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Showing posts with label WAR MONGERS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WAR MONGERS. Show all posts

Saturday, February 5, 2022

War CEOs are excited

 

v

Win Without War

“…[W]e are seeing, I would say, opportunities for international sales. We just have to look to last week where we saw the drone attack in the UAE, which have attacked some of their other facilities. And of course, the tensions in Eastern Europe, the tensions in the South China Sea, all of those things are putting pressure on some of the defense spending over there. So I fully expect we’re going to see some benefit from it.” — Greg Hayes, Raytheon CEO 

You read that right — just days after their bombs were used in Saudi airstikes in Saada, Yemen, that killed at least 80 people and injured over 200, Raytheon’s CEO Greg Hayes celebrated that war is good for business.

With tensions rising across the globe, weapons makers are projecting 2022 will be another banner year. And that’s why what happens next is CRUCIAL: the Pentagon, like the rest of the federal government, is currently funded by a continuing resolution based on last year’s spending levels, and it’s set to expire in just 13 days

Some lawmakers, like Senator Wicker (MI), a senior member of the Armed Services Committee, are seizing this moment to call for spending INCREASES at the Pentagon — money that will inevitably pad weapons contractors’ pockets and mean more devastation like we saw in Saada.

But that’s where we come in. Our team is working with a growing behind-the-scenes coalition in Congress that’s laser-focused on cutting Pentagon spending — and ending the corrupt, blank check weapons contractor handouts. 

We’ve got 13 days to push back and block new blank checks for weapons and war.

Our work depends on you, but less than 1% of people reading these emails will give. If everyone reading gave just $13, our campaign to flip the status quo on reckless Pentagon spending — the lobbying, the media effort, the grassroots mobilization, ALL of it — would be funded, and in seconds.

Can you donate $13, or anything, to fuel this fight now?

DONATE NOW

More than any weapons contractor, Raytheon’s recent growth comes from arms sales to foreign countries, particularly Saudi Arabia, which continues to wage its brutal war in Yemen. 

But the sad reality is that too many in Congress are ready to keep the profits and weapons flowing — and it’s reflected in our government’s spending priorities. 

Right now the enormous Pentagon budget doesn’t reflect the security needs of the country — if it did it would fund an agenda that focuses on humanitarian aid, peacebuilding, and diplomatic solutions to address the climate crisis.

It’s time to stop spending where weapons contractors want, and start spending on the things that will actually keep us safe, and help people thrive. Luckily, with growing public support and a small, but mighty coalition of lawmakers with us, we’re seeing opportunities to flip the script on this broken status quo.

But winning won’t be easy. Weapons contractors have multi-million dollar lobbying arsenals at their disposal. That’s why we need your help to fuel this work.

Win Without War is one of just a few groups focused on cutting the Pentagon budget at every opportunity. We’ve got less than two critical weeks to pull out all the stops to push back on any new attempts to write blank checks for weapons and war. Can you support our work with a $13 donation today? Every dollar counts.

If we do this right we’ll have a chance at turning the tide on a broken status quo that prioritizes profit over people. It won’t happen overnight, but together, we’ll build something new, something better.

Thank you for working for peace,

Amy, Sara, Stephen, and the Win Without War team

 
 
 

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Friday, February 4, 2022

CC Newsletter 04 Feb - The Blockade Against Cuba Turns 60

 

Dear Friend,

It’s easy to say, but it’s been six very hard decades that began with disconcerting lightness and the belief that the United States government’s blockade of Cuba would not last long—a couple of years, maybe.

If you think the contents of this newsletter are critical for the dignified living and survival of humanity and other species on earth, please forward it to your friends and spread the word. It's time for humanity to come together as one family! You can subscribe to our newsletter here http://www.countercurrents.org/news-letter/.

In Solidarity

Binu Mathew
Editor
Countercurrents.org



The Blockade Against Cuba Turns 60
by Rosa Miriam Elizalde


It’s easy to say, but it’s been six very hard decades that began with disconcerting lightness and the belief that the United States government’s blockade of Cuba would not last long—a couple of years, maybe.



The Hypocrisy of the
‘Diplomatic Boycott’ of the 2022 Beijing Olympics
by Charles Xu


Which human rights matter enough to put politics above sports? For decades, the United States and its European allies have gotten to decide the answer at their convenience.



US pips regional states at race for Kabul
by M K Bhadrakumar


In a hugely consequential advisory, the US Treasury Department quietly signalled on Wednesday that it was “tweaking” the sanctions against the Haqqani Network. The international banks can transfer money to Taliban, including Haqqani Network without fear of breaching sanctions.



Scenario for a War in Eastern Ukraine: The United States Views Russians Just as the Nazi’s Did in World War II
by John Stanton


As President Joe Biden announced the transfer of 2000 US troops to Poland and Germany on February 3, 2022, and the movement of an additional 1000 troops from Western Europe to Romania, I shook my head and looked to the sky thinking, “the United States and its elites really want a war with Russia, both economic and military. US generals want to use tanks, missiles, and aircraft against a near-peer competitor. They can’t beat sandal wearing insurgents in Afghanistan, so they want to mix it up with the A-Team, i.e., Russia.”



Towards Human Fraternity
by Cedric Prakash


On all counts 4 February 2019 was a memorable day for the world! On that day, Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmad al-Tayyib, met in Abu Dhabi, and together signed the historic and pathbreaking
document entitled ‘Human fraternity for world peace and living together’. The document is one of the most comprehensive ones written in recent times. It not only analyses the realities which grip mankind today but also provides a blueprint for all in order to address and ultimately overcome the hate, divisiveness and violence of today!



The Budget 2022-23: Insipid and Cheerless
by Shrikant Modak


The unceasing bench thumping in the parliament at the treasury benches on the budget day, gave an impression as if the budget was packed with a pile of path breaking initiatives. But the facts speak otherwise. There is nothing much to commend in the budget.



What a Waste! $778 Billion for the Pentagon and Still Counting
by William D Hartung


2021 was another banner year for the military-industrial complex,
as Congress signed off on a near-record $778 billion in spending for the Pentagon and related work on nuclear warheads at the Department of Energy. That was $25 billion more than the Pentagon had even asked for.



The quota rants and its impact on marginal students
by Ritu


The apex court delivered a judgement on 20th January 2022 authored by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice A.S. Bopanna about extending reservation to OBCs in all-India quota (AIQ) of seats in admission to under-graduate and post-graduate medical and dental courses. The landmark judgement is perceived as a tool to demolish false narratives regarding reservation, especially the merit of marginalised students, i.e., SC, ST and OBCs.



Politics of the farmers movement!
by Dr Prem Singh


The peasant movement was kept apolitical in the sense that the leaders of any political party were not allowed to
use the platform of the movement. However, the opposition parties/leaders supported the movement and tried to win the sympathy of the farmers so that they could take electoral advantage of the farmers’ resentment against the government/BJP. In view of the simultaneous assembly elections in five states, the government abruptly withdrew the agri-laws, without further discussions with farmer leaders. This move of the government is a proof that the movement had the potential to create political influence against the ruling party. Especially in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.



162 Doctors Express Serious Concerns About GM Foods in India
by Bharat Dogra 


In recent weeks several groups which have been active on food safety issues have expressed  concens about the serious health hazards involved in the increased possibility of introduction of imported or domestic GM foods in India.
These concerns have been also related to the process of creating a regulatory framework by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).



Hands Against Racism goes global
by Press Release


Already in its eighth year, an anti-racism campaign started by Canada-based Spice Radio got a major boost when world renowned humanitarian Ravi Singh joined it on Wednesday, February 2



Hindutva and the Crisis of Public Institutions in India
by Bhabani Shankar Nayak 


The Hindutva forces led by the BJP and shaped by the RSS and its affiliated organisations are restructuring India and Indian society to re-establish privileges and interests of higher castes and capitalist classes. Such a catastrophic reorganisation is based on dominance of Brahminical social order to facilitate capitalist market into every sphere of
Indian society, where citizens are going to be converted into customers



Nostalgic for the Future
by Edward Curtin


But now is always, and like its twin – exile – nostalgia is perpetual.  The aching for “home” – from Greek algos, pain + nostos, homecoming – is not simply a desire for the past, whether in reality or imagination, time or place, but a passionate yearning for the best from the past to be brought into the future.





Thursday, September 2, 2021

RSN: Juan Cole | Biden: Afghanistan Withdrawal Is "About Ending an Era of Major Military Operations to Remake Other Countries"

 


 

Reader Supported News
02 September 21

Live on the homepage now!
Reader Supported News

 

Joe Biden. (photo: Getty)
Juan Cole | Biden: Afghanistan Withdrawal Is "About Ending an Era of Major Military Operations to Remake Other Countries"
Juan Cole, Informed Comment
Cole writes: "Biden wanted to get out of Afghanistan in 2009, but lost that battle inside the Obama White House. He finally has his way, and unlike smarmy pundits or the former guy he actually has reasoned arguments for what he does."

EXCERPT:

That was the take-away of Biden’s speech. This is a pivotal turning point in American foreign policy. The “empire” imagined by Bush’s campaign manager Karl Rove and by Kristol and the warmongers of the New American Century has been brought to a close.

It wasn’t much of an empire. It wasn’t even done right. A proper empire loots other people. The French Empire even collected 10% of the GDP of desperately poor African colonies like Dahomey and sent them to Paris to pay for ostrich feathers for the mistresses of Third Republic politicians.

The US “empire” consisted of ramshackle countries like Afghanistan, Somalia and Iraq, on which we actually had to be the ones spending the money. Our national debt is some $28 trillion, outstripping our annual GDP and threatening the soundness of our economy. If you add up the expenses of the “empire” and add in the interest we paid and will pay on the money we borrowed to create and perpetuate it, my guess is that it accounts for the bulk of the national debt. The interest on the borrowed Afghanistan war costs alone is $6.5 trillion.

READ MORE

The Sackler Family Has Won Immunity From All Future Opioid Lawsuits
Brian Mann, NPR
Mann writes: "Members of the Sackler family who are at the center of the nation's deadly opioid crisis have won sweeping immunity from opioid lawsuits linked to their privately owned company Purdue Pharma and its OxyContin medication."
READ MORE

Far-Right Extremist Groups Planning to Attend September Rally at Capitol
Michael Balsamo, Eric Tucker and Lisa Mascaro, Associated Press
Excerpt: "Far right extremist groups like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers are planning to attend a rally later this month at the U.S. Capitol that is designed to demand 'justice' for the hundreds of people who have been charged in connection with January’s insurrection, according to three people familiar with intelligence gathered by federal officials."
READ MORE

Arizona Launches a Bold New Experiment to Limit Racist Convictions
Ian Millhiser, Vox
Millhiser writes: "Arizona's conservative state Supreme Court took a surprising step last week that could lead to juries in that state being more racially diverse, and thus less likely to treat racial minorities more harshly."
READ MORE

Amazonians United Is the Other Face of the Amazon Labor Movement
Alex N. Press, Jacobin
Excerpt: "While many people are familiar with the unionization campaign in Bessemer, Alabama, where Amazon workers are organizing with the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RWDSU), other campaigns are less well-known."
READ MORE

'We Were Very Lucky’: Afghan Refugees Arrive in US, Exhausted but Relieved
Ashish Malhotra, Guardian UK
Malhotra writes: "As he stepped outside the sliding doors at Virginia’s Dulles airport last Wednesday, Abdul Waris allowed himself a moment to smile in relief. It was his first time in the United States, and just days earlier he was at the Hamid Karzai international airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, desperately trying to get out of the country."
READ MORE

After Decades of Waiting, Indigenous Peoples Are Finally Getting a Say in Global Conservation Policy
MarĂ­a Paula Rubiano A., Grist
Excerpt: "The General Assembly of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, or IUCN, will gather next week to shape a collective strategy to protect the world’s increasingly at-risk flora and fauna."
READ MORE

 

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Monday, August 30, 2021

CC News Letter 27 August - Terrorist strikes in Kabul: A political windfall for Taliban

 

Dear Friend,

The horrific terrorist strikes in Kabul on Thursday which killed at least 12 US servicemen and dozens of civilians will lead to a higher level of cooperation between the US and the Taliban. The commander of CENTCOM Gen. Kenneth McKenzie disclosed to journalists on Thursday that the US was already sharing information on terror threats in Afghanistan with Taliban. As he put it, “We share versions of this information with the Taliban so that they actually make searches… We think they’ve thwarted some.”

Kindly support honest journalism to survive. https://countercurrents.org/subscription/

If you think the contents of this news letter are critical for the dignified living and survival of humanity and other species on earth, please forward it to your friends and spread the word. It's time for humanity to come together as one family! You can subscribe to our news letter here http://www.countercurrents.org/news-letter/.

In Solidarity

Binu Mathew
Editor
Countercurrents.org


Terror bombs, gunfire kill at least 72 in Afghanistan capital
by Patrick Martin


In what the US military described as a “complex attack,” several terrorists attacked a screening checkpoint at a gate into the Kabul airport and a nearby hotel on Thursday, inflicting a horrific toll of death and destruction. Unnamed Afghan health officials told the media that at least 60 Afghan citizens were killed and another 140 wounded. The Pentagon said that 12 US Marines were killed and 15 wounded. Many of the wounded civilians and soldiers were in critical condition and the death toll could rise significantly.



Terrorist strikes in Kabul: A political windfall for Taliban
by M K Bhadrakumar


The horrific terrorist strikes in Kabul on Thursday which killed at least 12 US
servicemen and dozens of civilians will lead to a higher level of cooperation between the US and the Taliban. The commander of CENTCOM Gen. Kenneth McKenzie disclosed to journalists on Thursday that the US was already sharing information on terror threats in Afghanistan with Taliban. As he put it, “We share versions of this information with the Taliban so that they actually make searches… We think they’ve thwarted some.”



New Taliban, New Afghanistan?
by M Adil Khan


The fall of the US/NATO/Afghan Puppet Army in Afghanistan has turned all military calculus upside down – world’s mightiest have been defeated by the world’s smallest, a jungle army, the new Taliban!



The Neocons Speak: Afghanistan as Political Real Estate
by Dr Binoy Kampmark


When the tears dry, it is worth considering why there is so much
upset about the fall of Kabul (or reconquest) by the Taliban and the messy withdrawal of US-led forces.  A large shield is employed: women, rights of the subject, education.  Remove the shield, and we are left with a simple equation of power gone wrong in the name of paternalistic warmongering.



Two Decades After  Assassination, the Lion of Panjshir Continues to Inspire Resistance
by Bharat Dogra


Just two days before the horrible 9/11 attack on the USA, on September 9  2001, another extremely tragic attack took place in  far-away Afghanistan which resulted in the assassination of rebel commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, the fabled Lion of Panjshir.



Quad meets the “Saigon moment”
by M K Bhadrakumar


The regional tour of Southeast Asia by the US Vice-President Kamala Harris got inundated with
the tsunami of criticism over the United States’ frantic efforts to complete the evacuation out of Kabul Airport by the month-end. Again, Israel being a hugely attractive topic in US news cycles, Harris’ visit to Singapore and Vietnam may get marginalised with the arrival of the new Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in Washington later today.



Genesis of Right Wing Islamic Activism
by Syed Ehtisham


The US believed that Muslims between Greece and China, ‘The Arc of Islam’ would function as fire wall against the USSR, and might even incite the restive Muslims inside the USSR to open rebellion. The U.S. and other Western countries and Israel have in turn befriended, manipulated, double crossed and cynically used the Mujahideen as cold war allies. After the USSR withdrew from Afghanistan, they disdainfully ditched the fighters and must accept a major share of responsibility for the emergence
of Islamist ‘terrorism’.



Phony War/ Phony Empire
by Philip A Farruggio


Well, you can see on the literally thousands of clips showing the chaos in Afghanistan… as if it only wasn’t always like this. Twenty years ago the Junior Bush Cabal , as I label them, decided to listen to their empire handlers and create a Phony War in Afghanistan and then another one in Iraq



Bangla Sanskriti Manch: Spreading solidarity in Covid times
by Amit Sengupta


The pre and post-Covid era in contemporary Bengal has resurrected several civil society groups who have pushed the threshold in crafting a new secular and progressive discourse, while reaching out to people in crisis and resurrecting old-fashioned values of human compassion, shared spaces, and idealism. Among such groups, the sustained and committed grassroots endevour of the
Bangla Sanskriti Manch has been remarkable.



Voices from the Covid Battlefield –  Episode Five
by Dr J Amalorpavanathan


Here we talk to Dr J Amalorpavanathan, a senior vascular surgeon, champion of public health and currently member of the Tamil Nadu State Development Policy Council. He was also the Convenor of Tamil Nadu’s highly successful Cadaver Transplant Program.



Farm Laws and the Farmers Protest – A discussion
by Colin Todhunter


A discussion hosted by the World Sikh Parliament network and run on KTV – a UK-based satellite TV channel for the Sikh diaspora



In India, the number of women farmers is steadily declining and the number of women agricultural laborers is increasing.
by Vikas Parashram Meshram


At present, there is a discussion of farmers’ movement all over the country.    The Supreme Court has constituted a four-member committee.  However, one of the members withdrew his name.  During the hearing of the case, the apex court directed the farmers’ lawyer A.P.    Singh said that women, children and old men of the movement should be sent home.  The women farmers who have joined the agitation are outraged.  They say that women work harder in the fields than men, so why should we leave the movement and go home?  We do 73 per cent of the agricultural work – sowing seeds, weeding, etc. – so we will not go anywhere from the place of agitation.



Samar Sen Gave Indian Revolutionary Journalism A New Dimension
by Harsh Thakor


On 23rd August, we commemorated the 34th  death anniversary of Samar Sen, one of the most creative and dynamic persons in Indian history. The founding of Journal ‘Frontier’ in 1968 on April 14th , marked a new epoch in the history of progressive or revolutionary democratic journalism in India and worldwide.



Govt of India’s decision to import GM soymeal into India patently illegal
Press Release


The Coalition for a GM-Free India, a civil society platform that had been in the forefront of struggles against hazardous gene technologies being deployed in India, has termed the decision of Government of India to import GM soymeal as patently illegal.



Hate — impact on daily life
by Sheshu Babu


Almost every day one or more news on humiliation or oppression of minorities is heard, especially muslims are
at the receiving end most of the time. They are not even being allowed to eek out a living by continuing petty and small business.







"Look Me In The Eye" | Lucas Kunce for Missouri

  Help Lucas Kunce defeat Josh Hawley in November: https://LucasKunce.com/chip-in/ Josh Hawley has been a proud leader in the fight to ...