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Sunday, March 31, 2019
Tulsi!
Saturday, March 30, 2019
Trump Threatens Nuclear War If Russia Protects Venezuela
On March 27th, US President Donald Trump said that “Russia has to get out” of Venezuela, and that “All options are on the table” if Russia refuses to withdraw from Venezuela the protection it has recently provided to Venezuela’s elected Government, which Trump is attempting to overthrow, by an illegal coup. And Vice President Mike Pence, on the same day, said “Nicolás Maduro is a dictator with no legitimate claim to power, and it is the policy of the United States of America, at the direction of President Donald Trump, that Nicolás Maduro must go.” The United States is therefore trying to do to Maduro what Barack Obama did to Victor Yanukovich in Ukraine in 2014, and to Muammar Gaddaffi in Libya in 2011, and tried to do to Bashar Assad after 2011 in Syria, and what George W. Bush did in 2003 to Saddam Hussein in Iraq. But, this time, there is a difference, because right up front, Russia isn’t allowing it, and is sending men and equipment to Venezuela, to prevent it from happening — in other words, to block the US Government from achieving a conquest of Venezuela.
On the night of January 22nd, Juan Guaido, who had been the President of the National Assembly of Venezuela (somewhat equivalent to Nancy Pelosi in the US House of Representatives), was instructed by US Vice President Mike Pence, to declare himself the ‘interim President’ of Venezuela, and Guaido did that the very next day, though the Venezuelan Constitution says that only Venezuela’s constitutional court (the “Supreme Judicial Tribunal”) can authorize the National Assembly to even consider the possibility of removing Venezuela’s President, and though the only person who (under the Constitution) can follow (succeed) the elected President of Venezuela if an elected President becomes removed from office, is Venezuela’s Executive Vice President, the equivalent of America’s Vice President — not the President of the National Assembly. The Supreme Judicial Tribunal did no such thing.
So: Guaido was (and is) following Pence’s instruction to perpetrate actually a coup against his country. This coup-attempt was long in the planning. It is a follow-on to what Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, was trying to do.Russia has sent troops and weapons to Venezuela to protect Venezuela from a possible US invasion. Trump and Pence are telling Russia they won’t accept this. They demand that their coup-attempt succeed. Russia is no more-likely to accept that in Venezuela than in Syria, where the US invasion-via-proxies continues. So, the US is now committed, in at least those two places, to regime-change, where Russia is less publicly and explicitly, but perhaps even more, committed to halt America’s aggressions.The idea of the United States as a ‘policeman of the world’ has now become an insult to the United Nations and makes clear what John Bolton had meant when he said:Congressional Record, Volume 154, Part 8, May 22, 2008 to June 6, 2008 [ultimate source being Unification Church’s neocon Insight on the News magazine during 1999, interview w. Bolton]
“It is a big mistake for us to grant any validity to international law even when it may seem in our short-term interest to do so — because over the long term, the goal of those who think that international law really means anything are those who want to constrain the United States.”
“JOHN BOLTON: The point that I want to leave with you, in this very brief presentation, is where I started, is there is no United Nations. There is an international community that occasionally can be led by the only real power left in the world, and that’s the United States, when it suits our interest and when we can get others to go along. … The Secretariat Building in New York has 38 stories. If you lost 10 stories today, it wouldn’t make a bit of difference.”
Anyone today who supports the United States Government opposes the United Nations, and despises democracy — not only domestically, but especially internationally.
Specifically in regard to the ongoing US coup-attempt against the sovereign nation of Venezuela, here is what Bolton said on January 23rd:
Why does John Bolton keep coming back to power in the US? Because he represents America’s billionaires no matter what, and because the US Government does, too — it doesn’t represent America’s public; it represents only the individuals who overwhelmingly finance America’s politicians; and those politicians, in turn, represent the 585 US billionaires’ interests, and not the interests (the priorities) of the American public. The public are merely to be manipulated, not represented. That’s why we invaded Iraq. That’s why we invaded Libya. That’s why we invaded Syria. That’s why the US regime took over Ukraine. That’s why it now is trying to take over Venezuela.“We’re looking at the oil assets. That’s the single most important income stream to the government of Venezuela. We’re looking at what to do to that. … We don’t want any American businesses or investors caught by surprise. They can see what President Trump did yesterday. We’re following through on it. … We’re in conversation with major American companies now that are either in Venezuela, or in the case of Citgo here in the United States. … It will make a big difference to the United States economically if we could have American oil companies really invest in and produce the oil capabilities in Venezuela.”
The public don’t learn from history but instead are constantly being manipulated — the public are constantly gullible. A gangster-led nation hires professionals to fool them, constantly. This is serious business, not for amateurs. The naive view of ‘democracy’ makes it sound natural, but it’s not — not at all. Sometimes things that are unnatural are essential; and this is increasingly coming to be the case. Calling the US a ‘democracy’ is to support this government that the entire world (in the only polls that have been done of the matter) recognizes to be the most aggressive and dangerous regime on Earth. This Government is natural, but it’s rotten, through and through.
This, in other words, is international piracy. So: instead of US being the international policeman, it’s the leader of the biggest international gang; it is the global leader in international gangsterism, dwarfing the Mafia. That’s the reality. And this explains why the US Government despises the UN.
Anyone today who supports the United States Government opposes the United Nations, and despises democracy — not only domestically, but especially internationally, which means the UN (not that it’s perfect — nothing is — but it’s the only one, at the present time). Either the world will be led by its top gangster, who represents the top gang and definitely not the global public (and not even his own national public — see this and this), or else the world will be led by the only international democracy that currently exists. And this is why the US regime wants to destroy the UN — to eliminate even the little democracy we’ve actually got.
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PS: In order to anticipate the US regime’s next step, which is expected to be citation of America’s ‘Monroe Doctrine’ as ‘justifying’ its actions specifically in Venezuela (and, generally, as ‘justifying’ US imperialism in the Western Hemisphere), there will be quoted below relevant highlights from the superb Ph.D. thesis of Nicholas Cleaver, which thesis documents that America’s first modern application of the Monroe Doctrine was against, and not for, US imperialism (and so the Trump regime has no justification, even in US law, to do this):
Rise to Power?: The Foreign Policy of the Second Grover Cleveland Administration, 1893-1897. Nicholas Cleaver, Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, University of East Anglia, School of American Studies, February, 2012:
This thesis argues that, confronted by the same changing circumstances for the nation on the world stage which had created the public demand for a more aggressive foreign policy, Cleveland, Gresham and Olney set out a new template for how the United States should conduct itself in global affairs. This template rejected imperialist expansion and proposed a more limited interaction with other nations based upon legalist principles. It also included elements of moral duty and a belief that the United States should be an example to other nations. …
The special message [by President Cleveland, to the US Congress, on 17 December 1895] concluded with a declaration that it would be the duty of the United States to “resist by every means in its power as a wilful aggression upon its rights and interests the appropriation by Great Britain of any lands or the exercise of governmental jurisdiction over any territory which after investigation we have determined of right belongs to Venezuela.”115 The potential significance of this was underlined by the statement: “In making these recommendations I am fully alive to the responsibility incurred, and keenly realize all the consequences that may follow.”116
The December 17 special message brought the Venezuelan Border Dispute to a head and raised the spectre of war between the United States and Great Britain, but it also marked the first step in a movement towards a settlement. … The result was an Anglo-American agreement concluded on November 12, 1896, which would form the basis of a treaty between Great Britain and Venezuela. The agreement provided for an arbitral tribunal which would investigate and define the new border. …
CONCLUSION
Foreign policy was not a priority for Grover Cleveland when he returned to the Executive Mansion on March 4, 1893. His first term in office had demonstrated that he was a domestic-minded president and the ever-increasing financial calamity afflicting the United States in 1893 ensured that there would be no shortage of domestic problems that would require his attention. While Cleveland might have preferred to have devoted the entirety of his second term in office to dealing with these domestic problems, a series of incidents in global affairs provided constant distraction. The fact that Cleveland felt obliged to involve the United States in these incidents is indicative of the nation’s growing stature as a world power and the breadth of its interests and contacts overseas, but it also refutes any suggestion that Cleveland himself was purely an isolationist. Although his opposition to American imperialism would remain unwavering until his death, he was not himself purely in favour of isolation and much of the administration’s foreign policy would be decidedly internationalist in its attempts to formulate new frameworks through which international disputes might be resolved through methods short of war. Despite these views, however, the formulation of foreign policy was still a decidedly ad hoc affair and, while the same might be said for much of the administration’s domestic policy as well, it is clear that domestic issues held priority.
Only later, with the thuggish US President Theodore Roosevelt, did the US become an imperialistic power, but TR’s “corollary to the Monroe Doctrine” was only an announcement in his 1904 State of the Union address, no US law, at all. Even the Monroe Doctrine itself was only a “policy” of James Monroe, no law — and, until TR, it was entirely anti-imperialistic (aimed to end European imperialism in the Americas). US imperialism started with TR. Later, FDR (who designed the UN) tried to end America’s imperialism, but his successor Truman went back to TR’s policy, and Truman’s successor Eisenhower did it full-force by coups in 1953 Iran (where the Monroe Doctrine was entirely irrelevant), and 1954 Guatemala. All that exists within US law regarding imperialism is US policies — no US law at all. Only in international law (what Bolton despises) is imperialism prohibited; and what recent American Presidents and Congresses are carrying out are internationally illegal US policies — no laws, at all; just international thuggery, on behalf of America’s billionaires.
Thursday, March 28, 2019
Colton Fears Sentenced to Five Years in Prison
A Houston man has been sentenced to five years in prison
in Florida for his role in an armed confrontation with protesters following a
speaking engagement by Richard Spencer on Oct. 19, 2017.
Police arrested Colton Fears, his brother William Fears and
Tyler TenBrink after Spencer’s ill-received speech on the University of Florida
campus. According to police reports, the Fears brothers began yelling praises
of Adolf Hitler and throwing up Nazi salutes from the window of their Jeep,
which drew the attention of nearby protesters. The brothers then urged TenBrink
to shoot the protesters shouting, “I’m going to fucking kill you,” “kill them”
and “shoot them.”
TenBrink got out of the vehicle and fired at the protesters
once, missing the group. TenBrink then hopped back in the Jeep and the three
fled the scene with Colton Fears at the wheel, The Gainesville Sun reported.
The three were arrested later that evening.
At his sentencing Monday, Colton Fears disavowed the white
supremacist views he shared with his brother and TenBrink. Fears also
apologized to the victims as well as the city.
“I am embarrassed to be entangled in your court system, your
honor,” Fears said. “I wish I would have never came to Gainesville. Everything
that happened that day is a regret. This has destroyed my life. It’s time to
put this in my past and move forward.”
Fears pleaded guilty to the charge of accessory after the fact
to attempted first degree murder last August, agreeing to testify against
TenBrink.
Tenbrink was sentenced Feb. 27 to 15
years in prison for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and possession of a
firearm by a convicted felon. Tenbrink was quoted by The Washington Post on
his dedication to the “14 words,” a popular white supremacist slogan. Charges were dropped against William
Fears, who was extradited to Texas to stand trial for unrelated charges there.
Both Fears brothers attended the “Unite the Right” rally in
Virginia earlier that same year. William was filmed yelling: “Shoot! Fire the first shot of the race war!” Colton
was spotted marching with a “sonnenrad” shield, a symbol favored by the SS and
replicated on the cover of the New Zealand shooter’s “The Great Replacement”
manifesto and on his body armor.
Alachua County Circuit Judge James Colaw tacked three years onto
the minimum two-year sentence, noting that Fears played a role in a crime that
was “intended to scare, threaten or harm.”
Colton Fears was the last defendant sentenced for his part in the
confrontation with protesters after Spencer’s speech.
Photo by Evelyn Hockstein
for The Washington Post via Getty Images
Hate crimes have increased by 226% in places where Trump held a campaign rally in 2016
While there’s still too much we don’t know about collusion, we know more than enough about Trump’s cruelty.
In the past week:
- A white nationalist attempted to burn down the Dar-ul-Arqam mosque in California, leaving graffiti citing the Christchurch attack as inspiration.1 And multiple Birmingham mosques were attacked using a sledgehammer.2
- Immigration officials snatched, detained, and finally released a fourth grader who is a U.S. citizen as she was heading to school. "I was scared. I was completely by myself," said the sobbing 9-year-old.3
This is no coincidence. Trump and his enablers have fueled hate-based crises that are hurting Muslim, Jewish, Black, and immigrant communities. A newly released study from professors at the University of North Texas found that hate crimes have increased by 226% in places where Trump held a campaign rally in 2016.4
This Passover, Bend the Arc leaders across the country will be hosting teach-ins to educate and mobilize Jewish communities to resist the rise of white nationalism.
As one journalist wrote on Twitter, “Without collusion, I'm concerned that the only thing Democrats will be able to use against Trump in 2020 is literally every other issue.”5
We don’t have to wait until 2020 to interrupt Trump’s callous cruelty. Trump declared a national emergency to get money to build his monument to white nationalism on our southern border, and has increased funding for federal agencies that terrorize immigrant communities.
Bend the Arc is organizing Jews right now to get Congress to defund the hate sowed by ICE and CBP, following the lead of our immigrant partners at Detention Watch Network, United We Dream, and more.
Our Washington team has identified critical members of Congress we need on our side, and our Field team is preparing leaders to activate the Jewish resistance around the country.
The more resources we gather now, the harder we can fight Trump’s immoral detention and deportation machine — and the closer we’ll get to our collective safety and liberation.
As Jews who reject Trump, we will never exonerate him for contributing to the destruction of our democracy, our communities, and the lives of too many people. We know that none of us is free until we are all free.
In solidarity,
The Bend the Arc team
Sources:
- Washington Post, "A California mosque was set ablaze in ‘clear homage’ to the New Zealand terrorist attack"
- Daily Star, "Five Birmingham mosques targeted in horror SLEDGEHAMMER attack"
- Huffington Post, "Immigration Officials Snatch 9-Year-Old U.S. Citizen Heading To School, Hold Her For 2 Days"
- Business Insider, "Hate crimes increased 226% in places Trump held a campaign rally in 2016, study claims"
- https://twitter.com/MarkHarrisNYC/status/1109970197316882432
University of Florida student government unanimously votes to Boot the Braids!
Just days after massive march, University of Florida Student Government passes powerful, unanimous resolution in support of student-led Boot the Braids campaign!
On Tuesday, the University of Florida Student Government escalated student pressure on Wendy’s – and on UF President Kent Fuchs – voting unanimously to call on the UF administration to cut the university’s contract with Wendy’s until the fast-food giant joins the Fair Food Program. The vote came just days after students, farmworkers and Gainesville community members organized a huge march on President Fuchs’ office, demanding action in support of Florida farmworkers’ fundamental human rights.
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| A delegation in support of the UF Boot the Braids campaign celebrates the passage of the resolution Tuesday evening outside the Student Government chambers. |
The final paragraphs of the resolution say it all:
… THEREFORE, LET IT BE RESOLVED the University of Florida Student Senate recognizes the CIW’s Fair Food Program as the gold standard for enforcing human rights in U.S. agriculture, as well as across global supply chains, due to well-documented evidence and the CIW’s widely-recognized credentials.
THEREFORE, LET IT FURTHER BE RESOLVED the University of Florida Student Senate encourages the UF student body and broader UF community to boycott Wendy’s until the fast-food giant joins the Fair Food Program.
THEREFORE, LET IT FINALLY BE RESOLVED the University of Florida Student Senate urges the UF administration and Aramark to end its business ties with Wendy’s until the fast- food company agrees to protect the human rights of farmworkers in its supply chain by joining the CIW’s Fair Food Program.
Proviso: A copy of this resolution shall be sent to UF Chispas President Giancarlo Tejeda, Hispanic Student Association President Brenda Villanueva, Student Body President-Elect Michael Murphy, President of the University of Florida W. Kent Fuchs, Vice President of Student Affairs Dr. David Parrott, & Multicultural and Diversity Affairs Director Will Atkins, Assistant Vice President of Business Services Eddie Daniels, Vice President of Business Affairs Curtis Reynolds.
You can find the text of the resolution in its entirety here.
Congratulations go out to the student leaders of the UF Boot the Braids Campaign and CHISPAS UF, who organized tirelessly to spread awareness and build support for the Fair Food Program on – and off – the Gainesville campus. We also want to extend our thanks to the authors of the resolution, Senators Mauricio Perez and Stephanie Beltran, as well as its sponsors, Student Body Vice President David Enriquez, Student Body Treasurer-Elect Santiago Gutierrez, the Hispanic Student Association, Chomp the Vote, Senator Matthew Diaz, Senator Maria Espinoza, Senator Rebecca Ragan, Senator Anthony Portugues, Senator Gabbi Hernandez, Senator Lindsay Kaighin, Senator Rhodes Evans, and Senator Nick Meyer!
Even before the UF Student Government passed its resolution, the Gainesville City Council voted unanimously to support a resolution in support of the Wendy’s Boycott in light of Wendy’s refusal to open its tomato supply chain to the audits and complaint investigation process of the Fair Food Program as McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway, Taco Bell and Chipotle agreed to do over a decade ago.
The pressure continues to grow on UF President Kent Fuchs to heed his students’ concerns and take action to remove Wendy’s from the UF campus until it joins the rest of the fast-food industry leaders in supporting the most widely-respected social responsibility in US agriculture today.
PLEASE WATCH FAIR FOOD PROGRAM VIDEO HERE:
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