alanjjohnstone
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Israeli embassy families to exit Ukraine and all Israeli’s advised against travel to Ukraine.
Japan advises its nationals to leave Ukraine
The Russians “have all they need to carry everything out, from a minor invasion in the east to minor attacks here and there in Ukraine, or a complete invasion, with, possibly, an occupation of all or parts of Ukraine”, Vice Admiral Nils Andreas Stensones said at the presentation of the Norwegian intelligence services’ annual threat assessment report.
“Now, it is up to President [Vladimir] Putin to choose if he wants to proceed or not,” he added.
Those of us of a certain age have experienced war fever before when every household was issued Protect and Survive government pamphlet and the media ran various nuclear war documentaries and dramas.
The SPGB issued its own pamphlet at the time, Is a Third World War Inevitable,
“…There are many responses to the threat of war, from the ‘Apocalypse Now’ hysteria of those who allow emotion to overcome reason…Those who would have us march round in circles pleading with leaders to ‘ban the bomb’ and those who urge us to sit back in our armchairs and have faith in the wisdom of governments have in common an ignorance of the cause of war and social insecurity.”
But perhaps more relevant is that the Party also published a 1938 pamphlet on the Chamberlain peace agreement with Hitler over Czechoslovakia.
“What does it matter to the British capitalist class whether the Czechs are independent or incorporated in Germany?”
“The attitude of the Labour Party, the Communist Party, and others of like views, relating to the position of the Czechs, is due partly to fright, which has developed an acute attack of anti-Fascitus. They are prepared to see cities littered with the corpses of hundreds of thousands of working men, women and children, for what? To prevent what would be in the main merely a change of rulers.”
Unlike others, we are more than willing to conceive of Ukraine losing its “independence” if it means that our Ukrainian fellow-workers and Rissian Donbas fellow-workers are not sacrificed for such spurious concepts as “democracy” and “freedom”.
The Socialist Party exposes Mr Chamberlain and his Labour Critics (1938)
It later published a pamphlet on conscription
” “Munich” in effect, gave the German capitalists a more or less free hand in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. Now the British Government appears to be blocking Germany’s expansion. Why? Is it growing strength—and the fear that German capitalist lust for expansion and markets is insatiable? Or is it partly bluff, merely the prelude to another Munich?”
I wonder if it is possible for any socialist to predict the outcome of capitalist diplomacy with any degree of certainty.
Lindsey German’s view on Starmer’s position
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/feb/11/keir-starmer-nato-labour-anti-war
Bernie Sanders view
Diplomacy is the Only Way to Deescalate the Crisis Over Ukraine
“Climate-friendly” Norway castigated
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/02/10/norway-claims-be-climate-leader-its-mirage
Frode Pleym of Greenpeace Norway added: “Norway is a poster child for climate hypocrisy. Every new exploration well and every new oil field that Norway allows undermines a well-planned just transition and is a step closer to climate chaos. Investments need to be redirected to scale up new, green industries across the country and ensuring a just transition so that every worker can retrain and move into a good green job.”
Labour retains its patriotic principles
Starmer says Stop the War are “not benign voices for peace”.
“At best they are naive, at worst they actively give succour to authoritarian leaders who directly threaten democracies. There is nothing progressive in showing solidarity with the aggressor when our allies need our solidarity and – crucially – our practical assistance now more than ever.”
Biden has warned that “things could go crazy quickly” in Ukraine and again urged American citizens to leave immediately, as the UK’s defence secretary headed to Moscow in the latest round of diplomacy.
“American citizens should leave, should leave now,” Biden said in an interview with NBC News. “We’re dealing with one of the largest armies in the world. This is a very different situation and things could go crazy quickly.”
Biden reiterated that under no circumstances would he send US troops to Ukraine, even to rescue Americans in case of a Russian invasion. “That’s a world war. When Americans and Russians start shooting one another, we’re in a very different world,” he said.
UK defence secretary Ben Wallace joins foreign secretary Liz Truss in Moscow after she held frosty talks with her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov. Lavrov said the meeting was like a conversation of “the mute with the deaf”.
Macron left Moscow apparently confident that he had basic agreement from Vladimir Putin not to send further troops to Ukraine’s borders nor to launch a military intervention, and to withdraw Russian forces from Belarus after current exercises end.
This was then publicly contradicted by a Kremlin spokesman. No such commitment had been given and any future deal would only be made with the United States
https://www.dw.com/en/has-weeklong-diplomacy-made-war-in-ukraine-any-less-likely/a-60734333
Can Ukraine and Russia contain a war? Is a war from the Baltic to the Black Sea impossible?
The Community Security Trust (CST) provides security for Britain’s Jewish community, and monitors anti-Semitism.
The charity says it recorded reports of 2,255 anti-Jewish hate incidents in 2021, up 34% on 2020.
Its annual report says the rise was driven by reactions to violence in Israel and Gaza
“It is possible that the loosening of Covid restrictions, coinciding with the war in Israel and Gaza – a subject that triggers strong emotional responses – provided people with a potential release from months of lockdown-induced frustration,” the charity said.
More than a third of all anti-Semitic incidents in 2021 were linked to the conflict in the Middle East, or demonstrated anti-Zionist motivation alongside anti-Semitism, the charity said.
Tuition-free community college — a Biden campaign promise – broken
A reason for Germany’s non-belligerent position I have referred to earlier Nord Stream energy supply. Germany is 55% dependent upon Russia.
Now, we have the USA issuing threats against Germany.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-60292437
Speaking after talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz Biden said the US would “bring an end” to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
“I promise you we will be able to do it.”How exactly?
Trump’s switching political position
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Donald_Trump
He is an opportunist, jumping about for his own personal benefit.
Sinema was former Green Party, from radical to conservative
Sanders was technically not Democratic but Independent
Analysis of 2020 media coverage indicated that the Lincoln Project had a minimum influence on the Republican base.
I always watch their excellent videos on You Tube
The anti-vaxxer truckers in Canada
68% of Canadians felt they had “very little in common” with the protesters, compared to 32% that said they had “a lot in common”
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-60293407
Scratch the surface, though, and you can quickly find more extreme views and misinformation like that shared by the convoy’s organiser Pat King discussing a plot for a “depopulation of the Caucasian race… the ones with the strongest bloodlines”.
ALB, once again you assert that it is only a ‘small loony wing’ within the Republican Party.
I suggest otherwise and in fact, think it is Trump who is following his supporters’ beliefs, not instigating their views.
Liz Cheney, by no means a liberal-conservative, gets reprimanded by her Republican National Committee for serving on the Jan 6 Inquiry Committee.
Fox had a survey that tries to identify the political loyalties of the Republicans.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-pollster-republican-party-five-tribes
Only 15% of Republicans are die-hard anti-Trumpers.
There is a more complicated and complex analysis to be studied. It goes all the way back to the Democratic Party primaries and the selection of Biden as the supposed moderate deal-maker and Sanders as the intransigent extremist.
We know why the Democratic Party voters will desert Biden. He has not accomplished the election promises he made. He has distanced himself from his electors.Yes, you are right when you say “voting Democrat to keep the Republicans out and Republican to keep the Democrats out.”
It is that politics that I keep referring to as increasing polarisation. There is a fundamental chasm in political perspective between them. Their respective opinions on BLM and Jan 6 is an indicator.
It goes further, though, to CRT and race, immigration, book censorship, transgender, climate change denialism, anti-vax, and a host of other political triggers, State rights V. Big Government.
But it is not about what we would call the floating voters here in the UK, the fence-sitters, but deeply ideological differences.
It is not scare-mongering to corral voters into capturing votes as if they share the same or a similar outlook.
My hope is that economic necessity and the revival of unions and workers resistance will grow more prominent in the political scene and act as a unifier and lessen the influence of identity politics. And there are some signs that it is happening.
No, I am not always the pessimist glass-half-empty person. Sometimes I do see the fork in the road and the light at the end of the tunnel.
You may dismiss it as simply anecdotal, ALB, but it backs up the more formal findings I cited previously in an earlier post that was not speculation but a study.
While the majority in the Democratic Party can be described as Corporate Democrats, its small Left progressive wing proved to be ineffective despite the media headlines they make.
This is not how the Republicans view the situation. They hold a very warped vision of what is happening in the USA.
I thought what I believe to be a cross-section of conservative opinion reflected that.
The polarisation of politics is extreme and growing wider.
The populist sentiment is prevalent.
You say it is fringe elements, I argue it is the core.
Future events will demonstrate who is the more correct. The 2022 Midterms are not that far off and will indicate the trend.
