Tag: Ben Rhodes

“Terrorism from the Sky”: Myanmar Junta Bombs Civilians, Killing 100, Escalating Attack on Resistance

Ms. Cat

Al Jazeera says at least 40 people were killed, whereas Western media is claiming 100+. Zarni is asking for Biden to release Myanmar’s frozen assets so that Myanmar’s “democratic resistance” can purchase more weapons.

“Terrorism from the Sky”: Burmese Junta Bombs Civilians, Killing 100, Escalating Attack on Resistance

And the second is China’s recent resumption of its backing of the military. China decided that they are going to back the military, because the democratic resistance is at least notionally backed by the United States and the European Union.

Related:

Myanmar military confirms air raid that killed dozens in Sagaing:

“During that opening ceremony, we conducted the attack. PDF members were killed,” Zaw Min Tun told the military broadcaster Myawaddy, referring to the civilian militias known as People’s Defence Forces.

…

Some media reports put the toll at more than 100 but Al Jazeera was unable to verify the figure. If confirmed, the attack on Pa Zi Gyi would be the deadliest in the country since the military toppled Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government in a coup in February 2021.

…

“According to our ground information we hit the place of their weapons’ storage and that exploded and people died due to that,” he added.

Myanmar Strikes Concert (at Rebel Army Base): How & Why the West Lies

US-backed Proxy War Against China Rages in Myanmar

U.S., allies may be planning Ukraine proxy war model for Myanmar

Notes on Zarni:

Read More »

On MSNBC and “Authoritarianism”

Ms. Cat

MSNBC opinion columnist Zeesham Aleem just penned the latest in what’s become a parade of hit pieces from mainstream outlets directed at me and other independent journalists. Even by the low standards of the genre, “How the populist left has become vulnerable to the populist right” is a humorous standout. It argues that after I spent a month detailing how the FBI, DHS, DOD, CIA and other agencies built a system for mass delivery of censorship requests to firms like Twitter and Facebook, I helped fuel a subculture that “could funnel people from leftism to authoritarianism.”

On MSNBC and “Authoritarianism”

Did the Syrian Revolution Have Popular Support?

Ms. Cat

by William Van Wagenen | Aug 3, 2022

In the mainstream view, the armed groups fighting the Syrian government since 2011, collectively known as the Free Syrian Army (FSA), were part of a Syrian revolution that represented the Syrian people. At the same time, the Syrian government, or Assad regime, allegedly represented only a small number of loyalists, in particular from President Assad’s minority Alawite community. Such a view undergirded demands by Western and Gulf-funded think tank scholars, who claimed that the Syrian people wished for FSA groups to be armed, and even for Western military intervention on behalf of the FSA, whose fighters they sympathetically described as rebels.

Did the Syrian Revolution Have Popular Support?

Majority of Americans Fear Nuclear Weapons Use After Russia’s Ukraine Invasion + What You Need to Know About the Threat of Nuclear War

Ms. Cat

Poll: Majority of Americans Fear Nuclear Weapons Use After Russia’s Ukraine Invasion

Related:

What You Need to Know About the Threat of Nuclear War – Robert Scheer Interviews Ted Postol

TP: We’re talking about a wall of fire that encompasses everything around us at the temperature of the center of the sun. That will literally turn us to less than ash, if this thing gets going. I can’t emphasize how powerful these weapons are. When they detonate, they’re actually four or five times hotter than the center of the sun, which is 20 million degrees Kelvin. They’re 100 million degrees Kelvin at the center of these weapons.

H/T: Natylie’s Place: Understanding Russia

On 10th Anniversary of the U.S.-NATO Attack on Libya: Powerful Perpetrators Have Yet To Face Justice

Ms. Cat

On 10th Anniversary of the U.S.-NATO Attack on Libya: Powerful Perpetrators Have Yet To Face Justice

Picking up the mantle of Ghanaian leader Kwame Nkrumah, Qaddafi at the time was promoting a Central African Court, and a Monetary Fund and Bank capable of lessening African dependence on Western financial institutions.

He was planning to re-nationalize significant parts of the oil sector, had spurned a building contract with Bechtel, a San Francisco-based construction giant which builds military bases, and had initiated 50 major economic projects with China.

Further, Qaddafi was beginning efforts to initiate a new currency with Libya’s vast gold and silver holdings that could undercut the French franc and U.S. dollar, and refused to cooperate with the U.S. military’s Africa command (AFRICOM), stating that he preferred it to remain headquartered in Europe.