International Polls: Of all peoples, Americans show the greatest hostility to press freedom
Let’s stop blaming our drift to tyranny on government or the “Deep State.” WE the PEOPLE are the main culprit, no one else.
This is why our Constitutional freedoms are on the decline.
The 2019 poll (summed up below) is the scariest:
On 17 April 2019, I headlined “By 3-to-1, Americans Want Assange Prosecuted”
America was the harshest public of all, and by now there is no excuse for anyone to want Assange punished. I would expect a LOT more Americans to think of him as a hero after publishing video of US recruits in Iraq simply killing civilians for sport.
This video evidence was an important clue as to what our military and our political system stand for.
Let me share an anecdote.
Over a decade ago, I was chatting with a neighbor over the back fence. He was an ex-cop in a region known to be full of bigots. He very nonchalantly told me that when he was serving in Vietnam in the 60s, he frequently would shoot to kill Vietnamese that he happened to encounter. He made it clear most of them were NOT the North Vietnamese “enemy.” Obviously, this practice did not seem to disturb his superior officers. It was a feature of US military culture that ought to leave us all chilled to the bone.
How could this happen?
Who are we as a people? Is the US much more than just a crime syndicate?
I know the above is only an anecdote, but I had also heard another story from an American man in a bar in San Salvador, El Salvador, who told me, also very nonchalantly, about having been aboard an aircraft when a farmer taking a dump in a rice paddy came into view down below. The pilot swooped down menacingly toward the defecating farmer, who then picked up his rifle, and at that point, they shot him dead.
The American howled with laughter at this story.
From these anecdotes and from the Wikileaks video of the murders of the innocent civilians from a gunship, I get the distinct impression that an alarming percentage of Americans who are drafted and serve in wartime in foreign countries, do not see the natives of foreign countries as human beings but more as beasts to be hunted down and killed for sport.
And this is, I am led to believe, is part of US military culture that is accepted by service men of all ranks.
In America, war is a game.
https://orientalreview.su/2024/07/09/the-extraordinarily-deceived-u-s-uk-publics-about-assange/
The Extraordinarily Deceived U.S. & UK Publics About Assange
Written by Eric ZUESSE on 09/07/2024
The only international poll that sampled many countries simultaneously about Assange or his WikiLeaks so as to be able to compare the opinions internationally was by Reuters, headlining on 26 April 2011 “WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange is not a criminal: global poll”, and it showed that by far the most hostile public in opposing WikiLeaks was in America, the only public that was more anti-WikiLeaks than pro. 61% of Americans opposed WikiLeaks, and the second-worst was in UK, 38% opposed. Third-worst was Canada, 33%. Fourth-worst Poland at 32%. The four most favorable to Wikileaks were South Africa 12%, and then India, Russia, and Spain tied at 15%.
Subsequently, on 19 September 2022, Morning Consult headlined “Many in the West Support Assange’s Leaks, and Few Want Him Extradited to U.S.” and reported their pollings in Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK, & U.S. Lowest approval of Assange was in both UK & U.S., so again those were the two worst. Their report said:
On the question of extraditing Assange, there is a lack of support across Europe’s five largest economies and Australia. Only 21% in Australia back extradition, compared with 46% who oppose it, but it’s Germans who are most against the idea: Just 18% want to see Assange’s extradition go ahead, compared with 52% who said it should not. Opposition outweighs support by 12 percentage points in France, 13 points in Spain and 27 points in Italy.
Only Americans are far more likely to back extradition than not: Support is at 40%, almost double the 21% of adults who are opposed. In the United Kingdom, support for extradition also outweighs opposition, but the gap is much narrower: 30% of U.K. adults support Assange’s extradition, compared with 26% who oppose it. But many in both countries said they have no opinion: 39% in the United States and 44% in the United Kingdom.
In fact, across each country surveyed, sizable portions said they have little knowledge or no opinion
Inside the U.S., there were other pollings.
——
On 17 April 2019, I headlined “By 3-to-1, Americans Want Assange Prosecuted” and reported two YouGov polls, 2019 and 2018, both of which showed high American hostility toward Assange personally.
Then, there were these polls in America:
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Poll: Democrats more likely to view Assange as having committed espionage
28 July 2021
35% of Democratic registered voters in the July 20-21 survey said Assange committed espionage. … 24 percent of Republican voters said Assange committed espionage. Females were far more anti-Assange than were males.
——
https://today.yougov.com/topics/politics/survey-results/daily/2024/06/26/24020/1
Do you have a favorable or an unfavorable opinion of Julian Assange?
26 June 2024
YouGov surveyed 4814 US adults
ALL:
Very favorable 10%
Somewhat favorable 18% that’s 28% favorable
Somewhat unfavorable 15%
Very unfavorable 12% that’s 27% unfavorable
Not sure 46%
MALE: 13, 24, v. 17, 13, only 32 unsure. that’s 37%/30%
FEMALE: 7, 12, v. 13, 10, w. 59 unsure that’s 19%/23%
So, males were more favorable toward Assange than females were.
——
Just 12% View Julian Assange as Hero
3 July 2024
Americans voters have decidedly mixed views on Wikileaks founder Julian Assange’s recent release from custody.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that only 12% of Likely U.S. voters consider Assange a hero, while 31% view him as a villain, 45% say he’s somewhere in between and 12% are not sure.
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And here is a video which shows what the entire matter has actually been about:
https://web.archive.org/web/20240705205833/
(link doesn’t open file)
https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/PYIyq6tpQ-4
Julian Assange and the dark secrets of war | DW Documentary
DW Documentary 55 minutes
5 July 2024
8:00- In 2010 Assange receives video which he knows that for him to present publicly might create enormous retaliation against him from the U.S. Government. It shows the U.S. Government authorizing its Iraq snipers to machine-gun to death 9 civilians who are conversing together on the street; and the instruction to them is “Light ‘em all up” then making unambiguously clear the instruction, “Come on, fire!” immediately followed by the rat-a-tat-tat and all of the targets collapsing to the street, but one running away as the firing continues and then he too falls to the ground dead. It is clearly an international war crime, and is so graphic that forever after, the U.S. Government aimed only to destroy Assange, just like he feared would happen from his publishing that evidence. [It would be interesting to know when this video first reached a wide audience. If it reached a large percentage of Americans and 3 to one still wanted Assange extradited after that, this lates poll is an indictment of a very callous or perhaps very low IQ American public. The US public is troubling because, even now that the Gaza genocide is well known, US Evangelicals still keep saying “I stand with Israel.” I take this as an ominous sign]
The U.S. Government has consistently lied about why they destroyed him, and so it got this lie from him that he had committed “espionage” (and got his promise never again to offend them), but this video was the actual reason why they did it, and as is clear ever since 20 March 2003, all who trust the U.S. Government believe its lies again and again and again without limit, and never learn but are permanent fools for the U.S. Government.
So: that is what this matter has really been all about. The U.S. Government prohibits the clear evidence of a U.S. international crime to become published, and demands that any violator will suffer intensely, so as to terrify any other journalist who might consider violating this demand. That’s it. Everything else is propaganda.
**
Translation with my notes in bold and in [brackets]
10.07.2024
TASS: The Russian Armed Forces attacked the port of Odessa with the Utes coastal missile system
Anastasia Selivanova
Russian troops attacked targets in the port of Odessa using the Utes coastal missile system. This was reported to TASS by law enforcement agencies.
Explosions occurred twice in Odessa today. The first time - at night, the second - closer to noon. After the night explosions, the head of the military administration of the Odessa oblast, Oleg Kiper, said that the port infrastructure was damaged.
According to the underground, as a result of the attack in the port of Chernomorsk, a warehouse with ammunition for the Ukrainian Armed Forces was destroyed, where missiles were recently delivered “under the strictest secrecy.” [This tells us something about the Odessa oblast. So far, the territories targeted by and fought over by the Russian forces have all been Russian speaking lands (see the language map below). This means that the people there have been, since at least 2014, persecuted by the US loyal Kiev regime installed under Obama. It would therefore be unreasonable to assume these people would be loyal to Ukraine. This is the problem with the notion of “territorial integrity,” used as a western justification of the Ukrainian side in the war. Territorial integrity would normally be a serious consideration under normal circumstances, but a Neonazi regime of the racist Kiev type has a policy of ethnic cleansing, so that the Russian speakers are seen as ethnically impure and therefore undesirable – like the Palestinians in Israel, which is also ultraright (fascist-leaning). Consequently, the Kiev regime must expect major resistance to the government. Thus, most of the population is pro-Russian, and it is therefore very difficult to expect the populace to keep a secret from their Russian brothers. This is why the Russians are able to accurately target military assets. The locals supply them with the coordinates for missile attacks.]
The underground reported the death of British mercenaries during a strike on a warehouse near Odessa
The Coastal anti-Ship Missile DBK "Utes" [pronounced “Utyos”] is a Russian coastal anti-ship operational-tactical complex. The DBK was put on combat duty in 1972. It was built in rock to protect against nuclear weapons, and a command post, missile storage facilities and workshops for preparing and refueling missiles were located underground.
In 1996, as part of the agreement on the division of the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation, it was included in the Ukrainian Navy, but already in 2002, one division was disbanded and collapsed, and the second was mothballed. After the reunification of Crimea with Russia, the surviving division was reactivated, and in 2016 it was added to the 15th coastal missile brigade of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
Before the SMO (special military operation), the Utes complex was mentioned in official reports of the Russian Ministry of Defense in October 2021. Then, during the exercises of the Black Sea Fleet, a Progress target missile was fired, which was shot down by the frigate Admiral Grigorovich from an air defense missile system.
At the beginning of this year, officers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, studying the fragments of missiles and drones collected from objects hit by Russian strikes in the Odessa oblast, identified the remains of Progress missiles. As it turned out, these munitions quite successfully hit targets, overcoming Ukrainian air defense systems. [probably because they fly low, under the radar]
Language map of Ukraine. Please also note that this map only lists native Russian speakers. However, there are many speakers of Russian as a second language all over Ukraine. BTW, Zelensky himself was born in a native Russian speaking area.
**
Translation with my notes in bold and in [brackets]
10.07.2024
POWERFUL EXPLOSIONS IN UKRAINE: RUSSIAN TROOPS STRIKES AIRFIELD INFRASTRUCTURE OF THE AFU
Explosions occurred throughout the night in Ukraine after a massive attack by the Russian Armed Forces
At one o'clock in the morning the first air raid sirens sounded in Ukraine. Explosions occurred in the Zhytomyr oblast. Subsequently, the Rivne, Odessa, Khmelnytsky, Poltava, and Vinnytsia oblasts were attacked. In addition, Russian drones attacked the Nikolaev, Cherkasy, Kherson and Dnepropetrovsk oblasts. Another group of “Geran-2” headed to Kyiv.
Powerful explosions in Ukraine: Russian troops attacked airfield infrastructure of the Ukrainian Armed Forces
The heaviest blow fell on the Rivne and Khmelnytsky oblasts. Local sources report that the explosions began there at three in the morning.
The Telegram channel “Zerkalo Nedeli” reports that the explosions began in Khmelnitsky.
Explosions are also heard in Rivne; residents report that glass in their houses is being blown out and the glow of a large fire is visible.
Military expert Alexander Ivankovsky believes that the main attack again hit the airfield infrastructure of the Ukrainian Armed Forces; there have been no attacks on Rivne for a long time. Since the times of the Soviet Union, large military bases have been located in Western Ukraine, which are currently being actively restored, and the Russian Armed Forces are just as actively and effectively destroying them, the expert added. [It is likely that the western-supplied F-16s will be housed at some of these western Ukrainian airfields, and that explains the relentless missile and drone strikes on them. Russia is hoping that, by the time the F-16s arrive, there will be no usable airfields for them to fly out of to attack Russian assets]
Ivankovsky also noted that the West announced that American F-16s should arrive in Ukraine this month, and to avoid this, all possible bases and intermediate airfields where they can refuel and rearm are turning into broken terrain.
In addition, the expert suggested that the focus of Russian attacks will soon shift to energy infrastructure. [It would make sense to plunge areas with miliary assets, such as airfields, into power outages to make it difficult for them to be used to attack Russian assets]
It was previously reported that Western countries will allocate more than a billion dollars to Ukraine for air defense. [As in the past, this is generally a waste of money and effort because Russia uses hypersonic missiles to destroy Ukrainian air defenses, after which it can attack areas protected by them with impunity. The recent massive attack on Kiev was made with non-hypersonic missiles because the Patriot and other air defenses had been destroyed]
Author: Maxim Minakov
**
Translation with my notes in bold and in [brackets]
Russia-Ukraine war: Kremlin hits out at UK’s ‘irresponsible’ comments on Storm Shadow missiles – as it happened
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West’s colossal mistake: US decline, rise of BRICS, tariffs damage US economy, Prf. Richard Wolff
Listen to a REAL economist (link below) explain why the US is shooting itself in the foot with China tariffs. They are inflationary. Dr. Richard Wolff explains in simple terms why that is and how it is hurting your pocketbook.
Here in Panama, my adoptive country, I have started to notice the appearance of several exotic new car brands. For example, there is the Geely, and the Changan, and others. They’re pretty cars, and have a reputation of reliability.
I’d love to have one.
But if I move back to the US, I will likely never see another one of them. The reason? Tariffs. Tariffs are inflationary. A good car made in Detroit will cost more, leaving the US consumer with less cash in their pockets.
We are being impoverished.
You know, I recall that, when Donald Trump first appeared on the political scene, he was touted as a man who understood economics.
The problem with this kind of thinking is that Trump was a business man who knew how to make money for himself.
But a US politician faces the problem of making money for the public. That problem is not an individual problem of personal enrichment, it is a public problem of making America prosperous.
To tackle this problem you need to have an in-depth knowledge of something called macroeconomics.
Xi Jinping has such knowledge and it has enabled him to enrich the most populous country in the world and lift over a billion Chinese out of poverty
President Putin and his advisors, such as Sergey Glaziev, also think in terms of macroeconomics and this has enabled Russia, amazingly, to overcome killer sanctions in a time of war and achieve economic growth. To the extent of raising it to the level of the fourth greatest economy in the world! In ppp terms. That makes it the richest country in Europe!
And neither Xi nor Putin were ever successful in business. They were savvy in terms of macroeconomics, I can’t help but wonder if Trump even knows what that word means.
You can say hurrah for the red, white and blue if it makes you feel better.
But we’re not going anywhere.
**
Souls for sale.
LABOUR MPS HAVE ACCEPTED OVER £280,000 FROM ISRAEL LOBBY
Twenty percent of Labour’s sitting MPs have been funded by pro-Israel groups or individuals – including 15 who have been directly funded by the Israeli state.
JOHN MCEVOY
13 FEBRUARY 2024
Labour MPs on a “solidarity mission” with Israel’s president. (Photo: LFI / X)
Israel lobbyists have paid for Labour MPs to travel to Israel on over 50 occasions
Remarkably, the number of MPs supporting Labour Friends of Israel has increased amid the Gaza genocide
Some 41 of Labour’s 197 sitting MPs have accepted money from the Israel lobby, Declassified has found.
The value of the donations amounts to over £280,000, with Israel lobby groups paying for Labour MPs to visit Israel on over 50 occasions since 1999.
The funders include parliamentary group Labour Friends of Israel (LFI), pro-Israel figures such as Trevor Chinn, and governmental bodies including the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Amid Israel’s genocide on Gaza, at least one Labour MP, Margaret Hodge, has continued to accept Israel lobby funds to travel to the country.
Labour Friends of Israel
LFI has described itself as a “Westminster based lobby group working with the British Labour Party to promote the State of Israel”.
The organisation does not disclose its sources of funding, but is closely associated with the Israeli state.
LFI currently counts 75 Labour MPs as parliamentary supporters or officers – a number which, remarkably, has risen since the onset of Israel’s war on Gaza.
https://www.declassifieduk.org/labour-mps-have-accepted-over-280000-from-israel-lobby/
**
ALL TRUMP CAN SAY TO THIS IS “FINISH THEM OFF, NETANYAHU”
Friends, if your candidate or lawmaker endorses this, what would keep him/her from committing an atrocity against Americans if it were to their advantage?
There should not be ONE US official supporting genocide. Any that accept bribes from the Israel lobby and declaring “I stand with Israel” should be arrested and imprisoned. Any high official in any country who supports atrocities is a major threat to his country.
All of Gaza suffering under famine – Day 276
CONTACT@IFAMERICANSKNEW.ORG JULY 10, 2024
All of Gaza suffering under famine – Day 276
RAFAH, GAZA - MARCH 24: Fadi Zant, aged 9, experiencing malnutrition, receives treatment after evacuated from the northern Gaza Strip to the IMC field hospital in Rafah, Gaza on March 24, 2024. The Gaza Strip is on the brink of famine as Israeli attacks on the area enters its sixth month. (Photo by Ali Jadallah/Anadolu via Getty Images)
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حصاد جبهة الإسناد اليمنية: استنزاف حتى تحقيق الأهداف (alkhanadeq.org.lb)
Wednesday, July 10, 2024 03:20
The harvest of the Yemeni Support Front: exhaustion until the goals are achieved
This week marks 6 months since the United States and Britain began hundreds of air strikes on Yemen. Although these raids failed to achieve their goal of dissuading the Ansar Allah movement from continuing its military operations and even moving through the stages of escalation according to what the field imposes in the Gaza Strip, the limited options open made pursuing aerial bombardment of targets in the Yemeni geography a less politically costly solution. And military. While Washington was forced to complete its raids reflects the fact that the reality imposed by Sanaa cannot be ignored, and this is due to the prices that Israel and its allies paid as a result of closing the sea lanes to them.
The number of military operations since the start of the war has reached more than 215, including 46 directly against the occupying entity. The Yemeni armed forces shot down 6 American aircraft, while the number of ships targeted reached 157 ships. The number of ballistic and winged missiles and drones used also exceeded 520.
The effects of the attack launched by the Yemeni armed forces are not excluded from the losses incurred by the port of Haifa and the shipping companies heading to it, in addition to the losses of the ship companies that were injured and were unable to complete their way to provide assistance to the entity. Media reports reveal that the occupied cities have received more than 212,000 missiles from various fronts since the start of the war on October 7.
These operations, which cost the United States about $1 billion according to an American intelligence report published by Axios, ultimately failed to deter the movement, which continues to launch missiles and drones at ships off the Yemeni coast.
The cost of the ammunition used to shoot down Yemeni missiles and drones is estimated at between $1 million and $4.3 million. Noting that ships cannot reload at sea and will have to return to nearby ports to reload if the activity continues for a longer period - Djibouti may be an option, according to experts who spoke to Responsible Statecraft.
On the other hand, a member of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Behnam Bin Talablu, points out that “the Houthis’ reserves do not appear to have been exhausted anywhere, even with the continued sporadic American and British strikes against them... Moreover, the Houthis intend to project their power beyond the borders of “Now that Yemen has won the war, the United States faces only a list of bad options in the face of this reality.”
There is no doubt that the movement suffered losses as a result of targeting its positions, but its retention of the ability to attack ships whenever they crossed the red line, that is, sailing towards the ports of occupied Palestine, indicates the limited effectiveness of the strikes.
“The Houthis’ intention to continue obstructing shipping in the Red Sea has not wavered,” says Thomas Juneau, an associate professor focusing on the Middle East at the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. He added, "The reality on the ground in Yemen is that the Houthis have won the war and that the internationally recognized government is not in a position to challenge them. It is weak, fragmented, and corrupt."
In fact, the media blackout practiced by the American administration on the one hand and the occupation entity on the other hand regarding the extent of the losses that resulted from the military operations reflects the systematic measures taken for this purpose. While the reaction that came after Sanaa announced its commitment to consider Yemen as a support front indicates the magnitude of the dilemma they face.
There are those who say, in response to what the Western media is plotting and reports issued by the White House, US Central Command and others, that Sanaa is incurring losses as a result of its position, that the scene is as follows: the Yemeni people pay the prices but reap the goals, while Washington reaps nothing in return for what it suffers. From financial losses every day.
Writer: Editorial room