Ted Snider joined Scott on Antiwar Radio this week to talk about some concerning developments in Eastern Europe. They start with the tensions on the Polish-Belarus border where forces have been building up since Wagner forces moved in after the Prigozhin ordeal. Snider goes over what’s happening and what it might mean. They then talk about the Neo-Nazi compound in Maine whose leader claims to be training forces to go fight in Ukraine. They finish with some of the disheartening language we’re hearing about the backchannel talks between U.S. and Russian officials.
An American writer and political commentator says there was never any serious doubt that the United States was behind the toppling of the democratically-elected government of Prime Minister Imran Khan in Pakistan in April 2022.
“We have much to learn from our counterparts in these countries, including how to confront disinformation and violent threats to our democracies,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), pictured in April, said of the delegation to Brazil, Chile and Colombia. (Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times)
The agenda (which has not yet been made public) is expected to include meetings with Presidents Lula da Silva (Brazil), Gabriel Boric (Chile) and Gustavo Petro (Colombia) and parliamentary representatives. The legislators will also meet with civil society organizations that work “on the frontlines of ecological transitions, democratic transformations and peace negotiations in the countries,” the delegation explains in a joint statement. The trip seeks to “promote a U.S.-Latin American relationship based on mutual respect, understanding and a commitment to cooperation.”
Ocasio-Cortez, a key figure in the Democratic Party’s most progressive wing, and Misty Rebik, Sanders’s chief of staff (sent on behalf of the 81-year-old veteran senator), will be joined by four congressmen: Joaquin Castro and Greg Casar (both from Texas), Nydia Velázquez (New York) and Maxwell Frost (Florida), who is the youngest congressman in the House of Representatives at 26. Castro is a member of the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, which is part of the Congressional Foreign Affairs Committee. He recently spearheaded a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken to pressure Peru’s President Dina Boluarte over human rights violations occurring in that country. Casar is in his first term as a congressman and belongs to the Progressive Caucus, while Velazquez became the first Puerto Rican woman to serve in Congress in 1993.
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The defense of democracy is another ideal that guides the trip. According to the congresspeople, the “twin” insurrections on Capitol Hill, on January 6, 2021, and in Brasilia (on January 8, 2023) “made it clear that the fate of democracy in the United States is closely tied to that of its southern neighbors. “[Our] democracies,” they believe, “not only share the challenge of defending their institutions from political violence, disinformation and other forms of anti-democratic intervention; they also share the challenge of restoring confidence in the ability of those institutions to meet citizens’ fundamental needs.”
Ocasio-Cortez highlights another goal of the trip: exploring how to “confront disinformation and violent threats to our democracies.” The charismatic congresswoman adds that “it’s long past time for a realignment of the United States’ relationship to Latin America. The U.S. needs to publicly acknowledge the harms we’ve committed through interventionist and extractive policies, and chart a new course based on trust and mutual respect.”
Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, Congress has authorized $113 billion in spending on the war. If the new package is approved, the total will reach about $137 billion.
The Department of Justice is shelling out more than $6 billion to private companies to manage its asset forfeiture investigations, raising alarm from one nonprofit law firm that accuses police of “treating ordinary Americans like ATMs” and seizing their cash.
Citing a recent McCarthyite smear piece by The New York Times, Senator Marco Rubio published a letter on Wednesday that he’d sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland calling for the investigation of American leftist antiwar groups, claiming they are “tied to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and operating with impunity in the United States.”
YouTube has terminated the account of former US spy Scott Ritter and deleted all of his videos on the platform. According to Ritter, the Google-owned social media giant accused his channel of violating the terms of service.
In another provocative move directed at Beijing, former Japanese prime minister and virulent anti-China hawk Taro Aso recently visited Taiwan for three days. He met with senior government officials, including President Tsai Ing-wen and declared that Japan, the US and Taiwan should ramp up plans for war with mainland China.
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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