Tag: Peace

It Was A Matter Of Time

Before the Sharpie is even dry on the ceasefire deal with Iran Israel is doing what many of us thought they would do….be a thorn in the ass of the world.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that Israel’s military will stay in southern Lebanon, where it has occupied up to 6 miles from the border. In his first comments since the US-Iran deal was signed, Netanyahu said Israel must “maintain a security zone in southern Lebanon, and it requires that we must not leave there as long as Israel’s security needs require it,” the AP reports. He has made similar comments in the past about Israel’s refusal to withdraw from southern Lebanon.

The US-Iran deal to end the war in the Middle East, signed overnight, also calls for an end to the war in Lebanon, where Israel has been fighting the militant Hezbollah group, but it’s unclear what that means in practice. Speaking to a Hezbollah-aligned Lebanese news outlet Thursday, a spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry said a continued Israeli military presence in Lebanon would mean the “annulment” of the memorandum of understanding, the Times of Israel reports.

“It was not acceptable for us to abandon our brothers in Lebanon,” the spokesman said. “We cannot talk about ending the war while parts of Lebanese territory remain under the occupation of the Zionist entity. As long as the occupation continues, it can be said that the war is still in place and has not ended in essence.” President Trump has repeatedly criticized Netanyahu and Israel’s military actions in Lebanon in recent weeks. Israeli sources tell Reuters that Israel is holding “stubborn” talks with the US over extending the Lebanon deployment.

Many of us knew this was coming….Israel will not stop its pathetic imperial desires.

The Israeli money will start working overtime….

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is aiming to influence the terms of the final US-Iran deal through pro-Israel “right-wing” media figures, CNN reported on Thursday, citing an Israeli official.

The only media figure mentioned by name in the report was Mark Levin, a long-time radio broadcaster and Fox News host, who is extremely pro-war and pro-Israel and has been harshly critical of the US-Iran Memorandum of Understanding to end the conflict.

Levin suggested in a post on X on Thursday that the US should pursue a different strategy to get through the midterm elections and then restart the war.

Time for a change in strategy. We should consider slow walking the enemy, building up our munitions, our oil reserves, get the price of gasoline down, get through the midterms, then knock them out,” Levin said. “Instead of rushing to a deal, building up their oil industry, transferring billions to them, etc.”

During the US-Israeli bombing campaign against Iran, Trump defended Levin from criticism from other conservative commentators who opposed the war. “Mark Levin, a truly Great American Patriot, is somewhat under siege by other people with far less Intellect, Capability, and Love for our Country,” Trump said in a long post on Truth Social in March.

(antiwar.com)

Israel will use the MAGA pipeline to sell their lies and misinformation and the MSM will go along with these lies….and Israel will be allowed to torpedo the peace deal.

Only a matter of time before this whole situation flares again.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Fear Of Peace

Somewhere down the line there will be a peace deal that could end the hostilities….that is a joke for even in peace there will still be lingering hostilities…..then there is those countries that border Ukraine on the West a report says that are concerned for peace.

NATO members that border Russia and Belarus are afraid that growing opposition to the proxy war in Ukraine inside the United States will put pressure on the Ukrainians to pursue peace talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, The Hill reported on Tuesday.

While the Biden administration’s stated policy is to back Ukraine for “as long as it takes,” and the majority of Congress still supports the proxy war, there is there is fatigue among Americans. A recent poll from CNN found that 55% of Americans are against Congress authorizing more spending on the conflict.

Former President Trump, the Republican frontrunner for the 2024 election, has claimed he would end the war in Ukraine within “24 hours.” The Biden administration is looking to sign a long-term security deal with Ukraine to tie the hands of a future administration on the issue, but the political climate has some NATO members nervous that peace might be pursued.

The report said that for Poland and the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, talking with Putin is a “red line.” The four nations want the US and the rest of Ukraine’s Western backers to prepare for a future where the Russian leader is completely isolated.

The narrative from the countries on NATO’s “eastern flank” is that peace talks would reward Putin and put Russia in a better position to exert its influence. “All of this then increases the threat on NATO’s borders. Putin would be able to sell negotiations as a victory, and [it] would help him exert even greater political influence globally — we already see it in Africa, in Niger and South Africa. It’s not only a military threat but a diplomatic one, too,” an unnamed Baltic official told The Hill.

(antiwar.com)

I understand the position taken….but at some point the death and destruction must end.

I would like to see some poll of Ukrainians on this conflict…..we see reports of Ukrainians offering their points but nothing on all Ukrainians.

Ukraine may be fight another war….a trade war with its neighbors….

Ukraine is threatening to take Brussels and EU member countries to the World Trade Organization if they fail to lift restrictions on its agricultural exports to the bloc this month.

The country’s grain exports — its main trade commodity — are currently banned from the markets of Poland, Hungary and three other EU countries under a deal struck with the European Commission earlier this year to protect farmers from an influx of cheaper produce from their war-torn neighbor.

The glut, triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its blockade of the country’s traditional Black Sea export routes, has driven a wedge between Ukraine and the EU’s eastern frontline states which have been among the strongest backers of Kyiv’s military fightback.

The restrictions, already extended once, are due to expire on September 15. Amid speculation that Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will let them lapse, Poland and Hungary have threatened to impose their own unilateral import bans, in violation of the bloc’s common trade rules.

https://www.politico.eu/article/ukraine-eu-wto-poland-hungary-grain-curbs/

Will the two wars converge?

Will this situation change the undying support?

Will the US step in as they always seem to do even when not asked?

This will be an interesting turn to keep my eye on….as only as I can.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Christmas Truce of 1914

During the first year of the Great War on Christmas Day 1914 both sides of the trenches called an impromptu truce from the fighting.

Have you heard of this historic event?

No?

Let me educate you about this Tuce….

The Christmas Truce occurred on and around Christmas Day 1914, when the sounds of rifles firing and shells exploding faded in a number of places along the Western Front during World War I in favor of holiday celebrations. During the unofficial ceasefire, soldiers on both sides of the conflict emerged from the trenches and shared gestures of goodwill.

Starting on Christmas Eve, many German and British troops fighting in World War I sang Christmas carols to each other across the lines, and at certain points the Allied soldiers even heard brass bands joining the Germans in their joyous singing.

At the first light of dawn on Christmas Day, some German soldiers emerged from their trenches and approached the Allied lines across no-man’s-land, calling out “Merry Christmas” in their enemies’ native tongues. At first, the Allied soldiers feared it was a trick, but seeing the Germans unarmed they climbed out of their trenches and shook hands with the enemy soldiers. The men exchanged presents of cigarettes and plum puddings and sang carols and songs. Some Germans lit Christmas trees around their trenches, and there was even a documented case of soldiers from opposing sides playing a good-natured game of soccer. 

https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-i/christmas-truce-of-1914

I bring this up because the question has been asked…what did the world learn from this action?

The answer is….not much.

I say thins by looking back since those days….

After the Berlin Wall fell in November 1989 and the death of the Soviet Union was confirmed two years later when Boris Yeltsin courageously stood down the Red Army tanks in front of Moscow’s White House, a dark era in human history came to an end.

The world had descended into a 77-Year War, incepting with the mobilization of the armies of old Europe in August 1914. If you want to count bodies, 150 million were killed by all the depredations that germinated in the Great War, its foolish aftermath at Versailles, and the march of history into World War II and the Cold War that followed inexorably thereupon.

Upwards of 8% of the human race was wiped out during that span. The toll encompassed the madness of trench warfare during 1914-1918; the murderous regimes of Soviet and Nazi totalitarianism that rose from the ashes of the Great War and Versailles; and then the carnage of WWII and all the lesser (unnecessary) wars and invasions of the Cold War including Korea and Vietnam.

The Christmas Truce of 1914 – Why There Is Still No Peace On Earth

Truly sad that since that war humanity was only learned to make big, better and more lethality.

We could have learned so much from those brave individuals…..but instead we learned just how much profit there was in modern warfare.

Truly sad.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

A Peace Race?

I am an unapologetic antiwar supporter.

I have been so for 40+ years…I have never supported a war after 1972……I believe there are other answers to the world’s problem beyond killing people to make a point.

Back in my days of protests there was a slogan that made the rounds….”War is good business….Invest your children”…..basically the war machine will use everything possible to keep the wars going…..but we should not believe the hype of the M-IC…..

Vice President Mike Pence was the commencement speaker at West Point. In part, he told the graduating cadets this: “It is a virtual certainty that you will fight on a battlefield for America at some point in your life. You will lead soldiers in combat. It will happen…And when that day comes, I know you will move to the sound of the guns and do your duty, and you will fight, and you will win. The American people expect nothing less.”

What Pence didn’t mention that day is why he could be so sure that this will come to pass. Or who the primary beneficiaries will be, if or when it does. Because the winners won’t be the American people, who see their taxes go to missiles instead of healthcare and education. Nor will they be the soldiers themselves—some of whom will return in flag-draped caskets while many more sustain life-altering physical and psychological injuries. The winners also won’t be the citizens of other countries who experience death and displacement on a horrific scale from our awesome military might. And our planet’s now-fragile climate won’t come out on top either, since the Pentagon is the single largest oil consumer in the world.

Give Peace a Chance: Don’t Believe the War Profiteers

To me it is way past time to stop and re-think all our endless wars of aggression…..

I read a piece in The American Conservative stating that war does not make sense anymore……

Trump and his group of mindless thugs have thumped their chests over Iran and few people actually want another war especially our combat vets…..

Majorities of veterans and the general public agree that the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan weren’t worth fighting, and hold similar views about the ongoing US military campaign in Syria.

The findings come from a new survey of American adults produced by the Pew Research Center. The Iraq war in particular was seen as futile, suggesting that public sentiment is in line with the conclusion of US military strategists who say the biggest beneficiary of the 2003 invasion was Iran.

https://qz.com/1662561/veterans-poll-says-iraq-war-wasnt-worth-fighting/

We are fighting wars that make no sense….other than to keep defense contractors in business and profitable……we always hear about the arms race….how about a new approach…a Peace Race?

In late April, the highly-respected Stockholm International Peace Research Institute reported that, in 2018, world military expenditures rose to a record $1.82 trillion. The biggest military spender by far was the United States, which increased its military budget by nearly 5 percent to $649 billion (36 percent of the global total). But most other nations also joined the race for bigger and better ways to destroy one another through war.

This situation represents a double tragedy. First, in a world bristling with weapons of vast destructive power, it threatens the annihilation of the human race. Second, as vast resources are poured into war and preparations for it, a host of other problems―poverty, environmental catastrophe, access to education and healthcare, and more―fail to be adequately addressed.

How About a Peace Race Instead of an Arms Race?

Peace is far more desirable than the death and destruction of war…..then why not take a chance and…….Give Peace A Chance!

Peacestock 2019: The Seeds of a Veterans’ Antiwar Movement

Time for all of us to get aboard the “Peace Train”……

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Tulsi And The Peace Train

Peace Train? Is that Cat Stevens I hear? Oh sorry I mean is that Yusef Islam I hear?

I have been a peace-nik, antiwar activist, for 40 years and in that time I have had few major party candidates that I could support…..candidates like McCarthy, McGovern and a very few others….

I am pleased to say that I have found a candidate that I can support, at least for now….Rep. Tulsi Gabbard from Hawaii……

The most interesting candidate is undoubtedly Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who is a fourth term Congresswoman from Hawaii, where she was born and raised. She is also the real deal on national security, having been-there and done-it through service as an officer with the Hawaiian National Guard on a combat deployment in Iraq. Though in Congress full time, she still performs her Guard duty.

Tulsi’s own military experience notwithstanding, she gives every indication of being honestly anti-war. In the speech announcing her candidacy she pledged “focus on the issue of war and peace” to “end the regime-change wars that have taken far too many lives and undermined our security by strengthening terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda.” She referred to the danger posed by blundering into a possible nuclear war and indicated her dismay over what appears to be a re-emergence of the Cold War

http://www.unz.com/pgiraldi/is-tulsi-gabbard-for-real/

The media is running scared of Tulsi and her antiwar stands……so the MSM does what it always dos…sets about smear the candidate…….

So why might New Knowledge identify Tulsi Gabbard as a possible Kremlin favorite? And more significantly, why is a major news network willing to carry water for such a scandal-plagued organization? Perhaps only Morgan and NBC News executive editor Catherine Kim can answer those questions definitively, but the answer is almost certainly Gabbard’s politics and platform, both of which fall to the left of the Democratic establishment.

Since announcing her run for president in January, the Hawaiian congresswoman has pledged to take on entrenched wealth and a runaway military-industrial complex. “We’re being torn apart by powerful, self-serving politicians and greedy corporations,” she said during her campaign kickoff speech in Oahu. “People fomenting hatred, bigotry and fear; inciting conflict between us because of the color of our skin, the way that we worship, or the political party that we might belong to.”

The Mainstream Media’s Smearing of Tulsi Gabbard

 https://themindunleashed.com/2019/02/tulsi-gabbard-mainstream-media-crazy.html

I admit that there are some reservations by the Left to embrace her candidacy…….I read an interview that covered some of these thoughts……

Tulsi Gabbard’s candidacy for president has raised more problematic questions than answers for people on the Left. Many anti-war leftists call her a breath of fresh air in resisting the military industrial complex and the dangerous war duopoly. After she supported a diplomatic solution to Syria and supported Bernie Sanders for president in 2016, she made a name for herself in the left wing of the Democratic Party.

Since she has announced her candidacy however, a number of serious, complicated and important questions have been raised: What is her position on Syrian human rights? What does it mean that right wingers such as Steve Bannon and David Duke sing her praises? Is she actually a peace candidate or a hawk, especially when it comes to foreign policy matters that impact Muslims? What are her positions on key social issues? Is she Islamophobic and homophobic? And what is her affiliation with Narenda Modi all about?

https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/02/19/troublesome-possibilities-the-left-and-tulsi-gabbard/

As I say she has my support as long as her views on war and our troops does not change.

And now for your musical enjoyment……

War And Peace And 2020

We are quickly approaching the election of 2020 and the Dems are coming out of the woodwork to challenge a president that is as worthless as old spinach….even the Obama VP Biden, is thinking about another run at the presidency……he has yet to announce….my thought is stop pussy footing around announce or go away to the shores of the Chesapeake and let the MSM move on to something important like the next celeb to say something stupid.

Now that I got that off my chest…..for me I want a “peace” candidate and so far I have seen none other than Tulsi Gabbard….not Beto (the media darling)…not Kamala….not Mayor Pete……and certainly not Biden……

By “Peace” I mean someone that will do as much as possible to end these wars of intervention……

Well let’s look at these candidates that have so much to say but not about war……

Forty-five years after Congress passed the War Powers Act in the wake of the Vietnam War, it has finally used it for the first time, to try to end the U.S.-Saudi war on the people of Yemen and to recover its constitutional authority over questions of war and peace. This hasn’t stopped the war yet, and President Trump has threatened to veto the bill. But its passage in Congress, and the debate it has spawned, could be an important first step on a tortuous path to a less militarized U.S. foreign policy in Yemen and beyond.

While the United States has been involved in wars throughout much of its history, since the 9/11 attacks the US military has been engaged in a series of wars that have dragged on for almost two decades. Many refer to them as “endless wars.” One of the basic lessons we have all learned from this is that it is easier to start wars than to stop them. So, even as we have come to see this state of war as a kind of “new normal,” the American public is wiser, calling for less military intervention and more congressional oversight.

https://original.antiwar.com/mbenjamin/2019/03/27/war-peace-and-presidential-candidates/

Americans need to demand an end to these exercises in adventurism…..we are staring to look like an imperial power from the 19th century…..time to stop all these wars that waste manpower and money……

Who profits from these wars?

Answer that question and you will know why these wars continue.

Peace Journalism

It is no secret that I am a “peace-nik” or if you prefer an antiwar activist….I have spent the last 50 years trying to point out the obscenity of war to an unfeeling population.

The media is not what one could call antiwar….if anything they seem to promote war and conflict….

From time to time I am sent papers by grad students looking to further their education in international relations…this paper is on the need for peace journalism…..

Peace Journalism: An Evolving Concept

Peace journalism, as the name suggests, is a form of journalism committed to exploring root causes of conflict in order to “create opportunities for society at large to consider and value non-violent responses to conflict” (Lynch and McGoldrick, 2005: 6). Its history can be tracked back to 1965, when Johan Galtung and Mari Ruge analysed what makes foreign news newsworthy (Galtung and Ruge, 1965). Jake Lynch and Johan Galtung (Lynch and Galtung, 2010) further developed the notion of peace journalism and argued that the media (war reporting, in particular) predominantly exhibit biases towards violence and rest on the conceptual belief that ‘conflict’ equals ‘war’. Within the field of peace journalism (Lynch and Galtung, 2010; Lynch and McGoldrick, 2005), this view was considered problematic because it prevents conflict to be considered as an opportunity for the search of a new harmony between the parties involved, via a process that does not have to necessarily develop into a war. In fact, as Johan Galtung’s theory of nonviolence and conflict resolution (Galtung, 1969) suggests, a conflict is a clash of incompatible interests amongst the parties that can be transcended in order to reach a further and deeper agreement.

Peace Journalism in Theory and Practice

This is something I would like to see one of the major news outlets attempt…..side with the innocent….side with peace…..but as long as the M-IC owns the media we will always have only one view….the Hawkish one.

Above All–Peace

I have always heard people say that the US was the “purveyor of peace”….of course it is total bullsh*t for if a nation was truly dedicated to peace it would not go around the planet looking for a fight.

Recently Our Dear Leader held a “summit”(I think the idea that this meeting was a stretch of the use of the term) with North Korea’s Kim and has proclaimed that NK will get rid of all their nukes and the Peninsula will become a haven for peace…..

How true is that statement?

South Korean President Moon Jae-in arrived on Tuesday in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang for the third summit of the year between the two Koreans. While the other visits were highly aspirational, this summit has a more direct goal – reaching a peace treaty.

Moon was very frank about this, saying “what I want to achieve is peace. Not a tentative change which could be volatile dependent on international situation, but irreversible, permanent, and unwavering peace, regardless of what might happen on the global area.”

That’s likely to be difficult, with the Trump Administration having made clear repeatedly in recent months that they aren’t willing to reach a peace deal yet, and are intending to hold that out as something North Korea can only get after years of additional concessions.

North Korea has resisted giving up any more without being certain they’ll get a peace deal, ending the Korean War that began in 1950. Likewise, South Korea’s President Moon has set himself up as wanting such a deal, with or without US endorsement.

This risks a split between the US and South Korea, as the two sides have seen differences shaping up in the past several months on how to approach North Korea diplomacy, and the US has increasingly chosen to negotiate independent of the wishes of its long-time allies in South Korea.

(antiwar.com)

This is where I am on this….any peace should be between the two Koreas….the US should facilitate but any peace agreement should be between the two Asian nations.

The M-IC will not allow a peace deal….after all a war footing makes for good business…..there is no profit in peace.

Turn The Page!

After writing this draft more news from the Korean Peninsula has broken…..

The leaders of the two Koreas have signed what President Trump calls a “very exciting” agreement on the second day of a three-day summit in Pyongyang. South Korean President Moon Jae-in announced in a joint press conference with Kim Jong Un that they had agreed to turn the peninsula into a “land of peace without nuclear weapons,” the Guardian reports. Moon said Kim had agreed to permanently close the Tongchang-ri missile launch facility in the presence of international experts, reports the BBC. The Yongbyon nuclear site could also be closed, depending on “reciprocal action” from the US. The leaders also agreed to file a joint bid to host the 2032 Summer Olympics.

Trump praised the agreement in a tweet. Kim has “agreed to allow Nuclear inspections, subject to final negotiations, and to permanently dismantle a test site and launch pad in the presence of international experts,” he said. “In the meantime there will be no Rocket or Nuclear testing. Hero remains to continue being returned home to the United States.” Analysts described the agreement as a small step in the right direction. “Remember that North Korea is still taking baby steps,” Melissa Hanham at the James Martin Centre for Nonproliferation Studies tells Reuters. “We don’t have a timeline, and we also don’t have any guarantees about the larger nuclear and missile programs.”

Looks like the 2 Koreas are making head way……how long before the US craps on this progress?

Pro-Trump Leftists

The title…..Is that an oxymoron?

I was doing my normal ritual of reading news and a bit of surfing before eating breakfast…..and a term caught my interest….”Pro-Trump Leftism”.

About here his his supporters will either have a stroke because of high blood pressure or they will do what they mostly do make some disjointed comment and “move on”……..

I will admit that in the beginning I was with Our Dear Leader on several of his foreign policy stands…..but sadly most of them were crap out of his mouth…….but I will give him his props….he has met with Kim and Vlad the Putin…I will agree that it is not a bad thing that they met….but without the experts in the same room nothing but niceties were exchanged.

Did you know there was such a political leaning as “Pro-Trump Leftism”?  Really!  No joke!

Some variation of this many-headed hydra of inane analysis is often trotted out to deflect criticism of Trump, typically wrapped in the silky veneer of Facebook radicalism from a number of self-proclaimed leftists. And while liberals knit ever more pussy hats for the inevitable flashmob of political nothingness, a relatively small, yet zealously self-important, segment of the left demands that much legitimate criticism of Trump be viewed as liberal talking points unleashed by the Deep StateTM to scuttle Trump’s long march to peace.

As absurd as it sounds, there are leftists who honestly believe that irrespective of his xenophobia and race-baiting, disastrous trade war and perpetual warmongering against Iran, Venezuela, Big Bird, Colin Kaepernick and Mika Brzezinski’s plastic surgeon, Donald Trump somehow represents a move toward peace globally.

Indeed, because of the Dotard’s doting on Putin, we should all sing hosannas as we erect cheaply made gold-plated monuments in his honor.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/07/27/the-curious-case-of-pro-trump-leftism/

Now as an antiwar person I am all for global peace…..but as much as that is appealing I do not see any moves in that direction……instead mix messages are sent through the Twitter machine and nothing is promising so far.

Plus I will not abandon my principles for an outside chance of world peace and for the most part Our Dear Leader is everything I despise about our world today.

Ever Heard Of USIP?

USIP is a program that was passed during the Reagan years.

The United States Institute of Peace is an independent national institute, founded by Congress and dedicated to the proposition that a world without violent conflict is possible, practical, and essential for U.S. and global security. USIP pursues this vision on the ground in conflict zones, working with local partners to prevent conflicts from turning to bloodshed and to end it when they do. The Institute provides training, analysis, and other resources to people, organizations, and governments working to build peace.

Our generals will be the first to tell you it’s cheaper to prevent a war than fight one. Lawmakers should keep this in mind as they face an unusually complex budgetary environment this year.

As Congress navigates budget caps and a White House determined to slash spending, it also must consider the turmoil and violence rocking the world.

Source: Give a Reagan-era peace institute a chance | TheHill

I know our new president is all about fighting wars but we have only so much cash to do what he wants and now he purposes even more tax cuts meaning less money yet again.

Maybe if he or his advisors like Tillerson would spend a little time doing some research then they might find that the Reagan idea does have value.

Okay I know that I am not one of Reagan’s biggest fans but he did have some ideas that deserve another look see.

That is unless continuous war is the main goal of the Trump cabal.

And it is looking more and more like it is…..to the point that trump is trying to establish a new world order.

That Donald Trump is a grand disruptor when it comes to international affairs is now a commonplace observation in the establishment media. By snubbing NATO and withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement, we’ve been told, President Trump is dismantling the liberal world order created by Franklin D. Roosevelt at the end of World War II. “Present at the Destruction” is the way Foreign Affairs magazine, the flagship publication of the Council on Foreign Relations, put it on its latest cover. Similar headlines can be found on the editorial pages of the New York Times and the Washington Post. But these prophecies of impending global disorder miss a crucial point: in his own quixotic way, Donald Trump is not only trying to obliterate the existing world order, but also attempting to lay the foundations for a new one, a world in which fossil-fuel powers will contend for supremacy with post-carbon, green-energy states.

Source: Is Trump launching a new world order? , by Michael T Klare (Le Monde diplomatique – English edition, June 2017)

Continuous war is looking more and more like the future for the US….that is unless someone steps up and takes a stand.

Will USIP survive in the Trump era?