Failing Forward

 Successful People,

  I am opening with the Seymore Hersh tale of how he tracked a lead long, hard and across the country to get the story of the 1968 My Lai Massacre, which helped Americans understand the lies and depravity of the Vietnam War. Thanks Dan.

  TRACKING DOWN LIEUTENANT CALLEY,  How I learned the story of the My Lai Massacre , Seymour Hersh

  I found out about the death of William Calley from his obituary this week on the front page of Washington Post. It was followed by another in the New York Times. Calley passed away months ago in what must have been planned obscurity. I was glad to see the newspapers remind Americans about the Vietnam War and Calley’s role in the US Army’s infamous massacre in March of 1968 of more than 500 men, women, and children in a rural village known as My Lai.

  I spent months chasing rumors that led me to Calley’s lawyer and then to an interview with Calley as he was preparing to face a court martial for his role in the horror. He was initially accused by Army lawyers of responsibility for the premeditated deaths of 109 “Oriental” human beings. He was convicted, after trial, of the death of twenty-two. He was the perfect fall guy: an officer who had no business being a leader of men and was presented to the American public as an Army convenience, the rotten apple who spoiled his fellow soldiers. No other member of Calley’s company was convicted of murder or rape, although that was the order of the day at My Lai.

  I found my way to Calley after getting a tip in the fall of 1969 about murders in Vietnam that were panicking the US Army, whose chief of staff at the time was General William Westmoreland. He had been commander of all forces in Vietnam when the massacre took place, and My Lai was a stink that he needed to go away...

..I was promoted in 1965 to the AP Washington bureau and did enough good reporting to be assigned as the bureau’s correspondent in the Pentagon. I wrote stories raising questions about the integrity of the men at the top. They were making decisions that raised doubts in the minds of the young officers there who had done combat tours in the war. Inevitably, my stories about their bosses led me to become friendly with them, and they gave me a seminar on what we agreed was the “shitshow” the war had become. I came to believe that the generals were lying about the chances of success, and so were the high-profile civilian stars at the top of the Pentagon, especially Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara, the man President Kennedy chose to run the war. I started getting information from senior generals and admirals who didn’t like official lying about the extent of US bombing of population centers in North Vietnam.
  I got in trouble with McNamara for my reporting, and by late 1966 I was pulled off the beat. I resigned. There were no hard feelings because I had learned a great deal at the AP about how to think and write quickly—necessities for an important beat like the Pentagon—and I had gotten to know some generals and admirals who would help me for many years. The anti-war movement was growing in America, and former GIs were speaking out about atrocities they witnessed and, in some cases, participated in...

..Late in the afternoon on October 22, 1969, I jumped to full attention when a young Washington lawyer I didn’t know called me at my office and told me about a terrible massacre in Vietnam that was being covered up by the Pentagon. We had a friend in common, he explained, who told him I was a reporter who might pursue the tip. The immediate problem was that he had no more to say because he couldn’t jeopardize the person, obviously in the government somewhere, who passed him the information...

..I still had Defense Department press credentials to get me in the building for a book I was then researching, and so I began at the beginning. The alleged massacre had taken place eighteen months earlier... 

.. There are terrific resources at the Pentagon, and I started by going through all the murder cases that originated in each service. Nothing remotely matched the tip I had...
..One of the most important things I learned in the Army and as a correspondent in the Pentagon was that there was no need to kiss ass with senior officers. Say what you have to say. Amid my hunting for a magical court case or a Hail Mary newspaper clip, I was walking down a Pentagon corridor to grab a sandwich when I saw a bright and unassuming colonel I knew from my AP days. I’d heard he’d made general after being wounded in Vietnam.
  And now he was back in the Pentagon. He was limping forward a few yards in front of me. So I strolled up, gave him a little punch in the arm, and told him I’d heard he’d shot himself in the knee to make general. Sounds silly, but making fun is part of Army culture. He told me he’d heard I’d been fired. Touché.
  So I asked him what his new assignment was. He said he was working for General Westmoreland. The general had been running the Vietnam War at the time of My Lai, and he had to know about the events there. And so I told the officer that I’d heard there was a terrible massacre in Vietnam the year before. What he did next was a magic moment for a journalist. He wheeled around and in obvious disgust slammed his hand on his bad knee and said something like: “That asshole Calley didn’t kill anyone higher than this. There’s nothing there, Sy.”...

..I knew I was onto something big, maybe very big—and it was time to head to the public library. I did find a three-paragraph clip in the New York Times from September 8—six weeks earlier—about a Lieutenant William Calley who was being held at Fort Benning for the alleged murder of an “unspecified” number of civilians in Vietnam...

..I went back to my original source and told him he was right: something big had gone down. But I needed him to go to his sources and get the name of Calley’s lawyer. He tried, but all he could get was a last name: Latimer. I went to the local phone book and started calling up lawyers with the last name Latimer. I got lucky. One of them told me about a former military judge named George Latimer who had retired and was now practicing law, with a specialty in defending GIs, in Salt Lake City...

..He was a kindly man but very cautious. He didn’t like the fact that a reporter knew about the case, and he assumed, so I thought, that someone in the Nixon administration leaked the story. There was a firefight, Latimer told me, with crossfire between Calley’s platoon and a hardcore Viet Cong battalion. I then blurted out to the judge—was it a bluff or just an instinct I had?—that for reasons having to do with the high level of worry about the case, I had come to believe that as many as 150 civilians had been murdered. All under orders.
  With this, Latimer went to a file cabinet, pulled out the Army charge sheet against Calley, and began to read from it. He laid the document down flat on his desk, and put his glasses on. I could see the top of the sheet and the first few paragraphs, and I started to copy them, word for word, very slowly, while pretending to take notes, as we chatted about the plight of his client...

..Now I had some proof, but I needed to find Calley. Latimer told me he couldn’t help, but when I said I was going to fly to Fort Benning, he said nothing... It was the base where Calley was charged and where, I assumed, he would be tried...

..There were no issues back then with getting onto the base in my rental car, and I figured Calley, if he was detained there, would be in one of the various stockades scattered around... 

..I went inside in my ratty suit and tie and told a GI clerk I wanted to see Bill Calley, hoping that the clerk would take me for a lawyer. No Bill Calley, I was told. Another stockade, another clerk, and no prisoner named Calley. I’d driven more than 100 miles around the huge base with its firing ranges and training grounds, and I’d wasted hours. It was time to go back to the main to the Post Exchange for a burger and some thinking...

..I recalled from my AP days in the Pentagon that military phone books were updated and published every three months, and one of those months was June. When Calley returned from Vietnam in August, he was yet to be charged. So he might have a new listing in the June phone book. I dashed to a phone booth, called the base operator, and asked for the new listings in the June book. It took some time, but there was a new listing for a William Calley at an Army engineering barracks. Off I went...

..I crawled—literally crawled—past the office connecting the two buildings and renewed my hunt for what I hoped would turn out to be Calley on the other side. And lo and behold on the second floor there was a GI dead asleep on a top bunk in the middle of a workday afternoon. It had to be Calley. But no, on closer look the GI was young and blond, clearly not an officer and clearly not my man. I was dismayed but still curious. I jarred the kid awake and asked what the hell he was doing asleep at this hour. The kid told me the friggin’ dumb Army lost his discharge records and now he was waiting for new papers. He was missing the harvest at the family farm in Ottumwa, Iowa. The crummy Army.
  “So what do you do?” I asked.
“Nothing,” he said, “except sorting and handling the mail for the guys in the engineering unit.”
  “Ever hear of a Calley?”
“You mean that guy that killed all those people?”
  I said yes.

“I forward his mail to battalion headquarters.” ...

..I told him that in eight minutes I’d be in a blue Chevy on the street behind the barracks. It was badly needed action for the kid, and he agreed to meet me on the street. He made it, and off we went for half an hour to the battalion headquarters. The kid insisted I drive him back. It was too far to walk, he said. I took him back, and I returned to the battalion headquarters. I really liked the kid, and I wondered for years if he made it home for the harvest...

..It was an old wooden one-story building. An African-American sergeant was leaning back on a chair in front of the office door, enjoying the autumn sun and chewing on a cigar. A cliché in the flesh. I stepped out of the car, and, remembering that the clerk just got busted, I said in a stern voice, “Sergeant, get Smitty’s ass out here now!” The sergeant laughed—Smitty’s done it again—and out came a skinny and very rattled Smitty, with threads from the torn stripes still on his sleeve. “Into the car,” I said. Once he was inside, I told Smitty not to worry. I was here looking for Calley. “Where is he?” I said. “I know his mail comes here.”
  “I don’t know,” he said. “All I have is his 201 file.”
“His what?”
  “All of his official Army papers.”
“Get them.”
  He paused for a minute and said, “OK.” He returned carrying a thick file. I opened it, and the first page I saw was the same charge sheet I’d seen a few days early in Judge Latimer’s office. I quickly copied as much as I could...  There was an address in the file, however, showing where Calley was now living: in a condo off the base in the city of Columbus.
  It was now closing time, and there was rush-hour traffic getting to the condo. It was a townhouse on a quiet street, and just as I was ready to pull in, I was beaten to the driveway by a car carrying three brand-new 2nd lieutenants who turned out to be fresh out of West Point... I was invited in, and somebody fixed me a drink. We had a long discussion of what Calley had told them about a massive firefight in which some civilians were killed, perhaps by Viet Cong fire. Their story matched what Judge Latimer had told me... We drank and talked. They were nice guys who had no idea what was in store for them in Vietnam. Finally, one of the young officers told me that Calley, while awaiting trial, was stashed in fancy quarters on the base reserved for officers ranked colonel and higher. As a former GI, I was stunned and a little bit fascinated...
..I headed off to the senior officers’ quarters to dig up Calley. I was tired and hungry, but there were still hours of daylight left. Calley, here I come...
  There were two, maybe three buildings, each with two wings. I started knocking at one end, saying: “Calley, Calley, you there?” Most doors didn’t open: nobody home. Those who did open the door told me to beat it. Hours later, I was halfway through the buildings with nothing to show for it. It was now dark, and I was ready to check into a cheap motel and come back at dawn.
  I walked out past a large parking lot that was mostly empty, but there were two guys working under a car with a long extension cord providing light. I told myself it was late and that everyone knows the rule: “Do not take the last run at a ski resort.” But I did. I walked over to the car, and I hollered my new mantra: “Calley? Bill Calley?”
  A guy slid out and asked, very politely: “Who are you?” It was as if he was always getting called out from under a car.
  I told him I was a reporter from Washington looking for Lieutenant Calley who was in a lot of trouble. The guy—he turned out to be a chief warrant officer who’d flown hundreds of combat missions in attack helicopters—said: “Follow me.”...

..We got to his place and he told me Calley was living upstairs, but he was out water-skiing today. He would be back late. Water-skiing? ...He insisted that he wasn’t kidding. Calley, he said with a shrug, does a lot of water-skiing.
  I figured, What the hell? Why not learn all I can from him. The pilot poured me another bourbon, washed up, and went on to fill me in on all the trouble Calley was in and why the fuckin’ Vietnam War sucks. He was at the top of his rank as a chopper pilot and would probably retire as soon as he could. He was terribly bright and a good man, somebody to go into a foxhole with. He was clearly troubled by the war and his role in it. He asked lots of questions about who I was and what I did. I liked talking to him and drinking his booze. He fed me some dinner.
  The night went on, and around midnight I’d just about had it. I told him I had to go—I ended up getting Christmas cards from him for years—and he walked me outside. We chatted for a while with mosquitoes buzzing around, and I started hiking to my car.
  “Hersh!” he called out. “Rusty is here.”
“It’s too late,” I said.
  “No,” he told me, “it’s Calley.”

Rusty turned out to be his nickname. I introduced myself and told him I was a reporter from Washington.
  “Yeah,” Calley said. “My lawyer told me you’d be coming around.”
I remember thinking: This guy has no idea how hard I’ve been looking for him.
  He invited me to his place. More bourbon was poured, and he started talking: stuff about a firefight and dirty rotten VC all around. A firefight—almost as if he believes it. I didn’t understand why he was being so open with someone he didn’t know. Perhaps Latimer told him to tell me his account of the day at My Lai. But I wasn’t not about to raise that issue. I was taking notes and going, Yeah, yeah, yeah.

  He was short and slight with translucent skin. You could almost see his blue veins. He was, of course, terrified, and he seemed to understand that the next time he would see reporters would be just before beginning a long prison sentence at hard labor. At one point he went to the john. There was a large mirror on his side of the door that showed he was vomiting dark red arterial blood—the product of a significant ulcer or two, so I guessed. He was masking a hell of a lot of anxiety, and perhaps terror. But I didn’t allow myself sympathy for his plight. He had a choice to make at My Lai, and he chose to kill innocents and to order his subordinates to do the same.
  At three or four in the morning, we drove out in my car to an all-night PX on the base, got a steak and more wine, and then went to a hospital to pick up his girlfriend, an Army nurse who was getting off a late shift. She was horrified to find a reporter in the car but gamely came with us and made dinner. At 6 am or so, Calley told me that his much admired company captain, a guy named Ernest Medina, who was known to his troops, I would later learn, as “Mad Dog Medina,” was also at Fort Benning awaiting legal proceedings. Medina would tell me, Calley said, that all he had done at My Lai came pursuant to Medina’s direct orders. He dialed a number, and Medina—about whom I knew nothing—picked up immediately. Calley explained that a reporter from Washington was on the phone with him.
  “Please, Captain,” Calley said, “tell him what I did was under your orders.”
“I don’t know what you are talking about,” Medina said, and he hung up. Calley was stricken.
  It was clear that he’d just figured out that he would be the sacrificial lamb. The bad apple. It would all be on him...

..I left, got to the airport, took a plane to Washington, and, exhausted as I was, I began writing the first of what would be five stories over the next months about what happened at My Lai. It was almost impossible to get a serious media company to publish the story. Both Life and Look magazines, who had talked to me earlier in the year about writing for them, rejected my account, with its interview with Calley. I was afraid to go to the New York Times—I’d been writing for its Sunday magazine—because I worried the paper would take over the story and exclude me. But I got the story out. And the ball began unraveling.

  After my initial Calley reports were published—the first appeared on November 12, 1969—I continued to chase the story...  And so I tracked down other enlisted men who served under Calley. One of them was a farm boy from rural Indiana named Paul Meadlo who, on Calley’s orders, shot many terrified men, women, and children who’d been marched into a ditch...

​..It took me a few weeks as I was flying around America in search of My Lai veterans to find a telephone number for Meadlo. I called and got his mother’s permission to come and talk to her son, if he would agree. Paul had stepped on a land mine on the day after My Lai, and part of his foot was blown off. While waiting for a helicopter airlift, to the horror of his army mates, he kept on saying: “God has punished me, and God will punish you, Lieutenant Calley, for what you made me do.”
​  (I learned years later on a spur-of-the-moment call I made to Meadlo’s older brother—by this time Paul wanted no more to do with me or My Lai—that Paul had never been able to shoot rabbits when the two of them went hunting for dinner until he joined the Army. “Well,” his brother said drily, “the Army did teach him how to kill.”)
​  When I pulled up to the farm in New Goshen, Indiana, Paul’s mother walked outside to meet me. She told me Paul was waiting for me, and pointed me to a separate wooden shack that was now his home. This dignified woman, who was running a hardscrabble farm essentially by herself, said to me: “I gave them a good boy, and they made him a murderer.”

​  I went inside and said hello to the waiting ex-GI. The first thing I asked him was to take off his artificial leg and show me the stump. He did so, and he talked about the mechanics of dealing with his injury. I then told him I wanted to hear the story if he was willing to tell it. He started talking, and I started taking notes.
​  I had a story that made me weep for the dead and weep for their killers. It went boom, and within a day or so Meadlo was telling his tale to the world in an interview with Mike Wallace on the CBS Evening News.
​  I never saw or spoke to Calley again. I did not want to.​   https://seymourhersh.substack.com/p/tracking-down-lieutenant-calley

​  Moldovan Jornalist, Yuri Roshka writes:

  Today, August 2, I was sentenced to 6 years in prison. Thus, my activity as a journalist, editor, and politician was appreciated at the highest level by the globalist circles that control the power in my country, the Republic of Moldova. In particular, the fact that I was among the few and most vocal critics of the fake Covid-19 pandemic, the UN 2030 Agenda, and the digital tyranny of the satanic technocracy. Among the most serious "misdemeanors" I committed in the last seven years was the organization of an international think tank Chisinau Forum, which brought together dozens of leading intellectuals from around the world who are part of the anti-globalist Resistance.
  In recent years I have edited a multitude of books by important authors from the international dissidence, along with a number of my own books. I managed to conduct a series of interviews with scholars and academics from several countries. I practice every day my speeches appear in video format.
  I had a long political career, 4 mandates as deputy, 2 as deputy president of the Parliament, one as deputy prime minister. I have always been penalized for my public beliefs and attitudes. But this time the globalist occupation regime in Chisinau perfectly executed the role assigned to it.
  In 15 days we have the right to appeal the decision of the first instance to the Court of Appeal. After which follows the Supreme Court of Justice. I have no more illusions about what will happen next.
  I remain an Orthodox Christian fighter, a patriot of my country and one who does not accept silence and compromise in exchange for my own comfort.
Our fight continues.  God bless you all!     https://iurierosca.substack.com/p/today-i-was-sentenced-to-6-years/comments

​  New Video Emerges Of Shooter RUNNING Across Roof As Trump Is Speaking​   Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse​,  Steve Watson​                                            The video has only just come to light because it was filmed by James Copenhaver, one of the victims who was wounded and has been recovering.​    ​https://modernity.news/2024/08/01/new-video-emerges-of-shooter-running-across-roof-as-trump-is-speaking/

​  A Closer Look at Rooftop Video Possibly Shows Assassin Crooks Being Shot While President Trump Still Talking!?!

​  Then on Wednesday a video was released showing someone walking across the roof towards the spot where the accused shooter Crooks was supposedly located before shooting President Trump.
​  After analyzing this video further, it may show Crooks getting shot.  The problem is, President Trump is still talking.
​  Apparently, James Copenhaver filmed the rooftop shooter getting killed. Nice..! 

Weird part? Trump is still speaking.. So, who shot Trump's ear? 

The shooter inside American Glass. The one in uniform.​   https://joehoft.com/huge-a-closer-look-at-rooftop-video-shows-assassin-shot-while-president-trump-still-talking/#google_vignette

Russia accuses Israel of ‘gross violation’ of international law​, An Israeli strike on Beirut that damaged a hospital is “unacceptable,” the Russian Foreign Ministry has said​   https://www.rt.com/russia/601931-israel-gross-violation-international-law/

​  Israeli Attack Kills Hamas Leader in Tehran: F-35 Precision Strike Suspected​

​  The assassination notably follows an Israeli airstrike in April which killed three of Haniyeh’s sons and four of his grandchildren in the Gaza Strip. Iranian sources notably have not confirmed Hamas claims that the assassination was conducted by air strike, which would have serious implications regarding the state of the country’s air defences. Speculation has already grown that if confirmed to be an air strike, the attack would likely have been carried out by F-35 fifth generation fighters, which have advanced radar evading stealth capabilities optimised to penetrating multi-layered air defence networks.   https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/israeli-strike-hamas-f35

​  Haniyeh Killed By Bomb Placed In Tehran Guesthouse 2 Months Ago In Astounding Mossad Penetration Of IRGC Security​

  New details have emerged in the Israeli covert assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh while he was staying in Tehran to attend the country's presidential inauguration events.
​  Iran and Hamas' backers considered Haniyeh to be essentially akin to a top foreign diplomat or even head of state, and so at times Haniyeh was known to travel openly in places like Qatar, Iran, or other Gulf states. And yet the bombing that took is life is being widely viewed in Iran as an utterly humiliating security failure for the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which was hosting the Hamas leader.
​  The NY Times is reporting Thursday of events the day prior that he was assassinated by "an explosive device covertly smuggled into the Tehran guesthouse where he was staying, according to seven Middle Eastern officials, including two Iranians, and an American official."​...

​..The Times mentioned that there are alternative theories, however, such as the possibility of a small missile having struck Haniyeh's room, which is what Hamas' initial official statement late in the day Wednesday indicated. Neither Hamas nor the Iranians are likely to confirm these specific aspects of the alleged Mossad intel op, which could go down as the most daring in history.​..
​..Axios has meanwhile issued a follow-up report which has the following additional details via Israeli security sources:
They added that the bomb was a high-tech device that used artificial intelligence.
​  It was detonated remotely by Mossad operatives who were on Iranian soil after receiving intelligence that Haniyeh was indeed in the room.
The IRGC said it has opened an investigation around the incident.​   https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/haniyeh-killed-bomb-placed-tehran-house-2-months-ago-astounding-intel-penetration-irgc

Iraq Condemns US Airstrike as ‘Heinous Crime and Blatant Aggression’​, The US bombing killed four members of the PMF, which is part of Iraq's security forces​   https://news.antiwar.com/2024/07/31/iraq-condemns-us-airstrike-as-heinous-crime-and-blatant-aggression/

​  Hamas military chief was killed in July strike, Israel says

Israel's military says it has confirmed that Hamas's military chief Mohammed Deif was killed in an Israeli air strike in the Gaza Strip last month.
​  Deif was targeted in the strike on a compound in the Khan Younis area on 13 July. Hamas is yet to confirm his death.
Israel says Deif was one of the figures responsible for planning the 7 October attacks in southern Israel in which 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken hostage.​   https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cpv3gpy74ydo

​  Professor Anthony Hall, Some Say Israel Did 9/11... and Much More , Matthew Tower presents a Bold and Compelling Account of Recent History

​  Matthew Tower has come up with a very significant video that explains much about our present dilemmas through the lens of a compelling interpretation of history. A key to his thesis is that beginning in the 1950s, James Jesus Angleton, the Head of the Counterintelligence Division of the CIA, betrayed the United States. Angleton’s treason has crippled the US Republic ever since.
​  As Tower sees, Angleton was instrumental in the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy. This Israel-instigated execution cleared the way for the installation of Lyndon Baines Johnson. President Johnson took Israel’s side in the Six Day War in 1967. Johnson’s machinations included his sanctioning of the notorious and lethal assault by the Israeli Air Force on the USS Liberty. That ruthless assault by the IDF on the US Armed Forces remains denied by officialdom to this day.​   https://anthonyjhall.substack.com/p/some-say-israel-did-911-and-much

​   Austin Pledges the US Will Defend Israel If It Faces Attack After Latest Escalations
The Israeli drone strike of Beirut and assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran risks a major regional war​   https://news.antiwar.com/2024/07/31/austin-pledges-the-us-will-defend-israel-if-it-faces-attack-after-latest-escalations/

​  Biden Pledges New Military Deployments To Defend Israel In Netanyahu Call

​  "The President reaffirmed his commitment to Israel’s security against all threats from Iran, including its proxy terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis," the White House call readout stated.
​  Alarmingly, Biden also informed the Israeli prime minister that he is readying new deployments to the Middle East. This even as the US Commander-in-Chief was essentially forced to bow out his campaign for reelection due to health and mental acuity concerns, including speculation over dementia.
​  And all of this is happening with basically zero Congressional input, meaning a somewhat senile and elderly President Biden could be taking the nation into yet another war and Middle East quagmire with no additional oversight or Constitutional checks and balances whatsoever.​   https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/biden-pledges-new-military-deployments-defend-israel-netanyahu-call

US deploys at least 12 warships to Middle East amid soaring tensions​   https://endtimeheadlines.org/2024/08/us-deploys-at-least-12-warships-to-middle-east-amid-soaring-tensions/#google_vignette

​  Try this on for size, my guess at the sequence of discussions during Netanyahu's recent US trip::

Bibi goes to Washington amid protests, and boycotts of his speech, including by VP Harris, accepts standing ovations from paid-shill-elected Senators and Congressmen,

  Bibi meets with "Joe Biden" and smiles for the camera. Bibi meets with Kamala Harris, who disses him again after the meeting by talking about "permanent peace" and "Palestinian suffering" to the press.

  Bibi and Sarah go to Mar-a-Lago to visit their very-well-bribed old friend, Donald Trump. I speculate that Trump told Bibi to do whatever he needed and wanted to the Palestinians, but to have it done by mid January.  Bibi said, "I can do that".

​  Biden Angry Over Being Kept In The Dark On Israel's Operation To Kill Hamas Chief

​  Fresh reporting by Barak Ravid of Axios has revealed that President Biden held a "tough" phone call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Thursdsay wherein the Israeli leader was urged to stop stoking tensions in the region which puts any potential hostage deal in extreme jeopardy.
​  Israel's Wednesday assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh has put the whole region on a war footing. But Netanyahu and his government without doubt sees this as justified and necessary revenge for the Oct.7 terror attacks on southern Israel. Biden officials are said to be deeply frustrated at the ripple effects from both the Haniyeh killing and the assassination of Hezbollah's top military commander in Beirut this week.​   https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/biden-angry-over-being-kept-dark-israels-operation-kill-hamas-chief

​  Yves Smith,  Israel: Armageddon?  [What if Iran consulted Russia, China and regional neighbors to devise a concerted moderate reprisal with Russian & Chinese protection?]

​  By all accounts, Iran has more than enough in the way of conventional missiles very well bunkered (and some claim set to launch on a dead hand basis) to destroy Israel. A strike like the one described above looks primed to trigger an Israel-devastating salvo.

​  It seems worryingly possible that if Hezbollah or a coordinated Axis of Resistance response were deemed by Israel to be excessive, Israel could respond by striking Hezbollah with a tactical nuke. Since Hezbollah’s operations are all in deep underground tunnels, that would result in disproportionate civilian deaths above ground.
​  Colonel Macgregor discusses this scenario in a disconcertingly calm manner below, starting at 16:15. He points out that Israel will face its toughest opponent ever in a full-bore conflict with Hezbollah and he therefore thinks Israel is prepared to make a strike with tactical nuclear bombs. He states matter-of-factly that a tactical nuclear weapon could be as small as 5 kilotons. That would be about 1/3 of the blast power of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.​   https://youtu.be/cLwqqsb4Ff4
​  Macgregor continues by observing that if Israel were to make a nuclear attack on Hezbollah, that Iran would enter with vehemence and has more than enough conventional weapons to overwhelm Israel defenses and inflict great damage on Israel. He anticipates that Israel would then launch a nuclear attack on Iran.
​  Macgregor also mentions briefly starting at 6:00 that due to the conflict, Israel’s population has largely left the northern and southern border areas, making it even more concentrated than usual. This creates an incentive for Israel to engage in a pre-emptive attack.
​  This scenario may seem a bit linear, when the possible outcomes are bushier. Nevertheless, it seems too likely that if Hezbollah and/or Iran engage in anything more that a proportional response (and per above it is Israel and the US that sit in judgement of where a response is excessive), Israel could use that at a pretext to launch a war in Lebanon, or simply skip “Go” and strike a part of Lebanon it contends to a prime target, as it it claims the strike would significantly damage the Hezbollah tunnel network. If that does happen, it seems far too likely that, as Macgregor anticipates, Iran launches no-holds-barred missile attacks and Israel retaliates with a major nuclear attack.
​  Now if Macgregor and yours truly can work out this risk, so can Iran.
​  So the next question is: what is Iran’s and the Axis of Resistance’s ability to destroy, in a massive, tightly time-compressed attack, to take out all or nearly all of Israel’s ability to launch a nuclear attack? Remember, nuclear bombs don’t get up and walk to their targets. They are sent by ground or submarine launched missiles or aircraft.
​  Israel has five nuclear subs and they are believed to carry 200 kiloton nuclear missiles. The innertubes also report that Israel has nuclear weapons buried deep enough to be able to make a second strike even in the face of a nuclear attack. So the Axis of Resistance looks unable to make a successful preemptive strike unless they were also able to interfere with targeting, and they don’t look able to do that. The only option along these lines that could work on the scale needed might be an electomagnetic pulse bomb. But there’s no evidence Iran has developed, let alone tested, one, and it would be too high stakes to try a maiden run now.
​  So it looks all too likely that Israel not only will use nuclear, but even worse may be trying to set up events to justify deploying them.​   https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2024/08/israel-armageddon.html

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah tells Israelis and their backers that they must await Hezbollah's inevitable response to the assassination of Sayyed Fouad Shokor.​   https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/you-will-shed-tears--we-entered-a-new-phase--nasrallah-to-is

Hezbollah Retaliates Hours After Slain Commander's Funeral: 60+ Rockets On Northern Israel​  [I don't think this is the "retaliation".]​   https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/hezbollah-chief-vows-new-phase-war-during-slain-commanders-funeral

Tonight? Iran State TV Suggests Attack On Israel Is Just 'Hours' Away​   https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/tonight-iran-state-tv-suggests-attack-israel-just-hours-away

​  Graham Pushes Senators To Commit To War On Iran If Israel Attacked

​  South Carolina Republican Senator... Lindsey Graham is salivating over the prospect of war with Iran at a moment regional tensions are boiling in the wake of Israel assassinating Hamas' political leader in Tehran and Hezbollah's senior military commander in Beirut.
​  Graham on Wednesday introduced a bill that if passed would authorize military action against Iran if Hezbollah attacks Israel. The resolution says that the Senate "asserts that efforts to deter Hezbollah and the Islamic Republic of Iran are most credible when the President keeps all options on the table, including military force."
​  It would consider an all-out assault by Hezbollah to have the direct backing of Iran, and would thus authorize direct US counterattack on the Islamic Republic.
​  The bill further authorizes military action against Iran if the country is deemed on the cusp of achieving a nuclear bomb. Iranian officials have lately signaled a major boost in its nuclear program at key sites.​   https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/graham-pushes-senators-commit-war-iran-if-israel-attacked

​  Joe Biden’s Lame Duck Presidency Is the Opportunity of a Lifetime for Netanyahu​

  He sees that Biden is not prepared to use any leverage with Israel to prevent this escalation and to impose repercussions on Israel, either for engaging in regional escalation or to impose consequences for Israel.
​  The best example of this is the Israeli attack on Damascus [when it bombed the Iranian consulate on April 1, 2024, killing 16 people, including 8 members of the IRGC]. I find it difficult to believe that the U.S. willingly signed off on that and felt that an Israeli air raid on an Iranian diplomatic facility in the center of the Syrian capital somehow promotes U.S. interests in the Middle East. But if we look at how the U.S. responded to that, “Israel has a right to self defense” and then mobilized a regional coalition to blunt the Iranian response.
​  And so, yes, while Netanyahu may be much more aligned with Trump than with Biden, I think he sees in Biden someone who he can put to much better Israeli use during the remaining period of Biden's term in office than a potential second Trump or a Harris administration. So I think those are Israel's calculations now. And I'm sure that people like CIA Director Burns, who knows the region quite well, sees things very differently, but people like him, perhaps even including [Defense Secretary] Austin, are probably looking on in horror at what's happening.​   https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/israel-netanyahu-assassinations-biden

  ​Moon of Alabama discusses the appealing Israeli political option to keep doubling down and "Failing Forward"::  Israel Might Well Fall Apart

A somewhat premature comment on the conflict between the Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant and Minister of National Security (and convicted radical) Itamar Ben-Gvir:
​  The disintegration of the Zionist society is happening earlier than expected. This will exacerbate the more Israelis become aware that war failure is inevitable. Civil war is very likely, but almost a third of the population (liberals & affiliates) would leave rather than fight.
​  This is not a clash between two officials, this is an ideological clash between two schools of thought who are at the complete opposite spectrum.
This will not stay between Ben-Gvir & Gallant/Halevi, it will become a conflict between the army and the police/militias.
​  The current conflict between Gallant and Ben-Gvir comes after the Military Police arrested nine soldiers accused of raping a Palestinian prisoner.
The Israeli investigation of the rape became necessary after reports by CNN, the New York Times (archived) and the Washington Post (archived) about prisoner abuse and murder in Israeli jails. The reports threatened to trigger international investigations​.   https://www.moonofalabama.org/2024/07/israel-might-well-fall-apart.html#more

​  New Testimonies Detail Torture and Abuse of Gazan Detainees in Israeli Jails, Detention Centres

​  New testimonies received by Euro-Med Human Right Monitor from recently-released Palestinian detainees from the Gaza Strip, including women and children, detail their subjection to torture and ill-treatment by Israeli authorities. The rights organisation cited revelations of crimes such as forced nudity, sexual harassment, and threats of sexual torture, calling for urgent international action to stop these violations.​   https://www.globalresearch.ca/new-testimonies-detail-torture-and-abuse-of-gazan-detainees-in-israeli-jails-detention-centres/5864104

​  UN Finds ‘Appalling Acts’ of Torture Against Palestinians

​  The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on Wednesday released a report detailing torture and abuse of Palestinians at Israeli detention centers, including sexual violence, waterboarding, and the use of dogs.
​  Israeli security forces have also used electric shocks, burned detainees with cigarettes, and deprived them of food, water, sleep, and toilet access, according to the 23-page OHCHR report, based largely on interviews with released detainees.
​  Some detainees said they were held with their arms suspended from the ceiling; were forced to be naked for prolonged periods, wearing only diapers; and were blindfolded for extended periods.
​  The OHCHR report comes as a highly controversial case involving detention abuse unfolds in Israel. The Israeli military is investigating nine soldiers for alleged “substantial abuse” of a Palestinian detainee who reportedly had to be hospitalized [after being sodomized] and could not walk after they attacked him.​   https://consortiumnews.com/2024/08/01/un-finds-appalling-acts-of-torture-against-palestinians/

​  Israel returns sexually abused Gaza detainee to detention centre where he was tortured

​A Gaza detainee allegedly sexually abused by Israeli soldiers at Sde Teiman was returned to the military detention centre after being treated for his injuries in Beersheba.
​  According to Haaretz, he suffered from “a ruptured bowel, a severe injury to his anus, lung damage and broken ribs” as a result of the immense torture he was subjected to by Israeli occupation soldiers.
​  The Palestinian detainee was hospitalised immediately after the incident and then released to a field hospital at the Sde Teiman base.
It comes after one of the nine Israeli soldiers arrested for abusing him was released without charge. Deliberations about the other eight are continuing.
​  The nine men were detained for their role in the alleged abuse, including rape, of Palestinian detainees held at the facility, which has been compared to Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib.​   https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20240801-israel-returns-sexually-abused-gaza-detainee-to-detention-centre-where-he-was-tortured/

Two Palestinian prisoners martyred due to torture in Israeli custody​   https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/two-palestinian-prisoners-martyred-due-to-torture-in-israeli

Military Summary morning report is time-marked for 3 minutes of Mideast news​. Iran will attack Israel today, bigger attack than April. Russia has delivered weapons to Iran today, which will presumably be used. Russia appears ready to protect Iran, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon. US appears ready to have Aircraft Carrier Roosevelt sunk in Strait of Hormuz. Know where your iodine-pills and fallout shelter are.  Battle For Toretsk, Zhelanne, SerhiivkaMiddle East - The Last HoursMilitary Summary For 2024.08.3

   https://youtu.be/OV_y_0ujtC8?t=790

​Are quiet negotiations underway to end the Ukraine war? Is this a little ice-breaker?  Americans freed by Russia in major prisoner swap arrive in US   https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/8/2/gershkovich-whelan-and-kurmasheva-arrive-in-us-after-prisoner-swap

​  North Korean Defector Says Kim Is Willing to Talk to Trump

​  A recent high-level North Korean defector said Pyongyang would be interested in talks with former-US President Donald Trump if he wins the November election. During his first term, Trump engaged Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un in negotiations that nearly secured major agreement.
​  Senior North Korean diplomat Ri Il Gyum, who recently defected to South Korea, said he believes Kim would be willing to restart talks with Trump if he retakes the Oval Office.
​  Ri assesses that the negotiations could be more successful during Trump’s second term because Kim would take a different approach. “Kim Jong Un doesn’t know much about international relations and diplomacy, or how to make strategic judgment,” he said. “This time, the foreign ministry would definitely gain power and take charge, and it won’t be so easy for Trump to tie North Korea’s hands and feet again for four years without giving anything.”​   https://libertarianinstitute.org/news/north-korean-defector-says-kim-is-willing-to-talk-to-trump/

​  Michael Hudson, Barbarism or Civilization.

​  Neoliberal trade theory is the most blatant example of today’s junk economics being awarded by Nobel Prizes as if that can somehow legitimize it. The result is the International Monetary Fund’s austerity plan masquerading as “stabilization plans.” Once a country like Argentina or Chile runs up a foreign debt, it is directed to obtain the money to pay this foreign debt by imposing anti-labor policies, dissolving labor unions, lowering wage levels while taxing labor (“consumers”) more, as if pauperized labor will make them competitive enough to earn enough export income to pay their foreign creditors.
​  When a policy like this has been shown to be destructive for the past century yet is still being imposed, it’s obvious that this is not an innocent error. You might call it a very successful error. It has succeeded in preventing the Global South from earning its way out of debt and from developing is own self-sufficiency in food and other basic needs. It has succeeded in creating domestic client oligarchies whose interests are to become agents of this Western NATO-centered model instead of seeking to develop their own economies.
​  It is to avoid this destiny that today’s geopolitical breakaway by the global majority in Asia, Africa and Latin America are moving to replace the finance-capitalist model. Their move to reinvent the wheel is following the logic of the original industrial capitalist takeoff that was evolving into socialism. If you look back to the late 19th century’s flowing of classical political economy, not only by Marx but by political parties across the political spectrum, we can see that there was going to be socialism of one kind or another.
​  What kind of socialism is it going to be? There was Christian socialism, libertarian socialism, Marxian socialism and other kinds of socialism. This classical literature and political debate was rich, but it came to an end with World War I. That was a disastrous turning point in Western civilization. The rentier classes, the landlords, the monopolists and the bankers had been fighting back against the industrial reforms that were happening in the most advanced industrial economies of Europe and the United States. The wealthy elites were terrified that support for these reforms would lead in Europe to a revolution like that created Soviet Russia. The West was even more terrified of what seemed to be happening in Germany that was looking like it was likely to go socialist.
​  The vested rentier interests, especially the wealthiest classes, feared that this threatened to end the ability of a wealthy financial oligarchy of the One Percent, maybe even five percent of the population. For the past century it has built up its financial wealth by forcing the rest of the economy into debt. The result has been a social malaise as Western populations in the United States and Europe, have come to believe that There Is No Alternative.
​  The lack of an alternative has enriched the One Percent. The U.S. economy has polarized, and so has Europe’s economies. The wealth of Europe, Italy included, has been sucked up to the very top, to the financial layer that has taken control of economic planning and public policy as if their privatized self-interest is more productive and efficient than an alternative that would raise labor’s living standards and self-reliance.
​  Financial elites throughout the world are a cosmopolitan class. It’s not only wealthy Italians but wealthy Europeans, wealthy Americans draining money from their own industrial sectors, the agricultural and the commercial sector. This stateless international class has its law of motion in its drive to force the entire global economy into debt so as to use its debt leverage to foreclose, above all on the assets of the public sector by getting governments into debt.
​  Backed by the IMF, World Banks and U.S. courts, international bondholders (including domestic oligarchies keeping their wealth outside of their own countries) force debtor governments to sell off public infrastructure. In the case of corporate debt, creditors foreclose on companies and break them into parts.
​  This behavior has de-industrialized the United States and Britain. Yet while the economies of the United States and Europe have gotten poorer and poorer, the wealthiest One Percent have got richer and richer. That’s why the United States and Europe have not joined the Global Majority but are trying to fight against its demonstration that there is a better alternative for civilization.
​  The NATO West’s ruling elites have overplayed their hand. By treating the rest of the world as an enemy for resisting U.S.-sponsored control, this diplomacy has driven other countries together to create an alternative. That alternative involves creating alternative institutions to the International Monetary Fund in a BRICS central bank to deal with inter-government balance of payments relations. It involves a new Bank for Economic Acceleration as an alternative to the World Bank, a bank to finance their own economic development by creating its own credit system to the global majority increase its infrastructure, agricultural and industrial investment. It also requires a new International Court of Justice to prevent oil companies and mining companies from polluting countries and resist being charged to pay for the cleanup costs that they’ve caused in their drive for quick natural-resource rents.
​  Ultimately, the Global Majority needs to create an alternative to the United Nations itself. All these institutions – the United Nations, the IMF and the World Bank – are subject to American veto power. The United States has long announced that a central tenet of its foreign policy is that it will not join any institution that it can’t control by vetoing if they do something that does not benefit the United States.​   https://www.globalresearch.ca/barbarism-or-civilization/5864168

​  Private Equity Giants Invest More Than $200M in Federal Races to Protect Their Lucrative Tax Loophole

​  The carried interest tax deduction allows private equity investment managers to pay a lower 23.8% tax rate on the capital gains passed on to them as compensation rather than the top income tax rate of up to 40.8% they would pay on the same amount if it were considered wage or salary income.
​  “Carried interest is a form of compensation paid to investment executives like private equity, hedge fund and venture capital managers,” CNBC explains. “The managers receive a share of the fund’s profits — typically 20% of the total — which is divided among them proportionally. The profit is called carried interest, and is also known as ‘carry’ or ‘profits interest.’”
​  The $223-million investment these 11 private equity billionaires are making in campaign contributions in hopes of keeping the loophole intact will save the industry an estimated $14 billion in taxes over 10 years.​   https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2024/07/31/private-equity-giants-invest-more-than-200m-in-federal-races-to-protect-their-lucrative-tax-loophole/

​  Female boxer’s Olympic beatdown sparks transgender outcry​  [Both of these cases, not well explained, might reflect "Testicular Feminization Syndrome", which is when a genetic XY male embryo develops female sexual characteristics because of defective testosterone receptor genes. These baby-girls are born with pelvic testes, where ovaries would be, a blind vaginal pouch, not typically discovered until they fail to get menstrual periods, and variable body morphology, which tends to be leaner, more muscular, taller, etc.​ Jamie Lee Curtis almost certainly has "T-Fem" syndrome from scuttlebutt I heard at med school. Look at pictures.]​   https://swentr.site/news/602013-womens-boxing-olympics-scandal/

​  Swiss Government Takes Child Away From Parents Who Refused Puberty Blockers​

  Swiss parents seeking to remain anonymous have recounted their legal horror story after their 13-year-old daughter proclaimed herself "a boy."  The parents uncovered evidence that their child had been groomed by her teachers, school councilors and even doctors to adopt trans beliefs and began referring to her as a boy with a new male name in the classroom.  When her parents discovered this they complained to school officials, only to have the child taken from them at age 16 by the Swiss Government.​   https://www.zerohedge.com/political/swiss-government-takes-child-away-parents-who-refused-puberty-blockers

​  Meryl Nass MD,  WHO (Jeremy and Tedros) tell the world they are ignoring WHO's member states and moving ahead with the biosecurity agenda laid out in original drafts of the Pandemic Treaty and IHR amendments , The mock-up vaccine approach provides for vaccines in 100 days without safety testing   https://merylnass.substack.com/p/who-jeremy-and-tedros-tell-the-world

​  Even When It Came to Children, German Government Ignored Own Scientists to Impose Strict COVID Vaccine, Mask Mandates
Germany’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic was based on political objectives, and the government implemented countermeasures that often contradicted scientific evidence, according to documents leaked by a former employee of Germany’s public health agency.​    https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/rki-files-german-government-scientists-covid-vaccine-mask-mandates/

​  German Media Admits Unvaxxed Are ‘Winners,’ Demands Government ‘Apologize’

​  A major corporate media outlet in Germany has just declared that people who refused to take Covid mRNA shots during and after the pandemic are “the winners.”
During a bombshell segment on German legacy media outlet Welt, the panel argued that the government owes the public an apology for claiming Covid was a “pandemic of the unvaccinated.”
​  Prominent German reporter Hans-Ulrich Jörges said the unvaccinated were “the winners” because they refused to comply with the government’s mass vaccination agenda.​ Jörges called for public apologies from key government officials who perpetuated the narrative that the pandemic was solely a “pandemic of the unvaccinated.”​...

​..He cited the bombshell revelations from the unredacted crisis team protocols from the Robert Koch Institute.
“It was officially determined by them that the statement, ‘the pandemic is a pandemic of the unvaccinated,’ is not correct,” Jörges highlighted.​ “Literally not correct,” he emphasized.​  ["Einfach unrichtig" is a very strong statement in German.]​   https://slaynews.com/news/german-media-admits-unvaxxed-winners-demands-government-apologize/

​I don't support political-Zionist RFK Jr. but I support this policy:

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Platform for Health Freedom as President of the United States
✓ All vaccines must be subject to pre-license placebo-controlled studies, just as other pharmaceutical products are.
✓ End financial conflicts of interest that plague the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), National Institute of Health (NIH), and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) via executive orders.
✓ Make it illegal for any government agency to financially benefit from any pharmaceutical product regulated or licensed by the government.
✓ Sign and implement a treaty banning all gain-of-function research globally.
✓ Direct the NIH and Federal Communication Commission (FCC) to end the practice of allowing pharmaceutical companies to advertise their products to the public.
✓ Work with Congress to restore Americans’ Seventh Amendment rights to sue in court and complete the liability shield given to pharmaceutical companies by the 1986 Vaccine Injury Compensation Act.
✓ Support prosecution against major medical journals for racketeering with pharmaceutical companies unless they agree to end their fraudulent publication practices (such as retracting valid science, publishing false information, and acting on behalf of pharmaceutical company interests).
✓ Terminate grants to infectious disease specialists and virologists, then redirect those funds to identify the sources of chronic disease epidemics.
✓ Open up NIH databases to produce highly accurate peer-reviewed studies almost instantaneously to benefit the health of all Americans.
✓ Ban any scientist currently on the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) or Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) that has allowed medications and vaccines to get to the American public in an unsafe manner and end access to NIH funding for these scientists for at least 8 years as punishment for the harm they have done to the public.​   https://kennedyforhealth.com/health-freedom-platform/

Fired for "Winning"​  (Pictured with okra and black eyed peas in lushest August garden ever)