Aug 8, 2024 US foreign and domestic policy is developed with think tanks funded by the most powerful corporate-financier interests across the West Policy papers published by these think tanks are turned into bills by lawyers, brought to Washington by lobbyists, and signed off by Congress and the White House regardless of political affiliation or supposed political agenda. Multipolarism has challenged US political, military, and economic power by creating alternatives to the corporate-financier monopolies in the West driving US policies at home and abroad. Americans can create a better balance of power by redirecting their monthly income, time, energy, and attention away from these corporate-financier interests and toward local and foreign alternatives.
MIDDLE EAST IN DEPTH WITH LAITH MAROUF EPISODE 23 – REGION ON THE EDGE
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GARLAND NIXON
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MIDDLE EAST IN DEPTH WITH LAITH MAROUF EPISODE 23 - REGION ON THE EDGE
Garland Nixon
Aug 6, 2024
Also on: https://www.rokfin.com/garlandnixon Garland and Laith, a well-respected geopolitical analyst and historian living in South Lebanon, discuss how the war between the Axis of Resistance, led by Iran, and the collective West and Israel, is gaining momentum on both sides, as the anti-imperialist alliance, supported by Russia, carefully plans its next moves, while warning treacherous countries like Jordan, Egypt and Turkey not to meddle this time in defense of the Zio-American bloc, which may find itself confronting more enemies on every side than they bargained for. Laith speaks as Israeli bombs and missiles shake his neighbourhood. Both Garland and Laith are convinced that the coming wars created by Western imperialism in Ukraine and the Middle East, which are already detonating serious social and political disturbances in the West, and a wave of anti-Muslim chauvinism in the UK and the Continental EU, probably son to be seen in the US, will also bring martial law, mass repression, totalitarian censorship, and concentration camps, as fascism with a democratic face extends its hold over the globe. Fasten your seatbelts, girls and boys, it's gonna be a bumpy flight!
Support Garland's work if you can: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/garlandnh
Lawmakers and nonprofits experts have long criticized the network of U.S. nonprofits that funnel millions of tax-deductible dollars to settlements in the West Bank that the international community recognizes as illegal. Those concerns have come back with new urgency amid the surge of U.S. fundraising for the Israel Defense Forces during Israel’s war on Gaza.
The war [‘genocide’] in Gaza has been good for the drone startup XTEND. Since October 7, the Tel Aviv company has pivoted to providing the Israeli military with cheap, nimble robot aircraft. This demand helped the company secure $40 million in new venture capital funding, bringing its total raised to $60 million. That money will go toward software refinements to better serve Israel’s Ministry of Defense, its co-founder and CEO Aviv Shapira touted in a press release.
Yet despite its venture capital bounty and recent military contracts, XTEND has also been asking for charity.
XTEND’s fundraising page — taken offline shortly after The Intercept raised questions about it — is one of several similar efforts soliciting charitable, tax-deductible donations to bolster Israeli national security [‘genocide campaign’].
U.S. law governing charitable contributions gives wide leeway to nonprofits operating overseas, though questions linger about directing such donations to fund combat.
XTEND did not respond to a request for comment and questions about its Israel Defense Forces fundraising campaign. The Israeli nonprofit AlmaLinks, which was listed on the site as participating in the fundraiser, told The Intercept that upon learning of the campaign it asked XTEND to take it down. A PayPal page for the fundraiser told American donors that tax-free contributions could be sent through the U.S.-based donor-advised fund FJC: A Foundation of Philanthropic Funds. FJC disavowed the campaign and said the drone startup was being instructed to cease and desist use of its name.
Flexible, affordable…and deadly
Xtend’s drones are flexible, affordable, and outfitted with powerful cameras, making them excellent surveillance tools that can stand in for human soldiers in dangerous situations. Certain models come with a claw, allowing them to drop any manner of item — or weapon — from high above. This functionality has proven transformative in the fighting between Russia and Ukraine. Even for Israel’s armed forces, among the best-equipped in the world, drones like XTEND’s offer the powerful advantage of an off-the-shelf, somewhat disposable miniature air force.
The Israeli Resilience Association, which describes itself as “a group of experienced professionals, and officers from the IDF Special Forces, Secret Service (Shin Bet), and the special forces of the Israeli Police,” has to date raised over $287,000 to send small hobbyist drones into Gaza. Noting that the “current crisis in Israel has put every community throughout Judea and Samaria on high alert,” the One Israel Fund, meanwhile, has raised over $160,000 to furnish illegal settlements in the West Bank with surveillance drones “in cooperation with the regional and local security personnel.”
“Boots on the ground testimonials” included on the site leave little ambiguity about their use. “The best thing to have is drones,” says one uniformed Israeli soldier, his face blurred, in a video set before a house he states was recently cleared of terrorists. “Drones can go inside, do the search, clear the house, put even an explosive, instead of us going in.”
“We have killed dozens of vile terrorists, but we continue to constantly discover more terrorists who are hiding in buildings,” say soldiers in another testimonial video, who explain XTEND’s products are preferable because their radio uplink is not as easily jammed.
In interviews and marketing materials, XTEND tends to argue its drones are a life-saving reconnaissance technology that permits soldiers to hang back from danger while robots lead the charge. But the company is very much in the business of offense too. In December, XTEND told the Wall Street Journal that the IDF is using its robots to “drop grenades” in Gaza. “We were the first drones to enter Be’erik, Faraza, and deal directly (indoors, outdoors, and face to face) with these terrorists,” Shapira explained to the Israeli business publication Calcalist last year. “We learned so much from that.”
Israel’s war on Gaza has been integral to XTEND’s current success and its future, according to local business press reporting. Since the conflict erupted, the company has deepened its ties with the Israeli military. An article in Calcalist announcing the $40 million deal noted that, since the war’s start, “the company has shifted its entire focus in developing systems for the IDF. This new focus has led the company to a decision to upgrade its activity in the military sector.” In the May 10 press release announcing its latest venture capital round, Shapira — depicted in an attached photo dressed as a character from “The Matrix” — explained how the company’s new funds would help refine its drones’ software in part to better serve “Israel’s Ministry of Defense tier-1 units.”
Gruesome civilian deaths and injuries
So-called quadcopter drones similar to those manufactured by XTEND have been implicated in a litany of gruesome civilian deaths and injuries. A June 4 report by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor described how the IDF has “ramped up” its use of small quadcopters to drop explosives and fire-mounted rifles at Palestinians in Gaza.
One Palestinian who spoke to the organization recounted the killing of his cousin:
“We were approached by a quadcopter as we went by a side street. I warned him to run and hide as soon as I saw it, but it is likely that his poor hearing prevented him from hearing my call. I told him to hide, as I was doing, when all of a sudden I heard an explosion. When I heard Ibrahim calling, I told him to stay [put] to the right until assistance arrived. I saw him being targeted by a quadcopter bomb.”
On the webpage soliciting donations for its drones, XTEND listed AlmaLinks, a nonprofit network headquartered in Tel Aviv that connects business leaders with a focus on Jewish and Israeli communities, as the organization that would process donations.
“All donations will be used for the immediate production and deployment of life-saving systems for our IDF troops on the frontlines,” the site read. “All donations are kindly processed through the ALMA LINKS non-profit organization. www.almalinks.org We kindly request that you fill out the information here and at the dedicated donation page for tracking purposes.”
Shapira, XTEND’s CEO, is listed on AlmaLink’s website as a member of its board of trustees. AlmaLinks told The Intercept it had no knowledge of XTEND’s fundraiser and that Shapira does not serve in a decision-making role.
“We were not aware of the XTEND website asking for funds in our name, and as soon as we became aware of it we asked them to take it down,” a spokesperson for AlmaLinks said.
Shapira “is on a purely advisory board of trustees that includes many people and does not have authority to make decisions,” the spokesperson said.
The fiscal sponsor for AlmaLinks is FJC: A Foundation of Philanthropic Funds, a nonprofit donor-advised fund based in New York. Founded in 1995, FJC manages over $300 million in assets and has provided over $400 million in philanthropic grants around the world, according to its website. FJC accepts tax-deductible donations on behalf of AlmaLinks, which then passes the money onward to recipients such as XTEND. Because contributions to foreign nonprofits like AlmaLinks are not tax-deductible, a donation to the American fiscal sponsor FJC would allow donors to benefit from U.S. tax laws.
PayPal for genocide
Potential American donors who came across the online fundraiser were directed to a PayPal page bearing a checkmark icon confirming FJC is the recipient of the funds, and noting any contributions would be earmarked for XTEND.
In response to an inquiry from The Intercept about its role in the fundraiser, FJC CEO Sam Marks disavowed the campaign. “FJC has no relationship with XTEND, and that company is not authorized to use FJC’s 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status to fundraise for any campaign,” Marks explained in an emailed statement. “They are being instructed to cease and desist any fundraising campaign using FJC’s name.”
Soon after this exchange, the PayPal page was taken down. Marks did not respond when asked if the PayPal page had been set up without FJC’s knowledge, when FJC became aware of the fundraising campaign, or how much money had been raised to date.
XTEND did not respond to questions about whether it organized the fundraiser without the advance knowledge of AlmaLinks and FJC, and about Shapira’s role on AlmaLinks’ board of trustees.
Diala Shamas, senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, questioned whether it was appropriate for a nonprofit to use charitable donations to support a war effort, particularly one that has killed tens of thousands of civilians. …
Meet The Xtender, Micro Tactical Indoor ISR System
[Editor’s Note: Make note of the highlighted euphemisms used to soften the reality of what is being marketed: murdering people — including children — in war. Truly Orwellian. I wanted to add the company’s website so you could send your feedback on their business, but — dang — the website is still down. — Mark Taylor]
XTEND Systems (2/24/22)
Meet the Xtender, a micro tactical indoor ISR system that enables any operator to perform accurate remote multi-mission tasks in complex environments. The Xtender can enter a remote target site, perform recon and data collection tasks with extreme precision, and seamlessly exit, agnostic of any indoor-outdoor transition limitations and regardless of any GNSS denied locations. Additionally, it enables control of drone teams and remote control of payloads deployed indoors, and actively affects the operational scenario.
1-minute, 17-second video
Charitable Crowdfunding For Weapons Of Genocide? This Deadly Drone Company Tried It
The Young Turks (8/4/24)
15-minute video
'Beyond Horror': Israel Kills Mostly Children In Fresh Attacks On Gaza Schools
Rescue teams recover the bodies of those killed in an Israeli attack on schools in Gaza City, Gaza on August 4, 2024. (Photo: Mahmoud Issa/Anadolu via Getty Images)
By Jake Johnson Common Dreams (8/5/24)
Israeli forces killed dozens of displaced Palestinians—mostly children—on Sunday with attacks on a pair of United Nations-run schools in the Gaza Strip as diplomats in the region worked to prevent all-out war from breaking out in the aftermath of Israel's latest assassination spree.
Al Jazeera reported that 80% of the roughly 30 people killed in the Israeli attacks on two schools in Gaza City were children, strikes that came shortly after Israel's military bombed a hospital complex in central Gaza, killing at least five people.
"This is beyond horror now," David Shoebridge, an Australian senator, wrote in response to the attacks on schools-turned-shelters.
Tareq Abu Azzoum of Al that rescue teams were still searching the rubble of the two schools for survivors on Monday.
"At least 16 Palestinians are still missing, including children, under the remnants of these areas that were targeted by Israel without any prior warning," Azzoum wrote. "Civil defense crews have been using only their bare hands in order to look for survivors. They have been saying that sometimes the process for recovering and pulling out victims can take days simply because there isn't enough fuel to operate the vast majority of bulldozers, and due to the Israeli attacks on bulldozers at the municipal facilities, used in the initial months of the war to rescue victims." …
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Lili News 029
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.
Please make sure these dispatches reach as many readers as possible. Share with kin, friends and workmates and ask them to do likewise.
Paul Edwards
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America, The Indispensable Empire, has reached perigee. This undeniable low for “the greatest nation the world has ever seen” is put beyond question by three prodigies of fecklessness.
First, The Powers jettisoned their addled CEO and raised to the exalted status he enjoyed a few days ago, Kamala Harris, to be its woke champion in the war against the Dark Lord of Chaos.
Second, it welcomed to address his Congress, America’s great patron, Benjamin Netanyahu, for the fourth time—one more than Winston Churchill—to provide us his sage, humane guidance.
Third, in not preventing an attack on Trump with its lax security, The Empire bestowed on him hero status through media theater.
It is hard to conceive of a set of incidents that could better define and embody the sheer maladroitness of our Empire in extremis.
Consider: After months of being solemnly assured the President was compos mentis and vigorously up to his duties, he revealed, inarguably, that he was not. Many were disturbed by his sad pratfall. Many, who never bought it in the first place, were not.
Mr. Biden, after a lifetime of subversions and betrayals of every aspect of honorable leadership, and a rap sheet full of personal deceit and rife with character toxins, besides a more recent array of criminal hustles, was brazenly presented to a bonehead public as a noble warrior for good and an avatar of Franklin Roosevelt.
That he bore no resemblance at all to him didn’t trouble Party Mafiosi, who had long abandoned concern for FDR’s people, and served only their Zionist billionaire owners and the War Machine.
In any case, once Biden had blatantly flashed his truly pathetic incapacity, The Family had to eighty-six him. After backstage trading, smoke emerged from the synod chimney. The Capi di Tutti Capi had consensus, and their choice was nobody’s darling, but Kamala had clearly gotten her nose under the tent. She is a genial, amoral mediocrity, a shill for corrupt war in Ukraine, and Zionist genocide, but it won’t matter. She hasn’t a Brat prayer.
At least as tremendous a victory for the forces of out-and-out lunacy was Congress hosting the vicious, Zionist murderer and indicted war criminal, Netanyahu. This latter-day Himmler, this foul, homicidal monster, was cheered by our Freak House of mental clodhoppers and ethical ghouls and their prissy nebbish Speaker for one reason: psychotic, gore-soaked Israel owns them. Virtually everyone in the House and Senate has taken big bribes from AIPAC, that slush fund of billionaire Zionist Jews.
Always before, the fallout of misery was confined to only those directly under its misrule. Never was there an empire whose malignant brutality entangled all the world, until America...
The cynical and meshuggenah whining and hand-wringing about poor humane Israel, and the massive wave of anti-Semitism in America, is vintage bullshit propaganda. There isn’t a wave, but soon there may be, for though U.S. Jews are not wild Zionists and oppose the criminality of that illegitimate state, in the eyes of the world they are all seen as culpable. It has nothing to do with anti-Semitism and everything to do with the horror of Israel’s race murder pogrom, and its repulsive, smirking Dybbuk leader.
Allowing the psychotic Gauleiter of that vile, Nazi asylum to enter our own Evil Empire is—given the whoring cabal of hillbilly thugs that run it—not surprising. When a country’s entire governmental apparatus is funded by a foreign nation, it is clearly no longer a sovereign state, but a wholly owned subsidiary of its financier.
This sad remnant of an empire, soaked in endless bloody crimes against humanity, and guilty of cruel abuse of its own people, is locked in crash mode, and there is no bottom to its degradation, as official celebration of Israel’s monster has shown the world.
Prior to this disgusting genuflection, a young assassin’s bullet came within centimeters of killing Donald Trump. Only the random turning of his head prevented his death. No amount or quality of security can prevent absolutely the possibility of public murder of the celebrated and notorious, but the state’s laxness in this case was egregious. As a result, the mere fact of his eluding his death both electrified and galvanized his faithful, and cloaked him in an aura of heroic invincibility that won him wide, general approval among the heretofore unpersuaded.
Though it’s clear that none of these game-changing events was consciously, intentionally arranged, or effectively planned, by the massive, fumbling powers that own and operate our government, they all were due to blundering loss of control of the vaunted, failsafe management system. The fact that they occurred proximately was purely accidental, but what they demonstrate, each in its own particular way, is how pathetically inept our government really is in defending its vulnerable core interests.
It can be ignored, judged unimportant, or laughed about, as just one more set of the lapses and losses that have become routine in The Empire’s staggering decline and decomposition. And yet, disintegration of an empire is a solemn, inexorable process that, once begun, cannot be stemmed, and a descent into chaos is always dreadful for those in its thrall. Always before, the fallout of misery was confined to only those directly under its misrule. Never was there an empire whose malignant brutality entangled all the world, until America.
Under whatever catastrophic complex of disasters The American Empire finally crashes and burns, there is not a nation on earth that will not suffer severely the shock of its fall. To imagine the magnitude of tragedy is not possible. There is no precedent. There can be no winners when the game, the game board, and the casino are all incinerated.
There may be left, in Mark Antony’s dark words over murdered Caesar, only “carrion men, groaning for burial”.
Lili News 029
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.
Tucker Carlson: The national security state is the main driver of censorship and election interference in the United States.
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Tucker Carlson
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Ep. 75 The national security state is the main driver of censorship and election interference in the United States. "What I’m describing is military rule," says Mike Benz. "It’s the inversion of democracy." pic.twitter.com/hDTEjAf89T
MUST WATCH: Mike Benz makes a damning case that the RIG was in for the 2020 election SEVEN MONTHS ahead of time. How they did it was truly evil.
TUCKER CARLSON: "So what you're saying is ... they knew the outcome of the election seven months before it was held?" MIKE BENZ: "It looks very bad." How did they do it?
According to censorship expert @MikeBenzCyber , a concerted effort, starting in April 2020, was made by a coalition involving the DHS, NATO, the DNC, and other entities to launch a mass censorship campaign across all social media platforms. This campaign aimed to pre-emptively censor any disputes over the legitimacy of mail-in ballots. Four key institutions were part of this effort:
• Stanford University
• The University of Washington
• Graphika
• The Atlantic Council
Benz described these entities as "Pentagon cutouts," suggesting they were operating under the influence or direction of the Pentagon to carry out the censorship campaign. These entities pressured and compelled social media companies to adopt a new category of speech violation termed "delegitimization."
This policy was broad in scope, encompassing any form of content that could be interpreted as challenging the legitimacy of mail-in voting, early voting dropboxes, or the tabulation of ballots on election day. This pressure was not merely advisory but was backed by the implication of potential governmental force or repercussions for non-compliance. This included direct communication channels with tech company executives to facilitate rapid takedown requests.
Russiagate was a malignant joke. This is the real deal.
As a consequence, this concerted censorship effort led to the removal or throttling of potentially hundreds of millions of posts, particularly those questioning the security of mail-in ballots.
The following excerpt from Benz highlights the most important aspect:"Now, they did this seven months before the election because, at the time, they were worried about the perceived legitimacy of a Biden victory in the case of a so-called 'red mirage, blue shift event.'"They knew the only way that Biden would be able to win, mathematically, was through the disproportionate Democrat use of mail-in ballots. They knew there would be a crisis because it was going to look extremely weird if Trump looked like he won by seven states and then, three days later, it came out actually the election switched.
"I mean, that would put the election crisis of the Bush-Gore election on a level of steroids that the national security state said, well, the public will not be prepared for. So what we need to do is we need to, in advance, we need to pre-censor the ability to even question legitimacy. This took out hundreds of key influencers."
TUCKER CARLSON: "So what you're saying is ... they knew the outcome of the election seven months before it was held?" MIKE BENZ: "It looks very bad."
Ep. 75The national security state is the main driver of censorship and election interference in the United States. "What I’m describing is military rule," says Mike Benz. "It’s the inversion of democracy."
Editor's Note: The sheer lack of democracy in the governance of the United States, and its criminal, often impossible to explain (hence the torrent of lies) foreign policy, are finally becoming so high-handed and obvious that even right-wing people steeped in American supremacism, moral superiority, and a multitude of other self-serving myths, are starting to question the way the US state is run, and whether the usual explanations offered by the media and political class hold any water. They are bumbling their way into the truth, something that people familiar with class analysis would have figured out a lot sooner.
Lili News 029
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.