Too funny as I’m trying to provide a link to a Global Times article about the NSA and its launch of a new Cyber War and it’s getting blocked.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 29 2022 15:39 utc | 4

I’ve removed the URL, but the comment still won’t post.
Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 29 2022 15:40 utc | 4
—
Try just the URL and nothing else.
Perhaps the algorithm has developed a (temporary) bias against you?

Posted by: too scents | Jun 29 2022 15:50 utc | 6

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202206/1269300.shtml

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jun 29 2022 15:59 utc | 8

Corporations say they will leave Russia but they don’t
Majority of announcements are either partial or not fulfilled
Companies are becoming ‘false heroes’ . .here

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jun 29 2022 16:20 utc | 10

Meant Turkey, Finland, & Sweden LLC? For some reason Norway got replaced / canceled.

Posted by: William Haught | Jun 29 2022 16:31 utc | 12

The Russian Tanker Mystery
https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/russian-oil-disappears-as-tankers-go-dark-near-azores-1.1782397
(Bloomberg) — Russian oil cargoes are increasingly disappearing from view in the Atlantic Ocean as sanctions against the nation’s exports ratchet up.
In the past 10 days, at least three tankers have vanished from vessel-tracking systems as they approached the Azores, a tiny group of islands about 950 miles west of mainland Portugal.
They probably transfered their consignments onto other vessels. Such transfers didn’t happen there before Russia invaded Ukraine, let alone out of view of satellite monitoring.
It’s not clear why the ships have gone dark — it could be that some buyers want to conclude their purchases as privately as possible. The European Union instituted a ban on Russian oil buying that fully enters into force only in December.

Posted by: mk | Jun 29 2022 16:49 utc | 14

Lavrov is busy again today beginning with an address to the organisers of and participants in the roundtable discussion dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the SCO Charter and the 15th anniversary of the SCO Treaty on Long-Term Good-Neighbourliness, Friendship and Cooperation, which was short yet very descriptive as you’ll read below.

Colleagues, friends,
I bid a most cordial and hearty welcome to the organisers of and participants in the roundtable discussion dedicated to two landmark events in the development of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. I am referring to the 20th anniversary of the SCO Charter and the 15th anniversary of the SCO Treaty on Long-Term Good-Neighbourliness, Friendship and Cooperation.
These fundamental documents establish aims and objectives, principles, rights and obligations, whereby the member states are guided in their joint efforts undertaken in the name of a safe and stable common future as well as the well-being and prosperity of their peoples. The values of mutual understanding and trust, equality and consensus, as well as the refusal to participate in hostile actions against each other or directed against third countries serve as a firm foundation for strengthening the spirit of mutual understanding and partnership inherent in the SCO.
Today, our Organisation is a dynamic international union of a new type, located in vast Eurasian expanses. It is distinguished by a creative philosophy and an ability to constantly generate creative energy in the name of achieving common goals. The SCO is by right perceived in the world as a recognised, authoritative, reliable and attractive partner, which is making a significant contribution to maintaining peace and stability, and ensuring sustainable development in Eurasia.
Russia’s foreign policy priorities include strengthening the SCO in a comprehensive way and promoting a meaningful dialogue and practical cooperation in the area of security, the economy, and humanitarian ties. We have consistently advocated greater coordination between the member states in international affairs and strengthening the impact of collaboration with observer states, dialogue partners, and interested multilateral organisations. It is important to continue the coordinated policy towards expanding the SCO, while carefully weighing each step, primarily from the point of view of whether it can really strengthen the Organisation.
Counteracting terrorism, drug trafficking and trans-border organised crime is a matter of particular importance on the SCO agenda. Given the growing scale of interconnected challenges and threats, we continue the work to implement our leaders’ decisions on improving the mechanisms designed to counteract these risks, this in compliance with the relevant initiatives put forward by member states. Simultaneously, measures are being taken to expand the functional potential of the Regional Anti-Terrorist Structure.
A firm basis has been created for promoting economic interaction within the SCO. It is necessary to work hard to put the existing plans into practice and implement concrete measures intended to ensure food, transport and energy security, develop remote and rural territories, strengthen inter-regional ties, carry out digital transformation, and introduce high technologies and innovations. It will be of use to approve, as expected, a roadmap on increasing the share of national currencies in mutual payments.
Yet another promising vector of joint work is setting up wide-ranging cooperative ties in the interests of creating the Greater Eurasian Partnership through the establishment of an open, mutually beneficial and equitable interaction with partners on our common continent, based on the norms of international law and a balance of national interests.
We are expanding humanitarian exchanges, including in education, science, culture, healthcare, the fight against epidemics, tourism, and human contacts, including contacts between young people.
A vast legal and contractual infrastructure, a huge human and resource potential, multilevel practical mechanisms and the accumulated rich experience of multifaceted cooperation remain a guarantee of the SCO’s further strengthening. Amid the continuing tectonic shifts in world politics and the economy, our Organisation can and must become one of the core elements of a new, more just and democratic polycentric world order based on the UN Charter, the principles of sovereign equality of all states, non-interference in internal affairs, and equal and indivisible security.
Russia has come up with an initiative to modernise the SCO and adapt it to the present-day geopolitical realities. I am confident that the leaders of our countries will map out the priorities and measures to achieve the said goals at the upcoming September SCO Summit in Samarkand, which will be the culmination of Uzbekistan’s successful chairmanship.
In conclusion, I would like to wish you interesting and informative discussions and all the best.

I’m now interpreting Lavrov’s use of the word terrorism to also mean the Outlaw US Empire since it’s the #1 terrorist nation on the planet, and Lavrov just accused it of terrorizing the world via its illegal sanctions regime that’s depriving people of energy and foods. So the above passage ought to be read, “Simultaneously, measures are being taken to expand the functional potential of the Regional Anti-US Empire Structure.” Also, Lavrov tells us the fundamental criteria for nations wanting to join SCO or BRICS,
“It is important to continue the coordinated policy towards expanding the SCO, while carefully weighing each step, primarily from the point of view of whether it can really strengthen the Organisation.” [My Emphasis]
Now we’ll see if this posts.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 29 2022 16:53 utc | 16

USSA Treasury public announcement $300 billion Russian CENTRAL bank assets to the tune of $300 billion dollars conficated. By the Repo group of countries.
Where the media is displaying propaganda headlines. Thus “Why has Russia defaulted on its foreign debt? And what will the impact be?” Or similar…….
As Gonzo Lira mentioned the pension funds who purchased these high yield rate bonds. The only recourse is to instigate class legal action. Plus levied penalties against the REPO group countries treasury depts for theft and deception . For ilegally withholding their respective pension fund payment of coupon interst due.
A certain EURO…. clearing house bank will be undoubtedly swamped by various legal actions. One of the most effective will be the local orders for confiscation of bank buildings fittings and assets. For non payment of monies due. The senior management get the message very quickly on that action.
Send for the popcorn………………

Posted by: Bad Deal Motors On | Jun 29 2022 17:14 utc | 18

Hallo, it seems that the Whiskey_Bar and Alabama_Song links in the about page are broken. What we need is two updated song links, because there are old and new versions of the song, and we want both. That would be very nice!

Posted by: Federgraph | Jun 29 2022 17:39 utc | 20

awww, sad news for the geographically disaffected and continent-tag challeged among us: computational economists employed by the UN Food and Aggricultural Organization can’t “see” you. “World Fertilizer Trends and Outlook to 2022“, pp 33-34

Posted by: sln2002 | Jun 29 2022 18:23 utc | 22

“Stalin really is just as bad as Hitler.” rjb1.5@24
It’s a theme from the 30s endlessly updated in the decades since- “Neither Washington nor Moscow but International Socialism” was the version that the Cliffites, neo-trotskyists (for that is what we were) used to promote. But it was an old battered idea even then.
It had the great advantage of being a “Get Out of Jail Free” card to individuals caught on the wrong side of the war against communism which is the central theme of european intellectual life in the post war era. (Anyone remember Chistopher Hitchens?)
Curiously enough it is reaching its apotheosis now in the lining up of Counterpunch and the forces it reflects behind the Empire in Ukraine. It is perfect because communism no longer enters the question: the Soviet Union is dead and Russia is just another capitalist state and, the truth is finally revealed, the Cold War was not about Freedom, Civil Rights, Democracy or even conservative values, liberalism and the family, religion etc. (Are you kidding me?)
It was, as communists noted at the time, really about the Empire retaining its hegemony. The only quarrel with the Soviet Union that Washington had was that it didn’t subordinate itself as a junior partner in the Empire Inc and reduce the Workers of the World to the sort of ants that capitalists enjoyed squashing, milking, eating and coating in chocolate for dessert.
Imperialism is monopoly capitalism- it insists on monopolising it. It is not about to compete with another version.
As to Counterpunch. I think that we are all looking forward to the Lviv edition. And we might not have to wait long either.
“….The risk coming from the cost-of-living crisis is easy to grasp. The risk from additional food shortages is almost beyond calculation….Caveat: A violent late summer may be brewing.”
No harm in giving the link again-I’m assuming that karlofi has done so on another thread- Alistair Crooke https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2022/06/28/war-makes-for-clarity/

Posted by: bevin | Jun 29 2022 19:23 utc | 24

Niki Reid: http://exileinhappyvalley.blogspot.com/2022/06/rainbow-flags-among-ruins-queerness-in.html?m=1

Posted by: Gulo | Jun 29 2022 19:31 utc | 26

ATTN: “wuhan flu” lab fans assembled for the great COVID Trade War “arsenal” of advanced economies’ mRNA stock and IPR licenses.
Y’all remember Covid Vaccines: The “LEAKED” Pfizer[-BioNTech (DE, NL)] Contract (enc) and the MEPs’ 30 minutes (Oct 2021) of fame waving a redacted contract at vdL, dontcha.
well, my o my, which one of you didn’t see this coming?
Commission denies maladministration, can’t find von der Leyen and Pfizer texts

The New York Times first reported about the texts in April 2021. This resulted in a complaint to EU Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly, who made her verdict clear on 28 January, stressing that the European Commission must “do a more extensive search for the relevant messages.”
“The narrow way in which this public access request was treated meant that no attempt was made to identify if any text messages existed. This falls short of reasonable expectations of transparency and administrative standards in the Commission,” O’Reilly said in a press statement in January….

Posted by: sln2002 | Jun 29 2022 19:52 utc | 28

Yet another major gaff by the West, this time at the UNSC, was brought to the media’s attention today during Maria Zakharova’s weekly briefing. The first two paragraphs detail the gaff while the following two deal with the deliberate placement of weapons and firing points next to/amongst civilian structures by NATO/Kiev:

On June 28 of this year, an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council convened by the Albanian chairmanship at the request of Kiev in connection with the missile strikes carried out in recent days on facilities in a number of cities of Ukraine, including the city of Kremenchuk.
Western countries, in violation of the established practice of the Security Council, pushed for participation in the event via video link of the President of Ukraine V.A. Zelensky. Its function is clear. He plays the role of a showman, so his hyped face should have appeared this time. A week ago, the opportunity to participate in the meeting via video link was denied to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Central African Republic S. Baipo-Temon. Is it racism? That is, a representative of the African continent is denied what is given the right of a white person? Are you okay? What century do you live in? How can it be that a white person can “enter” the UN Security Council hall via video link, but not a representative of the African continent. Is this a new kind of segregation? There has never been racism or the slave trade in our country. Our country has historically fought these shameful phenomena in the world by actively advocating the process of decolonization. It is unacceptable that this neocolonial logic will again dominate, because some “handful” of countries thought that they could tell people who should participate in the UN Security Council meeting and who should not; who deserves to be connected via video link and who doesn’t. I believe that those who did not allow the representative of the African continent to join the UN Security Council meeting should explain this issue, and the representative of the “Western community” was given such an opportunity and privilege.
Obviously, the main task of Kiev was to overcome the “fatigue” from Ukrainian issues and create a favorable background for increasing the scale of military support from Western states. However, V.A. Zelensky failed to achieve his goals and raise the “degree of discussion” in the Council even after the presentation of another product of Ukrainian agitpropaganda. We understand that the whole story around Kremenchuk is clearly timed to coincide with the NATO summit in Madrid. All clear. Our question is addressed to Western regimes. Not so much to them, they will never tell the truth, but to Western society in the first place. You understand where the weapons supplied by the Western regime are stored. By and large, these Western “mines” of all kinds (I say symbolically) are laid under the civil infrastructure and are located in its immediate vicinity. Why? It’s clear for what: to use it as a cover. “the same barbarism of the twenty-first century.
For their part, they again gave a decisive and reasoned rebuff to Kiev’s attacks, providing a “chronology” of the activities of the Ukrainian “fake factory” starting with the “Ukrainian defenders” from Snake Island and ending with the “missile strike” on the city of Kremenchug. They also recalled that within the framework of a special military operation, the Russian Armed Forces do not hit civilian targets, and pumping the Kiev regime with weapons is fraught only with a further increase in violence and victims. [My Emphasis]

People in the West will never be informed by their media about the double standards of their UNSC reps. That the Outlaw US Empire’s rep is an African-American makes the affair even more painful for all previously colonized people of color. And yes, a showman, a reference to Lavrov’s description from yesterday. And on the contrived “Food Crisis,” it only exists because of illegal sanctions that are unfortunately obeyed by nations when they ought to be spurned:

Passions continue around the artificially created myth of a global food apocalypse, allegedly provoked by Russia due to the blockade of Ukrainian grain. The most surprising thing is that neither figures, nor facts, nor data from international organizations, nor their own data on food production in Western countries, do not confirm this. Nothing is taken into account when replicating this myth. The “picture” is drawn up, the theses recorded in the manuals are sent out. Not a single fact of a global nature, with figures of food production, nor the facts of grain supplies to Western countries can interrupt this information campaign. This staged story has acquired a global scale. What are the outrageous and unacceptable statements of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany Anna Berbok said: “Russia quite consciously uses hunger as a weapon of war and takes the whole world hostage.” She’s not just lying, but lying brazenly and cynically. A. Berbok is doing everything to consign to oblivion that it was her country that historically used hunger as a weapon and took people as hostages, destroying the civilian population and wanting to wipe our country off the face of the earth.
Let us repeat once again: Russia does not prevent the export of grain from the territory of Ukraine. The Russian Ministry of Defense opens safe corridors every day, informs all partners and the International Maritime Organization about them. We are ready to ensure the passage of foreign merchant ships from the Bosphorus to Ukrainian territorial waters and back. This has been repeatedly said at all levels. Of course, provided that they are inspected for the absence of military products and prevent their escort by foreign warships, aircraft and drones.
What really prevents the export of Ukrainian grain? This is now hampered by the Ukrainian authorities itself, which are responsible for ensuring the safe passage of merchant ships in its territorial waters through demining or by safely escorting ships.
In addition, Russia is ready to export tens of millions of tons of its own grain if Western bans are lifted for its export. What is the West worried about? About the fact that there is no famine in the world? Then stop blocking food supplies, which is what Washington, Brussels and London are doing. Let me remind you that Western bans concern: ship calls at Russian ports, servicing Russian ships in foreign ports, insurance of maritime transportation and bank transfers. Everything has been done to really artificially escalate this situation. But this is being done by Washington, London and Brussels. Unfortunately, the US, the UK and the EU are not ready to accept responsibility for their own steps, even for the sake of eliminating the risk of global hunger, about which they talk so much. Conferences are held on how to avoid hunger on planet Earth. The same people who are developing new restrictive measures of a logistical, financial and economic nature are smartly discussing at the negotiating table what to do to ensure that food is freely delivered to all parts of our planet. What is it? Cynicism? Stupidity? Insolence? It seems to me that this is a crime of a universal nature, for which someone must certainly be responsible. As was always the case with what Western regimes wanted to hide or veil and what became the state of the public. Now it’s happening pretty quickly. There will be no need to wait ten, five years, or even a year. We will learn the truth about who and how this most food apocalypse on our planet was fabricated. We know that this is the work of Western regimes. There are specific names. I think we’ll find out about them soon. [My Emphasis]

It seems likely that Russia will convene its own International Court to prosecute such criminals and their abettors as what dwells at the root of “Putin’s Rebellion” is the great need to reinstate International Law and its need to be used to hold lawbreakers accountable, which was barely done at Nuremburg and not at all by the West with Japan’s crimes. Yes, IMO there’s going to be a Grand Reckoning, nor do I think Russians are bluffing when they talk about its need.

Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 29 2022 20:29 utc | 30

Posted by: waynorinorway | Jun 29 2022 19:45 utc | 28
If I’m not mistaken, Hitchens eventually changed his mind on Iraq, didn’t he? There are a number of individuals that I respect who were initially fine with the invasion, including Glenn Greenwald. Hitchens, of course, pushed the bullshit far harder and for far longer, though.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 29 2022 21:12 utc | 32

Why the lack of transparency?
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/29/european-commission-defiant-over-von-der-leyens-pfizer-texts

Posted by: Jpc | Jun 29 2022 21:23 utc | 34

RE: Scotch Bingeington | Jun 29 2022 21:01 utc | 32
…1. Anthony Fauci has got it. Again…

Hope he gets Ramsay Hunt Syndrome from the gene modification injectibles that did not work like my father, at least one other person my mother (or her friends?) know of, and even 28 year-old Justin Bieber, a previously rare disease that has apparently become as common as the common flu, or something like that.
I got the shingles vaccine (had to go with Shingrix, the only one available in Americastan, which worked out well for me fortunately) but not any of the Covert-1984 things-other-than-vaccines.

Posted by: William Haught | Jun 29 2022 21:24 utc | 36

31 cont’d–
Here’s another Q&A from Zakharova’s briefing that’s outrageous yet humorous. Do be careful with your beverages:

Q: The UK Secretary of State for the Environment said on Monday that he suspected Russia of stealing Ukrainian grain. To prove this, Britain is going to conduct DNA tests of wheat.
A: Will there be an interrogation of wheat in Britain? I believe that this must be done. Record wheat readings, bring witnesses, arrange a face-to-face bet of wheat with wheat and complete it all with a genetic examination, still find missing relatives to “spike to spike”. It’s kind of an extravaganza – something we hear and see from London. On the other hand, why be surprised? If they have such foreign and defence ministers there, as I understand it, so does the entire government. All these statements and accusations are absolutely absurd, but not for the first time. What we just didn’t hear from there – Salisbury, the Skripals, Amesbury – all sorts of things.
If Britain has such opportunities (conducting a whole DNA examination of wheat, grains), why not conduct, for example, the DNA of the victims of its own British aggression against Iraq in order to make a decision on compensation, both to the country and to its citizens. I am referring now to the Iraqis, the people of Iraq. No one thought about it? These are hundreds of thousands of people, and according to some estimates , millions. It’s not that DNA expertise, you first need to count how many civilians have fallen under British shells. Or does it not count at all? Just passed and forgot. According to foreign office estimates, it is possible that Iraq and Britain border. I do not presume to say what maps they have, from what ideas about geography they come. In our understanding, after all, there was no common border, and for Iraq to threaten Britain, there was no such data either. No matter how much they want to come up with stories with test tubes, someone must answer for the attack on this state, for the murder of civilians, for the long-term occupation, for the destruction of everything from civilian infrastructure to statehood, and so on. Someone must answer for the fact that the consequence of this was the emergence of ISIS, which became not just a terrorist cell, but claimed the world’s first terrorist state. Let me remind you that ISIS has spread its influence in some countries of the Middle East and North Africa in the form of cells, in the form of terrorist and extremist networks, which required a very serious response from the international community. In particular, the position of our country, its active activities prevented the spread of all this and the creation of a real terrorist international.
All this was a consequence of Britain’s policy, its attack on Iraq. What’s up with genetic testing on this? If there are such opportunities, maybe they will start with themselves?

Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 29 2022 21:46 utc | 38

Passerby | Jun 29 2022 21:28 utc | 38
Each time your NATO nation buys itself an airforce…what’s the relative value of the Tbill to the F35? junk status?

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Jun 29 2022 21:55 utc | 40

William Haught | Jun 29 2022 21:52 utc | 40
you entered a zone of danger w/that one, giving the opportunity to relive those magic moments from Top Gun, and informing me that they were…illegal!!!!
such a painful moment in cinematic history, why the need to reincarnate it, reanimate it? hey, who wants to see a miscarriage give birth to an abortion? then “Top Gun: before and after tailhook” are your tickets. if the USM can commit these crimes against taste and sense, just exactly what are they NOT capable of?

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Jun 29 2022 22:37 utc | 42

rjb1.5
His conclusion (below) is definitely accurate, but there is some good history in that ‘episode’ which I’m certain many, many Americans either never learned or intentionally avoided learning. Keepin the rabble divided and angry is the ruling class’s best trick, ya know.
RE: Cultural Marxism (in Hollywood) –

In sum, this theory originated with Nazis, was adopted almost wholesale by the FBI and right wingers in Hollywood, was rebooted under Reagan (who was an FBI informant during the Red Scare in Hollywood) and is now being pushed by well-funded, ideologically-driven culture producers who have to lie to their audience in order to maintain their facade.
Does this sound like a plausible theory to you? Does it sound like the industry is full of Marxists, when the only people to have ever been blacklisted from Hollywood for their political beliefs are Marxists? Does it seem like authoritarian shows glamourising the security state and demonising black, brown and poor people are having trouble getting on the air?
At its heart, this theory is pure Nazi bullshit, and you’d have to be an idiot to believe it. Or you’d have to be very smart and to go through all this evidence and argumentation I’ve put together here and explain why I’m wrong. And I’m hereby betting my communist left testicle that no one who advocates this theory is going to do that.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 29 2022 23:20 utc | 44

Why the lack of transparency?
Posted by: Jpc | Jun 29 2022 21:23 utc | 35
Today’s simple answer to simple-ass questions:
Statute and law enforcement in “advanced economies” protects state and trade secrets.

Posted by: sln2002 | Jun 29 2022 23:54 utc | 46

“… CP is not part of the cult of the deified Trostky, where, again, the answer to literally every single thing under the sun is “build the SEP…” rjb1.@30
There are at least thirty different schools of Trotskyism of which the WSWS is just one. And far from being the most influential. And I’m just talking about the north American branches. In Europe and elsewhere there are hundreds of different splits and factions from those who followed Trotsky out of the CP.
Sadly, many of those involved in CounterPunch and in supporting imperialism (in Libya, Syria and Ukraine to talk only of recent years) did begin their political journeys as Trotskyists, it allowed people to pose as communists without having to choose a side in the Cold War. And not choosing a side meant taking the imperialist side.
The more legitimate Trotskyist tradition insisted on defence of the USSR as a ‘workers’ state’ a position which, in the Cold War became dangerous hence the development of doctrine of the ‘Plague on both their houses’ kind which , in a media world dominated by the imperialists propaganda, becomes part of the chorus of Hate.
Now that Russia is ‘just another capitalist state’ it is possible for the most extreme left wingers to be valued parts of the imperialist propaganda machine. Remember Louis Proyect? And his position on Syria?
The one saving grace about CounterPunch is that Cockburn isn’t around to see what the St Clair crew have done with it. My guess is that it is now financed by Soros and his friends. And why not?

Posted by: bevin | Jun 30 2022 0:40 utc | 48

Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 29 2022 23:20 utc | 45
a very enjoyable episode, and an excellent excerpt.
the only comment i’d make is that we if look superficially at products like Captain Marvel, Ghostbusters: Fatbuster (2016), Star Wars: Last Jedi, there’s some strong “cultural marxism”, “woke”, etc., stuff in them. (the only one of these I saw was ‘last jedi’. pretty dreadful stuff.)
why? Capt marvel is pure pentagon product, Jedi of course is Disney, and ghostbusters…well, it’s Sony’s capitalist junk selling itself as pwoggie simply because it has women in it. the “cultural marxism” in these shows is so superficial, like the upsetting idea that women can fly airplanes or something. so pwogwessive. proton packs fired by chicks.

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Jun 30 2022 1:47 utc | 50

“…it’s not necessary to hypothesize such things, for which there is zero evidence. people have deeply held convictions…that they are deeply mistaken about….” rjb1.5@50
I believe, on the contrary that they do not have any deeply held convictions and that the various gyrations in the editorial line at CP over the past few years suggests that self protection and aggrandisement are the closest things to deeply held convictions there.
Further, I would suggest that CP’s refusal to allow the views which I hold, on Ukraine and on Syria, to be properly published indicate that their hewing of the imperialist line is deliberate and, such is the nature of the system, almost certainly productive of financial subsidy and support.
CounterPunch’s trajectory is very similar to that followed by countless “socialists” and “anti-imperialists” to be found in the media, rationalising their support for NATO in the current contest.
One thing I do know, evidence or not, and that is that no honest observer could possibly take the side of the fascist Kiev regime and its fascist allies and sponsors against the courageous and friendless Russian speaking people of Ukraine. Nobody ends up wearing a swastika and chanting Heil to Ukraine! Heil to Bandera by mistake. But money has performed greater miracles.

Posted by: bevin | Jun 30 2022 2:45 utc | 52

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Jun 29 2022 18:17 utc | 22
Thanks . I kept wondering why his F/A-18 E/F super hornet did not suffer from the usual fatal total loss right hand engine fire.
A spectacular demonstraion self destruction of a new low hours RAAF ‘growler’ model serial no A46-311 expired on the runway. At Nellis on January 28th, 2018 with the right hand GE F414 engine on fire.
Sources say that a high-pressure compressor disk of the right-hand engine suffered a catastrophic uncontained failure. The turbine disk broke into three major pieces and these were ejected from the aircraft, with one destroying the right-hand vertical stabiliser, another considerably damaging the left engine, and the third damaging the runway. The F414 jet engine had a mere 200 flight hours.
I guess after 9/11 . With so many dead end wars. The documented evils of stop loss. Fake Republican patriots who consistently veto all military pay rises. Who indeed would willingly enlist in the USSA military forces? Will the USSA rejuvenate the Draft Board again? To fill all the empty holes.

Posted by: Bad Deal Motors On | Jun 30 2022 5:56 utc | 54

If I’m not mistaken, Hitchens eventually changed his mind on Iraq, didn’t he?
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 29 2022 21:12 utc | 33

No, I think he stayed on the dark side. Possibly his income depended on it (Vanity Fair) or possibly he
just couldn’t admit to being so wrong, or likely, he just believed he was correct. Here’s a puffhost piece about his Iraq stance:
Hitch on Iraq
But I loved his work on religion and his line about converting to Christianity on his
death bed because ‘It’s better that a Christian dies than an atheist dies’.
Hitch, Richard Dawkins, and Sam Harris all took (political)positions on Islam that I find incongruous with their intellects.

Posted by: waynorinorway | Jun 30 2022 6:39 utc | 56

@ 25
Bevin, I’ve been following your comments for some time now – most impressed.
I read Neither Washington or Moscow about 30 years ago when I was a bit politically naive, and thought it reasonable, and the author sincere.
I get the impression you’ve moved on, so was there any philosophical flaws in the book?
Perhaps if I read it now I might have a different view.

Posted by: Steve from Oz | Jun 30 2022 7:50 utc | 58

@42 and @45
This ‘article’ is made up of falsehoods. The idea of cultural marxism originates from Antonio Gramsci, an italian Communist. He correctly observed that as long as people are indulged in a culture that is inherently hierarchic and promotes reactionary values, they will not accept any form of socialism. When he wrote this, there wasn’t great resonance, because fascism was on the rise in Italy.
When – 30 years later – Herbert Marcuse was tasked with the subversion of the ’68 left wing movement, which was a threat to the established power holders, he used some of Gramsci’s concepts. Instead of focusing on capitalism and imperialism, he sought to deviate that focus on different identities. His goal was to destroy the anticapitalists and antiimperialists by dividing them into quarreling factions. In order to succeed, his ideas needed to appeal to the target group. He thus named his poisonous construct ‘cultural marxism’, to make those young people believe there was cool marxism in there. It was a marketing stunt. Cultural Marxism is a weapon to destroy the classical left. It created the new left, or pseudo left. Young gullible conformists who love corporations, banks, capitalist ideology, war, everything, as long as it is politicallly correct in the sense of Marcuse’s concept.
The opening of ‘Zabriskie Point’ shows the created division working nicely. Antonioni was well aware of what was happening.
Cultural Marxism does not target the alt-right. It targets what was once the left and which has been successfully destroyed. What succeeded of the demands of ’68? Liberal Hedonism. That is all they got. The plutocracy did not have to give away anything. The war machine moved on. Equality shrunk. But at least we got to party…

Posted by: sub | Jun 30 2022 10:36 utc | 60

Julian Assange , American Embassy, Crown Prosecution Service – Myth Making.
As the US ambassador and various British satraps celebrated petty patels rubber stamping of further torture of JA – he was stripped and dumped in a cell for the day inside the maximum security prison he already is in – the case will now rumble onto the ECHR which allows that the full facts of JA’s persecution are finally admitted.
Persecution NOT prosecution.
The myth is that JA ‘escaped’ prosecution by the Swedish State because he was not charged for rape in a timely fashion by the Swedish Authorities- so that a statute of limitation on bringing such charge expired!
Have you ever heard of such utter and complete bullshit?
Read that again – because that is what senior CPS lawyers BELIEVE – having completely ignored the ‘Don’t you dare drop your investigation’ memo to the Swedes from within that CPS! It is rotten to the core now. And these lawyers are mere lackeys. Nazi apparatchiks even.
Conveniently and with undue haste ‘deleted’ from the Keir Starmer led CPS at the time.
All you need to know of the continuous rottenness of the U.K. in just this one persecution and torture in a central London prison of an uncharged, untrialled, unconvicted journalist and whistleblowee revealer , greatest political prisoner of the Collective Waste.
Sweden has lost ALL its ‘peaceful & fair and free’ reputation.
It wouldn’t surprise me if IKEA stores are trashed across the world as the only thing Swedish anymore.

Posted by: DunGroanin | Jun 30 2022 11:47 utc | 62

There’s hope! and hype . . .

Hillary Clinton is having her biggest I-told-you-so moment to date.
The overturning of Roe v. Wade by a Supreme Court that includes three judges nominated by Donald Trump, along with devastating Tuesday testimony to the Jan. 6 panel about the former president’s temper tantrums as a mob attacked the Capitol, have Clinton and his allies seeing new vindication in her 2016 warnings about the mistake of electing Trump.
It’s made some wonder if a third bid for the White House is possible. . .here

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jun 30 2022 13:14 utc | 64

Hitch, Richard Dawkins, and Sam Harris all took (political)positions on Islam that I find incongruous with their intellects.
@ waynorinorway | Jun 30 2022 6:39 utc | 57
Ultimately, their confusion resolves to self-loathing, inhumanism: upholding proximate evidence of one’s own profound murkiness as proof enough that all human beings are evil.

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Jun 30 2022 14:08 utc | 66

Blaming Russia’s War, G7 Leaders Rescind Another Global Climate Pledge

In many ways, the weekend meeting offered an early and ominous glimpse of the steep challenges countries will likely face in November as they meet in Egypt for the United Nations’ highly anticipated climate summit. Many climate activists now worry that as the U.S. and other wealthy Western nations ramp up domestic production of oil and gas to replace lost fuel supplies from Russia, it’s sending the global climate fight in the wrong direction and risks sabotaging the chances of meeting key targets set by the Paris Agreement. more

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Jun 30 2022 15:06 utc | 68

@SwissArmyMan #14
I doubt it is the act of cutting and pasting – more likely it is what you are cutting and pasting. I cut and paste pure text sections of articles all the time and have never once had a problem.
In particular – if you try to post a link that is a Google embedded link (i.e. a link referenced by Google, which is a link inside a link) – this will show up as a blank.
There are also a few web sites which automatically get blocked.

Posted by: c1ue | Jun 30 2022 15:11 utc | 70

@c1ue | Jun 30 2022 15:57 utc | 73
—
A smelter needs to be re-lined before in can be restarted. A non-trivial expense that keeps smelters on-line as long as possible.

Posted by: too scents | Jun 30 2022 16:04 utc | 72

Germany inflation drops to “only” 8.2%
France inflation record high 6.5%
So much winning…

Posted by: c1ue | Jun 30 2022 17:10 utc | 74

@waynorinnorway and Aleph_Null re: Chris Hitchens.
This is going to sound incredibly stupid of me, but yesterday I was busy while commenting and I was thinking of Chris Hedges when I replied to the Hitchens comment(s). Duh. Obviously the former is deceased and you’re correct – he was devout in his Islamophobia.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 30 2022 18:45 utc | 76

Bevin @ 69
Thanks for all that detail Bevin.
I’m also astounded at figures on the left who cannot see who the enemy is.
Neither Washington nor Moscow was a book written by Tony Clift, from memory. He migrated to UK from somewhere in the M East. Can’t recall any of the detail, but because you inadvertently named it I thought you might be familiar with it.
Cheers, Steve

Posted by: Steve from Oz | Jun 30 2022 19:09 utc | 78

Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 29 2022 21:15 utc | 35
Thanks for your response!
“maybe the latter reposted that one”
Yes, they probably did. ZH is mostly a news aggregator, isn’t it?
The masks… Phew, another one of those bones of contention. It was a true relief not having to wear them in the supermarket anymore. In Berlin, they’re still mandatory on busses and trains, even in the summer. I find that idiotic and try to go without one. On the other hand, at the doctor’s I don’t mind having to wear a mask. And at the pharmacy, you don’t have to wear one, but I still do. Weird.
—
William Haught | Jun 29 2022 21:24 utc | 38
To you as well, thank for responding!
Ramsay Hunt Syndrome, hadn’t heard of that one before I have to admit. Still need to look that up and I will also pass that on as a tip to the owner of another blog. Over there, they compile and present such data. Anyway, I’m sorry to learn of your worries with relatives’ health. I’m worried for my relatives too, though luckily nothing has happened yet. Except for the repeated Covid infections, of course.
The shingles vaccine… Impressive, so you made a distinction between different manufacturers/formulations even before the Covid shots? Somehow that never was an issue to me. I must have had the shingles vaccine as well, though I still have to look up what illness the shingles really are in German to really know. Until Covid, I basically got all the vaccines at least once. Had my tetanus refreshed a few years back what with garden work on a former farm.

Posted by: Scotch Bingeington | Jun 30 2022 19:51 utc | 80

too I meant.

Posted by: bevin | Jun 30 2022 20:04 utc | 82

The Hutchinson testimony ….. absolutely incredible … but is it true? She that Secret Service agent Tony Ornato, who was in the car, told her that Trump had a temper tantrum during the trip from the Jan. 6 rally, resulting in a physical altercation with the driver, and that SS agent Bobby Engel who was also in the car witnessed her conversation with Ornato and didn’t object.
Is her account true, or false?
https://www.vice.com/en/article/7k89ea/hutchinson-testimony-secret-service-bobby-engel

Posted by: Saggy | Jun 30 2022 21:10 utc | 84

Posted by: Scotch Bingeington | Jun 30 2022 19:51 utc | 82
Forgot to mention your handle caught my eye. I participate at a few sports related sites (bread and circuses, ya know) and one of the regulars used to have the same name as you. Is Scotch Bingeington something from pop culture (like the Simpsons? Monty Python?) or was that maybe you talking about football (American) too?

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 30 2022 21:31 utc | 86

Arganthonios | Jun 30 2022 11:11 utc | 63
What you’re talking about is not “marxism” whether you want to write “cultural” or “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” in front of it.
——
maybe i didn’t use the word “superficial” enough times to be clear or put enough quotation marks around “”””””cultural marxism“”””””?

Posted by: rjb1.5 | Jun 30 2022 22:01 utc | 88

I seriously doubt Trump physically attacked anyone or they’d have chosen much more incendiary language than simply “lunged at…” Sounds like BS to me is my two cents.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 30 2022 21:37 utc | 89
I agree and would ask why Hutchinson is testifying rather than the persons who would have directly witnessed the supposed incident. Moreover, the committee seems to lack even one Congressperson who doesn’t despise Trump. I didn’t hear Trump’s speech, but I read the transcript and did not find anything he said that could be reasonably construed as encouraging violence.

Posted by: David Levin | Jun 30 2022 22:12 utc | 90

@ Tom_Q_Collins | Jun 30 2022 21:37 utc | 89
There are 2 issues, the event itself, and the information we get about the event.
I think the event itself is significant as if true it shows how truly deranged Trump is. Hopefully it is not true.
The information available is another issue. I just watched a Tucker Carlson vid, I’m a fan of TC, where he is in Brazil railing against China, I’m not a fan of that, and he said that Hutchinson’s report was completely debunked and yesterday’s news. https://video.foxnews.com/v/6308744782112 At 4:50 he says the SS agents on the scene denied it. I don’t believe that is true. I’ve come to expect straight propaganda from the MSM, but not from TC.

Posted by: Saggy | Jul 1 2022 0:39 utc | 92