News Reflections

14/09/2023

How everyone is doing?

Did you check news?

When you feel better and do better, the world is a better place with you in it, so do your part.

04/05/2023

"There’s simply no way to reconcile the US government’s story about itself with its efforts to normalize the extradition and persecution of journalists around the world under the Espionage Act. If your job is to make the White House look good, the only way to respond to questions of US hypocrisy regarding the Assange case is not to respond at all."

26/04/2023

'Ha! I'm sure.'

Carlson, 53, was said to be stunned after being let go from Fox on Monday. A Fox News told DailyMail.com 'Tucker still hasn't been given any indication of why he was taken off the air.'

30/03/2023

“Whether the indictment is warranted or not, it crosses a huge line in American politics and American legal history,”

“If the issue is accountability, then the case could redraw the lines and make it less daunting for prosecutors in Georgia and Washington to follow suit by charging more serious crimes if they have the evidence”

For more than two centuries, American presidents were effectively shielded from indictment. But the case against former President Donald J. Trump breaks that taboo and sets a new precedent.

29/03/2023

"What we did learn from the war is the abhorrent hypocrisy of labels in conflicts when viewed through a Western lens. This war has, as an Iraqi, plagued my thoughts daily since March 2003. It has left hundreds of thousands of Iraqis dead, with millions of others displaced and their lives ruined."

The answer: hypocrisy, even in the way the West’s narrative describes the Iraq invasion and Ukraine war.

28/03/2023

“Half of a million of people have died as the result of this criminal war.

The heads of state responsible for this must be finally prosecuted.

That would also restore a minimum of credibility to Western foreign policy.

Continuing culture of impunity is completely unacceptable, and it is even more unacceptable that those like journalist who uncovered war crimes precisely in are paying now for that in prison while those who plan and commit war crimes continue to walk around free”

https://www.facebook.com/InContextMedia/videos/143556035322053

28/03/2023

"Between the two of them, the and hold nearly 90% of the world's - enough to destroy the planet many times over."

The United States has told Russia it will cease exchanging some data on its nuclear forces following Moscow's refusal to do so, the White House said on Tuesday, calling this a response to Russia's suspending participation in the New START nuclear arms treaty.

13/03/2023

"In the long term, the best guarantee of American security has always been American prosperity and engagement with the rest of the world."

Pursuing disengagement from China is not in America’s national interest.

08/03/2023

Mansoor Adayfi, a man who spent at Guantanamo 14 years without being charged with a crime said that observed guards force-feed him amid a hunger strike, laughing during the procedure; however, "has not been accused of torturing inmates"

According to World Medical Association force-feeding is not torture if it is medically necessary and “if the manner in which the detainee is force-fed is not inhuman or degrading.” Laughing during the procedure – is degrading and inhuman.

This is the same man who heartlessly uses immigrants as political pawns and sending them to blue states. It looks like he is staying true to himself – inhumanly indifferent.

DeSantis, the Florida governor viewed as a potential presidential candidate, has faced allegations of overseeing torture at the notorious prison.

06/03/2023

“The system that is now saying that I’m unserious, I’m not credible or I’m a long shot is the very system that protects and maintains this idea that only those whose careers have been entrenched within the system that drove us into a ditch should possibly be considered qualified to lead us out of that ditch,” Williamson said.

Her qualification for the job, she continued, “is not that I know how to perpetuate that system. My qualification is that I know how to disrupt it,”

‘I know how to disrupt’: the two-time aspirant to the Democratic presidential nomination fleshes out her vision for the country

21/02/2023

"If the United States wishes to achieve a weakening of the Houthi position, paradoxically, the best way to do so may be to withdraw."

https://quincyinst.org/report/ending-counterproductive-u-s-involvement-in-yemen/

21/02/2023

"Ahead of the meeting, the ambassadors of Denmark, Sweden and Germany sent a letter to council members saying their investigations have established the pipelines were extensively damaged "by powerful explosions due to sabotage.”

Russia has called a Security Council meeting on last September’s explosions at the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines from Russia to Western Europe after circulating a resolution calling for a U.N. investigation of the sabotage

21/02/2023

Max Blumenthal at Rage Against the War Machine:

“Rage against this sick, satanic, neoconservative war machine”
“Our corporate media, which is just a megaphone for our oligarchic elite, is constantly telling us who our enemies are. They said our enemy is in when I was a teenager, then they said our enemy is in , then they said our enemy is in , and then they said our enemy is maybe down the street in our local mosque.”

“We are here today to say we know who our real enemy is. Our enemy is not in , our enemy is you – corporate media, and oligarchs you speak for.”

https://twitter.com/Consortiumnews/status/1628070566384267264?fbclid=IwAR1xTZ-lJsiB05d_WB5uCiQ3-oEwP29LsZu98No97wj1euU70VpW7w5atNc

“. at Rage Against the War Machine "Our enemy is the corporate media and the oligarchs they speak for... the Empire that has robbed us of our rights, looted our Treasury for its insane imperial regime change wars, and hounded real journalists like Julian ."”

21/02/2023

“The U.S. had previously walked away from the treaty. During the Trump administration, the U.S. declined to engage in negotiations to extend it, accusing Moscow of flagrant violations. But when President Joe Biden took office in 2021, his administration signed a five-year extension.”

“Putin's announcement and the subsequent clarification from the Foreign Ministry seemed to indicate the inspections are on a permanent suspension — but they left unclear what data sharing and notifications might be continued.”

“The U.S. will get its first clues on March 1, the day both parties are supposed to exchange data on the aggregate numbers of their nuclear forces, said Hans Kristensen, director of the nuclear information project at the Federation of American Scientists.”

“The U.S and Russia also have been exchanging daily messages on movements and exercises, which has helped keep both nuclear powers clear on the other's actions, both Kristensen and William Alberque, director for strategy, technology and arms control for the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin's announcement that Moscow is suspending its participation in the last remaining U.S.-Russia arms control treaty will have an immediate impact on U.S. visibility into Russian nuclear activities

21/02/2023

“This moral revolution must move people to abandon the exploitative ethics that have driven us into ecological overshoot, and to embrace biocentric and ecocentric values instead…The opportunity for action lies in their exposure. Intensifying educational efforts and exposing moral double standards in conventional schooling hold promise in that regard”

Value changes imposed in a top-down manner seldom pass the test of time unless they are also supported from below by popular consensus.

20/02/2023

“There are really only two human races – the “race” of decent people and the “race” of indecent people, and the “race separation” goes through all nations” Dr. Victor Frankl

“Decent people are always a minority – but real danger is when a political system sweeps the indecent to the top”

In this timeless speech, Viktor Frankl, author of "Man's Search for Meaning" speaks out against the concept of "collective guilt" as a continuation of Nazi-i...

20/02/2023

“The war in is—if not precisely a deterrence failure for the United States—then at least a clear failure of U.S. policy decisions over the last few decades to maintain peace in Europe. It is certainly true that the war has shown the West’s willingness to confront the return of power politics. But it has also shown the practical limitations of that strategy.”

This misdiagnosis matters: if policymakers view the war in Ukraine as a triumph of U.S. policy, they will be more likely to make similar mistakes elsewhere.

“it would take a truly blinkered view of the region to argue that the inflexible policies pursued by U.S. policymakers in eastern Europe over the last few decades played no role at all in the run-up to the war.”

“Thus when Russia asserted in 1999 during NATO’s Kosovo intervention that the former Yugoslavia fell within its sphere of influence, going so far as to send Russian paratroopers on a quixotic quest to seize Pristina’s airport, the United States was able to largely brush off the complaint.”

“The United States refused to discuss NATO’s open-door policy before the invasion of Ukraine for one key reason: that doing so might deny the agency of states in eastern Europe to make their own foreign policy choices.”

What the war in Ukraine has revealed about geopolitical rivalry.

20/02/2023

"the U.S. position on justice is — you know, on international justice is riddled with double standards"

At the Munich Security Conference, Vice President Kamala Harris announced the United States has formally determined Russia committed crimes against humanity in Ukraine. Her remarks come amid a “massive justice mobilization” in Ukraine, where investigators are documenting abuses and seeking to pr...

20/02/2023

"If a government is acting in a racist way and they want billions of dollars from [US taxpayers] I think you say: Sorry but it's not acceptable. You want our money? Fine. This is what you got to do to get it"

“"If a government is acting in a racist way and they want billions of dollars from [US taxpayers] I think you say: Sorry but it's not acceptable. You want our money? Fine. This is what you got to do to get it" on conditioning military funding to Israel. Let's go 🔥”

15/02/2023

How do we make accountable those who contributed to the most serious miscarriages of justice? You cannot destroy an innocent human life and continue to live your own life w/o consequences. Our justice system needs to be scrutinized and changed.

Lamar Johnson, 49, said he was “elated” to walk free this week after a lengthy legal process. He likely won’t be compensated.

10/02/2023

"No government in any kind of system will voluntarily disclose its own crimes. For that, we need brave sources who have firsthand evidence, and we need a free press and brave publishers who are willing to bring this information to the people, to whom it belongs."

Former British Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, famed linguist and dissident Noam Chomsky and others gave testimony Friday at the Belmarsh Tribunal in Washington, D.C., calling on President Biden to drop charges against Julian Assange. The WikiLeaks founder...

10/02/2023

"As a result of western sanctions, aid deliveries for Syria have been largely hindered compared to the flow of aid entering neighboring Turkiye, forcing Damascus to rely on allied nations like Russia and Iran to assist survivors."

https://thecradle.co/article-view/21293

10/02/2023

"The resolution notes that since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the U.S. has been the top contributor to the Ukrainian war effort, with more than $110 billion in financial, military, and humanitarian aid to the U.S. ally. It includes more than $27.4 billion in security assistance."

On Thursday, Republican representative Matt Gaetz is introducing a resolution that will call on the Biden White House to end military and financial aid to

10/02/2023

"In hindsight, Bannon’s podcast episode offers a chilling example of the types of unsubstantiated and false claims spread by prominent political podcasters after the 2020 election. After voters cast their ballots, podcast hosts and guests regularly promoted the lie that the election had been stolen from Trump, relying on debunked evidence, hearsay, and blatant conspiracy tropes to bolster their claims.55 Following the attack on the Capitol, social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter faced more scrutiny for their contributions to spreading these narratives.56 At the time, podcasts barely registered as a concern"

A large podcast study found that Mr. Bannon’s “War Room” had more falsehoods and unsubstantiated claims than other political talk shows.

07/02/2023

Great article on how the Pentagon wastes money. "The Pentagon found that engines on the Freedom-class ships were so loud that they handicapped the ability to detect enemy submarines. The Raytheon sonar system itself also swerved erratically as it was dragged from the ship at high speeds.

As a result, the Pentagon said last year, the ship’s most vital mission — hunting submarines — would be abandoned."

After years of crippling problems and a changing mission, the Navy pushed to retire nine of its newest ships. Then the lobbying started.

03/02/2023

“A brilliant, remarkably concise explanation of the danger the U.S. and NATO military involvement in Ukraine has created. It needs to be read and pondered by every citizen capable of thinking rationally and responsibly about American and European security.”
-Jack F. Matlock, Jr., former U.S. Ambassador to the Soviet Union, author of Superpower Illusions

Misguided American and NATO policies created the Ukraine crisis. Now they risk nuclear war.