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“The real division is not between conservatives and revolutionaries but between authoritarians and libertarians.”

-- George Orwell

News and Opinion

An important article by Glenn Greenwald well worth a click and a read:

The Neoliberal War on Dissent in the West

When it comes to distant and adversarial countries, we are taught to recognize tyranny through the use of telltale tactics of repression. Dissent from orthodoxies is censored. Protests against the state are outlawed. Dissenters are harshly punished with no due process. Long prison terms are doled out for political transgressions rather than crimes of violence. Journalists are treated as criminals and spies. Opposition to the policies of political leaders are recast as crimes against the state. When a government that is adverse to the West engages in such conduct, it is not just easy but obligatory to malign it as despotic. Thus can one find, on a virtually daily basis, articles in the Western press citing the government's use of those tactics in Russia, China, Iran, Venezuela and whatever other countries the West has an interest in disparaging (articles about identical tactics from regimes supported by the West — from Riyadh to Cairo — are much rarer). That the use of these repressive tactics render these countries and their populations subject to autocratic regimes is considered undebatable.

But when these weapons are wielded by Western governments, the precise opposite framework is imposed: describing them as despotic is no longer obligatory but virtually prohibited. That tyranny exists only in Western adversaries but never in the West itself is treated as a permanent axiom of international affairs, as if Western democracies are divinely shielded from the temptations of genuine repression. Indeed, to suggest that a Western democracy has descended to the same level of authoritarian repression as the West's official enemies is to assert a proposition deemed intrinsically absurd or even vaguely treasonous. The implicit guarantor of this comforting framework is democracy. Western countries, according to this mythology, can never be as repressive as their enemies because Western governments are at least elected democratically. This assurance, superficially appealing though it may be, completely collapses with the slightest critical scrutiny. ...

The decade-long repression of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, standing alone, demonstrates how grave neoliberal attacks on dissent have become. Many are aware of key parts of this repression — particularly the decade-long effective detention of Assange — but have forgotten or, due to media malfeasance, never knew several of the most extreme aspects. While the Obama DOJ under Attorney General Eric Holder failed to find evidence of criminality after convening a years-long Grand Jury investigation, the then-Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), succeeded in pressuring financial services companies such as MasterCard, Visa, PayPal and Bank of America to terminate WikiLeaks’ accounts and thus banish them from the financial system, choking off their ability to receive funds from supporters or pay their bills. Lieberman and his neocon allies also pressured Amazon to remove WikiLeaks from its hosting services, causing the whistleblower group to be temporarily offline. All of that succeeded in crippling WikiLeaks’ ability to operate despite being charged with no crime: indeed, as the DOJ admitted, it could not prove that the group committed any crimes, yet this extra-legal punishment was nonetheless meted out.

Those tactics pioneered against WikiLeaks — excluding dissenters from the financial system and coercing tech companies to deny them internet access without a whiff of due process — have now become standard weapons. Trudeau's government seizes and freezes bank accounts with no judicial process. The "charity” fundraising site GoFundMe first blocked the millions of dollars raised for the truckers and announced it would redirect those funds to other charities, then refunded the donations when people pointed out, rightly, that their original plan amounted to a form of stealing. When an alternative fundraising site, GiveSendGo, raised millions more for the truckers, Canadian courts blocked its distribution. And it was just over a year ago when Democratic politicians such as Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) successfully pressured tech monopolies Google and Apple to remove Parler from its stores and then pressured Amazon to remove the social media site from its servers, at exactly the time the social media alternative became the single most-downloaded app in America. (This morning we published a new video report on Rumble that traces the emergence of this new anti-dissent tactic first pioneered on WikiLeaks and now widely used against dissent generally: “Banishment from the Financial System: the War on Dissent"). ...

This last decade of history is crucial to understand the dissent-eliminating framework that has been constructed and implemented in the West. This framework has culminated, thus far, with the stunning multi-pronged attacks on Canadian truckers by the Trudeau government. But it has been a long time in the making, and it is inevitable that it will find still-more extreme expressions. It is, after all, based in the central recognition that there is mass, widespread anger and even hatred toward the neoliberal ruling class throughout the West. Trump, Brexit and the rise of far-right parties in places where their empowerment was previously unthinkable — including Germany and France — is unmistakable proof of that. Rather than sacrifice some of the benefits of inequality that have generated much of that rage or placate or appease it with symbolic concessions, Western neoliberal elites have instead opted for force, a system that crushes all forms of dissent as soon as they emerge in anything resembling an effective, meaningful or potent form. ...

This new escalation of repression depends upon a narrative framework. Those who harbor dissenting ideologies — and particularly those who do not embrace that dissent passively but instead take action to advocate, promote and spread it — are not merely dissenters. The term "dissent,” in Western democracies, connotes legitimacy, so that label must be denied them. They are instead domestic extremists, domestic terrorists, seditionists, traitors, insurrections. Applying terms of criminality renders justifiable any subsequent acts of repression: we are trained to accept that core liberties are forfeited upon the commission of crimes.

This Is A Problem For All Of Us

Perhaps The US Should Shut The Fuck Up About Respecting Other Countries’ Sovereignty

So Putin has finally made a move, issuing a decree formally recognizing the sovereignty of the separatist-held Donbas territories in eastern Ukraine known as the DPR and LPR. Russian troops are being deployed to the region in what Putin describes as a “peacekeeping” mission amid a dramatic spike in ceasefire violations.

“The recognition of the DPR and LPR means Russia’s withdrawal from the Minsk agreements, which were signed in 2014 and 2015 to establish the ceasefire in eastern Ukraine,” writes Antiwar’s Dave Decamp. “Under the Minsk agreements, Ukraine agreed to cede some autonomy to the DPR and LPR. Russia has grown increasingly frustrated over the fact that Kyiv hasn’t fulfilled its end of the agreement.”

Needless to say, the US empire has not been happy about this move. President Biden has already imposed strict sanctions on the DPR and LPR, saying Moscow’s recognition of their independence “threatens the peace, stability, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Ukraine, and thereby constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.”

“Tomorrow we will be announcing new sanctions on Russia in response to their breach of international law and attack on Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” White House spokesperson Jen Psaki added.

“This decision represents a complete rejection of Russia’s commitments under the Minsk agreements, directly contradicts Russia’s claimed commitment to diplomacy, and is a clear attack on Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” adds Secretary of State Tony Blinken.

Other member states of the empire were equally upset about this unforgivable violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty.

“Canada strongly condemns Russia’s recognition of so-called ‘independent states’ in Ukraine,” tweeted Justin Trudeau. “This is a blatant violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty and international law. Canada stands strong in its support for Ukraine – and we will impose economic sanctions for these actions.”

“Tomorrow we will be announcing new sanctions on Russia in response to their breach of international law and attack on Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” tweeted UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss.

“This further undermines Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, erodes efforts towards a resolution of the conflict, and violates the Minsk Agreements, to which Russia is a party,” says NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

There are all kinds of criticisms that one can level against this move by Moscow, if one feels that the entire western political/media class screaming all of these criticisms in unison does not have enough amplification. For myself, I would just like to point out that the US-centralized empire is the very last institution on this planet who has any business babbling about the “sovereignty” of other nations. Absolute dead last.

I say this not out of any kind of fondness for Putin or support for his decisions, but because the absolute worst violator of national sovereignty in the entire world by a truly gargantuan margin complaining about violations of national sovereignty is bat shit insane.

Pointing out things the US empire has done while it shrieks about the actions of a foreign government will get you accused of “whataboutism”, but it’s not a whataboutism. It’s pointing out that the US is the absolute least qualified government on earth to comment on the issue at hand, so it should shut the whole entire fuck up about it. If the US wants to legitimately complain about the transgressions of unaligned governments, then it must cease being the worst transgressor.

Some might say, “Two wrongs don’t make a right.” Okay. But inflicting ten thousand wrongs definitely means you should shut the fuck up about anyone doing one wrong.

This would after all be the same empire that has is currently circling the planet with hundreds of military bases and waging wars which have killed millions and displaced tens of millions just since the turn of this century. Its sanctions and blockades are starving people to death en masse every single day. It works to destroy any nation which disobeys its dictates by toppling their governments via CIA coups, proxy armies, partial and full-scale invasions, and the most egregious number of election interferences in the entire world, while threatening the entire species with nuclear brinkmanship on multiple fronts.

What the US and its proxies are doing in Yemen alone is orders of magnitude worse than anything Russia is doing to Ukraine. Or in Afghanistan. Or Venezuela. Or Syria. Hell, the Biden administration has already done worse than what Putin just did in recognizing Israel’s outright annexation of the Golan Heights.

To say nothing of the fact that the US thought so little of Ukrainian sovereignty in 2014 that it was perfectly comfortable staging a coup there with the support of actual neo-Nazi militias, who the liberal media are still running PR segments for to this day even after years of yelling about Donald Trump’s intimacy with the far right. The US thinks so highly of Ukraine’s sovereignty that it’s willing to ramp up cold war brinkmanship with a nuclear superpower to defend it, but not highly enough to refrain from backing literal Nazis to topple its government.

The US empire criticizing Russia for violating another nation’s sovereignty is like Jeffrey Dahmer criticizing someone else’s eating habits.

After watching the insane, erratic, dishonest way the western power alliance has been navigating the Ukraine crisis, it is clear to anyone with open eyes that this is the very last institution we should want negotiating a power struggle that could quite literally end our world. We can only hope that the empire’s demise arrives before it manages to get us all killed.

Media Brands Russia-Ukraine War Skeptics LITERAL TRAITORS

Since today is newly Sovereignty Awareness Day, a reminder that US forces are occupying 1/3 of Syria without Syria's permission, for the stated aim to "take the oil" (Trump) & obtain "broader leverage" over Syria's future (top Biden official Dana Stroul). https://t.co/soXbLXZD75

— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) February 22, 2022

Putin Recognizes Ukraine Separatists; Khrushchev's Great-Granddaughter Says War Can Still Be Avoided

Putin orders troops into eastern Ukraine on ‘peacekeeping duties’

Vladimir Putin has ordered his military to enter the Russian-controlled areas of southeast Ukraine following a decision to recognise the territories as independent states. The decision to dispatch his troops to perform “peacekeeping duties” will be viewed in Ukraine and by other western allies as an occupation of the region and likely trigger tough sanctions and a Ukrainian military response.

The deployment was revealed in the text of two treaty documents that Putin signed with the leaders of the separatist republics on Tuesday. The third article of the treaties provided for the “implementation of peacekeeping functions by the armed forces of the Russian Federation” in the Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics, which Ukraine and most of the world views at its sovereign territory.

On Monday night Ukrainian officials said Russian troops may have already entered separatist territory. The officials said local people in the town of Makiivka, 15kms west of rebel-held Donetsk, saw what appeared to be Russian armoured vehicles on the move. One source - who declined to be named - said “a huge convoy of Russian armoured personnel carriers and other equipment has been travelling for one and a half hours”. It was spotted heading north towards the city of Yasynuvata, also in the Donestk region.

Video released by Ukraine appeared to show a column of military vehicles moving in convoy along a road. The officials said it was not possible to tell if the troops belonged to the regular Russian army, or were from Russian-controlled separatist units. ...

Minutes after Putin finished speaking, the White House announced the prohibition of US investment in or trade with in the breakaway republics and potential sanctions against anyone operating within the Moscow-backed territories. “We will also soon announce additional measures related to today’s blatant violation of Russia’s international commitments,” the White House spokesperson, Jen Psaki, said.

Uncertainty over whether Russian troops have crossed border into Ukraine

Russia is creating lists of Ukrainians ‘to be killed or sent to camps’, US claims

Russian forces are “creating lists of identified Ukrainians to be killed or sent to camps” in the event of an invasion, according to a letter sent by the US to the UN human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet. Citing “disturbing information recently obtained by the United States” the letter, from the US ambassador to the UN, Bathsheba Crocker, warns that “we have credible information” that target lists have been drawn up by “Russian forces”.

It warns that a Russian invasion of Ukraine would create a “human rights catastrophe” and that further abuses are being planned, which have previously included “targeted killings, kidnappings/forced disappearances, unjust detentions, and the use of torture”.

A few hours later Jake Sullivan, the US national security adviser, said that Russia’s plans for Ukraine were “extremely violent” – and it was necessary to lay out the threat in the letter for the UN. “We also have intelligence to suggest that there will be an even greater form of brutality because this will not simply be some conventional war between two armies. It will be a war waged by Russia on the Ukrainian people, to repress them, crush them, to harm them,” he said.

[And now, the piece de resistance... (emphasis mine) -js]:

Evidence to back up the US statements is relatively limited.

The warnings are part of the wider western strategy to highlight what are believed to be Putin’s intentions towards Ukraine, partly in an attempt to dissuade him from an invasion, and the Crocker’s letter is the latest in a string from western intelligence about the plans the Russian FSB and GRU agencies have for acting in concert with the Russian military.

Russia recognizes Donbas w/Donetsk-based Russell Bentley

Switzerland at risk of EU blacklist after Credit Suisse leak

The fallout from a huge leak of Credit Suisse banking data threatened to damage Switzerland’s entire financial sector on Monday after the European parliament’s main political grouping raised the prospect of adding the country to a money-laundering blacklist.

The European People’s party (EPP), the largest political grouping of the European parliament, called for the EU to review its relationship with Switzerland and consider whether it should be added to its list of countries associated with a high risk of financial crime.

Experts said that such a move would be a disaster for Switzerland’s financial sector, which would face the kind of enhanced due diligence applied to transactions linked to rogue nations including Iran, Myanmar, Syria and North Korea.

“When Swiss banks fail to apply international anti-money-laundering standards properly, Switzerland itself becomes a high-risk jurisdiction,” said Markus Ferber, the coordinator on economic affairs for the EPP, which represents Europe’s centre-right political parties.

“When the list of high-risk third countries in the area of money laundering is up for revision the next time, the European Commission needs to consider adding Switzerland to that list.”

Trump ally seeking to run Arizona’s elections

Last September, Donald Trump released a statement through his Save America website. “It is my great honor to endorse a true warrior,” he proclaimed, “a patriot who has fought for our country, who was willing to say what few others had the courage to say, who has my Complete and Total Endorsement.”

Former US presidents usually reserve their most gushing praise – replete with Capital Letters – for global allies or people they are promoting for high office. A candidate for the US Senate, perhaps, or someone vying to become governor of one of the biggest states.

Trump by contrast was heaping plaudits on an individual running for an elected post that a year ago most people had never heard of, let alone cared about. He was endorsing Mark Finchem, a Republican lawmaker from Tucson, in his bid to become Arizona’s secretary of state. ...

The role of secretary of state is critical to the smooth workings and integrity of elections in many states, Arizona included. The post holder is the chief election officer, with powers to certify election results, vet the legal status of candidates and approve infrastructure such as voting machines. In short, they are in charge of conducting and counting the vote.

Indigenous nations sue North Dakota over ‘sickening’ gerrymandering

Days before a new legislative map for North Dakota was set to be introduced in the state house, leaders of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa and Spirit Lake Nation sent a letter to the governor and other state lawmakers urging them to rethink the proposal. “All citizens deserve to have their voices heard and to be treated fairly and equally under the law,” they wrote, arguing that the proposed map was illegal, diluting the strength of their communities’ voice.

But instead, in early November, the Republican-controlled legislature approved the map, with only minor changes. And the Republican governor, Doug Burgum, quickly signed it.

“Our voice is going to be muffled once again,” the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa chairman, Jamie Azure, told the Guardian. “It’s getting a little sickening, tell you the truth.” The nations have sued the state, alleging that the map, which was meant to account for population changes identified in the 2020 census, doesn’t comply with section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.

The lawsuit, filed earlier this month, claims the map packs some Indigenous voters into one House subdistrict, while putting other “nearby Native American voters into two other districts dominated by white voters who bloc vote against Native Americans’ preferred candidates”. It adds that complying with the Voting Rights Act would mean placing the two nations in a single district, where they would “comprise an effective, geographically compact majority”.

Azure said: “We never want to enter into lawsuits; we never want to do these things. But, you know, at a certain point, the goodwill just goes out the window. And, you know, we’re tired of being disrespected. And that’s how we feel with this lawsuit.”

Fossil Fuel Giants Seek Billions From European Countries Under Secretive Treaty

Fossil fuel companies in Europe are using an international treaty signed nearly three decades ago to challenge several governments' ability to take climate action—exemplifying why, critics said Monday, the 1994 Energy Charter Treaty is a major impediment to transitioning away from planet-heating fossil fuels and toward renewable energy.

Under the treaty, companies including RWE and Uniper in Germany and Rockhopper in the United Kingdom are suing the governments of Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, and other countries over their phasing out of coal power plants, requirements for environmental impact assessments, and blocking of extraction projects.

The Energy Charter Treaty was signed by more than 50 countries with the intention of protecting energy investments by individuals and foreign companies in former Soviet states.

Since 2014, when investors in the Moscow-based energy Yukos were awarded $50 billion under the treaty after it was found that Russian President Vladimir Putin had seized their assets, more than two-thirds of cases using the treaty have involved companies suing European Union governments.

The trend, and cases like those currently being argued by the German and British fossil fuel companies, has made the ECT "a major blocker to the shift from fossil fuels," tweeted Climate Action Network Europe.

"It is literally insane that the global fossil fuel phase-out is being actively sabotaged by antiquated treaties and corporate greed," Romain Ioualalen, global policy campaign manager for Oil Change International, said Monday.

The companies are seeking more than $4 billion. RWE's and Uniper's lawsuits center around the Dutch government's decision to phase out the use of coal power by 2030.

A lawyer representing Italy in the case brought by Rockhopper told the Financial Times that a legal victory for the companies would have "extremely serious" consequences and could encourage other companies to "emulate" the oil firm. Italy has stopped Rockhopper from developing an oil field in the Adriatic Sea.

Court hearings under the ECT are kept confidential, and according to the International Institute for Sustainable Development, "the majority of known fossil fuel [investor-state dispute] cases are decided in favor of investors." In investor-state disputes, fossil fuel companies have been awarded an average sum nearly five times more than the amount awarded in non-fossil fuel cases.

The European Commission has proposed a phase-out of ECT protections for fossil fuel firms, but signatories have thus far rejected the idea.

By allowing companies to seek often-secret awards as they challenge governments' right to protect public health and the planet, the ECT undermines "environmental protection and climate" as well as "democracy," said Daniel Lutaaya, a journalist in Uganda.

"Time to throw this treaty out," said Mark Campanale, founder and executive chair of the Carbon Tracker Initiative.

Koch Machine Pressing Supreme Court To Crush EPA

Dark money groups bankrolled by billionaire Charles Koch are lobbying the Supreme Court to limit environmental regulators’ power to reduce carbon emissions, according to filings reviewed by The Daily Poster. The new pressure campaign follows the conservative oil tycoon using his political network to help install Donald Trump’s three ultra-conservative justices on the court.

Later this month, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency. The case could decide whether the EPA is allowed to issue rules to reduce greenhouse gas emissions — and comes at a time when scientists are warning that governments must rapidly decarbonize the planet in order to avoid catastrophic weather-related impacts from climate change. If the court sides with the Koch groups, the chief environmental regulator in one of the world’s largest carbon-emitting nations would be barred from enacting many policies to combat climate change.

The Koch network helped arrange the court’s current composition — and now at least five nonprofits tied to Koch have filed amicus briefs in the West Virginia case pressing justices to determine that the agency does not have the authority under the Clean Air Act, the landmark 1970 air quality law, to set new limits on greenhouse gas emissions.

Fossil fuel interests are hoping that the Supreme Court will deliver “a broad rule that the EPA can’t use the Clean Air Act to tackle any significant new problem without going back to Congress each time for new, and very detailed, legislation,” noted David Doniger, senior strategic director of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Climate & Clean Energy program. “They’re counting on lobbyists and dark money to keep Congress gridlocked, so that those new laws are impossible to pass.”

There’s little chance that Congress will step in to fill the regulatory void if the Supreme Court guts the Clean Air Act. Democrats spent most of last year debating and ultimately failing to pass a climate spending bill. If the party loses control of Congress this year, Democrats likely won’t be able to pass any substantive new climate measures for the rest of the Biden presidency.

Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

Putin Authorizes 'Peacekeeping' Forces for Eastern Ukraine

Russia's Security Council Recommends To Recognize The Donbas Republics

What the US Needs to Offer Russia to Avoid War in Ukraine

The Media’s Odd Double Standard On Evidence Required For Claims Of An Impending Attack

Putin Recognizes Donbass Independence as Violence Soars

‘Primacy or World Order’

To keep troops in Syria, US leaders are lying like in Afghanistan

Iran’s parliament sets conditions for return to nuclear deal

CIA Funded Experiments On Danish Orphans For Decades

Trudeau Invokes Emergencies Act: Power Without Responsibility?

California Advocates Counterattack Corporate Crime and Control

60 Minutes Mocked For Pushing DEBUNKED CIA Conspiracy

Saagar Enjeti: REJECT IRS Plans To Collect Facial Data To Avoid Canada Crackdown

Why Putin doesn’t want NATO in Ukraine?

A Little Night Music

Garnet Mimms - There Goes My Baby

Garnet Mimms - Tell Me Baby

Garnet Mimms - Prove It To Me

Garnet Mimms - As Long As I Have You

Garnet Mimms - Look Away

Garnet Mimms - A Little Bit Of Soap

Garnet Mimms And The Enchanters - Anytime You Want Me

Garnet Mimms & The Enchanters - A Quiet Place

Garnet Mimms - I’ll Make It Up To You

Garnet Mimms & The Enchanters - Cry Baby