The United States of America is at war with Russia. There is not much point in using terms such as “proxy war” to describe the situation. If a belligerent in a war is acting as a proxy for another power and that power is not engaged directly in the war, the term can be useful. But when the power, for which the “proxy” engages in the war, is directly involved in the war itself, then it is a co-belligerent, a party to the war directly, not simply by proxy.

The issue is whether each state is pursuing its own interests and has its own independent means of doing so, or whether the interests and forces of the allied powers are subordinate to the interests and forces of a leader.  In such a case, the enemy being attacked can regard all its opponents as a single entity.

The Albanese government’s embrace of the AUKUS security pact faces a second internal rejection in as many weeks, with the Victorian branch of the Labor Party poised to condemn it on multiple fronts, writes Phillip Coorey in the AFR.

Two weeks after the Queensland branch of the ALP, at its state conference, refused to support a motion congratulating the Albanese government ‘‘for investing in the AUKUS agreement’’, two motions condemning the government’s actions will be moved at this week’s Victorian state conference.

Many recent human endeavours have been focused on “saving the planet”. THANK YOU…

From Greta to Blackrock, we want to save the planet…

So we need to ask a few questions:

Why do we need to save the planet?

What is threatening the planet?

What are we doing to save the planet?

Is it important to save the planet?

ARE WE DOING IT RIGHT?

What is “the planet”?

The threats to the planet, as most enlightened humans see it, come from our adventurism in doing things.

— POLLUTION 

— PRODUCTION OF FOREVER CHEMICALS

— MANUFACTURE OF POISONS 

         AND GENETIC MODIFIERS

— GLOBAL WARMING

— BAD BEHAVIOUR — INCLUDING WARS

Humans are compulsive doers, makers, fiddlers, inventors, the list of stuff we make is unfathomable. 

As former President Donald Trump was arrested and arraigned at a federal courthouse in Miami, where he pleaded not guilty to 37 felony charges around his handling of classified documents, we speak with Noah Bookbinder, president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. He predicts Trump “will challenge every aspect of this prosecution,” but says there is no reason the trial can’t begin within the next year. Trump is the first president to ever be arraigned on federal charges, just months after he pleaded not guilty to 34 felony criminal charges in New York in a state investigation involving hush-money payments during the 2016 election campaign. This all comes as the former president, who was impeached twice and is now facing multiple indictments, is now running again for the White House.

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has argued that mishandling state secrets is a common behavior in Washington and typically goes unpunished. He made the comment in response to the indictment of former US president Donald Trump.

“All kidding aside, it’s not wrong to say that the indictment of Donald Trump for mishandling classified documents is a case of selective prosecution,” Snowden said on Friday in a Twitter post. “Spilled secrets are very much the currency of Washington, and Trump was not alone in splashing them around. He was just the least graceful.”

The CIA has known since at least October that Russia did not blow up the Nord Stream gas pipelines, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday. While the report claimed that the CIA had attempted to foil a Ukrainian-led plot to bomb the pipelines, a competing report alleges the agency actually carried out the demolition job.

The Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines were destroyed in a series of near-simultaneous explosions off the Danish island of Bornholm in late September. The blasts severed a key conduit for Russian natural gas to Europe, effectively removing the possibility of European countries lifting their sanctions on Moscow and restarting gas purchases.

On Friday The Guardian Australia website carried a news report, with a follow-up piece on Monday, whose implications for free speech are profoundly disturbing.

They concern a Radio New Zealand, or RNZ, broadcasting employee — unnamed, but everyone in the small New Zealand broadcasting world will soon know who it is — who has been placed on leave while their professional conduct is investigated.  Obviously, a career hangs in the balance. 

Russia has been declared the biggest security threat in a top German strategic policy paper. Presented on Wednesday, Germany’s first ever National Security Strategy describes Moscow as a force threatening both regional and global order while stating that NATO is “always ready” to “defend its allies.”

Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine, which the document repeatedly terms a “war of aggression,” is described as a “breach of international law and the European security order” in the paper. In it, Berlin accuses Russia of carrying out an imperialist policy and seeking to establish a sphere of influence on the continent.

IT IS CUSTOMARY FOR THE MEDIA TO POINT AT THE FAILURES OF BERLUSCONI. AND THE SMH DID NOT DISAPPOINT, YESTERDAY. SILVIO, THE MAN, WAS A BUFFOON. RICH MEDIA PROPRIETOR, PRESIDENT OF ITALIA AND THE TERROR OF CHICKS... AT THE TIME OF HIS OFFICIAL TENURE, OBAMA WAS THE BIGGEST LYING BASTARD IN THE WHITE HOUSE BEFORE JOE BIDEN. UNLIKE THE SMH, WE CLAIM THAT OBAMA, FAR MORE THAN BERLUSCONI, HELPED FOSTER THE ARRIVAL OF TRUMP... 

TRUMP IS THE ANTI-POLITICIAN, LIKE BERLUSCONI. BOTH PROFESSED TO CLEAN UP THE PLACE FROM THE RATS IN THE SYSTEMS, BUT THEIR RESPECTIVE ESTABLISHMENTS — THE CATHOLIC/COMMUNIST/MAFIA IN ITALY AND THE PENTAGON OUTFIT IN THE USA STOPPED THEM FROM GETTING ANYWHERE — BY LETTING LITTLE BOMBS EXPLODE, FROM THE GFC TO COVID, AND WARS FOR OIL IN LIBYA. HERE IS THE SCORNFUL SYDNEY MORNING HERALD....

Scott Ritter explains why Russia is no longer exercising patience with the West as it crosses every one of its red lines. Russia has taken it upon itself to lead a multipolar world out of NATO dominance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gyq0zkbAUgw

IN THIS LINE OF ARTICLES, COMMENTS AND VIEWS WE SHALL TRY TO EXPLORE THE CONCEPT THAT THE KIEV REGIME CANNOT WIN THE WESTERN WAR AGAINST RUSSIA. WE SHALL SEE IF THE WEST TRIES ANOTHER SET OF DIRTY TRICKS BEYOND BLOWING UP THE NORDSEA PIPELINES AND HELPING ZELENSKYY BLOW UP A DAMN DAM...

MEANWHILE WE SUGGEST:

Former US president Donald Trump appeared in court in Miami, Florida, on Tuesday for an initial hearing after he was charged with mishandling government documents. Trump pleaded not guilty, and maintains that the 37-count indictment is a “Stalinist” attempt by President Joe Biden to sideline his leading political rival.

Trump’s motorcade arrived at the Wilkie D Ferguson courthouse on Tuesday afternoon, driving underground before he was arrested and arraigned. While en route to the court, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform: “One of the saddest days in the history of our country. We are a nation in decline!!!”

Small groups of the former president’s supporters and his opponents gathered outside the building, waving flags and placards. No violence or clashes were reported

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It is important to recognize that the US/NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine is simultaneously a war designed to interrupt the progress of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

As we approach the 10th anniversary of the BRI, to be marked by the third Belt and Road Forum later this year in Beijing, it is clear the original Silk Road Economic Belt – announced by President Xi Jinping in Astana, Kazakhstan, in September 2013 – has traveled a long way.

BY PEPE ESCOBAR

'The Five' co-hosts discuss California Gov. Gavin Newsom defending President Biden's mental acuity and dodging questions about a potential 2024 run in an exclusive 'Hannity' interview.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj_q1pdLYzA

FREE JULIAN ASSANGE NOW...............

The real drama of default in global markets has not been the federal debt ceiling negotiations in Washington but the write-off by inflation. The issue of whether it turns out that the US Treasury for a few weeks has been slow in servicing its debts—with all delays subsequently rectified—is a sideshow. We could regard this as camouflage for the ongoing real write-off operation. In this, countries led by the US, where a great inflation emerged during the pandemic and Ukraine war, have achieved big reductions in the real value of their debts.

The governments have also gained from a reduction in the total nominal market value of their fixed-rate debts due to the rise in interest rates.

BY Brendan Brown

In a surprise visit to Kiev on Saturday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau committed another C$500 million in military assistance to the far-right Ukrainian regime, and pledged Ottawa would continue supplying weapons and funds to Kiev to wage war on Russia for “as long as it takes.” Coming as the major imperialist powers are carrying out a dramatic escalation of the US-NATO war with Russia, Trudeau’s visit also saw Ottawa advocate for Ukraine’s membership in NATO, which would result in a direct military clash between nuclear-armed powers.

BY Roger Jordan