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Arizona State Senate Passes ‘Defend the Guard Act’ | The Libertarian Institute

Posted by M. C. on March 23, 2023

When has the National Guard actually defended US?

No chance of Kelly and Casey supporting a national bill.

https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/arizona-state-senate-passes-defend-the-guard-act/

by Michael Maharrey

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[Yesterday], the Arizona Senate narrowly passed the Defend the Guard Act, a bill to require the governor to stop unconstitutional foreign combat deployments of the state’s National Guard troops. Passage into law would take a big step toward restoring the founders’ framework for a state-federal balance under the Constitution.

Sen. Wendy Rogers (R) and three fellow Republicans introduced Senate Bill 1367 (SB1367) on January 31. Titled the Defend the Guard Act, the legislation would prohibit the governor from releasing any unit or member of the Arizona National Guard into “active duty combat” unless specific constitutional requirements are met:

The United States Congress passes an official declaration of war or takes an official action pursuant to article I, section 8, clause 15, United States Constitution, that calls on the National Guard to expressly execute the laws of the union, repel an invasion or suppress an insurrection.

“Active duty combat” is defined as performing the following services in the active federal military service of the United States:

  • Participation in an armed conflict;
  • Performance of a hazardous service in a foreign state; or
  • Performance of a duty through an instrumentality of war.

“Official declaration of war” is defined as “an official declaration of war made by the United States Congress pursuant to Article I, Section 8, Clause 11 of the United States Constitution.”

Last month, the Senate Military Affairs and Public Safety Committee approved the Arizona Defend the Guard Act by a vote of 4-3. On March 6, the Senate Rules committee also passed SB1367 by a 4-3 vote. Today, the full Senate approved SB1367 by a vote of 16-13-1.

In Practice

National Guard troops have played significant roles in all modern overseas conflicts, with over 650,000 deployed since 2001. Military.com reports that “Guard and Reserve units made up about 45 percent of the total force sent to Iraq and Afghanistan, and received about 18.4 percent of the casualties.” More specifically, Arizona National Guard troops have participated in missions in Iraq, Afghanistan and other countries.

Since none of these missions have been accompanied by a Constitutional declaration of war, nor were they in pursuance of any of the three conditions set forth in Article 1 Sec. 8, the Defend the Guard Act would have prohibited those deployments.

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Dailywire Article-Cruz Ridicules Buttigieg At Train Derailment Hearing

Posted by M. C. on March 23, 2023

An Iraqi burn pit in Ohio. Dept of education, defense, justice, drug enforcement, homeland security, TSA….more burn pits.

https://www.dailywire.com/news/cruz-ridicules-buttigieg-at-train-derailment-hearing

By  Daniel Chaitin

Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas and ranking member of Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, speaks during a hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, March 22, 2023.
(Anna Rose Layden/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) used a congressional hearing on Wednesday to air criticisms of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg‘s response to the Norfolk Southern train derailment disaster in East Palestine, Ohio, early last month.

The Texas Republican argued how a “delayed and disjointed response by the Biden administration” has not allayed the concerns of local residents terrified by the health and environmental threats posed by the so-called controlled burn of toxic chemicals that spilled out of tanker cars.

“It took Secretary Buttigieg 10 days to even acknowledge the derailment,” Cruz said. “After he was called out, he did a 180 and tried to sell a slew of big government regulatory proposals, desperate to disguise the failure of the administration to act sooner.”

Blunders followed, according to Cruz, who cited the secretary’s mention of a particular withdrawn brake rule as an example of why the Transportation Department faced “constraints.” Illustrating the problem with that comment, Cruz pointed out, was that the Biden administration’s own chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board, Jennifer Homendy, had to then go and explain how it was “FALSE” to say it would have prevented the East Palestine derailment.

“Undeterred, Secretary Buttigieg then released a laundry list of regulatory proposals, many of which had little to no connection to the East Palestine derailment,” Cruz added.

“In an effort to further distract from his own failed response, Secretary Buttigieg has suggested that President Trump was responsible for the derailment in East Palestine,” the senator said.

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Seymour Hersh: CIA Planted Nord Stream Cover-Up Story in the Media – News From Antiwar.com

Posted by M. C. on March 23, 2023

https://news.antiwar.com/2023/03/22/seymour-hersh-cia-planted-nord-stream-cover-up-story-in-the-media/

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US Officials Really, REALLY Want You To Know The US Is The World’s “Leader”

Posted by M. C. on March 23, 2023

The message they’re putting out is, “This is our world. We’re in charge. Anyone who claims otherwise is freakish and abnormal, and must be opposed.”

https://open.substack.com/pub/caitlinjohnstone/p/us-officials-really-really-want-you?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android

Caitlin Johnstone

In response to questions he received during a press conference on Monday about Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin cementing a “new era” in strategic partnership between China and Russia, the White House National Security Council’s John Kirby made no fewer than seven assertions that the US is the “leader” of the world.

Here are excerpts from his comments:

  • “The two countries have grown closer. But they are both countries that chafe and bristle at U.S. leadership around the world.”
  • “And in China’s case in particular, they certainly would like to challenge U.S. leadership around the world.“
  • “But these are not two countries that have, you know, decades-long experience working together and full trust and confidence. It’s a burgeoning of late based on America’s increasing leadership around the world and trying to check that.”
  • “Peter, these are two countries that have long chafed, as I said to Jeff — long chafed at U.S. leadership around the world and the network of alliances and partnerships that we have.”
  • “And we work on those relationships one at a time, because every country on the continent is different, has different needs and different expectations of American leadership.”
  • “That’s the power of American convening leadership. And you don’t see that power out of either Russia or China.”
  • “But one of the reasons why you’re seeing that tightening relationship is because they recognize that they don’t have that strong foundation of international support for what they’re trying to do, which is basically challenge American leadership around the world.”

Caitlin Johnstone @caitoz

John Kirby really wants everyone to know that America is in charge of the world. This is from one single press conference.

11:17 PM ∙ Mar 21, 2023

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The illusory truth effect is a cognitive bias which causes people to mistake something they have heard many times for an established fact, because the way the human brain receives and interprets information tends to draw little or no distinction between repetition and truth. Propagandists and empire managers often take advantage of this glitch in our wetware, which is what’s happening when you see them repeating key phrases over and over again that they want people to believe.

We saw another repetition of this line recently at an online conference hosted by the US Chamber of Commerce, in which the US ambassador to China asserted that Beijing must accept the US as the “leader” of the region China happens to occupy. 

US empire managers are of course getting very assertive about the narrative that they are the world’s “leader” because that self-appointed “leadership” is being challenged by China, and the nations which support it with increasing openness like Russia. Most of the major international news stories of our day are either directly or indirectly related to this dynamic, wherein the US is struggling to secure unipolar planetary domination by thwarting China’s rise and undermining its partners.

The message they’re putting out is, “This is our world. We’re in charge.

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Washington Keeps Pushing For New “Wonder Weapons” To Ukraine — Desperation?

Posted by M. C. on March 23, 2023

https://rumble.com/v2ebs54-washington-keeps-pushing-for-new-wonder-weapons-to-ukraine-desperation.html

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UK to Give Ukraine Depleted Uranium Shells Despite Russian Warnings – News From Antiwar.com

Posted by M. C. on March 23, 2023

Russia’s defense minister says the move brings the world closer to a ‘nuclear collision,’ Putin vows to respond

Because depleted uranium munitions are radioactive, they are linked to cancer and birth defects, especially in Iraq, where US forces used an enormous number of the controversial munitions during the Gulf War and the 2003 invasion. Birth defects are still common in the Iraqi city of Fallujah to this day, likely due to depleted uranium.

Wonder what the next generation’s children will look like?

https://news.antiwar.com/2023/03/21/uk-to-give-ukraine-depleted-uranium-shells-despite-russian-warnings/

A British official has confirmed that the UK will be providing Ukraine with depleted uranium shells to be used with the British-made Challenger 2 tanks despite warnings from Russia that it would consider the use of the toxic ammunition the same as a dirty bomb.

“Alongside our granting of a squadron of Challenger 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine, we will be providing ammunition including armor piercing rounds which contain depleted uranium. Such rounds are highly effective in defeating modern tanks and armored vehicles,” said Annabel Goldie, the British deputy defense minister, in a written response to a question posted on the British Parliament’s website.

Depleted uranium is typically created as a byproduct of producing enriched uranium and is extremely dense. Because depleted uranium munitions are radioactive, they are linked to cancer and birth defects, especially in Iraq, where US forces used an enormous number of the controversial munitions during the Gulf War and the 2003 invasion. Birth defects are still common in the Iraqi city of Fallujah to this day, likely due to depleted uranium.

Responding to the news, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu warned that sending Ukraine depleted uranium rounds brings the world closer to a “nuclear collision” between Russia and the West and warned Moscow would respond. “Naturally, Russia has something to answer this with,” he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin also vowed a response. “If all this happens, Russia will have to respond accordingly, given that the West collectively is already beginning to use weapons with a nuclear component,” he said after a summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Moscow.

Western-provided depleted uranium rounds could already be in Ukraine’s hands as the US has refused to say if the Bradley Fighting Vehicles it has provided Ukraine are armed with the toxic ammunition. Bradleys can be equipped with depleted uranium, earning them the nickname “tank killers.”

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John Bolton’s Prominence In The Media Proves Our Entire Society Is Diseased

Posted by M. C. on March 22, 2023

Bolton sets himself apart from his fellow Iraq war architects by arguing that the actual invasion and overthrow of Saddam Hussein “was close to flawless,” and that the only thing the US did wrong was fail to kill more people and topple the government of Iran.

https://open.substack.com/pub/caitlinjohnstone/p/john-boltons-prominence-in-the-media?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android

Caitlin Johnstone

In order to narrative-manage the public conversation about the Iraq War on the 20th anniversary of the invasion, those who helped unleash that horror upon our world have briefly paused their relentless torrent of “Ukraine proves the hawks were always right” takes to churn out a deluge of “Actually the Iraq War wasn’t based on lies and turned out pretty great after all” takes.

Council on Foreign Relations chief Richard Haas — who worked in the US State Department under Colin Powell when Bush launched his criminal invasion — got a piece published in Project Syndicate falsely claiming that the US government and his former boss did not lie about weapons of mass destruction, and that “governments can and do get things wrong without lying.”

Former Bush speechwriter David “Axis of Evil” Frum cooked up a lie-filled spin piece with The Atlantic claiming that “What the U.S. did in Iraq was not an act of unprovoked aggression” and suggesting that perhaps Iraqis are better off as a result of the invasion, or at least no worse off than they would otherwise have been.

Neoconservative war propagandist Eli Lake, who has been described by journalist Ken Silverstein as “an open and ardent promoter of the Iraq War and the various myths trotted out to justify it,” has an essay published in Commentary with the extraordinary claim that the war “wasn’t the disaster everyone now says it was” and that “Iraq is better off today than it was 20 years ago.”

But by far the most appalling piece of revisionist war crime apologia that’s come out during the 20th anniversary of the invasion has been an article published in National Review by the genocide walrus himself, John Bolton.

John Bolton @AmbJohnBolton

Lumping everything together as “Iraq War” critics do is a disservice to the careful analysis of what America accomplished, or didn’t. It is not one indivisible, 20-year-long block of granite that can be judged only all or nothing. In fact, the brunt of nationalreview.com/magazine/2023/…… https://t.co/964nxyKhS3

5:08 PM ∙ Mar 17, 2023

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Bolton sets himself apart from his fellow Iraq war architects by arguing that the actual invasion and overthrow of Saddam Hussein “was close to flawless,” and that the only thing the US did wrong was fail to kill more people and topple the government of Iran.

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Nazi Roots of EU’s Führer Ursula von der Leyen — Strategic Culture

Posted by M. C. on March 22, 2023

At the end of 2019, she was appointed President of the European Commission, the top political post in the European Union. This was done without a vote from the German parliament such was the lack of confidence in her eligibility.

If you were wondering why Nazi militias get free rein in Ukraine…

https://strategic-culture.org/news/2023/03/20/nazi-roots-of-eu-fuhrer-ursula-von-der-leyen/

Finian Cunningham

Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, has some disturbing skeletons in her family wardrobe.

Her political roots in Nazi Germany account for the insane war-driven agenda of the European Union toward Russia under her stewardship and her total subservience to the U.S. imperialist objective to defeat Moscow.

Author Evan Reif explains how her politician-father Ernst Albrecht packed his regional government with unreconstructed Nazis and former Wehrmacht officers when he was governor of Lower Saxony in the 1980s.

Ursula von der Leyen’s family derived much of its industrial wealth from working closely with Hitler’s Third Reich. Her aristocratic family was also married into slave-owning cotton planters in the American South.

That legacy of inherited wealth not only benefited Ursula’s elite education but also her precocious rise in German politics. She became the German defense minister from 2013-2019 despite having no formal background in the military. Under her watch, the German army was massively rearmed and she also became mired in corruption scandals.

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Arresting Putin – Or Arresting All-Out Western Public Revolt? — Strategic Culture

Posted by M. C. on March 22, 2023

The Kiev regime has been shelling the Donbass for nine years since the CIA coup brought to power this fascist junta. NATO trained the Azov Battalion and other Waffen SS-style paramilitaries which are firing U.S.-supplied HIMARS rockets with the help of American, British, French, German, Canadian, and Polish mercenaries.

https://strategic-culture.org/news/2023/03/18/arresting-putin-or-arresting-all-out-western-public-revolt/

Finian Cunningham

If there were any genuine principles of justice, Biden should be in the dock facing war crime charges in connection with America’s illegal wars.

Western propaganda outlets (also known as “news media”) are suddenly full of reports that The Hague-based International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin. The over-the-top coverage (that is, orchestration) is intended to give the ridiculous legal ploy an impression of gravitas and significance when in reality the so-called arrest warrant is meaningless and oozes with kitsch politicized theater.

Along with Putin, the Russian Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova is also named as a wanted person to face “war crimes” prosecution. The alleged crimes are in connection with the supposed deportation of children to Russia during Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine conducted since February 2022.

The basis for the ICC move is as flimsy as an errant weather balloon. It is also an audacious distortion of reality. Russia has evacuated thousands of civilians, including children, from the regions formerly of eastern Ukraine that are now part of the Russian Federation for the precise reason of taking them out of harm’s way from the NATO-backed Nazi regime in Kiev whose forces have been indiscriminately shelling the Donbass and other areas.Ukraine

If anyone should be facing prosecution for war crimes it is Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky and his Nazi-adulating commanders, as well as their sponsors: American, European, and NATO leaders.

The Kiev regime has been shelling the Donbass for nine years since the CIA coup brought to power this fascist junta. NATO trained the Azov Battalion and other Waffen SS-style paramilitaries which are firing U.S.-supplied HIMARS rockets with the help of American, British, French, German, Canadian, and Polish mercenaries. Russia intervened in Ukraine last year to put an end to the genocide that Washington and Europe along with their Western media are complicit in. Not a word of this is reported in so-called bastions of journalism, the New York Times and BBC. They’re too busy selling propaganda about the ICC and Russia.

Is this the best case that the ICC and its Western handlers can really find against Russia? Kidnapping children? What about all the other allegations about Russia shelling apartment blocks and civilians? If there were any truth to these widely peddled claims in Western media then why haven’t those allegations been cited for prosecution? They haven’t because there is so little evidence. In fact, the NATO-backed Kiev regime is guilty of using apartment blocks and civilian human shields. Hence, the fallback on an emotively appealing issue of alleged child kidnapping. The cringe-worthy sense alone tells you it is a fit-up.

But the tenuousness of it all only makes the Western claims and the ICC look even more absurd than they already do.

In any case, the ICC has no jurisdiction over Russia, so the arrest warrants are dead letters. They’re not meant to be taken seriously anyway. This is all political theater aimed at smearing Moscow.

Neither has the court jurisdiction over the United States. Just as well, it might be said, because if there were any genuine principles of justice, U.S. President Joe Biden should be in the dock facing multiple war crime charges in connection with America’s illegal wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, and Yemen among other countries.

On more recent crimes, Biden and his NATO crime partners should be in dock over the blowing up of the Nord Stream gas pipelines.

Or for sponsoring and weaponizing the Israeli regime’s renewed war crimes against Palestinians.

Or for persecuting and torturing publisher Julian Assange because he dared to reveal the truth about American and British war crimes.

The astounding hypocrisy and double standards are another proof – if such proof were needed – that the latest ICC maneuver against Russia is a cheap political stunt to bolster badly needed authority for the United States and its Western minions.

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Of Two Minds – We’ve Forgotten That Business-Cycle Recessions Are Essential

Posted by M. C. on March 22, 2023

https://www.oftwominds.com/blogmar23/recessions-essential3-23.html

Charles Hugh Smith

A stagnating zombie economy never recovers.

Four decades of rising markets punctuated by crisis-induced crashes seems to have fostered an unspoken belief that no one should ever get hurt in markets or the economy. Everything “should” always get better for everyone, without any messy loss or pain. Not only is this not realistic, it overlooks the role business-cycle recessions play in restoring the vibrancy of economies and markets distorted by excesses.

The global economy has been plagued by excessively easy financial conditions for 25 years, and so a vast array of marginal and superfluous activity was funded that would never have been funded in more prudent financial conditions. Too many marginal structures were built and too many marginal enterprises and ventures were funded.

As a result, we ended up with too many malls, too much retail space, too many office towers and too many empty houses and flats being kept off the long-term rental market so the investor/owners could feast on the riches of the short-term tourist rental market (AirBnB et al.), a market that is now starting to implode as cities ban or restrict these rentals.

Throw in marginal IPOs, SPACs and meme-stock manias, and we have a Mulligan Stew of excessive risk-taking. When money can be borrowed at near-zero rates, and “opportunities” for quick gains proliferate (FTX, etc.), excessive borrowing and speculation become “the smart thing to do.” In this mindset of raging “animal spirits,” only chumps hesitate to borrow big and chase some of the easy gains filling everyone’s pockets.

Everyone who staked capital or a livelihood in these marginal assets / enterprises will get hurt. Everyone who bought a bond that yields 1% as rates rise to 4% got hurt. Everyone counting on nearly free capital to flow forever will get hurt. Everyone chasing a speculative bubble higher will get hurt. Everyone counting on a greater fool to buy an overvalued asset will get hurt, as all credit-fueled asset bubbles pop and all credit-fueled business-cycle expansions roll over into contraction as marginal borrowers and lenders go bust and enterprises without profits or prospects of profits expire.

The forest fire analogy applies: the occasional lightning-strike ignited fire burns away the deadwood that’s collected, enabling new growth to obtain nutrients and sunlight. If authorities suppress these naturally occurring fires out of the mistaken belief that “all fires are bad,” the deadwood piles up and when a fire inevitably starts, it turns into a massive conflagration due to the excessive deadwood that piled up during the suppression of natural fires / recessions.

Another useful analogy is the Zombie Economy in which households, enterprises and entities that cannot survive without continual fresh injections of new borrowing are kept alive lest “somebody will get hurt” (usually gamblers and speculators, i.e. “shareholders.” After all, markets should be risk-free.).

As a result, debt-dependent Zombies proliferate, crowding out productive lending and investment. The Great Stagnation is the inevitable result of zombie banks being kept alive, zombie corporations being kept alive and zombie consumers being given more credit to enable more consumption.

In speculative frenzies fueled by easy money, the difference between prudent investments and high-risk gambles is obscured. Gains have been so steady that they appear guaranteed. Every new vacation rental flat is filled with guests paying top dollar, every meme stock soars to previously unimaginable heights, and so on.

Eventually the market is saturated, and there’s too much of everything: debt, risk, condo towers, strip malls, SPACs, IPOs, shared office spaces, etc.

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