Consortium News

The Western media’s Russia-bashing has become epidemic, creating a dangerous dynamic as the world plunges into a new Cold War, with even sports becoming a propaganda arena, as Rick Sterling explains.

By Rick Sterling

With the Rio Summer Olympics starting on Aug. 5, there is a huge controversy about Russian participation. On the basis of a report by Canadian lawyer Richard Mclaren (the “Mclaren Report”), the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has recommended the banning of all Russian athletes from the Rio Games.

Before his report was even issued, Mclaren influenced the International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF) in their decision to ban all Russian athletes from track and field events, including those who never failed any doping tests, in Russia or elsewhere.

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Dear CCI Friends,

Why don’t the two largest nuclear powers on the globe embrace a more radical proposal – one that Moscow has repeatedly suggested to Washington, starting back in the Soviet days and continuing in the form of overtures from the Russian leaders – which is the idea to refrain from the use of nuclear weapons in a first strike or even to refuse to use them at all against each other? Would it not add to the strategic stability of the entire planet, if all of the five “legal” nuclear powers (the nuclear “club”), as well as the “unofficial” nuclear-weapon states that are not party to the NPT, followed in the footsteps of Russia and the US?

Unfortunately, the many years that have passed without action on this initiative have shown that America’s military and political leaders still resolutely refuse to implement this simple, straightforward idea to which many nations of the world subscribe.

Oriental Review
July 28, 2016

Three Steps To Reverse A “Doomsday” Clock

By Vladimir KOZIN (Russia)
Prof. Vladimir Kozin is the leading Russian expert on disarmament and strategic stability issues.

The recent book review “A Stark Nuclear Warning” by Jerry Brown, in which he has shared views on William J. Perry’s memoirs “My Journey at the Nuclear Brink”, raises a lot of questions and concerns.

Jerry Brown unequivocally describes Perry, who held many important positions in the past, including the U.S. Secretary of Defense in 1994-1997, as a double-hated man.

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Russia Insider

Theodore McIntire

A Charlie Rose by any other name would smell as sweet

On Thursday 21 July 2016 longtime newscaster Charlie Rose was nominated for an Emmy award as the correspondent for Outstanding Interview with Vladimir Putin.  Rose conducted a 100 minute conversation with President Putin at the official residence of the President of Russia outside of Moscow.  The subject interview was broadcast in the United States of American on the evening of 27 September 2015 on the CBS news magazine television program 60 Minutes.  In addition to the CBS broadcast, the full interview (in two parts) can be found on the Charlie Rose  website here and here. Multiple important topics of interest including Syria, terrorism, and Russia‘s place in the world were addressed in the interview.

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CCI Friends, current international relations and politics have begun crumbling before our eyes in the past few months. The discontent felt by near 70% of Americans, the phenomenal shift at the grassroots toward Bernie Sanders, and the totally unexpected rise of Donald Trump to the Republican ticket are creating reverberations of change that are unmistakable.

Now to create and risk solutions to the status quo that will make this potential transition-in-process easier (it could be quite difficult). The article below by yet another USAF career military officer informs and educates us on one simple solution: drop the military aspects of NATO (which seems almost unthinkable – but it’s possible!) and retain the NATO Partnership for Peace Program. If this shift is accomplished, it could become a genuine humane effort that concentrates on cooperation and goodwill among nations––rather than continuous wars.

Sharon

Russia Insider
July 21, 2016

Trump Hits NATO Hard

How long before a NATO exit and for the outdated military and political alliance to crumble?

Theodore McIntire

The author is a Major (Retired) of the US Air Force and a peace activist.

In the United States, throughout Europe, and all around the world the public is clamoring for imaginative solutions and new leaders to meet the challenges of our global society. Increasingly voters are rejecting old, tired and misapplied 20th century solutions to the real, important and pressing issues of the 21st century.

Whether or not you agree with Donald Trump, it is painfully obvious he has some fresh, imaginative and futuristic visions, possibly inspired by his and others famous television programming.  He is willing to explore strange new ideas, to breathe new life into the Republican Party and the civilization it created, and to boldly go where no politician has gone before.

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Friends, what a propitious time for David Swanson to come out extolling President Kennedy’s prescient remarks some 50 years ago!

This piece is dense and long, but it gives the moral and rational roadmap we need to use today as we deal with Russia in yet another crisis point fraught with the possibility of nuclear annihilation.

Sharon

David Swanson’s Blog
July 17, 2016

Best Speech a U.S. President Ever Gave

In planning an upcoming conference and nonviolent action aimed at challenging the institution of war, with the conference to be held at American University, I can’t help but be drawn to the speech a U.S. president gave at American University a little more than 50 years ago. Whether or not you agree with me that this is the best speech ever given by a U.S. president, there should be little dispute that it is the speech most out of step with what anyone will say at either the Republican or the Democratic national convention this year. Here’s a video of the best portion of the speech:

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