First They Came for Mahmoud Khalil…

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Trump Admin Is Trying To Deport Mahmoud Khalil for Speech That’s ‘Contrary’ to US Foreign Policy

The Trump administration is trying to deport 30-year-old Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder who was arrested by ICE agents over the weekend, for activity that is “contrary” to US foreign policy based on his involvement in protests critical of Israel’s war on Gaza at Columbia University.

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USAid employees told to destroy classified documents, email shows

USAid employees told to destroy classified documents, email shows

USAid’s office of the inspector general last year announced that it had initiated an investigation on agency oversight of Musk’s Starlink terminals being sent to and used by the government of Ukraine.

Related:

U.S.A.I.D. Official Orders Employees to Shred or Burn Classified and Personnel Records

In a volatile cabinet meeting at the White House last Thursday, Mr. Rubio vented his anger at Mr. Musk for the eradication of the aid agency.

On Monday, Mr. Rubio announced on social media that officials had canceled 5,200 aid agency contracts, or 83 percent of the total. The remaining 1,000 will be managed by the State Department, he said. And he thanked Mr. Musk’s team.

The State Department has not released details of the remaining 1,000 contracts.

Several hundred employees of U.S.A.I.D. will probably be absorbed into the State Department, aid agency officials say.

It is necessary sometimes to take one step backward to take two steps forward

Who said, “It is necessary sometimes to take one step backward to take two steps forward”?

The phrase “It is necessary sometimes to take one step backward to take two steps forward” is often attributed to Vladimir Lenin, the Russian revolutionary leader. He used a similar concept when discussing strategic retreats in politics and revolutionary movements. The idea emphasizes the importance of making temporary concessions or setbacks in order to achieve greater progress in the long run.

What work of Lenin’s is this from?

The concept of taking a step backward to take two steps forward is associated with Lenin’s 1904 pamphlet titled “One Step Forward, Two Steps Back” (“Шаг вперед, два шага назад”).

However, the phrase itself is somewhat reversed from the popular saying. In his pamphlet, Lenin was critiquing the internal disputes within the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party (RSDLP) and addressing what he saw as a setback in the revolutionary movement. The idea he conveyed was that a temporary retreat or setback could ultimately lead to a stronger and more unified movement.

The more popular version of the phrase, emphasizing a temporary step back to move forward, likely evolved from this original concept rather than being a direct quote.

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US ‘just about’ ready to lift Ukraine intel freeze, Trump says ahead of Saudi meet

US ‘just about’ ready to lift Ukraine intel freeze, Trump says ahead of Saudi meet

The U.S. is “just about” ready to lift its freeze on intelligence sharing with Ukraine, President Donald Trump said Sunday, as American and Ukrainian negotiators prepare for bilateral talks in Saudi Arabia intended to move toward a peace deal to end Russia’s three-year-old invasion.

The U.S. delegation in Saudi Arabia will include Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz. The Ukrainian team will be led by Andriy Yermak, the head of Zelenskyy’s presidential office. The U.S. side is expecting Ukraine to show willingness to make peace, Trump suggested on Sunday.

Trump and his top officials have said that both Ukraine and Russia will be expected to make concessions in pursuit of a peace deal to end Moscow’s invasion, which itself is only the latest chapter in more than a decade of cross-border aggression.

Trump last week suggested in a post to Truth Social that he was “strongly considering large-scale sanctions” and tariffs on Russia until a deal is reached, adding that Moscow “is absolutely ‘pounding’ Ukraine on the battlefield right now.” Trump also told a joint session of Congress he had received “strong signals” that Russia is ready to make peace.

The Kremlin has also cited a September 2022 Ukrainian decree in which Zelenskyy declared negotiations with Putin “impossible,” after Moscow claimed to have annexed four partially-occupied Ukrainian regions.

On Monday, Peskov told journalists that Russia’s read on this week’s meeting “is not important.”

“What is important here is what the United States expects at various levels,” he continued. “We have repeatedly heard statements that the U.S. expects the Ukrainians to demonstrate their desire for peace. That’s probably what everybody is waiting for. Whether the members of the Zelenskyy regime really want peace or not. Of course, this is very important and it is necessary to decide.”

Vladimir Lenin on Economic Disparity, Private Property, and the Need for Systemic Change

The Second Congress of the Communist International

In the United States of America food prices have risen, on the average, by 120 per cent, whereas wages have increased only by 100 per cent. In Britain, food prices have gone up by 170 per cent, and wages 130 per cent; in France, food prices—300 per cent,. and wages 200 per cent; in Japan—food prices 130 per cent, and wages 60 per cent (I have analysed Comrade Braun’s figures in his pamphlet and those of the Supreme Economic Council as published in The Times of March 10, 1920). 

In such circumstances, the workers’ mounting resentment, the growth of a revolutionary temper and ideas, and the increase in spontaneous mass strikes are obviously inevitable, since the position of the workers is becoming intolerable. The workers’ own experience is convincing them that the capitalists have become prodigiously enriched by the war and are placing the burden of war costs and debts upon the workers’ shoulders. We recently learnt by cable that America wants to deport another 500 Communists to Russia so as to get rid of “dangerous agitators”.

Even if America deports to our country, not 500 but 500,000 Russian, American, Japanese and French “agitators” that will make no difference, because there will still be the disparity between prices and wages, which they can do nothing about. The reason why they can do nothing about it is because private property is most strictly safeguarded, is “sacred” there. That should not be forgotten, because it is only in Russia that the exploiters’ private property has been abolished. The capitalists can do nothing about the gap between prices and wages, and the workers cannot live on their previous wages. The old methods are useless against this calamity. Nothing can be achieved by isolated strikes, the parliamentary struggle, or the vote, because “private property is sacred”, and the capitalists have accumulated such debts that the whole world is in bondage to a handful of men. Meanwhile the workers’ living conditions are becoming more and more unbearable. There is no other way out but to abolish the exploiters’ “private property”.

Over 1,000 Reported Killed, Mostly Civilians, as HTS Syrian Forces Attack Alawites

KernowDamo

The situation in northwestern Syria continues to spiral out of control this weekend, as the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) has been surging forces into the Alawite homelands in the Latakia and Tartus Governorates, clashing with Alawite militias and slaughtering civilians.

Over 1,000 Reported Killed, Mostly Civilians, as HTS Syrian Forces Attack Alawites