Don Hank
DON'S SUBSTACK
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I learned about Europe's unpredictability when I watched the Brexiteers pull off the exit of Britain from the EU. Now alternate parties are coming from behind again, throwing down a stiff challenge.
https://www.rt.com/news/599494-france-macron-regime-change/
18 Jun, 2024
Macron just threw a live grenade at his own feet
The French president could be on the verge of regime-changing himself, with his establishment party’s support below that of the opposition
Rachel Marsden (https://www.rt.com/news/599494-france-macron-regime-change/)
By Rachel Marsden, a columnist, political strategist, and host of independently produced talk-shows in French and English.
rachelmarsden.com
Macron just threw a live grenade at his own feet.
The latest French national polls show a final face off between the anti-establishment right and left, and the total decimation of President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance party. Looks like he may have fooled himself into thinking that dumping all over the political chessboard was a big-brained three-dimensional move.
In the wake of the anti-establishment National Rally party winning the European elections by a landslide, with more than double the score of Macron’s party, the usual suspects started chewing up the scenery with riots and unrest. All the National Rally needs to do is film it to create a campaign ad for themselves heading into the French national elections that Macron called in a double-or-nothing bet with the French people. Because Macron did that. And it’s the National Rally that has long campaigned on the promise of putting an end to it.
It finally looks like enough French voters aren’t scared into denying Le Pen’s party the opportunity. The far-right label just doesn’t act as the kind of knee-jerk deterrent that it once did. And why should it? “France is on the brink of all-out civil conflict,” headlined Britain’s Telegraph. That has happened under Macron, not Le Pen, as he rammed through his establishment agenda piece by piece with his designated prime minister invoking Article 49.3 of the French Constitution to ram through legislation without a vote at least 23 times, totally overriding the democratic process – the second most since the Fifth Republic began in 1958. Its use to move the goalposts on retirees and make them work longer when France is a global taxation champion that robs them of hard earned cash their entire working lives, under the pretext of getting it back when they retire, would explain why the majority of retirees who voted massively for Macron no longer tell pollsters that they will. His support has dropped to just 28%, according to the latest Ifop poll.
‘Our Europe could die,’ Macron says. Who’s the killer?
Read more ‘Our Europe could die,’ Macron says. Who’s the killer?
According to Le Monde, Macron said of his snap election call: “I’ve been preparing this for weeks, and I’m thrilled. I threw my unpinned grenade at their legs. Now we’ll see how they manage.” Looks like they’re managing just fine, actually. Macron’s party? Not so much.
**
(Russian Emergencies Ministry)
Ukraine attacks inside Russia. It is not clear what weapons were used but this gives you an idea of how the newly granted US permission to attack deep in the Russian rear might escalate things. No matter, Russia will retaliate, either symmetrically or not.
**
Here is your air strike update for June 18, 2024
Translation with my notes in bold and in [brackets]
https://newdaynews.ru/ukraine/829924.html
18 June 2024, 14:29
The Russian Armed Forces destroyed a warehouse of Western equipment received by Kiev
Photo by the Russian Ministry of Defense
Russian troops destroyed a Ukrainian strike drone assembly workshop and a Ukrainian Armed Forces warehouse, from where weapons transferred from the West were distributed. During the day, the enemy lost more than 1,800 militants and seven armored vehicles in the Northern Military District zone, according to data from the Russian Ministry of Defense. [Daily losses of the Ukraine forces invariably hover around 2000 killed and wounded, and there are precious few men left to recruit from. BTW, “recruiting” nowadays means kidnapping hapless men off the streets. Normal people are in an anti-government mood these days and many support Russia but not because they are necessarily sympathetic to Russia. They just mainly hate dictator Zelensky]
Aviation, drones, missilemen and artillery of the Russian Armed Forces destroyed a radar station and two launchers of the S-300 air defense system, destroyed a workshop for the production of attack UAVs and a warehouse of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, from where weapons and military equipment transferred by Western countries were distributed. During the day, air defense systems shot down 24 drones and one Neptune-MD long-range guided missile.
The North [Sever] group of troops successfully repulsed two counterattacks of enemy assault groups and eliminated up to 130 militants, two armored combat vehicles, including a US-made Stryker armored personnel carrier, near Volchansk, Volokhovsky, Sinelnikovo and Liptsy in the Kharkov region.
The “West” [Zapad] group occupied more advantageous positions and repelled four counterattacks of enemy assault groups in the area of Novovodyanoy in the LPR, Peschany in the Kharkov region and Torskoye in the DPR. The Ukrainian Armed Forces lost up to 455 military personnel.
The “southern” [Yug] group of the Russian Armed Forces improved the situation along the front line and destroyed up to 665 Ukrainian militants, two armored fighting vehicles, including the US-made M113 armored personnel carrier, and a field ammunition depot of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the area of Grigorovka, Katerynivka, Predtechino and Serebryanka in the DPR.
The “Center” group of troops also improved its tactical position and successfully repulsed four counterattacks of enemy assault groups near Vozdvizhenka, Kamyshevka, Novgorod and Toretsk in the DPR. Enemy losses amounted to 355 military personnel, two US-made MaxxPro armored fighting vehicles.
The Vostok [East] group occupied more advantageous positions and eliminated up to 155 Ukrainian military personnel, an armored combat vehicle, and an electronic warfare station "Enklav-N" in the Zaliznichny area of the Zaporozhye region, Dobrovolya, Neskuchny and Oktyabr in the DPR.
The Dnepr group of troops destroyed up to 80 Ukrainian Armed Forces military personnel near Daryevka, Osokorovka in the Kherson region and Nesteryanka in the Zaporozhye region.
Moscow, Natalya Ryazanova
**
أمريكا وإسرائيل تدفعان نحو إشعال المنطقة!! (alkhanadeq.org.lb)
Saturday, June 15, 2024 01:07
America and Israel are pushing to ignite the region!!
Netanyahu and Blinken
It seems that the United States of America and the interim entity [Israel] continuing their aggression against the Gaza Strip will lead to igniting the region, intentionally or unintentionally, and this is confirmed by much of the data and statements that occurred during the past days.
Netanyahu and his government, on the one hand, insist on rejecting any cessation of the war, because this would constitute a clear admission of defeat. As for the American administration, which really wants - for electoral interests only - to stop the war, it does not want this to lead to Israel’s defeat to the axis of resistance. In the face of this American-Israeli stagnation, the resistance axis found that escalating the pace of the war of attrition might force the opposing camp to submit, or at least fortify the negotiating position of the Palestinian resistance. In the face of this decision of the Axis of Resistance, Israel has no choice but to also escalate its attacks, and this is what may push matters further, towards slipping into what Tel Aviv and Washington fear, that is, the ignition of the entire region starting from southern Lebanon.
Bagheri warns
In this context, it was noteworthy that the Acting Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic [of Iran], Ali Bagheri Kani, recently warned during a press conference with his Iraqi counterpart, Fuad Hussein, in Baghdad, when he said that the Zionist entity, due to its failure in Gaza, may seek to make other mistakes and even expand the scope of its aggression. Stressing that "the genocide in Gaza must stop unconditionally," he called on the Americans to stop supporting Israel with weapons, and that they cannot "support Israel with weapons, pretend to be for peace, and launch initiatives." [This is a clue as to what is wrong with US politics. The government must push one narrative for its public but roughly the opposite one for its allies, ie, the true bosses that drive its true policies, eg, via AIPAC. The net result is a weak government that does nothing for America and that Americans don’t trust]
Minister Bagheri pointed out that Operation True Promise [the Iranian campaign cooperating with the various resistance fronts around the ME] confirmed that “the Islamic Republic will use all its capabilities to achieve stability, peace and security in the region and will not allow anyone, especially the aggressor Zionist entity, to undermine the stability and security of the region.” Therefore, this is a hint that Iran will not stand idly by in the face of any Israeli foolishness, such as waging war on Lebanon or escalating its attacks in other arenas. [Iran can send almost any kind of defensive or offensive weapon to Hezbollah for the defense of Lebanon]
The US administration's efforts are a path to deadly escalation [This analysis gives us a little peep behind the scenes showing why the US Israel-loyal foreign-controlled government is forced to keep the war machine running full tilt. We the voters have zero control over this, but the outcome is determined by the opponents, which are generally stronger than the West and more democratic in that they are in sync with the people. They use force, the only language of the elites]
On the other hand, many analysts and political experts believe that the US administration’s efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza are a path to a deadly escalation in the West Asia region. And despite its public calls for an end to the war, all Washington is actually doing is encouraging a bigger conflagration, because it is causing more violence in Gaza and threatening to turn it into a war with Lebanon, thus pushing the entire region into the abyss in order to avoid giving up its “unreserved support” for Israel.
Here it must be recalled that the Hamas movement’s response to the speech delivered by Joe Biden on May 31, in which he presented an “Israeli proposal” [it was not an Israeli proposal at all. This was a lie aimed at placating the masses, making them think Israel was for peace when it never was] for a ceasefire, was to view it “positively,” while insisting that it requires an Israeli withdrawal from war-torn Gaza and a ceasefire. Full of war, in order to agree to any proposal. On the other hand, Benjamin Netanyahu remained committed to his previous speeches about the need to “destroy Hamas,” [read: continue the genocide in a transparent pretense of fighting Hamas] while indicating that he would not agree to a ceasefire. Rather, he went further when he confirmed that Biden’s description of the Israeli ceasefire proposal “is not accurate.” This brings back memories of the atmosphere that prevailed before the occupation army began its operation in Rafah.
Will the American administration accept the failure of its efforts for the second time instead of forcing Israel to cease fire, or is the expansion of the war inevitable?!
Related tags
The American-Israeli aggression, the war on Gaza, the axis of resistance, Operation True Promise, the trenches, Joe Biden, Benjamin Netanyahu
**
Our thanks to CA for this tip – an excerpt from a book by Chris Hedges. BTW, the philosophical evolution described below matches my own.
Excerpt:
Most of my life was spent living a lie, and I lived my life for that lie. A lie that I bought into, lock, stock and barrel, during the 80's and 90's, when I was working 70 hours a week (which I did for at least 20 years).
I graduated from university in 1982, the Reagan years, and I was a true believer in "Reaganomics," and the "trickle-down" theory, in which wealth is diverted to the already wealthy who will use it to create new production facilities, creating new jobs. They would "invest" that windfall income, alright ... just not in the U.S. of A. That's supply-side economics and, in theory, I believe, it works well ... the notion that all of us, collectively, each of us acting solely in our own self-interest, create a "rising tide that lifts all boats." I was almost religious in that belief during the Eighties and Nineties. Greed is good. I, like so many other Americans during those years, abandoned the notion that "we are all in this together" and adopted the "every man for himself, and you are on your own" way of thinking: "You have not, because you strive not."
Like the corporations and their leaders and their servants in government; I had no empathy for others.
I have changed; and I think the American economic system will change ... not because people discover empathy, but because "Reaganomics" has failed. It is a demonstrated failure.
And young people (not just in America) are beginning to get a sense of the reality: they are being ruthlessly exploited in an ever-increasingly socially stratified (feudalistic) society.
We're about to see what they do with that awareness. We fucked things up; it's their turn now.
Our financial system was taken hostage and looted by bankers, brokers, and speculators who told us that the old means of making capital by producing and manufacturing were outdated. They assured us money could be made out of money. They insisted that financial markets could be self-regulating. Like all financial markets throughout history that have thrown off oversight and regulation, ours has collapsed. Speculators in the seventeenth century were hanged. Today they receive billions in taxpayer dollars and huge bonuses.
Excerpt from: Chris Hedges, Empire of Illusion (Pub. 2010)
America's wealth is systematically being transferred from the lower and middle classes into the pockets of the rich. And that is not by accident.
| EDITOR'S NOTE: Hedges' critique stops short of actually denouncing capitalism as a system that, in any incarnation—industrial (manufacturing) or financial speculative—remains inherently exploitative, crisis-prone, deeply inegalitarian, incurably hierarchic, undemocratic and ultimately organically unstable and fascistic (due to its incurable "overproduction" disease. |
**
Photo: Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine Facebook page
The U.S. power structure is blindly dedicated to Israel
When the board of the Columbia Law Review clumsily censored a pro-Palestinian article it revealed the degree to which pro-Israel ideology is enmeshed in the U.S. power structure. Luckily, a generational shift is changing this before our eyes.
BY PHILIP WEISS JUNE 17, 2024 15
PHOTO: COLUMBIA STUDENTS FOR JUSTICE IN PALESTINE FACEBOOK PAGE
Recently there was an important event at Columbia Law School. The school’s law review published a piece on a sweeping legal theory of the Nakba by Harvard law student Rabea Eghbariah — and the board of the law review stepped in in unprecedented fashion to shut down the publication online. After the Intercept reported that the website had been “nuked,” the authoritarian move became an embarrassment; and the piece was restored. Though students obviously feel chilled.
This story reminds us that the U.S. establishment is firmly and blindly pro-Israel. The board that squashed the students included operators of the highest order: professor Gillian Metzger, who also serves in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel; Justice Department senior counsel Lewis Yelin; and Ginger Anders, a former assistant to the U.S. Solicitor General.
We used to call people like this the ruling class. These high appointees understand what American values are, and today American values are standing by Israel even as it massacres thousands of children. These values surely have to do with the importance of Zionist donors to Joe Biden and universities, but they go beyond that to the makeup of the U.S. establishment. Pro-Israel voices — including Jewish Zionists — are a significant element of corporate culture. They are a generational force. Young progressives and young Jews are rejecting Israel. But they aren’t in the power structure.
[Unfortunately, the author ignores the elephant in the room, ie, the hordes of “Christian” Zionist church leaders who do the heavy lifting propaganda work that underpins the machinations of the ruling class. Thus, one of the most dangerous men in America is the fundamentalist fanatic Gordon Robertson]
One of the most telling stories about the establishment came and went last November. Two dozen leading law firms sent a letter to the leading law schools, including Harvard and Columbia, saying that they would not hire students from law schools that failed to crack down on antisemitism. And one of those firms, Davis Polk, rescinded job offers to three students who had taken part in pro-Palestinian protests. The letter said:
“We look to you to ensure your students who hope to join our firms after graduation are prepared to be an active part of workplace communities that have zero tolerance policies for any form of discrimination or harassment, much less the kind that has been taking place on some law school campuses.”
A partner at Sullivan & Cromwell told the New York Times that Jewish students feel “actually scared,” “threatened,” and “betrayed.”
More here
**
Our thanks to Regis Tremblay for this:
On June 11th, 2024, we attended an amazing concert by the National Academic Orchestra of Folk Instruments of Russia named after N.P. Osipov.
We attended this concert along with a packed audience in the Chekhov Theater here in Yalta. The Moscow based group comes to Yalta once a year and we were fortunate to get tickets.
We were spellbound by the two-hour concert that featured operatas, soloist musicians, and a dramatic reading of Alexander Pushkin’s short story, The Blizzard.
YouTube
Substack
I could not believe the incredible sound that was produced by a stringed orchestra accompanied by a few wind and percussion instruments.
Rumble https://rumble.com/v529aw8-national-academic-orchestra-of-folk-instruments-of-russia.html
Enjoy and please share. I continue my efforts to show The Russian Soul to Americans and others, by producing content that gives insight to this great country, it's amazing and friendly people, and the rich history and culture.
Thanks for following me.
Regis
Me:
It is interesting that this theater is dedicated to Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. The writer spent a few years living at his dacha in Yalta. One of his best known short stories is Dama s sobachkoy, the Lady with a dog, which is set in Yalta and whose characters all have Russian names and are mostly tourists from Russia. When I visited Yalta in the early 70s, I must confess I did not know I was in Ukraine, Everyone there spoke Russian, It is now impossible for me to think of Crimea as anything but Russian, and I personally think it would be a crime to try and separate the peninsula from the Motherland. Yalta is as Russian as Chekhov and it is a crime for the ignorant, uncultured Neocons in Washington to insist that it must revert back to Ukraine where it never belonged. Just my two cents.
More https://vk.com/wall-76456136_279665?lang=en
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- In cynicism and power, the US propaganda machine easily surpasses Orwells Ministry of Truth.
- Now the fight against anti-semitism is being weaponised as a new sanctimonious McCarthyism.
- Unless opposed, neither justice nor our Constitutional right to Free Speech will survive this assault.
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