No matter how many times the American people say no to regime change in Syria through “limited military action with no boots on the ground” (in other words – WAR) the warmongers in both parties never give up.
The same applies to war against Russia (in other words – World War III). The American people do not under any circumstances want to declare war on Russia for the benefit of an ethno-Nazi Lvov-Kiev statelet run by a CIA-installed junta.
But is that what Congress is actually doing as we speak?
Behind the White House’s political smokescreen in Ferguson and New York, US lawmakers were busy sliding through a pre-declaration of war against Russia.
Former Congressman Dennis Kucinich warns about the House’s reckless adoption of the HR 758: “NATO encirclement, the US-backed coup in Ukraine, an attempt to use an agreement with the European Union to bring NATO into Ukraine at the Russian border, a US nuclear first-strike policy, are all policies which attempt to substitute force for diplomacy.”
US Declares War on Russia, from 21st Century Wire:
H.Res.758 – Strongly condemning the actions of the Russian Federation, under President Vladimir Putin, which has carried out a policy of aggression against neighboring countries aimed at political and economic domination:
Pepe Escobar: THE US CONGRESS HAS DECLARED WAR ON RUSSIA. I can’t emphasize enough how terrifying – and stupid – this is. And now it’s official. House Resolution 758 was approved yesterday by an overwhelming, bipartisan 411-10 score at the US Congress.
This resolution, rushed to a vote only two weeks after it was introduced, depicts Russia as an “Aggressor Nation” which has invaded Ukraine and was behind the downing of MH-17. The resolution virtually calls for war on Russia.
Take a very good look at the language:
The President of the United States, in consultation with the US Congress, must “conduct a review of the force posture, readiness, and responsibilities of the United States Armed Forces and the forces of other members of NATO to determine if the contributions and actions of each is sufficient to meet the obligations of collective self defense under article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty and to specify the measures needed to remedy any deficiencies.”
Translation: the US Congress wants the Empire of Chaos to use NATO’s collective security doctrine under article 5 (an attack on one member is an attack on all members) to advance a war on Russia, even though Ukraine is not a member (but will soon become a major non-NATO ally).
The resolution now goes to the Senate. If it becomes law, the resolution allows the President of the United States to declare war on Russia bypassing the formal permission of Capitol Hill.
Call or email Congress. Let them know that we the people do not agree to fight a war against Russia (a country which has shown no hostility towards the United States) nor do we agree to support the Kiev fascist clique!
Freedom Fries are never free! Tell Congress that instead of declaring war on Russia, we could try the old trick of renaming food again. Here are some suggestions:
Borscht could be renamed freedom soup, vodka could become spirits of liberty, caviar could be Pussy Riot eggs, and Beef Stroganoff could be Beef Bandera!
Also let them know that we do not buy into the propaganda myths used by the government and the media to bring us back into a Cold War based solely on Russophobia.
These anti-Russia myths include:
Myth #1 – It is in America’s national security interests to weaken Russia. Russia is our enemy and always has been.
Stephen Cohen: “So for saying this, I’m called a Putin apologist. These people have no understanding. They don’t care about real national security. So I’m the patriot. I’m the one who cares about American national security. And all they’re doing is the old kind of McCarthy-ite red baiting.”
No, Russia has not always been America’s enemy. More often than not, we have been friends. Let’s take one example from history that very few people know about.
Tarpley’s 2013 CSPAN Lecture on Russian Fleets of 1863:
Myth #2 – Putin is an evil dictator who wants to invade Europe and establish a new USSR.
We’ve all heard politicians and media talking heads tossing around the quote from Putin that he wants to restore the USSR, but here is the actual quote:
“Anyone who doesn’t regret the passing of the Soviet Union has no heart. Anyone who wants it restored has no brains.” – Vladimir Putin.
Abysmal War Propaganda. Falsehoods in the New York Times – Mr. Putin Tests the West in Ukraine:
Here’s a balanced and informed analysis of Vladimir Putin which claims that he is “neither the defiant counterweight” to Anglo-American dominance, nor the “Putler” of Euromaidan fantasy. I don’t completely agree with this analysis / critique, but it’s definitely worth a read:
Sorry America, Ukraine isn’t all about you:
You can see it in the aftermath of the Odessa fire massacre that killed over 40 pro-Russian separatists: It shut up even Navalny. The liberal-yuppie elites’ momentum is over. Putin’s popularity among the rest of the country has never been higher. So if Putin is neither the defiant counterweight hero or the neo-Stalinist imperialist, but rather playing a Russian version of vicious Nixon politics, what should the West do? That’s easy: Stay the Hell out of Russia’s way for a while…
Putin ‘like Hitler’? How did Prince Charles get it so wrong?:
A more pro-active Russian ruler would have sent troops to Kiev a long time ago. Thus did Czar Alexis when the Poles, Cossacks and Tatars argued for it in 17th century. So also did Czar Peter the Great, when the Swedes occupied it in the 18th century. So did Lenin, when the Germans set up the Protectorate of Ukraine (he called its establishment “the obscene peace”). So did Stalin, when the Germans occupied the Ukraine in 1941.
Hitler grabbed territory and made war and committed genocide in order to grab territory. Putin has grabbed territory in order to keep what he has. Putin has fought to hold on to South Ossetia, Dagestan and the Russian naval port of Sevastopol because neither he nor anyone else in Russia can see where the continuous slicing away of Russian influence will end. Russia thinks this way in no small part because they were on the receiving end of Hitler’s Drang nach Osten.
Putin may treat gay people as badly as they’re treated in Alabama, and he may be an autocratic White Tsar. He’s no Yeltsin, but he surely isn’t Hitler.
Myth #3 – There are no Nazis in Ukraine. The Maidan coup was a popular, grassroots movement.
Brzezinski Mapped Out the Battle for Ukraine in 1997:
Understanding Brzezinski’s long-term view of Ukraine makes it easier to comprehend why the US has given $5 billion to Ukraine since 1991, and why today it is hyper-concerned about having Ukraine remain in its sphere of influence. It may also help explain why in the past year the US and many of its media outlets have feverishly demonized Vladimir Putin.
Brzezinski: “Ukraine, a new and important space on the Eurasian chessboard, is a geopolitical pivot because its very existence as an independent country helps to transform Russia. Without Ukraine, Russia ceases to be a Eurasian empire.”
Brzezinski wrote that US policy should be “unapologetic” in perpetuating “America’s own dominant position for at least a generation and preferably longer still.”
USAID Exposed in Cuba – What it Tells Us About US Subversion Worldwide:
Not only has Ukraine suffered because of this admitted US-backed political destabilization over the years, but as revealed by the Guardian and other sources, all of Eastern Europe has fallen prey to this brand of foreign-backed subversion, manipulation, and regime change.
Watch this video and hear the voices of Ukrainian people, both from the east and the west:
Ukraine Crisis – Death and destruction continues in Eastern Ukraine / Хунта убивает людей. [ENG SUB]:
Former Ukrainian PM Elena Bondarenko’s Open Letter to the Citizens of the World:
Alexander Turchinov the Speaker of the Ukrainian Parliament, deprived me of the right to speak from the podium as a member of the opposition Party of Regions, only for this: I declared “Any power that commissions its army to bomb its peaceful cities, is criminal.” After which, he magnanimously gave the radical parliamentarians the option to call for shooting the opposition.
The everyday life of an opposition deputy is this: constant threats, unofficial ban from the airwaves, targeted persecution. Everyone who calls for peace is immediately branded as an enemy of the people, just as in 1930’s Germany, or in McCarthyite US.
Myth #5 – Joining the EU and accepting IMF loans is Ukraine’s best chance to develop into a free, democratic and prosperous nation.
If you really believe this, well… think Greece!
What is the “European way of life”? For the working class, not just in Greece but across the continent, it means social misery—drastic cuts in jobs, wages, public services and living conditions—to satisfy the demands of the same banks, financial institutions and corporate giants that were responsible for the economic meltdown that erupted in 2008.
Crimean leaders blame Kiev for selling Ukraine off for IMF loans:
…the country’s entire gas pipeline system will be handed over for free in the American company Chevron’s ownership the moment the basic agreement is signed, while the owners of the Mariupol, Zaporizhzhya and Dnipropetrovsk steel mills will be obliged to surrender their 50% stakes to Germany’s Ruhr. The Donbass coal industry will be handed over to Ruhr’s subsidiary in Finland…
Gas prices for municipal companies will have to be increased by 50% and for private will double. Electricity tariffs will be raised by 40%, housing utility tariffs will be raised, too, gasoline excises will go up 60% and transportation tariffs 50%, while state support for childbirth will be cancelled, the free distribution of textbooks will be annulled at schools and the VAT relief will be scrapped in rural regions…
“VAT will be introduced on medications, which will push up prices and bring citizens’ living standards down,” Kovitidi said.
“The planned annulment of the moratorium on the sale of farmland looks appalling. The selloff of Ukraine’s black soil zone, including to foreign countries, may have disastrous economic and social consequences,” she said.
Medicine and Meat Out of Reach Amid Ukrainian Price Shock:
The plight of Zhytomyr’s 270,000 residents shows how bailout-mandated austerity and the strains of an eight-month insurgency are playing out in everyday life.
“Glory to Ukraine?” said Valya, 76, referring to a slogan of the street uprising. “Glory for what? Higher prices? The war? We’re just tolerating the authorities.”
Chances are, if you’re reading this and it’s the year 2014, the economy of your own country is in serious trouble. Contact your elected representatives and tell them to butt out of Russia’s business and get to work on an economic recovery plan for your country.
Americans should not go abroad to slay dragons they do not understand in the name of spreading democracy.
“Whenever the standard of freedom and independence has been or shall be unfurled, there will be America’s heart, her benedictions and her prayers. But she does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy. She is the wellwisher to freedom and independence for all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own. She well knows that by once enlisting other banners of foreign independence, she would involve herself beyond the power of extridition, in all wars of interest and intrigue, of individual avarice, envy and ambition which assume the colors and usurp the standard of freedom….She might become the dictress of the world but would no longer be ruler of her own spirit… Americans should not go abroad to slay dragons they do not understand in the name of spreading democracy.”
– John Quincy Adams
A Russian Grandma’s Advice to Obama:
CIA’s Chechen Terrorists AKA “ISIS” Attack in Grozny as Putin Gives Key Address in Kremlin:
In 2012, three members of the Russian protest group known as Pussy Riot were arrested and convicted of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” after staging a punk rock protest of sorts in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. Each member was given a two-year prison sentence. The relative severity of the sentence drew harsh criticism from organizations such as Amnesty International, and popular music stars, including Madonna, Paul McCartney, Lady Gaga, and Björk.
Meanwhile in Benton Harbor, Michigan, the well-known black civil rights activist Reverend Edward Pinkney was charged with vote fraud in his attempt to gather signatures for a petition to have a recall election of Benton Harbor Mayor James Hightower. In spite of a conspicuous lack of evidence that Reverend Pinkney had tampered with the petitions in any way, he was accused of changing the dates next to some of the signatures on the petition, and in the words of Bob Dylan, “the all-white jury agreed!” Yes, literally – an all-white jury convicted Pinkney of vote fraud in a town whose population is over 90% black, in a case in which absolutely no evidence was presented. Unlike the girls from Pussy Riot, however, Pinkney faces more than two or three years in prison. He faces life in prison for supposedly changing some dates on a recall petition, after being found guilty by an all-white jury after a trial in which no evidence of fraud on his part was found.
While we all wait for Bob Dylan to do a rewrite of his classic “Hurricane” in honor of Reverend Pinkney, perhaps we’ll hear a little outrage and protest from Madonna and Sir Paul. But I’m a realist – I’m not going to hold my breath too long!
Perhaps if Reverend Pinkney’s case could be spun to make Vladimir Putin or Bashar al-Assad look bad, there would already be an Occupy Benton Harbor movement well underway. As things stand, however, support is growing, but time is running out.
Sentencing is set for December 15, 2014. Pinkney was found guilty on five felony counts of forgery, even though the prosecution could not produce any witnesses to testify that they saw Pinkney changing any dates or signatures on the recall petitions or otherwise engaging in any type of fraud.
According to Pinkney, “there is no evidence, period. The only thing they possibly had was that the petitions belong to me, but it was through several hands. They only had one target and that was me.”
One of the witnesses for the prosecution, Bridgett Gilmore, circulated recall petitions herself, while having no contact with Pinkney. She stated that two different pens with two different types of ink were used for some signatures because it was winter and the pens would sometimes freeze. Another witness for the prosecution, Majorie Carter, said that she “collected signatures for the recall from my apartment complex for seniors. One signer corrected a date on the petition.”
Mable Louise Avant testified that “Reverend Pinkney had nothing to do with the mistakes.”
“I could not believe they could find me guilty without evidence,” said Pinkney. “This case is about more than an all-white jury. It is a class situation. They attacked me because of my class. Now everybody in Benton Harbor is in jeopardy. They are saying they do not need evidence to send someone to prison. We have to say enough is enough. It’s time to take a stand.”
According to historian and political analyst Dr. Webster G. Tarpley, this case, which amounts to little more than a frame-up of an innocent man, is a violation of the Helsinki Accords.
Questions remain regarding the reasons for charging Pinkney with a felony in the first place. Under Michigan state law, violations such as these are misdemeanors, not felonies.
According to Reverend Pinkney, Mayor Hightower is “a puppet of the Whirlpool Corporation.”
Many of the town’s inhabitants once worked for Whirlpool, but those jobs have left the state, while Whirlpool has helped bring a Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course to town. At the same time, Governor Rick Snyder of Michigan has sent an emergency manager to Benton Harbor to exercise near-dictatorial power over the local government, ensuring budget cuts, “asset stripping, union busting, and repeated fleecing of the taxpayer,” according to Brandon Turbeville of Activist Post.
Essentially, what happens in the Emergency Management process is, after the budget deficit balloons out of control and Emergency Managers are sent in, the elected officials (whether responsible for the deficits or not) are reduced to mere formalities for the policies being dictated to them by their Emergency Manager who is, in turn, merely an agent for those in higher places. When this occurs, elected officials may remain in order to placate and fool the public, but in other cases, such as with the School Board, elected officials may be removed altogether along with any pretense of representative government.”
“Drastic spending cuts are imposed on essential services while taxes are raised on the already strapped citizenry. Privatization runs rampant, allowing services and infrastructure that were once developed, maintained, and paid for by taxpayer money to be turned over to private companies…
“Over the years, we’ve witnessed a systematic remaking of the city around the class interests of the corporations. This effort has been led by.. Whirlpool,” said Pinkney.
In place of industry, Benton Harbor has become a Disneyland of Harbor Shores with the Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course surrounded by expensive condominiums, hotels, playhouses and whatever toys the rich need. It has been a complete assault on the poor… This could not have happened without the help of Benton Harbor’s corporate puppets.”
“The Whirlpool Corporation believes every person, Blacks included, can be bought and sold for a price. And, some can… This includes Mayor James Hightower.
Whether or not Pinkney ends up serving a long prison sentence, he has no plans to quit the fight against the corporate control of the local government:
We want them to understand this fight is going to continue with or without me (and) in that sense, I am happy today, because people can take a good look at this system. It’s a class war. It’s us against them. Rich against poor, that’s what it adds up to. The point is we have to take a stand. It’s about you, your children and your grandchildren. I never thought for a minute that the system could be broken and would go to this extreme.
Reverend Edward Pinkney can be contacted at: banco9342@sbcglobal.net
Send letters to the judge ASAP. Sentencing is Dec. 15, and your letter needs to arrive before that date:
It is an excellent rule to be observed in all disputes, that men should give soft words and hard arguments; that they should not so much strive to vex as to convince each other.
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