Showing posts with label Germany. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Germany. Show all posts

Monday, October 17, 2022

Beyond Beltway Chatter: Caribbean to the Adriatic

World News and Context

MONDAY Morning Headlines

  • “Nobody takes Joseph Robinette Biden Jr seriously”
  • “Austria won’t train Ukrainian troops”
  • “India to begin producing upgraded version of iconic Russian weapon – official”
  • US-led NATO foolishly conducts “nuclear exercises”
  • “German health minister warns of hospital closures”
  • British Members of Parliament demand resignation of “Liz Truss”

USA Aggression and Southern European Slavs SUNDAY News and Background:

Serbian interior minister says EU is blackmailing Serbia. Brussels is opposing Serbia’s strengthening relations with Russia

Brief History

Yugoslavia after World War I (under the name the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes) became the first union of the South Slavic people as a sovereign state.

In 1922 the country gained international recognition at the Conference of Ambassadors in Paris; and seven years later changed its official name to Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

INVASION: In 1941, Major Axis powers German Reich, Kingdom of Italy, Empire of Japan invaded Yugoslavia

1945 Yugoslavia was renamed the Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia; and in 1963, the country took another official name: the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY).

INVASION 1990s: the William Jefferson Blithe III (Bill Clinton) era commanded - NATO bombing of the capital and environs of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (“Yugoslav Wars” / “Kosovo War of 1998 and 1999”). Kosovo shares borders with Serbia (north and east), North Macedonia (southeast), Albania (southwest), and Montenegro (west).

The USA-NATO “bombing campaign marked the first time that the US-led alliance used military force without the approval of the UN Security Council. The action “is still regarded by much of the world as illegitimate.” After the 1990s carnage, NATO troops moved into Kosovo, where they remain to this day.
Today’s REVELATIONS emerging in a televised address October 15, 2022:

“Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic reveals … that American and British leaders including President Bill Clinton, in 1999, urged Hungary to invade Serbia by land.

Vucic said that the US and UK wanted Hungarian forces to push south into Serbia in order to split the Yugoslav military between the front in Kosovo and a new front with Hungary. [However], “with the help of German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, (Hungary) pushed back against the ‘pressure from the White House.’ (Emphasis added)

History continues. After the breakup of Yugoslavia, Serbia formed a union with Montenegro; and changes occurred among neighbor in the years following.

  • 2006: Serbia and Montenegro dissolved their union and Serbia resumed its independence (as in 1918) as a sovereign state [Serbia formally adheres to the policy of military neutrality; and domestically, “provides universal health care and free primary and secondary education for its citizens].
  • 2008: representatives of the Assembly of Kosovo unilaterally declared independence; however, Serbia continues to claim Kosovo as part of its own sovereign territory.

Since 2014: Serbia has been negotiating acceptance by the European Union and entry into the bloc by 2025

Western Collective’s relentless Aggression, Pressure, Manipulation - News update

Over the weekend Serbia’s Interior Minister Aleksandar Vulin told the press that the European Union is pressuring Serbia to join their eastward aggression in exchange for entry into the European bloc.

“The question is not whether we want to join the EU,” Minister Vulin said, “but, rather, whether the EU wants Serbia.”

“Judging by the insane blackmail they are exposing us to …, they don’t want us;” and “the sooner we accept that they don’t want us and we don’t belong there, the better off we will be.”

“Belgrade should instead turn its attention to “free countries that accept us without blackmail.”
Serbia is a traditional ally of Russia that has come under intense pressure the join the Collective West’s relentless aggression (sanctions) against Moscow.

News sources
World News October 16, 2022 “EU blackmailing Serbia – interior minister
Aleksandar Vulin said that Serbs should accept that Brussels doesn’t want them, and strengthen relations with Russia instead”
World News October 8, 2022 “US asked Hungary to invade Serbia – Vucic: Viktor Orban refused Bill Clinton’s 1999 request to wage war on his neighbor”
Reference source Wikipedia, et.al

News and Background from the Home of Nuremberg


German politician serving as Minister-President of Bavaria Markus Thomas Theodor Söder is reported saying that the “Energy crisis will breed extremism” “Germany’s political parties must show a united front, or risk the ‘destabilization of democracy.’”
Apropos the Moment: Bavaria (Free State of Bavaria in Germany’s southeast) is home to the city of Nuremberg, site of the 1945-1946 Nuremberg trials, an international tribunal sitting in judgment of “German officials involved in war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

October 1946: many prominent German Nazi politicians and military leaders were executed in Nuremberg. The same courtroom in Nuremberg was the venue of the Nuremberg Military Tribunals, organized by the United States as occupying power in the area. Others trials were planned but canceled by the onset of the Cold War.

In the present, Bavaria’s Markus Söder is reportedly demanding a “protective shield” over Germany. Instead of giving them to Ukraine, “Berlin should use IRIS-T systems”—‘InfraRed Imaging System Tail/Thrust Vector-Controlled’ medium range infrared homing missile available in air-to-air and ground defense surface-to-air variants—“to protect Germany.”

 

BRAND USA: Yugoslavia to the Caribbean 1990s-2022

Republic of Haiti: third largest country in the Caribbean by area, estimated population 11.4 million; dominant language French, dominant religion Christianity, capital city Port-au-Prince
The current US president while a member of the US Senate “was among the most aggressive proponents of U.S. militarism in the former Yugoslavia, while arguing that intervening to reverse a right-wing coup in Haiti was not in the interest of the United States of America,” investigative reporter Jeremy Scahill wrote in 2021.

“From 1993 to 1994, Scahill reports, “Joe Biden’s foreign policy agenda was almost solely focused on agitating for more U.S. military involvement in Bosnia. Meanwhile, the Caribbean island-nation of Haiti was experiencing a brutal campaign of mass killings at the hands of a murderous military regime that had overthrown the democratically elected government of leftist Catholic priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide.”

Scahill noted one of the Honorable Senator’s infamous quips:

“If Haiti, a God-awful thing to say, if Haiti just quietly sunk into the Caribbean or rose up 300 feet, it wouldn’t matter a whole lot in terms of our interest.”

“A Half-Century of Joe Biden’s Stances on War, Militarism, and the CIA” Empire Politician (1994 U.S. Invasion of Haiti): A project by Jeremy Scahill, The Intercept, April 27, 2021, https://theintercept.com/empire-politician/biden-haiti-mass-killings-coup

The 2010 Clintons-Bush-Obama Haiti Affair

At the request of President Barack Obama, the "Clinton Bush Haiti Fund," a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, was established on January 16, 2010, for former US presidents George W. Bush and William Jefferson Clinton to lead aid efforts for victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake. The fund closed shop (formal operations) on December 31, 2012. Subsequent to that, Rastafari TV published an article titled “The Clintons' Blood Money Criminal Enterprise and Rape of Haiti, stealing billions of dollars” https://rastafari.tv/clintons-blood-money-criminal-enterprise-rape-haiti-stealing-billions-dollars/ The authors reported that

“On January 12, 2010, a massive 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti, devastating the island and killing over 300,000 people. … The devastation created new opportunities for predators to take full advantage of the situation and use the tragedy to prey upon the victims for personal gain and profit. The country was declared open for business; and while the Haitian people suffered, the Clintons cashed in."

“On January 2015, a group of Haitians surrounded the New York offices of the Clinton Foundation … chanting slogans, accusing Bill and Hillary Clinton of having robbed them of ‘billions of dollars.’"
The Haitian demonstrators kept up the actions in the following months “accusing the Clintons of duplicity, malfeasance, and theft;” and asking 

  • “‘Clinton, where’s the money?’”
  • “‘In whose pockets?’”

“We are telling the world of the crimes for which Bill and Hillary Clinton are responsible in Haiti.’”
 

Twenty-eight years from Biden's 1994 denunciation of the people of Haiti: October 4-17, 2022

“Police fire tear gas at protesters in Haiti amid fuel crisis: Haitian police have fired tear gas at demonstrators, who have taken to the streets in the capital, Port-au-Prince to protest against the government’s handling of crippling fuel shortages and soaring prices.” Press TV news October 4, 2022, https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/10/04/690355/Police-fire-tear-gas-at-protesters-in-Haiti-amid-fuel-crisis

“Haiti asks for foreign troops to end unrest… The Caribbean nation has seen severe fuel and water shortages amid chaotic protests and a new cholera outbreak. The island’s electric grid is notoriously unreliable, leaving many to rely on diesel generators for power.” RT news October 8, 2022, https://www.rt.com/news/564271-haiti-foreign-troops-unrest/
“The United States has drafted a United Nations Security Council resolution that will encourage the “immediate deployment of a multinational rapid action force” to Haiti to address the nation’s worst security and health crisis in decades, according to a copy of the resolution obtained by McClatchy and the Miami Herald.” Miami Herald “Exclusive: U.S. will support sending ‘multinational rapid action force’ to Haiti,” by Michael Wilner, Jacqueline Charles October 14-17, 2022 https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/haiti/article267336107.html


World and National Sources
Collage composed of individual Internet images
Composition, Compilation Commentary excluding quoted material and individual images
Copyright © Carolyn LaDelle Bennett
Author’s links
www.BennettsAmericanEpitaph.com
https://www.facebook.com/carolynladelle.bennett
https://insightbeyondtodaysnews.blogspot.com/
nolandanisland@hotmail.com


Sunday, October 16, 2022

USA Media Underreported …

Consequences of Collective West’s anti-Russia Sanctions: Protests across Western Europe

RICOCHET

NATO countries and affiliates
Republic of Italy since 1949
French Republic since 1949
Federal Republic of Germany since 1955
Czech Republic since 1999
Austria has cooperated with the aggression alliance since 1995 (https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_48901.htm)  via its affiliation with the 
 “Partnership for Peace (PfP)” and  “Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council”

Protests Underreported

CAPITAL OF ITALY’S REPUBLIC

Italy’s Unione Sindacale di Base (USB) led protesters who “burned energy bills in Italy’s capital city;” and on the streets, demonstrated “their anger at the ongoing cost of living crisis."
“The protestors also demanded an end to the Ukraine war, and an end to Italy’s involvement in NATO.”
OneIndia reporting October 16, 2022, “Italy: Massive protests due to cost of living crisis, opposition to NATO,” https://www.oneindia.com/videos/italy-massive-protests-due-to-cost-of-living-crisis-opposition-to-nato-3426730.html  

OCTOBER 9 REPORTING on protests

  • Czech Republic: Prague: “Thousands of people gathered in Prague’s Wenceslas Square protesting their government’s incapacity to address crushing costs of living,” and the “downgrade” in their standards of living.
  • Federal Republic of Germany: Berlin: “Protesters march across the city” and accuse the government of “waging a war against the German people by causing an energy crisis through the sanctioning of Russia.”
  • Republic of Austria: Vienna: A series of protesters on the streets of this capital city express the citizenry’s “dissatisfaction with their government’s incapacity to deal with the current economic crisis …, government’s ‘inactivity’ in addressing rising energy costs.”

Tasnim News Agency reports “Massive Rallies Held across Europe over Soaring Prices, Living Costs” https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2022/10/09/2785435/massive-rallies-held-across-europe-over-soaring-prices-living-costs-videos

 OCTOBER 11 REPORTING on protests

Business Daily October 11, 2022 France24: Long lines, shortages at fuel stations, “Frustration mounts as French drivers continue to face fuel shortages’ https://www.france24.com/en/tv-shows/business-daily/20221011-frustration-mounts-as-french-drivers-continue-to-face-fuel-shortages

OCTOBER 13 REPORTING on protests

Rfi October 13, 2022 FUEL CRISIS “Police order striking French petrol staff back to work,” https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/20221013-french-police-order-striking-petrol-staff-back-to-work

France24 October 13, 2022 “French strikes spread as government orders fuel depot staff back to work”

“French railway workers and civil servants voted to join striking oil refinery staff with a walkout (planned for the week of October 16) after the French government resorted to emergency powers to compel some fuel depot workers to return to their jobs in a bid to ease petrol shortages.”

Government officials had pressed companies to negotiate “fearing an escalation of tensions” heading into an October 16 planned “nationwide march against inflation…. Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told RTL radio that, given TotalEnergies’ huge profits this year, it had ‘the capacity… and therefore an obligation’ to raise workers’ pay.”  https://www.france24.com/en/france/20221013-totalenergies-must-negotiate-says-french-finance-minister-as-strikes-increase-fuel-disruptions
Rfi FUEL CRISIS October 13, 2022 “French media divided over who’s to blame for crippling fuel strike” https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/20221013-french-papers-divided-over-who-s-to-blame-for-crippling-fuel-strike

  • “Libération accuses President Macron of trade union bashing …, (refusing to) … comment on the huge profits being made by the energy companies and their share-holders.”
  • “Le Figaro (looks) the other way, saying that the government is running scared, having failed to see this disaster on the horizon.”
  • “Le Monde strives for impartiality, reporting the latest offer from the petrol companies, 6 percent for all petrol workers, next year (strikers want at least 7.5 percent, retroactive to 12 months).

OCTOBER 14 REPORTING on protests

Rfi France October 14, 2022 “French strike fever spreads as Macron’s opponents push for confrontation,”https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/20221014-french-strike-fever-spreads-as-macron-s-opponents-push-for-confrontation

OCTOBER 15 REPORTING on protests

France24 “Strikes persist at France’s TotalEnergies refineries, fuel depot,” October 15, 2022 https://www.france24.com/en/france/20221015-strikes-persist-at-france-s-totalenergies-refineries-fuel-depot

[TotalEnergies “runs about a third” of France’s “service stations”]

Wikipedia report: TotalEnergies
Revenue (Increase) US$184.678 billion (2021)
Operating income (Increase) US$30.5 billion (2021)
Net income (Increase) US$15.5 billion (2021)
Total assets (Increase) US$320.5 billion (2021)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TotalEnergies

Forbes report on Total SA
Revenue: $185.1 billion
Assets: $293.5 billion
Profits: $16.1 billion
https://www.forbes.com/companies/total/?sh=639c188e17e1

USA Connection

Total Petrochemicals USA Inc. is a subsidiary of Total SA (aka “TotalEnergies SE,” a French multinational integrated energy and petroleum company founded in 1924, its businesses covering the entire oil and gas chain, from crude oil and natural gas exploration and production to power generation, transportation, refining, petroleum product marketing, and international crude oil and product trading; and large-scale chemicals manufacturing) 

“Total Petrochemicals USA Inc.” was incorporated in1956 as “American Petrofina Inc.,” headquartered in Dallas, Texas, under the Belgian parent company, “Petrofina,” with the latter owning the majority of its stock. Today Total Petrochemicals USA is headquartered in Houston, Texas

Reference source Wikipedia
“TotalEnergies,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TotalEnergies
“Total Petrochemicals USA,” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Petrochemicals_USA

OCTOBER 16 REPORTING on protests

Republic of Italy, Rome: “Republic of High school students took to the streets of Rome to stage a protest that converged on the Education Ministry. Pupils were demanding more investment in education after what they call two decades of budget cuts and the country recording the highest school dropout levels in the EU.”

Heralding “a hot autumn of protests and strikes,” Italy in recent days has experienced many protests: Genoa airport operations were suspended for 24 hours earlier in the week “following a demonstration called by an energy plant’s employees against plans to close their factory;” in Rome, the largest trade union in Italy “staged a big demonstration… demanding more protection for workers.”
Press TV News October 16, 2022, “Italians take to streets for anti-government protests
https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2022/10/16/691025/Italy-anti-government-protest-energy-crisis-Rome-EU

  • French Republic: Paris: “Tens of thousands of protesters” demonstrated “against the rising cost of living,” “inflation,” and against “the leadership of President Emmanuel Macron…, plunging France into ‘chaos.’”

  • Al Jazeera News and agencies October 16, 2022 “Massive protest in Paris against inflation and climate crisis,” https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/10/16/massive-protest-in-paris-against-inflation-and-the-climate-crisis

Also

Rfi PARIS – PROTESTS: “Tens of thousands take to the streets of Paris in protest over cost of living, climate inaction,” issued on October 16, 2022, https://www.rfi.fr/en/france/20221016-paris-police-brace-for-sunday-protests-over-cost-of-living-fuel-strikes

France24 “Protesters march in Paris as fuel shortages add to anger over inflation…: Our lives are worth more than your profits’: Demonstrators take part in a protest by New Ecologic and Social People’s Union (NUPES), a coalition of left and green parties, against soaring inflation and what they call a lack of government action to fight climate change, in Paris, France, October 16, 2022, France24 October 16, 2022, https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20221016-protestors-set-to-march-in-paris-as-as-fuel-shortages-fuel-anger-over-inflation

“French refinery and fuel depot workers at five sites owned by oil giant TotalEnergies have extended their strike, union leaders said Saturday, compounding concern over petrol supply ahead of wider protests early next week.”


World and National Sources
Collage composed of individual Internet images
Composition, Compilation Commentary excluding quoted material and individual images
Copyright © Carolyn LaDelle Bennett
Author’s links
www.BennettsAmericanEpitaph.com
https://www.facebook.com/carolynladelle.bennett
https://insightbeyondtodaysnews.blogspot.com/
nolandanisland@hotmail.com


 

 

 

 

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