Dec 072023
 


Vincent van Gogh Self-Portrait with Straw Hat Aug-Sep 1887

 

Amid Fear of Trump ‘Dictatorship’, Some See Assassination (Robert Bridge)
The ‘Jan. 6 Jurisprudence’ About to Be Unleashed on Trump (Julie Kelly)
Israel Headed for Strategic Defeat in Gaza (Scott Ritter)
Erdogan Sees Netanyahu Balancing On Brink Of Collapse (TASS)
Putin Visits to UAE, Saudi Arabia Prompted by Global Dynamics of Gaza War (Sp.)
Russia Will Attack NATO – Biden (RT)
US Is Withholding Aid To Push Ukraine Towards Negotiations With Russia (MoA)
Is Ukraine Aid ‘Dead’? (Sp.)
Yellen Says Ukraine’s Defeat Would Be Fault of the US (Sp.)
US Aid To Ukraine Laundered Back To Military-Industrial Complex – Massie (RT)
Ukraine Won’t Get Operational Pause in Winter – Scott Ritter (Sp.)
Ramaswamy in GOP Presidential Debate Says Ukraine Conflict ‘Pointless’ (Sp.)
Hunter Biden Threatened With Contempt Of Congress If He Bails On Testimony
US State Dept Sued For Conspiring To Censor American Media Companies (ZH)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

UNDER THE CLOUDS OF WAR, IT IS HUMANITY HANGING ON THE CROSS OF IRON

 

 

Nap/Ritter

 

 

 

 

Ireland

 

 

Escobar

 

 

 

 

First thing they did was try to undo everything Trump did.

“..by the end of his ninth day at the White House, Biden had signed 40 executive orders, actions, and presidential memorandum – an all-time record..”

Amid Fear of Trump ‘Dictatorship’, Some See Assassination (Robert Bridge)

As polls show Donald Trump has taken a broad lead over U.S. President Joe Biden in five battleground states, the Liberal media has shifted into full-panic mode, while making some not-so-subtle calls for the Orange Man’s ‘elimination.’ Whether real or imagined, Washington, D.C. appears to be heading for its own ‘Caesarian moment’ as the mainstream media is talking up the prospects of a dictatorship descending upon the fair land should a Trump restoration come to pass. “Are you afraid of a Donald Trump dictatorship,” asked Greg Sargent in an opinion piece in The Washington Post. “Well, know this: The only thing you have to fear is fear of Tyrannus Trumpus itself.”

Brace yourself, dear reader, for the remainder of the hit piece is littered with no less preposterous forms of government rule to describe Donald Trump, without ever providing an iota of proof to support the claims: “authoritarian rule,” “full-blown autocracy,” Trumpian tyranny,” “dictatorial intentions,” “despotism,” “threat to democracy,” “antidemocratic menace,” violent coup.” and “autocratic threat.” It’s just a little ironic that for all the Liberal handwringing over the possibility of The Donald seizing “autocratic powers” come November, there was no such consternation when Joe Biden behaved worse than any Caligula just hours after being elected in 2020.

The septuagenarian leader, alone at his desk and donning a black mask, signed off on dozens of executive orders that served as a death sentence for: a viable U.S.-Mexico border wall; the $9 billion, 1,200-mile Keystone XL pipeline from Canada that would have made America energy independent; biological males from using the female bathrooms and changing rooms, and a raft of other issues that were resolved without an ounce of congressional debate. Incredibly, by the end of his ninth day at the White House, Biden had signed 40 executive orders, actions, and presidential memorandum – an all-time record. Despite all of this, Biden is now acting like he is the Maginot Line against the possibility of all-out tyranny/ authoritarianism/ dictatorship/ autocracy, take your pick.

“If Trump wasn’t running, I’m not sure I’d be running. But we cannot let him win,” the 81-year-old Democrat told a fundraiser event in Massachusetts. In a cloud of self-righteousness and grand delusion, the Liberals sincerely believe that Trump is about to enjoy, in the words of Robert Kagan, the premier neocon who co-wrote the infamous tract Project for a New American Century, “a clear path to dictatorship in the United States, and it is getting shorter every day.” Unfortunately, Kagan didn’t think to apply the brakes there, but went on to provide an apocalyptic-sounding fender-bender that many people took as the latest call to ‘take out’ Trump, the upcoming “president for life.”

“Are we going to do anything about it? To shift metaphors, if we thought there was a 50 percent chance of an asteroid crashing into North America a year from now, would we be content to hope that it wouldn’t? Or would we be taking every conceivable measure to try to stop it, including many things that might not work but that, given the magnitude of the crisis, must be tried anyway?” [..] Maybe Trump, should he be re-elected, will focus his attention on media harassment. In the meantime, however, he seems to be having fun trolling his opponents. Trump mocked questions about ‘dictatorial rule’ this week, saying he would be a dictator only on “day one,” and then he’s going to shut down the border and get to drilling for oil. “After that, I’m not a dictator, OK?” It’s tempting to ask how the ancient Romans would have responded to such a deal.

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“..Washington “is the worst possible place for any Jan. 6 defendant, but especially Donald Trump, to have a trial.”

The ‘Jan. 6 Jurisprudence’ About to Be Unleashed on Trump (Julie Kelly)

Defense attorneys have coined the term “January 6 Jurisprudence” to describe the treatment received by the more than 1,200 defendants arrested so far in connection with the events of Jan. 6, 2021. This carve-out legal system involves the unprecedented and possibly unlawful use of a corporate evidence-tampering statute; excessive prison sentences and indefinite periods of pretrial incarceration; and the designation of nonviolent offenses as federal crimes of terrorism. A universal feature is the requirement that a Jan. 6 defendant, usually a supporter of Donald Trump, face trial in Washington, D.C., a city overwhelmingly populated by Democrats. Federal judges have denied every change of venue motion filed in Jan. 6 cases, arguing those who protested at the Capitol can get a fair trial in the nation’s capital. The results so far appear to contradict the court’s collective conclusion.

Court records show the jury selection process has repeatedly revealed a strong degree of bias against anyone tied to Jan. 6. At least 130 defendants have been convicted at trial – not one has been acquitted by a jury – and hundreds have been sentenced to prison time ranging from seven days to 22 years. Defense lawyers say this track record helps explain why the vast majority of defendants have opted for a plea deal rather than go to trial. This is the same environment that now awaits the former president as he prepares to stand trial in Washington on March 4, 2024 for election interference, in addition to an array of criminal and civil cases against him elsewhere. While Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team and Trump’s counsel spar over a number of issues, perhaps the biggest dispute will concern whether it will be possible to seat an impartial jury for the presumptive 2024 GOP nominee in a city that voted 92% for Joe Biden in 2020.

After Smith indicted Trump in August, a Jan. 6 defense attorney who is not representing the former president, J. Daniel Hull, told the New York Times that Washington “is the worst possible place for any Jan. 6 defendant, but especially Donald Trump, to have a trial.” U.S. District Court Judge Tanya S. Chutkan recently set a jury selection schedule for Smith’s four-count indictment against Trump for the events of Jan. 6. She ordered both parties to begin developing a questionnaire, due Jan. 9, 2024, that hundreds of D.C. residents will be asked to complete so the court can begin the initial step of weeding out unqualified jurors. Stakes are high for both sides. Trump’s lawyers must navigate constraints on how many jurors can be stricken from consideration to ensure their client gets a fair trial. The Department of Justice must convince the American people that a case brought by a Democratic administration and handled by a Democratic-appointed judge with a record of inflammatory statements about the former president will be heard by unbiased jurors.

The Sixth Amendment guarantees, among other rights, “the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed.” In extreme cases, criminal defendants can petition to move their trial out of the prosecuting jurisdiction for a number of reasons, not the least of which is sustained, negative press coverage that taints the jury pool. Trump’s lawyers are not discussing their strategy publicly, but sources have indicated to RealClearInvestigations that the defense will file a change of venue motion in the next month or two. Given the partisan composition of Washington, saturation coverage of the former president’s ongoing legal woes, and the city’s relatively small population, Trump will have a strong argument in favor of moving the trial outside of the nation’s capital. Yet a review of Jan. 6 cases to date suggests the odds are against that. Not a single judge on the D.C. District Court has granted a change of venue motion even for high-profile trials such as those for members of the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys, the so-called “militia” groups involved in the Capitol protest

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“War, the Prussian strategist Carl von Clausewitz famously noted, is politics by other means. Hamas has proven the maxim to its fullest extent, accomplishing politically that which could only be initiated by Israel’s criminal use of force against the Palestinian people.”

Israel Headed for Strategic Defeat in Gaza (Scott Ritter)

The attack carried out by Hamas on October 7 against Israeli military positions and settlements which, collectively, formed what is known as the “Gaza barrier system”, triggered a massive Israeli military response. There are two aspects of this cause-and-effect relationship that stand out. First, and perhaps most importantly, it was the goal and objective of Hamas to have Israel respond impulsively. Hamas did not have to think out of the box, so to speak, to imagine such a reaction—since 2006, it has been established and well-known Israeli policy to conduct military campaign based upon the premise of collective punishment of a civilian population. Moreover, given the Israeli predilection for revenge that dates to the massacre of Israeli athletes during the 1972 Munich summer Olympics, a massive military incursion into Gaza to hold to account those responsible for the October 7 attacks was likewise as predictable as snow falling in Siberia in the wintertime.

Second, and less predictable than the first, was the poor performance of the Israeli security establishment, including the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) and Israeli intelligence. Not only did the Israeli security forces fail to act on what appears to have been ample evidence pointing to a Hamas attack along the lines of that executed on October 7, but once the Hamas attack began, the failure of the IDF to defend against the attack, and the plodding, indiscriminate nature of the Israeli counterattack, which appears to have inflicted significant casualties on Israeli civilians that the Israeli authorities have attributed to the Hamas attackers, seriously eroded the notion of the invincibility and infallibility of the Israeli military and security establishment. But this was only the beginning of what would amount to a strategic Israeli defeat at the hands of Hamas. The Israelis proceeded to mobilize some 300,000 reservists, most of whom were sent to the Gaza front.

While these forces were assembled, the Israeli Air Force began a bombing campaign against the civilian infrastructure of Gaza, including hospitals, mosques, schools, and refugee camps, which shocked the world in terms of its lethality. By ignoring the fundamental precepts of international humanitarian law, Israel allowed itself to be characterized as a practitioner of genocide, and its actions against Gaza as war crimes. This is the core of the Hamas victory—the political defeat of Israel on the global stage, where international sympathies rapidly aligned with the people of Gaza and Palestine, and away from Israel. War, the Prussian strategist Carl von Clausewitz famously noted, is politics by other means. Hamas has proven the maxim to its fullest extent, accomplishing politically that which could only be initiated by Israel’s criminal use of force against the Palestinian people.

But even as international pressure began to accumulate for Israel to halt its offensive, Hamas was able to achieve what many outside observers had believed to be unthinkable—it fought the IDF to a standstill in Gaza itself, inflicting significant human and material losses on the IDF. After declaring that Israel would never agree to a ceasefire or an exchange of prisoners with Hamas, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suddenly caved into international pressure to sign up for what became a six-day “pause” where humanitarian goods were delivered to the Palestinian civilians in Gaza, and Palestinian prisoners held by Israel were exchanged for hostages seized by Hamas on October 7.

One of the major reasons for this decision lay not in the extreme pressure being put on Israel by the United States and its European allies for such an outcome, but the fact that the IDF was suffering serious losses on the battlefield in Gaza and along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, where Hezbollah was engaged in military operations in support of Hamas. The casualties among Israeli main battle tanks were unsustainable, and the morale of the IDF soldiers was collapsing—indeed, Israel had to courts-martial two IDF officers who withdrew their battalion from the Gaza battlefield under pressure from Hamas.

Ritter

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“This coalition is breaking apart. Don’t think that they are strong, they will quit [politics]. We already said 50 to 60 days ago that Netanyahu is going away..”

Erdogan Sees Netanyahu Balancing On Brink Of Collapse (TASS)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is balancing on the verge of collapse, something that he may indicate any time soon, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. “Israeli Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu is on the brink of collapse or bankruptcy right now. And he may make such an announcement at any moment,” the state-run Anadolu agency quoted the Turkish president as saying upon returning from Qatar. “And then there is the West which connives with the wrongdoings of both Netanyahu and his administration. Fortunately, the West has largely reconsidered its view of Israel since October 7,” Erdogan told Turkish journalists.

Erdogan described the ruling coalition in Israel as unhealthy. “This coalition is breaking apart. Don’t think that they are strong, they will quit [politics]. We already said 50 to 60 days ago that Netanyahu is going away,” the Turkish leader said. “Now, certain people emerge who are telling Israel: ‘We are tired of feeding you’,” he maintained. “Look at France that in the early days was making statements of support [for Israel]. Now French President [Emmanuel] Macron is making completely different statements,” the Turkish president said. “Many other Western countries, too, are no longer making the statements of the kind they were making in the first days [of the conflict],” Erdogan noted as he urged patience before the world revisits its attitude toward Israel’s actions.

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“For the Gulf States, relations with Russia are seen as an essential leverage in adapting to their changing relationship with the US..”

Putin Visits to UAE, Saudi Arabia Prompted by Global Dynamics of Gaza War (Sp.)

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday to meet with UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and discuss bilateral, regional, and international affairs. As part of his brief Middle East tour, the Russian leader is also visiting Saudi Arabia, while later hosting Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in Moscow. Vladimir Putin’s visit to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia could be used by the Arab countries “as a signal, perhaps to the West,” to show that “we have other options and we’re not really happy with your policy towards Gaza,” Abdulaziz Algashian, a Saudi political analyst, told Sputnik. The Russian President’s trip to the Middle East comes amid turbulent developments in the region, with the Russian leader acutely aware of the “international dynamics of the Gaza war,” pointed out Algashian. He added that the Arab countries might seek to “leverage this visit and relations with Russia” relative to the Palestinian issue.

“For the Gulf States, relations with Russia are seen as an essential leverage in adapting to their changing relationship with the US,” agreed Sami Hamdi, Saudi political analyst and head of the International Interest, a risk analysis group. “There are concerns in the Gulf capitals that the US is no longer committed to their security or their interests, and there is therefore a belief that relations with Russia are essential in order to both advance their interests by pursuing alternative alliance structures and simultaneously strongarm Washington into upholding its commitment to them,” he pointed out. Looking ahead, “the extent of future cooperation with Russia as it stands remains dependent on the nature of the US-Gulf relationship. Although Gulf States will preserve their ties, the eagerness to expand those ties will correlate and fluctuate in accordance with the nature of their relationship with the US,” the Saudi political analyst speculated.

On a broader scale, there are a wide swathe of reasons for why Vladimir Putin chose this moment to embark upon his first foray to the region since 2019, underscored Algashian, a research fellow with SEPAD international research network and collaborative project based at Lancaster University’s Richardson Institute. These range from the Middle East’s resentment over the West’s stance on Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza to a need for further “entrenching” of economic relations, the pundit stressed.

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“Washington’s speculations about a potential stand-off show that “[US] authorities have finally lost touch with reality..”

Russia Will Attack NATO – Biden (RT)

If Russia prevails in the Ukraine conflict, it may find itself in a position to launch an attack on NATO that could trigger a global conflict involving American troops, US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday, when he urged Congress to pass a $111 billion national security package. The bill, which was backed by Democrats, included aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. He also lashed out at Republicans – who have been reluctant to support the measure due to disputes over security at the southern US border, saying that by doing so, they “are willing to give [Russian President Vladimir] Putin the greatest gift he could hope for.” “If Putin takes Ukraine, he won’t stop there,” Biden argued. “If Putin attacks a NATO ally…, well, we’ve committed as a NATO member that we’d defend every inch of NATO territory,” he stated, adding that Washington would like to avert this kind of a stand-off because it could result in “American troops fighting Russian troops.”

However, Republicans remained unconvinced, blocking the spending package in the Senate, with the final vote being 49 in favor and 51 against. The measure was opposed by all GOP lawmakers, as well as independent Senator Bernie Sanders, who normally votes with Democrats, but this time expressed concerns about Israel’s military strategy in the conflict with Hamas. Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer also voted “no” in order to have a chance to reintroduce the package later. Moscow’s ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov, commenting on Biden’s remarks about a potential clash between Russia and NATO, suggested that “such bogeyman stories are fabricated in order to justify to taxpayers and sober-minded political forces the huge expenses for ‘containing’ the Russian Federation.” Washington’s speculations about a potential stand-off show that “[US] authorities have finally lost touch with reality,” he added. “This kind of provocative rhetoric is unacceptable for a responsible nuclear state.”

Biden

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“..the Republicans as well as the Democrats, likely in consent with the White House, have so far blocked all further aid.”

US Is Withholding Aid To Push Ukraine Towards Negotiations With Russia (MoA)

It would have been easy for the Democrats to commit a few billions for border security. But Biden wants to end the war in Ukraine. Starving it of money is the easiest way to push it towards negotiations. All this was planned by the Pentagon think tank RAND which, early this year, published a study about how to end the war in Ukraine: “Avoiding a Long War – U.S. Policy and the Trajectory of the Russia-Ukraine Conflict” (A 2019 study by RAND, Extending Russia – Competing from Advantageous Ground, had recommended to openly arm Ukraine to keep Russia busy. It has been the basis of U.S. Ukraine policy ever since.)

But in early 2023 RAND had turned a corner and argued that a prolonged war in Ukraine will be too costly for the U.S. to sustain: “The biggest Ukraine problem the White House currently has is President Vladimir Zelenski who has rejected any and all negotiations with Russia.” The RAND study had foreseen such a situation and had found ways to push Ukraine towards talks with Russia: “[T]he United States could decide to condition future military aid on a Ukrainian commitment to negotiations. Setting conditions on aid to Ukraine would address a primary source of Kyiv’s optimism that may be prolonging the war: a belief that Western aid will continue indefinitely or grow in quality and quantity. At the same time, the United States could also promise more aid for the postwar period to address Ukraine’s fears about the durability of peace. Washington has done so in other cases, …”

Linking aid to Ukrainian willingness to negotiate has been anathema in Western policy discussions and for good reason: Ukraine is defending itself against unprovoked Russian aggression. However, the U.S. calculus may change as the costs and risks of the war mount. And the use of this U.S. lever can be calibrated. For example, the United States could level off aid, not dramatically reduce it, if Ukraine does not negotiate. And, again, a decision to level off wartime support pending negotiations can be made in tandem with promises about postwar sustained increases in assistance over the long term. That was a nice plan. But how well the aid lever can be calibrated depends of course on Congress, not on the president’s say so.

There are also downsides to withholding or giving aid promises: “Clarifying the future of U.S. aid to Ukraine could create perverse incentives depending on how the policy is implemented. Committing to increased wartime assistance to Ukraine to reduce Russian optimism could embolden the Ukrainians to obstruct negotiations, blame failure on Moscow, and gain more Western support. Announcing a decrease or leveling off in assistance to Ukraine to reduce Kyiv’s optimism about the war could lead Russia to see the move as a signal of waning U.S. support for Ukraine. If it took this view, Russia might keep fighting in the hope that the United States would give up on Ukraine entirely. Although recognizing that Ukraine is fighting a defensive war for survival and Russia an aggressive war of aggrandizement, the United States would nonetheless have to carefully and dispassionately monitor events and target its efforts to create the intended effect on whichever side’s optimism is determined to be the key impediment to starting talks.

This would probably have been a good way to go if Biden had control over dispensing or withholding funds to Kiev. But the Republicans as well as the Democrats, likely in consent with the White House, have so far blocked all further aid. Their current path then seems to be a different one towards negotiations with Russia – regime change in Kiev. President Zelenski is unwilling to take up peace talks. If he can be pushed out of office during the next few months his likely replacement, General Zaluzny, will probably be more inclined to seek an end of the war. Thus the current tactic is to pressure Zelenski into leaving by withholding all future funds. If another Ukrainian leader comes in, aid might again flow to prevent a total takeover of the country by Russia. Still – the aid calibration would be a problem. So maybe giving up and leave, as Biden did in Afghanistan, might be the preferred option.

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“We remember the old quotes about the money being carted around in Iraq on palettes and not even weighed or metered… I think that that’s what’s happening again in Ukraine.”

Is Ukraine Aid ‘Dead’? (Sp.)

Investigative journalist Christopher Helali joined Sputnik’s Political Misfits program Wednesday to discuss the growing opposition within the United States towards continued funding for Ukraine’s proxy conflict against Russia. The reported size of the latest proposed foreign aid package – some $110.5 billion – provoked incredulity from host John Kiriakou. “What has the United States not given Ukraine that would have such an enormous price tag?” asked Kirkiakou. Helali said that the “aid package is not only military assistance but also funding for rebuilding, for infrastructure… it’s funding for Ukraine, it’s funding for Israel, it’s also… a very small amount for the Palestinians.”
However Helali clarified that “Ukraine is at the forefront,” noting that the lion’s share of funding in the bill was earmarked for the Kiev regime.

“This is funding for rearmament, for new weapons systems, and things like that,” the analyst stressed. Rampant corruption in Ukraine has repeatedly stymied aspirations to join the European Union and other international bodies. Some Western politicians also point out the very high level of corruption in Ukraine. The business dealings of Hunter Biden in Ukraine, the son of US President Joe Biden, have also come under harsh criticism. President Biden has claimed he had no involvement in his son’s business ventures. “But of course there’s no real oversight,” added Helali, “there’s been a lot of reporting – I’m sure you’ve all been seeing it – about the rampant corruption, some officials have been buying yachts and houses and all sorts of fine luxury items. I think it’s going to be held up because there’s a lot of questions around this amount of money.”

Helali noted the large amounts of money that have gone unaccounted for in previous US-backed military operations, saying, “We remember the old quotes about the money being carted around in Iraq on palettes and not even weighed or metered… I think that that’s what’s happening again in Ukraine.” Funding for Ukraine did in fact fail in the US Senate on Wednesday when the legislative body refused to advance a supplemental foreign aid bill. Republican legislators, led by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Mike Johnson, have used the opportunity to call for increased funding for US border security to secure GOP support.

Helali said that increased border funding is a nonstarter for segments of the Democratic Party base, claiming they see US border policy as an ““instrument of oppression” and a “remnant of colonialism and US empire.” The journalist nevertheless believes the Biden administration will be forced to compromise on the issue, claiming, “I think eventually Democrats will have to cave because they need this funding.”

Read more …

Meet the new war expert.

Yellen Says Ukraine’s Defeat Would Be Fault of the US (Sp.)

US lawmakers are debating a $111 billion supplemental spending package, of which $61 billion would be included for Ukraine. The spending package would also include funding for Israel, Taiwan, and US border security. During a trip to Mexico City on Tuesday, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the US would be responsible for Ukraine’s defeat should Congress fail to approve US President Joe Biden’s latest supplemental spending package, according to media reports. “I’ve talked to members of Congress, my colleagues have. I think they understand this, that this is a dire situation and we can hold ourselves responsible for Ukraine’s defeat if we don’t manage to get this funding to Ukraine that’s needed, and I’m including direct budget support here because that’s utterly essential,” Yellen told the media.

At the US Institute of Peace this week, Andrey Yermak, President Vladimir Zelensky’s chief of staff, said not receiving this most recent spending package from the US exposes Ukraine to a “big risk” in losing its war. The package would include $61 billion to Ukraine, which is nearly as much as the US has already spent on helping to weaponize the country. The US government has spent more than $75 billion on Ukraine thus far, a figure that does not include all war-related spending which is estimated to be about $113 billion. “Ukraine is just running out of money,” Yellen said. “They’re spending more than every penny they’re taking in, in tax revenue, on military salaries and defense, and they wouldn’t have any schools or hospital or first responders if not for the money we’re sending to them to support them,” added the US Treasury Secretary.

[..] US House Speaker Mike Johnson said Republican support for the Biden Administration latest supplemental spending package will have to include permanent changes to the US border policy. Before any further spending, wrote Johnson, funding is first dependent upon “enactment of transformative change to our nation’s border security laws”. “Second,” Johnson wrote in a letter to Young, “Congress and the American people must be provided with answers to our repeated questions concerning: the Administration’s strategy to prevail in Ukraine; clearly defined and obtainable objectives; transparency and accountability for U.S. taxpayer dollars invested there; and what specific resources are required to achieve victory and a sustainable peace.”

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“But no one mentions that we have abetted the killing of an entire generation of Ukrainian men that will not be replaced. To fight a war that they cannot win..”

US Aid To Ukraine Laundered Back To Military-Industrial Complex – Massie (RT)

The US Congress is continuing to vote in favor of sending billions of dollars to Ukraine because a lot of those funds end up being laundered back to the US military-industrial complex, Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie has said. In an interview with Tucker Carlson on X (formerly Twitter) published on Wednesday, the politician was asked to explain why Washington continued to push for more funding for Ukraine despite it becoming obvious that Kiev’s forces “cannot win.” Massie, who has repeatedly voted against sending money to fund Kiev’s operations, alleged that a lot of the funds that are sent to Ukraine ultimately end up “enriching” people within specific US districts and “stockholders, some of whom are congressmen.”

“You know, people are getting rich, so let’s do it. It’s an immoral argument, but it is one. But that’s not the argument they’re making in public,” he said, noting that those supporting the funding of Ukraine with US tax dollars are instead arguing that it is a “moral obligation” to do so. “You’re a bad person if you’re against this,” he complained, referring to a statement recently made by US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, who suggested that failing to support “the fight for freedom in Ukraine” meant letting Russian President Vladimir Putin “prevail.” “But no one mentions that we have abetted the killing of an entire generation of Ukrainian men that will not be replaced. To fight a war that they cannot win,” Massie noted.

The congressman surmised that, in order to support the US government’s proposals on Ukraine aid, a person has to be “economically illiterate and morally deficient.” Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden has hit out against Republicans like Massie, who have refused to aid packages to Ukraine, calling the failure to support Kiev “absolutely crazy” and “against US interests.” The US leader has repeatedly pledged that Washington would support Kiev for “as long as it takes” in its conflict with Russia.

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“..The goal and objective of Russia is demilitarization. Demilitarization could have been done peacefully. Right now it’s being done violently. And it means the absolute destruction of the Ukrainian military. And that is going to happen this winter. It will be destroyed in its totality.”

Ukraine Won’t Get Operational Pause in Winter – Scott Ritter (Sp.)

It was expected that Zelensky would inform American congressmen about the latest developments on the ground in Ukraine and urge them to disburse over $60 billion for Ukraine.On the same day, the upper chamber failed to vote on a Ukraine aid bill because Democrats threw out GOP border reforms from it. In response, Republicans made it clear that they will not support any further assistance to Kiev unless border measures are included in the legislation. Meanwhile, the current Ukraine military package has almost been exhausted. There are also rumors in the Western press that NATO allies want Zelensky either to hold the talks or to freeze the conflict along the line of contact. Will the Kiev regime be forced to take a pause during the winter season?

“Well, what we won’t see is a pause,” Scott Ritter, former Marine intelligence officer and UN weapons inspector, told Sputnik. “I mean, the Ukrainians and even the collective West, they’re throwing terms out there like: ‘You know, it’s a frozen conflict. We fought them to a standstill.’ No, it’s not a frozen conflict and they haven’t fought the Russians to a standstill. Last winter, you know, the Ukrainians had their victory in Kharkov and Kherson. The Russians were consolidating their defenses, they had mobilized 300,000 men, and they were building the defenses. And so there was a pause that allowed [Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief Gen. Valery] Zaluzhny to plan an operation. They had the luxury of time to build the nine, I think they actually built 12 brigades, equipped them, prepared them for this counteroffensive, etc.”

“Right now, we have a situation where the Russians are ready. Those 300,000 are fully trained. The majority of them have not been committed to the battlefield. In addition to that, over 450,000 volunteers and contract soldiers were absorbed. The Russians are at full strength with all the equipment, all the wherewithal. There will be no operational pause. The Ukrainians, on the other hand, have nothing to replace what’s happening. They’re now literally grabbing teenagers and pregnant women and putting them on the battlefield to fill the holes in the lines. There’s nothing coming behind, and the West is out of money. There’s no equipment. The Russians are not going to hit the pause button to give Ukraine a chance to catch their breath. The entire purpose of the Russian approach has been to grind the Ukrainians down to the point of exhaustion. And now we’re there.” [..] nobody is going to give Ukraine a pause, according to Ritter. While Moscow has repeatedly made it clear that it is open to constructive peace negotiations, the absence of Kiev’s initiative would mean the prolongation of the conflict, the former Marine officer believes.

“We’re going to see increasingly the elimination of cohesion on the battlefield as Ukrainians will retreat, as holes will be punched in the line. The Ukrainians are, I believe, in a very short period of time, going to be compelled to make a precipitous retreat back to more defensive positions. And that in itself is a very difficult military maneuver, one which Russia could exploit. You know, if they’re prepared to push them back even further, but this winter will be a winter of continued death and destruction for the Ukrainians. And the Russians will continue to put the pedal to the metal and keep putting the pressure on the Ukrainians. The goal and objective of Russia is demilitarization. Demilitarization could have been done peacefully. Right now it’s being done violently. And it means the absolute destruction of the Ukrainian military. And that is going to happen this winter. It will be destroyed in its totality.”

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Nikki=Corrupt

Ramaswamy in GOP Presidential Debate Says Ukraine Conflict ‘Pointless’ (Sp.)

US entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy during the fourth Republican primary presidential debate said the Ukraine conflict is pointless and slammed former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley for not backing efforts to reach a peace deal. “I was the first person to say we need a reasonable peace deal in Ukraine. Now a lot of the neocons are quietly coming along to that position, with the exceptions of Nikki Haley and [President] Joe Biden, who still support what I believe is a pointless war in Ukraine,” Ramaswamy said on Tuesday during the debate in Alabama. Ramaswamy and Haley were joined on stage by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie in what some expect to be the final debate of the 2024 primary. Haley maintains 9% support in the Republican Party primary, trailing former US President Donald Trump’s 64% support and DeSantis’ 16% support, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released in November.

Vivek Nikki
https://twitter.com/i/status/1732592114603794574

Read more …

“Hunter Biden is trying to play by his own rules instead of following the rules required of everyone else..”

Hunter Biden Threatened With Contempt Of Congress If He Bails On Testimony

Hunter Biden will be slapped with contempt of congress if he skips out on his Dec. 13 closed-door deposition, according to a Wednesday letter from House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan to Hunter’s defense attorney, Abbe D. Lowell. “Contrary to the assertions in your letter, there is no ‘choice’ for Mr. Biden to make; the subpoenas compel him to appear for a deposition on December 13. If Mr. Biden does not appear for his deposition on December 13, 2023, the Committees will initiate contempt of Congress proceedings,” reads the letter, issued a week after Lowell suggested that Hunter should instead be allowed to testify publicly.

Hunter was subpoenaed on Nov. 8 to appear for a deposition before the committee. In response, Comer said: “Hunter Biden is trying to play by his own rules instead of following the rules required of everyone else,” adding “Our lawfully issued subpoena to Hunter Biden requires him to appear for a deposition on December 13.” Comer and Jordan are investigating extensive evidence that the Biden family was running an international influence peddling scheme, raking in tens of millions of dollars from foreign business partners despite no obvious product or service in exchange. House lawmakers are also seeking testimony from Hunter’s uncle James Biden, as well as multiple former business associates.

Read more …

“”The State Department is tasked with foreign relations and has no authority over domestic affairs..”

US State Dept Sued For Conspiring To Censor American Media Companies (ZH)

Following bombshell censorship revelations exposed over the last year, beginning with the Twitter Files, the state of Texas, The Daily Wire, and The Federalist have filed a lawsuit against the US State Department on Tuesday, alleging that the government agency funded censorship technology designed to bankrupt domestic media outlets which have disfavored political opinions. According to the Daily Wire’s Luke Rosiak; “The State Department is tasked with foreign relations and has no authority over domestic affairs, yet it took a government office designed for countering foreign terrorist propaganda, the Global Engagement Center (GEC), and unleashed it against Americans engaged in what it claimed was “disinformation,” according to the lawsuit, filed in federal court in the Eastern District of Texas on Tuesday night by the New Civil Liberties Alliance. It was “one of the most audacious, manipulative, secretive, and gravest abuses of power and infringements of First Amendment rights by the federal government in American history,” said the suit, which also names Secretary of State Antony Blinken and five other officials as defendants.”

Of note, the GEC, founded in 2011 under a different name to combat foreign propaganda in a counterterrorism capacity. In establishing the entity, Congress made clear that “none of the funds authorized” for the program “shall be used for purposes other than countering foreign propaganda.” They of course ignored all that, and turned its focus on Americans according to the complaint, using taxpayer funds to finance and promote censorship shops such as NewsGuard and the Global Disinformation Index (GDI), which target conservative outlets – ZeroHege included – with the stated goal of killing ad revenue. “Through its Global Engagement Center, the State Department actively intervened in the news-media market to limit the reach and business viability of domestic news organizations by funding censorship technology and private censorship enterprises,” reads a Wednesday press release from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. “The State Department’s mission to obliterate the First Amendment is completely un-American. This agency will not get away with their illegal campaign to silence citizens and publications they disagree with.”

As the lawsuit explains, The Daily Wire, The Federalist, and other conservative news organizations were “branded ‘unreliable’ or ‘risky’ by the government-funded and government-promoted censorship enterprises… starving them of advertising revenue and reducing the circulation of their reporting and speech—all as a direct result of [the State Department’s] unlawful censorship scheme.” The outlets are being represented by The New Civil Liberties Alliance’s Mark Chenoweth, who said that “the federal government cannot do indirectly what the First Amendment forbids it from doing directly.”

Read more …

 

 

 

 

Piers Corbyn

 

 

Robert Frost

 

 

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Home Forums Debt Rattle December 7 2023

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 60 total)
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  • #147988

    Vincent van Gogh Self-Portrait with Straw Hat Aug-Sep 1887   • Amid Fear of Trump ‘Dictatorship’, Some See Assassination (Robert Bridge) • The ‘J
    [See the full post at: Debt Rattle December 7 2023]

    #147990
    Dr. D
    Participant

    ConscriptIllegals
    https://i0.wp.com/wilderwealthywise.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/DURBAN.png?w=598&ssl=1

    This does have a good gateway: You CANNOT be a soldier anymore UNLESS you are a felon. …If you didn’t enter illegally, you wouldn’t be a felon. If you aren’t illegal, then you don’t get huge and very special benefits for enlisting. Therefore, Felons are the only people they want. Yes, DEFINITELY give felons guns and national immunity. That’s the only way to top what you’re doing already.

    The other thing we can be sure of is that if he’s illegal, we have no idea where he came from. For dead certainty. So we ONLY want to recruit Zeta and MS-13 members. No one else will do. Why? Well, that’s the CIA’s army, silly. They can then replace the actual US Army just like they replaced the US Government.

    “Janet Yellen Joins Zelensky In Saying US Would Be “Responsible For Ukraine’s Defeat”

    Cue for Luongo citing that Yellen is Team Davos. Team Davos, aka “Europe” is who needs Russia and Russia’s oil. The U.S. doesn’t. We’re energy independent any time we want. That is, by definition, a “traitor”. So does this track?

    “America’s Energy Boom: US Crude Exports Soar To Record High

    As I said: does it track? WTF would we want with Russia? Do we need their oil? We need more land? Is Russia going to invade and occupy us? Such that we should lose 200,000 soldiers for it? No. There is Noooooooooo reason for us to be against Russia. No one’s even tried to propose one to me. “Muh Democracy” is not an argument: we don’t have Muh Democracy here. What, is CHINA buying off Joe Biden and Congress to make us attack Russia? I don’t think so. It is Bolivia? Mali? Sri Lanka? That leaves one group. Europe. Europe has the idiot United States, retarded trust fund kid pay for and die in all their wars while they smoke espresso in tea shops or whatever it is they do. Then, in classic narcissistic sociopath fashion, BLAME US for it. “Oh we had no CHOICE but to invade Russia and take all the oil that will save our miserable lives! We were just going to sit here and die by the hundred millions, but the Yanks MADE US. They MADE us steal trillions and live rich as Croesus. Those naughty boys, it’s all their fault we didn’t die.” Uh-huh. In contrast to Luongo, now does THAT logic track? No it does not.

    “President Joe Biden suggested that if Congress doesn’t send Ukraine more money, now, it may ’embolden’ Russian President Vladimir Putin”

    Wait: So we have to have a war so we don’t have a war??? Like Dominoes of Democracy? Q: Is there any condition then where we DON’T have a war?

    “”If we walk away, how many of our European friends are going to continue to fund and at what rates are they going to continue to fund?” he posed.”

    Ah. So this is about the “Mr. Global’s Empire” vs “America First.” Okay then.

    ““If Putin takes Ukraine, he won’t stop there… He’s going to keep going. … and “IF he keeps going and then IF he attacks a NATO ally” and IF the United States is bound by treaty to help, “THEN we’ll have something that we don’t seek.”

    Oh, I see. Well…spit, man, we can’t beat him under these conditions anyway, so what’s the difference? SHOULDN’T we wait, even “IF” Russia will do that, so we can I dunno, raise and arm a military? Ours is from 1990, so I suspect we’ll need to update it to have any chance at all. …Which we don’t, by the way. We can’t run a 10,000 mile supply chain across the Atlantic Ocean, when neither we nor Europe have any manufacturing or ports.

    I’m open to the idea of being capable of fighting such a war, but we’re not, we’ll only lose. So until then, stop pretending and getting everybody killed with your lies.

    “The Navy: Dead In The Water? There are many indicators that the Navy is at increasing risk of mission failure…”

    I thought that they have more Admirals than ships would be one of them. The article has quite a list, all of which are insolvable in the current environment and so worth reading: https://realclearwire.com/articles/2023/12/05/the_navy_dead_in_the_water_996793.html (By a Navy Captain).

    “Commerce Secretary had labeled Beijing “the biggest threat we’ve ever had”…”

    Sounds to me like YOU, the US Navy, and Congress are the Greatest threat to America. Not Beijing.

    “Americans ‘Should Be Worried’ About Potential Chinese Invasion Of Taiwan: Joint Chiefs Of Staff Chairman

    Just got done reporting we have no US Navy, we lost to goatherders TWICE, and we can’t even win a European land war. So who’s the greatest threat to America? People who get us into voluntary wars we can’t win in SE Asia? How did we not learn that lesson the first time?

    “Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), a Harvard grad, asked the presidents of Harvard, Penn, and MIT whether “calling for the genocide of Jews” violates their schools’ code of conduct or constitutes bullying or harassment,”

    So Harvard suddenly went full-on scorched-earth Freedom of Speech Maximialist? Huh. It’s almost like SOME speech is more equal than others. Quick: book the most milquetoast conservative like Ben Shapiro for a speaking engagement and check!

    Just to be clear: calling for universal world-wide mass murder is NOT bullying. …Or not when WE do it, anyway.

    In the reverse, Congress has no idea what “words” mean: “House Passes Resolution Stating ‘Anti-Zionism Is Antisemitism’

    Sirs? If they’re the same thing, why do they use two different words? It is because universally and every minute of reality up until now they were NOT the same thing? But Congress passed a law! (resolution) that Reality Changes for ME! I Am God.

    Quick, pass a law suspending time and that printing money won’t have any bad effects! …Oh…wait…

    Hassidic picture: But I thought 100% of all Jews behaved identically at birth. Like Herrings or something. Wait, NOW you tell me I need to distinguish between the good and bad people? Like I don’t have enough to do already… Are you SURE we can’t all just pretend they’re all identical, it would really save me a lot of time. Then I could hate and murder with joy in my heart!

    ““..by the end of his ninth day at the White House, Biden had signed 40 executive orders, actions, and presidential memorandum – an all-time record..”

    Wait: I thought that was a Dictatorship. And wait: “Executive Orders” aren’t laws and have no power. Is there anybody (illegally) following them? If so, why? Why doesn’t Congress impeach them?

    Goes to show Biden exists exclusively for Trump’s leisure. The US collapses under HIM, as it must, and so the Democratic Party (and pals, see: “CIA”) fails for a generation too. Now Biden runs and stops all comers which would rate far more likely to defeat Trump. But no, and the DNC doesn’t want to swap him either, or not enough. Huh. Doesn’t that seem odd to anyone? Call me Sus.

    ““..Washington “is the worst possible place for any Jan. 6 defendant, ANYONE but especially Donald Trump, to have a trial.”

    Like Southern District of NY, you’d have more chance of a fair trial under Stalin in 1937. I mean literally. The conviction rate of Hitler and Stalin as only like 95%. We’re like 10x that at 99%. And it’s not just there, either. Not like the courts in Chicago are great under Jussie Smallet.

    #147991
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Took me a long time to find it, as it’s quite hard now to pull the straight screenshot off a youtube file.

    Placard
    https://www.socialistalternative.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/IMG_0597-1024×846.jpg
    (Signboard: “Stop Attacks on Women’s Rights: Fight Back with Socialist Feminism”)

    This was on the “Church of Satan” providing free abortions as a religious Rite as a centerpiece article for “Cosmopolitan” Magazine. Need I say more? But these people nor these issues are “Socialist” or nothin’. People supporting the Church of Satan, to whatever level of Irony, aren’t the Wiccan Left or nothin’. “Left” as in, “Socialist.” Nope! They’re probably the Christian Right! Satan and Jesus, peas in a pod, practically the same person amirite? Not a preacher in ‘Merica for 100 years, Billy Graham, Jim Baker, Charles Spurgeon, heck, Cotton Mather himself was pro Church of Satan.

    Now why? Like I said: same mindset. “You can’t tell me what to do! No Rulz!” “I Am God”, “The world is what I say it is and must conform to me!” If I just corrupt language, reality changes too!!!

    Not to say the Right doesn’t have a lot of problems. They do. But they don’t have THIS problem, and this is a major one just right now at the moment. Should the Right ever take power again – in fact, should we ever HAVE one again – I’ll be up their butts with a sharp stick just like now.

    https://www.zerohedge.com/political/cosmopolitan-magazine-promotes-satanic-abortion-ritual-its-readers

    Go Cosmo! Satan is seriously great for women, families, and long-term happiness overall. That’s what he most stands for!

    #147992
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

      Republican Congressman Max Miller, who recently made a genocidal call to turn Gaza into a “parking lot,” has joined with Republican Congressman David Kustoff to push through a resolution in the US House of Representatives that “clearly and firmly states that anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism.”

    The neither the twain shall meet hath met apparently at Scott’s “line of contact”. Jesus h Christ

    Signs of and phrases from The Rear Echelon:
    “elimination of cohesion on the battlefield” “operational pause”
    “precipitous retreat back to more defensive positions. And that in itself is a very difficult military maneuver”
    “along the line of contact”

    Why haven’t Janet Yellen (blames Anerica for impending Ukraine defeat) AND Scott Ritter (easy access mortal enemy Russia) been arrested and imprisoned for unAmerican activities alongside the J6 protesters?
    Inquiring minds want answers Dr D.
    Are they indemnified by a greater power, issued carte blanche?

    The traditional Jewish prayer shawl, nope, it’s the flag of Israel adorned with the Star of David, symbol of Judaism.
    Christian Zionists exist, but do Zionist Christians?
    Exist.

    #147993
    tboc
    Participant

    Dr. D i admire your hope. i paused for a minute in the television room of the home where i stay last night. The channel was set to Dancing with the Stars. i realize i should have abandoned hope when McCain chose Palin. i wonder what the ninth circle is like, i know the seventh too well.

    #147994
    tboc
    Participant

    Dr. D Rich – Ritter, Colonel Doug, CIA Larry and the judge all speak to a known group, with a known mindset. They are all company men pushing the might makes right agenda. My guess is ninety percent of their audience will vote status quo every time. What i hear from them is, once we dispose of these usurpers we can get back to business as usual. Those thoughts are not unpopular in Congress.

    #147995
    oxymoron
    Participant

    two x chromosomes does not immunise you from criticism
    Is Ramaswamy married?

    #147996
    tboc
    Participant

    perhaps most have seen the video compilations of talking heads using the exact same phrase across the entire media sphere as if in sync. Does anyone remember the decade of Greed is Good? There does not seem to be any video compilations of talking heads uttering that phrase in sync that have a popular following. A decade of non-stop advertising for deregulation and greed.

    ” All media exist to invest our lives with artificial perceptions and arbitrary values.”
    Marshall McLuhan

    “Oh, people, look around you
    The signs are everywhere
    You’ve left it for somebody other than you
    To be the one to care” Jackson Browne

    i have clients who want a barndominium, a modeling i shall go

    #147997
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    @tboc
    .. company men obvious to you but accepted or presented on these pages as edgy counters to the Dominant Narrative of the PTPB.

    To clarify, those 4 repeatedly cited commenters are neither ‘edgy’ nor ‘counters’.

    “Clausewitz” is never uttered along “the line of contact” and neither is the latter.

    #147998
    Dr. D
    Participant

    Ritter: Not actually sure. Not being banned is not definitive. Alex Jones was on for years…until he wasn’t. Dan Bongino was on…until he wasn’t. Russell Brand was on…until he wasn’t. Greg Hunter is wildly pro-Israel and he was on…until he wasn’t. They didn’t magically re-instate him for his rabid Zionism. Right Wing Watch, wildly pro-censorship, pro-Left was on…until they weren’t.

    Meanwhile, New Age channels talking about Women’s Rights were banned early and often.

    What would you use for an indicator? Quite obviously Yellen is an insider. But we’ve already established there are at least Two Teams of Insiders, each trying to shove out the other one. Or three Teams. Or Five. Or a thousand. So why would anyone ban Yellen? That’s like banning Biden. But they did ban Congressman Cotton. And Donald Trump.

    All of these are for what? Generally being Anti-War. That’s about it. Brand can talk all he wants until he tries to stop mass murder. New Age is fine so long as you don’t DO anything, try to UNITE people, especially for peace. That was MLK’s and JFK’s last stop. Meanwhile, Ritter is Pro-War, just pro the RIGHT war. We already know there’s a “America First” Team in the US Military. They want to withdraw to our borders and buy new toys. Ritter is in no conflict with that. Why ban him? He’s saying what that group likes, so they run interference for him.

    There are other 3rd rails, but that’s my general take on it. There’s no ONE person, and even if there were they might vary from day to day, it’s just Groupthink. Yes there are Ad execs at the top trying to direct the herd, but, Messy. Lots of people involved. All those people push their personal power, according to the offense of their bias, and there’s a wide group that has no morality about it at all, happy to ban whoever. If you run into one, you get banned; if you don’t, you don’t. That’s it. If you’re “Far Right Watch” you just get reinstated.

    If only it were so simple as “Trump was reinstated to speak, therefore he must have now flipped and is Globalist evily-evil.” The Opposite of a falsehood isn’t automatically true. I say it’s clear out but it isn’t, that’s False. However, the reverse: is it Raining or is it Snowing? Claiming either automatically would be False.

    I just figure they hadn’t got around to it yet, because he hasn’t been enough of a PITA for them, he’s not making any inroads. Which is easy to see as Congress is still 100:1 pro-war. If Ritter alone dropped that to 50:50 he’d be banned. I could be wrong. So why is his tag-team partner MacGregor left on? Is he evil for not wanting war too?

    #148000
    kultsommer
    Participant


    @WES
    – from yesterday’s comment
    I know all of that.
    The thing is that twat is neither old nor poor.

    #148001
    kultsommer
    Participant

    If one feel like throwing up a bit today:

    #148002
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Huge Strategic Defeat – Making New Enemies | Dmitry Orlov

    Dmitry: “Russia does very well under pressure, when there is no pressure it tends to have a very relaxed attitude”

    Russia has become virtually self sufficent, where the Collective West’s industrial base is disintegrating, especially EuroTardistan. Asia is rapidly industrializing and is being alienated from the West because of their bi-polar, schizophrenic, mono maniac approach to Life.

    The Collective West is a Death Cult

    Who needs that, let it burn baby burn.

    EuroTardistan is a lost cause, it has no future.

    The train has left the station and there’s no need to frantically run down the tracks waving and flailing your arms like a crazy person trying to catch it.

    Stick a fork in it, it done.

    Smooch-smooch

    .

    #148003
    Oroboros
    Participant

    #148005
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Ritter’s comment about ‘negotiations’ with the West over Ukronaziland

    He said Russia’s position is like that of the US position back in 1945 to Japan, “you can come on the USS Missouri and sign the document we have prepared….”

    Hahahahahahhahaa

    The Empire of Lies Military Mafia© can go pound sand

    They are half-ass fuckwits

    .

    #148006
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Ania interviews

    ANDREI MARTYANOV AND SCOTT RITTER “WHAT SURPRISED RUSSIA THE MOST ABOUT SMO’S UNFOLDMENT

    Hint: How astonishingly incompetent the Empire of Lies is at every conceivable level from soup to nuts

    #148007
    jb-hb
    Participant

    Vivek Ramaswamy is at the very least popcorn-worthy.

    “The real enemy is not Donald Trump. It’s not even Joe Biden. It is the deep state that Donald Trump at least attempted to take on, and if you want somebody who can speak truth to power, then vote for somebody who’s going to speak the truth to you,”

    from Christie:
    “We’re now 25 minutes into this debate and he has insulted Nikki Haley’s basic intelligence, not positions, her basic intelligence. If you want to disagree on issues, that’s fine. Nikki and I disagree on some issues, but I’ll tell you this, I’ve known her for 12 years, which is longer than you”

    Why isn’t Ramaswamy insulting her even MORE? If her competitors all grabbed her by the lapel and punched her continuously in the face while relating their cogent arguments to the audience, she still wouldn’t be getting punched in the face enough. (that’s HUMOR you dumb 3 letter agencies…)

    …because there just isn’t time in the debate to insult her sufficiently. She’s walking around with a severe, SEVERE insult deficit at all times, every second of every day.

    The elections are fake, my vote is fake, the candidate is probably fake. But okay, this likely fake Ramaswamy is faking the right things. If he’s the Republican candidate, I suppose he will get my fake vote and I’ll try to enjoy the show. It’s awesome that he’s not 80, although it would certainly confirm my lifelong expectation that GenX is going to be simply passed over. (Obama was a late Boomer)

    Not that I expect anything as peaceful and organized as a fake election in 2024.

    Every news organization is saying Ramaswamy said some stuff, is fiery, is confrontational etc- but they won’t say what HE said. Here’s the transcript – anyone can just Ctrl-F and skip through to the Ramaswamy parts.

    RNC Fourth Presidential Primary Debate 12/06/23 Transcript

    I was going to quote some key points, but he is continuously pleasing to read. It would be a ridiculously long post. I know it’s all fake, but still.

    #148008
    John Day
    Participant

    @Dr. D: Thanks for contemplating the premise that “Capitalism can only turn into autocracy”.
    Communism got there pretty quickly, as did national socialism. Monarchies reside there, of course.
    All roads lead to autocracy as growth ends and economies strain to provide basic needs, and generous profits to the elites simultaneously, right?
    “Free” markets are an essential function in any system which seeks efficiency, but we keep seeing that they are generally not free, but rigged and manipulated, more so as time goes on and regulatory systems are captured by power/financial elites.

    A bicycle, a library and a garden in an uncrowded locale, where the weather does not try to kill humans, and maintaining one’s health and perspective, seem like “good investments”.
    Corporations are abominations, in that they “live forever”, gaining power over time, capturing governments and regulators, and shielding the evil from consequences.
    ;-(

    #148009
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Orlov:

    Ukronaziland is a major Money Laundering Operation® for the Empire of Lies

    Since the Empire of Lies financial system is a stinking wobbling teetering corrupt Ponzi scheme, losing the Money Laundering Operation® is fatal.

    The whole Pedo Jo-Joe Crime Family folds like a cheap whore.

    The whole NeoConJob constellation of crooks now frantically ‘visiting’ on ‘official business’ to Ukronaziland and bring back diplomatic pouches full of laundered cash.

    The Final Payday

    Last call for alcohol

    .

    #148010
    tboc
    Participant

    waiting on a engineer to respond to an RFI.

    Dr. D my sense is tres amigos want wars that are deemed winnable and a narrative of invincibility. That does not equate to anti war. i can remember Reagan and Thatcher and their glorious triumphs. Where was the voice of the tres amigos when “we came, we saw, he died”? The CIA guy advertises for financial services on his site. The judge’s site is all slick media aimed at a certain demographic. The LIberty Nation website and thought synomous crowd seems to be the target of the judge.

    My mother in total disgust once said to me “You are the most cynical person I have ever known”. My parents named me after a man who would betray our family before i was five. I smiled and quietly accepted the compliment. I am well acquainted the touch of corruption, “the touch of the velvet hand
    Like a lizard on a window pane”.
    i wasn’t being facetious about your hope. people do read what you write.

    #148011
    jb-hb
    Participant

    If you want somebody who’s going to speak truth to power, then vote for somebody who’s going to speak the truth to you.

    (01:09:02)
    “Why am I the only person on the stage at least who can say that January 6th now does look like it was an inside job, that the government lied to us for 20 years about Saudi Arabia’s involvement in 9/11, that the great replacement theory is not some grand right-wing conspiracy theory, but a basic statement of the Democratic Party’s platform, that the 2020 election was indeed stolen by big tech, that the 2016 election, the one that Trump won for sure, was also one that was stolen from him by the National Security Establishment that actually put out the Trump Russia collusion hoax that they knew was false?”

    #148012
    John Day
    Participant

    tboc wrote: “i have clients who want a barndominium, a modeling i shall go”

    R-19, Brother, R-19 insulation everywhere, unless you just can’t get it into the walls, then R-13 there, and double-paned glass windows in the right places, with an eye to flow-through when the electricity goes out…
    Anyway, you know all that…

    “the man with the multicolored mirrors on his hobnail boots, lying with his eyes, while his hands are busy working over-time…”

    #148013
    Oroboros
    Participant

    @John Day

    Being a doctor, you should be very familiar with cancer.

    Corporations are Cancer

    Enough is never enough

    Infinite growth is possible if your a cancer cell

    Corporations as a concept have metastasized completely throughout the body politic

    It’s an inoperable situation.

    Tax Exempt Social Welfare Groups
    are also cancers

    The Truth About AIPAC in America

    #148015
    zerosum
    Participant

    TAE shows you the path. It’s up to you to take the path. So what?

    Predictable : Consumers/people cannot win.

    • Amid Fear of Trump ‘Dictatorship’, Some See Assassination (Robert Bridge)

    • The ‘Jan. 6 Jurisprudence’ About to Be Unleashed on Trump (Julie Kelly)
    ———–
    War, …killing …. genocide … sympathies …. defeat unthinkable

    • Israel Headed for Strategic Defeat in Gaza (Scott Ritter)

    • Erdogan Sees Netanyahu Balancing On Brink Of Collapse (TASS)

    ———–
    (a genocide budget)
    US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday, when he urged Congress to pass a $111 billion national security package.

    bogeyman stories are fabricated in order to justify to taxpayers and sober-minded political forces the huge expenses for ‘containing’ the Russian Federation.” Washington’s speculations about a potential stand-off show that “[US] authorities have finally lost touch with reality,

    However, Republicans remained unconvinced, blocking the spending package in the Senate, with the final vote being 49 in favor and 51 against.
    ———
    “..the Republicans as well as the Democrats, likely in consent with the White House, have so far blocked all further aid.”

    • US Is Withholding Aid To Push Ukraine Towards Negotiations With Russia (MoA)
    ———–
    The congressman surmised that, in order to support the US government’s proposals on Ukraine aid, a person has to be “economically illiterate and morally deficient.”

    “But no one mentions that we have abetted the killing of an entire generation of Ukrainian men that will not be replaced. To fight a war that they cannot win..”

    • US Aid To Ukraine Laundered Back To Military-Industrial Complex – Massie (RT)

    ———-

    #148016
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Well, That’s Awkward…

    #148017
    chooch
    Participant

    _____________ Zionists hate whatever is filled in the blank. The US government hates Americans, the Jewish government hates Jews, the Russian government hates Russians and Zionists hate Christians.

    #148018
    Oroboros
    Participant

    From Larch at Andrei Martyanov

    A nice over view of Project Ukraine®

    “In real combat, the guys [Russia] with the shovels and washing machine parts have destroyed a 1.5 million-man NATO-US proxy military.

    It was the best of the West and it had the highest motivation and strategic defenses planned and in place for eight years.

    All that has been ground to rust and dust by Gerasimov, Shoigu, the General Staff and the Russian MIC.

    Ukraine never had a chance. Devising ‘counteroffensives’ in Washington and Brussels just added the perfect ingredient for their defeat.

    Hubris. It is the credo of the US hegemon.

    Vainglorious bravado and parade ground weapons, unfit for combat, untrained officer corps, triumphal special forces that never experienced artillery barrages like General Dvornikov unleashed on the Ukies from April 2022 for seven months are some of the deficits the [Collective West] war games never included.

    Nothing changes in the West’s fantastical thought process. They begin with the delusion that they are #1 and therefore all will fall in front of them in a brief clash.

    They failed to study the truth in Syria and the truth of Mariupol and what Generals Dvornikov and Surovikin had established for more than 16 months before their foolish NATO counteroffensive across wide open, flat killing fields, mined to the millions with impregnable defenses 60 km deep in triplicate.

    Just factor in this statistic: 480,000 Russian young men and experience vets have volunteered for the SMO.

    The patriotic depth of support is massive in Russia.

    While in Ukraine, since day one of the SMO, tens of thousands, now likely a million Ukies have fled to Europe. And most of the last years front lines were shanghaied off the streets, conscripts sent to certain death.

    What war game could produce a victory for the Ukies with those facts in the mix?

    The Order of Battle was a huge formation of NATO/Ukie weaknesses against a formidable classic Russian defense of Mother Russia.

    The Russians had shown they could fight at 3x less the force strength [at Defense] while the Ukies proved that they would need 10x the traditional strength to attack [on Offense].

    Even with an equal chance, the terrain was the terrain of cemeteries of invading forces for hundreds of years.

    Land operations in that region have bested great armies before.

    In this case, Surovikin’s mine fields and drones with artillery finished off the Ukies.

    It was like a beach attacking the ocean. Sand didn’t have a chance.

    Deranged Twat Alert:

    Haley Vows War With Iran, China, Russia and TikTok

    .

    .

    #148019
    D Benton Smith
    Participant

    What better place to wield censorship as the doomsday weapon of choice in a bogus war against “hate speech”, than the birthplace of irony. Ireland? Must be the Luck of the Irish (definition: Very bad luck, that could be worse) Come to think of it, it actually could be worse, they could be Englsh.

    #148020
    Oroboros
    Participant

    Dr Ds comment the other day about the real purpose of millions of military aged illegals crossing the southern border.

    Join the army or else

    Kill Americans or else

    Fight overseas created wars for the Empire of Lies cause the natives don’t want to join the Woketard services

    Why no one wants to join the Empire of Lies Military Mafia but illegal immigrants

    .

    .

    #148021
    zerosum
    Participant

    Ukraine will return to the original occupiers, The black flies and the mosquitoes.

    #148022
    John Day
    Participant

    @Oroboros: Yes, the cancerous growth model dominates under certain conditions of growth into a large substrate of resources, then it collapses when that is inadequate to feed its exponentially-growing requirements. It is specialized to the 250 years just passed…

    #148023
    zerosum
    Participant

    Israel is planning to make salt water ponds, seaside resorts, infinity pools among new oil drills and refineries in their new acquired/conquered real estates.

    #148024
    Dr D Rich
    Participant

    D, you’re either RIM’s alter-ego or a hybrid Steve Brady/Shawno May.

    My comments don’t serve in a debate about Ritter’s role in some grander scheme.

    Rather, folk failing to select a higher quality confabulator, bamboozler, smooth-talker, leader or spellbinder during the process of their befuddlement never fails to stoke a sense of wonderment.

    How frustrating it must be for a teacher or professor to find a student who learns without reading and writing. How is that possible without an equal mix of supreme stupidity and supreme arrogance within the teacher/professor?
    Can you imagine the unimaginable tragedy for the student?

    As Jung alluded, we all go there willingly, but only our shadow knows. I wonder if Carl meant the persona is just as inaccessible to the shadow as the shadow is to the conscious self. When they confront, they have both decided to approach.

    #148025
    zerosum
    Participant

    https://www.nytimes.com/live/2023/12/06/world/israel-hamas-war-gaza-news
    Israel-Hamas War
    Israel Says 5 Hamas Military Leaders Have Been Killed
    Published Dec. 6, 2023
    Updated Dec. 7, 2023, 11:32 a.m. ET

    Here’s what we know:
    The Israeli military released a photo of Hamas military leaders with five circled in red and labeled “eliminated.” They included the chief of Hamas’s aerial division and two battalion commanders.

    Israel releases a photo of Hamas commanders and says it has killed 5 of them.
    An airstrike hits Rafah, where Israel had urged Gazans to seek safety.
    The Justice Department says it is investigating the deaths of 30 Americans on Oct. 7.
    Gazans flee to the village of Al-Mawasi, but find little shelter or aid there.
    The hostage families have a message for Netanyahu: Time is running out.
    The head of the U.N. asks the Security Council to declare a cease-fire in Gaza under a rarely invoked rule.
    Here’s how The Times is covering the war.
    Israel releases a photo of Hamas commanders and says it has killed 5 of them.
    Image
    A photo of 11 men seated at a low table with food and drinks. Red circles labeled “eliminated” are around five of their faces.
    An annotated photo released by the Israeli military shows 11 senior Hamas military leaders. The army said the photo had been taken in a tunnel in northern Gaza.Credit…Israel Defense Forces

    The Israeli military has released a photo of 11 senior Hamas military leaders gathered in a tunnel beneath Gaza and said that five of them had been killed.

    Among those in the annotated photo the army said it had eliminated were the head of Hamas’s aerial division, two battalion commanders, a brigade commander and a deputy brigade commander.

    The rare photo of the Hamas leaders released on Tuesday, the Israeli military said, was taken while the group hid in a tunnel underneath a residential neighborhood near the Indonesian hospital in the northern Gaza city of Beit Lahia.

    An Israeli intelligence unit analyzed the picture after it was seized in Gaza but did not reveal who took it. Some of the photograph’s details, including its exact date and location, could not be independently verified.

    Israeli forces have targeted the Hamas leadership since the group launched an attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, the deadliest day in Israeli history.

    Since then, Israel has declared war on Hamas with the intent of destroying the organization. It has placed Gaza, which the group has controlled since 2007, under siege, cutting civilians off from regular supplies of food and fuel, and subjected the strip to a deadly bombing campaign.

    “Hamas wanted to tear us apart; we are tearing it apart,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday, after meeting with the families of Israeli hostages still held in Gaza. Mr. Netanyahu’s government is under pressure over whether to continue to pummel Hamas or broker another truce that would allow for more exchanges.

    Israel, he said, in a nod to the current strategy, had killed “about half of Hamas’s battalion commanders.” But he did not provide the names and details of all of those killed.

    The leaders in the photo are seen sitting at a long, low table festooned with fruit, drinks and other foods. Beneath the enclave are hundreds of tunnels Hamas has constructed to hide and transport weapons, fighters and materiel.

    The military wing of Hamas, the Qassam Brigades, confirmed last month that at least three of the men in the picture had been killed, including Ahmed al-Ghandour, the northern Gaza military leader known as Abu Anas, and his deputy, Wael Rajab. Another was Rafet Salman, a Hamas battalion commander. In November, a spokesman for the Israeli military said its forces had attacked an underground site where Mr. al-Ghandour had been hiding.

    Two other men in the picture that Israel said it had killed were accused of taking part in the planning of the Oct. 7 attacks. One, Asem Abu Rakba, oversaw Hamas’s drone program, the military said.

    The killings are a setback for Hamas amid a powerful Israeli invasion that has leveled parts of northern Gaza, displaced what the United Nations says is more than 90 percent of the population and killed more than 15,500 people, according to the Gazan Health Ministry.

    Israeli military commanders this week estimated they had killed several thousand Hamas fighters since the war began. Israeli officials said those estimates were based in part on the assumption that between 200 and 250 Hamas fighters had been killed if Israeli troops said they wiped out a Hamas battalion, and that if a commander was targeted and killed, a team of five or six people had died with him. Confirmation that a commander had been killed could take days to arrive, officials said, so the estimate was an “evolving reality.”

    About 400 Israeli soldiers have died in fighting since Oct. 7, according to the Israeli military.

    Israeli forces have in recent days advanced into southern Gaza in an attempt to find and kill top Hamas leaders believed to be hiding there. That group includes Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in Gaza, and Mohammed Deif, the chief of the Qassam Brigades.

    At one point, Mr. Sinwar and Mr. Deif were thought to be in Khan Younis, the largest city in southern Gaza, where the army and Hamas fighters are engaged in heated urban combat.

    On Wednesday, Mr. Netanyahu said in a video posted on the X platform: “Our forces are encircling Sinwar’s house. He can escape, but it is only a matter of time until we reach him.”

    An Israeli military spokesman said later that Mr. Sinwar was “not above ground,” but did not disclose further details.

    Even if Israel manages to kill the group’s current leaders, there is no guarantee that Israel will accomplish its stated goal of eliminating Hamas and removing it from power.

    The U.S. has fought wars against the Islamic State and Al Qaeda, badly battering both terror groups but not destroying either.

    The Israeli military did not say why it decided to release the annotated photo.

    In a statement on Tuesday, the Israeli military also said that the northern brigade, Hamas’s second largest, had been “significantly damaged.” The Israeli military also claimed it had inflicted serious damage to battalions from the Gaza City Brigade.

    — Adam Goldman reporting from Tel Aviv

    #148026
    tboc
    Participant

    structural engineer says, “NO”. One dashes as many dreams as they further.

    #148027
    Celticbiker
    Participant

    “You have not begun to appreciate the real depth of our guilt. We are intruders. We are disturbers. We are subverters. We have taken your natural world, your ideals, your destiny, and played havoc with them. We have been at the bottom of not merely the latest great war but of nearly all your wars, not only of the Russian but of every other major revolution in your history. We have brought discord and confusion and frustration into your personal and public life. We are still doing it. No one can tell how long we shall go on doing it.” Marcus Eli Ravage. Today is Pearl Harbor Day. Same world, different war.

    #148028
    John Day
    Participant

    @tboc: Sorry about the “No” on the bardominium project.
    ;-(

    #148029
    John Day
    Participant

    Meaning Of Words https://drjohnsblog.substack.com/p/meaning-of-words

    I saw this yesterday, and really wondered about what it might mean: “Biden Tells Israel To Wrap Up War By January As An Estimated 80% Of Gazans Displaced”
    It is clearly​ “public relations”, not any kind of ultimatum. As US public opinion swings away from Israeli genocide, Biden gets to pretend to say something that goes along with that, but with a month of delay, and no teeth at all, just words. In a month’s time, Bibi Netanyahu can decide to take this option proffered by Biden, or to refuse it, based upon his political needs at that moment. They might run out of bunker buster bombs about then, anyway. Also, little advertised, the Israeli army is taking a lot of armored-equipment losses in Gaza, and troops are getting killed and injured, too. The IDF/IOF is not dominating. Scott Ritter thinks that is why they took the 6 day rest to exchange hostages in a ceasefire.
    So Biden gave Netanyahu a 1 month option to call off the dogs of war with the face-saving excuse of the US forcing him to stop.
    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/biden-tells-israel-wrap-war-january-estimated-80-gazans-displaced

    ​ Despite the soaring civilian deaths in Gaza, the Biden administration is not considering using any of the leverage it has over Israel to get the Israeli military to change its tactics, Reuters reported on Tuesday.
    ​ US officials say they’re expressing concern privately and claim Israel is listening, but the current campaign in south Gaza, where there are millions of displaced civilians, is no less brutal than Israeli operations in the north.

    US Not Considering Leveraging Aid to Israel to Limit Civilian Casualties

    UN chief Guterres calls on Security Council to declare ceasefire in Gaza
    https://www.arabnews.com/node/2421476/middle-east

    ​ Washington confirms its opposition to ceasefire in Gaza Strip
    ​ “We do not support a ceasefire at this time,” Kirby said. “We support the continuation of the ceasefire in specific areas and for specific purposes.”​ He added that “these humanitarian vigils must be implemented in order to release the hostages.”
    https://en.ypagency.net/312732

    #148030
    John Day
    Participant

    ‘Silence is complicity:’ UNICEF spokesperson denounces Israeli massacre, calls for world attention
    https://www.arabnews.com/node/2420731/media

    ​ Israel Revokes UN Humanitarian Coordinator’s Visa for ‘Not Condemning Hamas’
    Tel Aviv has consistently taken aim at the UN for its alleged ‘anti-Israel’ stance, citing comments against the ethnic cleansing campaign unfolding in the Gaza Strip

    Israel Revokes UN Humanitarian Coordinator’s Visa for ‘Not Condemning Hamas’

    ​ Israel-Palestine war: Israel shut down NGO for reporting rape of teenager, ex-US official says
    NGO Defense for Children International’s offices were raided after they reported the sexual assault of a 15-year-old by an interrogator while in Israeli custody
    https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-war-ngo-shut-down-reporting-sexual-assault-ex-us

    ​ The Biden administration has been drafting a multi-phase post-war plan for administering the Gaza Strip that culminates in the Palestinian Authority assuming control of the territory, media reported, citing two US officials, including one from the State Department.
    ​ They see the Palestinian Authority as the most viable of only bad options, recognizing that it has “significant legitimacy and capability challenges,” the State official said.
    They plan for an international force in the immediate aftermath of the war, followed by a “revamped” Palestinian Authority taking over administration of Gaza in the long term.
    https://sputnikglobe.com/20231205/biden-administration-plans-for-palestinian-authority-to-head-post-war-gaza–reports-1115407409.html

    Zionist occupation demolishes Palestinian homes in Quds, Hebron in West Bank
    https://en.ypagency.net/312698

    #148031
    John Day
    Participant

    Two months of ‘death, displacement and hunger’ for the people of Gaza
    Israeli air strikes have devastated the besieged Gaza Strip, with more than 17,000 people killed, most of them women and children
    https://www.middleeasteye.net/live/israel-palestine-war-gaza-truce-hamas-live

    ​ ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 62: UN Chief invokes Article 99, warning Israel’s war on Gaza threatens ‘international peace and security’
    Israel continues massacring Palestinians in Gazan, approves provocative Israeli march through Al-Aqsa Mosque and kills a Palestinian child in the West Bank.

    ‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 62: UN Chief invokes Article 99, warning Israel’s war on Gaza threatens ‘international peace and security’

    ​ Israel channeling Gazans to Rafah crossing in forced exodus — Palestinian MFA
    It is reported that Israel “is turning the Gaza Strip into uninhabitable ruins and is sparing no effort to force the population out”
    https://tass.com/world/1716837

    ​ Google removes Israel boycott app
    ​ By 29 November, the app had been downloaded over 100,000 times on Google Play. Earlier today, the developer said emails had now been circulated calling for him to be sacked from his internship for trying to harm “businesses run by Jews”, according to the author of the email.
    https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20231205-google-removes-israel-boycott-app/

    ​ Two dangerous bills in Congress take aim at Palestine solidarity
    ​ In a dangerous precedent, the House of Representatives passed a controversial bill equating anti-Zionism with antisemitism. Pro-Israel lawmakers quickly followed with a bill to establish a congressional commission aimed at Palestine solidarity.

    Two dangerous bills in Congress take aim at Palestine solidarity

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