Hamas reasserts demands, including full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza

from PressTV

The Gaza Strip-based Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has reaffirmed its key conditions for advancing negotiations, demanding a full Israeli withdrawal from the coastal sliver, exchange of Zionist captives with Palestinian prisoners, and guarantees that the Israeli regime would not resume its military aggression against the territory.

Spokesman Hazem Qassem made the remarks in a statement on Sunday in response to Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s repeated rejections of a total withdrawal from the territory among other things.

Qassem said discussions with Qatari and Egyptian mediators were ongoing regarding initiation of a second phase of negotiations.

He emphasized that Hamas would not agree to an extension of the initial phase of the ceasefire agreement that was implemented between the regime and the movement in January in the hope of ending Tel Aviv’s 15-month-plus war of genocide against Gaza...

read more here

Peter Thiel has major influence on Trump government – Bloomberg

from RT

Tech mogul and billionaire Peter Thiel exerts considerable influence over US President Donald Trump’s administration, a Bloomberg article has claimed. Unlike Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, however, he prefers to keep a low profile.

More than a dozen individuals connected to Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and Founders Fund, have been integrated into the Trump administration, Bloomberg wrote on Friday. This group includes “current and former employees of his companies, as well as people who have helped manage his fortune or benefitted from his investments and charitable giving.”

The outlet listed 15 individuals within the government who are seen as having ties to the entrepreneur, five of whom serve in the Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Among the officials are Vice President J.D. Vance and AI and crypto czar David Sacks. According to Bloomberg, the former had worked at Thiel’s Mithril Capital, while Thiel reportedly acted as Vance’s “mentor” and sponsor. The tech tycoon is also said to have helped Vance make inroads with Trump in 2021 after the then-Ohio senator publicly criticized the Republican firebrand. Sacks, a longtime associate of Thiel, is also a PayPal co-founder...

read more here

Syria leader urges unity, peace as anti-Assad loyalist ops kill many

from the Daily Sabah

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa urged national unity and peace Sunday following reports that more than 1,000 people were killed in the deadliest clashes along the country’s coast since Bashar Assad’s ouster.

The violence erupted Thursday between the new security forces and loyalists of the former government along the Mediterranean coast in the heartland of the Alawite minority to which Assad belonged.

It has since escalated into the largest challenge to the new government's forces since al-Sharaa's HTS-led coalition toppled Assad in December.

"We must preserve national unity (and) civil peace as much as possible and, God willing, we will be able to live together in this country," al-Sharaa said from a mosque in Damascus.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor has reported that 745 Alawite civilians were allegedly killed in Latakia and Tartus provinces.

The fighting has also killed 125 members of the security forces and 148 pro-Assad fighters, according to the Observatory, taking the overall death toll to 1,018.

The official SANA news agency reported Saturday that security forces had deployed to Latakia, as well as Jableh and Baniyas further south, to restore order.

Defence ministry spokesman Hassan Abdul Ghani said the security forces had "reimposed control" over areas that had seen attacks by Assad loyalists...

read more here

Elon and Shapiro are Deliberately Race-baiting the Black Community

Trump is not going to pardon Chauvin, he just said so. He had no idea what this was about. Elon and Shapiro are deliberately trying to destabilize the black community so they will focus on race and police relations again and ignore what the billionaires like Elon are currently doing to them. 

my article with all the links https://nomadiceveryman.blogspot.com/2025/03/elon-and-shapiro-race-baiting-african.html

Direct Support 

The al Qaeda/ISIS Terrorist Merc We Installed in Syria is Steadily Killing Syrians and Surrendering to Israel

by Scott Creighton

How many 'thought leaders' on the so-called alt-left sang the praises of the new regime in Syria run by a terrorist with a bounty on his head for killing U.S. service men and women in Iraq? How many? A lot.

Yeah, anyone heard from Assad or his wife and brother since that day? No? You know why? Because he didn't leave, we had our assets close to him kill them all.

And then folks in the alt-left influencer world sang the praises of the al Qaeda terrorists who took over.

But guess what al Qaeda terrorists do... they kill civilians.

For good old 'Merika! that's what they do (though Max Blumenthal will tell you it was Erdogan who did it but we know better)

Ukrainian nationalists commemorate Nazi collaborator

from RT

Ukrainian nationalists gathered this week to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the death of Roman Shukhevich, a Nazi collaborator and leader of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), known for its role in ethnic cleansing during World War II. The events included a torchlit march, a flower-laying ceremony, and the unveiling of a virtual museum dedicated to him.

One of the events included a ceremony on Wednesday near the site of the Museum of Shukhevich in Bilohorshcha outside of Lviv, which was allegedly destroyed by a Russian drone strike last year. It was attended by the acting head of the Lviv Regional Council, regional deputies, veterans, and nationalist organizations, according to local officials.

The Lviv Regional Council also said priests conducted a memorial service commemorating Roman Shukhevich and his followers. A video of the ceremony shared by Suspilne shows a crowd singing the Ukrainian national anthem, with people laying yellow and blue bouquets after the Ukrainian flag...

read more here

Elon and Shapiro Race-Baiting African Americans with Derek Chauvin Pardon Idea

by Scott Creighton

UPDATE: And leave it to Steven A Smith to take up the race-baiting call and amplify it to black social media

--

 

On March the 4th Elon Musk reposted a tweet by Ben Shapiro which suggested what Ben was saying was something to think about. What was Ben saying? He was saying President Trump should pardon Derek Chauvin, the officer who kneeled on George Floyd's neck until he died kicking off the Black Lives Matter destabilization campaign in May of 2020.

 

Musk and Shapiro are trying to get folks angry again so they will go out into the streets and protest against racism... rather than what they are starting to do now... protest against the Billionaire Coup which is currently destroying the country as we know it.

Shapiro's argument is that Chauvin was railroaded and he did NOT have his knee on Floyd's neck and that Floyd died because of his own drug usage. That is patently false.

 

Yes Folks: Trump is 'making the economy scream' for a Reason

Some have been tentatively asking if Donald Trump is deliberately tanking the economy. The answer is yes. Just like Biden was doing. So Why you might ask? Let me tell you.

MAGA Heroes https://nomadiceveryman.blogspot.com/2025/03/maga-heroes-trump-bankrupts-businesses.html

Privatize Everything https://nomadiceveryman.blogspot.com/2025/03/elon-musk-wants-to-privatize-post.html

RFK Jr.'s idea of transparency https://nomadiceveryman.blogspot.com/2025/03/rfk-jr-rolls-back-transparency-policy.html

Veterans March on March 14th in DC https://nomadiceveryman.blogspot.com/2025/03/veterans-called-to-rally-nationwide-on.html

Direct Support 

MAGA Heroes: Trump Bankrupts Businesses While Elon Produces Death Wagons

by Scott Creighton

And both are looting the government like no robber baron ever has.

Trump bankruptcies 

'Trump has filed for business bankruptcy four times: the Trump Taj Mahal in 1991, Trump Plaza Hotel in 1992, Trump Hotels and Casinos Resorts in 2004 and Trump Entertainment Resorts in 2009. Each time, the bankruptcy was a Chapter 11 filing.' 

Elon blows up YET ANOTHER rocket ship screwing up air traffic again.

 

Elon cuts lunch money for poor kids, workers at the VA and agencies that oversee his business interests... while collecting billions MORE in government contracts. 

Another Trump scam, this one with cryptocurrency

Tesla trucks are such pieces of shit in Europe they are illegal to operate and when cops see them on the road, they impound them for public safety reasons. 

Don't worry Muskies! Neocon Rubio came to the rescue with a $400 million contract for those piece of shit trucks to save Elon's bottom line.

Generous socialism for them... rugged savage capitalism for the rest of us.

Supreme Court Lifts Restraints on Wastewater Discharges, Further Eroding Clean Water Act

(Yep. More shit in your drinking water. Say hi to cholera again) 

MASTA!!!

Make Americans Shit Themselves Again!!!

from Democracy NOW!

The U.S. Supreme Court has further eroded the power of the Environmental Protection Agency and state governments to safeguard water quality under the Clean Water Act. In Tuesday’s 5-4 ruling, the majority overturned measures limiting the discharge of wastewater into harbors and coastal areas, including limits on the release of raw sewage. This comes less than two years after the Supreme Court gutted Clean Water Act protections for about half of all wetlands in the contiguous United States.

Industry-Backed Legislation Would Bar the Use of Science Behind Hundreds of Environmental Protections

from ProPublica

For decades, Republican lawmakers and industry lobbyists have tried to chip away at the small program in the Environmental Protection Agency that measures the threat of toxic chemicals.

Most people don’t know IRIS, as the program is called, but it is the scientific engine of the agency that protects human health and the environment. Its scientists assess the toxicity of chemicals, estimating the amount of each that triggers cancer and other health effects. And these values serve as the independent, nonpartisan basis for the rules, regulations and permits that limit our exposure to toxic chemicals.

Now IRIS faces the gravest threat to its existence since it was created under President Ronald Reagan four decades ago.

How Social Security cuts could put millions of older Americans at risk

from PBS

Laura Barron-Lopez:

The acting agency head told employees this week that it's Musk and DOGE that are calling the shots at SSA.

The Washington Post reported that Leland Dudek told senior staff at SSA that Musk's team of — quote — "outsiders who are unfamiliar with nuances of SSA programs are making decisions and that they will make mistakes."

And, this morning, the agency told its workers they can no longer use their government computers to look at, among other things, news Web sites, even blocking access to some of them. The restriction was said to help protect sensitive information. But news sites and obituaries are often relied on to confirm death information and prevent fraud.

For a closer look at the effect of potential cuts to Social Security, I'm joined by Martin O'Malley, who was the commissioner of SSA during the Biden administration and previously served as the governor of Maryland.

Governor O'Malley, thank you so much for joining the "News Hour."

Veterans March Against Fascism: 3-14

Sons of Liberty

 

Angry about Trumpite saying vets working at VA are lazy.

 

Elon Musk wants to privatize the Post Office. This country is shutting part of its down entirely

from Business Insider

The government "should try to privatize everything we possibly can," Musk said this week.

Elon Musk wants to privatize the United States Postal Service.

Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference on Wednesday, Musk said the government "should try to privatize everything we possibly can," including the USPS, according to audio reviewed by Business Insider.

Musk acknowledged that privatizing it would likely require congressional approval.

Yet, while Musk envisions a private US postal system, another country is taking an entirely different approach — shutting down its traditional letter-delivery service altogether...

read more here

Trump to Sign Order Abolishing Education Department Soon, Reports Say

from Inside Higher Education

The Trump administration appears to have called off a planned signing of an executive order that would have directed Education Secretary Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps” to close the agency.

After The Wall Street Journal and other media outlets reported on the White House's plans, President Trump's press secretary called those reports “fake news” and added that an order to shut down the Education Department wouldn’t be signed Thursday.

The reported order would be the first step in carrying out Trump’s controversial campaign promise to abolish the 45-year-old department. A draft of the order provided to Inside Higher Ed criticizes the department for spending “more than $1 trillion without producing virtually any improvement in student reading and mathematics scores.”

Education advocates quickly shown staunch opposition to the executive action after the initial news reporters. The American Federation of Teachers, a key higher ed union, called the order a government attempt to “abdicate its responsibility to all children, students and working families.”...

read more here

HHS overturns 54-year-old public comment rule

from Healthcare Brew

The new US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. rescinded on Monday a long-standing public comment practice at the nation’s largest public health agency—shortly after promising a “new era of radical transparency” last month.

In a policy statement on Feb. 28, Kennedy said the “extra-statutory” public comments “impose costs on the department and the public, are contrary to the efficient operation of the department, and impede the department’s flexibility to adapt quickly to legal and policy mandates.”

Since the move effectively limits citizens from sharing their opinions with the agency, experts have shared concerns that removing these opportunities for public commentary could impede the agency’s ability to operate in the public’s interest.

Lawrence Gostin, a law professor and chair of global health law at Georgetown University, posted on X that the move allows the HHS to “operate in secret” and “ignore the views of key stakeholders.”...

read more here

RFK Jr. rolls back transparency policy on Medicaid and NIH changes

from CBS

RFK Jr. aims to shut down public comment practice after promising a “new era of radical transparency.”

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ended a longstanding transparency rule on Friday, supercharging his authority to change policies in areas ranging from Medicaid to the National Institutes of Health without advance notice to the public.

Dubbed the "Richardson Waiver" after the former health secretary who issued the rule in 1971, the policy Kennedy repealed had required regulations related to property, loans, grants, benefits or contracts to go through the federal "rulemaking" process.

The law governing rulemaking usually exempts such regulations, but in response to calls at the time to close the exemption, officials voluntarily waived it. This meant that, until now, they would go through the process of notifying the public of their proposals and asking for comments before imposing changes. 

"The extra-statutory obligations of the Richardson Waiver impose costs on the Department and the public, are contrary to the efficient operation of the Department, and impede the Department's flexibility to adapt quickly to legal and policy mandates," Kennedy said in a filing announcing the end of the waiver.

Now health agencies no longer need to go through the notice and comment process for many policy changes about grants and benefits. This includes new rules that could otherwise be stymied by backlash during a public comment period, like potentially adding in work requirements to Medicaid or redrawing how the National Institutes of Health funds research...

read more here

Veterans Called to Rally Nationwide on March 14, 2025 in Protest of Project 2025 and VA Cuts

from Bloomentonian

ALL ARE WELCOME TO STAND WITH US

Veterans and supporters are being called up for a nationwide march on March 14, 2025, to protest the impact of Project 2025 on critical programs supporting former service members. The event, dubbed the Veterans March, will take place simultaneously in Washington, D.C., and at every state capitol, organizers announced on a flyer being circulated online.

Quoting a statement commonly attributed to Gen. Mark Milley, “We don’t take an oath to a king,” the event’s promotional materials emphasize a commitment to upholding the Constitution of the United States. Organizers say the march is a response to cuts that have already affected veteran services, including the Veterans Crisis Line, which provides vital mental health support.

“Project 2025 will decimate programs veterans rely on and has already eliminated vital lifelines,” a statement on the event flyer reads.

According to a leaked memo, the Trump administration plans to cut 83,000 jobs at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), a move that critics say would severely impact medical care and support services for veterans.

As of February 2024, the VA employed over 400,000 people, reflecting the sheer number of veterans in need of care. Many of these veterans served in Iraq and Afghanistan, wars that left long-lasting physical and psychological scars on those who fought...

ALL ARE WELCOME TO STAND WITH US

read more here

Why Republicans Want to Dismantle the Education Department

from the NYT

Right from the start, Republicans opposed President Jimmy Carter’s signature on a 1979 law creating the department, citing beliefs in limited government control, fiscal responsibility and local autonomy.

They argued that education should be primarily managed at the state and local levels rather than through federal mandates.

A year later, Ronald Reagan won the White House, his third attempt at the presidency, thanks to a promise that he would rein in a federal government that he said had overstepped its bounds on myriad issues, including education. In 1982, Mr. Reagan used his State of the Union address to call on Congress to eliminate two agencies: the Energy Department and the Education Department.

“We must cut out more nonessential government spending and root out more waste, and we will continue our efforts to reduce the number of employees in the federal work force,” Mr. Reagan said.

He was unable to persuade Democrats in control of the House to go along with his plan, and the issue started to fade as a top priority for Republicans — but never quite disappeared.

Newt Gingrich, then the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, called for the abolition of the agency in the mid-1990s. In the 2008 Republican presidential primary, both Representative Ron Paul and former Gov. Mitt Romney supported either terminating the Education Department or drastically reducing its size...

read more here

Asked if U.S. Needs Education Department, Its Head Says ‘No’

from the NYT

Education Secretary Linda McMahon delivered a stark message on Friday about the future of her agency. Asked on “Fox & Friends” whether the United States “needs this department,” Ms. McMahon answered: “No, we don’t.”

In the interview, her first since she was confirmed to her cabinet post this week, Ms. McMahon said that President Trump intended to sign an executive order aimed at closing her department, but she declined to give details on timing.

She also did not address how the administration might persuade lawmakers to go along. The department cannot be closed without the approval of Congress.

Such a move, in a closely divided Senate, would require support from Democrats, which appears unlikely after Ms. McMahon was confirmed along party lines. During the previous session of Congress, a proposal to eliminate the department failed in the Republican-controlled House when 60 Republicans voted against it...

read more here

‘New McCarthyism’: Pro-Palestine group denounces US Senate crackdown on Gaza protests

(Project Esther is from the Heritage Foundation. The same people who crafted Project 2025, the fascist destruction of the American government on behalf of Big Business and billionaires. The same people who are the ones actually directing DOGE pill-head boys. Project Esther is a war on those who support the ending of the genocide in Gaza and the West Bank.)

( 'Jacobin has said the effort is part of a red scare against the pro-Palestinian movement and the political left.^[12] )

from PressTV

A pro-Palestinian advocacy group has condemned recent US Senate hearings on Gaza protests as a "McCarthyite witch-hunt" aimed at silencing students and professors in the US who advocate for Palestinian rights.

Palestine Legal, a Chicago-based advocacy organization, issued a strong statement on the platform X on Wednesday, criticizing the hearings as part of a troubling trend to suppress dissent and criminalize those who support Palestinian causes.

“These Senate hearings represent a McCarthyite witch hunt targeting students and professors who speak out for Palestinian rights,” the group stated.

It said the hearings followed an executive order from US President Donald Trump targeting  college advocates for Palestinian rights, adding that it is part of a larger strategy detailed in the Heritage Foundation's “Project Esther,” which was designed to dismantle the Palestinian rights.

Project Esther, created by the conservative think tank aligned with Trump, aims to eliminate dissent against Zionist policies, restrict educational access on related issues, and mobilize support for a crackdown on individuals and organizations opposing systemic racism and colonialism, starting with the Palestinian rights movement...

read more here

Trump issues ‘last warning’ to Hamas, Israel maintains Gaza blockade

from al Jazeera

• US President Donald Trump issues what he calls “a last warning” to Hamas to release all Israeli captives held in Gaza, and tells its leaders to leave the Strip.
• The threat comes as the White House confirms direct talks with Hamas for the first time since 1997 to secure the release of US-Israeli captives and end the war in Gaza.
• Palestinians in Gaza are going hungry as Israel’s blockade causes high prices and food shortages with warnings stocks could run out in less than two weeks.
• Gaza’s Health Ministry has confirmed 48,440 Palestinian deaths in Israel’s war on Gaza while 111,845  people have been wounded. The Government Media Office updated its death toll to at least 61,709, saying thousands of Palestinians missing under the rubble are presumed dead. At least 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks and more than 200 were taken captive.

read more here

Trump threatens Gazans with 'death' if captives not released

from al Mayadeen English

US President Donald Trump told the Palestinian Resistance Movement Hamas that he will authorize fresh Israeli strikes on Gaza unless the group frees the remaining Israeli captives.

Trump's ultimatum came during direct discussions in Doha between his envoy for captive matters, Adam Boehler, and Hamas leaders in an attempt to achieve a fresh Gaza ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement. 

Trump gave the ultimatum after meeting with six captives freed as part of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement.

A senior Hamas official told Al Mayadeen that the recent meeting left the American side with a "positive impression" regarding the possibility of negotiations with the group. 

However, the official noted that the US envoy focused solely on a potential prisoner exchange and did not address broader issues, such as a ceasefire or an end to the war on Gaza. 

"The American side did not present a specific framework for a prisoner swap but listened to Hamas's perspective on the matter," the official said...

read more here

The Supreme Court voted 5-4 against the Trump administration’s effort to freeze foreign aid

from the NYT

The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected President Trump’s emergency request to freeze nearly $2 billion in foreign aid as part of his efforts to slash government spending.

The court’s brief order was unsigned, which is typical when the justices act on emergency applications. It said only that the trial judge, who had ordered the government to resume payments, “should clarify what obligations the government must fulfill.”

But the ruling represented one of the court’s first moves in response to the flurry of litigation filed in response to Mr. Trump’s efforts to dramatically reshape government. The vote was 5 to 4, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Amy Coney Barrett joining the three liberal members to form a majority.

Although the language of the order was mild, tentative and not a little confusing, its bottom line was that a bare majority of the court ruled against Mr. Trump on one of his signature projects. The president’s many programs and plans, the order suggested, will face close scrutiny from a deeply divided court.

That, in turn, is likely to give rise to major rulings testing and perhaps recalibrating the separation of powers required by the Constitution.

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., writing for the four dissenting justices, said the majority had gone profoundly astray.

“Does a single district-court judge who likely lacks jurisdiction have the unchecked power to compel the government of the United States to pay out (and probably lose forever) two billion taxpayer dollars? “ he asked. “The answer to that question should be an emphatic ‘No,’ but a majority of this court apparently thinks otherwise. I am stunned.”..

read more here

Trump's State of the Development Plans 2025 (live stream Trump's speech last night)

 

Yes Scott can't stream. It is true. But I gave it a shot anyway.

Serbia, el-Sissi Gaza Plan, Knesset Violence, Trump Speech and Pam Bondi Gun-grabbing

Lots to talk about. We are doing a live stream of the Trump 'it's someone else's fault' of the Union address starting at 8:30pm eastern on my YouTube channel. All sorts of stuff to talk about so lets get to it.

Serbian opposition throwing smoke grenades in parliament

(So what happens in a color revolution? When the few real people protesting get what they want, the assets try to block it so the regime change operation can continue.)

from RT

A session of Serbia’s parliament briefly descended into chaos on Tuesday when opposition MPs set off smoke grenades and tear gas to protest against the government, causing serious injuries.

As the spring session kicked off on Tuesday, tensions flared when the ruling coalition, led by the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), approved the legislative agenda. Some opposition politicians rushed from their seats toward the speaker’s chair, resulting in a scuffle with security guards.

Parliament was set to adopt a law increasing funds for universities – one of the main demands of students protesting since December. Additionally, a debate on the resignation of Prime Minister Milos Vucevic was scheduled. However, opposition MPs argued it was improper to adopt bills proposed by a government whose prime minister had already resigned.

 

Arab League endorses Egypt’s Gaza reconstruction plan at Cairo summit

(I am not a fan of this plan. Whenever a rebuilding plan includes space for 'technocrats' to recreate the nation, that's a red flag. Plus, it simply paves the way for the P.A. to take over in Gaza. That is what Zionist supporters have wanted since Hamas won the election in 2005/2006. Fatah is corrupt and sells out Palestinians to Israelis on a daily basis. And the reconstruction plan seems an awful lot like the Gaza 2035 plan just with the P.A. pretending they are in charge. Lastly, I don't like el-Sissi. He was put in place by John Kerry and ObamaGod when we used them to remove the elected president, Morsi, in a coup. el-Sissi is a globalist tool who will certainly bring in the IMF for the loans getting the people of Gaza locked into debt servitude just like the people of Egypt.)

from PressTV

The Arab League has endorsed an Egyptian plan for the reconstruction of Gaza that ensures the non-displacement of its Palestinian inhabitants.

The plan is presented as an alternative to US President Donald Trump’s widely criticized proposal to assume control of the war-torn Palestinian territory.

The plan was discussed during an extraordinary Arab League summit in Cairo on Tuesday, attended by several Arab heads of state, foreign ministers, and other high-level representatives.

In his opening remarks, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said the plan would ensure Gazans “remain on their land.”

Sisi proposed forming an administrative committee of independent Palestinian professionals to temporarily oversee Gaza's affairs, paving the way for the return of the Palestinian Authority.

Schools, colleges that allow illegal protests will lose funding: Trump

from al Mayadeen English

Schools and colleges that allow illegal protests will face the withdrawal of federal funding, US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday in a post on his social media.

"All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests. Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on the crime, arrested," Trump's post on Truth Social read.

This decision comes amid Trump's crackdown on pro-Palestine protests and demonstrations, which took over United States universities during Israel's war on Gaza...

The US President Trump signed an executive order on January 29 targeting pro-Palestinian protestors by authorizing the US government to utilize "all available and appropriate legal tools to combat anti-Semitism, including prosecuting and deporting those accused of anti-Semitic harassment."...

read more here

'Israel' used Hannibal Directive on October 7: The Jerusalem Post

from al Mayadeen English

The Israeli occupation's Air Force disclosed Thursday for the first time details of a classified operation, code-named Sword of Damocles, which targeted Hamas commanders and headquarters in Gaza amid the implementation of the Hannibal Directive during Operation Al Aqsa Flood on October 7, The Jerusalem Post reported.

The Hannibal Directive is a controversial policy aimed at preventing the abduction of Israeli soldiers or settlers even if that is at the cost of their lives.

Hours after the operation began and at around 10:30 am, the IAF focused significant resources on eliminating the leadership of the Resistance within Gaza instead of prioritizing the settlements of the Gaza envelope...

read more here

Independent Palestinian body to manage Gaza under Egypt's plan

from Daily Sabah

An independent Palestinian body would manage Gaza under the Egyptian plan, which would ensure Palestinians remain on their land, President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi said Tuesday, as Arab countries met to discuss the future of the blockaded enclave.

Giving opening remarks at an Arab League summit in Cairo to counter U.S. President Donald Trump's proposal to relocate Gazans, el-Sissi said that under the Egyptian plan, Palestinians would "remain on their land" and the territory would be run by a committee of Palestinian technocrats.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he welcomed the plan to rebuild the Gaza Strip

Hamas: Israel can’t blackmail, terrify Palestinians through starvation, siege

from PressTV

A high-ranking Hamas official has reiterated that the occupying Israeli regime can’t blackmail Palestinians through criminal measures like siege and starvation, emphasizing that weapons of resistance are not up for negotiation.

Sami Abu Zuhri condemned in the strongest terms the Zionist entity’s decision to block humanitarian aid from entering Gaza and close crossings used for relief efforts, calling the measures “a war crime.”

“The occupying Israeli regime’s threats of blockade and starvation will not terrify us, and are of no value.

“Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking to destroy the ceasefire agreement, and impose a new round of negotiations. This is simply unacceptable,” he pointed out...

read more here

Trade wars erupt as Trump hits Canada, Mexico, China with steep tariffs

(Trump administration is continuing with Biden admin's plan to make the economy scream. In all likelihood so they can bring about... oh dare I say it?... the Great Reset and their digital currency agenda. Yep. The WEF is all about smaller government, deregulation and privatizations. All the stuff Trump and Musk are doing as fast as they can. And you thought it was over. Nope. Not by a longshot.)

from Reuters

U.S. President Donald Trump's new 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada took effect on Tuesday, along with a doubling of duties on Chinese goods to 20%, launching new trade conflicts with the top three U.S. trading partners.

 

The tariff actions, which could upend nearly $2.2 trillion in two-way annual U.S. trade went live at 12:01 a.m. EST (0501 GMT), hours after Trump declared that all three countries had failed to do enough to stem the flow of the deadly fentanyl opioid and its precursor chemicals into the U.S.

 

China responded immediately after the deadline, announcing additional tariffs of 10%-15% on certain U.S. imports from March 10 and a series of new export restrictions for designated U.S. entities.

 

Canada and Mexico, which have enjoyed a virtually tariff-free trading relationship with the U.S. for three decades, were poised to immediately retaliate against their longtime ally.

 

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Ottawa would respond with immediate 25% tariffs on C$30 billion ($20.7 billion) worth of U.S. imports, and another C$125 billion ($86.2 billion) if Trump's tariffs were still in place in 21 days. He said previously that Canada would target American beer, wine, bourbon, home appliances and Florida orange juice...

read more here

Former Social Security head claims DOGE will cause payment interruptions

(The DOGE fascists and Nazis are going to cut costs at the SSA by cutting employee numbers from 57,000 to 50,000. The plan is to save government money so they can justify Trump's tax breaks for billionaires like Trump and Elon Musk who runs DOGE supposedly. The layoffs will put lots of people out of work and cause delays on everything at the administration including payments. They tried to lie about waste and fraud over there but people fact checked them and discovered they were lying... so now they are firing a bunch of people instead. In the end they WANT the delays and the problems so they can come back in 6 months and say 'see? Social Security doesn't work cus Gubmint so we have to PRIVATIZE it' and then Elon and Trump and Thiel and all their billionaire friends get to ransack that money pot as well. This is sickening and obscene.) 

from SAN

A former director of the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA) claims that reduction efforts by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) will lead to an interruption of benefits. The administration has reportedly never missed a payment, but the former agency head predicted it could happen in the near future.

Martin O’Malley, the former Democratic Maryland governor who former President Joe Biden tapped to run SSA, told CNBC that payment interruptions could come as soon as this spring. 

“Ultimately, you’re going to see the system collapse and an interruption of benefits,” O’Malley said. “I believe you will see that within the next 30 to 90 days.”...

read more here

Musk, Social Security, and the Ponzi-Scheme Boomerang

 

from Common Dreams

...

Musk has been recruited by Trump to take on the role of special advisor for allegedly seeking to root out waste, fraud and abuse from the federal bureaucracy, even as Musk’s private companies continue to profit in the millions of dollars from contracts from that bureaucracy. For some reason, Musk’s own contracts have been exempted from his investigations, but Social Security has not. Dismantling the most prominent social welfare program of the last century is undoubtedly an extremist undertaking and Musk is employing Trumpism as a discourse to help make that happen. Whether he succeeds is dependent in no small part on our ability to call out and resist his verbal jujitsu.

Dismantling Social Security would be very significant, for it not only provides major benefits to over 70 million retirees and persons receiving disability and survivor benefits (about one in five Americans). The program was enacted by Congress during the Great Depression with the Economic Security Act of 1935 (which quickly came to be known as the Social Security Act). It has become the cornerstone of the American welfare state, limited as it is compared to its counterparts in the rest of the developed world. It is nonetheless the most effective anti-poverty program in the history of the country, basically reducing the poverty rate among the elderly by half once its benefits started getting adjusted annually in 1972 to keep up with inflation. It has long been considered the “third rail” of American politics for any politician who tries to tamper with it usually ends up getting repudiated, just as President George Bush did when he tried to privatize it after winning re-election in 2004. Now Trump is going down that road but using the discourse of Trumpism to legitimate undermining this bedrock foundation of the U.S. welfare state.

Calling Social Security the “biggest Ponzi scheme in American history” is pure Trumpism. It is a boomerang. Many people have pointed out the Ponzi-scheme nature of Musk’s own preferred cryptocurrency Dogecoin. Dogecoin was the source for Musk calling his anti-federal government initiative “DOGE” (Department of Government Efficiency). Musk’s response was like him saying “no Dogecoin is not a Ponzi scheme, but Social Security is,” thereby redirecting the criticism of Dogecoin (and all cryptocurrencies) toward the government’s largest and most effective social welfare program. Cryptocurrencies, like Dogecoin, but also even more prominently Bitcoin, have been, for the last decade or so, very popular, especially with people who want to be free of having to rely on government-backed currency like the dollar. Cryptocurrencies have an anti-government elan that attracts all kinds of people, including libertarians and even anarchists. Calling Social Security the biggest Ponzi scheme in history is an anti-government boomerang perpetuated in the name of speculators who want to be free of government regulation...

read more here

Centrist Dem group rails against leftist identity politics and purity tests

(Third Way is the centrist, corporatist, globalist fake-left which seeks to turn the Democrat party into Republican-lite. Third Way are big time neoliberals and have always been.  And look at that. They are opposed to ideological purity tests (ideological purity) developing on the left right now. But of course they do. They are neoliberal corporatist globalists and the last thing they want is for a true movement of left leaning Americans to threaten what Musk, Theil and Trump are doing right now.)

from Politico

When several dozen Democratic political operatives and elected officials gathered at a tony resort off the Potomac River last month, frustration boiled over at the left wing of their party.

Democrats had become too obsessed with “ideological purity tests” and should push back “against far-left staffers and groups that exert a disproportionate influence on policy and messaging,” according to a document of takeaways from the gathering produced by the center-left group Third Way and obtained by POLITICO.

The group of moderate Democratic consultants, campaign staffers, elected officials and party leaders who gathered in Loudoun County, Virginia for a day-and-a-half retreat, where they plotted their party’s comeback, searched for why the party lost in November — and what to do about it. Much of what they focused their ire on centered on the kind of identity politics that they believed lost them races up and down the ballot.

One of the key ways to win back the trust of the working class, some gathered there argued, was to “reduce far-left influence and infrastructure” on the party, according to the takeaways document. That included building a more moderate campaign infrastructure and talent pipeline, pushing “back against far-left staffers and groups that exert a disproportionate influence on policy and messaging,” and refusing to participate in “far-left candidate questionnaires” and “forums that create ideological purity tests.”...

read more here

No Live Stream Today but Tomorrow...

 Hi folks.

 My knees hurt too much to be able to concentrate on the live stream today. So I am going to prop em up and have dinner instead with Beau and the critters.

However, I will be going live tomorrow at 8:30pm on my YouTube channel to chat about the Trump congressional address as it happens.

I fully expect the usual suspects like Rogan and AJ and the rest to be covering it and translating the stupid into purely idol worshiping dreg for their followers so we might check in on them and laugh at that shit as well.

Gonna be a wild scene.

See you there.

Is Zelensky Still a Puppet of Biden's Oligarchs?

by Scott Creighton

Yes. Boris Johnson did travel to Ukraine to tell Zelensky to reject the peace deal with Russia in April of 2022. All of this could and should have been over long ago.

'The then British prime minister made a surprise visit to Kyiv in April 2022, six weeks after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion. He walked through the streets of Kyiv with Zelenskyy and publicly affirmed British support for Ukraine.

The idea that Johnson also used the visit to ensure Ukraine did not sign a peace agreement with Russia first emerged in an article in the respected Ukrainska Pravda outlet in May 2022, which said that Ukrainian and Russian negotiators had agreed on a broad possible agreement after a meeting in Istanbul in late March.

A week later, Johnson arrived with a message that “Putin is a war criminal, he needs to be pressured, not negotiated with”, according to one of the outlet’s sources.

In November 2023, David Arakhamia, a member of Zelenskyy’s own negotiating team in Istanbul, appeared to lend the idea credence. “When we returned from Istanbul, Boris Johnson came to Kyiv and said that we would not sign anything with them at all, and let’s just fight,” he said in a November 2023 interview.' The Guardian

Why do you think Zelensky grabbed control of all of Ukaine's media outlets? Yep. That's right. Didn't want anyone telling the truth anymore.

So let me ask a question: if this was all done by the Biden administration (keeping the war going and the additional bombing in Jan 2022 that brought Russia into Donbass to protect ethnic Russians in the first place) why is no one asking if Zelensky's little play last Friday didn't possibly have something to do with former Biden officials telling him ONCE AGAIN to keep the war going as long as possible?

I mean, the One Party state is not unipolar. There are competing interests you know. Could the same interests that picked the fight with Russia once before still be compelling Zelensky to keep offering up his troops to the meat grinder for those same reasons?

Moscow mocks Canada’s pledge to deploy troops to Ukraine

 (The notion that Canada or the UK would be sending troops to fight against Russia in Ukraine being some sort of deterrent or pressuring Putin is a joke. Neither has done a total of jack shit ever or at least since the Revolutionary War when a fledgling nation beat Britain's ass. These are two wannabe world leaders (Starmer and Trudeau) trying to show they can step up to the plate to fill the power void in the absence of real U.S. leadership. However, flaky as the Trump'Elon merger may be, the two wannabe Super Powers of UK and The Great WHITE North simply 'don't have the cards' to measure up to the task at hand. And of course, Russia understands that. They are NOT going to hand over tens of thousands of ethnic Russians in Crimea and Donbass to the terrorist Nazis who work for Zelensky in Ukraine. Wont happen. Ever. So it's a stupid stunt being done for the Western Press, not meant to have any real consequences in Moscow. But that is what we do now. Its all a show. A production. That's what Zelensky is. That's what Trump is. That's what they are all. But not Russia. Not Putin. Go ahead. FAFO. Send your cheese eaters over there and see what happens to em. Just remember, don't send black, gay or Jewish soldiers. They don't mix well with Nazis.)

from RT

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has derided the idea that Canada could send troops to Ukraine. In a social media post on Monday, she questioned who would safeguard Canadian territory from potential US annexation in such a scenario.

The senior diplomat’s remark followed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s statement on Sunday that his government is open to contributing forces to a possible joint Western mission in Ukraine. British Prime Minister Kier Starmer announced the formation of a “coalition of the willing” once a possible ceasefire with Russia is reached following a meeting of Kiev’s European backers in London.

“Who would defend Canadian land if the US expands north? Probably Ukrainians, who are dodging the draft in Canada,” Zakharova quipped, alluding to the widespread evasion of mandatory military service among Ukrainian citizens...

read more here

Tech Bro Supervillains Confess World Takeover Plan

The Majority Report

 

Rare Earth Minerals in Ukraine and a Clean Break for the Zionists

Today's news. Turns out... there are no rare earth minerals in Ukraine and Netanyahu is back on track with the Greater Israel plan by cancelling the cease fire agreement with Gaza.

Direct Support 

If Israel wants peace, it must break away from Netanyahu’s ‘Clean Break’ doctrine

from The Hill

... It actually has an identifiable source. In 1996, Netanyahu, then Likud party leader, commissioned the policy document “A Clean Break, A New Strategy for Securing the Realm,” whose lead drafters were neoconservatives Richard Perle and Douglas Feith, co-architects of the disastrous U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq.  

In the document they asserted that Israel should “change the nature of its relations with the Palestinians, including upholding the ‘right of hot pursuit’ for self defense into all Palestinian areas.” They argued for abandoning the Oslo Accords, the agreed roadmap to a Palestinian state, in favor of aggressive, preemptive military force in Palestine and regionally, aimed at undermining the Palestinian Liberation Organization and preventing a free, independent Palestine. “Clean Break” also called for overthrowing the governments of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. 

But there have been leaders of another persuasion, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, who took a different path and worked for a just, secure peace for Israel and Palestine and the region. Rabin led the negotiations that resulted in the Oslo Accords. Both men were Nobel Peace Prize laureates; both were assassinated by nationalist religious zealots. They were heroes who lived and died for peace....

read more here

Ukraine's $500 billion rare earths scam: they don't exist, and we should know better

from Inside China Business

 

‘No credible evidence’ that Ukraine has rare earth minerals, says Northeastern expert

from Northeastern University

A deal that would give the U.S. a share of Ukraine’s critical raw minerals could set the Eastern European country on a path to peace — but many of the details are still to come.

The proposed agreement would establish a joint “reconstruction investment fund” controlled by the U.S. and Ukraine into which Ukraine would contribute 50% of the revenue from “all relevant government-owned natural resource assets.” President Donald Trump has touted the deal, which does not currently include security guarantees for Ukraine, as a way to recuperate U.S. investments in aid for Ukraine’s war effort against Russia. 

Congress had appropriated roughly $174 billion over the last several years intended as aid for Ukraine. Trump initially said he wanted up to $500 billion in potential revenue from the arrangement...

read more here

Arab countries condemn Israel’s decision to block aid into Gaza amid humanitarian crisis

from PressTV

Arab states have strongly condemned Israel’s decision to halt the entry of all humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip as a flagrant violation of the ceasefire agreement with the Palestinian Hamas resistance movement and international law.

“The Kingdom condemns and denounces the decision by the Israeli occupation regime to halt humanitarian aid to Gaza, using it as a tool of blackmail and collective punishment,” the Saudi Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.

The statement emphasized that the decision constitutes a “flagrant violation of international law and a direct assault on the principles of international humanitarian law amid the ongoing humanitarian crisis faced by the Palestinian people.”

Egypt also censured Israel’s blocking of the entry of all humanitarian aid into Gaza as a “flagrant violation” of the Gaza ceasefire agreement.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it “strongly condemns Israel’s decision to block humanitarian aid and close crossings used for relief efforts.”...

read more here

Facts Matter: Please Stop Sucking Up to Neoliberal Fascist Nazis in Ukraine

Facts Matter. Zelensky ambushed Trump in the White House not the other way around. He made it clear there would be no peace. He wants the war to continue. Trump doesn't. But somehow that makes Trump the warmonger in the eyes of the virtue signalling left.

Direct Support 

What Russia Wants to Bring Peace to Ukraine

Nazi Musk and DOGE claim to be rooting out corruption and fraud

Zelensky claimed to be rooting out corruption and fraud 

by Scott Creighton

While Zelensky made it perfectly clear he wants to continue with the war, we should ask ourselves what does Russia want? What is so outrageous about it?

 'Russia's demands were Ukraine's recognition of Russian-occupied Crimea, independence for separatist-controlled Luhansk and Donetsk, and "de-militarisation" and "de-Nazification". Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba stated that while his country was ready for talks to resume, Russia's demands had not changed.'

Crimea held a referendum and voted by a massive majority to leave Ukraine and rejoin with Russia back in 2014.

'The official result from the Autonomous Republic of Crimea was a 97 percent vote for integration of the region into the Russian Federation, with an 83 percent voter turnout, and from Sevastopol there was also a 97 percent vote for integration with Russia, with an 89 percent voter turnout.'

Since 2014 Ukraine has been bombing the people of Donbass because they want to separate from the neoliberal fascist state of Ukraine after Barack Obama's bloody coup. 

'The Ukrainian Army appears to have fired cluster munitions on several occasions into the heart of Donetsk, unleashing a weapon banned in much of the world into a rebel-held city with a peacetime population of more than one million, according to physical evidence and interviews with witnesses and victims.

Sites where rockets fell in the city on Oct. 2 and Oct. 5 showed clear signs that cluster munitions had been fired from the direction of army-held territory, where misfired artillery rockets still containing cluster bomblets were found by villagers in farm fields.' NYT 2014 

Of course Russia wants Ukraine to remain neutral and not become a member of NATO right alongside their border but more than that, they want them to get the Nazis out of their government. Who could blame Russia for not wanting nuclear armed Nazis right next door after what happened in WWII?

Ukraine’s neoliberalism on steroids, Europe’s economic suicide

(Would you look at that. Even Trump's ridiculous 'you gotta pay us back with your resources' demand is actually a policy created by the oligarchs of America during the  Biden administration. Go figure.)

from Geopolitical Economy published May 15 2023 under the Biden administration

Political economists Radhika Desai, Michael Hudson, and Mick Dunford analyze the conflict in Ukraine, discussing the aggressive neoliberal reforms being imposed by the Ukrainian government and Europe’s suicidal policies.

... And so beginning with Ukraine, what I find really remarkable about the whole sort of economic situation in Ukraine is that normally when a country is at war, you’d expect that the country pulls together, the government creates policies that are egalitarian.

You know, in the course of the conflict in the Second World War in Britain, there was talk of fair shares and equal sacrifices.

But what you find in Ukraine now is absolutely the opposite. What you are looking at in Ukraine is what we may call neoliberalism on steroids...

Meanwhile, the government is implementing exceedingly anti-labor legislation. It has banned the opposition that will try to resist that. And it is privatizing all sorts of state assets in order to finance the war...

And what’s more, the privatizations include the very, very fertile land of Ukraine. And it is not being privatized to ordinary farmers or anything. On the contrary, the land is being sold off to large agribusiness...

And in many other ways as well, private enterprise is deeply involved. Every time there is a loan being given to Ukraine, private sector operators, big financial institutions are involved. And of course, the IMF is funneling money to Ukraine in various ways and so on...

So the U.S. is accumulating a bill that now the New York Times says is $2 trillion that Ukraine will have to pay the West in order to become solvent once the fighting is over...

But of course, the war crimes trial is going to take years and years. And in the meantime, Ukraine is going to have to sell off exactly all of its assets that you have mentioned.

It’ll have to sell off its agriculture to Monsanto. It’ll sell off its gas rights to Chevron. The U.S. has hired BlackRock, the Wall Street firm, to make a repertory of all of the assets Ukraine has and how they will be sold to U.S. buyers.

Well, the whole question is, what will happen? Will that really be sold off?...

read more here

‘Everybody is tired. The mood has changed’: the Ukrainian army’s desertion crisis

(I saw a video of some influencer wannbe talking about the Zelensky dust-up from his car this morning. He was so upset. Said NOW the world sees the U.S. as 'the bad guys' because Orange Man Bad hurt Voldermort's (I know) feelings. Dude stuffed 10 ad breaks in his little 10 minute rant of pure unadulterated ignorance. Funny thing is... he and all his virtue signalling ilk are literally arguing for MORE WAR right alongside Voldermort (I know) and he doesn't see the irony there. Even the damn Ukrainians want out of this war and I don't care how many times Voldermort lies about how his soldiers love fighting and dying for the neoliberal regime in Kiev. They are RUNNING AWAY by the brigades. They are being rounded up on the streets and stuffed into vans and taken to the front to die for Visa and DIIA. And our virtue signalling left screech endlessly (because it pays so well) in support of more war. Remarkable)

from The Guardian

When Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine three years ago, Viktor* was ready to die for his country. He volunteered to defend Kyiv as enemy tanks appeared and joined Ukraine’s armed forces. In the spring of 2023 he was fighting in the village of Tonenke, near the eastern city of Avdiivka. “When I arrived I was super-motivated. If necessary I would give my life,” he recalled.

Gradually, however, he became disillusioned. The battle was furious. “The Russians would smash our positions to the ground,” he said. Senior Ukrainian commanders gave unrealistic orders. Then, while he was defending a ruined building, a panel fell on his shoulder. After receiving injections to reduce the pain, he was told to return to the front. “I realised I’m nobody. Just a number,” he said.

In May that same year, Viktor left his position to seek further medical treatment. He did not come back. His commander marked him down as awol. Viktor is one of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers who have abandoned their units. The exact figure is a military secret, but officials concede the number is large. They say it is understandable, when tired troops have served for months without a proper break.

The issue of desertion has made headlines in Ukraine. Last week the government launched an investigation into the 155th Mechanised Brigade. Fifty-six soldiers disappeared while training in France. Hundreds of others are said to be missing. The unit’s commander, Dmytro Riumshyn, was arrested. He faces 10 years in jail for failing to carry out his official duties and to report unauthorised absences...

read more here

Most are on the wrong side of this Trump/Zelensky dust-up

 by Scott Creighton

UPDATE: Good on Consortium News. They get it.  Trump, Vance School Zelensky on Reality of His War

--

Folks are out there cooking up whatever boot-licking take they can come up with to praise 'Man of the People' Zelensky after yesterday's little scene with Trump and Vance in the White House.

And as they do they sit back and watch the bots click their subscribe buttons like it's going out of style.

Now, Trump came across like a petulant little spoiled brat because that is what he is and yeah, his damn near criminal 'give us the resources' scheme is about as deplorable as his meme coin rug pull was and will be.

All that is true. But go read the transcript. It was Zelensky who came there with an agenda. He says he's making Ukraine 'Open for Business' as they drop the economic brick on the heads of their own people. But then he makes one thing clear... in the friendly presser:

he wants to take back Donbass and Crimea and that is not negotiable to him. No land for peace. 

Crimea held a referendum and they left Ukraine and went back to Russia after ObamaGod regime changed the place with a bloody coup.

Donbass is a separatist area which has also declared themselves done with Ukraine for the same reasons. 

Zelensky is not getting either of them back and he knows it but he will keep the war going as long as he can because all sorts of money and opportunity for the oligarchs keep popping up as long as it goes on.

Ukraine Shouldn’t Become a Neoliberal Laboratory

from Jacobin

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky hesitated quite some time before signing his country’s new labor law on August 17, 2022. Already a month earlier, the national parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, had passed the bill known by the number 5371. In the sober, deceptive language of bureaucracy, it is supposed to simplify relations between employers and employees. In reality, it implies a complete flexibilization of the labor market, to the detriment of workers.

Zelensky’s hesitation may have owed to pressure from Ukrainian trade unions as well as from abroad. Even the International Trade Union Confederation, which unites more than 200 million workers worldwide, protested against the law. “It is grotesque that Ukrainian workers, who defend the country and care for the injured, sick and displaced are now being attacked by their own parliament,” General Secretary Sharan Burrow said in a statement.

Ukraine’s digital minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, for his part, did not hesitate for long, picking up the pen on July 4. At the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Lugano, Switzerland, he signed an agreement with the mobile and cable network companies Kyivstar, Vodafone, and Datagroup-Volia on the digitization of Ukraine. In the war, he said, there is an opportunity to digitally develop Ukraine into the most advanced state in the world. “It’s an experiment, a revolution. An opportunity for you, your companies, and the whole world!” Fedorov explained.

The new labor law and the Recovery Conference are both indicators of the direction Ukraine could take during and after Russia’s war. Ukraine risks becoming a neoliberal laboratory with as few labor regulations as possible — and with the best possible conditions for private companies that want to profit from reconstruction...

read more here

The neoliberal battle for Ukraine’s reconstruction

The New Statesman

At a breakfast discussion at Davos in January 2023, the BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said that Ukraine’s postwar recovery could become “a beacon to the rest of the world about the power of capitalism”. The scene could have been a parody of Russian propaganda: the head of an American asset firm telling a rapt crowd of the Western business and political elite that Ukraine’s reconstruction would not only be a cash cow but would be touted as a capitalist success story – presumably something to congratulate themselves about at future breakfasts in Davos. For Fink, Ukraine’s reconstruction presented not just a business opportunity but an ideological one. If Western political leaders saw the war in Ukraine as an occasion to reinvigorate EU and Nato enlargement, then Fink and his ilk viewed it as an opportunity to revive a waning faith in capitalism.

The idea sounds somehow familiar. Fink’s words reflect the continuation of a more than 30-year project adopted by – and in some ways, imposed on – Ukraine and its neighbours. The “disaster capitalism” of the current war was preceded by the administration of 1990s “shock therapy”, a series of radical neoliberal reforms following the fall of the Soviet Union, from which the country never fully recovered. The current war has introduced an innovation on the old formula: the fusion of neoliberal economic policies with cowboy advances in technology, particularly artificial intelligence (AI) and digitalisation. Wartime Ukraine has already seen a dramatic influx of Western donor funds, consultants, experts, engineers and Silicon Valley venture capital. The result has been radical experiments in the introduction of AI-enhanced platforms for mine clearance and the rapid collation of commercial satellite data (both supplied by Peter Thiel’s Palantir); and economic strategies like the “fast state”, a Ukrainian government proposal that envisions a state so streamlined that it “disappears in one’s own efficiency”.

Ukraine’s reconstruction will be an unimaginably daunting task. The World Bank recently assessed that it would cost close to $500bn. Beyond the staggering cost in human life, war has devastated the economy: in the first year of the conflict, the country lost between 30-35 per cent of its GDP. Poverty more than quadrupled and one in three families are now food insecure. Over 15 per cent of Ukraine’s territory – comprising some of the most fertile farmland on Earth – is now contaminated with landmines and unexploded ordnance...

read more here

Zelensky: Ukraine to help launch equivalent of Diia in other countries

from KI

President Volodymyr Zelensky shared during his nightly address on June 2 that Ukraine was helping other countries in Europe, Latin America, and Africa to develop the equivalent of Diia, the state mobile application for government services.

Dubbed "the state in a smartphone," Diia was launched by the Digital Transformation Ministry in 2020.

Ukrainians can access digitized versions of various official documents, including their passport, driver's license, vehicle registration, or tax ID. It is also possible to do things like register a business or the birth of one's child on the app.

Digital transformation was also one of the main topics of discussion during Estonian President Alar Karis' visit to Kyiv on June 2, according to the President's Office.

"Previously, Ukrainians looked to Estonia as an example in the development of digital solutions," Zelensky said...

read more here

notes on Zelensky Trump Dust Up

 

Below the fold is the transcript of the first part of the meeting between President Donald Trump and Zelensky in 2019. 

Here is the skirmish from yesterday.

 

Ukraine bans largest opposition party

from WSWS

A Ukrainian court has officially banned the activities of the country’s largest opposition party, the Opposition Platform—For Life party.

The decision was handed down by the Administrative Court of Appeals No. 8 on June 20 in Lviv and effectively upheld President Volodymyr Zelensky’s banning of 11 political parties that Kiev regarded as “anti-Ukrainian” and “collaborationists” earlier in March. The measure was then approved by the Ukrainian parliament in May.

Ten other pro-Russian and left-wing parties were included in Zelensky’s ban, among them the Socialist Party of Ukraine and the Party of Shariy led by the popular Youtube blogger Anatoly Shariy.

In addition to legally banning the party’s activities, the court also stated that the party’s property and assets will be confiscated by the State Treasury. ..

read more here

Zelenskyy has consolidated Ukraine's TV outlets and dissolved rival political parties

from NPR

President Zelenskyy has consolidated all TV platforms in Ukraine into one state broadcast and restricted political rivals. Political opposition fears such civil liberty constraints could continue.

Ukraine has had to take extraordinary measures to fight Russia's invasion. Among them, the government has consolidated the country's television outlets and dissolved rival political parties. It says it needs to do this to maintain a united front in fighting Russia. NPR's Emily Feng reports from Kyiv...

read more here

Pandora Papers Reveal Offshore Holdings of Ukrainian President and his Inner Circle

from OCCRP

Actor Volodymyr Zelensky stormed to the Ukrainian presidency in 2019 on a wave of public anger against the country’s political class, including previous leaders who used secret companies to stash their wealth overseas.

Now, leaked documents prove that Zelensky and his inner circle have had their own network of offshore companies. Two belonging to the president’s partners were used to buy expensive property in London.

The revelations come from documents in the Pandora Papers, millions of files from 14 offshore service providers leaked to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and shared with partners around the world including OCCRP.

The documents show that Zelensky and his partners in a television production company, Kvartal 95, set up a network of offshore firms dating back to at least 2012, the year the company began making regular content for TV stations owned by Ihor Kolomoisky, an oligarch dogged by allegations of multi-billion-dollar fraud. The offshores were also used by Zelensky associates to purchase and own three prime properties in the center of London...

Zelensky capitalized on widespread public anger at corruption, but his 2019 campaign was dogged by doubts over his anti-graft bona fides, given that his campaign was boosted by media belonging to Kolomoisky — who is accused of stealing US$5.5 billion from his own bank and funneling it offshore in concert with his partner, Hennadiy Boholiubov.

In the heat of the campaign, a political ally of incumbent President Petro Poroshenko published a chart on Facebook purporting to show that Zelensky and his television production partners were beneficiaries of a web of offshore firms that allegedly received $41 million in funds from Kolomoisky’s Privatbank.

That ally, Volodymyr Ariev, didn’t provide evidence, and his accusations have never been proven. But the Pandora Papers show that at least some of the details in this alleged scheme correspond to reality. The leaked documents show information on 10 companies in the network that match structures detailed in Ariev’s chart...

read more here