Peace Coalition to discuss BRICS and SCO: Do they spell demise of US unipolar dominance at October Educational Forum

Peace Coalition to discuss BRICS and SCO: Do they spell demise of US unipolar dominance at October Educational Forum

 

You'll never hear BRICS and SCO mentioned by our government and its mainstream media for good reason. They may be spelling the end of US unipolar world dominance. Learn about this important development at the West Suburban Peace Coalition Educational Forum October 29 via Zoom. 

 

When: Tuesday, October 29, 7:00 to 8:00 PM Chicago time via Zoom. 

 

Topic: "What the US is Missing about Multipolarity."

 

Speaker: Ted Snider, foreign affairs columnist at Antiwar.com

 

For Zoom link contact Walt Zlotow 630 442 3045 zlotow@hotmail.com

US wants Ukraine to send teenagers into the chopper mill of lost proxy war against Russia.

 

US wants Ukraine to send teenagers into the chopper mill of lost proxy war against Russia.

 

 

After 32 months of utter failure, one might conclude the US is ready to toss in the towel in its proxy war against Russia in Ukraine.

 

 

Over $150 billion in war material has done nothing to achieve stalemate, much less victory. Russia is advancing steadily to cut off Ukraine’s ability to remain in the fight both provoked and extended for over 2 years by the Biden administration.

 

 

Ukraine’s young men ore fleeing conscription in droves. To keep the conveyor belt of cannon fodder flowing, President Zelensky lowered the draft age from 27 to 25 last April. He was responding to criticism from supreme US war promoter Sen. Lindsay Graham, who visited Zelensky to offer “I would hope that those eligible to serve in the Ukrainian military would join. I can’t believe it’s at 27. You’re in a fight for your life, so you should be serving — not at 25 or 27. We need more people in the line.”

 

 

At the beginning of this lost war Graham gloated that “Ukraine should fight to the last person”…as long as billions in US weapons flowing.

 

 

But rather than toss in the towel, the Biden administration now suggests Ukraine should toss in 18 year olds to fill the ranks of near empty brigades. If asked again about Ukraine’s dire situation, Graham would likely amend his earlier comment to state that ‘Ukraine should fight to the last teenager.’

Netanyahu’s genocide policies getting hostages killed, ensuring Israel’s decline

 

Netanyahu’s genocide policies getting hostages killed, ensuring Israel’s decline

A wise axiom advises: Be careful what you wish for….you might get it. The consequences of achieving that wish open backfire spectacularly.

That certainly applies to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Once Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack had been neutralized, his primary job was to negotiate the release of the 251 Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. But instead, he jumped at the opportunity to use the attack to institute his government’s long cherished dream of removing all the Palestinians from Gaza, as well as the West Bank.

So instead of engaging in negotiations to free the hostages he embarked on genocide. A year on, sustainable life for 2,300,000 Palestinians in Gaza is gone. Over 50,000, possibly over 100,000 are dead. Gaza’s 139 square miles have been bombed into rubble. Virtually no food or medicine is allowed in, resulting in every remaining Palestinian suffering food insufficiency and degraded health.

While Netanyahu glories in his Palestinian removal campaign, the consequences to Israel may be worse.

Israel is now a pariah state, without an ally among the 193 countries except its genocide weapons supplier America.

Forty-five of the 142 unreleased hostages are dead with little hope remaining for the 97 others suffering along with the beleaguered Palestinians…if they’re even still alive.

Israel is experiencing chaos. Over 60,000 dispersed from Northern Israel due to Hezbollah rockets in protest of the genocide. Israelis are leaving Israel permanently in record numbers. Tens of thousands of small businesses are closing. Tourism is down 80%. Foreign investment is down 18% in the first half of 2024. Israel’s credit rating has been downgraded twice. The military is demoralized by having to inflict genocide on Gaza with no apparent military victory over Hamas in sight.

Much worse is on the horizon for Israel if Netanyahu proceeds with his likely imminent attack on Iran. If so, the Iranian response may inflict infinitely more damage on Israel than the Hezbollah rockets raining down from Lebanon.

Yes, the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack gave Benjamin Netanyahu the golden opportunity to ethnically cleanse Gaza using genocide. Ultimately, it appears to be destroying Israel as well.

Schuchardt’s “better approach” truly bizarre

 

Schuchardt’s “better approach” truly bizarre

My fellow Glen Ellynite Dan Schuchardt sure has a novel way of opposing fair (higher) taxation for America’s wealthiest citizens. His Chicago Tribune letter ‘Better approach to US debt’ offers a solution sure to resonate with the folks piling up massive wealth from Trump's 2017 tax cut on top of already low tax rates while the commons go without.

His solution to adequately fund critical services and infrastructure while reducing debt?

First, ask churches to donate their church building money to “help.” I can see it now….the church pastor sends a check to the government with a note saying ‘Pleases use our building money to reduce America’s $35 trillion debt.’

Second, have presidential candidates Trump and Harris roll out ads offering no solutions to funding the commons except ‘Please Mr. and Mrs. Billionaire, pony up some of your generous tax cuts to reduce America’s $35 trillion debt.’

Somehow Mr. Schuchardt ignores that Trump’s trillion dollar plus tax cut for the wealthy was a major contributor to his massive $7.8 trillion debt increase in just 4 years, the largest ever for one term. Schuchardt has no issue with the wealthiest 1% getting a tax cut of $60,000 next year with more promised if Schuchardt’s candidate prevails November 5.

Dan Schuchardt’s solution to our $35 trillion debt is to wish it away from donations. That is not a solution…it’s a delusion.

 

Biden should channel Trump and talk to Putin

 

Democrats are using revelations of candidate Trump’s talks with Russian President Putin to bash him as a ‘Putin Puppet.’ Bob Woodward’s new book ‘War’, being published this week, claims there have been at least 7 such talks since Trump left the White House, including this year.

President Biden, unlike Trump, has spoken not a word with Putin for all 45 months of his presidency. That willful silence by Biden puts us all at greater risk of the US stumbling into nuclear war with Russia over the conventional war in Ukraine.

 

Had Biden picked up the phone to discuss Putin’s concerns over US sponsored NATO membership in 2021, war in Ukraine could have been easily avoided. Over half a million Ukrainian soldiers would be alive. Millions would not have been forced to flee to other countries or locales within Ukraine. The 20% of eastern Ukraine now forever lost to Russia would still be under Ukrainian sovereignty. Ukraine’s economy would not be on life support kept alive by NATO’s endless billions.

 

Biden was simply following US policy going back to the George W. Bush administration to keep Russia out of the Western European political economy by phantacizing Russia as a threat, not an economic partner. The linchpin for such isolation was NATO membership for Ukraine allowing a NATO military buildup on their Ukrainian border.

 

Isolating Russia was so important to the US that they supported a 2014 coup against the Russian leaning Ukrainian president because he was about to cooperate economically with Russia. That coup demonstrated America’s total hypocrisy championing democracy. It led the Russian leaning Ukrainians in Donbas to seek separation from the Kiev ultranationalists seeking to snuff out their Russian culture.

 

America’s response was not to support an end to Kyiv’s oppression but to fund it with hundreds of millions in US weapons. Putin’s Russia spent 7 years using diplomacy to stop Kyiv’s repression and keep Ukraine out of NATO. In November, 2021, Putin made his last overture to Biden to negotiate Russia’s NATO and Eastern Ukrainian separatists concerns. Instead of doing the sensible, diplomatic step of free and open negotiation, Biden, thru his emissaries, essentially told Putin to ‘Go to Hell.’

 

Instead Putin went to war, which has now largely destroyed Ukraine as a functioning country, spelling the end of US political dominance in Europe. Senseless US action provoking this unfolding catastrophe is possibly the worst diplomatic blunder in US history.

 

NATO stands for North Atlantic Treaty Organization. What it should stand for is No Action Talk Only.

Kamala Harris’ foreign policy agenda music to war party, anathema to swing state voters.

 

Kamala Harris’ foreign policy agenda music to war party, anathema to swing state voters.

It’s standard procedure for presidential candidates to promote bellicose US foreign policy in their campaigns. When the weapons makers, career generals, Congressional Hawks and pro war pundits pounce on candidates promoting peace over war, the warning is clear: don’t mess with US unipolar dominance.

But Kamala Harris has taken that to another level with her positions that are furthering the Israeli genocide in Gaza, destruction of Ukraine, looming war with Iran, and endless war provocations in the Far East with China.

She calls the $17.9 billion in US weapons obliterating Palestinian moms and kids “defense” and vows to continue it in a Harris administration. That alone disqualifies her to serve as president. That is not an endorsement of Trump, who’s even more ravenous for Israel to “to finish the job (genocide) in Gaza”

Harris remains in complete denial that US provocations made the Russian invasion of Ukraine inevitable. She’s committed to providing Ukraine with war weapons, already exceeding $150 billion, that have largely destroyed Ukraine as a functioning state. She calls negotiations to end the war “surrender”, something she will never do.

Harris’ claim that Iran is “America’s greatest adversary” is preposterous. She’s cool with Israel bombing folks in Tehran, but when Iran bombed back in protest, Harris got on the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to discuss US help in Israel’s planned reprisals. That is not stateswomanship . That is criminal warmongering.

Harris is also on board endless US provocations against China in the Far East that could provoke war with the third largest nuclear power. Why? Harris says “The US must “win the competition for the 21st century with China.” A competition that ends in war is not winning. It is self destruction.

Harris may be pleasing the US war party, nut not voters in swing states. They are not supporting endless US wars sucking up US treasure needed for the Homeland. They favor Trump’s approach to ending them (however unrealistic) over Harris’ bellicose stance by a margin of 58% to 42%. That alone could cost Harris the electoral votes she needs for victory November 5. Her foreign policy is not just wrong…it is stupid.

On domestic issues Kamala checks all the right boxes. On foreign policy issues she my be leading America and the world to ruin.

As Milton bears down on Floridians, Joe and Bibi bear down on Iranians.

 

As Milton bears down on Floridians, Joe and Bibi bear down on Iranians.

We know President Biden didn’t spend his whole schedule Wednesday fretting about hurricane relief for the soon to be inundated Florida. That’s because he spent a half hour discussing with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the upcoming Israeli-US attack on Iran.

That’s right, the imminent attack will be with full knowledge and support of the US, putting us at war with Iran if they choose to include US targets in the Middle East along with their retaliatory attack on Israel. And retaliate they have vowed to do.

President Biden has supported all 3 Israeli bombing campaigns, first on Gaza, then Lebanon and now Iran in the year since the Hamas attack on Israel. He’s completely complicit with Netanyahu's ghoulish carnage by giving Israel an astonishing $17.9 billion in military aid. Biden has squandered another $4.8 billion on a failed bombing campaign against Yemen Houthis and building up its military presence in the region in anticipation of regional war.

Prime Minister Netanyahu is close to realizing his short term dream of ethnically cleansing Gaza of Palestinians. While still underway, he’s pivoted to drawing the US into war with Iran which is the only way he can achieve his long term dream of destroying his only competitor for Middle East dominance.

We don’t know how many billions in damage will be inflicted by Milton on Florida. Wouldn’t it have been nice if that $22.7 billion Biden has squandered on genocide in Gaza, massive destruction in Lebanon and likely soon regional war with Iran, had been squirreled away to alleviate the devastation being visited upon Florida this week.

Let’s remember the 365 days of genocide as well as October 7 attack

 

Let’s remember the 365 days of genocide as well as October 7 attack

The Chicago Tribune editorial ‘Remember October 7, 2023’ was right to mourn the Israeli dead, injured and those taken hostage from the Hamas attack a year earlier.

But it’s unfortunate there was no mention of the of Israel’s genocidal ethnic cleansing that followed which has inflicted near total destruction on Gaza’s 139 square miles in the following 365 days. The Tribune ignores the over 40,000 officially dead (likely upwards of 100,000), nearly all schools universities, hospitals, homes destroyed and most food, water and medicine kept from reaching the most devastated people on earth.

It’s unfortunate that there is no mention that the year long genocide in Gaza could not be occurring without tens of billions in US weaponry flowing into Israel for their ‘defense.’ Genocide is not defense…it is genocide.

It is unfortunate there was no mention of the people Israeli genocide is designed to remove from Gaza and eventually the West Bank. Say the word Chicago Tribune Editorial Board…they are Palestinians.

For the Tribune to state that the horrors unleashed over the past year “can no longer be contained” is an abrogation of the media’s role to provide a solution to the most grotesque destruction of a people in this century. To state “we suspect it (the anniversary) will not be seen as a day to discuss politics or even the ongoing conflict now raging on another front” is being blind to evil that must be confronted relentlessly. 

This is precisely the day for the Chicago Tribune to engage its readership, regardless of ethnicity or religion, over the ongoing conflict. Had the Trib, along with the rest of mainstream media been doing just that for the past 365 days, this genocide might be over and negotiations for a Palestinian state underway.

A Palestinian State, not bombing Gaza, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, Iran only path to Middle East peace.

 A Palestinian State, not bombing Gaza, Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, Iran only path to Middle East peace


Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu believes he can bomb his way to complete control over Palestine (Gaza and West Bank) and security from his Arab neighbors not cool with that.


A year into Netanyahu’s genocidal ethnic cleansing of Gaza, with upwards of a hundred thousand dead in 139 largely destroyed square miles, has been a colossal failure.


A hundred thousand, even a million bombs, largely supplied by America, will not achieve Netanyahu’s cherished goal. Hamas in Gaza, fighting back against the Israeli genocide, cannot be destroyed. Hezbollah in Lebanon, displacing over 60,000 Israelis from Northern Israeli with rocket attacks, cannot be destroyed. The Houthis in Yemen, also firing into Israel in protest to the genocide, cannot be destroyed. Iran, supporting the forces opposing genocide in Gaza, cannot be destroyed.


Since none of Israel’s targets can be destroyed, only one solution remains: end opposition to a Palestinian state by negotiating its creation.


Tragically, senselessly, the US is enabling Israel’s entire ethnic cleansing project in Gaza and the West Bank. Without America’s 50,000 tons of war equipment, Israel could not embark on their deranged policy to remove all Palestinians from the region. The US is spending tens of billions of dollars to fund the worst genocide this century. Claiming we’re doing ‘everything we can to bring peace to the region and achieve a Palestinian state’ is mindboggling Orwellian doublespeak.


What’s truly astonishing about Netanyahu’s genocidal campaign is that it ensures the remaining Israeli hostages will come home in a box instead of alive. Had he negotiated their release once the Hamas terrorist attack was repelled, possibly all 251 hostages would be alive. Instead, the campaign to destroy and depopulate Gaza has killed 45 of the hostages with 97 more still enduring the most scorched earth policy we’ve witnessed in our lifetime. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis protest daily against this cruel, self-destructive Netanyahu policy to no avail.


Since Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Iran cannot be destroyed, Netanyahu has ensured Israel will never achieve internal peace, much less all out victory.


President Biden can end Israel’s self-destructive path with one phone call. ‘Mr. Prime Minister…no more weapons for you till you end the genocide, express the desire for a Palestinian state, then follow thru with negotiations. Then, just maybe, you’ll return those remaining 97 Israeli hostages to their loved ones alive and bring peace to Israel and the region.’

Will US be at war with Iran on Election Day?

 

Will US be at war with Iran on Election Day?

 

 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appears determined draw America into war with Iran. Assassinating Iranian and its allied personnel in Tehran eventually provoked the Iranian missile attack on Israel. Now Netanyahu has promised a massive retaliatory attack that almost certainly will draw in the US.

 

 

President Biden has signaled he’s cool with further Israeli escalation leading to all out war. His National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said the “US would work with Israel to ensure Iran faces “severe consequences.” President Biden said he’s working with Israel on a response but indicated Israel “has to respond proportionally.”

 

 

Any major Israeli attack will have to be coordinated and supported by Biden’s America. That will likely provoke Iranian retaliation against US forces in the region which are numerous and vulnerable.

Netanyahu has failed to ethnically cleanse all the Palestinians from Gaza. He’s failed to prevent Hezbollah from firing rockets displacing over 60,000 Israelis from Northern Israel. But with President Biden’s unwavering support, he’s nearing success in his cherished dream: destroying his hated enemy Iran.

 

 

Biden’s billions in weapons and moral support allowing Israel to engage in genocidal ethnic cleansing of Gaza has arguably been the worst foreign policy move in US history. But allowing Israel to draw the US into all out war with Iran may exceed even that grotesque foreign policy misadventure. Instead of counting votes on Election Day…we may be counting US dead in the Middle East.

Once again US adventurism abroad risking nuclear war absent from election debate.

 

Once again US adventurism abroad risking nuclear war absent from election debate. 

 

Unlike the presidential debate where foreign policy didn’t even make a peep till the last third, the VP debate started off with its single question on foreign affairs. And it was worthless. 

 

The question was bizarre. Would each candidate support or oppose a preemptive Israeli strike on Iran over their missile attack? The question was moot as the horrific reality is that any such preemptive attack, largely financed by billions in US weapons, would have ironclad US support. 

 

Walz didn’t even answer the preemptive Israeli attack question. He offered happy talk about the importance of steady leadership in handling the Middle East crisis without offering an iota of substance pertaining to a looming and catastrophic regional war there. Vance didn’t blink, essentially saying Israel is an ally that can do whatever they want. Though he answered the question, his support of endless war in the Middle East is deplorable and disheartening. 

 

US foreign policy is heading toward a cliff over which endless warfare looms, possibly going nuclear. Neither the media nor the candidates care a whit about engaging a sensible, extended discussion of the most important issue facing America, indeed peoplekind. Just 10 minutes out of 180 in the 2 debates, without a substantive comment says it all about the sorry state of achieving a sane foreign policy in America.

The guns of August killed 15 million…the missiles of October could kill 8 billion

 

The guns of August killed 15 million…the missiles of October could kill 8 billion

There’s an eerie similarity to the blundering of nations that ignited the slaughter of WWI and the blundering of nations, led by America, which could lead to nuclear war 110 years later.

Two weeks ago President Biden blinked on authorizing the UK to use US technology to fire its Storm Shadow missiles deep into Russia. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer came to the White House seeking US permission to allow its Ukraine proxies to fire those US guided Storm Shadows in a desperate, futile bid to stave off Ukraine’s inevitable defeat.

It may take time to get the full story why Biden blinked. Russia’s UN speech declaring such missile strikes risk putting the US at war with Russia set the tone. Likely, a backchannel communication between a high ranking Russian official to a US counterpart helped seal the sensible US rejection of Starmer’s crazed war provoking proposal.

President Biden has spent his entire term mishandling the issue of NATO membership for Ukraine and autonomy for Donbas Ukrainians into a horrific lost war that could still go nuclear. After provoking it, Biden led a joint US, UK effort to scuttle the Ukraine, Russia negotiated peace set to end it in the first month without Ukraine losing a square mile of territory.  Thirty-one months later, Ukraine has lost 4 oblasts, about a fifth of its territory, without a prayer of regaining.

Biden’s biggest mistake was likely framing the war as a zero sum game whereby the US must achieve total victory ensuring Russia’s total defeat. That explains why Biden and his UK poodle, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, demanded Ukraine President Zelensky reject the peace agreement about to end the war early on. Biden’s Ukraine destroying agenda could not allow any settlement short of unconditional Russian defeat and humiliation. All that accomplished was over half a million Ukrainian troops dead, millions displaced or fled Ukraine, a shattered economy, and Ukraine’s collapse now inevitable.

To prevent that, Ukraine’s Zelensky and current UK Prime Minister Starmer continue badgering Biden to unleash the missiles of October. Some US officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, have also been lobbying Biden to ignore the reddest of Russia’s red lines.

That may still happen. In response, Russia has publicly notified America and NATO that it has revised its nuclear policy to specifically allow their use when attacked by a non-nuclear country that is backed by a nuclear country. Russia will consider such attacks as putting Russia at war with the supporting nuclear power.

Let’s fervently hope President Biden continues to heed reality. By not publicly ruling out long range missile strikes, he’s likely still considering authorizing them to stave off a Ukraine defeat before the election. Losing a war, however criminal and senseless to begin with, in not good election strategy.

Biden, Blinken, Starmer, Zelensky all need to be locked into a room for a seminar on the stumbling and bumbling by revered European rulers that unleashed WWI. Then they must toss out their zero sum game against Russia and negotiate a win-win end to a war just as senseless, that could eventually be infinitely more destructive than the War To End All Wars 110 years ago.

If rehabilitated, parole Larry Hoover

 

If rehabilitated, parole Larry Hoover

Life serving prisoner Larry Hoover faces a daunting challenge to gain freedom after 26 years in prison. He’s serving both state and federal lifr sentences; the former for a 1973 execution murder, the latter or running a criminal enterprise from prison.

As a young man Hoover was a raging criminal masterminding one of Chicago’s most notorious gangs. When incarcerated in 1998, Hoover faced certain life on the state charge, then another on the federal racketeering charge.

But the First Step Act signed by President Trump in 2018 opened prison doors to thousands of inmates exhibiting rehabilitation while serving long, often life sentences.

Hoover should be given the opportunity to demonstrate his rehabilitation, qualifying him for release from federal prison without consideration of the heinousness of his crimes. Such consideration simply amounts to endless vengeance for those crimes which serve no purpose in the criminal justice system.

Hoover’s federal prison cell should be reserved for recent criminals who represent an imminent and serious danger to society. At 73, frail, while expressing and acting in positive ways that appear to have no connection whatsoever to his criminal past, Hoover may quality for freedom under the First Step Act.

If so, the second step would be for Governor Pritzker to exhibit that same compassion to Hoover on his state life sentence. Doing so would also serve the true purpose of the criminal justice system: spending our criminal justice tax dollars wisely to protect the public.