First up: ‘US Justice Department forces RT America to register as “foreign agent”’, Trévon Austin, wsws.org, 10 November 2017
“Washington has given the outlet until Monday to register as a foreign agent or its director could be arrested and its assets frozen.
The move is a product of the ongoing anti-Russia witch hunt being led by the Democratic Party, together with the US intelligence agencies, aimed at delegitimizing and outlawing domestic political opposition.
The Justice Department’s actions will have a chilling effect on the numerous independent journalists who have either worked for or appeared on RT, as well as on press freedom in the United States as a whole.
“In demanding RT America register as a foreign agent, the government has produced no evidence that RT qualifies as a foreign lobbying outfit, nor has it bothered to explain how this network is different from Al Jazeera, the BBC, or other state broadcasters,” Max Blumenthal, senior editor for AlterNet’s Grayzone Project, and a regular guest on RT America, told the World Socialist Web Site.” [snip]
“The Director of National Intelligence report further denounced favorable coverage by RT of the Occupy Wall Street movement, declaring, “RT framed the movement as a fight against ‘the ruling class’ and described the current US political system as corrupt and dominated by corporations.”
The World War II-era Foreign Agents Registration Act required companies or individuals considered to be working on behalf of a foreign government in the US to disclose their funding and relationship with foreign governments or actors with the DOJ. According to RT, over 400 entities are registered under the act, but not a single media outlet is included in the list.”
Via RT Oct. 20: ‘NGO publishes names of 2,300+ RT guests, labels them ‘useful idiots who undermine Western democracy’ (includes 10 minute video)
“An NGO called the European Values Think-Tank has published a report on RT featuring an extensive list of US and European public figures who have been accused of “undermining western democracy” just by appearing in RT shows.
The report, claiming to be an “overview of RT’s editorial strategy and evidence of impact,” comes with an Excel list of 2,327 people who have appeared on RT over the last four years. The names are carefully arranged in seven categories, including US politicians, UK politicians, European politicians and so on, and are arranged in alphabetical order. The list mentions the shows the guests appeared on, the total number of their appearances, and gives hyperlinks to all the relevant episodes.” [snip]
“The report generally claims that RT is “an instrument of hostile foreign influence,” which has the sole purpose of “undermining public confidence in the viability of liberal democracy.”
It repeatedly discourages any public figures from potentially appearing on any of RT’s shows in the future, as those on the list are accused of boosting RT’s “credibility as a legitimate news network.”
The report asserts the opposite in no uncertain terms. It constantly describes RT as the “Kremlin’s mouthpiece” tasked with no less than destroying the western civilization and society from within.” [snip]
“The report was prepared by Monika Richter, who is described as an analyst at the European Values Think-Tank who works specifically for the “Kremlin Watch Program” – a project aimed at “exposing and confronting instruments of Russian influence and disinformation operations focused against Western democracies.” Richter also cooperates with the Atlantic Council – a US-based think tank, which is known for its staunch anti-Russian stance.”
Meanwhile, heightening the abject hypocrisy, David Love’s ‘Legislation Criminalizing ‘BDS’ Boycott of Palestinian Occupation Has Implications For Black Protest Movements’, atlantablackstar.com, Nov. 10 writes:
“A new piece of legislation working its way through the Senate has drawn attention for its attempt to criminalize boycotts against Israel. The bill would make it a felony punishable by a fine and imprisonment to support the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement against Israel for human rights violations against the Palestinians. From the civil rights era boycotts of segregated buses and businesses that did not cater to Black people, to the anti-apartheid struggles, boycotts have become an important part of the American legacy of free speech as enshrined in the First Amendment. Civil liberties groups and critics across the political spectrum have cited the chilling effect the bill would have on freedom of speech if enacted into law. The vague language of the legislation, harsh penalties, and a failure of lawmakers to read the text of the bill have caused its sponsors to reconsider their support.
The bipartisan-sponsored bill, S.720, also known as the Israel Anti-Boycott Act, would prohibit support for boycotts by international governmental organizations against Israel, with punishment for violators ranging from a penalty between $250,000 and $1 million, and/or up to 20 years in prison. In the Senate, the bill attracted 46 supporters [50 by today], 31 Republican and 15 Democratic, while the House version has 234 supporters from both sides of the aisle. Lobbying for the bill is the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)— the pro-Israel group that helped write the legislation and reportedly has made its passage a top priority this year. AIPAC has faced criticism for promoting the right-wing policies of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party, and competition from younger, progressive Jewish groups such as J Street, Jewish Voice for Peace, T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights, and IfNotNow, who oppose the occupation.
Also lobbying for the bill is the evangelical group Christians United for Israel. Pastor John Hagee, the founder of the organization, told NPR that “those who live by the Qur’an have a scriptural mandate to kill Christians and Jews. … It teaches that very clearly.” In 2008, Republican presidential candidate John McCain rejected Hagee’s endorsement due to his extremist views, which included claims that Adolf Hitler was a “hunter” of Jews sent by God to get Jews to return to Israel. The radical pastor also blamed the unraveling of America on “nasty” welfare recipients and “pedophile” immigrants.” [snip]
“A number of U.S. states have followed suit in the response to BDS. In 2016, New York became the first state to divest public funds supporting the BDS movement. Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order directing state government to compile a list of institutions and companies that engage in boycotts, divestment and sanctions against the Mideast nation through a parent or subsidiary. The governor also directed all state agencies and authorities to “divest their money and assets from any investment in any institution or company” on the list. North Carolina is poised to become the 22nd U.S. state to punish companies that do business in their state and participate in the boycott of Israel.”
Yes, the ACLU has objected to this bill, but apparently not to Elf Sessions’ demand that RT register as ‘a foreign agent’, nor have “…Amnesty International to the Committee to Protect Journalists, [thus having] made themselves accomplices in a McCarthyite crusade that is whittling away at press freedom”, according to what Max Blumenthal reported to Trévon Austin at wsws.
Let’s add this news to the Russophobia-beyond-the-pale Horror Show, as if the North Korean Horror Show weren’t enough already. ‘NATO wants Europe’s civilian infrastructure ready for war’, RT 8 Nov, 2017
“NATO needs civilian infrastructure in Europe to meet its growing military requirements, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said ahead of a meeting in Brussels. This will mean coordination with national governments and the private sector, he added.
Defense ministers from the 29 NATO states arrived in Brussels to begin discussions on a “revision” of the NATO Command Structure. What is envisioned is a new command to protect sea lines between North America and Europe, and another to “improve the movement of troops and equipment within Europe.”
Stoltenberg believes that a revision of NATO’s structure is necessary to tackle the alleged threat from Russia. Thus, for the purpose of “deterrence and collective defense,” the alliance wants European roads to be ready to handle the rapid mobilization of tanks, artillery and the like.
“This is not only about commands. We also need to ensure that roads and bridges are strong enough to take our largest vehicles, and that rail networks are equipped for the rapid deployment of tanks and heavy equipment,” Stoltenberg said Tuesday at the pre-ministerial press conference. “NATO has military requirements for civilian infrastructure, and we need to update these to ensure that current military needs are taken into account.”
NATO hopes that national governments and the private sector will cooperate to take the measures necessary, emphasizing that the European Union has an “important role to play.”
While troop and equipment movement across Europe will be demarcated, the proposed Atlantic Command, Stoltenberg believes, would strengthen the military bloc’s “ability to protect the sea lines which are so critical for a transatlantic alliance.”
From Brussels this week:
Watch #NATO SG @jensstoltenbergs press conf addressing decisions on @ResoluteSupport in #Afghanistan: https://goo.gl/89rvkv #DefMin
such shocking news! @NATO 9h9 hours ago
“Defence Ministers agree to upgrade #NATO Command Structure https://youtu.be/8SNEOJn1qg4 #DefMin
but my personal fave: “she has the firepower!!!”
From the ibtimes.com on Halloween Day: ‘Defense Department: The War On Terror Has Cost $250 Million A Day For 16 Years’
“American taxpayers have spent $1.46 trillion on wars abroad since September 11, 2001. The Department of Defense periodically releases a “cost of war” report. The newly released version, obtained by the Federation of American Scientists Secrecy News blog, covers the time from the September 11th terrorist attacks through mid-2017.
The Afghanistan War from 2001 to 2014 and Iraq War from 2003 to 2011 account for the bulk of expenses: more than $1.3 trillion. The continuing presence in Afghanistan and aerial anti-ISIS operations in Iraq and Syria since 2014 have cost a combined $120 billion.”, etc.
From Newsweek.com, Nov. 8: ‘The Cost of War for the U.S. Taxpayer Since 9/11 Is Actually Three Times the Pentagon’s Estimate’
“The United States military has spent more than $5.6 trillion on conflicts since 2001, more than three times the Pentagon’s actual estimate, according to a new study.
But that figure appears to underplay the real cost of war for the American taxpayer, at least according to the Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs at Brown University. It puts the total cost at $5.6 billion, or $23,000 per taxpayer.
The study examines not only the money spent by the Pentagon but also the State Department, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Homeland Security, for resources dedicated to the “war on terrorism.”
And as Nick Turse has amply demonstrated by pouring over various other budgets, many War costs are hidden, not publicly stated, and those have almost doubled the official “defense” budget.
Much of this and more is contained in Phil Rockstroh’s November 8th ‘No Proportion Kept: Within the Belly of the US’s Star-spangled Leviathan’, a few outtakes:
‘Ha, ha! keep time: how sour sweet music is,
When time is broke and no proportion kept!
So is it in the music of men’s lives.
~ Richard II’s lament from Act 5, Scene 5
“Given the (great unspoken) fact, the wealth of Western civilisation’s ruling class was created by, and is maintained to this day by, genocidal conquer-lust and its attendant, imperialist aggression and plunder, the acts of mass murder being perpetrated by (mostly) White males in the US reflect a culture that deploys military and police state firepower to maintain its dominant status. As Malcolm X averred, the chickens have come home to roost. Moreover, if there does not arrive a rendezvous with reality and an honest reckoning with the fact, the Law Of Perpetual, Homicidal Poultry Returns will continue, ad infinitum.
Daily life within an empire becomes a grotesque pageant wherein the collective aura of its citizenry oscillates between the manic and the grim, between cruelty and self-pity, from a reality-defiant belief in their victimhood to displays of bullying (also known as US foreign policy).
As noted, aggressors often view themselves as victims, and, in a manner, they are — withal, victims of their choice to surrender an independent mind to the soul-devouring machinery of a state and its cultural criteria that has grown monstrous. Their lives have merged with the dim beast, possessed of insatiable appetite, known as empire. After a while, the sum total of their knowledge of the world has been, exclusively, gathered from viewing the scenery within the belly of the US’s star-spangled leviathan.”
The rest is here, including several excerpts from poems by Federico García Lorca.
Updates: from wsws.org: ‘NATO summit escalates preparation for war with Russia’, Alex Lantier, 10 November 2017
And from RT today:
“On Thursday, RT America announced it will comply with the DOJ demand to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), but will continue to challenge it in court. The Committee to Protect Journalists stayed completely silent on the subject.
Comedian and former ‘Daily Show’ producer Jena Friedman, however, took up the slack and accused RT of attempting to “destroy” America’s “liberal democracy.” She also called comedians for RT America’s popular comedy-news show ‘Redacted Tonight’ “useful idiots.”
Media reacts. One asked why AIPAC isn’t required to register; how about The Times of Israel?
davidly
Greyson Smythe
LeMoyne
juliania2
ohiobarbarian
stephenadavis1
wendyedavis
café babylon 
oh, fie. the nato twitter account was being beautifully trolled, including by way of inspirational artwork. when i went back to grab a few, they’d been erased. but in an aha! moment, i’d wondered if there might be a #nato, and yep, two of them are parked there.
Hoo-Aa ! $0, it’s freedom of $peech to throw money into politics, but criminal to withhold it from U$rael; und it’s prohibitive to rebuild US’ civilian infrastructure, but Imperative to refurbish the Autobahn for EU tank traffic going east? And did his Hochness grant Rose (GodGrinder, InDeed!) instant absolution for her fallacious NAT0 contentions?? Inquiring menschen want T0 KN0W !!
goddess save me, bruce, i can pretty much decode this comment! but lookie! teh nato women are the new ‘It’…er…starship troopers.
Was Tony Podesta a registered agent of the Russian Federation or is that why he resigned from his lobbying firm and appointed a successor CEO who will lead it through bankruptcy and give it a new name to cleanse it of it’s taint?
The registered agent gambit is to get the spies registered as spies else charging them with not registering as spies. Far be it for the “indispensible nation” to have a cosmopolitan media that looks like the media in most other nations.
Folks like Max Blumenthal and Thom Hartmann got air time, thanks to RT, who would not have otherwise. The best counterpart is to look at Voice of American and Radio Free Europe. Once clandestine, those have been registered agents of the US (sanitized by an NGO structure) for some time.
The best tack for RT is to suffer the bureaucratic bullshit and hang in there. If they can build independent journalism from a base as a Russian Federation Agency, they can use their results to build credibility like the BBC did long ago and like PBS did during Watergate.
Of course, it’s Russophobia. Even Vicky Nuland raised her head and did an op-ed last week. Even as the chickens came home to roost and Herr T went to Japan, Korea, China, and Vietnam. And was all about telling the “Indo-Pacific” nations that they did not have to ally with China. I was hoping that Pepe Escobar was squirrelled away in several of Herr T’s stops. Also interested in Pepe’s most recent analysis on China — and then there’s Saudi Arabia/Israel v. Iran. The UK is almost completely paralyzed with BREXIT. And has paralyzed the EU. Spain/Catalan, Italy, Greece, Cyprus, and the Balkans are still dark spots on the map.
The Fulda Pass is no longer the place. The OBOR infrastructure is sited right through Afghanistan (at least on a bit of a pause) At the moment China looks like it has concensus to start moving out on construction (with other nations looking for economic benefits from the activity). China is in the position that the US was at the end of World War II. Lots of battered infrastructure and then the US, now China with the financial resources to to start economic development out of the recession.
Russia, US, and Saudi Arabia look to be maneuvering toward a fossil fuel cartel, with deals emerging between China and Alaska, pipelines being constructed to carry Russian fossil fuels to China, And beginning the spreading out of construction from the One Belt One Road projects. Shortly Xi will likely have some key military basing integrating with that. And some social initiatives.
Sorry! “Unholy Hypocrisy” this weekend looks like the Alabama politicians saying “I’d rather vote for a pedophile than a democrat. The translation for “democrat” in Repubican Alabama being “N…L…..” Old-time McCarthyite hypocrisy just got blown off the page by a then-32-yeqr-old-guy who politely asked 14-year-olds moms to take them out back; let that scene sink in.
wot? hadn’t i asked you to comment in cyrillic? ;-) but srsly, too much here to ping off. dunno the cast of characters, but i’d seen a headline that some herr hair friend is being investigated for trying to kindnap gullen to take back to turkey. now that’s ART!
for now, yeah, never heard of #RoyMoore (of course there’s a hashtag) until a periodic café commenter emailed me the story in four links. guess the wooden tablets he’d made didn’t include “thou shalt not cause chirren to fondle one’s **ck.” as someone i blogged beside years ago would say: ‘by the blood of sweet baby jesus!’ but i was zapped senseless by the mum who let her daughter go out w/ him cuz: ‘he looked like good husband material’.
sleep well, amigo; your DHS is awake and has yer back.
dunno about tony podesta, or are you just jesting a bit? you may be right about RT, but getting blocked on youtube (iirc) is another dimension. but the hypocrisy is epic. oh, an it was of course michael flynn and kidnapping gulen. i just haven’t paid much attention to the evolving/devolving cast of characters in this administration.
but RT has announced that putin says russia will do tit for tat, so…we dunno what that means yet. registrations? can’t see it. bbc seems to be another imperial mouthpiece, but perhaps it was better back in the day? we didn’t have pbs during watergate days, but i will take you at your word. now? oy.
dunno that i care much for hartmann, but pepe’s been there a lot, steve keen heterodox economist, friend of michael hudson, and keen had a whole list, but i’ve lost the link apparently. ooops, here it is. to snarky for satire, though, apparently not his forté. but he mentions the bbc.
yes, it is indeed russophobia, esp. coupled with the nato build-ups. almost hair-raising bellicosity and threats, which i guess is…part of the point. more later, chores, but a favor amigo?
with your comments packed so full and in so many directions, could you put them into a couple comments for my ease (and maybe others’?) of reading, absorbing, and answering?
on later edit: this may be pepe’s newest piece , xi’s ‘chinese dream’, dunno. loaded with deals, visions, funding sources (taiwan was kinda fun to read). i loved ‘neoliberal with chinese characters?’ wsws’s coverage of xi and trump was pretty raw, but then xi seems to want to ramp down ‘sino-phobia’, doesn’t he?
and of course i watch tsipras lay a hella lot of disgusting love on trump (“We share similar values!”) at the white house, and agree to waaay more than he should have in terms of upgrading their fleet of f-16s. w/ buying f-35s waiting in the winds. oh, and more and more access to ports, airports to stage nato military nations because: strained relationships w/ turkey. yeah, another elected man willing to act a comprador for the elites.
but no, i find the burgeoning support of the punishments for promoting bds israel far more unholy hypocritical than the AL senate ‘special election’. hell, i hadn’t even thunk about elf session’s seat needing to be filled, to say the truth.
‘Trump sets out economic war in address to Asia-Pacific summit’, Nick Beams 11 November 2017
under robert parry’s ‘Learning to Love McCarthyism’, consortiumnews.com
November 6, 2017, one of the 105 comments said:
“The Russia-gate “witch-hunt” has graduated from McCarthyism to full Monty Pythonism”
So why is The Donald ducking burning a witch even good King Arthur would have incinerated? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVMjgHFSAec
oh, my. i’ll add:
‘CNN should register as agent of capitalism’: Green Party VP hits out at RT ‘foreign agent’ tag’, via RT.
here’s one fine NGO that bryan macdonald (iirc) mentioned at RT: the george soros open society funded ‘european values‘ “Prague Declaration on seven urgent steps proposed by Western security experts: “How the democratic West should stop Putin” (no satire intended, i’m sure.)
“More than 110 European and American security experts and parliamentarians from 22 countries have signed this public call which urges Western leaders such as EU High Representative Federica Mogherini to “stop trying to avoid naming Russia as the main source of hostile disinformation” or to make pratical (sic) steps such as to “triple the capacity of EEAS East STRATCOM Team“.
a former blogging friend, ‘stratofrog’ finally succumbed to brain cancer two days ago. she died believing that russia/putin is the source of every woe plaguing the US citizenry, sadly. months i’d tried to get her partner to give her my email address so that i might ease her mind, but she wouldn’t, or didn’t do it. will she learn differently in the afterlife?
Very sorry about your internet friend’s demise, wendye. I had indeed read your diary, but it is always good to go back and catch the comments. When I looked at it there was just Tarheel’s reflections on the situation. I thought he covered what I would have said were I smart enough.
But on the subject of countries and their news outlets, I will just add that New Zealand is in a woeful state at present. Scoop has diminished to almost nothing, and thedailyblog is only good in the occasional perceptive comment as far as I can see.
Best would be ODT, Otago Daily Times, which I enjoy having lived in that part of the country.. But good news, another relative with a newborn has just been elected to Parliament, so she’ll be right mate, she’ll be right. (Actually I think that might be an Aussie song, but what the hey.)
i’m at least glad you read it, juliania, but i’m almost shocked by your non-reaction, and echoing THD’s. different strokes, etc., i reckon. but thank you for acknowledging stratofrog’s demise. she is/was a fine person, and a hippie to boot.
The news gets more depressing every day and so does my personal apocalypse. I reread the Rockstroh piece. Yup, he nails it on the head. Much as I loathe Trump, I think he’s less dangerous than this hysterical Russophobia which threatens our very freedom of speech. And to see even my closest friends falling for it…..thank God one of them is immune. Cheers to Doug! The one sane American left in my circle. (Or circles, I have a lot of friends, all but one marching in lockstep with the new McCarthyism).
And I had more bad news regarding my health: I have lost a total of forty pounds since the cancer treatments ended over a year ago. That’s a sign the cancer is back. I might not live to see my 60th birthday. My tax man who waited far beyond the deadline so as to lose me my Obamacare may well turn out to be my murderer.
yep, the daily news can certainly be depressing, and i reckon if you’re unwell, even more so. and all of the (unacknowledged) various proxy wars are individually horrific, but in combination…oy. and now up jumps trump’s ‘tax reform’, and it looks as though the Ds will just want to tweak it a bit, and pass it. i did try to hunt down some basic facts about it to ballast wsws’s take on it for a stand-alone post, but the 9-page summary seems to be vague. but rest assured, at least a trillion of corporate tax revenue lost.
glad you have one sane friend at least. but oh, my; what grievous news. is there a simple test to see whether the cancer actually has come back? i’m fairly sure that i remember you’re saying that at least obama care paid for your treatments. but meanwhile, are you using the spices and foods that are known to keep cancer cells from replicating, etc.? i think i gave you my ‘spices as medicines’ link, which i may have updated to include cbd oil, which i think you have now.
we’ll be sending healing thoughts your way, and i’ll add you to my sweet grass smudging before i sleep list. can’t hurt, anyway. did you ever get your email scene sorted?
Thank you Wendye, and it touched my heart you would include me in your sweet grass smudges.
I have been eating the yogurt. And I want to get the spices but haven’t been able to get to WalMart where I can afford them. The cancer tests cost thousands of dollars. I have applied to two charity programs so I might have them before my insurance licks in in January.a
i admit that when we’re out of sweet grass braids…sometimes i light cannabis buds instead, figuring that’s fine. ;-)
thousands of dollars, arrrgh. well, it’s good you’ve applied for charity aid, and i hope it comes thru. glad you’re eating the probiotic multi-strand probiotic greek yogurt, though. now turmeric’s (it’s the curcumin part of turmeric you’re after) available in caplet form, but many of the other ant-cancer spices may not be.
but for some of the rest: cumin, ginger, perhaps chile peppers, and of course turmeric again, if you have an indian restaurant that delivers where you live, you might consider ordering at least medium hot curry dishes to have on hand. some restaurants print their menus online, of course.
the ‘spices as medicines‘ link again at my overflow site…and best to you, c seeker. easy to say, hard to do…but try not to be sure the cancer is back. one day at a time.
some of you may have seen this ‘smoking gun’ touted at various russophobic websites, even, iirc, at emptywheel’s. Buzzfeed, jason leopold, “Secret Finding: 60 Russian Payments “To Finance Election Campaign Of 2016”
The FBI is scrutinizing more than 60 money transfers sent by the Russian Foreign Ministry to its embassies across the globe, most of them bearing a note that said the money was to be used “to finance election campaign of 2016’….
That wire transfer is one of more than 60 now being scrutinized by the FBI and other federal agencies investigating Russian involvement in the US election. The transactions, which moved through Citibank accounts and totaled more than $380,000, each came from the Russian Foreign Ministry and most contained a memo line referencing the financing of the 2016 election.” [We got em!]
well, it’s been updated to show that the money was actually to set up 364 polling stations places for russian ex-pats in 145 nations around the world.
but sure, the russians waited until After buzzfeed published it. and remember: buzzfeed news was on the propOrNot approved list with npr, wapo, ny slimes, wsj…
OT, but apparently today the NYT opined that a coup in Venezuela would be welcome. I wonder how many in the Venezuelan military read the NYT. So much else going on that it would be lost in the shuffle of Yemen, Somalia, Zimbabwe, BREXIT, Trump, etc. My guess is to watch for it or the raids that will prevent it.
the wapo had something similar, but my free clicks into the times and wapo are already spent. i wonder if this had anything to do w/ the current calls for a coup?
‘Venezuela’s Bond-Payment Delays Trigger ‘Credit Event‘ and this deal: “The same day, Venezuela and Russia signed an agreement to restructure the South American country’s debt in a 10-year deal. Venezuela will repay US$3.15 billion to Russia, beginning gradually with minimum payments for the first six years, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.”
but yes, if the military’s still w/ maduro…or unless the US sends in the marines for an r2p…
have the MSM taken note that ukraine is no longer in charge of their neo-nazis? somewhere i have an interesting RT link, and some it may have been via reuters.
When has Ukraine been in control of their neo-Nazis. At best, they voted them out of a parliamentary majority. What that looks like as a security situation is not clear. The DonBass is mostly in control of their neo-nazis; that’s what’s being called Putin’s occupation of Crimea. My guess is that western Ukraine is far from in control of its neo-nazis and is getting overflow from Hungary.
exactly, thd, and sorry i’d missed this earlier in my haste. hungary i dunno about, but apparently germans have joined the azov battalion in ukraine, and have spread the word in germany as well; militias are reported growing. the vibrant polish nationalist marches don’t sport the wolfsangel, but they may as well.
as to the newest iteration of inviting a putsch in VZ, it seems to have been a concerted and ugly effort. ‘US Calls Venezuela Global Threat at UN as EU Approves Arms Embargo’; The US chaired an informal meeting at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Monday to discuss the situation in Venezuela despite a boycott from leading members’
Nikki Haley rides again! She chaired an ‘informal meeting’ of the UNSC (espite a boucot by russia, china, egypt, and bolivia) on nov. 13, declaring:
“The crisis in Venezuela today poses a direct threat to international peace and security. Venezuela is an increasingly violent narco-state that threatens the region, the hemisphere, and the world.”
but jeebus, i’d totally forgotten this fukkkery:
“Last month, the European Parliament awarded the Venezuelan opposition its most prestigious human rights award in a highly controversial decision that was rejected by the legislature’s left bloc.”