Hello CCI followers,

You may know that the late Stephen F. Cohen influenced generations of young academics and journalists who shared his concerns regarding the dangers of a new cold war with Russia and the mainstream media’s refusal to meaningfully challenge the narrative set by Washington’s bipartisan foreign policy elites.

Shortly after Cohen’s demise last September, three of his younger admirers and friends came together to form a new media outlet on Substack called The Scrum, which is dedicated to Steve. I have been a subscriber since the beginning and love their insightful pieces! So I asked The Scrum founding editor, James Carden, about the new site and what he and his colleagues hope to achieve with it:

Can you tell me what distinctive role you are aiming for in the world of so many different types of journalism? 

Yes. The Scrum is a project by three writers (Patrick Lawrence, Marshall Auerback and myself) who have come together to analyze current events without any interest in playing to the prejudices or preconceptions of the Left or the Right. Simply put, we look at foreign and domestic issues and ask: what policies advance the common good, here and abroad? Do wars, illegal interventions, cold wars, sanctions, bellicose rhetoric and enormous defense budgets promote peace and global stability or do they not? We believe they do not and we take a deeply critical eye toward all those aspects, regardless of who is in charge.

What perspective do you hope to leave with readers?  

One of the things I do when I am writing a story is to ask myself what Steve Cohen would have thought; his approach to foreign affairs was to champion diplomacy, to wage peace not war, to talk to and try to understand our adversaries and those different from us. In short, to try and use empathy and our common humanity to get to common solutions. At The Scrum you will never see us demonize a world leader or cast aspersions on an entire population because they have cultures and systems different from us. We believe in pluralism at home and abroad.

The Scrum is one of a small number of responsible and independent news sources available today. I urge you to check out TheScrum.Substack.com. If you are interested, sign up for a 30 day subscription.

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Dear CCI Friends and Followers,

Some 800 U.S. Military bases operate across the world. I’ve been stunned wondering how much money must be going into these huge operations about which we Americans have little to no information or decision making. The subject seemed too huge to even know how to begin investigating.

These 800 bases were never mentioned (that I remember) during the 2020 election.  Nor were the dozens of wars being fought in countries we seldom know how to find on maps!  We salute our soldiers and don’t ask or care where they are or what they are doing.

This morning, I finally got answers to my questions and more: I got to hear educated, passionate voices on a webinar from the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

The Quincy Institute is a relatively new U.S. “Think Tank” and the most truthful and daring of the dozens of these entities that exist in the Washington DC area. Most are political party specific. They “think” for their Democrat or Republican Congress members.

The Quincy Institute is different. It was founded in 2019 by a West Pointer, a dedicated military man, Andrew Bacevich … who woke up, left the military, got a PhD in U.S. Military Science and began writing books and speaking with the American public. He founded the Institute to educate regarding America’s wars, bases and much more. He’s kindly, analytical and committed to finding the Truth … with the hope of saving our nation and our world in the process.

Google the Quincy Institute first, if you don’t know the scope of this new Institute. Then click this URL https://youtu.be/uSauo4d-SMA to learn about the 800 bases from Bacevich and his three expert researchers. If you go to about 4 minutes in … Bacevich will begin to explore this topic.

I was amazed to learn so much in such a short time! You may be also.

Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

Dear  CCI Readers,

Increasingly, the internet is providing us facts that we seldom get in our mainstream media. The following are the first RT articles I remember sending to our CCI audience. These pieces below are concise and contain the same type of information being covered across the world.  It’s time for us  to wake up to the new “Multi-polar” world in which we now exist.

Our major parties still haven’t come to terms with this fact. Definitely we were the Unipolar country … from 1945 to the 2000’s. Somewhere between 2010 and today, the situation began changing rapidly. We are now one of the poles but not the only pole. As is being repeated currently in Europe, “There is no one at the head of the table; the table is round.” 

Scan the following short articles for evidences of what now exists and will continue as all countries shift to build their trade, policies and currencies accordingly. Hopefully these happenings will do away with notions about creating exotic weaponry and wars to regain the former Unipolar world concept.

Think of the dollars that will be available for education, healthcare, infrastructure and our indigent populations by using money currently being spent on war machinery!!!

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Dear CCI Followers,

There is little to rejoice over regarding the latest moves from the Biden administration. However, it is getting “kick back” from some important places, such as this article below from The Hill.

The Hill in 2019 was ranked second among all U.S. news sites for political readership, second to CNN, and ahead of Capitol Hill competitors such as Politico.

As of 2020, the newspaper claims to have more than 22,000 print readers. The Hill is distributed for free in newspaper boxes around the U.S. Capitol building, and mailed directly to all congressional offices.

Back when I was calling on members in the 90’s and 2000’s, there always was a current issue of The Hill prominently placed in their Congressional waiting rooms.

Please read this piece on understanding or misunderstanding Russia printed a few days ago.

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Dear CCI Readers,

We get all sorts of responses to emails that we send out to our CCI list. This one below is from an acknowledged Air Force “Missiler” of earlier years, Larry Rhoades. I thought you might enjoy his reflection on our $100 Billion for nuclear weapons and asked his permission to print his note, which he graciously gave.

Sharon Tennison
Center for Citizen Initiatives

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