Global

Pandering to Israel as part of the political process in the United States has become part of the DNA of both major parties.

The job of U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations must have some kind of curse on it as it seems to attract a type of woman who seeks to prove her suitability by running up a tally of how many wars she can start and how many people she can kill. One recalls fondly Bill Clinton’s monstrous Madeleine Albright, who famously declared the deaths of 500,000 Iraqi children as “worth it” due to the sanctions that Washington had imposed and enforced. And then there was Barack Obama’s darling Samantha Power, who was the spokesperson for the completely unnecessary slaughter of Syrians and Libyans to bring them democracy. And, most recently, we have had Nikki Haley, who didn’t start her own war but kept the ones ongoing during her watch on the boil while also taking on the task of being the most strident defender of Israel’s war crimes.

BANGKOK, Thailand -- By seizing power, Myanmar's new coup leader Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing has protected his murky financial investments and the military's domination, but some of his incoming international cash flow might now be up for grabs.

Sr. Gen. Min spent much of his military career as a quiet, publicity-shy officer steadily promoted to higher positions before grabbing absolute power at dawn on February 1, six months before his mandatory retirement on his 65th birthday July 3.

Among other goals, Sr. Gen. Min apparently hopes he has protected himself, his family, and military colleagues from possible investigation over their extensive, lucrative financial deals.

"His financial interests must be considered as a motive for his coup," the Justice for Myanmar campaign group of activists said.

"Senior General Min Aung Hlaing has ultimate authority over Myanmar’s two military conglomerates -- Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC) and Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited (MEHL)," the group said.

“It is long past time for . . . a sea change in the United States’ approach to national and human security . . .”

Yes, yes, yes. These words cut to the soul. Can we create a grown-up America? This is how it begins.

The quote is from a letter to President Biden, put forward in early February by the Center for Constitutional Rights and the Center for Victims of Torture and signed by 111 organizations, demanding that the new president shut down, at long last, the prison hellhole at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Of all the daunting tasks Joe Biden faces, especially vital is the inspection of dangerously embrittled atomic reactors still operating in the United States.

A meltdown at any one of them would threaten the health and safety of millions of people while causing major impact to an already struggling economy. The COVID-19 pandemic would complicate and add to the disaster. A nuclear power plant catastrophe would severely threaten accomplishments Biden is hoping to achieve in his presidency.

The problem of embrittlement is on the top of the list of nuclear power concerns. The “average age”—length of operation—of nuclear power plants in the U.S., the federal government’s Energy information Agency, reported in 2019 was 38 years.

Now, in 2021, the “average age” of nuclear power plants in the U.S. is 40 years—the length of time originally seen when nuclear power began in the U.S. for how long plants could operate before embrittlement set in.

Lawyers galore have fled the prospect of representing Donald Trump at his upcoming Impeachment Trial (the sequel).

So his pardoned consigliere Steve Bannon (who knows his Nazi history) wants The Donald to testify in person. It’s a serious Hitlerian scenario.

In 1923, Adolf tried to overthrow Bavaria’s state government. His violent rant at a Munich beerhall sparked an armed conflict that killed eight (Adolf dislocated his shoulder, then hid at a friend’s house).

His high-profile trial jump-started Hitler’s quest for fascist power.

Trump’s own “beerhall putsch” left five dead, plus two police suicides. He pledged to “be there with you” but hid like Hitler.

Trump’s paramilitary Death Squad meant to murder the likes of Mike Pence, Nancy Pelosi, AOC, Bernie Sanders. They crushed the skull of one cop and gleefully assaulted others. Many were professionally trained and heavily armed.

Trump is currently hiding in a Floridian Elba, barely seen or heard.

For his neo-Nazi cult, Trump’s return to the global spotlight would likely trigger waves of armed assault.

“Be very still, and listen,” Paul DeMain told us. In the act of offering tobacco to the fire, he encouraged us to offer up that which we no longer wished to carry in our bodies, in our lives and in our souls. “But be careful what you ask to throw away, because the grandfathers will decide how that will happen in their own way.”

We were five minutes late for the start of the Full Moon Ceremony at the Line 3 resistance camp  in Pallisade, Minn. Fifteen masked and COVID-tested climate activists, we had driven 1600 miles from Maine and Massachusetts. If we hadn’t taken that time-consuming three point turn up I-94 toward Milwaukee we would have gotten there right on time.

But time zones and consumption patterns change, the border between ceremony and sunset is fluid, and the pattern of moonrise on macadam is malleable in the cold North Woods. In the offing, we were welcomed into the growing circle at the pipeline resistance camp with an offering of sweet smoke brushed over our heads and bodies from a brazier of burning sage, calming our jangled nerves and helping us plant our feet firmly again on solid, indeed frozen, ground.

BANGKOK, Thailand -- Myanmar's military seized power in a coup on February 1, detained internationally disgraced civilian leader Aung
San Suu Kyi and other recently elected officials, and declared a one-year State of Emergency because voting was marred by "terrible
fraud."

Commander-in-chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing's security forces moved at dawn -- six months before his term expires in June -- prompting
speculation he may have been motivated to protect his extensive, murky financial investments and block any weakening of the military's
political domination.

The military's Myawaddy Television announced Sr. Gen. Min was now ruling and a State of Emergency would be enforced for one year,
starting immediately.

"The voter lists which were used during the multiparty general election which was held on the 8th of November were found to have huge
discrepancies and the Union Election Commission failed to settle this matter," the televised statement said.

"There was terrible fraud in the voter list."

The announcement pointed to the 2008 constitution which states:

The democracy of United States of America barely survived the disgraced ex-President, who made a very serious effort at performing a coup in order to stay in power. Even today, Republicans are afraid to cross him, and he has an army of deluded MAGA supporters who believe themselves to be patriotic. When attacking the nations Capitol, they don't all carry Confederate Flags. Some of the MAGA Patriots instead carried USA flags to then be used as weapons against the Capitol police.

Everyone in America should have known This Man would not to quietly into the night, but few expected outright treason.

We are eventually going to find out just how far President Donald J. Treason would go to destroy our governing structure in order to retain power. Treasonous Trump's authoritarian tendencies went spiraling out of control during the time between his election defeat and the inauguration of Joe Biden. Another 4 years of his tyrannical rule would have ended America as we know it. Instead, our democracy is deeply wounded.

Unless consciously resisted, one of Donald Trump’s lasting triumphs will be the establishment of such a low bar that mediocre standards will prevail for his successor. Of course, providing a clear contrast to the atrocious Trump presidency is irrefutably necessary -- but it’s hardly sufficient.

To give high marks merely for excelling in comparison to right-wing Republicans is to cheer high jumps over very low standards. And the opening months of President Biden’s term are an especially bad time to grade him on a curve, as top appointees take charge and policy directions are set.

With corporate forces fully mobilized and armies of their lobbyists deployed to constantly push the new administration, the need for activating grassroots counterpressure from the left should be obvious. Yet an all-too-common progressive refrain now is along the lines of “Step back and give Biden a chance!”

The majority of Americans, and the vast majority of people in other countries throughout the world, heaved a sigh of relief when Joe Biden won the 2020 US presidential election. Hopes for the future soared, as the world seemed to be rid of Trump at last!

There is so much wrong with Donald Trump that one hardly knows where to start. He is a bully, braggart, narcicist, racist, mysogenist, habitual liar, and tax evader, in addition to being demonstrably ignorant. He has contempt for both domestic and international law, as well as for the US Constitution. In the words of Michael Moore, he is a “part-time clown and full-time sociopath”. However, it is Trump's climate change denial, withdrawal from the Paris agreement, and sponsorship of fossil fuels that posed the greatest threats to the future of humans society and the biosphere.