Global
Humanitarian aid should never be politicized though, quite often, the very survival of nations is used as political bargaining chips.
Sadly, Gaza remains a prime example. Even before the current war, the Gaza Strip suffered under a 17-year hermetic blockade, which has rendered the impoverished area virtually 'unlivable'.
That very term, ‘unlivable’ was used by the then-UN Special Rapporteur for the Situation of Palestine, Michael Lynk, in 2018.
President Joe Biden's debate disaster this week placed a magnifying glass on the already existing concerns of the American electorate that Joe Biden is showing serious signs of cognitive impairment. The debate was a tectonic shift in electoral politics, no matter how the Ruling Elites attempt to spin it. One thing is now crystal clear. The chance to beat the Orange Menace in November is increased by replacing Biden, rather than being a risky move. The riskiest move is to allow Biden to run for President, risking the future of America and democracy itself.
Every America has witnessed the devastating effects of dementia which often included rapid progression. In January, Biden gave a reasonably vigorous State of the Union address, quieting his critics. Only 5 months later, the word vigorous no longer applies, nor will it in the weeks and months to come. It is possible if not likely that Biden will be a shell of a man by election day in November.
Once upon a time the United States of America was a constitutional republic that was by design constructed with checks and balances to limit corruption and constrain the ability of any branch of government to initiate certain potentially harmful actions, like going to war, which required approval by both Congress and the Executive Branch. Of course, that was 261 years ago and things change over time. Today’s America, what claims to be both a democracy and the issuer plus enforcer of international rules and norms, is arguably one of the most corrupt as well as most disliked countries on earth, with a political system that is exceptionally vulnerable to those who have deep pockets and a willingness to spend freely to obtain favors from the professional politicians and bureaucrats who now proliferate throughout the system.
Some will react to the notion of creative Destruction, as an obvious contradiction in terms. But, they just don't understand. According to our Ruling Classes, the term encapsulates the Engine of Progress and the vital role of the “West” in the process.
The above photos reveal less than 1% of the damage that has been done by the “Civilized World” during the so-called “American Century” - which has lasted more than a century and a half. The US reduced EVERY Japanese city to a similar condition. And according to General LeMay, his air force destroyed every town, village, city, and hamlet in the North of Korea and most of the South. They destroyed all dams and dikes, flooding the plains, and sprayed a half-million tons of defoliants and other chemical agents. Same in Vietnam a few years later. We know about Iraq, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq again, and Libya. In Libya, they took care to ruin the “Great Man-Made River” project - which was greening the desert.
So, how is this to be seen as Progress? Michael Ledeen, of the US State Department and National Security Council explains it this way:
“There will be no civil war” in Israel, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on June 18. But he might be wrong.
Yesterday, in the Westminster Magistrates Court in London, the lawyers for WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange presented to the judge a document from me stating that I have put up $20,000 of my own money to help bail Mr. Assange out of jail.
Furthermore, I am publicly offering the assistance of my website, my servers, my domain names and anything else I can do to keep WikiLeaks alive and thriving as it continues its work to expose the crimes that were concocted in secret and carried out in our name and with our tax dollars.
We were taken to war in Iraq on a lie. Hundreds of thousands are now dead. Just imagine if the men who planned this war crime back in 2002 had had a WikiLeaks to deal with. They might not have been able to pull it off. The only reason they thought they could get away with it was because they had a guaranteed cloak of secrecy. That guarantee has now been ripped from them, and I hope they are never able to operate in secret again.
The “ADVANCE Act,” a bill to promote nuclear power, was passed 88-to-2 in the U.S. Senate last week. The ADVANCE stands for “Accelerating Deployment of Versatile, Advanced Nuclear for Clean Energy.” The only senators voting against it were Edward Markey of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
It was approved in the House of Representatives in May, also by a lopsided margin: 393-13. And it now has gone to President Joe Biden,
Among the many points in the bill are fast-tracking the federal licensing process for new nuclear power plants notably those described as “advanced,” reducing licensing fees, allowing ownership of nuclear facilities in the U.S. by foreign nations, and establishing within the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission an Office of International Programs “to carry out the international nuclear export and innovation activities.”
The action by Congress comes amid what Kevin Kamps of the organization Beyond Nuclear says is “the biggest push for nuclear power that I’ve experienced in 32 years of anti-nuclear power activities.”
After twelve years — including five years of solitary confinement at Belmarsh Prison in London — Julian Assange is free. God bless America! He wasn’t extradited to the U.S. to stand trial, where he faced a sentence of 170 years in prison for violating the so-called Espionage Act.
Instead, he took a plea deal with the U.S. government, pleading guilty to one count of violating that act — you know, threatening America’s freedom — for which he had paid by his time already served. He was officially pronounced free at a U.S. federal court in Saipan, capital of the Northern Mariana Islands (a U.S. territory), after which he flew home to his wife and two children in Australia.
My emotional relief at his escape from the clutches of this government far outweighs my feelings about the broader implications of the guilty plea, which has justifiably stirred concern and controversy. The government got its little triumph: a “legal” acknowledgment of its right to keep monstrous secrets about what it does and punish any unauthorized spilling of the beans as “espionage.”