Yet another Biden boondoggle, from Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:
FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr slammed the Biden administration on Friday – writing on X that President Joe Biden has yet to connect a single American with high-speed internet.
“In 2021, the Biden Administration got $42.45 billion from Congress to deploy high-speed Internet to millions of Americans. Years later, it has not connected even 1 person with those funds. In fact, it now says that no construction projects will even start until 2025 at earliest,” Carr wrote.
“Meanwhile, the Biden Admin has been layering a partisan political agenda on top of this $42.45B program – a liberal wish list that has nothing to do with connecting Americans. Climate change mandates, tech biases, DEI requirements, favoring government-run networks + more.”
In 2021, the Biden Administration got $42.45 billion from Congress to deploy high-speed Internet to millions of Americans.
Years later, it has not connected even 1 person with those funds. In fact, it now says that no construction projects will even start until 2025 at earliest.— Brendan Carr (@BrendanCarrFCC) June 14, 2024
Carr is specifically slamming the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, which allocated $42.45 billion to support broadband infrastructure and adoption.
The program was established by the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), otherwise known as the so-called bipartisan infrastructure bill. The bill had no conservative victories and had many leftist carveouts, as Breitbart News detailed.
Congress passed the infrastructure bill in 2021, which would mean that the BEAD program has had little success in its two years since Biden passed the bill.
The Poles have never been particularly fond of Russia. From Andrew Korybko at korybko.substack.com:
The risk of World War III breaking out is now higher than it’s ever been since the Cuban Missile Crisis due to the US’ dangerous game of nuclear chicken with Russia, and the only reason why everything got to this point in the first place is because Poland helped sabotage spring 2022’s peace talks in collusion with the UK.
The New York Times published the full version of the spring 2022 draft peace treaty between Russia and Ukraine over the weekend, which confirmed a lot of what was previously reported but also included some interesting details from unnamed diplomatic sources about why these talks ultimately failed. According to a European one who was present at the Extraordinary Summit of NATO Heads of State and Government on 24 March 2022, Polish President Andrzej Duda dramatically railed against this deal:
“Leaders in Poland — early and strong supporters of Ukraine — feared that Germany or France might try to persuade the Ukrainians to accept Russia’s terms, according to a European diplomat, and wanted to prevent that from happening.
To that end, when Poland’s president, Andrzej Duda, met with NATO leaders in Brussels on March 24, he held up the March 17 text, said the diplomat, who was present. ‘Which of you would sign it?’ Mr. Duda asked his counterparts, the diplomat said. None of the NATO leaders spoke up.”
It was already observed on 29 March 2022 that “Poland’s Ruling Party Helped Provoke The Worst Security Crisis Since WWII”, albeit for different reasons than what was just revealed, namely the way in which their self-interested anti-Russian fearmongering helped reshape the US’ deep state dynamics. Now there’s no question that Poland was actively trying to sabotage the Russian-Ukrainian peace talks and that its efforts predated former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s infamous trip to Kiev.
Argentiniens Präsident Javier Milei wird an diesem Wochenende zunächst in Hamburg mit einer Medaille einer ultrarechten Organisation ausgezeichnet, dann in Berlin von Kanzler Olaf Scholz mit militärischen Ehren empfangen. Wie die Bundesregierung mitteilt, wird Scholz mit Milei über wirtschaftspolitische Themen verhandeln. Die deutsche Wirtschaft hat Interesse an den Lithiumvorräten und am Potenzial für erneuerbare Energien in Argentinien und lobt Mileis Reformpaket, das vergangene Woche vom Senat in Buenos Aires verabschiedet wurde. Es sieht hochattraktive Vergünstigungen für ausländische Investoren vor und beinhaltet zugleich eine drastische Deregulierung etwa der Arbeitsgesetze – zu Lasten der argentinischen Bevölkerung, die nur wenige Monate nach Mileis Amtsantritt bereits dramatisch verarmt und in Massen dagegen protestiert. Milei, der Argentinien politisch exklusiv an den Westen binden will und auch die Wirtschaft des Landes mit Nordamerika und Westeuropa zu verkoppeln sucht, unterstützt dort jeweils Parteien der äußersten Rechten, darunter in Spanien Vox und die neue Formation Se Acabó La Fiesta („Die Party ist vorüber“).
The “Collective West” (the United States, the EU and NATO) is playing with real, “Honest to God,” fire. This is due to its Political Class’ decision to escalate military support to Ukraine in its “proxy war” with Russia. This view was reinforced by developments which occurred in southern Italy and Washington, D.C. last week where G7 leaders, including United States President Joe Biden, and NATO member foreign ministers respectively met to discuss the next stage of using Ukraine to break the Russian economy and create “regime change” there. The tenor of both meetings was that the ”Collective West” was not going to let up its support for the Ukrainian “puppet regime” in Kiev. Biden expressed that position, saying: “we’re not backing down.” The G7 agreed to provide a $50 billion loan to Kiev before the end of the year. They also agreed to pay the loan back by using (actually stealing) the interest from the $280 billion of confiscated Russian reserves held in European banks. While foreign ministers from NATO countries agreed that they would begin coordinating the distribution of military and logistical equipment through NATO rather than through individual states. Moreover, discussions also centered around France’s plans to form a “coalition” to send ground troops into Ukraine. Biden also signed a ten-year military “security” guarantee with Kiev, amounting to $5 billion per annum. He had already decided to allow Kiev to use United States-provided long-range missiles to attack inside Russia proper; a decision Germany had also agreed to. The NATO plans to escalate will be finalized when members meet in summit in Washington, D.C. July 9-11.
The “Collective West’s urgent drive for escalation is because its objective of using Ukraine to break the Russian political-economy and cause regime change there has failed. Though the ”Collective West” claims it is defending Ukrainian “democracy” and “sovereignty;” the truth be known, it is actually using Ukraine as a sacrificial lamb to achieve its objectives towards Russia. Russia is prevailing in the war, while Kiev’s military effort is near exhaustion, particularly related to the number of troops killed (perhaps 500,000), the lack of potential conscripts, and the depletion of artillery shells; the Russian economy has expanded, not collapsed; President Putin has not been overthrown and has over 80 percent popular support for the war effort; and Russia and China have solidified their “Special Partnership.” The logical trajectory of the “Collective West’s” escalation is either United States and European troops will eventually be deployed in Ukraine resulting in a direct conventional war between NATO and Russia—therefore, shifting from a United States promoted “proxy war” to World War III, and heighten political and military conditions could trigger a nuclear war. The latter could occur, for example, if Kiev used long-range missiles to attack military targets inside Russia; and, based on Russian strategic doctrine, the Kremlin could use nuclear weapons in response, possibly targeting Kiev, NATO depots in Poland, or Brussels. Obviously, what target would be attacked first does not matter—what does matter is—to use one of Curtis Mayfield’s lyrics, —“we all gonna go.”
Nevertheless, the “Collective West,” materiel wise, troop wise, logistically and infrastructure wise, is incapable of fighting a conventional war against Russia at the moment. Moreover, its industrial productive base doesn’t have the capacity to produce military equipment and artillery to match Russia’s production; nor is the “Collective West’s” hollowed-out industrial-base even structured for that purpose. For example, a recent Нью-Йорк Таймс article admitted that Russia has a 7:1 advantage in the production of weapons and artillery. In the wake this reality, European politicians (except Serb, Aleksander Vucic; Hungarian, Victor Orban; and Slovenia’s Robert Fico) are spouting scare tactics conjuring up a false scenario that once Russia “conquers” Ukraine “Putin” will invade Europe, and so Ukraine is the ”frontline” in that fight in order to get public support for an already planned comprehensive Military-Keynesian project, including military mobilization, in preparation for direct warfare with Russia. However, that propaganda contrasts with the evidence (and logic) that Russia has no intention of invading Europe, or attacking a European country unless a NATO country attacks Russia. In fact, the Russian intervention beginning February 22, 2024 was directly a response to the “Collective West’s” expansion of NATO into Ukraine, and its intransigence to negotiate a political solution to the Ukrainian crisis based on the Minsk II agreement and security proposals the Kremlin issued December 17, 2021, combined with Kiev escalating military assault on the Donbass region of Ukraine. The Minsk II agreement called for Ukrainian neutrality and regional autonomy for the Donbas, which is largely populated by pro-Russian speaking peoples.
While the leaders of the “Collective West” were actively planning a military escalation in Ukraine on June 14th President Vladimir Putin presented a proposal to end the War over Ukraine. (See: Putin’s Full Speech at Foreign Ministry: BRICS, NATO Expansion and the Ukraine Peace Talks Conditions,” Спутник Интернэшнл [14 июня 2024 г.]). Putin’s proposal was motivated by the fact that Russia is winning the war and is capable of annexing more Ukrainian territory, so as to end the blood shed and move towards normalcy it is time to negotiate a peace settlement. Specifically, Putin stated that the war would end if Kiev: 1.) withdrew Ukrainian troops from the Russian annexed provinces of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Kaporizhzhia; and, 2.) declared that Ukraine would not become a member of NATO. Putin elaborated: “As soon as they declare in Kiev that they are ready for such a decision and begin a real withdrawal of troops from these regions, and also officially announces the abandonment of their plans to join NATO on our side immediately, literally at the same minute, an order will follow to cease fire and begin negotiations.” He also called for the West to end the economic sanctions it has imposed on Russia. The tragic irony is that if the “Collective West” had allowed Kiev to accept the Minsk II agreement, the war would never have occurred, Ukraine would still be intact, and perhaps over a half-a-million Ukrainians would still be alive.
However, Putin’s proposal will have absolutely no traction in the ”Collective West.” In fact, it was immediately dismissed. This is because the United States can not accept compromise with Russia over Ukraine. There are two inter-related reasons why that is unacceptable for United States: One: It would mean the complete failure of the United States’ post-Cold War project to achieve “Absolute Global Hegemony” over the Inter-State World Capitalist System. This project was codified in the1992 Wolfowitz Doctrine, which stated that the United States would not allow a “peer competitor” to emerge in Eurasia. Moreover, since the early 1990’s the ideological, strategic and institutional-orientation of the United States has been structured to achieve that end. In fact, the War over Ukraine is occurring because over the past two decades Russia has achieved the status of “peer competitor”—therefore, Russia must be defeated and “Putin” eliminated so the United States can continue to pursue “Absolute Global Hegemony.” Two: “Defeat” over Ukraine would be a mortal blow to the United States’ designs for “Absolute Global Hegemony;” and, by implication, control of a uni-polar world order. Therefore, the United States can not allow that defeat. That means the ”Collective West” prevails and breaks Russia (which, at this moment, appears impossible); Russia decisively defeats the Kiev regime (which would also involve the political and economic exhaustion and splitting of the West—and the disintegration of NATO); or the War over Ukraine devolves into a nuclear holocaust (which gets increasingly inevitable with Western escalation, intransigence and denial of geo-political reality). Finally, the populations of th“Collective West” rising up and successfully demanding an end to the United States’ “Permanent War Machine” is another possible scenario. However, this writer is not ready to think that will occur, but he concedes that future History has not been written yet.
Bei unserer Ausfahrt durften wir wieder unsere mutigen Bauern beobachten, wie sie den ersten Schnitt der Almweiden sichern wollen. Glauben Sie mir; Sie würden so einen Traktor oder so ein Mähwerk in dieser Lage nie bedienen wollen. Obwohl die Technik schon an die Alpengefälle angeglichen wurde. So ein Teil ist unglaublich teuer. Meist wird das in der Genossenschaft erworben und dann den Mitgliedern geliehen. Sie könnten das Futter weder zu Fuß mit Spikes, noch mit speziellen Kletterkenntnissen ernten. Unmöglich. Sie müssen auch darauf achten, die Grasnarbe nicht zu verletzen. Das führt zu den bekannten Muren. Kühe und andere Tiere können in diesen Lagen nicht eingesetzt werden. In manchen Gegenden werden dafür Ziegen eingesetzt. Nur schmecken die Ziegen den Touristen nicht. Die wollen Rindsfilet. Und ausgerechnet das Fleisch, ist das ungesündeste. Es ist maßgeblich verantwortlich für Demenz und Autismus als Erbkrankheit. Das bemerken Sie am Inhalt Ihrer „Parlamente“.
Die europäischen Kolonialvölkermörder und Kolonistensöldner in Kanada, setzen tatsächlich die Iranische Armee auf die Terrorliste. Das muss mer sich mal auf der Zunge zergehen lassen. Statt zu Reparieren, ich schätze, rund 10 Billionen plus Schadenregulierung – Umwelt, sich öffentlich für die Völkermorde zu entschuldigen und dort abzuhauen, riskiert dieses strotzdumme Gesindel noch das große Maul. Wir hoffen doch, die Indios werden die britisch-französischen Schatzkammern und Museen plündern und sich ihr Eigentum zurück holen. Mit gut Reden und Verhandeln ist bei diesem gewissenlosen Pack nichts auszurichten. Dazu darf gesagt sein; Besatzer und Kolonisten haben kein Mitspracherecht. Auch nicht, wenn sie vorgeben, ein Staat zu sein.
Mit tadellos verdrehter Logik behauptete die italienische Premierministerin Giorgia Meloni – deren Friseur und Garderobe sich nicht schlüssig auf ihr Gehirn übertragen ließen –, dass die G7 „die eingefrorenen Vermögenswerte der Russischen Föderation nicht beschlagnahmen“ würden; „Wir sprechen davon, wann sich die Zinsen im Laufe der Zeit ansammeln.“ Pepe zu G7. Ich muss lachen. Tatsächlich ersetzen die uns einen Zirkus und die Clowns dieses Geschäfts. In dem Sinne, tut es mir Leid um die wirklichen Clowns im Zirkus und um deren Artisten. Der „Ersatz“ ist deren Kunst schon mal nicht gewachsen und tritt mehr als nur anmaßend auf.
Die USA haben in letzter Zeit nacheinander den „Chips and Science Act“ und den „Inflation Reduction Act“ verabschiedet und durch direkte oder indirekte Subventionen in Höhe von Hunderten von Milliarden US-Dollar in die Zuteilung von Marktressourcen für ihre Unternehmen eingegriffen. Die Faschisten-EU das Gleiche. „Strafzölle“. Sie erinnern sich an die mehrere tausend Milliarden, die angeblich wegen der Pandemie an Rüstungskonzerne, „Schlüsselindustrie“ und zur Deckung von Kriegskassen der Banken ausgereicht wurden. Das war damals schon geplantes Rüstungsgeld für die EUFaschisten zum Überfall auf Nahost, Südamerika, China und Russland. Mit jedem Euro wurden die dummen Mäuler größer; die Huren verrückter. Von den Vermittlungsprämien haben sich die Huren und Zuhälter, Flugzeuge, Boote, Bunker und Kinderficker – Inseln gekauft.
Ich möchte mal wissen, wann der Kinderficker Rechenschaft für seine sexuellen Vergehen und Lügen vorzulegen hat. Nürnberg 2 wird ihm Gelegenheit geben. „Mir wurde Alles befohlen“ wird diesen Völkermörder – Strolch nicht vor dem Galgen retten.
Etwas Eigenlob für unsere Notfallversorgung. Ich kann das bestätigen. Das ist die beste Europas! Im Grunde verdanken wir das einer Volksgruppe – Südtiroler, die sich hingebungsvoll dem Menschen verpflichtet fühlen.
Der Feind (Kapitalisten, Imperialisten, Faschisten) wird unverschämt. Warum? Hier die Atomwaffendoktrin unserer russischen Freunde.
„III. Bedingungen für den Übergang der Russischen Föderation
zum Einsatz von Atomwaffen
17. Die Russische Föderation behält sich das Recht vor, Atomwaffen als Reaktion auf den Einsatz von Atomwaffen und anderen Arten von Massenvernichtungswaffen gegen sie und (oder) ihre Verbündeten sowie im Falle einer Aggression gegen die Russische Föderation einzusetzen konventionelle Waffen, wenn selbst die Existenz des Staates gefährdet ist.
18. Die Entscheidung über den Einsatz von Atomwaffen trifft der Präsident der Russischen Föderation.
19. Die Bedingungen, die die Möglichkeit des Einsatzes von Atomwaffen durch die Russische Föderation bestimmen, sind:
a) der Erhalt verlässlicher Informationen über den Abschuss ballistischer Raketen, die die Gebiete der Russischen Föderation und (oder) ihrer Verbündeten angreifen;
b) der Einsatz von Atomwaffen oder anderen Arten von Massenvernichtungswaffen durch den Feind auf dem Territorium der Russischen Föderation und (oder) ihrer Verbündeten;
c) die Einwirkung des Feindes auf kritische staatliche oder militärische Einrichtungen der Russischen Föderation, deren Ausfall zur Störung der Reaktionsmaßnahmen der Nuklearstreitkräfte führen wird;
d) Aggression gegen die Russische Föderation mit konventionellen Waffen, wenn die Existenz des Staates bedroht ist.
20. Der Präsident der Russischen Föderation kann bei Bedarf die militärpolitische Führung anderer Staaten und (oder) internationaler Organisationen über die Bereitschaft der Russischen Föderation zum Einsatz von Atomwaffen oder über die getroffene Entscheidung zum Einsatz von Atomwaffen informieren sowie über die Tatsache ihrer Verwendung.“
Am markierten Text sehen Sie, die Eurofaschisten wollen die Russen provozieren, das zu tun. Sie haben bereits Frühwarnsysteme (kritische Infrastruktur) angegriffen. Damit sehen Sie, wie Sie von ihren Mastdarm- und Kinder fickenden, geistig unzurechnungsfähigen Faschistendiktatoren geliebt werden. Der Russe wird Sie von diesem bestialischen Abschaum nicht befreien. Ich sehe gelegentlich Forderungen bei Thomas und in diversen Foren. Befreiung ist eine Herzenssache. Und wenn Sie kein Herz haben, steht Ihnen auch keine Freiheit zu.
Ich habe mehrmals betont, Ihr Verhalten (vor allem auf Westseite), haben Sie sich nahezu jeder solidarischen Haltung von Außen verwehrt. Schon bei der Vorbereitung des 2. WK, musste der Westen zusehen, wie sich die sächsische Arbeiterschaft dagegen auflehnte. In Reaktion auf diese geschichtliche Tatsache, wurde von den Besatzern der DDR die AfD gegründet. Deren Propaganda finden Sie wortgetreu hier unter Weimarer Republik und Nationalsozialismus in den jeweiligen Proklamationen, Gesetzen und Richtlinien. Gefährlich sind nicht die liebevoll vorgetragenen Forderungen und Gesetze. Die in den Gesetzen vorsätzlich eingebauten Gummis und Deutungen, sind Ihr Genickbruch und der Freifahrtschein ins KZ.
It’s obvious to just about everyone that Joe is kaput — mentally, physically and morally — and has been a Public Relations disaster, no matter how hard the Leftist Legacy Media try to portray him and what he does as the Saviour. If she does replace him, it will be a rerun of 2016, except that Hillary will do worse electorally than she did that year.
From Ben Garrison:-
She’s Baaack!
Hillary Clinton made a appearance at the Tony Awards, looking like a old car that just got a new paint job. Her hair was done in a more flattering style then the usual severe straight bangs. Hillary looked like she had lost weight and wore a dress that wasn’t her usual ‘shower curtain’ style. This immediately started tongues wagging about whether Hillary is being considered as a possible replacement for the Depends wearer in Chief, Joe Biden.
Biden stands no chance against Trump. That’s becoming increasingly clear. Hillary will provide better competition. She will be drafted at the Democrat Convention to replace Biden. Get ready for the return of the Hildebeast.
Um dem chinesischen Monopol entgegenzutreten, will die CIA, die eigentlichen Drahtzieher in der Ukraine, außerhalb Kiews eine Lithium-Fabrik errichten. Die Ukraine verfügt über die größten unerforschten Vorkommen seltener Erden Europas im Wert von 11,5 Billionen Dollar.
Die Entvölkerung der Ukraine „war ein notwendiges Übel, um die Kontrolle über die Ressourcen zu erlangen.“ „Bis zum letzten Ukrainer.“~Zitat von Selenskyj „Die meisten Reserven der Ukraine an seltenen Erden, darunter Lithium, Beryllium und Niob, liegen derzeit in von Russland besetzten Gebieten, vor allem in Saporischschja und Donezk in der Ostukraine. Schwarzgoldener Boden – weißgoldene Mineralien.
Diese Mineralien sind für die Herstellung von Chips, Smartphones, Windmühlen, Solarmodulen, Laptops und Elektrofahrzeugen unverzichtbar. Und Europa will sie unbedingt haben. Nicht nur in Europa – Lizenzen wurden auch an australische, britische, US-amerikanische und türkische Unternehmen vergeben. Der größte Investor ist die BVG Group. BGV Group ist eine Investmentgesellschaft in Kiew, die 2015 gegründet wurde – ein Jahr nach dem Putsch in der Ukraine 2014 und dem Sturz des prorussischen Präsidenten Viktor Janukowitsch.
Im selben Zeitraum etablierten sich Hunter Biden und der ehemalige CIA-Agent Joseph Black im Vorstand von Burisma Holdings in der Ukraine, wo Öl- und Gaspachtverträge „entstaatlicht“ und an Burisma vergeben wurden. Burisma, das in Zypern registriert ist, wurde 2023 aufgrund von Vorwürfen der Geldwäsche und Terrorismusfinanzierung aufgelöst. Es ist wahrscheinlich, dass die BVG-Gruppe ihre Pachtverträge für die Mineralvorkommen gleichzeitig von derselben CIA erhielt, die einen Putsch durchgeführt hatte.
Im Jahr 2019 ging BVG ein Joint Venture mit der Holtec Company ein und gründete das Unternehmen in Delaware. Gründer und CEO von Holtec ist Dr. Kris Singh. Der ukrainische Gründer der BVG Group ist Hennadii Butkevych, ein vermögender Spender der ukrainischen Wirtschaft.
Im März 2024 trafen sich Butkevych und sein Team mit „britischen Parlamentariern, Mitgliedern des House of Lords und Staatsministern, um an einer offiziellen Veranstaltung zum Thema Investitionen in der Ukraine teilzunehmen, die im House of Parliament stattfand. Ziel des Treffens war es, die britisch-ukrainische Partnerschaft im Bereich des Abbaus kritischer Mineralien zu besprechen, die dem Vereinigten Königreich helfen wird, fortschrittliche Technologien zu entwickeln und den Übergang zu sauberer Energie zu fördern.“
Die Zahl der Akteure, die an diesem Bergbau beteiligt sind, wird wahrscheinlich durch anonyme Investoren über umständliche Offshore-Briefkastenfirmen aufgebläht. Aber allein der enorme Wert dieser Mineralien würde die Besessenheit der Ukraine erklären.
The past weeks were marked by unprecedented losses among the mercenaries from Colombia in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Since , on the of more than a ,aswell as theirpersonaldata, have been revealed. These are only those cases that were confirmed by open sources.
The revealed deaths are mainly related to the defeat of the 59th separate motorized infantry brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The Ukrainian unit suffered heavy losses in battles in the area of Krasnogorovka in the South Donetsk direction.
Most Colombian mercenaries fighting on Ukrainian front for than a .
Miguel Angel Cardenas Montilla, from Santiago de Cali, Colombia, was the luckiest man in his unit who survived a battle. Miguel is an ex Colombian soldier who has two children and a wife. He came to Ukraine and joined the 59th Brigade of the Ukrainian army, together with numerous other militants from Colombia. The unit was defeated by the Russian Army in Krasnogorovka. Miguel was the one one who survived the battle. Nine other fighters from his group were killed.
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Hugo Alberto Morales Tique, 35yo, from Chaparral, Tolima, Colombia. He came to Ukraine in February 2024 trying to earn some money for his family. He last contacted his family on May 23. In his last battle, he was eliminated by the Russian army.
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Andres Ortiz from Tolima, Colombia, came to Ukraine on May 2024. His war lasted less than a month. He left three children in Colombia.
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Neider Cordoba Gomez alias El Viejo K9, from Montelibano, Cordoba, Colombia, is an ex Colombian soldier who came to Ukraine in December 2023. He joined the 49th Carpathian Sich Battalion of the Ukrainian Army.
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Ezequiel Machuca Iglesias, 39yo, from Sotaquirá, Bocayá, Colombia, was a retired professional soldier of the Colombian army who left Sotaquirá on February 28 to join the Ukrainian army. After retiring from the Colombian Army, he spent 12 years as a mercenary in Dubai, became a Vice First Sergeant and returned to Colombia.
His wife complains that the Ukrainian Army did not pay the salary. The militants were told that they would conduct observation but they were thrown into battles as cannon fodder. He died on May 15-16 and has been missing since then. He left three children.
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Alejandro Portela, from Chaparral, Tolima, Colombia, came to Ukraine in February 2024 with his friend Hugo Alberto Morales Tique. They were both killed by the Russian army.
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Jorge Luis Perdomo Fierro, from Maito, Huila, Colombia, was a former serviceman. He traveled to Ukraine with his brother two months ago. He served in the 59th brigade and was killed in Krasnogorovka, where almost the entire unit was eliminated by Russian forces.
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Yeison Jimenez, from Maicao, Guajira, Colombia, came to Ukraine in January 2024. He was killed by an FPV drone.
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Sebastian Rodriguez, from Ibagué, Tolima, came to Ukraine in May 2024 and joined the notorious 59th Battalion.HewasalmostimmediatelykilledinKrasnogorovka.
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Johan David Manquillo, from Saladoblanco, Huila, Colombia, fought in the 59th brigade for less than a month. He was killed in Krasnogorovka in May. His body is still missing.
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Hernando Ramirez Aldana, callsign Dinamus from Chaparral, Tolima, Colombia, left his family and three children and came to Ukraine in late April 2024. He served in the 59th Brigade. Hernando’s body is still missing.
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Carlos Andres Rosero Hernandez, callsign Titi, from Gigante, Huila, Colombia, came to Ukraine about a month ago with two friends. Carlos was killed and his friends were wounded in battles. Carlos left two children.
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Ekar Camargo Brito, callsign Guajiro, from Hato Nuevo, La Guajira, Colombia, was a former Colombian soldier who left his wife and three children. He served in the 59th Brigade. His body is still missing.
Jerson Bermudez, callsign Fiera, from Santiago de Cali, Colombia, came to Ukraine in February 2024. Three months later, he was sent on the frontlines to the forest area near Kremennaya. He was heavily wounded there.
In sharp contrast to the original Cold War of 1946-1989 which generally differentiated between Russia as a nation and its then-Communist government, the renewed hostilities between Russia and the West over the Ukraine conflict have seen an ominous wave of Russophobic propaganda targeting the history and culture of Russia. The West’s ideological crusade has repeatedly shown a total disregard for the basic facts of history in its attempt to brand Russia as an evil, aggressive force led by a madman menacing democracy.
A glaring example of this brand of polemics is a recent two-minute video called “Why Russia Fights” produced for the Hoover Institution in an obvious attempt to drum up support for the US proxy war in Ukraine (The video can be accessed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6kae4IWBhc).
Far from limiting its criticism to the policies of Vladimir Putin’s administration, the video from the Hoover Institution paints Russia throughout rice centuries of its history as a unified state as a sinister force intent on dominating the world due to an ideology based on moral superiority. Accepting this premise rules out any hope of the West ever peacefully coexisting with Russia unless it is weakened and its vast territory broken up into various small vassal states—as some in the West have argued.
This is a far more extreme position than was ever advanced by influential people and institutions in the earlier Cold War when the principal objection in the West to the Soviet Union was centered its Communist system rather than its overall history and culture.
By painting Russia as the aggressor and never once mentioning the devastating invasions from the West that Russia suffered over centuries, the Hoover video stands history on its head. Western aggression against Russia was the salient theme in The Battle of Russia, the celebrated wartime documentary produced by Frank Capra for his Why We Fight series. This series was so well known for so long that it seems almost impossible that today’s Western propagandists could ignore it. Indeed, it is likely that those at the Hoover Institution chose the title “Why Russia Fights” as a deliberate attempt to counter Capra’s Why We Fight series. I’m certain the neoconservatives who made the Russophobic video are far from stupid or as ignorant of the basic facts of Russian history as they assume the American public to be. But they clearly believe that the end justifies the means and hence are willing to lie about the past in order to further their cause in the present.
The Hoover Institution apparently calculated that their propaganda will succeed in the present age of disinformation and widespread historical and cultural illiteracy. Unfortunately, they may be right. Surveys have revealed that many Americans do not even know in what century their own Civil War took place or which side Russia was on in World War II. Only a relatively select number of Americans today have seen Eisenstein’s Alexander Nevsky or Mikhail Kalatazov’s The Cranes Are Flying. I doubt if many among the current generation in the US have ever read Tolstoy’s War and Peace or seen the memorable film adaptations by King Vidor and Sergei Bondarchuk.
The new Russophobia that came to the fore in the West during the Maidan coup of 2014—and became especially virulent in the wake of Russia’s Special Military Operation in Ukraine in 2022— has been far more sweeping than which swept the country during the Cold War or the earlier period of tsarist rule. The attempt in the West to “cancel” Russian culture in the last few years, eerily reminiscent of the campaign against German culture in the US in 1917-18 during World War I, has no parallel in previous periods of tension between Russia and the West, whether in tsarist or Soviet times. Distinctions were once made in the West between Russian artists and their government, with the artist viewed as expressing a spirit of freedom whatever the constraints imposed on him by the particular regime in power.
Now, however, in the wake of the Ukraine crisis, in a manner all too typical of decades of Western political correctness, there have sprung up various analysts who claim to see the hand of Russian autocracy and ethnocentrism in the country’s great writers, a critique in synch with the deplorable efforts of Ukrainian nationalists to suppress Russia’s classic artists as vestiges of imperial oppression.
That Western leaders’ present attitude toward the Russian Federation is guided by old stereotypes of “darkest Russia” is glaringly apparent from a statement by President Joe Biden who said at the Munich Security Conference in February 2018 that “the time will come—it may not come in the near future—but eventually the people of Russia will look West and out of that deep black hole they have been staring into for the last 150 years or longer.” If he was referring to the decade of the 1860s, then he is clearly unfamiliar with the great reforms of Alexander II including the introduction of trial by jury and the emancipation of the serfs which inspired American abolitionists in their own efforts to get rid of slavery. Culturally, what Biden dismissed as a “deep black hole” was an age of incredible artistic achievements—the great novels of Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky and Turgenev and the great music of Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin, and Mussorgsky.
But the wave of Russophobia has not only sought to erase the achievements of Russia’s distant past—they seek to distort more recent history as well. In his book, The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America, Timothy Snyder, an Establishment historian committed to the new Cold War, consistent with his view that Russia has always been a land of tyrannical darkness, wrote of the “faked 1996 election” in which Boris Yeltsin retained his presidential office but conveniently omitted the major role President Clinton’s advisers played in ensuring that victory. The Hoover Institution once made Alexander Solzhenitsyn an honorary fellow but now condemns as a mortal enemy to Western values the Russian traditions that the writer so powerfully expressed in his works. The West’s chronicle of the new Cold War ignores all of its actions that made February 24, 2022 all but inevitable: the violation of the promise never to expand NATO eastward; the Clinton administration’s strong support of Yeltsin’s autocratic regime in the 1990s and the economic disaster that followed from its policies; the US withdrawal from its arms control treaties with Russia; the US instigation of so-called “color revolutions” hostile to Russia in former Soviet republics, of which the 2014 Maidan coup— which installed a violently Russophobic regime in Ukraine—has been the most disastrous; and the West’s refusal to implement the Minsk accords intended to resolve this crisis.
With the US complicity in Israel’s monstrous Gaza genocide now plainly in evidence, all the West’s high-flown rhetoric about its response to the Ukraine crisis being part of some cosmic struggle between Western democracy and Eastern authoritarianism has been unmasked as nothing more than a hypocritical cover for continued world domination by American military and corporate elites.
The attempt by the Western political and media establishment to whip up fears of the East by simultaneously appealing to Russophobia, Islamophobia and Sinophobia is rooted in centuries of anxieties about “the Other” going back to antiquity. When Western countries have looked eastward, they have experienced uneasiness by the sheer size of these lands, the vastness of their populations, the “strange” customs and cultures of these civilizations, their wealth and power seen as a threat to the West’s planetary domination. At a time when cooperation between East and West is absolutely essential to human survival, there must be a concerted effort by all those who care about continued life on this fragile planet to fight the West’s ancient prejudices. Instead of promulgating as inevitable a “clash of civilizations” between East and West, we must strive for a new consciousness of our shared humanity.
*William M. Drew is a writer, film historian, researcher, and college lecturer. He is the author of Speaking of Silents: First Ladies of the Screen (1990) and At the Center of the Frame: Leading Ladies of the Twenties and Thirties (1999).
Can the president fight any war he wishes? Can Congress fund any war it chooses? Are there constitutional and legal requirements that must first be met before war is waged? – asks ‘The Washington Times’.
These questions should be front and center in a debate over U.S. involvement in Ukraine. Sadly, there has been no great national debate. The media are mouthing what the CIA is telling them, and only a few websites and podcasts are challenging the government’s reckless, immoral, illegal and unconstitutional war.
All power in the federal government comes from the Constitution and no other source. Congress, however, has managed to extend its reach beyond the confines of the Constitution domestically and in foreign affairs by spending money in areas it cannot regulate and purchasing compliance from the states and foreign countries by bribery.
Congress cannot legally declare war on Russia since there is no militarily grounded reason for doing so. Russia poses no threat to American national security, people or property. Moreover, the U.S. has no treaty with Ukraine that triggers an American military defense. But Congress spends money on war nevertheless.
Under the Constitution, only Congress can declare war on a nation or group. The last time it did so was to initiate American involvement in World War II. But Congress has given presidents limited authority and permitted them to fight undeclared wars. Examples of this are President George W. Bush’s disastrous and criminal invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and the War Powers Resolution of 1973.
Congress has not only not declared war on Russia; it has not authorized the use of American military forces against it. Yet it has given President Biden $175 billion and authorized him to spend it on military equipment for Ukraine however he sees fit.
He has promised to continue giving Ukraine whatever it needs for “as long as it takes.” As long as it takes to do what? He cannot answer that question because he has no clear military objective. Eliminating Russian troops from Ukraine and Crimea or Russian President Vladimir Putin from office are not realistically attainable military goals.
Congress has authorized only weapons and cash to be sent to Ukraine, but Mr. Biden has also sent troops. U.S. involvement in Vietnam began the same way: no declaration of war, no authorization for the use of military force. A gradual buildup of American troops as advisers and instructors ensued, and then a congressionally supported war that saw half a million American troops deployed, 10% of whom came home in body bags.
We don’t know how many American troops are in Ukraine, as they are out of uniform and their whereabouts a secret. We do know that they are involved in hostilities, since much of the hardware that Mr. Biden has sent requires American know-how and security clearances to operate and maintain. And some of the weapons have American troops actually targeting Russian forces and pulling the trigger.
Are American soldiers killing Russian soldiers? Yes. None of it has been authorized by Congress, but Congress has paid for it with borrowed money.
Has Russia threatened the U.S.? No. What grave acts has the Russian military committed against the U.S.? None. What is Mr. Biden’s objective? He won’t say.
Does Congress uphold the Constitution? Does the president? The answers are obvious. We have reposed the Constitution for safekeeping into the hands of those who ignore it. The consequences are death, debt and the loss of personal liberty.
Der Friedensstifter 
