“Report from Donbas.”

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Patrick Lawrence
THE FLOUTIST


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‘I am simply bearing witness.'


Destruction in Mariupol, resulting from the battles between the Ukrainian neonazis and Russian forces.


This was leveled two years ago. Mariupol, April 2024. The Russian rate of construction has amazed most observers. (Guy Mettan)


When I first read Guy Mettan’s report from Donbas I felt as if he had transported me to an antipodean universe of some kind. You can take this, as I do, as a measure of how prevalently, as in wall-to-wall, Western media have systematically misrepresented the Donbas region—when they represent it at all, this is to say. I was at once astonished and voraciously curious to read Mettan’s account of his travels to the two republics of the formerly Ukrainian region, which voted in referenda in September 2022 to join the Russian Federation.

Mettan is based in Geneva and travels often, a little in the way of what the French call le grand rapporteur—the accomplished correspondent who has established his authority in the course of a long career. When I met Mettan at a Geneva café the other day to discuss publication of his Donbas report I asked, “What did you expect to find?” It seemed an important question. Mettan immediately smiled. “Nothing,” he said. “I had no expectations whatsoever.”

Good, I recall thinking. A blank slate. A project so counter to the orthodoxy as this would not otherwise work.   

This is a very rare account, rare for its objectivity, a look at a place and a people we are not supposed to see from a journalist of long experience. We at The Floutist are pleased to welcome Guy Mettan into our pages.

This is the first of a two-part series. The second part of Mettan’s report will appear shortly.

—Patrick Lawrence, 11 May.


A Dispatch by Guy Mettan


DONESTK—How could they do this to us? Why does Kiev want to destroy us?

These are the questions that the people of Donbas have been asking themselves for the past 10 years. Considered from Switzerland or France, they may seem incongruous, as we are so used to believing that only Ukrainians are suffering from the war with Russia. We don't want to know that the battle has been going on for a decade and has primarily affected the civilian population of Donbas.

For a week in April, I was able to criss-cross the two provinces of Donetsk and Lugansk, visiting towns that had been destroyed and those that were being rebuilt, meeting refugees, and talking to people. This is my report.

I have no doubt that this piece will offend many people who are used to seeing the world in black and white. To them I would say what John Steinbeck and Robert Capa said to their detractors when they visited Stalin’s Russia in 1947, at the beginning of the Cold War: I am simply bearing witness, reporting what I saw and heard on the other side of the front. Then it’s up to everyone to form an opinion.

Mine is that Russia and the people of Donbas will never stop fighting until they have won.

This project began in a very Russian way, through an unlikely chain of circumstances. Nine years ago, in Dushanbe, Tajikistan’s capital, I met a Tajik entrepreneur from Moscow who was marrying off his daughter. He didn’t speak English and, without paying any attention to my miserable Russian, he invited the delegation I chaired, comprised of Swiss business people, to the wedding. I made a short speech in honour of the bride and her parents.

Since then, Umar Ikromovitch has become a close friend, one that neither distance nor the linguistic barrier could separate. Once or twice a year, on important holidays, he sends me a message via Telegram. In February, I was surprised when he invited me to join him to tour his work in Donbas, a region he had never visited before. Umar is an entrepreneurial builder—of roads, playgrounds, sports fields, and the like. His company employs several hundred workers in the Moscow region and a few dozen in the reconstruction of Donbas.

So, at 3 a.m. on 3 April, he and Nikita, one of his friends from the Russian Ministry of Defence, were waiting for me outside Vnukovo airport to begin our drive to Donbas. Nikita (and it is best I do not give his surname) had prepared the programme and provided the necessary permits, as well as an experienced driver, Volodia. For 10 hours, with a short coffee break at a newly opened petrol station, we drove at breakneck speed down the 1,060 kilometres of the “Prigozhin motorway,” as I nickname it, between Moscow and Rostov-on-Don—the same motorway on which the late leader of the Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, had set out upon with his tanks last July.

Nothing could be simpler than a Russian motorway. They are always straight. There's not a single bend along the Prigozhin motorway until you reach Rostov. And as the motorway is clear, apart from 50 kilometres of roadworks shortly before Rostov, the journey was quick and effortless, allowing us to travel from the last snows of Moscow to the soft spring of the Sea of Azov in less than half a day. We saw a steady stream of lorries and a few military convoys, although not many of the latter.

In Rostov, the bustling port and congested capital of southern Russia, we barely had a chance to put down our luggage and take three steps before setting off on our first visit. This was to an enormous pumping and turbine station, located at the mouth of the River Don some 20 kilometres from the city.

Workers are still finishing the external work. Two gigantic tubes, dozens of 20,000 m3tanks, and eight pumping stations, each with 11 turbines, now transport fresh water to Donetsk, 200 kilometres away, which is deprived of drinking water because of the embargo Ukraine has imposed. Everything is automated. The 3,700 workers started as soon as the republics were reintegrated into the mother country, in November 2022, and finished the huge worksite and the construction of the high-voltage line powering the turbines six months later, in April 2023.

My first conclusion is that, after such rapid and colossal investments, Russia’s will to fight until its final victory seems unshakeable. And I don’t think Russia will ever again agree to separate itself from the Donbas. This territory is now Russian, full stop.

As night fell, we seated ourselves at a table in one of Rostov’s most popular brasseries, facing the peaceful River Don. It was to be a quiet night, and we slept soundly. The following night, with 40 Ukrainian missiles fired at the nearby Morozov’s air base, would prove more animated.

The next morning we set off for Mariupol, 180 kilometres and three hours away. After Taganrog, a small port near the river’s mouth, the road runs alongside the Sea of Azov and is jammed with convoys of lorries coming and going from Donbas. The road is currently being widened. Military vehicles are clearly marked with a “V” or a “Z”—Roman letters, not Cyrillic, adopted at the start of Russia’s intervention to signify victory.

Checkpoints and various controls succeed one another on either side of the Russian border with the Republic of Donetsk. On the side of the road, long convoys wait to be searched. Thanks to our passes, we are soon on ex–Ukrainian territory. Yevgeny, a Russian from Vladivostok who has volunteered for the Donetsk Republic, takes over. He will be our guide and interpreter throughout our stay.

Shortly before noon we reach the outskirts of Mariupol and enter the zone of Azovstal, the vast steel complex that was totally devastated early in the war. The factory now is nothing but rusting chimneys, tangles of burst pipes, and twisted ironwork. A vision of apocalypse that immediately evokes the Stalingrad tractor factory of Vasily Grossman, the Red Army war correspondent, and Steinbeck and Capa’s Journey to Russia. None of the surrounding houses and apartment blocks survived.

The city centre, however, has survived the war much better: At first glance, half of it was destroyed, half survived. Mariupol is currently undergoing a major renovation. In the central square, the reconstruction of the famous theatre—bombed or blown up, we’re not sure—is due to be completed by the end of the year. Umar is happy: The children and young mothers have already taken over the park and playground that his company has just completed. The bus routes, with buses donated by the city of St Petersburg, have been re-established. The café terraces have reopened.

Supervised by the Russian Ministry of Defence’s Military Construction Company, with the help of Russian towns and provinces, work goes on day and night. Ten thousand residents have already been rehoused and the town has regained two-thirds of its prewar population of 300,000. In the afternoon, we will visit a second 60–bed hospital, completely new and demountable – designed to be taken apart and moved if the need arises. They are very well equipped and run by volunteer doctors from all over Russia.

The most spectacular buildings, however, are the schools.

On the seafront, a new naval academy will welcome its first class of cadets at the start of the new academic year in September. Classrooms, dormitories, sports halls, and training facilities: Four gleaming glass-and-steel buildings have been completed in 10 months. Designed to accommodate 560 uniformed pupils aged 11 to 17, I am told they will take in mainly orphans from the two wars in Donbas, 2014–2022 and 2022–2024. With six days of instruction per week, eight to 10 hours a day, there's hardly time to get bored. At the end of the course, students can either continue their training in the navy or enter a civilian university.

A second school is more traditional but even more spectacular. It’s an experimental school, the like of which has never been seen before in Russia (or in Switzerland, to my knowledge). The design is very sophisticated. The classrooms are equipped with the latest technology, including computers, robots, cyber– and nanotechnologies, and artificial intelligence. More traditional are the rooms for drawing, sewing, cooking, painting, languages, ballet, drama, chemistry, physics, biology, anatomy, and mathematics. There is even a room equipped with compartments for learning to drive and fly.

Begun at the end of 2022 and completed in September 2023, this school welcomed its first intake of 500 students last year and expects 500 more at the start of the new school year in September. The pedagogy is in keeping with the building, but without any pedagogical flourishes: Classes last 12 hours a day—8 a.m. to 8 p.m., with six hours of “hard” subjects in the morning—grammar, mathematics, history—and six hours of more recreational or complementary subjects in the afternoon—sport, ballet, music, drawing. The canteen provides three meals a day. The only difficulty, says the headmistress, is finding teachers willing to move to Mariupol. But she doesn’t seem to be one to shy away from the task.

In the late afternoon, we set off on the brand-new motorway linking Mariupol to Donetsk, 120 kilometres away, making a short stop in the small town of Volnovakha, whose Palace of Culture was hit by HIMARS rockets last November. The roof has collapsed, and scaffolding clutters what remains of the stage and auditorium. Fortunately, no one was killed or injured in the blast, as the show scheduled for that day was moved at the last minute.

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As far as the locals were concerned, there is no doubt that the Ukrainians were trying to kill as many civilians as possible. My guide explained that they always fired HIMARS rockets in groups of three—the first rocket to pierce the roof and structures, the second to kill the occupants, and, 20 to 25 minutes later, a third strike to kill as many firefighters, rescue workers, relatives, policemen, friends, and neighbours who had come to help the victims as possible. I heard this kind of story several times.

Donetsk is a city of one million inhabitants—very spread out, very busy, with heavy traffic. Few buildings or façades have been destroyed. On the other hand, the city is alive with the sound of cannon fire.

I didn’t pay much attention to it when I arrived, because of my fatigue, and the intense emotions provoked by all I was seeing. But when I woke up at 3 a.m., I was suddenly struck by the sound of the cannon. Every two or three minutes, a shot goes off, rattling the windows and lighting up the sky with an orange glow: It’s Russian artillery firing on Ukrainian positions a few kilometres from the town centre. The Ukrainians retaliate with missiles, drones, or HIMARS rockets, which trigger Russian counter-battery fire, at a rate of one or two an hour, I believe.

The next morning, I was taught to distinguish one from the other. The HIMARS rockets are silent until the final explosion, the French SCALP and British Storm Shadow missiles make an airplane-like hum, as do the Russian anti-missile batteries, while the ordinary shells fall with a whistling sound. In any case, I have nothing to worry about, my new friends assure me. They have put me up in the only hotel in the city still in American hands, and the Ukrainians would never dare fire on an American target.

Nevertheless, Ukrainian fire continues to cause injuries and an average of one death a week. All civilians, because there are absolutely no soldiers, military vehicles, or military installations in the town. In four days, I haven’t come across a single uniform.

We start the day with a visit to the “Alley of Angels,” which stands in the middle of a beautiful city park. This is the name given to the funerary monument erected in memory of the children killed by Ukrainian bombing since 2014. A hundred sixty names have already been inscribed on the marble. But the list of casualties now runs to more than 200. Dozens of bunches of flowers, toys, and photos of children pile up under the wrought-iron arch. It’s overwhelming. 

Initially, in 2014, it was difficult to recruit journalists because of the risk of attack, but that is no longer the case, says editor-in-chief Nina Anatoleva. The Russian intervention in 2022 greatly increased security. But they have lost viewers. Their channels, which used to broadcast widely in the Russian-speaking part of Ukraine, have been cut off—the Ukrainians have blocked the satellite signals—and can now be seen only on the internet or the local network.

As soon as you leave Donetsk, you feel the proximity of the front.

In the afternoon, we travel to the village of Yasynuvata, close to Avdiivka and therefore very close to the front line. The village, which is very exposed to Ukrainian shelling, is home to a school that has been converted into a reception centre for refugees from recently liberated villages. The road is torn up by shellfire and littered with the debris of collapsed bridges. On our left, two Ka–50 Alligator attack helicopters and an MI–8 helicopter are flying low over the ground as they return from the front. To our right, trenches and three rows of dragoons’ teeth, the equivalent of the Swiss Army’s Toblerone armoured barriers, so named after the Swiss chocolate because of their shape, form one of the lines of Russian defence. Military vehicles regularly drive along it.

Our vehicle is entirely anonymous. No convoy, no press badges, no bullet-proof waistcoats or helmets to attract the attention of Ukrainian surveillance drones. The GPS on our mobile phones has long since been deactivated. It's all about being as ordinary as possible. The road is getting worse and worse, and traffic is now almost non-existent. The driver, the guide, and Umar are perfectly impassive.

The headmistress of the school, a former maths teacher who is now the head of the reception centre, welcomes us. The liberation of Avdiivka and its neighbouring villages at the end of February brought the surviving inhabitants out of the cellars. They are housed here, in the classrooms, while waiting to return to their homes or find new ones. Some of the 160 people housed here have already been able to return to Avdiivka.

Today, it is the turn of Nina Timofeevna, 85 years old and full of verve, to return to her home. She lived in her cellar for two years, making fires on the street. “The Ukrainian soldiers didn’t help us at all,” she assures us, while the Russian army repaired her roof and the windows of her house so that she can return, flanked by two soldiers from the military police who carry her gear. “It’s not a war,” she says. “It’s a massacre of civilians. They want to destroy us.”

In the corridors, volunteers from the Orthodox Church are unpacking boxes of clothes, bottles of water, and food. In the other rooms, a couple with a beautiful blue-eyed cat, old people. A family with a four-year-old boy: They had their flat blown away by a rocket while trying to find food outside. The father was a factory worker and the mother an accountant at the Avdiivka  coking plant. They miraculously escaped death and still can’t believe they survived.

On the way back to Donetsk, the discussion turns to life during the war, and Yevgeny, our volunteer guide from Vladivostok, tells me that, in Mariupol in 2014, the neo–Nazi Azov Battalion opened a secret prison in a building at the airport, called the Bibliotheka, the Library, because the victims there were referred to as “books,” like the Nazis who called their victims “Stücke,” “pieces.”

According to eyewitness accounts, dozens of people were tortured and killed there during the eight years when the battalion's nationalists, tattooed with Nazi symbols, ruled Mariupol while the local police looked the other way. Investigations are under way to identify the victims, and visits to the premises have been suspended. The Russian press reported on these incidents, but Western media remained silent for fear of undermining the narrative of the good Ukrainians and the bad Russians.

My second conclusion now. At the beginning of April, Donbas celebrated the 10thanniversary of its uprising against the Kiev regime, which, in the spring of 2014, had declared a terrorizing war against it. Thousands of people—civilians, children, and fighters—have been killed. Donetsk has taken on the nickname of “City of Heroes.” After so many sacrifices, the three million inhabitants of the oblast, the province, will fight to the bitter end to defend their republic, whatever the cost and whatever people in the West may think of them.

Guy Mettan is an independent journalist based in Geneva and a member of the Grand Council of the Canton of Geneva, over which he presided in 2010. He has previously worked at the Journal de Genève, Le Temps stratégique, Bilan, and Le Nouveau Quotidien. He subsequently served as director and editor-in-chief of Tribune de Genève. In 1996, Mettan founded Le Club suisse de la presse, of which he was president and later director from 1998 to 2019.

This report appears simultaneously in Arrêt sur info, in French, in the German-language Die Weltwoche, and in the Swiss journal Current Concerns.


Editor's Note: Guy Mettan's Wikipedia page is, as we could expect from another platform poisoned by the devious and pervasive anti-Russia propaganda afflicting all information and knowledge institutions in the West, stained by an obvious attempt at slander. Thus, while providing undeniable biographical facts of lesser importance, it waits till the closing paragraph to inject its venom, using as sources Reporters Without Borders (an organisation apparently infiltrated if not created by the CIA); a member of the Swiss Green Party (also Russophobic, as are most Green Parties in Europe, especially in Germany), and a German publication. Let us remember that anyone dissenting from the high-handed spurious narrative used by the West to demonise Russia is immediately tarred as a "Putin dupe" or "apologist".

Mettan's journalistic credibility has been questioned on several occasions. In 2017, Reporters Without Borders criticized Mettan for his pro-Russian militancy and for serving as a mouthpiece for Russian propaganda.[6] Florian Irminger, Secretary General of the Swiss Green Party, also called Mettan an apologist for Putin's government.[6]Following Mettan's support for the Ukraine bioweapons conspiracy theory in a Die Weltwoche essay in 2022, Swiss magazine Republik referred to the article as a "breathtaking compendium" of Russian propaganda.[8]

Guy Mettan / Wikipedia page  (Excerpt)


ABOUT GUY METTAN / WIKIPEDIA
Guy Mettan (born 19 November 1956 in Evionnaz) is a Swiss journalist and politician. He was a member of the Christian Democratic People's Party of Switzerland before becoming a member of the Swiss People's Party.[1] As a journalist Mettan started with Tribune de Genève as an intern[2] and was its director and editor-in-chief from 1992 to 1998.[3] 1997 he co-founded the Geneva Press Club [fr] and was executive director until 2019. In 2001 he was appointed Vice-President of the Swiss-West African Chamber of Commerce.[3] Mettan has been president of the Swiss-Russian Chamber of Commerce since its inception in 2005.[4] From 2006 to 2014 he was President of the Geneva Section of the Red Cross Switzerland.[5] He also served as President of the Grand Council of Geneva[3] and sat for the center there until 2019.[6] Mettan was awarded the Russian medal of the Order of Friendship in February 2017[4] by President Vladimir Putin.[6] While parliamentary regulations prohibit elected officials from receiving decorations from foreign governments, the Grand Council of Geneva authorised him to receive the medal on a 36-35 vote.[7]


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.

Things to keep in mind...

Neo-Nazi ideology has become one of the main protagonists of political and social life in Ukraine since the 2014 coup d'état. Meanwhile, fascist ideology and blatant lies also permeate the consciousness of most people in the West. Those in the comfortable top 10%, the "PMCs" (Professional Managerial Class), are especially vulnerable. They support and disseminate such ideas. They are the executors of the actual ruling class' orders, those in the 0.001%, who remain largely invisible. The PMCs are the political class, the media whores, the top military brass, some people in academia, and the "national security/foreign policy" industry honchos. Push back against these unethical, contaminated people with the truth while you can.

AND...where the US Government is at: LYING 24/7


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ALL CAPTIONS AND PULL QUOTES BY THE EDITORS NOT THE AUTHORS




Garland Nixon: MIDDLE EAST IN DEPTH WITH LAITH MAROUF – ISRAELIS STORM AL AQSA – ISRAEL IRAN RESPONSE SYMBOLIC

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  • Help us expand our reach. Defeat appalling hypocrisy. Lies cost countless lives.
  • We must act together to smash the VILE Western disinformation machine.
  • This is the Lying Machine that protects the greatest evil humanity has ever seen.
  • YOU know what we are talking about.

Things to keep in mind...

Neo-Nazi ideology has become one of the main protagonists of political and social life in Ukraine since the 2014 coup d'état. Meanwhile, fascist ideology and blatant lies also permeate the consciousness of most people in the West. Those in the comfortable top 10%, the "PMCs" (Professional Managerial Class), are especially vulnerable. They support and disseminate such ideas. They are the executors of the actual ruling class' orders, those in the 0.001%, who remain largely invisible. The PMCs are the political class, the media whores, the top military brass, some people in academia, and the "national security/foreign policy" industry honchos. Push back against these unethical, contaminated people with the truth while you can.

AND...where the US Government is always at: Lying 24/7


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The views expressed herein are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of The Greanville Post. However, we do think they are important enough to be transmitted to a wider audience.

Since the overpaid media shills will never risk their careers to report the truth, the world must rely on citizen journalists to provide the facts that explain reality.


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Exclusive: Pro-Palestine activists defy Israel with Gaza-bound aid flotilla

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Salwa Amor
A TNA (THE NEW ARAB) DISPATCH

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MENA • 19 April, 2024


Palestine solidarity activists are preparing a flotilla to deliver urgently needed humanitarian aid to Gaza, vowing to break Israel's blockade of the Palestinian territory on board the Akdeniz, a seven-floor passenger ship.

Currently docked in Istanbul, the boat will carry 800 people from over 30 nations, from Indonesia to Hawaii, and is expected to transport 5500 tonnes of aid to Gaza once it sets sail from Turkey in the coming days.

On Friday, reports in Israel media suggested the Israeli authorities are preparing to intercept it. The activists joining the Akdeniz will be mindful of a previous fatal attempt by a vessel of comparable size to set sail from Turkey to Gaza.

The Mavi Marmara was a Turkish aid ship, part of a flotilla attempting to break the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip in May 2010. Israeli commandos intercepted the flotilla in international waters, boarded the Mavi Marmara, and killed nine Turkish activists, injuring several others. The incident sparked international condemnation and strainedrelations between Turkey and Israel.

The acquisition of the Akdeniz was made possible through the support of four million donors worldwide. Organised by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), a coalition of 12 countries including Turkey, in partnership with İnsani Yardım Vakfı (IHH), the mission aims to break the deadly siege that has severely impacted the lives of the people of Gaza for years amid Israel's genocidal war that has killed over 33,000 Palestinians since October 7.

Pro-Palestinian activist and human rights lawyer Huwaida Arraf, who was on the Mavi Marmara in 2010, announced she would join the flotilla nevertheless.

"While we recognize Israel's potential for intercepting the mission, we hope for a peaceful outcome. If they choose to attack, those on board are prepared to engage in nonviolent resistance," she told reporters on Thursday.


RELATED

As Gaza starves, Israeli protesters are blocking vital aid

In-depth
Jessica Buxbaum

Redemption and hope

Former US diplomat and retired US Army Colonel Ann Wright is one of the primary organisers of the FFC. In 2003 she resigned from the US Government in protest against the Iraq War

Speaking to TNA, Wright said the mission of the flotilla was to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza's starved population

"When you witness genocide, you can't stand back. I'm 77, but even if I were a hundred, I'd still be on this boat," said Wright.

Wright and her fellow activists are also determined to shine a spotlight on the dire humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza, bringing international human rights observers to the territory to witness the unfolding genocide.

“Our message to the people of Gaza is that we love you and are trying desperately to stop this genocide...To the Israeli people, I say you have a responsibility to stop your government's genocide of Palestinians. I know the propaganda that comes from governments at war, having been a former US diplomat. But what's happening in Gaza is genocide, and when you see what your government has done, you'll be horrified.” Wright added.



The New Arab also spoke to Michael, a 77-year-old former US veteran from Seattle, USA. He said his decision to participate in the flotilla was a way to atone for his involvement with the US army in Vietnam.

“This is a dangerous journey to undertake, and I do ask myself, why am I here? My wife asks me why I am here. I was drafted into the Vietnam War in 1965, I was just out of high school. At the time I understood what conscientious objection was, but I did not have the courage to fight against the US military and say, no!

"But now, I am older, and as I watch what is happening to the people of Gaza, I am appalled. It is not only the children, although that is what hits me the most. But now, it is the time to object to what my country, the US is doing. This is what conscientious objection is about. I am putting my body, my money, my time, my everything on the line to say, ‘I object to what my country is doing, we should not be doing this’. I want to stand up for those people in the US who agree with what I am doing and represent my country on this journey,” said Michael.

Michael said he draws courage from the people of Gaza. 

"The people of Palestine have lived under occupation for so long that it impresses me how a people like that can still have that courage and continue to stand for what they believe is right. I am guided by the bravery and courage of the people of Gaza in particular but all of Palestinians.”

Solidarity without borders

Doctors Without Borders, will also be on the boat.

“In all those places I saw a lot of pain but in no place I found such an amount of people killed and wounded and suffering like in Gaza when I worked in Al Shifa hospital in 2009," he told TNA.

“When people ask me why I am going, the answer is why not! We are health workers, so it is natural to want to be with those injured,” added Dr. Carlos.

Lee Patten, a 63-year-old former merchant navy officer from Liverpool, told TNA he feels compelled to join the voyage.

"When I see those poor children, I cannot simply turn away and leave them with no one to care for them," he said.

harrowing images emanating from Gaza have left an indelible mark on Lee. "The sight of defenceless, innocent children is deeply distressing. It's unfathomable to comprehend that such suffering is deliberate," Lee explained.

"There seems to be a prevailing notion that what is happening in Gaza is confined to Palestinians and could never happen to Europeans. It's astounding. Gaza serves as a stark warning to us all,” Lee added.

As the onslaught continues with Israeli strikes devastating Gaza's infrastructure, some participants on the boat say they are not going solely to help people but are determined to initiate the rebuilding process after the war. Among them are several architects who have joined the mission to help in rebuilding Gaza.

28-year-old Dilara Karasakiz, a Turkish architect among the almost 300 Turkish citizens participating, says she's taking this perilous journey for this very reason.

“I am going on this journey to help rebuild Gaza. We will rebuild everything Israel has destroyed. Gazans deserve a good standard of life, and we're asking for their suffering to end and for them to be free. I'm not afraid because this ship is just a symbol of humanity. Why would I be afraid? I hope we'll arrive in Gaza and bring some hope."

(All picture credits to the author)


News 2739
  • If you approve of this article, please share it with your friends and kin.
  • Help us expand our reach. Defeat appalling hypocrisy. Lies cost countless lives.
  • We must act together to smash the VILE Western disinformation machine.
  • This is the Lying Machine that protects the greatest evil humanity has ever seen.
  • YOU know what we are talking about.

Things to keep in mind...

Neo-Nazi ideology has become one of the main protagonists of political and social life in Ukraine since the 2014 coup d'état. Meanwhile, fascist ideology and blatant lies also permeate the consciousness of most people in the West. Those in the comfortable top 10%, the "PMCs" (Professional Managerial Class), are especially vulnerable. They support and disseminate such ideas. They are the executors of the actual ruling class' orders, those in the 0.001%, who remain largely invisible. The PMCs are the political class, the media whores, the top military brass, many influential people in academia, and the "national security/foreign policy" industry mob. Push back against these unethical, contaminated people with the truth while you can.

AND...LYING WITH TOTAL IMPUNITY, what the US Government constantly does. 


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The views expressed herein are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of The Greanville Post. However, we do think they are important enough to be transmitted to a wider audience.

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Pretending The US Can’t Just Drive Aid Into Gaza

Be sure to distribute this article as widely as possible. Pushing back against the Big Lie is really up to you.


Caitlin Johnstone
ROGUE JOURNALIST

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The Biden administration is supposedly planning to set up a temporary pier in Gaza to allow for the large-scale shipment of sorely needed goods into the enclave, which reportedly will take weeks to build and will still be subjected to an Israeli checkpoint. This is on top of the widely ridiculed airdrops of pitifully small amounts of aid the US has already been making in this continuing charade where Washington pretends Gaza is surrounded by some kind of unassailable invisible barrier between itself and Israel.

And hell, why not? Why not build a pier. Have they considered digging a giant tunnel to get aid into Gaza as well? Or launching aid into Gaza by building a giant slingshot? Or perhaps they could invent some type of portal gun à la Rick and Morty? 

Ooh! Hey! Or what about simply making their fully dependent client state let the aid in, or force them to stop the genocidal onslaught that makes it necessary? As Antiwar’s Dave DeCamp rightly notes of the planned pier construction, “The drastic measure is being ordered instead of Biden using the enormous leverage he has over Israel to pressure them to allow in more aid or halt the genocidal campaign.”

Journalist Mark Ames tweeted of the report, “This is an incredible scoop, a direct window into how the genocide-propaganda sausage is made.”

My favorite part of the article is where the author Max Blumenthal writes that Republicans and Democrats were found to be receptive to different words used to describe Israel’s genocidal violence in Gaza, saying “Republican voters prefer phrases which imply maximalist violence, like ‘eradicate’ and ‘obliterate,’ while sanitized terms like ‘neutralize’ appeal more to Democrats.”

That’s pretty much the only difference between Republicans and Democrats right there. That’s it in a nutshell.


When western officials bitch at Israel over settlements, they’re essentially saying “Stop it you guys, you’re giving the game away! Now how are we supposed to pretend we care?” They need to be able to credibly bleat the phrase “two-state solution” once in a while in order to create the impression that they’re not just permanently taking the side of genocide, ethnic cleansing, colonialism, theft and apartheid — even though that is exactly what they are doing.

I’ve noticed that on social media I’m getting more and more comments from dopey right wingers yelling at me for what I have to say about Gaza, and what’s weird is that most of them don’t even post about Israel-Palestine normally. They appear to be doing it solely because they see opposition to the Gaza genocide as a left-wing issue, and so they’ve reflexively taken the opposite position because that’s just what political engagement looks like in this insipid, brainwashed dystopia of ours.

Until recently most of the hostile responses I’ve been getting have been coming from virulent Israel supporters with Israeli flags and “proud Zionist” in their bios who shriek about Hamas 24/7. Now a lot of the pushback I’m getting is just from standard MAGA chuds and other rightists who tweet mostly about partisan politics in their own country. They’re not pushing back against me because they love Israel, they’re pushing back because I’m a leftist and they automatically push back against lefty-looking things because that’s what they’ve been programmed to do.

It just says so much about the state of western civilization that even genocide has been turned into another vapid culture war wedge issue for people to masturbate their tribal identity constructs on. As though “don’t starve children to death or rip them to shreds with military explosives” is some kind of ideological position that only makes sense through a specific political lens, instead of just the normal human default perspective for anyone who isn’t a psychopath.

But that’s the genius of the empire. Propaganda has been used to split the general population into two warring factions of equal strength, and the propagandists get each faction arguing about which imperial military project should be supported and which should be criticized. A lot of the people you see supporting the US-backed butchery in Gaza today have spent two years criticizing the US proxy war in Ukraine (and vice versa), because they took those positions based on what the pundits and politicians in their political faction told them to think. It’s got nothing to do with values or morals, it’s just blind tribalistic herd mentality.

And that’s exactly where the empire wants us. Evenly divided against each other too thoroughly to get anything done, arguing back and forth about WHICH imperial agendas should be advanced instead of IF any of them should be advanced. A bunch of bleating human livestock unknowingly bickering about how best to advance the interests of their owners.

And now this...


Oscar Winners Who Don’t Speak Out On Gaza This Weekend Will Be Complicit In Genocide


Emma Stone Oscars 24

Emma Stone at the Oscars. Failed the test big time. Gaza on my mind? Nah.


If you’re given a major platform and your government is committing genocide, you are morally obligated use that platform to condemn your government’s actions.

Caitlin Johnstone

Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):


Caitlin Johnstone · Oscar Winners Who Don't Speak Out On Gaza This Weekend Will Be Complicit In Genocide

people are being deliberately starved at an incredibly fast pace and the massacres haven’t stopped. We’ve seen severe death count lags before in places like Yemen, where in 2017 the media stopped counting at 10,000 deaths and just kept repeating that number for ages.

Every Hollywood celebrity who fails to speak out against the US-backed genocide in Gaza at the Academy Awards this Sunday is complicit in that genocide. If you’re given a major platform and your government is committing genocide, you are morally obligated use that platform to condemn your government’s actions.

I always get Israel supporters in my comments going “Hurr hurr, if you think what Aaron Bushnell did is so great then why don’t you do it too?” 

Shallow, vapid people are incapable of understanding and appreciating what Aaron Bushnell did. They’ve no internal framework for it. When they dismiss him or disparage his motives, they’re just telling you there’s not much to them as people. They’re asleep at the wheel of life.

A political party which views opposing an active genocide as a fringe extremist position is not a political party that should continue to exist.

After seeing how horrifyingly murderous and reckless this Democrat president has turned out to be, I hope US leftists have fully let go of all the guilt liberals tried to heap on them for not rallying behind the Democrat in 2016. It was all a lie. They’re as bad as Republicans.

Over and over you see people enter western mainstream political parties with the stated goal of changing them from this inside, but instead it changes them. They think the problem is that the party just doesn’t have enough nice people in it, but it turns out trying to change a mainstream political party in the western empire by putting nice people in it is like trying to change an abusive cult by putting nice people in it: the cult doesn’t change, the people who go in just get indoctrinated. The cult isn’t bad because there aren’t enough nice cult members, the cult is bad because its entire purpose, function and founding doctrine is bad.

A mainstream political party in the imperial core exists solely to promote the interests of the empire. Everything in it is geared toward this purpose. That is its nature. If you join it, you either embrace its doctrines and help it act out its foundational purpose, or you get kicked out of the cult. You cannot change it. It can only change you. How many times does this have to happen before people learn the lesson?

The western-backed genocide in Gaza should be showing everyone that western governments don’t make the odd-looking foreign policy decisions they make because they understand foreign policy better than ordinary people. They make those decisions because they are corrupt and evil.

That’s always been the case, it’s just far more obvious now. You can see just by looking at how universal support for Israel is among US officials and lawmakers compared to the general public that any random schmoe off the street is more likely to make correct and moral foreign policy decisions on behalf of these governments than the empire managers in charge.

And that’s why real democracy is continually subverted in those nations. If the people were actually in charge of the foreign policy decisions made within the imperial core, the empire would no longer be inflicting the violence and tyranny necessary for its continued existence.

A whole media industry is sprouting up around mainstream journalists just reading The Grayzone and presenting its findings as their own original reporting, because The Grayzone is considered naughty enough to steal from.

At this point I just automatically assume that any Israel supporter who interacts with me is acting in bad faith, partly because that’s been my consistent experience with them and partly because in order to still support Israel in March of 2024 you have to be a bit sociopathic.

Most of the Americans who’ll call you an antisemite for criticizing Israel would have mocked you and laughed at you if you called them racist for criticizing Obama or sexist for criticizing Hillary Clinton. It’s the exact same logic, but it’s okay when they do it.

After watching a pro-Palestine activist go off the deep end recently I think it’s probably a good idea to issue a few basic reminders to anyone who’s speaking out about this issue:

Don’t deny the Holocaust unless you want to help delegitimize the pro-Palestine movement. Don’t try to make Israeli atrocities about Judaism or Jewishness unless you want to help delegitimize the pro-Palestine movement. Don’t conflate Jews as a global collective with a murderous apartheid state unless you want to help delegitimize the pro-Palestine movement. Don’t say Jews rule the world unless you want to help delegitimize the pro-Palestine movement.

It’s not hard to make these distinctions, and the overwhelming majority of pro-Palestine voices have no difficulty doing so. It’s also not hard to see what messages Israel apologists will forcefully amplify as evidence that the entire pro-Palestine movement is antisemitic and that everyone needs to shift the focus from stopping an active genocide to fighting an imaginary antisemitism crisis.

This isn’t about Jews, it’s about settler-colonialism and the geostrategic objectives of the western empire — both of which we’ve seen manifest in countless examples that have nothing to do with Jewish people. Zionism is just one belief system the empire managers will utilize to advance their agendas of planetary hegemony, just as they do with Christian fundamentalism, Islamophobia, humanitarianism, conservatism, progressivism, and any other worldview that can be exploited to their advantage.

In short, don’t let your opposition to Israeli atrocities turn you into a moron. Don’t let your support for the Palestinians turn you into a tool of the empire. Stay on top of that shit. Please and thank you.


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All my work is free to bootleg and use in any way, shape or form; republish it, translate it, use it on merchandise; whatever you want. My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, throwing some money into my tip jar on PatreonPaypal, or Substack, buying an issue of my monthly zine, and following me on FacebookTwitterSoundcloud or YouTube. If you want to read more you can buy my books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. All works co-authored with my husband Tim Foley.

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This is a dispatch from our ongoing series by Caitlin Johnstone


Caitlin Johnstone is a brave journalist, political junkie, relentless feminist, champion of the 99 percent. And a powerful counter-propaganda tactician. 
 

 


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Victoria Nuland

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Gonzalo Lira

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PRECIS
"in 1991...upon the implosion of the Soviet Union...there was a huge power vacuum. The US figured that by encouraging oligarchs, by outsourcing tyranny to oligarchs, they could better control these regions...That's why corruption was institutionalised. Ukraine, in particular, soon became a cesspool of Western corruption. Ukraine never overcame it, but Russia, under Putin, gradually emerged from this nightmare to take her seat again as a great world power."


Streamed live on Mar 27, 2022 KHARKIV
Lira holds forth on the origins of Ukraine's astonishing corruption, and the deep-seated emotional motivations for Nuland's hatred of Russia, which Lira traces back to injuries and persecution inflicted on her great-grandfather during Russian pogroms in Bessarabia almost 150 years ago, forcing his son's emigration to America. This emotional scar, shared by many Jews in the US establishment (Blinken, and the Kagans and the rest of the neoconservatives, for example) may explain, to some extent, their deeply-held Russophobia. Victoria Nuland, says Lira, is not a nice person. She's a suckup to those above her and a mean tyrant to those with less power. Meanwhile, as one of the key people in charge of "the Ukraine project", she oversees the colossal grift taking place in that country by all kinds of US and Western business and political figures, much of it huge money-laundering operations, theft and illegal use of state assets, etc. Hunter Biden was one of such individuals, his "line" was chiefly bribery through influence peddling (his father).  All in all a provocative discussion by an outspoken man whose truths made him persona non gratissima with the US/Western establishment, a fact which explains why the US did not lift a finger to help him when he became a prisoner of the Ukrainian regime's goons. 

Correction: Victoria Nuland does have two children, David and Elena Kagan. So I was wrong about that part, which I take back. But I will add, she must’ve been a nightmare mother. GL


Editor's Note:  Gonzalo Lira's Conundrum

A late-blooming anti-imperialist, to put it that way, since till the end Lira was hard to classify, this was a man who lived his entire life with a huge contradiction. The scion of an aristocratic Chilean family, perhaps by dint of socio-cultural upbringing Lira was a lifelong unrepentant supporter of dictator Augusto Pinochet.  This posture, of course, does not add up when we examine his YouTube persona, which is that of a cogent and unrelenting critic of Kiev's criminal Neonazi regime and the US itself.
We'll never know if, as time went by, and he became older and wiser (he always demonstrated a thirst for knowledge and no fear toward new ideas), Lira might have shed his "momio" persona and finally embraced a genuine leftism.  This would have forced him to discard a multitude of prejudices inherited from his class and ethnicity, allowing him to consider richer explanations of political reality, including, perish the thought, Marxism itself. —PG

dyed-in-the-wool reactionaries seen by the masses as rigidly and haughtily anachronistic. Its derogatory connotation is derived from the term "mummy". After the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, it fell into disuse, being replaced by the equivalent "facho”. (Short for “fascist”).  (Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator)

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The views expressed herein are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of The Greanville Post. However, we do think they are important enough to be transmitted to a wider audience.

Since the overpaid media shills will never risk their careers to report the truth, the world must rely on citizen journalists to provide the facts that explain reality.


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