Taking the Measure of Trump's Foreign Policy

Grading Trump on Foreign Policy 

by Jeremy Kuzmarov - Covert Action Magazine (CAM)

 

December 30, 2020

 

On foreign policy, Trump’s legacy is just as bad as in every other area.

 

Donald Trump visits a tank production facility in Ohio in 2019. 

[Source: vanityfair.com] 

 

By any objective measure, Donald Trump has been one of the worst presidents in American history. His administration exacerbated inequalities, fomented social divisions, encouraged nativist and white supremacist groups, gutted environmental protections, mishandled the Covid-19 crisis, and tarnished the office of the presidency in a way that no president ever has or probably ever will.  

 

Fearing Jenin, Jenin: Why Israel Banned Telling Documentary

Fearing the Palestinian Narrative: Why Israel Banned ‘Jenin Jenin’ 

by Ramzy Baroud - CounterPunch

 

January 22, 2021

On January 11, the Israeli Lod District Court ruled against a Palestinian film-maker, Mahmoud Bakri, ordering him to pay hefty compensation to an Israeli soldier who was accused, along with the Israeli military, of carrying out war crimes in April 2002, in the Palestinian Jenin refugee camp located in the northern occupied West Bank. 

 

Photograph Source: IDF Spokesperson’s Unit – CC BY 2.0

The case, as presented by Israeli and other media, seemed to deal with typical legal matters such as defamation of character and so on. To those familiar with the massive clash of narratives which emanated from that singular event, known to Palestinians as the ‘Jenin Massacre’, the Israeli court verdict is not only political but historical and intellectual, as well. 

 

Simpering, Simplistic and Inane: Media Presents Biden Era Coverage Template

“Here Are the Superheroes To Come and Save Us”: Media Waste No Time Fawning Over Biden

by Alan Macleod - MintPress News

 

January 21, 2021

The same media that behaved as attack dogs against Trump for four years (unless he was carrying out aggressive actions abroad) are likely to turn into lap dogs now that there is a Democrat in the White House.

We rely on the media to hold the powerful to account. But in its first hours in office, the corporate press has celebrated, rather than challenged, the new Biden administration.

Biden in Black and White

The Biden administration: Illusion and reality

by Niles Niemuth - WSWS

 

January 21, 2021

There is an intense effort in the Democratic Party-aligned media to present the inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris as a fundamental turning point in American politics.

 

No doubt there is immense relief among millions in the US and around the world to see the fascist Trump leave Washington, two weeks after he spurred on an insurrection aimed at stopping the congressional certification of Biden’s victory.
But with the transfer of the White House from the Republicans to the Democrats, it is necessary to counter illusions about what this government will or even can do.

 

Poisoned Justice: State Secrets Conceal State Lies in Swedish Court (Again)

SWEDISH LABORATORY, STOCKHOLM COURT CONFIRM ALEXEI NAVALNY PREPARED NATO SECRETS, ADDING EVIDENCE FOR TREASON INDICTMENT IN RUSSIAN COURT

by John Helmer - Dances with Bears

 

January 20, 2021

 

A ruling by the Administrative Court of Appeal in Stockholm last week to keep the biochemical contents of Alexei Navalny’s blood secret has created new evidence for Russian prosecutors in Moscow that Navalny has actively collaborated with foreign governments to fabricate the  allegation that President Vladimir Putin attempted to kill him with a Novichok nerve agent.

 

Responding to a request by Mats Nilsson, a Stockholm lawyer, the appeal court ruled that a multi-page report on Navalny’s blood sampling and testing by the Swedish Defence Research Agency (FOI) and communications interpreting Navalny’s blood contents between Swedish analysts, the German Defence Ministry,  and other NATO officials, are state secrets. They cannot be released publicly, the court wrote Nilsson on January 14, because declassification and publication “will damage Sweden’s relationships with a foreign power”. 

 

Media Tries Hanging Covid on China: "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?"

Corporate Media’s Leaked Chinese Documents Confirm China Didn’t Hide Covid-19

by Joshua Cho - FAIR

January 20, 2021

Several reports on China’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic came out late last year, based on what US outlets like CNN, the New York Times and ProPublica claimed to be leaked Chinese documents. 

Although these reports implied that China was responsible for how bad the pandemic has been because of its downplaying of numbers and censoring of critical information, these narratives are themselves misleading in several ways.

 

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Dimitri Lascaris, M.V. Ramana January 21st, 2021

This Week on GR

by C. L. Cook - Gorilla-Radio.com

 

January 21, 2021

Welcome back to Gorilla Radio’s Home Edition, recorded on the dates, January 18/19th, 2021.

 

And Happy Martin Luther King Day to all who admire the man murdered for opposing the military-industrial complex. Today, almost fifty-three years after that tragic event, Canada is intent on following full-heel America’s lead deeper into the Big Muddy of forever war and preparation for war. 

In the House of Commons, despite pleas for sanity from the commonality, all parties there agree on the course charted by militarists and empire builders. 

Nowhere is this sad fact more egregiously demonstrated than in the Canadian government’s determination to sink billions into a new generation of war ships that will, in part, conduct “freedom of navigation” exercises meant to “counter China’s growing influence in Asia.” 

Listen. Hear.

Dimitri Lascaris is a Montreal-based activist lawyer/journalist, past Real News Network correspondent, Green Party of Canada member, and very nearly its leader, falling just short of taking the job after eight ballots in last Fall’s leadership contest.

 

Dimitri Lascaris in the first half.

And; last November, Minister of Natural Resources Seamus O’Regan announced the federal government’s action plan for Small Modular Reactors. The ministers says in a time of climate change, he sees no way to “get to net zero-carbon emissions by 2050 without nuclear power.” While that’s a hotly debated opinion, no-one doubts the down-sides of atomic power: cost, pollution, and the dangers of reactor meltdowns as seen in Chernobyl and Fukushima.

 Professor M. V. Ramana serves as the Simons Chair in Disarmament, Global and Human Security. He is too Director of the Liu Institute for Global Issues at the School of Public Policy and Global Affairs at UBC. His recent article, ‘Why the Liberals’ Nuclear Power Plan is a Pipe Dream‘ warns, “small” does not make Modular Reactors less nuclear.

M.V. Ramana and nipping Canada’s nuclear reactor renaissance in the bud in the second half.

 

But first, Dimitri Lascaris and halting Canada’s march into the mire of endless warfare.

 

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Thursday between 11-Noon Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: https://cfuv.ca. He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.ca/

 

Inheriting the Whirlwind: Charting Biden's Course into the Gyre

The Rubble of Empire: Doctrines of Disaster and Dreams of Security as the Biden Years Begin

by Rebecca Gordon - TomDispatch

 

January 19, 2021

How can you tell when your empire is crumbling? Some signs are actually visible from my own front window here in San Francisco.

Directly across the street, I can see a collection of tarps and poles (along with one of my own garbage cans) that were used to construct a makeshift home on the sidewalk. Beside that edifice stands a wooden cross decorated with a string of white Christmas lights and a red ribbon — a memorial to the woman who built that structure and died inside it earlier this week. We don’t know — and probably never will — what killed her: the pandemic raging across California? A heart attack? An overdose of heroin or fentanyl?

 

The Squad Hies Right: Closing the Democrat's Door on Progressive Left Hopes

The Obama-fication of "The Squad" Strengthens the Right at the Expense of the Left

by Danny Haiphong - Black Agenda Report (BAR)

January 13, 2021

The so-called ‘progressive” model would have us wait half a dozen election cycles before taking real action on the demand for Medicare for All and a Green New Deal.

 

Not one member of “the Squad” withheld their vote for Pelosi 

or made the demand of a floor vote for Medicare for All

 

“Black Americans had grown more economically optimistic and pro-U.S. intervention than ever before by the end of Obama’s first presidential term.” 

 

"Left" Media Picking-Up Pentagon Propaganda

Why is the Guardian Promoting More Pentagon Propaganda?

by Dimitri Lascaris

December 19, 2020

Britain’s leading ‘’centre-left’ newspaper just offered us a textbook example of the liberal media’s embrace of Pentagon propaganda.

Sailors observe the USS Nimitz and USS Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Groups 

steam in formation as the Nimitz Carrier Strike Force (CSF) in the South China Sea. 

Photo by 3rd Class Dalton Reidhead/Flickr. 

 

In an article entitled “US Navy to adopt ‘more assertive posture’ against China and Russia,” the Guardian reports that the U.S. Marine Corps, Navy and Coast Guard have declared their intention to “accept calculated tactical risks and adopt a more assertive posture” toward Chinese and Russian naval forces.