pn978. America, a litany of lies, wars and the dead. A must read on propaganda and a weakened press by John Pilger

Australian journalist JohnPilger

A reader's comment on the article:

John Pilger has been the staunchest of investigative‘whistleblower’ journalists, for generations.
The probability for the power of speech is hereditary in everyone, yet the power to control free speech has long ago been usurped through illegitimate government’ interference.
How much more profound can one humane being be than John Pilger!
He has literally been one of the exceptions, yet the intensity of his voice is still not being heard.

Here are some passsages from Pilger's article:

... Silences filled with a consensus of propaganda contaminate almost everything we read, see and hear. War by media is now a key task of so-called mainstream journalism.  

pn901 . The War in Ukraine — and how America cannot lose whichever way it goes

 

No, Russia should not have invaded Ukraine despite its reneging on the Minsk Agreement and its reaching out to join the EU and  NATO.   

Neither should the US have invaded Iraq, threatened Iran and Venezuela, boycotted Cuba, and helped assassinate Allende in Chile. Not to mention the CIA training Ukrainian forces for the past six to eight years.

But that's what powerful nations do when they can get away with it,  which they often do thanks largely to the media shaping public opinion.  When the other side does it we call it propaganda in an unfree nation; when we do it it's called the free press of the free world. 

pn902. Ukraine and its Consequences. (I thought this a very enlightening and balanced assessmentr. ACW)

 Speech to SGX Opening Ceremony of the Singapore International Ferrous Week, 17 May 2022

By Bilahari Kausika (** see end note)

 

 

Good morning everybody. Thank you for inviting me to speak to you. 

Until I received your invitation I had no idea that there was such a thing as a ‘Ferrous Week’. I was puzzled. Why would anyone want me to speak to a conference on iron? I admit it was sheer curiosity that led me to accept.

 

Fortunately, the organizers were kind enough to choose a topic for me -- the impact of geopolitics on the global economy -- that would allow me to speak to you without making a complete fool of myself. Still, to minimize that risk, I’ll be as brief as possible.

pn891. US–China rivalry intensifies in the Pacific, and a footnote on the Ukraine

By Denghua Zhang** East Asia Forum. 16 April 2022

[US Professor John Mearheimer says there's only one winner from the Ukraine war — China! See Footnote.]

US–China geostrategic competition is intensifying in the Pacific as both governments commit more resources to battle for influence.

The US government released its Indo-Pacific Strategy in February 2022, which fleshes out its policy priorities in the region. This document is based on the ‘Free and Open Indo-Pacific’ concept announced by previous president Donald Trump in 2017. The strategy testifies to US concerns about China, asserting that ‘intensifying American focus is due in part to the fact that the Indo-Pacific faces mounting challenges, particularly from [the People’s Republic of China]’. It lists China, COVID-19 and climate change as core challenges for the United States. Competition with China has received bipartisan support among the US Congress.

pn883. A more informative and balanced article on Ukraine

 

In my opinion this analysis by Professor Melvin Goodman, John Hopkins University and senior fellow at the Center for International Policy, is a far more informative and balanced account of the Ukraine war than my previous post, pn882. Click here to read. 

pn882. The Ukraine through others' eyes

An online conversation with Yuval Noah Harari and
Timothy Snyder, moderated by  Anne Applebaum

Dear Croz,  

You may well have seen this, but if not its worth a look. Anne A with Yuval Harari and Ukraine expert Tim Snyder. https://youtu.be/wCjBki16zl0 

A little dated I'm afraid, a couple of weeks old, but nevertheless powerfully presenting the challenge. Not simply to NATO and Europe, but to the world and the civilization we have so painfully developed.   Warmest wishes,  Peter

pn873. Another, Oblique, Perspective on the Ukraine-Russia War

Steven and the Governor-General Patsy Reddy

My friend Steven and I were at Wellington Teachers' College together in the late 1950s. I think his perpective on the Russia-Ukraine war is important.  This is what he wrote to me:

"My letter is published in this week's Listener. I had and have the Ukrainian crisis on my mind and wrote this letter in a hurry. People here can afford to take a simplistic view of events far away, ignoring historical and geopolitical reality. The reward of old age is that I have seen all this before, 'There is nothing new under the sun'"

His NZ Listener letter reads:

Subject: Putin and Khrushchev  To: <[email protected]>

Putin and Khrushchev, Ukraine and Hungary, 2022 and 1956,  I can't help but see parallels.

pn872. Ukraine and Russia -- Missing Dimensions (and NZ's Vladimir Putin Fan Club)

Crimea War: Charge of the Light Brigade

In times of war people take sides and causes and realities get lost between the sheets as I think can be seen in the current media coverage of war in Ukraine.

 While on the one hand Putin talks about Nazis hiding in the Ukrainean bed and alleged attacks on Russians living in the Ukraine, our own media shows Russians shelling hospitals and killing women and children and thousands of citizens fleeing while the more honourable Ukrainians shell Russian tanks and kill Russian generals.