BRYAN MacDONALD

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Eric Draitser is an independent geopolitical analyst based in New York City and the founder of StopImperialism.com.

The US Capitol: Magnificent building, sordid business.

[dropcap]Despite[/dropcap] being the world’s self-appointed champion and proselytizer of the gospel of democracy, the United States is clearly and unmistakably an undemocratic nation.

Though it is no longer the world’s foremost industrial producer, the United States still does lead in one important export: “democracy.” Washington has taken the lead in undermining, demonizing, and otherwise destabilizing Russia and China, Venezuela and Iran, Syria and North Korea – countries in need of regime change because, according to Washington, they are undemocratic.

But what is this peculiar brand of “democracy” that the United States purports to be the apogee of the political development of so-called “Western” civilization? If the US is serious about spreading democratic ideals to all corners of the globe, then surely it has long since embodied those same ideals in its domestic political institutions, right? Well, not exactly. OK, not at all.

Is there democracy in Washington?

In his classic work Politics, Aristotle famously asserted that, “If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will best be attained when all persons alike share in the government to the utmost.” As Aristotle notes, democracy can only truly provide liberty and equality – both central elements of the US mythos – if it is “shared” by “all persons alike.” In other words, there can only be true democracy when everyone shares control over the political institutions through which power is wielded. However, the United States of 2015 could not be further from Aristotle’s ideal.

As the 114th US Congress opens its session in Washington this month, it is once again time to take note of the stark difference between the people of the United States, and those who have been“democratically” elected to represent them. A Washington Post headline from January makes this divide plainly obvious: The new Congress is 80 percent white, 80 percent male and 92 percent Christian. Stop and think about those figures for just a moment. The notion that this government is actually representative of the people is utterly laughable.

GOP leadership. There’s really no difference between the parties, so the labels are simply used to delude the public. (Via DonkeyHotey.flickr)

According to the most recent US Census figures, the racial, gender/sex, and religious identities of members of the US Congress is not at all aligned with the demographic reality. Roughly 63 percent of the US population included in the census self-identifies as “White only” (meaning they do not identify as “white + another racial affiliation”), while 80 percent of Congress is white. This may seem a relatively reflective representation of racial demographics, but this is misleading. Not included in the census are the millions of non-white immigrants who, for a variety of reasons (e.g. seasonal work migration, fear of law enforcement, etc.) do not participate in such data gathering. So, taken conservatively, the racial makeup of Congress, while moderately over-representing whites, is not entirely unrepresentative of the population. Or so it would seem.

However, one must look more closely to see that the racial makeup of the Congress does little to affect its policies which cater to a mostly white corporate and financial elite, while to a large extent ignoring the economic and social problems that plague minority communities throughout the country. And so, you can see in the halls of Congress, a Congressional Black Caucus that almost without exception votes in a bloc with their white Democrat allies if, for no other reason, to preserve their own positions as they cater to mostly white donors. Perhaps the prime example of such behavior is President Obama himself who, despite being of African descent, has always eschewed race-related issues in favor of the typical vacuous American platitude of “togetherness” which, quite conveniently, seems to never offend or inconvenience the white power brokers who have made his career.

The same subsumption to power is true for the nominally “non-White” Hispanic Congressmen (and women) in South Florida, whose anti-Castro politics have, for generations now, made them into a reliable constituency and voting bloc for the Republican party – a party which caters to white racists, corporate suits, and a sprinkling of token minorities that lend the credibility of political correctness to a party that successfully absorbed the racist, Southern vote more than fifty years ago. The reality is that an elected official, regardless of whether he/she is Black or Hispanic, is most often, and almost without exception, transformed into merely a dark-skinned ally of the white political establishment; they have no political will or power independent of that establishment.

And therein lay the real issue. In trying to understand the political character of the United States, and the consequent political culture spawned from it, race is not of value in and of itself. Rather, it is the ways in which race and racial identity intersect with power and the political establishment that is of interest. For, as the United States trumpets democracy and the so-called “values of liberalism” around the world, it quietly obscures the fact that racial equality, or even necessarily “progress,” is an illusion, a public relations marketing campaign to propagate the myths of liberty and equality.

With regard to gender, Congress is even more unrepresentative. While women account for more than 51 percent of the total population of the US, they account for roughly 20 percent of Congressional representatives. Despite nearly 50 years of a Feminist movement, and all the talk of equality, and all the attacks upon non-Western countries for their treatment of women, the US remains distinctly patriarchal. It seems that Washington is perfectly content to argue for more war in Afghanistan, ostensibly to protect the rights of girls to go to school, while still being unable to even break through its own deeply oppressive, male-dominated political system. Irrespective of one’s personal beliefs, the objective fact is that the beacon of democracy is still controlled by mostly white men. Is there something inherently evil about white men? No. But there definitely is something wrong with a society dominated by white men which presents itself as anything but.

Finally, there is the issue of religion and the religious affiliation of the elected members of Congress. The new Congress will open its session with a whopping 92 percent of representatives identifying as Christian. This is staggeringly higher than the total Christian-identifying population (which includes many denominations/sects) of the US which is, at maximum, 78 percent. It should be noted that, though not Christian, Jewish representatives, by virtue of financial and political backing of both Jewish and non-Jewish interests, are de facto members of the same political establishment, and thereby don’t functionally act as a minority, despite the demographics. And so, if Jewish identification were to be included with the Christian, it becomes clear who is, and who is not, being truly represented by Congress.

As the Washington Post noted, “The group that Pew [Research] finds most underrepresented on the [Capitol] Hill is those without a religious affiliation – comprising nearly 20 percent of the public and 0.2 percent of Congress.” Think about this statistic. 20 percent of the US is not affiliated with any religion (including atheists, agnostic, secular/religious unaffiliated, or don’t know/refused to answer), while almost no representatives identify in this way. And so, roughly 63.5 million Americans have no one representing their religious beliefs (or unbelief as it were). This is, by any measure, an egregious example of the unrepresentative nature of the US Congress.

Put more simply, tens of millions of Americans don’t have the option of choosing to vote for someone who actually represents them, their interests, or their values. Rather, they have the option of choosing one of two distasteful candidates who do not accurately reflect their needs or aspirations, and have little to no interest in anything other than being elected and profiting from their position.

Will it be Coke or Pepsi? McDonald’s or Burger King?

Democracy is not a political system in the US, it is a product to be bought and sold – the armies of lobbyists, interest groups, and fundraisers are a testament to that. It is a concept to be pitched like a Hollywood script or a television commercial, only to be disseminated to the masses as if it were reality.

Democracy is America’s collective delusion. It is America’s dream of itself.

But, like all dreams, it simply evaporates the moment you wake up.

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The Big Lie machinery of the American state never stops, amplified by the complicit Western European media

An east-Ukrainian rebel inspects a gun at a destroyed war memorial at Savur-Mohyla, a hill east of the city of Donetsk, August 28, 2014. (Reuters / Maxim Shemetov)  / Click to enlarge. 

[T]he US President says it is now “provable” that “Russian combat forces and tanks” moved into Ukraine. But Kremlin says Obama’s words are in conflict with the State Department that said it has no proof of Russian troops in the area.

A DISPATCH FROM RT.COM

A statement from the Russian president’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov came in response to Barack Obama’s address to the Baltic States’ leader. Speaking ahead of NATO summit, President Obama said that the US has no doubt that Russian troops are involved in the fighting in eastern Ukraine.

What we have in Ukraine is not a Russian invasion but the participation of brave Russian volunteers interested in protecting their brothers and cousins and stopping the advance of US-sponsored fascism. Deal with that.

“The Russian forces that have now moved into Ukraine aren’t on a ‘humanitarian’ or ‘peacekeeping mission.’ They are Russian combat forces with Russian weapons in Russian tanks. There are Russian warheads with Russian weapons and Russian tanks. Now, these are the facts. They are provable. They’re not subject to dispute,” Obama said at a press-conference in Tallinn.

However, this information comes into conflict with the recent statement of the US State Department, Peskov said.

“We have repeatedly said there are no Russian troops on the territory of Ukraine. While Obama says there can be no doubts about that, US Department of State officials say simultaneously with their president that the United States has no proof of Russian military presence in Ukraine. This situation underscores their reluctance to use facts,” the Russian president’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Russian News Service radio station.

“It’s an obsession with attributing a negative role in the development of the Ukrainian crisis to Russia, and we strongly object to this,” Kremlin’s spokesman added.

ridiculed by Russia’s Defense Ministry, while an alliance of seven former US intelligence officers – the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) – said the evidence produced by NATO from the Ukrainian-Russian border was on a par with the “same dubious, politically ‘fixed’ kind used 12 years ago to ‘justify’ the US-led attack on Iraq.”

‘Many of our comrades can’t look quietly’

On Wednesday, Russian veterans have called to end speculations around those Russian men who voluntarily joined east-Ukrainian rebels in the fight against Kiev.

“These are not adventurers, not criminals, not mercenaries, these are Russian people, who have it already laid down in their genes: to help our friendly nations in a difficult situation. We understand that this internal conflict or civil war in Ukraine is not Russia’s business. But this way Russia [through volunteers] has a right to help,” said Colonel-General Valery Vostrotin, the chairman of the Council of the Moscow Department “Battle Brotherhood”.

Shevchuk (Still from RT video)

A retired Russian officer Vladimir Melnik is one of those men. He is now undergoing treatment in Moscow after being injured in a leg in Ukraine.

He does not call himself a hero. For him, born and raised in the Donetsk region, when it still was part of the USSR, supporting rebels in his native land is a duty. His relatives and friends still live there. Melnik says he could not leave them in a time of trouble.

“If somebody intrudes into you house, starts killing your brothers, your sisters, raping your women, killing your children and rob elders —how would you react to this? I understand that this is, primarily, a spiritual struggle; looking at what is happening in the world today, I would not like to stand and watch as our Orthodox people are being killed in their own homes,” he says.

A retired Russian officer Vladimir Melnik (Still from RT video)

Melnik says there are many volunteers – former military personnel like him – fighting along with self-defense forces in the south-east of Ukraine.

“There are many of us and more people were ready to come. For now, Thank God, we are coping [with the situation] with the tools we have,” Melnik says.

When asked if he was paid or offered anything for coming to Ukraine, he says: “If I came to my father and said: Dad, I’m here to protect you from fascists for money, he would not understand me, neither would others. I wouldn’t have any respect for myself as well.”

Melnik says it was tough for eastern Ukrainian men “to leave their mines” and take arms, but now, thanks to the experience which people with military background shared, they “understand more.”

Asked about military equipment, Melnik confesses that everything rebels have is old, “from the Soviet time”, but this is enough to hold the fort.

“It is not difficult to find arms in Ukraine,” he says. “There are many ammunition depots left after the Soviet Union. It is old, from Soviet times. Yes, guys had to repair some of it or replace some of the details, but it works.”

Members of Russian veterans organizations fighting in Ukraine.  We should all salute them.  (Image from oficery.ru)

OSCE: No armed men crossing Ukraine border

OSCE’s observer mission has indicated in its latest report that it has not witnessed any Russian troops or tanks crossing the border into Ukraine.

What it did record, however, was an increased presence of unmanned aerial vehicles and young men and women crossing from Russia into Ukraine unarmed.

There has been “increased military activity principally of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the vicinity of the Border Crossing Points,” OSCE said in the weekly update from August 28 to September 3.

“Throughout the week, the OTs [Observer Teams] noticed a net increase of young people (both men and women) wearing military-style dress crossing the border in both directions but did not observe any weapons among these groups.”

OSCE noted that supporters of self-defense forces said they are not allowed to cross the border with weapons. But once they cross into Ukraine, weapons can be obtained from self-defense forces.

The observer mission added that situation in Lugansk remains “dire.” OSCE cites accounts of “severe destruction caused by artillery fire which resulted in the interruption of water, gas and electricity supplies, the latter apparently unavailable for more than five weeks in some areas including Lugansk city itself.”

ON THE NEXT PAGE

(Excerpt)
Dolores Ibárruri, La Pasionaria
Barcelona, November 1, 1938 

“YIt is very difficult to say a few words in farewell to the heroes of the International Brigades, because of what they are and what they represent. A feeling of sorrow, an infinite grief catches our throat – sorrow for those who are going away, for the soldiers of the highest ideal of human redemption, exiles from their countries, persecuted by the tyrants of all peoples – grief for  those who will stay here forever mingled with the Spanish soil, in the very depth of our heart, hallowed by our feeling of eternal gratitude.

From all peoples, from all races, you came to us like brothers, like sons of immortal Spain; and in the hardest days of the war, when the capital of the Spanish Republic was threatened, it was you, gallant comrades of the International Brigades, who helped save the city with your fighting enthusiasm, your heroism and your spirit of sacrifice. – And Jarama and Guadalajara, Brunete and Belchite, Levante and the Ebro, in immortal verses sing of the courage, the sacrifice, the daring, the discipline of the men of the International Brigades. 

For the first time in the history of the peoples’ struggles, there was the spectacle, breath­taking in its grandeur, of the formation of International Brigades to help save a threatened country’s freedom and independence – the freedom and independence of our Spanish land. 

Communists, Socialists, Anarchists, Republicans – men of different colors, differing ideology, antagonistic religions — yet all profoundly loving liberty and justice, they came and offered themselves to us unconditionally. 

They gave us everything — their youth or their maturity; their science or their experience; their blood and their lives; their hopes and aspirations — and they asked us for nothing. But yes, it must be said, they did want a post in battle, they aspired to the honor of dying for us.

Banners of Spain! Salute these many heroes! Be lowered to honor so many martyrs!

Mothers! Women! When the years pass by and the wounds of war are stanched; when the memory of the sad and bloody days dissipates in a present of liberty, of peace and of well­being; when the rancors have died out and pride in a free country is felt equally by all Spaniards, speak to your children. Tell them of these men of the International Brigades.

Recount for them how, coming over seas and mountains, crossing frontiers bristling with bayonets, sought by raving dogs thirsting to tear their flesh, these men reached our country as crusaders for freedom, to fight and die for Spain’s liberty and independence threatened by German and Italian fascism. They gave up everything — their loves, their countries, home and fortune, fathers, mothers, wives, brothers, sisters and children — and they came and said to us: “We are here. Your cause, Spain’s cause, is ours. It is the cause of all advanced and progressive mankind.”

Today many are departing. Thousands remain, shrouded in Spanish earth, profoundly remembered by all Spaniards. Comrades of the International Brigades: Political reasons, reasons of state, the welfare of that very cause for which you offered your blood with boundless generosity, are sending you back, some to your own countries and others to forced exile. You can go proudly. You are history. You are legend. You are the heroic example of democracy’s solidarity and universality in the face of the vile and accommodating spirit of those who interpret democratic principles with their eyes on hoards of wealth or corporate shares which they want to safeguard from all risk.

We shall not forget you; and, when the olive tree of peace is in flower, entwined with the victory laurels of the Republic of Spain — return! 

​‘Malaysian airplane tragedy is a wakeup call to the Ukrainian govt to stop what it is doing’

Neil Clark is a journalist, writer and broadcaster. His award winning blog can be found at www.neilclark66.blogspot.com. Follow him on Twitter

Published time: July 18, 2014 11:01

An armed pro-Russian separatist stands at a site of a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 plane crash in the settlement of Grabovo in the Donetsk region, July 17, 2014 (Reuters / Maxim Zmeyev)

[W]hat is happening in the east is a humanitarian catastrophe, with cities under siege, civilians killed, bombing of innocent people, and now on the top of that we have this terrible tragedy with 300 losing their lives, journalist Neil Clark told RT.

RT: Do you think there is any connection between this tragedy and the conflict in eastern Ukraine?

Neil Clark: It’s very hard to say, isn’t it? It is still early days but there seems to be a remarkable coincidence that this plane just went down for technical reason in this region which faced fighting in the last few weeks. I think it is very wrong for President Poroshenko, the Ukrainian government and the Ukrainian people to be trying to blame other people for this, to blame the so-called rebels, because there is no evidence of this. We already heard how the so-called separatists in the east don’t have the means to shoot this plane down, they don’t have the surface-to-air missiles by which it was shot down, and it was shot down. So it is very irresponsible at this moment of time when almost 300 people lost their lives for the Ukrainian authorities to be trying to make political capital of this and shift the blame to other people. I think it’s very wrong.

RT: State Department spokesperson was very careful when commenting on the situation, saying “we have seen the reports everyone else have seen and that’s it”. Is it surprising that she avoided any mention of the military operation in Ukraine?

NC: It is quite remarkable isn’t it? Because it is a war zone and if it is proved that this plane was shot down then of course it is all to do with the war in Ukraine at the moment. It is a war zone; we have seen almost 500 civilians killed there by the Ukrainian authorities. The overall responsibility must lie with those who have created this war in Ukraine but now it’s not really the time to be accusing people of shooting down this plane. We are going to stay calm, we are going to stay very forensic, and we are going to wait till the evidence is produced. It has been shot down and clearly flying at that kind of altitude there would have to be some surface-to-air missiles or it has been shot down by another plane, and of course separatists won’t be able to do this. I think there is a strong likelihood that the Ukrainian authorities did this, but we can’t say it at the moment till we get more people on the ground to inspect it and we have forensic experts in there. So it’s a time to stay calm and certainly this is not what the Ukrainian authorities have been doing. Unfortunately, people are going to use this tragedy to try to make particular points and to blame people in the east and to blame Russia.

A man walks, on July 17, 2014, amongst the wreckages of the malaysian airliner carrying 298 people from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur after it crashed, near the town of Shaktarsk, in rebel-held east Ukraine (AFP Photo / Alexander Khudoteply)

RT: If this plane was shot down, what could be the implications for whoever is responsible?

NC: My fear is that if the plane was shot down by the Ukrainian authorities which seems likely, bearing in mind the fact that it was flying so high and only surface-to-air missiles could have done that, and we know that Ukrainian authorities have possessed those missiles. If it was done by the Ukrainian authorities then what I fear is that there will be some kind of cover up that we won’t be allowed to know the truth of this because it will be huge blow to the Ukrainian government, there will be an absolutely outcry about it. The sort of PR war would be lost by them. So I fear that we may not learn the truth, as it was the case with the earlier incident a few years ago when the Ukrainian authorities did shoot a plane over the Black sea. We only learned later on that it was them, they denied it at the time. I think there is a big political effect behind this. The most important thing is somehow we get to the truth. We may actually not get to the truth because of course if they find that the plane was shot down, everybody is going to deny it and it is going to be very hard to prove it.

RT: We’re already hearing claims and counter-claims over who’s to blame. How quickly will we know the truth?

NC: It depends. If it was the Ukrainian authorities who shot down this plane it is going to be very politically bad for them for the truth to come out, so I would fear a cover up. It is very important that a truly international unbiased team of people goes there and launch a full investigation. It is going to be impartial people, we can’t just rely on Ukrainian government officials to come in and make allegations, and it has got to be done by independent people. 300 people have lost their lives; it’s an important tragedy, just think of the family members. For them and for everybody else we have to get to the truth of this and we mustn’t play politics on this issue. This plane, if it was shot down, we need to find who did it.

RT: What does this tragedy mean for Kiev authorities and the whole world?

NC: This is a wakeup call to the Ukrainian government to stop what it is doing. The hostilities against people in the east Ukraine must stop altogether now. Nearly 500 people have been killed by the Ukrainian government in recent weeks. When Colonel Gaddafi’s forces killed around 200 people in 2011 the US used it as a pretext for war against Libya. It was so-called humanitarian intervention. What is happening in the east is a humanitarian catastrophe, we have cities under siege, we have civilians killed, we have shelling, bombing of innocent people, and now on the top of that we have this terrible tragedy with 300 losing their lives. If the plane was shot down we can say for sure that this would not have happened had it not been for the Ukrainian government deciding to use military force trying to subjugate opposition to it. This was the wrong road; I say it all the time. And let’s hope now that this tragedy brings people to their senses and the Ukrainian government closes off its military campaign.

RT: Malaysian Airlines is in the headlines for the second time this year. If it turns out that this was a straight-forward accident – would this put the company’s future in jeopardy?

NC: I wouldn’t travel on Malaysian airways, would you after this? To lose 2 planes in 6 months is quite astonishing, quite incredible. Of course we still don’t know what happened to the earlier plane, people are talking about cover ups there. So I think it’s a very bad news for Malaysian airways, of course there are still questions to answer like why this plane was flying over that area today, whether it was on the correct flight path. It was flying over a war zone where missiles have been fired. It’s a war zone, so why it was flying over there? That’s just another question we have got to find out answers to really.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

[P]rotests against BBC coverage of Israeli military operation against the Palestinian refugee population in the Gaza strip are erupting across the UK, with thousands joining a call for fair, unbiased and contextual reporting of the events on the ground.

London, Manchester, Liverpool, and Newcastle saw marches to “protest at the BBC’s biased reporting”as well as to gather signatures for an open letter to the BBC Director General. London took the main stage of the protest movement.

Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Stop the War Coalition, Campaign against Nuclear Disarmament (CND) and many other organizations, in the letter to the publicly funded broadcaster, say that the company is “duty-bound to provide balanced reporting without bias.”

Instead, the organizers argue, the BBC’s reporting of Israel’s assault on Palestinians in the operation Protective Edge, fails to mention the years of occupation, deportations and siege Palestinians have lived through. “BBC’s reporting of these assaults is entirely devoid of context or background,” the organizers write.

The main protest point of a nationwide rally gathered huge crowds outside the BBC Broadcasting House in London.

Booing and demands for better coverage are just among some of the chants heard in the rallies across the UK, that reminded the BBC that “resistance to occupation is a right under international law.”

“When you portray Israel’s shelling of a civilian population as a ‘response’ or ‘retaliation’ to rocket strikes from Gaza, we would like to remind you that these events flow from the displacement of the overwhelming majority of the Palestinian people from their homes and communities,” the open letter reads.

In Liverpool, hundreds gathered outside the BBC Radio Merseyside to rally against Israeli attacks on Gaza and against biased reporting of the current situation. Organized by Liverpool Friends of Palestine and supported by Merseyside Stop the War Coalition, the event also became a venue to show solidarity with the Palestinian people and to call for peace and a ceasefire.

In Manchester “Stop the Bombing of Gaza” event also gathered a crowd. Organizers, in their call to action said that “Barack Obama, David Cameron and UK foreign secretary William Hague support“Israel’s right to defend itself” through killing “women, children and disabled people.” They gathered in Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester center to call for a change in Whitehall’s policy.

A vigil in memory of the Palestinian victims was also held in Newcastle. Similar anti-BBC demonstrations were also held on Sunday in the UK, including Glasgow and Edinburgh as well as Cambridge and Oxford. More protests are scheduled during the week.