Category Archives: Syndicate Red Brown Green

Moscow -The Terror – With One Reservation

14 Wednesday Sep 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Politics, Syndicate Red Brown Green

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Posted to YouTube by France 24 English, Sept. 14, 2016.

Anything is possible — for that, catch up with what lends itself to scrutiny on Snopes — but what is probable: Could there be a Russian connection to al-Qaeda today?

“It is not fashionable to accuse the Russians of having any ties to Middle East terrorism today. Indeed, some conservatives seem to think the U.S. and Russia can work together to defeat radical Islam.

“The analyst and author Jeff Nyquist asks, “When we learn that a leading commander in ISIL was born in the Soviet Union and trained in Russia, we ought to wonder what is really going on?” Omar al-Shishani, the Russian commander in ISIL (also known as ISIS or the Islamic State), has been reported to be the group’s overall military chief.”  — Cliff Kincaid, Accuracy in Media, September 30, 2014.

Why would post-Soviet Russia continue its involvement with terrorist organizations?

To promote “political absolutism” — AKA “dictatorship” — worldwide; To weaken European Union and NATO cohesion and resolve.

How might Russia today use “the terrorists”?

By creating a problem only the “strong man” might resolve.

This time around, it may not be the cause of the terrorist that Moscow supports but rather the reaction to the same.  In essence, every “Allahu Akbar Attack” promotes a patriotic and nationalist response in the receiving state.  Every injured body politics swells with the insult to its security — and then it may take stronger measures to forestall the next.  There may be an opposite heightened response as well from the feely-touchy sort that gamely adopt the sympathetic position and become a part of the heightened Far Left.  The division created by “what to do?” then serves Moscow in its renewed existence as a medieval enterprise.

Applicable reference on this blog: “Syndicate Red Brown Green“; “FTAC – America’s Division Leans Toward Moscow“.

How many years of accumulated experience has Russia in these methods?

From the Soviet Era and NKVD forward: about 80 years experience using violence as a part of producing a Political Theater of the Real, which might be better thought of as medieval spectacle and tableaux.

Basis for this view?

Mikhail Bogdanov’s November 2014 meeting with PFLP in Moscow shortly before a PFLP attack on a Jerusalem synagogue.

Moscow’s refusal to designate either Hamas or Hezbollah as terrorist organizations plus evidence of direct Russian military support for Hezbollah operations in Syria.

Soviet Era Moscow’s exploitation of violence and terror in its own political expansion and long history as a state sponsor of terrorism.

Taras Kuzio’s analysis in “Is Russia a State Sponsor of Terrorism?” (New Eastern Europe, January 22, 2015) may bring readers up to speed on how it is that Iran is today a U. S. State Department designated state sponsor of terrorism and Russia is not.

Realpolitik – Work With Moscow or Confront and Resist?

That’s a tough question for BackChannels.

The democratic open societies of the west may be obligated to confront aggressive dictatorships but by using the broad suite of business, diplomatic, political, and social tools that might deflect all parties from open conflict and its amplification and expansion.  Perhaps the Obama Administration has been doing as much all along.  However, as this post-Cold War and now “Cold Struggle” aspect of western relations with Moscow comes into focus, western constituencies and representatives may have to ask about the development of state compromises and dependencies associated with Moscow’s feudal revanche.

The wealthy of the world — the one-half of the one percent, the world’s global business, financial, and political elite — may ask themselves (depending on how busy some may be with defense contracts) how the promotion of fear through state-driven displays of violence and terror suit the greater commercial viability of expanding non-defense business and consumer markets.

Fast Links

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/12/how-the-soviet-union-transformed-terrorism/250433/ – 12/23/2011.

http://www.aim.org/aim-column/the-russian-roots-of-terrorism/ – 9/30/2014.

http://www.jrnyquist.com/the-dark-side-of-the-moon.html – 2/9/2015.

https://themoscowtimes.com/news/russia-says-hezbollah-hamas-arent-terrorist-groups-50783 – 11/16/2015.

http://dailycaller.com/2016/01/27/report-russia-actively-supporting-a-designated-terrorist-group-in-syria/ – 1/27/2016.

Fast Links – BackChannels

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2015/10/02/syria-assad-vs-the-terrorists-how-isis-defends-assad/ – 10/2/2015.

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2016/08/29/ftac-americas-division-leans-toward-moscow/ – 8/29/2016

Fast Links – Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism_and_the_Soviet_Union

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Terror

On Russia and Terrorism – Two Excerpts

“It is now interesting to see in what way history repeats itself. And why should history not repeat? – Especially when successful strategies may be used again and again, with nobody the wiser. We were manipulated in 1939-45, and we have been manipulated in the period 2001-2014. Of course, it is not that Hitler and bin Laden were nice guys. It is merely that we allowed ourselves to become so absorbed in fighting a lesser enemy that we completely lost sight of the greater enemy. Worse, this greater enemy manipulated us in ways that are shameful to have permitted. Once again, we turned a blind eye to Russia’s preparations to take over Europe; that is to say, preparations to take full advantage of our distraction.”  — From J. R. Nyquist, “The Dark Side of the Moon,” February 9, 2015.

“In the 1960s and 70s, the Soviet Union sponsored waves of political violence against the West. The Red Brigades in Italy and the German Red Army Faction both terrorized Europe through bank robberies, kidnapping, and acts of sabotage. The Soviets wanted to use these left-wing terror groups to destabilize Italy and Germany to break up NATO. State-sponsored terrorism was a deeply Soviet phenomenon, but its practice did not stop when the Soviet Union ended. While state sponsorship continues, terrorism has mutated into something even harder for us to understand and respond to. But some of the roots of today’s terrorism go back to the Soviet Union.” — Nick Lockwood, “How the Soviet Union Transformed Terrorism,” The Atlantic, December 23, 2011.

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FTAC – America’s Division Leans Toward Moscow

29 Monday Aug 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Politics, Russia, Syndicate Red Brown Green

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It is an awful campaign as well as an awful politics for Americans.

Hillary Clinton – Red-Green alliance
Donald J. Trump – Brown new nationalists

Both themes go back to Moscow (but I may try to give up that obsession for a while). 🙂

Basically, we are too divided a nation, and we should really be wrestling with the sources of that division. They’re not necessarily in our lifestyles nor justified by the latest outrages appearing in the news.

We’ve been a compassionate people, a Christian-majority nation, with a secular Constitution and the courage to have come this far with much of the implementation of its ideals and sense of mission. Why the candidates and the public are whipping up so much mud — or getting into so much trouble — and spattering the same everywhere eludes answers.

Has our nation simply become bored with itself and in a mood to rumble?

Although the Obama Administration appears to be taking the pacifist tack of refusing enmity with Moscow (say, over the demise of Turkey as a NATO-spirited state and potential European Union partner), BackChannels finds it impossible to dismiss the presence of the Cold War’s “Russia v NATO” / “Moscow v Washington” contest over existence beneath the shadow of nuclear mutually assured destruction.

That argument seemed to have been settled in 1991 while functioning democracy and rule of law seemed also to have been on its way to the former Soviet communist state.

What perhaps has gotten in the way is an inherent medievalism characteristic of Russian political culture.

Flipping from the tsars to the Party to the “vertical of power” federation has changed primarily who is in charge, not produced (in the Soviet Era) any “dictatorship of the proletariat” or now in Putin’s era the distribution of power and expansion of economic development familiar to the more true democracies of the west.

One may ask what is happening to those democracies — as well as America’s — as each “Allahu Akbar attack” promotes xenophobic nationalism and post-Soviet disinformation produces legions of misdirected “old comrade network” politicos and strident (also anti-Semitic) Muslims and “Islamists” (on BackChannels, the two intertwine to become the “Red-Green Alliance” involving organizations as familiar as Black Lives Matter, Palestinian Solidarity, and International Solidarity).

This is really a “Syndicate Red Brown Green” post.

One should ask: what is Syndicate Red Brown Green doing in the United States?

How is it that whether generally aligned with the Democratic Party or the Republican, we appear — at least as portrayed through general mass media — to have become vicious toward one another?

While Russians in their majority continue on track with economic suffering (and Syrians not directly protected by Assad continue suffering Russians), “Moscow” appears to be getting “Washington” to look much like itself with breathtaking corruption associated with candidate Clinton and in Trump the now recognizable brawling, sprawling, and outsized narcissism more familiar to Moscow lackeys like Ukraine’s former president Viktor Yanukovych.

Trump, to his credit and perhaps innocence after all, has yet to rack up a record of scandals associated with a term in office, but for that odds may be even between Clinton, the consummate Washington insider, and himself, the very opposite as a Washington outsider.

Here at the beginning of this day, the heightened “Red-Green” presence in the Democratic Party and its reflection in the “Brown” resurgent populist nationalism of the Republican Party bode ill for the United States as we approach the November elections.

Reference

Breslow, Jason M. “Inequality and the Putin Economy: Inside the Numbers.”  Frontline, January 13, 2015.

This online journal is a forum for some of the more recent academic essays of Professor Matthew Raphael Johnson. Given current events in eastern Ukraine and Russia’s extraordinary rebuke to American liberal arrogance internationally, alternative and revisionist work on Russian history and politics is sorely needed. He was the first among English speaking Orthodox writers to understand Putin as a needed balance to the American empire. This postmodern imperium, headquartered in the US, is a demonic, serpentine dominion that spreads the postmodern acid of American mass-zombification to the world. It is Antichrist.

The Soviet empire was malignant, but what replaced it in the 1990s was worse. The Russia that survived Napoleon, Hitler and Stalin almost disappeared under liberalism. It was the creation of the American postmodern Imperium. It is more insidious and sophisticated than the USSR because it is not based on state power. Instead, it is based on the rule of private capital. The cosmopolitan and neurotic American capitalist seeks to “liberate the individual” so as to more easily enslave him to his passions. Then, this isolated mass-man, this crippled, malformed cipher of a human being, is offered the satisfaction of his passions for a fee.

The rise of Novorossya is the most significant political development since the collapse of the USSR. It is a new politics, one that combines nationalism and socialism into a Christian, humane and just political order that has not been seen before. That it rises on the ashes of “independent Ukraine” and on Orthodox territory is no accident.

Johnson, Matthew Raphael.  Selected Essays.  (Website).  The Russian Orthodox Medievalist.

Graham-Harrison, Emma.  “Russian airstrikes in Syria killed 2,000 civilians in six months.”  The Guardian, March 15, 2016.

Updated Reference

Persuade Me Politics.  “Donald Trump: Patriot, Savior or Tyrant?  (Part 1).  October 5, 2016.

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FTAC – A Compressed Note about “Assad OR The Terrorists”

21 Sunday Aug 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Iran, Political Psychology, Politics, Russia, Syndicate Red Brown Green, Syria

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Keep in mind that “Daesh” was incubated (manipulated into existence) by Bashar al-Assad to serve for political blackmail (“Assad OR The Terrorists”), as a goad to the west (a nice present to pack along with refugees bound for NATO states), as a foil (for Russian, Syrian, and Iranian forces), and for target practice (Russia has been showing off). https://conflict-backchannels.com/2015/10/02/syria-assad-vs-the-terrorists-how-isis-defends-assad/

BackChannels readers are more than welcome to independently research and review each claim.

BackChannels believes that the “Syrian Conflict and Tragedy” represents a complete theater of politics and war put on display by Putin, Assad, Khamenei and with Baghdadi’s organization their most useful villain.

Moscow’s own approach to terrorism, generally speaking, may be reflected in its hosting PFLP in Moscow (Nov. 2014) and refusing to designate either Hamas or Hezbollah as terrorist organizations.  Although its state interests may differ from those of Tehran, its relationship has proven friendly enough for flying sorties into Syria from out of an Iranian base.

BackChannels way of addressing this relationship between “political absolutists”: “Different Talks – Same Walk.”

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Also in Media – From 2014 – Anton Shekhovtsov’s blog: “Pro-Russian network behind the anti-Ukrainian defamation campaign”

21 Sunday Aug 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Also in Media, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Politics, Russia, Syndicate Red Brown Green, Ukraine

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3 February 2014

Pro-Russian network behind the anti-Ukrainian defamation campaign

Read this article in German, French, Russian and Ukrainian.

There has been a huge tide of false, incorrect and bloated reports that exaggerate or overemphasize the significance of the far right in the current Euromaidan protests in Ukraine. A Moscow-based journalist Alec Luhn writes in The Nation about “the Ukrainian nationalism at the heart of ‘Euromaidan’”, a leftist Seumas Milne argues in The Guardian that “in Ukraine, fascists, oligarchs and western expansion are at the heart of the crisis”, while a self-styled “independent geopolitical analyst” Eric Draitser, in his nauseatingly misleading piece for his own Stop Imperialism (later re-published by The Centre for Research on Globalization), even goes so far as to claim that “the violence on the streets of Ukraine […] is the latest example of the rise of the most insidious form of fascism that Europe has seen since the fall of the Third Reich”.

These and many other similar articles are all written according to the same pattern, and their aim is to discredit the Euromaidan protests as the manifestations of fascism, neo-Nazism or – at the very least – right-wing extremism.

Read More at the Source: Anton Shekhovtsov’s blog: Pro-Russian network behind the anti-Ukrainian defamation campaign – 2/3/2014

Remark – New Global Intelligentsia – New Emerging Global Business and Political Elite

19 Friday Aug 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, International Development, Philosophy, Political Psychology, Politics, Syndicate Red Brown Green

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Always a little differently than expected: perhaps our New Global Intelligentsia has now to deal with a more visible and powerful Global Business and Political Elite.

The epigrammatic thought springs from yesterday’s wrestling with a draft about the “Black Led Movement Fund” and foundations flowing down from Henry Ford’s enterprise and George Soros’s success.

It also stems from about ten years of personal growth in the region of international affairs abetted by the uptake of broadband, social networking (Facebook), and blogging ability (a new artform) and the development by affinity of a pretty good and English chatyping “international club” online.  With that growth has come the recognition, at least on BackChannels’ part, that our “Awesome Conversation” has obscure nodes (like this one) and virtual public stars (too many to name) that comprises a still new and virtual thin band of global intelligentsia.

We’re thinking.  We’re talking.  We’re having a great conversation.  And perhaps by doing so, we’re changing our world.

Beside (and above, I’m sure) the thinker-talkers exists another connected community, altogether more institutional, more private in its outlooks and its workings, but at the head of so many enterprises and institutions are real people, and one may well wonder about their cultural and political ambitions and visions.

Now back to the Black Lives Matter movement and its chief financial enablers and enthusiasts . . . .

In his day, Henry Ford had developed the strongest reputation as an anti-Semite, and in this day George Soros appears to have developed an atheist’s contempt for the Jews and Israel as part of an anti-nationalist atheist-socialist globalization program.  Today, both Ford and Soros foundations have stepped in to fund the nostalgically Marxist Black Lives Matter movement and related Black Led Movement Fund with upwards (or beyond) a newsworthy $100 million.

While Americans and others in the world have been busy considering their election season options in the empowering of a next set of public of representative public leaders, the uber-wealthy have been applying money to political issues in their own way.

BackChannels wonders how much cultural and political “clout” the world’s wealthiest individuals exert and what kind of world are they fashioning (for the rest of us) as powers in their own right?

Note that George Soros with his portfolio valued at about $8 billion (but Forbes says “$24.9 billion”) has been estimated as being merely the 80th wealthiest person in the world: who are the 79 wealthier individuals ahead of him, and how are they involved with the world’s cultures and political themes?

On this post, BackChannels has certainly more questions than answers.

For an overview of the world’s top billionaires as perceived by Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/billionaires/.

At least we know who’s got the money.

What each wants — these are not beauty pageant youngsters — is a big other and open question.

Reference

Regarding Henry Ford, Anti-Semite

Hitler was very aware of Henry Ford, of Henry Ford’s writings, and praised them. He turned to the same documents. There’s a common thread. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was a cherished text for both. And there were certainly business connections between Ford Motors and the Nazi regime.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/interview/henryford-antisemitism/

In the period from 1910 to 1918, Ford became increasingly anti-immigrant, anti-labor, anti-liquor and anti-Semitic. In 1919, he purchased a newspaper, the Dearborn Independent. He installed Charles Pipp as editor and hired a journalist, William J. Cameron, to listen to his ideas and write a weekly column, “Mr. Ford’s Page,” to expound his views.

Ford wanted to assert that there was a Jewish conspiracy to control the world. He blamed Jewish financiers for fomenting World War I so that they could profit from supplying both sides. He accused Jewish automobile dealers of conspiring to undermine Ford Company sales policies. Ford wanted to make his bizarre beliefs public in the pages of the Dearborn Independent. For a year, editor Pipp resisted running anti-Jewish articles, and resigned rather than publish them. Cameron took over the editorship and, in May 1920, printed the first of a series of articles titled “The International Jew: The World’s Problem.”

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/ford1.html

Regarding George Soros, “Anti-Semite”?  Or “Atheist Social Democrat”?

According to Connie Bruck of The New Yorker, George Soros told her that “I don’t deny the Jews their right to a national existence — but I don’t want to be part of it.” According to Joshua Muravchik, Soros has publicly likened Israel to the Nazis. According to the Jerusalem Post, “Soros and his wealthy Jewish American friends have now decided to aim their fire directly at Israel . . . to form a political lobby that will weaken the influence of the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC.”

http://www.conservapedia.com/George_Soros

Russia’s General Prosecutor’s Office essentially banned two branches of Soros’ charity network in November, placing the Open Society Foundations (OSF) and the Open Society Institute (OSI) on a “stop list” of foreign non-governmental organizations whose activities were deemed “undesirable” by the Russian state.

OSF first came into trouble with the Russian government in July 2015, when it hinted it might ban the foundation along with a number of other pro-democracy organizations accused of launching “soft aggression” in the country.

http://www.cnbc.com/2016/01/14/soros-charity-targeted-in-russia-book-burning.html – 1/14/2016.

Sussing George Soros as “narcissist / malignant narcissist” may take much greater time.  However, the early impression formed by BackChannels is that he’s trying to hybridize Red-tinted socialism away from Putin’s imperial and nationalist revanche while buying into the Green (Political Islamic) mythology driven by the Soviet KGB early in the middle east conflict (related on BackChannels: https://conflict-backchannels.com/2014/12/02/quote-manipulation-about-the-plo-leader-pacepa-and-rychlak-2013/).

Black Lives Matter – Funding

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/aug/16/black-lives-matter-cashes-100-million-liberal-foun/

http://fortune.com/2016/08/08/funding-black-lives-matter-ford/

http://www.thepoliticalinsider.com/behind-lefts-secret-multi-million-dollar-deal-fund-black-lives-matter/

http://www.thefederalistpapers.org/us/here-are-all-the-companies-giving-big-bucks-to-blm

Regarding Borealis Philanthropy’s Magui Rubalcava Shulman

Magui Rubalcava Shulman, Director, Immigration — served as program director for Hispanics in Philanthropy; worked on an evaluation of the Grants for Schools program of the Mongolian Foundation for Open Society Institute.

http://sorosfiles.com/soros/2011/10/public-interest-projects.html

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Turkey’s Sick Republic – Philos Project

15 Monday Aug 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Also in Media, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Islamic Small Wars, Religion, Syndicate Red Brown Green, Turkey

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The recent “ides of July” coup attempt was the fifth since the 1923 founding of the Turkish republic, an indication of Turkey’s recurring instability. While “Turkey is, at least in name, a constitutional democracy … Turkey’s government is quite literally in a state of emergency,” Rough said, and Kennedy added that the foiled coup quickly became overshadowed by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his allies’ “incredible seizure of power.

”Erdoğan has publicly called the coup a “gift from heaven,” and Hillel Fradkin commented that “it has already given him a great deal, and he means to make it a gift that keeps on giving.” The three-month state-of-emergency that Erdoğan declared may end up being renewed. In the name of restoring order and suppressing coup supporters, Erdoğan had received an opportunity to complete his “transformation of the Turkish political system such that all power resides with him.” He is purging opponents from institutions like the military, judiciary, police and universities, while intimidatingly calling for ongoing demonstrations of supporters and reporting of opponents.

Source: Turkey’s Sick Republic – Philos Project – 8/9/2016.

Exploiting Palestinians – Hamas, World Vision

12 Friday Aug 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Gaza, Gaza Suzerain, Islamic Small Wars, Israel, Middle East, Politics, Syndicate Red Brown Green

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https://youtu.be/6oEBbBnr4Fk

Posted to YouTube – 8/11/2016.

http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Hamas-infiltrated-international-Gazan-aid-group-stole-tens-of-millions-of-dollars-463211#article=6017QzVBNDlDRTc4RjQwOEY2NzU2NENDQTZEOEMxMjRBM0Y=

Lede:

Hamas infiltrated a large international aid organization operating in Gaza and redirected tens of millions of dollars – 60 percent – of the organization’s budget to its “military” wing, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) announced on Thursday, following an investigation that lasted almost two months.

The World Vision organization, which operates in 100 countries and employs 46,000 people, fell victim to a complex Hamas takeover scheme, a senior Shin Bet source said, adding that Hamas’s armed wing stole $7.2 million a year from the budget, which was supposed to pay for food, humanitarian assistance, and aid programs for disabled children, and channeled the funds to buy weapons, build attack tunnels, and to other preparations for war with Israel.

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2016/08/04/hamas-yeah-we-stole-a-bunch-of-humanitarian-aid-and-used-it-to-attack-israel-n2201645 – 8/4/2016

http://www.ngo-monitor.org/ngos-humanitarian-aid-and-hamas-connections/ – 8/11/2016

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/afp/2016/08/israel-palestinians-aid-conflict-hamas.html – 8/9/2016:

“World Vision’s cumulative operating budget in Gaza for the past ten years was approximately $22.5 million, which makes the alleged amount of up to $50 million being diverted hard to reconcile,” the statement read.

The NGO has suspended its operations in Gaza.

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/patrick-goodenough/world-vision-charity-long-accused-anti-israel-bias-caught-hamas – 8/5/2016

https://unitedwithisrael.org/russia-invites-hamas-terror-leader-to-moscow/ – 8/4/2016.

http://freebeacon.com/national-security/russias-foreign-minister-meets-with-hamas/ – 8/4/2016.

https://article.wn.com/view/2016/04/04/Press_release_on_Deputy_Foreign_Minister_Mikhail_Bogdanov_s_/ – 4/4/2016.

Older News Involving Hamas and Its Exploitation of Children

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/5230/hamas-army-children – 2/18/2015.

http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/180400/hamas-killed-160-palestinian-children-to-build-terror-tunnels – 7/25/2014.

Posted to YouTube 5/25/2016.

Hamas, Human Shields, Children

http://nypost.com/2015/05/02/un-report-outlines-how-hamas-used-kids-as-human-shields/ – 5/2/2015.

http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/08/07/conclusive-proof-that-hamas-uses-palestinians-as-human-shields/ – 8/7/2014:

On August 5, the Israeli Army released copies of an official Hamas manual that it discovered in the Shuja’iya neighborhood of Gaza, where one of the fiercest battles of the war was fought.

It’s titled “Urban Warfare,” and it was produced by Hamas’s Shuja’iya Brigade.The manual includes detailed instructions on how to use the civilians of Gaza against Israel. It explains how because of Israel’s concern about civilian casualties, Hamas can use the “presence of civilians” to its military advantage. Having civilians nearby causes the Israelis “(1) Problems with opening fire; (2) Problems in controlling the civilian population during operations and afterward; (3) Assurance of supplying medical care to civilians who need it.”

The “Urban Warfare” manual also emphasizes the benefits of damage to civilian property: “The destruction of civilian homes: This increases the hatred of the citizens towards the attackers [the IDF] and increases their gathering [support] around the city defenders (resistance forces[i.e. Hamas]).”

Gaza’s Billionaires

http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/07/28/gazas-millionaires-and-billionaires-how-hamass-leaders-got-rich-quick/ – 7/28/2016.

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FTAC – Adjusting Normative Global Values – Religious v Secular Societies

12 Friday Aug 2016

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Philosophy, Political Psychology, Politics, Religion, Syndicate Red Brown Green

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The promotion of conflict seem to me inseparable from the invention and promotion of cultural, political, religious, and social discriminators, and those who stand to gain in prestige or wealth by leveraging such differences will certainly do so in the cause of their own aggrandizement, messianic delusion, and glorification. Note, please, the Putin promotes both Far Left and Far Right political organizations and personalities aligned roughly “Red-Black-Green (old “comrade networks”, Black Power movements, and Islamists) AND Brown, i.e., “New Nationalists” like Donald Trump and Viktor Orban, although Trump may not wish to nor be able to pervert constitutional basics as Orban has done (for himself) in Hungary.

Writing here as “an American of Jewish descent” and somewhere along the spectrum of “secular humanists”, the recognition of the world’s 7,000 living languages, each representing beliefs and spirituality — or none — in the process of using sound and signal to address in some place the challenges of living with the earth and with one another — I should think the retreat from too zealous a passion for one belief a part of “live and let live”.

I wouldn’t incline as the Soviets toward doing away with religion but rather promote tolerance for beliefs embraced privately and confined to behaviors and practices within each faith community. In essence, it’s that outlook that produces the modern multi-cultural, multi-religious open and secular democratic societies.

The sustained presence of anti-Semitism in the world and the possible emergence of either latent or new anti-Semitic movements involves the presence of the medieval world in the 21st Century.

Putin’s post-Soviet neo-imperial revanche in Russia has reemphasized medieval values certain to produce “wars of all against all” that then may contribute to his appearance as a strong force for stability — he’s the fireman who sets the fire and then shows the world how to put it out.

It’s very difficult for the general public to perceive that story, but I believe, with cause, that the projection of a Total Political Theater is and has been what Moscow has been about for generations to, perhaps, centuries. Today, it remains hampered by its own medieval urges — and to put a cap on that, one may note the revival of the Russian Orthodox Church, which is not a bad thing but part of a larger package in the Kremlin’s worldview.

The modern soul would rather religion persisted and thrived with both a sense of prudent social constraint and volunteered boundaries. Most modern people recognize there are many things between the person, family, and community and God — or the possession of a compassionate and ethical happiness — but the same want for a socially healthy sense of community and personal boundaries.

Must couples, for example, hetero or homo, display affection in public? How intensely? How much “signal” is needed or wanted? To what end?

There are a lot of questions like that, and because we really can’t solve them species-wide, it’s better to go about our business privately but with awareness also of the impact our behavior may have on the earth and on others.

______

Hitchens only found out he was Jewish by birth when his mother died. It didn’t change how he felt about the improbable existence of God, but I believe it made his writer friend Martin Amis a little jealous.

https://youtu.be/1nfbp4DPcfQ

Posted to YouTube 4/17/2013.

The above post was prompted by a Muslim’s complaint about having atheism and secularism foisted on the same by such luminaries as Dawkins, Geller, Hitchens, and others.

BackChannels simply hews to its observation of Putin’s re-medievalization project in Russia and attached to former Soviet client states, political enterprises (like the PLO), contested spaced and, as with Turkey, old enemies.  In essence, Russia’s president wants to keep playing old movies in realpolitik in realspace.  It behooves the open democracies of the west — or their constituencies, from the least informed on the streets to the ivory tower set — to reconsider what it took to produce (and shame on Brexit) peace and prosperity x political integrity, rule of law, and functioning and reliable courts across Europe and North America.

Moscow and its partners have raced backwards — of course, in their heads forward — into the worst of medieval absolutism.

Syria should today serve as an example of how that world works and what it looks like.

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