Tag: perpetual war

Trump orders removal of protest tent near WH

President Donald Trump has ordered that the long-standing blue tent in front of the White House be taken down.

Trump pledged to remove homeless encampments in Washington by the United States’ 250th Independence Day next year.

A reporter informed him in the Oval Office on Friday of the tent, which represents an ongoing protest, describing it as an “eyesore” supported by the “radical left.” The reporter explained that it had “morphed” from its original intent into something “anti-America,” and expressed concern that it could pose a threat to national security.

“I didn’t know that,” Trump said, immediately turning to his staff. “Take it down. Take it down today, right now.”

“We’re going to look into it right now. We have removed over 50 tent sites, not 50 tents, hundreds and hundreds, maybe 1,000, … but 50 sites,” he continued.

The blue tent, known as the peace vigil, in Lafayette Park is regarded widely as the longest continuous act of political protest in U.S. history.

Activist William Thomas erected the structure in 1981, facing the North Lawn of the White House, where dignitaries and world leaders arrive for meetings. Thomas remained at the vigil calling for an end to global conflict and nuclear disarmament until he died in 2016. The demonstration needs to be staffed constantly to maintain its spot across Pennsylvania Avenue.

Philipos Melaku-Bello took over the structure with a group of rotating volunteers.

The tent is covered with flags and banners that read, “War is not the answer,” “Ban all nuclear weapons or have a nice doomsday,” and “Live by the bomb, die by the bomb.”

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Trump Warns Any Venezuelan Plane Threatening US Ships Will Be Shot Down

On Friday, for the second time in just two days, a Venezuelan F-16 jet flew near a US warship in the southern Caribbean. At least eight American navel vessels have been deployed off the Latin American country which possesses the world’s largest proven crude oil reserves.

President Trump the same day warned that if Venezuelan jets fly over US naval ships and “put us in a dangerous position, they’ll be shot down.”

CBS late Friday cited Pentagon officials who said a Venezuelan plane flew over the US destroyer “Jason Dunham” for the second time.

Some observers have begun to question the circumstances behind the prior US strike on a “drug-carrying vessel from Venezuela” operated allegedly by a drug trafficking gang, which killed all eleven people on board. Assuming they weren’t military, it could be classified as an extrajudicial killing in international waters, with no warning issued or attempt at intercept.

The Commander-in-Chief has put US forces deployed there on a war footing, it appears:

When asked by reporters in the Oval Office on Friday what would happen if Venezuelan jets flew over US vessels again, Trump said Venezuela would be in “trouble”.

Trump told his general, standing beside him, that he could do anything he wanted if the situation escalated.

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has responded by rejecting the state-linked narcotrafficking allegations, and explained that current problems and differences between the nations do not justify a “military conflict”.

Maduro continued, “Venezuela has always been willing to talk, to engage in dialogue, but we demand respect.”

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Russia Attacks Ukraine Overnight With Record 1,000 Drones

Russia attacked Ukraine overnight with an estimated over 1,000 drones and missiles, possibly a record.

Since the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska, the bombing campaign from Moscow has intensified, with Russia sensing complete victory as the Ukrainian army slowly retreat in the face of the Russian onslaught.

Kyiv has resorted to increasing long-range attacks against the Russian Federation via its growing high-tech capability to produce drones and other projectiles.

The conflict now seems to be a numbers game.

Europe is feckless, although continues to provide aid to Kyiv, militarily and financially.

Arms deals are being consummated between the U.S. and Europe, destined for Ukraine. Although, it is becoming murky as to the exact money flows being routed.

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Google pockets $45m to fuel Netanyahu’s propaganda denying Gaza famine

Google is executing a $45-million advertising contract with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office to spread propaganda denying famine in Gaza, Drop Site News reported on 3 September.

The six-month campaign, launched in June, is run through Google’s YouTube and its Display & Video 360 service, and is described in the government contract as hasbara. 

The details were disclosed in official Israeli government contract filings from the state advertising bureau, Lapam, which reports directly to Netanyahu’s office.

A video produced by Israel’s Foreign Ministry declaring “There is food in Gaza. Any other claim is a lie” was placed on YouTube in late August, gaining over six million views. 

Its wide reach was fueled by the ongoing ad campaign coordinated by Lapam.

Records show $3 million was also spent on ads with X, while the Israeli digital advertising company Outbrain (that recently acquired the French company Teads) is set to receive about $2.1 million. Other ads accuse the UN of “deliberate sabotage” of aid deliveries and promote the US-backed, deadly Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid scheme. 

Campaigns have also sought to discredit the Hind Rajab Foundation (HRF), which documents Israeli war crimes, labeling it tied to “extremist ideologies.”

The propaganda drive comes as famine spreads across Gaza. In late August, the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) officially declared famine in Gaza City and its surrounding towns for the first time, and warned that Deir al-Balah and Khan Yunis were next by the end of September. By then, a total of over 640,000 people will face “catastrophic levels” of food insecurity – classified as IPC Phase 5 – across the strip.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Friday that the strip faced “a descent into a massive famine.” The Health Ministry in Gaza reports at least 367 deaths from hunger and malnutrition, including 131 children, since October 2023.

Despite these figures, Israeli officials have openly called for starvation as policy. Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said, “No water, no electricity, they can die of hunger or surrender.” 

Israeli Heritage Minister Amichay Eliyahu declared that Palestinians “need to starve” and should flee under an emigration plan.

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‘Coalition of the Willing’ Ready to Deliver Long-Range Missiles to Ukraine — What Could Go Wrong?

Members of the “Coalition of the Willing” have expressed their readiness to supply Ukraine with long-range missiles, the Downing Street said on Thursday.

The meeting took place in Paris earlier on Thursday in a hybrid format, chaired by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron.

“The Prime Minister also welcomed announcements from Coalition of the Willing partners to supply long range missiles to Ukraine to further bolster the country’s supplies,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement.

Russian President Vladimir Putin previously stated that Ukrainian forces could only carry out such operations with NATO personnel involved, signaling direct Western participation in the conflict. This could fundamentally change the nature of the confrontation, with NATO members effectively fighting against Russia.

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Senator Tammy Duckworth: Trump Vaporizing That Drug Cartel Vessel Means He’ll Use the Military to Interfere in Elections or Something

This week, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said that the real reason Trump wants to bring National Guard troops into Chicago is so that he can ‘set the stage’ to use the U.S. Military to interfere in future elections like the 2026 midterms.

As insane as that sounds, it has apparently now become a talking point among Democrats.

While appearing on MSNBC, Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth added another crazy dimension to this, suggesting that when Trump took out that cartel vessel this week, that was proof that he is going to use the U.S. Military to interfere in future elections.

If any of this makes sense to you, you might be a Democrat.

Breitbart News has details:

While discussing speaking with federal officials about possible immigration crackdowns in Illinois, Duckworth said, “Overall, the city of North Chicago and the surrounding communities have made it clear to their law enforcement officers that they will not cooperate with DHS and ICE unless there is a federal warrant, not one of these fake ICE warrants, but a federal warrant.

And that they’re not going to participate [in] and support ICE actions in basically harassing and intimidating everyday people on the streets of our cities.”

She added that “this President is setting the conditions so that he can actually unilaterally occupy the streets of our cities and interfere in the next election, do what he wants.”

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Pentagon-Funded Research Supported Chinese Military Projects, House Report Finds

A congressional investigation has revealed the Chinese regime exploited U.S. universities to collaborate on hundreds of defense projects funded by American taxpayers, including some blacklisted by the U.S. government due to ties to the Chinese military.

The report, released on Sept. 5 by House Republicans on the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), builds on a 2024 investigation by Committee Chairman John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) and former House Education and Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.).

It found that hundreds of millions in U.S. federal research funding over the past decade have aided China’s technological and military advancements.

“American taxpayer dollars should be used to defend the nation—not strengthen its foremost strategic competitor,” the report said.

The report identified over 1,400 research publications linked to Department of Defense (DOD)-funded projects with Chinese partners, valued at more than $2.5 billion in taxpayer funds. Approximately 800—over half—involved direct collaboration with defense entities of the Chinese state.

It urges limiting U.S. research collaboration with China and supports new legislation by Moolenaar to block DOD funding for projects involving Chinese entities flagged as security risks by the U.S. government.

The report highlighted several case studies posing significant national security risks.

One project—funded by the Office of Naval Research (ONR), Army Research Office (ARO), and NASA—involved researchers from the University of Texas at Austin, Arizona State University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Beihang University.

Shanghai Jiao Tong is overseen by China’s State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defence (SASTIND), the agency managing the defense industry. Beihang, part of China’s “Seven Sons of National Defence” linked to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), was added to the U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) Entity List in 2001 for its involvement in rocket systems and unmanned aerial vehicles, deemed a threat to U.S. national security.

Another project on thin film research, funded by the DOD’s Vannevar Bush Faculty Fellowship, involved Brookhaven National Laboratory, the University of Arkansas, the University of Science and Technology of China, and Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT). HIT, also a “Seven Sons of National Defence” university, operates a SASTIND-overseen lab researching advanced materials and welding for military applications, including spaceflight, aircraft carriers, and nuclear submarines, in collaboration with the state-owned Ansteel Group.

The Select Committee’s report reveals major issues with DOD Research & Engineering (R&E). For example, it failed to update its risk framework or enforcement, listing only a few of China’s known talent programs and defense labs on the 1286 List, despite many more being identified. Additionally, there have been no follow-ups to ensure that grants comply with safety rules, even when risks are flagged.

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Trump’s Contronymal “Peace” with Russia

ith all the hullabaloo about President Donald Trump’s “peace” gestures toward Russia over Ukraine and the resetting of US-Russia bi-lateral relations, it is worth remembering the “pivot to Asia” announced by the Obama administration in 2011 and the coup d’état it carried out in Ukraine in 2014.

For those who might not remember, I would recommend two films: John Pilger’s The Coming War on China and Oliver Stone’s Ukraine on Fire.

They are two prongs of a long-term U.S. strategy to maintain American preeminence throughout the world by countering Russia and China simultaneously, if not equally at once. Such strategy is not determined by someone like President Donald Trump speaking or acting impulsively, as is his wont, but by bankers, financiers, éminences grises, and pale-faced scholarly guns-for-hire in stately buildings reserved for such deliberations.

Despite rhetoric to the contrary, there is a consistent foundational foreign policy strategy from one American presidential administration to the next with necessary little detours here and there, and arguments within the ruling class about tactics.

Long-term strategy is capacious enough to include sudden seeming shifts in policies that are couched in cover stories that beguile even the smartest people. Wishes fuddle the minds of the most astute. They serve to obscure the interests of U.S. dominance of the world, a dominance that is now threatened, and one that Trump is not abandoning, even as he adjusts American tactics on the fly.

The Council of Foreign Relations (CFR) and its magazine, Foreign Affairs are where the ruling elites of the United States debate and determine American foreign policies from administration to administration, regardless of political party.

The CFR is the preeminent U.S. think tank; it is over one hundred years old, financed by the Ford, Rockefeller, and Carnegie Foundations and its members have included former CIA Director Allen Dulles, McGeorge Bundy, Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and many other high government and financial figures, including David Rockefeller, who served as  chairman between 1970-1985.

“Largely unbeknownst to the general public, executives and top journalists of almost all major US media outlets have long been members of the influential Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).” It is evidence of why the corporate mainstream media is an adjunct of the U.S. propaganda system. To become a member is to be baptized into the U.S. ruling establishment and its vast propaganda network that includes, as former CIA analyst Ray McGovern describes it: the Military-Industrial-Congressional-Intelligence-Media-Academia-Think-Tank complex, MICIMATT.

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Israeli intelligence data: Militants account for only 1 in 4 Gaza detainees

Only one in four Palestinians captured by Israeli forces in Gaza were identified by the army as militants, with civilians making up the vast majority of “unlawful combatants” detained in Israeli prisons since October 7, a joint investigation by +972 Magazine, Local Call, and the Guardian can reveal.  

This is what emerges from figures obtained from a classified database managed by Israel’s Military Intelligence Directorate (known by the Hebrew acronym “Aman”), in addition to official Israeli prison statistics disclosed in legal proceedings. Testimonies from former Palestinian detainees and Israeli soldiers who served in detention facilities further indicate that Israel has knowingly abducted civilians en masse and held them for long periods in appalling conditions.

Detention figures cited by the state in May in response to High Court petitions revealed that a total of 6,000 Palestinians had been arrested in Gaza during the first 19 months of the war and held in Israel under a law for incarcerating “unlawful combatants” — a legal tool that allows Israel to imprison people indefinitely, without charge or trial, if there are “reasonable grounds” to believe they participated in “hostile activities against the State of Israel” or that they are a member of a group that has.

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‘Gaza City occupation may not affect Hamas’: Israeli army warns Tel Aviv

The Israeli military has expressed doubt over how effective the planned assault to occupy Gaza City will be in terms of forcing Hamas into submission, according to Israel’s Broadcasting Corporation (KAN). 

KAN reported on 4 September that an army representative addressed a closed-door panel of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee a day earlier. 

“Why would the occupation of Gaza City cause Hamas to budge at all? I did not say it would move Hamas; it is not certain at all. The city has symbolic significance,” he told the committee, according to KAN. 

The panel was also informed by the military representative that around 800,000 Palestinians reside in Gaza City. 

Israel has declared Gaza City a “dangerous combat zone” and has already initiated plans to forcibly displace the nearly one million residents. 

Previous reports have revealed heavy tensions between the government and Israeli army chief Eyal Zamir, who went to great lengths pressing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the danger the occupation plan poses to the captives held by the resistance in Gaza.

Zamir also told Netanyahu that the operation will put further unnecessary strain on Israeli troops.

The army chief plans to tell the government that “there will be no choice but to impose military rule on all of Gaza from November,” Channel 12 reported on 3 September. Zamir has previously called on the government to accept an exchange and ceasefire deal.

On Wednesday, Hamas said it was willing “to enter into a comprehensive deal in which all enemy prisoners held by the resistance will be freed in exchange for an agreed-upon number of Palestinian prisoners held by the occupation.”

“This agreement will end the war on the Gaza Strip, result in the withdrawal of all occupation forces from the entire Gaza Strip, open the border crossings to allow the entry of all the Gaza Strip’s necessities, and start the process of rebuilding,” it added. “The Hamas movement is still awaiting the response of the Zionist enemy to the proposal.”

Hamas had said in a statement on 18 August that it accepted the latest Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal in the Gaza Strip.

However, Israel rejected the deal and insisted on going ahead with the occupation of Gaza City. 

“This is more spin by Hamas, containing nothing new,” Netanyahu’s office said in reference to Hamas’s statement. 

The premier’s office added that the war can end immediately if five conditions are met – the release of all captives, the disarmament of Hamas, the demilitarization of Gaza, Israeli security control in Gaza, and “the establishment of an alternative civilian administration that does not indoctrinate for terror, does not dispatch terror, and does not threaten Israel.”

A leaked Israeli army document obtained by Hebrew media has concluded that Operation Gideon’s Chariots, launched by the military in Gaza earlier this year, failed to achieve its goals. 

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