Workers World editorial: Behind the impeachment hearings

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By Editor posted on November 25, 2019

“Things are seldom what they seem, skim milk masquerades as cream,” goes the old Gilbert and Sullivan song.

The repulsively hypocritical Democrat Adam Schiff, one of the ringleaders of this circus.

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he current impeachment hearings conducted by Congress may seem like an effort to get rid of Trump and his reactionary policies. In fact, they have no progressive content and conceal more than they reveal.

Yes, Trump is a crook — and not a very artful one. He clumsily tried to get the Ukrainian government to investigate the son of his political rival, Joe Biden, and threatened to withhold military funding for “security” if they didn’t.

That has given his political opponents in both capitalist parties a lot of ammunition against him. But this does nothing to combat all the horrible things Trump has done in his domestic policy — his deadly attacks on immigrants, especially from Latin America, the Middle East and Africa; his instigation and promotion of racism and patriarchal bigotry; his absurd denial of the climate crisis in order to curry favor with energy corporations; his right-wing and anti-worker cabinet appointments, etc.

And a closer look at those in the state apparatus moving against him reveals a rogues’ gallery of war hawks.

What’s being concealed

Fiona Hill, the former National Security Council senior director for Europe and Russia, was an effective witness against Trump in the hearings. Hill has been a deputy to John Bolton and was assigned to Ukraine. Until he resigned in September, Bolton was Trump’s National Security Adviser.

Bolton is a notorious foreign policy hawk. Prior to his resignation, Bolton was calling for a “tougher line” against Iran, Venezuela and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (north Korea). He is credited with having torpedoed the talks between Trump and DPRK leader Kim Jong Un held in Vietnam last February.

SIDEBAR
Watch Jimmy Dore remind us what the corrupt Wall Street/CIA Dems are hiding, while they try to whip the country into a frenzy about Trump's clumsy peccadilloes.

In August, before resigning, Bolton got Trump to freeze Venezuela’s assets. “This is the first time in 30 years that we are imposing an asset freeze against a government in this hemisphere,” said Bolton. “It worked in Panama, it worked once in Nicaragua, and it’s going to work there again, and it’s going to work in Venezuela and Cuba.”

In fact, it hasn’t worked. Venezuela and Cuba have more than survived and won’t bow down to Washington’s dictates.

What the impeachment hearings are concealing is an effort — by the military, the “intelligence community” and the imperialist ruling class they serve — to push for an even more aggressive foreign policy — with or without Trump.

These forces didn’t like the fact that Trump wouldn’t OK an all-out attack on Syria and eventually pulled out U.S. troops. That he held back from waging war against Iran. That he wants to be seen as a peacemaker.

That is not to say that Trump is some kind of pacifist. He has overseen enormous increases in the Pentagon budget. But his “America first,” flag-waving pseudo-protectionism has not given the war hawks the go-ahead they want.

Ukraine and the real crimes 

Ukraine used to be part of the Soviet Union. It became an “independent” country within the U.S. orbit with the downfall of the USSR. For years, Washington has given military aid to Ukraine, and not just to integrate it into an alliance against Russia.

U.S. military aid has provided arms for Ukraine’s war against the people in eastern Ukraine who have been fighting to set up the People’s Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. They speak Russian and were historically part of Russian territory. The U.S. government calls this struggle “Russian aggression.”

And U.S. aid is also used to prosecute a war against progressive elements inside Ukraine who have stood up to actual fascists in the government. On May 2, 2014, fascist gangs in Ukraine killed 48 people when they burned down the House of Trade Unions in Odessa. (For more on this, seeworkers.org.)

The U.S. government had no problem with this massacre of workers and kept the weapons coming. The hearings against Trump are glorifying the war criminals like Bolton who are behind these policies.

The impeachment hearings are concealing the real crime: that both the Democratic and Republican parties serve the interests of the super-rich and have extracted trillions of dollars from the workers in the U.S. to pay for a war machine designed to safeguard corporate interests above all else.

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Russian Military Base in Arctic Unveiled! Hidden “Northern Clover” Revealed For First Time


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Journalists, including those from other countries, were shown the new Russian military base in the Arctic for the first time. "Northern Clover" on Kotelny Island, it's 300 miles from here to the mainland. One can get there only with a helicopter. There's no internet or cell network there. Only polar bears and eternal frost around. It's comfortable to serve there, though - a modern military base has been built for servicemen.

Meanwhile, CNN's dispatch is classical propaganda

While the above is a straightforward reporting on the base, observe how the situation changes immediately when the same story is "reported" with heavy "editorialising" by a notorious disinformation outfit from the West, the American network CNN. Do the Americans and their abject NATO vassals really expect Russia to sit and wait until even the Arctic is taken over and militarised by them, thereby completing Russia's encirclement? Who has been surrouning whom for almost a century?

 

Published on Apr 5, 2019

The Kotelny base is one of three new Russian bases above the 75th parallel, part of a larger push by Russian President Vladimir Putin to flex his country's military muscle across its massive Arctic coastline. CNN's Fred Pleitgen takes an exclusive inside this new base designed to operate in sub-zero temperatures.
 

 

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The Rule of Law in Russia Under Putin


Natylie Baldwin / Natylie’s Place

Here is a short excerpt about democracy and the rule of law under Putin from my forthcoming book:

[dropcap]O[/dropcap]ne very frequent criticism of Russia by the West is that the rule of law is weak, if it exists at all.  Let’s look at three important measures of the rule of law in Russia:  the rights of the accused, judicial independence, and the confidence and participation of Russian citizens in the court system.

The 1993 constitution guarantees the presumption of innocence for criminal defendants as well as the right to counsel (Henderson 2011).  During Putin’s first two terms as president, he introduced or oversaw the implementation of the rights of habeas corpus and trial by jury, and increased rights to exculpatory evidence (Petro 2018).  After certain reforms made by Putin to the criminal code, acquittal rates in bench trials (only heard by a judge) doubled and acquittal rates in jury trials tripled, contributing to a 40 percent drop in the overall  incarceration rate and a 95 percent drop in the juvenile incarceration rate since 2001 (Petro 2018).

He also introduced the role of bailiffs and Justices of the Peace (JP’s) into the system (Petro 2018).

JP’s act as judges in the lowest tier of courts and preside over approximately 75 percent of civil cases and 45 percent of criminal cases – most of the latter are resolved through plea bargaining (Hendley 2017). University of Wisconsin Professor Kathryn Hendley concluded in her years-long study of Russia’s court system, Everyday Law in Russia, that JP’s demonstrate independence – in other words, they base their decisions on the written law – in the vast majority of cases before them.  Exceptions involve the very small percentage of cases that are politically sensitive, particularly to the Kremlin.  In these instances the JP’s will often go along with power as a matter of being socialized into the system rather than being overtly told to do so.

Contrary to the picture constantly painted in the West of an outlaw despotic Russia, in many regards the rule of law is more systematically enforced than in America.

JP’s, who are primarily women and do not enjoy the same prestige as their counterparts in the US, are not specialized and have very heavy caseloads that must be decided within statutory deadlines.  Though they generally strive to be fair, they also tend to feel burdened by the workload and diligently seek to avoid reversals on appeal, the ramifications of which can hurt them financially and professionally, though only a small percentage of litigants ever exercise the right of appeal (Hendley 2017).

All JP’s are required to be over the age of 25, have a law degree, and pass an exam and a strict security clearance.   They are formally appointed by either regional governors or regional legislative bodies and are often former JP law clerks or prosecutors rather than attorneys in private practice since, as someone who has already served in a public position, their professional background and propensities will be more readily ascertainable.  They are then given 3 months of formal training before they are allowed to preside over cases (Hendley 2017).

Hendley also found that overall, in civil and administrative cases, the Russian government often loses.

State agencies are frequent litigants in civil cases, both as plaintiffs and defendants.  Both in JP courts and other courts, they are more likely to lose these cases than are private actors.  Their victory in administrative cases involving private citizens, such as traffic violations and fines for noncompliance with various laws, is far from automatic.  The same is true in the business setting.  Economic actors’ challenges to their treatment by the tax and other regulatory authorities are frequently successful (Hendley 2017).

Court rulings in civil cases favoring private plaintiffs over the government occur at a rate of approximately 70 percent (Petro 2018).

Furthermore, during Putin’s second term, courts ruled that individuals arrested without merit must be compensated and compensation limits for government negligence were struck down, making it more meaningful when the Russian government comes out on the losing end of such cases (Petro 2018).

Foreign businesses operating in Russia have benefited from the improved state of the legal system.  Lawsuits on behalf of foreign businesses have tripled since 2014 and favorable judgments have increased from 59 percent to 83 percent (Petro 2018).  Many Russians are reluctant to take a dispute to court, citing time, inconvenience, and “the difficulty of proving one’s case.” But as incomes increase and the traditional informal methods of resolving disputes become less relevant, more Russians are utilizing the court system, increasing from one million in 1998 to over seventeen million in 2016 (Petro 2018).  Hendley found many of these Russians to be generally satisfied with their experiences, which largely take place in the JP system, regardless of whether they won or lost.  80 percent of Russians find JP’s to be “well trained and competent” with only 10 percent believing their JP was biased (Hendley 2017).

References:

Henderson, Jane. The Constitution of the Russian Federation:  A Contextual Analysis.  Hart Publishing.  Oxford and Portland, OR. 2011.

Hendley, Kathryn.  Everyday Law in Russia.  Cornell University Press. Ithaca, NY.  2017.  Pp. 137, 142 – 146.

“Are We Reading Russia Right?” by Nicolai N. Petro.  The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs.  Vol. 42, No. 2, pp. 131-154.

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Did the US Steal Russia’s Hypersonic Weapons Secrets?

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By Andrew Korybko

The US’ Hypersonic Weapons Progress Suggests that Spying Pays Off

The US stole Russia’s hypersonic weapons secrets over the summer and is now on track to test these systems sooner than the rest of the world originally anticipated.

[dropcap]P[/dropcap]resident Putin’s announcement in March that Russia was in possession of hypersonic weaponry was heralded as a strategic game-changer of the highest order because of the implication that the US’ decades-long “missile defense” investments were now suddenly rendered null and void, thereby restoring the nuclear balance that had been at risk of disruption by America’s moves to safeguard itself from a speculative nuclear second strike and theoretically one day give itself the prerogative to carry out a first one with impunity.

Russia and the rest of the world were on track to become the victims of nuclear blackmail had this trend been allowed to continue uninterrupted, which is why Moscow’s development of hypersonic weapons technology was such a big deal.

Russia’s restoration of the strategic nuclear balance with America was regarded as a major step forward in the direction of stabilizing the dangerous dynamics of the New Cold War and importantly allowing President Putin to concentrate on reforming the socio-economic situation at home throughout his fourth and final term in office now that his country’s international security was assured.  Somewhat unsurprisingly, however, the US soon thereafter attempted to steal Russia’s hypersonic weapons secrets and was evidently successful, at least judging by the fact that a scientist was arrested over the summer for passing off classified information about these programs to the Americans. It’s not publicly known how many secrets he gave them, but the US just declared that it plans to test this technology in the near future.

The country obviously had a preexisting hypersonic weapons program even before this, but it should be presumed that its efforts might have been greatly aided by its successful espionage operation over the summer, showing that spying does indeed pay off. This isn’t a lesson that the Russians hadn’t already learned, however, because they pretty much preceded the Americans in doing something very similar during the Old Cold War when they basically stole nuclear technology from them and restored strategic parity between the two superpowers. It can be argued that the US is also restoring parity in its own way after Russia rolled out the next generation of nuclear launch systems through its hypersonic weapons technology, but the situation actually isn’t as simple as that.

Superficially, it’s indeed true that the US restored a tit-for-tat balance with Russia that had been altered by Moscow’s announcement in March, but substantively, America will use this return to “parity” in order to continue making progress on its “missile defense” shield, albeit this time in terms of the hypersonic dimension after learning how to master this technology. That will essentially return the New Cold War back to its pre-March 2018 state of strategic affairs whereby the US continues to lead the world in anti-missile capabilities that it could tacitly exploit for nuclear blackmail purposes in order to preserve its global hegemony. The solution, then, might rest in Russia resorting to its own espionage operations and learning more about the US’ “missile defense” systems, including those that might be deployed in space.

At the end of the day, spying pays off – for better or for worse – and the world’s “second-oldest profession” will always remain relevant.

*

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This article was originally published on Eurasia Future.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Andrew Korybko is an American Moscow-based political analyst specializing in the relationship between the US strategy in Afro-Eurasia, China’s One Belt One Road global vision of New Silk Road connectivity, and Hybrid Warfare. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

Secrets of Russian hypersonic weapons were leaked to Americans, Ruslan Ostashko

Translated and subtitled by Scott Humor / THE SAKER BLOG

 

[dropcap]A[/dropcap] criminal case under article 275 of the criminal code — “treason” — was initiated by the Federal Security Service against employees of the Central Research Institute of Mechanical Engineering. Security officers have accused some scientists from the famous TSNIIMASH in transferring secrets of the Russian hypersonic weapons to Americans.

Five and a half years have passed since Vladimir Putin famously uttered the “This is not the 37” phrase.  In looking at high-profile criminal cases, bloggers often ask: “Why, in fact, this is not the 37th?” After all, the situation, judging by what is happening, is very similar.

Dmitry Payson—if this man really sold strategic secrets to the Americans he is guilty of the most heinous crime endangering all of humanity.

Dmitry Payson, the Director of the Research and Analytical Center of the United Rocket and Space Corporation, is suspected of transmitting secret information. It was he who, according to the investigators, received secret data from the institute staff. This is what the Kommersant newspaper claims after first breaking the news.

“Field investigators check information on participation of officials in deliberate transfer of data under a signature stamp of ‘top secret’ about the Russian hypersonic projects to foreign intelligence services. It is established that the leak came from the staff of the Institute, with whom Dmitry Payson remained in close contact,” says one of the interlocutors of the Kommersant familiar with the materials of the FSB. He refused to give the names of the defendants in this case and their procedural status, citing the secrecy of the investigation.

Let us imagine that we live in the XXII century. The fragmentation of humanity has already been overcome, the planet lives in peace, all armies have been dissolved, and the phrase “treason” sounds wild and preposterous. And one day, we find in the depths of the internet, a screenshot of a news article from 80 years ago, in which it is that a respected man named Payson was an American spy. Crazy, isn’t it?

This is roughly what domestic liberals say when it comes to what happened in 1937. But Russian hypersonic weapons is a reality, no matter what some “good persons” claim otherwise. American intelligence agencies really want to get access to it, as in the last century, the Soviet intelligence agencies were looking for ways to learn about developments in the field of nuclear weapons. And as you may remember, they did.

Finally – a characteristic detail: Dmitry Payson in 2011 moved to the TSNIIMASH from the SKOLKOVO Foundation, which is being run by a red-haired gentleman, who, according to the Russian conspiracy theorists is appointed to supervise over “this country” by the globalists. And having received the current position in the United rocket and space Corporation, Payson did not quit his job at the SKOLKOVO. According to the Kommersant’s sources, a few days before the searches, Dmitry Payson was notified of the upcoming dismissal from ORC: this was due to the fact that in the organizational and staff structure of the state Corporation, formed by the new management of Roscosmos, there is no place for the research and analytical center.

When it comes to Payson and other yet unknown to us defendants in the case of treason, their guilt will be determined by the courts, if the investigation will provide convincing evidence. But I would say that this fact looks like a motive: the desire to sell some secret data before dismissal, to get a nice chunk of money for a cloudless pension?

By the way, soon after 1937 it was 1941, but, of course, God forbid.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ruslan Ostashko is a well known Russian geopolitical analyst whose writings can be found in the leading independent news sites, including The Saker Blog, Greanvile Post, and similar.

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ALL CAPTIONS AND PULL QUOTES BY THE EDITORS NOT THE AUTHORS

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Revolutionary wisdom

Words from an Irish patriot—

 

Decoding the hypersonic Putin on a day of remembrance

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Sitting alongside French President Macron during the 100th anniversary to commemorate the end of World War I, Putin and Trump stole the show in Paris

[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Elysee Palace protocol was implacable. Nobody in Paris would be allowed to steal the spotlight away from the host, President Emmanuel Macron, during the 100th anniversary of Armistice Day marking the end of World War I.

After all, Macron was investing all his political capital as he visited multiple World War I battlefields while warning against the rise of nationalism and a surge in right-wing populism across the West. He was careful to always place the emphasis on praising “patriotism.”

A battle of ideas now rages across Europe, epitomized by the clash between the globalist Macron and populism icon Matteo Salvini, the Italian interior minister. Salvini abhors the Brussels system. Macron is stepping up his defense of a “sovereign Europe.”

And much to the horror of the US establishment, Macron proposes a real “European army” capable of autonomous self-defense side by side with a “real security dialogue with Russia.”

Yet all these “strategic autonomy” ideals collapse when you must share the stage, live, with the undisputed stars of the global show: President Donald  Trump and President Vladimir Putin.

So the optics in Paris were not exactly of a Yalta 2.0 conference. There were no holds barred to keep Trump and Putin apart. Seating arrangements featured, from left to right, Trump, Chancellor Angela Merkel, Macron, his wife Brigitte and Putin. Neither Trump nor Putin, for different reasons, took part in a “walking in the rain” stunt evoking peace.

And yet they connected. Sir Peter Cosgrove, the governor general of Australia, confirmed that Trump and Putin, at a working lunch, had a “lively and friendly” conversation for at least half an hour.

No one better than Putin himself to reveal, even indirectly, what they really talked about. Three themes are absolutely key.

On the Macron-proposed, non-NATO European army: “Europe is … a powerful economic union and it is only natural that they want to be independent and … sovereign in the field of defense and security.”

On the consequences of such an army: It would be “a positive process” that would “strengthen the multipolar world.” On top of it, Russia’s position “is aligned with that of France.”

On relations with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and Washington: “It is not us who are going to withdraw from the INF Treaty. It is the Americans who plan to do that.” Putin added that Moscow has not scheduled military drills near NATO borders as an attempt to appease an already tense situation. Yet Russia has “no issue with” NATO drills and expects at least a measure of dialogue in the near future.

Enter the Avangard

[dropcap]V[/dropcap]ast sectors of the US Deep State are in denial, but Putin may have been able to impress on Trump the necessity of serious dialogue due to an absolutely key vector: the Avangard.

The Avangard is a Russian hypersonic glide vehicle capable of flying over Mach 20 –  24,700km/h, or 4 miles per second – and one of the game-changing Russian weapons Putin announced at his ground-breaking March 1 speech.

The Avangard has been in the production assembly line since the summer of 2018, and is due to become operational in the southern Urals by the end of next year or early 2019.

In the near future, the Avangard may be launched by the formidable  Sarmat RS-28 intercontinental ballistic missile and reach Washington in a mere 15 minutes, flying in a cloud of plasma “like a meteorite” – even if the launch is from Russian territory. Serial production of Sarmat ICBMs starts in 2021.

The Avangard simply cannot be intercepted by any existing system on the planet – and the US knows it. Here is General John Hyten, head of US Strategic Command:  “We don’t have any defense that could deny the employment of such a weapon against us.”

Iran as the new Serbia?

[dropcap]I[/dropcap] wish I had been in Paris – my home in Europe – to follow these concentric World War I–related plots live. But it was no less fascinating to follow them from Islamabad, where I am now, back from the northern part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). The British Empire used 1.5 million to 2 million Indian colonial subjects to fight, and die, for empire in that war. Quite a few were Punjabis, from what is now Pakistan.

As for the future, Trump is certainly aware of Russia’s hypersonic breakthroughs. Trump and Putin also talked about Syria, and might have touched on Iran, although no one at the working lunch leaked anything about it.

Assuming the dialogue continues at the Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires at the end of November, Putin might be able to impress on Trump that just as Serbia catalyzed a chain of events that led great powers to sleepwalk into World War I, the same could happen with Iran leading to the terrifying prospect of World War III.

Team Trump’s obsession on strangling Iran into economic submission is a no-go, even for the Macron-Merkel-led European Union. On top of it, the Russia-China strategic partnership simply won’t allow any funny – reckless – games to be played against a crucial node of Eurasia integration.

Putin won’t even need to go hypersonic to make his case to Trump

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Pepe Escobar-nova-menor

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