Pablo Picasso Garcon à la Pipe 1905
I will never forget
"I will never forget."
Journalist Hilâl Kaplan speaks on the genocide being committed against the Palestinians and goes over some of the heartbreaking scenes that the world witnessed over the last month. pic.twitter.com/iRzT0cPw3A
— MintPress News (@MintPressNews) November 10, 2023
Proportionate
What’s a proportionate response? pic.twitter.com/cDW89jZSvZ
— Bassem Youssef (@Byoussef) November 10, 2023
George Galloway: “The foul allegations of rape have been dropped by the Israeli government. The forty beheaded babies has been downscaled to one dead baby, not beheaded, and killed by persons unknown. Two thirds of Israelis killed on October 7 were military personnel. The killers of the remaining one third are definitively revealed to have been in part the Israeli armed forces themselves. Those with influence who spread the propaganda to the contrary stand exposed as War Criminals and now much blood stains their character for ever. It is a spot which will not out.”
Nap Mearsheimer
Mearsheimer also makes the case that it simply won't work as he doesn't believe there's a military solution here:
"I don't think that [Israel] can beat Hamas on the battlefield and even if [they] do some other group will come to take their place. And I don't believe you can beat… pic.twitter.com/ZykRuLKgkT
— Arnaud Bertrand (@RnaudBertrand) November 11, 2023
The most sanctioned country on Earth
Welcome to the Capital of the most sanctioned country on Earth, Russia
Welcome to Moscow City. Let's have a look around the financial and business centre of the Russian economy that Von Der Leyen told you was "In tatters" pic.twitter.com/IQvrCNmhbt
— Chay Bowes (@BowesChay) November 10, 2023
“The genocidal crimes of the Western powers cannot be unseen or explained away this time.”
• Ukraine & Gaza Fatally Expose Western Hypocrisy and Moral Bankruptcy (SCF)
The barbarity that is happening in Gaza and the West Bank is shocking. What is all the more repugnant is the explicit guilt of Western states in enabling the genocide. What the crimes are revealing in stark reality is the absolute fiendish nature of Western state power. The crimes of the Israeli regime are the manifestation of Western imperialism; the true and grotesque, putrid nature of Western power. For decades, indeed centuries, the United States and its European partners have conducted a charade of pretending to be paragons of democracy – while at the same time exploiting and debauching the rest of the planet.
Now all their deceptions and corruption are fully on display. These are criminal regimes whose histories of warmongering colonialism and imperialism were all too often obfuscated by preponderant media control and self-appointed allure. It is now crystal clear what the “Collective West” (a global minority elite) really stands for: death and destruction. The big question is how far and where will the huge public anger and contempt lead to. A historic revolt is underway. What comes next? Can it be mobilized constructively to overthrow decadent dictatorships of capitalist oligarchy that have dominated Western states under the guise of democracy?
One thing is evinced. The Western elite systems are damaged beyond repair and rehabilitation. The crucifixion of the Palestinian people has created a Pandora’s Box. Western corruption – deep, systematic, historical corruption – is now out and can’t be stuffed back in again by the elite rulers trying to cover up. The genocidal crimes of the Western powers cannot be unseen or explained away this time. The duplicity and bankruptcy are damaging to the existential core. Ultimately, however, there may be hope for a better, fairer and more just world. But first of all, the old Western-dominated order has to go, despite the immense pain and suffering entailed.
Husseini
https://twitter.com/i/status/1722786666539016223
And Anti-American Rage in America.
• Leaked Cables Warn of Growing Anti-American Rage in Arab World (Sp.)
American diplomats have warned President Joe Biden that US support for Israel “is losing us Arab publics for a generation.” Two diplomatic cables recently leaked to US media warn that America’s support for Israel’s bloody military campaign in Gaza is causing damage to the country’s image that may never be repaired. “We are losing badly on the messaging battlespace,” says one cable emanating from the US Embassy in Oman on Wednesday. It warns that strong US support for Israel is viewed “as material and moral culpability in what they consider to be possible war crimes.” The cable was addressed to multiple officials at the White House National Security Council, the CIA, and the FBI. Another leaked cable from the US embassy in Egypt quoted a local newspaper editorial saying “President Biden’s cruelty and disregard for Palestinians exceeded all previous US presidents.”
The cables mirror growing global opposition to Israel’s actions as the country has recently been the target of strong criticism from governments throughout the world. But the leaked diplomatic correspondence underscores that criticism in the Arab world extends to the United States as well, as US President Joe Biden has expressed unyielding support for the country’s Middle Eastern ally. The US president recently claimed there was “no possibility” for an Israeli ceasefire in Gaza when asked about the subject at a Thursday news conference. The death toll in Gaza has recently risen to over 11,000 according to the local health ministry, with at least 4,500 of those deaths being people under 18, prompting the head of the United Nations to call the besieged territory a “graveyard for children.” The UN has noted that death tolls released by Gaza’s authorities have proven to be accurate in the past. Recent reports have warned that Gaza’s population of 2.3 million may be on the brink of suffering mass starvation as Israel has only allowed very limited amounts of humanitarian aid to enter amidst a siege of the enclave.
The leaked cables come amidst reporting suggesting a dramatic decline in support for Biden among Muslim Americans. “We told him [Biden] directly, in our personal capacities, that if you do not call for an immediate ceasefire, you will not get our votes in 2024,” said Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). The spokesperson accused Biden of “betraying” Palestinians and allowing a “genocide” to take place in Gaza. “What we see from him is completely one-sided support for the state of Israel,” said Awad. A recent survey by the Arab American Institute (AAI) showed that support for Biden among Arab Americans has declined by 42% since 2020. The poll found that 17% of Arab American voters plan to support Biden’s reelection in 2024, while 40% say they’ll support former US President Donald Trump.
Israel at UN
"Many @UNRWA workers in Gaza are themselves members of Hamas. The time has come to bust the myth of UN supplied facts"
The Israeli representative at the United Nations launches a tirade against the UN, UN agencies, UN workers and UN officials pic.twitter.com/1OJQ8yj11E
— Saul Staniforth (@SaulStaniforth) November 10, 2023
“..the Biden Administration is preparing for an escalation of the war into Lebanon to draw out Hezbollah, which may in turn trigger an Iranian reaction.”
• US, Israel To Open Second Front In Lebanon (Bhadrakumar)
The announcement late Sunday night by the US Central Command [CENTCOM] headquartered in Doha about the arrival of a Ohio-class American nuclear submarine in its “area of responsibility” presages a significant escalation of the situation around the Palestine-Israel conflict. It is very rare that the use of these submarines is publicised. The CENTCOM provided no additional details but it posted an image that apparently showed an Ohio-class submarine in Egypt’s Suez Canal Bridge. Interestingly, CENTCOM also separately shared an image of a nuclear-capable B-1 bomber operating in the Middle East.
Taken together, these US deployments, coming on top of the formidable presence of two aircraft carriers and warships hundreds of advanced jet fighters in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Red Sea respectively, are with an eye on “the other side of the equation,” as Secretary of State Antony Blinken quaintly described Hamas, Hezbullah, and Iran during his latest visit to Tel Aviv on Friday. In a related development, perhaps, the CIA director, William Burns arrived in Israel on Sunday for urgent consultations. The New York Times reported that the US is “looking to expand its intelligence sharing with Israel.” Arguably, the most charitable explanation for the deployment of a US nuclear submarine, which forms part of the Pentagon’s “nuclear triad” –Ohio-class boats are the largest submarines ever built for the US Navy — near the war zone is that the Biden Administration is preparing for an escalation of the war into Lebanon to draw out Hezbollah, which may in turn trigger an Iranian reaction.
In his speech on Friday, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrullah seemed to anticipate precisely such a turn of events when he explicitly warned the US of consequences that couldn’t be any different from the catastrophic American involvement in Lebanon’s civil war in the early 1980s. Ironically, this is also the 40th anniversary year of the suicide bombing of the barracks housing US forces in Beirut International Airport in October 1983 in which 220 Marines, 18 sailors and three soldiers were killed forcing a US withdrawal from Lebanon. Clearly, the locus of the US strategy in the present Middle situation may be shifting from diplomacy, which has anyway lost traction. Blinken’s desperate attempts to address the mounting international criticism of Israel’s horrific war crimes by diverting attention to a “humanitarian pause” in the fighting, et al, has been unceremoniously shot down by Netanyahu.
The point is, after pounding Gaza and its people with artillery and bombs, the Israeli army moved in on Friday. So far, it has reportedly advanced to the outskirts of Gaza City but not entered the Hamas stronghold. Fierce urban fighting is expected when it does. Equally, the Biden administration’s hurried attempt to promote a vague outline for a post-war Gaza that might include a combination of a revitalised Palestinian Authority, a peacekeeping force, etc. has been met with a distinct lack of enthusiasm at Blinken’s meeting in the weekend in Amman with the Arab foreign ministers -– from Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates –- who instead demanded an immediate ceasefire, while Blinken said Washington wouldn’t push for one.
“..the IDF itself, which was considered to be somewhat of an invincible force – not anymore..”
• Scott Ritter Explains Why Israel Cannot Beat Hezbollah on Its Own (Sp.)
The ongoing Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) campaign in the Gaza Strip, which has already alienated Tel Aviv from much of the Arab World, has created a serious risk of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement becoming actively involved in the conflict. IDF forces stationed at the Israeli-Lebanese borders have already been exchanging fire with Hezbollah militants on more than a single occasion in recent days, although it remains to be seen whether these hostilities will escalate. Commenting on this situation, former US Marine Corps intelligence officer Scott Ritter expressed his skepticism about Israel’s ability to deal with both Hamas and Hezbollah.
He pointed out that the major military exercises conducted in Israel in the last two years were meant to determine how the Israeli Defense Force would fare if they had to tackle simultaneously attacks from multiple actors – “if Hezbollah came over the border, if Syria went after the Golan Heights, if Iran started firing missiles” – but they yielded rather unpleasant results. “And under that scenario, Israel was not able to prevail, especially with the Iranian aspect of the scenario, without major US military intervention,” Ritter said. He further observed that the Israelis themselves have apparently acknowledged that they do not know the full extent of Hezbollah’s capabilities and that Hezbollah’s sizeable arsenal of rockets may pose a serious threat to Israel.
“Hezbollah can overwhelm the Iron Dome just with its volume alone, the Iron Dome is already going through an ammunition crunch because of what Hamas has done,” Ritter remarked. He added that the IDF previously failed to destroy Hezbollah back in 2006, and that the Islamist organization has become significantly more powerful since then, with many of its fighters gaining valuable combat experience during the Syrian conflict. “So, you know, this is the reality: Israel on its own cannot defeat Hezbollah,” he surmised. Ritter also suggested that the events of October 7, when Hamas militants swiftly punched through the Israeli defenses and even managed to seize control of IDF military facilities, effectively shattered the myth of “Israeli invincibility.” “Not just in terms of the all-seeing nature of Israeli intelligence, which has been proven false, but the IDF itself, which was considered to be somewhat of an invincible force – not anymore,” he argued.
“For every Hamas member you kill, how many did you create? And if you create more than you kill, you’ve not succeeded.”
“Providing healthcare, food and other relief to civilians while still targeting Hamas leaders and operatives, would thwart the group’s goal and “ultimately fights the broader force of hatred in the region..”
• Killing Children In Gaza ‘Makes Hamas’ – Elon Musk (RT)
Israel’s reaction to the October 7 attack by Hamas has played into the terrorist group’s hands, according to X CEO Elon Musk, who urged West Jerusalem to embrace a “counterintuitive” strategy that would be more beneficial in the long-term. “If you kill somebody’s child in Gaza, you’ve made at least a few Hamas members who will die just to kill Israelis,” Musk said on the Lex Fridman podcast on Thursday. The Tesla, SpaceX and X (formerly Twitter) head argued that the goal of the Palestinian militant group was to “provoke an overreaction” by Israel by committing atrocities and then “leverage that aggressive response to rally Muslims worldwide for the cause of Gaza and Palestine, which they have succeeded in doing.”
“This is one of the most contentious subjects one could possibly discuss, but I think if the ultimate goal is some sort of long-term peace, one has to look at this from the standpoint of, over time, are there more or fewer terrorists being created?” Musk said. “For every Hamas member you kill, how many did you create? And if you create more than you kill, you’ve not succeeded.” The October 7 incursion resulted in the deaths of an estimated 1,400 Israelis, with another 200 or so taken to Gaza as hostages. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has responded by declaring war on the Palestinian enclave, launching weeks of air and artillery strikes and proceeding with a ground invasion in early November. A proposal circulating in the media wants all of Gaza’s Palestinian population forcibly removed. Some Israeli public figures have advocated for leveling the enclave completely.
Others have labeled photojournalists who documented the October 7 attack as accomplices of Hamas that need to be killed. As of Friday, more than 11,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed and 27,490 wounded, according to the local health ministry. While the White House has cast doubt on Palestinian figures, the US State Department believes the true numbers might be even higher. “The counterintuitive thing that should be done here, even though it is very difficult, is that I recommend Israel do the most conspicuous acts of kindness possible,” Musk told Fridman in the podcast interview. Providing healthcare, food and other relief to civilians while still targeting Hamas leaders and operatives, would thwart the group’s goal and “ultimately fights the broader force of hatred in the region,” the billionaire argued.
Elon Hamas
Elon Musk on the Gaza Strip and Hamas:
For every Hamas member you killed, how many did you create?
If you kill someone's child in the Gaza Strip, you will make at least a few Hamas members. pic.twitter.com/riCSCvW0ij
— S p r i n t e r X (@SprinterX99880) November 10, 2023
“..the only constituencies that matter: war profiteers, the pro-Israel lobby, and the bipartisan foreign policy establishment that has used Israel as a client state..”
• Biden’s ‘Personal Attachment To Israel’ Fuels Its Gaza Massacres (Aaron Maté)
As the official death toll passed 10,000 earlier this week, White House spokesperson John Kirby was asked if the US still has “no red lines” when it comes to how many civilians Israel kills. “That is still the case,” Kirby replied. On Thursday, President Biden informed reporters that there is “no possibility” of a ceasefire. Instead, the White House claimed to have secured an Israeli pledge for four-hour daily pauses, which would be announced in advance. Israel immediately rejected even this token gesture. “I’m not going to commit to the exact length of the pauses,” Israeli government spokesman Eylon Levy said. Given the free reign offered it by Washington, Israel has no incentive to commit. According to senior Pentagon official Dana Stroul, the US is “working around-the-clock” to send its weaponry to Israel, with deliveries “taking place on a near daily basis.”
Citing White House officials and advisers, the Washington Post reports that US “levers” over Israel, namely “conditioning military aid,” are “nonstarters.” Imposing such constraints would undoubtedly save Palestinian lives. But that is of no importance to the Biden cabinet, which worries that conditions on US support for Israel would be “politically unpopular in any administration.” Moreover, “aides say, Biden himself has a personal attachment to Israel.” By “politically unpopular”, these Biden officials are not referring to public opinion, which supports a ceasefire across party lines. The president’s stance could even cost him re-election in the swing state of Michigan, home to a large Arab-American population. Instead, imposing conditions on US support for Israel would be “politically unpopular” with the only constituencies that matter: war profiteers, the pro-Israel lobby, and the bipartisan foreign policy establishment that has used Israel as a client state since its occupation of Arab lands in June 1967.
As a career operator within this Beltway trifecta, Biden’s “personal attachment to Israel” has detached him from any recognition of Palestinian humanity. Accordingly, when it comes to the fate of Gaza’s civilian population, the Biden administration barely attempts to feign concern. During his most recent trip to Israel, Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivered a message described to Axios by US and Israeli officials as follows: “We don’t want to stop you, but help us help you get more time.” As Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy, who has positioned himself as a critic of the Israeli bombing campaign, counseled the White House: “I think they’ve got to be even louder publicly in their concerns about the civilian cost, even while they support Israel’s ability to continue to perpetuate the war.”
“Israel favoured Hamas over the PLO because the Islamic resistance movement “was utterly opposed to a two state solution..”
• Israel’s Fight With Hamas Just a Pretext for Ethnic Cleansing – Ex-Marine (Sp.)
Tel Aviv is using attacks on Southern Israel by the Hamas movement as an excuse to depopulate the Gaza Strip, says a military expert. The October 7 surprise breakout by the Hamas (also known as Islamic Resistance) and other groups from the besieged territory left almost 300 Israeli soldiers and 1,100 civilians dead, with more than 200 taken back to Gaza as captives. Following weeks of bombing of the densely-populated Palestinian enclave, the Israeli Defense Forces have surrounded Gaza City and are trying to fight their way into its outskirts. The Palestinian Authority’s Health Ministry, based in Ramallah in the West Bank, said on Wednesday that after a month of attacks, Israeli forces and settlers had killed 10,515 Palestinians, including 4,324 children, 2,823 women and 649 elderly people, and injured 2,600 others. It said that 2,550 others, with 1,350 children among them, were still missing under the rubble of bombed buildings in Gaza.
Former US Marine and geopolitical analyst Brian Berletic told Sputnik that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s declaration of “war” on Hamas was “just a pretext” for ethnic cleansing. “Israel is using Hamas as a pretext to erase Gaza,” Berletic said. “This has been an ongoing plan, especially for the Netanyahu administration.” The commentator noted that Hamas was an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood which “has played a role for decades in the region as tools of Western hegemony over the region.” and tried to overthrow secular governments from Egypt to Syria. He said the movement rose to power in the Gaza Strip only with Israel’s help in order to create a rival to the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).
“I know it’s unpopular to point this out, but it is an admitted fact that the Netanyahu administration helped manoeuvre Hamas into power,” Berletic said. “If Israel wanted to eliminate Hamas, they could have started by not putting them into power in the first place.” Israel favoured Hamas over the PLO because the Islamic resistance movement “was utterly opposed to a two state solution” — as was Netanyahu’s hard-line government. “That is that is what is mandated under international law — a two state solution is an Israeli state, a Palestinian state. This occupation has to end,” Berletic said.
Israel has made its intention to force out the 2.3 million Palestinian inhabitants of Gaza since the start of its bombing campaign a month ago, the analyst said, telling civilians to flee to the southern end of the enclave so it could bomb Gaza City in an attempt to destroy Hamas bunkers and tunnels. “In the very beginning, they were quite open. They wanted to just displace the civilian population of Gaza and move in militarily,” Berletic said. “Once it’s erased, they don’t have to worry about a two state solution ever again.”
Oh you hero!
• Ukraine Will Fight Without USA – Zelensky (RT)
Ukraine will not stop fighting Russia until it takes back all the territories it considers its own, President Vladimir Zelensky told Reuters in an interview this week. Withdrawal of US support would hardly affect Kiev’s policies in this regard, he added. Should Washington halt its military and financial assistance to Kiev, Ukraine would just go on with the conflict without it, Zelensky maintained when asked if he was “worried” about potential changes in US foreign policy in the case of Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential election victory in particular. Earlier, Trump repeatedly vowed that he would have a peace deal between Moscow and Kiev worked out “within 24 hours” if elected in 2024. Speaking to Reuters on Wednesday, Zelensky brushed off such promises as a plan by Trump to “fix” the conflict for himself, with no regard for the “price” Ukraine would supposedly have to pay.
“If it will change your foreign policy, so what can I say? Ok, we will fight without you,” Zelensky said, adding that it was supposedly the will of the Ukrainian people. He went on to say that the only “real way to stop the war” was for Russian forces to withdraw from all the territories claimed by Kiev. He also said he was sure that Moscow’s troops “will do it,” without elaborating. In his interview with Reuters, the Ukrainian leader also said that “any” US president would help Ukraine if they knew “all the challenges and the result and the damage of the war.” Earlier, in a separate interview with broadcaster NBC last Sunday, Zelensky invited Trump to Ukraine, vowing to convince the former American president that he would be unable to strike any deals with Russia in “24 minutes.” Trump rejected the offer in a written statement to US media outlet Newsmax. Such a trip would create “a conflict of interest” at a time when President Joe Biden’s administration was officially dealing with Kiev, he said.
Earlier this week, Zelensky also claimed that Kiev had a “plan” that would help it prevail on the battlefield and show some “results” by the end of the year. His words came as Ukraine’s much-touted summer offensive had barely brought about any changes to the frontlines following months of heavy fighting and massive material and personnel losses on the Ukrainian side. Ukraine’s top commander, General Valery Zaluzhny, told the Economist last week that the conflict between Moscow and Kiev had entered a World War I-style stalemate in which Russia had an upper hand due to larger resources. The Pentagon also said this week that it only had around $1 billion left for military aid to Kiev and would have to ration it from now on.
“Civilians in Kharkov, for instance, confirm that foreign mercenaries speaking Polish or English are now “almost invisible”..
• Another Snapshot of Kiev’s Military Collapse: It Ain’t Over Yet (Pepe Escobar)
The spectacular “success” of Kiev’s counter-offensive, which echoed throughout the geopolitical galaxy, has predictably engendered what everyone with a brain was expecting: a dogfight. Enter the Zelensky-Zaluzhny Show – especially after the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) admitted on the record that the war has “reached a stalemate” – code for “we’re deeply in trouble”. He also referred to “positional defense” – code for “we’re gonna keep losing more and more territory.” The dogfight comes complete with Mafioso overtones, as in 39-year-old Zaluzhny assistant Gennady Chistyakov “accidentally” detonating a grenade received as a gift, seriously injuring his daughter and duly blowing himself up.
This might be seen at face value as yet another wacky Pulp Fiction-style sketch involving the top dogs (with no Winston Wolf to “solve problems”). But it does carry an ominous message to Zaluzhny: once again, Mafia-style, from now on he’d better beware of friends bearing gifts. As for the “counter-offensive”, the file, for all practical purposes, seems to be closed. There won’t be another one – because there are no more weapons, assets or troops to carry it, except the odd Ukrainian elderly citizens and unsuspecting housewives chased by the “security services” as they exit the supermarket.
[..] The report states that the 116th separate mechanized brigade is “incapable of conducting offensive operations because of high losses and high numbers of soldiers that need psychological and medical assistance.” The 116th brigade has been deeply involved in military operations in the Zaporozhye region for 5 months already. For 3 months it had been part of the 10th Army Corps, “Tavriya”. The report details that the brigade’s losses are 94 soldiers dead; 1122 wounded; and 95 missing. That corresponds to 25% of the total number of personnel. When it comes to the moral-psychological front, at least 153 soldiers are deemed in need of immediate psychological rehabilitation.
This brigade is a quite significant unit; what’s implied is that a moral-psychological debacle is now inbuilt as a System Error at the heart of the Ukrainian military. Consequences, short and middle term, will be dire. All that is happening while the flow of foreign mercenaries to the AFU is drying up. No wonder: enter the Perfect Storm of brigades being thoroughly decimated; unspeakable levels of corruption; and better career opportunities in the rekindled Forever War in Israel/Palestine. Civilians in Kharkov, for instance, confirm that foreign mercenaries speaking Polish or English are now “almost invisible”.
None of the above means that things from now on will be a cakewalk for Russia. For instance, the Russian Army still has not been able to destroy the Ukrainian bridgehead on the Dnieper in Kherson. Further on down the road, it will be increasingly trickier to expel the Ukrainians from the eastern margin of the Dnieper. Russian military media, at the highest level, does its best to sharply focus on serious instances of ineptitude by the Russian Army. That’s their civic duty – and involves creating a groundswell of public opinion, forcing the Russian Army to correct its mistakes and most of all refrain from underestimating the enemy. After all, this is far from over – no matter the dogfight now raging in the corridors of power in Kiev.
Nobody wants to know.
• West Derails Russia’s Proposal On Nord Stream Attacks – Zakharova (TASS)
Russia was forced to ax work on a draft statement by the UN Security Council President on the investigation into the terrorist attack on the Nord Stream pipeline, as the West blocked this initiative, not wanting the truth to get out, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said. She recalled that on the anniversary of the terrorist attack on the gas pipelines on September 26, Russia announced the preparation of a draft statement by the chairman of the Security Council on the issue. “We were forced to curtail work on the draft statement of the UN Security Council President on the investigation into the terrorist attack on the Nord Stream gas pipelines. It was blocked by the West,” the diplomat said. According to her, Western representatives pointed out that the UN Security Council had no reason to interfere in the national investigations of Germany, Denmark and Sweden.
However, these states have failed to present even preliminary results to the international community and refuse to cooperate with the countries that suffered damage. Zakharova emphasized that this indicates their unwillingness to “identify the organizers and perpetrators of the terrorist attack.” “Or they have already identified them and are covering for them,” she added. The diplomat noted that the Russian side had been negotiating in good faith for a month. “However, during the discussions it became clear that representatives of Western countries are not ready for serious work and are looking for an excuse to let everything go down the drain: their proposal to remove from the text the phrase about bringing to justice the perpetrators and contractors of the terrorist attack speaks for itself,” she concluded. Zakharova said that Russia will continue to draw the attention of the international community to this issue, and the perpetrators of the crime must receive the punishment they deserve.
On September 27, 2022, Nord Stream AG reported “unprecedented damage” on three strings of the offshore gas pipelines of the Nord Stream system. Later, Swedish seismologists said they had identified two explosions on the route of the Nord Stream pipelines on September 26, 2022. Following the incident, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office initiated a criminal case on charges of international terrorism. Germany, Denmark and Sweden announced national investigations, but refused to involve Russia. Germany, Denmark and Sweden announced national investigations, but refused to involve Russia. On February 8, Hersh wrote in his article that explosive devices were placed under the gas pipelines in June 2022 by US Navy divers with the assistance of Norwegian specialists. According to Hersh, the decision to conduct the operation was made by US President Joe Biden after nine months of discussions with administration officials charged with national security issues.
“Every day in suburbia will be Halloween, and not in a fun way.”
Of course, you already sense that the 2024 election will be a freaky event, if it happens at all. If it’s not America’s last election altogether, it may be the last one that follows the traditional format that has signified stability in our country’s high tide as a great power: that is, a contest between Republicans and Democrats. Both parties are likely to crash and burn in the year ahead, along with a whole lot of other things on the tottering scaffold of normal life. Have you lost count yet of the number of things in our country that are broken? The justice system. Public safety. Education. Medicine. Money. Transportation. Housing. The food supply. The border. The News business. The arts. Our relations with other countries. That’s just the big institutional stuff. At the personal scale its an overwhelming plunge in living standards, loss of incomes, careers, chattels, liberties. . . poor health (especially mental health). . . and failing confidence in any plausible future.
The reasons behind all that failure and loss are pretty straightforward. The business model for operating a high-tech industrial economy is broken. That includes especially the business model for affordable energy: oil, gas, nuclear, and the electric grid that runs on all that. We opted out of an economy that produced things of real value. We replaced that with a financial matrix of banking fakery. That racket made a very few people supernaturally wealthy while incrementally dissolving the middle-class. We destroyed local and regional business and scaled up what was left into super-giant predatory companies that can no longer maintain their supply chains. Fragility everywhere in everything. Bad choices all along the way, you could say, but perhaps an inexorable process of nature. Things are born, they grow, they peak, they decline, they die. The difference this time is the scale of everything we do is so enormous that the wreckage is also epic. It’s happening in Western Civ at the moment, led by its biggest nation state, us, the USA, but it will eventually go global, spread to the BRICs and the many countries that will never actually “develop.”
I started writing about the fiasco of suburbia decades ago, and now the endgame of that living arrangement is in view. The dissolving middle class has gotten priced-out of motoring. Motoring is the basis of the suburban living arrangement. No motoring, no suburbia. It’s that simple. There was widespread belief among idealistic reformers that suburbia could just be “retrofitted” for “smarter” daily life, but that dream is over. The capital (money) is not there to fix it, and there’s no prospect that we’ll somehow come up with it as far ahead as we can see. So far, the collapse of suburbia has happened in slow motion, but the pace is quickening now and it’ll get supercharged when the bond markets go down, as they must, considering the country’s catastrophic fiscal circumstances. That will produce exactly the zombie apocalypse telegraphed in all those movies and TV series over recent years: normality overrun by demonic hungry ghosts. Every day in suburbia will be Halloween, and not in a fun way.
The House Oversight and Accountability Committee just got themselves a new star witness.
• Hunter Biden Rushed To Erase His Delinquent Taxes (JTN)
As Joe Biden marched toward the presidency in 2020 with a promise to force the wealthy to pay their “fair share” of taxes, his son Hunter was scrambling behind closed doors to clean up a trail of his own delinquent taxes before they became an election scandal, according to once-secret IRS memos made public recently by Congress. IRS agents would soon discover that the future first son was continuing to allegedly misrepresent his income and deductions to the very accountant he had hired to help, the memos show. The documents reviewed by Just the News show that Jeffrey Gelfound, an Edward White & Company tax accountant hired by Hunter Biden, was a cooperating witness in the IRS criminal probe of the first son and is likely to be a key witness if the younger Biden is charged with tax crimes by Special Counsel David Weiss.
Gelfound also could become a witness of interest to the House Oversight and Accountability Committee as it digs deeper into the Biden family finances as part of the ongoing impeachment inquiry in Congress. Buried in the mountain of 700 pages of IRS whistleblower documents released in September by the House Ways and Means Committee are interview reports, affidavits and case summary memos chronicling Hunter Biden’s efforts at the height of the 2020 presidential campaign to remedy his delinquent income taxes dating to 2014 and the income he made from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings. Gelfound told agents the efforts in 2020 to pay off Hunter Biden tax debts became a priority because of fears the IRS and other tax authorities would place liens that would become public, a potential embarrassment for the Biden family.
“Yeah, if there was going to be media attention because they were going to lien,” Gelfound told IRS agents in an April 2021 interview when asked whether erasing the tax debts had become prioritized. In another later interview conducted by IRS agents in November 2021, Gelfound revealed that his firm signed an unusual representation letter with the younger Biden just days after the 2020 election, in which Hunter attested that the information that he provided was truthful. Gelfound told investigators that this was the first time he had ever seen a representation letter like it. “Yeah, when would you typically sign the representation?” the IRS investigators asked Gelfound. “This is- any type of representation, it’s not standard,” Gelfound answered. “When we typically prepare returns, there’s an engagement letter that’s different than this one,” Gelfound said, explaining to investigators why this representation letter was different. “[T]his is a first that I’ve seen and had a client sit down and sign a letter of this type,” he said.
“Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.”
• The House ‘Concentrates the Mind’ of Hunter Biden (Turley)
The great English writer Samuel Johnson once told a friend, “Depend upon it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.” The quote came to mind after reading the response of Abbe Lowell, legal counsel for Hunter Biden, to the issuance of subpoenas for Hunter and other family members by the House Oversight Committee. Lowell said that “Hunter is eager to have the opportunity, in a public forum” — but premised that on the condition that it be “the right time” for Hunter to speak. He also dismissed the committee investigation as a “political stunt.” It appears that further concentration is warranted. A congressional subpoena is really not an invitation for a sit-down at a convenient time. Hunter has spent years relying on denial and delay to fend off inquiries.
With this subpoena, he will now have to choose between cooperation or contempt … on the committee’s schedule. The issuance of subpoenas to Hunter, his uncle, James Biden, and Biden family associate Rob Walker, changes the entire threat — and the range of options — for the Bidens. Attorney General Merrick Garland moved quickly and aggressively to prosecute Trump associates such as Steve Bannon who failed to appear or cooperate with Congress. The public will demand the same vigorous prosecution in the face of any similar contempt by Biden associates. Moreover, Hunter has tried a wide array of approaches to these allegations of influence peddling, from a plea for sympathy to threats of litigation. Too many in the media have been willing enablers of these shifting claims, including figures like Jimmy Kimmel who conducted a softball interview that portrayed Hunter as a hero rather than an alleged influence peddler.
That may now change. If Hunter lies to congressional investigators, he can be charged with a federal crime. While the Justice Department allowed the statutes of limitations to run on various felonies, Hunter would be faced with a new set of charges with years for criminal charges to be brought by prosecutors. The situation is equally serious for the president’s brother, James, who has long been accused by House Republicans of influence peddling. Most recently, House investigators disclosed that, in 2018, James Biden received two loans totaling $600,000 from Americore Health, which they described as “a financially distressed and failing rural hospital operator.” The company has been referenced in past reports of alleged influence peddling by James Biden.
According to the company’s bankruptcy proceedings, it made the loans “based upon representations that his last name, ‘Biden,’ could ‘open doors’” to new overseas investors. On the day he received the second loan transfer, James Biden allegedly sent a check for the same amount — $200,000 — to Joe Biden as a “loan reimbursement.” The House committee also reports finding a $40,000 check from James Biden and his wife to Joe Biden. Again, it was marked as a “loan reimbursement. Congressional interviews can be perilous, but they are far more so when your client’s interview will cover years of transactions and statements. It presents a target-rich environment for investigators and ample opportunities to make misleading or false statements for witnesses.
Hunter and his uncle may soon have company. In addition to a subpoena for Biden family associate Rob Walker, the House committee has requested voluntary transcripted interviews with Sara Biden, Hallie Biden, Elizabeth Secundy, Melissa Cohen and onetime Hunter business associate Tony Bobulinski. Figures like Bobulinski are likely to cooperate. He already has accused President Biden of lying about his lack of knowledge of foreign dealings, including giving detailed accounts of meeting with Joe Biden in a hotel.
“Judge Engoron’s lawlessness sends an ominous and illegal warning to New York business owners: If New York judges don’t like your politics, they will destroy your business, the livelihood of your employees, and you personally.”
• Stefanik Hits “Radical Leftist” Trump Judge With Ethics Complaint (ZH)
While the jury is still out over whether the wife of Judge Arthur Engoron made anti-Trump posts on X, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) has filed an ethics complaint against judge himself, accusing him of displaying “inappropriate bias and judicial intemperance” towards the former president in his civil fraud trial taking place in New York. “I filed an official judicial complaint against Judge Arthur Engoron for his inappropriate bias and judicial intemperance in New York’s disgraceful lawsuit against President Donald J. Trump and the Trump Organization,” Stefanik told NBC News. “Americans are sick and tired of the blatant corruption by radical Leftist judges in NY. All New Yorkers must speak out against the dangerous weaponized lawfare against President Trump.”
Scott Adams
WATCH: @ScottAdamsSays says that my investigative reporting into Leftist NYC Judge Arthur Engoron and his wife’s anti-Trump twitter posts during the trial is so significant and huge, that it may have just ended President Trump’s NYC Civil Fraud trial.
“Congratulations Laura… https://t.co/fBMt1lxMAZ pic.twitter.com/bDlDMXz5ma
— Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer) November 10, 2023
According to the complaint, Engoron has exhibited “clear judicial bias” against Trump, including telling Trump’s attorney that the former president is “just a bad guy,” who NY Attorney General Letitia James “should go after.” “Simply put, Judge Engoron has displayed a clear judicial bias against the defendant throughout the case, breaking several rules in the New York Code of Judicial Conduct,” reads the letter. “Judge Engoron entered summary judgment against the defendant before the trial even began, without witnesses, other evidence, and cross-examination,” she continued, noting that this was “despite the fact there’s disputed material evidence–and there’s no victim of the defendant’s supposed fraud. ”
Stefanik also notes that Engoron and his staff are “partisan Democrat donors,” and that Engoron himself, as recently as 2018, “donated to the Manhattan Democrats.” “If Judge Engoron can railroad a billionaire New York businessman, a former President of the United States, and the leading presidential candidate, just imagine what he could do to all New Yorkers,” the letter continues. “Judge Engoron’s lawlessness sends an ominous and illegal warning to New York business owners: If New York judges don’t like your politics, they will destroy your business, the livelihood of your employees, and you personally. This Commission cannot let this continue.” “Section 100.2(A) states: ‘A judge shall respect and comply with the law and shall act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.’ Judge Engoron has grossly failed to do this,” she wrote.
Meryl Nass
"The WHO has insisted that…they don't want to be an advisory body anymore. They would like to be the director, the governor of health for the world whenever they so desire. And they will demand that nations go out and perform surveillance of their societies, their people, their… pic.twitter.com/jT7fxLQtaf
— Jung (@betterworld_24) November 10, 2023
James Taylor
"For most of the time period that human civilisation has existed, temperatures have been warmer than today."
President of The Heartland Institute, James Taylor, utterly and succinctly demolishes the "human-induced climate emergency" narrative, in two and a half minutes.
"The… pic.twitter.com/CCfU7x2wwW
— Wide Awake Media (@wideawake_media) November 10, 2023
Farage
"I cannot think of a more dangerous initiative than this."
Nigel Farage comments on the recent call by unelected head of the European Union, Ursula von der Leyen, for world leaders to roll out digital ID, CBDCs and a cashless society—globally—by 2030.
"If we're not careful, we… pic.twitter.com/1WABGUtOlI
— Wide Awake Media (@wideawake_media) November 10, 2023
Dog stairs
This is why dogs are our best friends…
That's precious!pic.twitter.com/vPzZsg3aUq
— Figen (@TheFigen_) November 10, 2023
Kookaburra
https://twitter.com/i/status/1722901256610381932
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