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Foreign Affairs Ukraine and Gaza Bring Shame to America Our grandchildren will never forgive us.    Credit: ChocoPie/Shutterstock One of my strongest motivations in writing and activism is shame: I want to register disapproval of U.S. policies that I consider shameful and do all I can to stop my fellow citizens from doing things that our grandchildren will be ashamed of.  The choices our current elites have made about two parallel conflicts—Ukraine and Gaza—are stark moral scandals that will blacken my generation’s name, perhaps as much as the slave trade tarnished the reputation of our ancestors. Generation Z, which watches both wars unfold in real time on TikTok, is already appalled. That speaks well for their moral sense. In Ukraine, western foreign-policy mandarins decided back in 2014 that people of that long-suffering country would serve as useful pawns in a grudge-match blindfold chess game against Russia.  Since then, our Deep State has honeycombed Ukraine’s institutions with agents serving U.S. purported interests and promoting our sick oligarchs’ ghastly post-human fetishes. As I wrote over at The Stream, USAID-funded nonprofits treated the country as a laboratory for social engineering experiments, from U.S.-funded abortion clinics to trans grooming in schools. Accepting such poisonous policies was Kiev’s price of getting Western aid to resist the Russians, as one pro-life Ukrainian Christian after another has told me in tears. Of course, the aid we provided was not even intended to overwhelm and expel the Russian invaders, which would have risked a nuclear escalation. Instead, it was simply meant to “see Russia weakened,” as then-Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin put it. And if Ukrainians, in the meantime, bled to death in the hundreds of thousands… well, that’s just the cost of U.S. hegemony. The war’s casualties so far are approaching 1 million, according to Newsweek, with at least 10,000 dead civilians per United Nations reports. Moscow, for its part, isn’t trying to protect embattled Russian minorities or keep the homeland secure, as the Kremlin claims. Instead, Russian soldiers, whether they realize it or not, are fighting for Vladimir Putin’s chauvinistic “Great Russian” vision of a Ukraine subjugated and silenced, as beaten down and helpless as it was in the 1930s when Stalin imposed devastating famine.  Ukrainians are crushed between two millstones, as President Donald Trump has had the honesty to admit, which is why he’s trying to serve as an honest broker to end the conflict on rational, compromise terms—even as European leaders who imprison their critics and political opponents bang the war drum on behalf of “democracy.”   As for Gaza, we must have the courage to step up and condemn a tragic situation that we’ve helped bring about. The citizens of Gaza are now suffering massive bombing, artillery attacks, destruction of hospitals, and a starvation blockade. The Gaza Health Ministry says that more than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel began attacking the territory after October 7. Because nearly half of Gaza’s population is under 14 years old, many of the victims are children. UNICEF has described Gaza as “the most dangerous place in the world to be a child.”  Frontiers in Public Health estimates that a staggering 80 percent of dead and wounded are civilians with 20 percent being Hamas fighters or Israeli soldiers—a ratio about 400 times worse than in the Ukraine war. Gazans haven’t had a free election in nearly two decades, and they are increasingly marching in the streets to liberate themselves from the Islamist terror faction that launched the October 7, 2023 attacks. In response, Hamas is murdering its political opponents.  Israel’s government, like Russia’s, insists that it simply wants to secure its nation—and, as with Russia, its actions belie such claims. Increasingly, figures in the Israeli government are admitting what they really want: to render Gaza uninhabitable by its current population, empty the place, and take the territory for a Greater Israel.  It wouldn’t advance that Israeli aim if Gazans actually expelled Hamas, so don’t expect any help from Mossad or the Israel Defense Forces on that score. Just as it suits Vladimir Putin to point to the Azov Battalion so he can claim to be “de-nazifying” Ukraine, it serves the land-grabbing settlers’ movement to paint every Gazan of any age as a would-be suicide bomber. Trump has made noises in many directions on Gaza. He successfully pushed for a ceasefire, but also allowed it to collapse. He campaigned against Forever Wars, but appointed war hawks to key positions. I pray that he sees how eerily parallel this conflict is to the one in Ukraine and doesn’t put more U.S. support behind conquest and ethnic cleansing. Renewing the compromise ceasefire in Gaza, which halted further mass deaths of civilians and the immiseration of survivors, would provoke a firestorm of criticism here in the U.S. from those who secretly (or even openly) seek to expel two million indigenous Palestinians from their ancestral lands. But if Trump wants to extricate America from endless “stupid wars,” as he has said, and to reduce the likelihood of terror attacks against Americans, he will have to avoid becoming the enforcer of the Israeli far-right’s reckless expansionist fantasies. Trump doesn’t want his legacy to be tens of thousands of dead civilians and quagmires policed by U.S. Marines. And we, as citizens of America, shouldn’t want our legacy to be poisoned for generations by short-sighted “solutions” devoid of enlightened strategic thinking or empathy for the innocent. The post Ukraine and Gaza Bring Shame to America appeared first on The American Conservative.

Culture The Grace of Wayne Gretzky  Hockey’s living legend shows how to lose with class. Alex Ovechkin finally did it. On Sunday afternoon, the Russian left winger found himself in open ice during a power play, reached back to collect a pass, and slotted a wrist-shot into the top right hand corner to net his 895th goal, a new record in the NHL. In New York on Sunday, Wayne Gretzky, the Great One, stood with a smile and applauded his record falling.  “I said I’d be the first one to shake your hand when you broke the record,” Gretzky said before hugging the towering Russian at center ice in the UBS Arena in Elmont, New York. Then Gretzky made good on his promise. From one era to the next, the gregarious Gretzky provided a fitting bridge from past to present on one of hockey’s greatest days.  I caught the tail end of Gretzky’s transcendent career. He was playing for the New York Rangers when I got to watch him. Even then, in his twilight, Gretzky sparkled unlike any other. But for all the successes that Gretzky found on the ice, it’s what he did off the ice this weekend that speaks most earnestly to the unique legend he has crafted.  It’s not easy to watch your greatest successes pass by, but Gretzky has done so with great honor and respect for Ovechkin and the game. Gretzky was in attendance at the Capitol One Arena in Washington D.C. to witness Ovechkin tie his record of 894 goals, a feat that many believed would never occur. Gretzky was spotted cheering on Ovechkin and the two shared a brief, special moment following the Russian’s 894th goal as Ovechkin skated over to the benches and saluted Gretzky in the stands. “When I was breaking the record,” Gretzky recounted recently. “I said to my dad the night before, ‘I’m so embarrassed, Gordie Howe was the greatest hockey player to ever live and he always will be in my eyes, it will never change. I’m so embarrassed to break his record.’ And he says, ‘Are you out of your mind? Don’t even think that way. You have the same dignity and respect when the guy breaks your record. You make sure you have the same respect for the guy that breaks your record.’”  These past few days, Gretzky lived up to his father’s wishes. Gretzky’s goal record has long stood as one of the most insurmountable achievements in the history of all sport, a stunning tally accumulated over 20 years of consistent, immaculate play. Instead of dismay, Gretzky displayed humility, honor, and dignity as his lofty achievement was torn from the record books. It hasn’t been an easy year for Gretzky, who has found himself in the middle of an intercontinental war of words and trade deficits. Gretzky, who lives in America, is married to an American wife, and attended an election night party for President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, has been the target of ire by angry Canadians who despise all things Trump. The 47th president of the United States has called on Gretzky to run for “Governor” of Canada, and the NHL legend was photographed with FBI Director Kash Patel at Friday night’s game in DC.  When Gretzky was traded from the Edmonton Oilers to the LA Kings in 1988, The Great One wept in front of cameras and the city of Edmonton wept along with him. Such was the shared love Gretzky felt for the city of Edmonton and his country of Canada. But times have changed. This March, his statue in downtown Edmonton was smeared with feces. Petitions circulated to rename Wayne Gretzky Drive in the city. Gretzky’s wife took to Instagram to defend her husband, arguing that she had “never met anyone who is more Proud to be a Canadian.” But such is the heated political climate between America and the Great North at the moment that any perceived slight has, for some, wiped away the daunting achievements Gretzky manufactured on the ice. And yet, through it all, Gretzky has not hit out at detractors. Unlike Trump, the Great One has not lashed out at his critics online or threatened to render revenge on those who have mocked him from afar. Gretzky has been focused on something he knows much better than politics—the game he loves and the generation of fans and players to come. When Ovechkin got within striking distance of a record many of us believed might never fall, Gretzky jumped on the bandwagon and cheered along for the good of the game. “They say records are made to be broken but I’m not sure who is going to get more goals than that,” Gretzky said with a smirk following Ovechkin’s record-breaking affair on Sunday.  Gretzky continues to hold over 50 NHL records, including the remarkable tally of 1,016 goals, including playoffs—a mark that Ovechkin still trails by 50. While it is likely that Ovechkin will eventually surpass this record, Gretzky’s legacy as The Great One was further solidified this weekend by his graciousness as the torch was passed. On Sunday, Gretzky joined Ovechkin on the ice, wearing a #9 pin on his blazer to honor the legendary Gordie Howe, known as “Mr. Hockey.” From one generation to the next. Gretzky promised Ovechkin a new car, a gesture reminiscent of the one he himself received in 1994 when he broke the scoring record. A touch of class. The sign of a real ambassador. A part of what makes hockey special in its own special way. And from the man who carried the game for so many years, a reminder that in an era defined by money and fame, some grace still exists. The post The Grace of Wayne Gretzky  appeared first on The American Conservative.

UTL COMMENT:- Have always been concerned of this very link.... Now - why would Robert F Kennedy Jnr ally with those that killed former President Kennedy? Hmmmmm...

Geoengineering, chemtrails and weather modification are some of the biggest issues we face that governments refuse to discuss.  “Chemtrails are real, this is the thing you need to understand,” Peter Kirby said. […] The post Peter Kirby: Chemtrails are real and the CIA are the key players first appeared on The Expose.

by Mike Whitney, The Unz Review: The Trump administration is demanding that Iran give up its strategic missile program as part of any nuclear deal. But Iran’s ballistic missiles do not violate international law nor is there any global treaty under which they are banned. Article 51 of the UN Charter clearly states that countries have […]