Welcome to European Tribune. It's gone a bit quiet around here these days, but it's still going.

NUCLEAR THREAT M.A.D.

by Oui Mon Mar 14th, 2022 at 11:57:39 AM EST

So we are now reading more articles how the West can survive a limited nuclear war in Ukraine. Human Kind cannot stoop any lower. The paid jobs in so-called "Think-Tanks" apparently are just for war hawks and fascist element in society today. Have been warning for such a development for over a decade now. It's a tragedy to see the worst case scenarios evolve into reality.

Research by RIVM for health effects of a nuclear bomb exploding over the Ukraine ☹

Detonation of a Nuclear Bomb on Ukraine, The Netherlands Will Hardly Notice Any Effect

Has it come to this? - Frontpaged - Frank Schnittger

Translation:
Jaap van #Dissel [leader Dutch Covid-19 policy] is getting too little attention these days. So modelling:

What if #Putin deploys a nuclear bomb? #RIVM calculates the consequences for the Netherlands

RIVM

PS A new rapport adds by increased long levity of the Dutch, healthcare costs will become a burden for government budget. Herd immunity policy had to be adjusted as all healthcare facilities were overcrowded. What effect would you imagine by radioactivity if not direct obliteration with wounded beyond comprehension? Nuclear war to solve earth's overpopulation and high demand for resources?

Hiroshima

Pacific Islands

Pacific Proving Grounds

75 years after nuclear testing in the Pacific began, the fallout continues to wreak havoc | April 2021 |

This year marks 75 years since the United States launched its immense atomic testing program in the Pacific. The historical fallout from tests carried out over 12 years in the Marshall Islands, then a UN Trust Territory governed by the US, have framed seven decades of US relations with the Pacific nation.

Due to the dramatic effects of climate change, the legacies of this history are shaping the present in myriad ways.

This history has Australian dimensions too, though decades of diplomatic distance between Australia and the Marshall Islands have hidden an entangled atomic past.

In 1946, the Marshall Islands seemed very close for many Australians. They feared the imminent launch of the US's atomic testing program on Bikini Atoll might split the earth in two, catastrophically change the earth's climate, or produce earthquakes and deadly tidal waves.

A map accompanying one report noted Sydney was only 3,100 miles from ground zero. Residents as far away as Perth were warned if their houses shook on July 1, "it may be the atom bomb test".

Australia was "included in the tests" as a site for recording blast effects and monitoring for atom bombs detonated anywhere in the world by hostile nations. This Australian site served to keep enemies in check and achieve one of the Pacific testing program's objectives: to deter future war. The other justification was the advancement of science.

The earth did not split in two after the initial test (unless you were Marshallese) so they continued; 66 others followed over the next 12 years. But the insidious and multiple harms to people and place, regularly covered up or denied publicly, became increasingly hard to hide.

Radiation poisoning, birth defects, leukaemia, thyroid and other cancers became prevalent in exposed Marshallese, at least four islands were "partially or completely vapourised", the exposed Marshallese "became subjects of a medical research program" and atomic refugees. (Bikinians were allowed to return to their atoll for a decade before the US government removed them again when it was realised a careless error falsely claimed radiation levels were safe in 1968.)

In late 1947, the US moved its operations to Eniwetok Atoll, a decision, it was argued, to ensure additional safety. Eniwetok was more isolated and winds were less likely to carry radioactive particles to populated areas.

Australian reports noted this site was only 3,200 miles from Sydney. Troubling reports of radioactive clouds as far away as the French Alps and the known shocking health effects appeared.

French Polynesia leader admits nuclear lie

US Army exercises in Nevada to enter the battlefield after a nuclear explosion

During the 1950s, the Pentagon Played War Games With Troops and Nukes

Years of tests tried to discover the psychological toll of nuclear war

After the Soviet Union set off its first nuclear weapon in 1949, the U.S. military quickly envisioned a new type of war full of nuclear missiles, artillery and even recoilless rifles.

But with little information and no actual experience of this terrifying new battlefield, the Pentagon was desperate to find out what would really happen if its troops got nuked.

So in 1951, the Pentagon, the U.S. Army and the Atomic Energy Commission teamed up for what eventually became a series of nuclear war games—blandly nicknamed Desert Rock—in the Nevada desert. For the next seven years, technicians, scientists and academics poured over both practical and psychological data from the various exercises.

“Exercise Desert Rock I marked the first time that … troops have had the opportunity to receive realistic training in the tactical aspects of atomic warfare,” a now-declassified Army report on the test stated.

By the end of the project, the American troops had participated in eight separate Desert Rock events … which all involved nuclear detonations.

U.S. Army and the Atomic Energy Commission Operations Desert Rock

Atomic Veterans Were Silenced for 50 Years. Now, They're Talking.

French Algeria Testing Ground Nuclear Bomb

Gerboise Bleue

Gerboise Bleue (lit. 'Blue Jerboa') was the codename of the first French nuclear test. It was conducted by the Nuclear Experiments Operational Group (GOEN), a unit of the Joint Special Weapons Command on 13 February 1960, at the Saharan Military Experiments Centre near Reggane, French Algeria in the Sahara desert region of Tanezrouft, during the Algerian War] General Pierre Marie Gallois was instrumental in the endeavour, and earned the nickname of père de la bombe A.

Radiological Conditions at the Former French Nuclear Test Sites in Algeria: Preliminary Assessment and Recommendations

Development Neutron Bomb

The Neutron Bomb | Air Force Mag – Oct. 30, 2017 |

The uproar over the neutron bomb is largely forgotten today but it was in the news almost constantly in 1977-78 and again in 1981, a blazing international issue that drew in top leaders from the United States, Europe, and the Soviet Union.

After almost a year of waffling and indecision, US President Jimmy Carter decided in April 1978 to defer production of the neutron bomb, although he did not cancel the program outright. President Ronald Reagan reopened the question in 1981, eventually electing to produce neutron weapons but to keep them in storage.

“Neutron bomb” was the popular term for the enhanced radiation weapon (ERW), a small hydrogen warhead for short-range US Army rockets and artillery shells. It was intended to replace existing nuclear warheads—atomic rather than hydrogen devices—already deployed on battlefield weapons in Europe.

Many critics shared the judgment of science fiction author and commentator Isaac Asimov that the neutron bomb “seems desirable to those who worry about property and hold life cheap.”

In fact, the purpose had nothing to do with preserving property. The neutron bomb did not leave property intact; by limiting collateral damage, it just destroyed less of it. The objective was to restore the sagging credibility of “tactical nuclear weapons”—as they were then called—as a deterrent against an attack by Soviet and Warsaw Pact tank armies.

The critics were closer to the mark with their accusation that the neutron bomb lowered the nuclear threshold by reducing the reluctance to use nuclear weapons. “By giving NATO greater potential to fight a limited nuclear war, will battlefield nuclear weapons increase deterrence, or will they increase the likelihood that NATO may actually engage in nuclear battle?” asked historian Sherri L. Wasserman.

The Future of U.S. Non-Strategic Nuclear Weapons and Implications for NATO
Drifting Toward the Foreseeable Future

The views, opinions, and analysis in this study are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the policy of the United States government, NATO, or Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) or any of its clients.

The Tories’ bellicose posturing on Ukraine is dangerous – and unfair to us | The Guardian Opinion |

There is a fascinating tension in the British attitude to war and military matters. When he wrote about England in 1941, George Orwell said his home country was defined by the “gentleness” of its civilisation, and such a “hatred of war and militarism” that flag-waving and patriotic boasting were always the preserve of a small minority. Events over the past 40 or so years have perhaps proved him wrong: from time to time, a widely shared jingoism has been brought to the surface of our national life, focused either on actual conflict – as happened when Britain fought for the Falkland Islands – or some hare-brained proxy for it, such as Brexit. But there is something about Orwell’s portrayal of people with an innate distaste for bellicose posturing that still rings true, across all the countries of the United Kingdom.

Among certain politicians, by contrast, there is far too little of that kind of thinking. Over the past three weeks, the unimaginable awfulness of what has happened in Ukraine and the fact that Vladimir Putin’s invasion is such a matter of moral clarity has encouraged a lot of rhetoric and posturing that has been shrill, banal and full of a misplaced machismo. The war, says one Tory MP, is Boris Johnson’s “Falklands moment”. The vocal Conservative backbencher Tobias Ellwood – a former soldier in the Royal Green Jackets, and now an active reservist – insists that the west’s response shows “we’ve lost our appetite, we’ve lost our confidence to stand up: to stand tall”. And while he and other Tory MPs – including zealous believers in Britain breaking from the EU, suddenly holding forth about the urgent need for international unity – have been making sense-defying demands for NATO to impose a no-fly zone, some of the cabinet have come out with their own very unsettling pronouncements, seemingly thinking that if Putin talks tough, they should talk tougher. When Sajid Javid was asked about the recent Russian attack on a Ukrainian military base only about 10 miles from the country’s border with Poland, we saw the strange spectacle of the health secretary apparently embracing the prospect of nuclear war: “Let’s be very clear … if a single Russian toecap steps into NATO territory, there will be war with NATO.”

Liberal Hegemony - The Great Delusion


Related reading …

Seeing Off the Bear:
Anglo-American Air Power Cooperation During the Cold War

Today’s collection of idiots running around after each other’s tails … not taking Russia’s national security serious.

Russia is risking all-out war | CNBC – Jan 12, 2022 |

Display:
NUCLEAR THREAT M.A.D. | 105 comments (105 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
Destroying A People On Bikini (none / 0)

Government Films and Photographs Depict Test "Able" on 1 July 1946. Removal of 167 Bikinians from the Atoll Preceded the Atomic Tests

70th Anniversary of Operation Crossroads Atomic Tests in Bikini Atoll, July 1946

Also documented is the U.S. Navy's removal, in early March 1946, of 167 Pacific islanders from Bikini, their ancestral home, so that the Navy and the Army could prepare for the tests. The Bikinians had the impression that the relocation would be temporary but the islands remain uninhabitable due to subsequent nuclear testing in the atoll.

To stage the tests the Navy sought a remote site under U.S. control where it could assemble old and retired ships and detonate atomic weapons above or below them. By December 1945, Navy planners had decided that the most suitable location was Bikini, part of the Marshall Islands group, which had been captured from the Japanese in early 1944. The atoll's people were descendants of communities that had lived there for thousands of years, subsisting on coconuts and seafood. So that Admiral Blandy's task force could prepare for Crossroads, the Navy took over the atoll. Therefore, in February 1946, Commodore Ben Wyatt, the Marshall Island's military governor, informed the Bikinians that they must leave so that the U.S. government could conduct military tests "for the good of mankind." On 7 March the Navy transported the Bikinians to Rongerik Island where, as it turned out, food and water were in short supply.

For the advancement of mankind ...

'Sapere aude'

by Oui (Oui) on Mon Mar 14th, 2022 at 02:11:36 PM EST
Food for thought... (none / 1)
Twice in a Century: Russia Faces a War of Annihilation
https:/www.unz.com/mwhitney/twice-in-a-century-russia-faces-a-war-of-annihilation
The war in Ukraine is not about Ukraine, it's about geopolitics and, in particular, the steady erosion of Washington's power on the global stage. That's why we are seeing this wretched attempt to crush Russia on the way to encircling China. It's pure desperation, and it's gotten considerably worse since the February 4 summit between Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, when the two leaders announced a new "global governance system," that would bind Europe and Asia together through "infrastructure connectivity", high-speed rail, and collaborative distribution of energy resources.
Russia and China are allies on the biggest free trade project in history, which is why Uncle Sam is doing everything he can to rock-the-boat. Here's more from Alfred McCoy's article at Counterpunch:
"In a landmark 5,300-word statement, Xi and Putin proclaimed the "world is going through momentous changes," creating a "redistribution of power" and "a growing demand for... leadership" (which Beijing and Moscow clearly intended to provide). After denouncing Washington's ill-concealed "attempts at hegemony," the two sides agreed to "oppose the...
interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states under the pretext of protecting democracy and human rights."
To build an alternative system for global economic growth in Eurasia, the leaders planned to merge Putin's projected "Eurasian Economic Union" with Xi's already ongoing trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative to promote "greater interconnectedness between the Asia Pacific and Eurasian regions."
Proclaiming their relations "superior to political and military alliances of the Cold War era," an oblique reference to the tense Mao-Stalin relationship, the two leaders asserted that their entente has "no limits... no `forbidden' areas of cooperation."
On strategic issues, the two parties were adamantly opposed to the expansion of NATO, any move toward independence for Taiwan, and "color revolutions" such as the one that had ousted Moscow's Ukrainian client in 2014." ("The Geopolitics of the Ukraine War," Alfred W. McCoy, Counterpunch)
How does this relate to the war in Ukraine?
It shows that Uncle Sam is trying to destroy Russia so he can project power into Central Asia and maintain Washington's grip on global power. Who is going control the most populous and prosperous region of the next century, Asia? That's the question that guides Washington's actions in Ukraine.
Simply put, Washington's plan is to crush Russia first and then move on to China. This explains why the US has imposed the most comprehensive and vicious sanctions of all time. The gloves have come off and we are beginning to see that Washington is embroiled in a scorched earth campaign to strangle the Russian economy, crash the Russian markets, slash vital oil and gas revenues, freeze foreign reserves, seize privately-owned assets, terminate the flow of foreign capital, torpedo multi-billion dollar pipeline projects, prevent access to the capital markets, send the ruble off a cliff, demonize the Russian leadership and remove Russia from the community of nations. At the same time, the US has increased the flow of lethal weaponry to Ukraine while the CIA continues to advise and train far-right militants who will be used to launch an anti-Russian insurgency.[.]
by Tom2 on Mon Mar 14th, 2022 at 05:24:05 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Yum yum (none / 0)
Pooty-poot :
If we accept your reasoning on the matter, then we'd have to conclude that John Kennedy had no right to challenge Fidel Castro for putting nuclear weapons in Cuba.

Not exactly. We'd have to conclude that JFK had no right to launch the Bay of Pigs operation in 1961. No, that's not a good analogy either, it's closer to the Donbass events of March 2014.

In fact, we'd have to conclude that George H.W. Bush had no right to invade Panama in 1989.

But given the scale of the war, you'd have to substitute Mexico for Panama, for the analogy to work.

So:  

If we accept your reasoning on the matter, you'd have to conclude that James K. Polk had no right to invade Mexico in 1846.

Fixed it for ya, Pooty.

By the way, Tom : have the Russians found the Ukrainian WMD yet?

It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II

by eurogreen on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 11:26:49 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Memories of Great Patriotic War 1939-1945 (none / 1)
Operation Barbarossa and the loss of 27 million lives will not be repeated. The Kremlin will prevent it, and will use nuclear bombs by any such offensive.

They did not return from the battle: the number of those who died in the Great Patriotic War was declassified

Recently, the State Duma announced new figures for the human losses of the Soviet Union during the Great Patriotic War - almost 42 million people. An additional 15 million people were added to the previous official figures. The head of the Great Patriotic War Memorial Museum of the Kazan Kremlin, our columnist Mikhail Cherepanov, in the author's column of Realnoe Vremya talks about the declassified losses of the USSR and Tatarstan.

The irretrievable losses of the Soviet Union as a result of the factors of the Second World War are more than 19 million military personnel.

Despite many years of well-paid sabotage and all sorts of efforts by generals and politicians to hide the true price of our Victory over fascism, on February 14, 2017, at the State Duma, at the parliamentary hearings "Patriotic education of Russian citizens: the Immortal Regiment", the numbers closest to the truth were finally declassified :

"According to the declassified data of the State Planning Committee of the USSR, the losses of the Soviet Union in World War II amount to 41 million 979 thousand, and not 27 million, as previously thought. The total decline in the population of the USSR in 1941-1945 was more than 52 million 812 thousand people. Of these, irretrievable losses as a result of the action of war factors are more than 19 million military personnel and about 23 million civilians.

As stated in the report, this information is confirmed by a large number of original documents, authoritative publications and testimonies (details are on the Immortal Regiment website and other resources).



'Sapere aude'
by Oui (Oui) on Mon Mar 14th, 2022 at 06:36:42 PM EST
Re: Memories of Great Patriotic War 1939-1945 (none / 1)
"Do Russians Want War?" | Carnegie Moscow - June 2016 |

It is difficult to overstate the impact that war has on the mass consciousness of the Russian public. The memory of the Second World War, or the Great Patriotic War, continues to provide a powerful basis for national unity. Ideological differences aside, successive Soviet and Russian governments have sought to legitimize themselves through mythologized interpretations of the war. Themes that were developed during the Soviet era are being recycled in an entirely new context.

Peddling threats, external and internal, including the threat of war, to the Russian people is a key tool of the Putin regime's political strategy. At the same time, the Kremlin has embraced the so-called virtualization of war. For a large majority of the Russian population, war is experienced solely through mass media. Meanwhile, the appeal of modern war is driven largely by the absence of significant losses on the Russian side, something that directly plays into the level of popular support for the government.

...
In 1961, Soviet poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko wrote a particularly wonderful poem--"Do Russians Want War?"--that later became a smash hit for crooner Mark Bernes.  The poem's text was a handy encapsulation of the Communist Party's peace-loving policies. In Yevtushenko's telling, external circumstances--and the need to prevent larger wars--consistently provoked the Soviet Union into action. As the lyrics explained:

      It is not only for our country
      That soldiers fell in this war,
      But so that all the people of the earth
      Can sleep peacefully at night.

      Just ask those who fought,
      To those who kissed you on the Elbe.
      We believe in that memory.
       . . . The Russians, do they want war?



'Sapere aude'
by Oui (Oui) on Mon Mar 14th, 2022 at 06:37:17 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: (none / 1)
Nuland, Sullivan, old friends. And what exactly was this "Fuck the EU" about, let me ask?

Memento 2014:

Transcript:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26079957

"Victoria Nuland [then Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs]: What do you think?

Geoffrey Pyatt [then U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine]: I think we're in play. The Klitschko [then leader of the Ukrainain Democratic Alliance for Reform party] piece is obviously the complicated electron here. Especially the announcement of him as deputy prime minister and you've seen some of my notes on the troubles in the marriage right now so we're trying to get a read really fast on where he is on this stuff. But I think your argument to him, which you'll need to make, I think that's the next phone call you want to set up, is exactly the one you made to Yats [Arseniy Yatseniuk, then another opposition leader]. And I'm glad you sort of put him on the spot on where he fits in this scenario. And I'm very glad that he said what he said in response.

Nuland: Good. I don't think Klitsch, should go into the government. I don't think it's necessary, I don't think it's a good idea.

Pyatt: Yeah. I guess... in terms of him not going into the government, just let him stay out and do his political homework and stuff. I'm just thinking in terms of sort of the process moving ahead we want to keep the moderate democrats together. The problem is going to be Tyahnybok [Oleh Tyahnybok, then leader of the ultra-nationalist Svoboda party] and his guys and I'm sure that's part of what [then President Viktor] Yanukovych is calculating on all this.

Nuland: [Breaks in] I think Yats is the guy who's got the economic experience, the governing experience. He's the... what he needs is Klitsch and Tyahnybok on the outside. He needs to be talking to them four times a week, you know. I just think Klitsch going in... he's going to be at that level working for Yatseniuk, it's just not going to work.

Pyatt: Yeah, no, I think that's right. OK. Good. Do you want us to set up a call with him as the next step?

Nuland: My understanding from that call - but you tell me - was that the big three were going into their own meeting and that Yats was going to offer in that context a... three-plus-one conversation or three-plus-two with you. Is that not how you understood it?

Pyatt: No. I think... I mean that's what he proposed but I think, just knowing the dynamic that's been with them where Klitschko has been the top dog, he's going to take a while to show up for whatever meeting they've got and he's probably talking to his guys at this point, so I think you reaching out directly to him helps with the personality management among the three and it gives you also a chance to move fast on all this stuff and put us behind it before they all sit down and he explains why he doesn't like it

Nuland: OK, good. I'm happy. Why don't you reach out to him and see if he wants to talk before or after.

Pyatt: OK, will do. Thanks.

Nuland: OK... one more wrinkle for you Geoff. [A click can be heard] I can't remember if I told you this, or if I only told Washington this, that when I talked to Jeff Feltman [United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs] this morning, he had a new name for the UN guy Robert Serry did I write you that this morning?

Pyatt: Yeah I saw that.

Nuland: OK. He's now gotten both Serry and [then UN Secretary General] Ban Ki-moon to agree that Serry could come in Monday or Tuesday. So that would be great, I think, to help glue this thing and to have the UN help glue it and, you know, Fuck the EU.

Pyatt: No, exactly. And I think we've got to do something to make it stick together because you can be pretty sure that if it does start to gain altitude, that the Russians will be working behind the scenes to try to torpedo it. And again the fact that this is out there right now, I'm still trying to figure out in my mind why Yanukovych (garbled) that. In the meantime there's a Party of Regions faction meeting going on right now and I'm sure there's a lively argument going on in that group at this point. But anyway we could land jelly side up on this one if we move fast. So let me work on Klitschko and if you can just keep... we want to try to get somebody with an international personality to come out here and help to midwife this thing. The other issue is some kind of outreach to Yanukovych but we probably regroup on that tomorrow as we see how things start to fall into place.

Nuland: So on that piece Geoff, when I wrote the note [US vice-president's national security adviser Jake] Sullivan's come back to me VFR [direct to me], saying you need [then US Vice-President Joe] Biden and I said probably tomorrow for an atta-boy and to get the deets [details] to stick. So Biden's willing.

Pyatt: OK. Great. Thanks. "

by Tom2 on Mon Mar 14th, 2022 at 06:38:46 PM EST
[ Parent ]
A Rant About White Privilege and Exceptionalism (none / 1)
The Fall Of The Boss - A Story Of Our Time

By Roger Boyd

The assigned role of other nations was as vassals, and perhaps nobles in the case of Western Europe and Japan, not sovereigns. Then in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union it seemed that the US elites had achieved their five-century project, to be the Boss of the World. As with most bosses, the decline sets in at what appears to be the apex of their power and influence. Unfortunately, it takes a long time for the self-adoration and hubris of the apex of power to fade away and reflect lessened circumstances.

The US frittered away its apex of power, treating Russia so appallingly that it has come to reject the West and rebuild some of its prior strength. While the US threw away the outpouring of global support after 9/11 through an illegal war of aggression against Iraq and a "war on terror" that abrogated the sovereignty of so many nations and lead to the death of so many innocents, China quietly grew its strength to the point where it would start to assert its own power.

At the same time its elites squandered its industrial and cultural strengths in an orgy of profiteering, corruption, extraction, monopolization, class war and social engineering. The arrogance and profiteering continued in the 2010s, even after the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, as Libya was destroyed on a bed of lies, Syria turned into a land of ruins [taking Lebanon down along the way - Oui], and the Trump administration walked away from the JCPOA agreement with Iran and stooped so low as to assassinate an Iranian leader on a diplomatic mission in a third country. Then also the stupidity of treating Pakistan with no respect, deepening its relationship with China.

The Biden administration promised at least some reset from the arrogance, incompetence and near civil war within the Trump administration, but it was not to be.

[About the author: Roger Boyd]

United States of America Declared a Bandit State | by Oui Sat Jan 4th, 2020 |

Previous diaries ...

A Final Warning: Rise of Fascism | by Oui Fri Jan 10th, 2020 |

A last warning, the Anglo-Saxon Axis of unipolar power in the Western hemisphere, if left unchecked, will lead to mass killings and genocide in the Muslim world. Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria of today are the countries under the Nazi boot for expansion of Lebensraum by the Nazis: Austria, Slovakia, Hungary and Poland.

'Sapere aude'

by Oui (Oui) on Mon Mar 14th, 2022 at 08:12:31 PM EST
Re: A Rant About White Privilege and (none / 0)
Surely the French should get some credit of mass killings of Muslims as well. They've been at it for longer, after all (Jaffa)
by gk (gk (gk quattro due due sette @gmail.com)) on Mon Mar 14th, 2022 at 09:03:32 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: A Rant About White Privilege and (none / 0)
Not to forget Spanish use of chemical weapons against the populations of the Moroccan Rif (1921-27)
Phosgene and mustard gas

It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II
by eurogreen on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 11:43:59 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: (none / 0)
I am afraid that this time the people with Moroccan, Algerian, Malian etc backgrounds who form a large part of the French troops will refuse to die for the Dumb Ass.
It should be the children of the warmongers and the EMPs who go first!
by Tom2 on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 12:03:56 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: (none / 0)
To prove my case (hope you can follow French slang!)
https://www.franceinter.fr/emissions/la-chronique-de-waly-dia/la-chronique-de-waly-dia-du-lundi-14-m ars-2022
by Tom2 on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 12:07:02 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: (none / 0)
Oddly enough Tom, I listened to that last night (a replay of the midday show) while I was pasting up posters.
Waly is very good.

It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II
by eurogreen on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 12:15:51 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: (none / 0)
So there is still some hope!!
by Tom2 on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 12:42:43 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: (none / 0)
Depends what you're hoping for. But I'm not allowed to ask for personal information, if I remember correctly.

However, I gratefully accept your condescension.

It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II

by eurogreen on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 12:59:58 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Napoleon Bonaparte and Spoils of War (none / 1)
3.2 The propaganda function of Jaffa

When Jaffa was exhibited in 1804, it was greeted with great acclaim and would thus seem to have fulfilled the propaganda purpose for which it was intended. Like The Battle of Nazareth, it deals with the later stages of the Egyptian campaign after the French had invaded Syria, which, like Egypt, formed part of the Ottoman (Turkish) empire.

The French assault on Jaffa in March 1799 culminated in the massacre on Bonaparte's orders of some 2,500-3,000 Turks, who had surrendered the garrison in return for a promise that their lives would be spared. It also involved the rape and slaughter of many civilians. Such actions flatly contradicted the avowed purpose of the campaign, which was justified on the grounds that it was not so much a conquest as a liberation that would bring enlightenment to the benighted lands of the East.

Siege of Acre (1799)

'Sapere aude'

by Oui (Oui) on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 12:47:32 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Napoleon Bonaparte and Spoils of War (none / 0)
French soldiers not only carried out atrocities at Jaffa, however, but were also themselves struck down in large numbers by the plague there. On his retreat to Cairo, two months later, Bonaparte gave orders for those still alive to be poisoned so as to avoid having to evacuate them. It was this incident that was the most shocking from a contemporary European point of view, and the story rapidly gained currency in the British press, some of the victims having survived to tell it to the British, who entered Jaffa after the French left. It also reached France, and it was clearly in order to counter these rumours that Gros was commissioned to paint his picture. Jaffa thus had a very specific propagandist function.


    Bonaparte Visiting the Plague Victims of Jaffa, 1804. (Louvre Museum - Getty Images)

In order to back up this conception of a 'civilizing mission', Bonaparte brought large numbers of scholars, scientists and artists with him to Egypt.

'Sapere aude'

by Oui (Oui) on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 12:51:02 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Napoleon Bonaparte and Spoils of War (none / 0)
Napoleon Bonaparte Visiting the Plague-Stricken at Jaffa

Still, there were mixed feelings about Bonaparte's attack at Jaffa, where the men had taken ill. When attacking the walled fortress by storm on March 7 and 8, his troops ran amok and, in their fury, slaughtered soldiers, women, and children, both Christians and Muslims.

Shocked by this event, Citizen Peyrusse wrote home to his mother regarding his shame about the attack. He wrote when taking a city by storm, the looting, burning, and indiscriminate killing was something demanded by the laws of war, and humanity covers these horrors with a veil.

Two days after this visit, Bonaparte ordered that local Christians be forcibly recruited to help care for the plague-stricken and departed with his army, marching north to Acre, Syria, to repel the Ottoman empire, who had declared war on France. Bonaparte had invaded Egypt the previous summer and defeated the ruling Mamelukes outside Cairo at the Battle of the Pyramids. His claim to be a friend of Islam whose goal was to liberate the Egyptians from the oppression of the Mamelukes was not accepted by the local populace, but initially they passively acquiesced to French rule.

However, in response to Bonaparte's invasion, the Ottoman Empire declared war on France. Bonaparte's response was to lead 13 000 French troops into Syria (present-day Israel) to prevent the Turks from advancing on Egypt. After capturing El Arish, Gaza, and Jaffa, he expected to be victorious at Acre. However, after a 2-month siege, he failed to defeat the Turks, who were reinforced from the sea by the British and aided in their fortifications and with their artillery by one of his own French military school classmates, a royalist who had left France during the revolution.

...
Bonaparte used the plague as an excuse for his failure at Acre. Before the retreat, Bonaparte remarked to Dr Desgenettes (witnessed by General Berthier) that, to maintain his army, if he were in the doctor's position, he would put an end to the suffering of the soldiers who did have plague, and their risk to others, by administering each of them an overdose of opium.2(p302) He said that this would be his choice if he were severely ill with plague, but the doctor responded that his task was to preserve life; he knew that plague was not uniformly fatal. Bonaparte did not seek to overcome Dr Desgenettes's scruples but replied that he believed he could find others who would appreciate his intentions.



'Sapere aude'
by Oui (Oui) on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 12:51:53 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Bonaparte Encountered the Russian Barbarians (none / 0)
In 1812 Desgenettes participated in the campaign into Russia but he was then captured during the retreat. When Tsar Alexander learned of Desgenettes' capture, he freed Desgenettes due to the care that Desgenettes had provided Russian soldiers throughout the years. Desgenettes was given a Russian guard that escorted him to the French advance posts to ensure that he safely rejoined the French.

After the Second Treaty of Paris, Alexander I, inspired by piety, formed the Holy Alliance, which was supposed to bring about a peace based on Christian love to the monarchs and peoples of Europe. It is possible to see in the alliance the beginnings of a European federation, but it would have been a federation with ecumenical, rather than political, foundations.

The idealistic tsar's vision came to a sad end, for the alliance became a league of monarchs against their peoples. Its members--following up the congress with additional meetings at Aix-la-Chapelle, Troppau, Laibach (Ljubljana), and Verona--revealed themselves as the champions of despotism and the defenders of an order maintained by arms.

René-Nicolas Dufriche, baron Desgenettes (1762-1837), surgeon of the French Great Army

'Sapere aude'

by Oui (Oui) on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 02:06:23 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Napoleon Bonaparte and Spoils of War (none / 1)
Hillel Cohen's book about 1929 starts the story with the Jaffa massacre. While he doesn't say so explicitly, his choice leads one to assume that this is a fundamental event in the Muslim view of the West.
by gk (gk (gk quattro due due sette @gmail.com)) on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 02:11:49 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Napoleon Bonaparte and Spoils of War (none / 0)
I think they had ideas on the subject since about 1097, actually

It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II
by eurogreen on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 03:25:17 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: A Rant About White Privilege and (4.00 / 3)
That wasn't the worst, by far. The most horrific massacres happened several decades after the fall of Napoleon, during the French conquest of Algeria, started in 1830, and that lasted over three decades.

The European press at the time was horrified by the atrocities carried out by the French military in Algeria, especially by Bugeaud and by Lamoricière. Schools are still named after Lamoricière to this day.

As French journalist J.M.Aphatie remarked, this part of history has been completely burried, most historians focusing on the Algeria independence war.

French society as a whole still has a lot of work to do to face up our colonial past. The very same day Nazi Germany capitulated, on May 8 1945, French authorities opened fire on Algerian demonstrators in cities like Setif and Guelma.

by Bernard (bernard) on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 09:27:44 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: NUCLEAR THREAT M.A.D. (none / 0)
In France pharmacies said they ran out of iodic pills already last week because of the panic in the population. Some say the false flag was filmed weeks ago.
https://twitter.com/5thSu/status/1503327447487549440
by Tom2 on Mon Mar 14th, 2022 at 08:54:58 PM EST
Re: NUCLEAR THREAT M.A.D. (none / 0)
How many pills do they usually stock?
by gk (gk (gk quattro due due sette @gmail.com)) on Mon Mar 14th, 2022 at 08:56:05 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Correct use, timing and dosage KI by radioactivity (none / 1)
Use of potassium iodide for thyroid protection during nuclear or radiological emergencies | WHO |

When used as instructed by public health authorities, the overall benefits of thyroid blocking with KI during a nuclear emergency will outweigh the risks of side effects in all age groups. When the appropriate dosage is followed, side effects from KI are rare in children and young adults. However, they may include mild allergic reactions, skin rash and gastrointestinal upset.

The risk of side effects from KI increases with age, while the risk of radiation induced thyroid cancer in individuals over 40 years old is low. For this reason, thyroid blocking with KI is not generally indicated in adults over 40 years of age (with an exception for emergency response personnel). Rare adverse effects of KI on thyroid function may occur in individuals with pre-existing thyroid disorders, which are more common in older adults and the elderly than in children or young adults.



'Sapere aude'
by Oui (Oui) on Mon Mar 14th, 2022 at 09:08:00 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: NUCLEAR THREAT M.A.D. (none / 1)
In Sweden people living within a certain distance of a nuclear reactor is provided with iodine pills to take in the event of a malfunction.

Is it the same in France?

by fjallstrom on Wed Mar 16th, 2022 at 09:34:35 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: NUCLEAR THREAT M.A.D. (none / 1)
Certainly not!! The very idea is insulting to french tech.

Today, everything here is covered with yellow dust : Sahara sand, from the scirocco.

I hope the wind keeps blowing from the south rather than the east.

Though I do have a nuclear production site 50 km south of me.
And another, a big one, 50 km east.

Any way the wind blows, doesn't really matter, to me...

It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II

by eurogreen on Wed Mar 16th, 2022 at 12:30:13 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: NUCLEAR THREAT M.A.D. (none / 1)
Similar thing in France: residents and municipal governments within a relatively short radius (10 km? 20 km?) have been supplied a provision of iodine pills, for the very same reason.
by Bernard (bernard) on Wed Mar 16th, 2022 at 07:05:00 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: NUCLEAR THREAT M.A.D. (4.00 / 2)
euractiv | Irish military neutrality to be redefined, says foreign minister
Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that Ireland's military neutrality on Russia's invasion of Ukraine does not make the country politically or morally neutral.

"The order has been turned upside down by President Putin", he told the BBC. Ireland will need to consider what this means in the long term and for the future of military neutrality, he said, adding that, for now, the focus is needed on resolving the crisis in Ukraine.

"One cannot, in the middle of a crisis, change a long-held policy overnight", he said. "There will be a debate in Ireland, but we don't have time for it right now".

oh
by Cat on Mon Mar 14th, 2022 at 09:01:55 PM EST
Re: NUCLEAR THREAT M.A.D. (4.00 / 3)
So we are now reading more articles how the West can survive a limited nuclear war in Ukraine.

Here is the definitive one

by gk (gk (gk quattro due due sette @gmail.com)) on Mon Mar 14th, 2022 at 09:21:59 PM EST
WASS (none / 1)
I guess, those strongly worded letters agitating for "limited no-fly zones" received a tepid response from the Capitol humanitarian strike force.
by Cat on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 12:49:46 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Some Advocate the NUTS Concept (none / 1)
Nuclear weapons in the 1980s: MAD versus NUTS. Mutual hostage relationship of the superpowers | OSTI.gov |

Critics of the strategic relationship of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) developed during the 1960s claim it immorally holds entire civilian populations hostage. Some advocate the Nuclear Utilization Target Selection (NUTS) concept, while others argue for a defense-oriented military posture.

The interrelationships of these concepts are examined against the background of stockpiled nuclear weapons capable of massive devastation, the technical limits to defense, and the uncertainty that a nuclear war could be controlled. The evidence shows that a MAD world prevails despite NUTS proposals, which may have increased the danger by giving nuclear war the illusion of acceptability. (DCK)

The human cost of nuclear weapons

'Sapere aude'

by Oui (Oui) on Mon Mar 14th, 2022 at 09:41:57 PM EST
Re: NUCLEAR THREAT M.A.D. (4.00 / 3)
The MAD strategy is based on the idea that no leader would want his country to be obliterated by nuclear weapons. That implies national leadership involves a sane evaluation of alternatives, which is not guaranteed by any political process.
by asdf on Mon Mar 14th, 2022 at 10:25:30 PM EST
Funding and Training neo-Nazi Groups In 2018 (none / 1)
Ukraine's Got a Real Problem with Far-Right Violence (And No, RT Didn't Write This Headline) | Atlantic Council - June 20, 2018 |

It sounds like the stuff of Kremlin propaganda, but it's not. Last week Hromadske Radio revealed that Ukraine's Ministry of Youth and Sports is funding the neo-Nazi group C14 to promote "national patriotic education projects" in the country. On June 8, the Ministry announced that it will award C14 a little less than $17,000 for a children's camp. It also awarded funds to Holosiyiv Hideout and Educational Assembly, both of which have links to the far-right. The revelation represents a dangerous example of law enforcement tacitly accepting or even encouraging the increasing lawlessness of far-right groups willing to use violence against those they don't like.

Since the beginning of 2018, C14 and other far-right groups such as the Azov-affiliated National Militia, Right Sector, Karpatska Sich, and others have attacked Roma groups several times, as well as anti-fascist demonstrations, city council. meetings, an event hosted. by Amnesty International, art exhibitions, LGBT events, and environmental activists. On March 8, violent groups launched attacks against International Women's Day marchers in cities across Ukraine. In only a few of these cases did police do anything to prevent the attacks, and in some they even arrested peaceful demonstrators rather than the actual perpetrators.

International human rights groups have sounded the alarm. After the March 8 attacks, Amnesty International warned that "Ukraine is sinking into a chaos of uncontrolled violence posed by radical groups and their total impunity. Practically no one in the country can feel safe under these conditions." Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Freedom House, and Front Line Defenders warned in a letter that radical groups acting under "a veneer of patriotism" and "traditional values" were allowed to operate under an "atmosphere of near total impunity that cannot but embolden these groups to commit more attacks."

To be clear, far-right parties like Svoboda perform poorly in Ukraine's polls and elections, and Ukrainians evince no desire to be ruled by them. But this argument is a bit of "red herring." It's not extremists' electoral prospects that should concern Ukraine's friends, but rather the state's unwillingness or inability to confront violent groups and end their impunity. Whether this is due to a continuing sense of indebtedness to some of these groups for fighting the Russians or fear they might turn on the state itself, it's a real problem and we do no service to Ukraine by sweeping it under the rug.

h/t Cao Yi

The Armies of the Right -- Inside Ukraine's extremist militias | Harpers Magazine - Jan. 2021 |

'Sapere aude'

by Oui (Oui) on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 08:12:27 AM EST
Re: Funding and Training neo-Nazi Groups In 2018 (none / 0)



'Sapere aude'
by Oui (Oui) on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 08:15:04 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Funding and Training neo-Nazi Groups In 2018 (none / 0)
Olena Semenyaka, The "First Lady" of Ukrainian Nationalism | Illiberalism - Oct. 20, 2020 |

The Azov National Corps is now a nationalist party claiming around 10,000 members and deployed in Ukrainian society through various initiatives, such as patriotic training camps for children (Azovets) and militia groups (Natsional'ny druzhiny). Azov can be described as a neo-nationalism, in tune with current European far-right transformations: it refuses to be locked into old-fashioned myths obsessed with a colonial relationship to Russia, and it sees itself as outward-looking in that its intellectual framework goes beyond Ukraine's territory, deliberately engaging pan-European strategies.

    Bellingcat has confirmed that in January 2016, Azov, via its online podcast, was in contact with the late Andrew Oneschuk, an imminent member of the violent American neo-Nazi organization Atomwaffen Division. On Azov's podcast, Oneschuk discussed issues facing Americans that wanted to join Azov, and expressed interest in learning methods of attracting youth to nationalism in America. He was encouraged to try to join Azov.

Olena Semenyaka (b. 1987) is the female figurehead of the Azov movement: she has been the international secretary of the National Corps since 2018 (and de facto leader since the party's very foundation in 2016) while leading the publishing house and metapolitical club Plomin (Flame). Gaining in visibility as the Azov regiment transformed into a multifaceted movement, Semenyaka has become a major nationalist theorist in Ukraine. The "First Lady" of Ukrainian nationalism has shifted the movement toward a regional dimension that embraces both Eastern Europe and the wider continent, reactivating the old geopolitical myth of the Intermarium. She has also aimed to de-compartmentalize the Azov movement, enabling it to consolidate fruitful partnerships with other European nationalist movements through projects of which she is the main architect, "Reconquista-Pan Europa" and "the Pact of Steel." Last but not least, she has been working to forge political ties that are sufficiently broad to ensure the Azov movement goes beyond mere military action.

Semenyaka's growing influence and international ties make her a major intellectual contributor to the new pan-European identitarian landscape, much like the more media-exposed Aleksandr Dugin in Russia or Steve Bannon in the United States.



'Sapere aude'
by Oui (Oui) on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 08:17:14 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Funding and Training neo-Nazi Groups In 2018 (none / 0)
Ukraine, Anti-Semitism, Racism, and the Far Right | Atlantic Council - Oct 18, 2018 |

October 14 saw the latest in a string of annual mass marches by the far right in Ukraine. As many as 10,000 people participated, mainly young men, chanting fiercely. A nighttime torchlight parade with signs proclaiming "We'll return Ukraine to Ukrainians," contained echoes of Nazi-style symbolism.

Lax law enforcement and indifference by the security services to the operations of the far right is being noticed by extremists from abroad who are flocking to Ukraine. German media reported the presence of the German extreme right (JN-NPD, Dritte Weg) at the rally. According to Ukrainian political analyst Anton Shekhovtsov, far-right Norwegians, Swedes, and Italians were supposed to be there too. And on October 15, they all gathered in Kyiv for the Paneuropa conference organized by the Ukrainian neo-Nazi National Corps party. "Kyiv," says Anton Shekhovtsov, "has now become one of the major centers of European far-right activities."

Such activism, naturally, unnerves liberals as well as Jews, and national minorities. And they often result in alarmist headlines in Western and Israeli newspapers.

Coming in a year in which the white supremacist C14 group engaged in savage beatings at a Roma encampment near Kyiv, one could draw the conclusion that the far right is on the rise in Ukraine.

But such a reading would be mistaken. Far-right sentiments exist in Ukraine, but these ultranationalist groupings attract little public support.

...
The leadership role of Jews in the country's economic and political life is rarely a topic of public discourse and is accepted as normal.

The country has a Jewish Prime Minister, Volodymyr Groisman.The president's chief of staff is Jewish, as was his last chief of staff, Borys Lozhkin, who now heads the Ukrainian Jewish Confederation and is a vice president of the World Jewish Congress.

According to the Ukrainian Jewish Confederation, more than thirty of 427 members of parliament are Jewish. And the Committee on Interparliamentary Relations with Israel is the largest of all such groupings in the Ukrainian Rada, numbering nearly 140 deputies, a third of the legislature.

Ukraine's religious leaders have regular access to key government leaders. And Ukrainian government and state leaders routinely take part in commemorative ceremonies of remembrance of the Holocaust.

All this is not to say that there are serious problems.

Ukraine's memory politics reflect too much heroization of a complex past and not enough acknowledgment of such issues as indigenous anti-Semitism and collaboration with the Nazi occupation. More, too, needs to be done in restoring the killing fields in which Jews were murdered in the Holocaust.



'Sapere aude'
by Oui (Oui) on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 08:18:10 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: NUCLEAR THREAT M.A.D. (none / 1)
Must read of the day, from The Economist. Good luck to the EU for getting back on its feet ever. Been dumped à l'Irakienne, à la Syrienne, à la Libanaise altogether.

https://archive.ph/IqXJW#selection-593.0-593.102

by Tom2 on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 08:33:51 AM EST
Re: NUCLEAR THREAT M.A.D. (none / 0)
"Mourir pour le DumbAss"
https://anti-empire.com/shaken-foreign-volunteers-flee-ukraine-after-base-hit-by-russian-cruise-miss iles-ex-marine-reports
by Tom2 on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 09:57:30 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: (none / 0)
These guys just got a reality shock as to what was meant by "No US troops on the ground" and "no NATO intervention" (just BS workers made into cannon fodder").
Which again shows as in the Syrian case the total duplicity and COWARDNESS of NATO.
Do they really deserve their salaries? When are the European workers going to be asked their opinion about this?
by Tom2 on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 10:06:55 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: NUCLEAR THREAT M.A.D. (none / 0)
Handle EnochPowell? For me it's clearly war propaganda ... smells.

Came across an oldie from Yeltsin's era ...

Renegade Russians Grab for Military Control

Reference Vladimir Lopatin Meeting Dick Cheney talking military and nuclear weapons

Soviet Major Rankles Top Brass | CS Monitor - Nov 13, 1990 |

'Sapere aude'

by Oui (Oui) on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 11:24:16 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: NUCLEAR THREAT M.A.D. (none / 0)
Talking about propaganda
https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1503613946422513664

(using the "Tochka-U" photo from yesterday Ukrainian forces attack on Donetsk city centre to illustrate Russia attack on Yavoriv NATO base)

From day 1, and here again it is just a repeat and rinse of the Syrian script, no one on the ground that would not be fully in bed with the warmongers will be asked for his opinion. The civilians hiding in basement might as well be afraid about their own extreme right and want negociations, we'll never know.

by Tom2 on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 11:40:50 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Losing Continents One At A Time (none / 1)
Of course the United States of America has declared the Russian Federation and China adversaries and enemy states. There is no doubt about the intention.

The whole swat of Islamic Losing Continents One At A Time nations -1.5 billion- were repeatedly run over by the empire. On the surface there maybe some cooperation, but there are no warm feelings and certainly no common values.

The old colonial empires of Britain, Dutch, French, German, Italian and Portuguese are and will remain close allies. New Europe are vassal or proxy nations of America. The true friends are the Five Eyes white nations, with Israel, Japan and Marshall Islands.

Turkey is undecided and Central Asia are in the influence sphere of Russia and China.

The Monroe doctrine states are a bit undecided and certainly split on their allegiance to the U.S.

Latin America is Rejecting U.S. Assistance

Latin America and the Caribbean is partnering with China on multi-billion dollar development projects and while turning down assistance offered by the United States. 

21 of 31 countries of the region, both friends and foes of Washington alike, have joined the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to the dismay of U.S. lawmakers. Congressional Representative Lisa McClain sought an explanation for the phenomenon at this week's House Armed Services Committee hearing on National Security Challenges and Military Activity in North and South America.

McClain, a Republican representing Michigan, remarked on the failure of the U.S. Build Act (2018), which had been introduced in an attempt by Congress to counteract China's BRI.

America is encountering a hostile world, mirrored in their own acts of past decades. Four years of Trump has exposed the true face of where America stands ... MAGA and damn the rest. Biden himself has been the toughest foe to improve relationships as even European nations realize the occupant in the White House lives on the purse strings of a more belligerent US Congress. There is no hope for improvement ... the honeymoon years after the 9/11 years have long gone. Biden us just a passing car salesman lacking credibility. Even today Republicans voice their opinion policy will be reversed after the November mid-term elections when they will sweep both House and Senate.

'Sapere aude'

by Oui (Oui) on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 01:36:47 PM EST
archived (none / 1)
millennial crazy talk

Monroeism is the Other Side of Jim Crow [Fusion Fillibuster-ism], the Side Facing South
PLUS
1823: James Monroe's Seventh State of the Union Address, 23 Dec 1823, full text

by Cat on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 04:29:51 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Israel Chooses for Neutrality (none / 1)
As Israel avoids sanctioning oligarchs, 14 private jets arrive from Russia -- report | TOI - Mar 11, 2022 |

Fourteen private jets that have taken off from Russia have landed at Ben Gurion Airport in the past 10 days, Channel 12 news reported Friday, as Israel continues to avoid joining Western sanctions against Russian oligarchs in the wake of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

Last week, Channel 12 reported that an unusual number of rented private jets have been flying from Russia to Israel since the invasion of Ukraine, a possible indication that some wealthy Russians are looking at ways to slip around sanctions imposed to punish their country for the attack.

The outlet said at least seven private jets were chartered from a company that provides jets for hire in Europe, and originated in Turkey. Tracking data showed the planes made trips from Turkey to Moscow and St. Petersburg, then from those cities to Tel Aviv.

Abramovich's plane lands in Moscow, hours after he was spotted at Israel's airport

'Sapere aude'

by Oui (Oui) on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 04:41:24 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Abramovich, future ex-EU citizen (none / 1)
Honest mistake?
LISBON, March 15 (Reuters) - An inquiry into the granting of Portuguese citizenship to Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich has led to the opening of disciplinary proceedings against employees involved in the process, Lusa news agency reported on Tuesday.

The Russian billionaire was granted Portuguese citizenship in April 2021 based on a law offering naturalisation to descendants of Sephardic Jews who were expelled from the Iberian peninsula during the mediaeval Inquisition.
There is little known history of Sephardic Jews in Russia, although Abramovich is a common surname of Ashkenazi Jewish origin.



It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II
by eurogreen on Wed Mar 16th, 2022 at 12:43:27 PM EST
[ Parent ]
"honest mistake"? (none / 1)
I don't think so. As incoherent as that explanation is, I suppose, government decision to rescind Abramovitch's Portugal citizenship is a strictly personal, vindictive demonstration of the government's political policy of denouncing "Russian oligarchs" with "ties to PUTIN".

Did you ever wonder before where jews--persecuted by medieval Britons and early modern continental sectarians during the Reconquista, Inquisition, and 30 Years War--migrated?

Generally, contemporary histiographers identify members of the diaspora by last-known, ie. documented, territorial origin, eg. sefarad (Iberia), ashkenazim ("Rhineland," "France," "slavic" frontiers). By documented, amateur and experts researchers generally have relied on family and government records such as marriage and birth certificates; scientific racists ("eugenicists") claim a purity test said to isolate a set of alleles that can distinguish all ashkenazim among jews, anywhere, anytime.

Perhaps the government of Portugal has in its possession Abramovitch's DNA? If not an acceptable, thorough ancestal record of his family's "self-identified" Iberian origin story.

Being a descendent of US American slaves, I can appreciate how difficult it is to preserve, discover, or recover documentary evidence which corroborates ancestry, or lineage--whether for purposes of legal claims or private satisfaction. Regarding, genocidal purges and their consequences, I would recommend you watching an RT documentary "The ones who search" (2020), but sadly, because of the "world war" effort to vanquish PUTIN, it's now unavailable. It starts as orphan Enrique's 20-year post-Franco "truth and reconciliation" journey and ends with him discovering 16th century "morisco" family artifacts in far-flung provincial records.

"Archeology of Knowledge" is full of surprises.

Ashkenazi Jews Find Spanish, Portuguese Roots After Passport Offer to Descendants of Expelled, 2019

It turns out quite a few Ashkenazi Jews, even those who thought they had 'pure'[?] Polish blood [?], might be able to be recognized as descendants of those expelled from Spain
[...]
Oren Gruber from Rishon Letzion looked for his wife's last name on the list. Her family is from Morocco [!] - one of the main countries where Spanish [!] Jews immigrated to after the expulsion in 1492. During his search he was surprised to find his Ashkenazi [!] grandmother's last name too: Efrati. "When I asked my father to explain, he said it was known that the family of my grandmother, who was born in Ukraine [!], has Spanish roots," Gruber told Haaretz.
[...]
Many Spanish Jews left for Portugal in 1492, before they were expelled from there too in 1497. This approval is the last station before receiving the passport issued by the Portuguese government. "It turns out that Sephardim are hiding in Ashkenazi lands, too," said Gruber this week with a smile.
timeline
1478-1834
by Cat on Wed Mar 16th, 2022 at 03:52:58 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Well I didn't expect the Portugese inquisition (4.00 / 2)
This is a subject that interests me; a member of my family has Spanish Sepharadic ancestry, via Morocco, and speaks a dialect of Ladino (a Judaeo-Spanish language derived from Old Castillan). The Andalusian diaspora irrigated the Mediterranean basin, with Thessalonika in Greece being a Jewish (Ladino speaking) city until... the 1940s, and it is not at all surprising that there would be Sepharadic Jews in Ukraine. And from thence, intermarriage with local Ashkenaz.  

However, in the case of Abramovitch, since there are civil servants being disciplined, and the certifying rabbi having been arrested, I fear (while we will have to wait for Portuguese justice to run its course) that his links with Portugal may turn out to be more pecuniairy than ancestral.
Plus, Portugal is a short flight from London.

The Jewish community of Portugal's northern city of Porto condemned the recent arrest of its leader on Tuesday, comparing allegations of wrongdoing against their local rabbi to the historical persecution of Portuguese Jews at the hands of the Catholic Church.

Asked to comment on authorities' claims that Daniel Litvak had fraudulently furnished a document allowing Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich to get Portuguese citizenship last year, a representative of the community dismissed the issue, saying that "no one is available to talk about this sad case based on anonymous reports as at the time of the inquisition."

Litvak, who was preparing to travel to Israel when he was detained, was arrested last Friday as part of an ongoing inquiry by public prosecutors into the granting of citizenship to Chelsea soccer club owner Abramovich.

According to the BBC, Litvak's passport was confiscated, and he was ordered to regularly check in with the authorities.



It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II
by eurogreen on Wed Mar 16th, 2022 at 04:23:20 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Well I didn't expect the Portugese inquisition (none / 1)
When Visiting Amsterdam | by Oui | Aug 19, 2012 |

Some of the first Jews to settle in Amsterdam were the Portuguese Jewish merchants who arrived in c1590. Over the centuries a thriving Jewish subculture emerged. The city is often referred to in Dutch as Mokum - a name given by Ashkenazi Jews - meaning a "place" or "safe haven."

Start the day at 69 Sint Antoniebreestraat for a chance to see what life was like for the wealthy Portuguese Jews. Here stands the De Pinto House in the former Jewish quarter of the city; the de Pinto family were a well-known family of financiers, scholars and rabbis.

I had written another story about the settlers in Brazil which ended in the Caribbean with some Jewish people traveling to New Amsterdam and others traveling to Holland.

Portuguese Jewish synagogue of Amsterdam! The Talmud Torah community was founded in 1639

'Sapere aude'

by Oui (Oui) on Wed Mar 16th, 2022 at 05:30:06 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Well I didn't expect the Portugese inquisition (none / 0)
Diary @BooMan ...

Holy Toledo! | by Oui | Aug 14, 2009 |

Related reading ...

From Mauritsstad to New Amsterdam: Mapping Early Jewish Presence in the America's

'Sapere aude'

by Oui (Oui) on Wed Mar 16th, 2022 at 06:15:00 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Portugese inquisition (4.00 / 2)
a distinction without difference before Birth of the Nation.har from the Holy See, my fine neandertal and denisovan allele-bearing cousins!

wikiwtf Iberian Union

archived Sovereignty and Natural Law in the Legal Discourse of the Ancien Régime

Since the language of sovereignty is not universal, but emerged in the context of sixteenth century Western Europe in close association with the development of the modern state, we can ask what the word meant for the men who used it in that period and whether they thought of sovereignty as limited or unlimited. [...] 0 The circumstances that modern
historians of ideas have in mind are political circumstances. They include the
political debates in which canonical authors have participated. The history of
political theory thus appears to be a history of ideologies.1
such as "blood" and "race"
by Cat on Wed Mar 16th, 2022 at 06:20:06 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Portugese inquisition (4.00 / 3)
My forthcoming diary about "The dawn of everything" will provide an opportunity to discuss the rather esoteric notion of "sovereignty" in detail, also that of "private property" which seems to originate in religious cult activities. Also it may feature the discussions between intellectuals of North America and western Europe about the concept of individual freedoms (the evidence suggests that the latter had no conception of such a thing, and most likely learned them from the former)

It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II
by eurogreen on Thu Mar 17th, 2022 at 02:46:10 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Portugese inquisition (4.00 / 3)
oops
"Also it may feature the discussions between intellectuals of North America and western Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries about the concept of individual freedoms

It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II
by eurogreen on Thu Mar 17th, 2022 at 03:39:52 PM EST
[ Parent ]
good luck wit dat ... (none / 1)
"as David and I discovered" the "intellectual consensus" and The loss of basic human freedoms
This conventional wisdom tells us, we originated in tiny egalitarian bands of hunter-gatherers and somehow fell from grace into a state of inequality--we could live as equals, when we were few and our lives for material needs were simple. [...] Small means equal. Big means complex, but also hierarchical.
NOOOOOOooooooooo, WHY? O WHY???!

by Cat on Thu Mar 17th, 2022 at 04:17:48 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Format to Change for New Talks (none / 0)


'Sapere aude'
by Oui (Oui) on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 02:29:30 PM EST
Re: Format to Change for New Talks (none / 0)

Nuland's Grave Concern Biolab Research Materials

Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Testifies on Ukraine | C-span |

Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland testified at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Ms. Nuland said, "it is clear that Russia will lose this conflict. ... It is only a matter of time." The undersecretary added that Ukraine needs continued defensive support from the U.S. and European allies and further economic sanctions against Russia could be coming. Other topics included the growing humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.



'Sapere aude'
by Oui (Oui) on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 02:30:35 PM EST
[ Parent ]
internal inconsistency (none / 0)
So yeah. About a week ago, I wondered idly, IF "it is clear that Russia will lose this conflict," why are the only is First World allied agitprop dedicated to PUTIN war crimes, refugees, arms and MONEY pledges? Where is the Ukrainian Armed Forces' "score card" of victory measured in units of "Churchillian" vim, vigor, and BRUT infantry strategem?

How the af does this week's human interest story "Berlin warns Ukrainian refugees about trafficking danger" articulate "clearly defensive deployment" of superior Allied R2P "women and minorities"?

by Cat on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 04:53:57 PM EST
[ Parent ]
internal inconsistency, NY yella cake edition (none / 1)
A few days ago, I crossed paths with an UID who is convinced PUTIN is so crazy he would resort to nuclear arms. Why? I asked, when conventional warfare (Clauseswitz and Sun Tzu) gets the job done? That UID had no response, VIZ. recurring evidence in point of fact, the UAF is not even Europe's "underdog"; it's utterally feral.
by Cat on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 05:08:42 PM EST
[ Parent ]
New Wisdom NATO's Stoltenberg (none / 1)


'Sapere aude'
by Oui (Oui) on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 06:29:50 PM EST
Re: New Wisdom NATO's Stoltenberg (none / 1)
This has always been the NATO position since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as far as I know.

The obvious reason being that this would mean shooting at Russian aircrafts and therefore starting a NATO-Russia war - that NATO countries don't want to start.

Unlike what your title says, there's nothing "new" about it, if you want to be accurate.

by Bernard (bernard) on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 07:50:45 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: New Wisdom, interpretive dance (none / 1)
by Cat on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 07:55:02 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: New Wisdom, interpretive dance (4.00 / 2)
Don't worry. She's one of the people covered by Russian sanctions.
by gk (gk (gk quattro due due sette @gmail.com)) on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 08:32:51 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Zelensky on Social Media -- Last Stance Free World (none / 0)


'Sapere aude'
by Oui (Oui) on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 06:38:57 PM EST
Zelensky: Ukraine Will Not Join NATO (none / 0)

Calling Joe to NATO HQ in Brussels - high risk summit in time of war. Have the nuclear football close-by.

Why Milley checked nuclear procedures, called China in final days of Trump presidency

'Sapere aude'

by Oui (Oui) on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 07:10:33 PM EST
[ Parent ]
NATO Defiance As Ukraine Suffers (none / 0)
Refusal to engage with Lavrov and Putin an mortal error and angers me more as de devastation endures ... hopefully the end of hostilities can be achieved in a matter of days. Occupation is not an option ... both nations will be neighbors for generations to come ... one people from Dnipro eastwards.

Ukraine will not join Nato, says Zelenskiy, as shelling of Kyiv continues

One of Vladimir Putin's demands before unleashing his offensive on Ukraine was that its membership of Nato should be ruled out indefinitely. However, the size of the invasion force Putin amassed and his own justifications for the attack, have been widely seen as evidence he would have settled for nothing less than regime change and Russia's unchallenged dominance of its smaller neighbour.

...
Klitschko promised it would not surrender. "The capital is the heart of Ukraine, and it will be defended," he said. "Kyiv, which is currently the symbol and the forward operating base of Europe's freedom and security, will not be given up by us."

Peace talks between the two sides resumed on Tuesday, meanwhile, with Zelenskiy sounding cautiously optimistic.  ... While previous talks focused on humanitarian issues, the latest aim to achieve a ceasefire, secure Russian troop withdrawals and establish security guarantees for Ukraine, Kyiv has said. The Russian delegate, Leonid Slutsky, suggested draft agreements may not be far off.



'Sapere aude'
by Oui (Oui) on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 09:04:46 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Biden to Visit Nato and EU in Brussels (none / 0)

Will voters approve of Biden's handling of the Ukraine crisis?

'Sapere aude'

by Oui (Oui) on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 09:06:23 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Zelensky: Ukraine Will Not Join NATO (4.00 / 2)
The prospective NATO membership of Ukraine has always been a red herring: NATO was not and still isn't ready to accept Ukraine.

The real issue for Ukraine, and for Putin, is the EU membership: this one hasn't been given up. Having Ukraine eventually join the EU is the real nightmare scenario for the Kremlin hardliners. Putin has long claimed that Ukraine and Russia are one single people.

The invasion and annexation of Crimea was started by Russia in 2014, just after Ukraine signed an Association Agreement: a coincidence, for our inner tinfoil hat.

For Putin, the perspective of Ukraine joining the EU is a casus belli - literally.

by Bernard (bernard) on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 09:11:35 PM EST
[ Parent ]
ummmmmm, no. (none / 0)
Also, neither EU "association" nor "ascension" is a prerequisite for NATO membership. I think you've forgotten which nation runs that racket.
by Cat on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 10:31:01 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: ummmmmm, no. (none / 0)
I haven't forgotten: the Washington treaty was signed in Washington for a reason.

In Europe, there are countries that are members of NATO but not of the EU, countries that are members of the EU but not of NATO, countries that are members of both and countries that are members of neither. IOW, these are two different organizations with some overlap.

Ukraine wanted membership in both organizations; they're now recognizing that joining NATO is not going to happen, but their EU membership application request is still on.

My contention is that, for Putin, the latter is a scarier  prospect than the former. You are free to disagree, or course.

by Bernard (bernard) on Wed Mar 16th, 2022 at 07:02:52 PM EST
[ Parent ]
"the latter is a scarier" (none / 0)
by what measure? Competition for emerging markets? Competition for raw goods? Ballistic missile real estate? Or something else?
by Cat on Wed Mar 16th, 2022 at 07:13:52 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: "the latter is a scarier" (none / 0)
It's more basic than that.

For Putin, Ukraine is an integral part of Russia (one people). They cannot be allowed to leave the "motherland" to join an "enemy" organization, like the EU, that would take them definitively out of Russian orbit.

by Bernard (bernard) on Wed Mar 16th, 2022 at 07:34:46 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Don't expect them to do the maths (4.00 / 2)
The world is facing a critical diesel shortage:
"...diesel fuel stocks in Europe are at their lowest since 2008, and 8 percent--or 35 million barrels--lower than the five-year average for this time of the year.

In the United States, the situation is graver still. There, diesel fuel inventories are 21 percent lower than the pre-pandemic five-year seasonal average, which translates into 30 million barrels. [- -]

What is perhaps worse, however, is that over the past 12 months, the combined diesel fuel inventories in the U.S., Europe, and Singapore, have shed a combined 110 million barrels that have yet to be replaced, Kemp noted.

On top of all this, Russia is a major supplier of diesel, meaning Western sanctions for its invasion of Ukraine are affecting these supplies too. With the market increasingly tight, Shell and BP have shied away from offering any diesel fuel cargos on the German market for two weeks, Reuters reported last week, for fear of shortages.

In the UK, meanwhile, the Daily Mail cited analysts as warning that the government may need to resort to diesel fuel rationing from next month because of the state of the market and the ban on Russian oil imports, which include diesel fuel. Russia supplied a third of the UK's imported diesel before the ban.

"Risks of energy rationing and ultimately a recession are growing by the day - something most policymakers seem to be ignoring or not grasping right now."

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2022/03/the-world-is-facing-a-critical-diesel-shortage.html

by Tom2 on Wed Mar 16th, 2022 at 07:42:17 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Diesel fuel (none / 1)
Hence diesel fuel becoming more expensive than E10 gasoline/petrol, to the shock of many French motorists, who have been conditioned to much cheaper diesel fuel prices in France, because less taxed.
by Bernard (bernard) on Thu Mar 17th, 2022 at 10:24:09 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Diesel fuel (4.00 / 2)
"C'est toujours la faute des pauvres!"
by Tom2 on Thu Mar 17th, 2022 at 11:11:39 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Diesel fuel (none / 0)
What's the relation with diesel fuel prices? Because diesel fuel is the poor man/woman/other's fuel?
by Bernard (bernard) on Thu Mar 17th, 2022 at 08:58:18 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Diesel fuel (4.00 / 2)
Well yes, this is a fundamental structural condition in France which encouraged working people to buy cheap houses far from their places of work. I would pinpoint the phenomenon to the 1990s, (I lived far from my place of work and drove there in a diesel Citroen AX). Fundamentally it was the whole cheap fossil-fuel thing; but the people who did more than 20 000 km a year all had diesels.
When Voynet's hard-fought alignment of diesel tax with petrol was axed by Fabius in 2000, that cemented the price difference as a structural thing. When Macron announced the progressive alignment of diesel and petrol tax in 2016, that was the final nail in the coffin of the dispersed habitat "lifestyle choice".

A whole generation of people with generally a not very high level of education or salary realised that they were going to have increasing difficulty in paying the mortgage, and that they couldn't afford to sell up and move closer to their jobs;

This for me was the fundamental driver of the "gilets jaunes" movement...

It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II

by eurogreen on Fri Mar 18th, 2022 at 09:04:51 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: alternative centre left reality (none / 0)
"encouraged working people to buy cheap houses far from their places of work"

Incidentally it happened in the late 80s when laws about rent control were scrapped by Chirac government.
It led to an exodus of the "classes populaires" outside Paris.
What they did not forecaste, however, was that local public transports would progressively be removed, to the great benefit of French Renault and Peugeot, not to forget the companies who own the highways.

by Tom2 on Fri Mar 18th, 2022 at 09:57:48 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: alternative centre left reality (none / 0)
I was talking about "France" (where most of the French live) rather than Paris and its region, but yeah, that was part of the dynamic. People made long-term binding structural decisions about their lives, based on "market signals" and government abdication of responsibility for planning and correcting market distorsions.

Cities are putting a lot of effort into public transport, but the orphans of the 80s and 90s, with their cheap far-flung houses, are going to be a big and increasing problem for the next five years, because Macron is absolutely clueless (by design) as to what to do about them.

It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II

by eurogreen on Fri Mar 18th, 2022 at 11:07:00 AM EST
[ Parent ]
yeahhhhhhhhhh, sez, Erdogan. No? (none / 0)
PRISTINA, Feb 27 (Reuters)
by Cat on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 10:34:26 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Zelensky: Ukraine Will Not Join NATO (none / 1)
Ukrainian presidential aide says Russia has softened its stance in negotiations | TOI |

A senior aide to Ukraine's president says that Russia has softened its stance in the talks over a possible settlement.

Ihor Zhovkva, a deputy chief of staff to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, says that the talks between Russian and Ukrainian representatives have become "more constructive" and Russia has changed tone and stopped airing demands for Ukraine to surrender -- something Russia had insisted upon during earlier stages of talks.

Three rounds of talks in Belarus earlier this month have been followed by video calls between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators, including the one on Tuesday.



'Sapere aude'
by Oui (Oui) on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 11:21:10 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Ukraine-Russia Talking Neutrality and Security (none / 0)

Russia and Ukraine `close to agreeing' on neutral status, says Sergei Lavrov

However, in a powerful address to the US Congress, Zelenskiy painted a horrific picture of the conflict, beseeching Joe Biden's administration to do more on imposing sanctions, encourage American companies to stop trading in Russia, and to increase the supply of military weapons, in particular by offering fighter jets.

"Peace ☮️ is more important than income," he said. "I call on you to do more."

Switching to English, he went on: "I am almost 45 years old. My age stopped when the hearts of more than 100 children stopped beating. I see no sense in life if I cannot stop these deaths. This is the main mission as the leader of my people, brave Ukrainians."

Zelenskiy also spoke of new security arrangements with the west to secure Ukraine's future, in what appeared to be a nod to a potential deal with the Kremlin.

Earlier on Wednesday, Moscow's lead negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, had said his delegation in the talks with representatives from Kyiv was seeking for Ukraine to assume a status comparable to Sweden or Austria, two EU member states that are not members of the Nato military alliance.

The proposal was also confirmed by the Kremlin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday morning.

Medinsky told reporters on Wednesday that talks were "slow and difficult" but claimed that the Kremlin wanted peace "as soon as possible".

He added that other issues were being discussed, including the status of the Crimean peninsula, annexed illegally by Russia in 2014, as well as the self-proclaimed republics in Luhansk and Donetsk.

The Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak, who is directly involved in the talks with Medinsky, responded by saying that "the words about the Swedish or Austrian model of neutrality" failed to reflect the need for Ukraine to have guarantees over its security.



'Sapere aude'
by Oui (Oui) on Wed Mar 16th, 2022 at 04:47:03 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Dusting Off Nuclear Warning System - To Be Safe (none / 0)

Hawaii: This Is Not A Drill

The four-minute warning was a public alert system conceived by the British Government during the Cold War and operated between 1953 and 1992.

'Sapere aude'

by Oui (Oui) on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 06:58:40 PM EST
Three EU Prime Ministers in Kyiv (none / 1)
PM of Slovenia, Czech republic and Poland, visiting Kyiv:


by Bernard (bernard) on Tue Mar 15th, 2022 at 10:22:21 PM EST
Re: NUCLEAR THREAT M.A.D. (none / 1)
We're seeing a handful of hot takes by imbeciles in the west on it -- worrying somewhat but not worthy of a wall of shit.  Nobody with any real power is talking that way.

The whole thread is an unreadable wall of shit per normal Oui standards.  God damn, man.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.

by Drew J Jones (pedobear@pennstatefootball.com) on Thu Mar 17th, 2022 at 04:39:26 PM EST
Re: NUCLEAR THREAT M.A.D. (none / 1)
Excuse me. Who is it that you believe has "real power"?
by Cat on Thu Mar 17th, 2022 at 04:52:06 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: NUCLEAR THREAT M.A.D. (none / 0)
The president.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.
by Drew J Jones (pedobear@pennstatefootball.com) on Thu Mar 17th, 2022 at 11:30:07 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Which one? (none / 1)
< wipes tears >
by Cat on Fri Mar 18th, 2022 at 01:04:39 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Which one? (none / 0)
I appreciate that you've for once managed a coherent response.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.
by Drew J Jones (pedobear@pennstatefootball.com) on Mon Mar 21st, 2022 at 12:45:16 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: NUCLEAR THREAT M.A.D. (none / 1)
Biden's "still living in the 1970s" model has pros and cons. A pro is that the associated Cold War mentality supports the idea of not starting a nuclear war. A con is that the solution to all problems is to expand the extraction of fossil energy sources.
by asdf on Sat Mar 19th, 2022 at 03:09:03 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: NUCLEAR THREAT M.A.D. (none / 0)
The Cold War model was containment and coexistence with nuclear deterrence. Under Obama came the modernization of nuclear weapons and the theory to use "small" or mini nukes on the battlefield ... the idiocy of military deployment of the 1950s.

With West Germany's Willy Brandt came a push to ease tensions, use diplomacy, opening through cultural exchange and break through the iron curtain.

Today America is following Neocon policy of confrontation and willful destruction of the dictatorship of the Kremlin. Result is old KGB tricks and asymmetric warfare for which the Internet serves as a tool both directions.

The unipolar world will be upset by the growth of China and Asia. To reverse globalization to isolationism with the Trump policy of MAGA is a fool's enterprise.

See Fukuyama's End of History, a tale of a religion of sorts that's liberated world will end all wars because we are all a democracy, respecting human rights ... the American values.

Interference of the Neocon wet dream was upset by the 9/11 attacks on America. When George Bush chose to invade Iraq in 2003, Fukuyama swore off the Neocon pipe dream of NeoConservatism and Utopia. The End of the End of History and Pax Americana.

'Sapere aude'

by Oui (Oui) on Sat Mar 19th, 2022 at 04:25:33 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: NUCLEAR THREAT M.A.D. (none / 0)
War crimes are only committed by people with real power, legitimate or otherwise. The imbeciles, common man writing on this blog search for designs of  peace, not war.

Persons with real power don't do time .. but they should to make a better world.

That's when I knew the America I grew up in was gone for good

In order for me to stay human! I couldn't allow myself to become desensitized and assimilated to the hunger, fear and suffering. I knew for me to not be assimilated and stay human I was going have to leave America for good. I had to leave America! It was just too painful to stay and watch the America I grew up in die!

It's called the European Dream. 😁

'Sapere aude'

by Oui (Oui) on Fri Mar 18th, 2022 at 01:40:19 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: NUCLEAR THREAT M.A.D. (none / 0)
🙄

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.
by Drew J Jones (pedobear@pennstatefootball.com) on Mon Mar 21st, 2022 at 12:50:15 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Ukraine Suspends 11 Political Parties (none / 0)


'Sapere aude'
by Oui (Oui) on Sun Mar 20th, 2022 at 05:29:40 PM EST
fog of war, rumors, and just plain bullshit (none / 1)
The Hill | US sending secretly acquired Soviet air defense equipment to Ukraine: report, 22 Mar
The U.S. is sending Ukraine some Soviet-made air defense equipment that Washington ["]took charge of["] decades ago through a secret program, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

The systems, to include the SA-8 short-range surface-to-air missile system, were obtained by the U.S. for the purposes of examining Russian military technology and helping train American troops, U.S. officials told the outlet.
[...]
Both the National Security Council and Pentagon declined to comment on what specific weapons the U.S. has sent to Ukraine to help the country beat back a violent Russian invasion that began Feb. 24.

"Operational security matters to the Ukrainians, right now," press secretary John Kirby told reporters Monday.

"They're fighting for their country, and the Pentagon is not going to be detailing publicly the tools with  which they are doing that," he added.
[...]
The U.S. has a small number of Soviet missile defense systems it acquired in the past 30 years as part of a ["]secret["], $100 million project that first [?] gained notice in 1994, a former official involved in the mission told the Journal.  

Among the weapons the U.S. received -- some of which have been kept at Redstone Arsenal, Ala. -- is the SA-8, which can be easily moved with ground forces and provide cover from aircraft and helicopters.  

Also in the U.S. stockpile is the S-300 long-range air defense system. The system is meant to protect larger areas and is already owned and operated by the Ukrainians. That weapon, however, will not be sent to Ukraine, according to one official.

The administration is authorized to transfer such equipment under the new annual government spending bill CONSOLIDATED APPROPRIATIONS ACT  OF 2022 President Biden signed into law last week. The legislation approves a $13.6 billion aid package for Ukraine, of which about $3.5 billion will go to the Pentagon to ["]backfill["] equipment being sent from the U.S. to Ukraine.

by Cat on Tue Mar 22nd, 2022 at 01:05:02 PM EST
mad (none / 1)
The speech was made Monday evening, March 21, during the Business Roundtable CEO's Quarterly Meeting, according to an official transcript from the White House.


by Cat on Tue Mar 22nd, 2022 at 03:19:58 PM EST
Madness: Mutually Assured Destruction (none / 1)


'Sapere aude'
by Oui (Oui) on Thu Mar 24th, 2022 at 03:15:12 PM EST
Re: Madness: Mutually Assured Destruction (none / 1)
Climate change: 'Madness' to turn to fossil fuels because of Ukraine war | BBC News |

Scientists believe that keeping the rise in global temperatures under 1.5C this century is crucial to limiting the scale of damage from global warming.

To keep that threshold alive, carbon output needs to be cut in half by the end of this decade. Instead, as Mr Guterres points out, emissions are set to rise by 14%.

"The problem was not solved in Glasgow," Mr Guterres says, in a speech delivered at the Economist Sustainability Summit.

"This is madness. Addiction to fossil fuels is mutually assured destruction."

Countries must "accelerate the phase out of coal and all fossil fuels," and implement a rapid and sustainable energy transition.

It is "the only true pathway to energy security."

Mr Guterres says the solutions to the climate crisis mostly lie in the hands of the G20 group of richest nations, which produce around 80% of global emissions.

While many of these countries have taken great steps to slash emissions by 2030, there are a "handful of holdouts, such as Australia."

Coal must be banished, Mr Guterres says, with a full phase-out for richer nations by 2030, and 2040 for all others, including China.

Coal "is a stupid investment," according to the Secretary General, "leading to billions in stranded assets."



'Sapere aude'
by Oui (Oui) on Thu Mar 24th, 2022 at 03:15:59 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Kicking Fossil Fuel Around (none / 0)


'Sapere aude'
by Oui (Oui) on Sun Mar 27th, 2022 at 10:58:46 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Madness: Mutually Assured Destruction (none / 1)


'Sapere aude'
by Oui (Oui) on Thu Mar 24th, 2022 at 03:16:41 PM EST
[ Parent ]
US Media: Why Rule Out World War III? (none / 0)

Gave Putin a free hand by not keeping all options on the table ... idiots! No war ☮️ ... keeping peace is a science too ... and less costly.

'Sapere aude'

by Oui (Oui) on Thu Mar 24th, 2022 at 08:20:44 PM EST
Long Debate on Nuclear Arms Control w/o Results (none / 0)


'Sapere aude'
by Oui (Oui) on Sun Mar 27th, 2022 at 04:44:14 PM EST
VOldaMORe UPDATE (none / 1)
According to the Russian military, drifting mines "will reach Romanian territorial waters in four days and Bulgarian waters in 10 days." At least two naval mines were found and defused by Turks at the northern entrance of the Bosporus Strait on Saturday, causing disruption to maritime traffic
US DOT | 2022-004-Black Sea and Sea of Azov-Military Combat Operations, 8 Mar
"Guidance: U.S. flagged commercial vessels should avoid entering or approaching the Sea of Azov, Ukrainian ports, or Ukrainian territorial waters in the northwestern Black Sea."
Ukrainian Mines Blockade 50 Foreign Ships in the Azov and Black Seas, 13 Mar
archived Black Sea Powers Montreaux Convention, Sat Mar 5th, 2022 Azov Sea, 10 March -100
by Cat on Sun Mar 27th, 2022 at 06:46:17 PM EST
"potentially catastrophic consequences" (none / 1)
princeton.edu | PLANA simulation
The resulting immediate fatalities and casualties that would occur in each phase of the conflict are determined using data from NUKEMAP. All fatality estimates are limited to acute deaths from nuclear explosions and would be significantly increased by deaths occurring from nuclear fallout and other long-term effects
of psychopathy
by Cat on Sun Mar 27th, 2022 at 10:19:17 PM EST
Re: NUCLEAR THREAT M.A.D. (none / 0)
Am glad there are still voices out there not participating in mass hysteria of Russophobia, not seen since the Red Menace and McCarthyism of the 1950s.

Why the Ukraine Crisis Is the West's Fault
The Liberal Delusions That Provoked Putin
By John J. Mearsheimer

John Mearsheimer on why the West is principally responsible for the Ukrainian crisis

The war in Ukraine is the most dangerous international conflict since the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. Understanding its root causes is essential if we are to prevent it from getting worse and, instead, to find a way to bring it to a close.

There is no question that Vladimir Putin started the war and is responsible for how it is being waged. But why he did so is another matter. The mainstream view in the West is that he is an irrational, out-of-touch aggressor bent on creating a greater Russia in the mould of the former Soviet Union. Thus, he alone bears full responsibility for the Ukraine crisis.



'Sapere aude'
by Oui (Oui) on Mon Mar 28th, 2022 at 10:55:03 AM EST
On this day -100 (none / 1)
In which it is revealed what menaces the morals of young girls
30,000 Fascists march in Milan to celebrate the 3rd anniversary of the founding of the Fascist Party. One Communist is killed in a clash, as was the custom.

An assassination attempt on former Russian foreign minister Pavel Milyukov in Berlin goes awry, the bullet instead killing former secretary of state Vladimir Nabokov, father of the novelist.

by Cat on Mon Mar 28th, 2022 at 07:34:19 PM EST
Buying Stealth F35 To Deliver Atomwaffen to Russia (none / 0)

Primary advantage a stealth option to deliver nuclear weapons to target successfully. Best deterrent ... build peace.

Germany to buy F-35 warplanes for nuclear deterrence | Defense News |

Amid Russian aggression, Fort Worth leaders say the F-35 fighter jet's value is now on display in Europe | Texas Tribune |

As it lasts, the Ukraine hostilities are an excellent sales pitch in Texas ...

Related reading ...

Rückenwind aus Oslo für die Ächtung von Atomwaffen

Green leader calls for withdrawal of US nuclear weapons from Europe

Annalena Baerbock sees the possible end of the INF Treaty as a threat to European security. Germany must now stand up for the withdrawal of US nuclear weapons.

Well ... she succeeded in blocking Russian gas through Nord Stream 2 within a fortnight ... greatness.

'Sapere aude'

by Oui (Oui) on Sat Apr 2nd, 2022 at 01:09:56 PM EST
NUCLEAR THREAT M.A.D. | 105 comments (105 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)


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