Israeli forces attack Palestinian worshippers inside al-Aqsa, over 150 injured
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/04/15/israeli-forces-attack-palestinian-worshippers-inside-al-aqsa-over-150-injured/
Kremlin confirms Russia’s plans to expand use of rubles in foreign trade
https://tass.com/economy/1438443
Israeli foreign minister’s anti-Russian statements regrettable — Foreign Ministry ("There was a poorly camouflaged attempt to take advantage of the situation in Ukraine to distract the international community’s attention from one of the oldest unsettled conflicts - the Palestinian-Israeli one"
https://tass.com/politics/1438361
Russia, China have new possibilities amid global changes — Chinese senior MP
https://tass.com/world/1438329
China, Russia develop scientific cooperation, potential is huge — Chinese Foreign Ministry
https://tass.com/science/1438193
China calls on US to stop trying spoil China’s relations with Russia over Ukraine
China calls on US to stop trying spoil China’s relations with Russia over Ukraine
https://tass.com/world/1438313
Sputnik International
Biden Re-Election 'Virtual Impossibility' Amid 'Spectacularly Low' Rating - Ex-Clinton Pollster (Biden a lame duck already?)
Counterpunch
A Le Pen Presidency Was Not a Possibility Before. It is Now.
Philippe Marlière
https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/04/15/a-le-pen-presidency-was-not-a-possibility-before-it-is-now/
Clinton’s Revisionism on NATO Expansion
Melvin Goodman
Gallup
Biden Job Approval Down Most Among Younger Generations
Jeffrey M. Jones
https://news.gallup.com/poll/391733/biden-job-approval-down-among-younger-generations.aspx
Biden Job Approval Down Most Among Younger Generations
Jeffrey M. Jones
https://news.gallup.com/poll/391733/biden-job-approval-down-among-younger-generations.aspx
Biden Re-Election 'Virtual Impossibility' Amid 'Spectacularly Low' Rating - Ex-Clinton Pollster (Biden a lame duck already?)
https://sputniknews.com/20220415/biden-re-election-virtual-impossibility-amid-spectacularly-low-rating---ex-clinton-pollster-1094786749.html
The Grayzone
US, EU sacrificing Ukraine to ‘weaken Russia’: fmr. NATO adviser [Jacques Baud]
Donbas Ukraine Putin•
Aaron Maté
Southfront (sanctioned by the US Treasury Department)
Why Russia’s Ukrainian Campaign Is Failing(strange article for an alleged front for Russian intel to crosspublish)
Eric Zeusse
Strike On Moskva Missile Cruiser Is Only Precursor To Change In Military Situation In Region (another post unfavorable for Russia. This is Russian "sixth column" stuff rather than Russian intel.)
https://southfront.org/strike-on-moskva-missile-cruiser-is-only-precursor-to-change-in-military-situation-in-region/
What Will Happen And What Has Happened In Irpin: We Know What You Hide (ethnic cleansing operation by Ukrainians? War crimes like killing civilians, ethnic cleansing, and genocide need to be carefully distinguished. They have precise legal definitions in international law.)
Zero Hedge
Beijing Carries Out Military Drills Over Taiwan As US Lawmakers Meet With President Tsai
The Grayzone
US, EU sacrificing Ukraine to ‘weaken Russia’: fmr. NATO adviser [Jacques Baud]
Donbas Ukraine Putin•
Aaron Maté
https://thegrayzone.com/2022/04/15/us-eu-sacrificing-ukraine-to-weaken-russia-fmr-nato-adviser/
Why Russia’s Ukrainian Campaign Is Failing(strange article for an alleged front for Russian intel to crosspublish)
Eric Zeusse
Strike On Moskva Missile Cruiser Is Only Precursor To Change In Military Situation In Region (another post unfavorable for Russia. This is Russian "sixth column" stuff rather than Russian intel.)
https://southfront.org/strike-on-moskva-missile-cruiser-is-only-precursor-to-change-in-military-situation-in-region/
What Will Happen And What Has Happened In Irpin: We Know What You Hide (ethnic cleansing operation by Ukrainians? War crimes like killing civilians, ethnic cleansing, and genocide need to be carefully distinguished. They have precise legal definitions in international law.)
https://southfront.org/what-will-happen-and-what-has-happened-in-irpin-we-know-what-you-hide/
Beijing Carries Out Military Drills Over Taiwan As US Lawmakers Meet With President Tsai
Tyler Durden
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/beijing-carries-out-military-drills-over-taiwan-us-lawmakers-meet-president-tsai
A Le Pen Presidency Was Not a Possibility Before. It is Now.
Philippe Marlière
https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/04/15/a-le-pen-presidency-was-not-a-possibility-before-it-is-now/
Clinton’s Revisionism on NATO Expansion
Melvin Goodman
https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/04/15/clintons-revisionism-on-nato-expansion/
19 comments:
Why the middle class underpins democracy
https://the-blindspot.com/anacyclosis-watch-why-the-middle-class-underpins-democracy/
"in 1776, the richest American possessed less than 1,000x the national median household net worth. Today, America’s median-top social aspect wealth ratio approaches 2,000,000:1, approaching the wealth of two million American middle class families.
In upcoming essays, I’ll make the Anacyclosis-informed case for rolling back America’s social aspect ratio from 2,000,000:1 to 10,000:1 by means of a market-oriented, median-benchmarked approach.
The goal of this hypothetical policy approach: to incentivize markets to backsolve for an independent middle class, in accordance with Aristotle’s prior recommendation. "
A very Oxbridge view will be the solution in the upcoming essays in my opinion. A market-oriented, median-benchmarked approach is fancy words for same shit different day.
Sinking of the Moskva. Russian military is unbelievably inept. Like watching a slow motion train wreck.
“ strange article for an alleged front for Russian intel to crosspublish)”
If you take munnie from them to publish then you ARE a front for Russian Intel…
If you don’t want to be accused of being a front for Russia then don’t take munnie from them…
In the US you then can rely on 1st amendment constitutional rights…
Yo, Nobody ever bothered Prof. Stephen Cohen ….
Yo, Nobody ever bothered Prof. Stephen Cohen ….
He was cancelled professionally like other experts in Russia and foreign policy realists.
The Shameful U.S. Media Boycott Against Stephen F. Cohen 30 Mar 2018
If you take munnie from them to publish then you ARE a front for Russian Intel…
No evidence that Southfront gets any funding from the Russian government and it claims that it is entirely publicly funded. They fund raise all the time and have been banned from all conventional money transferring so they rely on Bitcoin. Looks to me like they are considered a Russian asset since their site is registered and hosted in Russia.
https://www.whois.com/whois/southfront.org
The article about the Russian campaign failing from southfront is interesting. If a major Ukrainian offensive was indeed about to take place (I've read conflicting reports of whether Ukraine has been amassing troops in the east vs. the south, but shelling of the Donbass had picked up around the 15th of feb), it might have been better to let the Ukrainians strike first. Although who struck first is something our media is perfectly capable of ignoring, the last 8 years of fighting have been memory-holed, so memory holing the day a new phase of hostilities start would be no problem.
Had Putin run out of options vis-a-vis Ukraine and US/Nato expansion? I have to assume the Russians have been attempting their own counter coup since 2014, or at least considered it. The US rejected all attempts to negotiate that the Russians proposed back in Dec. If you do nothing, you end up with a hostile Nato further expanded to your border, or you invade and face the obvious risks. You can't just invade the Donbass and break it off, then the rest of Ukraine probably would be fast tracked into Nato and you're not that much better off. So what was left to do?
@ Joe
Right, the US backed Russia into a corner.
This was intentional, planned for decades and even going back to the early 20th c., as others have explained and I many times here at MNE.
The US is determined to break both Russia and China in order to cement US world domination ("hegemony").
Russia and China are just as determined to resist.
The stakes could not be higher, nor the potential cost greater (nuclear WWIII).
Scott Ritter said he'd attempt a breakout if he were Ukrainian commander. Better to lose 40,000 in a breakout, then 60,000 in a cauldron.
“ He was cancelled professionally”
Tucker had him on all the time… iirc he was on with John Batchelor on WABC nyc all the time…
And you are doing the old Art degree bait and switcherooo….
Douchebag left wing America last pos Democrat dick sucking media not having him on isn’t the same as being taken down by DOJ for counter intelligence purposes and FARA violations..,
“ So what was left to do?”
Lol! Uhhh idk maybe continue the political process maybe? Even if you are losing…
“ Right, the US backed Russia into a corner.”
Oh ok .. if you get the figure of speech “backed into a corner!” THEN you can be pro war… ok I see now …gotcha…
What was the political process? What were the options? Chas Freeman thought Putin was doing normal coercive diplomacy, which sure, Putin gave some support to the separatists, then gathered troops on the Ukraine border and offered negotiations. It failed. What were the steps he should have done before that or after once it failed? What political process would have resulted in a meaningful neutral Ukraine?
if you get the figure of speech “backed into a corner!” THEN you can be pro war
Actually, I considered writing "leaving no other acceptable options" but decided that "backed into a corner" had more rhetorical power.
There's a reason that figures of speech are used. They are effective. Figures of speech were learned as an essential part of rhetoric in classical times. They were studied by all educated people when liberal education was still in vogue. They were used extensively by the great orators, and all who aspired to emulate them studied these great speeches in detail, along with logic and rhetoric. BTW, so did Donald Trump and he used rhetorical devices quite masterfully to achieve his objectives.
Sophistry (making the worse case appear the better) was also an ancient art that was related to rhetoric. But while rhetoric uses manner to enhance matter stylistically, sophistry suborns logic to achieving one's objectives, regardless of the validity of the argument.
Also, pro and anti war are not absolute dichotomies, they way they may appear. One can be anti-war in the sense of non-violent in the absolute sense but one can also be anti wars of choice but not against legitimate self defense. The former is "turn the other cheek," which requires an advanced level of consciousness, while being against violence other than in self-defense or defense of those being attacked illegitimately is being anti war without being absolute about it.
continued
continuation
Meher Baba summarizes the levels.
Nonviolence pure and simple means love infinite. It is the goal of life. When this state of pure divine love is reached, the aspirant is at one with God. To reach this goal there must be intense longing, and the aspirant who has this longing to realize the supreme state has to begin by practicing what is termed nonviolence of the brave.
This applies to those who, though not one with all through actual Realization, consider no one as their enemy. They try to win over even the aggressor through love and give up their lives if attacked, not through fear but through love.
As pointed out, nonviolence of the brave is practicable for those individuals who have an intense longing to attain the supreme state. This longing is not to be found in the masses.
If, therefore, it is intended to lead the masses to pure nonviolence, it is necessary first to prepare them for the nonviolence of the brave. To achieve this aim in a practical way it is necessary to make them follow, in the beginning, the principle of nonviolent violence — that is, violence done solely to defend the weak without any selfish motive whatever.
In times of actual war when the masses are taken by surprise, they are not in the mood even to listen to advice about having intense longing to attain the supreme goal of life. The only practical way to lead them finally toward the goal is to begin by inculcating in them the principle of nonviolent violence and then gradually introducing the nonviolence of the brave.
A premature attempt to introduce nonviolence of the brave among the unprepared masses in actual wartime would not only fail but incur a serious danger of bringing in the fatal nonviolence of the coward, that is, the masses would not resist the aggression simply because of fear and for no other reason.
The masses may also be educated and lead to the nonviolence of the brave by making them follow the principles of selfless violence instead of those of nonviolent violence. Selfless violence is violence done in self-defense when attacked treacherously. No other selfish motive should be allowed to justify the violence.
Thus, for example, when one's mother's honor is on the point of being violated by a lustful man and one defends her by resorting to violence, one is said to have followed the principle of selfless violence. Similarly, when the honor of a nation is at stake and it is being attacked by enemies, the nation's selfless effort in defending itself is selfless violence. A tinge of selfishness being present (as the mother is one's own mother), the love expressed here is limited human love.
Nonviolence of the coward is, as pointed out, fatal. So also is selfish violence, that is, violence for selfish motives by individuals or nations to gain power or for other selfish ends.
— DISCOURSES, 7th ed, pp. 73-74
END
@ Joe
You are starting at a minimum of eight years too late. A lot leads up where we are now, first with Clinton's expansion of NATO, attack on Serbia, and carving up of the former Yugoslavia, all without UNSC approval. (Russia basing its legal argument for RWP the Donbass republics on the US argument about Kosovo and being explicit about it). Putin warned about the trend at Munich in 2007. George Kennan had warned about NATO expansion earlier and now CIA chief then Russian ambassador did also in 2009. There was no mystery about this and it did not appear out of nowhere.
Secondly, there was a coup in Ukraine that installed an illegitimate regime in power in Ukraine, one that the US knew was permeated with the neo-Nazis that have used violence to effect the coup. Then the neo-Nazi Azov Battalion began a campaign to ethnically cleanse the Donbass of Russians, which Putin incorrectly labeled "genocide" when it was a matter of ethnically cleansing instead. There was reason for Putin's characterization, however, since the Azov leadership was explicit of carrying this out in Russia itself. Meanwhile, the US/NATO was training, arming and directing Azov as a proxy force.
Thirdly, the US violated the security agreement that it had signed about European security by moving nuclear capable missiles close enough to Russia to be able to effect a first strike. Russia have the US an ultimatum to desist and withdraw or there would be a military-technical solution in self-defense.
This is 100% on the US and its NATO poodles all of whom other than the UK and the rabidly Russophobic Eastern European countries were coerced. The current US claim that Russia's action was unprovoked is an untruth and Biden and Burns know it is a lie since they were both deeply involved in it.
This was entirely excluded from the Western corporate media, so folks that didn't and still don't know about the workings of it can be excused of culpable ignorance. But people in denial about that are refusing to educate themselves on it and contest what can be contested are not doing due diligence.
@Tom
Yes, I'm aware of all of that except the details of us violating the European security agreement (is this the US pulling out of START and INF treaties?). I agree completely that it was the US pushing this whole thing along, the 15 years of warnings, the coup, nato military exercises with Ukraine, the training and weapons to Ukraine, etc. That's my point, what was left of a political process? I'm honestly asking, other than surrender, what options did Russia have left?
except the details of us violating the European security agreement
Founding Act
on Mutual Relations, Cooperation and Security between NATO and the Russian Federation signed in Paris, France 2009.
Contrary to this, when the US also the other NATO countries refused to address Russia demands about its security, there were no other options for Russia other than surrender. Obviously, that was off the table and those countries knew it. Russia had prepared a legal argument for the action which it was about to take using "military-technical" means as the only option other than surrender it sovereignty, which it was not about to do.
Sinking of the Moskva. Russian military is unbelievably inept. Like watching a slow motion train wreck.
Don't judge a military based on their navy.
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