Indefinite Detention and Endless Global War

ACLU:

Senators Have a New Plan to Expand Indefinite Detention and Endless Global War

 

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Et Tu @MaxBlumenthal ?

 

It’s come to my attention that Max Blumenthal, of Alternet fame, was pro regime-change in Syria before he was against it. Whether he had an honest change of heart is a big question, since he never really explained himself.

Here’s a bit of controversy.

I need to put this out for readers to decide since I promoted his pieces, despite him being connected to foundation-funded propaganda complex Alternet. They are the home of head-bobbing Chomsky drones and worse.

So, how about setting the record straight, Max?

Cry Me a River, Max Blumenthal

Syria – The Alternet Grayzone Of Smug Turncoats

At the time of that controversy, June 2012, this is how I personally handled the crisis in Syria (still far too relevant today):

Syria: The First Casualty…

 

PS:

Further confirmation of Libyan weapons smuggling into Syria, Reuters:

The adventures of a Libyan weapons dealer in Syria

 

 

 

Media War on Truth

 

The Media War On Truthful Reporting And Legitimate Opinions – A Documentary

We come in peace

 

U.S. Has Special Forces in 149 Countries and Ambassadors in 144

 

 

America Is Not Listening

Oliver Stone makes a plea for sanity.

– America Is Not Listening –

Judging by the US MSM response to Putin’s speech on Thursday (attached below at 12 minutes), it seems we have a massive breakdown in understanding nuclear issues in this country. For us it’s a matter of boasting, I guess — Trump’s “fire and fury” and the end of Earth. But those paying attention should know that last Thursday, in a low-key but monumental response to American threats, and without much fanfare, Mr. Putin stated what Russia has been doing to protect itself from what they view as a dangerous bully. It surprised many of us, I believe most likely, our over-budgeted Pentagon and over-rated CIA with a pretty stark statement, if not proof, that the Russians can defend themselves quite well for about 12% of the defense budget we waste.

I may be wrong, but it seems that it blows to smithereens all the billions of dollars we’ve spent on ABMs. Big cutbacks are due, but already it seems the Pentagon is asking for more money to keep up with the Russians’ “threat.” The madness will grow.

But what the US doesn’t understand is what Putin is saying. And in that sense, it was a very hopeful speech to me. What he’s saying in the plainest English is: ‘Stop — before it’s too late. We don’t want to fight you! Just leave us alone! Call us names, kick us out of the Olympics, have your sanctions, but don’t keep pushing for “regime change,” aka the overthrow of the Russian State. Don’t keep pressing with your NATO threats on our borders. Don’t keep thinking that you have the upper hand. You don’t. We’re quite capable of meeting all your threats — and frankly more. We don’t have to boast.’

The whole thing smacks to me of a veteran gunfighter in a predictable Western, telling the hot-headed kid bent on proving he’s better, ‘Don’t, kid. Don’t go for that gun. Go home… to your Mama, to your wife, a glass of milk, or maybe a peaceful life… whatever. Just go.’

Maybe it’s not such a bad idea.

Gilbert Doctorow, “Missile-gate: US Intel Misses Russia’s Big Advances in Nuclear Parity,” Consortiumnews, http://bit.ly/2FgUy9H.

“Putin’s Message Couldn’t Be Clearer,” Off Guardian, http://bit.ly/2tklwaE.

Tyler Durden, “Putin: ‘Russia’s New Hypersonic Missile Can Rip US Defenses Apart,” Zero Hedge, http://bit.ly/2F4jZuJ.

Paul Craig Roberts, “Putin’s State of the Union Reveals Russian Superiority in Nuclear Weapons Technology,” http://bit.ly/2D1R8Bv.

Americans are equally misguided by the MSM on Syria. Here Jeffrey Sachs, who’ve I come to admire, presents a wise analysis of American policy in Syria and the lies floated by Hillary Clinton. This of course ties into Russia and Iran on another front. It’s all part of one big mess and we keep moving towards the dogpile. Please let us turn in another direction before it’s too late.

Jeffrey Sachs, “Ending America’s Disastrous Role in Syria,” Common Dreams, http://bit.ly/2Fgf9KW.

The Deadly Rule of the Oligarchs

 

Agree with this one, but it could have used more facts and figures to buttress its case…

The Deadly Rule of the Oligarchs

U.S. Humiliates South Korea, Threatens North Korea

 

By David William Pear

Fearing that peace might break out with the two Koreas talking to each other, Washington instructed South Korean President Moon Jae-in to keep the message about anything but peace. It is not just Trump. A former top official for the Obama administration warned Moon that South Korea was not going to get anywhere with the North Koreans unless they have the “US behind them”. Humiliating, that is like saying that Moon’s “button” is not as big as Kim’s. The metaphor is exactly how the Washington elite see South Korea: as Washington’s obedient eunuch. The official went on to say, “If South Koreans are viewed as running off the leash, it will exacerbate tension within the alliance”. Running off the leash! Now more humiliation, is South Korea a US poodle? Instead President Moon Jae-in is showing that he has teeth, and that South Koreans want their country back from US humiliating domination.

During the talks it was agreed for North Korea to participate in the Winter Olympics in February. The two countries will even march together under a common flag, and future talks between the two are planned to reduce tension. Trump continues to bluster, while the two Koreas have “engaged in the most substantive direct talks in years”. Neocons such as John Bolton are outraged that North Korea has proven once again that it is willing to come to the negotiation table. Bolton says it is a dirty trick and that North Korea is “taking advantage of a weak South Korean government”, adding more insulting humiliation. To Washington, South Korea talking peace is weak, running off the leash and going it alone without its US master. The North using the peace option is seen as a provocation and propaganda that Washington will not tolerate. In retaliation the US sent more nukes to Guam, and put the state of Hawaii on a full alert that a “ballistic missile was inbound“. The nukes outbound to Guam are real; the ones inbound to Hawaii were fake, just like the ability of the billion dollar THAADS to shoot them down. Too conveniently the Hawaii false alarm comes just as the US and its vassals are readying for what the US plots to be a show of solidarity and unity on killer sanctions against North Korea. The US wants its chorus to perform the tragedy of telling North Korea to obey or watch 500,000 of their children die. As Madeleine Albright said about Iraq’s 500,000 dead children from US sanctions, “the price is worth it“. The US does not think the price of diplomacy is worth it though.

The US continues to block efforts at diplomacy, and express its contempt for South Korea’s elected President Moon Jae-in. He was elected on a peace platform by the South Korean people. Moon’s predecessor Park Geun-hye sang from the US hymnbook until she got caught with her hand in the cookie jar. In 2017 the South Korean people went to the street and demanded the granddaughter of former dictator Park Chung Hee be impeached, and now she is in prison. Peace is not anything that Washington’s plutocrats want to hear, although the South Korean people like the sound of it, and elected Moon their president by a wide margin. The self-interests in Washington preferred the corrupt warmonger Park. She carried the US’s tune with perfect pitch, even (allegedly) conspired to assassinate the North’s Kim Jong-Un. The message of the humiliation from US apparatchiks is that if Moon does not change his tune the US will try to undermine South Korea’s democracy with a regime change project might be in his future. The US habitually meddles in other’s elections, and wants to keep tensions high on the Korean peninsula, keep the South Koreans in line, make North Korea a boogeyman, frighten the American people, station 30,000 US troops in South Korea with wartime operational control, buy more multi-billion dollar THAADS from Lockheed Martin, and divide the Korean people. Even at the risks of a nuclear war, which the US proposes making easier.

The establishment nearly went to war with North Korea in 1994 until Bill Clinton negotiated peace. The neocons in Washington and the mainstream media keep saying that North Korea refused to come to the negotiating table. Clinton’s decision to use diplomacy instead of threats proved the warmongers wrong again. It was the US all along that refused to talk, preferring belligerence and threats just as it does now. Once Clinton showed a willingness to bargain, then a nuclear deal was struck. The deal was called the Agreed Framework. What North Korea wanted then for it to suspend its nuclear program was for the US to halt the massive military exercises on North Korea’s border, a non-aggression guarantee, compensation for abandoning its needed electric producing nuclear reactors, and relations with the US. Now the situation with North Korea is back to where it was in 1994. George W. Bush reversed the path of peace when he came into the White House. In 2001 he tore up the Agreed Framework, put North Korea on the Axis of Evil list in 2002, invaded Iraq in 2003, and hanged Saddam Hussein in 2006. Very predictably North Korea resumed its nuclear program for self-defense against a paranoid and unpredictable USA that sees enemies to attack under every bed.