Worth Sacrificing For,
"Tina said, 'Daddy has died, but now his love has spread'."
In a letter he mailed to Welsh, Morrison reassured her of the faith in his act. "Know that I love thee ... but I must go to help the children of the priest's village". Hindustan Times has this story, Aaron Bushnell was privy to confidential ‘intelligence data’ on US operations in Gaza
Aaron ranted that he had "top-secret clearance" for military intelligence data in a call to his friend on Saturday night, The Post reported. “He told me on Saturday that we have troops in those tunnels, that it’s US soldiers participating in the killings,’’ the friend claimed. The friend went on to suggest that Aaron had stated US had troops on the ground, who were killing large numbers of Palestinians. The friend believes these claims may be true as Aaron's job was to process intelligence data and some of that was linked to Gaza conflict. “One of the things he told me is that coming across his desk … was the US military was involved in the genocides going on in Palestine,’’ an unnamed friend was quoted by The Post.
“There’s just too many things I don’t know, but I can tell you that the tone of his voice just had something in it that told me he was scared,’’ the buddy said. “I’ve never heard that tone come out of him.”
https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/us-news/aaron-bushnell-was-privy-to-confidential-intelligence-data-on-us-operations-in-gaza-friend-makes-sensational-claim-101709105818124.html
Moon of Alabama, Zionists Use Food-Baits To Attract And Kill Starving Civilians
The trucks were sent by the Zionists. No other organization was involved. But when people came near to the trucks to collect the food they had carried into Gaza the Zionist went berserk , ‘Massacre’: Dozens killed by Israeli fire in Gaza while collecting food aid , Al Jazeera, Feb 29 2024 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/29/dozens-killed-injured-by-israeli-fire-in-gaza-while-collecting-food-aid
More than 100 Palestinians have been killed and some 700 others wounded after Israeli troops opened fire on hundreds waiting for food aid southwest of Gaza City, health officials say, as the besieged enclave faces an unprecedented hunger crisis.
The Gaza Ministry of Health said on Thursday said at least 104 people were killed and more than 750 wounded, with the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemning what it said was a cold-blooded “massacre”.
People had congregated at al-Rashid Street, where aid trucks carrying flour were believed to be on the way. Al Jazeera verified footage showing the bodies of dozens of killed and wounded Palestinians being carried onto trucks as no ambulances could reach the area.
“We went to get flour. The Israeli army shot at us. There are many martyrs on the ground and until this moment we are withdrawing them. There is no first aid,” said one witness... “I have been waiting since yesterday. At about 4:30 this morning, trucks started to come through. Once we approached the aid trucks, the Israeli tanks and warplanes started firing at us, as if it was a trap."
Aid Truck Stampede 'Massacre' In Gaza: Israel Accused Of Opening Fire On Crowd
Earlier today Vladimir Putin delivered his annual address to the Federal Assembly, Russia’s bicameral legislature, of which the State Duma is the lower house. In addition to the federal level legislators and administrators, the audience numbering slightly more than 1200 included regional governors, leaders of civil society, i.e. representatives of volunteer organizations having national importance, and a large contingent of active servicemen who have participated in the Special Military Operation.The trucks were sent by the Zionists. No other organization was involved. But when people came near to the trucks to collect the food they had carried into Gaza the Zionist went berserk , ‘Massacre’: Dozens killed by Israeli fire in Gaza while collecting food aid , Al Jazeera, Feb 29 2024 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/29/dozens-killed-injured-by-israeli-fire-in-gaza-while-collecting-food-aid
More than 100 Palestinians have been killed and some 700 others wounded after Israeli troops opened fire on hundreds waiting for food aid southwest of Gaza City, health officials say, as the besieged enclave faces an unprecedented hunger crisis.
The Gaza Ministry of Health said on Thursday said at least 104 people were killed and more than 750 wounded, with the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemning what it said was a cold-blooded “massacre”.
People had congregated at al-Rashid Street, where aid trucks carrying flour were believed to be on the way. Al Jazeera verified footage showing the bodies of dozens of killed and wounded Palestinians being carried onto trucks as no ambulances could reach the area.
“We went to get flour. The Israeli army shot at us. There are many martyrs on the ground and until this moment we are withdrawing them. There is no first aid,” said one witness... “I have been waiting since yesterday. At about 4:30 this morning, trucks started to come through. Once we approached the aid trucks, the Israeli tanks and warplanes started firing at us, as if it was a trap."
Israel is disputing local accounts of what happened and says people died following a stamped caused by Palestinians rushing aid trucks.
There are several different versions of what happened, but all accounts agree that mayhem was unleashed when some 30 humanitarian aid trucks containing food were positioned on the street under Israeli protection...
..Palestinians say that Israeli troops shot indiscriminately into the crowd and used the aid trucks in a kind of "ambush" - while Israel's military says people were killed in a "stampede for aid" and "crowd crush", and that some of the deaths were the result of Israeli soldiers being under immediate threat.
There are several different versions of what happened, but all accounts agree that mayhem was unleashed when some 30 humanitarian aid trucks containing food were positioned on the street under Israeli protection...
..Palestinians say that Israeli troops shot indiscriminately into the crowd and used the aid trucks in a kind of "ambush" - while Israel's military says people were killed in a "stampede for aid" and "crowd crush", and that some of the deaths were the result of Israeli soldiers being under immediate threat.
Gilbert Doctorow, Vladimir Putin’s State of the Nation speech today: an overview
The speech lasted a little more than two hours. To understand its masterful construction, you had to sit through it to the very end, because in the best rhetorical traditions, Putin came full circle. He opened with a long segment dedicated to those actively fighting on Russia’s behalf in the Donbas and all along the line of contact with the enemy forces, risking their lives every day for the sake of the Motherland. This segment culminated in a moment of silence in memory of those who died in the SMO. And he ended the speech with his vision of how those who have distinguished themselves on the field of battle, those who have led men to heroic feats, will be the new ‘elite’ of Russian society occupying the top positions in government, in business and in other spheres...
..Western analysts will bore down on one or another point in a speech which had a great many points and not convey the feel of the address and what it tells you about Russian society and Russian government today. That is precisely the mission that I set before myself now: without going into detail on each separate item in Putin’s speech, instead to characterize the priorities of this government today and for the future...
..The unmistakable take-away of Putin’s speech is that Russia is today a social market economy which is striving to raise the length and quality of life of the population. The well-known Russian state promotion of ‘traditional values’ has at its core encouragement of families with three or more children. This is first and foremost presented as a validation of the family as the essential building block of society. Putin freely admits that Russian wages are very low, too low in fact, and many measures in the social programs he has introduced and is proposing to expand in this speech are aimed at putting money in the pockets of those who create large families through subsidies in cash and in kind. Let me say in passing that there are no restrictions on which families are being encouraged to multiply. It is no secret that Muslims in Russia, as elsewhere, presently have more children than do blue-eyed Slavs. No matter. Putin insists that every citizen is equally ‘Russian’ whatever his or her religious or ethnic identity and this is borne out by the government’s demographic policies...
..Putin remarked that last year Russia produced twice as much residential housing (in square meters) as did the Soviet Union in its best year at the end of the 1980s...
..From Putin’s recitation of new national projects, it is clear that attention is now also being directed to help those kids who have been born on Putin’s watch and are adolescents today... Perhaps it would be better to understand this project as ‘Human Resources’ because it aims to vastly improve vocational training, to introduce secondary school students to factories and other work places and open their eyes to the real world opportunities before them. Money will be allocated in the next six years of a new presidential term to more than double the number of engineering schools in the country. The objective is to ensure that the million job openings for highly trained professionals in industry will find properly prepared candidates. It is interesting and telling that Vladimir Putin’s attention to business interests came near the very end of his speech... Measures will be taken to strengthen the role of stock exchanges in raising capital for industrial investments. And business will be assisted by continuing major federal infrastructure investments in highways, high speed railways, renovated airports and an expanded national commercial fleet, including service on the Northern Sea Route.
I will not say more. I found the most impressive part of the speech to be people-centric, not Putin’s reiteration of Russia’s stated position with respect to negotiations with the USA over strategic stability and similar foreign policy issues.
I will not say more. I found the most impressive part of the speech to be people-centric, not Putin’s reiteration of Russia’s stated position with respect to negotiations with the USA over strategic stability and similar foreign policy issues.
https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2024/02/29/vladimir-putins-state-of-the-nation-speech-today-an-overview/
More typical points from The Hindu, Putin warns that sending Western troops to Ukraine risks a global nuclear war
The strong statement followed earlier warnings from Mr. Putin, who has issued frequent reminders of Russia's nuclear might since he sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022 as he sought to discourage the West from expanding its military support for Kyiv.
Mr. Putin emphasized that Russia’s nuclear forces are in “full readiness,” saying that the military has deployed potent new weapons, some of them tested on the battlefield in Ukraine...
..He rejected Western leaders’ statements about the threat of a Russian attack on NATO allies in Europe as “ravings” and again dismissed Washington's claim that Moscow was pondering the deployment of space-based nuclear weapons.
Mr. Putin charged that the U.S. allegations were part of a ploy to draw Russia into talks on nuclear arms control on American terms even as Washington continues its efforts to deliver a “strategic defeat” to Moscow in Ukraine. “Ahead of the U.S. election, they just want to show their citizens, as well as others, that they continue to rule the world,” he said. “It won't work.”
In his speech that focused heavily on economic and social issues ahead of the March 15-17 presidential vote, Mr. Putin argued that Russia was “defending its sovereignty and security and protecting our compatriots” in Ukraine, charging that the Russian forces have the upper hand in the fighting.
He reaffirmed his claim that the West was bent on destroying Russia, saying "they need a dependent, waning, dying space in the place of Russia so that they can do whatever they want.”...
..Mr. Putin has repeatedly said that he sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022 to protect Russian interests and prevent Ukraine from posing a major security threat to Russia by joining NATO. Kyiv and its allies have denounced it as an unprovoked act of aggression. Mr. Putin charged that the U.S. allegations were part of a ploy to draw Russia into talks on nuclear arms control on American terms even as Washington continues its efforts to deliver a “strategic defeat” to Moscow in Ukraine. “Ahead of the U.S. election, they just want to show their citizens, as well as others, that they continue to rule the world,” he said. “It won't work.”
In his speech that focused heavily on economic and social issues ahead of the March 15-17 presidential vote, Mr. Putin argued that Russia was “defending its sovereignty and security and protecting our compatriots” in Ukraine, charging that the Russian forces have the upper hand in the fighting.
He reaffirmed his claim that the West was bent on destroying Russia, saying "they need a dependent, waning, dying space in the place of Russia so that they can do whatever they want.”...
The Russian leader has repeatedly signaled a desire to negotiate an end to the fighting but warned that Russia will hold onto its gains.
John Helmer, Scorching The Earth Westward - What Comes Next As The Ukrainian Army Collapses
The collapse of the Ukrainian army following the battle of Avdeyevka, and its disorganized retreat, have accelerated Russian military thinking of how far westward the NATO allies will decide that the Ukrainian statelet can be defended against the expected Russian advance – and how fast new NATO defences can be created without the protection of ground-to-air missile batteries like Patriot, long-range artillery like the M777, and mobile armour like the Abrams, Bradley, and Caesar: all of them have already been defeated in the east. In short, there is no longer a NATO-command line of fortification east of the Polish border which deters the Russian General Staff. Also, no bunker for the Zelensky government and its NATO advisors to feel secure...
Moscow sources confirm the obvious: the operational objective is to apply more and more pressure at more and more points along the line, in as many sectors or salients (“directions” is the Russian term) as possible simultaneously. At the same time, air attack, plus missiles and drones, are striking all rear Ukrainian and NATO airfield, road, and rail nodes, ammunition storages, vehicle parks, drone manufactories, fuel dumps, and other supply infrastructure, so as make reinforcement and redeployment more difficult and perilous.
What cannot be seen are the Russian concentrations of forces aimed in the north, centre and south of the battlefield. Instead, there is what one source calls “an educated guess is that when the main blow comes, it will be North, Chernigov, Sumy, Kharkov, Poltava, or Centre, Dniepropetrovsk, Zaporozhye, or both simultaneously.”
Yesterday, starting at the 20:25 time mark, and lasting a few minutes, Dima at Military Summary Channel proposed that the Russians may be politically preparing to come to the aid of Transnistria, as they came to the aid of Donetsk and Luhansk. Transnistria is a russian enclave northwest of Odessa, attached to Moldova, and bordering Ukraine, which never consented to leave the USSR, It has existed as a semi-autonomous and self governed region "within" Moldova, protected by Russia, but is now subject to border sanctions from Ukraine and the new NATO-influenced President of Moldova. Transnistria has petitioned the EU, Red Cross and other international bodies for relief, which Donetsk and Luhansk did not do, and has also petitioned Russia, as they did. Transnistria happens to host the largest supply of Soviet weapons in Europe, guarded perpetually by 1200 Russian soldiers. This reminds me of American forward-staging of supplies in Saudi Arabia, and places like that, so that soldiers and specialists can just be airlifted in. Russia would presumably have to violate Ukrainian airspace with troop transports for a few days to do that. It may be feasible at this point, when spring mud stalls the ground war. This would place Russian forces about a 2 hour drive from Odessa on excellent highways and with railways along the same route. The Russians would have to make do with 1980s artillery, tanks and other equipment, of course. Another Russian force might advance through Kherson.
The Russians Entered Krasnohorivka | Transnistrian Crisis | Orlivka Was Taken. 2024.2.28 Carlson explained that the West's escalation of the conflict long ago into a full-blown proxy war has not only resulted in more needless Ukrainian deaths, but it has been devastating for the United States. "I reject the whole premise of the war in Ukraine from the American perspective," Carlson told Fridman. "There’s a war going on that is wrecking the US economy in a way and at a scale that people do not understand."...
.."I guess I’m a child of a different era. I’m a child of participatory democracy to some extent, where your opinion as a citizen is not irrelevant. And I guess the level of lying about it was starting to drive me crazy".....Russia is turning out artillery shells, which are significant in a ground war at a ratio of seven to one compared to all NATO countries combined...
..And so we haven’t had a world war in 79 years. But one nuclear exchange would of course kill more people than all wars in human history combined. I am counting. Because I think it obviously, it’s completely demonic and everyone pretends like it’s great. Nuclear weapons are evil.....He [Putin] wants a settlement, he wants a settlement. He doesn’t want to fight with them rhetorically and he just wants to get this done. He made a bunch of offers at the peace deal. We wouldn’t even know this happened if the Israelis hadn’t told us... Well, the U.S. government’s not allowing negotiations... I really care about what the U.S. government does because they’re doing it in my name, and I care a lot because I’m American. We are the impediment to peace....
..This week there's been a curious story to emerge in Russian state media sources involving a bizarre 'assassination plot' linked to Kiev, which allegedly was supposed to target Carlson while he was in Russia. Interestingly, the allegations have been picked up in major Indian media outlets, among some other international outlets, though it warrants a high degree of skepticism. Charles Hugh Smith points out that chat-bots are to keep us at bay, so we don't cost companies anything. Who Error-Corrects AI?
Part of why AI chatbots are so dreadful is we know the corporation / agency doesn't care whether our problem gets resolved or not.Amrei Müller is an Assistant Professor/Lecturer (Ad Astra Fellow) at University College Dublin, Sutherland School of Law. Dr. Silvia Behrendt is the founder and director of the Global Health Responsibility Agency
Despite recent difficulties in the on-going negotiations, the drafting process of the WHO Pandemic Agreement and the process of amending the IHR are officially scheduled to continue in February 2024 and be brought to an end in May 2024.
The Negotiating Text
Overall, the Negotiating Text follows a biomedical and securitised approach to pandemic preparedness and response. That is, it is led by the doctrine of Global Health Security (analysed by the authors, others and, more generally) and thus promotes constant global biomedical surveillance, preventive R&D on pathogens with pandemic potential, routine emergency authorisations of investigational vaccines or therapeutics for global administration and the transformation of the WHO towards a global procurement and distribution agency for pandemic products, in particular vaccines. The Negotiating Text thus appears to conclusively leave behind traditional, time-tested and more holistic approaches to the management of infectious disease outbreaks that have been relied on by the WHO before the Covid-19-PHEIC, e.g. in the 2019 WHO Non-pharmaceutical Public Health Measures for Mitigating the Risk and Impact of Epidemic and Pandemic Influenza and in domestic public health guidelines (p.70) on the response to infectious disease outbreaks. The draft provisions of the Negotiating Treaty examined in the following reflect the main components of the biomedical approach and its envisaged domestic and international institutions.
The Negotiating Text
Overall, the Negotiating Text follows a biomedical and securitised approach to pandemic preparedness and response. That is, it is led by the doctrine of Global Health Security (analysed by the authors, others and, more generally) and thus promotes constant global biomedical surveillance, preventive R&D on pathogens with pandemic potential, routine emergency authorisations of investigational vaccines or therapeutics for global administration and the transformation of the WHO towards a global procurement and distribution agency for pandemic products, in particular vaccines. The Negotiating Text thus appears to conclusively leave behind traditional, time-tested and more holistic approaches to the management of infectious disease outbreaks that have been relied on by the WHO before the Covid-19-PHEIC, e.g. in the 2019 WHO Non-pharmaceutical Public Health Measures for Mitigating the Risk and Impact of Epidemic and Pandemic Influenza and in domestic public health guidelines (p.70) on the response to infectious disease outbreaks. The draft provisions of the Negotiating Treaty examined in the following reflect the main components of the biomedical approach and its envisaged domestic and international institutions.
The Envisaged Global Bio-surveillance System
The Negotiating Text foresees the building of a global bio-surveillance system with international (WHO) and domestic components. In short, the draft treaty envisages that each state builds up laboratory capacities that then work together as a global network through which they can identify emerging and re-emerging pathogens, determine and share the genetic sequence data of these pathogens and inform the WHO and other member states about them...
The Negotiating Text foresees the building of a global bio-surveillance system with international (WHO) and domestic components. In short, the draft treaty envisages that each state builds up laboratory capacities that then work together as a global network through which they can identify emerging and re-emerging pathogens, determine and share the genetic sequence data of these pathogens and inform the WHO and other member states about them...
Two years late: Two legal wins, and a Senate investigation
Two years after police and ambulance drivers were forced to get Covid injections, the Queensland Supreme Court has ruled that the vaccine mandates were unlawful. Because this decision is about human rights, it’s may also apply to other humans (we hope). So lawyers all over the country are sitting up and paying attention.
This follows on from a South Australian decision a few weeks ago where the Employment Tribunal found that an employer (the state government) was liable for any injuries caused to staff by mandatory injections required in the workplace.
And possibly related to all this, in 2022 10,000 Australians died above and beyond the normal rate and no one (officially) knows why.
Two years after police and ambulance drivers were forced to get Covid injections, the Queensland Supreme Court has ruled that the vaccine mandates were unlawful. Because this decision is about human rights, it’s may also apply to other humans (we hope). So lawyers all over the country are sitting up and paying attention.
This follows on from a South Australian decision a few weeks ago where the Employment Tribunal found that an employer (the state government) was liable for any injuries caused to staff by mandatory injections required in the workplace.
And possibly related to all this, in 2022 10,000 Australians died above and beyond the normal rate and no one (officially) knows why.
Evidence for a Worldwide, Climate-Linked Geographical Pattern in Human Behavior James DeMeo, PhD [Thanks Les]
James DeMeo's Saharasia is the largest and most in-depth scholarly study on human behavior and social violence around the world which has ever been undertaken. The findings summarized in Prof. DeMeo's book cover the entire globe, from early prehistory into modern times, integrating on world-maps a full sweep of standard research data from the fields of archaeology and history, plus an in-depth cross-cultural review and mapping of data from over 1000 distinctly different human societies, from standard anthropological data bases. It employed standard cross-cultural correlation tables on over 60 different variables, plus geographical mapping and quadruple blind research procedures to insure objectivity, and all the basic starting assumptions are clearly elucidated in advance. The work also incorporates his own personal field research in the deserts of the Middle East and Southwestern USA. No great knowledge of maths or scientific methods is required to follow the logic and research to their conclusions, though the book is clearly written for scholars. An early period of generally peaceful social conditions is documented in prehistory, but with a major shift towards patriarchal-authoritarian and decidedly violent social conditions across the Saharasian region after a major climate-shift from wet grassland-forest conditions towards harsh desert conditions at c.5000-4000 BC. Major epochs of cultural diffusion are also presented on maps, showing how violent patriarchal authoritarian, sex-repressive and child-abusive behaviors were carried outward from their Saharasian origins to nearly every corner of the globe. It presents previously-unknown geographical patterns in dozens of different human behaviors, beliefs and social institutions representative of human violence and warlike aggression, such as slavery, castes, genital mutilations and a low women's status. The findings have been praised by many, published in scientific journals and magazines, cited repeatedly, but in largest measure have been willfully censored out of the discussion by most within the editorial power-circles of modern academics and mainstream journalism, which continues to embrace the flawed and disproven theories of "violent genes" or other "original sin" concepts. None of those theories, nor anything like them, can stand in the face of the new evidence presented in Prof. DeMeo's Saharasia.
Worth Defending (presenting this picture of month old grandson)