the white western world believes the famine and death of black and brown people is integral and natural to our existence and that is why there is such little care and disregard, ignorance and eagerness to portray palestine and sudan as anything but genocide

a lot of people from older generations are shocked when they see how much our generation cares about those living across the world. they simply can’t conceptualize caring that deeply about people with whom we have such little in common. we can see it in the way ukraine was presented in western media (“they’re europeans, they look like us, this sort of thing doesn’t happen in the west and in places outside the middle east and africa”). the media wanted ukrainians to appear sympathetic to westerners, and it worked.

but when the same plight befalls palestinians, and all these young people care so deeply about them as we did ukrainians, older folks are startled. we’re not supposed to relate so much to a small group from the middle east. we’re not supposed to tie our oppression to theirs. we’re supposed to sympathize with the western-backed military force with all the munition, power, and leeway it could possibly want. because we’re supposed to have empathy only for those who most resemble us.

but what they fail to comprehend is that we see ourselves in others not because of the way we look or what part of the world we’re from, but because of what we love and are passionate about. we, unlike our parents, grew up connected to one another. we made friends around the globe from very young ages, because we didn’t connect with other kids based on how far they lived from us, but rather because of our interests. a boy from england could become best friends with a guy from india in a pokémon chat room. a jewish girl from the US could befriend a muslim girl from palestine in a star wars discord. as we grew up, being fed beliefs about people from other places, the sheer reality of our friendships superseded the stereotypes and bigotry.

so when we became adults and started to obtain power of our own, it became impossible not to care about the very real people who played such pivotal roles in forming of our identities. we see ourselves in them, in their struggles, and their fight becomes just as important as our own fight.

and that’s why those in power have always been so scared of globalization. the more unified we are, the less the arbitrary differences between us can divide us. they matter, because culture and ethnicity and language and belief systems matter. but the place where these things overlap is no longer a sticking point or a barrier, but rather an intersection, where we can come together and share in our dreams of collective liberation.

this realization is nothing new. it is the crux of intersectionality. it is something that anyone who has fought for liberation across history has emphasized as the critical point of their fight. but its imperative to remind ourselves of it nonetheless.

each friendship you make from across the world is another hit at the wall meant to separate us, to keep us from realizing how similar we truly are. each time you empathize with a struggle that is not your own, you’re another voice showing solidarity with the oppressed around the world. every day, choose to live with love and passion as your motivations for every action you take. love as hard as you can, regardless of distance or differences; it’s the radical choice.

As a poc who grew up in the middle east and have family in the middle east and have experienced know the impact of islamaphobia my take on m.c is definelity complicated. He should not have made the comments on the denial of genocide 100% and I'm glad he deleted those tweets hopefully because he understood it was wrong and not simply due to backlash. And I do believe that's the main part that he should be held accountable with

I do think misha has a emotional stake with family/ friends that are Jewish that probably has strong opinions and is also giving out information, working and helping with Ukraine, having the chance to talk to President of Ukraine abt the war, etc whilst Ukraine is still allies with Israel. I do see how that would have influenced his opinion on isreal and Palestine.

I think what's not stopping me from my support or whatever is in general I believe in the intentions and I just don't see the malicious intent. When reading his article it was very pro anti war and very attempted neutral on both parts, made sure to condemn only hammas and not the Palestinian ppl, humanising the Palestinian ppl. (Which is not special take but I do think when america talk abt middle east and war they usually talk about the humans (women are forced to wear hijab and have no rights! Which yea bs) and not talk specifically about the terrorist groups) so I do think that part was crucial and important. I also can appreciate that he replied to a person against islamaphobia in one of his replies. And in his substack which now has 106 comments the majority is in support of Palestine and there's links being shared about either genocide or more information that's currently happening in Palestine so for ppl looking to get informed there's links. So I do appreciate that the comments are not being filtered. And perhaps I am being too generous or looking at cup half full perspective but the positive part that I do see in this is that m.c main fanbase will also be other white fans who when going to look for his article they are being exposed to information.and is also learning if they haven't.

Idk like should he have written an article? No. But he has, and I'm glad he said this part

" Israel has a right to defend itself against terrorism, but when Israel does so by committing atrocities and war crimes of its own, then it defends itself without moral authority and only further entrenches both sides in an interminable conflict where there are no “good guys” and there will be no “winner.”  

Like again I'm glad when he's talking negatively about Palestine he specifically talks about hammas and in then in general terms isreal commiting war crimes. I just think it's important that for his fanbase that probably consists of white fanbase that is already been fed from the western media that it is important that it was neutral and humanisation of the Palestinian ppl

And again maybe because I have been in the spn fandom and have been exposed to gishwishes. Allowing them to pay medical bills, and other good things, his open support if the lgbt community I do have a soft spot and perhaps I'm looking at this in rose tinted glasses but i genuinely am not seeing the malicious or hateful intent when talking about the isreal/ Palestine that I see when others talk I.e piers Morgan etc . what I do condem is his comments on genocide and the denial of it so I'm glad those got deleted quick, hopefully because he understood that was just wrong. And he needs to address that. But yea in general I suppose the support is still there,

I read this as soon as I got it and thought, "I'll definitely answer it," so thank you, anon. I value your input on this.

First, you're totally entitled to your feelings and thoughts about him and his words. My intention is never to tell others how to react; I'm just very vocal about what I think.

I can understand your position. I'm not Muslim, and I'm not from the Middle East, but I'm a POC (basically half indigenous and half colonizer) in Latin America, and we, too, share a very dark history with imperialism from the USA and his son Israel but maybe it's a bit more invisible here.

That's why I'm so radical and unforgiving about privileged people's stances regarding colonization and genocide. To me it's not enough that he says he wants peace, that the bare minimum and the least we can expect from someone like him. I don't see how having family and friends who are Jewish is an impediment to understanding what is going on in Palestine when many Jewish people go out to the streets to claim they're 100% against occupation and don't support a Jewish Estate. Zionists want to make us believe they are the eternal victims, and Misha decided to go with that. In his statement he mentioned the Holocaust several times but he fails to see that Israel is doing the same to Palestinians right now. "Well, they have committed some war crimes, but it's not a real genocide like the Jewish one." Ugh, disgusting. There's no coming back from that in my opinion.

Like I've said, we as fans have given him the benefit of the doubt more than once, for both little and bigger things. Knowing his intentions are "good" isn't enough for me anymore. He's been in politics for decades; he's always doing political activism, so he's not particularly ignorant. He's not your average dumb American, and he has followers from all over the world. I expect(ed) a lot of him, because he put himself in that position from the start. I've been a fan for over a decade, and I even did gishwhes three years in a row, so yes, it's not easy to just say goodbye to all that overnight. But I'm being true to myself, and so I have to walk away.

Whatever path you follow on all this, whether it's the same as now or it changes, I send you my support, stay strong and you can write to me whenever you want <3

Palestine has no airforce, no tanks, no navy, no armoured vehicles and is going up against a military that’s funded to the tune of billions by the US. Israel has advanced weapons, an airforce, air defence and has nuclear weapons. It’s not an even fight, never has been.

it's SETTLER COLONIALISM AT ITS FINEST AND MOST BLATANT. how can we deem ourselves educated civilized members of a so called advanced society if we allow israel to carry on with the ethnic cleansing and undiscriminated apartheid of an entire people? how can western media have it all backwards when it comes to telling the whole story? do they not feel the least shame when they apply such blatantly outrageous double standards to the narrative of a very disproportionate conflict where one side is evidently attacking and the other is barely hanging in there without the basic means to live with dignity? then when palestine actually fights back the colonial occupation of their land, they're the ruthless child-beheading (another fake news) terrorists?? it's fun bc israel violates god knows how many UN resolutions like it's nothing and it's still ok, like, nobody will mind or call israel back to order. nothing israel does can ever threaten to taint the legitimacy of their cause in the eyes of the UN, no matter how gruesome and sadistically cruel they get with the continuous endless torture, victimisation and apartheid of harmless palestinians. but god forbid palestine detonates ONE (1) bomb on their ass, israel will be crying for days and summon the entire world to action, as if they're the true victims here.

I'll tell you what. europe and usa don't give a shit about anti-colonialism, human rights and lives, the children's safety, etc... like, at all. they couldn't care less, in fact. only thing they care about is securing a white christian outpost in the all-islamic middle east. israel is supposed to be an enclave of whiteness and western values/culture in the midst of islamic local majorities aka the so called "barbarians". of course the logistics and geopolitics aspects of the matter are more complex but ultimately that's all it boils down to imo. this is the only sensible explanation i can give myself. otherwise i cannot find a reason as to why the international community will choose to unanimously side with ukraine against russia's invasion, but won't do the same when it's an islamic country that gets invaded by a foreign much bigger and more powerful military force. it must be all about securing the sphere of influence of the west over the east, like in the cold war or something. therefore the international community needs israel to stay right where it is. they have no interest in putting an end to the war. they will withdraw their political and financial support to israel only once the entirety of palestine is under israeli control and the palestinians are either dead or relocated as refugees elsewhere. preferably the former rather than the latter. it's absolutely beastly and it's all happening right before our eyes. the media is feeding us all sorts of misinformation and zionist propaganda and we're gulping it all down like it's our last meal on earth

Thoughts on Putin's speech about the annexations

Anyone with a solid history education at school simply has to agree with Putin. I know Americans don't have this as their history classes are limited to Founding Fathers and Nazis.

Above all, Putin's statement that the USA only achieved its supremacy through the World Wars, by replacing the destroyed industry of other nations with its own economy, building on the lack of competition, is at least one very important reason. This schema continues to this day, expressed in the foreign policy towards other countries, especially their supposed "allies". Otherwise I can't explain why the USA is still trying to destroy Germany economically by forcing its government to make collective hara kiri, since there is no justification for sanctions against Russia when you are trading with much more barbaric and backward countries like Saudi Arabia in the same breath. Yet Germans get constantly brainwashed by Western mainstream media into fully supporting Ukrainian ultra-nationalists, even if it means their economic suicide.

I have to agree with Putin that Germany is absolutely not free, because, while the Russians left us after reunification, the Americans stayed and even expanded their military bases in Germany as linchpins towards the Middle East. From Ramstein they conduct their inhuman drone attacks, which regularly kill many civilians. Does the western media ever tell you about it? Do the Human Rights Court ever indict Americans? No, they just have their soldiers drop bombs from a safe distance, like nerds playing some simulation game in a darkened room. This whole US policy just disgusts me and makes me angry, since I don't want these crimes to be committed from German land! But we Germans were never asked if we wanted that! No, the majority of us want the American military to finally disappear from Germany.

We don't need their "protection". Seriously, what are they supposed to protect us from?! I consider an invasion of vicious aliens more realistic than Russia being seriously as destructive to us as once the Allies, or China traversing all of Eurasia at a time just to reach us. I really wonder what NATO was supposed to be protecting us from since the collapse of the Soviet Union. With their constant eastward expansion, the construction of American bases, missile systems in the direction of Russia, they have been working towards what is happening in Ukraine today, 30 years later. The USA bear an absolute share of the blame for this tragedy because they knew exactly how allergic Russia would react and even did this on purpose to divide Europe again and keep competitors like Germany weak for the growth of their own corporations.

We are all hostage to the West in the midst of this madness.

Russian bear caught in American bear trap

Nevertheless, I also have to criticize Putin, since a war over a few square kilometers of land in Ukraine is absolutely intolerable in the 21st century, even if it can be justified with a historical continuity of Russian settlement threatened by Ukraine's nationalist politics forbidding the Russian language. Here, Russia should have found a peaceful way to resolve the conflict, rather than falling into the bear trap that the US had well placed, using US-sponsored ultra-nationalists and Azov neo-Nazis as bait.

Ultimately, the cost of lives on both sides is too high; in the end they all have to ask themselves the same question: Was it all worth it? And who should still live there?! Many who have fled will never return. The hard embattled areas will be permanently depopulated. In my view, Russia should have limited itself to the Donbass only. That would have been justified given that war has been raging there for 8 years, with millions of people displaced towards Russia and the Ukrainian government refusing to implement the Minsk Agreement. But with the conquest of Cherson and Zaporizhia, Russia is ultimately practicing violent nationalism like Ukraine.

Furthermore, Russia's partial mobilization offers the West another fodder for its fucking "we're the good guys" propaganda. I can't say to what extent Western reporting is true, but I doubt that most of Russia's forced conscripts are willing to sacrifice their lives for any territory in Ukraine, no matter how shitty the Ukrainian government may be. Most just don't care what's happening in other countries; and they certainly don't want to risk their lives for the interests of others. Because of this, the only way the United States could get its people to participate in the many wars, beginning with involvement in the First World War, was through numerous lies spread through persuasive propaganda.

Especially after the failed Vietnam War and the consequent abolition of conscription, which was only done to calm people down, the USA is forced, since then, to motivate its citizens particularly strongly whether through lavish financial incentives or domestic terrorism by its own intelligence agencies. Therefore, the United States would face the same problem as Russia if its army were not made up of sufficiently convinced soldiers lured from the poorer classes with a lot of money and social security

In addition, the US also recruits many non-Americans with promises of US citizenship, which are often broken with Latinos and others. Accordingly, it's not rich American families who send their sons into wars. If, on the other hand, the USA were to form their army from conscription, like Russia, there would have been new hippie movements during the Iraq wars at the latest. Besides, the US handed over responsibility in Iraq to private security companies like Blackwater, whose mercenaries did the dirty work for a lot of money.

Given all these circumstances, I am not at all surprised by Russia's military failures in Ukraine, especially if the absurdly pathetic conditions within the Russian army are at least partly true. The propaganda is running at full blast on both sides and I don't want to believe that the Ukrainians are much more disciplined than the Russians, at best much more motivated out of their hatred, but otherwise just as dumb asses on the field.

—

Excerpt from Putin's speech

I left out the boring parts about Russia and its historical justification for territorial conquests in Ukraine, as well as his critique of western gender garbage. But that stuff can be read through the link pointing to the full text:

"Western countries have been repeating for centuries that they bring freedom and democracy to other peoples. Everything is exactly the opposite: instead of democracy – suppression and exploitation; instead of freedom – enslavement and violence. The entire unipolar world order is inherently anti-democratic and not free, it is deceitful and hypocritical through and through.

The United States is the only country in the world to use nuclear weapons twice, destroying the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. By the way, they set a precedent.

Let me also remind you that the United States, together with the British, turned Dresden, Hamburg, Cologne and many other German cities into ruins without any military necessity during World War II. And this was done defiantly, without any, I repeat, military necessity. There was only one goal: just as in the case of the nuclear bombings in Japan, to intimidate both our country and the whole world.

The United States left a terrible mark on the memory of the peoples of Korea and Vietnam with barbaric “carpet” bombing, the use of napalm and chemical weapons.

Until now, they actually occupy Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea and other countries, and at the same time cynically call them equal allies. Listen, I wonder what kind of alliance is this? The whole world knows that the leaders of these countries are being watched, the first persons of these states are being installed listening devices not only in office, but also in residential premises. This is a real shame. A shame both for those who do this and for those who, like a slave, silently and meekly swallow this rudeness.

They call orders and rude, insulting shouts at the address of their vassals Euro-Atlantic solidarity, the development of biological weapons, experiments on living people, including in Ukraine, noble medical research.

It is with their destructive policy, wars, and robbery that they provoked today’s colossal surge in migration flows. Millions of people suffer deprivation, abuse, die by the thousands, trying to get to the same Europe.

Now they are exporting bread from Ukraine. Where is he going under the pretext of “providing food security for the world’s poorest countries”? Where is it going? Everything goes to the same European countries. There, five percent only went to the poorest countries in the world. Again, another swindle and outright deception.

The American elite, in fact, uses the tragedy of these people to weaken their competitors, to destroy nation states. This also applies to Europe, this also applies to the identity of France, Italy, Spain and other countries with a long history.

Washington is demanding more and more sanctions against Russia, and most European politicians meekly agree with this. They clearly understand that the United States, pushing through the EU’s complete renunciation of Russian energy carriers and other resources, is practically leading to the de-industrialization of Europe, to completely taking over the European market – they understand everything, these elites are European, they understand everything, but prefer to serve the interests of others. This is no longer servility, but a direct betrayal of their peoples. But God bless them, that’s their business.

But sanctions are not enough for the Anglo-Saxons, they switched to sabotage – unbelievable, but true – having organized explosions on the international gas pipelines of the Nord Stream, which run along the bottom of the Baltic Sea, they actually began to destroy the pan-European energy infrastructure. It is clear to everyone who benefits from this. Who benefits, he did, of course.

The US dictate is based on brute force, on fist law. Sometimes beautifully wrapped, sometimes without any wrapper, but the essence is the same – fist law. Hence the deployment and maintenance of hundreds of military bases in all corners of the world, the expansion of NATO, attempts to put together new military alliances such as AUKUS and the like. Active work is also underway to create a military-political link between Washington-Seoul-Tokyo. All those states that possess or seek to possess genuine strategic sovereignty and are capable of challenging Western hegemony are automatically included in the category of enemies.

It is on these principles that the US and NATO military doctrines are built, requiring nothing less than total domination. The Western elites present their neo-colonial plans in the same hypocritical way, even with a pretense of peacefulness, they talk about some kind of containment, and such a crafty word wanders from one strategy to another, but, in fact, means only one thing: undermining any sovereign centers of development.

We have already heard about the containment of Russia, China, Iran. I believe that other countries of Asia, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, as well as current partners and allies of the United States, are next in line. We know that whatever they don’t like, they also impose sanctions against their allies – first against one bank, then against another; now against one company, now against another. This is the same practice, and will expand. They target everyone, including our closest neighbors – the CIS countries.

At the same time, the West has clearly and has long been wishful thinking. So, starting a sanctions blitzkrieg against Russia, they believed that they would once again be able to build the whole world on their command. But, as it turned out, such a rosy prospect excites far from everyone – perhaps complete political masochists and admirers of other non-traditional forms of international relations. Most states refuse to salute, and choose a reasonable path of cooperation with Russia.

The West clearly did not expect such disobedience from them. They just got used to acting according to a template, to take everything impudently, blackmail, bribery, intimidation, and convince themselves that these methods will work forever, as if they were ossified and frozen in the past.

Such self-confidence is a direct product not only of the notorious concept of one’s own exclusivity – although this, of course, is simply surprising – but also of a real hunger for information in the West. They drowned the truth in an ocean of myths, illusions and fakes, using extremely aggressive propaganda, lying recklessly, like Goebbels. The more incredible the lie, the faster they will believe in it – that’s how they act, according to this principle.

But people cannot be fed with printed dollars and euros. It is impossible to feed with these pieces of paper, and it is impossible to heat a home with the virtual, inflated capitalization of Western social networks. All this is important, what I’m talking about, but what was just said is no less important: you can’t feed anyone with paper money – you need food, and you won’t warm anyone with these inflated capitalizations – you need energy.

Therefore, politicians in the same Europe have to convince their fellow citizens to eat less, wash less often, and dress warmer at home. And those who begin to ask fair questions “actually, why is that so?” – are immediately declared enemies, extremists and radicals. They switch arrows to Russia, they say: here, they say, who is the source of all your troubles. They lie again.

What do I want to highlight in particular? There is every reason to believe that the Western elites are not going to look for constructive ways out of the global food and energy crisis, which arose through their fault, precisely through their fault, as a result of their many years of policy long before our special military operation in Ukraine, in the Donbass. They do not intend to solve the problems of injustice and inequality. There is a fear that they are ready to use other recipes that are familiar to them.

And here it is worth recalling that the West emerged from the contradictions of the early 20th century through the First World War. The profits from World War II allowed the United States to finally overcome the consequences of the Great Depression and become the largest economy in the world, to impose on the planet the power of the dollar as a global reserve currency. And the overdue crisis of the 80s – and in the 80s of the last century the crisis also aggravated – the West largely overcame by appropriating the legacy and resources of the Soviet Union that was collapsing and collapsed in the end. It is a fact.

Now, in order to extricate themselves from yet another tangle of contradictions, they need to break Russia and other states that choose the sovereign path of development at all costs in order to plunder other people’s wealth even more and at this expense close and plug their own holes. If this does not happen, I do not rule out that they will try to completely bring the system to a collapse, on which everything can be blamed, or, God forbid, they will decide to use the well-known formula “the war will write everything off”.

Russia understands its responsibility to the world community and will do everything to bring such hotheads to their senses.

It is clear that the current neo-colonial model is ultimately doomed. But I repeat that her real owners will cling to her to the end. They simply have nothing to offer the world, except for the preservation of the same system of robberies and racketeering.

In fact, they spit on the natural right of billions of people, most of humanity, to freedom and justice, to determine their own future on their own. Now they have completely moved to a radical denial of moral norms, religion, and family."

Thinking about the news cycle and someone else said it but. The problem with living in an era with live television and social media updated every millisecond is that we, in one corner of the earth, are instantly (or nearly so) aware of trouble or joy happening in another corner. And then we move on.

We here in the US know about Ukraine and their fight, we know about Iran women and their fight. Those are really the only two I've seen, though, recently.

They are historic events, but because the whole world can be aware of them and praying and hoping for one outcome or another, it doesn't really feel like it. Newscasters or reporters say "these are historic times" and I say "its just thursday." That doesn't mean I'm less impacted or affected by these events- my heart hurts for them. But my heart can only hurt so much before even the most empathetic and sympathic people care too much and forget how much we're "supposed" to feel.

Before the intant-news of today, or i suppose the past 200~ years, (back to 1822, approx. When did they make the telegram? I suppose, though, this limits me in what I believe to be instantaneous. But I digress.) knowing what is going on in someone else's corner means we're all focused on it for some time, and then move on.

Or maybe, is that something only new?

When did we stop focusing on something horrible or amazing until it was done? When did we decide to shorten our attentions? When did we decide the right amount of time before we generally move on?

Is it something that came around during my generation, Gen Z?

I ask all this, really, because I see Ukraine signs or flags or the cool trident-like symbol as bumper stickers or signs in people's yards, declaring to their neighbors, "I stand with Ukraine!"

...ok, doesn't everyone?

This is different with the women (and other people, but women seem to have the spotlight because news channels want to focus on the right to or not to wear a hijab, when I have heard its more like everyone wants that government/regime? To be replaced ad gone?) in Iran. I see less support for them in ways of signs in yards or bumper stickers on cars. Do we support our sisters and family less? Why? Because its a country in the Middle East? Because they're Muslim? Because they're brown, and not European white? Because Russia has always been the big bad, so its easy to face against them, cheering on Ukraine (with just that? Cheers?), but Iran is more messy because... well... you're afraid? To support people wanting huge change?

On the one hand, I'm glad the US military (as far as I'm aware, and I'm not very, admittedly) is keeping their fingers out of Iran to help the people. On the other, I wish there was more sympathy for people rising up. Isn't that our (USA) thing? We couldn't help but keep our noses in the Middle East when it was relevant toooo.... *checks notes* suppressing terrorism (oh what was deemed as such) and keeping American Gas Prices Low (*stands all high-and-mighty such*), but when it comes to what seems to be, I guess, a civil, or peoples' right, we're not so keen.

My original point of this post was to point out how in ye olden days (that weren't really that long ago- 200~ years ago?), my history books point out things that happened in one place, and then another, and help me realize these two major events overlapped. Like a Chinese Dynasty falling and a middle-america indigenous nation rising, or something. And how the future history books will put, say, 9-11-2001 just a few pages before 2020 Pandemic, and then, oh, also This, This, and This happened. In two years.

Are we just going to get more close together in "historic" events? What's going to be big enough and affect (effect???) enough to be worth putting on the history book's page, because, well gee, the 2024 Irish Rebellion (Successful! Edition) is coming up and we can't exactly dedicate a history book to single 30 year period! But what if that much stuff happens? How do we know what is going to really make an impact in the long run?

I'm tired of "historic" events. I get that when I was younger, historic stuff was happening (maybe) and I just wasn't aware because I was 10, but this seems a little outrageous. Is it just because the world is more interconnected? Has it always been like this? Why are we getting more events like this? Is it just the season/part of the cycle? What cycle????

I'm tired.

U.S. Press Shows its Vindictive Side

LOS ANGELES (OnlineColumnist.com), July 16, 2022.--President Joe Biden, 79, did the right thing yesterday for U.S. national security meeting with 36-year-old Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman [MBS], after the FBI, CIA and NSA said the MBS ordered the Oct. 2, 2018 gruesome murder of Washington Post part-time columnist Jamal Khashoggi.  Khashoggi was one of Bin Salman’s biggest critics, writing only about his repressive practices.  But once Bin Salman took the reigns in 2017 from his 86-year-old ailing father King Salman-Al Saud, the younger Bin Salman was firmly in control.  Khashoggi left Saudi Arabia years earlier for the U.S., claiming he could not accept Bin Salman’s repressive regime, writing critical pieces in the Washington Post about the young Saudi leader.  When Khashoggi went to the Saudi embossing in Istanbul Oct. 2, 2018, the press was shocked that he never came out, prompting and extensive investigation.

Once Biden fist-bumbed Bin Salman yesterday, the media through a fit, angry that the U.S. government won’t hold the same grudge as Washington Post CEO and Editor-in-Chief Fred Ryan, who said it was “shameful” that Biden fist-bumped Bin Salman.  What’s shameful is Biden’s approach toward 69-uyear-old Russian President Vladimir Putin, wasting U.S. tax dollars to fund Ukraine and a proxy war against the Kremlin. Biden did exactly what he’s supposed to do as a head-of-state, bite his tongue on controversial issues.  What has the U.S. media done to Biden other than push him into a war with the Russian Federation.  Biden’s liberal base would rather set the world ablaze in a nuclear war than to strike any diplomacy with Putin.  When it comes to Bin Salman, the press condemned Biden for making an overture to reinstate U.S.-Saudi relations, something necessary for U.S. national security.

Whatever happened to Khashoggi Oct. 2, 2018, the business of U.S. policy goes on, regardless of mishaps or controversies.  U.S. presidents pick-pick-and-choose who they decide are enemies of the U.S. state, targeted for assassination.  What happened Jan. 3, 2020 when former President Donald Trump OK’d the hit of Iraq’s Al-Quds Gen. Qasem Soleimani?  So why haven’t world leaders, from Beijing to Parts, not boycotted U.S. diplomacy?  What happened to Khashoggi was in the making for a long time while the ex-Saudi patriot spend his time condemning the Saudi government, especially Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman.  Khashoggi knew when he entered the Saudi embassy in Istanbul he was a person non-grata with the Riyadh government.  Nothing justifies what Bin Salman did to Khashoggi, but at the same time you can’t blame Biden for restoring U.S.-Saudi relations.

Biden correctly realized that he must ignore his party’s radical left and do what’s right for U.S. national security.  Cooperation with Saudi Arabi provides stability in the Middle East at a time when Iran seeks to destabilize the region with a nuclear weapon.  Bin Salman wants no part of Iran’s malign activities, including paying Yemen’s Houthi rebels to attack the Kingdom  Since 2015, Iran has supplied Houthis with predator drones and other offensive weapons to attack Riyadh.  Biden understood the importance to reinstating U.S.-Saudi relations to keep Iran at bay, cooperate with Israel to fight al-Qaeda and ISIS whenever possible. If Biden listened to Washington Post editor Fred Ryan, he’d hold a grudge against the Kingdom.  Khashoggi was one person, not an entire foreign policy designed to protect energy security and counterterrorism activities in the Mideast and elsewhere.

Biden must now listen to Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) that argues against the conventional Democrat and Republican wisdom that the Ukraine War must end.  Spartz , the only Ukrainian elected official in Congress, raisied concerns about corruption 45-year-old Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Kiev government.  Spartz wants Biden to know that there’s bigger fish to fry in Eastern Europe, including restoring U.S.-Russian relations.  Just like Biden conceded the importance of U.S.-Saudi relations, Spartz wants Biden to concede that U.S.-Russian relations are even more important.  Biden and certain Republican elected officials have gone over the deep end defending Ukraine against the Russian Federation.  At the end of the day, U.S.-Russian relations are far more important to U.S. national security, than relations with Kiev.  Biden must rethink his proxy war against Russia.

Whatever human rights violations happen in Saudi Arabia, Russia, China or anywhere else, Biden must find common ground with American’s adversaries, not damage U.S. national security by breaking off diplomatic relations. Biden’s relations with the Russian Federation are the worst on record of any U.S. president.  If Biden can restore U.S.-Saudi relations, he can do the same thin with Moscow.  No one liked Putin’s invasion of Ukraine but U.S. national security requires the U.S. to have a good working relationship with the Kremlin. As it stands now, the Kremlin battles the U.S. proxy war with ferocity in Ukraine.  Rep. Sparks saying that Biden ignores widespread corruption in Zelensky’s regime, something other elected officials ignore.  Getting U.S.-Saudi relations back on track suggests that Biden can do the same with Moscow, serving notice in Kiev that the war can’t go on indefinitely.

About the Author

John  M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.

I don’t understand this new phenomenon of many people on here implying that anyone who cares or actively posts about the war in Ukraine, which began less than a month ago, automatically doesn’t care about anything else. I saw a lot of these ‘conveniently forget about x, only talk about Ukraine instead of x, etc’ posts on like, day 3 of the invasion, and suddenly everyone I’ve followed for years - who’ve posted about every single other issue they heard about, including policies of individual states, for weeks - stopped saying anything about the war. Within a week of it beginning. That’s the fastest I’ve seen a real world tragedy cease being talked about on here.

[ID: cropped screenshot of a text post that reads, Don't forget that over 377,000 Yemenis have died, a war that started in 2015, the worst epidemic of cholera in history, a coalition of the wealthiest Arab states bombing the poorest country in the middle eat. Everyone focuses on Ukraine but conveniently forget about Yemen. End ID]

One of my mutuals reblogged this and it’s such a weird way to pit two on-going wars against each other. And this is specifically aimed at people online, even though if you talk to people who get their news from actual news sources, and not social media, a lot of people are still talking about Yemen (and have been, ever since the war began!). Especially since the war in Ukraine, other than killing and displacing Ukrainians, also means countries in the Middle East - Yemen among them - will have trouble getting enough wheat for bread.

News sources haven’t ‘conveniently’ (idk what that word is supposed to imply in this context) forgotten about Yemen, either - these articles are all from this month and most of them talk about the unfairness and double standards of western governments when it comes to war in other countries! (Warning for photo of starving child in the second to last link)

I’ve seen these sort of things happen on here before - i.e someone raising awareness about something, but deciding to put ‘oh but people *only* care about X’ in the post for no reason - but it’s way more frequent with Ukraine. I’m assuming it's caused by the difference in the international response, but still. Don’t assume that you're the only one who is capable of caring about more than one thing at a time.

Of course what's happening in Yemen is horrible! Just like what's happening in Palestine, just like what's happening in Ethiopia!

But not counting the first few days of the invasion, these sorts of posts are the only ones I see anymore and it’s getting really tiring

“I want to go home” With East Germany

East Germany awoke in a dark room. The only thing lighting up the room was single lightbulb swinging in the middle of the room. He shot up, panic swelling in his chest. Where am I? What is this? Why am I here? Oh god, where’s West? These thoughts ran through the young country’s head, and his anxiety grew.

He shakily got up and trailed his hand on the rough, mildewy wall. A hidden door creaked open, and his head whipped to the sound. “Who’s there?” His voice was shaky, betraying his fear.

The person shushed him. “I’m not supposed to be here!” She whisper-yelled. Grabbing East’s wrist, she dragged him to the lightbulb. Under the pale yellow light, he could just barely make out her flag. Mostly red, with an azure stripe at the bottom and... and a hammer and sickle at the top. He vaguely recalled what that meant, but fear overrode his logic. “Erm- who- who are you?”

“I’m the Ukrainian Soviet Socialistic Republic, but you can call me Ukraine.” She looked barely a few years older than him, but she carried herself like she was much older.

He nodded, gulping. “Do you... Do you know where my brother is?”

Ukraine frowned. “Brother?”

“West Germany?” He clarified.

She was silent for a moment, then shook her head. “No. I don’t know...” She trailed off, lost in thought.  “Well...”

He inhaled sharply, and grabbed her hand. “Do you know?” He asked, insisting for an answer. Hope fluttered through his heart, but it was crushed with the next few words Ukraine spoke.

“I might, but if what I think is true then... then you won’t see him again.”

“WHAT?”

She hissed, slapping a hand over his mouth. “Quiet! We can’t let anyone know I'm here! If they find out, we’ll be done for!”

“What do you mean? I- I’ll get to see him again, right?”

Ukraine sighed tiredly, and gestured for him to sit down. “I overheard the USSR- Папа talking about... a wall. Built on Berlin.”

He whimpered. I... I really might not see West again?

“I think they’re splitting you two,” she continued, “the Allies are taking West Germany, and you’re staying with us. It’s not fun, I’ll tell you that much.”

“A... wall? On Berlin? Between- Between me and West?” He repeated with a whisper. Ukraine nodded.

“No.. No, no no no!” East cried, tears spilling over, bringing his knees to his chest. “I want to go home! I want to go back to West!”

“This is your home now.”

“Not without West, it isn’t! He’s my brother! Why- Why can’t I go with him?!”

“They want to make sure... nothing like that ever happens again.”

“I’ll be good, I promise! Just please, let me see West again!” He sobbed, grabbing at Ukraine. She backed away, shooting him a sympathetic look.

“I’m sorry.”

And with that, she was gone, disappearing into the shadows. East Germany was left in that horrible, dark room, all alone with only memories to accompany him.

“I’ll get back to you West,” He sniffled, wiping his eyes, “I promise.”

Hi Sara. In the commentary section to the news about ‘Essex Serpent‘ on MacRumors user CJ Dorschel who worked as a consultant for Homeland reveals details about re-writing and re-shooting of parts of season 5 because CBS/Showtime thought they were too close to reality after what happened in Europe in 2015. With the information given there the title of episode 5x11 reads like a joke for insiders. There is also a lot about why and how Quinn’s letter got into the show.

Omg, this is kinda wild. Here’s the full text: 

 I was a consultant with show runner Alex Gansa on seasons 4 and 5 while a field agent in Berlin. Many of us in the IC were consultants. Gansa really wanted to tap into the sociopolitical global thread and much of what was written and shot was done a year before a season aired. I remember in season 5 in Berlin the main story arc and climax included [SPOILER ALERT] attacks on numerous European cities, not just Berlin and Quinn (Rupert Friend). It was written and filmed in 2014/early 2015. Then came the Paris attacks in November 2015 and CBS/Showtime met with Gansa, Danes, and a few of us to discuss what should be done as the show paralleled exactly what was happening and it the material would have aired right after the attacks. We had to rewrite the ending and removed Paris, Brussels - numerous EU capitals and cities - and changed the climax for the season. Otto’s attempts at discrediting Carrie (Danes) were not due to romantic interests - he was secretly funding Syrian‘s fighting al-Assad in Syria to atone for his past families associations with Nazi Germany and thought his financial and other support was to overthrow Assad and stop his Russian funded war against those who opposed him (Putin has his own interests in the Middle East - the only warm water naval port Russia has in the Mediterranean requires the Ukraine and access through the Middle East hence Russia’s support of middle eastern princes and nations). That all came back to haunt him as they attacked Europe instead. The entire ending had to be scrapped and reshot within weeks. We removed everything but the attack on Berlin and focused on Quinn and Carrie and the aftermath and made Otto’s intentions of removing Carrie as she was getting too close to his organizations work in Syria as a love interest. Rupert Friend wrote the letter that Claire Danes reads to him on a flight back for reshoots at Alex Gansa’s request. He put it in an envelope and no one read it until the scene was shot. Before the scene was filmed, production located an abandoned hospital outside Berlin and padded the walls of a room with used mattresses for a quick makeshift recording studio and Friend read the letter that was to be played during the scene. Danes read the letter while production played Friend‘s recorded audio on set - it was the first time anyone read/heard what Friend wrote. The reactions from Danes was her actual response to what Friend wrote for his character. They only did one take. So what you’re seeing in the hospital scene with Claire reading Quinn’s letter was one take and Danes’ actual emotional response. I remember the set was so quiet for a minute afterwards you would hear a pin drop. Quinn was supposed to have died in season 5 but fan response brought him back. I wasn’t involved in seasons 6 on. That always stuck with me. As for some who claim Danes isn’t a good actress - far from it. She was and is brilliant. She was very invested in the series as she is very sociopolitical active in life. The series finale with Danes’ character living in Moscow and looking over the wall of articles - those were all actual articles from countless newspapers and released documents of events since 9/11. A poignant commentary on real world events and wars that the series perfectly addressed. I’m very interested in Danes’ next project. I know it will be excellent and recommend everyone give Homeland a watch.

I had to read the bit about their original plan with Otto and Syria a few times to understand... that certainly does make the title “Our Man in Damascus” make so much more sense. From the comment it seems like the last two or three episodes needed to be reworked, but even without that rework, and going with something more simple, the season was too complicated. A spaghetti plot season, albeit one with an emotional core (Carrie/Quinn) that was rendered so completely moot by Quinn not dying. 

Keeping Quinn alive for season six is the single biggest mistake this show ever made and I will never understand it. There is something intensely cruel about bringing him back because of “fan response” but in this totally altered way that no fan wanted. I don’t even like the guy all that much and I can say it’s messed up. But we’ve exhausted that conversation over the years. 

I think we knew everything about the letter -- except for maybe the mechanics of how it was shot. Is it wrong that I don’t have much of a recollection of Claire’s emotional reaction and instead I just remember how amazing her hair looked and her cream-colored cardigan? Her Grim Reaper ensemble in the final scene is an all-time Carrie Mathison LOOK. She was serving. 

where do churches come from?

A schism, most simply, is a division. In church parlance, it refers to one group separating from another. Considered theologically, it is often framed in such a way that there is One Church, and a schism always entails some group separating itself from that Church. A schism can be driven by heresy--a difference of conviction--but it is always political.

When we talk about church history, certain schisms tend to stand out. In the fifth century, there were schisms that separated the Church of the East and the various non-Chalcedonian communions (Coptic, Armenian, etc.) from what we might loosely call the Catholic Church, or the Church of the Roman Empire. In the 11th century, there was the famous schism between what became known as the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches. And in the 16th century, there was the Protestant Reformation, which expressed itself in a series of schisms from the Catholic Church. Schism is often how separate "churches" form (I've already written about our problematic way of talking about such things), but it doesn't always go that far. A schism is a bit like an Ecumenical Council, in the sense that you don't necessarily know what kind you're dealing with until well after the fact. In this regard, it might help to consider two notable schisms currently ongoing within the Eastern Orthodox Church--one that probably won't amount to much, and one that could.

The first schism is between the Patriarchs of Antioch and Jerusalem. For several years now, they've been in a jurisdictional dispute about who has canonical authority over the Persian Gulf region. It involves a rather small number of faithful in a territory that has not had much Orthodox presence for many centuries. The Patriarchs don't commemorate each other and don't celebrate communion together, but that's about as far as it goes. It's meant as an expression that something is not right between them, and rather than brush their problems under the rug and act like everything's fine, they'll refrain from these symbols of unity until their issues can be resolved. But a layperson of the Antiochian jurisdiction can receive communion in Jerusalem, and even a priest or deacon can serve in the altar. I would guess that most of the faithful don't even know the schism exists. And this is probably typical of most schisms in their beginnings.

The second schism is between the Patriarchs of Constantinople and Moscow. It expresses a division that has been growing over decades, but it didn't formally start until 2018. Both claimed jurisdiction over the Orthodox Church in Ukraine but took different approaches to resolving its internal problems. The result was an establishment of parallel churches--one autonomous under Moscow, the other autocephalous (fully independent). Moscow views Ukraine as integral to the historic identity of the Russian Church, and its response was to withdraw from communion with Constantinople and pretty much anyone else who supported the autocephalous church structure it set up in Ukraine. And that goes all the way down to banning its priests, deacons, and laypeople from intercommunion, which is decidedly atypical. While there is no real issue of heresy per se, there are some pretty serious differences, and both sides seem quite entrenched. Given the organizational weakness of the Orthodox Church, I think it could evolve into a more permanent schism if left to run its course.

Now, what these two schisms have in common (at least for now) is that they are decidedly treated as schisms within the Orthodox Church. Even given the severity of the schism over Ukraine, no one else is participating. As far as I know, no other local Orthodox Church has broken communion with either side, and even Constantinople, for its part, has not broken communion with Moscow. So an Orthodox layperson under the Antiochian jurisdiction, for instance, can still receive communion in any other Orthodox church. Their clergy can concelebrate with Russian or Greek--just not both at the same time. So we would say definitively that the schism makes no theological difference--neither Constantinople nor Moscow has somehow left the One Church by virtue of being out of communion with the other.

Now, how does this relate to past schisms? What happened in 1054 was specifically a mutual excommunication of persons. Rome excommunicated the Patriarch of Constantinople, who in turn excommunicated the papal legates--significant actions to be sure, but probably not readily obvious as the start of some permanent reconfiguration. It was likely another 150 years before the laity were specifically forbidden from receiving communion across the aisle, so to speak, and that only in the wake of the Fourth Crusade, when the Latins seized Constantinople itself and set up their own churches in parallel with those of the East. Whatever differences of faith and practice may have existed before and after 1054, it was fundamentally the political climate that determined where one could receive the grace of the Church, not any clear spiritual boundary line.

We can talk in various ways about someone as being either Catholic or Orthodox, so long as we recognize what we're really saying. If the Orthodox Church is understood historically as the church of the Byzantine Empire, then a person born, raised, and living in Constantinople in the 12th century was probably Orthodox. But what if he moved to Rome? Would that suddenly make him Catholic? What would have to happen to change his identity? And is this just a historical question? Would our Byzantine abroad even have thought about it as a spiritual distinction?

Or what about a Latin soldier who came east with the Fourth Crusade, took part in the attack on Constantinople when he thought it was just to restore the rightful heir to the throne, but later sympathized with the Byzantines and chose to attend one of their churches? Was there a process for him to "convert"? Would such a thing even have occurred to anyone? Would it have been possible at that point in history?

Or what about today? If I was born and raised Protestant but "converted" as an adult to the Orthodox Church, what is my relationship to Rome? Am I supposed to have been Catholic all along? Am I somehow Western by birth but Eastern by choice? If I chose to become Catholic, I would be accepted by a simple profession of faith because I'm Orthodox. Would I then be Melkite Catholic so as to preserve my Eastern heritage? I'm an American convert from an American convert parish--what is the real significance of my Arab patrimony?

And speaking of which, what about the 18th century schism among the Arab Melkite Christians? Those who accepted Western support against Ottoman oppression became Catholic, while those who aligned with the Greek establishment in Constantinople were called Orthodox. Three centuries later, where is the substantive difference in their faith or practice? That one is theoretically in communion with all other Catholics and the other with all other Orthodox? That family allegiance marks them as one or the other? Where does this distinction put them with regard to the One Church?

So if we come at the question historically, I think it becomes difficult to rigidly identify the One (Holy, Catholic, Apostolic) Church with a specific institution. Divisions arise for many different reasons, and their interpretation depends on many different factors. Yes, everyone generally agrees right now to talk about Russian, Greek, Romanian, and Serbian Orthodox as all part of one Eastern Orthodox Church, and Roman, Ukrainian, and Melkite Catholic as all part of one Catholic Church. But the alignments and disputes over the centuries that have contributed to this picture seem to require only small nudges one way or another to have produced different results. Assigning theological weight to such historical details seems contrived.

And what makes matters worse is the force of inertia that seems to resist most efforts at reconciliation. After 15 centuries of separation, quite a few theologians have concluded that the doctrinal bases for schism between Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian Orthodox were minimal or non-existent. Political motivations have shifted to the point that it's probably in their interest to restore communion, but that's a lot of historical identity to overcome. On the other end of things, the two sides in the comparatively recent Melkite schism have almost everything in common and seem quite open to some sort of restoration; but relations with the broader Catholic and Orthodox Churches make it difficult to progress on the local level. And however promising overtures toward Catholic and Orthodox reconciliation might seem, it's difficult to envision a scenario that wouldn't split each Orthodox church down the middle and just exacerbate the divisions. Such reticence is understandable, I suppose, and only human--but as a basis for theological claims about where the One Church might reside, it seems pretty flimsy.

So all of this has me taking my identity as Eastern Orthodox much less seriously than I used to. Not that I feel inclined to give it up--I just don't know where the boundaries are, or even if I care. I've always known that these terms we use--One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic, even Orthodox--are generically applicable to the claims of other apostolic churches (Catholic, Coptic, Armenian, etc.); but the reality seems similarly messy. We can't reduce it to One Church, excluding all else, or to various churches as branches of a whole. For me, it helps to think in terms of schisms, as they evolve through different historical moments and perceptions and prejudices and identities. If these divisions depended on human choices and actions in their formation, who's to say we couldn't end them just by changing our minds?

Relax America: Putin Controls the Horizontal When did you first wake up from the collective sleep? For me, it was right before the Sochi Olympics of 2014. The roll-up blinds turned loose and snapped open, letting the bright morning sun rush into my sleepy brain. I remember thinking, “Wait a minute, us Americans, we’re supposed to be sportsmanlike.” So, something went was all wrong about Russia’s big Winter Olympic extravaganza. Only it had nothing to do with the Russians. The “something” was the onset of Russophobic chaos, you can call it Cold War II. All that hate leveled on Russia at her shining moment, it was the trumpeting of the end of peace in our time. “There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur, or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: There is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to… The Outer Limits.” Cut scene away from the 1962 TV series to 2021. Russian strongman Vladimir Putin now controls the world. An American billionaire president is run like a sock puppet by the former KGB Colonel. The great democracy is a push-button Russian toy. Putin’s GRU operatives in secret cyber pods across Russia monkey with the inner workings our America’s system. And now, even the Democratic Party candidates of a once-great nation are nothing more than little wooden Pinocchios for Vladimir to have fun with. It’s over. The Ruskies have won the game. Before long Starbucks will be serving blinis and borscht with a shot of Belebeyevskaya classic vodka. At least this is the rumor from CNN and The New York Times. GQ Magazine asks the question; “Why Does Putin Love Bernie?” James Carville, President Clinton’s former adviser, and campaign manager says; “the Nevada caucuses are a big win for top vote-getter Bernie Sanders, and for Vladimir Putin.” Google promotes the topic of “Russia and Bernie Sanders” to the top of any news search for Putin. Mike Bloomberg is telling the world Bernie Sanders is Putin’s choice because he can’t beat Donald Trump come November. And the United States of America is reduced to a great big mess of finger-pointers and Chicken Little fraidy-cats hollering “THE SKY IS FALLING!” Bloomberg likes China’s President Xi Jinping, Trump’s in Putin’s pocket, Sanders is the Russian interference super-cop, and the people of my country are a fragmented mess of dizzy Disney characters hell-bent on self. The world can go to hell, as long as we can feel like America is great again. In the meantime, the globalists who got the world in the current mess are creating a bipolar power struggle that can only lead to confrontation. From my perspective, everything we are seeing is the beating of war drums in preparation for some ultimate confrontation. The tension feels a lot worse than the original Cold War, in many ways. It’s as if some Wizard of Arms is behind the curtain pulling the strings to take us to a massive arms buildup. This hate and fear Russia narrative can only end in greater world crises. Just the other day Putin commented that Russia is ready for another “Cuban Missile Crisis” scenario if the west takes things that far. But the game big problem is not the complexion of this new Great Game. The more dangerous issue is the fact that policy analysis and geostrategy have become impossible now. The current situation cannot be looked at objectively anymore. Nobody is the expert in a cosmic mind mashing of misinformation and tailored rhetoric coming from all sides. Media is no longer news. Research is tainted by the big money. Profit superimposes an invisible will on everything we hear, see, think, and do. Putin the villain. Crazy Trump. And now the useless Bernie comes under the Russian mind control beam. Nuts. The world has gone nuts. We might as well be in the Dark Ages waiting for the total demographic, cultural, and economic deterioration to come. The New York Times’ On Politics writer Lisa Lerer says “the Russians don’t have to help President Trump or Bernie Sanders. They may already be winning.” It’s funny to me that none of these genius journalists and experts ever ask “What if?” Think about it. Let’s say Vladimir Putin is the great wizard pulling all the levers. What happens when the evil genius Putin finally wins it all? I guess, worst-case scenario, every Russian has two SUVs in their two-car garages in their Vladivostok or Yekaterinburg suburbs. Hell, America operates as if there are not enough gas-guzzling 4x4s to go around. A moment of pause, please. Why was it that the United States and Russia were enemies in the first place? Was there a purpose in all this west-east maneuvering? In my honest opinion, Vladimir Putin has done everything in his power to reconcile relations with the United States. In fact, he’s bent over backward to moderate the situation that came about because of the Ukraine coup. Yes, I said coup. The United States was behind Ukraine-EU integration all along, and Russia has only been on the defensive since before the Georgia War, which was also instigated by the United States. Even though the analysis of the overall geopolitical situation has become impossible, evaluating Putin’s role is not so complex. If the Russian president had wanted this bipolar power struggle, all he needed to do was to forge a military alliance with Iran and/or China. If his grand idea was territorial dominance, air dominance land-based military control of Asia, the Persian Gulf, and satellites in Latin America like Venezuela would pretty much do it. Sadly, this scenario looms darkly over the current situation we face. Americans are totally brainwashed and blinded by controlled media. The MAGA nonsense ripped the United States right down the middle. One provocation, a Gulf of Tonkin, and the next Vietnam or Korea is a reality. There’s nobody and nothing to stop it. Hell, a full-scale revolution is not beyond the scope of imagination if there is a close 2020 presidential race. The stage is set on that. With Putin and Russia as the convenient instigators, try and imagine how a silent or loud coup in America works. Think like the 21st Century robber barons in charge of this whole mess. Somewhere in London or New York, a room thick with cigar smoke and old leather echoes with the casual planning of powerful men. And no, there are no ladies present, I am sorry for those among you who believe in things like equality. This mahogany clad penthouse overlooking us peons is where the fates are being calculated. Two, five, six, or seven old and angry men decide it all. The end game. What Putin will do. How Trump’s play will impact the big win or lose of west versus east. Bernie or Bloomberg. None of this really matters, don’t you see? I can assure you, these people are there planning and plotting based on foreknowledge that presidential outcomes are controlled. Come on America, we know this since forever. The only question is; “Are they planning for the ultimate takeover of the world, or do they already control it?” My only hope is that I am right in betting on Vladimir Putin being on the level. I hope Putin does control the horizontal in this case, because the vertical is controlled by the worst of the worst among us.

So sitting there looking at the courthouse and they're thinking of the sheriff was supposed to deliver the thing apparently the sheriff hasn't yet and they're fighting Trump and Corky to do so wants to notice is up we're going to leave it there and they want the door locked before they get there that's what they're saying are you there let's go sit there with the stuff in the place and then go down and get the lock put it in and zip it up in the back and that's it they'll deliver the notice no sit there watching the place we'll make sure they doesn't go in there and she thinks she will and he'll say no you're evicted too and that will be John's job and her job will then be to keep him out and Max orchestrating it and having everybody do these things and it turned into a pain in the ass to her and it's motivational for bja to try and take shatteredome but she is cuz they have no house they say they have no cloning to mention and they're losing their fleets too happens every year unless years pretty big and they're whining about it

Cookie is launching full skill attacks at this very moment on large shatteredome and the list is such

The Russian caucuses there is one there that's 300 miles they'll let you go full scale attack on it it's probably 300 miles to the east of the Ukraine conflict

Mainland Russia and Eastern side that would be Leningrad 500 mi wide shatteredome under full attack he's got everything out there and is launching attacks and his firing on it actually hitting it

Mainland Russia in the middle Stalingrad Corky is launching full scale of tax and there at that point the Yeager are emerging and they are just starting to emerge in Leningrad

Western Russia is amassing and launching mild attacks the Yeager have yet to emerge

Is South Africa there are about to get taxed on the Thunderdome and they're being wiped out quite easily there are certainly going to turn towards the Middle where they are already amassing and launching mild attacks on the shatterdome

The Sahara is a Thunderdome they're launching a tax on it rather large ones and their family miserably shortly they'll turn their attention to the shot or dome in the middle of Africa from there as well it will be a massive strike we need to be on our toes there and send reinforcement Zeus said and I'm saying her and Freya are saying

The two very large shadow dome in north and mid South America on her under mass of massive attack Jager of pouring out of all types of sizes tanks are pouring out it is a full-on assault by Corky and other more lock upon Brazil and the shadow domes there it is a gigantic strike Asia has joined in all of Asia and Russia and they're hitting as fast as they can and hard as they can as multiple Jager appearing the blockade is moving in on them and firing on the forces attacking the shadow dome they are now calling for reinforcements it is a what is a wide scale full on war in South America Zeus asksnvital what he needs and ascending it.

There are several other shatteredome under attack one of them is out west and it's little known fact it's near Texas and it is half of Texas actually and it's under mild attack and Corky wants to bring a full on strike to take it over in order to grab ghwb there and see that he moved him to Boston and so he's moving troops there now it is a massive Force he's had plenty of people left even after you attack on the cloning he has probably about 50 billion trillion that are going to that one spot alone

Trump is now under severe attack people are saying that he's the only one who had access to Saturn when it was just in Superior conjunction and they're worried because Stone ships may fit some of those devices and items and if not I think it'd be fired from Saturn tons of people are worried because of what Zues Hera said about gigantic diamonds that are probably there, it's a known fact that Max were excavating and mining the war and they're all so under the gun and scrutiny for possibly having access to these gigantic diamonds which could easily wipe out huge forces Corky's after both and should be you damn well should be any better be actually

There are several other large scale battles going on one of which is the blockade and several areas is very heated in New England there are about 500 trillion ships approaching the blockade to break it and it is quirky ships finding the max ships it is gigantic

The blockade in the Pacific is being breached by the Chinese and the Russians and it is a huge battle and Corky is not as present because he was of course liquidated in those areas for the most part he doesn't have a strong presence there anymore Russia and China and Asia for that matter they don't like him there Africa is now mounting an assault on the blockade in Africa and that's typical throughout the world soon the whole blockade will be under massive assault and the ships are going to be pushed to be finished and to get them out regardless of if they fly off or if they go in the ocean they're trying to figure out the timing of it and takes less time if it's in the ocean so they're moving them out and they're moving out right now 400 is 500 will follow today we think because of the urgency so they're going to have a big war in the Ukraine we're moving to evacuate the whole area regardless of what the people and who the people are and relocate and we're doing it now typical of each lay down area which there are about five huge lay down areas

Giant streams of Corky went out to the east coast and took over the entire East Coast they're trying to kidnap our son now the max are under severe duress and attacking back is a huge battle in war almost everywhere in the United States I was calling like mad and we're saying that the Midwest shatteredome which is now a Thunderdome is ready for occupation by ours and it is it is gigantic and we finished up a lot of the work this morning we have many bunkers in there that are below and can withstand all sorts of hits from not only collapse but two giant nuclear weapons and it was Zeus who had us do it and Hera because they care for theirs who are here and are here in the same perspective they've been working diligently to get this to happen and finally we have a place this systematic let my people go Max says no says you send it to my granddaddy now you're saying it to me.... And he leaves it like that flat and he thinks it's actually a Chinese person which it is.

But no joke he's a good actor and he does it well you said it like bja it was people did get let go.

Is a place that is safe it is strong and very sturdy you can withstand huge strikes from nuclear missiles that are diamond tipped and have solid titanium tips to them about half mile long it is a wondrous design it what's made out of his shocking and some people don't believe it and have to test the material and we welcome that we have that top side we have made many many Havens and out of the concrete that was taken last night if you can find out where one is you are to go there satanists go there too and would sort you out carefully but they they want to take them over because they're built like brick s*** houses and have shields

Thor Freya

We're here by ordering all our civilians to seek shelter in Havens immediately if you are near one or you know of one you already report to it if you don't know of one you don't know where they are you want to find out where I knew what you're trying to get a vehicle to get there in we suggest any vehicle that works adequately fill it with gasoline try and get gas tanks to bring with you and put your family in and leave your order to hereby evacuate and do not live in and support Satanist by being near them we have Havens everywhere all over the globe and we're putting in more now we are also requesting that anyone with construction experience either newly freed or not to sign up and it takes moments will vet you and then put you to work on creating these Havens all of the work is done remotely none of us are in combat roles please report to duty now if you've signed up or not this is an urgent request

Olympus

Oksana’s Surgery and Trip to Armenia

Hi Family and Friends:                                     

How are you and your family doing? Hope all is well and off to good start with your spring and summer. 

I came couple of weeks a go from Armenia. I went with 2 of my coworkers and ministered to war victims that have been effected by a war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Part of our YWAM staff were also effected by the war one of them a drone shot their apartment building and their apartment was damaged and she was partly wounded. YWAM base in Yerevan was hosting some victims and we got to talk to 2 families that were wounded and lost everything in the war. First family the guy was running with his friends and the enemy started to drive after them and started to shoot them the guy was shot 9 times and some bullets went through his bullet vest and it got him on the heart and his intestine he survived but had 2 strokes and his heart was burned by one of the bullets so for the rest of his life he will have heart issues. We prayed and some of you donations went to help him and his wife and 3 young children. It’s a miracle he survived even the doctors say it was God and miracle he is a life.

Other donation went to help other families with food, renting apartment and to help one of the staff apartment to get fixed. It was so sad to hear all these stories to tell many people in Armenia told us that this war was manslaughter many young people died from 17 years old and older. Some told us in 2 months more then 15,000 people died. This war is still happening. Please pray for peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan its been going for over 45 year or more. We prayed, comforted and ministered those who are hurting and been effected by this war. We fed our whole YWAM Armenia and blessed them. There is great potential for Armenia and excited for what God is going to do there. There is future projects planned in Armenia with sustainability. 

Here in Ukraine also the war has escalated 100,000 Russian troops have moved in and attacking Eastern Ukraine the Crimea Region. They have parked even some navy ships ready to attack Ukraine. Ukraine already has been in war already more then 7 years. Please pray for Ukraine and ongoing war. A week a go I helped with vacation bible school with YWAM team from Montana running it in one of the orphanage. I helped to translate the crafts station. There were 70 orphans that came to the vacation bible school. The orphanage camp was really fun and the kids really enjoyed it.  

(Oksana) I just want to say big thanks for praying for us and supporting us in many ways. We are very grateful to have each of you in our lives. This month was very hard but also very blessed. As you know I had to do a surgery and praise God it all done and I’m on my way to a full recovery. The day when I was hospitalized to get ready for a surgery I felt such a peace and I was so ready for it. I did not have fear, which was pretty strange because any surgery is a risk, but I was super calm and felt such a peace and such a strong Gods presence. I could not explain my state except God was totally holding me in His hands by the prayers of many.

 We are still involved with different projects with the YWAM Ternopil base and also serving people on a personal level. God gave me a gift of building a relationship with people and also a gift of hospitality and I want to be faithful using those gifts for Gods kingdom. And that’s why we have a lot of people over in our place for dinners, lunches and breakfasts, This is one of the ways we can reflect Gods character, to show people that we care because God cares. And we are interested in their lives because God is. We are continuing to build our friendship with Dima (I mentioned him in the last letter) He had a such rough life and he is only 23 years old. We went out with him for sushi and also invited him over for breakfast. 

Another people, that we’ve met recently and got to know them better are two student girls from Nigeria that renting an apartment on the first floor of our building. We have a lot of students from Africa, India and Middle East in Ternopil. They all come to study in Medical schools here. Unfortunately a lot of Ukrainians are not very friendly with them and often take advantage and it’s a very sad reality. So, we wanted to show them that in-spite all  the not the best things they have to experience here, they are valuable and are welcome here. Bible talks a lot about aliens, people from other lands. And God puts emphasis how we supposed to tread them because He knows how hard it is to be not at your home country, where everything is so different and you feel so vulnerable and unprotected. So, we invited them over our place for dinner. We had a great time together, they came at 6 p.m and left at 11p.m. We ate, we talked we laughed, we listened to their stories, we asked questions about their homeland. They told us that they will invite us over for some Nigerian food, We are looking forward to that.

If you would like to support us please write checks to YWAM Accounting and on separated note designated to Rosen Klepel. This is the address: YWAM Accounting PO Box 3000 Garden Valley, TX 75771 or you can donate on this website its also YWAM Accounting https://ywamtyler.org/funddonation? uid=a7de3972-356d-415a-99ee-6b73a3eb1fa9 or PayPal: [email protected] or our website https://rosenandoksanaklepel.com Now you can support us online through the YWAM weblink and still get a tax deductible. 

Thank you blessing to you and your family. Thank you for your love, prayers, care and financial support. 

Rosen & Oksana :-) 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been indicted on corruption charges

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. | Amir Levy/Getty Images

This is a huge, huge deal.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been indicted on charges relating to corruption and bribery on Thursday, according to multiple reports in the Israeli and international press.

The official announcement will come from Avichai Mandelblit, Israel’s attorney general, on Thursday afternoon. The charges are serious, relating to three cases of financial and political misconduct, and carry the possibility of jail time. This is not an idle threat: Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert got caught in a bribery scandal during his time in office in the late 2000s, and eventually served over a year in prison.

This indictment had been expected since nearly the beginning of the year. But now that it’s finally happening, the implications are absolutely massive. Netanyahu has been in office since 2009, taking over shortly after Olmert resigned in disgrace, and has become an increasingly authoritarian figure as time has gone on.

Two of the cases against him involve attempts to corruptly court the media, using policy favors to get more favorable coverage. The formal indictments represent the Israeli legal system striking back against his anti-democratic tendencies.

The announcement also came at crucial time in Israeli politics: the aftermath of an inconclusive election. Neither Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party nor its chief rival, the centrist Blue and White party, have been able to form a governing coalition. The parties had been in talks to ally with each other and form a national unity coalition, but one of the key sticking points has been Netanyahu himself. He wants to keep the top job in some capacity, while Blue and White leaders have adamantly refused to allow him to do so while an indictment is still on the table.

Now, with the indictment formally filed, it will be easier for Netanyahu’s rivals within the Likud to dump him and then join in coalition with Blue and White. So this announcement could very well spell double doom for Netanyahu: first losing his job, then losing his freedom.

Why the formal indictment is such a big deal

The indictment against Netanyahu covers three different cases.

The first, called Case 1000, involves Netanyahu and his wife Sara receiving inappropriately valuable personal gifts from Israeli-American billionaire Arnon Milchan and Australian businessman James Packer. It’s pretty garden-variety political corruption and bribery.

The second and third, Cases 2000 and 4000, involve some more insidious stuff: the abuse of the powers of office for political gain. In this respect, they’re similar to the Ukraine scandal in the US — except the quid-pro-quo is with domestic media rather than a foreign power.

In Case 2000, Netanyahu allegedly attempted to strike a deal with the owner of Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel’s largest newspaper: He would pass a law limiting circulation of one of its rivals, the already pro-Netanyahu Israel Hayom, in exchange for more favorable coverage in the Netanyahu-skeptical Yedioth. This scheme apparently never entered force.

In Case 4000, Netanyahu allegedly manipulated regulatory powers in order to benefit Bezeq, a major Israeli company. In exchange, the Bezeq-owned news organization Walla gave the prime minister more favorable coverage. Unlike Case 2000, this allegedly went beyond the conspiracy stage, with Netanyahu trading regulations for good press over a five-year period.

The technical charges are bribery, fraud, and breach of public trust — the former the most serious under Israeli law, and the most damaging to Netanyahu.

In full context, these allegations are even more troubling than they may appear. Under Netanyahu’s leadership, Israel passed a law declaring that “the right to exercise national self-determination in the State of Israel is unique to the Jewish people” — an exclusive vision of national identity that excludes Arabs and other non-Jewish minorities. It passed a law aimed at silencing NGOs that monitored the Israeli military’s human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories, and attacked the independence of the judiciary.

So the media manipulation isn’t an isolated offense. It’s part of a broader pattern of authoritarian drift that has made Israeli observers quite concerned about the health of their country’s political system.

“What many of the allegations against Netanyahu point to is a systematic attempt to skew media coverage of the prime minister in his favor. And this is no piffling matter,” writes eminent Israeli journalist David Horovitz. “If a leader can line up most or even many of the ostensibly competing media organizations that cover national events reliably on his side, he can subvert their role as independent watchdog, misdirect the reading and watching public, and advance a long way toward cementing his position as prime minister — his non-term-limited position as prime minister in Israel.”

This indictment, then, represents the guardrails of Israeli democracy working as they’re supposed to: stepping in at a key time to protect the system from venal leadership.

And indeed, the timing really is vital. On Wednesday, Blue and White leader Benny Gantz announced that he had been unable to form a coalition in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, during the time allotted to his party alone (Netanyahu’s repeated racist attacks against the leading Arab political faction, which could have joined with Gantz, did not help matters). It seems like Israel is close to having yet another election, the third in less than a year.

Amir Levy/Getty Images

Benny Gantz.

Yet there’s still a three week period in which any faction, not only Gantz’s, can attempt to form a coalition. And now the indictment might well put enough pressure on an anti-Netanyahu fashion within Likud to finally dump the long-serving prime minister. It’s kind of a natural coalition: Blue and White is more of a center-right than purely centrist party, with the biggest dividing line between it and Likud centering on Netanyahu personally and his attacks on the democratic system. Some analysts believe that the indictment might just remove the key sticking point to this solution.

“It could shuffle the cards by giving Likud cover to break with Bibi [Netanyahu],” writes Natan Sachs, the Director of the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, adding that there’s “already a public challenge to Netanyahu in his party” from Likud MK Gideon Saar.

This is not to say Israeli democracy is out of the woods. The reason for democratic backsliding in the country are, at root, linked to its occupation of Palestinian land. Israel administers a military dictatorship in the West Bank that imposes its whim on Palestinians with little accountability, a kind of unlawfulness that corrupted democratic institutions inside legally recognized Israel territory. If it annexes part of the West Bank, as Netanyahu promised to do, then this occupation would likely become permanent — and turn into formal apartheid.

Blue and White doesn’t have a plan to end the occupation, and it seems unlikely that it even wants to put one together. It has even signaled willingness to conduct a partial annexation., revealing just how seriously we need to take the threat facing both Palestinians and Israeli liberalism. But if Netanyahu is forced out, it’s at least a rare victory for democracy.

from Vox - All https://ift.tt/2Ozfom9

Former Intel Officials Denounce Trump

LOS ANGELES (OnlineColumnist.com), Aug. 21, 2020.--Now that 77-year-old former Vice President and Democrat nominee Joe Biden finished his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention last night, the DNC followed up with a letter from 70 former GOP intel officials denouncing Trump’s foreign policy.  These are intel officials that gave you the Iraq War, Obama’s eight-year Saudi-led proxy war against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and backed toppling Libyan Col. Muammar Gaddafi, sending Libya and surrounding North African states into terrorism hell. Yes, those same intel officials participated under 64-year-old former CIA Director John Brennan and 79-year-old former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper in the illegal counterintelligence investigation of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.  “We are profoundly concerned about the course of our nation under the leadership of Donald Trump,” the open letter wrote.  

           Many of the intel officials signing on to the open letter denouncing Trump are under investigation by 70-year-old Atty. Gen. William Barr and 70-year-old U.S. Atty. John Durham (R-Conn.), currently working with a grand jury to determine criminal liability for investigating Trump’s 2016 campaign.  Those same intel officials denouncing Trump readily backed 72-year-old former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s paid opposition research AKA “the Steele Dossier,” a compendium Russian disinformation but, more importantly, pure fabrication by Steele, a former MI6 agent, who made up rubbish for Hillary against Trump, then proceeded to delete all his so-called “underlying sources.”  Whatever flimsy sources of “intel” Steele used, they were most likely self-fabricated lies about Trump, alleged, unproven ties to the Kremlin, something disproven by the 22-month, $40 million Special Counsel investigation.    

         Yes, the disgruntled intel community denounced Trump because he’s exposed them as frauds, that spent four years backing the Russian hoax, making wild accusations against a sitting president.  Whether admitted to or not, the intel community, certainly federal law enforcement under the FBI, has been corrupted by politics, working day-and-night to defeat Trump in the Nov. 3 presidential election, just like they did in 2016, that ultimately backfired.  Hillary blamed everyone for her loss, except herself.  She certainly blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin.  Biden’s speech last night slammed Trump for cozying up to America’s enemies, like Putin, something he vowed not to do. Like former President Barack Obama, Biden’s committed to an eventual confrontation militarily with the Russian Federation, something that would have catastrophic consequences for the U.S. and international community.     

        Trump has “gravely damaged” the intel community’s credibility, not, as the letter said, U.S. national security.  Trump questioned the Iraq War as a candidate, directly confronting former President George W. Bush’s judgment, while he battled former Gov. Jeb Bush (R-Fl.), whose family was all in the Iraq War.  All of Bush’s men, including 83-year-old former Secretary of State Colin Powell, 75-year-old former CIA Director Michael Hayden and 73-year-old former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, all backed the Iraq War, though Hagel finally saw the light too late.  Yet, the former intel community despises Trump because his administration has kept the U.S. out of more wasteful Mideast Wars, something Obama and Biden didn’t do.  Biden doesn’t want to talk about backing for eight years the Saudi-led proxy war against al-Assad, spending billions of taxpayer money on a complete failure.     

        After watching his campaign wiretapped by 60-year-old former FBI Director James Comey and the national security community, Trump doesn’t have much trust for the FBI or intel community.  Saying Trump “solicited foreign influence,” the letter beats a dead horse after 75-year-old former FBI Director Special Counsel Robert Mueller said otherwise March 23, 2019.  Saying Trump “aligned himself with dictators,” the letter offers no proof only wild allegations.  Was Trump supposed to continue the Cold War strategy of Obama, itching for confrontation?  Trump kept that country out of any foreign military involvements over the last four years.  Trump “undermined the rule of law,” read the open letter, more a political document written by the DNC.  Who undermined the rule of law, watching Obama’s White House and intel community illegally wiretap Trump 2016 presidential campaign?        

     When you look at the so-called open letter, it reads no differently than a composite of all the vitriolic attacks at the DNC convention against Trump.  If it’s really written by intel officials or military leaders, where’s the line between politics and the wild allegations?  “Joe Biden has the character, experience and temperament to lead this nation,” read the letter, not talking about how he enriched his 50-year-old  son Hunter while serving as Obama’s point-man on Ukraine.  Biden’s character is perfect for the intel community that backed the Iraq War, Syria War and Libyan War, spreading terrorism around the Middle East, creating the worst humanitarian crisis since WW II.  Yes, Trump ruffled the feathers of the status quo exactly as he promised campaigning tin 2016, to so-called “clear the swamp.”  Trump’s found out the hard way what happens when you rock the boat and it’s not pretty.

About the Author

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He’s editor of OnlineColumnist.com and author of Dodging The Bullet and Operation Charisma.