Bringing Light Into Darkness - News & Analysis

US Foreign Policy, Jeffrey Sachs UN Report & Update/Reality Check Regarding the Unfolding Ukraine-Russia-NATO-US Military Conflict

Jeffrey Sachs, a Professor at Columbia University and well respected internationally for his high acumen relating to world economics and geopolitics, spoke before the UN Security Council on the 9/26/22 international terrorist act that blew up the Nord Stream pipeline. Sachs highlighted the underreported but huge significance and ramifications of the international terrorist act of war against Germany and Russia and the lack of urgency to demand an investigation to discover who was responsible for it. We feature Sachs full commentary to the UN on 2/21/23 and wonder why is there such relative lack of urgency on behalf of the US to pursue such an inquiry.

We also feature an overview of a 2/7/23 interview of Colonel Douglas Macgregor who visits with Stephen Gardner to update us on the Ukraine Russia war and the dire circumstances facing the Ukraine Armed forces on the battlefield in Ukraine. Douglas Macgregor is a decorated combat veteran, the author of five books, a PhD, and a defense and foreign policy consultant. He was commissioned in the Regular Army in 1976 after 1 year at VMI and 4 years at West Point. In 2004, Macgregor retired with the rank of Colonel. In 2020, the President appointed Macgregor to serve as Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Defense, a post he held until the end of the Presidential term. He holds an MA in comparative politics and a PhD in international relations from the University of Virginia and provides a credible counternarrative to the less than truthful dominant narrative being presented once again by our government and major medias to the US public regarding the unfolding the event in Ukraine.

In the context of the long-established pattern of the US government misleading the US public into tolerating military conflicts in Viet Nam, Iraq, Libya, Syria and the misinformation around the Georgia-South Ossetia-Russian conflict of 2008, we ask why should we believe the US government and main stream media presentation of the ongoing Ukraine-Us-NATO-Russian war conflict raging in Ukraine. The long list of claims that Russia is losing, Ukraine is winning and just needs more military support to succeed and the overall day to day coverage of the military conflict, is it truth or fiction? The Colonel says point blank on multiple occasions; “No one is telling the truth in the West. Russia is incompetent; Russia is losing; Ukraine is winning and will take back Crimea”; and then provides compelling arguments that argue the opposite.

Please join us tonight to learn why MacGregor through his informative military strategic perspective, believes we are being fed lies by our government and media and why we must demand that our government end the war in Ukraine now, which it has the power to do.

US Foreign Policy Geopolitical Influences That Americans Never See that Shape World Conflicts with Bryce Greene

Bryce Greene is a freelance writer and contributor to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR). He currently is based out of Bloomington Indiana and joins Bringing Light not Darkness to discuss two of his investigative journalism articles, one published on 10/7/22 following the blowing up of the Nord Stream Pipeline in September 2022 and entitled US Media’s Intellectual No-Fly-Zone on US Culpability in Nord Stream Attack. And the other published earlier this month on 2/3/23 entitled Facebook Protects Nazis to Protect Ukraine Proxy War. Both articles were published by FAIR progressive media watchdog group that monitors the U.S. news media for inaccuracy, bias, and censorship and advocates for greater diversity of perspectives in news reporting.

Our guest brings light to the neo conservative bias of our US government driven foreign policies over both democratic and republican administrations and how behind the scenes through the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), various think tanks and the CIA our foreign policy executes these policies. He details the intentions as described in the 2019 Rand Corporation document entitled, "Overextending and Unbalancing Russia." Essentially the report and US policy that apparently followed it included seeking to provoke Russia into armed intervention and among its many options the RAND Report included "extending Russia economically", and specifically suggests a first step would involve stopping Nord Stream 2.

The revelations include a number of fact based issues and evidence connected to the Russian US-NATO Ukraine War that our mainstream media narrative has kept us in the dark of. Please join us!

Siempre fieles, Pgatos 2/20/23 [email protected]

US Foreign Policy Geopolitical Influences That Americans Never See that Shape World Conflicts with Bryce Greene

Bryce Greene is a freelance writer and contributor to Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR). He currently is based out of Bloomington Indiana and joins Bringing Light not Darkness to discuss two of his investigative journalism articles, one published on 10/7/22 following the blowing up of the Nord Stream Pipeline in September 2022 and entitled US Media’s Intellectual No-Fly-Zone on US Culpability in Nord Stream Attack. And the other published earlier this month on 2/3/23 entitled Facebook Protects Nazis to Protect Ukraine Proxy War. Both articles were published by FAIR progressive media watchdog group that monitors the U.S. news media for inaccuracy, bias, and censorship and advocates for greater diversity of perspectives in news reporting.

Our guest brings light to the neo conservative bias of our US government driven foreign policies over both democratic and republican administrations and how behind the scenes through the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), various think tanks and the CIA our foreign policy executes these policies. He details the intentions as described in the 2019 Rand Corporation document entitled, "Overextending and Unbalancing Russia." Essentially the report and US policy that apparently followed it included seeking to provoke Russia into armed intervention and among its many options the RAND Report included "extending Russia economically", and specifically suggests a first step would involve stopping Nord Stream 2.

The revelations include a number of fact based issues and evidence connected to the Russian US-NATO Ukraine War that our mainstream media narrative has kept us in the dark of. Please join us!

Siempre fieles, Pgatos 2/20/23 [email protected]

There is not a US Public Perception that Intl law has been Routinely Violated since WWII because it’s not given proper coverage by MSM:

Dr. Alfred de Zayas Presents What Proper Coverage Would Look Like

Alfred de Zayas, Professor of international law and world history at the Geneva School of Diplomacy (J.D., Harvard, Ph.D. Göttingen), a former Secretary & senior lawyer with the Office of the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights & former UN Independent Expert on International Order (2012-18), and author of 12 books Brings Light Into Darkness about what constitutes International law and its violations. He also details the role of media in deceit.

International law violations that the US public may not be well vetted in that the US & other countries have historically & currently engage in as a regular matter of business include:

1. That Russia violated International (Intl) Law by invading Ukraine while the US violated Intl law by provoking Russia by creating conditions that led to the invasion and by actively promoting war rather than seeking peaceful resolution to the conflict

2. That the UN Charter is the only rules based order that we have . And that article 2 paragraph 3 obliges everyone to negotiate in good faith a principle that was egregiously violated by Kiev & the US led west regarding the Minsk Agreements.

3. Principle 19 of the UN Charter provides in part that “States must refrain from interfering in matters within the internal jurisdiction of another State. No State may use or encourage the use of economic, political or any other type of measures to coerce another State in order to obtain from it the subordination of the exercise of its sovereign rights and to secure from it advantages of any kind.

4. That the General Assembly 2005 Resolution 60/1, paragraph 135 describes the International Law understanding of ‘democracy’ and its violations with the language “democracies share common features, there is no single model of democracy, that it does not belong to any country or region, and reaffirm the necessity of due respect for sovereignty and the right of self-determination.” Attempting to export one’s model of democracy constitutes a violation of the UN principles of the sovereign equality of states and the right of self-determination of peoples.”

5. Art. 2(3) of the UN Charter obliges all States to settle disputes by peaceful means. This obligation to negotiate means good faith dialogue with the goal to reach a compromise, a quid pro quo. There is no right to intransigence in the UN Charter. If one party refuses to talk, it is violating article 2(3) and may actually be provoking the other to the use of force. Moreover, this constitutes a potential threat to Intl peace and security for purposes of article 39 of the UN Charter.

6. Only the Security Council can impose sanctions under Chapter VII of the Charter. Therefore, States shall refrain from imposing unilateral coercive measures, sanctions and financial blockades on other countries. When unilateral coercive measures cause widespread hunger and death, they may amount to crimes against humanity under article 7 of the Statute of the International Criminal Court.

Siempre fieles, Pgatos 2/13/23 [email protected]

There is not a US Public Perception that Intl law has been Routinely Violated since WWII because it’s not given proper coverage by MSM:

Dr. Alfred de Zayas Presents What Proper Coverage Would Look Like

Alfred de Zayas, Professor of international law and world history at the Geneva School of Diplomacy (J.D., Harvard, Ph.D. Göttingen), a former Secretary & senior lawyer with the Office of the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights & former UN Independent Expert on International Order (2012-18), and author of 12 books Brings Light Into Darkness about what constitutes International law and its violations. He also details the role of media in deceit.

International law violations that the US public may not be well vetted in that the US & other countries have historically & currently engage in as a regular matter of business include:

1. That Russia violated International (Intl) Law by invading Ukraine while the US violated Intl law by provoking Russia by creating conditions that led to the invasion and by actively promoting war rather than seeking peaceful resolution to the conflict

2. That the UN Charter is the only rules based order that we have . And that article 2 paragraph 3 obliges everyone to negotiate in good faith a principle that was egregiously violated by Kiev & the US led west regarding the Minsk Agreements.

3. Principle 19 of the UN Charter provides in part that “States must refrain from interfering in matters within the internal jurisdiction of another State. No State may use or encourage the use of economic, political or any other type of measures to coerce another State in order to obtain from it the subordination of the exercise of its sovereign rights and to secure from it advantages of any kind.

4. That the General Assembly 2005 Resolution 60/1, paragraph 135 describes the International Law understanding of ‘democracy’ and its violations with the language “democracies share common features, there is no single model of democracy, that it does not belong to any country or region, and reaffirm the necessity of due respect for sovereignty and the right of self-determination.” Attempting to export one’s model of democracy constitutes a violation of the UN principles of the sovereign equality of states and the right of self-determination of peoples.”

5. Art. 2(3) of the UN Charter obliges all States to settle disputes by peaceful means. This obligation to negotiate means good faith dialogue with the goal to reach a compromise, a quid pro quo. There is no right to intransigence in the UN Charter. If one party refuses to talk, it is violating article 2(3) and may actually be provoking the other to the use of force. Moreover, this constitutes a potential threat to Intl peace and security for purposes of article 39 of the UN Charter.

6. Only the Security Council can impose sanctions under Chapter VII of the Charter. Therefore, States shall refrain from imposing unilateral coercive measures, sanctions and financial blockades on other countries. When unilateral coercive measures cause widespread hunger and death, they may amount to crimes against humanity under article 7 of the Statute of the International Criminal Court.

Siempre fieles, Pgatos 2/13/23 [email protected]

The Case for Medicare for All: How to Stop Multi-Billion Dollar Annual transfers of Wealth from the US public to the Healthcare Industry Elite

Last week Les Bernal from Stop Predatory Gambling cited a 2018 Marketwatch report that indicated " Over the next eight years the US public will lose $1T of personal wealth to government sanctioned gambling, 500B of which is coming mainly low income populations"

A 2022 nationwide investigation of state lotteries by the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of MD confirmed the same, revealing the result is a multibillion-dollar wealth transfer from low-income U.S. communities to powerful multinational companies to the tune of $29 billion lost annually by players in the 45 states (plus Washington, D.C.) that have a lottery.

This week we examine another profiteering industry that essentially results in another fraudulent “multibillion dollar transfer from the US public to another elite economic industry sector, namely the US health care industry. We pay more receive less and live shorter lives.

Dr. James G. Kahn, emeritus professor of health policy, University of California San Francisco. Leading researcher in the cost and effectiveness of health intervention programs, and in US health care financing reform returns to BLID to explain this phenomena. We review his peer reviewed research article that helps explain why with only 4% of the world's population, the cumulative mortality attributable to COVID-19 in the US through March 14, 2022 was over 973,000 reported deaths in the United States which composes only 4% of the global population yet had 16% of the world’s Covid related deaths. And how this disproportionate toll is magnified when comparing the US to similarly affluent countries and led to over 338 thousand excess deaths from Covid due to broken market driven healthcare system that prioritizes profits over people. Dr Kahn also explains how Medicare Advantage is gamed

Other shocking indictments are revealed such as:

1. Our healthcare system is so bad that 40% of US public skip or delay or skip treatment due to cost issues.

2. Particularly costly has been profiteering among insurance companies participating in the Medicare Advantage (MA) program. By gaming, aka upcoding, Medicare risk codes and the ways in which comparative “benchmarks” are set for expected costs, health care estimates suggest, MA will cost Medicare over $600 billion more in the next 8 years than would have been the case if the same enrollees had remained in traditional Medicare.

We Bring Light to the scientific data that suggests, “The cycle is vicious: unchecked greed concentrates wealth, wealth concentrates political power, and political power blocks constraints on greed.”

Siempre fieles, Pgatos 2/6/23 [email protected]

The Case for Medicare for All: How to Stop Multi-Billion Dollar Annual transfers of Wealth from the US public to the Healthcare Industry Elite

Last week Les Bernal from Stop Predatory Gambling cited a 2018 Marketwatch report that indicated " Over the next eight years the US public will lose $1T of personal wealth to government sanctioned gambling, 500B of which is coming mainly low income populations"

A 2022 nationwide investigation of state lotteries by the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of MD confirmed the same, revealing the result is a multibillion-dollar wealth transfer from low-income U.S. communities to powerful multinational companies to the tune of $29 billion lost annually by players in the 45 states (plus Washington, D.C.) that have a lottery.

This week we examine another profiteering industry that essentially results in another fraudulent “multibillion dollar transfer from the US public to another elite economic industry sector, namely the US health care industry. We pay more receive less and live shorter lives.

Dr. James G. Kahn, emeritus professor of health policy, University of California San Francisco. Leading researcher in the cost and effectiveness of health intervention programs, and in US health care financing reform returns to BLID to explain this phenomena. We review his peer reviewed research article that helps explain why with only 4% of the world's population, the cumulative mortality attributable to COVID-19 in the US through March 14, 2022 was over 973,000 reported deaths in the United States which composes only 4% of the global population yet had 16% of the world’s Covid related deaths. And how this disproportionate toll is magnified when comparing the US to similarly affluent countries and led to over 338 thousand excess deaths from Covid due to broken market driven healthcare system that prioritizes profits over people. Dr Kahn also explains how Medicare Advantage is gamed

Other shocking indictments are revealed such as:

1. Our healthcare system is so bad that 40% of US public skip or delay or skip treatment due to cost issues.

2. Particularly costly has been profiteering among insurance companies participating in the Medicare Advantage (MA) program. By gaming, aka upcoding, Medicare risk codes and the ways in which comparative “benchmarks” are set for expected costs, health care estimates suggest, MA will cost Medicare over $600 billion more in the next 8 years than would have been the case if the same enrollees had remained in traditional Medicare.

We Bring Light to the scientific data that suggests, “The cycle is vicious: unchecked greed concentrates wealth, wealth concentrates political power, and political power blocks constraints on greed.”

Siempre fieles, Pgatos 2/6/23 [email protected]

“Give me a Dollar & I will Give you 65 Cents”: The Lottery as ‘Predatory Gambling’, Another Source of Wealth Transfer from the Poor to the Rich

We document 2021 egregious levels of wealth inequality by citing how the combined fortunes of the richest 100 Americans have reached $2.9 trillion, greater than the combined $2.5 trillion wealth of the bottom 50% of the U.S. population, according to data from the Federal Reserve. Despite the pandemic, Fed data show all groups gained wealth last year however despite three relief checks disbursed by the Biden administration, the top 1% did best by far, adding $4 trillion in 2020 bringing their total net worth to almost $39 trillion, more than the bottom 90% of Americans combined.

Meanwhile, a 2022 nationwide investigation of state lotteries by the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of MD revealed among other things, lotteries now operate in all but five U.S. states & driven by more than a half-billion dollars in annual ad spending, increasingly sophisticated sales strategies, and political pressure to increase revenue, lottery ticket sales have grown from $47 to $82 billion since 2005. In 10 states, lotteries generate more revenue than corporate income taxes.’ The report cited the following.

1. For every one dollar spent on average the purchaser gets about 65 cents back as winnings.

2. High school dropouts spent 4x more per year on the lottery than college graduates. Black people spent, on average, nearly five times as much as white people.

3. The result is a multibillion-dollar wealth transfer from low-income U.S. communities to powerful multinational companies as state lotteries transfer wealth out of needy communities to the tune of $29 billion lost annually by players in the 45 states (plus Washington, D.C.) that have a lottery.

Joining us is our guest Les Bernal who has been National Director of Stop Predatory Gambling since 2008 He has spoken and written extensively about commercialized gambling, including regional casinos, state lotteries, online gambling, and commercialized sports betting. He has testified before Congress and dozens of state legislatures. He has been cited by more than 600 newspapers and magazines and he further reveals:

1. Over the eight year period of 2018-2026 according to 5/15/2018 MarketWatch Report, the US public will lose $1T of personal wealth to government sanctioned gambling, half of which is coming from state lotteries. 500B coming mainly from lotteries most of which are played by low income populations”

2. While half the country has retirement funds i.e. has a home has some assets.. The other half have nothing in savings or assets and here Instead of focusing on how to build wealth for our disenfranchised, you have a government program that targets this group; it is this group that is targeted by lottery interests.

Siempre fieles, Pgatos 1/30/23 [email protected]

“Give me a Dollar & I will Give you 65 Cents”: The Lottery as ‘Predatory Gambling’, Another Source of Wealth Transfer from the Poor to the Rich

We document 2021 egregious levels of wealth inequality by citing how the combined fortunes of the richest 100 Americans have reached $2.9 trillion, greater than the combined $2.5 trillion wealth of the bottom 50% of the U.S. population, according to data from the Federal Reserve. Despite the pandemic, Fed data show all groups gained wealth last year however despite three relief checks disbursed by the Biden administration, the top 1% did best by far, adding $4 trillion in 2020 bringing their total net worth to almost $39 trillion, more than the bottom 90% of Americans combined.

Meanwhile, a 2022 nationwide investigation of state lotteries by the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of MD revealed among other things, lotteries now operate in all but five U.S. states & driven by more than a half-billion dollars in annual ad spending, increasingly sophisticated sales strategies, and political pressure to increase revenue, lottery ticket sales have grown from $47 to $82 billion since 2005. In 10 states, lotteries generate more revenue than corporate income taxes.’ The report cited the following.

1. For every one dollar spent on average the purchaser gets about 65 cents back as winnings.

2. High school dropouts spent 4x more per year on the lottery than college graduates. Black people spent, on average, nearly five times as much as white people.

3. The result is a multibillion-dollar wealth transfer from low-income U.S. communities to powerful multinational companies as state lotteries transfer wealth out of needy communities to the tune of $29 billion lost annually by players in the 45 states (plus Washington, D.C.) that have a lottery.

Joining us is our guest Les Bernal who has been National Director of Stop Predatory Gambling since 2008 He has spoken and written extensively about commercialized gambling, including regional casinos, state lotteries, online gambling, and commercialized sports betting. He has testified before Congress and dozens of state legislatures. He has been cited by more than 600 newspapers and magazines and he further reveals:

1. Over the eight year period of 2018-2026 according to 5/15/2018 MarketWatch Report, the US public will lose $1T of personal wealth to government sanctioned gambling, half of which is coming from state lotteries. 500B coming mainly from lotteries most of which are played by low income populations”

2. While half the country has retirement funds i.e. has a home has some assets.. The other half have nothing in savings or assets and here Instead of focusing on how to build wealth for our disenfranchised, you have a government program that targets this group; it is this group that is targeted by lottery interests.

Siempre fieles, Pgatos 1/30/23 [email protected]

“Game Over Man”: Gonzalo Lira in Ukraine & Colonel Douglas MacGregor confirm Casualty Numbers BLID Reported in August 2022 that go Unreported in MSM & Hides the Truth from the US Public

Two interviews on the same day 1/17/23 are excerpted and combined with commentary by Pedro Gatos who seeks to combine three primary sources that confirm casualty numbers that have been unreported by MSM, namely upwards to an 8:1 or higher death rate for Ukrainian soldiers vs Russian losses. Colonel Douglas Macgregor is a decorated combat veteran, the author of four books and a PhD. Macgregor has testified as an expert witness on national security issues before the House Armed Services and House Foreign Relations Committee & is a frequent guest commentator on radio and television. Gonzalo Lira novelist and filmmaker living in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Lira was abducted by the Ukrainian on April 15, 2022,[1][2] and after a massive international outcry Lira was released a week later. Lira reports, based on casualty numbers and active military soldier number strengths, that this war was over some time ago.

Why is this not reported? Is it because they destroy the false narratives that Ukraine is winning the war, that Russia is incompetently executing their war with no regard to civilian casualties and other falsehoods promoted by unreliable Ukrainian state sourcing that our US government allows to go unchallenged in order to mislead the US public into supporting this slaughter?

Instead BLID has been presenting a dissenting view that has proven light years closer to the truth since the 2014 US led coup ignited this conflict. A dissent that has been getting ridiculed by many based on the wall to wall misleading and outright false claims reported by our MSM that we empirically reveal and call out routinely.

MacGregor describes the impact of NATO war weaponry pouring into Ukraine; and describes the perceived end game for Russia in this armed conflict; and the explains why it is a false claim that Ukraine is making sovereign choices. Additionally, he has this and more to share. “We have made this much worse than it could have ever been. And it continues to get worse.” .. in addition to all this military equipment which may prolong but will not alter the ultimate Russian military victory…. We are seeking to existentially eliminate Russia as a world rival power to us… “We made it clear it is not just regime change, it’s humiliate Russia, destroy it , dismember it. Insane! Under those circumstances I am surprised if we get through this without a nuclear exchange.”

Meanwhile Lira reports on the impending fall of Bakhmut as a second line of defense and how 15-16 year olds and elderly recruits as evidenced by video data are being forced into military duty and death. Because there are not young US GIs dying in Ukraine we should not care? Lira reports on possible Polish military actions and their alarming huge increase in military recruits and why Russia is done trusting the diplomatic process with the West and what that means for the end game.

Siempre fieles, Pgatos 1/23/23 [email protected]