"Will US Aggression Stop Eurasian Integration or Accelerate It? w/ Vijay Prashad" (Khalek). Prashad is always very worth listening to.
Expect to hear a lot about human rights in Zimbabwe in 2023. pic.twitter.com/LZteyWPBvT
— Alan MacLeod (@AlanRMacLeod) December 31, 2022
US ruling class gloating like porn addicts over China’s impending Covid catastrophe. We’re all supposed to forget that the DC bipartisan consensus killed off over a million Americans, deadliest failure among rich countries. https://t.co/7DCo2IBzLH
— Mark Ames (@MarkAmesExiled) December 27, 2022
"Prince Heinrich XIII and the Failed German Coup" (Devlin):
"It’s all a bit absurd. And the liberal elite—those with real power, not some little known fringe aristocrat—knows it’s absurd. They don’t actually think that a group of twenty-odd individuals that met at an estate in the woods hours away from Berlin would take the Reichstag and Bundeskanzleramt with force. They’re not actually afraid that a couple dozen militia members led by former and current German special forces soldiers would use weapons and explosives kept in the basement of some septuagenarian descendant of the medieval German aristocracy from 700 years ago to install him as the new head of state.
But these bizarre, fringe instances have become one of the main ways the liberal elites in crumbling regimes maintain their grip on power."
Can Russia use the magic of Russian diplomacy to help to fix this?: "Will there be reconciliation between Iran and Saudi Arabia?" (Kulikov):
"In early November, at the concluding session of the Bahrain Dialogue Forum “East and West for Human Coexistence,” in the presence of Roman Catholic head Francis, Al-Azhar sheikhs called for an intra-Islamic dialogue to address the causes of division and sectarian conflict. They stressed the need for Sunnis and Shia to abandon the elements that provoke escalation and tension that have resulted from an era of divisiveness and aggression against the Islamic world.
For Russia, which has excellent relations with Iran and Saudi Arabia, any conflict in the Middle East region is extremely unprofitable. Moscow has therefore repeatedly declared its readiness to play a mediating role, to act as a negotiating platform between Tehran and Riyadh and to complement the steps of rapprochement already taken by the two countries.
It should be recalled that the two neighbors have recently made efforts to resume diplomatic relations and have held an entire series of negotiations, most of which took place in Iraq. Meanwhile, Iran and Saudi Arabia, as major oil producers, have demonstrated their interest in establishing bilateral ties, including to secure oil trade, which is important for the economies of both countries. This similarity between the parties in recent years is not surprising and is explained by their growing financial difficulties and the maximization of current revenues in the oil market, as opposed to Washington’s policy of keeping prices low enough to discourage oil consumers from turning to alternative energy sources.
Throughout the autumn 2022, representatives of Iran and Saudi Arabia negotiated through Baghdad in an attempt to restore relations. The last few rounds of negotiations have eased tensions, with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian even indicating in one of his interviews that the negotiations were moving from strictly security matters to the political level. On December 19, the Islamic Republic’s Foreign Minister said Tehran was ready to build trust and co-operate with its neighbors in the Persian Gulf in all areas to help get rid of “the idea that security will be provided from abroad,” clearly referring to the US presence.
Iranian and Saudi Foreign Ministers Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud met in Amman on December 21 on the sidelines of the Second Baghdad Conference on Cooperation & Partnership. The Iranian Foreign Minister said the Saudi Minister assured him of Riyadh’s willingness to continue dialogue with Tehran and stressed that negotiations with Saudi Arabia will continue along the same path of official diplomacy in order to open the embassy of the two countries and return to normal relations."
"Taiwan bringing back proper conscription (service extending to 1 year) in the face of China threat" and "Between division and internal problems, what is the future of the Polisario? #Sahrawi #Morocco" (Defense Politics Asia).
"The Two-State Solution is a Lie" (usefulidiots quicky with Peled).
"Useful Idiots 2022 Special plus Mick Wallace & Claire Daly Unlocked" (usefulidiots). Nancy Pelosi as Lucille Bluth! Brilliant! Daly/Wallace, the two sane Europeans, interview after 18:00, really worth watching.