Nelson Lowhim's Blog, page 23

Context on Ukraine

Hard finding good context, and not to both sides the situation (cause in the US one side does hold the power[1]) but on TV and the internets the discussion is rarely just that. It's bumper stickers thrown with abandon at each other. You can search this blog for a whole series on Ukraine, because I'm really trying to understand what's going on there. Most people just want to be part of a tribe (news makes more sense when you accept this unfortunate truth). 
So, to that end, there's this article from this man (who oversaw small arms shipments into Ukraine). Note how confident his estimation on far right paramilitaries in Ukraine is:

So, to compensate for the lack of soldiers, the Ukrainian government resorted to paramilitary militias. They are essentially composed of foreign mercenaries, often extreme right-wing militants. In 2020, they constituted about 40 percent of the Ukrainian forces and numbered about 102,000 men, according to Reuters. They were armed, financed and trained by the United States, Great Britain, Canada and France. There were more than 19 nationalities—including Swiss.

With this interesting bit:

Western countries have thus clearly created and supported Ukrainian far-right militias. In October 2021, the Jerusalem Post sounded the alarm by denouncing the Centuria project. These militias had been operating in the Donbass since 2014, with Western support. Even if one can argue about the term “Nazi,” the fact remains that these militias are violent, convey a nauseating ideology and are virulently anti-Semitic. Their anti-Semitism is more cultural than political, which is why the term “Nazi” is not really appropriate. Their hatred of the Jew stems from the great famines of the 1920s and 1930s in the Ukraine, resulting from Stalin’s confiscation of crops to finance the modernization of the Red Army. This genocide—known in the Ukraine as the Holodomor—was perpetrated by the NKVD (the forerunner of the KGB), whose upper echelons of leadership were mainly composed of Jews. This is why, today, Ukrainian extremists are asking Israel to apologize for the crimes of communism, as the Jerusalem Post notes. This is a far cry from Vladimir Putin’s “rewriting of history.”

Now, there may be an easy refutation to this, but I'm guessing that it's not going to be easy to find and you'll instead just hear "Putin Apologist" as the first response. [2]
Then this on the start of the war (which I too had heard from sources like Ray McGovern, about how we were raising the temps of the situation). 

We have to go back to March 24, 2021. On that day, Volodymyr Zelensky issued a decree for the recapture of the Crimea, and began to deploy his forces to the south of the country. At the same time, several NATO exercises were conducted between the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea, accompanied by a significant increase in reconnaissance flights along the Russian border. Russia then conducted several exercises to test the operational readiness of its troops and to show that it was following the evolution of the situation.

This isn't good, and he goes on to talk about the increase of attacks by the Ukrainians (confirming other things I've read):
 But since the 16th, the artillery shelling of the population of Donbass increased dramatically, as the daily reports of the OSCE observers show. Naturally, neither the media, nor the European Union, nor NATO, nor any Western government reacts or intervenes. It will be said later that this is Russian disinformation. In fact, it seems that the European Union and some countries have deliberately kept silent about the massacre of the Donbass population, knowing that this would provoke a Russian intervention.
Note, if you want something on the OSCE, I'd read here[3]. But his chart of # of explosions does not match up with what the OSCE claims. There is an increase in that time, but that's something to note. Feb 16th and Feb 17th 2022. 
And damn is he right about the hading out of weapons to civilians. Not only do you make them targets, but you then turn them into militias and bandits. [4]
And his numbers on the deaths, though showing that they are in "breakaway" areas (that doesn't mean as much as I think he thinks it does, I'd like to know more with militias operating on both sides) is telling. I would not go as far as he is in saying it could possibly be a kind of genocide [5]. Nor that it could be a reason to go to war over. 
And remember me linking Oliver Stone (then hating the interviewer for getting some Princeton guy who was convincing, but with out much substance?). Well this part on death squads is pretty much on spot:

In the Ukraine, with the blessing of the Western countries, those who are in favor of a negotiation have been eliminated. This is the case of Denis Kireyev, one of the Ukrainian negotiators, assassinated on March 5 by the Ukrainian secret service (SBU) because he was too favorable to Russia and was considered a traitor. The same fate befell Dmitry Demyanenko, former deputy head of the SBU’s main directorate for Kiev and its region, who was assassinated on March 10 because he was too favorable to an agreement with Russia—he was shot by the Mirotvorets (“Peacemaker”) militia. This militia is associated with the Mirotvorets website, which lists the “enemies of Ukraine,” with their personal data, addresses and telephone numbers, so that they can be harassed or even eliminated; a practice that is punishable in many countries, but not in the Ukraine. The UN and some European countries have demanded the closure of this site—refused by the Rada.

Damn. Well I owe Oliver Stone something like an apology. 
And so this piece also has a good breakdown on the unthinking going on with our leadership and media and just about everyone, tbf. Sometimes I wonder if this attempt to control speech is something like a rehashing of the Iraq war, except this time they want to do it right? Or, as I've said before, that it has all the hallmarks of the Afghan war (even if there is a moral right to some actions, doesn't mean you should take it, not if what you want is the best for everyone but arms manufacturers). 



[1] Just like in Russia, I would imagine that the other side holds the power. 
[2] This really is bothering me, especially with regard to the fact that here in the US most liberal circles are saying the same. Again a huge part of control is such name calling so that you can put a greater amount of social pressure on people with contrarian views. 
[3] But note how this isn't so great a set of observations (and also note that they can't say much more than ceasefire violations, so given we're talking militias on each side, I'd like to have more on this and I haven't been able to find much). Same goes for the comments about saboteurs, that I haven't read much good about (bellingcat supposedly showed these to be fake, though I couldn't tell from what I read...). 
[4] 

Our media propagate a romantic image of popular resistance. It is this image that led the European Union to finance the distribution of arms to the civilian population. This is a criminal act. In my capacity as head of peacekeeping doctrine at the UN, I worked on the issue of civilian protection. We found that violence against civilians occurred in very specific contexts. In particular, when weapons are abundant and there are no command structures.

These command structures are the essence of armies: their function is to channel the use of force towards an objective. By arming citizens in a haphazard manner, as is currently the case, the EU is turning them into combatants, with the consequential effect of making them potential targets. Moreover, without command, without operational goals, the distribution of arms leads inevitably to settling of scores, banditry and actions that are more deadly than effective. War becomes a matter of emotions. Force becomes violence. This is what happened in Tawarga (Libya) from 11 to 13 August 2011, where 30,000 black Africans were massacred with weapons parachuted (illegally) by France. By the way, the British Royal Institute for Strategic Studies (RUSI) does not see any added value in these arms deliveries.

Note also that he doesn't dismiss what happened at that hospital, but that he says we don't know enough, and that seems valid. (so too that far right wingers are in that city in general):

It is important to understand beforehand that it is not the Ukrainian army that is defending Marioupol, but the Azov militia, composed of foreign mercenaries.

In its March 7, 2022 summary of the situation, the Russian UN mission in New York stated that “Residents report that Ukrainian armed forces expelled staff from the Mariupol city birth hospital No. 1 and set up a firing post inside the facility.”

On March 8, the independent Russian media Lenta.ru, published the testimony of civilians from Marioupol who told that the maternity hospital was taken over by the militia of the Azov regiment, and who drove out the civilian occupants by threatening them with their weapons. They confirmed the statements of the Russian ambassador a few hours earlier.

The hospital in Mariupol occupies a dominant position, perfectly suited for the installation of anti-tank weapons and for observation. On 9 March, Russian forces struck the building. According to CNN, 17 people were wounded, but the images do not show any casualties in the building and there is no evidence that the victims mentioned are related to this strike. There is talk of children, but in reality, there is nothing. This may be true, but it may not be true. This does not prevent the leaders of the EU from seeing this as a war crime. And this allows Zelensky to call for a no-fly zone over Ukraine.

In reality, we do not know exactly what happened. But the sequence of events tends to confirm that Russian forces struck a position of the Azov regiment and that the maternity ward was then free of civilians.

The problem is that the paramilitary militias that defend the cities are encouraged by the international community not to respect the customs of war. It seems that the Ukrainians have replayed the scenario of the Kuwait City maternity hospital in 1990, which was totally staged by the firm Hill & Knowlton for $10.7 million in order to convince the United Nations Security Council to intervene in Iraq for Operation Desert Shield/Storm.

Western politicians have accepted civilian strikes in the Donbass for eight years, without adopting any sanctions against the Ukrainian government. We have long since entered a dynamic where Western politicians have agreed to sacrifice international law towards their goal of weakening Russia.

[5] The west and now Russia in this troll of theirs have been weaponizing the word and it's getting a little much IMO. 
Enjoyed it? Share it via email, facebook, twitter, or one of the buttons below (or through some other method you prefer). Thank you! As always, here's the tip jar. paypal.me/nlowhim Throw some change in there & help cover the costs of running this thing. You can use paypal or a credit card.

Is the lack of in depth discussion a result of social media?

I've been seeing a lot of discussion on Ukraine and, on both sides, there is a host of shallow analysis and bumper sticker talk that really doesn't help (but, as it were, it seems to be what gets clicks so people keep saying the same things over and over). I'd blame tech and SM, but really, this kinda crap was there before. It's jus the dumb and loud who seem to lead the groups or get the spotlight (even some discussions that have professors are pretty weak). And I would like the facts, but you also get people claiming a certain set of facts (acknowledging them) is the talking point of the enemy (mainly this is coming from those who oppose the American MSM view, but I've see it both ways online). Again, that's a form of control and an easy win in terms of arguing, but it isn't getting to the truth. Kinda annoying tbf. Hell even Chomsky seems to get hung up on various sets of facts or points in history that need more context (even if he is providing a good amount of context compared to the MSM chants).
Enjoyed it? Share it via email, facebook, twitter, or one of the buttons below (or through some other method you prefer). Thank you! As always, here's the tip jar. paypal.me/nlowhim Throw some change in there & help cover the costs of running this thing. You can use paypal or a credit card.

I know how you like the art, Johnny boy, so here's some Red Ogre Review for your wall.

Cool, got a new piece published over at ROR. A mag started by "graduates of Lancaster University's 2021 Creative Writing Masters class."
So here's the piece, inspired by Naples. 
Here's the link to the society6 prints. Enjoy. 
Enjoyed it? Share it via email, facebook, twitter, or one of the buttons below (or through some other method you prefer). Thank you! As always, here's the tip jar. paypal.me/nlowhim Throw some change in there & help cover the costs of running this thing. You can use paypal or a credit card.

I know how you like the art, Johnny boy. So here's some Red Ogre Review for your wall.

Cool, got a new piece published over at ROR. A mag started by "graduates of Lancaster University's 2021 Creative Writing Masters class."
So here's the piece, inspired by Naples. 
Here's the link to the society6 prints. Enjoy. 
Enjoyed it? Share it via email, facebook, twitter, or one of the buttons below (or through some other method you prefer). Thank you! As always, here's the tip jar. paypal.me/nlowhim Throw some change in there & help cover the costs of running this thing. You can use paypal or a credit card.

Propagandy

Propagandy is what I thought the Iron man film was. Turns out it was. Interesting stuff here. Be safe out there everyone. 
Enjoyed it? Share it via email, facebook, twitter, or one of the buttons below (or through some other method you prefer). Thank you! As always, here's the tip jar. paypal.me/nlowhim Throw some change in there & help cover the costs of running this thing. You can use paypal or a credit card.

VAx & Long Covid

Newest study out says that Vaxxed people aren't that much more protected from long covid. Not good, especially with everyone who wants to open up and not wear masks etc. 
man this isn't going to be good, is it?


Enjoyed it? Share it via email, facebook, twitter, or one of the buttons below (or through some other method you prefer). Thank you! As always, here's the tip jar. paypal.me/nlowhim Throw some change in there & help cover the costs of running this thing. You can use paypal or a credit card.

On the shooting.

This is some pretty crazy stuff. Poor kids. And yeah, cops waiting and letting the gunman shoot away is still just nuts. 

It gets worse, according to a Redditor:

A mom of two children at Uvalde was put in handcuffs after urging police and law enforcement to enter the school.

Once freed from her cuffs, she jumped the school fence, ran inside and sprinted out with her kids.

New from @WSJ

https://www.wsj.com/articles/uvalde-residents-voice-frustration-over-shooting-response-11653588161

Cops stood outside the school while the killer rampaged inside. 

Onlookers yelled at them to go in. They didn’t.

One parent urged bystanders: “Let’s just rush in because the cops aren’t doing anything like they are supposed to.”

Spoiler: that parent’s daughter died in the attack while he was begging cops to save the kids.

My God.

https://apnews.com/article/uvalde-texas-school-shooting-44a7cfb990feaa6ffe482483df6e4683 https://twitter.com/AndySpecht/status/1529643462953521153

The Uvalde shooter was killed by a federal officer because the other police officers kept waiting for more and more backup

https://www.wsj.com/articles/suspected-shooter-at-texas-elementary-school-in-custody-after-incident-11653422735

additional kid died directly because the cops were incompetent. “When the cops came, the cop said: 'Yell if you need help!' And one of the persons in my class said 'help.'

The [shooter] overheard and he came in and shot her," the boy said. 

https://www.kens5.com/article/news/special-reports/uvalde-school-shooting/its-time-to-die-fourth-grade-survivor-uvalde-shooting-recalls-what-gunman-told-student/273-51cc4e26-7a0a-49c0-ba7a-48cdd47fa235 https://twitter.com/paleofuture/status/1529708434995683329

Uvalde is a town of just 16,000 people. But it apparently has a SWAT team. 

We’re regularly told small towns need SWAT teams so they can quickly respond to events just like this. The killer was in the building for an hour.

Photo op of SWAT team: https://twitter.com/radleybalko/status/1529679652154920960

The school district for Robb Elementary has its own police department with 5 cops and 1 security guard. The city of Uvalde's police department recieved just under 40% of the entire city's budget for the year and got a 500k grant from the state. Neither stopped today's massacre.

https://twitter.com/NeeNeinNyetNo/status/1529220708601151491

Enjoyed it? Share it via email, facebook, twitter, or one of the buttons below (or through some other method you prefer). Thank you! As always, here's the tip jar. paypal.me/nlowhim Throw some change in there & help cover the costs of running this thing. You can use paypal or a credit card.

More Ukrainian Stuff.

That podcast guy, Lex isn't all that, tbf. Just listened to this one that was supposed to be a retort to Oliver Stone [1] and man does it get to me. In the end, these kinds of interviews don't push hard enough, don't dig deep and allow a Princeton professor to essentially use arguments I read a long time ago on the internet. Sigh. Also him saying most NATO countries are pacifist and not aggressive is some funny straight up lies that I just can't. Same with the other talking points that I keep hearing. And again, not using the facts on the ground to make a good case. 
On the other side, there's Finkelstein making the case that Russia was in the right to do what they did. 
Not sure I agree, but it's a solid point. He doesn't raise the other knockoff effects of the invasion, such as how food prices in the world will hurt the poor etc etc, even though he thinks there may be war crimes happening. Interesting and I'll add my thoughts on that later and on Patreon. 
But note how even this interviewer didn't push him enough on some points? really looking for a good discussion that doesn't devolve into talking points or straight up lies (and if both sides disagree on some fact, that needs to be dealt with). 
be safe. 



[1] and man are there a whole bunch of things to be said about all his words about Putin and Ukraine (claimed it was a terror state with death squads... now if you read this blog you'll know there were plenty of bad things going on there, Azov bat and other right wing craziness, and pogroms against the Roma etc etc, but to call the entire country that seems a little harsh. Facts on the ground could make the case otherwise, but all you get around is just people chattering away with their talking points. 
Enjoyed it? Share it via email, facebook, twitter, or one of the buttons below (or through some other method you prefer). Thank you! As always, here's the tip jar. paypal.me/nlowhim Throw some change in there & help cover the costs of running this thing. You can use paypal or a credit card.

Starvation as Punishment. Some notes from Black Alliance for Peace

Note: that I've been seeing, on internet comments, people cheering on the starvation of Afghanistan as "Taliban's problem" when it's us doing it, and also "fuck em, they chose this" which is probably the mainstream elite consensus. Note that we are never not dealing with war crimes here, but somehow most people know when to cheer them on, and when to boo them.

In Afghanistan, the Biden administration continues to use sanctions as political leverage against the Taliban, compounding nation-wide and regional instability, and making food and fuel much costlier for tens of millions of Afghans. As a result, the United Nations estimates 97 percent of Afghans could be living below the poverty line by the middle of this year.

The Black Alliance for Peace Solidarity Network’s Afghanistan Committee continues its efforts to raise the public’s awareness on the role the United States and its coalition partners continue to play, despite mostly evacuating the country in September.  

The United States continues to support what the UN has called a “downward humanitarian spiral” in the country by:

Refusing to return $7 billion in Afghan funds, preventing the country from resolving its crises and meeting the needs of the Afghan people.

Leveraging sanctions and using aid as a political tool to destroy the Afghan economy, forcing tens of millions of Afghans into dependence on Western “humanitarian” funding for their well-being.

Decades of interference and occupation, which led to reactionary violence, both inside and outside the country, thus paving the way to recent deadly confrontations with regional neighbors Pakistan and Iran. 

If the ruling class in the United States continues down this road, more Afghans will die over the next year than the number who died amid two decades of U.S. military occupation. Washington’s hegemonic grip over Afghanistan has been the status-quo for decades, but it may be faltering in the face of constructive diplomatic actions China and Russia have taken. 

 

ADDITIONAL READING

 

Starving a People, Committing a Genocide: Biden’s Sanctions on Afghanistan

March 18, 2022, by Eve Ottenberg for CounterPunch

The billions in stolen assets from Afghanistan by the United States is a crime against humanity that condemns possibly millions of Afghans to starvation.

 

Afghanistan's Per Capita Income Dropped By More Than a Third in 2021

April 14, 2022, by News Desk for The Cradle

U.S. sanctions have exacerbated the crisis in Afghanistan, with over 13,000 newborn babies dying since January as a result of the health sector's collapse. 

 

The Consequences of Closing Girls’ Schools

March 30, 2022, by Abdulhakim Allahdad for the Afghan Eye

Why the closure of girls’ schools in Afghanistan will continue to affect two important areas within the country: social unrest and security. 

 

China Condemns ‘Racist’ Western Hypocrisy Over Ukraine

April 1, 2022, by Benjamin Norton for Multipolarista

China’s Foreign Ministry said the “US, NATO and some Western media are very hypocritical” over Ukraine, that their “reports smack of racism,” and are not “equally concerned about the civilian casualties in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Palestine.”

 

An Economy in Crisis: Q&A with Afghanistan’s Former Finance Minister

March 21, 2022, by Adam Weinstein for Responsible Statecraft

Quincy Institute research fellow Adam Weinstein asked Khalid Payenda, Afghanistan’s former finance minister, about the causes and solutions to Afghanistan’s economic woes.

 

Timeline for Demonstrating U.S. Responsibility for Chaos in Afghanistan

September 7, 2021, by Solidarity Network’s Afghanistan Committee for BAP

As the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan worsens, it’s important to remember how U.S. policies and actions wreaked havoc across the country during the Biden administration's deadly withdrawal.

Enjoyed it? Share it via email, facebook, twitter, or one of the buttons below (or through some other method you prefer). Thank you! As always, here's the tip jar. paypal.me/nlowhim Throw some change in there & help cover the costs of running this thing. You can use paypal or a credit card.

Cops.

Just watching this, and I assume it's correct, the cops waited outside while the gunman shot 19 kids. Yeah, cops spending their time yelling at the parents. I'm not sure, but as a parent myself, how can these people not snap? One can only hope that they do something good and get some laws changed. Apparently the gunman was known to the police and DV should have been on his record (so no chance to buy guns). 
Of course, read that entire thread, which goes into how our Neo-feudal SCOTUS has ruled that cops have no obligation to actually serve and protect. So the thin blue line shit is BS. Of course, a Border patrol guard ran in and saved the day, so I take back some of my stuff about everyone in that outfit (that plenty rape and murder, doesn't make what they do right, ofc). Don't know what to say except, what do you say about such things? Only seems to further cement a kind of status quo (not only did good guys with guns not stop the gunman) that can't maintain, but the powers that be (Neo-confederates, SCOTUS etc) who are leading the path to something much worse. 


Enjoyed it? Share it via email, facebook, twitter, or one of the buttons below (or through some other method you prefer). Thank you! As always, here's the tip jar. paypal.me/nlowhim Throw some change in there & help cover the costs of running this thing. You can use paypal or a credit card.