment-in-greece-is-under-threat] [https://archive.today/7MyJ9]
* "Greece Does Battle With Creationist Economics: Can Germany Be Brought Into the 21st Century?" (2015-02-16) [http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/29131-greece-does-battle-with-creationist-economics-can-germany-be-brought-into-the-21st-century] [https://archive.today/G6zj6] [begin excerpt]: The result of the German program for Greece has been an economic downturn that makes the Great Depression in the United States look like a bad day. Seven years after the start of the downturn Greece's economy is more than 23 percent smaller than its peak in 2007. The tales of hardship are endless: an unemployment rate of more than 25 percent, a youth unemployment rate of more than 50 percent, a collapsed health care system. The European Union folks may not know much economics, but they sure know how to destroy a country. They were largely bailed out by the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank, who now hold the vast majority of Greek debt. What about punishing Goldman Sachs, which designed the swap that allowed Greece to hide its debt so it could get into the euro in the first place? The absurdity is that if the northern Europeans could get over their need to inflict pain, it would be easy to design policies which would allow the whole continent to benefit from more growth. If the deficit target for Greece was relaxed, it would be able to grow more rapidly. For example, assuming a multiplier of 1.5 (GDP grows one and a half times any increase in government spending), if Greece was required to run a primary budget surplus of 1.0 percent of GDP rather than 4.0 percent of GDP, its GDP could expand by 4.5 percent due to additional government spending. In fact, since the additional growth would lead to additional tax revenue, Greece's economy would likely expand by more than 6.0 percent with this lower target. [end excerpt]
* "Meeting on Greek Debt Produces an Ultimatum" (2015-02-16) [http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/17/business/international/greece-debt-eurozone-finance-ministers-meeting.html?_r=0] [https://archive.today/fnUTm]
* "Greece’s Debt Overhang. Looted by Wall Street and the European Central Bank" (2015-02-06) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/greeces-debt-overhang-looted-by-wall-street-and-the-european-central-bank/5430005] [https://archive.today/JheaA]
* "Greek FinMin Warns "Euro Will Collapse If Greece Exits", Says Italy Is Next" (2015-02-13) [http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-02-08/greek-finmin-warns-euro-will-collapse-if-greece-exits-says-italy-next] [https://archive.today/koSk8]
* "Greek finance minister says euro will collapse if Greece exits" (2015-02-08, Reuters newswire) [http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/08/us-eurozone-greece-varoufakis-idUSKBN0LC0QO20150208] [https://archive.today/SrKBL]
* "Varoufakis Warns 'Cloud Of Fear Over Europe Becoming Worse Than Former Soviet Union' " (2015-02-08) [http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-02-08/varoufakis-warns-cloud-fear-over-europe-becoming-worse-former-soviet-union] [https://archive.today/Bsrmj]
* "Greece Gambles On "Catastrophic Armageddon" For Europe, Warns It 'Only Has Weeks Of Cash Left' " (2015-02-08) [http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-02-07/greece-gambles-catastrophic-armageddon-europe-warns-it-only-has-weeks-cash-left] [https://archive.today/XdQNf]
* "Tsipras Rejects EU Ultimatum, Demands Bridge Deal: 'Greeks Can't Take More Disappointment' " (2015-02-08) [http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-02-08/greeks-cant-take-more-disappointment-defiant-tsipras-rejects-eu-ultimatum-demands-br] [https://archive.today/7XbYx]
* "IIF's Charles Dallara says Greek exit 'somewhere between catastrophic and armageddon'; The damage to the rest of Europe from Greece leaving the euro would be 'somewhere between catastrophic and Armageddon', the chief negotiator for the body representing private sector holders of Greek bonds said on Wednesday" (2012-05-16) [http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9270754/IIFs-Charles-Dallara-says-Greek-exit-somewhere-between-catastrophic-and-armageddon.html] [https://archive.today/xTfsf]
* "If Greece Exits, Here Is What Happens" (2012-05-13) [http://www.zerohedge.com/news/if-greece-exits-here-what-happens] [https://archive.today/FbSw6]
===*===*===
Federation of Russia (EEU & SCO)
* "Russian Shipyard Makes History: 4 Subs Under Construction Simultaneously" (2015-02-17) [http://sputniknews.com/russia/20150217/1018377575.html] [https://archive.today/PrajW]
---
* "US Presses for Military Action against Russia" (2015-02-09) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/us-presses-for-military-action-against-russia/5430344] [https://archive.today/V6V0P]
* "Nuclear War and Clashing Ukraine Narratives" (2015-02-06) [https://consortiumnews.com/2015/02/06/nuclear-war-and-clashing-ukraine-narratives/] [https://archive.today/64Ihl] [begin excerpt]: The U.S. government and mainstream media are swaggering toward a possible nuclear confrontation with Russia over Ukraine without any of the seriousness that has informed this sort of decision-making throughout the nuclear age. But Obama has failed to rein in his administration’s war hawks and has done nothing to correct the biased narrative that his State Department has fed to the equally irresponsible mainstream U.S. news media. Since the Ukraine crisis began in fall of 2013, the New York Times and other major U.S. news outlets have provided only one side of the story, openly supporting the interests of the pro-European western Ukrainians over the ethnic Russian eastern Ukrainians. The bias is so strong that the mainstream media has largely ignored the remarkable story of the Kiev regime willfully dispatching Nazi storm troopers to kill ethnic Russians in the east, something that hasn’t happened in Europe since World War II. This distorted American narrative has represented one of the most unprofessional and dangerous performances in the history of modern U.S. journalism, rivaling the false conventional wisdom about Iraq’s WMD except in this case the media propaganda is aimed at a country in Russia that really does have weapons of mass destruction. The Russians also have noted the arrival of financially self-interested Americans, including Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden and Ukraine’s new Finance Minister Natalie Jaresko, reminding the Russians of the American financial experts who descended on Moscow with their “shock therapy” in the 1990s, “reforms” that enriched a few well-connected oligarchs but impoverished millions of average Russians. [end excerpt]
===*===*===
Syrian Arab Republic
* [https://archive.today/QLSho]
* "Syria: An Israeli Hand into the Southern Front?" (2015-01-30) [http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/23507] [https://archive.today/evxRk]
* "Israel and al-Qaeda are coordinating in Syria" (2015-01-16) [http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/01/16/1358260/-Israel-and-al-Qaeda-are-coordinating-in-Syria] [https://web.archive.org/web/20150213080856/http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/01/16/1358260/-Israel-and-al-Qaeda-are-coordinating-in-Syria]
* "Islamic State is not present in Quneitra, and isn't deployed within 50 kilometers of the Israeli border" (2014-09-02) [http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Jabhat-Al-Nusra-unlikely-to-target-Israel-soon-senior-army-officer-says-374271] [https://web.archive.org/web/20150213080242/http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Jabhat-Al-Nusra-unlikely-to-target-Israel-soon-senior-army-officer-says-374271] [begin excerpt]: The IDF is monitoring battles on the Syrian Golan “very closely,” he added.On the other side of the Syrian war is the Assad military, Hezbollah and an assortment of militias called the Committees for the Defense of the Homeland, which fight as one coherent formation under a central command, although Hezbollah also operates with some independence.The rebels, by contrast, “are one big mess,” according to the officer. He described four types of rebels: Secular Sunnis who are fighting for a secular, moderate Syrian state (the Free Syrian Army); nationalist Muslim Brotherhood rebels who are fighting for a Syrian state that will enforce Islamic law; the Al-Nusra Front, which is a branch of al-Qaida in Syria fighting for a caliphate; and the Islamic State, which also is fighting for a caliphate but views al-Qaida as being too moderate. [end excerpt]
===*===*===
State of Israel
* "From Left to Right: Israel’s Repositioning in the World" (2015-02-06) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/from-left-to-right-israels-repositioning-in-the-world/5429800] [https://archive.today/JjjrI] [begin excerpt]: In its pioneer years, Israel was largely associated with leftist ideas of collective endeavour and socialist solidarity. Early Israeli elites often came from the kibbutz and were vocal in their allegiance to social justice and equality. This, in turn, brought them admiration and support from socialists around the world. Few noticed that while praised by the left, Israeli society was steadily moving to the right. Nowadays Israel has earned admiration of the right and the extreme right in most Western countries. This paper should explain this apparently puzzling transformation of the international position of this small country in Western Asia. [end excerpt]
---
* "US helped Israel with H-bomb - 1980s report declassified" (2015-02-13) [http://rt.com/usa/232203-us-israel-nuclear-weapon/] [https://archive.today/YnTum]
* “Critical Technology Assessment in Israel and NATO Nations” [https://web.archive.org/web/20150214062408/http://www.courthousenews.com/2015/02/12/nuc%20report.pdf]
---
* "Haaretz Removes Report that Netanyahu Pressured Japanese Regulators to Approve Adelson Casino Bid" (2015-02-05) [http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2015/02/05/haaretz-removes-report-that-netanyahu-pressured-japanese-regulators-to-approve-adelson-casino-bid/] [https://archive.today/z3wk4]
---
* "Let liberal Jews weep for their dream of Israel, and move on — Alice Rothchild" (2015-02-07) [http://mondoweiss.net/2015/02/liberal-israel-rothchild] [https://archive.today/yH8f1] [begin excerpt]:
Now here is Alice Rothchild’s account of her visit to New York, published with her permission:
Just back from two events in New York City. Jewish Voice for Peace organized a Brooklyn screening of Voices Across the Divide which was well received by a sympathetic audience. The Q&A included a discussion about how to get this kind of conversation into synagogues. I talked about the need to commit to prolonged and brave conversations with rabbis, (often afraid of losing their jobs), working through members of the congregation, focusing on social justice or Israel committees, and the enormous challenges to this work. Not only is the issue of boycott, divestment, and sanction red lined within mainstream organizations, (“delegitimization of Israel,” “new anti-Semitism,” etc.), but acknowledging the Nabka challenges Jewish sensibilities about what kind of people we are.
We had an in depth discussion of the role of racism within Israeli society, that the State of Israel is not only a product of Jewish nationalism as well as British imperialism, but a settler colonial state with deeply rooted racism not only towards Arabs, but also towards Mizrahi Jews from Arab speaking countries and northern Africa, as well as Sudanese and Eritrean asylum seekers. These Africans have suffered enormously, often walking across the Sinai, experiencing kidnapping, rapes, etc and are referred to in Israel as “infiltrators.” They are housed in a desert detention camp (Holot), and shipped back to their oppressive home countries without any concern for their safety or survival. I talked about meeting some of these men in a Tel Aviv clinic run by Physicians for Human Rights Israel and their utter desperation, fear, and multiple medical and psychological issues mostly of the PTSD, stress, trauma variety. We reviewed the endemic and well documented (FYI by Israeli academics) racism in the Israeli educational system, the use of soldiers as teachers and mentors, the field trips to military bases, all to prepare students to serve in the Israeli Defense Force with the appropriate cultural attitudes. In Israeli schools there is no Nakba history and in fact commemoration of the Nakba is now a civil offense. I discussed the experience of the Israeli organization, Zochrot, where my film was shown in their festival on Nakba and Return (two contentious issues) last year, and this year the Israeli government threatened the Cinematique sponsoring the festival with defunding. Thankfully the festival went on.
[end excerpt]
---
* "Three-sentence letter to the ‘NYT’ results in Yale chaplain’s resignation" (2014-09-07) [http://mondoweiss.net/2014/09/sentence-chaplains-resignation] [https://archive.today/k8kO9]
* "Chicago rabbi quits synagogue after pro-Palestine stance creates tension" (2014-09-05) [http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/.premium-1.614341] [https://archive.today/3Z0kE]
===*===*===
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the GCC
* "Saudi Historian Says U.S. Women Drive Because They Don't Care If They're Raped" (2015-02-10) [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/09/saudi-women-drivers_n_6649896.html] [https://archive.today/rtMAZ]
===*===*===
Southern Arabia
* "US Threatens Military Intervention as UN Warns of “Disintegration” in Yemen" (2015-02-14) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/us-threatens-military-intervention-as-un-warns-of-disintegration-in-yemen/5431273] [https://archive.today/oAZMN]
===*===*===
EURASIAN ECONOMIC UNION (EEU)
* "The first meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council discussed long-term approaches to the development of economic and trade cooperation with EEU main partners" (2015-02-10) [http://www.eurasiancommission.org/en/nae/news/Pages/10-02-2015-1.aspx] [https://archive.today/4N45q]
===*===*===
National Democratic Alliance of Kokang region
* "Rebels Kill Dozens of Soldiers in Myanmar in Fighting Near Chinese Border" (2015-02-13) [http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/14/world/asia/kokang-rebels-kill-dozens-of-soldiers-in-myanmar-near-border-with-china.html?_r=1] [https://archive.today/OF0Vf] [begin excerpt]: A statement attributed to the Kokang said three of their fighters had been killed. As during previous fighting in the area, civilians fled across the border into China, according to local Chinese officials who did not provide figures. U Zaw Htay, the deputy director of the office of President Thein Sein of Myanmar, said the Kokang forces had made a “well-organized” attempt to seize Laukkai, the capital of the Kokang region, and had not acted alone. “Other ethnic groups are also involved,” Mr. Zaw Htay said. Armed ethnic groups in Myanmar, including the nearby Wa, who have about 20,000 fighters, have in the past vowed to come to one another’s defense, raising the prospect of a wider conflict. The government said in a statement that Kokang rebels had begun their offensive “from nearby.” But the same statement said the government had consulted with the Chinese military attaché in Myanmar, suggesting that rebels prepared the move across the porous border, in China, to some extent. Mr. Zaw Htay said Burmese officials had complained to their Chinese counterparts about the fighting. The rebels use Chinese telecommunications networks and have deep business and family ties in China. Ethnic groups are demanding that the highly centralized state be replaced with a federal system. Myanmar’s military has carried out at least five airstrikes against rebel positions in the past week, according to the state news media. The Kokang forces are being led by Peng Jiasheng, 85, a veteran of Myanmar’s years of civil war and a former commander of the military wing of the Communist Party of Burma, which battled the central government until it disbanded in 1989. A statement signed by Mr. Peng that has circulated in recent days on Kokang microblogs spoke of “ethnic discrimination” against the Kokang in Myanmar and appealed for donations. “I ask all the Chinese around the world to remind themselves of our common race and roots and give money and efforts to rescue our people,” the statement said. U Aung Kyaw Zaw, a former rebel who monitors the ethnic conflicts in northern Myanmar, estimates that the Kokang rebel force numbers 2,000. “Peng Jiasheng’s latest approach is to establish a new wave of guerrilla warfare against the government,” Mr. Aung Kyaw Zaw said on Friday. “He is old, but a new generation will play a significant role in this conflict.” [end excerpt]
* "It’s Raining Goodies in Myanmar" (2011-11-20) [https://web.archive.org/web/20150216020253/http://www.akshardhool.com/2011/11/its-raining-goodies-in-myanmar.html] [begin excerpt]: In August 2009, in the Kokang territory, Myanmar military overwhelmed and disarmed the Kokang rebel group, triggering an exodus of more than 37,000 refugees into China, prompting an unusual outburst of anger from Beijing. It is common knowledge that Myanmar Generals are vehemently anti communist and are suspicious of banned Communist party of Burma. Most of them have fought in the anti-communist/anti-Beijing operations in the 1950s and 1960s. In these operations, Chinese soldiers wore Burmese Communist military uniform and had participated in actual battles against the Burmese armed forces. It’s difficult to imagine a change of heart on behalf of the Burmese generals toward Beijing. [end excerpt]
* 2015-02-13 photo showing the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army
Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army / Kokang Youth Federation
* Map showing the Kokang region (green) within Shan State (yellow) [https://archive.today/SmZxe]
* Map showing the battles in the the Kokang region (green), 2009:
===*===*===
Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in northern Korea
* "Framing the DPRK: the US Still Cannot be Rational when Dealing with North Korea" (2015-01-13) [https://archive.today/dTVFx]
* "The Racist Dehumanization of North Korea" (2014-12-27) [http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2014/pettersson271214.html] [https://archive.today/Wx0RG] [begin excerpt]:
The news media, for their part, abandon all journalistic integrity when reporting on the DPRK. On a regular basis, respected and widely read publications publish baseless, sensationalist, and racist stories about the country. Many of these stories are easily sourced to satirical sites -- others to right-wing Fox News-esque South Korean newspapers. Stories that hundreds of thousands of people read include
- Kim Jong-Un feeding his uncle to 120 starving dogs [https://archive.today/W0ZcL],
- forcing all North Korean men to get his haircut [https://archive.today/rRCFA],
- sending the DPRK soccer team to work in the coal mines after failing in the World Cup [https://archive.today/oqUy9],
stories which were all fake. The things we are ready to believe about North Korea prove more about the brainwashing of us than of the North Koreans themselves. These stories are often corrected by the media sources themselves after they have already been published, but they are rarely as much of a fun read as the original stories. In the "free market of ideas," baseless and racist propaganda yields a higher rate of profit than principled journalistic inquiry. [end excerpt]
[further] We are sometimes misled to believe that the media and entertainment depictions of North Korea are somehow about its human rights abuses. And to be sure, according to most international conceptions of liberal democratic human rights, North Korea doesn't exactly have a very impressive scorecard. But more often than not, what media and entertainment provide is not a serious discussion on the human rights situation in the DPRK and the possible ways of solving it. The DPRK's status as a dictatorship that violates human rights is but a footnote in the media image surrounding the country. The DPRK we are exposed to through the media is an orientalist spectacle, in which its human rights record merely serves as a backdrop to a racist, dehumanizing ideological narrative.
There are many dictatorships and gross violations of human rights in countries all over the world -- to many of which the US leaders are giving plentiful aid and support. But North Korea is given a special status among these dictatorships. Unlike US-friendly dictatorships, the DPRK represents an "Other," whose crime is a combination of its indigenous culture and anti-imperialist, socialist political ideology. The media portrayal of North Korea racializes it as "Oriental" or even "Confucian." It is almost as if Edward Said's work had been read as an instruction manual instead of a criticism. It's not, strictly speaking, the "Kim Dynasty" that is the problem for imperialist propagandists -- it's North Korea's civilian population. The "brainwashed" Asians with an "unquestioning" respect for authority are the real issue at stake. Thus, the images of North Korean citizens weeping over their deceased leader Kim Jong Il are weaponized against them. This deliberate targeting of the civilian population's complicity in the DPRK's rule serves to dehumanize them -- it's easier to kill, subjugate, and exploit a population that you believe to be unreasonable, child-like cult members with an inability to accept the self-evident truths of human rights through imperial dominance. [end excerpt]
---
* "US was prepared 'to use nuclear weapons against North Korea' if troops crossed border" (2014-10-16) [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-was-prepared-to-use-nuclear-weapons-against-north-korea-if-troops-crossed-border-9799150.html] [https://web.archive.org/web/20141203062927/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-was-prepared-to-use-nuclear-weapons-against-north-korea-if-troops-crossed-border-9799150.html]
===*===*===
COMMITTEE FOR THE STUDY OF HISTORY AND THE CURRENT CONTEXT
(2015-02-10) [https://archive.today/47aLt]: Today, the Equal Justice Institute (EJI) released a report about lynching in the United States between 1877 to 1950, and their research indicates that hundreds more of African American men, women, and children were lynched during that time period than previously thought, bringing the number of victims to nearly 4,000.
Lynching was a form of terrorism used against Blacks during that time period, where mobs of Whites would hang, burn, shoot, and beat Blacks to death as a form of intimidation and control.
One of those who lost their lives was soldier William Little.
An excerpt:
"The year 1919 was a time of resurgence by the Ku Klux Klan. Seventy-six Blacks lost their lives to mob violence in southern states that year. One of them, Private William Little of Blakely, Ga., was apparently lynched precisely because he was wearing his uniform.
"The accounts of the time state that a few days after being mustered out, he took a train home and was beaten by local Whites for wearing his uniform around town.
"The mob made him remove it.
"A couple of days later, he was caught wearing it again -- Little protested that he had no other clothes -- and was beaten to death and left at the end of town."
EJI plans to build memorials and monuments to the slain throughout the South in an effort to not only dignify the dead but force Americans to face their history.
Read more and listen to jazz singer Billie Holiday's ode to those who lost their lives during that time here: [https://face2faceafrica.com/article/lynching-in-america] [https://archive.today/GuJTI]
---
* "How Corporate America Supported Nazi Germany" (2015-02-12) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/how-corporate-america-supported-nazi-germany/5430838]
---
* "9/11 and the Orwellian Redefinition of 'Conspiracy Theory' " (2011-06-19) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/9-11-and-the-orwellian-redefinition-of-conspiracy-theory/25339] [https://archive.today/L42tf] [begin excerpt]:
While we were not watching, conspiracy theory has undergone Orwellian redefinition.
A “conspiracy theory” no longer means an event explained by a conspiracy. Instead, it now means any explanation, or even a fact, that is out of step with the government’s explanation and that of its media pimps.
For example, online news broadcasts of RT have been equated with conspiracy theories by the New York Times simply because RT reports news and opinions that the New York Times does not report and the US government does not endorse.
In other words, as truth becomes uncomfortable for government and its Ministry of Propaganda, truth is redefined as conspiracy theory, by which is meant an absurd and laughable explanation that we should ignore.
When piles of carefully researched books, released government documents, and testimony of eye witnesses made it clear that Oswald was not President John F. Kennedy’s assassin, the voluminous research, government documents, and verified testimony was dismissed as “conspiracy theory.”
In other words, the truth of the event was unacceptable to the authorities and to the Ministry of Propaganda that represents the interests of authorities. [end excerpt]
---
* " ‘The Crusades Were Great, Actually!’ The right-wing hysteria following President Obama’s remarks has revealed a shocking belief held by many Christian conservatives: that the Crusades weren’t really so bad" (2015-02-10) [http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/02/10/the-crusades-were-great-actually.html] [https://archive.today/rgg6j] [begin excerpt]:
When I was growing up as a Nice Jewish Boy in day school, we were taught that the Crusades were one of the worst episodes in history: marauding Christian soldiers massacring everyone in sight. Especially Jews.
Most historians tend to agree that the Crusades were a dark chapter in Christian history, with extraordinary violence carried out in Christ’s name, and with Christian doctrine often a mere excuse for murder and pillage. This, no doubt, is why President Obama mentioned the Crusades as an example of heinous religious violence last week [https://archive.today/Jt3Do].
It would seem to be an uncontroversial claim. Historians estimate that between one and three million people died in the Crusades (including the Crusaders) [https://archive.today/87ePa], at a time when the world’s population was 300 million. That’s right—up to 1 percent of the entire world population perished in the paroxysms of violence between 1095 and 1291. The equivalent of sixty million people today.
The right-wingnut controversy following Obama’s remarks, however, has laid bare a troubling trend among conservative Christians (and the politicians eager to pander to them): They are now in the business of justifying the Crusades.
You read that right. The point being made is not that Obama is wrong to compare ISIS to the Crusades because the Crusades happened long ago (this was Bobby Jindal’s cute, misleading quip), or because the historical context is different. It’s that Obama is wrong to compare ISIS to the Crusades because the Crusades were actually a good thing.
Perhaps the leading theme in this literature is that “The Crusades—despite their terrible organized cruelties—were a defensive war.” This was thusly emphasized Jonah Goldberg in the National Review [https://archive.today/79KDn].
And these are the smart conservatives. Here’s Rick Santorum [https://archive.today/cGzWO]: "The idea that the Crusades and the fight of Christendom against Islam is somehow an aggression on our part is absolutely anti-historical. And that is what the perception is by the American left who hates Christendom. They hate Christendom. They hate Western civilization at the core. That’s the problem."
... Somehow an aggression on our part... The Crusades were really just defense.
Behind this sort of posturing is a bookshelf of revisionist history, most of it written by apologetic Christians—“apologetic” in the sense of an apologia, a defense, not an apology for past misdeeds. For example, apologist Marco Meschini, a professor at a Catholic university in Milan, has written that crusades are defensive while jihad is offensive [https://archive.today/Slvsm].
One of the leading debunkers of the biased misuse of history is Professor Matthew Gabriele of Virginia Tech [https://archive.today/HjrcI], who has taught and published widely on the Crusades. On his blog [https://archive.today/0n4ty], he said simply, “I call bullshit.”
In fact, as Gabriele writes [https://archive.today/q33TB], various Muslim sects had controlled Jerusalem since 732 , yet it took the Christian forces 350 years to “respond.” And only the first of eight crusades was dedicated to retaking Christian shrines; subsequent adventures in Egypt, Tunisia, and modern-day Syria and Turkey were not so motivated.
[end excerpt]
* "The First Victims of the First Crusade" (2015-02-13) [http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/opinion/sunday/the-first-victims-of-the-first-crusade.html?_r=0] [https://archive.today/ITFR4] [begin excerpt]:
THE first victims of the First Crusade, inspired in 1096 by the supposedly sacred mission of retaking Jerusalem from Muslims, were European Jews. Anyone who considers it religiously and politically transgressive to compare the behavior of medieval Christian soldiers to modern Islamic terrorism might find it enlightening to read this bloody story, as told in both Hebrew and Christian chronicles.
Times were hard in northern Europe when the crusaders began to gather in the spring of 1096. A disappointing harvest in 1095 had brought famine to the poor. As James Carroll observes in “Constantine’s Sword,” there is “no doubt the crusading impulse rescued many serfs, but also landowners, from desperate economic straits.”
Pope Urban II did not tell crusaders to murder Jews, but that is what happened when at least 100,000 knights, vassals and serfs, unmoored from ordinary social restraints but bearing the standard of the cross, set off to crush what they considered a perfidious Muslim enemy in a faraway land. Why not practice on that older group accused of perfidy — the Jews?
The city of Trier, on the Moselle River, was one of the early stops. The Jews were, according to a Hebrew chronicle, offered the choice of conversion, exile or death — similar to the choices offered by groups like the Islamic State and Boko Haram. After the Jews of Trier made an unsuccessful attempt, by paying off a bishop, to persuade the crusaders to bypass their community, they sought refuge in the prelate’s palace.
The chronicle recounts that “the bishop’s military officer and ministers entered the palace and said to them: ‘Thus said our lord the bishop: Convert or leave this place. I do not wish to preserve you any longer.’ ” It goes on: “ ‘You cannot be saved — your God does not wish to save you now as he did in earlier days.’ ”
Albert of Aix, a Christian born in the late 11th century, describes atrocities in Mainz — another stop on the crusaders’ rampage through the Rhineland — by a band headed by one Count Emico. Again, there is a bishop who initially promises the Jews protection for what Albert describes as an “incredible amount of money.” But Emico and his Christian soldiers broke into the hall where the Jews were held.
“Breaking the bolts and doors, they killed the Jews, about seven hundred in number, who in vain resisted the force and attack of so many thousands. They killed the women, also, and with their swords pierced tender children of whatever age and sex ... Horrible to say, mothers cut the throats of nursing children with knives and stabbed others, preferring them to perish thus by their own hands rather than to be killed by the weapons of the uncircumcised.”
[end excerpt]
---
* "Whose War? A neoconservative clique seeks to ensnare our country in a series of wars that are not in America’s interest" (2003-03-24) [http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/whose-war/] [https://archive.today/taL6p]
---
* "Two US Wars Of Aggression You Probably Never Heard Of" [http://theantimedia.org/two-us-wars-of-aggression/]: While there are only a few wars that are recognized by the public education system and mainstream media, the US has been involved in hundreds of different wars and invasions all over the planet in the past 100 years. Below is some information about just two of the wars that are often left out of the history books.
Between 1964 and 1973, the U.S. dropped over two million tons of bombs on Laos during 580,000 bombing missions, making Laos the most heavily bombed country in history. The US dropped more bombs on Laos than they did on both Germany and Japan combined during World War 2.
"The Most Secret Place On Earth The CIAs Covert War In Laos" (2008) video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ye2rzEKbz8I].
According to Wikipedia: The United States Invasion of Panama, code-named Operation Just Cause, was the invasion of Panama by the United States in December 1989. It occurred during the administration of U.S. President George H. W. Bush, and ten years after the Torrijos–Carter Treaties were ratified to transfer control of the Panama Canal from the United States to Panama by January 1, 2000.
During the invasion, de facto Panamanian leader, general, and dictator Manuel Noriega was deposed, president-elect Guillermo Endara sworn into office, and the Panamanian Defense Force dissolved.
"The Panama Deception" video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zo6yVNWcGCo]
---
* "Created by US-NATO, Linguistic Engineering: New 'Boshnjak' Identity and 'Bosnian' Language" (2015-02-16) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/created-by-us-nato-linguistic-engineering-new-boshnjak-identity-and-bosnian-language/5431024] [https://archive.today/9EOkj]
---
* "A Man You’ve Never Heard of Saved Your Life" (2015-02-06) [http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2015/02/man-youve-never-heard-saved-life.html] [https://archive.today/KMRwm] [begin excerpt]: On October 27, 1962, a man you’ve never heard of saved your life … It was at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, when the U.S. and Soviet Union were on hair trigger alert for World War Three. And an order to launch a nuclear missile against Americans was actually given by the commander and political officer of a Soviet nuclear submarine. One man stopped global nuclear war. [end excerpt]
---
* "From The JFK Assassination to 9/11: Network TV and Government-Sanctioned Lies" (2015-02-12) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/brian-williams-network-tv-and-government-sanctioned-lies/5430704] [https://archive.today/NPzSY]
---
* "Deep Events and the CIA’s Global Drug Connection" (2008-09-06) [http://www.globalresearch.ca/deep-events-and-the-cia-s-global-drug-connection/10095] [https://web.archive.org/web/20121120113145/http://www.globalresearch.ca/deep-events-and-the-cia-s-global-drug-connection/10095]
---
"Why The US Endgame for Russia Means the Death of American Democracy" (2014-09-17)
* page 1 [https://web.archive.org/web/20150218023251/http://www.opednews.com/articles/1/Why-The-US-Endgame-for-Rus-by-George-Eliason-American-Exceptionalism_American-Facism_American-Hypocrisy_American-Terror-140917-413.html]
* page 2 [https://web.archive.org/web/20150218023251/http://www.opednews.com/articles/2/Why-The-US-Endgame-for-Rus-by-George-Eliason-American-Exceptionalism_American-Facism_American-Hypocrisy_American-Terror-140917-413.html]
* page 3 [https://web.archive.org/web/20150218023251/http://www.opednews.com/articles/3/Why-The-US-Endgame-for-Rus-by-George-Eliason-American-Exceptionalism_American-Facism_American-Hypocrisy_American-Terror-140917-413.html]
* page 4 [https://web.archive.org/web/20150218023251/http://www.opednews.com/articles/4/Why-The-US-Endgame-for-Rus-by-George-Eliason-American-Exceptionalism_American-Facism_American-Hypocrisy_American-Terror-140917-413.html]
* page 5 [https://web.archive.org/web/20150218023251/http://www.opednews.com/articles/5/Why-The-US-Endgame-for-Rus-by-George-Eliason-American-Exceptionalism_American-Facism_American-Hypocrisy_American-Terror-140917-413.html]
* page 6 [https://web.archive.org/web/20150218023251/http://www.opednews.com/articles/6/Why-The-US-Endgame-for-Rus-by-George-Eliason-American-Exceptionalism_American-Facism_American-Hypocrisy_American-Terror-140917-413.html]
* page 7 [https://web.archive.org/web/20150218023251/http://www.opednews.com/articles/7/Why-The-US-Endgame-for-Rus-by-George-Eliason-American-Exceptionalism_American-Facism_American-Hypocrisy_American-Terror-140917-413.html]
* page 8 [https://web.archive.org/web/20150218023251/http://www.opednews.com/articles/8/Why-The-US-Endgame-for-Rus-by-George-Eliason-American-Exceptionalism_American-Facism_American-Hypocrisy_American-Terror-140917-413.html]
* page 9 [https://web.archive.org/web/20150218023251/http://www.opednews.com/articles/9/Why-The-US-Endgame-for-Rus-by-George-Eliason-American-Exceptionalism_American-Facism_American-Hypocrisy_American-Terror-140917-413.html]
* page 10 [https://web.archive.org/web/20150218023251/http://www.opednews.com/articles/10/Why-The-US-Endgame-for-Rus-by-George-Eliason-American-Exceptionalism_American-Facism_American-Hypocrisy_American-Terror-140917-413.html]
* page 11 [https://web.archive.org/web/20150218023251/http://www.opednews.com/articles/11/Why-The-US-Endgame-for-Rus-by-George-Eliason-American-Exceptionalism_American-Facism_American-Hypocrisy_American-Terror-140917-413.html]
---
* "Canadian Government’s Anti-Communist Falsification of History: Making Vietnam’s Victory Over the U.S. a “Black Day”" [http://www.globalresearch.ca/canadian-governments-anti-communist-falsification-of-history-making-vietnams-victory-over-the-u-s-a-black-day/5430370] [https://archive.today/doYkD]
---
* "Superpower Blunders: Czechoslovakia in 1938" (2015-01-30) [https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/superpower-blunders-czechoslovakia-1938-erico-matias-tavares] [https://archive.today/yOdEt]
---
* "Survivors of 1980s AIDS crisis reveal what happened to them" (2015-02-02) [http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/survivors-1980s-aids-crisis-reveal-what-happened-them020215] [https://archive.today/lGPnr]: Real LGBTI people remember the confusion, the lack of information, the lack of support from the government because of the suffering from the virus known only at the time as GRID (gay-related immune deficiency).
===*===*===
No comments:
Post a Comment