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Shaping the World in 2024

 
 
Lash
 
Fri 9 Feb, 2024 06:18 pm
A repository for articles and associated commentary on political newsmakers, economic trends, elections, protests, etc reflecting global realities in 2024.

I’m starting with a rather lengthy interview with General Douglas MacGregor by Tucker Carlson. It’s a follow up to Carlson’s interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin, which will be posted later.

https://youtu.be/A6qHWxnNiDY?si=PgMOngieKrnj0Znu
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Lash
 
  -1  
Fri 9 Feb, 2024 07:32 pm
Massive protests across Europe continue as farmers protest various effects of government interventions with their livelihood. Today, British farmers join in.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-kent-68255550.amp

The protest follows similar demos in France in recent weeks which saw French farmers move tractors to blockade routes into Paris, arguing they had been hit by falling incomes, environmental regulations, rising red tape and competition from imports. Across Europe, farmers have also ramped up protests in Poland, Hungary, Spain and Belgium.

Mr Gibson about 30 tractors had gathered on roads around the port but were "dispersed" at the moment because police had blocked off many of the roads, adding: "They are not allowing us anywhere near the port."
He said protesters wanted to raise awareness of how unfairly farmers were being treated.

He said: "We produce crops to the highest standards in the world, but have to compete with imported foods containing illegal chemicals and the government does trade deals with those countries."

Farmers are using their vehicles to protest against foreign imports
He said Friday's protest was only planned at lunchtime and so far about 30 tractors were taking part.

But he added: "This is just the start of something a lot bigger unless the government start to take notice."

He said protests could escalate to the level of those seen in Paris and Brussels.
"We don't want to cause disruption," he said.
"We want to get the message across."
He said protesters would stay out on Friday night for as long as possible to raise awareness of their cause.
Lash
 
  -1  
Sat 10 Feb, 2024 05:09 am
https://theislander.eu/?p=118

An Inevitable War..
JANUARY 15, 2023 / 18 COMMENTS
How the United States destabilised Ukraine, overthrew a Democracy and built the scaffold its proxy war against Russia is now burning on.

By: Chay Bowes

During a recent interview with German magazine Der Spiegel, ex Chancellor and European political heavyweight Angela Merkel, revealed what many had suspected for some time. Merkel confirmed that the Minsk accords, a pair of comprehensive 2014 and 2015 diplomatic treaties, signed by Russia and Kiev (and supported by the EU and U.S.) aimed at ending the civil war in Ukraine, were subverted by the Ukrainians and their NATO associates to buy time to expand its military capabilities.

The fact that the accords, which were widely regarded as a truly workable solution to the conflict, were not prioritised by the U.S. for implementation, speaks volumes when assessing the sincerity of the U.S. position. Just prior to Merkel’s stunning revelations, Ex Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko was also covertly recorded admitting that the process was abused by Ukraine and used to prepare for war with Russia.

Given the high level of interface between NATO and Ukraine during this period, It is difficult to imagine that this manipulation of the peace process wasn’t carried out with the full knowledge, and probable assistance of NATO and the U.S. It is now abundantly clear, at least to all objective observers, that the U.S. never seriously intended to prevent the current conflict in Ukraine. On the contrary, any cursory assessment of their past and contemporary covert and overt involvement in the region, suggests they’ve been working to destabilise Russia via Ukraine for decades.

Facts such as their encouragement, and material assistance, in the building of a huge 250,000 man, NATO trained and equipped Army facing Russia’s border, illustrate the reality of what the U.S. project in Ukraine was about, regardless of their pronouncements on diplomacy.

Despite decades of Russian warnings on NATO expansion, and despite the occaisionally sincere attempts of some European countries, NATO and their U.S. kingpins forged ahead along a path to what would become an inevitable war. Considering this, can any of the numerous. U.S. NATO statements suggesting they “exhausted all diplomatic efforts” to prevent this conflict be taken seriously? The facts suggest not.

As the second phase of the conflict in Ukraine grinds towards its first bloody anniversary, the first being the post Maidan civil war which erupted in 2014, the grim realities of this conflict, both economic and human, are now indelibly burnt into the global consciousness not only of the Ukrainian and Russian populations, but also the pro war political aristocracy in the U.S. and their client EU / NATO allies.

In recent months, whispers of peace have emerged, uncharacteristically, from the eternally hawkish, “absolute victory” brigade in Washington. It’s undeniable that these War Hawks wield a disproportionate influence on Zelensky’s government, with many dissenting analysts suggesting it is they that essentially man the levers of power in his Kiev palace.

Before accepting this dubious kite flying for peace as genuine, observers would be advised to research the long, determined and cynical march into this inevitable conflict, a clash long predicted by scholars like Mearsheimer and Chomsky, who have persistently highlighted the central role that the United States and their proxies in the EU had in wilfully manufacturing its inevitability. Conflicts between great powers don’t tend to occur overnight, and with this being such a high-stakes game, where the very balance of global power is potentially shifting, nothing happens unless it’s supposed to happen. Essentially, when it comes to the conflict in Ukraine, the power bloc that emerges victorious will potentially dominate a new global order, in other words “this game is for all the marbles.”

This conflict has evolved into one unlike any other, the weaponisation of social media, of culture, and the revision of history itself, have become second fronts, central to the anti-Russian, pro Atlanticist narrative at the centre of the EU / NATO pro war rationale. It is critical that the western public, who have been bombarded 24/7 by a propaganda leviathan of previously unseen proportions and resource, explores the factual realities of how the “scaffold” that this conflict now burns on, was deliberately built, not over a matter of months or years, but over a matter of decades.

Of course, having any opinion other than the prescribed western view is portrayed as dangerous and subversive. Any view, other than the stock mainstream narrative, which alleges that a maniacal imperialist Russia, wishing to regain tracts of previously conquered territory, is cast as Russian propaganda. This authoritarian and dangerous. corporate position has led to people such as your author being labelled as pro-Putin advocates, and paid propagandists for an authoritarian, genocidal and hateful state.

“This conflict has evolved into one unlike any other, the weaponisation of social media, of culture, and the revision of history itself, have become second fronts, central to the anti-Russian, pro Atlanticist narrative at the centre of the EU / NATO pro war rationale”
CHAY BOWES
Of course, the opposite is quite true, your author and many others like me are essentially anti-war advocates, who earnestly seek to challenge the profit fuelled neoliberal hegemony that has led Europe, blindly, to the brink of a third world war.

The reality that I, and many others have long held these anti-imperialist views, is discarded along with all objectivity, independence, and balance. It is now undeniable that the pan Atlanticist perpetual war cult has gone “all in” on Ukraine turning a blind eye to Nazism, gross corruption and human rights abuses while gleefully depriving American and European populations of their right to dissent, their right to disagree and their right to challenge the rationale for this terrible conflict.

The reality that’s consistently hidden is that the only winner, if there is one, is the military industrial complex which is profiting grotesquely from the human misery that abounds in the ditches and trenches of Ukraine today.

It is incumbent on us all to question the voracity and sincerity of U.S. diplomacy given that any initial hopes of a negotiated peace in the east, which had erupted into a brutal civil war in 2014, were dashed by the persistent failures of U.S. ally Petro Poroshenko’s government to act on central parts of the Minsk deal, most notably the federalisation of Donbass within Ukraine and the preservation of rights for millions of ethnic Russians in the east of Ukraine who had rejected the pro EU Maidan coup.

Today, an increasingly Fractious. NATO / EU Washington led alliance seems determined to compound its continuing foreign policy failures by deeming Russia a “Terrorist State” it seems the irony that recently released U.S. data confirms that America has killed over 900,000 people, in dozens of countries in the past 20 years alone, is seemingly lost on the U.S. State Department.

This escalatory move demonstrates that any semblance of the grudging but mutual respect between U.S. and Russian diplomats during the cold war, is now sadly a romantic memory. It’s worth recalling that these official and unofficial diplomatic channels not only steered us away from nuclear armageddon, but they also fostered and indeed encouraged pragmatism on both sides, with the idea that a deal could be done and had to be done thankfully prevailing. Today however diplomatic relations between Russia and the United States are at their worst ebb since their establishment in 1933, and that’s bad news for almost everyone.

When examining the background to today’s conflict, it’s important to interrogate the abject failure of Western diplomacy, firstly to deescalate the 2014 post-coup civil conflict in eastern Ukraine, and more recently to defuse the standoff which culminated with the Russian military intervention in February. How could such a potentially catastrophic conflict between an increasingly boxed in Russia and a hawkish NATO / Ukraine have come to this? Surely the many voices of geopolitical realism and restraint were being heard?

If not, Maybe the persistent and increasingly resolute warnings of “red lines being crossed” by a concerned Moscow? No? well Shouldn’t the U.S. /NATO at least have respected the democratic wishes of the 73% of the Ukrainian people. After all they voted Zelensky into power on his promise to “end the war”? it seems none of these crucial realities registered with the ever expanding “Freedom machine” that is NATO, most interestingly the mandate of the Ukrainian people for peace in the East was conveniently ignored.

When Moscow deployed its troops to the Ukrainian border in the closing months of 2021, it was seen by many (including your author) as elaborate sabre rattling to demonstrate the seriousness with which the Russians viewed the situation, of course it turned out to be quite the opposite.

As the Russian army crossed the Ukrainian border in the early hours of February 24th, not only did it spell the end of decades of Russian warnings about NATOs eastward expansion onto its borders, it may also have marked the end of a global world order dominated by the U.S. and its dollar. When objectively evaluating the global impact of this crisis and the potential spoils to the victor, it becomes increasingly likely that the widely publicised last minute attempts for peace were mere PR outings, box ticking for future deniability.

When did the U.S. “project” in Ukraine begin?

When western narrators insert the now seemingly obligatory phrase “unprovoked invasion of Ukraine” when writing on the crisis, it would be useful to point out that it is undeniable, but not widely known that the United States has been agitating to wrestle Ukraine away from the influence of Russia since the end of World War II.

Despite the complex demographic and geopolitical realities of the region, and in spite of the deep and ancient social, linguistic, and historical ties between Russia and Ukraine, Uncle Sam has had his eye on Kyiv for a very long time. As far back as 1949 the relatively young Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic was a priority target for initially the OSS and then the newly formed CIA, who aimed to exploit the complex ethnic and historic differences in the region to undermine the Soviets.

The long-term U.S. strategy involved overt and covert actions to influence and fund various. Ukrainian nationalist and paramilitary organisations. As with innumerable other CIA led regime change operations, the morality or political persuasion of their partners mattered not, and they included the openly Nazi collaborators of the ultranationalist OUN and UPA led by recognised mass murderers like Stepan Bandera, a man now widely and openly deified in Zelensky’s Ukraine by recently instituted national holidays and countless statues.

An examination of the recent activities of CIA cut-outs such as the “National Endowment for Democracy”, “Freedom House”, the “National Democratic Institute” the “International Republican Institute” and the “Eurasia Foundation” confirms the deep seated persistence of U.S. intelligence backed subversion in Ukraine. These organisations like to describe their “mission” as “assisting the building of Ukrainian civil society” but in reality, their multimillion-dollar task is part of a broad U.S. strategy to remove “unfriendly” governments as per the CIA regime change playbook.

The successful U.S. sponsored coup d’etat against the legitimately elected government of Victor Yanukovych in 2014, was the culmination of those decades of efforts to install and propagate a pro-western, anti-Russian pro EU Government in Kiev, much as it had worked to do in many post-Soviet republics like Belarus. It was now glaringly apparent that rather than respecting the very democracy that it selectively supports, the U.S. has preferred an “A la Carte” approach to the democracy and freedom it purports to represent, if its pro U.S.A defend it, if it’s not destroy it.

“Maidan” an unmissable opportunity

The depth of U.S. interference in Ukraine’s internal affairs has been truly astounding, it has also been intentionally overlooked by main stream media and their client analysts when evaluating the apparent failure of diplomatic attempts to avert today’s conflict in Ukraine.

Instead of accepting the democratic mandate of the imperfect Yanukovych government, the U.S. and their EU allies openly supported the Maidan coup, the U.S. and its European allies even went as far as to brazenly suggest that if Yanukovych performed an “about turn” and accepted the agreement to move closer to the EU economically, he might be permitted to remain in power.

________________<>________________

This is an extensive excerpt from a well-detailed article with clickable links and pics. Much more at the link.

The Ukraine war is a CIA operation to vilify and damage Russia by sacrificing the people of Ukraine. Although the CIA was able to foment the war, it is definitely not having the intended effect—in fact the opposite is true. Russia is stronger economically that before the war, its alliances with BRICS nations, notably China, are stronger. Despite a pervasive propaganda campaign to create an anti-Russia sentiment among the West, more people are discovering these facts—& the culpability of the US & its vassals.

This article dates a year before the posting as many people became aware of the facts as events happened.




0 Replies
 
izzythepush
 
  1  
Sat 10 Feb, 2024 05:09 am
@Lash,
Britain is not joining in its's separate.

The EU protests are about EU laws.

The British protests are about the new trade agreements with the EU.

If you read the articles you post you wouldn't get so many things wrong and come across as a bit thick.
0 Replies
 
izzythepush
 
  1  
Sat 10 Feb, 2024 05:13 am
This should fit in with the rest quite nicely.



According to Max Hastings MacArthur was a complete idiot too.

He was obsessed with recapturing the Phillipines when it would have made a lot more sense to have left it alone.

Instead thousands of America servicemen died for what was essentially a failed general's vanity project.
0 Replies
 
Lash
 
  -1  
Sat 10 Feb, 2024 05:27 am
From Twitter.
The destruction of Gaza began soon after members of Hamas attacked Israeli citizens on Oct 7. The heavy bombing has continued almost daily since. As people watch footage from the carnage, individual stories of Palestinian families, journalists, doctors emerge. The story of 6 year old Hind and her family is one such story. This poor little girl died a heartbreaking death.
_______________

BREAKING: THE PARAMEDICS WERE ALSO FOUND DEAD ALONG WITH HIND.

The two paramedics from the PCRS who went to rescue Hind were also found killed.

The ambulance vehicle was found bombed.

Red Crescent:
“The Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance was found bombed in the Tal Al-Hawa area in Gaza City, and the crew, Youssef Zaino and Ahmed Al-Madhoun, were martyred after their traces were lost during the mission to rescue the child Hind Rajab 12 days ago.

The *IOF deliberately targeted the ambulance upon its arrival at the site, where it was found meters away from the vehicle containing the child Hind.

The IOF deliberately targeted the Red Crescent crew despite obtaining prior coordination to allow the ambulance to arrive at the site to rescue the child Hind.”

____________
*IOF—Israel Offense Forces
Named IDF—Israel Defense Forces is considered laughable propaganda since their crimes against the caged Palestinian people in their apartheid country are 100% offensive, not defensive.
izzythepush
 
  1  
Sat 10 Feb, 2024 05:35 am
@Lash,
None of the above give a **** about the Palestinians.
0 Replies
 
Lash
 
  -2  
Sat 10 Feb, 2024 06:04 am
Putin and Russia have been completely vilified by Western media for my entire life with intensity waxing and waning—it’s now at a fever pitch. An interview with Putin, broadcast where Westerners could hear it, not heavily framed or conducted in hyperbolically negatively biased rhetoric didn’t seem to be in the realm of possibly due to the tight controls over US media by the CIA & other unelected entities.

Yet, it happened. In the era of journalists and whistleblowers being jailed and tortured, Carlson has been informally accused of ‘treason’ for doing the interview, yet no charges have materialized.

Here it is.

https://youtu.be/hYfByTcY49k?si=6OEAdZGDlG_vxtER
0 Replies
 
izzythepush
 
  1  
Sat 10 Feb, 2024 06:04 am
Fact checking Putin's lies.

Fuckup Carlson couldn't because he's a spineless worm, so the BBC has.

This is actual journalism.

Quote:
US talk show host Tucker Carlson's interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin began with a rambling half-hour lecture on the history of Russia and Ukraine.

Mr Carlson, frequently appearing bemused, listened as Mr Putin expounded at length about the origins of Russian statehood in the ninth century, Ukraine as an artificial state and Polish collaboration with Hitler.

It is familiar ground for Mr Putin, who infamously penned a 5,000-word essay entitled "On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians" in 2021, which foreshadowed the intellectual justification the Kremlin offered for its invasion of Ukraine less than a year later.

Historians say the litany of claims made by Mr Putin are nonsense - representing nothing more than a selective abuse of history to justify the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Regardless of the historical realities, none of Putin's assertions would form a legal justification for his invasion.

A state-centred narrative
Mr Putin began the interview by claiming that 862 was the year of the "establishment of the Russian state". This was the year that Rurik, a Scandinavian prince, was invited to rule over the city of Novgorod, the capital of the Rus - the people who would eventually develop into today's Russians.

Mr Putin contrasts what he claims is the unbroken tradition of Russian statehood dating back to the 9th Century with the modern "invention" of Ukraine - a country he insists was "created" as late as the 20th Century.

But Sergey Radchenko, a historian at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, says the president's claim is "a complete falsehood".

"Vladimir Putin is trying to construct a narrative backwards, saying Russia as a state began its development in the 9th Century. You could equally say that Ukraine as a state began its development in the 9th Century, exactly with the same kind of evidence and documents.

"He's trying to use certain historical facts to construct a state-centred narrative that would favour Russia as opposed to any alternative agglomerations."

Ronald Suny, a professor at the University of Michigan, says the Rus was made up of "a bunch of bandits, who burned their own capital repeatedly".

He adds that Mr Putin is repeating an "established mythology made up at certain points in the past by Muscovite tsars who trace their lineage back to Rurik."

"This mythology was crystallised in Moscow to justify their imperial hold over Ukraine."

A 'special ethnic group'
Mr Putin told Tucker Carlson that by the 17th Century, when Poland came to rule over parts of present-day Ukraine, they introduced the idea that the population of those areas "was not exactly Russians. Because they lived on the fringe, they were Ukrainians."

"Originally the word Ukrainian meant that the person was living on the outskirts of the state, along the fringes."

But Anita Prazmowska, a professor emerita at the LSE, says that although a national consciousness emerged later among Ukrainians than other central European nations, there were Ukrainians during that period.

"[Vladimir Putin] is using a 20th Century concept of the state based on the protection of a defined nation, as something that goes back. It doesn't."

Mr Suny says that while it may be true that Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians "came from the same stock … through time, they developed into different peoples."

'New Russia'
Mr Putin claims that areas in the south and east of Ukraine "had no historical connection with Ukraine whatsoever". Conquered from the Ottoman Empire by the Russian Empress Catherine the Great in the 17th Century, the Russian president says that means these lands are in fact rightfully Russian. Mr Putin later refers to them using the 18th Century term "Novorossiya" - New Russia.

Mr Suny points out that the inhabitants of these lands when they were conquered by Russia were neither Russian nor Ukrainian, but Ottoman, Tatar or Cossacks - Slavic peasants who had fled to the frontiers.

But claiming that these territories are in reality rightfully Russian serves Mr Putin's interests, as they are precisely the areas that Russia is attempting to conquer from Ukraine during the now decade-long conflict with its neighbour.

So-called Novorossiya includes Crimea - illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014. New Russia also covers areas around Kherson, Mariupol and Bakhmut, which Mr Putin declared part of Russia in 2022.

An 'artificial state'
Mr Putin went on to claim that "Ukraine is an artificial state that was shaped at [Joseph] Stalin's will," arguing that Ukraine was created by the Soviet leadership in the 1920s and received lands to which it had no historical claim.

In a sense, he is correct, says Prof Radchenko. The Soviet leadership drew up the borders of Soviet republics "almost like the Western colonial powers drew up borders in Africa - kind of randomly."

"But that does not mean that Ukrainians did not exist."

More broadly, Mr Radchenko denies Mr Putin's claims that Ukraine is not a real country because it was formed in its modern form in the 20th Century. "Any country is a fake country, in the sense that countries are created as a result of a historical process."

"Russia was created as a result of decisions taken by the Russian tsars, such as the colonisation of Siberia, which came at the considerable expense of the local population.

"If Ukraine is a fake country, then so is Russia."

'Collaborating with Hitler'
Perhaps Mr Putin's most inflammatory claim was regarding Poland. Mr Putin claimed that Poland - which was invaded by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union in 1939 - "collaborated with Hitler".

The Russian president told his interviewer that by refusing to cede an area of Poland called the Danzig Corridor to Hitler, Poland "went too far, pushing Hitler to start World War Two by attacking them".

For Prof Prazmowska, President Putin's interpretation of history is a flawed reading of the historical record. She says that while it is true that there were diplomatic contacts between Poland and the Nazis - the first treaty Hitler signed after coming to power was a non-aggression pact with Poland in 1934 - Mr Putin is conflating diplomatic outreach to a threatening neighbour with collaboration.

"The accusation that the Poles were collaborating is nonsense," says Mrs Prazmowska.

"You can't interpret these things as if this were collaboration with Nazi Germany, because it just so happened that the Soviet Union also signed treaties with Germany [at the same time]."

In September 1939, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union invaded Poland according to the terms of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact signed between both states earlier that year.


https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-68255302
0 Replies
 
Lash
 
  -2  
Sat 10 Feb, 2024 06:25 am
The BBC—just another compromised Israel-influenced warmonger stenographer.

https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2023/11/23/as-israel-pounds-gaza-bbc-journalists-accuse-broadcaster-of-bias

EXCLUSIVE
News
|
Israel War on Gaza
As Israel pounds Gaza, BBC journalists accuse broadcaster of bias
In the latest newsroom fallout over the war, BBC journalists say the corporation is failing to humanise Palestinians

London, United Kingdom – The BBC has been accused by its journalists of failing to tell the story of the Israel-Palestine conflict accurately, investing greater effort in humanising Israeli victims compared with Palestinians, and omitting key historical context in coverage.

In a 2,300-word letter written to Al Jazeera by eight UK-based journalists employed by the corporation, the BBC is also said to be guilty of a “double standard in how civilians are seen”, given that it is “unflinching” in its reporting of alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine.

Fearing reprisal, the journalists requested anonymity. The group does not plan to send the letter to BBC executives, believing such a move was unlikely to lead to meaningful discussions.

They sent Al Jazeera the letter as a humanitarian disaster in Gaza escalates, and as grim milestones are reached at pace. At the time of writing, more than 14,500 Palestinians have been reported as killed by Israeli bombardment, including at least 6,000 children.

“The BBC has failed to accurately tell this story – through omission and lack of critical engagement with Israel’s claims – and it has therefore failed to help the public engage with and understand the human rights abuses unfolding in Gaza,” the letter reads. “Thousands of Palestinians have been killed since October 7. When will the number be high enough for our editorial stance to change?”

Israel declared war against Hamas after the Palestinian group, which governs the densely populated enclave, attacked southern Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 Israelis and taking more than 200 hostage.
____________________

More at the link.



izzythepush
 
  1  
Sat 10 Feb, 2024 06:45 am
@Lash,
They're fact checking Putin, not Israel.

And I don't think Putin should be allowed to kill me and my children just because I'm some subhuman limey piece of ****.
0 Replies
 
hightor
 
  2  
Sat 10 Feb, 2024 06:48 am
Firebrand Matt Gaetz Fought McCarthy and Won – He Now Has a New Republican Target

Quote:
When it comes to a fellow Republican who almost lunged at him last fall, Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida appears to prefer waving bye-bye rather than letting bygones be bygones.

Gaetz will appear at a Feb. 16 rally as part of his effort to support a Republican challenger trying to unseat Republican Rep. Mike Bost of Illinois, according to Politico.

Bost and Gaetz had a confrontation in the chaotic, emotional days after Gaetz helped engineer the downfall of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

During a closed-door meeting, as Gaetz stood up to speak, Bost called out, “If you don’t sit down, I’ll put you down,” Politico reported. An Axios report from the time said Bost was “almost lunging at him.”

And now, Gaetz is backing Darren Bailey, who is challenging Bost in a Republican primary.

“I need backup in Congress. @DarrenBaileyIL is a true fighter who will rock the establishment, not bow to them like @RepBost,” Gaetz said in a post on X.

“Thank you,@mattgaetz!” Bailey responded.

• Thank you, @mattgaetz! My opponent’s a career politician too busy granting amnesty to illegal immigrants and sending billions to Ukraine to remember the folks back home. I’m eager to join forces on the campaign trail and fight to secure our border, complete Trump’s wall, and put… https://t.co/3Pdb65I3fZ

— Darren Bailey (@DarrenBaileyIL) February 7, 2024


“My opponent’s a career politician too busy granting amnesty to illegal immigrants and sending billions to Ukraine to remember the folks back home. I’m eager to join forces on the campaign trail and fight to secure our border, complete Trump’s wall, and put my district and America first,” Bailey wrote.

Gaetz said he has a record of success in his campaigns, Politico noted.

“I helped defeat Liz Cheney when she faced a strong challenger in her race, and I’m confident we can do the same when we hit the trail in Southern Illinois,” Gaetz said in a statement.

Bailey would be “an upgrade over the lackluster Republican incumbent,” Gaetz said.

• Gaetz, of course, led successful the effort to oust former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. During the initial 15-ballot election last January, Bost yelled as Gaetz was laying into McCarthy on the floor.https://t.co/VjtfKxzqNP

— Brenden Moore (@brendenmoore13) February 6, 2024


Bost shrugged off Gaetz coming into his district.

“I never considered Matt a threat. I considered him an ass, but never a threat,” he said.

Gaetz previously worked against Cheney, who was ousted in the 2022 election, and former Republican Rep. Ross Spano, who lost his 2020 GOP primary.

Bailey has the endorsement of Republican Rep. Mary Miller of Illinois, a member of the Freedom Caucus, according to Business Insider.
0 Replies
 
hightor
 
  1  
Sat 10 Feb, 2024 06:50 am
Texas Lieutenant Governor Says 'Deep State Run by Barack Obama' Has Pulled the Rug Out from Under Biden

Quote:
Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick of Texas said a Department of Justice report that described President Joe Biden as an “elderly man with a poor memory” is proof enough for him Democrats are going with a different candidate in November.

The memo, along with Biden’s late Thursday news conference, means that those who are pulling the strings in the Democratic Party are forcing Biden out, Patrick claimed. He specifically blamed former President Barack Obama and the deep state.

Patrick made the comments on social media Friday morning, where he also predicted Americans could see former first lady Michelle Obama on their ballots this fall.

Patrick wrote:

“I’ve said for over a year many times that Joe Biden would not be on the ticket and Michelle Obama would be the likely nominee. It’s clear the Democrat deep state run by Barack Obama knew they had to take him down to give them a chance in November.

“They set him up in the report calling him a ‘sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.’ They could have protected him by putting him in the Oval Office to read a statement with no press questions.”

Patrick also said Biden was instructed to speak to the media simply so he would embarrass himself.

He also took a shot at First Lady Kamala Harris — who, he said, is not only disliked by conservatives and independents, but also Democrats.

“Instead, they sent [Biden] out and fed him to a press – where he was a total embarrassment,” Patrick concluded. “He doesn’t have a memory and Kamala doesn’t have a brain. Now they have a real problem.”

I’ve said for over a year many times that Joe Biden would not be on the ticket and Michelle Obama would be the likely nominee. It’s clear the Democrat deep state run by Barack Obama knew they had to take him down to give them a chance in November. They set him up in the report…

— Dan Patrick (@DanPatrick) February 9, 2024

On Thursday, special counsel Robert Hur recommended against charging Biden with a crime after investigating him for mishandling classified documents during his time as vice president from 2017 until 2021.

Hur’s report on the investigation concluded Biden has memory issues and a jury would likely find him to be a “sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.”

“Based on our direct interactions with and observations of him, he is someone for whom many jurors will want to identify reasonable doubt,” Hur’s report stated. “It would be difficult to convince a jury that they should convict him — by then a former president well into his eighties — of a serious felony that requires a mental state of willfulness.”

The report also concluded Biden’s memory has declined sharply in recent years and that the president could not remember the years in which he was vice president “or even within several years, when his son Beau died [of cancer].”

Biden’s personal attorney and White House attorney both challenged the report.

The president himself also challenged the summary of his cognitive health during an impromptu news conference Thursday evening.

The news conference did not go well for Biden.

After a special counsel found Biden “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials” and called him an “elderly man with a poor memory,” Biden held a brief — but angry and incoherent — press conference.

It did not go well, so we’re sharing it in its entirety: pic.twitter.com/ncstumQj13

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) February 9, 2024

As Joe Biden was walking out of his press conference tonight, he decided to walk back in and proceeded to

1. Claim the Israeli response to Hamas has been over the top
2. Call Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, “the president of Mexico” pic.twitter.com/QFTClsICxA

— Kassy Dillon (@KassyDillon) February 9, 2024

On Friday, after viewing the conference and reading Hur’s report, Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri posted a statement on social media, calling on Biden to step down or face charges.

“The Special Counsel’s report and Biden’s embarrassing press conference last night make clear: He should either resign as unfit or face criminal prosecution. Can’t have it both ways,” Hawley wrote.
0 Replies
 
izzythepush
 
  0  
Sat 10 Feb, 2024 07:28 am
This is what the Guardian said about lickspittle's "interview."

Quote:
‘Talkshow or a serious conversation?’ Tucker Carlson’s interview of Putin offered neither
Adam Gabbatt
Wide-eyed former Fox host tagged along as Russian president steered the conversation through Russian history and justifications for war


Analysis
‘Talkshow or a serious conversation?’ Tucker Carlson’s interview of Putin offered neither
Adam Gabbatt
Wide-eyed former Fox host tagged along as Russian president steered the conversation through Russian history and justifications for war

“Are we having a talkshow or a serious conversation?” Vladimir Putin asked Tucker Carlson at the start of their interview on Thursday.

By the end of the two-hour conversation, the answer was clear: neither.

Instead, viewers got a lesson in Russian history, going all the way back to Prince Rurik – a Scandinavian who came and dished out a good kicking in the region in 862 – and taking in the reign of Yaroslav the Wise, the circa-1300 threat of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Russia going to war with Poland in the mid-1600s.

It wasn’t quite what Carlson fans, who are more accustomed to the big-faced, rightwing commentator attacking trans people and immigrants, would have been expecting. But for Putin, who hadn’t conducted an interview with western media in more than two years, it was an opportunity to make his extremely long-winded case that, historically, Russia and Ukraine are intertwined, and belong together.

“So that you don’t think that I’m inventing things, I’ll give you these documents,” Putin said early in the interview, after telling Carlson about how after Yaroslav the Wise died in 1054 the throne passed to Yaroslav’s brother, rather than his sons.

Putin beckoned to someone off camera and a lackey appeared with a binder containing letters written by Bohdan Khmelnytsky, who is not a household name in the US but is vaunted in Russia for telling the Poles to clear off in 1654.

The interview dragged on like this for about 40 minutes. It was not the veil-lifting insight into the region that Carlson had promised in a video message he released two days earlier.

English language “media outlets are corrupt – they lie to their readers and viewers”, Carlson said in that preview.

He said he was conducting the interview because: “Most Americans have no real idea what is happening in this region – here in Russia or 600 miles away in Ukraine. But they should know. They’re paying for much of it.”

Unfortunately, as Putin’s sally through Russian history approached the modern era – “In the early 80s, I went on a road trip in a car from then Leningrad, across the Soviet Union through Kyiv,” he told Carlson at one point, as the interview threatened to become an episode of This Is Your Life – it became clear that those Americans still have no idea what is going on in the area.

Viewers were, at least, getting a fresh insight into Putin’s personality, which on this evidence is basically that of a barroom bore who attends meetings at his local history club. And, eventually, the autocratic leader talked his way into the 21st century. He gave his version of a Russian-Ukraine conflict in which Russia is painted as an innocent party which hopes for peace.

Russia invaded Ukraine without provocation in February 2022, sparking a war which has killed or injured more than 300,000 of Putin’s own troops, likely killed more than 70,000 members of the Ukrainian military and, according to the UN, left 10,000 Ukrainian civilians dead.

But in Putin’s telling, the so-called “special military operation” was necessary to sort out corruption to conduct a “denazification” in Ukraine. According to the Russian president, he would have stopped the war by now were it not for “western countries” meddling in the peace process.

Boris Johnson, the disgraced former British prime minister, came in for particular ire. It was Johnson, Putin said, who dissuaded Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Ukraine’s president, from signing peace accords, instead “saying it was better to fight Russia”.

For those watching who did not have a passion for Russian medieval history, there were some bits of interesting information.

Putin said Russia, despite the Kremlin previously saying peace talks were “unrealistic”, was in talks with the US about ending the conflict, although that came with an ultimatum to the White House.

“If you really want to stop fighting, you need to stop supplying weapons. It will be over within a few weeks,” he said.

There was an update, too, about Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter who has been detained in Russia since 23 March having been accused of espionage – which Gershkovich and his employer deny.

Russia is “ready to talk” about releasing Gershkovich, Putin said, contradicting the White House, which said in December that Russia had rejected a substantial proposal for the release of the reporter and Paul Whelan, a former US marine serving a 16-year sentence in Russia on espionage charges.

As the interview passed the hour mark, there was some brighter news. Putin said he would not invade Latvia or Poland, saying the idea “goes against common sense”, and interest was piqued when Putin mused that, owing to the power of artificial intelligence, “it is now possible to create this superhuman, a specialized human being, a genetically engineered athlete, scientist, military man”.

As the two-hour slog drew to a close – “Thank you, Mr President,” Carlson cooed at the end – the real fascination was how Carlson had managed to bag an interview with one of the world’s most powerful leaders, at a time when Russia is engaged in a brutal conflict, and come up with … almost nothing.


https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/09/tucker-carlson-vladimir-putin-interview-analysis-russia-ukraine
izzythepush
 
  0  
Sat 10 Feb, 2024 07:52 am
@izzythepush,
At least those legions of Americans crying out for content about Bohdan Khmelnytsky and Yaroslav the Wise finally got their wish.

Putin really know how to use the hot button topics to entertain and involve Americans.
0 Replies
 
Lash
 
  -2  
Sat 10 Feb, 2024 08:06 am
The president of the United States.

https://www.youtube.com/live/hSckeFQ3zsA?si=CkB4EV5zxp4NFFUj
izzythepush
 
  1  
Sat 10 Feb, 2024 08:19 am
A real interviewer would have asked Putin about Armenia joining the ICC, and refusing to attend a Russia dominated defence meeting.

They would have asked what that meant about Russia's strength in the region.

Armenia is supposed to be an ally, all the **** with Nagorno Karabakh and that should keep them on side, but no.

The Amenians see Russian influence waning.

A real, proper interviewer, as opposed to some slobbering, transphobic, fascist piece of pigshit.
0 Replies
 
Glennn
 
  -2  
Sat 10 Feb, 2024 08:37 am
@Lash,
This is so reminiscent of hillary's stupidity and the supidity of those who defended her. Defenders claim that gross negligence must include malicious intent. hillary fans didn't question anything, as per their programming. They decided that in order to let her off the hook, they'd have to invent an "intent clause" to the definition of gross negligence; there's no such thing. But hillary fans didn't care about the law. They cared about hillary, and would change the law if that's what it takes to help her along her way.

And now they're pulling out the non existent "intent clause" to help their boy, joe, with his gross negligence charge.

Oh, and I heard that joe called nutanyahu's genocidal activity against innocent Gazans over the top. What a perfectly useless comment from a useless official. I wonder how many kids won't be murdered today because joe had the character and the guts to squeak up.
izzythepush
 
  1  
Sat 10 Feb, 2024 09:12 am
@Glennn,
Nobody has mentioned Biden pet.

That's your warped imagination.

This is about fascists defending your boy Putin.
Lash
 
  -3  
Sat 10 Feb, 2024 09:19 am
@Lash,
Lash wrote:

From Twitter.
The destruction of Gaza began soon after members of Hamas attacked Israeli citizens on Oct 7. The heavy bombing has continued almost daily since. As people watch footage from the carnage, individual stories of Palestinian families, journalists, doctors emerge. The story of 6 year old Hind and her family is one such story. This poor little girl died a heartbreaking death.
_______________


More detail.
_______________

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/10/body-of-6-year-old-killed-in-deliberate-israeli-fire-found-after-12-days

Body of 6-year-old killed in ‘deliberate’ Israeli fire found after 12 days
Relatives find body of Hind Rajab who had begged rescuers to send help after being trapped by Israeli military fire.

The body of a six-year-old Palestinian girl, missing for 12 days after an Israeli tank targeted their family car in Gaza, has been found along with the bodies of two medics dispatched to look for them.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) and the family of the girl, Hind Rajab, confirmed on Saturday that all seven people inside the car were killed, with the Palestinian relief organisation saying it lost crew members Yusuf Zeino and Ahmed al-Madhoun in the Israeli attack on civilians in Gaza City.

———————————-
list of 4 items
list 1 of 4
Looking for a penny’s worth of hope amid the genocide in Gaza
list 2 of 4
Israeli sniper kills Palestinian girl in front of Gaza hospital
list 3 of 4
Israeli military kills 28 after Netanyahu signals Rafah invasion plan
list 4 of 4
Photos: Israel bombs homes in central Gaza, killing several families
end of list
————————————
Family members found Hind’s body along with those of her uncle and aunt and their three children near a roundabout in the city’s Tal al-Hawa suburb, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported.

Another of Hind’s uncles, Sameeh Hamadeh, said the car was peppered with bullet holes.

“The occupation deliberately targeted the ambulance upon its arrival at the scene, where it was found just metres away from the vehicle containing the trapped child Hind,” said the PRCS statement.

“Despite prior coordination to allow the ambulance to reach the location to rescue the child, Hind, the occupation deliberately targeted the Palestine Red Crescent ambulance crew.”

Earlier this month, the PRCS published an audio file in which Hind could be heard pleading on the phone with a member of the rescue team. All members of her family are believed to have been killed before her, leaving her terrified in the car with the dead bodies of her loved ones.

“I’m so scared, please come. Please call someone to come and take me,” she was heard crying desperately in the call that PRCS said lasted three hours in an effort to calm the frightened child.

The Israeli army had earlier said it was not aware of the incident.

The PRCS had started a count of the number of hours since it lost contact with Hind and the crew in trying to attract attention to the plight of Palestinian healthcare workers, who persist under constant attacks by the Israeli army.

In an interview with Al Jazeera Arabic shortly after the family was targeted, Hind’s mother said she had managed to speak to her and an older cousin, 15-year-old Layan Hamadeh, who was with Hind in the car.

“They are shooting at us. The tank is next to us,” Layan said in a recording released at the time.

Then a barrage of shooting was heard, followed by screams, before the line cut out.

The plight of Hind, revealed in the harrowing audio clips, underlined the impossible conditions for civilians in the face of Israel’s four-month assault on Gaza, which many governments have termed a “genocide”.

Israel’s military has killed nearly 28,000 people – mostly women and children – since October 7 when Hamas fighters attacked Israel, killing more than 1,100 people and taking 253 captives, according to Israeli tallies.

SOURCE: AL JAZEERA



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