[Majorityrights News] Trump will ‘arm Ukraine to the teeth’ if Putin won’t negotiate ceasefire Posted by Guessedworker on Tuesday, 12 November 2024 16:20.
[Majorityrights News] Alex Navalny, born 4th June, 1976; died at Yamalo-Nenets penitentiary 16th February, 2024 Posted by Guessedworker on Friday, 16 February 2024 23:43.
[Majorityrights Central] A couple of exchanges on the nature and meaning of Christianity’s origin Posted by Guessedworker on Tuesday, 25 July 2023 22:19.
[Majorityrights News] Is the Ukrainian counter-offensive for Bakhmut the counter-offensive for Ukraine? Posted by Guessedworker on Thursday, 18 May 2023 18:55.
Posted by DanielS on Wednesday, 11 April 2018 06:07.
Zuckerberg “concedes” by increasing ZOG’s global influence - viz. in Asia - by cracking down on use of social media - viz. Facebook - by opponents of its Abrahamic footsoldiers (Islam) in Myanmar
Reuters, “Facebook’s Zuckerberg vows to work harder to block hate speech in Myanmar”, 11 April 2018:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said on Tuesday his company would step up efforts to block hate messages in Myanmar as he faced questioning by the U.S. Congress about electoral interference and hate speech on the platform.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before a joint Senate Judiciary and Commerce Committees hearing regarding the company’s use and protection of user data, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., April 10, 2018. REUTERS/Aaron P. Bernstein
Facebook has been accused by human rights advocates of not doing enough to weed out hate messages on its social-media network in Myanmar, where it is a dominant communications system.
“What’s happening in Myanmar is a terrible tragedy, and we need to do more,” Zuckerberg said during a 5-hour joint hearing of the Senate Commerce Committee and Senate Judiciary Committee.
More than 650,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar’s Rakhine state into Bangladesh since insurgent attacks sparked a security crackdown last August.
United Nations officials investigating a possible genocide in Myanmar said last month that Facebook had been a source of anti-Rohingya propaganda.
Marzuki Darusman, chairman of the U.N. Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, said in March that social media had played a “determining role” in Myanmar.
“It has ... substantively contributed to the level of acrimony and dissension and conflict ... within the public. Hate speech is certainly of course a part of that. As far as the Myanmar situation is concerned, social media is Facebook, and Facebook is social media,” he said.
Zuckerberg said Facebook was hiring dozens more Burmese-language speakers to remove threatening content.
“It’s hard to do it without people who speak the local language, and we need to ramp up our effort there dramatically,” he said, adding that Facebook was also asking civil society groups to help it identify figures who should be banned from the network.
He said a Facebook team would also make undisclosed product changes in Myanmar and other countries where ethnic violence was a problem.
At least 14 fighters, including Iranians, were killed in the early morning strike, according to the monitoring organisation the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Syria also accused Israel of carrying out the strike.
A military spokeswoman for Israel, which has struck Syrian military positions several times in recent years, declined to comment on the strike.
A Syrian military source was quoted in local media as saying air defences shot down eight missiles fired at the base, where defence analysts say there are large deployments of Russian forces, and where jets fly regular sorties to strike rebel-held areas.
It came after Donald Trump on Sunday warned Russia’s Vladimir Putin that there would be a “big price to pay” for a suspected Syrian chemical weapons attack that killed 70 people, including children.
In his harshest criticism of the Russian leader since taking office, Mr Trump said Mr Putin was partly “responsible” for the attack on rebels in Douma, a town in Eastern Ghouta
Donald J. Trump@realDonaldTrump
Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria. Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world. President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price…
3:00 PM - Apr 8, 2018
87.2K51.6K people are talking about this
“Syria conflict: Israel blamed for attack on airfield”
Monday’s attack hit the Tiyas airbase, known as T4, near the city of Homs. Observers say 14 people were killed.
Israel, which has previously hit Syrian targets, has not commented. Syria initially blamed the US for the strike.
Could Israel be involved?
Syrian state news agency Sana, quoting a military source, reported that air defences had repelled an Israeli missile attack on T4, saying the missiles were fired by Israeli F15 jets in Lebanese airspace.
Claim - Iran building base in Syria:
Israel has said it will not allow Iran, its arch-foe, to set up bases in Syria or operate from there, something Israel considers a major threat.
UK-based monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said that fighters of various nationalities - meaning Iranians or members of Iranian-backed Shia militias - were among the 14 dead at the base.
Complicated equation
By Jonathan Marcus, BBC defence and diplomatic correspondent
This attack could be part of Israel’s growing effort to contain Iran’s military build-up in Syria and to interrupt the supply of advanced Iranian missiles to its Lebanese Shia ally, Hezbollah.
Any Israeli operation would have been closely monitored by Russian air defence radars in Syria. There is also a telephone hotline between the Israelis and the Russian headquarters in Syria.
So far Moscow has done nothing to interfere with Israel’s air operations.
But the presence of Russia’s air defences in Syria certainly complicates the strategic equation as Western governments ponder their response to the recent chemical attack.
“Trump tweets condemnation of Syria chemical attack, saying Putin shares the blame”
In a series of tweets on the morning of April 8, President Trump condemned an apparent chemical attack near Damascus on April 7.
The likelihood of a military strike against Syria after a suspected chemical weapons attack increased Sunday as President Trump said there would be a “big price to pay” and officials in France vowed the country would “do its duty” in responding.
France called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Monday to discuss the weekend attack, and eight other nations joined in the request, including the United States and Britain.
In reference to a warning by President Emmanuel Macron last month that France would strike unilaterally if Syria used chemical weapons again, Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said that the nation would assume its responsibilities.
[Dozens killed in apparent chemical attack on Syrian civilians]
Several prominent Republicans urged Trump to act — and to reconsider his plan to draw down the 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria. Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) told ABC News’ “This Week” that this is a “defining moment” in Trump’s presidency that demands follow-through. Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) suggested that Trump change his mind about withdrawing troops from Syria, place more sanctions on Russia and consider targeted attacks on Syrian facilities, similar to one he ordered a year ago after a chemical attack on civilians.
Trump wants them home, but how long will U.S. troops really be in Syria?
President Trump said he wants to pull all U.S. troops out of Syria where they’re supporting the Syrian Democratic Forces in the fight against the Islamic State.
Even before the lawmakers spoke, Trump himself hinted that a military strike might be at hand if the use of chemical weapons by Syrian government forces is verified.
As grisly images emerged, showing bodies of babies in basements and bloodied survivors at hospitals in Eastern Ghouta, Trump made a rare direct criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He said Putin shared blame for the deaths through Russia’s support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
“President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price to pay,” Trump said in back-to-back tweets. “Open area immediately for medical help and verification. Another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever. SICK!”
Late Sunday, SANA, Syria’s state-run news agency, said that an air base in central Syria was hit by a missile attack and that the military shot down eight missiles. The report initially said the attack in Homs province was “likely to be an American aggression.” Later, however, Syrian officials and allies in Russia said the airstrike was carried out by Israel, which also struck the same airfield in February.
Israel did not immediately confirm the reports of the Sunday attack.
In a statement, the Pentagon denied the report: “At this time, the Department of Defense is not conducting airstrikes in Syria. However, we continue to closely watch the situation and support the ongoing diplomatic efforts to hold those who use chemical weapons, in Syria and otherwise, accountable.”
Injured victims of an alleged chemical attack rest Sunday in rebel-held Douma, Syria.
The crisis in Syria is escalating at a pivotal moment for the White House’s national security team. John Bolton, a noted hawk on Russia and Iran, begins work as Trump’s national security adviser on Monday. On Thursday, CIA Director Mike Pompeo has a confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on his nomination as secretary of state.
Trump also blamed his predecessor for not following through on his threat that Assad’s chemical weapons use was a red line that would not be tolerated, something that Trump suggested he would not repeat.
[Trump instructs military to begin planning for Syria withdrawal]
“If President Obama had crossed his stated Red Line In The Sand, the Syrian disaster would have ended long ago! Animal Assad would have been history!” he tweeted.
Echoing Trump, V.P. Pence tweeted that U.S. officials were monitoring the events. “The Assad regime & its backers MUST END their barbaric behavior,” he added. “As POTUS said, big price to pay for those responsible!”
Syrian, Russian denials
Syria and its main backers, Russia and Iran, are not only denying responsibility, they question whether there even was an attack. SANA said the reports originated with “terrorists” who are on the verge of collapse under an offensive by the Syrian army. “Such allegations and accusations by the Americans and certain Western countries signal a new conspiracy against the Syrian government and people, and a pretext for military action,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
And Russia’s Foreign Ministry released a statement claiming that information on the reported attack is a tactic being used to cover up for terrorists.
“The goal of these false conjectures, which are without basis, are designed to shield the terrorists and the implacable radical opposition, who reject a political settlement,” the statement said.
The crisis over Syria is likely to accelerate the downward spiral of the relationship between Russia and the United States, already at its lowest point in decades. On Friday, the administration placed economic sanctions on some Russian tycoons. The sanctions give the United States a potent weapon to pressure international financial institutions not to lend money or facilitate transactions by the well-connected Russians.
“Whatever was driving Trump to leave Putin alone, it’s over,” said Cliff Kupchan, chairman of the Eurasia Group, an analytical firm. “Over the course of 48 hours, Trump basically sanctioned the Russian system and fingered Putin for backing the ‘Animal Assad.’
“If the U.S. confirms chemical weapons were used, I think we get a strike on Syria. As harsh as Friday’s sanctions were, they also set the precedent for sanctioning anyone who benefits from the Russian system.”
Trump’s gradual shift
Trump has come reluctantly to this crucible over Syria.
Assad has never been a priority for Trump. Though he called him a “bad guy,” he repeatedly said on the campaign trail and in the White House that Assad is not a U.S. priority. He was willing to be involved in Syria as long as the fight against the Islamic State was going on, but not much more. His announcement that the U.S. military role in Syria was “coming to a rapid end” was a continuation of that belief.
- My Lai Massacre. The GI Resistance Continues: Vietnam Vets Return to My Lai - Vet Activists Discuss the My Lai Massacre and the profound after effects of the war, bombing, agent orange.
As Kumiko predicted, anti-Iranian war monger John Bolton has been appointed National Security Advisor - an integral position to the implementation of US wars - consummating the Trump administration’s raison d’être for an Alt-Lite/Right/Trump admin coalition with Israel, aimed first of all to undo the Iran deal and to prepare for war against Iran in a new generation of operation of “clean break” ...the ultimate goal of this Alt-Right/Jewish alliance/coordination (against left ethno-nationalism) is an imperial feudalistic (exploitative) relationship with as much of Asia and the third world as possible.
It’s time to return the National Security Council to where its been..
A lot of people have said to me, they’ve said, Jack, if you go back and look at my tweets….
Folks, it’s time for America first, it’s time for an America first foreign policy…
I’ve been on the Bolton train, ‘guilty as charged’
I have been on the Bolton train for almost a year and a half now.
And during the transition period I was saying I want Bolton.
And I was saying we need Bolton, get Bolton in there.
Related: These Are White Nationalists? What Is Behind TRS And The Alt-Right’s Gushing Effusion For Trump? Trump’s campaign was initiated in his agreement to dismantle the Iran Deal on Israel’s behalf. David Duke used to sternly caution against candidates who threatened to take Israel’s side against Iran.
And they were saying Jack, ‘I don’t know, he’s kind of neocon, he’s kind of this, he’s kind of that’...
He’s got associations with Bush and you know what? You’re right. We do need to be careful with that.
But let me tell you something. Let me tell you something about John Bolton: John Bolton is someone who once said that we should get rid of the top ten floors of The United Nations building. We’re also getting rid of the Obama hold-overs on the national security council - gone.
Ambassador Bolton is a hawk, alright?
Let’s make no aspersions about this.
He’s a hawk, he’s definitely a hawk. OK?
But that being the case, we know where he’s coming from. He’s straight forward, he’s not a snake in the grass. He’s pro Trump. He’s 100% pro-Trump.
And, he was out there every single day for the President.
He is not for these international, global organizations - no. He is pro-Trump, he is pro-America.
Remember, John Bolton has said that he is against the Iran Deal, John Bolton has said that he’s against TPP, John Bolton is against so many of these international deals.
He’s advocated for a more aggressive stance with North Korea, with China, with Iran with all of these countries, alright?
Tech Crunch, “John Bolton is Trump’s new National Security Advisor”, 22 Mar 2018:
With one fell swoop, President Trump just swapped out the “warrior scholar” for the warmonger.
Donald J. Trump@realDonaldTrump Tweet:
I am pleased to announce that, effective 4/9/18, @AmbJohnBolton will be my new National Security Advisor. I am very thankful for the service of General H.R. McMaster who has done an outstanding job & will always remain my friend. There will be an official contact handover on 4/9.
1:26 PM - Mar 22, 2018
Today Trump tweeted that General H.R. McMaster will step down as John Bolton, a deeply controversial former U.S. ambassador, steps into the role of national security advisor. Bolton will move into the high-ranking foreign policy advisor position just as the U.S. is approaching talks with North Korea, an extremely delicate diplomatic maneuver between two volatile leaders.
Last month, Bolton argued the legal case for a pre-emptive strike on North Korea — an extreme position in which even the best case scenario could result in broad carnage for the U.S. and its allies.
Bolton established his extreme and hawkish reputation during his tenure as the undersecretary of state for arms control during the Bush administration. In that advisory position, Bolton argued strongly in favor of the Iraq war, tying his justification to the supposed presence of weapons of mass destruction.
If most people could agree that McMaster was a respectable choice for national security advisor, just as many seem to oppose Bolton becoming a prominent figure in shaping Trump’s foreign policy. When Bolton’s name was floated just after the election, Republican Senator Rand Paul penned an op-ed denouncing Bolton as “hell-bent on repeating virtually every foreign policy mistake the US has made in the last 15 years.”
While McMaster was sometimes characterized as a cautious futurist, Bolton’s record on tech is less clear. We’re sure to learn more about the new advisor’s various postures quickly, as Bolton stirs up bipartisan anxiety around U.S. foreign policy, particularly in Iran and North Korea.
After the swift fall of Michael Flynn in early 2017 and the quick appointment of McMaster, Bolton will become Trump’s third national security advisor in less than two years.
Posted by DanielS on Tuesday, 20 March 2018 06:03.
Anna died fighting for left nationalism as it is the natural form of ethnonationalism - representing the full class of a nation’s people; including women as represented by the YPJ division in which she fought. The YPJ/G share our fight for ethnonational sovereignty against imperial supremacism and exploitation.
Guardian, “British woman killed fighting Turkish forces in Afrin”, 19 Mar 2018:
Anna Campbell believed to be the first British woman to die alongside Kurdish forces in Syria
British woman fighting alongside Kurdish forces in Afrin, northern Syria, has been killed, Kurdish commanders said
Anna Campbell, from Lewes, East Sussex, was volunteering with the US-backed Kurdish Women’s Protection Units (YPJ) – the all-female affiliate army of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) – in the besieged city of Afrin when the convoy she was travelling in was struck by a Turkish missile on 16 March.
Sources say the 26-year-old initially travelled to Syria to join the Kurdish struggle against Islamic State, but begged her Kurdish commanders to send her to the Afrin front after Turkey launched a ground and air offensive to oust Kurdish forces from its borderlands in January.
“They refused at first, but she was adamant, and even dyed her blonde hair black so as to appear less conspicuous as a westerner,” a YPJ source told the Guardian.
“Finally they gave in and let her go.”
She is not only the first British woman killed fighting alongside Kurdish forces in Syria, but also the first Briton to die there since Turkey launched its incursion into Kurdish-held territory on 20 January.
In a statement to the Guardian on Sunday, YPJ commander and spokesperson Nesrin Abdullah said: “[Campbell’s] martyrdom is a great loss to us because with her international soul, her revolutionary spirit, which demonstrated the power of women, she expressed her will in all her actions … On behalf of the Women’s Defence Units YPJ, we express our deepest condolences to [her] family and we promise to follow the path she took up. We will represent her in the entirety of our struggles.”
Her father, Dirk Campbell, described her as a “beautiful and loving daughter” who “would go to any lengths to create the world that she believed in”.
“Anna was very idealistic, very serious, very wholehearted and wanted to create a better world. She wasn’t fighting when she died, she was engaged in a defensive action against the Turkish incursion.”
In recent months Turkey has shifted its focus from fighting Isis in Syria to preventing the YPG from establishing a foothold along its border, arguing that the YPG is linked to its own insurgent group, the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK). The US, EU and Britain, however, do not consider the YPG a terrorist group, which it has supported in its fight against Isis since 2014.
Dirk Campbell said his daughter had dedicated her life to the fight against “unjust power and privilege”.
He said she was a committed human rights and environmental campaigner who would “put herself on the line for what she believed in”.
“It seems a small thing, but I remember when she was 11, she protected a bumblebee from being tormented by other kids at school,” he recalled. “She did it with such strength of will that they ridiculed her. But she didn’t care. She was absolutely single-minded when it came to what she believed in, and she believed what Turkey is doing is wrong.”
He said his daughter’s passion for campaigning was inspired by her mother, Adrienne, who was well-known on the south of England’s activism scene and died of breast cancer five years ago. “Anna was a credit to her mum, my wife, and was carrying on a lot of the kind of work that she was doing,” he added.
Campbell told her father of her plans to travel to northern Syria last May after she heard about the grassroots feminist and socialist revolution that has swept Rojava (the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northern Syria and heartland of the YPG/J) and inspired the Kurds’ fight against Isis.
“I didn’t try to stop her,” Mr Campbell said. “Because I knew, once she had decided to do something, she was unstoppable. That’s why she went to Rojava: to help build a world of equality and democracy where everyone has a right to representation. When she told me she was going I joked: ‘It’s been nice knowing you.’ I just knew it might be the last time I’d see her.”
Upon arrival in Rojava, Campbell completed the YPJ’s mandatory month-long military training course, in which new recruits learn basic Kurdish, weaponry and battlefield tactics on top of a crash course in the egalitarian and feminist ideology of the YPG/J, and was assigned to an infantry division, comprising a mix of Kurdish and international fighters. There she was given the nom-de-guerre Helîn Qerecox and sent to the front.
YPJ sources said she spent her first months in the country fighting in Deir ez-Zor, Isis’s last major stronghold and scene of the jihadist group’s bitter last stand. But with Isis now on the brink of defeat, foreign fighters within Kurdish ranks have faced a choice: return home or remain in Syria to help the YPG repel Turkey’s attack.
“After the initial attacks on Afrin, comrade Helîn insisted on joining the operation to defend Afrin,” said Abdullah. “Before leaving, she had already received her military training, and, although we wanted to protect her and did not agree with her decision … she incessantly insisted on her wish to leave for Afrin. She even gave us a condition: ‘Either I will go home and abandon the life as a revolutionary or you send me to Afrin. But I would never leave the revolution, so I will go to Afrin’.”
She added: “For us, as the YPJ, comrade Helîn will always be a symbol as a pioneering internationalist woman. We will live up to her hope and beliefs. We will forever pursue her aim to struggle for women, for oppressed communities.”
Mark Campbell, activist and co-chair of the Kurdistan Solidarity Campaign, added: “Anna, by all accounts, was taken deep into the heart of the Kurdish people as she stood side by side with them in their darkest hour. Our thoughts and condolences are with Anna’s family and friends as this time.”
Campbell is believed to be the eighth British citizen killed while serving with Kurdish forces in Syria.
Posted by DanielS on Saturday, 10 March 2018 08:11.
In West Virginia, teachers ended their historic strike after state officials agreed to raise the pay of all state workers 5%.
“Who made history? We made history! Who made history? We made history!”...a group of West Virginia teachers chanted.
The strike began on February 22nd and shut-down every public school in the state. It was the longest teachers strike in West Virginia history.
Majorityrights readers should observe that this is a group of White people, albeit implicit, unionized against the state/ goverment. The implications of the model demonstrate possibilities for “White community” organizing against state and other elite position oppression of group interest.
Apologies again for the anti-White source. Note that I will use them when I see news sources that are both pro-White and are not duped into being “anti-left”, against its concepts such as unionization to fight oppressive government policies and other elite position exploitation; when I see them, I will use those other sources. Until then, we have to make use of feedback from sources like Democracy Now, picking out the bits and pieces that we need - note that you can scarcely see a non-White teacher in this story, and that West Virginia is one of the Whitest states in America.
This Warski Ghetto talk with JF et al., on “Group Preferences”, was worthwhile. Surprisingly (((Frame Game))) was holding (((David))) and other fellow YKW generally to account. (((Babylonian Hebrew))) seemed also to be taking the angle of “be an honest Jew in order to mitigate against backlash.”
(((Frame Game))) concedes one of my basic arguments, that by way of Jewish politics, European peoples have been allowed no social group organization.
In fact, they do to all they can to disrupt it - including encouraging ideologies that are veritably expressions of phobia to social group organization.
Related: 
Anna died fighting for left nationalism as it is the natural form of ethnonationalism - representing the full class of a nation’s people; including women as represented by the YPJ division in which she fought. The YPJ/G share our fight for ethnonational sovereignty against imperial supremacism and exploitation.
