In 1985, at age 41, I visited Disney World for the first time. I remember the experience for two things: the endless lines so cleverly organized that you never knew how long they truly were and the Hawaiian Luau dinner I attended. Yes, a genuine Hawaiian feast that reminded me of American Chinese food circa 1953 and the unforgettable “entertainment” offered by “native” Hawaiian dancers with spears who smacked their weapons on the ground and rhythmically advanced on the diners glowering fiercely. Whoever those dancers were, they were quite skilled at playing “primitives” from elsewhere, also circa 1953, objects of fear, wonder, and scorn. (Oh yes, and Disney World was the place that first taught me this country had an obesity problem — along with some of the most fattening food on the planet.)

Liz Truss warns the world of evil women

The British foreign secretary disagreed with UK PM’s ‘if Putin were a woman’ claim, adding that such rhetoric is “unhelpful” for Kiev

British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss has argued that calling Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine an example of President Vladimir Putin’s “toxic masculinity” is not the best way to help Kiev. Prime Minister Boris Johnson previously suggested that Putin would have behaved differently on the world stage if he were a woman.

When the Russian invasion of Ukraine started on February 24, Australian embassy staffer Nadia Teriokhina had one thought on her mind: She didn't want to get trapped behind enemy lines.

She told Anthony Albanese she counted herself among the lucky ones.

Hundreds were massacred in Bucha, outside of Kyiv, and about 10 minutes from her home in Irpin, including women and children.

Some women were raped before they were killed.

"We didn't know what to do, how to behave or where to run," she said.

"I said to my husband, 'I just don't want to be in the occupied territory,' so we went to Kyiv."

Ukrainian tanks were headed in the opposite direction as they fled.

Macron says he doesn’t want to ‘annihilate’ Russia

While the French president has backed anti-Russia sanctions, he has refrained from the extreme rhetoric of his US and UK counterparts

MEANWHILE:

Ukraine angry at French state media

Kiev claimed that AFP is spreading “Russian propaganda” by referring to Lugansk fighters as “Ukrainian separatists”

History repeats itself, we’re often told. And it seems as if it’s happening more than usual these days. Interstate war is back. The world is once again worried about nuclear weapons. A pandemic has killed millions of people and shut down commerce—just as it did a century ago. Inflation has hit levels unseen since the 1970s. The world is running out of food. There’s an energy crisis. In a replay of the Cold War, the United States is aligning nations against Russia—and once again, despite unity in the West, several large countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America would rather stay out of the tussle. 

Today, politicians and common people in all countries expressly say that the United States is losing its influence on the global stage. Even The Washington Times, by publishing the results of the new survey conducted by Pew Research Center, acknowledges that the prevailing opinion among the US nationals is that America is definitely a loser in the race with “growing” China.

Many American and Western media outlets desperately acknowledge the USA’s clear failure in its sanctions policy forced upon Russia and the whole world, as it has only strengthened the Kremlin’s global weight and brought the wreckage of the American and the Western economy as a whole.

BY Valery Kulikov

According to Prashad, while “many of the assassins’ bullets have been fired by people who had their own parochial interests, petty rivalries and small-minded gains, more often than not, these have been ‘Washington’s bullets.’”

Their main purpose, he says, was to “contain the tidal wave that swept from the October Revolution of 1917 and the many waves that whipped around the world to form the anti-colonial movement.”

By Jeremy Kuzmarov
CovertAction Magazine

While the Anglo-Saxons have already succeeded in excluding Russia from the Council of Europe and are preparing to prevent it from participating in OSCE meetings, they are working to sink the European Union by creating a competing structure in Central Europe: the Three Seas Initiative. In doing so, they are taking up an old Polish project aimed at developing this region while preserving it from any German or Russian influence.

RISING TENSIONS (24)

The scuttling of peace in Europe

by Thierry Meyssan

The US and Russia mark Pearl Harbor and Hitler's invasion very differently – that tells us a lot about national identity

Over generations, perceptions distort history, and keeping memory alive is important for national identity

Last month, Russia marked June 22, the date Operation Barbarossa - or Hitler’s invasion of the Soviet Union – began in 1941. As a former American officer from a military family, whose close ancestors fought in World War II, I could not but reflect on why in America the date that war began for us – December 7, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor – is not observed as solemnly as June 22 is in Russia.

BY SCOTT RITTER

John Bolton makes prediction for Ukraine conflict

Biden has “made mistake after mistake” in handling the crisis, the hawkish Republican and former US national security adviser says.

US President Joe Biden had failed to deter the Russian offensive in Ukraine and now has no idea what to do with the ongoing conflict, former US national security adviser John Bolton has said. Bolton also claimed that a deal between Moscow and Kiev seems to be unlikely at the moment.

The Republican politician, who is a staunch critic of Russia and one of the most hawkish figures on the American political scene, appeared on CBS on Saturday, claiming that Biden had “made mistake after mistake” in handling the Ukrainian crisis.

Western arms supplied to Ukraine offered on darknet – RT investigation

RT’s journalists were able to swiftly agree the purchase of a US-made Phoenix Ghost kamikaze drone

The lavish deliveries of ‘lethal aid’ from the US, UK and other NATO countries to Ukraine amid its conflict with Russia have led to marketplaces where some of those weapons can be purchased popping up on the dark web, RT Russian has learned.

The Ukrainian traders claim to offer not just small arms or body armor there, but also such sophisticated hardware as Javelin and NLAW anti-tank systems or Phoenix Ghost and Switchblade explosive drones.

Author and law professor Maurice Stucke explains why the practices of Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple are so dangerous and what’s really required to rein them in. Hint: Current proposals are unlikely to work. 

Google. Amazon. Facebook. Apple. We live within the digital worlds they have created, and increasingly there’s little chance of escape. They know our personalities. They record whether we are impulsive or prone to anxiety. They understand how we respond to sad stories and violent images. And they use this power, which comes from the relentless mining of our personal data all day, every day, to manipulate and addict us. 

BY Lynn Parramore

Fourth of July celebration canceled over deadly police shooting

Police officers in the US city of Akron fired almost 100 rounds at a black man during a chase earlier this week

The American city of Akron, Ohio, has canceled its Independence Day celebrations following a high-profile police shooting earlier this week, which saw several officers firing almost a hundred of rounds at a young black man they were chasing. The man died after more than 60 rounds struck his body.

THE Play-House is an Inchanted

Island, where nothing appears

in Reality what it is, nor what it

should be. 'Tis frequented by Persons

of all Degrees and Qualities

whatsoever, that have a great deal of

Idle Time lying upon their Hands,

and can't tell how to employ it worser.

Here Lords come to Laugh, and

to be Laugh'd at for being there, and

seeing their Qualities ridicul'd by every

Triobolary Poet. Knights come

hither to learn the Amorous Smirk,

the Ala mode Grin, the Antick Bow,

the Newest-Fashion'd Cringe, and how