Browsing: Opinion

Joe Biden has a history of failed races for president, having run in 1988 and gotten two delegates and in 2008, when he dropped out after a fifth-place finish in the Iowa Caucuses with less than 1 percent of the vote. Yet, today Mr. Biden is the Democratic Party’s nominee after all other contenders incredibly withdrew just before “Super Tuesday.” Did Mr. Biden make a Faustian bargain with the extreme radical left of what once was the Democratic Party?

This is not conjecture – read the 110-page “Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force Recom­men­dations,” a socialist manifesto that Mr. Biden signed with Sen. Sanders, the successor to another failed “Socialist Democrat” for president, Eugene V. Debs. The Biden-Sanders manifesto is every bit as radical as Mr. Sanders wanted. In May, Mr. Biden vowed that he wants “not just to rebuild the economy, but to transform it.” (The Wall Street Journal, “The Biden-Sanders Manifes­to,” July 30). The world has seen what a “transformed economy” looks like in Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and the Soviet Union.

Ukrainians in the United States and elsewhere have much in common with African Americans. We can learn a lot about their shared struggle by comparing African American and Ukrainian history.

African American history in America

For over 350 years Black people endured the cruelty of slavery, racism and Jim Crow laws in America. Historians have estimated that of the over 10 million Africans that fell victim to the slave trade, between 300,000 and 400,000 were brought to the United States during the 17th and 18th centuries. One source points out that, outside of the traditional count of the slave trade, an additional 500,000 Africans also came against their will, under compulsion or duress, as indentured servants, or perished en route to America. Taken together, as many as 900,000 Africans were forced in a variety of ways to come to the United States, or perished along the way.

During the past several years, the Atlantic Council has been running reports on how Russian cyberwarfare and disinformation have been working overtime to undermine Western democracies in general, and Ukraine in particular. While Ukraine has been the target of Moscow’s attention, recently its tactics have evolved and shifted to exploit civil unrest in the United States.

The United States today is in the midst of an existential crisis that is tearing the country apart at its seams. Much of the harm is self-inflicted, but a good part is due to hostile outside players such as Russia and China sowing discord. The civic unrest and riots that rocked major cities across the United States in the aftermath of the George Floyd killing were aggravated by a radical movement known as Antifa and its collaborator Black Lives Matter. Although a relatively small segment of the demonstrators, these groups have created mayhem, causing incalculable property damage well beyond their small numbers.

ESSDENDON, Australia – The Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organizations (AFUO) on May 5 called on the Australian government to support the Ukrainian Parliament’s resolution regarding continuing Russian aggression.

The resolution calls for foreign governments to strengthen international condemnation of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, the illegal annexation of Crimea and the occupation of areas of the Donbas, and political repressions of Ukrainian citizens. It also seeks support for the release of political prisoners held by Russian authorities.

TORONTO – The Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) is urging the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to refrain from discussing and voting on the issues that may cause social tensions and controversial reaction in society during a time of national quarantine restrictions due to the coronavirus.

In particular, the UWC called on the Verkhovna Rada to comply with the previously adopted decision to consider only draft bills on the prevention of emergence and spread, and on localization and liquidation of COVID-19 outbreaks.

The following media release was issued by the Ukrainian World Congress on March 14.

On March 11, 2020, the Trilateral Contact Group comprised of Ukraine, Russia and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) signed a proposal to create a Consultation Council. According to that decision, Russia will be replaced as the counterparty in the peace negotiations with the representatives of separate districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions (known by the Ukrainian acronym ORDLO) – in fact with Russia-controlled terrorist organizations of the so-called Luhansk and Donetsk “people’s republics” (DNR and LNR).

The Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) calls on the president of Ukraine and the Parliament to reject this proposal. Agreeing to these terms would legitimize the Russian narrative of “internal conflict in Ukraine” and turn Russia from an aggressor into an “observer,” then possibly even to a “peacemaker.”

The Ukrainian Canadian Congress on March 14 issued the following statement in response to the news that Ukraine plans to enter into direct negotiations with so-called “representatives” of the Russian occupying forces in Donetsk and Luhansk.

 
The Ukrainian Canadian Congress, representing 1.4 million Ukrainian Canadians, is alarmed by the March 13 announcement by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Chief of Staff Andriy Yermak that Ukraine will officially enter into direct negotiations with Russian proxies.

In six years of war, Russia and its proxies have purposely targeted civilians with artillery and rockets, systematically tortured prisoners of war and shot down an international airliner, murdering 298 innocent people.

The Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organizations released the following statement on March 15.

The Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organizations (AFUO) is alarmed at the decision of the Trilateral Contact Group to create a Consultation Council involving representatives of the self-proclaimed so-called Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics, and suggesting further representatives of Russia, Germany and France to be at the table alongside the official representatives of Ukraine.

These faux republics are in fact Russian-controlled terrorist organizations.

The president of Ukraine has the opportunity now to show leadership and refute this proposal and not cross the red lines that he has agreed would not be crossed.

The statement below was released by the Ukrainian World Congress on December 10.

On Monday, December 9, leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany took part in the Normandy summit in Paris. The eyes of the global Ukrainian community have been fixed on this meeting, and the society has been actively engaged in determining the demands of the agenda. The Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) has been supporting this peace process with a series of campaigns #StandwithUkraine #StopRussianAggression, and most recently held rallies and meetings in support of Ukraine in Paris under the leadership of Paul Grod, UWC President.

The letter below was sent by the Illinois Division of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America to the entire Illinois delegation in the U.S. Congress – 18 members of the House of Representatives and two senators. The November 19 letter was signed by: Ihor Diaczun, president; Marta Farion, Pavlo Bandriwsky and Dr. Maria Korkatsch-Groszko, vice-presidents. The UCCA Illinois encourages all branches of the UCCA and all Ukrainian Americans to use this letter as a model for their own letter writing drives to encourage members of Congress of both political parties to continue their support of Ukraine.

On behalf of the Ukrainian American community in the state of Illinois, we want to thank you for your support of Ukraine and we appeal for your continued bipartisan support. The current depiction of Ukraine as a corrupt country is of great concern to us, as it does not present the full picture.

CONCLUSION

In Episode 4, the Netflix series “The Devil Next Door” picks up on the eve of John Demjanjuk’s trial testimony before the Israeli court. Under Israeli law, a defendant’s failure or refusal to testify is considered evidentiary, and the court can infer guilt from such failure or refusal.
Israeli Prosecutor Michael Shaked characterizes Demjanjuk as “having chosen the best defense. His defense is ‘I was not here, not here, not here. I was a POW.’ ” Shaked then asks incredulously, “How can you break such an alibi?” Most attorneys would answer that, as a prosecutor, you “break” the alibi by proving that Demjanjuk was at Treblinka.

PART I

The new Netflix documentary series titled ‘The Devil Next Door” should more aptly have been called “The Trial,” for the story of John Demjanjuk has more to do with Franz Kafka and his world of bizarre predicaments, incomprehensible bureaucracies and surrealistic outcomes than any semblance of law and justice. It is the story of government abuse in the United States driven by obsessed prosecutors and an Israeli legal system hell bent on using Demjanjuk to educate its young about the horrors of the Holocaust. The viewer is left with the feeling that no one is safe when governments prosecute an individual for reasons other than seeking the truth and justice.