SAM BULLARD—Recently Ukraine Airlines Flight PS752 went down in flames but intact after being struck by two Tor M1 missiles. The missiles had 15 kg fragmentation warheads. This downing happened predawn in a populous area near Tehran. Very soon after the event, videos went online of PS752 being struck by the missiles. The cause of the crash was plain to see even if you lived on the other side of the world. Iran admitted the error within a few days. It was an error. Note two key differences between PS752 and MH17. PS752 really was attacked by surface-to-air missiles. It really was an accidental downing. There is no way to hide the use of a surface-to-air missile in a populous area. The 9M330 missiles fired by the Tor M1 system are only half the size of a Buk 9M38 missile. It was dark outside at the time of the strikes. Even so the missiles were seen globally.
US EXCEPTIONALISM
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The Slow-motion Assassination of Julian Assange
15 minutes readKIM PETERSEN—Recently, circumstances have become bleaker for Assange because of a reported COVID-19 outbreak where “at least 56 people in his house block in Belmarsh prison, including staff and inmates, were found to have been infected.”
Wikileaks earlier reported that Assange, along with almost 200 other inmates of his house block, have been under lockdown since November 18.
Australia has done nothing for its citizen Assange. Australia is said to function at the behest of the US. This is so much so that Australia has put itself in a precarious economic situation with its largest trade partner, China. Furthermore, Australia has a long history of its own war criminality that it ignores.
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Caleb Maupin: Misguided roads to socialism; fetishizing violence; and the problem of Israel
7 minutes readP. GREANVILLE—This is perhaps one of Caleb’s most important chats, fundamental for those who wish to clear their minds of revolutionary claptrap, particularly the possible roads to an American brand of socialism.
Maupin systematically debunks various erroneous concepts still held by many sincere, self-defined socialists, starting with the idea that socialists must embrace violence a fortiori if they are serious about revolution. Next Caleb discusses some wrongheaded strategies that guarantee failure, including Bernstein’s “evolutionary socialism” (revisionism), embraced by social democrats and liberals for over century (most recently followers of Bernie Sanders) with little to show for it, certainly nothing resembling genuine socialism. “Building socialism gradually, one step at a time…with no true event horizon, is a huge delusion,” argues Maupin. “Social system change is always born in crisis.” Also included: Tactics and strategies of the Bolsheviks • Role of Zionism regarding the anti-Czarist revolution, and the malign influence of contemporary Israel.
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San Isidro; the Latest Episode of the Imperial Reality Show
14 minutes readThese Trump-fanciers born in Cuba are “deserters that ask for arms in the armies of North America, who drown their Indigenous peoples (and Black people) in blood and who go from bad to worse!” in the words of José Martí. After more than 150 years of struggles, does anyone doubt that US imperialism wants something other than the freedom or the well-being of Cuba?
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Maupin’s super chat: Israel’s terrorist attack on Iran; dismal failure of the West to tackle ecological crisis
19 minutes readCALEB MAUPIN—TOPICS INCLUDED: Israel assassinates top Iranian nuclear scientist • The nonstop demonisation of Iran • Saudi/Wahabi terrorism serves Washington’s goals in the ME • The West’s governments massive failure to tackle the ecological crisis, and much more.