The U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues urged UNESCO to step up the protection of world heritage sites to protect sites from the mining giant Rio Tinto, including Apaches Oak Flat. Rio Tinto blew up 46,000 years of Australian Aboriginals' history and sacred teachings when it blew up Juukan Gorge caves in Western Australia. (Panel of ancient rock art painting, Quinkan Cave near Laura, Cape

By Scott Ritter Sputnik 17.06.2023

Operation enters the second week of Ukraines long-awaited and highly touted counteroffensive, some basic conclusions can be drawn even though the fighting continues, and will continue to rage, for some time to come.

First and foremost, the counteroffensive gambit has failed. While there is still considerable combat strength left in the Ukrainian military, including more than 75% of the NATO-trained and -equipped 60,000-strong cohort Ukraine had assembled in the past eight months, fundamentally flawed assumptions about the quality of the force on which Ukraine and its NATO allies had placed their collective hopes for victory over Russia have been exposed. In short, Ukraine lacks the military capacity to overcome Russian defenses.

Ukraines most elite assault brigades, equipped with the latest Western military technology, failed to advance out of what Russian defensive doctrine calls the cover line of defensethe buffer that is designed to channel and disrupt an attacking force prior to reaching the main line of defense. Ukrainian casualties were extremely heavy, with Russia achieving a 10:1 kill ratio in terms of manpower, which is unsustainable from the Ukrainian perspective. The reasons for the Ukrainian failure are fundamental in nature, meaning that they cannot be overcome as things currently stand and, as such, the Ukrainian military has zero chance of success, no matter how hard they press subsequent attacks.

First and foremost is the quality of the Russian defenses, especially in terms of the barrier network (minefields, obstacles, and trenches) which, when combined with the tenacity of the Russian defender and the overwhelming superiority Russia enjoys in terms of fire support (both artillery and air-delivered), is the reason the Ukrainians are unable to advance beyond the cover layer of the Russian defenses. Ukrainian equipment and tactics are insufficient to the task of breaching the Russian obstacle barriers in any meaningful manner, dooming the attacking forces to be destroyed piecemeal by Russian artillery and air strikes, as well as local counterattacks mounted by Russian special forces.

Besides the poor tactics and equipment deficiencies (yes, the Leopard tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles were not the miracle weapons Ukraine and its Western supporters had hyped them up to be), the Ukrainians are paying the price for Russias impressive suppression of enemy air defense (SEAD) campaign that has been ongoing for many weeks now.

Russian fixed-wing aircraft have been able to deliver precision-guided munitions with deadly effect to the assembly areas used by Ukraine to gather their attacking forces pri...

RT | June 17, 2023

Ukrainian drones have attempted to strike the Druzhba pipeline that delivers Russian oil to several European countries, Bryansk Region governor Alexander Bogomaz has said. He added that the attack was thwarted by Russian air defenses.

On his Telegram channel on Saturday, Bogomaz wrote: Last night, air defense units of the Russian armed forces repelled the Ukrainian militarys attack on the oil-pumping station Druzhba. According to the official, a total of three UAVs were brought down.

Last month, the Washington Post claimed, citing leaked Pentagon documents, that back in February Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky had suggested to Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Sviridenko that Kiev should just blow up the [Druzhba] pipeline, which pumps oil to Hungary and other states.

According to the report, Zelensky described the destruction of Hungarian [Prime Minister] Viktor Orbans industry as one of his goals.

While Zelensky dismissed the allegations as fantasies, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto several days later accused Kiev of virtually attacking Hungarys sovereignty by supposedly plotting to undermine the security of Budapests energy supply.

Around that same time, a loading station of the Druzhba oil pipeline in Bryansk Region was shelled by Ukrainian forces, with three fuel storage tanks, all of them empty, damaged as a result.

In March, Transneft, the pipeline operator, reported that several drones had dropped explosives in the vicinity of an oil-pumping station. Multiple incidents of shelling had taken place before that as well.

The Druzhba (Friendship) pipeline is one of the largest oil-transport networks in the world, spanning some 4,000 kilometers (2,485 miles) and transporting oil from Russia to Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Austria and Germany.

Bryansk Region, which is adjacent to Ukraine, has repeatedly been targeted by cross-border strikes.

In March, a Ukraine-based neo-Nazi unit conducted a sortie into the region.

Time itself is neutral; it can be used either destructively or constructively. More and more I feel that the people of ill will have used time much more effectively than have the people of good will. We have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of bad people, but for the appalling silence of the good people. Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men and women willing to be coworkers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in Letter from Birmingham Jail, 1963

Two days ago I publicly read these words during a time for public comment of a Newark, NJ-based state agency, the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission. In the Ironbound environmental justice neighborhood in inner city Newark, an area which already has three of them, PVSC plans to build a fourth fracked gas power plant. There has been a strong resistance movement against this plan for years, led by local residents, and we have jammed it up so far.

As one of the tactics used in fighting this project members of our movement have been attending, in person and virtually, the monthly meetings of this agency. This was probably the tenth such meeting Ive attended and spoken at. Before each meeting I try to think of a different angle to get through to the PVSC board members. This time, because of my having read several months ago all five of Dr. Kings books, the idea came to me of reading from Kings Birmingham jail letter.

I dont know enough about this group to know how good each of them are, but Im sure most of them see themselves as upstanding citizens. So when I read it, I emphasized Kings line about the appalling silence of the good people.

What King wrote in 1963 is always applicable to some degree or the other. There are always people who live decent lives on a personal level, love their family and work hard but who never speak up or speak out about systemic injustice and oppression. Indeed, successful mass movements like the civil rights/Black Freedom movement of the 50s and 60s win important victories largely because they are able to dramatically expand the ranks of those willing to speak up and take action.

How can those of us already actively working for a just, peaceful and loving world do this today, right now, at this worst of times that can also become the best of times if we unite, stay strong and keep organizing?

The most important way is to be a consistently good example for others, day after day, hour after hour.

There is a deep and long history on the political Left worldwide of people who were once justice-seeking revolutionaries becoming corrupted after they individually or the movements they led...

Many in Gaza have had their houses destroyed multiple times during Israeli attacks over the last 15 years. Some families still in debt from rebuilding their home the first time, now find themselves having to rebuild again.

They think we are mugs and its insulting. Its all fine for politicians to be swimming, swerving and tossing about in the goo of paranoia that is surveillance, chatting to the ghost called foreign interference; but to expect the rest of the citizenry to be morons is rather poor form. But the formula has always been such: We terrify you; you vote us in, and we increase the budget of the national security state.

Regarding the business of the Russian embassy site in Canberra, this is all the more stunning. Australias parliamentarians rarely pass bills and motions at such speed, but the measure to ensure that the Russian embassy would not have a bit of real estate 500 metres from the peoples assembly was odd, at best. On June 15, legislation was whizzed through, effectively extinguishing Russias lease.

It was also prompted by a rather bruising matter: the Russians had already been triumphant in the Federal Court. They had been granted the lease for the Yarralumla site in December 2008 by the National Capital Authority. But the 99-year lease was cancelled by the same body on the basis that ongoing unfinished works detract from the overall aesthetic, importance, and dignity of the area reserved for diplomatic missions.

Russia duly challenged the cancellation and won. In May, the court found in its favour, negating the cancellation of the lease. This seemed to have a curiously unifying effect in Parliament: agents of the Kremlin would be a mere stones throw away from the elected chamber.

Members of the Albanese government were tediously, predictably, on message, claiming that their intelligence services were all cognisant of a threat no one else could possibly take seriously. According to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, the government had received very clear security advice as to the risk presented by a Russian presence close to Parliament House. The whole parliamentary measure had taken place to ensure the lease site does not become a formal diplomatic presence.

The cabinets most eager of beavers, Home Affairs Minister Clare ONeil, affirmed the Prime Ministers concerns. The principal problem with the proposed second Russian embassy in Canberra is its location, she suggested. The government has received clear national security advice that this would be a threat to our national security and that is why the government is acting decisively to bring this longstanding matter to a close.

This entire comic episode also led Albanese to anticipate Russian stroppiness and reference to precedents in international law. This prompted the rem...

June 17, 2021 Source: Agencies By Al Mayadeen English Russias president says that the first batch of nuclear weapons to Belarus has already been sent and their full deployment will be completed this year. As you know we were negotiating with our ally, Belarusian President [Alexander] Lukashenko, that we would move a part of these []

The Highwire with Del Bigtree | June 15, 2023

World-renowned Critical Care Pioneer, Dr. Paul Marik, is back in the news as the CHEST Journal, which published his benchmark life-saving Vitamin C Protocol for sepsis, reaffirmed the study after it came under attack. Dr. Marik joins Del to detail the pharma-driven war on repurposed drugs, and cheap early, non-pharmaceutical interventions for weight loss, overall health, cancer, and more. These are the treatments that pharma doesnt want you to know about.

Todd Hayen We have, for quite some time, been exposed to a myriad of silent killers. These are the subtle murderers of both the physical body as well as the spirit. I used to think most of these killers were unintentional and merely the result of ignorance or a non-existent understanding of the non-material world

Scott discusses the 1993 Waco tragedy with David Hardy, Dan Gifford, James Tabor, Paul Fatta, David Thibodeau, Jim Bovard, Barbara Grant: the Branch Davidians history and theology, David Koresh, the ATFs investigation and raid, the 51 day siege, the FBIs tank and gas attack, the April 19 fire, analysis of infra-red imagery, the role of []

Introduction June 16, 2023

Days before the Western mainstream media could put its spin on events, videos and photos of wrecked Ukrainian tanks and fighting vehicles were all over the internet.

As far as Ukraines backers in the corporate media were concerned there was no going back. They had to acknowledge that Ukrainian forces had taken casualties and then move on.

Thats what the Guardian tries to do in the following but readers will note that it makes no attempt to see how this fits into the broader Ukrainian counteroffensive. Thats because what happened at Mala Tokmachka is symptomatic of what happened across Ukraines counteroffensive as a whole.

Ukrainian forces made little headway and took heavy casualties in the process. Unfortunately, we dont think that this will make Ukraines backers see reason. The West is already getting ready to double down with Spain and Germany pledging to send more Leopard II tanks to Ukraine.

Meanwhile the article goes onto quote Phillips P OBrien, professor of strategic studies at the University of St Andrews, who says such losses are to be expected.

In other words, the West really does intend to fight to the last Ukrainian and its using the media and various pundits like OBien in order to achieve that. As a result young Ukrainian teenagers are being recruited and sent to the frontline with just 3 or 4 days basic training.

Having fought in the Rhodesian Army Special Forces I know that that is just not enough. I was only sent into battle after six months basic training and even then I went in as part of a four-man team, with the other three being battle-hardened veterans who watched over me.

Sending such young recruits with so little training to the front is symptomatic of a regime on its last legs.

My heart goes out to these young Ukrainians. Truly, they are being sent like lambs to the slaughter while the Western MSM cheers them on. Ed.

Ukraines failed Mala Tokmachka assault lays bare counteroffensive challenges

Peter Beaumont and Patrick Wintour The Guardian June 14, 2023

The footage that began circulating on Russian social media channels last week depicted what was portrayed as a significant military setback for Ukraine at the beginning of its counteroffensive.

In a flat, open area south of Zaporizhzhia bisected by hedges and a wide muddy track about 12 Ukrainian armoured vehicles had become pinned down, bunched too close together near a minefield.

In one video, shells and rockets can be seen tearing into the ground a...

Ethan Huff Natural News June 16, 2023

For the first time since the Russian invasion, the Biden regime is transferring depleted uranium shells to Ukraine in what appears to be the next step in the escalation of World War III.

For the past several months, the Biden clown car of transgenders and deviants has been debating whether or not to send the nuclear armaments to Volodymyr Zelensky, who continues to receive welfare check after welfare check from American taxpayers.

According to Bidens people, there are no major obstacles to sending these depleted uranium shells, so why not? They are to be used to equip M1 Abrams tanks that, like everything else in Zelenskys possession, was procured by Washington, D.C., via American taxpayers.

It was Ukraine itself that requested these nuclear munitions, stating that the Pentagram (Pentagon) has urged that the Abrams tanks the U.S. is providing Ukraine be armed with depleted-uranium rounds, which are regularly used by the U.S. Army and are highly effective against Russian tanks.

(Related: The Pentagon has been itching for nuclear war with Ukraine since at least last fall, threatening to drop bombs if Putin does not pull out of the country.)

Ukraine and the West are the problem, not Russia

While less radioactive and threatening than actual nukes, depleted uranium rounds are still technically nuclear. There are concerns that the soils they land on will become contaminated in a similar way to nuclear fallout, though less extreme.

Nevertheless, the sending of these munitions represents another escalation in Ukraine and the Wests war against Russia, the latter of which is trying to cleanse one of the worlds most corrupt nations, Ukraine, of its U.S.-run bioweapons laboratories that continue to threaten the rest of the world.

The United Kingdom has already been providing Ukraine with armor-piercing rounds containing depleted uranium for its Challenger 2 main battle tanks. The British defense ministry first announced this back in late March.

Russia was swift to condemn the UK for this move, stating that it is akin to using a dirty bomb, given the highly dangerous remnant effects of depleted uraniums use on the battlefield.

Such rounds are highly effective in defeating modern tanks and armored vehicles, the UK defense ministry said at the time, to which Moscow responded with:

These shells not only kill, but infect the environment and cause oncology in people living on these lands.

For many years, international watchdog groups have been pressing to get depleted uranium shells banned via international treat...

HenryMakow.com June 16, 2023

Please send links and comments to hmakow@gmail.com 

Russian official- Nuclear weapons may be necessary to make (((NATO))) back off

https://globalaffairs.ru/articles/tyazhkoe-no-neobhodimoe-reshenie/

This article has sparked major debate among experts in Russia about nuclear weapons, their role and the conditions of their use. 

This is especially the case given Sergey Karaganovs status as a former presidential adviser to both Boris Yeltsin and Vladimir Putin, and his position as head of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, a noted Moscow think tank. 

KaraganovIt seems to me that our country and its leadership are facing a difficult choice. It is increasingly clear that the clash with the West will not end if we win a partial or even a crushing victory in Ukraine

The West is losing the ability it had for five centuries to suck out wealth from the whole world, imposing, first of all, by brute force, political, economic orders and establishing its cultural dominance. So, a quick end to the defensive, but aggressive confrontation unfolded by the West is not to be expected. This collapse of moral, political and economic positions had been brewing since the mid-1960s, was interrupted by the collapse of the USSR, but resumed with renewed vigor in the 2000s (the milestones were the defeats of the Americans and their allies in Iraq, Afghanistan, as well as 2008. 

Continues with more links and headlines

Moon of Alabama June 16, 2023

On June 4/5 the Ukrainian military launched its long announced counteroffensive in southeast Ukraine. Ten days later there is no significant progress.

bigger

This is not the outcome the war propagandists expected:

[General Petreus] spoke about the situation in Ukraine to BBC Radio 4s Today programme.

On the counteroffensive, he said:

I think that this counteroffensive is going to be very impressive.

My sense is that they will achieve combined arms effects in other words, they will successfully carry out combined arms operations where you have engineers that are breaching the obstacles and diffusing the minefields and so forth; armour following right on through protected by infantry against anti-tank missiles; air defence keeping the Russians aircraft off them; electronic warfare jamming their radio networks; logistics right up behind them; artillery and mortars right out in front of them.

And most important of all is that as the lead elements inevitably culminate after 72-96 hours, physically thats about as far as you can go, and theyll have taken losses you have follow-on units that will push right on through and capitalise on the progress and maintain the momentum and I think that can get the entire Russian defence in that area moving, then I think you have other opportunities that will open up on the flanks as well.

Back in reality the lead elements of the Ukrainian attack got slaughtered. They culminated, i.e. lost their ability for further attacks, in less than a day:

Cont. reading: On The Failure Of The Ukrainian Counterattack

<h1 style="text-align: center;"><strong>Patrick Cleburne VDare June 15, 2023</strong></h1> <p><em>Above, extremely fit-looking off-duty Swedish police officer Mikaela Kaellner kneels on a man she caught stealing a mobile phonesee</em> <a href= "https://vdare.com/posts/what-kind-of-man-did-swedish-bikini-cop-arrest-for-stealing-from-sunbathers-probably-a-gypsy"> What Kind Of Man</a><a href= "https://vdare.com/posts/what-kind-of-man-did-swedish-bikini-cop-arrest-for-stealing-from-sunbathers-probably-a-gypsy"></a> <a href= "https://vdare.com/posts/what-kind-of-man-did-swedish-bikini-cop-arrest-for-stealing-from-sunbathers-probably-a-gypsy"> Did Swedish Bikini Cop Arrest For Stealing From Sunbathers? Probably A Gypsy</a> (2016)</p> <p><strong>Earlier: <a href= "https://vdare.com/articles/in-sweden-rape-capital-of-europe-women-can-t-carry-pepper-spray-academics-can-t-reveal-rapists-ethnicity"> In Sweden, Rape Capital of Europe, Women Cant Carry Pepper Spray; Academics Cant Reveal Rapists Ethnicity</a></strong></p> <p>On Swedens National Day, Tuesday June 6th, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson <a href= "https://www.aftonbladet.se/debatt/a/wA5gkd/kristersson-tre-saker-kravs-for-att-satta-ihop-sverige-igen"> published</a> on <em>Aftonbladet</em> (one of the countrys <a href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aftonbladet#Internet_publishing">top five websites)</a> a dramatic essay which might well signify a watershed in Europes so far catastrophic Refugee policies.</p> <p>Remix reported <a href= "https://rmx.news/migration/mass-immigration-and-poor-integration-does-not-work-swedish-pm-calls-for-strictest-migration-policy-in-the-eu/"> <em>Mass immigration and poor integration does not work!Swedish PM calls for strictest migration policy in the EU</em></a><em>,</em> by Thomas Brooke, June 7, 2023.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"> <p dir="ltr" lang="en">Mass immigration and poor integration does not work! Swedish PM calls for strictest migration policy in the EU. <a href= "https://t.co/6FcsygI3RQ">https://t.co/6FcsygI3RQ</a></p> <p> Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) June 8, 2023

 </p> <p>Calling his proposals</p> <p style="padding-left: 40px;">a radical shift in the countrys migration policy</p> <p>Remix quoted him saying</p> <p>Massive immigration and poor integration just doesnt work. That is why we are now changing Swedens migration policy and <em>making it the strictest in the EU</em>,</p> <p>(VDARE.com emphasis)</p> <p>Kristersson added encouraging specifics:</p> <p style="padd...

Vanessa Beeley YouTube.com June 15, 2023

Source

Mary Whitfill Roeloffs Forbes June 14, 2023

2024 Democratic presidential contender Robert F. Kennedy Jr.an environmental lawyer with anti-vaccine views and a strong family dynasty at his backhas higher favorability numbers than either President Joe Biden or former President Donald Trump, according to a new poll by The Economist and YouGov, even as Biden maintains a lead in the 2024 primary.

Key Facts.

Kennedy Jr. was viewed favorably by 49% of respondents and unfavorably by just 30%, leaving him with a net rating of 19 pointshigher than any other candidate in the poll, which surveyed 1,500 adult respondents from June 10 to 13.

Biden had a negative 9-point net favorability rating, with 52% of respondents viewing him somewhat or very unfavorably while 45% have very or somewhat favorable impressions, and Trump had a negative 10-point net rating, with 53% viewing him unfavorably and 43% favorably.

However, some 21% of respondents didnt offer an opinion on Kennedy, far greater than the single-digit figures posted by Trump and Biden.

Some other high-profile 2024 candidates posted negative favorability ratings: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) had a favorability rating of negative 5 points, and former Vice President Mike Pence (R)s net rating was negative 17.

Only 19% of people view Democratic candidate and self-help author Marianne Williamson favorably, compared to 24% who viewed her unfavorably, though 57% of respondents didnt have an opinion on her.

Big Number

20%. A CNN poll last month showed that about one-fifth of Democratic voters supported Kennedys run for president. Some 60% planned to support Biden, and 8% favored Williamson.

Key Background

Kennedy Jr. announced he would challenge Biden for the 2024 Democratic nomination in April, joining a largely empty field. He is the son of assassinated former attorney general and 1968 presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, and the nephew of former President John F. Kennedy. Previously known as an environmental lawyer, he has become known in recent years for promoting dubious claims about ties between vaccines and autism, and for touting conspiracy theories surrounding mass shootings and the Covid-19 virus.

Surprising Fact

A collection of...

HenryMakow.com June 16, 2023

(Porn king relied on gay porn) 

Think of heterosexuality as monogamous and dedicated to rearing children; homosexuality as promiscuous and concerned with sex for its own sake and the more the better.

Satanist social engineers have made heterosexuals behave like homosexuals. 

Latest -Hefs Bisexual Son Joins Onlyfans

 (Updated from Feb. 2006 and April 23, 2018) 

By Henry Makow Ph.D.

In 2004, a woman revealed details of Hugh Hefners sex life.

If the Playboy founder is any indication, a life dedicated to porn and promiscuity leads to homosexuality and impotence. The 60s icon of suave masculinity was, in old age, a grotesque self-parody.

Hefner, who died September 27, 2017 paid a bevy of whores $2000 a week to be his girlfriends and have sex with him every Wednesday and Friday. He used Viagra and watched male gay porn to stay erect while as many as ten concubines mounted him in succession. The other girls simulated lesbian sex to arouse him.

He doesnt really do anything, says Jill Anne Spaulding, author of the book Upstairs. He just lies there with his Viagra erection. Its just a fake erection, and each girl gets on top of him for two minutes while the girls in the background try to keep him excited. Theyll yell things like, F-k her daddy, f-k her daddy! Theres a lot of cheerleader going on!

No one becomes a playmate without having intercourse with Hefner. The girl next door is now a whore, and Hefners maudlin example of arrested development is a fitting epitaph for his Playboy Philosophy.

Playboy was not a spontaneous phenomenon. It was social engineering designed to foster homosexuality and family breakdown. See my Playboy and the (Homo) Sexual Revolution. This is why Spauldings revelations got so little publicity.

DEFINING HOMOSEXUAL AND HETEROSEXUAL

Continues

Sam Adams Associates for Integrity honored the late Dan Ellsberg with our annual award for fearless integrity on April 11, 2023. It was clear that Dan summoned much of his remaining strength to leave an unambiguous message to people of conscience as to why they should blow the whistle on government lies, as he did, Continue reading "Dan Ellsbergs Parting Plea: Dont Wait"

The post Dan Ellsbergs Parting Plea: Dont Wait appeared first on Antiwar.com Original.

When Daniel Ellsberg died on Friday, the world lost a transcendent whistleblower with a powerful ethos of compassion and resolve. Ellsbergs renown for openly challenging the mentalities of militarism began on June 23, 1971, when he appeared on CBS Evening News ten days after news broke about the Pentagon Papers that hed provided to journalists. Continue reading "Daniel Ellsberg Has Passed Away. He Left Us a Message."

The post Daniel Ellsberg Has Passed Away. He Left Us a Message. appeared first on Antiwar.com Original.

Download Episode. Judge Andrew Napolitano joined Scott to discuss the DOJs case against Donald Trump. Napolitano believes it is an incredibly strong case and that the former Presidentand current Republican front-runneris likely facing prison time. He and Scott run through what was revealed in the indictment, how it fits into what we already knew and []

Natural Products have Strong Rationale for Use Post-COVID-19 and Vaccine Syndromes

By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH | Courageous Discourse | June 16, 2023

I find it interesting that a large group of post-COVID-19 acute sequalae are occurring in those who have taken failed COVID-19 vaccines. We are a long way off from definitive clinical trials of multidrug strategies for patients who have had multiple exposures to the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein via vaccination or recurrent COVID-19.

Kritis et al point out:

Curcumin (diferuloylmethane) is a natural phenol found in turmeric (Curcuma longa), a member of the ginger family of plants [4]. Curcumin modulates inflammation preventing the subsequent cytokine storm by inhibit...

BY M. K. BHADRAKUMAR | INDIAN PUNCHLINE | JUNE 17, 2023 

With the Ukrainian offensive under way for a fortnight, all eyes are on the battlefields, and, crucially, Russias options ahead. In a little over three weeks from now, the NATO will be holding a summit in Vilnius and the West has choices to make too. We are arriving at a fork in the road. 

The NATO expected the Ukrainian forces to punch through key Russian fortifications by now. In reality, they are struggling to get anywhere near the sprawling layered fortifications and in that desperate attempt, are taking  massive losses, entrapped in minefields and taken to pieces by Russian artillery and missiles and the dreaded multi-role attack helicopters known as Alligator.

The signposts are best seen in Russian President Vladimir Putins Kremlin press conference on Tuesday, lasting over three hours, with war correspondents. In just a weeks time after Ukraines offensive began, 2530 percent of the supplied equipment (from NATO) has been destroyed, Putin said. 

Putin underscored three things. First, the goals set for the special military operations are fundamental for us because Ukraine is part of the effort to destabilise Russia. What does that mean? 

It means Russian operations will not end without realising the twin objectives of demilitarising Ukraine and uprooting the present neo-Nazi regime in Kiev. The security and welfare of the Russian population also remains a cardinal objective no more pogroms. Putin said Russia is going about realising these objectives gradually, methodically.

Second, Putin flagged: The Ukrainian defence industry will soon cease to exist altogether. What do they produce? Ammunition is delivered, equipment is delivered and weapons are delivered  everything is delivered. You wont live long like that, you wont last. So, the issue of demilitarisation is realised in very practical terms. 

Third, the Kremlins preference so far has been to continue to grind down the Ukrainian military, whilst giving selective responses whenever any red lines were crossed eg., Russian strikes on Ukraines energy system, the destruction of the headquarters of the Ukrainian military intelligence. By the way, in that Kiev strike, Russia claims to have seriously injured Ukraines spy chief Kyrylo Budanov, the poster boy of western media. 

Going forward, Putin said everything will depend on the potential that is left at the end of this so-called c...

The fate of arms has decided. The moment of truth has spoken. The Ukrainian counter-offensive has failed miserably. NATOs considerable armaments were useless. The battlefield is littered with corpses. All for nothing. The territories that joined the Russian Federation by referendum will remain Russian. This checkmate not only marks the end of Ukraine as we Continue reading The Collapse of Kiev

Ken Klippenstein, an investigative journalist at The Intercept, has exposed how the Pentagon very quietly launched a new internal division, dubbed the Influence and Perception Management Office (IPMO), in March. Its existence is not strictly secret, although there has been no official announcement of its launch, let alone an explanation from Department of Defense (DoD) officials as to Continue reading EXPOSED: DISTURBING DETAILS OF NEW PENTAGON PERCEPTION MANAGEMENT OFFICE

16 Jun 2023 Source: Al Mayadeen Venezuelas Foreign Minister says the United States and the West are both in decline, calling the former an exploitative dictatorship. By Al Mayadeen English Al Mayadeen interviewed Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil, asking him about various topics from the recent visit may by Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi to the country to the []

Since the end of the Covid-19 pandemic, headlines have focused on union organizing victories at Starbucks and Amazon. But a recent New York Times story declaring New York Delivery Workers Are Getting a Bump in Pay reminds us that workers outside the union movement are part of the labor movement too. However important, unions are just one part of a larger labor movement that consists of all workers who collectively struggle to improve their conditions of employment, whether through union based collective bargaining or by taking to the streets for political action. New Yorks delivery workers provide a good example of the latter.

New York Citys more than 60,000 gig delivery workers, who navigate through hazardous traffic on electric bikes, currently net about $11 per hour, including tips, after deducting expenses. Thats significantly less than New Yorks $15-hour minimum wage. But not for much longer. On June 12, Mayor Eric Adams and the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DWCP) announced that the minimum wage for food delivery workers in New York City will be $17.96 per hour before tips beginning on July 12, 2023, and increase to $19.96 on April 1, 2025. Thanks to the political efforts of the delivery workers, New York has now become the first major city in the country to guarantee a minimum wage for gig delivery workers.

How did the delivery workers achieve this milestone? Delivery gig workers are independent contractors who work primarily for Door Dash and Grub Hub. Since they are not employees, they are not protected by federal labor laws. They lack collective bargaining rights and do not have unemployment insurance or workers compensation. To get a decent minimum wage and better working conditions, political action was their only option. They turned to the City government for relief. The Workers Justice Project (WJP) a workers center funded in part by the City Council assisted first by creating an educational center in Brooklyn to inform these mostly immigrant workers of their legal rights as workers. The WJP then initiated a successful organizing campaign that eventually enabled workers to form a new organization, Los Deliveristas Unidos. With the backing of the Service Employee International Union (SEIU) and the Transport Workers Union (TWU) and support from a coalition of community groups, the delivery workers launched a political campaign. They lobbied the Council and held mass public demonstrations designed to bring their plight to the public. In September of 2021, the City Council responded to their efforts by passing six bil...

For thirty years I have taken my fathers name in the vain hope that some of his exquisite writing and character would be recognized through his sons hand.  When he died in 1993, I was devastated.  I was the middle child squeezed between seven sisters.

As the only son, my father and I had a very special bond, heralded by my being named after him and sealed by an intimacy exclusive to the two males in the family.  When he died, I became the oldest man in a vast extended family bearing the name Curtin.  I felt older and more responsible.

Shortly after he died, I very consciously dropped the Jr. from my name to carry on his.  This seemed like a way to keep him with me, as if we were one, and just as he once seeded me into life with my mother, I could give him continued life in me, for naming is numinous and in the beginning and end are the words.

From the start, he was my great supporter in all I wrote (and did).  With him behind me, I have always felt filled with supreme confidence, as the word attests to its meaning as a shared faith.  His in me and mine in him and both of us in something far larger than us: God, the Spirit that inspires us.  I would send him my published writings and he would respond with wit and praise, sometimes disagreeing with some of the content of my work but always instilling in me the inner confidence that I was born to write.  And as his letters were works of art themselves, I always felt he was blessing me, as if we were poetic souls together exchanging communion, as we often did when I was young and we would attend early morning Mass together, often stopping afterwards for his favorite corn muffins, a simple second act of breaking bread together.

As Irish-American Catholics educated by Jesuit priests, we both had the sensibilities of James Joyce when he said in a letter, [A writer] is a priest of the eternal imagination, transmuting the daily bread of experience into the radiant body of everliving life.  Since we lived more than a hundred miles from each other, a life of letters between us ensued.

We both knew that daily life often left something to be desired and our task was how to find ways to fulfill that never-ending desire.  In our ways we differed, at least on the surface, for those differences concealed a shared affinity for wit, literature, sports, and things spiritual, to name but four his spirituality being of the conventional sort and mine more heterodox.  When he read the English writer Edmund Gosses classic account of his Victorian childhood and his conflicted relig...

15-06-2023 Bethlehem / PNN / The Israeli occupation authorities today demolished a Palestinian-owned house in the Bethlehem-area city of Beit Jala claiming it was built without a permit, according to a local activist. One of the homeowner, Thair Zareena, stated in a phone call to the PNN news network that the occupying forces suddenly stormed []

June 16 2023 Israel is concerned about increased weapons proliferation among Palestinian resistance groups, focusing on smuggling from Jordan. However, these weapons may be coming from a source closer to home. By Qassem Qassem On 22 April, Israeli occupation authorities apprehended Jordanian parliamentarian Imad al-Adwan at the Allenby Bridge crossing. But this was no ordinary arrest. []

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Douglas Macgregor: SURRENDERED!

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US: First Muslim woman confirmed as federal judge