Saturday, September 9, 2023

September 9, 2023

 

MY CORNER by Boyd Cathey

 

Backstory Account of the Ukraine Conflict and the Nefarious Role of the American Foreign Policy Elites




Friends,  

I append a longish article by Professor Michel Chossudovsky, approximately 4,500 words in length, which is one of the most detailed "backstory" accounts of why and how the Ukraine conflict came about--detailing the nefarious actions and outrageous provocations of the Neoconservative-dominated US State Department, truly a "state-within-a-state," operating seemingly without any limits, constitutional or otherwise, with the object of imposing, either by force or by guile, American global hegemony on recalcitrant nations of the world.

Along with studies by Professor Richard Sakwa (Frontline Ukraine: Crisis in the Borderlands, 2015), Ben Abelow (How the West Brought War to Ukraine, 2022), a recent full issue of Harper’s (“Why Are We in Ukraine?” by Benjamin Schwartz and Christopher Layne, June 2023), and other investigative works by Professor John Mearsheimer and Scott Ritter, Chossudovsky’s essay should be required reading for members of the US Congress and anyone seriously concerned about the increasingly perilous conflict in eastern Europe.

As with earlier situations, e.g., the former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Georgia, etc., this history is one of continual (and largely disastrous) hegemonic efforts of the Neocon foreign policy elites who have guided our foreign policy for decades, to continue to advance their vision of a leftist democratic world, replete with every moral and political barbarism now afflicting the USA and much Western Europe. Thus, the US's intense pressure on the pliant Ukrainian regime to institute transgenderism and full "homosexual equity," both on and off the battlefield.

In all seriousness, we should ask: Is not such infectiously evil activity forced on countries around the world a kind outright subservience to a form of Satanism?

Of particular interest is a transcript of the full February 2014 conversation between Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt. That supposedly secret conversation was picked up accidentally by Estonian sources and then made public.  IT HAS NEVER BEEN DENIED or refuted in any way...and it is revelatory in illustrating the imperious globalist vision regnant along the Potomac and in Bruxelles.

The article was apparently translated, but I have made some discrete edits so to make it more readable and fluent for English-speaking audiences.  But I urge you to read it...and to reflect and consider the consequences of what I call "unending war for unobtainable peace," and in the process the destruction of billions of dollars of infrastructure, the cultural obliteration of entire countries, and the deaths of many thousands of civilians...indirectly traceable to the demonic policies of our Neocon elites.

Read on.

 

Bombshell: NATO Says “War Started in 2014”. “Fake Pretext” to Wage War against Russia? To Invoke Article 5 of Atlantic Treaty?

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky  Global Research, August 29, 2023

Introduction

 This article addresses the implications of a controversial statement by NATO to the effect that the Ukraine War “didn’t start in 2022”, “The war started in 2014.” It’s a Bombshell: NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg confirmed (speaking on behalf of NATO) that the “war didn’t start in 2022”. 

In an interview with The Washington Post, Jens Stoltenberg unequivocally confirmed that “the war started in 2014″.  Jens Stoltenberg’s bold statement (which has barely been the object of media coverage) has opened up a Pandora’s Box, or best described “A Can of Worms” on behalf of the Atlantic Alliance. What he bears out is that the beginning of the Ukraine coincided with a U.S.-sponsored coup d’état, confirmed by Victoria’s Nuland‘s “F**k the EU” telephone conversation with U.S. Ambassador Pyatt  in February 2014. (see below)  

Part I of this article examines the legal implications of Stoltenberg’s statement on behalf of the Atlantic Alliance. Of crucial significance: Having stated that “the war started in 2014”, NATO can no longer claim that Russia’s Special Military Operation (SMO) of February 24, 2022 constitutes, from a legal standpoint, “an invasion”.  Part I also addresses the issue of The Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC). 

Parti II focuses on Stoltenberg’s twisted statement that Article 5 of the Atlantic Treaty could be invoked as means to declare war against Russia. “Article 5 of the Atlantic Treaty – its collective defence clause,” declares that an attack on one member state is “to be an attack against all NATO members.” Article 5 is NATO’s doctrine of Collective Self-Defense. “The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all”.  

In regard to the invocation of Article V in relation to Russia, a justification or fake “pretext” was mentioned by Stoltenberg in his interview with the Washington Post.  

Were Article V to be invoked, this would inevitably precipitate the World into a WWIII scenario, consisting of a war whereby all 30 member states of the Atlantic Alliance, most of which are members of the European Union would be involved.  

                          Part I 

Legal Implications

 The legal implications of Stoltenberg’s statements are far-reaching. Speaking on behalf of NATO, he has acknowledged that Russia did not declare war on Ukraine on February 24, 2022. “The war started in 2014“, which intimates that the war was launched in 2014, with US-NATO directly involved from the very outset:  

Lee Hockstader, Washington Post Editorial Board: 

        “How has the war led NATO to recalibrate its defense posture and doctrine?”

 NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg: 

“The war in Ukraine has fundamentally changed NATO, but then you have to remember the war didn’t start in 2022. The war started in 2014. And since then, NATO has implemented the biggest reinforcement of our collective defense since the end of the Cold War.  For the first time in our history, we have combat-ready troops in the eastern part of the alliance, the battle groups in Poland, Lithuania, the Baltic countries, actually the whole eight battle groups from the Baltic Sea down to the Black Sea. Higher readiness of our forces. And increased defense spending.”

Stoltenberg also confirmed that US-NATO’s intent from the outset in 2014 was to integrate the Kiev regime as a full member of NATO. 

 Lee Hockstader, Washington Post Editorial Board: 

        “What does a plausible way forward to Ukraine’s eventual membership in                NATO look like?

 Stoltenberg

         “First of all, all NATO allies agree that Ukraine will become a member of the           alliance. All allies agree that Ukraine has the right to choose its own path,                that it is not for Moscow, but for Kyiv, to decide.”

 

1. The Legality of Russia’s “Special Military Operation”

Inasmuch as the war had commenced and has been ongoing since 2014 as confirmed by Stoltenberg, Russia’s Special Military Operation cannot be categorized as an “illegal invasion” (under Article 2(4) of the UN Charter). The latter states that  members of the UN shall refrain:  “from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.…”   

Inasmuch as the war started in 2014, Art 2(4) applies to both the Kiev regime and well as US-NATO which was behind the February 2014 illegal coup d’état.  

What this implies is that from a legal standpoint, US-NATO on behalf and in coordination with the Kiev regime had initiated a de facto undeclared war against Luhansk and Donesk. From a legal standpoint, this was not “An Act of War against Russia”. Led by US-NATO, this was an “Act of War against Ukraine and the People of Ukraine”.   

Putin’s February 24, 2022 Statement:

As we recall President Putin had defined the Special Military Operation (SMO) in support of the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk. The stated objective was  to “demilitarise” and “denazify” Ukraine. Article 51 of the UN Charter which was referred to by President Putin in his February 24, 2022 speech confirms the following:  

“Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations.…”  

Russia’s SMO complies with the exercise of self-defense. Putin in his speech (February 24, 2022) referred to:

“…the fundamental threats which irresponsible Western politicians created for Russia consistently, rudely and unceremoniously from year to year. I am referring to the eastward expansion of NATO, which is moving its military infrastructure ever closer to the Russian border.”  

2. “NeoCons Endorse NeoNazis”: U.S. Sponsored 2014 EuroMaidan Coup d’état. An Illegal and Criminal Act Supported by US-NATO

What Stoltenberg intimated in his interview with the WP (no doubt unwittingly) is that the Ukraine War was a US-NATO initiative, carried out in the immediate wake of the illegal US supported February 2014 EuroMaidan coup d’etat which was then conducive to the instatement of the regime in Kiev.  

The New York Times described the EuroMaidan as “a  flowering of democracy, a blow to authoritarianism and kleptocracy in the former Soviet space.” ( After Initial Triumph, Ukraine’s Leaders Face Battle for Credibility,  NYTimes.com, March 1, 2014, emphasis added)  

The grim realities were otherwise. The forbidden truth was that US-NATO had engineered –through a carefully staged covert operation– the formation of a US-NATO proxy regime, which was conducive to the removal and brutal demise of the elected president Viktor Yanukovych.  

The staged EuroMaidan Protest Movement initiated in November 2013 was led by the two Ukrainian Nazi parties, with Dmytro Yarosh, of the Right Sector (Pravy Sector) playing a key role as leader of the Brown Shirt Neo-Nazi paramilitary. He had called for disbanding the Party of the Regions and the Communist Party. The shootings of protesters by snipers were coordinated by Yarosh’s Brown Shirts and Andriy Parubiy leader of the Neo-Nazi Svoboda Party.  

Of significance there was a  leaked telephone conversation (February 2014) between Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet and European Union Commissioner Catherine Ashton, which confirmed that “the snipers who shot at protesters and police in Kiev were  hired by Ukrainian opposition leaders [NeoNazis]”.  

Leaked Conversation: Urmas Paet and Catherine Ashton:

Estonia Foreign Minister Urmas Paet tells Catherine Ashton the following (excerpts):

“There is now stronger and stronger understanding that behind the snipers, it was not Yanukovych, but it was somebody from the new coalition [Parubiy  and Yarosh].

“And second, what was quite disturbing, this same Olga [Bogomolets] told as well that all the evidence shows that the people who were killed by snipers from both sides, among policemen and then people from the streets, that they were the same snipers killing people from both sides.

“[Dr. Olga Bogomolets] then also showed me some photos she said that as a medical doctor she can say that it is the same handwriting, the same type of bullets, and it’s really disturbing that now the new [Neo-Nazi] coalition, that they don’t want to investigate what exactly happened.” (quoted by Mahdi Nazemoroaya, Global Research, March 18, 2014, emphasis added)

 

Foreign Minister’s Urmas Paet’s statements (above) are corroborated by a Kiev Post (March 13, 2014) report (Selected excerpts below, click here to access full Kiev Post report (March 13, 2014):  

“Former State Security Head of Ukraine Oleksandr Yakimenko blames Ukraine’s current government [the Kiev regime] for hiring snipers on Feb. 20, when dozens of people were killed and hundreds more wounded. The victims were mainly EuroMaidan Revolution demonstrations, but some police officers were also killed. This was the deadliest day during the EuroMaidan Revolution, a three-month uprising that claimed 100 lives.

“Yakimenko also blamed the United States for organizing and financing the revolution by bringing illegal cash in using diplomatic mail.

“Yakimenko says that Parubiy [leader of the Svoboda Neo-Nazi Party], as well as a number of other organizers of EuroMaidan, received direct orders from the U.S. government.… 

“These are the forces that were doing everything they were told by the leaders and representatives of the United States,” he says. “They, in essence lived in the U.S. embassy. There wasn’t a day when they did not visit the embassy… From the beginning of Maidan we as a special service noticed a significant increase of diplomatic cargo to various embassies, western embassies located in Ukraine,” says Yakimenko. “It was tens of times greater than usual diplomatic cargo supplies.” He says that right after such shipments crisp, new U.S. dollar bills were spotted on Maidan. (emphasis added)

 The Central Role of the Svoboda Neo-Nazi Party 

 As outlined above, Andriy Parubiy played a key role in the EuroMaidan massacre. Andriy Parubiy is the co-founder together with Oleh Tyahnybok of the Neo-Nazi Social-National Party of Ukraine (subsequently renamed Svoboda). Parubiy was first appointed Secretary of the National Security and National Defense Committee (RNBOU) by the Kiev regime. (Рада національної безпеки і оборони України), a key position which overseas the Ministry of Defense, the Armed Forces, Law Enforcement, National Security and Intelligence.  He subsequently (2015-2019) became Vice-Chair and Chair of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine’s Parliament) shifting into the realm of international diplomacy on behalf of the regime.  

In the course of his career, Parubiy developed numerous contacts in North America and Europe, and with members of the European Parliament. He was invited to Washington on several occasions, meeting up (already in 2015) with Sen. John McCain (chair) of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He was also invited to Ottawa, meeting up with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Parliament Hill in 2016.   

The Role of Victoria Nuland

Victoria Nuland, acting on behalf of the US State Department was directly involved in “suggesting” key appointments. While the Neo-Nazi leader Oleh Tyahnybok was not granted a cabinet position, members of the two neo-Nazi parties (namely Svoboda [Freedom Party] and The Right Sector [Pravy Sektor]) were granted key positions in the areas of Defense, National Security and Law Enforcement.

The Neo-Nazis also controlled the judicial process with the appointment of  Oleh Makhnitsky of the Svoboda Party (on February 22, 2014) to the position of prosecutor-general. What kind of justice would prevail with a renowned Neo-Nazi in charge of the Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine?  

 Nuland-Pyatt Leaked Phone Conversation

The controversial conversations between Victoria Nuland and US Ambassador Pyatt are recorded below. (See audio and transcript below, YouTube version  (below). (Leaked Online on February 4, 2014, Exact Date of Conversation Unconfirmed, Three weeks prior to the demise of President Yanukovych on February 21-22, 2014)   

Transcript of Conversation between Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and the US Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, on YouTube. Source of transcript: BBC  

“Warning: This transcript contains swearing”  

Voice of Nuland: What do you think?  

Voice of Pyatt: I think we’re in play. The Klitschko [Vitaly Klitschko, one of three main opposition leaders] piece is obviously the complicated election here. Especially the announcement of him as deputy prime minister and you’ve seen some of my notes on the troubles in the marriage right now so we’re trying to get a read really fast on where he is on this stuff. But I think your argument to him, which you’ll need to make, I think that’s the next phone call you want to set up, is exactly the one you made to Yats [Arseniy Yatseniuk, who subsequently became Prime Minister, another opposition leader]. And I’m glad you sort of put him on the spot on where he fits in this scenario. And I’m very glad that he said what he said in response.

Nuland: Good. I don’t think Klitsch should go into the government. I don’t think it’s necessary, I don’t think it’s a good idea.

 

Pyatt: Yeah. I guess… in terms of him not going into the government, just let him stay out and do his political homework and stuff. I’m just thinking in terms of sort of the process moving ahead we want to keep the moderate democrats together. The problem is going to be Tyahnybok [Oleh Tyahnybok], the other opposition leader and his guys and I’m sure that’s part of what [President Viktor] Yanukovych is calculating on all this.

 

Nuland: [Breaks in] I think Yats is the guy who’s got the economic experience, the governing experience. He’s the… what he needs is Klitsch and Tyahnybok on the outside. He needs to be talking to them four times a week, you know. I just think Klitsch going in… he’s going to be at that level working for Yatseniuk, it’s just not going to work.

 

Pyatt: Yeah, no, I think that’s right. OK. Good. Do you want us to set up a call with him as the next step?

 

Nuland: My understanding from that call – but you tell me – was that the big three were going into their own meeting and that Yats was going to offer in that context a… three-plus-one conversation or three-plus-two with you. Is that not how you understood it?

 

Pyatt: No. I think… I mean that’s what he proposed but I think, just knowing the dynamic that’s been with them where Klitschko has been the top dog, he’s going to take a while to show up for whatever meeting they’ve got and he’s probably talking to his guys at this point, so I think you reaching out directly to him helps with the personality management among the three and it gives you also a chance to move fast on all this stuff and put us behind it before they all sit down and he explains why he doesn’t like it.

 

Nuland: OK, good. I’m happy. Why don’t you reach out to him and see if he wants to talk before or after.  

Pyatt: OK, will do. Thanks.

 

Nuland: OK… one more wrinkle for you Geoff. [A click can be heard] I can’t remember if I told you this, or if I only told Washington this, that when I talked to Jeff Feltman [United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs] this morning, he had a new name for the UN guy Robert Serry did I write you that this morning?   

Pyatt: Yeah I saw that.

 

Nuland: OK. He’s now gotten both Serry and [UN Secretary General] Ban Ki-moon to agree that Serry could come in Monday or Tuesday. So that would be great, I think, to help glue this thing and to have the UN help glue it and, you know, Fuck the EU.

 

Pyatt: No, exactly. And I think we’ve got to do something to make it stick together because you can be pretty sure that if it does start to gain altitude, that the Russians will be working behind the scenes to try to torpedo it. And again the fact that this is out there right now. I’m still trying to figure out in my mind why Yanukovych (garbled) that. In the meantime there’s a Party of Regions faction meeting going on right now and I’m sure there’s a lively argument going on in that group at this point. But anyway we could land jelly side up on this one if we move fast. So let me work on Klitschko and if you can just keep… we want to try to get somebody with an international personality to come out here and help to midwife this thing. The other issue is some kind of outreach to Yanukovych but we probably regroup on that tomorrow as we see how things start to fall into place.

 

Nuland: So on that piece Geoff, when I wrote the note [US vice-president’s national security adviser Jake] Sullivan’s come back to me VFR [direct to me], saying you need [US Vice-President Joe] Biden and I said probably tomorrow for an atta-boy and to get the deets [details] to stick. So Biden’s willing.  

Pyatt: OK. Great. Thanks.

 

3. U.S.-NATO Military Aid and Support (2014-2023) to a Full Fledged Neo-Nazi Proxy Regime is an Illegal and Criminal Act.

There is ample evidence of collaboration between the Kiev regime and NATO member states, specifically in relation to the continuous flow of military aid as well the training and support provided to the Neo-Nazi Azov Battalion.  

NOTE: “In the aftermath of World War II, the National Socialist Party (the Nazi party) of Germany was considered a criminal organization and therefore banned. The International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg in 1946 likewise ruled that the Nazi Party was a criminal organization.”  

Since 2014, Ukraine’s regime has been generously funded by several NATO member states. The Nazi Azov Battalion was from the outset integrated into Ukraine’s National Guard which is under the jurisdiction of Ukraine’s Ministry of  Internal Affairs. The Azov battalion has (2015) been trained by the U.S. Canada and the UK. “The US contingent of instructors includes 290 specialists.…” Britain has dispatched 75 military personnel responsible for training “in command procedures and tactical intelligence”. (Los Angeles Times, April 20, 2015). The training program was coupled with the influx of military equipment under a program of so-called “non-lethal” military aid. In turn, the Azov battalion –which is the object of military aid, has also been involved in the conduct of Summer Nazi training Camps for children and adolescents.

[See: Ukraine’s “Neo-Nazi Summer Camp”. Military Training for Young Children, Para-military Recruits  By Prof Michel Chossudovsky, July 08, 2023]  

The Azov battalion’s Summer Camps are supported by US military aid channelled to the Ukraine National Guard via the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The MIA coordinates the “anti-terrorism operation” (ATO) in Donbass.

 

Media Propaganda 

The Sunday Times confirms that the children and adolescents are eventually slated to be recruited in the National Guard, which was integrated into the Ukrainian Military in 2016. The Guardian casually dismisses the criminal nature of the Azov Battalion’s Summer Camp for children (which bears the Nazi WolfAngel SS insignia):

 

“In Ukraine, the far-right Azov militia is fighting on the frontline – and running a summer camp for children. The Guardian visited the camp and followed 16-year-old Anton through his experiences. Is Azov really a modern Hitler Youth organisation, or is it trying to prepare young Ukrainians for the tough reality that awaits them?” (To view the video click here Guardian, emphasis added)  

4. The Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC)

Inasmuch as “the war started in 2014”, Stoltenberg’s statements confirm that US-NATO were supportive of Ukraine’s  artillery and missile bombardments of Donbass which resulted in more than 14,000 deaths of civilians, including children. Stoltenberg’s admission on behalf of NATO that “the war started in 2014” would have required that from the very outset in February  2014 the warring parties including their allies abide by the Four Basic Principles of  The Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC) which consist in:

 

“….respect for and protection of the civilian population and civilian objects, the Parties to the conflict shall at all times distinguish between the civilian population and combatants and between civilian objects and military objectives and accordingly shall direct their operations only against military objectives.” [Additional Protocol 1, Article 48]

 

Civilian population (children) and civilian objects (schools, hospitals, residential areas) were the deliberate object of UAF and Azov Battalion attacks in blatant violation of the Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC). In accordance with the LOAC, Moscow took the decision starting in February 2014 to come to the rescue of Donbass civilians including children. Visibly the president of the I.C.C. Piotr Hofmanski in accusing President Putin of “unlawful kidnapping of Ukrainian children” hasn’t the foggiest understanding of Article 48. of the Law of Armed Conflict (LOAC). Is this an issue of incompetence? Or has Piotr Hofmanski been co-opted into endorsing crimes against humanity?  

In derogation of The Law of Armed Conflict, US-NATO bears the responsibility for having endorsed the Neo-Nazi Azov battalion, which was involved in the conduct of atrocities against civilians.

 

Part II

Is NATO Intent upon

Invoking Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty

as a Means to Declaring War on Russia?

 

Dangerous Crossroads

There are ambiguous statements by Stoltenberg (in his interview with the Washington Post) which suggest that the invocation of Article 5 is on the US-NATO drawing board.

 Click to access the full text on NATO’s website

Article 5 of the Atlantic Treaty constitutes NATO’s doctrine of Collective Self-Defense: “The Parties agree that an armed attack against one or more of them in Europe or North America shall be considered an attack against them all.…”

Article V was invoked in March 1999, based on a “fabricated pretext” to bomb and invade Yugoslavia. It was subsequently invoked on September 12, 2001 by the Atlantic Council meeting in Brussels as a justification to declare war on Afghanistan, on the grounds that an unnamed foreign power had attacked America on September 11, 2001. In both cases (Yugoslavia and Afghanistan), “fabricated pretexts” were used to justify the invocation of Article V.  

Fabricating A Pretext to Wage War on Russia?

While Stoltenberg firmly acknowledges that “Russia is not seeking a full-fledged confrontation with NATO triggering Article 5″, he nonetheless intimates that NATO is prepared to invoke Article 5 against Russia, based on a fabricated pretext (e.g attack on “undersea infrastructure”), thereby potentially leading to a World War III scenario.  

Lee Hockstader, WP

“Would a Russian attack on critical infrastructure like undersea cables owned by NATO members or companies cause the invocation of NATO’s Article 5?”

 

Stoltenberg

“That’s for NATO to decide. We are now looking into how can we do more when it comes to sharing intelligence, including with the private sector, to detect any potential threats.…

“We’ve seen over the last years that Russia is not seeking a full-fledged confrontation with NATO, triggering Article 5, but they’re trying to operate below the Article 5 threshold. Meaning with hybrid, cyber, covert actions. And, of course, attacks against undersea infrastructure — it’s easy to deny because it’s hard to monitor.”  (emphasis added)  

Stoltenberg’s reference to “undersea infrastructure” intimates that Russia was behind the sabotage of Nord Stream in September 2022, which had been ordered by President Biden with the acceptance of Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz.  

What the above statements suggest is that the invocation of Article 5 as well as the use of “a pretext” to wage war on Russia are being discussed behind closed doors.  

Stoltenberg claims that NATO is committed to supporting Ukraine while “preventing escalation” through “increased military presence” as well as confirming that “we are not part of the conflict”:  

Stoltenberg

“NATO has fundamentally two tasks in the war. One is to support Ukraine, as we do. The other is to prevent escalation. And we prevent escalation by making absolutely clear that we are not party to the conflict, and by increasing military presence in the eastern part of [the] alliance as we have done — with 40,000 troops under NATO command backed by substantial naval and air forces.”

 

Contradictory statement: Is “Preventing Escalation” contemplated by Invoking Article 5?

 Among NATO Member States, there are both “Allies” and “Enemies” 

It is worth noting that in the course of the last two years, several of America’s European “allies” (NATO member states) whose corrupt politicians are supportive of the Ukraine war, have been the victims of de facto U.S. sponsored acts of economic warfare including the sabotage of Nord Stream.  

The EU economy which has relied on cheap energy from Russia is in a shambles, marked by disruptions in the entire fabric of industrial production (manufacturing), transportation and commodity trade. Specifically this applies to actions against Germany, Italy and France, which have resulted in the destabilization of their national economies and the impoverishment of their population.  The sabotage of Nord Stream was an U.S. Act of War against both Germany and the European Union. And Germany’s chancellor was fully aware that an act of sabotage against Nord Stream had been envisaged by the US, to the detriment of more than 400 million Europeans.  

A string of corporate bankruptcies resulting in lay-offs and unemployment is unfolding across the European Union. Small and medium sized enterprises are slated to be wiped off the map:   

“Rocketing energy costs are savaging German industry”… “Germany’s manufacturing industry — which accounts for more than one fifth of the country’s economic output — is worried some of its companies won’t see the crisis through. “Industry behemoths like Volkswagen (VLKAF) and Siemens (SIEGY) are grappling with supply chain bottlenecks too, but it is Germany’s roughly 200,000 small and medium-sized manufacturers who are less able to withstand the shock [of rising energy prices]”  

“Collective Defense”  

In a bitter irony, many of the NATO member states (who are categorized as “allies” under the Atlantic Alliance’s Collective Defense Clause) are the “de facto enemies” of America, victims of U.S. economic warfare. The practice of so-called Collective Defense under Article 5 constitutes a process of mass recruitment by the 30 NATO member states, largely on behalf of Washington’s hegemonic agenda. It was applied twice in NATO’s history: in March 1999 against Yugoslavia and in October 2001 against Afghanistan.  

It constitutes on the part of Washington not only a means to recruit soldiers on a massive scale, but also to ensure that NATO member states contribute financially to America’s hegemonic wars: In other words: “to do the fighting for us on our behalf” or “They will do the dirty work for us” (Dick Cheney).  

This article has addressed the Unspoken Truth, which we have known all along, from the very outset: “The War Started in 2014”. This statement –which is now acknowledged by NATO– was the basis of my detailed analysis. 

My conclusions are as follows:  

The Atlantic Alliance has no legitimacy. It is a criminal entity which must be repealed.  

US-NATO is responsible for extensive crimes committed against the People of Ukraine. What is required is a Worldwide campaign at all levels of society, with a view to eventually dismantling the Atlantic Alliance, while promoting an immediate cease fire and meaningful peace negotiations in solidarity with the people of Ukraine.   

Prof. Michel ChossudovskyGlobal Research, August 27, 2023

Thursday, August 31, 2023

                                             August 31, 2023

 

 

MY CORNER by Boyd Cathey

 

Gone but Not Forgotten: Five Classic Films that Southerners Should Explore



It’s no secret that Hollywood over the past three decades has not been kind to the South or to the Confederacy. The last major films that have in any way been fair or which attempted to be objective about the Confederacy were, probably, “Ride With the Devil” (in 1999), “Gods and Generals” (in 2003), and perhaps "The Conspirator" (2010). But despite general audience approval, the negative reaction to these blockbusters by supposedly sophisticated “critics,” and the evaporation of financial funding for such cinema (no doubt affected by the changing cultural climate), Hollywood in recent years has considered the South, and in particular, the Confederacy, toxic, racist, and a cesspool of “white supremacy.”

But it was not always that way. Indeed, during the mid-twentieth century Hollywood directors and producers released literally dozens of films which reflected the continuation of a cultural trend that began a few decades after Appomattox. That trend was one of national unity—unification—of recognizing the nobility, sacrifices and honor of those hundreds of thousands of men who wore the gray, and welcoming them back into the union. Certainly, slavery was condemned, but as most historians and political leaders of the period recognized, that issue was in the past. Indeed, former Confederate officers of higher rank served in the Spanish-American War, under the Stars and Stripes, including notably “Fightin’ Joe” Wheeler, Fitzhugh Lee, Matthew Butler, and Thomas Rosser.

This emphasis on unification and the recognition that Confederate veterans were honorable and deserving of respect produced the widespread movement in the early twentieth century to erect monuments in their memory all through the Southland, most notably and impressively the Arlington Monument, sculpted by the internationally-famous sculptor, Moses Ezekiel, and strongly supported by four American presidents.

Likewise, in the relatively young cinema industry, centered by the 1920s in Hollywood, California, the unification theme and the nobility of the Confederate soldier appeared on the big screen, with such films as “So Red the Rose” (1935), starring North Carolinian Randolph Scott and based on a novel by Southern Agrarian Stark Young. But in was later in the ‘30s and 1940s that the Confederate theme became a dominant emphasis in films coming out of Hollywood. And, indeed, not just movies about the Confederacy and the Confederate soldier and his experiences, but the production of a number of superb productions which were frankly quite favorable to the South, its history and its culture.

Most filmgoers are familiar with “Gone With the Wind” (1939), still considered one of the greatest films ever produced, despite the contemporary swirling controversy over its “racist” and “white supremacist” elements. Anyone who tunes into the Encore Westerns Channel is liable to catch such major productions as “Jesse James” (1939, with Tyrone Power, Henry Fonda, and Randolph Scott) and “The Return of Frank James (1940, with Fonda). And there are others, which I reviewed in  June 2014March 2021, and February 2022.

In particular, it is the period between 1938 and 1946 that I would consider “the golden age” of positive, Southern-themed movies. Not only films about the war, especially the “border war” out in Missouri and Kansas, but also very sympathetic portrayals of traditional Southern domestic life and concerns drew thousands to the box office.

I’d like to consider five such films, each one excellent and worthy of viewing, yet mostly unknown to Southerners. And these are in addition to the earlier films I discussed, which mainly deal with the War and its aftermath.

First, and the earliest of the group is “The Toy Wife” (1938), set in antebellum Cajun Louisiana and lavishly produced by MGM.  The film heralded the studio’s newest starlet, German actress Luise Rainer, who had already won two Oscars for her work in “The Great Ziegfeld” (1936) and “The Good Earth” (1937). In some ways it was MGM’s answer to Warner Brothers’ hit, “Jezebel” (1938), starring Bette Davis.

Rainer is the lead female character, Gilberte “Frou Frou” Brigard, who has returned from strict convent school in France to her father’s immense plantation in Louisiana. Just as in “Gone with the Wind,” released a year later, Frou Frou is flighty and has a “devil may care” attitude towards practical things, including a possible future husband. While infatuated with the debonair and undisciplined Andre Vallaire (Robert Young, best remembered for the long-running TV sitcom “Father Knows Best”), she ends up in a loveless marriage with the far more practical and worldly George Sartoris (Melvyn Douglas). Her downfall occurs as she and Vallaire escape to New York, only to suffer from a fatal case of pneumonia. Her sister, Louise (played by Barbara O’Neill), finally persuades George to allow a repentant Frou Frou to return home to see her young son and to die.

Parallels with “Gone with the Wind” abound. Indeed, Rainer was considered for the role of Scarlet O’Hara, a role which eventually went to Vivien Leigh. Both films concern the domestic lives of large Southern Catholic planters—the O’Haras in Georgia, the Brigards and Vallaires in Louisiana. Both feature large casts of black actors who live and work on the respective plantations. And in both households the extended families are called together for regular evening prayers.

In “The Toy Wife” the relationships between the Brigard slaves and Frou Frou are close and familial. When she first arrives back from France, Frou Frou is introduced to all the house servants. As she asks their names, she spies a young woman partially hiding under the circular stairway. She asks: “And what is your name?” The young slave responds: “Ma’am, I ain’t got no name.”  Frou Frou responds tenderly, “I will call you ‘Pick,’ because you are the smallest pickaninny on the plantation, and you will be with me from now on!”

“The Toy Wife” is available in an inexpensive, three-DVD set in the Warner Archive Collection, including two other Rainer films, “The Emperor’s Candlesticks” (with William Powell) and “Big City” (with Spencer Tracy). It’s in black and white, but in every way a stand-out production and a fascinating window on antebellum life in Cajun Louisiana.

The remaining films in my review are all set in the first third or so of the twentieth century, and each in its own manner offers an endearing account of the survival of Southern traditions and heritage, and how diverse families meet challenges confronting them.

The film “Maryland” was a big budget Twentieth Century-Fox color production, released in 1940, with deluxe casting of Walter Brennan, John Payne, Fay Bainter, Charlie Ruggles, and Hattie McDaniel, who had already established herself as a major player in “Gone with the Wind” (for which she was to win an Academy Award).

In contemporary America we are too apt to think of Maryland as one big suburb of Washington, DC. But Maryland was traditionally a Southern state, and this film reflects the long and honorable Southern tradition of fox hunting and racing champion horses. Charlotte Danfield (Bainter), the owner of a large estate, once the center of aristocratic horse breeding, has gotten rid of her stables because her husband was killed in a fall during a hunt. And she has forbidden her son Lee (John Payne) from riding in an upcoming competition. Unknown to her, her former horse trainer William Stewart (three-time Academy Award winner Walter Brennan) has continued to train horses, including the offspring of the horse that Charlotte’s ill-fated husband had ridden the day of his death. The film has an exciting and heart-warming conclusion.

The character of the gambling-prone servant Shadrach (played by Ben Carter) serves as the film’s comedic centerpiece. As Hattie McDaniel’s husband, Shadrach can’t resist wagering away any money confided to him. Finally, he is persuaded to attend a revival where he “gets religion.” The scene must be viewed, as it is one of the funniest on film (I am surprised that Fox released this commercially, given the climate we live in).

On DVD it is available in the Twentieth Century-Fox Cinema Archives Collection.

Next is MGM’s black and white “The Vanishing Virginian,” released in 1942, directed by Frank Borzage, and starring Frank Morgan (remember him as the Wizard in “The Wizard of Oz”), Spring Byington, and North Carolinian Kathryn Grayson, whose exquisite soprano voice in heard during the movie. The story is based on the memoirs of Rebecca Yancey Williams and is an affectionate chronicling of the life of the Yancey family of Lynchburg, Virginia. Beginning in pre-World War I times, “The Vanishing Virginian” traces the history of the Yancey family and its head, Robert, who was prominent in Virginia politics for several decades. But it is also the recounting of how Southern and Virginia traditions survived and met the headwinds of the twentieth century, including women’s suffrage. In the film’s prologue, the voice-over announces:  "This is the story of a vanishing era when simple men so loved their country, their families and their friends that America became a better place in which to live. Such a man was Cap'n Bob Yancey."  The proud heritage of the “Old Dominion State” is never far from center stage in this heartwarming production.

"The Vanishing Virginian" is available on DVD in the Warner Archive Collection.

Then there is “Colonel Effingham’s Raid” (1946), another Twentieth Century-Fox production, a relatively short, black and white film, of 70 minutes, but a true gem just the same. It stars Charles Coburn as Colonel Will Seaborn Effingham, who returns home to Fredericksville, Georgia, after years in the US Army, there to be received by his young second cousin Albert Marbury (William Eythe) and by his older cousin Emma (the versatile actress Elizabeth Patterson). Effingham is full of spit-and-polish and begins to write a column for the local newspaper. Suddenly he stumbles upon the plans of the town fathers, who are mostly Yankee transplants only concerned about the almighty dollar. They intend to tear down the historic courthouse which dates from the antebellum period and perhaps remove the giant Confederate monument commemorating Fredericksville’s honored dead. Effingham launches his final “raid,” organizing the citizens and the UDC in a campaign to save the historic courthouse. He even demands that thirteen live oaks be planted around the Confederate war memorial to honor the thirteen states of the Confederacy.

Effingham finally convinces the town officials that the courthouse should remain and be appropriately repaired, not torn down. In the final scene, we see Effingham in his military uniform reviewing members of the Georgia National Guard as they march off to muster (the film is set in 1940). As they pass in review, the band strikes up the sound of “Dixie” to an enthusiastic crowd.

“Colonel Effingham’s Raid” is also available on DVD in the Twentieth Century-Fox Cinema Archives collection.

The final film under review is perhaps the best, and certainly the most openly pro-Southern. It is “Virginia” (1941), a lavishly-produced, Technicolor Paramount feature, in a sense that studio’s answer to the major films from Fox and MGM celebrating the South. And what a film! Starring a young Fred MacMurray (yes, he of “My Three Sons” and several Disney outings), Madeleine Carroll, Sterling Hayden, and Louise Beavers, the movie recounts the return of Charlotte Dunterry (Carroll), heiress to the old Dunterry family plantation in northern Virginia. The plantation house, reportedly designed by Thomas Jefferson, has fallen into disrepair, and Charlotte who has spent much of her life in New York, intends to sell. MacMurray, whose name in the film is Stonewall after the great general, is a neighbor and fierce defender of Southern heritage and tradition. He tries to convince Charlotte to stay on, not to sell. The return of an ancient black retainer, Ezechial, home to Dunterry house to die persuades Charlotte that she, too, should stay faithful to her family and her traditions. And she orders that the giant portrait of her Confederate officer grandfather be hung once again in the central hall.

One rewarding scene occurs when Charlotte suggests that Southerners should just get over the war which was, she asserts, about slavery. Stonewall, or Stony as his friends call him, quickly corrects her and explains that Yankee overreach and aggression were responsible for the war, and, indeed, for much of the resulting poverty that has afflicted the Southland.

Of all these films, the most difficult to find on DVD in decent quality has been “Viriginia.” The reason may be obvious: it is avowedly pro-Southern and pro-Confederate heritage, and Yankees come in for a cinematic drubbing. After sampling several releases, all of them in horrid quality, I finally discovered a copy available via eCrater, sold privately by the seller filmfan502. Despite being most likely a third generation copy of a VHS tape, the somewhat faded color film is watchable without distortions and reasonably priced. No, it’s not state-of-the-art Technicolor, but it’s acceptable until our culture changes and some enterprising company issues a superior reproduction. “Virginia” is worth searching out and is recommended to any Southerner interested in a favorable view of our traditions and heritage.

Interestingly, each of these five films boasts actors who were staunch conservatives and traditionalists. Charles Coburn, with his distinguishable monocle, was from Georgia and never forgot his roots; John Payne was from Arkansas. Both men were involved in conservative causes. Frank Morgan and Walter Brennan were also noted for their very conservative politics, as was Fred MacMurray. Brennan was a strong traditionalist Catholic, stating in 1964, "I'm too old not to be a religious fella.... It appears we are losing something a lot of people made a lot of sacrifices for." And in 1968 he endorsed George Wallace for president.

In those days it was not a sin to be a conservative and traditionalist in Hollywood, and the South and its history were seen as excellent subjects for positive moviemaking. The result was a number of superior films which should be better known. Moreover, given the present vicious anti-Southern and anti-Confederate bias vomited out of Southern California, serious Southerners could do well to acquire these films. They will guarantee hours of grand entertainment, but also tell engrossing stories on screen about our ancestors and their history.

Monday, July 31, 2023

                                             July 31, 2023

 


MY CORNER by Boyd Cathey

 

What Would A Second Trump Term Look Like



Friends,

In a column published at my blog site and elsewhere this past June 24, “The Return of the ‘Great Disruptor’ – Donald Trump,” I offered reasons why I believed Donald Trump would not only garner the Republican nomination for president in 2024, but why much of the criticism directed against him and his candidacy, mostly from other GOP candidates and various “NeverTrumpers,” was largely ill-founded. I urged support for him because I believe he would be the necessary radical tonic needed to dislodge the managerial and administrative elites who now largely control the American nation, and thus begin a painful, but required process—a veritable counter-revolution—to salvage what is left of this country and just perhaps recover some of the guiding principles and beliefs that once informed the republic.

Two of the major objections to my arguments—certainly the most frequently repeated—I addressed briefly in that earlier column: First, that Trump cannot win the 2024 presidential election, that is, he is unelectable. The reasoning goes that he would lose college-educated voters and, particularly, upper-middle class females, as well as independents, put off by his personal hijinks and legal woes. And without them, in the general election, he would lose to Joe Biden, despite Biden’s apparent weaknesses and the electoral shenanigans of the Democratic Party. So, the argument goes, the GOP needs to select another candidate, either a DeSantis, or a Mike Pence, or a Tim Scott, someone who doesn’t bring that baggage to the table and could win in 2024.

Second, and perhaps a more substantial criticism is that Trump’s record of appointments during his first term left much to be desired. Indeed, that a number of crucial appointees named by him to positions within his administration, including some high level policy advisers, actually undercut and sabotaged his announced programs and initiatives. In some cases, not just privately, but publicly they opposed an America First agenda. Nearly all of them can be classified as “neoconservatives” and globalists. The list of those malefactors is unfortunately fairly long, including such individuals as John Bolton, “Mad Dog” Mattis, Jared Kushner, Mike Pompeo, Elliott Abrams, Mike Pence, and Nikki Haley, to name only a few in the upper echelon who occupied positions of authority and direction (and not counting lower-level administrative personnel). Certainly, most of those appointments were recommended by members of the Republican DC establishment and found sinecures due to President Trump’s initial desire to work with the GOP establishment and cement his surprisingly successful candidacy with party regulars.

That strategy of inclusion and party “unity” was a disaster to the Make America Great Again agenda, but, rather, produced various roadblocks and the uncompletion of Trump’s promised agenda. The question, then, for many on the Right this time round is: would a second Trump term resemble the first one, with an ambitious agenda compromised by a dubiously loyal staff?

Just recently two reports have appeared that answer in large part questions suscitated by these objections.

First, new extensive polling demonstrates that Donald Trump enjoys increased support from college-educated and suburban voters, polling better with those groups than Governor Ron DeSantis. DeSantis’s key argument was that he was “Trump without the bravado,” a calmer and less controversial—and thus more electable—version of the Donald. He could bring over college-educated voters and independents, voters who Trump scared away.

But a report published by The Washington Examiner (July 27, 2023), using June data from Echelon Insights

…shows a significant increase in college-educated support for Trump, surpassing 50% from people with bachelor's degrees. Trump's support surpassed the group's support for DeSantis. While DeSantis is preferred by a notable percentage of those with bachelor's (42%) and graduate (40%) degrees, Trump boasts a 10-point lead among the latter. The former president is also preferred by 46% of those with graduate degrees.

College-educated voters have not historically been Trump's chief constituency. In fact, he was able to beat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election with just 29% of his support coming from voters with college degrees.

While Trump doesn't require significant backing from this demographic, expanding support from them has allowed the former president to maintain his lead over GOP competitors, even if they chip away at some of his base.

The second report, first published by Bloomberg News (July 21) indicates that President Trump has taken significant steps to avoid the personnel issues and unfinished or undercut agenda items left incomplete from his first term. An analysis of his programmatic “Agenda47” plans reveal that he apparently has learned from the mistakes made during his first term, and he has now surrounded himself with solid, credentialed talent from the populist, MAGA Right.

The Bloomberg report, despite its hostile tone, deserves to be quoted at length:

If Donald Trump returns to the White House in 2025, he’ll bar babies born in the US from automatically claiming citizenship, ban transgender people from the military, hold elections for school principals and swiftly end the war in Ukraine…. His plans, shaped by a group of firebrand allies from his first term, also include ousting scores of civil servants in the national-security and law-enforcement establishment and ordering the Justice Department to criminally investigate his predecessor.

…Trump has started to go deep in his own policy weeds. Many of his proposals would likely face court challenges; others would be difficult to pass through Congress. “He is throwing down a lot of policy and nobody is picking it up,” Trump’s former strategist Steve Bannon, who is once again advising him, said in an interview. “There’s a bunch of think tanks, three or four working groups, and a number of other vectors all coming together. The second term is being put together right now.” 

A coterie of aides and informal advisers from the fringe [sic!] of the Republican Party are advising Trump on his policies. They include Roger Stone, who recently traveled on Trump’s plane with him to Iowa; Michael Flynn, the retired general who was briefly Trump’s national security adviser; Stephen Miller, the former Trump adviser who championed his most aggressive and controversial anti-immigrant measures; and Bannon….

If he wins in 2024, Trump is expected to end all federal prosecutions of himself and his supporters and advisers. At the heart of the Trump policy-development process are two aides and former White House speech writers, Vince Haley and Ross Worthington. They are assisted by think tanks formed by Trump administration alums including the America First Policy Institute — stacked with former officials including Larry Kudlow, Kellyanne Conway, Brooke Rollins and Keith Kellogg — and the Center for Renewing America, helmed by former top budget official Russ Vought.

One of the former president’s allies called AFPI the Trump world’s shadow government…. [A]lso involved, including John McEntee, Trump’s former body man turned head of White House personnel. McEntee spent his final months of the administration trying to root out officials deemed insufficiently loyal.

The policies Trump and his team are drawing from the former president’s own anger toward so-called “deep state” bureaucrats he believes stymied his first-term ambitions, as well as [from] hostility among White conservatives toward education and social movements intended to support racial diversity and gender identity.

Trump recently told a conference of far-right moms that he’d do away with the Department of Education entirely and have parents elect principals. Trump says he’d ask Congress to pass a law recognizing only male and female genders.

He also wants to increase tariffs on China by the billions, deploy the US Navy to help fight drug cartels and build more of the wall between the US and Mexico that his first administration couldn’t finish.

Former Trump economic adviser Steve Moore said he’s scheduled to meet Trump soon to brainstorm ideas for contrasting his economic record with Biden’s. Moore says Trump should zero in on how much middle-class families’ bills have risen under Biden due to inflation.

Trump says he would immediately “settle” Russia’s war in Ukraine, without elaborating. In one video, he calls it a “lie” that “Russia represents our greatest threat.”

Trump’s 2016 campaign was guided more by his own instincts, but his 2024 run is a better-managed affair, including professionally produced, presidential-looking policy videos, shot at his golf clubs, that are catalogued in a section of his campaign website called “Agenda47.”  Trump would be the 45th and 47th US president if he’s returned to the White House.

“Never before in the modern era have you had someone looking to take the White House that has such a firm set of policy objectives,” his senior campaign adviser Jason Miller said in an interview. Former Trump officials say he’d issue a fresh executive order taking aim at bureaucrats believed to be so opposed to his policies that they would quietly thwart his directives. Trump signed an order in October 2020 creating a class of federal employees called “Schedule F” that would have no civil service or union protections, making them easier to fire. President Joe Biden rescinded it.

“I would be shocked if two-thirds of non-political appointees in the Justice Department are not forced out in the first 100 days” after Trump returns to office, Bannon said. “There’s going to be a purge of this corrupt apparatus. These radicals inside Justice, FBI, and CIA are going to be gone.” 

Reading the Bloomberg report one can fully understand the abject terror, fear and horror of the Left and establishment Republican/conservative elites, as well as their determination to “get Trump” by any and all means—"lawfare,” election manipulation, use of the 14th Amendment to disqualify him as having engaged in sedition, rebellion, and treason…any method, any action, including very possibly outrageous imprisonment, and if President Trump should emerge as a real threat to Deep State dominance, could we see an attempted assassination?

It’s happened before.

After all the virulent, hysterical and unbridled hatred of the 45th president knows no bounds, and nothing is off the table. All the more reason to become informed and to be vitally involved in efforts to assure election integrity.

2024 may well be the year that determines if the American republic can survive, much less recover.


      The Real Meaning of July 4th and the Heresy of Lincolnian Interpretation                                                          ...