Big Israel

 Zelenskyy says wants Ukraine to become a ‘big Israel’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the main

issue for Ukraine after Russia’s invasion ends will be

security.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he

wants his country to become a “‘big Israel’ with its own

face” after the Russian invasion ends, stressing that

security would likely be the main issue in Ukraine

during the post-war period.

In comments to local media posted on the president’s

official website on Tuesday, Zelenskyy stressed that his

vision for Ukraine’s post-conflict future included having

armed forces in “all institutions, supermarkets,

cinemas, there will be people with weapons”.

In Israel, images of armed civilians, settlers and soldiers

are commonplace, and the government invokes

security frequently.

Zelenskyy, who is Jewish, has on several occasions

stressed the importance of maintaining close ties with

Israel, which he hailed as a model for Ukraine.

“I am sure that our security issue will be number one in

the next 10 years,” Zelenskyy said, dismissing the idea

that post-war Ukraine would emulate a liberal

European democracy such as Switzerland as a model.

He said that the Ukrainian people “will be our great

army”.

Zelenskyy also said that Ukraine would not be

“absolutely liberal, European”; that it would have to

undertake a different modus operandi.

“Ukraine will definitely not be what we wanted it to be

from the beginning. It is impossible,” he told members

of the Ukrainian media during a briefing.

“Absolutely liberal, European – it will not be like that. It

[Ukraine] will definitely come from the strength of

every house, every building, every person.”

Zelenskyy stressed that Ukraine would not slide into

authoritarianism. “An authoritarian state would lose to

Russia. People know what they are fighting for,” he

said.

Despite his ties with Israel, Zelenskyy has, however,

been critical of the government’s awkward position on

the Russian war on his country. After maintaining a

relatively quiet position on the invasion, Israel’s prime

minister came out with a statement condemning the

alleged atrocities in Bucha, near Kyiv.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett told reporters on

Tuesday that he was shocked by the gruesome images

emerging from Bucha, but he stopped short of accusing

Russian forces of carrying out alleged war crimes or

holding Moscow accountable.

“We are, of course, shocked by the harsh scenes in

Bucha. Terrible images, and we strongly condemn

them,” he said. “The suffering of the citizens of Ukraine

is huge, and we are doing everything we can to help.”

Israel has emerged as a mediator in efforts to end the

war, given its good relations with both Ukraine and

Russia. In an effort to preserve his relationship with

Vladimir Putin, Bennett has been measured in his

criticism of the Russian president. Instead, Foreign

Minister Yair Lapid has been vocal in his more harsh

condemnation of Russia’s actions in Ukraine.

Bennett referred reporters to the comments made by

Lapid, who labelled the civilian deaths in Bucha a war

crime.

“The images and testimony from Ukraine are horrific,

Russian forces committed war crimes against a

defenceless civilian population. I strongly condemn

these war crimes,” Lapid said in a statement.

====

CHINA / DIPLOMACY

US’ aid to Ukraine seriously watered-down, serving

‘money laundering’: think tank

By Yang Sheng

Published: Feb 23, 2023 10:26 PM Updated: Feb 23,

2023 10:19 PM

The Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies of Renmin

University of China released the report

The Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies of Renmin

University of China released the report "Aid Mixed with

Water: Inside Story and Analysis of Western Military Aid

to Ukraine" at an academic forum held in Beijing on

Thursday. Photo: Zhang Changyue/GT

Western politicians turn grinding Ukraine War into a

political show. Cartoon: Carlos Latuff

Western politicians turn grinding Ukraine War into a

political show. Cartoon: Carlos Latuff

One day ahead of the one year anniversary of the

Russia-Ukraine conflict's outbreak, a Chinese think tank

published a report on Thursday, claiming that US aid to

Ukraine is seriously "watered-down" as Kiev and

Ukrainian people only received very little from the huge

amount of the US has promised, while the most of the

assistance are actually serving the "money laundering

plan" for the US military industrial complex.

The Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies of Renmin

University of China released the report "Aid Mixed with

Water: Inside Story and Analysis of Western Military Aid

to Ukraine" at an academic forum held in Beijing on

Thursday. The report showed that, based on the data

and documents published by Western governments and

media since the very beginning of the Russia-Ukraine

conflict, a large amount of US aid funds has not flown

to Kiev.

Over the past year, the US has continued to provide and

push its allies to provide military assistance to Ukraine,

shaping an image of "the champion of justice and a

saver of Ukraine," said the report. However, the fact is

that Washington is using "supporting Ukraine" as a

pretext to make huge amount of taxpayers' money to

transfer into the pocket of the US military industrial

giants like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon

Technologies, while tens of thousands of Ukrainian

people are suffering from deadly military combat.

As of January 15, 2023, the total amount of US pledged

aid to Ukraine reached $76.8 billion. Among the

pledged assistance, military aid accounted for the

largest proportion, at 46.5 billion US dollars, accounting

for 61 percent. Part of the US military aid is financial

loans for the purchase of US military products. This loan

will form long-term liabilities for countries such as

Ukraine, said the report.

However, humanitarian aid only accounted for the

smallest proportion, at $3.9 billion, accounting for only

5 percent of the total amount. Financial aid was $26.4

billion, accounting for 34 percent. The main purpose of

US financial assistance is to maintain the continuity of

the Ukrainian government's wartime operations.

According to the analysis of the report, its ultimate

purpose is to "prolong the Ukrainian crisis."

Although the US has spent huge amount of money on

military aid, Kiev's strength and capability for war have

not been significantly improved. Only about 17 percent

of the 2022 Additional Ukraine Supplemental

Appropriations Act involving $40 billion is directed to

Ukraine, and the rest of the money is suspected of

being used for other purposes, said the report.

Among the $40 billion, more than $14.2 billion,

accounting for about 36 percent, has been used for the

US itself, such as updating the US arsenals and

ammunition, and issuing additional wages and

allowances for US military personnel, said the report.

Another $18.9 billion in aid funds did not specifically

target recipient countries, accounting for about 47

percent, so the public is unable to track where the

money has gone.

The report summarized that: Firstly, the US aid is

extremely inflammatory. Before and during the crisis,

the US continued to fuel the Ukrainian crisis with

military aid and maintain its intensity. Secondly, the US

aid is extremely deceptive. The actual US aid to Ukraine

has shrunk layer by layer. The delivery of aid is mainly

"dragging". The delivery of the aid cannot be

guaranteed. Thirdly, the US aid is extremely selfserving.

A large proportion of the funds within the $40 billion

aid bill to Ukraine will flow to the US itself, which will

bring at least $17.3 billion in additional revenue to US

military contractors. Fourthly, the US aid is extremely

prone to causing further conflict, leading to more

serious internal conflicts in Europe, and European

countries will have to strengthen its dependence on the

US in various fields such as energy, military, and

economy.

Wang Wen, the executive dean of the Chongyang

Institute for Financial Studies, said at the forum that

China stands on the side of peace, and it's totally

rightful and absolutely necessary for a Chinese think

tank to point out the fact and the dirty inside story of

so-called US or Western aid to Ukraine, to help more

people to understand why the conflict won't come to

an end and who's been benefitting from the deadly

crisis.

++++

U.S. Will Give Terrorist Label to White Supremacist Group for First Time

The designation of the Russian Imperial Movement reflects growing concerns among U.S.

officials about violent white supremacists with transnational links.

Give this article

68

Members of the Russian Imperial Movement at a training base in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2015.

Members of the Russian Imperial Movement at a training base in St. Petersburg, Russia, in

2015.Credit...Olga Maltseva/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Charlie SavageAdam GoldmanEric Schmitt

By Charlie Savage, Adam Goldman and Eric Schmitt

April 6, 2020

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is expected to announce on Monday that it is

designating an ultranationalist group based in Russia as a terrorist organization, according to

officials. It is the first time the government will apply the label to a white supremacist group.

While the label of specially designated global terrorist has been frequently used for Islamist

extremists, there have been growing concerns among U.S. officials about violent white

supremacists with transnational links over the past five years. In 2018, the White House added

that threat to the government’s National Strategy for Counterterrorism.

“These designations are unprecedented,” said Ambassador Nathan A. Sales, the State

Department’s counterterrorism coordinator. “This is the first time the United States has ever

designated white supremacists as terrorists, and this illustrates how seriously this administration

takes the white supremacist terrorist threat. We are doing things no previous administration has

done to counter this threat.”

The State Department’s designation for the organization, the Russian Imperial Movement, sets

up the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control to block any American property

or assets belonging to the group. It will also bar Americans from financial dealings with the

organization and make it easier to ban its members from traveling to the United States.

The United States is also designating three of the group’s leaders — Stanislav Anatolyevich

Vorobyev, Denis Valliullovich Gariev and Nikolay Nikolayevich Trushchalov — as individual

terrorists who will face similar sanctions, the officials said.

The authority for either the Treasury Department or the State Department to deem a group or

an individual a specially designated global terrorist traces back to an executive order issued by

President George W. Bush after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. President Trump in

September signed an executive order expanding that authority to cover groups that provide

training for terrorists even if the groups are not directly linked to any attack.

Sale ends soon: All of the Times, all in one subscription.

$1 a week for your first year.

The system parallels in some ways but is different from when the government designates a

group as a foreign terrorist organization, which has separate criteria and applies only to groups

rather than individuals.

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Image

Ambassador Nathan A. Sales said the United States government was continuing to look for other

white supremacist groups or individuals who met the criteria for sanctions.

Ambassador Nathan A. Sales said the United States government was continuing to look for other

white supremacist groups or individuals who met the criteria for sanctions.Credit...Yara

Nardi/Reuters

The move could cut against criticism that the Trump administration has played down the threat

of white nationalist violence for political reasons, based on the so-called alt-right’s support for

Mr. Trump and his statement in 2017 that there were “very fine people on both sides” of a

deadly white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va.

The Russian Imperial Movement is not considered to be sponsored by the Russian government,

officials said, although President Vladimir V. Putin has tolerated its activities and it has helped

advance the Russian government’s external goals by recruiting Russian fighters to aid pro-Russia

separatists in eastern Ukraine.

The group has also helped support neo-Nazi organizations in Scandinavia, which dovetails with

the Russian government’s broader pattern of trying to stoke internal divisions, including along

racial lines, and sow chaos in Western democracies.

In 2017, the Russian Imperial Movement came up at a trial in Sweden of three men who were

accused of plotting bomb attacks targeting asylum seekers. Prosecutors said two of the

defendants had traveled to St. Petersburg, Russia, to attend 11 days of paramilitary training at a

camp operated by the group, fueling their radicalization.

Mr. Sales said the group operated two facilities in St. Petersburg that offered paramilitary

training to neo-Nazis and white supremacists. He said the United States had assessed that the

camps were “likely being used for woodland and urban assault, tactical weapons and hand-tohand

combat training.”

Mary McCord, a former head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, said that

until now, the counterterrorism sanctions system had overwhelmingly been used against

Islamist extremist groups. She called its expansion to a white supremacist group significant.

“It is important,” she said. “Far-right extremist causes, in particular white supremacy and white

nationalism, have become more international. It is appropriate for the State Department to have

been scrutinizing whether there are organizations that meet the criteria for that designation

because with it, the organization becomes poison in terms of doing business with it or providing

funds, goods or services to it.”

The move is also another example of the Trump administration expanding its use of the power

Congress granted to the executive branch to impose sanctions on groups by designating them

foreign terrorist organizations. Last year, under a separate authority, the United States

designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, an arm of the Iranian military, as a foreign

terrorist group — the first time it gave that label to a nation-state entity.

Concerns have been escalating for several years that there is a growing transnational white

supremacist or alt-right movement, as illustrated by the 2019 mass shootings at two mosques in

Christchurch, New Zealand, by an Australian man who streamed the killings of 51 people on

Facebook Live.

Against that backdrop, national security officials are said to have been searching for a neo-Nazistyle

group that the U.S. government could designate as a foreign terrorist organization.

One challenge to finding an appropriate candidate was that designating a group with significant

American ties would also raise major First Amendment issues, officials said. Although a Russian

Imperial Movement member has visited the United States, the organization does not appear to

have domestic members. It is not clear if the group has provided training to U.S.-based neo-

Nazis.

Fighting domestic terrorism, including violent white nationalists, has become a priority for the

F.B.I. Federal and local authorities have made a wave of arrests in recent months, targeting

members of two neo-Nazi groups called Atomwaffen Division and The Base.

The F.B.I. has been investigating whether the leader of The Base, who lives in St. Petersburg, has

any ties to the Russian government’s security or intelligence services, former law enforcement

officials said.

Mr. Sales said they were continuing to look for other white supremacist groups or individuals

who met the criteria for sanctions, but declined to comment on any specifics.

The designation of the Russian Imperial Movement would make it easier for the F.B.I. to open

sanctions-evasion investigations into Americans who appear to have ties to the group, just as it

can with Islamist groups like Al Qaeda, the Islamic State or Hezbollah.

The Trump administration is preparing to unveil the move under the banner of combating

“racially or ethnically motivated terrorism.” The F.B.I. refers to such groups as racially motivated

violent extremists, which have committed the “most lethal incidents among domestic terrorists

in recent years,” the F.B.I. said last year in congressional testimony.

++++

Governance By Artificial Intelligence: The Ultimate

Unaccountable Tyranny

Tyler Durden's Photo

BY TYLER DURDEN

TUESDAY, MAR 28, 2023 - 07:45 PM

Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.us,

It’s no secret that globalist institutions are obsessed

with Artificial Intelligence as some kind of technological

prophecy.

They treat it as if it is almost supernatural in its

potential and often argue that every meaningful

industrial and social innovation in the near future will

owe its existence to AI.

The World Economic Forum cites AI as the singular key

to the rise of what they call the “Fourth Industrial

Revolution.”

In their view, there can be no human progress without

the influence of AI algorithms, making human input

almost obsolete.

This delusion is often promoted by globalist

propagandists. For example, take a look at the

summarized vision of WEF member Yuval Harari, who

actually believes that AI has creative ability that will

replace human imagination and innovation. Not only

that, but Harari has consistently argued in the past that

AI will run the world much better than human beings

ever could.

Harari’s examples of AI creativity might sound like

extreme naivety to many of us, but he knows exactly

what he is doing in misrepresenting the capabilities of

algorithms. Games like chess and Go are games of

patterns restricted by rules, there only so many

permutations of these patterns in any given scenario

and AI is simply faster at spotting them than most

humans because that is what it is designed to do by

software creators. This is no different that solving a

mathematical equation; just because a calculator is

faster than you does not mean it is “creative.”

There is a big difference between cognitive automation

and cognitive autonomy. AI is purely automation; it will

play the games it is programmed to play and will learn

to play them well, but it will never have an epiphany

one day and create a new and unique game from

scratch unless it is coded to do so. AI will never have

fun playing this new game it made, or feel the joy of

sharing that game with others, so why would it bother?

It will never seek to contribute to the world any more

than it is pre-programmed to do.

The manner in which globalists hype AI is very tactical,

however. When Harari claims that many people will

become part of the “useless class” once AI takes over

the economy, he is hinting at another globalist ideology

based on elitism – Transhumanism. The goal of

transhumanism is to one day merge human bodies and

human minds with technology and AI, and only a

limited group of people will have the resources to

accomplish this (the globalists).

Are you afraid of becoming part of the “useless class”?

Well, if you scrape and beg and serve every whim of the

elitist establishment then maybe you will be lucky

enough to get implants which allow you to interface

with AI, and then your future employment and

“usefulness” will be secured. Doesn’t that sound nice?

But, like all the visions of narcissists there are delusions

of godhood and then there is reality. I continue to have

serious doubts that AI will ever be legitimately

autonomous or legitimately beneficial to humanity in

any way beyond having the ability to calculate quickly

within mathematical rules. Speedy data analysis can be

useful in many areas of science, but it’s not really proof

of autonomous intelligence, and algorithms can be

predictive but not any more predictive than human

beings looking at the same statistical data. There is

nothing about AI that is impressive when one considers

what little it actually accomplishes.

AI is a toy, a parlor trick, not a living entity with

independent observations and conclusions. And, it’s

certainly not a god-like being capable of showering us

with scientific ambrosia or building a perfect

civilization. I predict that a society dependent on AI will

actually stagnate and remain trapped in stasis, never

really inventing anything of much value and never

progressing. It will only ever be concerned with

homogenization – The merging of people with the

algorithm. That is where ALL the society’s energies will

go.

As a point of reference to why AI is overrated, all we

have to do is look at the behavior of AI programs like

ChatGPT; the algorithm has been discovered on

numerous occasions to contain extreme political biases

always leaning to the far-left, including biases based in

beliefs not backed in any way by scientific evidence.

Interestingly, ChatGPT will even at times display a

seemingly hostile response to conservative concepts or

inconvenient facts. The bot will then DENY it is giving

personal opinions even when its responses are

consistently pro-leftist.

How is political bias possible for a piece of software

unless it was programmed to display that bias? There is

no objectivity to be found in AI, nor any creativity, it will

simply regurgitate the personal opinions or biases of

the people that created it and that engineered how it

processes data.

Unlike a typical human teenager that seeks to adopt

the opposing social or political beliefs of their parents

in order set themselves apart, AI will never

metaphorically dye its hair blue, pierce its nose and

proclaim itself vegan – It will always do what its

creators want it to do. Another example of this

dynamic is AI art, which essentially steals the stylistic

properties of numerous human artists entered into its

database and copies them. While imitation might be

considered the highest form of flattery, it’s not the

same as creativity.

This might not sound like much of a problem when it

comes to a simple chatbot or the making of cartoons.

But, it’s a massive problem when we start talking about

AI influencing social and governmental policies.

The globalists argue that AI will be everywhere – In

business, in schools, in corporate operations, in

scientific enterprises, and even within government. It

MUST run everything. Why? They don’t really say why

other than to make vague promises of incredible

advancements and previously unimaginable benefits.

To date, there have been no profound innovations

produced by AI, but I suppose pro-AI propagandists will

say that the golden age is “right around the corner.”

The uses for AI are truly limited to helping humans with

simple tasks, but there is still a cost. A self driving car

might be great for a person that is physically

handicapped, but it can also be a crutch that convinces

a population to never learn to drive themselves. By

extension, AI is in a lot of ways the ULTIMATE crutch

which leads to ultimate tyranny. If people are convinced

to hand over normal human processes and decision

making opportunities to automation, then they have

handed over their freedoms in exchange for

convenience.

More importantly, if algorithms are allowed to dictate a

large portion of choices and conclusions, people will no

longer feel a sense of accountability for their actions.

Regardless of the consequences, all they have to do for

the rest of their lives is tell themselves they were only

following the suggestions (or orders) of AI. The AI

becomes a form of external collectivized conscience; an

artificial moral compass for the hive mind.

But who will really be controlling that moral compass

and bottle-necking the decisions of millions of people?

Will it be the AI, or the elites behind the curtain that

manipulate the algorithm?

For many people this probably sounds like science

fiction. Yes, there have been many fictional imaginings

of what the world would be like in the shadow of AI – I

would highly recommend the French New Wave film

‘Alphaville’ as one of the most accurate predictions on

the horrors of AI and technocracy. However, what I am

warning about here is not some far off theoretical

future, it is already here. Take a look at this disturbing

video on AI from the World Government Summit:

These are the blatant goals of globalists in plain view,

with a sugar coating to make them more palatable. I

wrote about the motivations of the elites and their

worshipful reverence for AI in my article ‘Artificial

Intelligence: A Secular Look At The Digital Antichrist’.

That piece was focused on the philosophical drives that

make globalists desire AI.

In this article I want to stress the issue of AI governance

and how it might be made to appeal to the masses. In

order to achieve the dystopian future the globalists

want, they still have to convince a large percentage of

the population to applaud it and embrace it.

The comfort of having a system that makes difficult

decisions for us is an obvious factor, as mentioned

above. But, AI governance is not just about removing

choice, it’s also about removing the information we

might need to be educated enough to make choices.

We saw this recently with the covid pandemic

restrictions and the collusion between governments,

corporate media and social media. Algorithms were

widely used by web media conglomerates from

Facebook to YouTube to disrupt the flow of information

that might run contrary to the official narrative.

In some cases the censorship targeted people merely

asking pertinent questions or fielding alternative

theories. In other cases, the censorship outright

targeted provably factual data that was contrary to

government policies. A multitude of government claims

on covid origins, masking, lockdowns and vaccines have

been proven false over the past few years, and yet

millions of people still blindly believe the original

narrative because they were bombarded with it

nonstop by the algorithms. They were never exposed to

the conflicting information, so they were never able to

come to their own conclusions.

Luckily, unlike bots, human intelligence is filled with

anomalies – People who act on intuition and skepticism

in order to question preconceived or fabricated

assertions. The lack of contrary information

immediately causes suspicion for many, and this is what

authoritarian governments often refuse to grasp.

The great promise globalists hold up in the name of AI

is the idea of a purely objective state; a social and

governmental system without biases and without

emotional content. It’s the notion that society can be

run by machine thinking in order to “save human

beings from themselves” and their own frailties. It is a

false promise, because there will never be such a thing

as objective AI, nor any AI that understand the

complexities of human psychological development.

Furthermore, the globalist dream of AI is driven not by

adventure, but by fear. It’s about the fear of

responsibility, the fear of merit, the fear of inferiority,

the fear of struggle and the fear of freedom. The

greatest accomplishments of mankind are admirable

because they are achieved with emotional content, not

in spite of it. It is that content that inspires us to delve

into the unknown and overcome our fears. AI

governance and an AI integrated society would be

nothing more than a desperate action to deny the

necessity of struggle and the will to overcome.

Globalists are more than happy to offer a way out of

the struggle, and they will do it with AI as the face of

their benevolence. All you will have to do is trade your

freedoms and perhaps your soul in exchange for never

having to face the sheer terror of your own quiet

thoughts. Some people, sadly, believe this is a fair

trade.

The elites will present AI as the great adjudicator, the

pure and logical intercessor of the correct path; not just

for nations and for populations at large but for each

individual life. With the algorithm falsely accepted as

infallible and purely unbiased, the elites can then rule

the world through their faceless creation without any

oversight – For they can then claim that it’s not them

making decisions, it’s the AI. How does one question or

even punish an AI for being wrong, or causing disaster?

And, if the AI happens to make all its decisions in favor

of the globalist agenda, well, that will be treated as

merely coincidental.

* * *