alanjjohnstone
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The side-effect of the anti-abortion laws on IVF treatment.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/jul/16/ivf-anti-abortion-states-embryos-personhood
A million UK chickens ‘die needlessly each week to keep prices low’
War criminal Blair warns of Chinese ‘threat’
Half of Americans believe there will be another US civil war in their lifetime and that the country will cease to be a democracy at some point
33% of Trump voters in so-called red states say they’d personally fare better if their state “became an independent country,” according to a Yahoo/YouGov poll released on Friday. That compared with 29% who believe they’d be “worse off” after secession. The remaining 38% are either unsure or see themselves faring “about the same” in a newly independent state.
92% of red-state Trump voters trust their state government more than the federal government to do “what’s best,”https://www.rt.com/news/559080-trump-voters-favor-secession-poll/
Biden’s Middle East policy same as Trump’s
Noam Chomsky: Biden’s Middle East Trip Contains Echoes of Trump’s Policies
So much for Chomsky’s vote for the lesser evil
Normal life in Russia. Another sign of a long war.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/7/15/what-happened-to-russias-anti-war-movement
Russians are getting used to living under sanctions and new restrictions set by their own government, such as losing access to social media. The economy has stayed stable so far, disappointing those who may have hoped growing discomfort would lead to angry masses rising up.
But anti-war activity goes on. More than 16,000 Russians have been arrested for anti-war actions since February.At least 14 military recruitment offices have been set on fire since the war began.
It is not just the South China Sea that the Chinese government wants, but according to NASA chief, it is the Moon.
In an interview with a German newspaper, Bild, he cautioned, “We must be very concerned that China is landing on the Moon and saying: ‘It’s ours now and you stay out.’”
The Russian terms for peace?
A top Russian official has said Ukraine must accept the “territorial realities” of the situation in order to resume peace negotiations with Moscow, Reuters reports.
Kyiv must provide a clear response to Moscow’s proposals that Ukraine accepts “non-aligned” and “non-nuclear” status in order to strike a peace deal, Russian deputy foreign minister Andrey Rudenko was cited as saying.
Ukraine must also recognise Russia’s control over Crimea and the status of the pro-Russian self-proclaimed “people’s republics” in Donetsk and Luhansk
Putin has signed into law tougher measures for individuals or entities considered “foreign agents” by Russia, as well as a new law equating defection with high treason.
The new bill, which will come into force on 1 December, will broaden the definition of “foreign agents” to anyone deemed to have fallen “under foreign influence” or receiving support from abroad – not just foreign money.
Putin also signed off on a bill introducing prison terms of up to seven years for calls to act against national security, as well as a law which expands criminal liability for defection to the side of an enemy during combat to high treason.
The Russian leader also signed a law allowing the government to introduce special economic measures to support the Russian armed forces during “counter-terrorism and other operations” outside the country.
An article on the role of Western media.
Both sides are engaged in a propaganda war and both are involvedfalse reporting.
However, the difference is that we are not exposed to Russia’s loaded message and the Russian population does not receive the West’s news outlets. There exists a separate reality for people.
Our forum discussions are irrelevant and insignificant and our blog-posts and the articles in the Socialist Standard are invisible.
But what else can we do?
We can only clarify the situation for ourselves as events take place.
Chris Hedges on NATO
“It is quite a record for a military alliance that with the collapse of the Soviet Union was rendered obsolete and should have been dismantled. NATO and the militarists had no intention of embracing the “peace dividend,” fostering a world based on diplomacy, a respect of spheres of influence and mutual cooperation. It was determined to stay in business. Its business is war. That meant expanding its war machine far beyond the border of Europe”
https://www.alternet.org/2022/07/nato-most-dangerous-military-alliance/
Also see this
Again we were presented with just the anti-Russian story but this explains more about the grain being blocked
“Hundreds of mines were dropped in the Black Sea by both sides. Ukraine has refused to demine the area out of fear that Russia might then stage an amphibious assault on cities.”
But now some sort of deal can be achieved
https://www.dw.com/en/ukraine-russia-near-deal-on-grain-exports-says-un/a-62463430
I was referring to the link provided by ALB
Ukrainian official behind Western media reports of Russian atrocities fired by Ukrainian parliament
Also to note the Ukrainian ambassador to Germany has been relieved of duties.
ALB has other posts about the crack-down on internal dissent in Ukraine to ensure that pro-Russian views are suppressed.
>>>Chomsky implies that the best thing for Ukraine to do is to let another state decide its internal affairs in order to avoid Ukrainian suffering. Should this be applied to internal politics as well?
For ourselves, yes it does. The situation of fellow workers in any country is the concern of ourselves as world socialists.
In another aspect, shouldn’t the pandemic have been the responsibility of non-national institutions such as WHO? Shouldn’t the strategies for tackling climate change be outside national politics?
No, you aren’t coming across as hostile. You have been very civil in posing your questions.
I for one won’t claim to have all the answers. But the latest news that Ukraine will not cede any territory in any peace deal is depressing for me.
“Rather than seek an end to the war at the likely expense of territorial concessions to Russia, top Ukrainian officials insisted this week that they can stop Moscow‘s advance. They said their army is capable of a significant counteroffensive to push Russian troops out of Mariupol, Kherson and other captured cities.”Does that also include Crimea and the already seceded regions? No international border is sancrosanct.
I have been very critical of Hezbullah whose reason to exist as a separate military is their claim that the Shebaa Farms district, several sq miles, is still under occupation and thus justifies them as a national liberation militia.
