@okelom - Tumblr Blog

No matter where we are, the shadow that trots behind us is definitely four-footed.

Clarissa Pinkola Estes

The body is the shore to the ocean of being.

Unknown

Guardian analysis indicates shocking figure over the past decade likely to be an underestimate

#workers' rights #qatar #world cup 2022 #global development #middle east and north africa

The Center for a New American Strategy is a Democratic think tank with close ties to the Biden administration, the military, the CIA and the defense industry. It has played a central role in the formulation of US imperialist strategy against Russia and China and Washington’s drive for global hegemony.

The world held its breath on Tuesday after a missile struck a Polish farm near the Ukrainian border, killing two people. Ukrainian officials immediately accused Moscow, while their Western patrons brought up invoking the NATO Treaty’s...

#missile attack

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2005 was awarded to Harold Pinter "who in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression's closed rooms"

By Jeffrey D. Sachs* Former US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski famously described Ukraine as a “geopolitical pivot” of Eurasia, central to both US and Russian power. Since Russia views its vital security interests to be at stake in the current conflict, the wa

The proxy war between the U.S. and Russia is devastating Ukraine, ironically in the name of saving Ukraine.

The State Department said Tuesday that the Syrian government may have used chemical weapons during recent fighting in Idlib. The State Department warned that the United States and its allies would respond quickly and appropriately if it is determined that chemical weapons have been used. This all comes as new questions are being raised about an alleged chemical weapons attack in the city of Douma last year. The Syrian government was accused of dropping two gas cylinders on the city, killing dozens of people. The U.S. and allies responded by carrying out airstrikes. But a newly leaked internal document from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons reveals there were conflicting views within the organization as to what happened. The leaked document suggests the cylinders were “manually placed” on the ground and were not dropped from the air. We speak to journalist Brian Whitaker, former Middle East editor at The Guardian.

Survivors of chemical weapons attacks in Syria have filed a criminal complaint in Germany accusing the Syrian government of killing more than 1,400 people in two separate attacks, one in the Damascus suburb of eastern Ghouta in 2013 and another in the village of Khan Sheikhoun in 2017. Meanwhile, at the United Nations, the United States, Britain and France blocked the former head of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, or OPCW, from testifying Monday. José Bustani was slated to read a statement about a possible internal OPCW cover-up of a chemical attack in Douma, Syria, in 2018. The OPCW and the Trump administration have blamed the Syrian government for the attack, but leaked documents show two OPCW investigators have questioned the official findings. The U.S. bombed Syria days after the alleged attack. After Bustani was barred from testifying at the Security Council, he recorded a video reading his prepared remarks. José Bustani: “If the OPCW is confident in the robustness of its scientific work on Douma and in the integrity of the investigation, then it should have little to fear in hearing out its inspectors. If, however, the claims of evidence suppression, selective use of data and exclusion of key investigators, among other allegations, are not unfounded, then it’s even more imperative that the issue be dealt with openly and urgently.”

A group of progressive Democrats in the House of Representatives this week sent, then retracted, a public letter urging the Biden Administration to engage in direct diplomacy with Russia to end the war in Ukraine while continuing to arm and support the government in Kyiv. The letter was signed by 30 lawmakers from the Congressional Progressive Caucus and saw an immediate and fierce backlash, as critics said it undermined Ukraine’s position and downplayed Russian atrocities. Progressive Caucus chair Congressmember Pramilya Jayapal issued a retraction less than 24 hours after it was published, blaming her staff for improperly releasing it. Meanwhile, some signatories said they had signed the letter months earlier when the war was at a much different stage and that they were unaware it would be released now. Phyllis Bennis, fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, says ignoring diplomatic channels will only prolong the war. “The level of outrage that greeted this very careful sort of commonsense approach shows us how much work is still needed … to stop the kind of control that militarism seems to have on our assumptions about what foreign policy looks like,” says Bennis.

Barack Obama did not tell the whole story when he tried to make the case that Bashar al-Assad was responsible for the...

#obama barack

The latest round of revelations makes clear that the US-led regime change operation in Syria has been based on a pack of lies.

The geopolitics of inequality persist, writes Vijay Prashad, even though industrial production has moved from the Global North to the Global South. By Vijay Prashad Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research Chaos reigns in the United Kingdom, where the prime minister’s residence

The government had one other unusual request. They wanted only one of our head men to speak for all our people. We had never heard of such a thing. We had head men that spoke for their families but never a head man that spoke for all the families at once. We wondered how this new head man could know what was in all our minds. It was a US government dream that made no sense. If one of our people had a good point or disagreed, they had the right to go their separate way. It was one of the beauties of being Lakota.

Crazy Horse: The Lakota Warrior’s Life & Legacy by The Edward Clown Family p. 43

The Trump administration has approved the $39M sale of defensive lethal weapons to Ukraine, according to two U.S. officials and another source familiar with the plan.

Satyajit Das' final post on where the world order is headed.

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs