Professional Wrestling Match Aside, Israel Resuming Genocide With U.S. Backing

When my husband was growing up, his Slovak immigrant grandparents watched professional wrestling matches on television while cheering and stomping their feet as if they believed the matches were real rather than staged. This annoyed his mother, their daughter-in-law, who was living downstairs. She was embarrassed by their naïveté, and the noisy spectacle aggravated her Anglo sensibilities. At least that's the way her son remembers it.

I woke up this morning intending to write about the professional wrestling-themed meeting between President Zelensky, 47, and VP Vance but, as is often the case, Australian Caitlin Johnstone got there first. In "Trump Sends Netanyahu Weapons While Talking Tough to Zelensky" she writes:

Democrats are rending their garments over the public humiliation of Saint Zelensky and crying about the “bullying” behavior of Trump and Vance, while Republicans are applauding the whole ordeal as a sign that Trump is a strong and heroic peacemaker who doesn’t take any guff from Washington’s warmongering proxies. But the most immediate and glaring point about Zelensky’s public castigation is that this same administration doesn’t appear to be taking that same energy to Benjamin Netanyahu as he prepares to resume a genocide.

Two of the dumbest takes I've seen on last Friday's Oval Office match are from politicians using the opportunity to put on their own performances -- likely to ingratiate themselves with the real empire managers behind the scenes.

Senator Bernie Sanders weighed in on the elongated muskrat's platform to say:

Trump berates Zelensky, the leader of a democratic country courageously fighting Russian imperialism, while he allies himself with Putin, a dictator who started the bloodiest European war in 80 years.

Sorry, President Trump. We believe in democracy, not authoritarianism.

Let's unpack those claims. Zelensky declared martial law and suspended elections in Ukraine, so "democratic" in this sentence strains credulity. Russian "imperialism" is just blatant propaganda from an elected official in the belly of the only global empire that exists in our day. "Dictator" Putin was re-elected in 2024 and that's an indication that 88% of people in Russia know who actually started "the bloodiest European war in 80 years" i.e. Victoria Nuland et al.

The phrase "we believe in democracy" is especially rich coming from perennial fraud Sanders who allowed his own party to put the imperial thumb on the scale in 2016 and again in 2020 to deny him the nomination for president. Most who lived through these years witnessed the overwhelming popular support for Sanders, and believe he would have prevailed where lackluster candidates like Hillary Clinton and no-primary Kamala Harris failed. Put another way, Sanders colluded in handing those elections to the very candidate that Democrats love to hate and also fundraise off of.

Not to mention the Russiagate hoax which Sanders and his party enthusiastically pushed in order to -- gasp -- control the outcome of an election.

Then there's the so-called independent senator from Maine, Angus King, who caucuses and votes with Democrats but isn't one because ?? (My theory: he's wealthy enough in a small population state to own his own data and declines to pay the DNC vast sums to use theirs.)

the point that Zelensky was trying make is that, based on history, Russia cannot be trusted to honor its commitments and therefore any deal must include some form of security guarantee to insure the territorial integrity of Ukraine. Unfortunately, our president insisted on talking over this point and refused to acknowledge it.

I hope this unfortunate meeting will not detract from the pursuit of an agreement that ends the bloodshed, recognizes and protects the sovereignty of Ukraine without appeasing the territorial ambitions of a murderous dictator.

It would be hard to come up with a more fraudulent claim than "Russia cannot be trusted to honor its commitments" given that both Minsk I and II were negotiated in bad faith by King's team and the Europeans, some of whom have admitted those agreements were simply stalling for time by Ukraine's sponsors. 

As for protecting the "sovereignty of Ukraine," I suspect that King wants those rare earth minerals ever bit as much as 47 does and deliberately obfuscates the plain fact that Ukraine is one of the least sovereign nations on the planet at this point in time.

Zelensky visits Congress, 2022 -- good times

Lest my post leaves you with the mistaken impression that I am a fan of 47 and his administration, I am not. I don't watch much professional wrestling and I'm not confused about how political power is actually waged i.e. by force and blackmail, not by means of theatrics. All U.S. presidents are servants of empire in the role of hired talking heads, not "deciders." 

Meanwhile, the U.S. continues shipping weapons to Israel and giving Zionists the green light to break the Gaza ceasefire -- after failing to honor many of the commitments it made in that agreement. The primary reason for the war in Ukraine that the U.S. and other NATO countries started in 2014 is what Johnstone said: they believed it would weaken Russia and allow the Zios to move on Syria. Which indeed turned out to be the case. Syria not only has oil fields but its strategic location made it a conduit for the Palestinian resistance to receive arms and other logistical support.

But few are talking about that. Because Zelensky's attire and comportment are far more important, right?

Ukraine War Continues As Divisive As Ever

Original collage by James Fangboner (left image), modified by me (right image)

All U.S. presidents campaign on promises of ending whichever quagmire(s) the nation is floundering in. It plays well with voters.

Walking the walk is a lot harder than talking the talk, though.

For one thing, Ukraine represents a propaganda effort by Western corporate media that was so sudden and so comprehensive that I'll admit it smacked me upside of the head in 2022. (Full report here.) It completely split the "peace" or antiwar groups I was part of, with the Democrats of the former vilifying the anti-imperialists of the latter. Among the things I was called: a mouthpiece for Putin, and a parrot of Tucker Carlson (who I literally never watch). Veterans for Peace members locally turned their backs on me for carrying signs like "NO WAR WITH RUSSIA". A statewide coalition that holds monthly protests attracted a diverse list of co-sponsors that included the Libertarian Party of Maine, the Maine Communist Party, and the Party for Socialism & Liberation. But no Democratic Party.

Topsham, Maine February 5, 2023

How many times did President Zelensky travel to the U.S. to be valorized by Biden's crew and Congress? Now Z is in the dog house, and he and 47 are engaged in a flame war on social media. In Riyadh this week, it appears Russia and the U.S. made considerable progress toward a comprehensive agreement that would include a negotiated end to the war in Ukraine. 

This would never have happened under a Harris administration because Biden et al. owned the Ukraine war. Hunter Biden and "the big guy" made millions from its money laundering services, and it's no secret that dad shielded himself while extending a pardon for Hunter that stretches infinitely into the future.

Now 47 threatens to audit Ukraine to see where all the money went. That's got to be making some people nervous.

Among the lies we were told by corporate press throughout the war:

• It wasn't a proxy war with the West that aimed at weakening Russia using Ukraine as a cat's paw. 
• Russia blew up the Nord Stream pipeline carrying gas to Germany.
• Russia tried to blow up the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, in an area under its control. And, more recently, fired a missile into the Chernobyl nuclear power plant entombed in concrete.
• Russia was losing, barely had any troops or equipment, and would be forced to surrender any day now.
• Ukraine's government and military were not full of Nazis
• Ukraine was winning. 

On the eve of the third anniversary of Russia's special military operation, Ukraine has lost much of its eastern flank after referenda in Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions indicated the residents overwhelmingly preferred to be Russian.

Elections Zelensky should have held a year ago would have been a referendum on his conduct of the war with Russia, and he would be expected to lose mightily.

So now the sticking point in negotiations appears to be: should elections be held before or after an agreement is reached? Russia has pointed out that once Zelensky declared martial law which precludes elections, and once March 2024 -- his term's end date -- had passed, they cannot negotiate with him. He's no longer a legitimate president.

47 appears to be holding out for a negotiated end to the war with elections to be held afterwards.

Who will blink first?

I often get feedback from readers who point out mistakes or suggest other interpretations, and I often get warm feedback as well. One I cherish is that after posting about how the vilification of Putin was deliberately morphed into the Russiagate nonsense by Democrats, former CIA analyst Ray McGovern sent me an email that simply said: Good, Lisa.

Whenever and however the Ukraine war ends, it's safe to say that the U.S. will never claw back any of the $119.2 BILLION that went into Zelensky's coffers. Because isn't that the real point of wars these days -- big profits for the weapons industry?

Corruption In Ukraine & The U.S. Mutually Rewarding

Alleged to be Ukrainian Minister of Defense Resnikov's newest ride, this Mercedes Benz SLR MacLaren 999 has gilded tires, a diamond-inlaid cabin, and costs $11 million.

I don't often write about corruption. It's not that interesting to me as it seems quite predictable. The powerful will feather their own nests in any system that allows it, and most systems do -- having been built with this purpose in mind.

So, there are a lifetime's worth of posts about wealth flowing to corrupt leaders from ordinary people who are struggling to get by.

The Obamas' "palatial" home on Martha's Vineyard is an example of U.S. political corruption. The former president has been rewarded lavishly for presiding over banks getting bailed out while we, the people, got sold out.

Even in countries where virtue rather than venality is on display it's easy to find allegations of corruption emanating from the political opposition. It's sort of like war crimes. All militaries commit them while accusing the other side of committing them, and it doesn't seem like a good use of my time to sift through third-hand evidence for the truth.

But I've got to say that Ukraine's leaders are so over the top that it's becoming impossible to ignore. Add in the fact that they have been enriched by U.S. taxpayers more or less directly despite crumbling infrastructure, catastrophic homelessness, apartheid healthcare, and a host of other problems that the U.S. could address with adequate funding.

From RT (whose editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan, just survived a second assassination attempt):

On July 7, US Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl spoke about a new package of aid from the US which includes cluster munitions – which are banned in 120 countries. The cost was $800 million.

This is the 42nd delivery of aid that Ukraine has received from the US in the past year and a half.[emphasis mine] Since the beginning of Russia’s offensive, the US Congress has approved military and economic assistance to Ukraine amounting to over $70 billion – and that’s only counting direct expenses..

"Ukraine needs only one thing... To have someone come to power who won’t steal. Someone who won’t do it himself and won’t allow others to do so. Unfortunately, so far we haven’t been lucky,” [Aleksey Arestovich, former advisor to President Zelensky] said.  

Ok, so Arestovich has a motive for trashing the government that used to include him. How about Pulitzer Prize-winning U.S. investigative journalist Seymour Hersh? Hersh does not approve of Russia's entry into the war but he nonetheless published a piece on rampant corruption in Ukraine, "Trading with the Enemy," back in April.

Zelensky has been buying fuel from Russia, the country with which it, and Washington, are at war, and the Ukrainian president and many in his entourage have been skimming untold millions from the American dollars earmarked for diesel fuel payments. One estimate by analysts from the Central Intelligence Agency put the embezzled funds at $400 million last year, at least; another expert compared the level of corruption in Kiev as approaching that of the Afghan war.

And we're all familiar with the tale of Hunter Biden's six figure salary as a director of Burisma, the Ukrainian gas company where he played no role other than sitting next to "the big guy." President Biden was also alleged in chats recovered from Hunter's infamous laptop to have received 10% of deals made by his son.

https://twitter.com/Resist_05/status/1681096634854436865

Then there is President Zelensky, elected on pledges to end corruption and, incidentally, the war on the Donbas. 

Homes outside Ukraine owned by Zelensky and/or his wife Olenka. Screenshot from Scott Ritter's video "Agent Zelensky - Part 1"

Screenshot from Scott Ritter's video "Agent Zelensky - Part 1"

Pre-2022, i.e. when corporate media headlines about Ukraine did a 180, even The Guardian found he was part of the problem and not likely to be part of the solution.

Neither is the U.S. government likely to be part of the solution. The Pentagon failed its fifth consecutive audit last year, appearing to lose track of 61% of its $3.5 trillion in assets.

From the Washington Examiner:

“DOD’s inability to adequately track assets risks our military readiness and represents a flagrant disregard for taxpayer funds, even as it receives nearly a trillion dollars annually," Republican lawmakers wrote in a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

Liberals will be annoyed with me for quoting a conservative, GOP-aligned media source. Because everything -- war, graft, and other corruption -- must be viewed through the lens of false dichotomy. 

If a Republican wins the White House next year, as seems increasingly likely, Democrats will suddenly care (again) about financial malfeasance at the Pentagon and enriching the oligarchs of Ukraine. Time for those guys to purchase a few more offshore villas before the jig is up.

NATO Summit Turns Its Back On Zelensky And Pivots To China

As the collective West turned its back on a bad actor, Russia turned its back on a grain deal that was supposed to feed the Global South.

Many have commented on -- and photoshopped -- what is by now an iconic photo from last week's NATO summit in Vilnius. For example:

This rendition plays on the fact that Ukrainian President Zelensky's image seems to demand he dress in pseudo Army fatigues at all times, even formal dinners in a European capitol. So, he looks more like the janitor than a power broker. The yellow bucket plays nicely next to Mrs. Zelensky's blue dress to invoke the ubiquitous flag adopted by liberals in support of the Democratic Party's signature proxy war. (Said flags are looking rather tattered and faded these days as Ukraine's spring-no-wait-more-like-summer offensive sputters out with little accomplished.)

President Zelensky was possibly the only person in Vilnius who expected Ukraine to be invited to join NATO. Instead he was rebuffed but told that his real soldiers can keep fighting and dying while the West dials back its financial support and supplies of military equipment. 

Consolation prize: cluster bombs for Ukraine! These are on the shelf in the U.S. arsenal, mostly because when used they are extremely destructive of both children and public approval.

(Note that Politico's National Security Daily is brought to you by one of the big dogs of the U.S. military industrial complex, the true winners of the proxy war on Russia via Ukraine.)

President Zelensky lashed out at being snubbed and a UK government official admonished him to show more gratitude for what he's already received. (President Zelensky has reportedly become immensely wealthy skimming off foreign aid and can easily afford a business suit to wear to these sort of gatherings. His public relations staff no doubt advised against it.)

What was most significant about the NATO summit lay to the east. This surprised no one who has recognized that weakening Russia is merely the prelude to taking on the West's major competitor, China. Why? "The deepening strategic partnership between the PRC and Russia and their mutually reinforcing attempts to undercut the rules-based international order run counter to our values and interests."

Since when is Japan in NATO? Or Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea for that matter? ODD ANDERSEN/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

From NATO's Vilnius Summit Communique:

The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) stated ambitions and coercive policies challenge our interests, security and values. We remain open to constructive engagement with the PRC, including to build reciprocal transparency, with a view to safeguarding the Alliance’s security interests.

As reported by Shannon Tiezzi in The Diplomat,

NATO leaders called out China for “malicious hybrid and cyber operations and its confrontational rhetoric and disinformation” and accused Beijing of striving “to subvert the rules-based international order, including in the space, cyber and maritime domains.” The statement also expressed concern over China’s attempts to “ to control key technological and industrial sectors, critical infrastructure, and strategic materials and supply chains” and “create strategic dependencies.” 

Note: the U.S. has relied heavily in recent years on its made-up concept "rules-based international order" which translates to "f**k international law and the UN, the powerful do as they will and the weak submit as they must."

China was not slow to respond. The Chinese mission to the EU had its spokesperson issue a statement that included the following:

the Communiqué arbitrarily distorts China’s stance and policies, and deliberately smears China. We firmly oppose and reject this accusation..

The trend of the world is surging forward. We urge NATO to go with the trend of the times, listen to the just call of the international community for peace, development and cooperation, correct its misperceptions and policies, and play a constructive role in world peace and stability. 

We would like to make it clear to NATO that the Chinese side is firm in its resolve to safeguard its sovereignty, security and development interests. We firmly oppose NATO’s eastward movement into the Asia-Pacific region and any action that jeopardizes China’s legitimate rights and interests will be met with a resolute response.

Meanwhile, Russia announced it was withdrawing from the cooperative agreement to allow grain shipping through the Black Sea. Intended as a way to mute the effects of the Ukraine war on food supplies in the Global South, instead the deal resulted in Ukraine re-selling the grain to Europe. Russia had warned several times that if the other part of the deal, that of lifting restrictions on their export of food and fertilizer, they would let the agreement expire.

The West can now claim that Russia has abandoned the humanitarian goals of the grain shipping deal. And the heavily propagandized public in NATO nations will eat this analysis up, much like they still cling to the absurd notion that Russia's entry into Ukraine's civil war in February 2022 was "unprovoked."

Some are suggesting that the straw that broke the grain deal's back was the use of a civilian ship carrying grain to launch drones that blew up the Kerch Strait bridge, injuring a teenager and killing her parents. But actually the cancellation announcement preceded the attack. (Ukraine recently took belated credit for the October 2022 attack on the bridge that links Russia and Crimea, an attack that used a suicide truck bomber rather than underwater drones.)

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova pointed out that NATO players are likely involved, too. 

Decisions are made by Ukrainian officials and the military with the direct participation of American and British intelligence agencies and politicians. The U.S. and Britain are in charge of a terrorist state structure.

Meanwhile you may be wondering, who will be the proxy assigned to fight China on behalf of NATO? Taiwan, Japan, and Australia are all in the running. Maybe Hong Kong and New Zealand too? Stay tuned. 

Tale Of Two Broken Accords: Oslo And Minsk

"Tens of thousands of Italians marched through Rome on Saturday calling for peace in Ukraine and urging Italy to stop sending weapons" © Stefano Ronchini / ipa-agency.ne/Stefano Ronchini / ipa-agency.net  Source: MSN

Many people understand that war is hell. That's why they clamor for negotiated settlements that move belligerents back from the battlefield and set them on a path to reconciliation.

The Oslo Accords established a two-state solution to Israel's violent occupation of Palestinian homelands and at the time was hailed as a major achievement.

Then came facts on the ground for the last several decades. 

It would by now be virtually impossible to create a State of Palestine that was not hopelessly Balkanized into tiny, unconnected territories. At the time of Oslo, many expressed doubt and believed that only a truly democratic one-state solution could work. (Full disclosure: I'm in that camp.)

The insanely belligerent and corrupt Israeli PM Netanyahu has won the recent elections and stands poised to bring even more violence and suffering to the long-occupied Palestinians.  And Israel is a nuclear weapons nation. With lots of nuclear threats and innuendoes being thrown around these days, it's important to keep that in mind.

So we can expect to see a continuation of Israel's attacks on Palestinians in blockaded Gaza

My grandparent’s and his brother’s land that provide for over 20 families was destroyed by Israeli airstrikes this morning in #Gaza pic.twitter.com/eeIAJxRkGl

— Asmaa AbuMezied (@AAbumezied) November 4, 2022

https://twitter.com/AAbumezied/status/1588449241743384576

in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank

Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) is responding to emerging critical health needs in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, resulting from escalating violence characterised by repeated Israeli military raids on Palestinian towns and cities, routine use of https://t.co/y13Gp1mqpA

— it is #Palestine, nothing else (@JamalKhanfer) November 4, 2022

 

https://twitter.com/JamalKhanfer/status/1588587107605532679

and Israel bombing Syria and Lebanon, other nations altogether.

The Minsk II agreement established a game plan for resolving civil war in Ukraine.

Tens of thousands of civilians and combatants had been killed by missile strikes and more hands-on violence from militias operating freely in the Donbas border region with Russia following a 2014 CIA-sponsored coup in Kyiv. Years later, Ukraine's President Zelensky was elected on a platform promising to implement Minsk and end the death toll. Then the neo-Nazis enabled by the U.S. and NATO got to him. I suspect he was threatened with assasination unless he signed on to his country serving as the killing grounds for proxy war to weaken Russia. 

One wonders why nations sign on to accords and then immediately show no intention of fulfilling them?

It could be a stalling tactic to temporarily reduce international pressure to de-escalate.

Or it could be a case where those who signed on are ousted either by coup or elections, and succeeded by those with a lust for war.

Or maybe diplomatic efforts like accords are doomed in the face of the profit motive provided by modern industrialized killing?

Workers hold the key to stopping wars no matter what the motives of those waging them. 

An international general strike would make wars literally impossible.

I pray we are seeing signs of this developing, especially in Europe where the economic impact of the war on Russia via Ukraine has been most intense. Certainly we are seeing signs of alarm from rulers enacting laws that actually criminalize gathering.

Giorgia Meloni's government establishes a new crime that includes a 6-year prison sentence if 50 people gather together, putting in danger safety or public health. Disguised as an anti-rave party rule, it aims to repress freedom, protests and dissent in today’s polarized Italy.

— Francesca Bria (@francesca_bria) November 1, 2022

https://twitter.com/francesca_bria/status/1587481003962015746

Okay, so don't gather. Stay inside and refuse to work helping the war machine grind on. Mutual aid could not only make this strategy survivable but also strengthen solidarity among the people. Build it on the foundation of a shared desire to not be burned to a crisp by wars escalated via nuclear weapons.