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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 2 months

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Bill Bramhall

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LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

February 16, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

FEB 17, 2024

At the Munich Security Conference, where leaders from more than 70 countries gather annually in Germany to discuss international security policy, Vice President Kamala Harris today responded to Trump’s recent attacks on America’s global leadership with a full-throated defense of global engagement.

People around the world have reason to wonder if the United States is committed to global leadership, she acknowledged. Americans, she said, must also ask themselves “[w]hether it is in America’s interest to continue to engage with the world or to turn inward. Whether it is in our interest to defend longstanding rules and norms that have provided for unprecedented peace and prosperity or to allow them to be trampled. Whether it is in America’s interest to fight for democracy or to accept the rise of dictators. And whether it is in America’s interest to continue to work in lockstep with our allies and partners or go it alone.”

Harris spoke at least in part to people at home, saying that upholding international rules and democratic values “makes America strong, and it keeps Americans safe.” Isolating ourselves and embracing dictators while we “abandon commitments to our allies in favor of unilateral action” is “dangerous, destabilizing, and indeed short-sighted,” she said. “That view would weaken America and would undermine global stability and undermine global prosperity.”

The Biden administration’s approach to global engagement is not “based on the virtues of charity,” Harris said, but rather is based on the nation’s strategic interest. “Our leadership keeps our homeland safe, supports American jobs, secures supply chains, and opens new markets for American goods. And I firmly believe,” she added, “our commitment to build and sustain alliances has helped America become the most powerful and prosperous country in the world—alliances that have prevented wars, defended freedom, and maintained stability from Europe to the Indo-Pacific. To put all of that at risk would be foolish.”

Turning to the defense of Ukraine in the face of Russia’s invasion, she said: “we have joined forces with our friends and allies to stand up for freedom and democracy…. The world has come together, with leadership from the United States, to defend the basic principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity and to stop an imperialist authoritarian from subjugating a free and democratic people.”

The European Union has recently committed $54 billion to support Ukraine in addition to “the more than $100 billion our European allies and partners have already dedicated,” she said, noting that that support makes it clear that Europe will stand with Ukraine.

“I will make clear President Joe Biden and I stand with Ukraine,” Harris said. “In partnership with supportive, bipartisan majorities in both houses of the United States Congress, we will work to secure critical weapons and resources that Ukraine so badly needs. And let me be clear: The failure to do so would be a gift to Vladimir Putin.”

“If we fail to impose severe consequences on Russia” for its invasion of Ukraine, she warned, “other authoritarians across the globe would be emboldened, because you see, they will be watching…and drawing lessons. “In these unsettled times, it is clear,” she said. “America cannot retreat. America must stand strong for democracy. We must stand in defense of international rules and norms, and we must stand with our allies.”

“[T]he American people will meet this moment,” Vice President Harris said, “and America will continue to lead.”

News that arrived just before Harris began to speak underscored her argument: Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has died in a Russian prison a day after being recorded on video in court, seemingly healthy. Navalny’s crusade against Putin’s corruption had led Putin to try repeatedly to murder him, then finally in 2021 to imprison him on trumped-up charges. Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, took the stage after Harris and vowed that Vladimir Putin and his allies “will be brought to justice, and this day will come soon.”

Russian elections will be held next month, and while Putin is assumed to be the certain victor, his recent disqualification of Boris Nadezhdin, who was running on a platform that opposed the Ukraine war, suggests he is concerned about opposition. Eliminating Navalny at this moment sends a warning to other Russians that, as Anne Applebaum noted in a piece today in The Atlantic, courage in opposing Putin is pointless.

In the U.S., Navalny’s apparent murder creates a political problem for Republicans. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) yesterday recessed the House for two weeks without taking up the national security supplemental bill that would support Ukraine in its fight against Russia, just as its supplies are running out.

On Saturday, former president Trump told an audience he would encourage Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to NATO countries that are not devoting 2% of their gross domestic product to building up their militaries. Meanwhile, former Fox News Channel personality Tucker Carlson has been in Moscow, interviewing Putin and favorably comparing Russia to the United States.

On Monday, in Dubai, Egyptian journalist Emad El Din Adeeb asked Carlson why, when interviewing Putin, he “did not talk about Navalny, about assassinations, about restrictions on opposition in the coming elections.” Carlson replied by equating Russia and the U.S., saying: “Every leader kills people…. Some kill more than others. Leadership requires killing people.”

The death of Navalny at just this moment appears to tie the Republicans to Putin’s murderous regime, and party leaders scrambled today to distance themselves from Putin. House speaker Mike Johnson, who has resisted passing aid to Ukraine and insisted the House would not be “rushed” into passing such a measure, released a statement saying that “as international leaders are meeting in Munich, we must be clear that Putin will be met with united opposition…. [T]he United States, and our partners, must be using every means available to cut off Putin’s ability to fund his unprovoked war in Ukraine and aggression against the Baltic states.”

Republicans trying to carve out distance between themselves and Trump’s MAGA Republicans used the occasion to call out MAGAs, saying, as former vice president Mike Pence did, “There is no room in the Republican Party for apologists for Putin.” Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who has pushed hard for Ukraine aid, wrote: “Putin is a murderous, paranoid dictator. History will not be kind to those in America who make apologies for Putin and praise Russian autocracy. Nor will history be kind to America’s leaders who stay silent because they fear backlash from online pundits.”

Navalny attacked the Putin regime by calling attention to its extraordinary corruption, and somewhat fittingly, the corruption of former president Donald Trump, who won the White House with Putin’s help, was also on the docket today.

In Manhattan, in the case concerning Trump and the Trump Organization’s manipulation of financial statements in order to get better loan terms and to pay fewer taxes, Justice Arthur Engoron ordered Trump and the Trump Organization to disgorge about $355 million in ill-gotten gains as well as more than $98 million in interest on that money from the time Trump obtained it through fraud. The total came to just under $454 million. Engoron also barred Trump from running a business or applying for a loan in New York for three years. The judge ordered Trump’s sons Donald Jr. and Eric to pay more than $4 million each and barred them from serving as officers or directors of any New York corporation or legal entity for two years.

“[D]efendants submitted blatantly false financial data to…accountants,” Engoron wrote, “resulting in fraudulent financial statements. When confronted at trial with the statements, defendants’ fact and expert witnesses simply denied reality, and defendants failed to accept responsibility….” Engoron detailed the reluctance of the Trumps, including Ivanka, to tell the truth on the witness stand, and concluded: “Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological.”

New York attorney general Letitia James, who brought the lawsuit, commented: “Donald Trump is finally facing accountability for his lying, cheating, and staggering fraud. Because no matter how big, rich, or powerful you think you are, no one is above the law.”

In his 2022 documentary about Alexei Navalny, director Daniel Roher asked Navalny what message he would leave for the Russian people if he were killed. “Listen,” Navalny answered. “I’ve got something very obvious to tell you. You’re not allowed to give up. If they decide to kill me, it means that we are incredibly strong. We need to utilize this power to not give up, to remember we are a huge power that is being oppressed by these bad dudes. We don’t realize how strong we actually are.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#Letters from An American #Heather Cox Richardson #Alexei Navalny #VP Kamala Harris #EU #Munich Security Conference #NATO #War in Ukraine #Cowardly House Republicans #Speaker Mike Johnson #National Security

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bopinion · 2 months

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2024 / 07

Aperçu of the Week:

"Time isn't the main thing. It#s the only thing."

(Miles Davis, American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer - and among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of music)

Bad News of the Week:

Sometimes things get rough in the political business. Sometimes you get pelted with eggs, as the unification chancellor Helmut Kohl once did in the East. Or with a bag of paint, as happened to Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer. Or even end up in a wheelchair like Bundestag President Wolfgang Schäuble, who was stabbed. However, all these incidents - as tragic as they are - are isolated cases. In which an individual perpetrator, often with a psychological problem that was not diagnosed in time, commits an individual act. It is certainly not possible to speak of a systemic problem. This seems to be changing in Germany.

The increasing aggression against the Greens is becoming more and more frightening. The platform of this party has always had a tendency to polarize. After all, they want to achieve fundamental change. And unlike The Left, which also wants this, they are regularly involved in governments. And stand out more in the context of the otherwise dominant "Keep it up..." - keyword "prohibition party". Of course you can be against it, comment on it on social media, take it to the streets and demonstrate. But please do so in a civilized manner, as it has to be in a democratic society.

Unfortunately, this discourse has not been civilized in recent weeks. It started when the Green Minister for Economic Affairs, Robert Habeck, was prevented from leaving a car ferry by angry farmers. There was a scuffle with the police, and the public prosecutor's office is now investigating on charges of coercion. And now a Green Party rally - on the traditional "Political Ash Wednesday" - had to be canceled at the last minute. Again because of angry farmers blocking roads. This time, several police officers were injured, cars were demolished and fires were lit. Even Interior Minister Nancy Faeser from the rival Social Democrats considers this to be unacceptable, calling it a "brutalization and poisoning of the discourse". She is quite simply right.

Good News of the Week:

Once a year, the Munich Security Conference MSC, the world's most important security policy meeting, takes place in Munich. It is characterized not only by the official conference programme, but also by the various meetings that take place behind the scenes. One pleasing example: Armenia and Azerbaijan have been at war for years. Under the mediation of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, both heads of government have now met in Munich. And then actually announced that they wanted to resolve their conflicts peacefully.

The primary topic was, of course, the Gaza war with a tendency towards a full-size Middle East conflict. The tone towards Israel is becoming harsher. At the MSC, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken called for a Palestinian state to end the "vicious circle". And is even receiving support from China: this is the only way to achieve peaceful coexistence in the region, said Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who was also present. It is fitting that French President Emmanuel Macron announced after a meeting with Jordan's King Abdullah II in Paris a few days ago that he does not want to close his mind to the recognition of a Palestinian state: "We owe this to the Palestinians, whose expectations have been trampled on for too long."

Naturally, the Ukraine war was also in focus. President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed for further support at the security conference. There is a lack of long-range weapons. Kremlin leader Putin must not succeed in turning the next few years into a catastrophe. And the Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny, who has just died in a Siberian prison camp in an as yet unexplained manner, is a victim of Vladimir Putin, just like Ukraine, says Selensky. Shortly beforehand, he had signed a security agreement with Germany, which provides the most military aid to Ukraine after the USA.

Other remarkable things also happened in Munich. For example, US Vice President Kamala Harris reaffirmed that the USA is firmly rooted in NATO. Out of responsibility, but also out of self-interest. Donald Trump's current statements on the subject obviously make this statement seem necessary. "Take him at his word, take him seriously. He means what he says," said former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who was also present in Munich.

And finally, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned: "What happens today in Ukraine could happen tomorrow in Taiwan." China's Foreign Minister Wang nonchalantly replied that "Taiwan (remains) part of Chinese territory and the Taiwan issue (is) an internal Chinese matter." Overall, I find it gratifying that even in these times, people are still talking. You get the impression that diplomacy and negotiations are not yet at an end.

Personal happy moment of the week and other categories...

I'm sorry: this week (which piece was published quite late anyway) left me no time to deal with "lighter topics". Next week!

Post Scriptum

It has become apparent: Donald Jessica Trump has been convicted of fraud in court in New York City. The fine amounts to a total of 463.9 million dollars. Many assume that he does not have this in cash. And therefore has to take out a loan or borrow against real estate. Curiously, this fits in with the proceedings - because they were about how Trump manipulated property values in order to obtain cheaper loans. This will now work neither for this personal loan, which he now needs, nor for future deals. That undoubtedly hurts him.

Another decision by Judge Arthur Engoron will hurt him even more. He not only stripped Trump of the management of his own company, but also banned him from doing business in the state of New York for three years, Donald Jr. and Eric for two years and the top managers Weisselberg and McConney for life. In short: the entire top management of the Trump Organization no longer has any say. Engoron transferred their supervision to retired judge Barbara Jones, who thus effectively became Trump's superior.

In Europe, we can only shake our heads at how a legally convicted fraudster and sexual offender can stay in the political business. In Germany, for example, several top politicians have already had to give up their careers because of incorrect citations in their doctoral theses. "He's been a fraud his whole life," commented author Tony Schwartz, who ghostwrote Trump's manifesto "The Art of the Deal". "Today it's just become official." Now it just needs to have a deterrent effect on his voter base. Dreaming will probably still be allowed...

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protoslacker · 2 months

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Statement by Antonio Tajani, Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Italy in his capacity as Chair of the G7 Foreign Ministers’ Meetingat the Munich Security Conference (17 February 2024) PDF via Japanese MInstry of Affairs.

Paul Woodward noting that no U.S. news outlet has reported this comnuniqué seems significant. There's the poverty of reporting and is the glaring contridiction between what the G7 says and what is done. But as well is the implication that informed publics are besides the point.

#journalism #democracy #death in darkness #munich security conference

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tomorrowusa · 2 months

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I'm not exactly a sunny optimist. But when there's a viral mindless piling on of negative evaluations, it's time for a reality check.

Ukraine pulled out of the town of Avdiivka because it values the lives of its troops exponentially more than Russia values its troops. Avdiivka is now little more than a pile of rubble which has little strategic value. Undoubtedly Ukraine left a few surprises for the Russians there. ;)

A couple of writers for the journal Foreign Policy spent time talking with participants at the Munich Security Conference (MSC). SitRep is a weekly digest of news and analysis at Foreign Policy. Here are some excerpts.

SitRep had what we thought was a fairly innocuous question for NATO’s top military official Saturday morning. Two years in, are you pessimistic about Ukraine’s chances in fending off Russia’s full-scale invasion? “I’m not!” shouted Dutch Adm. Rob Bauer, the chair of NATO’s Military Committee, pounding his fist on the table and sending the silverware in front of him clattering in the 15th-century vault-turned-restaurant in the Bayerischer Hof Hotel’s basement. “Pessimists lose wars. Is it difficult for Ukraine? Yes. If you would have asked in 1942 in Europe, ‘How is the war going?’ I don’t think there were a lot of people that were overly optimistic. We still won.”

Americans in particular have short attention spans. A reminder that wars can last longer that one NFL season. US involvement in World War II lasted 3 years 9 months from Pearl Harbor to Japan's formal surrender.

Even accounting for the fact that these types of conferences are saturated with navel-gazing governmental self-congratulations tours, we think the naysayers of the naysayers have a point. Russia is far from starting to win. First, the narrative seeming to take root in some speeches and headlines that Ukraine is on the cusp of losing the war is way off base. The battlefield situation is serious but not to the point where Ukraine is at risk of a full-scale collapse or even facing major setbacks on the front lines, according to the assessments of more than a dozen European defense officials and experts we spoke to. Russia has taken the Ukrainian city of Avdiivka but at an enormous cost in lives and ammunition for a city that has no real strategic significance. [ ... ] Indeed, the scale of Russian losses in the war is truly staggering. Two years in, the Kremlin is still scrambling to transform the country to a wartime economy, and those losses will be hard to recoup. Russia has suffered some 315,000 casualties—accounting for 87 percent of its prewar troop levels, according to a declassified U.S. intelligence assessment—as well as lost 2,200 of its 3,500 prewar tanks and 4,400 of its 13,600 infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers.

Those Russian losses figures are somewhat conservative. More on that in a moment.

Even as Ukraine faces a new wave of ammunition shortages spurred by the political stalemate in Congress over U.S. funding for Ukraine, its lines are holding and European defense officials credit Kyiv with rationing its ammunition smartly and efficiently. [ ... ] Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba was one official who didn’t downplay the significance of Russia’s capture of Avdiivka. “When a citizen of Europe reads in the news that Ukraine retreated from Avdiivka, you should realize one simple fact—Russia has gotten closer to your home.” [ ... ] Russian President Vladimir Putin shouldn’t be popping any champagne bottles just yet. “Let’s remember we are 724 days into Russia’s three-day war,” Bauer said.

Russia is currently trying to frighten us with talk of nuclear missiles in space. They have done this before. They drew red lines that Biden then stepped over and there's no response to the Western moves. One thing Russia is proven to be good at is bullshit.

The second anniversary of Russia's full scale invasion is later this week. It is estimated that Russia has suffered US$49.75 billion in losses in this war. Keep in mind that despite its geographic size, Russia has an economy about one-half the size of California's which has less than a third of Russia's population.

Ukraine currently puts Russian fatalities over the 400,000 mark.

402,430 is a number greater than the populations of the capitals of 39 of the 50 US states. Only in a dictatorship where dissidents are murdered would such massive losses in a futile war be allowed.

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dontmeantobepoliticalbut · 1 year

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China warned that it will retaliate against the U.S. over violations of its sovereignty, potentially escalating a lingering dispute just as both nations’ foreign ministers plan to attend a security conference in Germany.

At a briefing Wednesday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin repeated Beijing’s view that the Chinese balloon downed by a U.S. jet off the South Carolina coast this month had inadvertently floated over the country after being blown off course. He criticized the Biden administration’s decision to take it out and said the move would have consequences.

“China is strongly opposed to this and will take countermeasures against relevant U.S. entities that have undermined our sovereignty and security to firmly safeguard our sovereignty and legitimate rights and interests,” Wang told reporters at the daily briefing.

Some of the 10 U.S. balloons that Beijing says traveled over China since May last year passed over Xinjiang and Tibet, Wang added. Those are two regions in China’s far west where the government is accused by the U.S. and other nations of human rights violations against minorities, charges Beijing denies.

The latest statement came just as both nations appeared to be trying to move on from the dispute. The U.S. said Tuesday that three other objects downed by American jets over the past week served commercial purposes and weren’t used for spying.

It remains to be seen if the latest back-and-forth will prevent a meeting between Secretary of State Antony Blinken with Wang Yi, China’s top diplomat, on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference this week. Blinken had canceled a planned trip to Beijing this month when the initial balloon controversy erupted.

The U.S. claims the Chinese balloon was part of a global surveillance program and it added six Chinese companies it said are linked to Beijing’s espionage program to a blacklist last week. China has insisted that the balloon was a weather-monitoring device.

#us politics #news #time #time magazine #2023 #china #people's republic of china #surveillance balloon #weather balloon #spy balloon #antony blinken #wang yi #Munich Security Conference #state department #Wang Wenbin #biden administration

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kneedeepincynade · 1 year

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Peace is always on the table but the west refuses it.

The post is machine translated

Translation is at the bottom

The collective is on Telegram

⚠️ LA CINA PROMUOVE UNA SOLUZIONE PACIFICA AL CONFLITTO RUSSO-UCRAINO, MA L'OCCIDENTE VUOLE DAVVERO LA PACE? - PARTE 2 ⚠️

🇨🇳 Zhang Hong, Ricercatore presso l'Accademia Cinese delle Scienze Sociali, ha dichiarato che - per quanto sia complicato, attualmente, raggiungere un consenso per le parti coinvolte nel conflitto - la Cina farà tutto il possibile per portare i paesi coinvolti al Tavolo dei Negoziati, e che la Repubblica Popolare «non se ne starà con le mani in mano» 💼

🇨🇳 La Cina, ha affermato Wang Yi, non è una parte direttamente coinvolta nel conflitto, ma ha scelto di non essere un semplice spettatore, così come non intende mettere benzina sul fuoco o sfruttare la crisi, come fanno altri paesi 😘

⭐️ Wang Huiyao ha però dichiarato che né gli europei, né gli USA sono disposti a sedersi e parlare, ed è proprio per questo che «la Proposta Cinese dei Colloqui di Pace è di grande importanza» 👍

💬 "L'Europa è ora impantanata in un odio irrazionale e in un antagonismo contro la Russa", ha sottolineato Zhang Hong, citando - come esempio - proprio la Conferenza sulla Sicurezza di Monaco. È, tecnicamente, incentrata sulla sicurezza dell'Europa, eppure la Russia è stata esclusa dalla partecipazione 😡

⭐️ Song Zhongping, Analista Militare dell'Esercito Popolare di Liberazione, ha affermato che la fornitura occidentale di armi avanzate all'Ucraina provocherà inevitabilmente un contrattacco da parte della Russia, e allora: «la guerra non finirà mai, e l'intera Europa sarà inghiottita» ⚔️

🤔 L'anno scorso, vi furono alcuni tentativi di negoziati tra Russia e Cina, conclusi poi senza alcun risultato. Wang Yi, tornando su quel tema, ha dichiarato: "non siamo a conoscenza delle ragioni [della fine dei colloqui], alcune forze potrebbero non voler vedere un colloqui di pace di successo o la fine del conflitto" 🤔

🇺🇸 In contrasto con la Promozione Cinese di una Soluzione Pacifica, gli USA stanno facendo del loro meglio per alimentare le fiamme del conflitto, strumentalizzandolo a tal punto da creare degli screzi anche con Pechino ⚔️

🇨🇳 Zhang Hong, sugli USA, ha dichiarato: "Agli Stati Uniti non interessa davvero se la Crisi finirà con la Pace o meno. Vogliono così tanto che la Russia perda che non gli importa se tale desiderio sarà a costo della vita del popolo ucraino" 😣

💕 Confrontando la Crisi in Ucraina ad una ferita al braccio, il Ricercatore Cinese ha affermato: "La soluzione proposta dalla Cina è mettere un po' di Medicina Cinese per guarire la ferita sanguinante, mentre gli Stati Uniti vogliono tagliare l'intero braccio" 🌱

🌸 Iscriviti 👉 @collettivoshaoshan

⚠️ CHINA PROMOTES PEACEFUL SOLUTION TO RUSSIAN-UKRAINIAN CONFLICT, BUT DOES THE WEST REALLY WANT PEACE? - PART 2 ⚠️

🇨🇳 Zhang Hong, Researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that - as complicated as it is currently to reach a consensus for the parties involved in the conflict - China will do everything possible to bring the countries involved to the Table of Negotiations, and that the People's Republic "will not sit idly by" 💼

🇨🇳 China, said Wang Yi, is not a party directly involved in the conflict, but has chosen not to be a mere spectator, just as it does not intend to add fuel to the fire or exploit the crisis, as other countries do 😘

⭐️ Wang Huiyao however stated that neither the Europeans nor the USA are willing to sit down and talk, and that is precisely why «the Chinese Proposal for Peace Talks is of great importance» 👍

💬 "Europe is now mired in irrational hatred and antagonism against Russia", underlined Zhang Hong, citing - as an example - the Munich Security Conference. It is, technically, focused on the security of Europe, yet Russia has been barred from participating 😡

⭐️ Song Zhongping, Military Analyst of the People's Liberation Army, said that the Western supply of advanced weapons to Ukraine will inevitably provoke a counterattack by Russia, and then: "the war will never end, and the whole of Europe will be swallowed» ⚔️

🤔 Last year, there were some attempts at negotiations between Russia and China, which were concluded to no avail. Wang Yi, returning to that theme, said: "we are not aware of the reasons [for the end of the talks], some forces may not want to see a successful peace talks or an end to the conflict" 🤔

🇺🇸 In contrast to the Chinese Promotion of a Peaceful Solution, the USA is doing its best to fan the flames of the conflict, exploiting it to the point of creating disagreements even with Beijing ⚔️

🇨🇳 Zhang Hong, on the USA, said: "The US doesn't really care if the Crisis will end with Peace or not. They want Russia to lose so badly that they don't care if such desire will be at the cost of the lives of the Ukrainian people " 😣

💕 Comparing the Crisis in Ukraine to an arm wound, the Chinese Researcher said, "China's proposed solution is to put some Chinese Medicine to heal the bleeding wound, while the US wants to cut off the whole arm" 🌱

🌸 Subscribe 👉 @collettivoshaoshan

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eraserdude6226 · 2 years

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You know, my girl tells me that I have a superpower. That superpower is always being right about things. In our relationship, our daughter, and life in general, I can usually say with a pretty accurate certainty the outcome of situations. I kind of enjoy it except for a few situations.

And this is one of them!!

Attached for your daily reading is the report from the Munich Security Conference held in March of 2021. If you want to get to the meat of the report, just go to page 10 where they are talking about the scenario they used and make sure you’re sitting down when you do.

MONKEYPOX!!!

And what has been in the news the last couple of days??

MONKEYPOX!!

Don’t you think that it is a LITTLE WEIRD that this organization would pick some obscure disease from Africa to be the next worldwide viral plague? I mean how many times in the last 50 years has the word MONKEYPOX even been uttered by anyone except virologists that study it. The paper came out in November of 2021 and here we are in May of 2022, 6 months after publication, and we are talking about MONKEYPOX. I wonder what odds Jimmy the Greek would give that in Vegas?? I mean, c;mon, really!! Do they expect that people are that stupid?? I told my girl that there would be another disease coming after the Covid hysteria died down. And now we have - just in time for the mid-term elections. I’ve been reading up on the Covid vax and one of the issues that’s been popping up in my reading is the decreased immune response. Monkeypox is lethal in 3-6% of the cases and, as with any disease, people with weakened or compromised immune systems would be the most likely to succumb.

Buckle up my buttercups, we are in for a really bumpy future

#monkeypox #covid_19 #covid vaccine #covid-19 #NTI #munichconference #Munich Conference #BiologicThreats #Biologic Threats #smallpox #munich security conference

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mono-multi · 2 months

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You cannot have integrity of elections, without intergity of facts

An extremely interesting round-table on mis- and disinformation an the role of big-tech, social media, and AI

#munich security conference

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head-post · 2 months

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Zelensky hopes US remains a strategic partner

At the Munich Security Conference, the matter of US funding for Ukraine, which has been under consideration for some time, but Congress has yet to come to a conclusion, was brought up again.

For months now, Republicans have insisted that any additional US aid to Ukraine and Israel should also deal with migration issues.

In turn, Donald Trump said he would ask European allies to reimburse the US for about $200 billion worth of military equipment sent to Ukraine.

“Political gamesmanship has no role to play,” as US Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat, put it. She believes that if “the supplemental package and security package to make it to the floor of the House of Representatives, that it would actually pass.”

Despite further US statements about possible future aid, Volodymyr Zelensky firmly stated that he hopes the US would still remain Ukraine’s strategic ally in the war against Russia.

Read more HERE

#world news #world politics #news #europe #european news #munich security conference #zelensky #volodymyr zelenskyy #ukraine #ukraine war #ukraine conflict #ukraine news #ukraine russia conflict #ukraine russia news #russia ukraine war #russia ukraine conflict #russia ukraine crisis #russia ukraine today

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i-merani · 2 months

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Im listening to Munich security conference and Kamala Harris is literally saying "US dominance is the only way to keep americans safe so we aren't changing that" what the actual fuck😀😀

And before that was a panel of leaders from Africa like yeah we need to change how we lead this system or we are all fucked and everyone agreeing on the fact that the international system needs fixing and then Kamala comes like yo, we are the leaders because we are strong and actually this is the only way to keep americans safe

I actually cannot believe they would prepare this speech?? Lmaoo WHATT

#MSC #munich security conference #usa #politics

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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 1 year

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LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

February 20, 2023

Heather Cox Richardson

We awoke this morning to news that President Joe Biden was in Kyiv, Ukraine, where he pledged “our unwavering and unflagging commitment to Ukraine’s democracy, sovereignty, and territorial integrity.” Air raid sirens blared as Biden and Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky walked through the streets during the U.S. president’s five-hour stay.

As National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters, Biden’s visit was the first time a U.S. president has visited “the capital of a country at war where the United States military does not control the critical infrastructure”…in other words, an active war zone. Biden traveled in a special mission plane from Germany to Poland, then took a train from Poland to Kyiv. To make sure there would be no attacks, the U.S. notified the Russians that Biden would be in Kyiv, but a Russian MiG 30 flew from Belarus during Biden’s visit, triggering air raid sirens.

According to Sullivan, Biden felt it was important to visit Kyiv at the anniversary of the 2022 Russian invasion. The image of Biden and Zelensky standing together sent a message to Russian president Vladimir Putin, as David Rothkopf put it in the Daily Beast: “I am here in Kyiv and you are not. You not only did not take Kyiv in days as some predicted, but your attack was rebuffed. Your army suffered a humiliating defeat from which it has not recovered.”

Just under a year ago, the global equation looked very different. On February 4, 2022, Chinese president Xi Jinping hosted Russian president Vladimir Putin on the opening day of the Winter Olympics. The two men pledged to work together in a partnership with “no limits” in a transparent attempt to counter U.S. global leadership and assert a new international order based on their own authoritarian systems.

At the time, Russia was massing troops on its border with Ukraine but fervently denied it was planning to invade. On February 24, 2022, Russian tanks rolled across the border and Russian planes covered them in the air. Biden remembered that Zelensky called him and said he could hear the explosions as they spoke. “I’ll never forget that,” Biden said. “The world was about to change.” When Biden asked what he could do to help, Zelensky said: “Gather the leaders of the world. Ask them to support Ukraine.”

And over 50 nations stepped up to make sure the rules-based international order in place since World War II, which prevents one country from attacking another, held. Those backing Ukraine against Russian aggression have squeezed Russia with economic sanctions and supported Ukraine with military and humanitarian aid. As Biden said today, standing next to Zelensky: “Kyiv stands and Ukraine stands. Democracy stands. The Americans stand with you, and the world stands with you.”

Biden pledged another $460 million in aid to Ukraine, emphasizing that U.S. support for the country is bipartisan.

Biden mourned the cost Ukraine has had to bear, but championed its successes. “Russia’s aim was to wipe Ukraine off the map,” Biden said, but “Putin’s war of conquest is failing. Russia’s military has lost half its territory it once occupied. Young, talented Russians are fleeing by the tens of thousands, not wanting to come back to Russia. Not…just fleeing from the military, fleeing from Russia itself, because they see no future in their country. Russia’s economy is now a backwater, isolated and struggling.”

“Putin thought Ukraine was weak and the West was divided,” Biden said. He remembered telling Zelensky that Putin was “counting on us not sticking together. He was counting on the inability to keep NATO united. He was counting on us not to be able to bring in others on the side of Ukraine.” While Biden didn’t say it, Putin had reason to think those things: the four years of the Trump administration had seen the U.S. offending allies and threatening to pull out of NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization that stands against Russian aggression.

“He thought he could outlast us,” Biden said. “I don’t think he’s thinking that right now…. [H]e’s just been plain wrong. Plain wrong.” A year later, Biden said, “We stand here together.”

“You and all Ukrainians…remind the world every single day what the meaning of the word ‘courage’ is—from all sectors of your economy, all walks of life. It’s astounding. Astounding.

You remind us that freedom is priceless; it’s worth fighting for for as long as it takes. And that’s how long we’re going to be with you, Mr. President: for as long as it takes.”

Zelensky answered, “We’ll do it.”

The world could stand behind Ukraine as it has because Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have held a coalition together and presented a united front with Zelensky and allies and partners in defense of democracy.

In contrast today, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) explicitly called for dividing the nation. She tweeted: “We need a national divorce. We need to separate by red states and blue states and shrink the federal government. Everyone I talk to says this.” For once I will spare you my usual lecture on how elite southern enslavers in the 1850s made this same argument because they resented the majority rule that threatened their ability to impose their will on their Black neighbors.

(I will note, though, that former representative Liz Cheney (R-WY) helpfully reviewed “some of the governing principles of America” for Greene, tweeting: “Our country is governed by the Constitution. You swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Secession is unconstitutional. No member of Congress should advocate secession, Marjorie.”)

What Greene had to say next is of more interest in this moment. The Munich Security Conference, the world’s largest gathering for international security discussions, has just reported that the Russian war on Ukraine is a war of authoritarianism on a rules-based international order. At that conference, Vice President Kamala Harris said the U.S. had determined that Russia has committed crimes against humanity and noted that the bipartisan U.S. delegation to the conference was the largest we have ever sent. The U.S. president has just entered a war zone to declare U.S. support for democracy and is now in Poland, where he will speak with the leaders of the nine countries that make up NATO’s eastern flank and will deliver a speech that Blinken has described as “very significant.”

In contrast, Greene echoed authoritarian leaders Viktor Orbán of Hungary and Putin himself when she called for splitting the nation over “the sick and disgusting woke culture issues shoved down our throats” and “the Democrat’s [sic] traitorous America Last policies.” Authoritarian leaders insist that the equality that underpins liberal democracy threatens traditional society because it means that LGBTQ people, women, and minorities should have the same rights as white men. Greene appears to be taking the same position.

Meanwhile, Fox News Channel personalities, including Tucker Carlson, are trying to spin Biden’s visit to Ukraine as proof that he doesn’t care about the train derailment in Ohio. Scholar of disinformation behavior Caroline Orr Bueno noted: “There’s a narrative being planted here; watch how support for Ukraine is framed as incompatible with US national interests.” She notes that a similar narrative in Canada argues that support for Ukraine hurts Canadian veterans.

A filing in Dominion Voter Systems’ lawsuit against FNC for defamation revealed last week that FNC personalities knowingly lied to their viewers about the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election, acting as a propaganda outlet for Trump. This information is a handy backdrop for the news reported today by Mike Allen of Axios, who says that House speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) has given to FNC host Carlson—who figured prominently in the election fraud lies—exclusive access to 41,000 hours of footage from the U.S. Capitol of the January 6, 2021, attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. According to Allen, Carlson’s producers have already begun going through it to see what they can use on his show.

Putin is scheduled to address the Russian Federal Assembly tomorrow. Billboards in Russia proclaim: “Russia’s border ends nowhere,” but observers believe that he was hoping for a major victory on a battlefield in Ukraine before the speech. Instead, Russian forces have taken severe losses in their recent stalled offensive in eastern Ukraine near Bakhmut.

Biden’s speech in Poland will follow later in the day.

—

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#Heather Cox Richardson #Letters From An American #Volodymyr Zelensky #Joe Biden #War in Ukriane #Authoritarian GOP #FOX News #Munich Security Conference #vp kamala harris

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bopinion · 1 year

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2023 / 07

Aperçu of the Week:

"Success has two letters: Do!"

(Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)

Bad News of the Week:

The only serious competition to Silicon Valley is neither in Europe nor in the Far East, but between the Dead, the Red and the Mediterranean Sea: Israel. Unfortunately. Because it's rather frightening innovations that come out of the more than 300 development and research centers around Tel Aviv. And I don't mean the energy that the state puts into cutting-edge technology for the military, surveillance and espionage. But rather the focus that private-sector companies in the region have also chosen.

Three examples: Cellebrite openly advertises that it can crack iDevices. Much to the delight of the FBI, for example, because Apple had refused to crack iPhones for U.S. authorities or to build a backdoor into their encryption. The questionable services are open to any organization, even criminal ones, for a fee, as if it were a normal IT service.

NSO became a global player in commercial spyware. A market that has grown into an industry estimated to be worth twelve billion dollars, estimates The New Yorker. Their tool named Pegasus was found on the phones of politicians, activists, and dissidents under repressive regimes. The suppression of the Catalan independence movement and the murder of Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi with the help of this spyware are documented.

And just last week, investigative media revealed Team Jorge's business model: professional spreading of fake news to influence elections. They were hired for 32 campaigns, 27 of which were verifiably successful, they say. Yes, political success can be bought - at the expense of the opposition.

What these three examples have in common is a perfidious "not giving a fuck" attitude, which goals are pursued and also achieved with their help. For these are clearly directed against such trivialities as free democracy, independent media, functional rule of law or transparent power apparatuses. The main thing is that the money is right. The framework conditions for this seem to be optimal in Israel, of all places. And when I look at the position of Benjamin Netanyahu's newly enthroned right-wing government against an independent judiciary or free media, this will not change.

Good News of the Week:

In mid-February, Munich always hosts the "Munich Security Conference" (MSC), the world's most important meeting of top politicians on international security. While last year appeals to Russia not to attack Ukraine dominated - we all know what happened a few days later - this time it is about the concrete handling of the war that initiated the much-cited "turning point in time":

The unexpectedly dysfunctional NATO is strengthening internally (higher defense budgets) and externally (Sweden and Finland want to join the alliance), new bloc formations are emerging, the arms industry can no longer keep up with demand, Europe is groaning under a wave of refugees, economic sanctions by the West are turning out to be far less effective than expected, Putin is not wavering. War has become the order of the day.

Major strategic news is not to be expected. All countries have already clearly positioned themselves. From clear, even military support for Ukraine (e.g. all NATO members) to an effort of neutrality based on energy policy (e.g. India or Latin America) to support for the Putin course (e.g. Belarus, Syria or Myanmar). All countries have already taken a clear position? No - the elephant in the room is China.

The youngest major security power calls for peace, but does not name Russia as the aggressor. And just yesterday launched "Operation Mosi II," a joint large-scale naval maneuver with Russia and South Africa off the latter's Indian Ocean coast. So there was little hope that the Middle Kingdom - seen by almost all observers as the only power with de facto influence over the Kremlin - would actively do anything to defuse the conflict.

But then Wang Yi, longtime foreign minister of the People's Republic of China, entered the Munich stage - and stunned. By announcing a peace initiative to end Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine, he said, "We will put something forward. And that is the Chinese position on the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis," the Politburo member said Saturday, according to an official translation. "We will stand steadfastly on the side of peace and dialogue." For a safer world, he said, "the principles of the UN Charter are something we must uphold." Good. Very good. Now words just need to be followed by action.

Personal happy moment of the week:

In our countryside, there are plenty of typical Bavarian inns. And, as everywhere, countless Italians and Asians. Rarer are nice cafés where you can have a good breakfast. One we have - thanks to a voucher that I already got last year for my birthday - tried today. Very good coffee, a manageable but balanced menu. With regional products and in a former monastery building. It was worth it. It's always nice to start the Sunday with a delicious breakfast.

I couldn't care less...

...that Ukraine has requested cluster bombs and chemical weapons on the MSC. These are internationally outlawed because they cause massive collateral damage in violation of international law - including to the civilian population. That Russia is not caring about this may be, is even probable. Nevertheless, this quid pro quo logic is too weak for me. If they go low, you (still should) go high.

As I write this...

...I am mourning a little Lothar Wieler quitting his job. As head of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) he was the Anthony Fauci of Germany. And yet more than just the side kick of the respective health minister. As a politically independent person, he moderated the pandemic in a serious but calm manner. He analyzed, commented, admonished and annoyed. Far away from the day-to-day political business. Against his will, he became a media star, even though he much preferred to sit in the lab and work on his figures. He did what he thought he had to do. Tormented by the thought that "even one more child must die". Big shoes to fill.

Post Scriptum

To be climate neutral, each person should only emit less than one ton of CO2 or similar greenhouse gases per year - currently the average is 11.6 tons. Far ahead of the consumption of beef or air travel to the South, individual transport is the main polluter: the Germans' favorite child, the car. But the will in this country to rely on electromobility seems to be driven more by financial interests than by actual conviction. When gasoline was expensive and electric cars were tax-subsidized in 2022, there was a boom. That plummeted dramatically over the turn of the year, with 83 percent fewer fully electric cars and 87 percent fewer plug-in hybrids registered in January 2023 compared to the previous month. Sigh...

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