Russia Will Win the Ukraine War, with or without “Back Channel” Negotiations with the U.S.

Former U.S. marine intelligence officer and Chief UN weapons inspector, Scott Ritter, famous for exposing the fact that there were no “chemical weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq since 1991 (and thus no justification for the bloody U.S. war and occupation) has been a leading voice for negotiations, rather than escalation, in Ukraine since the Russian invasion in February of 2022. Ritter has been a sought-after source of reporting and analysis ever since the U.S., NATO, and the Zelensky Kyiv Ukraine regime (put in place by a U.S./CIA backed coup in 2014) basically provoked the Russia invasion. As Ritter and others have pointed out, Russia basically was forced to invade the pro-Russian region of Eastern Ukraine to protect their security (from a would-be nuclear armed NATO member Ukraine) and to defend the pro-Russian separatist’s communities in the Eastern Ukraine (where 14,000 people had been killed by the Zelensky regime) in the Donbass region who were seeking autonomy from Kyiv. The Zelensky regime, egged on by the U.S. and NATO, basically broke the 2014 Ukraine/Russia agreement, the Minsk Accords, in which the Ukrainian government had pledged to stay neutral rather than joining the NATO military (nuclear-armed) alliance.

As Ritter explains on Scheerpost.com:

“The conditions for a settlement on U.S. and Ukrainian terms — such as Russia withdrawing from the four territories it recently annexed as well as Crimea, paying reparations and turning over senior military and civilian leaders for prosecution as war criminals — have almost no chance of happening.

Such thinking only underscores the hubris-laced fantasy world Washington has crafted for itself. The notion that Russia is somehow losing its military conflict with NATO-backed Ukraine, and its economic war with the West, is belied by the increasing desperation inherent in the growing calls for a negotiated settlement by senior U.S. officials [including General Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff].

At the moment, Russia is shutting down the Ukrainian economy and Ukrainian society by destroying large sectors of Ukraine’s electrical power grid, throwing much of Ukraine into a cold darkness just as winter sets in.

Russia has stabilized the battlefield, withdrawing from untenable terrain while pouring 87,000 recently mobilized troops into the front lines to solidify its defenses. Meanwhile, it continues to undertake offensive operations in the Donbass, destroying Ukrainian forces while capturing territory that is part of the Donetsk.… Anyone attempting to breathe life into the concept of a [Biden administration]-driven “back channel” designed to bring Russia to the negotiating table must first discount Russia’s improving military posture. Russia simply will not be drawn to a negotiation designed to negate the advantages it has been accruing on the battlefield and beyond… Russia’s negotiation will be on the battlefield…”

Learn more: Scott Ritter: The Back Channel

Learn more on Substack: Where is the Ukraine Russia War Going?

STOP WEAPONIZING PATHOGENS

Newly Disclosed Emails: Scientists Covered Up COVID-19 Origin

Ian Birrell reports in UK’s Daily Mail:

“The top British scientist who played a central role in crushing suggestions that COVID could have originated in a laboratory privately condemned ‘Wild West’ research being carried out in Wuhan, the Chinese city that saw the world’s first outbreak of the virus.

Sir Jeremy Farrar’s damning indictment, sent to two leading scientists in the United States [in Feb. 2020], shows that the head of the Wellcome Trust admitted to fears the new virus emerging in China might have been tied to research even as he coordinated an influential paper dismissing ‘any type of laboratory-based scenario.’

The emails released under Freedom of Information rules also disclose that the then chief medical adviser to the White House, Anthony Fauci, was so alarmed by one unusual feature detected on the coronavirus that he advised colleagues they might need to tip off the FBI and MI5…

The latest disclosures fuel concerns that the scientific establishment colluded to stifle suggestions that Sars-CoV-2 – the virus that causes Covid-19 – might have resulted from cutting-edge research the US helped fund in China.

The email discussions took place among an elite group of scientists rounded up by Fauci and Farrar after the media began to probe research into bat coronaviruses at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where scientists were engaged in ‘gain of function’ experiments that can boost infectivity. Such work was banned for three years in the US amid fears it might spark a pandemic.

Although the Wuhan laboratory was the first in China with maximum-level biosafety clearance, the group of experts confirmed that researchers there carried out risky experiments under ‘BSL-2’ conditions with much lower level safety protocols…”

Sign and Circulate the OCA Petition to Ban the Weaponization of Viruses and Pathogens and Stop the Next Pandemic Before It Starts

SAVE ORGANIC STANDARDS

Regenerative Organic Certification Gains Traction

Araiane Pfoutz writes in Organic & Non-GMO Report:

“There’s a buzz around regenerative organic agriculture, says Elizabeth Whitlow, executive director of the Regenerative Organic Alliance (ROA). Farmers, scientists, big food companies, and even the U.S. government are paying keen attention to soil—its health, its availability, and its huge potential to repair a ‘broken’ agricultural system and help alleviate the dire impacts of global warming.

The ROA launched Regenerative Organic Certification (ROC) to build on existing organic rules and set a “high bar” standard for agricultural practices. The label has three pillars: soil health, animal welfare, and social fairness. With food experts worried about a weakening of the organic standard the regenerative organic standard solidifies organic while going further—to lessen greenhouse gas emissions, regenerate soil, halt animal abuse, and empower farmers with stable living wages and fair policies. Industrial agriculture and factory farming are top contributors to climate change and environmental degradation, Whitlow says. In turn, climate change is making it harder to farm.

“We established Regenerative Organic Certified® to help keep the organic program strong,” Whitlow said. “None of these new REGEN certifications require organic, and we wanted a label with integrity that couldn’t be watered down. We (wanted) to protect the term ‘regenerative,’ from being greenwashed by corporate interests. We believe ‘regenerative’ and ‘organic’ should always go together, so we created ROC to make sure they would always be linked.”

To date, 91 farms, 33,151 smallholder farmers, and 237,404 acres have received ROC certification—representing 151 crop types across four continents. Forty-three food brands have been licensed to make ROC product claims. ROC now has 12 approved certifying bodies and 85 auditors—poised to triple its on-the-ground capacity next year…”

COP27

OCA & RI at the Climate Summit COP27 in Sharm Al-Shiek, Egypt

Representatives from OCA and Regeneration International attended the COP27 Global Climate Summit in Sharm Al-Sheikh, Egypt in November. The Summit ended with an agreement for a “Loss and Damage” fund without any implementation plans or consensus to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In other words, there was very little progress in terms of solid recommendations for climate action and achieving net-zero emissions urged by the UNFCCC to avoid the catastrophic tipping points of a +1.5C warmer planet.

In Egypt, OCA and RI joined forces with friends and partners such as AFSA, IPES-Food, IFOAM Organics International, SEKEM, ONAMIAP and the “4 per 1000” Initiative to discuss concrete examples of how agroecology, regenerative agriculture and indigenous agrobiodiversity (preserving traditional seeds) can reverse global warming and revitalize communities. RI conducted a series of interviews with global organic leaders including the following:

Interview with Karen Mapusua, President of IFOAM Organics International

Interview with Africa Farm Leader Bridget Mugambe

Interview with Uganda Parliament Member Kayaa Christine Nakimwero

RI was also an official partner of the Future Economy Forum organized by the Egyptian organic farm organization SEKEM. A series of dialogues and events offered a space for the organic and regeneration movement to discuss our strengths, strategies, and ideas and move forward together for regenerative agriculture and ecosystem restoration.

For the first time in COP history, Regenerative agriculture and food systems were highlighted as a top priority. Yet, much of the COP misused the term “regenerative,” and very few side events promoted genuine regenerative and agro-ecological practices. GMOs, lab meat, and no-till glyphosate-drenched practices were on the menu of most side events, with the Food Systems Pavilion opening with pro-GMO/industry rhetoric from various members of the Bill Gates-funded AGRA network and other so-called “green revolution” advocates.

RI participated in several side events, including the “4 per 1000” workshop promoting tangible and shovel-ready regenerative practices such as holistic planned grazing and regenerative agroforestry via our Billion Agave Project.

Despite the circus like confusion of hosting an expensive Climate Summit in a poverty ridden African country, we are glad we were there, together with our allies. Despite the obvious shortcomings of COP27, we look forward to COP28, hopefully with a much stronger participation from the organic and regenerative movement.