March 9, 2023

—DePaul Students Seek to Ban Student Religious Group As “Non-Affirming” of LGBTQ Rights__

We have often discussed DePaul University as a school with a long record ofspeech suppression, including cancel campaigns targeting journalists. Now the students are pushing to ban a new student group because it does not support LGBTQ rights. The group is “non-affirming” of LGBTQ rights and apparently must be made a non-entity by the university.

AChange.org petition demands the banning of a group called Vesselbecause it favors sexual restraint and calls itself “non-affirming” of the LGBTQ agenda.Hundreds have signed the petition, which declares:

“DePaul has a wide variety of religious groups on campus, but one in particular called Vessel is outwardly promoting that they are ‘non-affirming’ to the LGBTQIA+ community because of religious beliefs and claiming that it’s a ‘sinful’ lifestyle.”

It is anironic moment for the Catholic universitygiven the church’s religious position on homosexual sexual activity as a sin.

On an Instagram page that was later removed, Vessel posted a Q&A exchange, including a query of whether the group was “affirming of the LGBTQ+ lifestyle.” Vessel responded “We are non-affirming. This means that we do not agree the LGBTQIA+ lifestyle is supported by biblical text.”

I can understand why many students are offended by the position, but this is part of a diverse academic environment. There are many groups espousing support for such rights and lifestyle choices. That is the very essence of higher education in allowing a diversity of viewpoints and passionate but civil discourse.

Vessel told The DePaulia that they have tried to have such a dialogue:

We have reached out to those who have raised issues with our group (none of these people have attended or attempted to attend a meeting) in order to promote conversation and understanding, but none have followed up on this.

DePaul needs to reaffirm a commitment to free speech and a diversity of viewpoints. There is no need to endorse the views on either side. This is another effort to silence rather than debate those who hold opposing views.

Polls show that bothfaculty and studentsare now fearful in sharing their views in class or on campus due to this environment of intolerance.Faculty and administratorstoday are destroying higher education with their crackdowns on speech and viewpoints.

A recent survey of students at the University of Wisconsin found thatalmost sixty percent of students are afraidto share their opinions in class due to the intolerance on campuses today. It is only the latest such poll on how the orthodoxy and intolerance of higher education is having a chilling effect on student speech and class discussions. Notably, this is almost identical to earlier polling at other schools.

The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) has released a new survey of nearly 1,500 faculty members at four-year colleges in the US. Ideologically the survey of college faculty is consistent with other polls and surveys in showingthat over half of the faculty nationwide is afraid to speak freelyin the current atmosphere of intolerance and orthodoxy.

What is most striking about this and other surveys is that the number of conservatives on faculties is comparably very small. Yet,even liberal faculty now fear backlashfor speaking freely in classes or on campus.

https://jonathanturley.org/2023/03/09/depaul-students-seek-to-ban-student-religious-group-as-non-affirming-of-lgbtq-rifhts/#more-201779

March 7, 2023

“Teaching is a Political Act”: UNT Course Raises Questions Over Political Agendas in Public Education

There is a new controversy over political agendas in education after the release of course materials from the University of North Texas (UNT) for future K-12 educators. It is important to keep in mind that this isjust one school. However, the controversy raises, again, the question of whether universities are pushing a more activist model for education.

We saw a similar activist movement emerge out of journalism schools that is now taking hold in mainstream media. The concern over the UNT controversy is whether it is indicative of a wider effort that is causing manyfamilies to leave public education.

The material is derived from a course and syllabus on “Teaching as Advocacy for Equity.” The course focuses on “structures of social and educational inequality, as they relate to race, class, and gender” and how teaching can be “a form of intervention” to change society through “cultural reproduction.”

Conservative sites have flagged the material because of the highly political content. The course states that “while teaching has always been a relational and intellectual endeavor, we acknowledge that teaching is also both an ethical and a political act.”

It also includes a list of “core commitments” for future teachers that states “[w]e are activists working against injustice for young people, teachers, and communities rooted in racism and other forms of discrimination.”

The material relies on the work of the highly controversial Ibram Kendi. I have previously criticized Professor Kendi for his inflammatory rhetoric and attacks. Kendi, the director of the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University, previously attacked Justice Amy Coney Barrett over her adoption of two Haitian children and suggested that it raised the image of a “white colonizer.” He suggested that the children were little more than props for their mother.

In fairness to UNT, there has always been a role in education to reinforce core values in society. For most of us, that includes civic values and our commitment to principles of equality and due process. That is why we have long taught lessons on the desegregation movement, the teachings of Dr. King, and other defining aspects of our history and Constitution. However, we have seen a more political agenda emerge in recent years. That includes emphasizing that teachers are first and foremost “activists” as opposed to educators.

For many, the UNT material appears to promote teaching as a vehicle for political activism. That is precisely what parents are rebelling against in teachers treating them and their children as captives to some social agenda.

I previously wrote how some teachers and administrators arerapidly killing public education.

Many of us have advocated for public education for decades. I sent my children to public schools, and I still hope we can turn this around without wholesale voucher systems. Yet teachers and boards are killing the institution of public education by treating children and parents more like captives than consumers. They are force-feeding social and political priorities, including passes for engaging in approved protests.

As public schools continue to produce abysmal scores, particularly for minority students, board and union officials have called for lowering or suspending proficiency standards or declared meritocracy to be a form of “white supremacy.” Gifted and talented programs are being eliminated in the name of “equity.”

Once parents have a choice, these teachers lose a virtual monopoly over many families, and these districts could lose billions in states like Florida.

This is precisely why school systems like the Seattle public schools are facing budget shortfalls as families vote with their feet. These families want a return to the educational mission that once defined our schools.

Of course, this material maintains that political agendas are the educational mission. However, they may find fewer and fewer families are willing tosupply their childrenfor such political indoctrination.

https://jonathanturley.org/2023/03/07/teaching-is-a-political-act-training-course-raises-additional-questions-over-political-agendas-in-public-education/

(The Trilateral Commissions goal was to infiltrate Unions, Education and government, to get the US into their Cabal of one world government. Their main complaint was our constitution and bill of rights, blocked their rapid progress)

Trilateral Commission: The Secret Circle That Controls Governments

One group has been virtually forgotten. Its influence is enormous. It hasexisted since 1973.

It’s called the Trilateral Commission (TC).

Keep in mind that the original stated goal of the TC was to create “a new international economic order.”

In the run-up to his inauguration after the 2008 presidential election, Obama was tutored by the co-founder of the Trilateral Commission, Zbigniew Brzezinski.

In 1969, four years before birthing the TC with David Rockefeller, Zbigniew Brzezinski wrote: “[The]nation state as a fundamental unit of man’s organized life has ceased to be the principal creative force. International banks and multinational corporations are acting and planning in terms that are far in advance of the political concepts of the nation state.”

Goodbye, separate nations.

Any doubt on the question of TC goals is answered by David Rockefeller himself, the founder of the TC, in his Memoirs (2003): “Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizingmy family and me as ‘internationalists’ and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure—one world, if you will. If that is the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it.”

Patrick Wood, author of Trilaterals Over Washington, points out there are only87 members of the Trilateral Commissionwho live in America. Obama appointed eleven of them to posts in his administration.

For example:

Tim Geithner, Treasury Secretary;

James Jones, National Security Advisor;

Paul Volker, Chairman, Economic Recovery Committee;

Dennis Blair, Director of National Intelligence.

Here is a stunning piece of forgotten history, a 1978 conversation between a US reporter and two members of the Trilateral Commission. (Source: Trilateralism: The Trilateral Commission and Elite Planning for World Management; ed. by Holly Sklar, 1980, South End Press, Pages 192-3).

The conversation was public knowledge at the time.

Anyone who was anyone in Washington politics, in media, in think-tanks, had access to it. Understood its meaning.

But no one shouted from the rooftops. No one used the conversation to force a scandal. No one protested loudly.

The conversation revealed that theentire basis of the US Constitution had been torpedoed, that the people who were running US national policy (which includes trade treaties) were agents of an elite shadow group. No question about it.

And yet:official silence. Media silence. The Dept. of Justice made no moves, Congressundertook no serious inquiries, and the President, Jimmy Carter, issued no statements.

Carter was himself an agent of the Trilateral Commission in the White House. He had been plucked from obscurity by David Rockefeller, and through elite TC press connections, vaulted into the spotlight as a pre-eminent choice for the Presidency.

The following 1978 conversation featured reporter, Jeremiah Novak, and two Trilateral Commission members, Karl Kaiser and Richard Cooper. The interview took up the issue of who exactly, during President Carter’s administration, was formulating US economic and political policy.

The careless and off-hand attitude of Trilateralists Kaiser and Cooper is astonishing. It’s as if they’re saying, “What we’re revealing is already out in the open, it’s too late to do anything about it, why are you so worked up, we’ve already won…”

(Anons if you haven’t studied and researched the Trilateral Commission, they created the basis of social causes destroying countries and every other danger to the US today. They had to destroy our nation so they had to destroy the Constitution and bill of rights. In the 60s early 70s, when the youth were protesting Viet Nam, Zibiniew Brezinski said “the youth in America have too much free speech, we got to stop this”. Is there any question why education has been seized by radicals?)

https://www.technocracy.news/trilateral-commission-the-secret-circle-that-controls-governments/

>>18479327

2nd half of the article

Trilateral commission

NOVAK (the reporter): Is it true that a private [Trilateral committee] led by Henry Owen of theUS and made up of [Trilateral] representatives of the US, UK, West Germany, Japan, France and the EECis coordinating the economic and political policies of the Trilateral countries [which would include the US]?

COOPER: Yes, they have met three times.

NOVAK: Yet, in your recent paper you state that this committee should remain informal because to formalize ‘this function might well prove offensive to some of the Trilateral and other countries which do not take part.’Who are you afraid of?

KAISER: Many countries in Europe would resent the dominant role that West Germany plays at these [Trilateral] meetings.

COOPER: Many peoplestill live in a world of separate nations, and they would resent such coordination [of policy]. (Hence the creation of EU, imo)

NOVAK: But this [Trilateral] committee is essential to your whole policy. How can you keep it a secret or fail to try to get popular support [for its decisions on how Trilateral member nations will conduct their economic and political policies]?

COOPER: Well, I guessit’s the press’ job to publicize it.

NOVAK: Yes, but why doesn’t President Carter come out with it and tell the American people that [US] economic and political power is being coordinated by a [Trilateral] committee made up of Henry Owen and six others? After all, if [US] policy is being made on a multinational level, the people should know.

COOPER: President Carter and Secretary of State Vancehave constantly alluded to this in their speeches. [a lie]

KAISER: It just hasn’t become an issue.

This interview slipped under the mainstream media radar, which is to say, it was buried. US (and other nations’) economic and political policy run by a committee of the Trilateral Commission—the Commission created in 1973 by David Rockefeller and his sidekick, Zbigniew Brzezinski.

When Carter won the presidential election (1976), his aide, Hamilton Jordan, said that if after the inauguration, Cy Vance and Brzezinski came on board as secretary of state and national security adviser,“We’ve lost. And I’ll quit.” Lost—because both men were powerful members of the Trilateral Commissionand their appointment to key positions would signal a surrender of White House control to the Commission.

Vance and Brzezinski were appointed secretary of state and national security adviser, as Jordan feared. But he didn’t quit. He became Carter’s chief of staff.

Now considerthe vast propaganda efforts of the past 40 years, on so many levels, to install the idea that all nations and peoples of the world are a single Collective.

From a very high level of political and economic power, this propaganda op has had the objective of grooming the population for a planet that is one coagulated mass, run and managed by one force. A central engine of that force is the Trilateral Commission.

How does a shadowy group like the TC accomplish its goal? One basic strategy is:destabilize nations; ruin their economies; send millions and millions of manufacturing jobsoff to places where virtual slave labor does the work; adding insult to injury, export the cheap products of those slave-factories back to the nations who lost the jobs and further undercut domestic manufacturers, forcing them to close their doors and fire still more employees.

And then solve that economic chaos by bringing order.

What kind of order?

Eventually, one planet, with national borders erased, under one management system, with a planned global economy, “to restore stability,” “for the good of all, for lasting harmony.”

The top Trilateral players, in 2008, had their man in the White House, another formerly obscure individual like Jimmy Carter: Barack Obama. They had new trade treaties on the planning table After Obama was inaugurated for his first term, he shocked and astonished his own advisors, who expected him, as the first order of business, to address the unemployment issue in America. decided to opt for his disastrous national health insurance policy—Obamacare. Obama never had any intention of trying to dig America out of the crash of 2008=.

So that, one day, a student would ask his teacher, “What happened to the United States?”

And the teacher would say, “It was a criminal enterprise based on individual freedom. Fortunately, our leaders rescued the people and taught them the superior nature of HARMONY AND COOPERATION.”

—The rough, uneven, and challenged nationalism surfacing in a number of countries is evidence that many people are waking up from the Trilateral-induced trance…

https://www.technocracy.news/trilateral-commission-the-secret-circle-that-controls-governments/

15-Minute Cities Are Technates In Disguise

The Guardian’s Oliver Wainwright recently discussed a new “international socialist conspiracy” that has taken the world by storm. “Fringe forces of the far left,” he noted, “are plotting to take away our freedom to be stuck in traffic jams, to crawl along clogged ring roads and trawl the streets in search of a parking spot.” The name of this “chilling global movement?” he asked, sarcastically and somewhat contemptuously: The “15-minute city.” Wainwright believes these cities are simply part of a “mundane planning theory.” He’s wrong.

A few days after Wainwright’s piece was published,three academics called 15-minute cities (FMCs) “the hottest conspiracy theory of 2023.” In a truly elitist manner, they poked fun at those who dared to question the motive behind FMCs.

One needn’t be a card-carrying QAnon member to have fears over these Trojan-like creations. Before going any further, it’s important to get our definitions in order. As the political scientist Kelly M. Greenhill has noted,not all conspiracy theories are wacky, and not all conspiracy theories are wrong.Take the Watergate conspiracy theory, for instance, or the fact that Edith Wilson made most of the executive decisions after her husband, President Woodrow Wilson, suffered a stroke. Quite often conspiracy theories turn out to be accurate.

Also known as smart cities, FMCs are places where everything imaginable, from your place of work to your favorite pizzeria, is accessible either by foot or bike (not by car, though; they will be verboten) in 15 minutes or less. What’s so bad about this?

On first inspection, very little. We are, after all, creatures of comfort. We live in a world where the mantra “Too Long, Didn’t Read (TL;DR)” now reigns supreme. We crave convenience; we crave expediency. However, expediency isn’t always a good thing; sometimes it’s downright dangerous. This is especially true when people, either consciously or otherwise, trade their freedom for ease of access to certain services. FMCs may make it easier for citizens to get from A to B, but these creations will also make it easier for those in power to spy on us, to harvest our data, and enable Big Brother to become Bigger Brother.

As I write this, FMCs are being actively championed by the World Economic Forum (WEF), the group behind the “Great Reset” and the idea of owning nothing, having absolutely no privacy, and being very happy. This fact alone should concern all readers.

Want to discuss the WEF?

To many, I’m sure FMCs sound incredibly cool. But don’t be fooled by the name.FMCs are actually “smart cities.”

As I have noted elsewhere, the word “smart” is really just a synonym for surveillance. These ultra-modern, tech-saturated monstrosities use hundreds of thousands of sensors to vacuum up copious amounts of personal data.

FMC policies are currently being rolled out in cities such as Barcelona, Bogotá, Melbourne, Paris, and the dystopian wasteland known as Portland. What do these cities have in common? Surveillance technology. Between now and 2040, cities right across the United States (and beyond) are predicted to spend trillions of dollars on the installation of additional cameras and biometric sensors. Sure, surveillance is bad now. But, as Randy Bachman famously hollered, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

By 2050, more than two-thirds of the world’s population will live in closely surveilled urban centers, like glorified rats in cramped cages. Contrary to popular belief, we no longer live in a panoptic society. When Jeremy Bentham, the English philosopher and social theorist, put forward the idea of this prison system, there was no internet. In truth, there weren’t even cars. We now live in a post-panoptic world—a digital panopticon, if you will—with huge social media platforms collecting personal user data before selling it to the highest bidder.

The companiesrunning these platforms often work closely with government officials, identifying supposed sinners and punishing them in the swiftest of manners. As the writer Kylie Lynch has noted, _these companies know absolutely everything about you; they have instant access to your browser history, your activity online, and now, rather worryingly, even your biometrics.__Not surprisingly, these Big Tech companies will have a big impact on the FMCs of the future, by providing the underlying digital infrastructure needed to monitor us and ensure mass compliance.

FMC are wolves in sheep’s clothing. Don’t believe the countless stories telling you otherwise. It has become common for elitist, mainstream outlets to poke fun at those who dare to question the “we have your best interests at heart” narratives. We have been burned too many times before…

https://www.technocracy.news/15-minute-cities-are-technates-in-disguise/

>>18479501

Is PDJTs policy goal of “Freedom Cities” in response to the diabolical goal of “Fifteen Minute Cities”?

I think so!

10 Mar, 2023 13:54

Some ‘sober thinking’ left in Ukraine – Kremlin

A senior Kiev official recently admitted that an increasing portion of the country’s population wants peace talks with Moscow

Some Ukrainians are realistic about future relations between Russia and Ukraine, which are bound to be restored in some capacity sooner or later, Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov suggested on Friday.

Speaking to reporters, Peskov said that while it was premature to talk about a diplomatic settlement of the conflict, “there are still small streams of sober thinking” in Ukraine about ties between Moscow and Kiev, despite “the flood of propaganda filled with hated of Russia” and “efforts to brainwash the Ukrainian population.”

Relations between the two countries are “inevitable, because we are neighbors, that’s obvious,” he added.

Peskov’s comments come after Aleksey Danilov, the head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, admitted on Thursday that an increasing number of Ukrainians would like to see diplomatic engagement with Moscow to end the conflict. According to Danilov, such thinking is a “very dangerous tendency” andone that is even shared by some people in western Ukraine, a region that for decades has traditionally been ill-disposed towards Russia.

Moscow has repeatedly said that it is open to talks with Kiev on condition that the latter recognizes the “reality on the ground,”referring to the new status of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, as well as Kherson and Zaporozhye Regions, as part of Russia. The former Ukrainian regions overwhelmingly voted to join Russia in public referendums last autumn.

However, also last autumn, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky signed a decree prohibiting talks with the current Russian leadership. Later, he floated a ten-point “peace formula” that would require Moscow to withdraw all of its troops from the territory Kiev claims as its own. Russia rejected the proposal, claiming that it shows Ukraine’s unwillingness to find a solution to the crisis.

In January, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also said that while Moscow is “ready to respond to all serious proposals” to resolve the conflict, it is “the West which decides for Ukraine,” and it does not give Kiev any chance to make decisions on its own.

https://www.rt.com/russia/572762-sober-thinking-ukraine-relations/

When their own people oppose this war, its a sign that reality is kicking in. The problem is will Kiev start killing their own Ukrainians, like they did to Ethnic Russians?

10 Mar, 2023 11:32

Ukraine conflict being fueled by empires – PopeFrancis

The interests of several countries, not just Russia, are driving the hostilities, the pontiff said

Russia is not the only “empire” whose interests are driving the conflict in Ukraine, Pope Francis said in an interview with Swiss television RSI, set to be released on Sunday. Excerpts from the interview were published on Friday by several Italian outlets.

Asked about the ongoing conflict between Moscow and Kiev, the Pope noted that it hadgrown into a “world war” where “the great powers are all entangled.”

“The battlefield is Ukraine. Everyone is fighting there. This makes industry think of weapons,”the Pontiff commented.

He mentioned that on the second day after Russia launched its military offensive against Ukraine, he went to the Russian embassy and offered to travel to Moscow to personally negotiate with President Vladimir Putin. However, he said he was told by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that it was “not the time.”

The pontiff stated that Putin knows that the option to negotiate peace is always available, but acknowledged that there are “imperial interests” at play in the Ukrainian conflict, and “not only of the Russian empire, but of empires elsewhere.”

“It is the empire’s business to put nations second,”proclaimed the Pope. (oh like the Vatican?)

Francis has repeatedly called for a peaceful end to the hostilities that have gripped Ukraine over the past year. However, after suggesting that the conflict was “perhaps somehow either provoked or not-prevented” and thatthere is an “interest in testing and selling weapons” at play, the Pope did point out that he is not a supporter of Putin.

“It would be simplistic and erroneous to say such a thing,” insisted the Pontiff in an interview in June, adding “I am simply against turning a complex situation into a distinctionbetween good guys and bad guys, without considering the roots and self-interests, which are very complex.”

The Pope made similar remarks in an interview with Spanish paper ABC in December, where he also suggested that “war is being waged when an empire begins to weaken. And when there are weapons to be used, tested and sold.The stakes are high.”

Moscow, meanwhile, has repeatedly described the conflict in Ukraine as a “proxy war” being waged against it by the US and its allies. Putin has pointed out that the West is now seeking a global conflict, with some NATO officials openly calling for the “strategic defeat of Russia.”

He has also pinned the blame for the Ukraine conflict on Kiev and its Western backers who started the war against the people of Donbass in 2014. He noted, however, that althoughRussia “did not start the military activities,” it is now trying to end them.

https://www.rt.com/news/572749-pope-francis-ukraine-empires/

Amazingly clear assessment!

10 Mar, 2023 14:05

Baltic state PM compares Russian strikes in Ukraine to Red Army in WWII

Kaja Kallas has accused Moscow of using the same tactics the Soviet Union used fighting Nazis in her native Estonia

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas has compared Russian strikes in Ukraine to the 1944 bombing of Tallinn by the Red Army during the liberation of her country from the Nazis in World War II.

“79 years ago Soviet planes bombed Tallinn and destroyed almost a quarter of the city,”Kallas wrote on Twitter on Thursday. Kallas, whose Reform Party won the parliamentary election on Sunday, accused Russia of using “the same terror tactics” in Ukraine. Some Twitter users quickly pointed out in the comments that her post failed to mention the historical context.

In October 1939, a month after war broke out in Europe with the German invasion of Poland, Estonia agreed to let Soviet troops be stationed in the country. The parliamentary election held the following summer brought a pro-Moscow left-wing party to power, which in 1940 declared the Baltic country a Soviet republic and approved its accession to the Soviet Union the same year.

In June 1941, Adolf Hitler’s forces attacked the Soviet Union and occupied Estonia. The Red Army returned in 1944, pushing the Nazis out and re-establishing control.

Since regaining independence during the breakup of the Soviet Union, Estonian authorities have portrayed the 1940 events as an “annexation” — a description which Moscow has repeatedly rejected.

“We don’t accept the very concept of the ‘Soviet occupation’, which is being used in attempts to interpret the liberation of European nations from the fascist enslavement,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in 2019.

Russia has condemned instances of glorification of former Nazi collaborators in Estonia, including the annual gatherings of veterans of the Estonian Legion and 20th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS.

Moscow launched a military offensive in Ukraine a year ago, citing the need to protect the people of Donbass and Kiev’s failure to implement the 2014-2015 Minsk peace accords. President Vladimir Putin said one of the objectives of the offensive was the “denazification” of Ukraine.

Russia stepped up strikes on Ukrainian territory in response to the bombing of the strategic Crimean Bridge in October. The Russian Defense Ministry said on Thursday that it had conducted a “retaliation strike” on military sites and energy facilities in response to last week’s raid into Russia’s Bryansk border region. Officials in Moscow have stated that the Russian Armed Forces only hit military-linked targets.

(Three countries in EU taken over by dodgy elections with women winning are Estonia, Moldova and Georgia, all anti Russia. Wouldn’t surprise me if they are all acolytes of HRC, funded by Soros orgs)

https://www.rt.com/russia/572761-estonia-red-army-wwii/

10 Mar, 2023 13:30

Ukraine’s SBU assigns blame for destruction of world’s largest aircraft(the dog ate my homework excuse)

The Antonov An-225 Mriya was lost because efforts to fortify an airfield were blocked, the agency alleged

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) hasaccused three employees of the owner of a key airport near Kievof blocking an attempt to fortify the facility against a potential attack, a failure that resulted in the destruction of the world’s largest aircraft, the Soviet-made An-225 Mriya transport plane, the agency claimed on Friday.

The aerial leviathan, which was capable of airlifting some 250 tons of cargo, was based at the airport near the city of Gostomel in Kiev Region, some 10km from the northwestern outskirts of the Ukrainian capital. It is operated by a subsidiary of state-owned aircraft manufacturer Antonov.

According to the SBU’s allegations, in January and February 2022, Sergey Bychckov, the CEO of Antonov at the time, and several of his subordinates conspired to stop the Ukrainian National Guard from preparing the site for defense against a possible Russian attack. The Gostomel Airport was one of the key targets of the Russian troops that advanced into Ukraine in the initial days of the military operation in late February of last year.

The facility was captured in a lightning offensive by Russian airborne troops, while it was a Ukrainian attempt to take it back that resulted in the destruction of the An-225 in its hangar.The plane reportedly came under Ukrainian artillery fire during the battle. Russian troops pulled away from Kiev in March 2022 in what the Defense Ministry described as a gesture of goodwill after progress was made in peace talks.

SBU head Valery Malyuk alleged that the suspects “de facto helped the enemy destroy one of the symbols of Ukraine” and pledged that his agency would go to any lengths to hold them accountable. The security service reported on Friday having arrested two suspects, adding that the third, the head of airport security, remained on the run. They face up to 15 years in prison.

Built in the 1980s, the An-225 is considered one of the most impressive achievements of the Soviet aerospace industry. It was designed to transport the Buran space shuttle from outside of Moscow to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. However, the demise of the Soviet reusable spacecraft limited its role.

Ukrainian officials claim their country will produce a new aircraft of the same design. “Like Ukraine, the Mriya cannot be destroyed,”Malyuk stated.. (Kek, Ukraine destroys everything they touch!)

https://www.rt.com/russia/572756-sbu-charges-mriya-destruction/

10 Mar, 2023 13:30

EU has almost exhausted options to punish Russia – Borrell

The bloc needs to shift its attention to financial and military support for Ukraine, its top diplomat said

The EU haslimited options remaining for new sanctionsit can impose on Russia, the bloc’s foreign affairs chief, Josep Borrell, admitted in an interview with Euractiv on Friday. He argued that the EU should instead seek other ways to support Ukraine.

“There is not much more to do from the point of view of sanctions, but we can continue to increase financial and military support,” Borrell told the outlet following a meeting of EU defense ministers.

He claimed that one year after Russia launched its military campaign in Ukraine, it would be “strange” if the EU still had significant options left. “We have been using our step-by-step process, and we have been incremental – maybe sometimes too incremental,” Borrell stated.

The EU has unveiled 10 sanctions packages against Moscow since it launched its offensive against Ukraine in late February last year. Borrell acknowledged that the bloc was “getting to the end of the ladder,” and instead suggested focusing on support for Kiev.

“Ukraine needs a lot of money just to keep the machinery working, a state at war has a lot of financial needs – this will require a lot of effort from our side – so sanctions and military support are not everything,” Borrell insisted, also claiming that it was Europe’s responsibility to support Kiev by providing arms and ammunition.

In the same interview, Borrell proposed converting the bloc’s financial capacity into military capabilities, in a bid to affect the front line and boost training for Ukrainian soldiers. He has previously suggested reimbursing €1 billion ($1.06 billion) to EU member states for providing Kiev with ammunition.

Borrell’s comments come after EU defense ministers agreed on Wednesday to speed up the supply of 155-millimeter ammunition to Ukraine. Asked if the initiative could extend to heavy weaponry, the diplomat said the EU “could be equally fast for other needs.”

(The EU must not read Russian news, Russia built up their armament production two months ago and extended it to three shifts, seven days a week. And announced they have recruited up to 5 million soldiers, many on standby. Giving Ukraine more arms will be expended and ruined because they are amped up on amphetamines and other toxic drugs, plus the majority of their competent soldiers are dead, and they are recruiting old men and young boys now. EU will never learn their lesson. But it’s worse every EU country has given all arms and none of them can protect themselves if war erupts with another country)

https://www.rt.com/news/572760-eu-russia-sanctions-exhausted/

10 Mar, 2023 15:28

Canadian judge gives middle finger the thumbs up

An aggrieved neighbor brought the defendant to court over the one-fingered salute, which the judge ruled is a “God-given right”

A Montreal judge has ruled that giving someone the finger is the “God-given right” of every Canadian. The gesture landed a man in court, with his neighbor accusing him of criminal harassment.

“To be abundantly clear, it is not a crime to give someone the finger,” Judge Dennis Galiatsatos wrote in his decision last month. “Flipping the proverbial bird is a God-given, Charter enshrined right that belongs to every red-blooded Canadian. It may not be civil, it may not be polite, it may not be gentlemanly. Nevertheless, it does not trigger criminal liability.”

Neall Epstein, a teacher, was arrested last summer after his neighbor reported him for criminal harassment and uttering death threats. During the case, the court discovered that the neighbor, Michael Naccache, had an ongoing dispute with Epstein at the time of the alleged offense.

Naccache took issue with children playing on the sidewalk in the two men’s suburban street, and would “drive dangerously” near the kids in response, the court heard. When Nacache’s mother and father drove aggressively toward a child on a scooter last March, an angry Epstein told the man to slow down. Naccache responded by accusing Epstein of “assaulting”his parents, a case that was thrown out of court.

Naccache made a further series of complaints about Epstein to police, over incidents thatGaliatsatos described as “trivial peeves.”Getting nowhere with the cops, Naccache threatened Epstein with a power drill in May calling him a “dipst” and telling him “you’re fking dead.”

Epstein told Naccache to “f**k off” and gave him the finger, with the entire encounter captured on the eight CCTV cameras Naccache had installed around his house to monitor the neighborhood outside.

The following day, Epstein returned home to find police officers waiting for him. Despite the fact that Naccache had brandished a drill at him, he had been reported for harassment and making death threats.

Galiatsatos dismissed the case, arguing that Naccache had brought the entire situation on himself. “Offending someone is not a crime,”he wrote. “Citizens are to be thicker-skinned, especially when they behave in ways that are highly likely to trigger such profanity.”

The judge concluded that if he could, he would have physically thrown the case file out of his court. “Alas,” he wrote, “the courtrooms of the Montreal courthouse do not have windows.” Kekkity

https://www.rt.com/news/572759-canada-middle-finger-court/

>>18479641

Yes, I was shocked, shocked I say!

>>18479621

Wow has that ever happened in the history of Congress?

>>18479577

I’m just surprised he said it out loud