#ukrainian crisis

[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Matt Gaetz has been one of the most vocal Republicans in Congress when it comes to cracking down on China. It had to be more than a little embarrassing on Tuesday, then, when the Florida congressman got called out in a House Armed Services Committee hearing for citing Chinese propaganda while trying to make a point about cutting off U.S. aid to Ukraine.

“Is the Azov Battalion getting access to U.S. weapons?” Gaetz asked Colin Kahl, the U.S. defense undersecretary for policy. The Azov Battalion is a controversial, far-right unit within Ukraine’s national guard. Kahl seemed confused. “Not that I’m aware of,” he said. “But if you have information I’d be happy to hear it.”

Gaetz then entered into the record a report from the Global Times about how the Azov Battalion was getting U.S. weapons as far back as 2018. “Any reason to disagree with that assessment?”

“I’m sorry, is this the Global Times from China?” Kahl asked.

“No, this is—” Gaetz began before looking at his notes. “It might be, yeah,” he continued.

“As a general matter, I don’t take Beijing’s propaganda at face value,” Kahl said.

Gaetz asked him to answer the question. “I don’t have any evidence one way or the other,” Kahl said before reiterating that he doesn’t take Beijing’s propaganda at face value.

“Fair enough, I would agree with that assessment,” Gaetz said before quickly moving on.

Khal wasn’t the only one who dunked on Gaetz on Tuesday. Rep. Eric Swalwell called him out for inviting Corey Beekman, a combat veteran, to lead the Pledge of Allegiance ahead of the year’s first Judiciary Committee hearing. “It is my pleasure and distinct honor to introduce to the committee Staff Sergeant Corey Ryan Beekman, an American hero and a constituent of mine residing in Pensacola, Florida,” Gaetz said.

As Swalwell pointed out on Tuesday, Beekman is an accused murderer who wound up in a standoff with police. “That’s why there’s a trust deficit here,” Swalwell said. “You pull off a public stunt to try to own the libs, and what you did is you brought in a guy who allegedly shot two people and killed one of them. That’s where the trust deficit is.”

Gaetz apologized to the family of Billy Buchanan, whom Beekman allegedly shot and killed, in a statement to the Daily Beast earlier this month. “The family of Billy Buchanan brought the situation to my attention, and I’m glad they did,” Gaetz said, adding that the decision had some “unintended consequences.”

[myfriendthecouch]

[ultravioletlotus]

RUSSIAN - UKRAINE WAR

Ukrainians are being forced to flee their motherland and many have unfortunately lost their lives (may they rest in peace). This war is against humanity and we need to raise our voices.

I'm sharing some sources to educate myself and others on the current war. If possible please donate to help the people of Ukraine.

!! IMPORTANT !!

HOW TO HELP IN THE CURRENT UKRAINE SITUATION:

link 1

link 2

link 3

link 4

[normanemilioleongoodworlds]

Turquie : peu de pain et beaucoup de colère, ou comment la société a perdu la raison

J'ai pensé que cet article de Courrier international pourrait t'intéresser :

La Turquie à la recherche de sa gloire passée où la folie des grandeurs de ses dirigeants passés et, surtout, au présent.

Dieu n'est pas responsable des malheurs de la Turquie !

Quand un bien leur arrivent, ils disent : c'est grâce à nous !

Quand un mal survient, il en rejette la faute sur dieu...

Qui donc est plus injuste que celui qui forge un mensonge contre dieu ?

La situation internationale de la Turquie est délicate et la politique des États voyous anglo-normands lui porte préjudice au niveau de son développement !

La Turquie est un carrefour commercial : l'union pour la Méditerranée est bloquée, la nation arabe comme source de développement au sud n'est pas constituée, avec la crise ukrainienne l'entrée de la Turquie dans l'union européenne est barrée pour longtemps quant au développement vers l'est et les pays "frères" Azerbaïdjan et Turkménistan il est hypothéqué par l'Arménie et sa reconnaissance d'un génocide.

Ce n'est pas tout.

La Turquie, historiquement, appartient à l'entité turco-mongol, les peuples de la vaste steppe, nomades et sédentarisés.

Mais ils doivent compter culturellement avec le magister persan en backyard et plus important le subcontinent indien. Des puissances réelles qui par le passé ont imprimées leur domination sur ce monde turco-mongol au moins par acculturation...

La Turquie sent et est sous la pression des évènements, c'est un facteur de déstabilisation du pays et de sa région.

Voilà pour le diagnostic, que préconiser ?

Faire le dos rond et oeuvrer au développement commercial vers l'est, le plus accessible par les temps qui courrent.

Le plus dur, ne pas faire la guerre à l'Arménie, négocier avec elle, c'est le maillon faible du blocus imposé par l'histoire aux peuples turco-mongols. Reconnaître et faire droit aux arméniens concernant les grands massacres du passé. Obtenir un couloir terrestre moyennant compensations terrestres ou de titres divers pour joindre le puzzle manquant vers l'Azerbaïdjan et le Turkménistan.

En politique il faut souvent avaler son chapeau pour réussir, les grands leaders savent le faire, seul le résultat compte.

L'intransigeance paie rarement et pour être réélu il faut délivrer des résultats durables.

C'est l'économie qui prime ! Surtout pour la Turquie.

Quand à la question kurde elle devra trouver sa solution autrement que par les armes, il faut régler ce problème qui grève le développement turc. Par la diplomatie internationale dans la région, arabes et persans ont leur mot à dire !

Cette question doit trouver son règlement et le plus tôt sera le mieux.

Quand ces problèmes seront réglés l'avenir se dégagera radicalement pour cette nouvelle Turquie, plus libre, plus riche... Plus heureuse.

Nous sommes des Méditerranéens, soyez indulgents, c’est de là que vient notre agitation. Nous avons la joie facile, tout comme la peine et la colère. Mais ces dernières années nous sommes encore plus en colère, comme constamment prêts à croiser le fer.

Au travail, en famille, avec des amis, les sacs de course à la main ou au volant de la voiture nous sommes sans cesse sur le point d’exploser. Ces dix dernières années ont rendu notre société plus tendue, plus malheureuse aussi et plus intolérante.

“La polarisation politique nourrie et voulue par Erdogan nous a dressés les uns contre les autres [...]

[m-ultraarticles]

The UAE calls for dialogue in preparation for peace in Ukraine

New York (Union) The UAE called for calm, diplomacy and dialogue in preparation for a just and lasting peace that respects the sovereignty of Ukraine, while calling on the parties to the conflict to abide by their obligations under international humanitarian law, praising the efforts of the United Nations and Turkey towards finding solutions to outstanding issues related to the Black Sea grain…

[norbertemileleonbonimond]

Novethic.fr: COP27 : les cinq principales annonces à retenir

Novethic.fr: COP27 : les cinq principales annonces à retenir.

On traite surtout de questions financières et de compensations, de caisses de préventions dans cette COP.

De relations nord-sud grevées par l'éternel mal entendu orient occident.

L'économie n'en sort pas grandie et le dissensus reste politique.

Il faudra changer de mode de développement et cela effraye beaucoup de monde.

Il ne faut pas être gouverné par la peur, il faut gouverner la peur.

On semble venir après la bataille plutôt que de la prévenir !...

[thenationview]

"Pro-Russian" turn of major newspapers: "Dear Zelensky, now you have to sit down to negotiate with Putin"

“Pro-Russian” turn of major newspapers: “Dear Zelensky, now you have to sit down to negotiate with Putin”

Two interventions of authority in Stampa and Corriere asking for a compromise. Even at the expense of the will of the Ukrainian president Something is changing in the “Western” perception of the Ukrainian conflict. If so far both NATO and Europe have supported the need to stand by Kiev for as long as Zelensky wants, with the declared aim of recovering all territories illegally annexed by the…

[yohane23]

Globalization Sacrificed at the Alter of Power: the case of the Russian Aggression in Ukraine

[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Russia's Wagner mercenary group, said on Tuesday that he founded and financed and the Internet Research Agency, a company Washington says is a "troll farm" which meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Prigozhin, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, spent years operating on behalf of the Kremlin in the shadows, but has emerged in recent months as one of the most high profile figures connected with Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

He has previously admitted interfering in U.S. elections, but his statement on Tuesday appears to go further than before in outlining his specific links to the St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency (IRA).

"I was never just the financier of the Internet Research Agency. I thought it up, I created it, I managed it for a long time," Prigozhin said in a post shared on social media by the press service of his Concord catering group.

"It was created to protect the Russian information space from the West's boorish and aggressive anti-Russian propaganda," Prigozhin said.

Prigozhin was first sanctioned by the United States over his links to the Internet Research Agency in 2018 and charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States.

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on his inquiry into Russia’s role in the 2016 U.S. election said that Internet Research Agency sought to sow discord in the United States through "information warfare."

It sought to sway the 2016 election in favour of Trump, Mueller’s report said.

"The campaign evolved from a generalized program designed in 2014 and 2015 to undermine the U.S. electoral system, to a targeted operation that by early 2016 favored candidate Trump and disparaged candidate [Hillary] Clinton," the report said.

"IRA employees also traveled to the United States on intelligence-gathering missions."

Prigozhin, who spent the final decade of the Soviet Union in prison for robbery and fraud, was for years an associate of Putin. His catering group swept up government contracts, earning him the nickname of "Putin's Chef", while he deployed Wagner mercenaries to fight alongside Russian servicemen in Syria and to conflicts across Africa to advance Russia's geopolitical interests.

After years of denials, he last year admitted his links to Wagner and said he had interfered in U.S. elections.

Having rapidly built his public profile both in Russia and abroad since Russia invaded Ukraine, analysts say the Kremlin has moved to clip his wings more recently, concerned about the outspoken businessman's growing stature and high-profile criticism of the defence ministry.

[viro-lil-goat]

[myfriendthecouch]

[opanas-opanasovych-opanasenko]

After seeing Westerners bully a 14-year old boy from Odesa for not wanting to potentially interact with people who are committing genocide of his people on twitter, I felt compelled to return to that hellsite for a while to write a thread to explain why we might feel that way. Here it is, I feel it might be useful for those who don't understand why we're like this when it's "not all russians":

Thread screenshots after the break:

[normanemilioleongoodworlds]

BFMTV: EN DIRECT - Guerre en Ukraine: le chef de l'ONU fustige "l'affront à notre conscience collective"

BFMTV: EN DIRECT - Guerre en Ukraine: le chef de l'ONU fustige "l'affront à notre conscience collective".

Affront a notre conscience collective ?

Vous en appelez à notre intelligence ou à notre bêtise ?

Monsieur le secrétaire général de l'ONU, vous désignez sans doute en guise de bouc émissaire comme offense à nos consciences, la fédération de Russie dans une logique toute sacrificielle, une culture anthropophage. Vous autres ONUsiens, si je puis me permettre ce cavalier raccourci, voulez en croquer, en manger de la grande Russie. Tout ceci est contraire à vos titres de noblesse, à votre impartialité, les Nations dans l'union et non dans la division !

À votre défense, quand on sait que les Etats-Unis d'Amérique financent en grande partie vos évolutions diplomatiques, il est clair, sans faire ouvertement mention de corruption, que vous êtes, malheureusement, pieds et poings liés dans vos discours comme dans vos actes...

L'agresseur du Dombass, c'est le gouvernement de Kiev.

Les promoteurs de cette agression, ce sont vos principaux financeurs.

La Russie doit se retirer d'Ukraine, le Dombass doit rester sans défense et rester victime de l'injustice du gouvernement de Kiev ?

Il n'y aura pas de prime à l'agression, à vos agressions contre les peuples de toutes les Russies !...

Vous parlez en vain, d'autres agiront demain et de bon gain !

Nous ne vous condamnons pas, peut-être serez-vous pardonné.

Comprenez la mauvaise humeur de celui qui pratique la justice, qui ne souffre les injustices sur cette terre.

J'ajouterai, en bon conseiller d'occident, que je reste, et en fait de mise en garde, plus l'Amérique avance vers l'est, plus elle recule à l'ouest !

Make America great again ? MAGA ?...

[workersolidarity]

🇺🇸 🚨

UNITED STATES CONGRESS PASSES SERIES OF ANTI-DEMOCRATIC AND PRO-WAR BILLS DESPITE PUBLIC OPPOSITION

The United States Congress and Senate passed a series of bills, including three controversial anti-democratic and pro-war bills, two of which were tied together, on Saturday, bypassing public opinion and popular opposition to the profligate, pro-war, globalist, Neolib/Neocon agenda currently driving United States domestic and foreign policy.

Included in the bills passed was a bill to force TikTok to divest from its connections with China at risk of being banned immediately, which naturally was tied to a Foreign aid bill.

However, as even Republican Senator Rand Paul mentioned in an opinion piece in Reason Magazine, the Bill is almost certain to lead to more power for American political elites and their administrations to pressure companies like Apple and Google to further ban apps and sites that offer contradictory opinions to that of the invented narratives of the American Political class.

Before long, Americans, many of whom are already poorly informed, and heavily misinformed by their mainstream media, could lose access to critical information that contradicts the narratives of the United States government and corporate elites.

Horrifically, this only the start. The US Congress also extended the newly revised FISA spy laws, which gives the United States government the power to spy on the electronic communications of foreigners, while also conveniently sweeping up the conversations of millions of Americans, as we learned years ago thanks to the sacrifices of whistle blowers and journalists like Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning and Julian Assange.

The new FISA Law goes further than this, however, granting US Intelligence agencies the power to spy on the wireless communications of Americans in completely new ways.

A recent Jacobin article describes these new powers as a, "radical expansion of government surveillance that would be ripe for abuse by a future authoritarian leader", or it could just be used by the authoritarian leadership we have right now, and have had for decades.

In fact, when one commentator described the new powers as "Stasi-like," Edward Snowden himself replied with a long post in which he remarked, "invocation of "Stasi-like" is not only a fair characterization of Himes' amendment, it's probably generous. The Stasi dared not even dream of what the Himes amendment provides."

The amendment in question just "tweaks" the current law's definition of an "electronic communication provider," which is being changed to "any service provider," something extremely likely to be abused by the government to force anyone with a business, a modem and people using their broadband to collect the electronic communications of those people, while also forcing their victims into silence.

The government could essentially force Americans to spy on other people and remain silent about it. Cafe's, restaurants, hotels, business landlords, shared workspaces all could get swept up into the investigations of the Intelligence agencies.

Worse still, because picking out the communications of a single user would be next to impossible, all of their victim's data would end up being surrendered to the authorities.

Sadly, the assault on Americans by their own political elites didn't end there, to top this historic day in Congress, at time when the United States public debt is growing at an astounding rate of $1 trillion every 100 days, US lawmakers also passed a series of pro-war aid packages to American allies (vassals) totalling some $95 billion.

Included in the foreign aid bill are aid packages totalling $61 billion for the Ukraine scam, $26 billion for Israel's special genocide operation in the Gaza Strip, and $8 billion to the Indo-Pacific to provoke WWIII with China, at the same time we're also provoking a nuclear holocaust with the Russian Federation.

Also buried in these aid packages is the authorization for the United States government to outright steal the oversees investments of the Russian Federation, and thereby the Russian taxpayers.

Astonishingly, and in direct opposition to the wishes of their own voters, Republican support was won without the possibility of conditioning the aid to any kind of border security, this despite the issue being among the top biggest concerns of Republican voters.

Although much of the money is to be used replenishing the heavily depleted stocks of America's weapons and munitions, it remains unclear where the munitions are expected to come from, as US defense production has remained sluggish and slow to expand despite heavy investments and demand in recent years, despite the rapid urgency with which the policy elite describe the situation.

It bodes poorly for working Americans that only a relatively small handful of lawmakers opposed the bills, producing unlikely bedfellows like Senator Bernie Sanders and Senator Mike Lee in the Senate, opposing the FISA bill.

While in the House, the loudest opposition to the foreign aid bill mostly came from populist Republicans such as Marjorie Taylor Greene, Thomas Massie and Paul Goser. Only 58 Congresmembers voted against the Foreign Aid Bill in which the TikTok ban was tucked.

Not one word from American politicians about the need to raise the minimum wage, which hasn't been increased since 2009 despite considerable inflation, nor a word about America's endlessly growing homelessness crises, property crime increases, or the 40-year stagnation of American wages, the deterioration of infrastructure, and precious little was said besides complaints about border security over the immigration crises sparked by American Imperialist adventures and US sanctions.

What we've learned today is that we are highly unlikely to see any changes to the insane behavior of the US and its allies any time soon, neither with regards to the absolutely bonkers Neocon foreign policy leading us to the edge of abyss, nor the spending-for-the-rich/austerity-for-the-poor Neoliberal domestic policy of the last 45 years.

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@WorkerSolidarityNews

Blue: titles are opinion pieces or analysis, and may or may not contain sources.