,

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Located on the western side of the park are the old Fatimid city and its extension Darb Al Ahmar, with their wealth of mosques, madrasas and mausolea, signaled by a long line of minarets. To the south are the Sultan Hassan Mosque and its surroundings, as well as the Ayyubid Citadel. On the eastern side is the City of the Dead with its many social welfare complexes sponsored by the Mamluk Sultans and dignitaries, which became an area that developed into a dense neighborhood of its own. This area was indeed in great need of an open green space. The hilly topography of the site, formed by debris accumulated over centuries, now provides elevated view points dominating the city and offers a spectacular 360° panorama over the townscape of historic Cairo.

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Back in 1948, the British astrophysicist Sir Fred Hoyle predicted that when spaceflight enabled us to see the whole Earth from space, the view would change us forever.

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"Freedom of thought, freedom over our bodies, freedom of sexual orientation, freedom of belief; all these must be put aside as issues (in my opinion they shouldn't even be issues, anymore than teaching evolution in schools), because fighting over these inherently innate freedoms interfere with the war into which we had been suddenly cast. There should be no question these freedoms are to exist. Freedom to coerce, on the other hand, must not be allowed anywhere, stopped completely, so those who would stop us in our beliefs, and our civil liberties, who would even kill us, must be stopped."

1. Fraud when trust is broken through coercive collusion destroying the normal price function of exchange.

2. Criminal behaviors which coerce and deceive the markets are deregulated or otherwise not restricted by law.

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"Through time, the reality that defines the then value of exchange also changes to suit the subjective and constantly shifting tastes and desires of demand, and the existing and changing ability to satisfy these demands. These changes, which result in constantly shifting market prices, are difficult to appraise without the entry of competitors eager and able to gain an advantage from the opportunities created by them. Thus, the advantage of a competitive exchange over one that is always decided upon by two individuals is that it allows other individuals to enter into the constantly shifting state of exchange and improve upon it to, in effect, contribute additional individual assessments of market conditions as they are then. The reward of this introduction of competitive assessments is that those assessments, which are most correct in relation to demand and how that demand can be most realistically and profitably satisfied, are those that will result in exchange. The price at which this exchange will take place is, consequently, that price that is most competitive and that cannot be improved upon, as assessed by all the participants involved and reduced from their individual decisions. Because it is the best possible price, or at least because it tends that way though it may not be perfect, it is also the most efficient price in relation to how things were then and to how the mind assessed them to be. An exchange is always a subjective human act judged by those individuals directly involved in it either by virtue of their demand or their ability to satisfy this demand; it is a price arrived at that is most relevant and correct then and there, to them. As in the case of our original two traders, because our knowledge is not always perfect, the competitive market environment tends to fill in those gaps that result from our failure to perceive all in our individual assessments. What we cannot see can be seen by another, as seen in another way or from a more advantageous perspective, and acted upon to correct our unintentional omission. That other, either through being more clever or better positioned, then contributes a price of exchange that is more advantageous and, thus, more an expression of real market value. Thus, without the need for superhuman intelligence, the competitive market is able to improve upon our individual shortcomings and arrive at a comparably efficient price at all times. Its constantly changing price then reflects the constantly changing aggregate of human decisions as these are made in response to their individual realities and to how these realities seek each other in agreement. The result is an agreed upon and correct state of exchange.
...
So, for markets to be efficient, they do not have to be composed of many participants, but they do have to be free from coercion. A market in which exchange is restricted, because entry is prohibited or because the costs of exchange are too great, is a market in which will not be reflected the greatest price efficiency. When free from this coercion, whether or not the price then reflected is optimum will be determined by whether or not the conditions of exchange are then optimum. If there is undue risk, such as from theft or currency instability or from confiscatory measures, then the price will also reflect the concern for this risk; the price mark up will be higher as insurance compensating for this risk. Then, if the price so arrived at appears to be less than optimum, it is only a reflection of conditions as they then are; the market cannot be improved upon if the conditions of exchange are negative. Exchange by agreement, when free from coercion, only reflects the state of things as they are between individuals. It is the property of free markets that, when allowed to work efficiently, they always reflect things as they are; if these conditions are constructive and unrestrictive, then they reflect efficiently our human effort and productivity; if they are negative and coercive, plagued by undue risk and by disregard for the rights of the individual, then they reflect human inefficiency as forced from coerced labor. If we are not pleased with our results, the blame does not rest with the exchange mechanism; a free market reflects only human agreements. The correction of those conditions lies in correcting what the market is reflecting and not in correcting the market itself. If, however, it is the market that is being hindered from its free function as a reflection of agreements, then it fails as an efficient tool of interhuman exchange and as a reflection of things as they are; individuals must be free to form agreements. Coerced, it expresses reality only darkly and the myth that forces it to work poorly then becomes the new reflection of our social reality. That myth is then the attempt to change the reality of our human condition by forcing that which describes it for us; it is a form of social camouflage which masks what the aggregate of our human agreements is telling us. Then, through our social error, the market ceases to be an efficient social tool. A market not free cannot be efficient.

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WHILE many institutions collapsed during the Great Depression that began in 1929, one kind did rather well. During this leanest of times, the strictest, most authoritarian churches saw a surge in attendance.

This anomaly was documented in the early 1970s, but only now is science beginning to tell us why. It turns out that human beings have a natural inclination for religious belief, especially during hard times. Our brains effortlessly conjure up an imaginary world of spirits, gods and monsters, and the more insecure we feel, the harder it is to resist the pull of this supernatural world. It seems that our minds are finely tuned to believe in gods.

Religious ideas are common to all cultures: like language and music, they seem to be part of what it is to be human. Until recently, science has largely shied away from asking why. "It's not that religion is not important," says Paul Bloom, a psychologist at Yale University, "it's that the taboo nature of the topic has meant there has been little progress."...

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New computer simulations reveal how the early universe would have appeared 500 million years after the theoretical Big Bang.

According to the standard Big Bang model, the universe was born about 13.7 billion years ago in a burst of inflation, growing from something smaller than the size of an electron to about golf-ball size within a fraction of a second. In its early stages, the universe was flooded with energy, which congealed into particles and the lighter atoms. Over time, as the cosmos continued to expand on a vastly greater scale, these atoms clumped together into stars and galaxies.

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Operating in a vacuum chamber, Bellan's group was able to make jets up to a third of a metre long that travelled at between 10 and 50 kilometres per second. Bigger jets would require a bigger power supply.

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Jets of charged particles have been created in successive bursts for the first time in the laboratory. The work could shed light on the behaviour of astrophysical jets from stars and galaxies.
Astrophysical jets are among the largest and most energetic objects in the universe. The matter inside them travels at nearly the speed of light from colossal black holes at the centres of galaxies. Smaller jets spew at lower speeds from young stars surrounded by discs of gas and dust.

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Any hot rotating plasma, or star energy, will result in a vortex center where all electromagnetic energy lambda cancels on a point, which per Axiomatic, is where this canceled electromagnetic hot energy will re-release primordial extreme gravity, where G=c, such as witnessed in a black hole.

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Abstract
This is the first of five connected papers giving details of progress on the Gravity Probe B (GP-B)
Relativity Mission. GP-B, launched on 20 April 2004, is a landmark physics experiment in space to test
two fundamental predictions of Einstein’s theory of general relativity, the geodetic and frame-dragging
effects, by means of ultra-precise cryogenic gyroscopes in Earth orbit. Data collection began 28 August
2004 and science operations were completed 29 September 2005. The data analysis has proven deeper
than expected. Patch effect anomalies on the gyro rotor and housing have given rise to two mutually
reinforcing complications:
1) A changing polhode path affecting the calibration of the gyroscope scale factor Cg against the
aberration of starlight
2) Two larger than expected manifestations of a Newtonian gyro torque due to patch potentials on
the rotor and housing.
In earlier papers, we reported two distinct methods, ‘geometric’ and ‘algebraic’, for identifying and
removing the first Newtonian effect (‘misalignment torque’) and also a preliminary method of treating
the second (‘roll-polhode resonance torque’). Central to the progress in both torque modeling and Cg
determination has been an extended effort from January 2007 on “Trapped Flux Mapping”. A new
turning point came in August 2008 when it became possible to include a detailed history of the roll-
polhode resonance torques into the computation. The frame-dragging effect is now plainly visible in the
processed data. The current statistical uncertainty from an analysis of 154 days of data by the algebraic
method is 6 marcsec/yr (~15% of the frame-dragging effect). The systematic error will be added to this
statistical uncertainty using the methods discussed in an accompanying paper by Muhlfelder et al. A
covariance analysis, incorporating the impact of patch effect anomalies, indicates that a 3 to 5%
determination of frame-dragging is possible with a more complete, but computationally intensive data
analysis approach.

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6 Conclusion
A “simple” strategy of the GP-B data analysis has evolved in the complex two-floor structure after on-
orbit discoveries of the changes in the rotor’s polhode period and path, and of patch effect torques. Direct
modeling of the readout scale factor at the 1st Floor, and the misalignment and roll-resonance torque
modeling at the 2nd Floor, allowed us to separate the relativistic drift from the drift induced by classical
torques. A cascade of four interconnected estimators applied to the GP-B science data has demonstrated a
consistent determination of the geodetic and frame-dragging effects for all GP-B gyroscopes, as well as
fidelity of the physical models used.

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Who's Time are we talking about?

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This model is simplified; for example, it assumes the speed of light in the atmosphere is c, and it ignores the theory of relativity; but this simplified model is useful to gain insight into the principles of GPS. From Pythagoras Theorem, we can write... (p.14, italics mine)

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“The very ingenious idea of leaving clock error as a variable allows a GPS receiver to display our position on the Earth at any location and at any time, using nothing more than simple algebra. The variationsin computed positions are almost entirely due to inherent limitations on precision within the system. A second clever plan allows the use of two radio frequencies to eliminate much of the variabilitycaused by the passage of signalsthroughthe Earth'satmosphere.”

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The Endeavour crater, a bowl 13.7 miles (22 km) across, should offer the chance to study a much deeper stack of rock layers than those Opportunity saw in Victoria Crater.
"I would love to see that view from the rim," Squyres said. "But even if we never get there, as we move southward we expect to be getting to younger and younger layers of rock on the surface. Also, there are large craters to the south that we think are sources of cobbles that we want to examine out on the plain. Some of the cobbles are samples of layers deeper than Opportunity will ever see, and we expect to find more cobbles as we head toward the south."

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We present a case that current observations may already indicate new gravitational physics on cosmological scales. The excess of power seen in the Lyman-alpha forest and small-scale CMB experiments, the anomalously large bulk flows seen both in peculiar velocity surveys and in kinetic SZ, and the higher ISW cross-correlation all indicate that structure may be more evolved than expected from LCDM. We argue that these observations find a natural explanation in models with infinite-volume (or, at least, cosmological-size) extra dimensions, where the graviton is a resonance with a tiny width. The longitudinal mode of the graviton mediates an extra scalar force which speeds up structure formation at late times, thereby accounting for the above anomalies. The required graviton Compton wavelength is relatively small compared to the present Hubble radius, of order 300-600 Mpc. Moreover, with certain assumptions about the behavior of the longitudinal mode on super-Hubble scales, our modified gravity framework can also alleviate the tension with the low quadrupole and the peculiar vanishing of the CMB correlation function on large angular scales, seen both in COBE and WMAP. This relies on a novel mechanism that cancels a late-time ISW contribution against the primordial Sachs-Wolfe amplitude.

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Considering gravitation and fundamental physics, our solar system is the laboratory that offers many opportunities to improve the tests of relativistic gravity. A carefully designed gravitational experiment has the advantage to conduct tests in a controlled and well-understood environment and can achieve accuracies superior to its ground- based counterpart. Existing technologies allow one to take advantage of the unique environments found only in space, including variable gravity potentials, large distances,...

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Tiny and dying but still-powerful stars called pulsars spin like crazy and light up their surroundings, often with ghostly glows. So it is with PSR B1509-58, which long ago collapsed into a sphere just 12 miles in diameter after running out of fuel.
...
The star now spins around at the dizzying pace of seven times every second -- as pulsars do -- spewing energy into space that creates the scene...

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A new infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope reveals the colorful M33 to be surprising large -- bigger than its visible-light appearance would suggest, astronomers said in a recent statement.
With its ability to detect cold, dark dust, Spitzer sees emission from cooler material well beyond the visible range of M33's disk. Exactly how this cold material moved outward from the galaxy is still a mystery, but winds from giant stars or supernovas may be responsible, Spitzer astronomers said.

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M33, the third largest galaxy in our group, is also moving toward the Milky Way (which is about 100,000 light-years in diameter). Nothing to worry about, however. This galactic cousin is presently some 2.9 million light-years away in the constellation Triangulum.

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The cosmological constant is a surname for what we call vacuum energy, the energy of empty space. What we mean by empty is without particle, radiation, or any object. There can still be energy, there can still be fields, like electric or magnetic fields, in it but all particles or objects are missing from it. 
Even though it’s empty, there can still be energy, and that’s what we call the cosmological constant.
Based on the observation, what have we learned about this cosmological constant?
The cosmological constant, because the value is so small, because it doesn’t change with time, has almost no observable consequences, except for one thing: it affects the expansion of the Universe. If the vacuum energy is greater than all the other forms of energy, like the energy of the matter or radiation, then it causes the expansion of the Universe to speed up. This effect has been observed. When we look at the motion of distant galaxies compared to more nearby galaxies, we can observe that the expansion of the Universe has been speeding up the last 4 or 5 billion years. That’s the sign that there is a small and positive vacuum energy. ....

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Energy in modern physics is always Energy [6], which means E=E in all its forms, such as kinetic energy, work energy, heat energy, or electromagnetic energy. This Energy equivalence also applies to the famous de Broglie E=hf equation, where Energy equals Planck's constant times electromagnetic frequency, the basis of Quantum physics. However, where all mechanical and electromagnetic energy may be interchangeable, gravity stands out as something different. Gravity may have more to do with inertial mass than electromagnetic energy [7], and in fact may prove to be inversely proportional. In effect, where today's Cosmology is based on Gravity as a universal constant, taken from Newton's gravitational constant G, and enhanced relativistically with Einstein's General Relativity mathematics; this universal constant may not be as now postulated, but is likely a variable constant, a constant on a curve [8].

This means some universal constants, which are measured and true in our region of space, may be variable elsewhere; in particular gravity's Newton G, which may be “constant” on a curve [9] with distance from our Sun or any hot star. Per force, this means the interaction within Quantum theory's E=hf and gravity theory [10] become paradoxical because they are both constants and variables. What this means in the end is that gravity is not a "universal constant" as now believed, but dependent inversely upon the Energy density where G is measured, so the universe may be "isotropic and homogenous" at gravity levels far greater than now assumed [11]....

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WITH all the attention on Darwin this year, one could almost overlook the 400th anniversary of one of the most significant events in the history of science: the first time Galileo peered through his telescope and provided conclusive evidence that the Earth circles the sun. Two exhibitions are marking the occasion, though, both in conjunction with the Institute and Museum of the History of Science (IMSS) in Florence, Italy.
...
The impressive section on Islamic cosmology includes a small, stunning 15th-century spherical astrolabe - the only known example of its kind. From there we see the Christianisation of astronomy: the addition of more complex epicycles to the Ptolemaic system in order to maintain Earth's centrality and regular, circular movements of the heavens.
...
Galileo famously came into conflict with the Church: his Dialogo was placed on the Vatican's Index of Prohibited Books and he was called before the Inquisition and forced to abjure his views - a scene depicted in Cristiano Banti's 1857 painting Galileo Before the Inquisition.

Whether Galileo ever uttered the apocryphal E pur si muove ("And yet it moves"), he was, of course, proved right. The power of his observations in supplanting religious ideology is best captured in a single arresting image: Galileo's finger, detached from his remains in 1737, encased in glass and gilt and pointing heavenward. It is a scientific reliquary for a secular saint.

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But even an unrefereed publication – indeed even that icon of immodesty, a self-published book – will buff your idea to a better gloss. Consider: When Galileo made his telescopic discoveries of the moons of Jupiter and a few other important things, he felt the need to get them typeset and bound ASAP (he was worried about being scooped by competitors). Rather than wait around 285 years for the Astrophysical Journal, Galileo rushed into print with his own, small book. Smooth move.
...
Data are valuable. Ideas, on the other hand – like phone calls and e-mail – are cheap. Your creative genius may have hatched a truly revolutionary idea. Indeed, you probably think so. But no matter what your opinion of your hypothesis might be, if you hope for someone to fly you to Stockholm and hand you a check, don't just call me up and lay out your case. Do something better: write it up and tell the world.

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Given the magnitude of this problem, a number of authors have considered the possibility that cosmic acceleration is not due to a particular substance, but rather that it arises from new gravitational physics (see discussion in [112, 113, 114]). In particular, certain extensions to general relativity in a low energy regime [114, 115, 116] were shown to predict an experimentally consistent universe evolution without the need for dark energy [117]. These dynamical models are expected to explain the observed acceleration of the universe without dark energy, but may produce measurable gravitational effects on the scales of the solar system.

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1) E and G are fixed, so m is fixed within the parameters of the equation, so E and m are not affected by G, and kg'/kg remains constant = 1, or

2) E and G are variables, so m per equivalence is G proportional to some variable value of E, so in kg'/kg there is an inverse relation, whereby:

3) If kg' is greater due to greater G, which would happen per Axiomatic in lower E, then the kg'/kg value is greater in proportion to kg, but where the G-local-units of kg' is < than m in kg.

4. E/mc² must always equal to =1, by definition.

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As if the discovery of dark energy weren't bizarre enough, it has stirred up a whole host other issues. For example, dark energy adds fuel to the fire of believers in multiple universes, or the idea that our own existence is just one of countless worlds in which the constants and conditions are different. There might be other universes in which dark energy doesn't exist, and the universe does slow in its expansion, cosmologists say.

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A stellar explosion has smashed the record for most distant object in the known universe.
The gamma-ray burst came from about 13 billion light-years away, and represents a relic from when the universe was just 630 million years old.
...
Astronomers in the U.S. and UK quickly scrambled to follow up on the stunning discovery. They found that the infrared light of the afterglow had the highest redshift ever measured, meaning that the wavelengths had been very stretched out during their long journey.
...
Swift's new find may indicate an active early universe, even as scientists still try to understand what existed so close to the start of it all.
"We now have the first direct proof that the young universe was teeming with exploding stars and newly-born black holes only a few hundred million years after the Big Bang," Berger said. ...

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As the Earth orbits the sun, the strength of its gravity could vary because of interactions with an undiscovered force, nicknamed the "X-field".

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1. In a variable-G environment where gravity 'constant' grows at the rate of 1G per 1 AU, it should register slightly greater at planet's aphelion, and slightly smaller at perihelion in its orbit around the Sun.

2. This (slightly) variable-G phenomenon should register in a Cavendish type gravity experiment; it should show these (very small) seasonal variations, where G will be slightly greater at aphelion and slightly smaller at perihelion.

3. As a phenomenon of variable planetary spin, this same variation should show up as slightly faster spin (shorter day) at aphelion (northern hemisphere summer), and slightly slower spin (longer day) at perihelion (northern winter).

4. As a 'seasonal-G' variable, these slight differences at perihelion and aphelion should be measurable consistently, and annually.

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Physicians already are using temperature cool-downs to reduce their patients' metabolic rate, and most researchers assumed that bears naturally operated under the same principle for their winter hibernation. Past studies with other species, such as ground squirrels, have shown that metabolic rates are typically reduced by 50 percent when body temperature drops 18 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius).
But when researchers conducted their experiment with five black bears who were captured in Alaska as nuisance animals, they were surprised by the results. The bears' temperatures fluctuated over the course of two- to seven-day cycles, between nearly the normal level (about 98.6 degrees F or 37 degrees C) and a minimum of 86 degrees F (30 degrees C). And yet their metabolism rate still fell to just 25 percent of the norm. The bears typically hibernated for five to seven months without eating, drinking, urinating or defecating, and roused themselves in the spring with no ill effects.

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The juridical guarantee of the fundamental rights to liberty for citizens with uncertain identities and little autonomy risks being devoid of meaning: this is particularly true in today's high-tech societies. In such societies the exercise of fundamental rights is necessarily linked to what could be called the fundamental "new right" upon which the effectiveness of all other fundamental rights increasingly depends: habeas mentem, that is an individual's capacity to manage, screen and rationally interpret the growing flow of multimedia information inundating him or her.

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Even restriction of speech based upon the value of sanctity is not uncommon in many parts of the world. In nearly all countries with a Muslim majority, including such disparate nations as Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan and Indonesia, blasphemy against Islam is forbidden by law. Furthermore, this pattern is not confined to Muslim countries. Greece prohibits blasphemy against God, the Greek Orthodox Church and “other tolerated religions.” Malta forbids blasphemy against the Roman Catholic Church and Italy forbids “vilification of religion.” The guarantee of nearly absolute freedom of speech is a unique position taken by the United States.
I could not convince myself to approve of violence as the method of protesting violation of one’s moral values (although there are several moral outrages that routinely provoke violence in the United States). But I could no longer condemn the Middle Easterners for their reaction to the insulting video.
The final test of my newfound tolerance and understanding came with the infamous statement by Republican Senate candidate Richard Mourdock, that, “life is that gift from God. And, I think, even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen." I had to wade through the onslaught of  hype by my fellow liberals who deliberately distorted Mourdock’s remarks to imply that he was saying that  a rape itself was intended by God when he clearly was referring to the pregnancy resulting from the rape.
But could I give credence to someone’s opinion that a fetus conceived as a result of a rape was a “gift from God?” Mourdock’s premise was that, as a religious person, he believed that all human life was created by God. A significant proportion of the world’s population would probably agree with him. I doubt if most of them would view God as capable of making a mistake and creating a child by accident or believe that unborn babies fell into two groups: those created by God and those not created by God. So Mourdock’s point of view made sense, given his assumptions.
…
I had become a moral relativist.
But is moral relativism really desirable or even possible? Aren’t there some absolute values, which shouldn’t be forsaken no matter what? Haidt listed six moral dimensions. Which of these is mandatory? An argument can be made that liberty, fairness, loyalty, authority and sanctity can each be interpreted so differently by different cultures (or even by different factions within the same culture) that none of them can be considered a bottom line value that cannot be overridden by another. But what about the harm/care dimension? Nearly every culture subscribes to the idea that an innocent person should not be harmed, that an injured person should be helped. Are these values often overridden in the name of other values? Certainly, cruelty exists. Certainly, innocents are often slaughtered in the name of some other value (authority, liberty, sanctity, loyalty, even fairness when it is defined as revenge. It’s not hard to think of examples). Certainly, “do not harm another,” is violated in practice everyday, in every society.
A country such as the United States is built upon a philosophy which holds some values higher than others. I think it is fair to say that liberty and fairness are at the heart of the American value system and I believe that even a cursory reading of either the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution would support my claim. But that doesn’t make such values a universal priority to which everyone else in the world must subscribe. Even within our American system there is ample room for argument regarding the limits of liberty. When does it conflict with the value of not harming others? When does it conflict with loyalty or obedience to authority? And, as we have seen in the argument over Romney’s 47%, fairness may be in the eye of the beholder and may come in conflict with the moral dimension of caring.
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According to a UN definition of 1974, the use of foreign armed forces on the territory of a state in contravention of the agreement governing that presence amounts to aggression. Still, under present conditions an "armed attack", which is the trigger point in the UN Charter for the application of the right to self-defence, has probably not yet occurred.

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Putin may have taken a bishop, Crimea, but he lost the queen, Ukraine. If he loses his knights, and his oligarchs turn against him, then it is game. 'Checkmate.'

The Russian banditry in eastern Ukraine, whether or not complicit with Moscow, should be cleaned up. Same for Ukraine's internal corruption. Those are Ukrainian internal affairs. Putin played a good hand at the start, an easy win, but it cost him the game. Gaining Crimea cost him world prestige. It isolated Russia, which means it now becomes a second rate power; and the economic sanctions from the West, the EU and USA, are working. It also means Ukraine will gravitate towards Europe to enjoy same benefits seen in other former Soviet Eastern European republics, outside Russia's orbit. In time Ukraine will also become part of NATO. 'Check.'

Since Putin took control of Crimea, the incursions of Russia separatist rebels into Eastern Ukraine are ongoing. The missile downing of Malaysian flight MH17 has galvanized the world's negative opinion of these events, with addition sanctions by EU and US further isolating Russia's economy and its key oligarchic players. The Russian currency is down, inflation up, and the central bank has ratcheted up interest rates. This will hurt, but the fighting supported by Moscow continues, perhaps intensified with increased clandestine support for the separatists in Eastern Ukraine. Russia's response has been weak, complaining of the West 'slandering' Russia, while weapons and military activity moves closer the the border and missiles are fired from Russia on Ukrainian military. Overall this signals weakness on the Russian side. The sanctions hurt, especially now that oil exports are being targeted. At some point the oligarchic structure around Putin will be frightened, they have a lot to lose. To what end? What will they gain from invading Eastern Ukraine and supporting their separatists? Do they even have control of events, or is this anti-Ukraine rebellion taking on a life of its own? How much Russian treasure and world prestige must be sacrificed? And for what elusive gain? These are question still left unanswered as any perceived gains are overshadowed by the costs.
Crimea was a cake-walk. Eastern Ukraine, with Poroshenko's military defenses to secure Ukraine's territorial integrity, has proven problematic for Russia. No clear gains in Moscow's support of the separatists, or gangs, seem evident. Donetsk is now the key focus of operations, where Ukrainian forces are about to take control. For Russia, short of a full invasion of Eastern Ukraine, there is no possible victory. Ukraine's ambitions are to join with the West, with which they are already allied psychologically and culturally, as it wants to become more a part of Europe. This leaves Russia's empire with the East, cementing relations with China and Iran, the Caucasus and possibly North Korea, further turning Russia away from Europe. The world of Pushkin, Dostoevsky, and Tchaikovsky is being pushed away from Europe. To their loss as Ukraine, after centuries of Russian association, most of it uneasy, is finally able to break free. Russia moves East, while Ukraine heads West.

Russia could have chosen transparency and peace in eastern Ukraine, instead it chose duplicity and pain. The white trucks allegedly used to delivery aid have now entered Ukrainian territory, so have trespassed into a sovereign state without approval from Ukrainian authorities, raising the question of 'invasion', and without cooperation with international oversight of the Red Cross. Earlier inspections by reporters showed some of the trucks arrived near empty, which is puzzling. Why would half empty trucks, without bills of lading, be sent to the breakaway rebel held part of the country, except perhaps to evacuate personnel and equipment? In effect, these white trucks are now rogue, their contents still unknown, so may get caught in the cross-fire as Ukrainian military fights to regain control in the region. Also, why hasn't Ukraine sent in humanitarian aid to reconquered areas affected?
Further condemnation of this rogue action may mean added punishing sanctions adding to the pain Russians already feel from frozen bank accounts, travel restrictions, and economic embargo. This pain will especially be felt by the Russian oligarchs who are most affected by the sanctions. How much pain can they, and the people affected, stand in isolation as the West tightens sanctions? What will Moscow have gained from its duplicity, except further scorn proving Russia is an unreliable partner, both to its friends and trading partners? It's not a positive development, unless Russia decided to cut its losses and use the white trucks to evacuate. But at this time the breakaway rebels are unlikely to comply, which further raises the question of who is in charge. Perhaps Russia's support of the rebels in eastern Ukraine was a bet on the wrong horse? Sending in decoy white trucks may be a stalling tactic, hoping they get fired on so Russia can intervene militarily? Duplicity is thick in this cynical maneuver.
Russia's Putin would have gained more from a stable Ukraine, both politically and economically, so to have a viable partner. But he chose duplicity instead, and now the world will watch Russia's next moves with cold narrowed eyes. How much pain can they stand? Nobody wins, as Russia drifts further east into deeper isolation.

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As the Ukraine crisis has intensified over the past six months, Russia has been developing a new form of warfare – inserting special forces, provoking, and slowly, deliberately escalating the conflict.
Russian actions flout international law and the agreements that have assured stability in the post-cold war world.
...
The NATO summit in Wales this week offers the best, and perhaps last, opportunity to halt aggression in Europe without major commitments of NATO forces.
But to do so requires a deeper understanding of the situation and much more resolute allied action.
First, Vladimir Putin’s actions against Ukraine haven’t been “provoked”.
They are part of a long-term plan to recreate a greater Russia by regaining control of Ukraine and other states in the “near abroad”....

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The report claimed that for too long the EU's relationship with Moscow had been based on the "optimistic premise" that Russia was on a trajectory to becoming a democratic country.
The result, it said, was a failure to appreciate the depth of Russian hostility when the EU opened talks aimed at establishing an "association agreement" with Ukraine in 2013.
Mr Cameron rejected claims Britain "sleepwalked" into the crisis in Ukraine.

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Putin recognizes two breakaway provinces in eastern Ukraine and moves into Donbas, on US President’s day, February 21, 2022.

Putin orders troops into eastern Ukraine

Ukraine President Zelenskyy delivers impassioned speech at MSC 2022 - Munich Security Council (video, February 19, 2022)

Former US ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul’s analysis of Putin’s move on eastern Ukraine (video)

Biden announces Russia sanctions, troop movements in response to Ukraine invasion

Pictures: Landmarks Light Up in Support of Ukraine

3 years ago Zelenskyy was a TV comedian. Now he’s standing up to Putin’s army

Ukraine praises marine for sacrificing his life to blow up bridge to try to choke off Russian tanks

What has Putin accomplished in his invasion of Ukraine? Has he gained strategic advantage? Has he proved to the world the power of his feared military might? Has he won the hearts and minds of the Ukrainian people? No, he has won the condemnation of the whole world (except China) and regressed his Russian Federation to a medieval fiefdom autocracy, with him as czar of a failing state; his country progressively cut off economically and socially from the world, financially sanctioned, and soon to be deprived of his needed oil revenue to fund his ill begotten war. How are the Russian people served by his horrific attacks on Ukraine’s sovereignty, his blitzkriegs on civilian and non-military targets? Does Putin think he can bludgeon Ukraine into submission with his conscripted army of disillusioned soldiers, ill equipped, poorly trained, badly led, with Soviet era equipment that malfunctions in battle? Will his hiring ruthless Syrian and Chechen mercenaries turn the tide? Is Putin winning? No. Putin has lost far more than he gained in his Ukrainian misadventure.

As US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, said: “I think we have to be prepared for this to last for some time. But just winning a battle is not winning the war. Taking a city does not mean he's taking the hearts and minds of the Ukrainian people," Blinken said. "On the contrary, he is destined to lose. The Ukrainian people have demonstrated that they will not allow themselves to be subjugated to Vladimir Putin or to Russia's rule."

Putin is “destined to lose”, and may have lost already. The Ukrainian people, a European democratic nation fighting for its freedom from dictatorial autocracy, have proven brave and valiant in their resistance to invasion by a tyranny. Though Ukraine’s military is overwhelmingly outnumbered, both with men and equipment, he has found himself mired in a country that does not want him. Videos showing Russian soldiers crying and disoriented, looting stores for food, abandoning equipment and surrendering, not understanding why they are there fighting against their alleged ‘Russian kin’ have circled the world to everyone’s horror, as have images of more than a million refugees fleeing Russian bombardment, hundreds if not thousands of civilian deaths, destroyed villages of no strategic value. All for what, the ambitions of an aging autocrat holed up in his Covid safe bunker, with dreams of reestablishing the Russian empire? The cost is proving too high, the enmity of the world too great, and resistance of his own people, with massive demonstrations, a cost he had not figured in his calculus of war. What of his entourage of oligarchs? How much are they willing to lose? Properties and estates abroad, and yachts, confiscated, banks cut off from their kleptowealth, even their credit cards shut off. Will they protest too, and call for his removal from office of power? Lastly, what of his generals in this failed war? As the oldest surviving Nuremberg prosecutor had said, “Putin should be behind bars.” If the generals around him cannot convince Putin to drop this nefarious war on a free sovereign people, who can?

NATO and the US, and allied world, can supply arms and treasure to Ukraine, offer humanitarian aid to a battered nation, but they cannot stop this war, even with all the sanctions in place. Perhaps with additional armaments, in particular with fighter aircraft, Ukraine could win this. Or Putin has to come to an enlightened decision, that he cannot win on Ukraine. Or he be deposed. He still holds one trump card, his nuclear weapons of mass destruction. But if he cannot win, and he choses madness over reason, it will be for the world to stop him… or it will be (China included) a new World War.

Ukraine must win this.

UPDATE: FOURTH WEEK OF PUTIN’s WAR ON UKRAINE: (March 22, 2022)

It appears Russian troops are at a stalemate in Ukraine, no longer advancing, hampered by poor equipment, badly led without a centralized leadership (except Putin), and may be demoralized by poor conditions on the ground and heavy casualty losses both in human lives and equipment; this war is going nowhere. Surprisingly, Kyiv is still standing, Zelensky is in command with deep respect from around the world; more surprisingly at this point of obvious failure is that Putin is still standing. Why haven’t his generals put him under house arrest, his oligarchs not deposed him, nor the Russian people revolt against his ghastly inept leadership, a nation condemned by the whole world? That aside, if Ukrainians can turn the tide on this disastrous war, how will they settle it? With enough captured equipment and motivated army, Zelensky can move to retake the breakaway republics in Donbas, and reclaim Ukraine’s territorial integrity. That leaves Crimea. Can he negotiate a 99 year lease with Russia, them leasing Crimea from Ukraine in the way Britain leased Hong Kong from China, or US leased Guantanamo from Cuba? It could be a workable solution if Russia wants to keep its access to the sea with its naval bases. But the game is not there yet, Putin still stands, and may yet be demented enough to scale up his war to weapons of mass destruction, or tactical nuclear with radioactive fallout over surrounding nations. How will Russia deal with him at this point is still the big unknown, but at this time Putin cannot win in Ukraine.

Ivan

SIX WEEKS OF PUTIN’s WAR IN UKRAINE: THE MOVIE.

Putin’s vindictive war grinds on, cities devastated by artillery and missiles, thousands of citizens killed or wounded, hospitals, schools, apartment buildings and villages bombed; but the country still stands. Kyiv is not taken, Russia’s military deadlocked, repositioning troops east or resupplied, their command in disarray, soldiers refusing to fight. This is a bad movie of Putin’s claims to ‘de-Nazify’ Ukraine, a film noir with horrors… (film spoiler)… Nazis they were none. Nor were his claimed ‘genocide’ of Russians in Ukraine, all lies. Putin’s invert world sees truth as weakness, with lies as strength, where the ’given word’ has no traction.

Ukraine will continue a free country, democratic and European, and Putin’s claims it is all his are pathetic ravings of a failed dictator out to crush a free people. Millions of war refugees taken in by neighboring countries, families spilt by war, civilian volunteers bravely fighting alongside their military, tremendous support with weapons and humanitarian aid from the world, sanctions crippling Russias ability to function. The great Russian people, who gave us world class literature, music, opera, ballet, intellect and science, are being beaten into a Stalinist regression. This reputed steely grey-eyed chess player is failing on a world stage. What will Putin’s poisonous legacy leave his people? It is turning daily into a grim bad movie staged by Hitler, but played out by a small failing man. How will it end?

In classical antiquity, the ius gentium was regarded as an aspect of natural law (ius naturale), as distinguished from civil law (ius civile).The jurist Gaius defined the ius gentium as what "natural reason has established among all peoples":
"Every people (populus) that is governed by statutes and customs (leges et mores) observes partly its own peculiar law and partly the common law of all mankind. That law which a people established for itself is peculiar to it and is called ius civile (civil law) as being the special law of that civitas (state), while the law that natural reason establishes among all mankind is followed by all peoples alike, and is called ius gentium (law of nations, or law of the world) as being the law observed by all mankind. Thus the Roman people observes partly its own peculiar law and partly the common law of all mankind."

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International law is the set of rules generally regarded and accepted as binding in relations between states and between nations. It serves as a framework for the practice of stable and organized international relations. International law differs from state-based legal systems in that it is primarily applicable to countries rather than to private citizens. National law may become international law when treaties delegate national jurisdiction to supranational tribunals such as the European Court of Human Rights or the International Criminal Court. Treaties such as the Geneva Conventions may require national law to conform.

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Non-citizens in Rome were not entitled to the privileges and protections afforded to the citizen under Roman Law. The institution of citizenship placed the individual on a status coequal with the state. The alien or "denizen" was placed on a different level. The ius Civile, or Roman Civil Law, absolutely excluded non-citizens from the "nexum" or mode of contract and conveyance, rendering the foreigner incapable of dominium. He could not have the benefit of Quiritarian law. He could not sue by the Sacramental Action, (a mode of litigation.) Necessity in adjudicating conflicts involving foreigners required the creation of a separate body of law.

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Nations being composed of men naturally free and independent, and who, before the establishment of civil societies, lived together in the state of nature, — Nations, or sovereign states, are to be considered as so many free persons living together in the state of nature.
It is a settled point with writers on the natural law, that all men inherit from nature a perfect liberty and independence, of which they cannot be deprived without their own consent. In a State, the individual citizens do not enjoy them fully and absolutely, because they have made a partial surrender of them to the sovereign. But the body of the nation, the State, remains absolutely free and independent with respect to all other men, and all other Nations, as long as it has not voluntarily submitted to them.

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The War on Cancer refers to the effort to find a cure for cancer by increased research to improve the understanding of cancer biology and the development of more effective cancer treatments, such as targeted drug therapies.

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1. Stop all outside sourcing and empowerment of conditions.
2. Address underlying grievances or pathological conditions.
3. Monitor conditions at their basic root source.
4. Intelligent understanding of underlying causes, what fuels them.
5. Quarantine or isolate conditions when necessary.
6. Persistence and continuance.

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The population of sub-Saharan Africa is expected to treble in size to more than three billion people by 2100.

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The evolution of photosynthesis remade the Archaean Earth. Before photosynthesis, the air and oceans were anoxic. Now the air is a biological construction, a fifth of which is free molecular oxygen, and the ocean can sustain animal life even in the depths. The evolution, first of anoxygenic [not producing oxygen] and then of oxygenic [producing oxygen] photosynthesis, sharply increased the productivity of the biosphere. Oxygenic photosynthesis sustains free oxygen in the atmosphere. In the oceans, the beneficiaries of the first photosynthetic prokaryotes [bacteria and archaea] today range from cyanobacterial and algal plankton to large kelp. Wearing plants as landsuits, from tiny mosses to giant redwoods, cyanobacteria as chloroplasts have occupied the land. The oxygen emitted has allowed the evolution of animal life, to browse the plants and, in turn, to respire the CO2 that sustains photosynthesis.

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Earth has a surface temperature that is just right for life. Water vapor from the ocean is essential for setting the earth's temperature.
The tropical ocean supplies almost all the water that falls on land.
The ocean absorbs half of the carbon dioxide released by our burning of fossil fuels. This reduces global warming caused by carbon dioxide.
So much heat is absorbed by the oceans, that the the warming of earth's surface by greenhouse gases is slowed down. 84% of the energy available to warm earth's surface has gone into the ocean during the 48 years from 1955 to 2003; 5% has gone into the land; 4% has gone into the atmosphere; and the remainder has gone into melting ice. (Levitus, 2005).

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ADDENDUM: Caveat. It is unfortunate that Islam's holy scriptures command Taqiyya (lying) to the Infidels. By this same religious command, it is impossible to fully believe when Muslims address infidels, as it is pre-loaded with deceit, and the intent to deceive. Therefore, by their holy writ, infidels cannot accept anything said to them, as it is commanded by Allah. In effect, their word cannot ever be their bond, the worth of a man, as their commandments condemns them a priori.

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Quran

Quran (16:106) - Establishes that there are circumstances that can "compel" a Muslim to tell a lie.
Quran (3:28) - This verse tells Muslims not to take those outside the faith as friends, unless it is to "guard themselves" against danger, meaning that there are times when a Muslim should appear friendly to non-Muslims, even though they should not feel that way..

Quran (9:3) - "...Allah and His Messenger are free from liability to the idolaters..." The dissolution of oaths with the pagans who remained at Mecca following its capture. They did nothing wrong, but were evicted anyway. (The next verse refers only to those who have a personal agreement with Muhammad as individuals - see Ibn Kathir (vol 4, p 49)

Quran (40:28) - A man is introduced as a believer, but one who had to "hide his faith" among those who are not believers.

Quran (2:225) - "Allah will not call you to account for thoughtlessness in your oaths, but for the intention in your hearts" The context of this remark is marriage, which explains why Sharia allows spouses to lie to each other for the greater good.

Quran (3:54) - "And they (the disbelievers) schemed, and Allah schemed (against them): and Allah is the best of schemers." The Arabic word used here for scheme (or plot) is makara, which literally means 'deceit'. If Allah is supremely deceitful toward unbelievers, then there is little basis for denying that Muslims are allowed to do the same. (See also 8:30 and 10:21)

Taken collectively these verses are interpreted to mean that there are circumstances when a Muslim may be "compelled" to deceive others for a greater purpose.

Hadith and Sira

Bukhari (52:269) - "The Prophet said, 'War is deceit.'" The context of this is thought to be the murder of Usayr ibn Zarim and his thirty unarmed men by Muhammad's men after he "guaranteed" them safe passage (see Additional Notes below).

Bukhari (49:857) - "He who makes peace between the people by inventing good information or saying good things, is not a liar." Lying is permitted when the end justifies the means.

Bukhari (84:64-65) - Speaking from a position of power at the time, Ali confirms that lying is permitted in order to deceive an "enemy."

Muslim (32:6303) - "...he did not hear that exemption was granted in anything what the people speak as lie but in three cases: in battle, for bringing reconciliation amongst persons and the narration of the words of the husband to his wife, and the narration of the words of a wife to her husband (in a twisted form in order to bring reconciliation between them)."
.....

Finally, the circumstances by which Muhammad allowed a believer to lie to a non-spouse are limited to those that either advance the cause of Islam or enable a Muslim to avoid harm to his well-being (and presumably that of other Muslims as well). Although this should be kept very much in mind when dealing with matters of global security, such as Iran's nuclear intentions, it is not grounds for assuming that the Muslim one might personally encounter on the street or in the workplace is any less honest than anyone else.

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The Taqiyya issue brings up an un-intended conundrum, such as occurred in the swearing in of London's new mayor, Sadiq Khan. An observant Muslim, Khan asked to place his hand on the Koran rather than the Bible in his swearing in ceremony. On the surface this is an innocent enough request, which in the spirit of all inclusive cultural and religious tolerance was accepted without reserve. However, underneath lurked a more sinister issue, one likely not held by Khan, that to swear on a holy book which endorses lying (Taqiyya at any level) prejudices the meaning of the oath sworn. This issue applies to any Muslim sworn to office in a country where the Christian Bible is the cultural norm for swearing allegiance to the office. Would this request be reciprocated? To swear an oath on a book other than the traditional Bible redefines the meaning of the oath, especially if the original swearing in is replaced with a book commanding (at times) lying. This may be genuinely unintentional, but in principle, how valid is the oath when there is this element of doubt?

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Realities and realignments after the nuclear accord. (p. 71)
"In this regard, what the discussion of Syria and Yemen above show us is that Iranian foreign and security policy is reactive and, in a sense, opportunistic rather than strategic. There is a basic security doctrine: confront potential enemies in foreign theatres rather than at home, insist on global actors like the US staying out of the region and thus accentuate Iran’s geopolitical weight. But beyond this general approach the actual behaviour is much more pragmatic and reactive than the accompanying rhetoric would let on. Syria, for instance, has its own relevance for Iran, but Bashar al-Assad’s place within it is more of an open question than the rhetoric from Tehran would let on. The more hardline and security related Iranian officials are the most vociferous in explicitly equalising Iran’s support for Syria with standing by Assad. And they do so partly in reaction to Western insistence on Assad having to go. In short this is also part of the Iran-West dynamic within the security and ideological framework of Iranian domestic politics."

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Since the election of Hassan Rouhani to the Iranian presidency in 2013, Tehran’s policy towards Moscow has remained focused on the search for a ‘strategic partnership’. This was also the objective of the Ahmadinejad administration between 2005 and 2013. Nevertheless, given the critical discourse of Iranian reformist and so- called ‘moderate’ media during the conservative rule on this specific issue, one could argue that there is a lack of conviction of Iranian moderate and reformist factions regarding what should be the optimal Iranian strategy towards Moscow. While criticizing the Ahmadinejad administration, the reformist discourse targeted the ideological tenet driving Iranian strategy towards Moscow, namely antiwesternism, which contradicts Iranian national interests. Despite these critics, since his election Hasan Rouhani has pursued almost the same policy towards Russia as the Ahmadinejad administration. The use of the détente with the West in gen- eral and the European Union in particular to reinforce Iran’s position towards Russia in their asymmetric relationship, appears to be the main innovation of the Rouhani administration.

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*(Iran breaks nuclear deal enrichment targets: This is not the first time it threatens the EU and world with its nuclear ambitions, with fear by all parties they are seeking the bomb. Coming from a culture of kidnappings for ransom, it is not a stretch to use the same tactic with threats to make Europe and America pay up. In a typically Iranian fashion, the threat has a 60 day deadline to force remaining signatories to comply with their (ransom) demands. How will Europe respond?)

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“If an existential threat arises, Iran will modify its nuclear doctrine, we have the capability to build weapons and have no issue in this regard,” Kharrazi, an adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told the Lebanese broadcaster Al Mayadeen....
Kharrazi added that "the only thing currently prohibiting this is the leader’s fatwa," but indicated that Iran’s nuclear doctrine could change if the nation faced an existential threat.

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The "problem" is to do with encryption.
Without encryption, all of the things we do online would be insecure, be it emailing, or shopping, or banking. They all rely on the principle that if you encrypt data using complex mathematics it is nigh-on impossible to crack.
If you're using communication apps such as WhatsApp, Apple's iMessage, WeChat and so on, your messages are encrypted by default.
It means that even if those companies wanted to hand over your messages to law enforcement, they couldn't.

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Addendum: “As president, Ronald Reagan didn’t need studies or statistics to prove that, in the hands of law-abiding citizens, guns stop crime. He knew it because he himself had used a gun to stop a crime. He had seen the wisdom of the Second Amendment in action, and that kind of experience shaped his belief in a sensible gun policy, which trusts law-abiding citizens with the right to keep and bear arms.” -pg. 83, The City on a Hill (1997) by Michael Reagan

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Enlightened reformers moved away from corporal punishment, seeking to design a penal system that would make punishment more useful, edifying the prisoner while simultaneously repairing the damage the prisoner had inflicted upon society.

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The concept of rehabilitation rests on the assumption that criminal behavior is caused by some factor. This perspective does not deny that people make choices to break the law, but it does assert that these choices are not a matter of pure "free will." Instead, the decision to commit a crime is held to be determined, or at least heavily influenced, by a person's social surroundings, psychological development, or biological makeup.

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While various existing codes have some differences, most share common elements including the principles of—truthfulness, accuracy, objectivity, impartiality, fairness and public accountability—as these apply to the acquisition of newsworthy information and its subsequent dissemination to the public.

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*(If society ran on sound principles of agreements, versus coercions, and politicians knew how to write competent laws honoring those principles, there would be no need for ‘politics’. Then it would be only a matter of voting in governments and officials who understood those principles to run government smoothly and least obstructively. The problem today, as it has been since the days of empire, kings and theocratic rule, is that government tries to rule us and legislate our behaviors to suit its agendas with social engineering and morality based laws. When that happens our freedoms are debased to servitude to that rule, enforced only with coercions. That is why we avoided politics, as we had on these boards.)

*(Countries agreed to:

Keep global temperatures "well below" the level of 2C (3.6F) above pre-industrial times and "endeavour to limit" them even more, to 1.5C

Limit the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by human activity to the same levels that trees, soil and oceans can absorb naturally, beginning at some point between 2050 and 2100

Review each country's contribution to cutting emissions every five years so they scale up to the challenge

Enable rich countries to help poorer nations by providing "climate finance" to adapt to climate change and switch to renewable energy) - BBC

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At Lilium, we have invented a completely new aircraft concept for the modern age. While vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) itself is not new – after all, quadcopters, tilt rotors and tilt wings are well-known concepts – we did not want to accept the compromises inherent to these configurations.

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A key objective for the Lilium Jet is to bring a new safety paradigm into general aviation. As we develop vertical takeoff flights for everyone, we had to develop a safety concept compatible with a consumer product: it has to be foolproof. ...

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In case all precautions won’t help and a regular landing is impossible, there is still a safety net. Every Lilium Jet is equipped with a full aircraft parachute – bringing the jet safely down to the ground if necessary...

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Imagine a culture which for centuries glorified warfare and conquest promising its fighters loot and captured women, where the strongest among them became their leader with the most booty and women, who then sent his troops on to conquer again, all for the glory of their god’s “religion.” Is this not the culture of war, where to use “religion” as its justum is to insult the lives of hundreds of millions killed and enslaved in their holy wars? Imagine the suffering they caused over the centuries.

1. Under Marxist theory, the bourgeoisie or aristocracy, the capitalist class, oppress the common workers and peasant classes.
2. In race theory, White supremacist racism oppresses people of color.
3. Under labor theory, the managerial class oppresses their workers.
4. In liberal government theory, big government oppresses the people by taking away their individual rights.
5. In post-modern family theory, the two parent, male and female, mother and father, oppress alternative family gender structures. Etc.

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“You have heard of these messengers. The nature of their mission and their dedication insure against that. They are a quiet, rather elitist group, and they recruit very carefully and very subtly. They have never tried to publicize themselves or to make anyone respect them. To them, it is their message that counts, a message in which they all believe deeply and passionately. They have been extraordinarily successful, beyond my own hopes for them…”

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By Ivan A. on Saturday, June 26, 2004 - 12:14 am:
When is Coercion a Necessity? (as posted on the Examined Life Discussion Forums: Philosophy Discussion June 25, 2004). We all experienced being coerced at some point in our lives, whether spanked or made to feel uncomfortable before some authority, like our boss. From our internal perspective, this coercion is the result of being forced to do something against our will, or an embarrassment, or offensive to us. In our minds, we find coercive anything that is done to us with which we do not agree at some level. Mostly, being coerced is an unpleasant or painful experience, which most of us will seek to avoid.
……
Humanity has always know coercions, whether from conquest, slavery, or from a lord oppressing his subjects, or from banditry, or social and religious taboos, or parents abusing their children, husbands their wives, etc. Coercion seems to run our affairs almost exclusively, with only an occasional glimmer of freedom for some of us. What made the Anglo-American experiment different from most other nations is that we institutionalized the right to be free from coercions, which are our basic human rights, our presumed innocence until proven guilty. We pride ourselves as a free nation in support of liberty. Yet, in the list above can be seen we are subject to many coercions anyway. So, is Coercion the way of the world, that we cannot live without it? Or is it perhaps a condition that only re-enforces itself: to be coercive is to be powerful, and the powerful coerce, and those who do not coerce are its victims? Can a person be powerful without coercing? Is there a right way to be, virtuous or legally correct, to live with dignity without being coerced, or having to coerce?

The philosophical question I wish to explore is thus: Is it possible to have a social, legal, authoritarian, and personally satisfying form of human interaction where it is by agreement, without coercion, or is coercion a philosophical necessity? A secondary question then comes of necessity: Can society exist without coercions, where everyone interacts only by agreements, where the responsibility of agreement is their individual choice?

I think this is a very difficult question, one that perhaps was wrestled with by the founders of our American nation, or the thinkers of the Enlightenment, and before. Is there an answer to this paradox, that we wish to be free, want to be a nation of liberty, but at the same time find it necessary to coerce? What did Locke or Hobbes think of it? What would Jefferson make of our present democracy, or Emerson or Thoreau? I have my answer, in my own head, but I do not know what other think of this. Thus, I post it here.

By Anonymous on Friday, March 7, 2003 - 05:14 pm:

When is WAR not "war"? 

It can be said without exaggeration that every society must rid itself of its predators. Whether it is a farm village in India or Africa attacked by tigers and lions, or major cities where people are attacked by gangs or criminals, society must address this predation. For this to work, however, there must be an awareness that in place of power and predation exists a rule of law, so that rulers are representative of social interests as opposed to being merely masters who must obeyed. So representative governments have gradually replaced kings, and in the more advanced societies they have also replaced petty dictatorships. This has become a mark of our success, that we live in a socially successful human environment that prospers under the rule of law which ensures certain freedoms and inalienable human rights. On the other end of the spectrum exist social systems where such freedoms are lacking, and where the people who live under such oppressive rule languish in poverty and fear. 

This the world is now faced with, often on many fronts, such as North Korea, certain African states such as Zimbabwe and the Congo, and other states quickly sliding into regressive governments, such as Liberia, or characterized by an anarchy of competing war lords, such as Somalia. Of these repressive regimes were also Afghanistan under Al-Qaeda, and most evidently in the present, Iraq. As the world struggles with rules of legitimacy, there are some nations, and perhaps some social cultures, that are either mired or backsliding towards repressive regimes and modes of government. Again, these regimes are most often characterized by grinding poverty and repression, often controlling its population through a clever tactic of fear, in particular fear of a foreign enemy, or fear of their internal security forces. But when such regimes gain sufficient power to be able to export their fear and repression outside their borders, in particular if they possess the power to wreak great havoc on societies where the rule of law has dominated over repression, then such regimes must now be identified as predators. It is unfortunate for their peoples that of these repressive regimes there are many, but fortunate for the rest of the civilized world that they are largely powerless. When one of these regimes rises in military might, however, so that they can attack a neighboring country, or through its agents of terror attack deep into the heart of other nations, as happened on 9/11, then we have a problem with a predator. Such a predator behavior has been identified most currently in the nation of Iraq and its leader Saddam Hussein, and his Baathist Party. The result most often is that the other nations rally together to defend themselves against a predatory nation, one that acts outside the rule of law for its citizens, so that domestically they live in fear, a fear which must not be exported to others. Alas, this is also to be understood that we are then faced with a state of war. 

War is never to be seen as being of popular appeal, for there is no glory in dying. But nor should it be avoided if it is for the purpose of controlling a predator to society. In the same vein, it might be more accurate to not call it "war", but rather give it a name that better defines what it is that needs to be done: predator control, or the arrest of criminal activities, or the dismantling of a socially oppressive regime. These labels fit more accurately what it is the US and Britain and their allies have set out to do in Iraq. In a war, it is in the interest of one party to fight another for the purpose of gain, whether it be territory, or wealth, or enslavement of its population. The parties who are allied against Iraq's present regime are not seeking such gains, though they had been accused of hungering for Iraqi oil. In fact, it would be more economically advantageous to deal with Iraq as an equal nation so that they could sell their oil into the world markets, if that is their wish, rather than taking it by force by enslaving the population to do so. It is too costly to do the latter, as all the late imperial powers discovered, and more advantageous to trade for goods than to take them by force. Then, it is also a matter of rule of law, so that a predatory regime is replaced with a government where human rights are respected and the nation's population can live within rules that guarantee their freedoms and dignity as human beings, so they no longer live in fear. This is the large task ahead of the US-British led coalition, which is meeting with a stiff resistance from nations and peoples, all well intentioned, who do not appreciate the need to control predatory behavior. The difference between Iraq attacking a nation versus the coalition attacking Iraq is that one is a predator, which does not respect human rights and has the power to spread destruction outside its borders; whereas the other is a coalition of nations under the rule of law, who ensure the dignity and human rights of its peoples. The two are not the same, nor are their actions, though some would claim they are. Same as it is in the nature of rule of law to call on a third party to resolve disputes, to render judgements, so has it been the efforts of the coalitions to seek such third party judgement from the United Nations. However, the fact that the participants in this judgement had rendered themselves incapable of opposing a predator nation calls into question their effectiveness as a third party body, same as it calls into question whether or not theirs is a clear understanding of the nature of the threat. Because of possible conflicts of interests, such as lucrative contracts with the predatory nation, there has been hesitancy to exercise a clear mandate against the offending regime. But a predator does not respect weakness, rather is fed by it so that it becomes emboldened. And if this is so, then the weak position of the present United Nations body merely encourages the scepter of war, not by the coalition against Iraq, but by all predatory nations against the world. The United States and their allies acted decisively in Afghanistan, and social change has already occurred there, though this will not be an easy task to change the life habits of a people who had fought amongst themselves for centuries. It is a start, and rule of law will gradually assert itself there. However, this rule of law has no chance of coming into fruition in Iraq, such as it now stands. 

So this is not "war" against Iraq that is called upon, that which now faces the decision to be made in the United Nations, but rather the removal or control of a predator. Let us pray that the leaders and delegates of the undecided nations can come together for this ugly and unpleasant task, of removing Iraq's oppressive regime and incapacitating its ability of exporting fear and destruction on the world community. And in the process, let us pray that the people of Iraq, when this mission is done, will breathe the free air of a nation once again ruled by law, so they too can become part of the world community where this is so. 

A WorldCitizen.

SIX WEEKS OF PUTIN’s WAR IN UKRAINE: THE MOVIE.

Putin’s vindictive war grinds on, cities devastated by artillery and missiles, thousands of citizens killed or wounded, hospitals, schools, apartment buildings and villages bombed; but the country still stands. Kyiv is not taken, Russia’s military deadlocked, repositioning troops east or resupplied, their command in disarray, soldiers refusing to fight. This is a bad movie of Putin’s claims to ‘de-Nazify’ Ukraine, a film noir with horrors… (film spoiler)… Nazis they were none. Nor were his claimed ‘genocide’ of Russians in Ukraine, all lies. Putin’s invert world sees truth as weakness, with lies as strength, where the ’given word’ has no traction.


Putin’s alt ego

Ukraine will continue a free country, democratic and European, and Putin’s claims it is all his are pathetic ravings of a failed dictator out to crush a free people. Millions of war refugees taken in by neighboring countries, families spilt by war, civilian volunteers bravely fighting alongside their military, tremendous support with weapons and humanitarian aid from the world, sanctions crippling Russias ability to function. The great Russian people, who gave us world class literature, music, opera, ballet, intellect and science, are being beaten into a Stalinist regression. This reputed steely grey-eyed chess player is failing on a world stage. What will Putin’s poisonous legacy leave his people? It is turning daily into a grim bad movie staged by Hitler, but played out by a small failing man. How will it end?

Putin may soon officially declare war on Ukraine, US and Western officials say - CNN (May 2, 2022)
Having massive losses of men and equipment in his “special military operation” in Ukraine, killing thousands of civilians and destroying $Billions of infrastructure and homes, Putin may now declare his war on Ukraine a ‘victory’ while declaring “war on Ukraine”*? He failed to make Ukrainians submit to his invasion, so now turns to desperate measures. Russia will regress back to the Dark Ages if he persists with this madness. Then the Russian empire will be broken up into European Russia, the Far East, and Siberia, losing the Caucasus, much like the Ottoman empire ended.

We all know what happened with Hitler’s land grab in the Saar, Austria and Sudetenland, then Poland. This Ukrainian land grab by Putin, with same false propaganda and mock plebiscite will have same deleterious results. Putin is no Hitler, nor his military of high standard, so this will end badly for him, as is deserved for all his war crimes and murder. Russia’s appeasement will not happen this time because of all the nations’ support and aid for Ukraine (unlike when Czechoslovakia stood alone). History will not repeat, despite Putin’s slavish following Hitler’s playbook.

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Rachinsky, from Russia's human rights organization Memorial, claimed resistance to Russia is known as "fascism" under Putin, adding this has become "the ideological justification for the insane and criminal war of aggression against Ukraine."

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[Serious question: If Hitler had the atom bomb at the end, would he have used it?… Would Putin?]

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“Ukraine surged again in ’14, so Putin—concerned that the Ukrainians’ embrace of freedom and independence might spread to the Russian people—took military action. He occupied Crimea, and soon thereafter moved into southeast Ukraine, which still smolders.”

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Ukraine is fighting this war on behalf of the free world – to make sure it remains free. The free world must at least try to match the Ukrainians’ bravery.

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*[If Putin calls for a cease fire, this internationally administered referendum held in all Russian occupied Ukrainian territories, including Crimea (without guns at polling), should be applied in the event Russia chooses to cease hostilities, bombings of civilians and infrastructure, but come to the negotiation table, negotiated between Zelensky and Putin. If fair and verified referendums show Ukrainians (and Russians) vote in favor of Ukraine, then all Russian troops and armaments must leave, and the settlements must include financial reparations by Russia to Ukraine. War crimes tribunals will hold those responsible for the destructions and murders of Ukrainians in Russia’s war as determined by an international tribunal. If any occupied territories vote for Russia, these are areas of future negotiations, of fair exchange and freedom of movement for those citizens who wish to relocate, both ways. All costs of rebuilding damages done in Ukraine should be paid for by Russia, and overseen by international tribunals.]

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If we do not counter Putin’s aggression now, he could go further. We have already seen it: he marched into Georgia in 2008, annexed Crimea in 2014, then attacked eastern Ukraine and finally, in February this year, extended the war against the whole country. Letting Putin get away with it would mean that violence can break the law practically without any consequences. In the end our own freedom and security, too, would be in jeopardy.
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In the past few years, there have been calls, and rightly so, for the EU to become a geopolitical actor. An ambitious goal, but a correct one! With the historic decisions of recent months, the European Union has taken a big step in this direction. We have said, with unprecedented resolve and unity, that Putin’s neo-imperialism must not be allowed to succeed. But we must not be content with that. Our aim must be to reach unity in all areas where we in Europe have been struggling for too long to find solutions: migration policy, for example, or the evolution of European defence, or technological sovereignty and democratic resilience.
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The world’s autocrats are watching very closely to see whether he succeeds. What holds sway in the 21st century – the law of the strong or the strength of the law? In our multipolar world, is a multilateral global order being replaced by lawlessness? These are questions directly facing us.

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In the sinister Russian war on Ukraine, where clearly Russia is the aggressor in an unprovoked attack on the Ukrainian people, the truth becomes a post-modern interpretation of reality on the ground, where Russian propaganda is not to inform but to ignore and obfuscate the truth, to confuse the world. This blatant Russian lying should be universally condemned as a war crime.

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We are watching an extraordinary story play out before our eyes, and we have a chance to influence the ending. Imagine, for a moment, 40 million people waking up every morning and thinking, "What can I do today to save lives and save my country?"

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This may be the most important victory for Ukraine to reclaim its southern regions from Russian occupation, with now prospects to recapture Crimea and the rest of southern Ukraine. Great danger still lies ahead as Putin’s unpredictable maneuvers may still pose horrific consequences for the people there. May this never happen, but if his vindictiveness is suicidal, he may clear his Russian army from the areas to not be exposed to his use of tactical nuclear weapons, trapping Ukrainian citizens, and army, under a radioactive cloud with great loss of innocent lives. Kherson and other possible targets should seriously review their shelters against such attack. This use of nukes would be suicidal for him because the West’s military response would be devastating to Russia and the Kremlin, and to Putin. Once he unleashes Armageddon there is no retreat, NATO would be engaged, and it would spell the end of Russia.

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Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused Russia of "destroying" the Cathedral, which belongs to the Moscow-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
"A war crime that will never be forgotten and forgiven.”

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[ADDENDUM: 13 December 2023:

“Can Putin win on Ukraine?” was asked March 05, 2014, shortly before Russia’s ‘referendum’ officially declared Ukrainian Crimea part of the Russian Federation. Nearly ten years later Russia’s attempted conquest of Ukraine still persists, at very high costs of death and destruction, Ukrainians valiantly resisting Putin’s aggression, while inflicting horrific massive casualties on the Russian forces. Still, the war grinds on nearly two years after Putin’s declared invasion of Ukraine 24 February 2022.
With massive financial, military, and humanitarian aid from the West, especially massive amounts from USA, Ukraine has been able to push back Russia’s invasion and reconquer some 50% of Russian occupied territory after invasion. Whether by happenstance or by design, the war has reached a seeming ‘stalemate’, where neither the Ukrainians nor the Russians are able to breakthrough defensive positions, a standoff that could have been very much skewed in Ukraine’s favor had the much needed, and asked for, superior American fighter jets for air support been delivered earlier in the war. However, that did not happen.
We are faced with a real possibility that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will be frozen into a ‘demilitarized’ zone standoff, bristling with weapons on both sides. Modeled after past negotiated standoffs, Korea, Vietnam, Palestine, some brokered by the United Nations, the real possibility exists that this will be Ukraine’s fate, a frozen conflict in perpetuity, much to their loss. Like Korea, the South became highly economically developed, while the North languished in underdevelopment. Something like this will happen in Western Ukraine, west of Dnipro river, Kyiv, Lviv, with development from international investments, while the East (and Crimea if not given back to Ukraine) will languish in a third world like model, as do parts of Siberia now. So this could be the sad, tragic end of a war that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, billions of dollars of destruction, all to satisfy the craven appetite of a small man who dreams of being a great dictator of the Russian empire.
Putin did not win this war, but neither did he lose it, if he is able to cow American aid, and the West (he has nukes!) into submission to his will by freezing this war in Ukraine. A dictator scores, while freedom loses. Whether by happenstance or design, this seems to be the grim regrettable ending on this unprovoked war by Russia on Ukraine. Neither side wins, and neither side loses, except for all the lives crushed by Putin’s horrible, stupid war.]

This quote was entered in Peoples Book 2000 on 8 December 1999 (anonymous) on the eve of the new millennium.

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War is, because those who need to change and cannot, do so by force to punish those who have, and become punished themselves, to change. This is true of all violence, until we change.

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“For the Russians, the losses they suffer in doing this is not an important factor,” said Cherevatyi. “The first people that Wagner sends in, for example, are always the convicts and other poorly-trained men, and only behind them come the more professional soldiers.”

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Dear Americans in all states, cities, and communities, all those who value freedom and justice, who cheer us as strongly as we Ukrainians in our cities, in each and every family, I hope my words of respect and gratitude resonate in each American heart.

Madam vice president, I thank you for your efforts in helping Ukraine. Madam speaker, you bravely visited Ukraine during the full-fledged war. Thank you very much. Great honor. Thank you.

Very privileged to be here. Dear members of the Congress, representatives of both parties who also visited Kyiv, esteemed congressmen and senators from both parties who will visit Ukraine, I am sure in the future, dear representatives of diaspora – present in this chamber and spread throughout the country – dear journalists, it’s a great honor for me to be at the US Congress and speak to you and all Americans.

Against all odds and doom and gloom scenarios, Ukraine didn’t fall. Ukraine is alive and kicking.

And it gives me good reason to share with you our first, first joint victory. We defeated Russia in the battle for minds of the world.
We have no fear, nor should anyone in the world have it. Ukraine gained this victory, and it gives us courage, which inspires the entire world.

Americans gained this victory and that’s why you have succeeded in uniting the global community to protect freedom and international law.

Europeans gained this victory, and that’s why Europe is now stronger and more independent than ever. The Russian tyranny has lost control over us.

And it will never influence our minds again. Yet, we have to do whatever it takes to ensure that Congress of the global south also gains such victory.

I know one more, I think, very important thing. The Russians will stand a chance to be free only when they defeat the Kremlin, in their minds.

Yet, the battle continues, and we have to defeat the Kremlin on the battlefield, yes. These battles not only for the territory for this or in other part of Europe. The battle is not only for life, freedom, and security of Ukrainians or any other nation which Russia attempts to conquer.

This struggle will define in what world our children and grandchildren will live, and then their children and grandchildren. It will define whether it will be a democracy of Ukrainians and for Americans, for all.

This battle cannot be frozen or postponed. It cannot be ignored hoping that the ocean or something else will provide a protection. From the United States to China, from Europe to Latin America and from Africa to Australia, the world is too interconnected and interdependent to allow someone to stay aside and at the same time to feel safe when such a battle continues.

Our two nations are allies in this battle. And next year will be a turning point. I know it. The point when Ukrainian courage and American resolve must guarantee the future of our common freedom, the freedom of people who stand for their values.

Ladies and gentlemen, Americans, yesterday before coming here to Washington, DC, I was at the front line in our Bakhmut, in our stronghold in the east of Ukraine in the Donbas.

The Russian military and machiners(sic) have been taking Bakhmut nonstop since May. They have been taking it day and night, but Bakhmut stands.
Last year, last year, 70,000 people lived there in Bakhmut, in this city, and now only a few civilians stay. Every inch of that land is soaked in blood. Roaring guns sound every hour. Trenches in the Donbas changed hands several times a day in fierce combat, and even hand-fighting. But the Ukrainian Donbas stands.

Russians, Russians use everything, everything they have against Bakhmut and other of our beautiful cities. The occupiers have a significant advantage in artillery. They have an advantage in ammunition. They have much more missiles and planes than we ever had. And it’s true, but our defense forces stand.

And we, and we all are proud of them. The Russians’ tactic is primitive. They burn down and destroy everything they see. They sent thugs to the front lines, they sent convicts to the war. They threw everything against us, similar to the other tyranny, which is in the Battle of the Bulge.

Threw everything it had against the free world, just like the brave American soldiers, which held their lines and fought back Hitler’s forces during the Christmas of 1944, brave Ukrainian soldiers are doing the same to Putin’s forces this Christmas.

Ukraine, Ukraine holds its lines and will never surrender. So, so, here the front line, the tyranny which has no lack of cruelty against the lives of free people, and your support is crucial not just to stand in such fight, but to get to the turning point to win on the battlefield.

We have artillery, yes. Thank you. we have it. Is it enough? Honestly, not really. To ensure Bakhmut is not just a stronghold, that it holds back the Russian army, but for the Russian army to completely pull out, more cannons and shells are needed.
It’s true. Just like the Battle of Saratoga, the fight for Bakhmut will change the trajectory of our war for independence and for freedom. If your patriots stop the Russian terror against our cities, it will let Ukrainian patriots work to the full to defend our freedom.
When Russia, when Russia cannot reach our cities by its artillery, it tries to destroy them with missile attacks. More than that, Russia found an ally in this, in this genocidal policy: Iran. Iranian deadly drones sent to Russia in hundreds and hundreds became a threat to our critical infrastructure. That is how one terrorist has found the other. It is just a matter of time when they will strike against your other allies if we do not stop them now. We must do it.

I believe, I believe there should be no taboos between us in our alliance. Ukraine never asked the American soldiers to fight on our land instead of us. I assure you that Ukrainian soldiers can perfectly operate American tanks and planes themselves.
Financial assistance is also critically important and I would like to thank you, thank you very much. Thank you for both financial packages you have already provided us with and the ones you may be willing to decide on. Your money is not charity. It’s an investment in the global security and democracy that we handle in the most responsible way.

Russia, Russia could stop its aggression, really, if it wanted to, but you can speed up our victory. I know it. And it will prove to any potential aggressor that no one can succeed in breaking national borders, no one committing atrocities and reigning over people against their will, it would be naive to wait for steps towards peace from Russia, which enjoys being a terrorist state.

Russians are still poisoned by the Kremlin. The restoration of international legal order is our joint task. We need peace, yes. Ukraine has already offered proposals which I just discussed with President Biden, our peace formula, 10 points which should and must be implemented for our joint security, guaranteed for decades ahead and the summit which can be held.

I’m glad to share that President Biden supported our peace initiative today. Each of you, ladies and gentlemen, can assist in the implementation to ensure that Americans’ leadership remains solid, bicameral and bipartisan. Thank you.

You can strengthen sanctions to make Russia feel how ruinous its aggression truly is. It is in your power, really, to help us bring to justice everyone who started this unprovoked and criminal war. Let’s do it.

Let terrorists – let the terrorist state be held responsible for its terror and aggression and compensate all losses done by this war. Let the world see that the United States are here.

Ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, Americans, in two days we will celebrate Christmas. Maybe candlelit. Not because it’s more romantic, no, but because there will not be – there will be no electricity. Millions won’t have neither heating nor running water. All of these will be the result of Russian missile and drone attacks on our energy infrastructure. But we do not complain. We do not judge and compare whose life is easier. Your well-being is the product of your national security, the result of your struggle for independence and your many victories. We, Ukrainians, will also go through our war of independence and freedom with dignity and success.

We’ll celebrate Christmas, celebrate Christmas and even if there is no electricity, the light of our faith in ourselves will not be put out. If Russian – if Russian missiles attack us, we’ll do our best to protect ourselves. If they attack us with Iranian drones and our people will have to go to bomb shelters on Christmas Eve, Ukrainians will still sit down at the holiday table and cheer up each other. And we don’t, don’t have to know everyone’s wish as we know that all of us, millions of Ukrainians, wish the same: Victory. only victory.

We already built strong Ukraine with strong people, strong army, strong institutions together with you. We developed strong security guarantees for our country and for entire Europe and the world together with you and also together with you, we’ll put in place everyone who will defy(sic) freedom. Putin. This will be the basis to protect democracy in Europe and the world over.

Now, on this special Christmas time, I want to thank you. All of you. I thank every American family, which cherishes the warmth of its home and wishes the same warmth to other people. I thank President Biden and both parties, at the Senate and the House, for your invaluable assistance. I thank your cities and your citizens who supported Ukraine this year, who hosted our Ukrainians, our people, who waved our national flags, who acted to help us, thank, thank you all, from everyone who is now at the front line from everyone who is evading(sic) victory.

Standing here today, I recall the words of the President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, which I think so good for this moment: “The American people, in their righteous might, will win through – to absolute victory.” The Ukrainian people will win too. Absolutely.
I know that everything depends on us, on the Ukrainian armed forces, yet so much depends on the world. So much in the world depends on you.

When I was in Bakhmut yesterday, our heroes gave me the flag, the battle flag, the flag of those who defend Ukraine, Europe and the world at the cost of their lives. They ask me to bring this flag to you, to the US Congress to members of the House of Representatives and senators whose decisions can save millions of people. So, let this decisions be taken. Let this flag stay with you, ladies and gentlemen. This flag is a symbol of our victory in this war. We stand, we fight and we will win because we are united – Ukraine, America and the entire free world.

(Zelensky presents House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with battle flag signed by Ukrainian troops.)

Just one thing, if I can, the last thing, thank you so much, may God protect our brave troops and citizens. May God forever bless the United States of America. Merry Christmas and happy, victorious New Year.

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The China ‘peace plan’ is largely irrelevant, serving only their own interests in association with Russia and its resources. To be relevant, the Peace Plan must remove all Russian troops from Ukraine and return its occupied territories, including Crimea and Sevastopol. Also, the Russian naval fleet should be closed off entirely from the Black Sea, allowing only commercial vessels, verified as such, free of munitions, missiles, and weapons. Then the Peace Plan can have a meaningful and sustainable future. -IDA

[ADDENDUM: Ukraine and Russia are culturally very different societies. Though they both have a thousand year history rooted in Kyiven Russ, over the centuries they have diverged as a people: Ukraine had chosen to emulate the achievements of Western society, their intellectual orientation in arts and sciences, their values in human rights and equality, their democratic constitutional government, and a general sense of truth and ethics as practiced in modern societies. Russia on the other hand had remained oriented towards a tsarist format of society: unquestioning obedience to authority and church Orthodoxy, people subordinated to government as subjects rather citizens, government authority (even in Soviet times) dominating all information where 'truth' is carefully crafted by propaganda, human 'rights' are restricted to what the government says they are (without presumed innocence or other western values such as speedy trials without cruel punishment), conservative family values, and endemic corruption; in short, Russia is closer to a Medieval society than to a modern state. Therefore it is understandable that two such different cultural and social philosophies would have drifted apart as separate national identities, except that Russia does not wish to allow Ukraine to be a Western society and would force it into its quasi-Medieval mold. Rightly, Ukraine refused and is fighting for its independence as a nation. This is an historical struggle for freedom by a people who sincerely desire to be free.]

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Look – for the first time in modern history, we have the chance to end the aggression on the terms of the nation which was attacked.

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Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Secretary General! Fellow leaders!

This hall saw many wars but not as active defender against the aggressions.
In many cases, the fear of war, the final war, was the loudest here – the war after which no one would gather in the General Assembly Hall again.
The Third World War was seen as a nuclear war. A conflict between states on the highway to nukes.
Other wars seemed less scary compared to a threat of the so-called “great powers” firing their nuclear stockpiles.
So, the 20th century taught the world to restrain from the use of the weapons of mass destruction – not to deploy, not to proliferate, not to threaten with, and not to test, but to promote a complete nuclear disarmament.
Frankly, this is a good strategy.
But it should not be the only strategy to protect the world from this final war.
Ukraine gave up its third largest nuclear arsenal. The world then decided Russia should become a keeper of such power. Yet, history shows it was Russia who deserved nuclear disarmament the most, back in 1990s. And Russia deserves it now – terrorists have no right to hold nuclear weapons.
But truly not the nukes are the scariest now.
While nukes remain in place, the mass destruction is gaining its momentum. The aggressor is weaponizing many other things and those things are used not only against our country but against all of yours as well.

Fellow leaders!

There are many conventions that restrict weapons but there are no real restrictions on weaponization.
First, let me give you an example – the food.
Since the start of the full-scale war, the Ukrainian ports in the Black and Azov Seas have been blocked by Russia. Until now, our ports on the
Danube River remain the target for missiles and drones. And it is a clear Russia’s attempt to weaponize the food shortage on the global market in exchange for recognition for some, if not all, of the captured territories.
Russia is launching the food prices as weapons. The impact spans from the Atlantic coast of Africa to the Southeast Asia. This is the threat scale.
I would like to thank those leaders who supported our Black Sea Grain Initiative, and program “Grain from Ukraine”. United, we made weapons turn back into food again. More than 45 nations saw how important it is to make Ukrainian food products available on the market… from Algeria and Spain to Indonesia and China.
Even now when Russia has undermined the Black Sea Grain Initiative, we are working to ensure food stability. And I hope that many of you will join us in these efforts. We launched a temporary sea export corridor from our ports. And we are working hard to preserve the land routes for grain exports. And it is alarming to see how some in Europe play out solidarity in a political theatre – making thriller from the grain. They may seem to play their own role but in fact they are helping set the stage to a Moscow actor.
Second, weaponization of energy.
Many times, the world has witnessed Russia using energy as a weapon. Kremlin weaponized oil and gas to weaken the leaders of other countries.
Now the threat is even greater.
Russia is weaponizing nuclear energy. Not only it is spreading its unreliable nuclear-power-plant-construction-technologies, but it is also turning other countries’ power plants into real dirty bombs.
Look what Russia did to our Zaporizhzhia power plant – shelled it, occupied it and now blackmails others with radiation leaks.
Is there any sense to reduce nUclear weapons when Russia is weaponizing nuclear power plants? Scary question.
The global security architecture offers no response or protection against such a treacherous radiation threat… And there is no accountability for radiation blackmailers so far.
The third example is children.
Unfortunately, various terrorist groups abduct children to put pressure on their families and societies. But never before the mass kidnapping and deportation would become a part of the government policy. Not until now.
We know the names of tens of thousands of children and have evidence on hundreds of thousands of others kidnapped by Russia in the occupied territories of Ukraine and later deported. The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrant for Putin for this crime.
We are trying to get children back home but time goes by. What will happen to them?
Those children in Russia are taught to hate Ukraine, and all ties with their families are broken… This is clearly a genocide.
When hatred is weaponized against one nation, it never stops there. Each decade Russia starts a new war. Parts of Moldova and Georgia remain occupied. Russia turned Syria into ruins. And if not Russia, the chemical weapons would have never been used there in Syria. Russia has almost swallowed Belarus. It is obviously threatening Kazakhstan and the Baltic states… And the goal of the present war against Ukraine is to turn our land, our people, our resources into a weapon against you – against the international rules-based order. Many seats in the General Assembly Hall may become empty if Russia succeeds with its
treachery and aggression.

Ladies and gentlemen!

The aggressor scatters death and brings ruins even without nukes but the outcomes are alike.
We see towns and villages in Ukraine wiped out by Russian artillery. Levelled to the ground completely! We see the war of drones. We know the possible effects of spreading the war into the cyberspace. The artificial intelligence could be trained to combat well – before it would learn to help the humanity. Thank God, people have not yet learned to use climate as a weapon. Even though humanity is failing on its climate policy objectives – this means that extreme weather will still impact the normal global life and some evil state will also weaponize its outcomes. And when people in the streets of New York and other cities of the world went out on climate protest – we all have seen them… And when people in Morocco and Libya and other countries die as a result of natural disasters… And when islands and countries disappear under water… And when tornados and deserts are spreading into new territories… And when all of this is happening one unnatural disaster in Moscow decided to launch a big war and kill tens of thousands of people.

We must act united – to defeat the aggressor and focus all our capabilities and energy on addressing these challenges.
As nukes are restrained, likewise the aggressor must be restrained and all its tools and methods of war. Each war now can become final, but it takes our unity to make sure that aggression will not break in again.
And it is not a dialog between the so-called “great powers” somewhere behind the closed doors that can guarantee us all the new no-wars-era, but open work of all nations for peace.
Last year, I presented the outlines of the Ukrainian peace formula at the UN General Assembly. Later in Indonesia, I presented the full Formula. And over the past year the Peace Formula became the basis to update the existing security architecture – now we can
bring back to life the UN Charter and guarantee the full power of the rules-based world order.
Tomorrow I will present the details at a special meeting of the UN Security Council.

The main thing is that it is not only about Ukraine.
More than 140 states and international organizations have supported the Ukrainian Peace Formula fully or in part. The Ukrainian Peace Formula is becoming global. Its points offer solutions and steps that will stop all forms of weaponization that Russia used against Ukraine and other countries and may be used by other aggressors. Look – for the first time in modern history, we have the chance to end the aggression on the terms of the nation which was attacked. This is a real chance for every nation – to ensure that aggression against your state, if it happens, God forbid, will end not because your land will be divided and you will be forced to submit to military or political pressure, but because your territory and sovereignty will be fully restored.

We launched the format of meetings between national security advisors and diplomatic representatives. Important talks and consultations were held in Hiroshima, in Copenhagen, and in Jeddah on the implementation of the Peace Formula. And we are preparing a Global Peace Summit. I invite all of you – all of you who do not tolerate any aggression – to jointly prepare the Summit.
I am aware of the attempts to make some
shady dealings behind the scenes. Evil cannot be trusted – ask Prigozhin if one bets on Putin’s promises. Please, hear me. Let unity decide everything openly.
While Russia is pushing the world to the final war, Ukraine is doing everything to ensure that after Russian aggression no one in the world will dare to attack any nation. Weaponization must be restrained. War crimes must be punished. Deported people must come back home. And the occupier must return to their own land. We must be united to make it.

Slava Ukraini!

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Russia, China and Iran have played a major role in the massive attack on Israel by the Palestinian group Hamas on Saturday, according to the assessment by intelligence agencies. The assessment states that while Iran provides open training and political backing to Hamas, Russia is known for its proximity to Hamas, and the Chinese technology was key to the attack.

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Why not roll back the clock on Palestine UN mandated partition 1947? Admit it was an international policy mistake, so that Gaza now goes back to Egypt, West Bank back to Jordan, incorporating ‘Palestinians’ as citizens of their respective countries. After Gaza and Hamas, reset the policy clock to right what had been a colossal error, that Palestinians have a “right to return” to their respective Arab countries. -IDA

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In history, so-called Gaza City until 1948 had never been a city as civilized peoples know them. It was an overgrown caravansary when suddenly invaded by 200,000 foreign workers arriving in expectation that soon the Egyptians and other Arab armies would kill all the Jews, and they could return to loot what the Jews had built.
Following the war, the Arab Muslim states who launched it refused to take any responsibility for these now homeless co-religionists. Their position was that the war was the responsibility of the United Nations that had licensed the Jews to live free of Muslim domination as they had for fourteen centuries, and in the wake of their refusal, the UN established UNRWA to look after these migrant workers whom everyone in the world, including all Muslims and Arabs, called “the Arab refugees” and would for the next decade and beyond. Nobody called them “Palestinian refugees” because there was nothing Palestinian about them having come from Morocco, Yemen, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, etc.

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Former US Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper, said that “one of the disappointing things about Shoigu’s tenure is we thought the Russian army, at least during my time at the Pentagon, we thought they were professionalizing, that they were modernizing all their equipment, their doctrine, how they train and fight, and we really haven’t seen that on the battlefield.”

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Ps: As the new US president takes the White House, we'll soon see if Trump is a great 'negotiator' as he claims, or a great 'capitulator' as Putin expects.