(GRAPHIC PHOTOS) UAF shelling claims civilian lives in Elenovka

From Fort Russ

April 27, 2016 –
Translated by J. Arnoldski
 
As Russian Spring reported earlier, four peaceful civilians have been killed with another six injured as a result of overnight shelling by Ukrainian soldiers from the military checkpoint “Elenovka” south of Donetsk. Among the killed was a pregnant woman.
It is now known that around 02:45 Ukrainian occupants opened mortar fire on the block post in Elenovka. At this time, civilian vehicles were standing in line waiting for the checkpoint to be opened. 
According to some sources, the number of victims has risen to eight.
Eyewitness of the tragedy report that cars burned and exploded while everyone who waited in line hurried to escape the bombardment. 

 

Russian Spring expresses condolences to all who have lost loved ones in this tragedy. 

[Note from J. Arnoldski – On April 26, Fort Russ reported the spreading concerns in Donbass confirmed by DPR Defense Minister Eduard Basurin that Ukrainian forces were purposefully halting the checkpoint traffic at Elenovka in order to prevent the DPR from returning fire. According to Eduard Basurin’s latest update, the death count has risen to 6]

 

 

 

 

 

 

U.S.-Ukraine “partnership” threatens new Chernobyl-style disaster

More bad nuclear news out of Ukraine.

From Fort Russ

April 27, 2015 –
Leonid Savin, Katehon

 

April 26, 2016 will mark the 30th anniversary of the catastrophic explosion of the 4th reactor at the Chernobyl power plant, the effects of which are felt to this very day. This comes at a time when alarming news has arrived which evokes concern over the future of Ukraine’s nuclear industry.
The problems started  along with the “Maidan” coup backed by the US and EU, because Washington immediately started to lobby for a large deal in its own interests, including nuclear industry projects.
The Ukrainian state enterprise Energoatom and the Westinghouse Company (US), agreed in 2014 to extend the contract to supply Ukrainian nuclear power plants with US nuclear fuel, until 2020.
But the use of US produced fuel for Soviet reactors is not compatible with their design, and violates security requirements, and could lead to disasters comparable with what happened in Chernobyl. The International Union of Veterans of Nuclear Energy and Industry (IUVNEI) issued the following statement on April 25th, that “Nuclear fuel produced by the US firm Westinghouse does not meet the technical requirements of Soviet-era reactors, and using it could cause an accident on the scale of the Chernobyl disaster, which took place on the 26th April 1986.” The IUVNEI brings together more than 15,000 nuclear industry veterans from Armenia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Finland, the Czech Republic, Russia, Slovakia and Ukraine. It was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Moscow.
Four years ago, there was a near-miss in the Ukraine, when a TVS-W unit with damaged distancing armatures, nearly experienced a significant uncontrolled release of dangerous radiation. Only by a miracle was there no disaster at the South Ukrainian nuclear power plant. But it did not prevent the signing of the agreement. A Czech nuclear power plant experienced a depressurization of fuel elements produced by Westinghouse several years ago, followed by the Czech government’s abandoning the company as a fuel supplier. According to Yuri Nedashkovsky, the president of the country’s state-owned nuclear utility Energoatom, on April 23th, 2014 Ukraine’s interim government ordered an allocation of 45.2 hectares of land for the construction of a nuclear waste storage site within the depopulated exclusion area around the plant of Chernobyl, between the villages of Staraya Krasnitsa, Buryakovka, Chistogalovka and Stechanka in the Kiev Region (the Central Spent Fuel Storage Project for Ukraine’s VVER reactors). The fuel is to come from Khmelnitsky, Rovno and South Ukraine nuclear power plants.
At present, used fuel is mostly transported to a new dry-storage facility at the Zheleznogorsk Mining and Chemical Factory in the Krasnoyarsk region, and storage and reprocessing plant Mayak in the Chelyabinsk region; the both facilities are situated in the Russian Federation.
In 2003, Ukraine started to look for alternatives to the Russian storage units. In December 2005, Energoatom signed a 127.8 million euro agreement with the US-based Holtec International to implement the Central Spent Fuel Storage Project for Ukraine’s VVER reactors. Holtec’s work involved design, licensing, construction, commissioning of the facility, and the supply of transport and vertical ventilated dry storage systems for used VVER nuclear fuel. By the end of 2011 Holtec International had to close its office in Kiev as it had come under harsh criticism worldwide. It is widely believed that the company has lost licenses in some countries because of the poor quality of its containers resulting in radiation leaks.  Westinghouse and Holtec are members of the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council (USUBC). Morgan Williams, President/CEO of the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council, has worked in Ukraine since the 1990’s.
“Today is one of the most important days since Ukraine’s independence as the efforts of these two internationally known companies will go a long way to assuring that Ukraine has greater energy independence,” he said at the ceremony devoted to  Westinghouse Electric Company and Holtec International signing contracts with Ukraine. The President of USUBC added, “This is made more important by the fact that for Ukraine, energy and political independence are closely interdependent. I join all of the USUBC members in toasting the success of these two great member companies, as we all work to assist Ukraine on its path to Euro-Atlantic integration and a strong democratic, private market driven nationhood.”
Morgan Williams is known as a lobbyist representing the interests of Shell, Chevron and ExxonMobil in Ukraine. He has direct links with Freedom House which is involved in staging “color revolutions” in Eurasia, North Africa and Latin America.
One more interesting fact to be mentioned here. In Spring 2014 it was reported that according to covert agreements reached between Ukraine’s interim government and its European partners, the nuclear waste coming from EU member states would be stored in Ukraine.  Being in violation of the law, the deal is kept secret. Some high standing officials in Kiev were remunerated. It is said that Alexander Musychko (Sashko Biliy), a prominent nationalist from Rovno, tried to blackmail the Kiev rulers threatening to make the conspiracy public. That’s why he was killed, on the orders of the Minister of Internal Affairs, Arsen Avakov.
US is the main manager of the self-isolation of the Ukrainian regime from Russia, which has greatly impacted cooperation between two countries, as well as in the area of nuclear security. The administration of the Chernobyl nuclear plant has stated clearly that the process is going in wrong way.

Record number of Russians want socialism back

From Fort Russ

“Pioneer! Learn how to fight for the working class!” (Soviet poster, 1930)

April 27, 2016

Komsomolskaya Pravda

Translated by Kristina Kharlova

Sergey Semushkin

Oh, how I want back to the USSR: number of those nostalgic for the Soviet Union set a record

The number of those nostalgic for the Soviet Union is growing steadily.

According to the findings of sociologists, 56% of respondents expressed regret for the collapse of the state.

The majority of Russians regret the collapse of the Soviet Union and do not mind if it was restored — concluded the sociologists of “Levada-center”.

56% of respondents regret the disintegration of USSR.   Interestingly, the number of such people is growing over the years. This was the record number of respondents nostalgic about the Soviet Union in the history of surveys. At the same time, the percentage of those who does not long for the Union, decreased over time: if in November of last year it was 37%, today only 28% do not feel any pity.

Moreover, 58% of Russians would like the socialist system and the Soviet Union to be restored. 31% categorically don’t want the Soviet Union back.

Meanwhile more than half of respondents, 51%, believe that it was still possible to save the country in 1991. That the collapse was inevitable voted 33% of Russians.

Experts, meanwhile, noticed that those most nostalgic for the Soviet Union not so much yearn for the Soviet ideology, but stability and relative justice, confidence in the future, secure jobs, free education and medical care, free housing. In a crisis, such things become more memorable…

http://www.fort-russ.com/2016/04/record-number-of-russians-want.html

Court refuses to ban mass rallies on Kulikovo Field in Odessa

From Fort Russ

Translated by Ollie Richardson for Fort Russ
27th April, 2016
 
The Odessa district administrative court rejected the claim of the Executive Committee of the Odessa City Council for a ban on holding mass rallies on Kulikovo field in the period from 1st to 10th May. This was stated by the press service of the court, reported 112 Ukraineon April 27th.
It was noted that the Executive Committee demanded to forbid meetings, demonstrations, and other peaceful actions, as well as other activities dedicated to the memory of those killed on May 2nd from taking place during this time on Kulikovo field.
The Executive Committee argued that the holding of such events is unsafe, as they will “attract the attention of a large number of radical individuals who have a contrary civil position”.
However, the court did not consider these arguments to be persuasive enough since the public organization had not notified the Executive Committee of the intention to hold events on Kulikovo field during this period.
A lone organization (“Automaidan-Odessa”) announced that it plans to spend these days on Kulikovo field for the military-patriotic education of the youth, during which they wish to use replica guns and fireworks, but the court did not grant the organization permission.

Kiev deputy: Yatsenyuk has left for Argentina

More Nazis to Argentina?

From Fort Russ

April 27, 2016 –
PolitRussia –
Translated by J. Arnoldski
Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk has yet to reappear in public. Party members last saw him on the day of his resignation, “Vesti” reports.
Reports that the ex-head of the Ukrainian state has retired to his Kiev apartment or to his country-home have not been confirmed, the newspaper writes.
In the Verkhovna Rada, journalists reported that Yatsenyuk had left the Ukrainian capital. Deputy Sergey Kaplin stated that the former prime minister is currently in Latin America.
“According to my information, Arseniy Yatsenyuk has flown to Argentina either on a business trip, vacation, or for escaping – I don’t know. It is also unknown when he will return,” Kaplin reported.

Military equipment brought to Kulikovo Field in Odessa to stop Victory Day celebrations

Translated by Ollie Richardson for Fort Russ
30th April, 2016
 
Order in Odessa will be protected by up to 5,000 National Guard.
On Saturday morning, April 30th, security forces and military equipment lined up on Kulikovo field in Odessa, reported  the local media.
As a reminder, from 30th April to 10th May, the entire staff of the police of the Odessa garrison was converted to enhanced mode. The police will be deployed for the protection of public order in all parts of the city.
Earlier, the acting chief of national police region, Giorgi Lortkipanidze said that entrance to Kulikovo field in Odessa on May 2nd will only be possible through metal detectors.
According to Saakashvili, President Petro Poroshenko instructed the head of the National police and the chief of the National guard in Odessa to bring in additional units of up to 1,000 people.
As a reminder, the Odessa district administrative court satisfied the claim of the Executive Committee of the Odessa City Council for a ban on holding mass events on Kulikovo field in the period from 1st to 10th May.

http://www.fort-russ.com/2016/04/military-equipment-brought-to-kulikovo.html

St.George’s ribbon will be worn in 70 countries

St. George’s ribbons are available at Russian embassies and consulates.

From Fort Russ

Translated by Ollie Richardson for Fort Russ
25th April, 2016
 
Today in Russia, a Patriotic “ribbon of St. George” campaign was launched towards Victory Day. The action can be called international because in addition to Russia, it will involve  fellow citizens in seventy countries around the world.
Millions of people throughout the Earth will wear St. George’s ribbons on clothing to honor all the soldiers who fought for our country. Victory Day volunteers will hand out St. George’s ribbons on the streets and in public places of cities. Ribbons are distributed free of charge.
As was noted by the coordinators of the action, last year they distributed more than 20 million ribbons. In Moscow, Victory Day volunteers can be found near the central metro stations and in parks, gas stations, and banking institutions.
The far East was the first to participate in patriotic actions, with the St. George’s ribbon appearing in the Central square of the capital of Primorye.
It was noted that the volunteers also explained the regulations for wearing them – there are cases when the symbol of Victory, perhaps because of confusion, were hung from the most unexpected places.
Primarily, volunteers were advised to bring this to the attention of foreign tourists for Victory Day, as the Russian capital is filled with many guests from different countries of the world, and not all of them are well-versed in our traditions.
The “St George’s ribbon” event was first held in Russia in 2005. Since then, this ribbon has become the main symbol of victory in the great Patriotic war and an attribute of Russian patriotism.

http://www.fort-russ.com/2016/04/stgeorges-ribbon-will-be-worn-in-70.html

U.S. empire — the overview

From Empire Slayer

Posted by 

December 21, 2013

I knew that I could never again raise my voice… without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today — my own government.  …for the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.

What do they think as we test out our latest weapons on them, just as the Germans tested out new medicine and new tortures in the concentration camps of Europe?

– Martin Luther King Jr.  

Throughout the world, on any given day, a man, woman, or child is likely to be displaced, tortured, killed or “disappeared”, at the hands of governments or armed political groups.  More often than not, the United States shares the blame.

Amnesty International 

em·pire
ˈemˌpī(ə)r/
noun

an extensive operation or sphere of activity controlled by one person or group

The US stands today as both the world’s – and history’s – largest empire.  Thus, to understand empire, we can study the attributes of the US.

The US:

  • Has more foreign military bases than any country in world history – the number is estimated to be approximately 1,000 to 1,100, though the US doesn’t take kindly to even satirical requests for other countries to put bases or foreign soldiers on US soil; see here.  No other country has a remotely comparable amount of foreign bases.  Russia has 12.  China has 0 (and see here).  The organization that had the second highest number of foreign bases in human history was the British Empire, which, at its height, had 40.
  • Came into existence and achieved its economic power through slavery and genocide, and has been waging expansionist war for nearly 100% of the time since.

 

  • Spends more on violence and means of violence (such as weapons and foreign military bases) than the rest of the world combined.  “One year of the United States military budget is equal to more than 30,000 dollars per hour for every hour since the birth of Jesus Christ.”  (Blum)  In 2014, the USA spent approximately 1.2 million dollars per minute on violence and means of violence.  (China is second highest, at less than one sixth of that in 2012.)  As every violent group in history has said, the US frames its violence and terror as being for “stability”.  Stability, in this usage, means conditions that benefit the conqueror (see here).  These are conditions that, to be reached, require mass, violent destabilization, which produces widespread carnage, as in the US attacks on Korea (millions of deaths; South Koreans finally overthrew the US-backed dictator in 1987), Vietnam (untold millions of deaths), Iran (millions of deaths), Iraq (millions of deaths), Afghanistan (millions of deaths), and many others.
  • Stockpiles more Weapons of Mass Destruction than all other nations combined, and, in defiance of the rest of the world, plans to weaponize and nuclearize outer space to increase its “full spectrum dominance”, regardless of the catastrophes that will almost inevitably result.  (The space around our planet is filled with satellites and debris.  Any explosion in that region will cause this debris to hurtle out of control, rendering the region useless for helpful technologies on which we rely.)  (Here)
  • Since WW2, has used more Weapons of Mass Destruction than all other nations combined.  Many of these weapons are indiscriminate, which can mean that simply to use them is to commit terrorism.  (Here)
  • Has up to 10,000 nuclear weapons, the most of the nuclear countries.  Obama is currently illegally spending 1 to 1.5 trillion on nuclear weapons, more than any other president by far.  International law requires immediate nuclear disarmament.  While spending these illegal trillions, Obama is also allowing for water to illegally be shut off to poor residents of Detroit.  (Here)
  • Is the world’s biggest violator of international nuclear law.  (Here)

 

  • Sells 70% of the total weapons sold on the worldwide weapons-dealing market.  Current biggest recipients of US tax money and/or weapons are Israel, which has up to 400 illegal nuclear weapons, regularly attacks other countries, and is carrying out an ethnic cleansing and colonization campaign in Palestine, and Saudi Arabia, which is the most “significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide,” including Al Qaeda, Al Nusra, and the Taliban, and apparently helped sponsor the 9/11/01 attacks against the US.  The US sold arms or military services to well over 100 nations in 2008, and during the two Bush terms the majority of US arms sales to the third world went to countries that the US State Department defined as undemocratic regimes and/or major human rights abusers.
  • Currently under Obama, the top ten recipients of US aid are all torture regimes, because torture is one of the many anti-democratic methods of enforcing empire, and is necessary to terrorize and repress democracy since, to quote war criminal and Obama mentor Zbigniew Brzezinski, “democracy is inimical to empire”.

 

  • Has overthrown or attempted to overthrow about 62 countries, the majority of them democracies, since it became a global power after WW2.  Recent US-backed overthrows of democracies include Honduras in 2009 (Obama/Clinton) and Paraguay in 2012 (Obama/Clinton).  Recent US-backed crushing of democratic uprisings include the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings in Bahrain, where the US-backed family dictatorship is, according to Amnesty International, systematically torturing children as part of its repression and terrorism against the population.  More on why the USA supports terrorism and war in one country, such as Syria, but simultaneously crushes an Arab Spring uprising in another country, such as Bahrain, here and here.  More on the USA’s history of terrorism/imperialism against Syria, here.  (Imperialism is what empires do – it means the strong using an unequal relationship, i.e. superior weapons, force, wealth, propaganda, and the like, to coerce or forcefully influence the weak for the benefit of the strong.)
  • Since 1776, has invaded some 80 foreign nations.
  • Regularly wages war of aggression, which is the supreme international crime (meaning it includes and is worse than terrorism, ethnic cleansing, torture, etc.), and which includes all evils that follow as a result, meaning fighting due to instability, displacement of persons, etc.  “In the 64 years since the end of WWII, [the USA] ha[s] started and fought far more wars and invaded and bombed more countries than any other nation in the world — not even counting the numerous wars fought by… clients and proxies.  Those are just facts.”  The USA always uses its history of contributing to fighting Hitler (after supporting him – Germany declared war on the US, not the converse – and sustaining his aggression) as a justification for subsequent US acts of aggression.  The justification does not take into account that the USA acted aggressively before WW2 (George Washington called the USA a “nascent empire”), for the same reasons it has done so since WW2: to destroy conditions that limit US control and profit margins, and to create conditions to increase US control and profit margins (by, for example, forcing populations to be cheap tools of US international industry – expendable, uneducated, and given the minimum possible amount of sustenance, so the maximum amount of profit and luxury go to the owners, whose investment is protected by local proxy forces and backed by the US military).  “The greatest crime since World War II has been U.S. foreign policy.” – Former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark
  • Has tortured virtually non-stop since colonizers tortured the Native Americans.  This continues up to today, under Bush and now Obama, who protects, supports, and mandates torture (see here).
  • Kills and mercilessly mutates (with various chemical, radioactive, and other weapons) millions of people around the world.
  • Kills indiscriminately, which is terrorism.  Uses weapons (such as WMD) that are by their nature indiscriminate, which can be terrorism.  “Reaper” drone “Hellfire” missiles, for example, have a kill or injury radius of 60 feet, making their use potentially indiscriminate, depending on where they are used.  Their use very often results in the murder of civilians and unknown people, meaning they are used indiscriminately, which is terrorism – not to mention that bombing other countries is illegal.  The USA’s disgraceful chemical warfare in Vietnam indiscriminately targeted and killed or harmed millions of Vietnamese people.  (Imagine if China sprayed 20,000,000 gallons of toxic chemicals, including some of the most toxic known in science, and dumped 373,000 tons of napalm over the USA, and refused to acknowledge or pay compensation for the resulting murders, birth defects and health problems that resulted: see here.)
  • Intentionally targets civilians for murder or collective punishment as a way of influencing them or their government, which is terrorism.  For example, the USA’s terrorist sanctions against the people of Cuba are, as is stated in internal US government dialogue, intended to hurt Cuban civilians and induce them to overthrow their government.  US siege and criminal bombings against Iraq in the 1990s, continuing through the 2000s, knowingly and, evidence strongly indicates, intentionally targeted civilians and murdered from 500,000 to 1,000,000 (or more) Iraqis, mainly children under the age of five.  In the USA’s Operation Phoenix in Vietnam, the US intentionally hunted and murdered 70,000 civilians, while overall torturing or disappearing 80,000 in this single operation (see here).
  • Constantly makes threats of force against countries like Iran and Syria.  Threats of force are strictly and patently illegal under international law, including the UN charter, article 2(4) (see here), which is supreme law of the US.  Threats of violence are acts of terrorism.  Terrorism means using violence or the threat of violence to influence people or governments.  Threats of violence also constitute use of dictatorial force.
  • Installs and/or supports military dictators (from Pinchet in Chile to Ceaușescu in Romania to Suharto in Indonesia, and dozens of others) who comply with the US material and political agenda of preventing democracy (rule of the people) and keeping authoritarian control in the hands of ruling elites that allow the US to control and exploit populations and natural resources, to maximize profit margins for US international companies.  This forceful maintenance of control is called hegemony.  With the USA as the world’s dominant hegemonic power, global poverty has risen faster than population, and the top zero point one percent of the world’s population has 81% of the world’s financial wealth.  The richest 85 individuals possess more wealth than the poorest 50 percent of the world’s population—3.5 billion people.  “Th[e] need to maintain social stability for our investments accounts for the… action of American forces…” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
  • Assassinates people and political leaders around the world.  Since WWII the U.S. has been involved in the assassination or intended assassination of over 50 prominent foreign individuals in various nations.  See here.
  • Censors the media to prevent it from showing the realities of US wars of aggression, including images of dead US soldiers and coffins containing dead soldiers.
  • Vetoes, by far, more UN resolutions than any other country.  Included are numerous US vetoes, essentially in opposition to the entire world, against resolutions calling for conventions on women’s rights, ending South African Apartheid, ending the illegal US embargo of Cuba, and ending Israel’s illegal presence in and blockades of Palestinian territories.

 

  • Donates less of the required percentage to the UN than any other country in the world.  When the first Secretary General of the UN condemned the West (US, UK, France, and Belgium) for trying to maintain colonial dictate over the Congo, the Secretary General was murdered.  Just before he died, he said “It is better for the United Nations to lose the support of the United States because it [the UN] is faithful to law and principles, than to survive as an agent whose activities are geared to political purposes.”  When Secretary General Kofi Annan declared the 2003 US invasion of Iraq to be illegal, there was a concerted effort to label him a “crook” and discredit him.  He was vindicated of all smears by an independent commission.  (here)
  • Is isolationist (by the actual definition): The USA stands virtually alone in almost all of its positions at the UN, such as continuing its illegal sanctions against Cuba and blocking the international consensus for a resolution to Israel’s colonization of Palestine (see here).  It stands alone in its brutal war-making: support for the US invasion of Iraq barely reached above 11% anywhere in the world.  Numbers were similar for the US invasion of Afghanistan.  The handful of countries that supported the US in those invasions did so as dictatorships – in complete defiance of nearly their entire populations (see here).
  • Claims to wage wars on various things such as drugs and terrorism, while being a leading drug state (see here, here, here, here) and a (if not the – see here) leading terrorist state (see here, here, here, here, and here).  Examples of the hypocrisy include: 1) At the same time as invading places like Panama (an invasion that killed the per capita equivalent of what would be over 500,000 people in the US) and massacring civilians for claimed “war on drug” pretexts, the USA threatens places like Thailand with sanctions if it puts barriers on US cigarette imports; tobacco is the world’s most lethal drug, expected to kill a billion people in the 21st century.  2) In terms of terrorism, the USA has been complicit in the deaths of millions of people, in the Middle East alone, just since 1979 – incomparably more than any other group, and arguably constituting genocide, particularly against Iraq (see here) and Iran (see here).
  • Loots and harms the areas under its control: “…the US lost most of its influence in Latin America over the past 15 years, and the region has done quite well, with a sharp reduction in poverty for the first time in decades. The Washington-based International Monetary Fund has also lost most of its influence over the middle-income countries of the world, and these have also done remarkably better in the 2000s.”
  • Internally, the USA has by far the world’s highest rate of imprisonment, but not the world’s highest crime rates.  USA has 5% of the world’s population, but 25% of the world’s prison population.
  • Has a for-profit prison slave/labor system, and lobbyists that work to maintain and add obscure laws to keep their prisons full and profits flowing.  Dozens of corporations taking advantage of prison labor include Starbucks, McDonalds, Boeing, and Victoria’s secret.  More here.
  • Minority defendants are charged with and convicted of violent crimes requiring a mandatory minimum prison sentence far more often than non-minorities.
  • Is the only country in the world that refuses to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child.  The only other previous holdouts, Somalia and South Sudan, have now ratified it.
  • Is the only country in the world to veto UN resolutions calling on all states to follow international law.  The resolutions were in reference to the USA being convicted, by the World Court and confirmed at the UN, twice, of waging illegal war of aggression against Nicaragua.  The World Court (ICJ) demanded that the US cease its aggression and pay Nicaragua massive reparations, on the order of 18 billion dollars.  The US responded by saying no, and escalating its war of aggression against Nicaragua.
  • Is the only country in the world where courts give life sentences to people who are found guilty of crimes committed before they turn 18.  The USA only made illegal the execution of juveniles in 2002, and the giving of life without possibility of parole to juveniles in 2012.
  • Executes more citizens than almost any country on Earth.  The USA ranks sometimes as high as number 3, behind only Saudi Arabia (a huge US ally/client) and Iran, (and almost certainly China, though numbers are unknown) for the number of executions it performs on its own citizens.  90% of countries do not perform state executions.
  • Has the worst income inequality in the industrialized world.  The top 1% has almost 40% of the financial wealth, while the bottom 80% have less than 13%.  Much of this is due to corporate welfare, meaning massive transfers of wealth from the poor to elite criminals, such as those running big banks, who are treated as an aristocracy above law.  Big US banks make no profit – all of their profits, usually around 83 billion a year total, come from money taken from taxpayers and transferred directly to these bankers.  See Bloomberg News, here.  These banks have been prosecuted for financial crimes unprecedented in scope and the harm they cause, yet they go virtually unpunished, and on the contrary are rewarded for their crimes (see here and here) and allowed to continue their massive heist of taxpayer money.  No top bankers whose crimes bring about the destruction of the economy are jailed.

 

  • Has the highest first day infant mortality rate in the industrialized world.
  • Ranks in the bottom four of the 29 industrialized countries for child poverty, education, and overall well-being, despite the USA having roughly as many people with fortunes greater than 50 million dollars as the rest of the world combined (approx. 46,000 people in the US).
  • Is not a democracy (country ruled by the people).  The bottom 70% of US citizens have essentially no influence on government policy.  The people making the above choices (such as for prison labor and virtually non-stop aggressive war) are principally the top “tenth of one percent… [these] people essentially get what they want, i.e. they determine [US government] policy. So the proper term for that is not democracy; it’s plutocracy.”
  • And much more…  For details and further info, resources, and updates, check out the posts (see here, for example) and follow this blog, and share the information with as many people as you can (hit the +1 button and see other sharing tools to right) so we can improve on the above and, as US citizens, stop participating (through taxation and other means) in rampant immorality, brutality, and unmatched global criminality.  Step one is knowing what’s going on.
  • Two informative reviews:
    • “Rogue State”, by William Blum
    • “The Crimes of Empire”, by Carl Boggs
End of 2013 Win/Gallup poll of 65 countries around the world, 1,000 people in each country:
“…the United States was overwhelmingly viewed as the greatest threat to world peace—as it is each year the survey is conducted.” – Gary Leech

“…this is the role our nation has taken, the role of those who make peaceful revolution impossible by refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the immense profits of overseas investments. I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin…we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.
I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today — my own government. For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence, I cannot be silent.
What do the peasants think as we ally ourselves with the landlords and as we refuse to put any action into our many words concerning land reform? What do they think as we test out our latest weapons on them, just as the Germans tested out new medicine and new tortures in the concentration camps of Europe?” – Martin Luther King, Jr. 

“Most icons of contemporary liberal Democrats are exemplars of armed empire: Presidents Roosevelt, Kennedy, and Obama, for example.  Martin Luther King Jr. is one exception to the rule but his inspirational civil rights speeches are celebrated, not his foreign policy views.” – Jeff Taylor is professor of political science at Dordt College.

“The United States Foreign Policy Establishment consists of liberal imperialists, reactionary imperialists, and middle-of-the-road imperialists. But they all share in common a firm belief in America’s “Manifest Destiny” to rule the world.” – Dr. Francis Boyle, JD, PhD

“My own concern is primarily the terror and violence carried out by my own state, for two reasons. For one thing, because it happens to be the larger component of international violence. But also for a much more important reason than that: namely, I can do something about it. So even if the US was responsible for 2% of the violence in the world instead of the majority of it, it would be that 2% I would be primarily responsible for. And that is a simple ethical judgment. That is, the ethical value of one’s actions depends on their anticipated and predictable consequences. It is very easy to denounce the atrocities of someone else. That has about as much ethical value as denouncing atrocities that took place in the 18th century.” – Noam Chomsky

“Those of us who belong to former colonies think of imperialism as rape.” – Arundhati Roy

We must all be “dedicated to the destruction of empire and the dismantling of American militarism”. – Chris Hedges

http://www.empireslayer.org/2013/12/us-empire-overview.html?m=1

Obama requests EU support for possible war against Russia

Washington and NATO governments lose patience at Russia and Syria wins in the public polls. The West pushes to achieve their ends by any means possible, and they will do it over the public’s dead bodies, if need be. Despite the high-sounding patriotic rhetoric, their ends were never for the public. Those who believe the fear-mongering and the lies are fools. Those driving Western federal policies and in the Pentagon and military establishment are truly mad.

Global Research, April 24, 2016

According to Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten (German Economic News), on April 23rd, U.S. President Barack Obama is “demanding the active deployment of the Bundeswehr [Germany’s armed forces, including their Army, Navy, and Air Force] to NATO’s eastern borders” at Poland and the Baltic republics, to join the quadrupling of America’s forces there, on and near those borders of Russia. (This is an extreme violation of what Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev agreed to when he ended the Soviet Union and its NATO-mirror organization the Warsaw Pact, but it’s actually culminating a process that began shortly after he agreed to America’s terms, which included that NATO “not move one inch to the east.”)

Furthermore, DWN reports that on April 25th, the U.S. President will hold a “summit meeting” in Hannover Germany with the leaders of Germany (Angela Merkel), Italy (Matteo Renzi), France (Francois Hollande), and Britain (David Cameron). The presumed objective of this meeting is to establish in NATO’s countries bordering on Russia, a military force of all five countries that are headed by these leaders, a force threatening Russia with an invasion, if NATO subsequently decides that the ‘threat from Russia’ be ‘responded to’ militarily.

NATO’s surrounding Russia with hostile forces is supposedly defensive against Russia — not an offensive operation. During the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, America’s President JFK didn’t consider Soviet dictator Nikita Khrushchev’s plan to base nuclear missiles in Cuba to be ‘defensive’ on the USSR’s part — and neither does Russia’s President Vladimir Putin consider America’s far bigger operation, of surrounding Russia with such weapons, to be ‘defensive’ and not offensive. The U.S. Government, and NATO, act as if Russia is surrounding them, instead of them surrounding Russia — and their ‘news’ media transmit this lie as if it should be taken seriously, not as its being a lie; but, in actual fact, NATO has already expanded right up to Russia’s western borders.

Obama is thus now adding to the economic sanctions against Russia that he had imposed allegedly because of Russia’s alleged ‘seizure’ of Crimea from Ukraine after Obama’s coup overthrew Russia’s ally Viktor Yanukovych who led Ukraine until the coup in February 2014.

Right after Crimeans voted overwhelmingly to rejoin Russia, Obama slapped sanctions against Russia (even though Western-sponsored polls in Crimea, both before and after the coup, had shown higher than 90% support by Crimeans for rejoining with Russia), and nuclear weapons were prepared, both on the U.S.-EU side and on the Russian side, for a possible nuclear war.

This is no mere restoration of the Cold War (which was based upon the capitalist-communist ideological disagreement); it’s instead getting forces into position for a possible invasion of Russia, pure-and-simple — raw conquest — though no major news-media in the West are reporting it as beingsuch.

That preparation doesn’t necessarily mean a nuclear war will result. Russia might accept whatever the demands of ‘the West’ are, and thus lose its national sovereignty. Otherwise, ‘the West’ (the U.S.leadership, and the leaderships in its allied countries) might quit their evermore-ominous threats, and simply withdraw from Russia’s borders, if Russia stands-its-ground and refuses to yield up its national sovereignty.

Basically, the U.S. leadership decided to take over Ukraine, and refused to acknowledge the rights of the Crimean people to reject being conquered by the U.S. — and Russia’s leadership decided toprotect them against the type of invasion that subsequently occurred in Ukraine’s former Donbass region, where the opposition to Obama’s coup was even more intense.

Supposedly, ‘the West’ is asserting that Russia is somehow in the wrong here; but, since even the head of Stratfor has called what Obama did in Ukraine “the most blatant coup in history”, and since the fact that it was a U.S. coup has been documented extensively on cellphone and other videos, and inthe most thorough academic investigation that has been performed of the matter — and was even acknowledged by Ukraine’s Petro Poroshenko, a participant in the coup, to havebeen a coup — and since evidence survives on the Internet of the U.S. Embassy’s preparations as early as 1 March 2013for the February 2014 coup; and since even the U.S. government’s hired polls showed that Crimeans rejected overwhelmingly the U.S. coup and supported rejoining Russia; the question still needs to be answered: What basis of ‘the West’s’ aggressive actions threatening Russia’s national security is there, other than such lies by the West, against Russia’s President? And, that’s a very worrisome basis — worrisome regarding, essentially, dictatorship in ‘the West’, rather than regardingany dictatorship outside ‘the West’. The dictatorship here seems clearly to be coming from the West,against the East.

Back in January, Russian President Vladimir Putin called-out American President Barack Obama on Obama’s big lie, that America’s “ABM” weapons to disable in-flight nuclear missiles were being installed in Europe in order to protect Europe against Iranian nuclear missiles, but now the U.S. acknowledges that Iran doesn’t have, and won’t have, any nuclear missiles, and yet Obama is stepping up (instead of ending) those ABM installations — even though the alleged anti-Iranian reason for them is gone. The only actual reason they have been installed, Putin argues, is in order to enable a blitz nuclear attack against Russia, which will include disabling Russia’s retaliatory capacity.

Any in-depth news-report about Obama’s organizing for a possible invasion of Russia, needs to deal, therefore, with the key question: What basis of ‘the West’s’ aggressive actions threatening Russia’s national security is there, other than such lies by ‘the West’? And, if there is no honest answer to it, then the only rational response by Western publics, to what Obama and his foreign allies are doing, is to recognize what is actually happening and to take action against their own leaders, before this increasingly high-stakes confrontation — of no benefit but only extremely high costs, to publics around the world — becomes terminal. In that instance, Western publics need to defend themselves against their own nation’s leaders. This is a situation that is frequently encountered in dictatorships.

The key questions are not being asked in the Western press; they are being ignored by it. Unless these questions are publicly dealt with — and soon — the answer, to them all, could well be terminal. Consequently, any ‘news’ medium that fails to address them is less than worthless; it is sheer propaganda that merely parades in the mask of being a ‘news medium’: the potentially terminal questions are then being ignored, and lies are promoted instead, which distract the public from the most urgent public-affairs issue of them all, in our era, not draw the public’s attention to that overriding international-affairs issue.

The closer that things are getting to a nuclear war, the more difficult becomes either side’s backing down from it — and this is especially the case with the aggressor (most especially when it falsely claims that it is being aggressed-against, and this is the reason why the lies urgently need to be exposed).

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of  They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of  CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity.