Tag: perpetual war

Murder for Christmas?

When Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth posted a meme of Franklin the Turtle, the amiable child’s cartoon character, in a helicopter using a military weapon to kill people in a small boat below him, and captioned it “For your Christmas wish list,” it understandably caused an uproar.

Should the secretary of defense be mocking the people his troops have killed? Should he engage a child’s cartoon character to produce this mockery? Should anyone in his right mind, who professes to understand Christianity, suggest that this killing should be on a child’s Christmas wish list? Should he be killing nonviolent boatpeople?

Here is the back story.

President Donald Trump has ordered the Department of Defense to annihilate persons in speedboats in the Caribbean Sea, 1,500 miles from the United States and elsewhere. The true targets of these killings are not the boats but the persons in the boats. We know this because the president has stated so, and because in a particularly gruesome event, two survivors of an initial attack on Sept. 2, 2025, who were clinging to the broken remains of their boat hoping to be rescued, were hit with a second attack, which obliterated them.

Based on evidence he says he has and chooses not to share, Trump has designated these folks in the speedboats as “narco-terrorists” and argued that his designation offers him legal authority to kill them. But “narco-terrorist” is a political phrase, not a legal one. There is no such designation or defined term in American law. Labeling them confers no additional legal authority.

Lawyers in the Office of Legal Counsel of the Department of Justice who advise the attorney general on the meaning of the law have apparently authored a legal opinion informing her that she can tell the president what he wants to hear; that it is lawful to kill these boatpeople. This is the same office that told President George W. Bush that he could legally torture prisoners and President Barack Obama that he could legally kill unindicted Americans — including a child — overseas.

Neither the president nor the attorney general will produce this legal opinion for public scrutiny.

These killings constitute murder under federal law and under international law, and persons who use the force of government to commit murder may themselves be prosecuted for it in U.S. courts, courts of the countries from which their victims came, and in international courts. These killings constitute murder because none of the 81 dead boatpeople was engaged in any violence at the times of their deaths.

It doesn’t matter, Trump has claimed, just look at the numbers of drug deaths in the U.S., they are “way down.” Does the president believe that murder is justified by a diminution in drug deaths? Drug distribution is not a capital offence. If the police see a nonviolent person distributing dangerous drugs in an American city, can they summarily kill that person? Of course not.

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“We Must Protect Volodymyr”: Leaked Call Shows European Leaders Conspiring Against Trump Peace Plan

In a development that is not entirely surprising, European leaders are claiming that Washington is looking to “betray” Ukraine and President Zelensky during potential formal peace negotiations with Russia. “There is a possibility that the United States will abandon Ukraine on territorial questions without providing clarity on security guarantees,” French President Emmanuel Macron reportedly said according to a “leaked” phone call record with other European leaders.

Likely this was an intentional leak and bit of strong signaling to the Trump administration, as Europe has not been on board with the US President’s proposed peace plan from the start. “There is a possibility that the US will betray Ukraine on the issue of territory without clarity on security guarantees,” Macron continued. He laid his view that there was “a great danger” for Zelensky. However, Macron’s office has subsequently sought to clarify that “The president did not use those words.”

The leaked transcript of the call between European leaders strategizing about how to protect the Zelensky government and Kiev’s interests was published Thursday by the German magazine Der Spiegel.

Also reportedly on the line engaged in the conversation were German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, and of course Zelensky as well.

Merz had in the dialogue agreed that Zelensky should be “extremely careful in the coming days” and warned the Ukrainian leader that “they are playing games with you and with us.”

Finland’s President Stubb followed with, “We must not leave Ukraine and Volodymyr alone with these people” – after NATO Secretary General Rutte chimed in: “I agree with Alexander. We must protect Volodymyr.” The underlying assumption seems to be that Zelensky is in a weak position and is being bullied by the more powerful US officials who have leverage.

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AGENT ORANGE: The “Safe & Effective” Herbicide That’s Giving Veterans Prostate Cancer, Lymphoma, Diabetes, And Much More

My father is a Vietnam Veteran—a real combat veteran unlike the stolen valor Senator from Connecticut, “Da Nang Dick” Blumenthal, who lied about his service on multiple occasions.

My father got drafted into the U.S. Army on April 9th, 1966; he didn’t have a choice.

He completed basic training at Fort Benning in Georgia, before getting sent to Vietnam, where he served in the 2nd Armored Division “Hell on Wheels” for a year. After returning stateside to Fort Hood in Texas, he got sent straight to Detroit as part of the Army’s Civil Disturbance Plan known as Operation Garden Plot. There’s no rest for the wicked, as the saying goes.

When my father landed in Vietnam, he was assigned to man the “open burn pits” in which the military burned absolutely everything: old equipment, chemicals, unexploded ordnance, medical waste, human waste soaked in diesel, plastics, rubber, paint, solvents, and massive amounts of Agent Orange–contaminated material.

Nearly all (90 percent) of Veterans on burn pit duty cited concerns about their exposure.

Yet as of May 2025, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Veterans Health Administration (VHA) has still not specifically researched whether there is any association between Veterans’ health effects and exposure to open-air burning in Vietnam.

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EU Directs Hundreds of BILLIONS to Ukraine in Latest Plan

According to Ursula von der Leyen’s options paper provided to member states on October 23, Ukraine will need €71.7 billion ($83.2 billion) in 2026. An estimated €51.6 billion ($59.9 billion) will go directly to military needs. The estimate is based on the false assumption that the war will end next year. The price tag for funding Ukraine through 2027 is €135.7 billion on the low end.

The majority will be funneled through the EU’s Ukraine Facility mechanism. “It will now be key to rapidly reach a clear commitment on how to ensure that the necessary funding for Ukraine will be agreed at the next European Council meeting in December,” the European Commission President wrote to the 27 member states. “Clearly, there are no easy options.”

Ursula is not prepared to accept the peace plan. There IS AN OPTION to end this war, but the neocons are currently refusing to surrender. Trump must use America’s NATO status as leverage—end the war or the US will pull out.

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Panic In Russia As Hundreds Of Porsches Mysteriously Shut Down

On Monday, December 1, hundreds of Porsche owners across Russia awoke to discover that their prized German cars had effectively turned into motionless bricks on wheels. Reports now suggest that Porsche’s own Vehicle Tracking System, or VTS, may be at the center of the mystery.

Whether the culprit is a software update gone wrong or a deliberate move from a third party, the outcome is the same. From Moscow to Krasnodar, drivers are finding themselves stranded with cars that refuse to respond.

The issue impacts Porsche models dating back to 2013, all of which have a factory Vehicle Tracking System. If the VTS loses satellite signal, it automatically activates the engine immobilizer and stops the car from working.

Rolf Group service director Yulia Trushkova told the Daily Mail that “all models and all engine types” are affected, with shops fielding waves of identical complaints.

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Democrats in Congress Are Out of Touch With Constituents on Israeli Genocide

Last month, some House members publicly acknowledged that Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza. It’s a judgment that Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch unequivocally proclaimed a year ago. Israeli human-rights organizations have reached the same conclusion. But such clarity is sparse in Congress.

And no wonder. Genocide denial is needed for continuing to appropriate billions of dollars in weapons to Israel, as most legislators have kept doing. Congress members would find it very difficult to admit that Israeli forces are committing genocide while voting to send them more weaponry.

Three weeks ago, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) introduced a resolution titled “Recognizing the genocide of the Palestinian people in Gaza.” Twenty-one House colleagues, all of them Democrats, signed on as co-sponsors. They account for 10 percent of the Democrats in Congress.

In sharp contrast, a national Quinnipiac Poll found that 77 percent of Democrats “think Israel is committing genocide.” That means there is a 67 percent gap between what the elected Democrats are willing to say and what the people who elected them believe. The huge gap has big implications for the party’s primaries in the midterm elections next year, and then in the race for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination.

One of the likely candidates in that race, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), is speaking out in ways that fit with the overwhelming views of Democratic voters. “I agree with the UN commission’s heartbreaking finding that there is a genocide in Gaza,” he tweeted as autumn began. “What matters is what we do about it – stop military sales that are being used to kill civilians and recognize a Palestinian state.” Consistent with that position, the California congressman was one of the score of Democrats who signed on as co-sponsors of Tlaib’s resolution the day it was introduced.

In the past, signers of such a resolution would have reason to fear the wrath – and the electoral muscle – of AIPAC, the Israel-can-do-no-wrong lobby. But its intimidation power is waning. AIPAC’s support for Israel does not represent the views of the public, a reality that has begun to dawn on more Democratic officeholders.

“With American support for the Israeli government’s management of the conflict in Gaza undergoing a seismic reversal, and Democratic voters’ support for the Jewish state dropping off steeply, AIPAC is becoming an increasingly toxic brand for some Democrats on Capitol Hill,” the New York Times reported this fall. Notably, “some Democrats who once counted AIPAC among their top donors have in recent weeks refused to take the group’s donations.”

Khanna has become more and more willing to tangle with AIPAC, which is now paying for attack ads against him. On Thanksgiving, he tweeted about Gaza and accused AIPAC of “asking people to disbelieve what they saw with their own eyes.” Khanna elaborated in a campaign email days ago, writing: “Any politician who caves to special interests on Gaza will never stand up to special interests on corruption, healthcare, housing, or the economy. If we can’t speak with moral clarity when thousands of children are dying, we won’t stand for working Americans when corporate power comes knocking.”

AIPAC isn’t the only well-heeled organization for Israel now struggling with diminished clout. Democratic Majority for Israel, an offshoot of AIPAC that calls itself “an American advocacy group that supports pro-Israel policies within the United States Democratic Party,” is now clearly misnamed. Every bit of recent polling shows that in the interests of accuracy, the organization should change its name to “Democratic Minority for Israel.”

Yet the party’s leadership remains stuck in a bygone era. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), the chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, typifies how disconnected so many party leaders are from the actual views of Democratic voters. Speaking in Brooklyn three months ago, she flatly claimed that “nine out of 10 Democrats are pro-Israel.” She did not attempt to explain how that could be true when more than seven out of 10 Democrats say Israel is guilty of genocide.

The political issue of complicity with genocide will not go away.

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Ukrainians Attack Druzhba Oil Pipeline Again, Threatening Energy Supplies to Hungary and Slovakia

The pipeline war is ongoing.

On Monday (1), Ukrainian forces hit the Druzhba (‘Friendship’) oil pipeline in Russia’s central Tambov region, according to Kiev’s military intelligence source.

Reuters reported:

“It was the fifth Ukrainian attack on the pipeline which supplies Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia, according to Reuters calculations.

Hungary and Slovakia continue to buy energy supplies from Russia, even after other European Union nations cut ties following its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.”

Officials in Slovakia and Hungary said that oil supplies through Druzhba were running normally.

“Ukraine attacked the pipeline once in March, twice in August and once in September this year.”

Hungary’s Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Peter Szijjarto said that the attack against the Druzhba oil pipeline inflicted ‘insignificant damage’.

TASS reported:

“[Russian officials] informed Szijjarto in detail ‘about attacks against the Druzhba oil pipeline’, the minister said at a brief press conference streamed by M1 television. ‘Attacks inflicted just minor damage to the oil pipeline owing to actions of the Russian defense’, Szijjarto said.”

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U.S. Tech Giants Palantir and Dataminr Embed AI Surveillance in Gaza’s Post-War Control Grid

American surveillance firms Palantir and Dataminr have inserted themselves into the U.S. military’s operations center overseeing Gaza’s reconstruction, raising alarms about a dystopian AI-driven occupation regime under the guise of Trump’s peace plan.

Since mid-October, around 200 U.S. military personnel have operated from the Civil-Military Coordination Center (CMCC) in southern Israel, roughly 20 kilometers from Gaza’s northern border. Established to implement President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan—aimed at disarming Hamas, rebuilding the Strip, and paving the way for Palestinian self-determination—the center has drawn UN Security Council endorsement.

Yet no Palestinian representatives have joined these discussions on their future. Instead, seating charts and internal presentations reveal the presence of Palantir’s “Maven Field Service Representative” and Dataminr’s branding, signaling how private U.S. tech companies are positioning to profit from the region’s devastation.

Palantir’s Maven platform, described by the U.S. military as its “AI-powered battlefield platform,” aggregates data from satellites, drones, spy planes, intercepted communications, and online sources to accelerate targeting for airstrikes and operations. Defense reports highlight how it “packages” this intelligence into searchable apps for commanders, effectively shortening the “kill chain” from identification to lethal action.

Palantir’s CTO recently touted this capability as “optimizing the kill chain.” The firm secured a $10 billion Army contract over the summer to refine Maven, which has already guided U.S. strikes in Yemen, Syria, and Iraq.

Palantir’s ties to Israel’s military run deep, formalized in a January 2024 strategic partnership for “war-related missions.” The company’s Tel Aviv office, opened in 2015, has expanded rapidly amid Israel’s Gaza operations. CEO Alex Karp has defended the commitment, declaring Palantir the first company to be “completely anti-woke” despite genocide accusations.

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The Ukraine War Hawks Sabotaging America First

As the White House moves to negotiate an end to the yearslong Ukraine proxy war, establishment members of Congress, elements of the deep state, and their corporate media allies work overtime to sabotage the president’s efforts.

The aggressive establishment campaign seeks to derail a draft settlement, negotiated largely in Washington, that would bar Ukraine from NATO in exchange for U.S. security guarantees, grant Russia de facto control of Crimea and the Donbas, and limit the size of the Ukrainian armed forces, among other measures.

By pursuing a negotiated resolution to the Ukraine war, the Trump administration is doing exactly what it was democratically elected to do. Voters who wanted to continue the proxy war against Russia were told to—and overwhelmingly did—vote for the defeated candidate, Kamala Harris. 

But even though President Donald Trump and voters may prefer restraint and diplomacy with nuclear powers like Russia, the Washington political establishment that drives U.S. foreign policy has long made clear that it does not—and that it will take aggressive measures to subvert democratically decided policies in favor of its own. With a peace deal possibly within reach, this remarkably bipartisan campaign has become increasingly overt.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers last week floated the rumor that the Trump administration’s 28-point peace plan was secretly a Russian-authored “wish list.” The claim has since fallen apart—and never made sense in the first place—because, as Steve Bannon has pointed out, the terms of the deal are, if anything, overly favorable to Kiev, not Moscow. Under the proposal, the Ukrainian military would be permitted to build a fighting force of up to 600,000 troops. “That’s unacceptable to the Russians,” says political scientist John Mearsheimer. And while the draft would formally rule out NATO membership for Ukraine, it nonetheless commits the United States to extending security guarantees, a provision that leaves the door open for future rounds of confrontation between Ukraine and Russia.

Nonetheless, bipartisan factions continue to argue that Trump’s proposal favors Moscow, branding the pursuit of peace as Neville Chamberlain-style appeasement. Joining them to do it has been former Trump official Mike Pompeo, who argued against the 28-point plan on X, saying that “any so-called peace deal that limits Ukraine’s ability to defend itself would look more like a surrender.”

The former CIA director has in recent weeks emerged as a regular guest on Fox News to sabotage Trump’s peace plan, while simultaneously serving on the advisory board of the Ukrainian defense company FirePoint. The Murdoch-owned news network, which previously partly fired Tucker Carlson over his opposition to the Ukraine war, does not disclose that the former CIA director stands to profit directly from the war he goes on air to promote.

The most brazen and revealing effort to derail the Trump administration’s diplomacy comes from anonymous leakers, likely from the U.S. security state, which, through their servants in corporate media, repeatedly leak classified information in what has so far been a failed attempt to embarrass and undermine the president’s lead negotiator, U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff.

The campaign against Witkoff began when Reuters reported that unnamed “U.S. officials” were “increasingly concerned” by Witkoff’s discussions with Russian diplomats to end the war. Soon after, Bloomberg published a selective leak of a classified call transcript, claiming Witkoff had “advised Russia on how to pitch Ukraine plans to Trump,” framing his diplomacy as improper. 

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A Thermonuclear Hair Trigger

Once in the previous century, I actually visited the city of Hiroshima. I was an editor at Pantheon Books and had published a translation of a Japanese volume, Unforgettable Fire: Pictures Drawn by Atomic Bomb Survivors. In it, years later, a few survivors of that city, devastated by the first nuclear weapon used in war on August 6, 1945, none of them artists, had drawn vividly memorable pictures of their experiences accompanied by short, grimly touching descriptions. Mikio Inoue, then 72 years old, for instance, drew an image of a professor he knew and had come upon that horrendous day, the sky still red with flames (“a sea of fire”), almost naked, holding a rice ball in his fist, who had failed to save his wife, trapped under a roof beam. “But I wonder,” Inoue later wrote, “how he came to hold that rice ball in his hand? His naked figure, standing there before the flames with that rice ball looked to me as a symbol of the modest hope of human beings.”

The Japanese editor of that book, amazed that an American would ever have published it, invited me to his country in 1982 and took me to that rebuilt city to visit the all-too-grim museum there dedicated to preserving memories of that nightmarish experience. It was — to reuse a word from the book’s title — a genuinely unforgettable experience for me. And I’m still reminded of the destruction of Hiroshima regularly when, in my neighborhood in New York City, between 105th and 106th street on Riverside Drive, I regularly walk by an impressive bronze statue of Shinran Shonin, the founder of the Jodo Shinshu sect of Buddhism, in front of a local Buddhist temple with this sign: “The statue originally stood in Hiroshima, at a site 2.5 kilometers northwest from the center of the first atomic bomb attack. Having survived the full force of the bomb, the statue was brought to New York in September of 1955 to be a testimonial to the atomic bomb devastation and a symbol of lasting hope for world peace.”

Perhaps, under the circumstances, we should consider it something of a miracle, 80 years later, that the nuclear devastation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which ended World War II in the Pacific, was horrifying enough so that, of all the weaponry that’s been used ever since in humanity’s never-ending war-making, atomic weapons have not been. And yet, unnervingly enough, nine countries have now gone nuclear, and my own country simply can’t seem to stop building (or rather “modernizing“) its already vast nuclear arsenal to the tune of $1.7 trillion over the next 30 years.

It seems genuinely beyond belief, as TomDispatch regular retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and historian William Astore reminds us so vividly today in his — yes! — 115th piece for this site, that our country is still investing an unbelievable fortune in that modernization process for an arsenal already big enough to destroy not just this planet but several others as well. So, take a moment to accompany him briefly into the past and to Cheyenne Mountain as he offers his own countdown on this strange, strange planet of ours

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