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With the writing of The Hundred Year War on Palestine – A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017, Rashid Khalidi has created an interesting well written overview of the Zionist colonial-settler enterprise in Palestine.  One of the underlying features of the creation of Israel is how well it fits into the colonial-settler mindset that established the current Five Eyes scenario of the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia within the global influence of the British empire.  The indigenous people of each of those regions were effectively done away with, labelled “savages” and “uncivilized”, beneath contempt, and essentially to be eliminated through various means of genocide and ethnic cleansing.

In Palestine, those attempts at ethnic cleansing, a necessity for the Zionists in regard to their demographic fears of majority Arab/Palestinian population, came up against the post WW II decolonization movements rising from the liberal rhetoric of the western powers and the Cold War conflict with the Soviet Union.  It also came up against the will of the indigenous people, the Palestinians, who “have shown unusual patience, perseverance, and steadfastness in defending their rights, which is the main reason that their cause I still alive.”

While looking at the “Hundred Years’ War”, Khalidi divides it into six “declarations of war” as a means of highlighting the different eras and approaches to the Palestinian struggle: the Balfour pre WW II era; the nakba; the 1967 war; Beirut; the first intifada; and the second intifada leading into the “war on terror”.

Several threads through Khalidi’s writing make it highly informative, accessible, and powerful in its honest forth right approach.  The latter stands out significantly.  While recognizing that targeted assassinations, imprisonment, and exile have eliminated many Palestinian leaders, he does not avoid criticizing past and current leaders for the mistakes they have made both with their internal divisions and with their conduct in relation to the rest of the world.  The PLO/PA have lost all integrity and Khalidi highlights the path of that loss.

Another aspect creating an accessible read is Khalidi’s ties into personal information of his own life lived within and on the edges of the ongoing war on Palestine.  This came through most particularly with his descriptions of the Beirut invasion and the political and social aftermath not just in Palestine/Lebanon but in the greater region and globally.

The latter element rounds out the history.  For each declaration of war, the war is discussed briefly and then branches off into all the ramifications of that era both domestically and geopolitically abroad, highlighting of course U.S. involvement but also the timid fearful attitudes of the Arab states, none of them democracies and all of the governments intimidated not only by Israeli power, but also the ongoing threats and coercion from the US and its subordinate allies.

As I have found with most history books, the timeline at the end is tricky.  Khalidi essentially sees Palestine as down and out – other than the quote above on steadfastness – with the final touches of Trump’ obsequious actions eliminating several of the long-argued narratives, settling them definitively and unilaterally in Israel’s favour.

Yet two years after publication, there is hope that at least on the international scene, many more people, if not their governments, are aware of Israeli atrocities and crimes against human rights.  In spite of – and is some views because of – Israel’s hasbara attempts, much more knowledge of how Israel is actually treating the indigenous Palestinian population has become known.  The BDS movement, the arguments concerning the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism, and the declarations by B’Tselem, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch declaring Israel an apartheid state have all contributed to an increasing knowledge base about events in Palestine.

Perhaps more importantly, events in Ukraine/Russia and the broader implications of not just the actual war, but the tendency of many other countries in the world not siding with US/NATO while looking into and adhering to alternate global financial and political arrangements may have large affects on the Middle Ear in general and maybe then into Israel.   Khalidi recognizes that the US “will not necessarily maintain the near monopoly over the Palestine question, and indeed over the entire Middle East, that it has enjoyed for so long.”

Regardless of either the knowledge as gained from recent civilian actions or the influence of the larger geopolitical effects of the Ukraine/US/Russia war the path forward will require and undoubtedly will sustain the “unusual patience, perseverance, and steadfastness in defending their rights” of the Palestinian people themselves.

“The Hundred Year War on Palestine – A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017” is a valuable and timely addition to the Palestinian narrative.  It provides an over-arching view of this one particular instance of colonial-settlerism that has significantly influenced global geopolitics for the past century and will continue to do so moving forward.

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Jim Miles is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from Macmillan

This article of relevance to the debate on “Climate Change” was first published by GR in January 2004

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Environmental warfare may sound new to some, but it has been researched extensively in military circles for years. The first public description of weather modification techniques as a weapon of war was made on 20 March, 1974. At that time the Pentagon revealed a seven-year cloud seeding effort in Vietnam and Cambodia, costing $21.6 million. The objective was to increase rainfall in target areas, thereby causing landslides and making unpaved roads muddy, hindering the movement of supplies. (1) But interest in the exploitation of the environment for military purposes did not end there.

Air University, located at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama, describes itself as a “center for advanced education” that “plays a vital role in fulfilling the mission of the United States Air Force” and whose “service members must place the nation’s defense above self.”

The Chief of Staff of the US Air Force tasked Air University to “look 30 years into the future to identify the concepts, capabilities and technologies the United States will require to remain the dominant air and space force in the 21st century.” The study, completed in 1996, was titled Air Force 2025. One component was of the study was a paper titled Weather as a Force Multiplier: Owning the Weather in 2025. It is a chilling document.

It is evident that the authors regard our environment as nothing more than a resource to be exploited for military purposes. They claim that by 2025 US forces can “own the weather” by “capitalizing on emerging technologies and focusing development of those technologies to warfighting applications.”

The authors describe weather modification as having “tremendous military capabilities” which “can provide battlespace dominance to a degree never before imagined,” claiming the project would be “not unlike the splitting of the atom.”

The paper goes on to discuss how ionospheric research (The ionosphere is a region of the earth’s atmosphere ranging from about 30 – 1200 miles above the surface of the earth.) is necessary to achieve goals in both enhancing US communication capabilities and as a method of disabling enemy communications. “By 2025, it may be possible to modify the ionosphere and near space, creating a variety of potential applications.” (2)

Dr. Bernard Eastlund, while working as a consultant for Advanced Power Technologies Inc. (APTI) in the 1980s, patented devices that are described as capable of

“causing…total disruption of communications over a very large portion of the Earth…missile or aircraft destruction, deflection or confusion…weather modification…” (3)

These patents were based on the ideas and fundamental research of Nicola Tesla (many of his ideas were stolen by US corporations). Some of Eastlund’s patents were temporarily sealed under a US Secrecy Order. APTI and Eastlund’s patents were quickly purchased by E-Systems, a company that is home to many retired and currently employed CIA agents. In 1993 E-Systems received $1.8 billion in classified contracts. Raytheon, the fourth largest US defense contractor and third largest aerospace company, currently holds the patents. (4)

In light of the above, it is significant to know that since the early 1990s the US Air Force has been sponsoring the world’s largest ionospheric modification project called HAARP (High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program).

HAARP, located in the remote bush country of Gakona, Alaska, is a small version of the antenna discussed in the Eastlund patents. APTI initially won the contract to build HAARP.

Eastlund feels that the current version of HAARP, although the largest ionospheric heater ever built, is not yet powerful enough to bring the ideas in his patents to fruition, “But,” he says, “they’re getting up there. This is a very powerful device. Especially if they go to the expanded stage.” (5) What they have done to date is definitely a necessary first step in the overall objective.

Eastlund says,

“The military was interested [in his patents] because, in the event of a Russian nuclear attack on the United States, an Alaskan site would be under the path of the incoming warheads.”(6) HAARP is currently [2004] a part of the ongoing Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), popularly known as “Star Wars”. (7)

A 1990 internal document obtained by Popular Science describes applications of the HAARP project as “Creating a “full global shield” that would destroy ballistic missiles by overheating their electronic guiding systems as they fly” and for “manipulating local weather.” (8) The word “local” was used because some 150 international treaties prohibit “weather warfare”. (5) However, Pravda reported: “the works continued anyway, despite the signed document. It was simply conducted under the disguise of scientific research or the development of double-purpose technology.” (9)

HAARP [closed down in 2014] is presented as a harmless scientific project, but The Washington Post reported that a growing number of physicists and others in the scientific community are becoming increasingly skeptical.

A “small group of American physicists, some of whom have aired complaints in scientific journals…fear HAARP may not simply be the benign research experiment advocates describe, but possibly phase one of a secret US military program that could be seeking ways to blow other countries’ spacecraft out of the sky or disrupt communications over large portions of the planet.” (6)

Richard Williams, a physicist and consultant to the David Sarnoff laboratory in Princeton alleges HAARP constitutes

“an irresponsible act of global vandalism.” He and others fear a secret second stage where HAARP would “beam much more energy into the ionosphere. That could produce a severe disruption of the upper atmosphere at one location that may produce effects that spread rapidly around the Earth for years.” (6)

In 2002 the website globalresearch.ca reported that the Russian State Duma’s International Affairs and Defence Committee expressed concern that

“Under the HAARP program the USA is creating new integral geophysical weapons that may influence the near-Earth medium with high-frequency radio waves…the significance of this qualitative leap could be compared to the transition from cold steel to firearms, or from conventional weapons to nuclear weapons.”

The deputies demanded an international ban on large-scale geophysical experiments of this sort and sent the appeal to President Vladimir Putin, news outlets, scientific groups, the UN and others. The article went on to say that the HAARP program “will create weapons capable of breaking radio communication lines and equipment installed on spaceships and rockets, provoke serious accidents in electricity networks and in oil and gas pipelines and have a negative impact on the mental health of people populating entire regions.” (10)

Dr. Nicholas Begich, co-author of the book Angels Don’t Play This HAARP, depicts HAARP as

“a super-powerful radio wave beaming technology that lifts areas of the ionosphere by focusing a beam on them and then heating them. Electromagnetic waves then bounce back onto earth and penetrate everything – living and dead.”

This ability allows for better communication with submarines and wide-area Earth-penetrating tomography (similar to radar) that can be used to locate underground missile sites, bunkers and oil reserves. Through his research he has come to the conclusion that HAARP has the potential to jam global communication systems, change weather patterns over large areas, interfere with wildlife migration patterns and negatively affect human health. It is also capable of potentially triggering targeted floods, droughts, hurricanes and earthquakes. (11)

Dr. Rosalie Bertell, author of Planet Earth: The Latest Weapon of War and founder of the International Institute of Concern for Public Health, while writing on the background of HAARP says,

“It would be rash to assume that HAARP is an isolated experiment which would not be expanded. It is related to fifty years of intensive and increasingly destructive programs to understand and control the upper atmosphere…

It would be rash not to associate HAARP with the space laboratory construction which is separately being planned by the United States…

The ability of the HAARP/Spacelab/rocket combination to deliver very large amount of energy, comparable to a nuclear bomb, anywhere on earth via laser and particle beams, are frightening…

The project is likely to be “sold” to the public as a space shield against incoming weapons, or, for the more gullible, a device for repairing the ozone layer.” (12)

Michel Chossudovsky, professor of economics at the University of Ottawa and Director of the Center for Research on Globalization, says that

“there are very clear statements by the US Air Force to the effect that weather modification technology is available, HAARP is fully operational and could be used in actually military situations. It is evident weather warfare does constitute an instrument of the Air Force, they even identify the scenarios of its use.”

He said his interest in the topic was sparked by the fact that it is possible to change climate and disrupt electricity over large areas of the Earth, effectively destabilizing portions of the globe and paralysing national economies. This can be done without the enemy even knowing the source of it. The health and economic prosperity of entire regions could potentially be devastated through climatic manipulations without the deployment of a single troop or the firing of any munitions.

It is naïve to assume that those who ordered the development of the nuclear bomb would not want total control over this technology. Chossudovsky says HAARP can act as a “weapon of mass destruction” because it can destroy industry, infrastructure, agriculture and cause loss of life. He questions whether HAARP should be used at all since it has “global and environmental implications” and because it affects the electromagnetic field of the Earth. (13)

In September 2003 the website globalresearch.ca reported that a scientist who works in ionospheric research expressed concern that the 14 August, 2003 blackout might have been “a secret government test” that served multiple purposes including “fulfilling requirements for sophisticated warfare and security response.” The author poses the question: Could a secret HAARP experiment have caused the blackout?

This article was based on a number of facts that seemed oddly coincidental given the circumstances. For example, the power went out a few minutes after the closing bell on Wall Street and a few minutes after HAARP was turned on that day.

The power grid that was affected was not the vulnerable California grid. The data that would show where the effects of HAARP were directed, by providing a picture of the ionosphere, were not posted on the day of the blackout. He also commented on the possibility that the HAARP heaters were directed at the power grid’s bottleneck while the grid was operating near full power.

“The sudden presence of electromagnetic energy could easily force an unexpected increase in the power flow which could in-turn cause a critical failure such as the one seen on August 14, 2003…The only requirement to achieve geographic precision is that geomagnetic activity be minimal such as it was on the day of the blackout.”

There was also a short test conducted shortly before 4pm. The author says such a test would serve the purpose of “showing the researchers exactly where the beam would focus itself given the current conditions, and would be a necessary step before executing such an experiment.”

The author describes how experiments of this sort would be an “ideal way to test possible military applications of the instrument…of course, this would need to be tested in a controlled environment where the effects could be thoroughly analyzed (such as on our own soil)…this was an excellent homeland security response test.” He concludes by saying “Although it may sound like an episode of the X-files, the facts are clear; HAARP is an ionospheric warfare tool, it is capable of focusing it’s electromagnetic energy at long distances, it was turned on right at the time the event began, and such a scenario would serve multiple national security interests simultaneously with minimal economic impact.” (14) Michel Chossudovsky, by conferring with other well-known scientists, was able to conclude, “this man knows the facts. He can read and analyse scientific data and is well informed on the impact of the HAARP program.” Although the article does not amount to proof, Chossudovsky feels that the author’s statements should be taken seriously and investigated. (13, 14)

The HAARP program was scheduled for completion in 2002 and full-scale testing had started by early 2003. While there is currently no conclusive proof that HAARP has ever been used for weather manipulation, there have been numerous reports describing very unusual weather and environmental conditions throughout the world in recent years.

In January 2003 Yuru Solomatin, secretary of the Ukrainian Committee for Economic Policy, writing in Pravda reported

“A lot of specialists and scientists believe that unpredictable natural disasters and several … catastrophes that struck Europe and Asia in the summer of 2002 might have certain global reasons that caused them all.” He posits “a possibility of secret geophysical weapon tests. Those tests were either secret or unauthorized… [Many] specialists and scientists believe that a special American program HAARP is one of those developments.”(9) Chossudovsky says, “Even though we do not have clear-cut information on particular climatic occurrences, when there are very unusual weather patters that are occurring, which cannot be explained by greenhouse gas emissions, we cannot exclude the possibility of man-made climatic manipulations, based on our understanding of climate.” (13)

A primary objection to weather modification for military purposes is that its use is indiscriminant and civilians will inevitably be affected. Furthermore, the research necessary to achieve these goals is dangerous. According to Bertell, HAARP can make “long incisions in the protective layer of the Earth’s atmosphere.”(7)

As with the Manhattan project, scientists working on this massive military project simply are not able to determine for certain whether or not their activities will cause irreparable damage. Nor do they seem to care. In 1971 Science published an article titled Modifying the Ionosphere with Intense Radio Waves in which the authors describe the development of radio wave beaming technology for ionospheric modification that has long been “a desire for researchers.” This new technology now allows them to conduct research without the “associated complications” of a laboratory. They now have a “plasma laboratory in the sky.” (15)

There is a dire need for this technology to be closely monitored by multiple independent scientific bodies (it currently is not) and, if it must be used, needs to be used in such a way as to be beneficial to life on earth. It could be used to increase food supply, repair the ozone layer or reduce damage to civilian populations frequently affected by adverse weather conditions. Sadly, current military agendas appear not to give much weight to these possible beneficial uses of the technology.

Notes

1 – Science, “Weather Warfare: Pentagon Cencedes 7-Year Vietnam Effort,” Deborah Shapley, June 7, 1974.

2 – From the Air University website: Air Force 2025 study – http://www.au.af.mil/au/2025 Document – “Weather as a Force Multiplier: Owning the Weather in 2025” –
http://www.au.af.mil/au/2025/volume3/chap15/v3c15-1.htm

3 – From the book Angels Don’t Play This HAARP. See book review by Winn Schwartau – http://www.wealth4freedom.com/truth/12/HAARP.htm

Also see chapter on Eastlund patents in Angels Don’t Play This HAARP by Nick Begich and Jeane Manning, 1995 Earthpulse press.

4 – Corporate Watch website – Raytheon, http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/profiles/raytheon/raytheon.htm

5 – E, The Environmental Magazine, “Discordant HAARP,” Tracey C. Rembert, January 1997 – http://www.emagazine.com/january-february_1997/0197currhaarp.html

6 – The Washinton Post, “Pentagon Fights Secret Scenario Speculation Over Alaska Antennas” John Mintz, April 17, 1995, pA3.

7 – Northumbria University website (UK), “Natural Disasters and Meteorological War?” by Vera Vratusa – http://online.northumbria.ac.uk/geography_research/dscrn/newsletter/newsletter6/vratusa.htm

8 – Popular Science magazine cover story, “Mystery in Alaska,” Mark Farmer, September 1995.

9 – Pravda, “HAARP Poses Global Threat, ” Yuru Solomatin, January 15, 2003 – http://english.pravda.ru/main/2003/01/15/42068.html

10 – Centre for Research on Globalisation website, “US HAARP Weapon: US Could Dominate The Planet If It Deploys This Weapon In Space,” 10 August 2002 –http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/INT208A.html

11 – Angels Don’t Play This HAARP, Nick Begich and Jeane Manning, 1995 Earthpulse press – www.earthpulse.com

12 – Earthpulse press website, Background of the HAARP Project, Rosalie Bertell, 1999 – http://www.earthpulse.com/haarp/background.html

13 – Telephone interview with Michel Chossudovsky, January 17, 2004.

14 – Centre for Research on Globalisation website, “Did a Secret Military Experiment Cause the 2003 Blackout?” 7 September 2003 – http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/ANA309A.html

15 – Science, “Modifying the Ionosphere with intense radio waves,” October 15, 1971, p245.

For this article I had a telephone interview with Dr. Michel Chossudovsky about his research on HAARP. I also spoke with Dr. Eastlund (by telephone) about his patents.

The Elite Coup to Kill or Enslave Us: Why Can’t Governments, Legal Actions and Protests Stop Them?

By Robert J. Burrowes, July 25, 2022

In 2020, under cover of the ‘virus’/‘vaccine’ narrative, the Global Elite launched its long-planned coup to capture total control of the human population. Building on a history that dawned with human civilization some 5,000 years ago, and at least 50 years in the final planning, progressive efforts by elites in local, national and now the global context to kill off undesired populations and enslave those left alive are now culminating.

Palestinian Authority Leader Mahmoud Abbas Is Endorsing an Altered Status Quo After Biden’s Visit

By Ramona Wadi, July 26, 2022

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas’s bleating during US President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel and the occupied West Bank has of course achieved nothing apart from entrenching his subjugation to Israeli colonialism.

Tehran Summit: Strategic Advancement of the Russia-Iran Alliance

By Abdel Bari Atwan, July 26, 2022

We are potentially looking at a pivotal military, political, and economic alliance that could shift the balance of power in West and Central Asia, a matter of significant concern to Europe, and the US, in particular.

Day 150 of the Russia-Ukraine War

By William Walter Kay, July 25, 2022

In mid-June, when asked about a daily Ukrainian casualty report of 100 killed and 300 wounded, JCS Chair General Milley said such figures were “in the ballpark of our assessments.” Milley wouldn’t specify if this was a low-ball assessment. It was.

Western Liberals Act as the Thought Police of American Imperialism When It Comes to the War in Ukraine

By Dr. Leon Tressell, July 25, 2022

Philosopher and darling of the Western intelligentsia Professor Slavoj Zizek, recently wrote an article for The Guardian on Ukraine. Professor Zizek, uses the platform provided by The Guardian, to launch an attack on anyone on the Left who dares to question the American narrative regarding Ukraine.

My Message to the World: Stop the Murderous War in Ukraine!

By Dr. Rudolf Hänsel, July 25, 2022

Scientists who have nothing to contribute to a systematised murder of human beings called war are judging themselves: The plight of humanity does not touch their hearts and thus all their wisdom and science is degraded to a self-satisfied game of wits that knows no commitment. This is what my esteemed psychology professor taught me many years ago.

Ukrainian Neo-Nazi Battalions Indoctrinate Children in Summer Camps

By Lucas Leiroz de Almeida and Prof Michel Chossudovsky, July 25, 2022

In these camps, in addition to ideological indoctrination, children were also initiated into military training to fight Russians, being taught to kill at an early age, which reveals how anti-humanitarian the anti-Russian militias’ praxis is.

Video: COVID-19 and Poland’s Parliamentary Group Nuremberg 2.0. Reiner Fuellmich Interviews Gzegorz Braun

By Grzegorz Braun and Reiner Fuellmich, July 25, 2022

Gzegorz Braun is a Polish Politician and Director, Screenwriter and Publicist. He is one of the leaders of the polish party “Konfederacja”. He initiated a project called “Norymberga 2.0” (engl. Nuremberg 2.0). The project aims to gather evidences against crimes against humanity of those supporting segregation based on vaccination status.

COVID Jabs Impact Both Male and Female Fertility

By Dr. Joseph Mercola, July 25, 2022

The first COVID shots rolled out in December 2020, and it didn’t take long before doctors and scientists started warning of possible reproductive effects, as the jab may cross-react with syncytin and reproductive genes in sperm, ova and placenta in ways that might impair reproduction.

The War of Corporate Wealth Against Humanity and the “COVID-19 Scare”

By Emanuel Pastreich, July 25, 2022

We find ourselves in the midst of a global war on a scale even greater than that of the Second World War. But the nature of war has changed, and as a result many cannot conceive of what is happening. They think that it is a struggle between nations over power, when in fact it is an effort of the superrich to destroy most of humanity.

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the “Translate Website” drop down menu on the top banner of our home page (Desktop version).

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If we were to put the Turkish threats to invade Syria and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s aggressive maneuvers aside, and focus on the most important aspect of Tehran’s trilateral summit – namely, the Russian-Iranian relations which advanced immeasurably in the private meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei – then last week’s meeting in Iran was geopolitically more significant than acknowledged.

We are potentially looking at a pivotal military, political, and economic alliance that could shift the balance of power in West and Central Asia, a matter of significant concern to Europe, and the US, in particular.

Russia fills a vacuum

It was no accident that the Russian president’s second major foreign visit since his forces stormed Ukraine in February was to Tehran. His trip neatly coincided with remarks by US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan alleging a Russo-Iranian military agreement that would provide Moscow with hundreds of Iranian drones, alongside a delegation of Iranian military experts that would train their Russian counterparts in their usage.

During his unexceptional visit to Jeddah to meet with leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Egypt, Jordan and Iraq, US President Joe Biden declared that his country will not permit a strategic security vacuum in the region to be filled by the Sino-Russian alliance.

Yet, there was Putin in Tehran, taking a major step to fill this post-American vacuum, documenting his strategic relations with Iran in bilateral meetings with the country’s spiritual (Mr. Khamenei) and executive (President Ebrahim Raisi) leadership.

The Russian-Iranian alliance

Putin’s visit to Tehran resulted in a number of strategic achievements on all levels that serve to enhance this new alliance:

First, is the expansion of the BRICS organization that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, which Iran – as an ascending regional power – aspires to join.

Second, Iran’s provision of drones to Russia helps compensate for its losses in the Ukrainian war and enhances its offensive capabilities. This confirms two basic things: the advanced progress and development of Iranian military industries; and Iran’s resolution of its position in this war by throwing its weight behind its new strategic ally, Russia. In return, it is possible that Tehran may receive advanced Russian military hardware like Sukhoi aircraft and the S-400 anti-missile system.

Third, Russia has directly benefited from Iran’s 40 years of experience in dealing with US economic sanctions, and it is expected that Tehran will spare Moscow from the many pitfalls it has itself encountered, given that they now face this common enemy.

Fourth, full Iranian-Russian coordination in the current energy war, as Russia ranks first in the global production and exportation of gas, followed by Iran, which ranks high in global oil production as well as holding a key position in OPEC.

Fifth, the expansion of key trade and investment portfolios between the two countries. Most notably, during the summit, the National Iranian Oil Company signed an unprecedented memorandum worth $40 billion with Russia’s Gazprom to develop two Iranian gas fields and six oil fields.

Sixth, Iran’s active participation in the new financial system that China and Russia are seeking to establish as an alternative the US-led SWIFT bank messaging system. This would potentially include the cessation of trades in US dollars, the formation of a unified collective basket of regional currencies, and increasing rial-ruble trade between the two countries.

Turkey on the sidelines

It is clear that the Turkish president’s role in this summit was limited mainly to the Syrian file. Erdogan is a man with one opportunistic foot in the Russian-Chinese-Iranian axis, and the other in the US camp.

Furthermore, it is not certain that Putin will forgive the Turkish ‘Bayraktar’ drones sent to the Ukrainian army, or that Erdogan shut down the Bosphorus and Dardanelles waterways to Russian warships, or the mobilization of Turkey’s army on the northern Syrian border and its threat of attack at the height of Moscow’s preoccupation with the Ukrainian war. But this was not the time for Putin to open additional hostilities on other fronts.

As for Khamenei, his messages to Erdogan during their joint meeting were strong and clear: Syrian-Turkish differences can only be resolved through dialogue; the security of Turkey is linked to the security of Syria; the question of Palestine is the central issue of the Islamic world and must not rely on the US and ‘Israel’ to resolve it. Essentially then, that Iran strongly opposes any Turkish attack on Syria and all normalization attempts with the Israeli occupation state.

There is no doubt that Turkey is a great Islamic state with all the power of reason, and has an open option to extract itself  from the state of uncertainty it is currently experiencing, join the Russian-Chinese-Iranian alliance (BRICS countries), and adopt dialogue to reach reconciliation with Syria on the basis of the “Adana 1998” agreement, which provides protection for the security of the two countries. However, it is clear that President Erdogan is of another mindset, which we do not believe is the correct one.

In the final analysis, Putin’s visit to Tehran was a historic one, establishing a Russian-Iranian alliance that will lead to the birth of a new axis which could determine the future of West and Central Asia and the future of war and peace – especially as an extension to the existing Iranian-Chinese strategic alliance.

The recent leaks that Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey to a lesser extent, are seeking to join the BRICS, while Egypt is seeking to launch communication channels with Iran in Muscat, probably confirm this sea of change on the horizon.

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Featured image: Iran and Russia: Oil, gas, weapons, commerce, economy, de-dollarization, and an assertive new geopolitical vision were the main story at Tehran’s tripartite summit (Source: The Cradle)

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Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas’s bleating during US President Joe Biden’s visit to Israel and the occupied West Bank has of course achieved nothing apart from entrenching his subjugation to Israeli colonialism. “Our confidence in you and your administration is very great,” Abbas told Biden. “And we assure you of our readiness to work with you, hand in hand, in order to achieve comprehensive and just peace based on international legitimacy and the Arab Peace Initiative and the signed agreements between us and Israel.”

In turn, Biden might have been playing upon PA officials’ meagre requests when he said that,

“There must be a political horizon that the Palestinian people can actually see or at least feel. We can’t allow the hopelessness to steal away the future that so many have worked toward for so long.”

If the future has already been defined by the 1947 UN Partition Plan, what future is Biden talking about? The constant barrage of nonsensical talk that promises Palestinians nothing in terms of politics and rights needs to stop. If the PA was truly representative of Palestine and the Palestinian people, it would have found ways to at least counter Biden’s address.

Echoing Israel’s perpetual laments, the US president said that,

“The ground is not ripe at this moment to restart negotiations.” Referring to the Abraham Accords, he declared, “We can harness that same momentum to reinvigorate the peace process between the Palestinian people and the Israelis.”

No one believes Biden, of course, not even Abbas. But what better way for the PA to exist on borrowed time than to laud the perpetrator of the colonial land grab and its international accomplice?

Biden’s first visit to the Middle East – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/Middle East Monitor]

“The best way to feed the flame of hope is to demonstrate that things can be better,” Biden told Abbas, while reminding him that his administration has resumed humanitarian aid to the Palestinians. Ask the Palestinian people if the flame of hope in US-PA rhetoric means anything other than capitulation to colonial demands. For months, they have been saying that the economic dependence upon international actors is diminishing all prospects of political autonomy.

Of much greater consequence was Biden’s reiteration that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital, affirming once again that his administration is operating under the legacy of his predecessor, Donald Trump. The PA is unwilling to discuss or even acknowledge the fact that despite Biden’s purported adherence to the two-state compromise, the Abraham Accords are taking precedence; not just for the Biden administration, but also within the international community.

If the two-state negotiations, futile though they will certainly be, are now being likened to the Abraham Accords, it means that there is even a shift in what a hypothetical two-state “solution” actually looks like. Of course, the disseminated version will remain that of two states for two peoples, assuming a non-existent equality. But if the Abraham Accords are determining the façade and farce of any negotiations, the PA would do well to think about how it is endorsing a status quo that has altered drastically from a defunct paradigm to one that can be manipulated to suit the current apartheid interests of the Zionist, settler-colonial state.

*

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Ramona Wadi is an independent researcher, freelance journalist, book reviewer and blogger. Her writing covers a range of themes in relation to Palestine, Chile and Latin America.

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***

Link to the original English version:

When the Globalists Crossed the Rubicon: The Assassination of Shinzo Abe

By Emanuel Pastreich, July 23, 2022

***

7月8日，日本的古都闷热而潮湿。日本最具影响力的政坛人物安倍晋三正在奈良近铁大和西大寺站发表演讲，为当地的自民党候选人拉票。忽然，一声巨响响起，紧接着升起了一股诡异的青烟。

众人的反应简直不可思议。聚集在此处的观众多得反常，却没有任何一人逃开寻找掩体，也无人惊恐地趴倒。

安倍的保镖也举止怪异，在演讲期间站得远远的，面无表情，既没有奋力掩护他，也没有把他拉至安全之地。

片刻之后，安倍毫无生气地瘫倒在地，其标志性的蓝夹克与白衬衫已满是血渍，上面还挂着蓝色徽章——其象征意义是同遭朝鲜绑架的日本人团结一致。他很有可能是当场毙命的。

直到这时，几名保镖才捉住嫌疑人——始终站在安倍背后的山上彻也。他们同山上扭打在一起，举手投足却像是在表演事先编排好的、供电视机前观众观瞻的舞蹈，而非在开展专业的抓捕行动。

没过多久，媒体便公布，山上现年41岁，是前海上自卫队队员，与安倍有个人恩怨。

山上对警方供认不讳，甚至没有在保镖行动时试图逃离现场，始终拿着那把愚蠢的自制枪。

安倍躺在人行道上时，围观者中没有一个人逃跑寻找庇护，甚至无人观望四周、确定子弹从何方位而来。似乎人人都知道枪声不会再度响起，甚是奇怪。

随后，闹剧开场。安倍身边的人没有把他搀进豪车送他离去，只是向路人喊话，问他们之中是否有医生。

媒体立即接受了此次袭击是“枪手单独行动”这一结论，对各种小道消息津津乐道：山上是如何同统一教发生关联的，以及他为何对安倍积怨甚深。统一教会是由川濑佳代（此人自称拥有神赐之力）创立的新兴宗教组织，安倍与其过从甚密，而山上彻也的母亲是教会成员，因信教而倾家荡产。

因为该教会中有由文鲜明牧师所创之统一教的信徒，因此记者迈克尔·佩恩便妄下结论，称导致安倍之死的阴谋由他同统一教之间的协作所催生。

尽管主流媒体采用了这一荒谬说法，但日本警方和安全机构并未对其他解读予以压制。博主北川隆司曾于7月10日发文分析，表示击中安倍的子弹是从其前方，而非背后——山上彻也所处的位置——射出的，而且从射击角度判断，枪手很有可能位于车站广场对面十字路口一侧或两侧的高楼之上。

（图片：北川隆司的博文）

比起媒体毫无根据的推断，北川所作的弹道分析要科学得多。媒体曾称安倍只是身中一枪，但当晚医方便宣布从死者身上取出了两枚子弹。

手持拙劣自制枪支、混在距目标五米多远的人群中却可击中安倍两次的几率可谓低之又低。日本电视名人小园广见本身便是枪支专家，他曾在7月12日的晨间节目《Sukkiri》上表示，在此种条件之下凶手竟然可以得逞，简直让人难以置信。

仔细观看视频便可发现，飞入事发地的子弹是由位于附近大楼顶上的步枪射出的。

此事向世界传达的信息

安倍晋三是日本最有权势的政治人物，当前地缘政治危机导致局势空前动荡，日本政坛人士与官员纷纷投奔于他。如此人物在身边没有安保人员尽责的情况之下遇刺身亡，实在毫无道理可言。

也许电视机前的观众不明就里，但其他日本政客心知肚明。几乎在安倍遇刺的同一时间，鲍里斯·约翰逊便被迫辞职，马克龙也于7月11日忽然面临称其以权谋私、同优步暗中勾结的指控与要求其下台的呼声，而之前的几个月中，几场大规模抗议也未能撼动他的地位。

安倍染血的白衬衣已经说明一切：全盘接受全球主义体系、推行“新冠统治”并不足以保证个人安全，G7国家的领导人也不可幸免。

无形之癌正在侵蚀全世界各国的体制，而目前为止安倍是其最具权势的受害者。这种制度之疾将国家政府的决策权移交给了私有超级计算机银行网络，私募股权集团，特拉维夫、伦敦和莱斯顿的受雇情报公司，以及由世界经济论坛、北约、世界银行和其他大型组织机构雇佣的战略智库。

第四次工业革命不过是为把全部信息输入和输出的控制权以提高效率之名从中央政府转移至脸书、亚马逊、甲骨文、谷歌、思爱普等公司的借口。正如美国知本家J.P.摩根所说：“凡事都有两个理由，一个好听，一个真实。”

在安倍遇刺一事上，这群技术大亨及其东家已经孤注一掷，向世人宣布，哪怕一国的权威人士，如若其胆敢违命，也会惨遭厄运，而真正的幕后主使根本不必承担任何责任。

日本的问题所在

日本是唯一一个被视作先进到足以加入“西方世界”、成为“尊贵的”G7集团成员、有资格同顶级情报分享组织“五眼联盟”合作或者有潜力加入其中的亚洲国家。然而，对于全球金融家和美国权贵阶层就全新世界秩序提出的期望和要求，日本却始终视而不见。

尽管在亚洲一直饱受华盛顿诟病的国家是韩国，美国也一直称其作为盟友远不如日本称职，然而事实是，忙于接管五角大楼和全球经济的超级富豪们早已开始质疑日本是否可靠。

世界银行、高盛集团以及哈佛大学贝尔弗科学与国际事务中心的全球主义框架为“发达国家”的高智慧人才提供了一条轨道。

来自澳大利亚、法国、德国、挪威和意大利的精英都要掌握流利的英语，在华盛顿、伦敦、日内瓦的智库或大学耗度时日，满足于某家银行、政府机构或研究机构找到一份薪资不菲的安全闲职，且把《经济学人》杂志上刊登的常识、专业金融观点和各种论述奉为福音。

然而，尽管日本有自己先进的银行系统，尽管该国掌握了高端技术、已经成为德国在机床开发方面的唯一对手，尽管其教育系统健全完善、可培养出大批诺贝尔奖获得者，但它并未为这一“发达”国家造就甘愿遵循上述模式的人才。

大多数日本精英都不选择出国深造，而日本知识界人士本就博学广识，不必对从海外学术界或新闻媒体引入的信息依赖至深。

与其他国家不同，日本人只用日语撰写高深的期刊论文，只引用日本专家的论述作为参考。实际上，在植物学和细胞生物学等领域，日本世界级的论文都是以全日文书写的。

与此同时，日本的国内经济体系也严密发达，不会被跨国企业轻易渗透——后者也曾施展手腕，但未能得逞。

十年以来，大规模的财富集中已经让超级富豪们得以建立无形的全球治理秘密网络，其最为典型的代表便是世界经济论坛的全球青年领袖计划与施瓦茨曼学者计划。有相关背景的政坛新星渗透各国政府、各个产业与各间国家研究机构，以保证全球主义者的安排得以顺利实施。

这种奸巧的全球治理模式已经影响到了日本。然而在日本，会说英语的，还有在哈佛求学的群体，并非社会迅速发展的必需之人。

日本的民主与经济独立性可谓根深蒂固，令推行“新冠统治”的超级富豪们心生防备。

尽管安倍政府以及后来的岸田政府听从了世界经济论坛和世界卫生组织在接种疫苗与保持社会距离方面的指示，但与大多数国家相比，日本政府对其国民生活的干涉要少得多，在强迫组织机构接种疫苗一事上也不甚成功。

比起其他的“发达国家”来，日本仍然十分克制，没有利用二维码来大规模阻止未接种新冠疫苗者获得社会服务。

此外，日本政府拒绝听命全面推广数字化，令跨国技术巨头们无法像掌控其他地方一样控制日本。由于日本迟迟未能实现深度数字化，华盛顿威尔逊中心特邀日本数字厅长官牧岛花莲前往，令其于7月13日解释日本为何如此拖拉。日本数字厅也是在2021年9月迫于全球金融势力的压力建立起来的。

日本人逐渐发现，他们抵制数字化进程、反对将政府及高校职能全面外包给跨国技术巨头、阻挡信息资源私有化并不符合自己的利益。

在日本，遵循手写记录等传统、使用日语的机构仍在运营；日本人仍在读书，且不像韩国与中国民众那样，对人工智能推崇备至。

日本的抗拒可追溯至1867年的明治维新。日本开始着手将来自西方的可用观念翻译成日语，将其同日本的旧有理念相结合，以此来建构复合式本土话语，重整政府体系。如今，明治维新时期建立的治理体系在很大程度上仍然存在，其所采用的治理模式以日本与中国古时的前现代思想为基础，且对19世纪的普鲁士和英格兰有所借鉴。

此举却催生出了一种封建式的治理方法：大臣们监管官员的封地，官员则小心翼翼地维护自己的财产与内部命令链。

安倍的问题所在

安倍晋三是这个时代最为精干老练的政坛人士之一。他从不顽固抵抗，愿意向美国和国际机构妥协，但同时也极为谨慎，避免让日本沦为全球主义者支配的对象。

安倍心怀梦想，希望让日本恢复帝国辉煌，想象自己是明治天皇转世。

安倍同约翰逊和马克龙截然不同：他无意于在电视上频频亮相，始终致力于掌控日本国内真正的决策过程。

有些人不遗余力地为安倍歌功颂德，其实无此必要。他也是腐败势力中的一员，也曾推动危险的政府私有化进程，挖空教育系统、支持中产阶级的资产向富豪阶层大规模转移。

他利用极右翼论坛“日本会议”宣扬极端民族主义，美化日本帝国曾经犯下的严重罪行，甚是令人不安。安倍对所有军费开支都予以坚定支持——尽管此举极不明智，而且愿意一掷千金，对美国亦步亦趋。

作为前首相岸信介的外孙与前外务大臣安倍晋太郎的儿子，安倍晋三自幼年起便有了精明政治家的风范。他能够极富创造性地利用各种政治工具来推行自己的计划，也可以轻而易举地号召企业和全世界的政府领导人——这一点，其他亚洲的政坛人物中无人能及。

我曾与安倍会面两次；他给我留下的印象如今仍然清晰无比。他或许在宣扬愤世嫉俗的政治观点，人却显得纯粹简单——用日语说，便是“素直”，这样的形象颇具吸引力。他通过言行举止表示自己兼容并蓄、思想开明，令拥趸对其忠心耿耿，也凭此压倒了许多对其政策不满之人。

总之，安倍这一能力非凡的政治人物足可在自民党内乃至国际集团中挑起纷争的同时保持自己体贴仁慈的领袖形象。

正因如此，反对安倍族裔民族主义的日本人仍然愿意支持他——在他们心中，安倍是唯一有能力让日本重返全球政治领导地位的政治家。

日本的外交官与军官正为本国缺乏远见而烦恼不已。他们认为，尽管日本拥有成为大国的一切资质，但管理它的却是一群庸碌无为的东京大学毕业生；这群人知道怎样考出高分，却没有冒险的胆量。

日本培养出的领袖，与普京和习近平迥然不同，甚至与马克龙与约翰逊有千差万别。

安倍想要成为领袖，也拥有在世界舞台上扮演这一角色所需的关系网、才能和冷酷心肠。他已经成为日本历史上在任时间最长的首相，在遇刺之前还在计划第三次出山。

毋庸置疑，哪怕安倍这样的国家领导人能够服从“大局安排”，世界经济论坛的幕后势力也不希望他们执掌权力，因为他们完全有组织国民发起反抗的能力。

差池何在

安倍能够利用传统的治国之道来化解日本十年来所面临的万难困境：日本与中国和俄罗斯的经济联系日益紧密，而同时其与美国、以色列和北约集团的政治与安全一体化也进展迅速。

对于日本而言，跟美国交好的同时又与俄罗斯和中国保持友善关系是不可能之事，但安倍差一点就成功了。

安倍仍然心无旁骛、宠辱不惊。他尽己所能，动用了全部关系网，着手为日本开辟其专属的空间。在这一过程中，安倍采纳了自己外交政策局长、外务省事务次官谷内正太郎巧妙的外交策略，以保证日本能够在世界上占得一席之地。

安倍和谷内为拉拢东西方各国而采取的各种地缘政治策略，虽然有的彼此矛盾，但收效甚佳。他们充分利用秘密外交来敲定长期协议，让日本重返至大国游戏之中。

另一方面，安倍在奥巴马和特朗普面前展示的，是一个比韩国、澳大利亚乃至印度更愿意唯美国马首是瞻的日本，甘愿为迎合美国对东亚的布局推动再军事化而遭受国内的猛烈抨击。

与此同时，他广发亲美言论，大肆购买武器系统，令华盛顿的政客们十分满意，又与中国和俄罗斯的最高领导人保持着联系，还在华盛顿、北京和莫斯科开展计划周密的游说。这一切绝非易事。

在对俄关系方面，安倍于2019年同俄罗斯达成了一项内容甚广的和平条约；日俄关系本可就此走向正常化，两国事关北方四岛（俄罗斯称之为南千岛群岛）的领土争端也可得到解决。他还得以为日本的企业争取能源合同、在俄罗斯寻找投资机会，尽管华盛顿为制裁俄罗斯而对日本频频施压。

记者田中宇称，俄罗斯宣布禁止日本政府代表入境之后，安倍仍可进入俄罗斯。

安倍也在认真地与中国交涉，以巩固两国相关机构之间的长期联系，推进在第十五轮协商（2019年4月9日到12日）中取得突破的自由贸易协定谈判。安倍可以随时接触到中国的上层政治人物，后者也认为他可靠可信，尽管其言论颇具反华色彩。

引发一系列过程、最终导致安倍遇刺的关键事件，似乎是举行于6月28日到30日的马德里北约峰会。

峰会召开之际，正是各位幕后玩家为全新世界秩序立下规矩之时。北约正在迅速地脱胎换骨，想要摆脱保卫欧洲的国家联盟这一身份，化身为不负责任的，与全球经济论坛、超级富豪与全世界银行家同流合污的军事集团与“世界军团”，担任英国东印度公司在另一时代所扮演的角色。

邀请日本、韩国、澳大利亚和新西兰的国家领导人参会，便是北约实现上述转型的主要环节之一。

北约邀请上述四国加入前所未有的安全一体化联盟，合作内容包括情报分享（将相关信息资源外包给跨国技术巨头），使用先进武器系统（同时必须接受洛克希德·马丁公司等跨国企业人员的监督管理），联合军演（开创了强迫决策之先例），以及其他会破坏一国国内指挥链的“协作”事项。

岸田于7月1日返回东京之后，首先要面见之人无疑包括安倍。他告诉安倍，拜登政府对日本提出的条件简直苛刻至极。

顺便说一下，如今白宫已经完全被维多利亚·纽兰（负责政治事务的副国务卿）之流，以及经过布什家族调教的其他人等所占据，他们都是全球主义者的走狗。

就其本质而言，北约对日本的要求注定会让其陷入自毁境地。日本要加大对俄经济制裁的力度，要做好同俄罗斯开战的准备，还要预备与中国交火。日本政府的军事、情报与外交职能即将面目全非，被围在北约身边等待大快朵颐的私人承包商所瓜分。

我们并不知道安倍在身亡之前的一个星期之内做了些什么。他很可能动用了自己在华盛顿、北京、莫斯科乃至耶路撒冷、柏林和伦敦的全部人脉，展开了一场纷繁复杂的政治游戏，以巧妙地做出回应，让全世界认为日本对拜登忠心不二，同时日本却得以与中国和俄罗斯暗通款曲。

这一策略的问题在于，其他国家都已封闭，而日本却可借此成为唯一一个行政部门尚且可以发挥部分职能的主要国家。

安倍遇刺近乎发生在前首尔市长朴元淳失踪（2020年7月9日）的两年之后。当天朴元淳曾经步入首尔市政大厅，对中央政府为抗击新冠疫情而提出的保持社交距离政策大加抨击。次日，有人发现了他的尸体，而其死因很快被定为自杀，动机是因面临同僚发起性骚扰指控而压力过大。

应对之策

当前事态极为严峻，我们绝不可小觑。倘若田中宇一语成谶，有越来越多的日本人认为美国毁掉了日本登上世界领袖宝座的美梦，而全球主义者又希望担任日本首相的，永远是软弱无能、对华盛顿和吸血阶级的其他幕后势力俯首帖耳之人，那么日本可能会与美国分道扬镳，让两国陷入政治甚至军事冲突。

据报道，发表于战略与国际研究中心（CSIS）主页上的、首篇对安倍的颂词并非由来自该中心的华盛顿首席日本政策负责人迈克尔·格林所撰写。

格林是布什国家安全委员会元老兼CSIS亚洲项目亨利·A.基辛格席位代表，也是《优势战线：安倍晋三时代的日本大战略》（Line of Advantage: Japan’s Grand Strategy in the Era of Abe Shinzo）一书的作者。格林与安倍过从甚密，或许是同后者关系最为亲密的美国人。

上述致辞由CSIS日本席位代表与前CIA官员克里斯托弗·约翰斯通（Christopher Johnstone）起草。此事甚为反常，说明安倍遇刺事件太过敏感，以至于格林本能地选择不在第一时间做出回应，而是让专业特工代劳。

对于负责的知识界人士与华盛顿、东京和其他地方的民众而言，面对这次诡谲的暗杀事件，可行的应对之策只有一条：要求有关方面针对此事开展国际性的科学调查。

调查过程或许会让人心痛不已，但也能逼迫我们面对现实，认识到我们的政府是如何被隐形势力占领的。

否则，我们要是无法找出真正的幕后黑手，便可能会被迫陷入一场纷争，届时各国首脑将饱受抨击，各国之间争斗不断，而这一切的目的是掩盖全球金融势力的罪恶。

日本政府上一次失去对军队的控制权，部分原因在于两位前首相犬养毅与齐藤实分别在1932年5月15日与1936年2月26日遇刺。

然而就国际层面而言，同目前状况更具相关性的例子是罗斯柴尔德、华宝以及其他银行利益集团将一体化的全球经济玩弄于股掌之间，营造出一种凶险的环境，令1914年6月28日发生的奥匈帝国弗朗茨·斐迪南大公遇刺事件引发的紧张局势最终导致了世界大战的爆发。

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Featured image: Image from video footage shows former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe delivering a stump speech in Nara on July 8, 2022, shortly before he was shot by a gunman. (Kyodo)

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***

Philosopher and darling of the Western intelligentsia Professor Slavoj Zizek, recently wrote an article for The Guardian on Ukraine. Professor Zizek, uses the platform provided by The Guardian, to launch an attack on anyone on the Left who dares to question the American narrative regarding Ukraine.

In this he article Zizek declares that the wrong response to the war is pacifism and that all Leftists should uncritically support Ukraine. It gets better. He also declares that we need a stronger NATO to counter those evil Russian hordes which threaten Western democracy. This ignores its history of bloody interventions in countries such as Libya and Afghanistan. Never mind the fact that NATO, since its inception, has been an offensive military alliance geared for war against Russia.

In his article, which is typical of Guardian pieces on the subject of Ukraine, Zizek supports the rampant Russophobia of the Western imperialist states. This Russophobia is ratcheting up Cold War tensions with Moscow to dangerous levels.

Zizek, like all good Western “liberals’’, gives unconditional support for the Zelensky regime.

Professor Zizek states that Zelensky is not a dictator yet he has banned all political parties, banned Russian speaking media and banned the Russian language from schools where a third of the population has Russian as their first language.

Zelenksy’s government is also planning to remove 100 million books by Russian authors, including literary giants such as Pushkin and Dostoevsky, from the libraries of Ukraine. Meanwhile, hundreds of activists have disappeared into the torture chambers of the SBU never to be seen again. One tragic example being the case of the abduction of Mikhail & Aleksander Kononovich who were leading members of the outlawed Leninist Communist Youth Union by the Ukrainian security services.

Zizek’s article displays a breathtaking ignorance of the history of Ukraine since the coup of 2014 which has profoundly shaped current events. I would refer to him  “unbiased’’ sources such as historian Professor John Mearsheimer, of Chicago University, who cannot possibly be accused of being a paid agent of the Kremlin. Since 2014 Professor Mearsheimer has warned of the grave dangers of further NATO expansion into Ukraine and how the arming of Ukraine threatened conflict with Russia.Since the beginning of the current war Mearsheimer has repeatedly stated that the actions of the US are the principal reason for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The expansion of NATO making Ukraine a de facto member of the alliance, crossed a line which the Kremlin warned the West about on many occasions since 2008. In late March Mearsheimer declared,

“My story about the conflict’s causes should not be controversial, given that many prominent American foreign-policy experts have warned against NATO expansion since the late 1990s.’’

Zizek’s article, like that of many hundreds of others written by Western liberals, chooses to ignore the many war crimes committed by the Ukrainian army and neo-Nazis in the Donbass since 2014. The most infamous of these war crimes being the Odessa massacre on 2 May 2014 that left over 100 Russian speakers dead at the hands of the neo-Nazi Right Sector. There is an abundance of evidence from Western sources to illustrate these war crimes.

As early as September 8 2014 Amnesty International noted the failure of the Ukrainian government to deal with war crimes committed by neo-Nazi militias/regular government forces in the Donbass:

“The failure to stop abuses and possible war crimes by volunteer battalions risks significantly aggravating tensions in the east of the country and undermining the proclaimed intentions of the new Ukrainian authorities to strengthen and uphold the rule of law more broadly.”

Nothing changed after this date. The human rights abuses committed by Ukrainian forces and neo-Nazi battalions continued unabated. This was recognised by the US State Department in a 2020 Report:

“Significant human rights issues included: unlawful or arbitrary killing; torture and cases of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment of detainees by law enforcement personnel; harsh and life-threatening conditions in prisons and detention centers; arbitrary arrest or detention; serious problems with the independence of the judiciary; abuses in the Russia-led conflict in the Donbas, including physical abuse of civilians and members of armed groups held in detention facilities; serious restrictions on free expression, the press, and the internet, including violence, threats of violence, or unjustified arrests or prosecutions against journalists, censorship, and blocking of websites; refoulement of refugees; serious acts of corruption; lack of investigation of and accountability for violence against women; violence or threats of violence motivated by anti-Semitism; crimes involving violence or threats of violence targeting persons with disabilities, members of ethnic minority groups, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or intersex persons; and the existence of the worst forms of child labor.’’

The government generally failed to take adequate steps to prosecute or punish most officials who committed abuses, resulting in a climate of impunity. Human rights groups and the United Nations noted significant deficiencies in investigations into alleged human rights abuses committed by government security forces.’’

Yet Zizek maintains that Leftists in the West should uncritically support the Ukrainian government which has presided over many human rights abuses/war crimes.

His article article displays an egregious disregard for the incessant shelling of civilians settlements in Donetsk and Lugansk by Ukrainian forces over the last 8 years. This has led to the deaths of over 14,000 people with thousands more wounded and hundreds of thousands driven from their homes.

Every day civilian settlements around Donetsk city are bombarded by Ukrainian artillery causing many casualties amongst civilians. One impartial source for these attacks comes from the daily video reports provided by American journalist Patrick Lancaster. All you have to do is to go to his YouTube channel. By ignoring these war crimes it suggests that Professor Zizek condones such attacks on Russian speaking civilians.

Further on his article, Zizek goes on to make the outrageous and historically inaccurate statement that all Leftists who display ‘’understanding for Russia’’ are just like those who appeased German fascism in the 1930s. My doctoral research into fascism in Europe in the 1930s reveals that the vast majority of socialists and rank and file communists supported the struggle against German fascism from 1933 onwards. For they realised that fascism represented a deadly threat to the working class and its institutions. That clearly is not the case today with Russia. Whatever faults its government might have, it is not a fascist regime bent on the conquest of the European continent, the destruction of the organised working class and a genocidal race war against Jews and Slavs.

Professor Zizek finishes off his attack on the Left in the West by making the incredible statement:

“the minimum to be done by those who oppose Russian invasion of Ukraine is to demand Assange’s immediate release.’’

He appears wilfully ignorant of the fact that Julian Assange is the victim of psychological torture at the hands of the governments of the UK, US, Sweden and Ecuador. That is the opinion of Professor Nils Melzer, UN Rapporteur for Torture. The governments of Britain and the US are the leading lights in NATO, which Zizek wants to strengthen, and have conducted the horrendous persecution of a journalist who has exposed American and NATO war crimes. Nor should we forget the fact that the EU, whose member states belong to NATO, has not lifted a finger to help Julian Assange.

Professor Zizek is a willing dupe of Western imperialism, and uses his position to attack and try to shame Leftists who refuse to support the ultra nationalist regime in Kiev. In the democratic West no one can be allowed to have a different opinion to the prevailing narrative regarding Ukraine.

*

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Dr. Leon Tressell is a regular contributor to Global Research.

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***

On July 9, Britain’s largest circulation newspaper, the Daily Mail, claimed Ukrainian officials believed Ukraine was “suffering more than 20,000 casualties a month;” and, currently: “200 troops are killed and 800 wounded daily.” Moreover, there were: “fears that the true scale of losses is being understated.” (1)

This casualty count jibes with a June 15 Axios report which quoted Ukraine’s lead negotiator and top Zelensky adviser, David Arakhamia, saying:

“Up to 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers are being killed and wounded each day in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine, with 200 to 500 killed on average and many more wounded…” (2)

In mid-June, when asked about a daily Ukrainian casualty report of 100 killed and 300 wounded, JCS Chair General Milley said such figures were “in the ballpark of our assessments.” (3) Milley wouldn’t specify if this was a low-ball assessment. It was.

Arakhamia’s coy limiter was “in the Donbass.” Fighting also occurs north and southwest of the Donbass; while Russian missiles inflict casualties across Ukraine.

Nevertheless, the Axios and Daily Mail articles are examples of the truth about Ukrainian casualties slipping past the censors. This truth confirms Russian estimates. In mid-July a spokesman for the Russian-allied Donetsk Republic placed Ukrainian casualties at: 50,000 dead, 150,000 wounded.

This casualty count is believable given that only one adversary in this war possesses a navy while the theatre of engagement encompasses 2,700 kilometers of Black Sea coast. Ukraine’s navy didn’t survive Day One. The Russians have lost two ships.

This casualty count is believable given that only one adversary has an air force; and that air force is the world’s second-most powerful. Ukraine’s main 14 airbases were among the 800 targets obliterated on Day One. The Russians have so far destroyed 16 airbases and 260 aircraft. Russian aircraft losses remain shrouded but could hardly represent a scratch on their combat-ready inventory of 1,100 fighter jets and 137 strategic bombers.

While Russians boast an array of air-launched precision munitions, Kalibr cruise missiles are their weapon of choice. The most deployed Kalibr, the 3M-54, sports a 7-meter tubular frame and a turbojet engine. 3M-54s cruise at Mach 0.8 but accelerate to Mach 3 before impact. 3M-54s can be also launched from ships or submarines; and can hit buildings 1,500 kilometers away with 450-kilogram warheads. Kalibrs have blasted hundreds of Ukrainian munitions warehouses, army barracks etc.

Howitzers not missiles, however, are this war’s grim reaper. While artillery has been ‘king of battle’ since Napoleon, the Russo-Ukrainian War debuts an historic wedding of howitzers to drones.

Russia’s Krasnopal artillery shells (typically fired from armored self-propelled MSTA 152-mm howitzers) are laser-guided to their targets by loitering drones. Rocket-assisted Krasnopals can hit stationary battle tanks 40 kilometers from launch. Their 7-kilogram warheads rocket straight down onto their prey, guaranteeing armor penetration.

While Krasnopals have destroyed hundreds of military vehicles, they too are not this war’s principal widow-maker. That honor belongs to old-school 152-mm shells coupled with humble Orlan-10 drones.

Perhaps the most basic of the 30 Russian-made drones, the Orlan-10 uses a gasoline-fueled piston engine to power a single-propeller plane with a 2-meter wingspan. Orlan-10s rely on rubber-band powered catapults for launch and parachutes to land. Orlan-10s carry retail, made-in-the-USA GPS systems and off-the-shelf Canon cameras. Nevertheless, Orlan-10s remain airborne for 16 hours at 5-kilometer altitudes whilst signaling real-time data to communication hubs 600 kilometers away.

Typical front-line “battles” consist of Orlan-10s beaming video of Ukrainian troops back to Russian communication hubs which then radio coordinates to batteries of four MSTA howitzers. The MSTAs then rumble into firing positions up to 25 kilometers from the spotted Ukrainians. Within one minute the MSTAs simultaneously fire 6 rounds each before driving off to elude counter-artillery. Each round carries a 45-kilogram shrapnel, or incendiary, bomb. The Russian Information Agency recently recounted a day wherein 157 such “battles” took place. The Russians experienced zero casualties.

Circa Day 150, Russia claims to have destroyed: 4,141 battle tanks and other armored fighting vehicles; 4,453 unarmored military vehicles; 3,176 artillery pieces and mortars; 762 multiple launch rocket systems; 1,589 drones; 144 helicopters; and 357 anti-aircraft systems.

This tally equals all the equipment the Ukrainian Army brought into this war. The same could be said of the destruction wrought upon Ukraine’s Airforce and Navy. Absent NATO’s gifts the Ukrainians would be throwing stones.

At war’s outset, Ukrainian Generals commanded 250,000 troops. Casualties now approach this quantum. One million new soldiers have been enlisted and plans are to pressgang 2 million more. All able-bodied men aged 18-to-60 are draftable. Enlistment officers prowl beaches and parks for draft evaders. Priests complain of enlistment officers lurking outside church doors after Sunday Mass. A one-night sweep through Kyiv’s bars netted 300 evaders.

From their silos Ukrainian mandarins spout hallucinatory bombast. On July 18 Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba rejected peace talks until “after the Russians have been defeated on the battlefield.” The next day Deputy Defense Minister Volodymyr Havrylov vowed to sink Russia’s Black Sea Fleet and re-take Crimea.

Ukraine’s government is wholly dependent on foreign, principally American, funds. Ukraine’s government banned 16 political parties, including the main opposition party; and nationalized the country’s media. Ukraine’s government seems hellbent of feeding millions of Ukrainians into the wood-chipper. Of course, this isn’t “Ukraine’s” government anymore. This is a Biden Administration subsidiary and it’s committing colossal crimes against humanity.

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Notes

1. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10998887/Conscripts-given-call-papers-beaches-Ukraine.html
2. https://www.axios.com/2022/06/15/ukraine-1000-casualties-day-donbas-arakhamia
3. Ibid.

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***

The plunder of Ukraine has been going on for over 3 decades now. Since the unfortunate events of the late 1980s and early 1990s, the country has been the target of various entities from the political West. The economy, scientific potential, natural resources and the people of Ukraine themselves have been subjected to one of the worst cases of exploitation in recent history.

The economy has been plundered by the corrupt oligarchs, while the country experienced a severe brain drain, leading to complete degradation of its once word-class scientific potential, despite the fact that the country’s scientific institutions were essential in endeavors like space exploration, which was of prime importance for the entire mankind.

Ukraine’s vast natural resources are being stolen to this day, while the population of the country has suffered tremendously, being subjected to various forms of brutal exploitation. Millions of Ukrainian girls and women have been forced into prostitution, providing a constant supply of sex slaves for decades. All this led to a catastrophic decline in population, which dropped from 52 million in 1991 to 41 million in 2021, a staggering 21% decline in just 30 years. And just as it seemed things couldn’t possibly get worse, the political West intervened in 2014 and installed a puppet government filled with a volatile mix of corrupt oligarchs and openly Neo-Nazi organizations, plunging the country into a war with its own population, and setting the stage for a conflict with Russia, a military superpower in possession of the world’s most powerful nuclear arsenal.

At present, as Ukraine is left with very little to be plundered, the Kiev regime decided to give up the country’s last vestiges of national wealth – its gold reserves. According to Gold Seek, the Kiev regime has recently handed over at least $12 billion of Ukrainian gold reserves to the United States. It appears those might be the last gold reserves the country has left. Since Russia began its special military operation in February, the political West, led by the US, has appropriated tens of billions of dollars of Ukraine’s foreign exchange and gold reserves. After receiving tens of billions of dollars in so-called “military aid”, as well as financing for its government institutions, the Kiev regime was forced to give up its gold reserves as a condition for all US and EU “assistance”.

The author of the report, Chris Powell, Secretary/Treasurer of Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc, said:

“Since Russia began its attack on Ukraine’s non-Crimean territory in February, the United States and its allies have appropriated tens of billions of dollars in military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine. So why would Ukraine need to sell its gold reserves unless doing so was a condition of all that U.S. and European assistance, especially since the United States already had taken custody of the Ukrainian gold?

Stripping the wounded of their valuables in wartime always suggests greed or desperation — like desperation to keep the gold price down to support the U.S. dollar and other Western currencies…”

Last week, Reuters also reported that the Kiev regime had handed over the country’s gold. According to the report, Ukraine’s Central Bank has sold $12.4 billion of gold reserves since the beginning of Russia’s special military operation on Feb. 24, the bank’s deputy head said on July 17.

“We are selling (this gold) so that our importers are able to buy necessary goods for the country,” Deputy Governor Kateryna Rozhkova told national television. She stated the gold was not being sold to shore up Ukraine’s hryvnia currency.

The Kiev regime has been on financial (and other forms of) “life support” for years, as it’s been severely mismanaging the economy for nearly a decade. The political West obviously wanted to make sure it drained the last drop of the unfortunate country’s lifeblood, in addition to setting up a sort of an insurance policy to ensure its so-called “aid” wasn’t provided free of charge. With the steady advance of Russian and DNR/LNR forces in Donbass, the regime is highly unlikely to survive beyond 2022, let alone prevail, especially as the so-called “military aid” it got has proven to be effective only in the propaganda war. Despite the Kiev regime’s and Western state-run mainstream media efforts to portray the provided weapons as supposed game-changers, beyond certain tactical successes, they’ve proven to be largely inconsequential.

According to various reports, the Russian military has already destroyed most of the weapons sent by the political West and its numerous satellite states. In addition to getting rid of rusty, old hardware, which directly benefits NATO (primarily the US) Military Industrial Complexes, the political West also gains the opportunity to sell newer weapons, particularly fighter jets, to replace older platforms, along with taking a larger share of the immensely profitable global weapons market. And it is precisely the Kiev regime that is paying for it with the money, resources and now gold earned by countless generations of Ukrainian people. Worse yet, the population itself is paying for it in blood, as Ukrainian men are essentially being kidnapped and sent to almost certain death in a fight they cannot hope to win.

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Drago Bosnic is an independent geopolitical and military analyst.

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***

I already mentioned Camus’s diary entry quoted in the headline, citing the source, in the “Global-Research” and “NRhZ” article “Being salt of the earth…”. Since it was a scientific article, my own point of view was not made clear. But science is born of life and is called to serve the need of people and not to be silent.

Scientists who have nothing to contribute to a systematised murder of human beings called war are judging themselves: The plight of humanity does not touch their hearts and thus all their wisdom and science is degraded to a self-satisfied game of wits that knows no commitment. This is what my esteemed psychology professor taught me many years ago.

In the country where I currently live, I can still receive Russia Today (RTD) and view the US-West’s murderous proxy war in Ukraine from a different perspective than through the eyes of German mass media. Their unspeakable war-mongering from warm hacks’ offices – first and foremost the “SPIEGEL”, which was a proud intellectual paper for us students in the post-war years – can hardly be endured by a civilised person and should be banned by an ethics commission.

The daily TV images from completely destroyed and smoking war zones choke the throat and stomach. They are mainly TV reports about the indescribable agonies of the civilian population and the multinational military. Old women and men as well as young mothers with their babies and children vegetate out of mortal fear together with pets in dark, damp basements under bombed-out houses – often for days without bread, water or medical care. Full of hope, they wait for a merciful soul to save them from starvation.

Anyone who arrogantly dismisses these testimonies from the Donbass or other parts of the war zone as negligible Russian propaganda has already had their heart petrified by the propaganda roller of the US West – they can no longer feel like a human being.

Finally, it should not go unmentioned that all wars of the ruling power-hungry authorities should be banned from the life of humanity, also from Yemen, Syria or Palestine.

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Dr. Rudolf Lothar Hänsel is a teacher (retired headmaster), doctor of education (Dr. paed.) and graduate psychologist (specialisations: Clinical, educational, media and individual psychology). As a retiree, he worked for many years as a psychotherapist in his own practice in Lindau on Lake Constance. In his books and educational-psychological articles, he calls for a conscious ethical-moral education in values and an education for public spirit and peace. 

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

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***

Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid-19 “vaccine” contains potassium chloride of undisclosed concentration.  Potassium chloride is essential for the proper functioning of the heart however, the side effects of excessive potassium include uneven heartbeat, muscle weakness or limp feeling, severe stomach pain, and numbness or tingling in your hands, feet, or mouth.  Potassium chloride should not be injected into those who have a cardiac disorder.

What does this mean for children diagnosed with myocarditis that may have been caused by Covid injections?  Is the second dose exacerbating the primary damage caused by the first?

Below is an excerpt from the article by Jessica Rose entitled, ‘Safety’? How about we start referring to these as ‘Hazards’.

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‘Safety’? How about we start referring to these as ‘Hazards’.

By Jessica Rose, July 20, 2022

If you refer to the Safety Data Sheet on page 2, you’ll find something called potassium chloride in the hazardous ingredients table. In column 5, you’ll note a classification of “Acute Tox 5 (H303).”

Figure 2: https://safetydatasheets.pfizer.com/DirectDocumentDownloader/Document?prd=PF00092PDFMTRPFEMEN. Page 2.

Potassium chloride is a mineral found in many foods and is essential for proper functioning of the beating of the heart. It can be taken as a therapeutic to prevent, or aid in, the elevation of low serum levels of potassium in the context of a condition called hypokalaemia (low potassium). Side effects of excessive potassium include uneven heartbeat, muscle weakness or limp feeling, severe stomach pain, and numbness or tingling in your hands, feet, or mouth¹ and thus ingestion of this medication should be monitored carefully. In concentrated injected form², its intended use is for the maintenance of serum potassium.

Notice the list of adverse reactions associated with the administration of highly concentrated IV potassium chloride in the following Table found on page 6 of the FDA document found HERE.

Figure 3: https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2017/019904s014lbl.pdf. Page 6.

You’re not meant to administer the IV concentrated form of potassium chloride if one has a cardiac disorder.

Question: What does this mean for the children who are diagnosed with myocarditis in temporal association with these shots?

They have a diagnosed cardiac disorder. Injection of potassium chloride is contraindicated with diagnosed cardiac disorders. Therefore, knowingly injecting someone with a contraindicated substance is medical malfeasance and that administrator is personally liable.

The dose 2 effect observed in myocarditis in children may be precisely this: the primary cardiac damage exacerbated by the secondary shot due to the presence of potassium chloride. To me, it would be essential that the concentration of potassium chloride was known. As it stands, according to the Pfizer Safety Data Sheet, the “Specific concentration limit (SCL)” is “Not Listed.“

They also have Potassium phosphate listed in the Non-Hazardous ingredients and injection of potassium phosphate is contraindicated with hyperkalemia.

I looked H303 up in the GHS Classification on Pubchem.

Figure 4: https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/ghs/.

The reason why data is missing in a classification of toxicity is usually because the data has not been collected to date and therefore nothing is actually known about the toxicity at the time of publication of the document. “No data available.” Funny that. They put this stuff into 5 billion people before the toxicity data was available and said screw the environment. But, climate change.

The classification of this chemical starts with an ‘H’ and all of the Hs look pretty bad according to the Pictograms. It says that it’s bad if you eat it but, there’s no Pictogram associated with it yet as shown in Figure 4. This to me means, they don’t know how to classify it yet. There is also a warning attached to it.

Figure 5: https://safetydatasheets.pfizer.com/DirectDocumentDownloader/Document?prd=PF00092PDFMTRPFEMEN. Page 12.

Pfizer “in good faith”? Are you kidding me? Pfizer has paid out the most in health care fraud settlements in history³ “to resolve criminal and civil liability arising from the illegal promotion of certain pharmaceutical products” according to the United States Justice Department. THEY’VE ALREADY BEEN CAUGHT RED-HANDED HARMING THE AMERICAN PUBLIC! What more do people want? When they claim that the information they provide to the public is “in good faith,” I say, ‘alrighttyyyyyy thennnnnnnnn’. And when they subsequently claim that un-included hazard data is “not known at this time.” I say, ‘alroooioightyyyyyyy thennnnnnnn’. Not known to us suckers anyway.

Figure 6: https://safetydatasheets.pfizer.com/DirectDocumentDownloader/Document?prd=PF00092~~PDF~~MTR~~PFEM~~EN. Page 11.

I may not be up-to-date on what a poison is, but I would rather not get injected with something with the word poison associated with it.

How about you?

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World Economic Forum (WEF), Davos, May 24, 2022: Klaus Schwab declares to a room full of political and corporate execs and WEF scholars:

“Let’s be clear the future is not just happening, the future is built by us, a powerful community here in this room. We have the means to improve the state of the world.”

WEF Klaus Schwab: Let’s be clear the future is not just happening the future is built by us, a powerful community here in this room. We have the means to impose the state of the world pic.twitter.com/v2SLBzDCrw

— Momin (@cryptowala65) May 24, 2022

This statement was clearly addressing the faithful globalists, while sending a clear warning to the non-globalists, no matter the globalist devotion they demonstrated in the past.

Some may have “digressed” by ultimately identifying with their national sovereignty, rather than with a global dictatorship. The recent assassination of Shinzo Abe may have been a case in point. – And a warning to others? See this.

Is Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro in the Globalists’ crosshairs?

The WEF’s announcement, “We have the means to impose the state of the world,” was made during one of the “closed-door” sessions, of which this time there weren’t many. Of the Big Leaders, those who are supposed to defend the Globalist agenda, many were absent. President Putin, basically by “disinvitation”, President Xi Jinping, because of the Chinese covid-lockdown, and Joe Biden, well, who knows? Maybe because he was too busy caring for Taiwan.

This May 2022 WEF Conference, it was clear from the outset, was not the usual globalist WEF, where the globalists discuss in semi-secret their next steps to bring the world under one roof, THEIR roof, the globalist roof.

There was Henry Kissinger, suggesting that Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy should make concessions in order to achieve peace. A similar recommendation was made by NATO’s Jens Stoltenberg.

Others are gradually detaching themselves from the unilateral and unquestioned support of Ukraine, of delivering sophisticated weapons to a country that does not have the military personnel trained to use them, and where it has become amply clear that a large proportion of the western supplied arms is ending up on the black market.

In the past two years, too much opposition to Globalisation has grown in countries and governments which used to be part of the Globalist Agenda. Possibly thanks to covid. The Covid Lockstep, putting all 193 UN member countries (194 WHO members) on the same tyrannical, all-destructive lockstep train, may have helped governments who still care about their people, especially those of the Global South, to wake up.

They see the encroaching poverty as a consequence of the worldwide covid mandates, and foresee the impending debt-enslavement by the IMF and World Bank in order to feed their people and keep their economy alive. Even with loans form the Bretton Woods Institutions, recovering from the economic covid-breakdown, is a challenge for most of the Global South.

Hence, their ever-growing rejection of the Globalist Agenda; hence the WEF’s ever more dreadful crackdown on the non-compliers. Several African leaders, who refused to go along with the covid mandates, died under questionable circumstances. Also, President Jovenel Moïse of Haiti was assassinated in July 2021. He refused the vaccination mandate for his country.

Simultaneously, with oppressive measures for non-compliers, US President Biden initiated in December 2021 the most blatant steps towards abolishing democracy and nations’ sovereignty. He mandated WHO to pass a so-called “Pandemic Treaty” which would give WHO universal health decision power, overriding individual nations’ health regulations and health sovereignty. On about mid-May 2022, a first vote by the World Health Assembly rejected the tyrannical treaty. Since then, discussions and coercion of member countries for them to approve the “Pandemic Treaty” are ongoing.

President Bolsonaro was slow in adopting the vaxx agenda in 2021. As a consequence, Brazil apparently suffered suddenly an on-swell of covid deaths way higher than any other Latin American country. At least that’s what the media made redundantly clear, for everybody to grasp that disobedience may have a heavy price.

On May 23, 2022, when asked by journalists about the WHO Pandemic Treaty, Bolsonaro said in no mistaken terms:

“National sovereignty is not something to be handed over to the WHO, just to join a club of seemingly advanced nations”.

On May 24, 2022, Klaus Schwab answered at the WEF Davos Conference,

“Let’s be clear the future is not just happening the future is built by us, a powerful community here in this room. We have the means to impose the state of the world.”

See this.

Brazil’s General elections are scheduled for 2 October 2022 to elect the President, Vice President, and the National Congress. Bolsonaro is not the front runner. Former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (2003-2011), known as Lula, is ahead in the polls with 45% against Bolsonaro’s 31% (poll 10 July 2022, Wikipedia). This may be Bolsonaro’s salvation.

During his first mandate, Lula, a left-winger, had already sold his country to the globalist New York bankers. If he commits to following the Globalists agenda to the fullest, he is as good as elected Brazil’s next President.

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Peter Koenig is a geopolitical analyst and a former Senior Economist at the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO), where he worked for over 30 years around the world. He lectures at universities in the US, Europe and South America. He writes regularly for online journals and is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed; and  co-author of Cynthia McKinney’s book “When China Sneezes: From the Coronavirus Lockdown to the Global Politico-Economic Crisis” (Clarity Press – November 1, 2020).

Peter is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). He is also is a non-resident Senior Fellow of the Chongyang Institute of Renmin University, Beijing.

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In a recent report, information was published on how young Ukrainians were indoctrinated to adopt racist anti-Russian ideology in training camps commanded by the neo-Nazi battalions that have been operating in the country since the Maidan coup. In these camps, in addition to ideological indoctrination, children were also initiated into military training to fight Russians, being taught to kill at an early age, which reveals how anti-humanitarian the anti-Russian militias’ praxis is.

Since 2014, children living on the suburbs of most important Ukrainian cities have attended summer camp groups where they are said to be undergoing ideological indoctrination and military training. These camps are relatively common around the world and usually the ideology taught on these occasions is limited to patriotism and nationalism, just as military training is restricted to notions of survivalism and self-defense. In the Ukrainian case, however, the situation was different: children learned to hate Russians and received instructions on how to use weapons against the Russian population.

In the report, it is possible to read the words of some of the instructors of these fields about what is taught to children. It is publicly taught that Russians are “not people” and can be killed. For example, Yury “Chernota” Cherkashin, one of the instructors, stated: “We never point weapons at people. But we don’t consider the Donetsk people, separatists, the Novorossians, the green men, and the Moscow occupants to be people. So we can and should aim at them”. Obviously, these children grow up with this kind of dangerous thinking deeply ingrained in their minds, tending to become racist murderers when they reach adulthood.

This racist hatred is only absorbed into the minds of children due to the exhausting routine of training and indoctrination they are subjected to in the camps. For example, one of the sources mentioned in the report says:

“The morning in the camp begins with a roll call and a Ukrainian nationalist prayer. ‘Ukraine, holy mother of heroes, descend into my heart. Holy! Mighty! United! Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the Heroes!’, the children yell in fervor. In this camp, those who have a cold are mockingly called ‘three-hundredth’ (…), and children often use call signs instead of names. At the beginning of the shift, each child is handed a wooden machine gun. The older children go to the island, where they receive mock-ups of ‘real’ guns”.

“One squad can include from 8 to 14 children. The program is as follows: over the 12 days of the camp, the children go through 10 disciplines: the history of Ukraine, disassembling/assembling a machine gun, tactics, medicine, rope park, climbing wall, self-defense, an obstacle course, a survival course, and robotics”, another source adds.

One of the journalists who participated in the investigation about the training of children, Ethel Bonet, from the Spanish newspaper “El Confidencial”, in 2019 visited the “Leader” camp, one of the largest summer camps in Ukraine, where hundreds of children have already been trained. She had the opportunity to interview several of these children and realized the overwhelming power that neo-Nazi brainwashing had on them. One of the children interviewed was eight-year-old Victoria, who says: “There is only one Ukraine, and we have to protect it. That’s why I came here. I want to learn how to fight. I really enjoy shooting a pistol and walking around in military camouflage”.

Commenting about the girl, Bonet said:

“Eight-year-old Victoria seems like an ordinary girl. And her dreams for the future can hardly be called very different from those of her peers: she dreams of becoming a fashion designer. Or maybe a model when she grows up. But the little girl already feels like a soldier. And one does not preclude her future in the ranks of combatants of Ukrainian army. At war with whom? But her instructors explain this to her. Those either who have been in battles against the ‘pro-Russian separatists’ or who have taken part in sabotage operations by the Ukrainian armed forces in the self-proclaimed Donetsk and Lugansk republics”.

Victoria is just one example of what neo-Nazi psychological terror is doing to these kids. Young people are growing up thinking it is “normal” to hate Russian people and considering the desire to shoot Russian citizens “good and normal”. The neo-Nazi battalions that promote this type of indoctrination and implant in the minds of these children the desire to kill Russian citizens do not act in this way for nothing: they expect these children to grow up ideologically linked to Ukrainian ultranationalism and to volunteer to fight alongside the paramilitary militias against the pro-Russian forces. It is a process very similar to what Nazi forces did with German youth in the Hitler Jugend’s training programs, in which the youth also learned to hate all the Germany’s “enemies” and were instructed in advanced military techniques.

In other words, the childhood of these children is robbed and their innocence is violated in the name of a racist and outdated ideology, which openly preaches hate against the Russian people.

In this sense, it is important to think about the current Russian special military operation as something more than a mission to pacify the internal conflict that has lasted for eight years: indeed, for the Ukrainian youth, Russian military victory will mean the end of a long process of brainwashing and neo-Nazi indoctrination – and an opportunity for children to live like children again.

See Related article by Michel Chossudovsky 

Ukraine’s “Neo-Nazi Summer Camp”. Military Training for Young Children

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky, April 19, 2022

Excerpts

Western media sources (quoted by the Kyiv Post) confirm that children as young as six years old  (see images below) are participating in the Azov Summer Camp located in the Vodytsya district outside Kyiv.

The text on the banner reads: Iдея B Нації, сила В тобі:  broadly translated: The Idea of the Nation, The Power within You

The above photos confirm that many of the children are in fact young kids rather than adolescents.

The Kyiv Post –which blames the Western media for its biased coverage– nonetheless acknowledges the diabolical nature of the military training project.

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Lucas Leiroz is a researcher in Social Sciences at the Rural Federal University of Rio de Janeiro; geopolitical consultant. You can follow Lucas on Twitter.

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***

This video was originally published in January 2021.

Bill Gates is now the largest farmland owner in America. Let’s talk about why.

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Guest: Gzegorz Braun, a Polish Politician and Director, Screenwriter and Publicist. He is one of the leaders of the polish party “Konfederacja”. He initiated a project called “Norymberga 2.0” (engl. Nuremberg 2.0). The project aims to gather evidences against crimes against humanity of those supporting segregation based on vaccination status.

This session:

• Sums up the years of p(l)andemia in Poland and one year of their Polish parliamentary group NUREMBERG 2.0 activity.
• Is about the “official symptoms”, as he calls them, (i.e. government propaganda) of the “next wave” coming.
• Is about his personal situation (immunity waiving and substantial financial fines/cuts).

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Russia on Sunday said that attacks it launched on the Ukrainian port of Odesa only hit military targets, including a stockpile of US-provided Harpoon anti-ship missiles. The strikes were launched on Saturday, one day after Russia and Ukraine signed a deal to facilitate grain exports from Ukrainian ports.

“In the seaport in the city of Odesa, on the territory of a shipyard, sea-based high-precision long-range missiles destroyed a docked Ukrainian warship and a warehouse with Harpoon anti-ship missiles supplied by the US to the Kyiv regime,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.

The strikes came after a Ukrainian military official said Ukraine was preparing to use Western-provided anti-ship missiles to target the Russian Black Sea fleet.

For their part, Ukrainian officials said Russia launched four missiles at Odesa, and that two were intercepted. The Ukrainian military said the strikes didn’t cause significant damage and that no grain storage facilities were hit.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the strikes “destroyed the very possibility” of dialogue with Moscow, but other Ukrainian officials said Kyiv was still committed to the grain deal it signed on Friday.

“We continue technical preparations for the launch of exports of agricultural products from our ports,” Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said.

Under the deal that was brokered by Turkey, Ukraine will escort ships carrying grain out of its heavily mined ports. The shipments will be overseen by a coordination center that has been established in Istanbul that will include representatives from Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, and the UN.

The coordination center will also oversee the inspection of the vessels leaving Ukraine’s ports. The Turkish Defense Ministry said Sunday that the coordination center is working to begin the export of Ukrainian grain as soon as possible.

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Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.

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The first COVID shots rolled out in December 2020, and it didn’t take long before doctors and scientists started warning of possible reproductive effects, as the jab may cross-react with syncytin and reproductive genes in sperm, ova and placenta in ways that might impair reproduction

According to one recent investigation, 42% of women with regular menstrual cycles said they bled more heavily than usual after vaccination; 39% of those on gender-affirming hormone treatments reported breakthrough bleeding, as did 71% of women on long-acting contraceptives and 66% of postmenopausal women

Other recent research has found the Pfizer COVID jab impairs semen concentration and motile count in men for about three months

Miscarriages, fetal deaths and stillbirths have also risen after the rollout of the COVID shots. In November 2021, Lions Gate Hospital in North Vancouver, British Columbia (BC), delivered 13 stillborn babies in a 24-hour period, and all of the mothers had received the COVID jab

Many countries are now reporting sudden declines in live birth rates, including Germany, the U.K., Taiwan, Hungary and Sweden. In the five countries with the highest COVID jab uptake, fertility has dropped by an average of 15.2%, whereas the five countries with the lowest COVID jab uptake have seen an average decline of just 4.66%

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The first COVID shots rolled out in December 2020, and it didn’t take long before doctors and scientists started warning of possible reproductive effects.

Among them were Janci Chunn Lindsay, Ph.D., director of toxicology and molecular biology for Toxicology Support Services LLC, who in April 2021 submitted a public comment¹ to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), highlighting the high potential for adverse effects on fertility.

I previously interviewed Lindsay in 2021. That article is not updated with the new information, but the interview (above) is a good primer for the information she shares below. In many ways, she predicted what we are now observing.

She stressed there’s credible evidence that the COVID shots may cross-react with syncytin and reproductive genes in sperm, ova and placenta in ways that might impair reproductive outcomes. “We could potentially be sterilizing an entire generation,” she warned.

Lindsay also pointed out that reports of significant menstrual irregularities and vaginal hemorrhaging in women who received the injections by then already numbered in the thousands, and that this too was a safety signal that should not be ignored.

4 in 10 COVID-Jabbed Women Report Menstrual Irregularities

As it turns out, early reports of menstrual irregularities were not a fluke. More recent investigations have confirmed that, indeed, many women experience menstrual irregularities after the shots. As reported by NBC News in mid-July 2022:²

“An analysis³ published Friday in the journal Science Advances found that 42% of people with regular menstrual cycles said they bled more heavily than usual after vaccination. Meanwhile, 44% reported no change and around 14% reported a lighter period.

Other categories of people reporting abnormal breakthrough bleeding included 39% of those on gender-affirming hormone treatments, 71% of women on long-acting contraceptives and 66% of postmenopausal women.⁴

Older women, those who used hormonal contraception, had been pregnant previously, or had diagnoses of endometriosis, fibroids or polycystic ovarian syndrome were more likely to experience heavier bleeding than normal after their shots.

Are Menstrual Irregularities Inconsequential?

It’s worth noting that the COVID trials did not ask female participants about their menses, and didn’t collect any data on reproductive impacts. Yet, despite this clear lack of data collection, the official narrative is that everything is fine — the shots are safe and won’t impact fertility.

Just how do they know? They don’t, and that’s what makes such claims so egregious. Making matters worse, media reporting these findings continue to insist that post-jab menstrual irregularities are “normal” and not a sign that reproductive capacity is being impacted. For example, Science writes:⁵

“Clarifying the issue is vital. ‘It’s important to know about,’ says Victoria Male, a reproductive immunologist at Imperial College London. ‘Let’s say you got the vaccine and the next day you felt really dreadful the way some people do.’

If you hadn’t been informed of the chance of fever, muscle aches, and other effects that quickly dissipate, ‘you would be really worried,’ she said. Illuminating the chance of menstrual irregularities and confirming they aren’t a health risk also helps combat widespread misinformation that COVID-19 vaccines impair fertility, Male and others say.”

Again, no one knows whether the shots affect fertility or not for the simple fact that it hasn’t been studied. No study means no data, which means no knowledge. It’s that simple. Any claims to the contrary are based on pure guesswork, and guessing is not science.

And, while a woman’s menstrual cycle can fluctuate, abrupt changes have historically not been brushed off as inconsequential. On the contrary, suddenly abnormal menses has been listed as a potential sign of things like:^6,7,8

• Uterine and/or cervical cancer
• Bleeding disorders
• Thyroid dysfunction and/or pituitary disorders affecting your hormonal balance
• Infection and/or disease
• Perimenopause

Menstrual Cycle Length Is Also Affected

Research⁹ published April 1, 2022, in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology, also found an association between the COVID jab and changes in menstrual cycle length. The change was small — about one day shorter than pre-injection after the second dose — and was not deemed to be of any great concern. Still, in my mind, the change indicates that something is happening. The question is what?

Infection Can Suppress Ovarian Function

Some investigators have suggested the menstrual irregularities seen in female COVID patients and the COVID-jabbed alike may be attributed to an immune response to the spike protein.

Back in January 2021, a Chinese study¹⁰ published in Reproductive BioMedicine Online found that 28% of unvaccinated women of reproductive age diagnosed with COVID-19 had a change in the length of their cycle, 19% had prolonged cycles and 25% had a change in menstrual blood volume.

The researchers hypothesized that “the menstruation changes of these patients might be the consequence of transient sex hormone changes” caused by a temporary suppression of ovarian function during infection.

Dr. Natalie Crawford, a fertility specialist, has suggested that the menstrual irregularities seen in female COVID-19 patients may be linked to a cellular immunity response, and since the COVID shot instructs your body to make the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, which your immune system then responds to, the effects of the jab may be similar to the natural infection.¹¹ In a 2021 BMJ editorial, Male, quoted by Science above, presented a similar view:¹²

“Menstrual changes have been reported after both mRNA and adenovirus vectored COVID-19 vaccines, suggesting that, if there is a connection, it is likely to be a result of the immune response to vaccination rather than a specific vaccine component. Vaccination against human papillomavirus (HPV) has also been associated with menstrual changes.

… Biologically plausible mechanisms linking immune stimulation with menstrual changes include immunological influences on the hormones driving the menstrual cycle or effects mediated by immune cells in the lining of the uterus, which are involved in the cyclical build-up and breakdown of this tissue. Research exploring a possible association between COVID-19 vaccines and menstrual changes may also help understand the mechanism.”

That doesn’t mean menstrual irregularities are of no consequence, though. After all, it appears we’re dealing with a manmade virus, and the mRNA in the shot that programs for spike protein production is genetically engineered on top of that.

Perhaps this is why a greater percentage of women report menstrual irregularities following the COVID jab, compared to the percentage of women who experience irregularities following natural infection?

It may also be worth looking into the parallels between the blood clotting disorders reported — both in some COVID-19 cases and post-COVID-19 jab — and Von Willebrand disease,¹³ a chronic condition that prevents normal blood clotting, thus resulting in excessively heavy periods.

Miscarriages, Fetal Deaths and Stillbirths Have Skyrocketed

Menstrual irregularities aren’t the only safety signal. Miscarriages, fetal deaths and stillbirths have also risen after the rollout of the COVID shots. In November 2021, Lions Gate Hospital in North Vancouver, British Columbia (BC), delivered an astonishing 13 stillborn babies in a 24-hour period, and all of the mothers had received the COVID jab.¹⁴

In a typical month, there may be one stillborn baby at the hospital, making 13 stillbirths in 24 hours highly unusual. Scotland has also experienced an unusual rise in infant death rates. During September 2021, at least 21 babies under 4 weeks old died — a rate of 4.9 per 1,000 births. Historically, the average death rate among newborns in Scotland is about 2 per 1,000 births.¹⁵

Yet, despite stillbirths going up after the introduction of the COVID jabs — as opposed to rising beforehand — studies linking stillbirths to SARS-CoV-2 infection have been used to encourage pregnant women to get the shot.¹⁶

So, basically, it’s been discovered that the infection itself can cause stillbirth (and we know the spike protein of the virus is the part that causes most of the problems), yet they want you to believe that the spike protein produced by the shot will somehow have a protective impact on pregnancy.

This line of reasoning falls apart even further when you consider that scientists are now saying post-jab menstrual irregularities are likely due to immune responses that arise in response to both the virus and the jab. If that’s true, then why would the COVID shot not also be able to cause stillbirths to the same or greater degree than the virus?

There Are No Data to Support COVID Jab for Pregnant Women

Health officials are adamant that pregnant women get a COVID-19 injection, but the data don’t support its safety. The CDC-sponsored study¹⁷ published in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) that was widely used to support the U.S. recommendation for pregnant women to get injected was corrected in October 2021, with the correction stating:¹⁸

“In the table footnotes, the following content should have been appended to the double dagger footnote:

‘No denominator was available to calculate a risk estimate for spontaneous abortions, because at the time of this report, follow-up through 20 weeks was not yet available for 905 of the 1224 participants vaccinated within 30 days before the first day of the last menstrual period or in the first trimester. Furthermore, any risk estimate would need to account for gestational week-specific risk of spontaneous abortion.'”

COVID Jab Affects Male Fertility Too

Other recent research^19,20 has found the Pfizer COVID jab also “temporarily impairs semen concentration and motile count” in men. As noted by the authors:²¹

“The development of COVID-19 vaccinations represents a notable scientific achievement. Nevertheless, concerns have been raised regarding their possible detrimental impact on male fertility …

Thirty-seven SD [semen donors] from three sperm banks that provided 216 samples were included in that retrospective longitudinal multicenter cohort study. BNT162b2 vaccination included two doses, and vaccination completion was scheduled 7 days after the second dose.

The study included four phases: T0 — pre-vaccination baseline control, which encompassed 1–2 initial samples per SD; T1, T2 and T3 — short, intermediate, and long terms evaluations, respectively. Each included 1-3 semen samples per donor provided 15-45, 75-125 and over 145 days after vaccination completion, respectively …

Repetitive measurements revealed −15.4% sperm concentration decrease on T2 (CI −25.5%-3.9%, p = 0.01) leading to total motile count 22.1% reduction (CI −35% – −6.6%, p = 0.007) compared to T0.

Similarly, analysis of first semen sample only and samples’ mean per donor resulted in concentration and total motile count (TMC) reductions on T2 compared to T0 — median decline of 12 million/ml and 31.2 million motile spermatozoa, respectively … on first sample evaluation and median decline of 9.5 × 10⁶ and 27.3 million motile spermatozoa … on samples’ mean examination. T3 evaluation demonstrated overall recovery without …

This longitudinal study focused on SD demonstrates selective temporary sperm concentration and TMC deterioration 3 months after vaccination followed by later recovery verified by diverse statistical analyses.”

As with women’s menstrual problems, the authors blame these adverse effects in men on a “systemic immune response” to the COVID shot. However, while they claim men’s’ reproductive capacity will recover in about three months, this could still be a tremendous problem.

Remember, the mRNA shots are recommended at three-month intervals for the original series, and boosters are now being recommended at varying intervals thereafter. If you destroy a man’s sperm for three months every time he gets a COVID shot, you’re significantly reducing the probability of him fathering a child for a good part of any given year.

Massive Depopulation Underway

Whether accidental or intentional, the fact of the matter is that we’re now seeing an abrupt drop in live births along with an equally sudden rise in excess deaths among adults. The end result will be a reduction in the global population.

That seems inevitable at this point, and the timing of these trends correspond with the release of these experimental COVID gene transfer injections. For example, Germany recently released data showing a 10% decline in birth rate during the first quarter of 2022.²²

The live birth rate graph for Sweden looks much the same:^23,24

Other countries are also seeing unexpected birth rate reductions, nine months after the start of the mass vaccination campaign against COVID. Between January and April 2022, Switzerland’s birth rate was 15% lower than expected, the U.K.’s was down by 10% and Taiwan’s was down 23%.^25,26,27

In a July 5, 2022, Counter Signal article, Mike Campbell reported concerns expressed by Hungarian MP Dúró Dóra during a Parliamentary speech:²⁸

“In January this year, something happened that has not happened for decades. The birth rate fell by 20% compared to the same period last year. And what is even more worrying is that the fertility has also fallen — something not seen since 2011 …

[A] researcher at the KRTK Institute of Economics points out that this drastic decline came just nine months after the COVID mass vaccinations began in Hungary.”

After looking into further, Campbell discovered that in the five countries with the highest COVID jab uptake, fertility has dropped by an average of 15.2%, whereas the five countries with the lowest COVID jab uptake have seen an average reduction of just 4.66%.

The U.S. is also showing signs of a drop in live births. Provisional data from North Dakota shows a 10% decline in February 2022, 13% reduction in March and an 11% reduction in April, compared to the corresponding months in 2021.²⁹ Below is a chart from Birth Gauge³⁰ on Twitter comparing live birth data for 2021 and 2022 in a large number of countries.

Click here to expand.

Take Responsibility for Your Health

At this time, women are not being warned about the risks for miscarriage, menstrual irregularities and the potential for fertility problems and stillbirths, even though all of these safety signals are glaringly obvious. As obstetrician-gynecologist specialist, Dr. James Thorp, told The Epoch Times in April 2022:³¹

“I’ve seen many, many, many complications in pregnant women, in moms and in fetuses, in children, offspring, fetal death, miscarriage, death of the fetus inside the mom… What I’ve seen in the last two years is unprecedented.”

Tragically, doctors are under a worldwide gag order. They steer patients away from the COVID shot at the risk of losing their medical license. This puts patients in an incredibly risky situation, as most rely on their doctors to tell them the truth. Few expect doctors to lie or hide life saving information from them simply to protect their own career. So, we’re in unprecedented times in more ways than one.

What this means is that you have no choice, really, but to do your own research and gauge the risks as best you can. There are tons of data out there — data that the mainstream media won’t touch, and if they do, they still insist adverse events aren’t a sign of danger. In such situations, you simply have to put on your thinking cap and think it through for yourself.

As of July 15, 2022, the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) had logged 1,350,947 adverse event reports following the COVID jab, including 29,635 deaths,³² and there’s evidence that reports are being deleted from the system by the thousands. You can learn more about that in “Thousands of Deaths and Adverse Reactions Deleted From VAERS.”

The safety signals coming from the COVID jabs exceed anything else in medical history. No drug or vaccine has ever been associated with as many injuries and deaths, including harm to the unborn.

At this point, it appears we’re looking at a certain depopulation event. The question then is, are you willing to accept the risks? Are you willing to risk your fertility, even if only temporarily? Are you willing to risk the life of your baby? Are you willing to risk your own? If not, the answer is simple. Don’t take the jab, and if you’ve already taken one or two (or three), never take another.

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Notes

¹ SoundCloud Dr. Janci Chunn Lindsay CDC ACIP Public Comment April 23, 2021

² NBC News July 15, 2022

^3, 5 Science July 15, 2022

⁴ Yahoo News July 17, 2022

⁶ Cleveland Clinic Abnormal Menstruation

⁷ NIH Menstrual Irregularities

⁸ Menopause Now June 18, 2020

⁹ Obstetrics and Gynecology April 1, 2022: 139(4):481-489

¹⁰ Reproductive BioMedicine 2021 Jan; 42(1): 260–267

¹¹ The Defender April 28, 2021

¹² BMJ 2021;374:n2211

¹³ Mayo Clinic Von Willebrand Disease

¹⁴ The Phaser November 18, 2021

¹⁵ BBC News November 19, 2021

¹⁶ WDSU November 24, 2021

¹⁷ N Engl J Med 2021; 384:2273-2282

¹⁸ N Engl J Med 2021; 385:1536, Correction October 14, 2021

^19, 21 Andrology June 17, 2022 DOI: 10.111/andr.13209

²⁰ Expose June 26, 2022

²² Expose News July 18, 2022

^23, 25, 28 The Counter Signal July 5, 2022

²⁴ Twitter Havard Skjaervik June 27, 2022

^26, 29 Igor Chudov Substack June 25, 2022

²⁷ SWPRS June 2022

³⁰ Twitter Birth Gauge June 3, 2022

³¹ Epoch Times April 27, 2022

³² OpenVAERS data as of July 15, 2022

Featured image is from qimono via Pixabay, Pixabay License.

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***

US President Joe Biden said on July 21 that he could have a phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping “within the next 10 days”. Asked by reporters about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi‘s upcoming visit to Taiwan, Biden, referring to the military, said “it’s not a good idea right now, but I don’t know what the status of it is.” Recently, Beijing has repeatedly stated that Washington is violating its “One China” policy, and promised to take firm retaliatory measures against US provocations.

Pelosi’s expected visit to Taiwan has been planned for a long time. The trip was originally scheduled for April, but was rescheduled due to Pelosi contracting COVID-19. Now the US media, citing sources familiar with the matter, said the visit could take place in August. However, there has been no official announcement from Pelosi or any US official yet.

Assuming Pelosi goes to Taiwan, it would be the first visit by a high-profile US official in a quarter of a century. The last major US official to visit was Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich in 1997.

Beijing has always reacted harshly to any official contact with Taiwan, especially if the visit concerns raising the level of contacts and relations. Commenting on Pelosi’s possible visit, Chinese Ambassador to the US Qin Gang said that Washington is undermining the “One China” policy. For his part, the official representative of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Zhao Lijian, promised to have a firm response to any US provocation.

Former Global Times editor-in-chief Hu Xijin even suggested that Chinese fighter jets could enter Taiwan’s airspace and escort Pelosi’s plane to land. He highlighted that Newt Gingrich is a Republican in opposition to Beijing whilst Bill Clinton, the President of the United States at the time, was a Democrat. As Pelosi is seen as an ally and partner of Biden, according to Hu Xijin, it is difficult to argue that her actions do not fit within the framework of the overall policy pursued by the White House.

Biden understands that Beijing’s reaction to the visit could be much sharper than it was in 1997. The Director of the Institute of American and East Asian Studies at Liaoning University, Lu Chao, believes that the White House is trying to keep bilateral relations from spiraling out of control as it is not currently in the US’s interest.

It is for this reason perhaps that Biden announced the upcoming phone call with President Xi Jinping. Meanwhile, the Chinese side did not confirm this arrangement, with Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin saying he had no information to provide on the matter.

In the general context of escalating tensions, much will depend on further signals from Washington. Beijing hopes that the US will continue to comply with its obligations under the Three Joint Communiqués and will not cross a red line regarding Taiwan.

Should Pelosi make a visit to Taiwan, this, in addition to the foreign policy escalation risk described above, poses a domestic political risk for Biden. Being labeled a “lame duck” and “damaged goods” on the eve of the midterm elections is not the most favourable prospect, especially as Biden’s popularity continues to decline.

At the same time, if Pelosi cancels the visit, it could spark a wave of criticism from Republicans and anti-China people in Congress, who, in any case, accuse the current administration of not doing enough to be tough on China.

According to former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, the problem in US relations with China is that Washington is often guided by domestic political motives in formulating foreign policy, especially towards China. Recalling Nixon’s policy of establishing relations with Beijing, Kissinger noted that the US President at that time built a foreign policy in line with national interests and was not swayed by short-term domestic political motives. The current administration, according to Kissinger, is leading to a long and exhausting “endless confrontation” with China.

It is also this inconsistent foreign policy that sees the US swaying between prioritised confrontations with Russia and China depending on which political party is in power. Under Trump, differences with China widened while those with Moscow did not escalate further, something that has reversed under Biden. None-the-less, it remains to be seen how Pelosi’s anticipated visit to Taiwan will affect Sino-American relations.

*

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Ahmed Adel is a Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher.

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***

We find ourselves in the midst of a global war on a scale even greater than that of the Second World War. But the nature of war has changed, and as a result many cannot conceive of what is happening. They think that it is a struggle between nations over power, when in fact it is an effort of the superrich to destroy most of humanity.

Moreover, it is part of the strategy in this war to make the most dangerous moment, now, seem to most people as if nothing is happening, as if things are slowly returning to normal.

The front line in this war is the promotion of the COVID-19 scare and the push for mandatory vaccines. That push, which comes at us from every direction, has nothing to do with medicine or with health. The problem is not one of misdiagnosis, or of a misunderstanding of science. Rather, multinational corporations have set out to destroy all reliable sources of information, including governments, universities and research institutes, to get experts to say whatever they are told to by corporations and to set up a system in which humans are forced to let corporations inject into their bodies whatever drugs they want to without any science—only the use of fear and authority.

COVID-19 is but one part of a larger plan to take over every single aspect of human life. It is the front line in the battle because it is a means to take over our bodies (by allowing corporations to introduce gene-altering RNA, or Nano-sensors, into our blood).

But there are other weapons in the arsenal of these corporations.

The corporations wish us to depend on them for food.

They destroy every opportunity for us to raise our own food and they force us to consume processed, unhealthy foods with high sugar produced by them. They force farmers to use GMO plants with one-use seeds, force them to use petroleum-based fertilizers and pesticides that destroy the soil and make farmers more dependent on corporate products (all financed by government programs paid from our taxes).

They also try to make all of us dependent on the import of food from abroad controlled by them. They want to make food a product that must be bought. They stop us from using the sun and the water and the soil that belongs to all people to create our own food. They even promote a cool urban culture and make farming seem backward by forcing people to move to cities as a way of destroying food independence.

These corporations are buying up farmland around the world as part of this project with money that they make out of nothing through their corrupt relations with national and international banks. They are preparing for a day when they can starve to death all opposition.

They want to control water, to privatize its supply, to force us to buy water that should be free in bottles, to make us think bottled water is more healthy when it is less healthy, and they force us to waste dangerous amounts of water in agriculture and industry that damages the environment and harms citizen. They claim, falsely, that this process is “growth.”

They use the concept of “real estate” to artificially inflate the cost of land and to force us to pay for housing at a rate that is crippling. The relationship between investment banks and real estate costs is a taboo topic in the media.

They make fortunes for themselves by compelling us to take out loans to buy houses and apartments, and they create films, commercials and billboards to convince us that we must waste money on expensive housing in order to be happy.

They make it impossible for us to create our own energy through water, or wind, or solar power, or even through our own muscles, forcing dependency on electricity, or petroleum, that only they supply through imported fossil fuels. They make fortunes on heating and cooling as well, and they design buildings in ways that are wasteful—even as they advertise them as being “energy efficient.”

They bribe experts and politicians to create cities designed for automobiles to force us to buy these dangerous and expensive products and to depend on imported petroleum. For the price of all those freeways, all those car accidents, all cancer from polluted air, we could easily install solar panels on every home for free—and more. We could easily become energy independent and stop spending all that money on weapons to protect the import of energy.

Corporations have pushed to make medicine private and they force us to pay more for healthcare and health insurance while bribing politicians to reduce funding for public medicine so that we have no choice but to use private medical facilities. The health of people is a low priority; the profits of corporations are the main goal.

Highly paid medical experts ignore, or attack, natural herbs, acupuncture, nutrition, exercise and other traditional approaches to health, that are most appropriate for most illnesses. Nothing that the citizen can do on his own, for free, is permitted. We must buy pharmaceutical products that are unhealthy, addictive, or even deadly pushed on us through advertising. They bribe doctors to promote these medicines.

They want to force us to spend enormous amounts of money on education so that we can find jobs, jobs that they define for us. They commercialize education so that it is overpriced, and unrelated to the real task of education: helping people to think for themselves, to understand the world, to be able to express their ideas, to engage in moral action. Education has been made just a means to get a qualification for a job, and not an opportunity to learn to think for yourself.

Journalism in newspapers and TV news is about protecting and defending corporations and the rich, and confusing people. Media is about seducing people with sex, food and glamour so that they are unable to focus on the destruction of the environment or the theft of their money by the rich and powerful.

The government has been turned into a device for controlling us used by corporations, rather than a method for controlling those corporations. Corporations spend billions of dollars to bribe the media to tell citizens that government is the problem, that the personalities of politicians is the problem. They hide the truth that the government could be run as a means to control, and to defeat, the machinations of the rich.

Perhaps the most damaging aspect of the corporate assault on us is the attack on science. We are misled into thinking that the technology that is rapidly transforming our society into a nightmare, without humans, a fully automated inhuman desert, is necessary, even inevitable. Meanwhile, our ability to think scientifically is being destroyed by smartphones and games, pornography and images of people eating food. This is an intentional strategy to take away our ability to think for ourselves, and to analyze the world objectively.

The human need for security is exploited by corporations so as to make vast fortunes, selling us weapons for imagined, or hyped up, enemies, weapons that are vastly overpriced and in most cases do not even work properly. Much of that spending on “defense” is transferred to banks and disappears without a trace behind the veil of “classified” budgets.

Corporations are destroying our financial independence. Not only has COVID-19 been used as a way to destroy independent small businesses, and to allow massive corporations to buy them up for cheap, but it is also a way to make us dependent on “basic income” supplied by a government run by those very same corporations. They want to force us to conduct all purchases online, via credit, or cryptocurrencies, and therefore give banks and corporations the power to decide to freeze our money, or to stop our monthly “relief” payments, if we do something that they disapprove of.

The final frontier for the corporations is the conquest of our minds and our spirits, to make our very consciousness a product that they can control, that we must pay for.

First, all interactions are being forced online, by social media and email controlled by multinational corporations. COVID19 is a way to stop all meetings with friends and family, to make sending a letter expensive, or even impossible if overseas.

We are fed commercial music and art, movies and television from infancy, so much that we do not even know that we could create our own art, our own music, much more appropriate to our experiences, and much healthier and inspiring, on our own, for free, with our own hands.

We are rendered dependent on Apple or Google for our creativity. We are forced to purchase at the store furniture or tools that we made for ourselves 70 years ago. If we made these things ourselves, we would have jobs and we would control our own economy. We are forced to buy clothing, and other products, that wear out quickly so as to assure corporate profits and to impoverish us further.

Corporations have created an industry of “experts” advertised on television who want to tell us how to run our families, how to make friends, how to be successful. They tell us what our priorities should be. They play the role that our family and friends should play, undermining our independence and suggesting that getting buying more, living glamorously, should be our highest priority.

Sadly, older people say that youth are uninspired, that they lack the discipline or the focus of the previous generation. It does not even occur to them that youth are being targeted by corporations who set out to create a superficial consumption culture that renders youth dependent, to create a banal society in which everything has a price.

What should we do?

The takeover of our world is almost complete. Fortunately, there are those who have awoken to this attack and who are struggling to find solutions.

First, we must be independent in our thinking in order to respond to the takeover of our communities, our governments and our minds by multinational corporations.

That means that we must have time away from commercial media to discuss seriously with our friends and neighbors what needs to done at the local level. That is the first step. We cannot depend on sources of information, on institutions, linked in any way to corporations and banks. They may say things we want to hear, but they are not there to help us.

Secondly, we must create our own sources of information, our own journalism, even if we write it by hand, and we must train ourselves, and our children, to think deeply, to pull themselves away from this superficial culture and write about, read about, what is really going on.

That means that we must start our own schools, must launch our own hospitals, create our own art and furniture and produce our own entertainment.

It means that we must form alliances with farmers to obtain access to organic food that is grown with real seeds, not GMO one-use seeds, and that does not use pesticides or herbicides, or petroleum-based fertilizer. Once we have food that supplied independently of corporate suppliers, we will start to regain independence.

We must establish cooperatives in which provide housing for all members, in which we pledge to support each other for a lifetime and combine our resources for our common future. We must make up our own barter systems, and currencies independent of the financial systems that have been taken over by multinational corporations.

The current plan to force everyone to have a dangerous “vaccination,” or otherwise be deprived of the right to see a doctor, to go to school, to buy food at a store or to have access to money from the bank is well underway.

The implementation of that plan will start this summer. We will be given a stark choice of either creating our own totally independent cooperatives or being turned into GMOs through injections of modified RNA, while being completely controlled by technology that both watches us 24 hours a day, sells that information to corporations and then degrades our thinking through garbage broadcasts and advertising in the so-called “smart cities.”

We do not have long to act.

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This article was originally published on Fear No Evil.

Emanuel Pastreich served as the president of the Asia Institute, a think tank with offices in Washington DC, Seoul, Tokyo and Hanoi. Pastreich also serves as director general of the Institute for Future Urban Environments. Pastreich declared his candidacy for president of the United States as an independent in February, 2020.

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from First Things

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***

In the early hours of Friday morning, Israeli airstrikes on the Syrian capital of Damascus resulted in the deaths of three Syrian soldiers, only a month after Damascus International Airport was bombed under similar circumstances, with Tel Aviv alleging that it was being used by Iran to transport weapons into the Arab Republic, where Tehran is operating in an anti-terrorist capacity under official invite from the Syrian government. 

This air campaign, which began in 2013 following the Iranian intervention in the proxy war on Syria which had begun two years previously, has stepped up markedly in recent years, with Israel recently threatening to assassinate Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in an airstrike should the Islamic Republic continue to co-operate with its Arab counterpart.

What is interesting to note however, is that despite remaining President in the face of an 11-year long regime change operation, involving the arming and training of terrorist groups by the United States, Britain and Israel, as well as direct military action from those states, Bashar al-Assad is not afforded the same heroic descriptions gifted to his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr  Zelenskyy, a newfound darling of the corporate media since the Russian military intervention in Ukraine began in February of this year.

To understand why, one must look at the wider geopolitical factors at play in both conflicts.

Timber Sycamore, the CIA operation intended to violently overthrow Assad, has its roots in the Syrian leader’s 2009 refusal to allow US-allied Qatar to build a pipeline through his country, an arrangement that would have undermined his relationship with key-ally Russia.

Realising that should Damascus fall, Tehran would be next in line to experience a US-backed ‘revolution’, Iran and Hezbollah launched an intervention in 2013 at the request of Assad’s government, an arrangement that has played a crucial role in preventing Syria from suffering the same fate that befell Libya, also subjected to a US-orchestrated regime change operationin 2011 and overrun and destroyed by Western-backed terrorists in the space of eight months.

This is where the role of Israel comes into play, with the Syrian Arab Republic being a long-time foe of the Zionist state since its establishment in 1948, and previously friendly Iran also becoming an opponent following the anti-Zionist Ayatollah Khomeini coming to power in the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

As a result, Israel has played a key role in the Syrian regime change operation by providing arms and training to the terrorist groups vying to overthrow Assad, and has also stepped up its campaign of air strikes against the Arab state in order to counter what it sees as ‘Iranian expansionism’ in the region.

Despite this air campaign carrying the serious risk of escalating the Syrian war into a major regional conflict, Israel has come in for little to no criticism from the West for carrying it out, and no praise has been given to Assad for standing by his country in the face of it, in stark contrast to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

In November 2013, a CIA and MI6-orchestrated regime-change operation was launched against Ukraine in response to then-President Viktor Yanukovych’s decision to suspend an EU trade deal in order to pursue closer ties with neighbouring Russia.

In a similar vein to Timber Sycamore’s support of radical Wahhabi groups, Euromaidan would see the support of far-right anti-Russian and neo-Nazi elements, who would play a key role in the post-coup Western-backed government of Petro Poroshenko.

Indeed, such was the extent of anti-Russian sentiment in Ukraine following the Maidan, that the predominantly ethnic Russian Donbass region in the east of the country would break away in April 2014 to form the independent Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.

An eight-year long war on both Republics by Kiev would follow, involving neo-Nazi paramilitaries such as Azov Battalion and Right Sector, leading to 14,000 deaths.

Though Russia would seek to resolve this conflict peacefully through the Minsk Accords, which would grant Donetsk and Luhansk a degree of autonomy while still remaining under Ukrainian rule, Kiev’s failure to implement its side of the agreement would ultimately force Moscow’s hand in February of this year, when a special military operation was launched into Ukraine in order to protect the ethnic Russian population in the east, and to destroy any military infrastructure that would have been used against Russia had Ukraine gone on to become a member of NATO, the alliance having failed to honour a post-Cold War agreement not to expand eastwards.

Five months on, and the Russian military intervention in Ukraine has been the subject of global condemnation and sanctions, with Zelenskyy acting as a figurehead for Western propaganda to offset the fact that Moscow has been successful in its goal of preventing NATO from encircling Russia on its Western border, the Ukrainian President receiving widespread praise from the Western media despite Kiev, located in the west of Ukraine, not being the focus of the Russian military operation taking place mainly in the east, in stark contrast to Bashar al-Assad staying in Damascus, a city that only took back full control from Western-backed terrorists in 2018, and is still regularly targeted by Israeli airstrikes.

*

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Gavin O’Reilly is an activist from Dublin, Ireland, with a strong interest in the effects of British and US Imperialism. Secretary of the Dublin Anti-Internment Committee, a campaign group set up to raise awareness of Irish Republican political prisoners in British and 26 County jails. His work has previously appeared on American Herald Tribune, The Duran, Al-Masdar and MintPress News. He is a regular contributor to Global Research. Support him on Patreon.

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the “Translate Website” drop down menu on the top banner of our home page (Desktop version).

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***

The indomitable spirit of Raphael Lemkin, bibliophile, assiduous documenter of humanity’s dark deeds and inexecrable conduct, is bound to be an unsettled one.  This brilliant, committed and peculiarly dedicated creature took years to come up with what would, in time, become a word so horrifying as to transfix judges of international law.  The amalgam word of genocide stalks the conscience of state leaders, commanders and politicians, an insidious reminder of the inner prejudice that becomes a murderous plan, a design, a means of ridding one of enemies and counterparts.

Given the nature of international institutions, often weak and onerously bureaucratic, there are other aspects to the system of holding the genocidaire-types to account: inadvertent immunity for the perpetrators; the obstructions and impediments of governments; and the reluctance of even using the term to describe abuses.

The military regime in Myanmar will have been hoping for all three aspects to manifest.  But in the International Court of Justice, such expectations may have to be revised.  For one thing, the Myanmar junta would have been taken aback by The Gambia’s proceedings against their country alleging genocide.  But in November 2019, this West African country, with the support of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) filed a case alleging that Myanmar’s military had been responsible for genocidal acts resulting in “killing, causing serious bodily and mental harm, inflicting conditions that are calculated to bring about physical destruction, imposing measures to prevent births, and forcible transfers … intended to destroy the Rohingya group in whole or in part.”

The UN Genocide Convention (UNGC) permits the ICJ, Under Article 9, to hear “[d]isputes between the Contracting Parties relating to the interpretation, application or fulfilment of the [UNGC], including those relating to the responsibility of a State for genocide or any of the acts enumerated in Article III”.

The Gambia’s case involved a request for provisional protective measures for members of the Rohingya remaining in Myanmar.   (In 2019, that number was put by the International Independent Fact-Finding Mission in Myanmar at 600,000.)  These measures required the military regime to prevent all genocidal acts against Rohingya, ensure that the security forces not commit acts of genocide, and take steps to preserve evidence related to the case.

In January 2020, the ICJ voiced agreement with the request.  The Hague-based body further gave Myanmar a timeline of four months to report on the country’s implementation of the order, followed by six-month deadlines to monitor performance.

Myanmar responded with a number of objections, all rejected by the judges by a vote of 15 to 1 on July 22.  These included the claim that the Court lacked jurisdiction, or, alternatively, that the genuine applicant in the proceedings was the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.  Judge Xue Hanqin was the only judge to accept the latter argument: that “The Gambia was tasked and appointed by the OIC to institute proceedings against Myanmar in the Court.”

According to the bench, “the applicant in this case is The Gambia”; the case involved an existing “dispute relating to the interpretation, application and fulfilment of the Genocide Convention” when the filing was made and “The Gambia, as state party to the Genocide Convention, has standing to involve the responsibility of Myanmar for the alleged breaches of its obligations under Articles 1, III, IV, and IV of the Convention.”

In an illuminating, if logical development in the case, the judgment favoured a salient reading of the Genocide Convention, one binding all State signatories in a solemn act of deterring, preventing and punishing a crime considered jus cogens in international law and the community in general.  The judgment quoted the reasoning of the Court’s 1951 Advisory Opinion regarding reservations to the Genocide Convention: “In such a convention the contracting States do not have any interests of their own; they merely have, one and all, a common interest, namely, the accomplishment of those high purposes which are the raison d’être of the convention.”

It therefore followed that,

“All the States parties to the Genocide Convention thus have a common interest to ensure the prevention, suppression and punishment of genocide, by committing themselves to fulfilling the obligations contained in the Convention.”

Human Rights Watch, alongside other human rights organisations such as Fortify Rights, have also argued that other countries throw in their weight in supporting Gambia’s efforts.  The ICJ Statute also notes that that court’s order for provision measures is relayed to the UN Security Council, where further pressure might be brought to bear.

While many an action goes to the Security Council to wither, the use of the ICJ in assessing state responsibility for grave human rights violations can only be cheered by advocates of that often nebulous idea known as the rule of law.  The effectiveness of such processes must be seen alongside the work of prosecutors from the International Criminal Court, which has jurisdiction to try individuals.

Individual lawsuits are also being filed against the regime, building on the principle of universal jurisdiction.  The Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK), for instance, convinced the Argentinian judiciary in November 2021 to open a case against the Myanmar military, with specific reference to various senior figures of the junta, including Min Aung Hlaing.  The Second Chamber of the Appeal Court reaffirmed that “the gravity of the facts and the violation of ius cogens norms permit that those facts are investigated in our country”.

Sadly, the ICJ proceeding is bound to take years of cautious and lengthy deliberations, by which time the military sadists may well have achieved their venal goal of ridding the country of the Rohingya.  In the words of a protest banner being sported outside the Peace Palace in The Hague, “The genocide survivors can’t wait for generations.”

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Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge.  He currently lectures at RMIT University. He is a regular contributor to Global Research and Asia-Pacific Research. Email: [email protected]

The “Great Zero Carbon” Conspiracy and the WEF’s “Great Reset”

By F. William Engdahl, July 23, 2022

The globalist Davos World Economic Forum is proclaiming the necessity of reaching a worldwide goal of “net zero carbon” by 2050. This for most sounds far in the future and hence largely ignored. Yet transformations underway from Germany to the USA, to countless other economies, are setting the stage for creation of what in the 1970’s was called the New International Economic Order.

Africa-Russia Relations: Moscow’s Intent of Regaining Part of Its Soviet-era Influence

By Kester Kenn Klomegah, July 24, 2022

On the eve of his four-nation African tour from July 24 to 28, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, shared reflections on the prospects for Russia-African relations within the context of the current geopolitical and economic changes.

Syria Cuts Diplomatic Ties with Ukraine

By The Cradle, July 24, 2022

The Syrian foreign ministry announced on 20 July that Damascus is formally breaking diplomatic ties with Ukraine in response to a similar move by Kiev.

Farms Not Factories: Global Chaos Is Part of the Plan

By Farms Not Factories, July 24, 2022

James Strawbridge, TV chef, Cornish food connoisseur, and sustainable living expert, sources his pork from high welfare farms like Coombe Farm Organic. Their pigs are stress free as they roam outdoors and so never need antibiotics, unlike pigs in factory farms that have to be routinely dosed with antibiotics to survive the unhealthy overcrowded conditions.

Who Owns Facebook?

By Emanuel Pastreich, July 24, 2022

Facebook has set out to sell us the big lie and many of us are happy to accept that lie in part because it is too terrifying to recognize the manner in which our personal lives and our every action has been taken over by ruthless multinational corporations.

Pandemic Creates New Billionaire Every 30 Hours — Now a Million People Could Fall Into Extreme Poverty at Same Rate in 2022

By Oxfam Canada, July 24, 2022

“Profiting from Pain” is published as the World Economic Forum in Davos takes place for the first time face-to-face since COVID-19, a period during which billionaires have enjoyed a huge boost to their fortunes.

For Those About to Rock. The Non-Aligned Movement. The NAM 2.0 Drive. Pepe Escobar

By Pepe Escobar, July 24, 2022

NAM 2.0 drive – of which China is a key player – stands in stark opposition to how the Empire of Chaos – and Lies – wove its toxic net, via the war on terror, since the start of the millennium.

Monkeypox: “Fool Me Twice, Shame on Me”. Bill Gates’ Predictions

By Mike Whitney, July 24, 2022

Bill Gates’ prediction that the world would face an unexpected smallpox outbreak is miraculously unfolding. Should we be surprised? I know I’m not. Here’s the money-quote that was delivered by Gates 6 months before the first case was recorded.

Video: The Implementation of the QR Code for Absolute Control. Peter Koenig

By Peter Koenig and Kla TV, July 23, 2022

This personal QR code is then spread out over or used further via an app on your cell phone. And this app is of course connected to a control center, we can’t do anything there, the phones, these mobile phones, they’re all already set up in such a way that they can be accessed from anywhere, even if you turn off the GPS, they know exactly that it’s there accompanied us, even without GPS – that’s quite clear. Then you would have to throw it away or leave it at home.

The Restoration of Indigenous Rights and the Fall of the Colonial Hand

By Michael Welch, July 23, 2022

The age of great exploration and conquest began in the fifteenth century. This is when the first peoples living in the territories of Africa and Asia and of North and South America were approached by European explorers. The prospect of profit and pillage from the new resources of a foreign land finds itself at odds with respecting the dignity of the people who lived there originally.

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On the eve of his four-nation African tour from July 24 to 28, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, shared reflections on the prospects for Russia-African relations within the context of the current geopolitical and economic changes. He makes official working visits, fearing an isolation with tough sanctions after Russia’s Feb. 24 special military operation in Ukraine, to Egypt, Ethiopia, Uganda and the Republic of the Congo. Before taking off from Moscow, he gave an interview to Russia Today television, Sputnik news agency and Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency.

According to Lavrov, Russia has long-standing good relations with Africa since the days of the Soviet Union which pioneered and led a movement that culminated in decolonization. Russia provided assistance to the national liberation movement and then to the restoration of independent states and the rise of their economies. Hundreds of enterprises were built, which now form the basis of many African economies. At the United Nations, Russia led the movement to have decolonization formalized as an integral part of international law and everyday life.

“We have been rebuilding our positions for many years now. The Africans are reciprocating. They are interested in having us. We never engaged in teaching them anything, but helped them overcome their problems so that they could live in their country the way they wanted to,” he told the news agencies during the interview.

According to the transcript, Lavrov explained that his ministry has been trying to cover as many countries as possible. That his current visit includes Egypt, Ethiopia, Uganda and the Republic of the Congo. Before the first Russia-Africa summit, he went to North Africa, and also in March 2018, he visited Angola, Namibia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Ethiopia. Our monitoring shows West Africa is still missing on his “working” travel agenda.

Egypt has significant strategic and economic ties with Russia. And our monitoring and research show that Egypt is number one trade and economic partner in Africa with trade just under $5 billion. Russia’s Industry and Trade Ministry and with Egyptian authorities  have been discussing steps to create an industrial zone since 2015.

The Russian industrial zone, described as a highly important project that will characterize the development and strengthen economic relations, is located at the Suez Canal’s East Port Said. The construction of a Russian industrial area on the banks of the Suez Canal is nearing completion only this year after these several years.

After the long delay due to administrative and technical reasons, the first nuclear power plant is being built. El-Dabaa will be the first nuclear power plant in Egypt and the first major project of Rosatom in Africa. El Dabaa NPP will comprise four units, with each of them having a capacity of 1200 MW, equipped with a Generation III+ VVER-1200 reactor, considered to be the latest technology for nuclear power plants, which has already been successfully implemented in other countries.

Russia and Egypt signed an intergovernmental agreement on the construction of the country’s first nuclear power plant in Cairo in November 2015. The total cost of construction is $30 billion. The parties also signed an agreement to provide Egypt with a state export loan of $25 billion for the construction of the nuclear power plant, which will cover 85% of the work.

The remaining expenses should be covered by the Egyptian side by attracting private investors. Under the agreement Egypt is to start payments on the loan, which was provided at 3% per annum, in October 2029.

Lavrov expressed optimism that relations with Africa have brighter prospects now that the African Union decided last year to establish the African Continental Free Trade Area. Specific criteria and tariffs for this area are being agreed upon, which will take some time. This will benefit Russia as Africa’s rising partner in terms of boosting trade and investment which are quite modest compared to the United States, China and the European Union.

Records show that Africa has a population over 1.3 billion people, which is comparable to China and India. This is a great portion of the modern world and probably the most promising market. That is why companies and external countries with good vision are building long-term strategies with regard to Africa, which is the continent of the future.

“We have an excellent political foundation underlying our relations and a good mutual understanding based on the fact that thousands of Africans who hold positions in their respective governments have studied in Russia and continue to do so. We need to use this human and political capital to achieve economic advancement,” Lavrov explained.

Russia will deliver the contractually promised food, fertilizer, energy and other commodities to its African friends, despite the difficulties created by Western sanctions, Lavrov assured the continent in an op-ed published across major African news outlets. Western and Ukrainian propaganda accusing Moscow of trying to starve Africa is unfounded and seeks to deflect their own blame, he said.

“We are well aware of the importance of Russian supplies of socially important commodities, including food, to many countries around the world. We are mindful that these supplies play an important role in preserving social stability,” Lavrov said.

“It is essential that all our African friends understand that Russia will continue to fulfill in good faith its obligations under international contracts with regard to exports of food, fertilizers, energy and other goods vital for Africa,” the Russian foreign minister wrote, adding that Moscow is “taking all measures to this end.”

Lavrov reminded Africans that Russia is not “stained with the bloody crimes of colonialism” on the continent, but has instead “sincerely supported Africans in their struggle for liberation from colonial oppression,” over the years, including economic, military and educational assistance.

“Russia does not impose anything on anyone or tell others how to live,” Lavrov argued. “We treat with great respect the sovereignty of the States of Africa, and their inalienable right to determine the path of their development for themselves.”

Moscow’s principle of “African solutions to African problems” is in stark contrast to the “master – slave” logic of the former colonial powers, the Russian diplomat noted. Relations between Russia and African nations are “of an intrinsic value and do not depend on fluctuations in the international environment,” Lavrov pointed out in closing: “It is good to see that our African friends have a similar understanding with Russia.”

It is, however expected that a wide range of important international and regional issues will be discussed, with special emphasis on forming a new international and regional agenda and building a new polycentric architecture of interstate relations.

General expectations are that Lavrov’s meetings and talks in the African capitals will allow for more detailed analysis of the current and future prospects of trade, economic, investment, scientific, technological and humanitarian ties. Russia has thousands of decade-old undelivered pledges and several bilateral agreements signed with individual countries in the continent, while previous years there have been unprecedented huge number of “working visits” to Africa.

Russia aims at restoring and regaining part of its Soviet-era influence, but has problems with planning, lack of confidence in fulfilling its policy targets. But the most important key aspect here is how to make these strategic efforts more practical, more consistent and more effective, considering the existing experience of constructive partnership and bilateral cooperation in Egypt, Uganda, Ethiopia, Republic of the Congo, and of course, with the rest of African countries.

With Russian government’s preparedness to provide adequate funding, President Vladimir Putin has appointed his aide Yury Ushakov as chairman of the organizing committee for the preparation and holding of the second Russia-Africa summit in Russia and now re-scheduled for 2023, according to a presidential decree published on the government website.

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Kester Kenn Klomegah, who worked previously with Inter Press Service (IPS), is now a regular contributor to Global Research. As a versatile researcher, he believes that everyone deserves equal access to quality and trustworthy media reports.

Featured image: A file photo shows Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attends a meeting with President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Peter Maurer in Moscow, Russia March 24, 2022. (Russian Foreign Ministry/Handout via Reuters)

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***

The minds of defeated prime ministers are rarely pretty.  In some cases, they are damnably awful places, where ruins accumulate and dust gathers in wretchedness.  Such figures can become, by the admission of former Australian prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, miserable ghosts, cantankerous, bitter and resentful.  Then come some, such as Malcolm Fraser, who have healthy revelations.  Others just go to seed.

This may well have been the case with Scott Morrison, the accidental of Australia’s prime ministers.  In 2019, he won an election deemed unwinnable.  In 2022, he lost in the formidable face of a third of voters who preferred to go for alternative parties.  Refusing to read the smoke signals from a Liberal heartland worried about political integrity, climate change and violence against women, his party was carved by the stormy arrival of independents and minor parties.

Put out to lean, undernourished pasture, there was little reason to expect him to slide into respectable obscurity.  The lecture circuit beckoned, and his debut came in his July 14 address to the Asian Leadership Conference in Seoul.  In it, he emerges enlightened, quoting from yet another pop-historical tract from historian Niall Ferguson, this time on pandemics.  His account is free of failures and full of praise, much of it for achievements not his own.

On the matter of pandemics, he can only cause others to raise an eyebrow and crease the forehead.  An assessment by Johns Hopkins University is cited, ranking “Australia second in the world in pandemic preparedness.”  There is also Bloomberg, ranking Australia as the “world’s fifth most COVID resilient nation.”

He ignores the enormous, unmatched role played by the States and territories, and the half-botched stuttering of his government in the face of crisis, from pandemics to environmental catastrophe.  The Commonwealth’s own conspicuous role, throughout the pandemic, was to frustrate the arrival of Australian citizens left stranded overseas and yearning to return to their homeland.  Morrison’s famous contribution to the issue of climate change and violence against women was to absent himself from the debate or seek advice from his wife.

One remark stands out.  “You must be able to trust and delegate.”  Reading between these chosen words is the sense that you must abdicate and defer responsibility as a leader when your role most demands a purpose.

Then came a sermon at the Victory Life Centre, a Pentecostal Church where former Australian tennis champion Margaret Court presides in occasional, reactionary majesty.  In his 50-minute address, Morrison did much to express those regressive tendencies that betrayed him as a visionless plodder whose understanding of politics was always confined to snarls and bruising rather than foresight and understanding.

Australians, he suggested, should forget governments and forsake the United Nations in favour of a vengeful Sky God’s blessings.  It was almost refreshing to have such deluded frankness, given that, as prime minister, he was always keen to lecture the Chinese on the “rules based international order” and good government.

“We trust in Him,” Morrison stated, after promising with eschatological creepiness that “God’s kingdom will come”. “We don’t trust in governments.  We don’t trust in the United Nations, thank goodness.”  With such a sentiment, he would have kept company with any aged theocrat sniffing the glue of imminent apocalypse.  “We don’t trust in all of these things,” he went on to say, “fine as they might be and as important as the role that they play.  Believe me, I’ve worked in it, and they are important.”  So, dear voter and citizen, “if you are putting your faith in those things like I put my faith in the Lord, you are making a mistake.”

A few days later, it was confirmed that this man, full of contrived principle and love for the ultimate deity above, had also tried to convince the Australian Border Force to draft and release a media statement about the interception of a boat filled with asylum seekers.  The timing was crucial: election day, May 21.

That same day, the New South Wales Liberal Party took advantage of the occasion to bombard thousands of voters with text messages, encouraging them to “keep our borders secure by voting Liberal today”.  Bad habits die hard, and in Morrison’s case, they do not die harder than exploiting refugees and asylum seekers for political gain.

A report subsequently prepared by Home Affairs Secretary Mike Pezzullo took the scrubbing to ABF personnel and Australian Defence Force by exonerating them.  It would have come as no surprise that a self-investigation of public servants by public servants was bound to be sympathetic.  The entities concerned had, apparently, acted with “integrity” in refusing to release the statement – at least when initially asked.  Labor’s Home Affairs Minister, Clare O’Neil, suggested that the Coalition government had “sabotaged the protocols that protect Operation Sovereign Borders for political gain”.

To the last, even a beastly creation such as Operation Sovereign Borders, very much Morrison’s grotesque political contribution when Immigration Minister, might well be sacrificed if the needs required it.

As a program of secrecy in intercepting vessels on the high seas laden with asylum seekers, it remains Australia’s military grade approach to coping with humanitarian desperation, one lacking accountability and transparency.  The fact that O’Neill, now a Labor government minister, is defending it, is no doubt something Australia’s Pentecostal former prime minister will draw much satisfaction from.  The rest will be left to the good Lord of his persuasion.

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Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge.  He currently lectures at RMIT University. He is a regular contributor to Global Research and Asia-Pacific Research. Email: [email protected]

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***

The Syrian foreign ministry announced on 20 July that Damascus is formally breaking diplomatic ties with Ukraine in response to a similar move by Kiev.

“The Syrian Arab Republic has decided to break diplomatic relations with Ukraine in conformity with the principle of reciprocity and in response to the decision of the Ukrainian government,” a foreign ministry official told state news agency SANA.

Last month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky cut ties with Syria, after the government of Bashar al-Assad officially recognized the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in the Donbass region of eastern Europe.

“There will no longer be relations between Ukraine and Syria,” Zelensky said.

Syria was the first country apart from Russia to recognize the two nations’ independence.

However, the Syrian foreign ministry says that Kiev first severed relations in 2018 by refusing to revalidate the residencies of its diplomatic staff in Kiev.

As a result, the Syrian embassy was forced to suspend its duties at the time “as a result of the hostile attitudes of the Ukrainian government.”

The same year, Damascus gave official recognition to the breakaway republics of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.

Since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the US army and the CIA have been involved in recruiting hundreds of mercenaries in Syria to fight on the side of Kiev against Russian troops.

These include members of Al-Qaeda, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), and ISIS.

According to a report by RT Arabic TV, approximately 500 ISIS fighters and militants from the Caucasus and Central Asian countries are undergoing training at a US occupation base in southern Syria to carry out attacks against units of the Russian army both inside Syria and in Ukraine.

Foreign mercenaries from around the globe joined Ukraine after Zelensky pleaded for global assistance following Russia’s military invasion, with many coming from Israel.

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Featured image: Syrians wave Russian and Syrian flags during a protest against US-led air strikes in Damascus, Syria on 14 April 2018. (Photo credit: VCG Photo)

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***

James Strawbridge, TV chef, Cornish food connoisseur, and sustainable living expert, sources his pork from high welfare farms like Coombe Farm Organic.

Their pigs are stress free as they roam outdoors and so never need antibiotics, unlike pigs in factory farms that have to be routinely dosed with antibiotics to survive the unhealthy overcrowded conditions.

He says

“We all need to back British farms that have far higher levels of animal welfare and farming standards which not only produce a more delicious meat, but are far better for our economy, health and the environment.”

We need to reconnect with and support our traditional high welfare farmers or we risk losing them forever.

Please give this video a like and a share:

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Featured image is from Farms Not Factories

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***

There has been much chatter in the media about the unbridled power of social media tech giants and how they unfairly decide to censor certain voices, or, on the other hand, they fail to delete or block those spreading information that is judged to be false or misleading.

Such debates in the media is deeply misleading and destructive because

1) they focus on how to compel these massive consolidated companies to do what is in the public interest rather than asking how these handful of billionaires got the money to monopolize the means that we get information and communicate with each other and how that basic right can be returned to the citizen;

2) they refuse to consider that the very nature of these social media corporations are unconstitutional and that they are compelled by their profit model, and the interests of their wealthy stock holders, to use their platform to dumb down the population and to render all efforts to employ social media for debate and organization ineffective, and in many cases to introduce false, or unreliable information into the debate.

Sadly, most activists, whether concerned about the environment or social justice, turn to Facebook, Twitter or Google as a means of communication without ever considering that these for-profit multinational corporations have an inherent conflict of interest and that the first step if one wants to organize for social change it to create independent social communications systems.

Although marketed as open platforms for the citizens of the world, there is no democratic manner to appeal how Google searches are conducted, or Facebook is administered, let alone for citizens to make proposals and then vote on how they are implemented.

The ignorance of citizens about the nature of social media is far, far more dangerous today as increasingly multinational corporations and investment banks are using smartphones and computers as a means of hypnotizing mass numbers of people by manipulating the interaction of the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala, and stimulating various pleasure centers in the brain as a means to render us passive and to open up the minds of citizens to persuasion by repeating set themes and thereby shutting down the screening function of the right brain.

Anyone who has actually tried to start a serious movement, like Occupy Wall Street, will discover that one is free to post just about anything in social media just as long as one does not start to organize people into an effective movement. It is fine, however, to talk about climate change or social justice as long as one’s activities are directed towards an ineffective leader figure who is pre-approved and broadly publicized in the commercial media.

I will focus on the social media company Facebook here, but most of what I describe applies to all the other for-profit corporations whose stock is owned by investment firms and billionaires around the world, and are intended to manipulate, to distract and to render the citizens of the United States passive and harmless.

The medium of cyberspace, of the Internet, has become a primary means of communication for citizens and its importance has only increased as the COVID19 crisis has been manipulated into a means of limiting our ability to meet with each other. Yet, this format through which we obtain our information about the world, talk to each other and collaborate with each other has been carved up by ruthless corporations whose explicit purpose is to thwart our effort to collaborate and to make us dependent on corporations for everything.

Facebook has set out to sell us the big lie and many of us are happy to accept that lie in part because it is too terrifying to recognize the manner in which our personal lives and our every action has been taken over by ruthless multinational corporations.

Billions of dollars are spent by corporations to buy advertising time, to ghost write articles for newspapers, and to bribe experts so that they describe your relationship with Google, Facebook, Twitter, SnapChat or other search engines and social media, as that of the user, or even as that of the citizen. It is a bald and dangerous lie. You are but a product whom those companies sell to other parties.

It is not so much that they sell you products to buy, or even that they sell off your private information, including detailed profiles about your personal life, your interests and your peculiar habits, and about your friends and associates, to the highest bidder around the world.

They main product that they offer to the corporations robbing you, and the United States, blind, is the production and maintenance of a population of educated people who are prostrate in a semi-state of hypnotic trance.

We are encouraged by massive PR campaigns by these corporations to think that Facebook or Google are run as a benevolent charity for our benefit. But the actions, and the profit model, of these social media corporations is innately unconstitutional and increasingly criminal as they seek to degrade the intellectual capacity of citizens and to undermine the ability of citizens to organize themselves.

The corporations will tolerate our efforts to promote healthy society to some degree, but only in that such efforts do not threaten their profits, or the profits of the corporations that are their clients. They rarely refuse to let you post (although that is increasing). Rather their primary function is to take your demand for real change in our country and divert it toward ineffective, even dishonest, political parties, NGOs and other similar bottom-feeding creatures.

Facebook and its ilk make money by distracting you and your friends, by keeping you from thinking in an organized and effective manner, and by getting you addicted to instant gratification via postings and messages. They saturate us with reports and discussions about minor issues so as to keep us from forming real institutions to confront the current moral and political crisis. Above all, they want us to think that if we share something through the networks that they control with our friends that we have somehow made a difference.

Another service offered up to multinational corporations by Facebook is the creation in the mind of citizens of a deep distrust of all institutions. Citizens are being taught by the media, and by corrupt government officials, and other corrupt experts, that they should distrust all news, distrust all government, distrust the police, distrust universities and research institutions, distrust all authorities.

That distrust is of course justified by the rampant corruption, but it means that ultimately there will be no institutions left that can resist the push for the consolidation of power by the rich and powerful.

If all our interactions with others become their property, if we must pay, directly or indirectly, for the right to communicate with friends and family, to form organizations, and to defend ourselves. If they control our ideas, and our means of communications, then these multinational corporations can slowly reduce us to slavery, so slowly that we hardly notice.

If we cannot meet in person, cannot travel, cannot communicate by letter, email or telephone without going through them, that means not only that they can spy on every part of our efforts, but also that they can completely shut us down whenever they feel like it.

The Republic of Facebook

The only viable solution to the problem is the one that is never mentioned by anyone on the right or the left: take over Facebook and its evil siblings and declare that they belong to us as citizens and that we the people, not the corporation “Facebook” make policy and determine how the profits are employed.

Granted the level of criminal manipulation of the population by Facebook over the last decade, and the illegal manner in which that corporation has set out to block citizens from forming their own networks, we do not need to waste time talking to Facebook Inc. lawyers. They have no role in this case.

Facebook has made its owners and investors many, many billions of dollars by selling the entire world a lie. Facebook is presented as a shared, transparent platform for cooperation that allows anyone to use it for free. But it does not allow its users any rights to determine how Facebook is run, it gives citizens information that is intended to manipulate them, and it sells off the information it collects about them for profit.

Facebook: Colonialism 2.0

Facebook, however, offers access to more people than any independent start up, or cooperative social networking organization could possibly do. That breadth is what forces us to use Facebook for exchanges. But the reason Facebook is able to do so is because its corrupt relations with investment banks, who steal our money, allows it to borrow hundreds of billions of dollars for free that allow it to buy up, or take over, its competitors, and to bribe or intimate possible critics.

Facebook has become a powerful platform for international exchange that allows people around the world to seek out peers with similar interests and to begin exchanges with them.

That platform could be used to share photographs of fat cats and cafe lattes. Such a use is actively encouraged by Facebook because the corporation wants to brainwash and control us, not facilitate our capacity to organize globally.

Facebook could be a platform whose primary purpose is to help the citizens of the Earth work together to build a better world, that allows people to exchange meaningful information for real educational purposes, that permits friends and family to engage in deep and fulfilling communication.

That is not its role now.

You cannot easily seek out other people with common interests (or by region) on Facebook and you cannot systematically store the materials that you send or receive through Facebook for easy reference, or for the editing of books or the creation of works of art. You cannot use Facebook to allow people around the world to cooperate in responding to common problems, or to organize themselves and to govern themselves.

Information posted on Facebook becomes inaccessible to anyone but the corporation Facebook after a few days.

It is also impossible for third parties, or users, to develop original applications to run on Facebook that would allow users to expand its functionality or to customize their pages.

Nevertheless, even in its current format, Facebook offers the potential for a broad conversation between thoughtful and committed individuals around the world. In spite of Facebook Incorporated’s hostility towards those seeking the truth, it is still populated with thoughtful activists, and could be the platform for a new form of true governance if modified in key ways.

Facebook was designed to generate profit, not to facilitate global cooperation. Yet Facebook today offers the possibility for those who are completely locked out of the policy debate to collaborate and make a contribution to their local community or to the Earth as a whole.

If we compare Facebook, a for-profit company, with international organizations for global governance like the United Nations, the World Bank, the OECD or the World Health Organization, the governance structures supposedly engaged in global governance, it is clear that a flawed and twisted Facebook is a far, far more participatory system that allows for much broad discussions.

International organizations like the United Nations carry out internal debate on policy together with multinational corporations, and increasing figures like Bill Gates that are secret. Then the decisions distributed to the world in a one-way manner via arcane technical texts, or broadcasts in the corporate media. There is literally no means for someone like you, let alone a Nigerian street merchant or a Chinese high school student, to have any say at all about the policies that those organizations promote, even though those policies impact the entire world.

The United Nations and other global organizations only recognize nation states as its members, and only recognize those who claim to be the heads of government as representatives.

But today the institutions of governance in nation states are being torn apart by multinational corporations, and by internal class divisions, so that it is questionable that those authority figures serve as a government in any critical sense of the word.

In any case, citizens of the Earth are not permitted to put forth a proposal to the United Nations General Assembly through their government, let alone directly.

But if Facebook was transformed into a global institution that was owned and operated by the citizens of the Earth, it could play a central role in true international governance—which is needed so critically.

Remember that Facebook Incorporated, the corporation, did not build Facebook. The users of Facebook built it, just as we built Twitter or SnapChat or other global institutions that corporations claim that they own. We, the people, did the work of actually populating Facebook with valuable content and of forming effective networks.

We should think of the corporations who claim ownership of Facebook as the equivalent of the robber barons who built the Union Pacific railroad in the 19th century. The robber barons Clark Durant and Mark Hopkins raised money from banks and built the Union Pacific for the shrewdest of profit motivations. Over time, thanks to the activism of citizens, those railroads were turned into regulated organizations. For example, the Interstate Commerce Act of 1887 outlawed short-haul discrimination and other predatory practices. The free-wheeling railroads were made to conform to strict codes. By the 1930s, the railways were strictly regulated and even for-profit corporations were compelled by law, and by custom, to consider the greater good.

The postal service similarly was transformed from a hodgepodge of for-profit companies into a non-profit government agency that serves a vital service. The postal service as a public utility that offered stable jobs to many citizens in a constructive manner was so successful that destroying this institution became a primary focus for the rich and powerful. The same holds true for the administration of telecommunications, water and other services as government services, or regulated monopolies. Destroying these institutions, and creating narratives in the media about how evil and criminal they were, was a major drive by investment banks and corporations.

What we need today is the complete opposite. Not only to defend the administration of essential services by regulated monopolies that provide stable long-term jobs, but also to demand that Facebook, Google, Instagram and Amazon must be made regulated monopolies, or user-owned cooperatives.

The citizens of the United States, and of the world, are deeply integrated through systems of production, distribution, logistics and data distribution and collection, but we do not know each other or have a means of cooperating with each other.

We must overcome our ignorance, and indifference, to each other and form an entirely new form of participatory global governance to respond to global threats. We must transform institutions like Facebook to serve that purpose and recognize how multinational corporations have intentionally kept us isolated and narcissistic in our behavior.

Facebook could be a method to bring us together. But we must make forceful demands. First and foremost, we must assert that Facebook belongs to us, and not to the corporation that preys on us. We must make concrete proposals for what Facebook will become in order to push Facebook, and similar companies, in the right direction.

But those proposals must start from the assumption that Facebook belongs to us, the users and the citizens, and that the corporation has no particular rights to tell us what to do without a democratic process. The same logic will be used in our future interactions with Google, Amazon, WeChat and other such self-appointed hidden empires.

Building a true, common, global community online by lobbying Facebook Incorporated for changes in the rules of governance (thereby allowing the users to decide by democratic process the design and structure of Facebook) is impossible now in that such a for-profit organization has no incentive to accept our demands.

There exist now alternative social networks to connect people together, but they are remarkably ineffective, and with a few rare exceptions, no one has ever heard of them. They are often intentionally destroyed by planted corporate spies, and in any case the current corrupt system demands that unless you have access to private capital you cannot build such institutions. Independent social media is intentionally rendered impossible.

We need a concrete plan for how Facebook will be governed internally, how individual users will debate policy for Facebook and then how that policy will be approved, and enacted, at the local and global level through our Facebook community. That is to say, we will not only use Facebook to share information subject to the permission of, and interference by, the corporation Facebook, we will administer the entire system democratically and make its administration transparent.

The governance of Facebook starts with reforms that make it more accessible, more transparent, and more oriented to the needs of individuals and communities. We can start with demands for simple reforms like allowing individuals to design applications on their own within Facebook and have the right to give or sell them to other members.

That process could involve the formation of local elected communities that debate and determine local and global Facebook policy.

Although this process may seem silly to some, perceptions are critical and if we have a substantial number of citizens around the world debating and demanding how Facebook will be run for the benefit of its citizens, perceptions will start to shift, even among the corporate thieves who administer Facebook the corporation, and a new paradigm will become possible.

The question of ownership

The process of making Facebook a collective controlled by us, the users, and making Facebook the corporation a paid contractor, at best, subject to our decisions, will only begin when we forcefully assert that the content of Facebook, and the profits derived by Facebook, belong to us. To put it more succinctly: Facebook belongs to us.

Facebook Incorporated claims the right to all profits generated from our activities, and gives nothing to the users who produce all the content and who create all the networks. This assumption makes no legal sense. Facebook clearly belongs to those who create it, and not those with access to international finance and rows of lawyers. The manner in which Facebook actively worked to undermine its possible competitors among cooperatives, and made it impossible for such democratic approaches to receive finance, makes Facebook’s monopoly essentially criminal.

We need to start an effective and concrete discussion about ownership among users and to develop concrete proposals for what the ownership of this shared space for communication should look like in the future. Those proposals must be backed up with concrete demands, with plans for the implementation of governance of Facebook by organized groups of its users who will share all aspects of ownership of Facebook and also share profits based on the content that they produce.

Making Facebook our own requires us to rethink what our role in society is. We must snap out of the slumber of consumption that we been steeped in for so many years. I believe that the current economic, ecological and ideological crisis may be enough to wake us up.

Part of the process should be a constitutional convention at which we will draft a basic constitution that will establish the means for governing Facebook (and similar social networks and search engines) globally.

The constitution should:

• Create a mechanism by which Facebook is made responsive to the needs of its citizens through voting and participatory processes;
• Make the administration of Facebook accountable to a set of ethical principles;
• Assure complete transparency concerning Facebook’s financial dealings and its administrative structure and assure that all profits generated are shared between the users who create content, in accord to their production of content.
• Make sure that access to private capital is never used as a way to control the creation of policy for Facebook.
• Make sure that all changes are subject to review by the users of Facebook and that all decisions regarding the content, the format or the administration of Facebook is undertaken in a transparent manner.

A group of experts from fields such as computer programming, design, law, art, philosophy, literature, engineering, and the social, physical, biological, and information sciences should come together at this constitutional convention to set out the basic framework for how Facebook will be governed in an open and transparent manner and to map out a roadmap for its future structure. It is critical that those individuals have a deep ethical commitment to human society and to the potential for the development of constructive intellectual exchange. Such principles are far more critical to the constitutional convention than specialized knowledge.

After the convention, there will be a six-month period of consultation with the entire Facebook community, whereby the proposed constitution is considered by the global community and ratified in a systematic manner. The constitution will contain within is a description of what membership will mean and the process for its future emendation.

The day of ratification will transform Facebook’s entire user base into citizens and they will vote for the creation of a “Republic of Facebook,” complete with a transparent and accountable administrative system.

That Republic of Facebook will include a payment system whereby all the profits generated by its activities are fairly distributed to all its users, its owners, in accord with their efforts. Citizens of Facebook will be allowed to sell or exchange their creations and will be paid at appropriate rates for their posts, designs, memes, video and audio. Moreover, they will be able to make suggestions, and implement, changes in the format and structure of Facebook that makes it more suitable to real cooperation.

We have no need for a Facebook Inc. except, perhaps, as a contractor for specific task, just as Merit Network was served as a contractor that administered the mechanics of the early internet.

An ethically-administered, transparent and accountable Facebook will serve as a space wherein those with similar concerns around the world can meet and engage ideas as part of a next stage of global participatory democracy, forming teams in the process to propose means for collaboration, for creative solutions to common problems.

This platform will serve as a critical counterbalance to the domination of the United Nations and other global institutions by the super-rich and the investment banks and corporations that they control.

Facebook could be a means for those who pursue similar goals in every corner of the globe to seek out partners and collaborators for research, policy debate and implementation that does not require cooperation with global finance. Sharing resources around the world offers tremendous potential to us.

If we have the will, and a sense of obligation, we can transform Facebook into a legitimate form of participatory democratic governance. We will transform the entire internet as well, in that process, into a constitutional democracy that promotes participation by citizens of the Earth through peer-to-peer networks and that is powered 100 percent by renewable energy.

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Emanuel Pastreich served as the president of the Asia Institute, a think tank with offices in Washington DC, Seoul, Tokyo and Hanoi. Pastreich also serves as director general of the Institute for Future Urban Environments. Pastreich declared his candidacy for president of the United States as an independent in February, 2020.

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

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***

For every new billionaire created during the pandemic — one every 30 hours — nearly a million people could be pushed into extreme poverty in 2022 at nearly the same rate, reveals a new Oxfam brief today.

“Profiting from Pain” is published as the World Economic Forum in Davos takes place for the first time face-to-face since COVID-19, a period during which billionaires have enjoyed a huge boost to their fortunes.

In Canada, the wealth of billionaires has increased by 57.1 per cent since the beginning of the pandemic, in March 2020. The 41 richest billionaires own as much as the poorest 40 per cent of Canadians.

“Billionaires gathered in Davos have enjoyed an obscene surge in their fortunes over the last two years. The pandemic and now the steep rise in food and energy prices have been a bonanza for the wealthiest, while millions of people face hunger and poverty as the cost living shoots up,” said Ian Thomson, manager of policy for Oxfam Canada.

The brief shows that 573 people became new billionaires during the pandemic, at the rate of one every 30 hours. We expect this year that 263 million more people will crash into extreme poverty, at a rate of a million people every 33 hours.

Billionaires’ wealth has risen more in the first 24 months of COVID-19 than in 23 years combined. The total wealth of the world’s billionaires is now equivalent to 13.9 per cent of global GDP. This is a three-fold increase (up from 4.4 per cent) in 2000.

“Billionaire wealth is growing because the super-rich have rigged the system for decades and are now reaping the benefits. The wealthiest — most of whom are men — are benefiting from privatization, pharmaceutical monopolies, fossil fuel subsidies and rollbacks of workers’ rights. Meanwhile, low-income people are working harder and earning less in pay,” said Thomson. “Inequality risks tearing apart our societies if we don’t stop it.”

Oxfam’s new research also reveals that corporations in the energy, food and pharmaceutical sectors — where monopolies are especially common — are posting record-high profits, even as wages have barely budged and workers struggle with decades-high prices amid COVID-19. The fortunes of food and energy billionaires have risen by $453 billion in the last two years, equivalent to $1 billion every two days. Five of the world’s largest energy companies (BP, Shell, TotalEnergies, Exxon and Chevron) are together making $2,600 profit every second, and there are now 62 new food billionaires.

From Sri Lanka to Sudan, record-high global food prices are sparking social and political upheaval. Sixty per cent of low-income countries are on the brink of debt distress. While inflation is rising everywhere, price hikes are particularly devastating for low-wage workers whose health and livelihoods were already most vulnerable to COVID-19, particularly women, racialized and marginalized people. People in poorer countries spend more than twice as much of their income on food than those in rich countries.

• Today, 2,668 billionaires — 573 more than in 2020 — own $12.7 trillion, an increase of $3.78 trillion.
• The world’s 10 richest men own more wealth than the bottom 40 per cent of humanity, 3.1 billion people.
• The richest 20 billionaires are worth more than the entire GDP of Sub-Saharan Africa.
• A worker in the bottom 50 per cent would have to work for 112 years to earn what a person in the top one per cent gets in a single year.

The pandemic has created 40 new pharma billionaires. Pharmaceutical corporations like Moderna and Pfizer are making $1,000 profit every second just from their monopoly control of the COVID-19 vaccine, despite its development having been supported by billions of dollars in public investments. They are charging governments up to 24 times more than the potential cost of generic production. Eighty-seven per cent of people in low-income countries have still not been fully vaccinated.

“The extremely rich and powerful are profiting from pain and suffering. This is unconscionable. Some have grown rich by denying billions of people access to vaccines, others by exploiting rising food and energy prices. They are paying out massive bonuses and dividends while paying as little tax as possible. This rising wealth and rising poverty are two sides of the same coin, proof that our economic system is functioning exactly how the rich and powerful designed it to do,” said Thomson.

“The Canadian government talks a good game about taxing extreme wealth inequality but we need to see more action. In the last two federal budgets, new taxes on luxury goods and increased tax rates on big banks have been announced but not implemented. The true test will be if Canada and other major economies find the political will to finally tax billionaire wealth.”

Oxfam recommends that governments urgently:

• Introduce one-off solidarity taxes on billionaires’ pandemic windfalls to fund support for people facing rising food and energy costs and a fair and sustainable recovery from COVID-19. Argentina adopted a one-off special levy dubbed the ‘millionaire’s tax’ and is now considering introducing a windfall tax on energy profits as well as a tax on undeclared assets held overseas to repay IMF debt. The super-rich have stashed nearly $8 trillion in tax havens.
• End crisis profiteering by introducing a temporary excess profit tax of 90 per cent to capture the windfall profits of big corporations across all industries. Oxfam estimated that such a tax on just 32 super-profitable multinational companies could have generated $104 billion in revenue in 2020.
• Introduce permanent wealth taxes to rein in extreme wealth and monopoly power, as well as the outsized carbon emissions of the super-rich. An annual wealth tax on millionaires starting at just  two per cent, and five per cent on billionaires, could generate $2.52 trillion a year — enough to lift 2.3 billion people out of poverty, make enough vaccines for the world, and deliver universal healthcare and social protection for everyone living in low- and lower middle-income countries.

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***

NAM 2.0 drive – of which China is a key player – stands in stark opposition to how the Empire of Chaos – and Lies – wove its toxic net, via the war on terror, since the start of the millennium.

Those were the days, in 1955, at the legendary Bandung conference in Indonesia, when the newly emancipated Global South started dreaming of building a new world, via what became configured later in 1961 in Belgrade as the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).

The Empire of Chaos – and Lies – would never allow a starring role for NAM. So it played dirty: everything from hardcore subversion and bribing to military coups and proto-color revolutions.

Yet now, the Spirit of Bandung lives again, via a sort of NAM 2.0 on steroids: a Newly Aligned Movement, with the leaders of Eurasian integration at the vanguard.

We just had a taste of which way the geopolitical wind is blowing at the gathering of a new power troika in Tehran. Unlike Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill in 1943, Putin, Raisi and Erdogan did not meet to carve up the world. They met essentially to discuss how another world is possible – through bilaterals, trilaterals, multilaterals and an enhanced role for an array of relatively new geopolitical and geoeconomic institutions.

Russia – and China – have been on the forefront of all recent key decisions. Their diplomacy has brought Iran to join the SCO as a full member. Their pull is attracting key Global South players to join BRICS+. Russia has all but convinced Turkey to join BRICS+, the SCO and the EAEU, and facilitated the re-approximation of Tehran and Ankara as well as Tehran and Riyadh. Russia has largely influenced the remake/remodel process across West Asia.

This NAM 2.0 drive – of which China is a key player – stands in stark opposition to how the Empire of Chaos – and Lies – wove its toxic net, via the war on terror, since the start of the millennium. The Empire tried to subdue what it described as MENA (Middle East-Northern Africa) on the basis of two invasions/occupations (Afghanistan-Iraq); a total devastation (Libya); and a protracted proxy war (Syria). All eventually failed.

And that brings us to the stunning contrast between these two foreign policy approaches, graphically illustrated by the spectacular failure of the teleprompter-reading “leader of the free world” in his visit to Jeddah – he was not even allowed to go to Riyadh – compared to Putin’s performance in Tehran.

Not only we are witnessing the lineaments of a Russia/Iran/Turkey informal alliance; we are witnessing the alliance reading a soft riot act to the Empire: leave Syria, before you suffer yet another humiliation. And with a Kurd-directed corollary: keep away from the Americans and recognize the authority of Damascus before it’s too late.

Ankara could never admit it in public, but the fact is Sultan Erdogan – as much against US troops in Syria as Putin and Raisi – even seems to have swiftly calibrated his previous designs on Syrian sovereign territory.

The much-debated Turkish military operation in northern Syria in the end may be restricted to taming the YPG Kurds. The heart of the action will in fact revolve around how the Russia/Iran/Turkey/Syria alliance will make like impossible for Americans stealing Syrian oil.

As Russia is now on “take no prisoners” mode when facing the collective West – the mantra in every intervention by Putin, Lavrov, Medvedev, Patrushev – and on top of it firmly aligned with China and Iran, it’s inevitable that every other player across West Asia and beyond is giving undivided attention to the new game in town.

Go Caspian, Young Man

Interconnecting West Asia and Central Asia, the Caspian Sea has finally reached the geopolitical and geoeconomic limelight – complete with the groundbreaking consensus reached by the five littoral states at the Caspian Summit in late June to officially ban NATO from these waters.

Moreover, the leadership in Tehran in no time realized how the Caspian is the perfect, cost-conscious corridor from Iran to the heart of Russia along the Volga.

So it’s no wonder that Putin himself, in Tehran, proposed the construction of a key stretch of highway on the St Petersburg-Persian Gulf route, much to the delight of the Iranians. Cue to the nostalgic Great Game crowd in that former “rule the waves” island getting serial heart attacks: they could never imagine the Russian “empire” finally having full access to the warm waters of the Persian Gulf.

So we’re back to the absolutely crucial re-engineering of the International North South Transportation Corridor (INTSC) – which will play for Russia and Iran a parallel role the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) plays for China. In both cases, it’s all about multimodal Eurasia-wide trade and development corridors immune from interference by the imperial Navy.

And here we see the renewed importance of the hyper-strategic liberation of Mariupol and Kherson by the Russian and DPR forces. The Sea of Azov is now configured as a de facto Russian lake – and the same will eventually happen to what is bound to remain of the (currently Ukrainian) Black Sea coast, Odessa included.

So we have the ultra-strategic Caspian-Black Sea maritime corridor – via the Volga-Don canal – seamlessly connected to the Black Sea-Mediterranean, and up north, all the way to the Baltic and the fast developing Atlantic-Pacific connector, the Northern Sea Route. Call it the Russian Heartland Water Roads.

The NATO/Five Eyes/Intermarium combo has absolutely nothing to counteract these (overland) facts on the (Heartland) ground except to throw a pile of HIMARS into the Ukrainian black hole. And of course, keep de-industrializing Europe. In contrast, those across the Global South with a keen sense of history – as in the grand debate of ideas in a Hegelian sense – and also versed in geography and trade relations are busy getting ready to hit (and profit from) the new groove.

Have strategic ambiguity, will travel

As much as it’s a blast to survey all the instances of Russia playing strategic ambiguity to levels capable of baffling the entire, bloated “Western intel” apparatus, what is coming to the forefront is how Putin – and Patrushev – are now willfully turning up the pain dial to tactically exhaust not only the Ukrainian black hole but the whole of NATOstan.

Western governments are collapsing. Sanctions are being ditched – practically in secret. A Deep Freeze winter is a given. And then there’s the incoming economic/financial crisis, the Definitive Monster from Hell, as Martin Armstrong has made it quite clear: “There is no way they can get out of this other than default. If they default, they are worried about millions of people storming the parliaments of Europe…This is really a tremendous financial crisis that we are facing. They have been borrowing year after year since WWII with zero intention of paying anything back.”

Meanwhile, Moscow may be revving up the turbines to launch – this coming Fall? In the middle of Winter? Next Spring? – a multi-spectrum Mother of All Offensives, capitalizing on a rolling series of interconnected strategies that have already rendered dazed and confused every NATOstan “analyst” in sight.

That would explain Putin looking like he’s cheerfully whistling JJ Cale’s Call Me the Breeze in most of his public appearances. In his crucial intervention at the Strong Ideas for a New Time forum, he enthusiastically promoted the advent of “truly revolutionary” and “enormous” changes that would lead to the creation of a new, “harmonious, fairer and more community-focused and safe” world order.

Yet that’s not for everyone: “only truly sovereign states can ensure high growth dynamics.” What that implies is that the unipolar world order, followed by states in the collective West which are hardly sovereign, is condemned to fail, as it’s “becoming a brake on the development of our civilization.”

Only a self-confident sovereign who does not expect anything constructive from the collective West can get away with describing it as “racist and neo-colonial”, bearing an ideology that “is becoming increasingly more like totalitarianism.” In the old NAM days these words would be met with an assassination.

So will the “rules-based international order” be preserved? Not a chance, argues Putin: the changes are “irreversible.” For those about to rock, NAM 2.0 salutes you.

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Pepe Escobar, born in Brazil, is a correspondent and editor-at-large at Asia Times and columnist for Consortium News and Strategic Culture. Since the mid-1980s he’s lived and worked as a foreign correspondent in London, Paris, Milan, Los Angeles, Singapore, Bangkok. He has extensively covered Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia to China, Iran, Iraq and the wider Middle East. Pepe is the author of Globalistan – How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War; Red Zone Blues: A Snapshot of Baghdad during the Surge. He was contributing editor to The Empire and The Crescent and Tutto in Vendita in Italy. His last two books are Empire of Chaos and 2030. Pepe is also associated with the Paris-based European Academy of Geopolitics. When not on the road he lives between Paris and Bangkok.

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

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All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the “Translate Website” drop down menu on the top banner of our home page (Desktop version).

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***

First published on May 23, 2022

“I can’t believe it’s monkey-pox season already and I haven’t even taken my Ukrainian decorations down.” Robin Monotti

Bill Gates’ prediction that the world would face an unexpected smallpox outbreak is miraculously unfolding. Should we be surprised?

I know I’m not. Here’s the money-quote that was delivered by Gates 6 months before the first case was recorded.

“It’ll take probably about a billion a year for a pandemic Task Force at the WHO level, which is doing the surveillance and actually doing what I call ‘germ games’ where you practice… You say, OK, what if a bioterrorist brought smallpox to 10 airports? You know, how would the world respond to that?” Bill Gates, Sky News, November 6, 2021

One can only marvel at Gates’ extraordinary powers of perception. He’s like some kind of Software Soothsayer able to divine the future from the entrails of animals. Is that it, or does he have a crystal ball tucked-away somewhere in the bowels of his Lake Washington mansion? Whatever it is, it’s trully astonishing. Here’s more from the World Socialist Web Site:

“An unprecedented outbreak of monkeypox virus has officially spread to 10 countries outside of Africa, with 107 confirmed or suspected cases reported as of this writing, in the United Kingdom (9 cases), Portugal (34), Spain (32), France (1), Belgium (2), Sweden (1), Italy (3), Canada (22), the United States (2), and Australia (1).”

Much remains unknown about what is causing the outbreak, which is the most geographically dispersed and rapidly spreading monkeypox outbreak since the virus was first discovered in 1958. In the coming days and weeks, more data and scientific understanding will emerge, but already there is profound concern within the scientific community and among the public, which has found wide expression on social media.” (“Over 100 monkeypox infections detected in 10 countries as unprecedented outbreak spreads globally“, World Socialist Web Site)

Repeat: The most “rapidly spreading monkeypox outbreak since the virus was first discovered in 1958.”

I wonder if that “rapidly spreading” part has something to do with the way that researchers have been tweaking the gain-of-function of these unique pathogens in order to make them more contagious and more lethal? Is that what’s going on?

We’ll probably never know.

And, is it fair to ask whether monkey-pox might be another lab-generated virus that was concocted in the 300-or-so Pentagon-funded secret labs sprinkled around the world that are presently conducting a massive war on humanity to further the ambitions of billionaire elites who are committed to reducing the global population while imposing strict, police state surveillance on every sentient being on planet earth?

We probably won’t get an answer to that one either.

In the interest of fairness, though, we should mention that “reputable” media outlets, like Newsweek magazine, have refuted the claim that Gates made the prediction that we allude to above. Here’s Newsweek’s explanation:

“While Gates has talked about the possibility of bioterrorist smallpox attacks in the past, his comments have been drawn slightly out of context and don’t mention monkeypox.” (Fact Check: Did Bill Gates Predict The Monkeypox Outbreak? Newsweek)

“Slightly out of context?” You mean, Gates did NOT draw attention to a particular infectious disease (smallpox) that magically reemerged from extinction just months later? What “context” is the author talking about? We’d like to know.

Strictly speaking, it doesn’t matter what Newsweek says or doesn’t say, after all, Gates has become the embodiment of everything that’s wrong with today’s Public Health Gestapo, which is why he’s become a magnet for criticism. And, whether he’s been treated fairly or not, a sizable number of people believe quite strongly, that Gates is the mastermind behind a plan to use lab-generated infectious diseases to subjugate the global population in order to establish a tyrannical New Order controlled by voracious elites like himself.

And the WHO’s new sovereignty-eviscerating treaty further underscores this point, in fact, it seems to suggest that Gates and his fellow travelers believe their lifelong ambition to rule the world is now within their grasp. Check it out:

In researching this article, I stumbled across a number of tidbits that readers might find interesting. For example, I discovered that there had been a tabletop exercise simulating a global pandemic involving an unusual strain of #monkeypox” that took place in March 2021. It’s astonishing how many of these ‘preparatory drills’ seem to take place just prior to some particularly horrific event. Can we dismiss them all as mere coincidences? Check out this blurb from the Brownstone Institute:

“… media outlets around the world are on red alert over the world’s first-ever global outbreak of Monkeypox in mid-May 2022—just one year after an international biosecurity conference in Munich held a simulation of a “global pandemic involving an unusual strain of Monkeypox” beginning in mid-May 2022.

Monkeypox was first identified in 1958, but there’s never been a global Monkeypox outbreak outside of Africa until now—in the exact week of the exact month predicted by the biosecurity folks in their pandemic simulation. Take these guys to Vegas!

The global Monkeypox outbreak—occurring on the exact timeline predicted by a biosecurity simulation of a global Monkeypox outbreak a year prior—bears a striking resemblance to the outbreak of COVID-19 just months after Event 201, a simulation of a coronavirus pandemic almost exactly like COVID-19. ” (“Monkeypox Was a Table-Top Simulation Only Last Year”, Brownstone Institute)

And here’s a minute and a half video that helps to explain the excerpt above. (Video) You may notice that the anchor reporting the (simulated) outbreak says, “Scientists have decided that this monkeypox virus was engineered.”

Uh huh. And, further along, one of the analysts offers these prescient words of advice: “We’re seeing far fewer cases where governments’ took early and decisive action”

What do you think that means? Could it mean that we’d better prepare ourselves for another round of experimental clot shots? Is that what it means?

So, here’s your Pandemic Quiz for the Day: What do you think the chances are that an oddball affliction, like Monkeypox, could spontaneously break out in 10 different locations around the world (where it had never appeared before) at the exact same time?

How about “zero” chance? Is that too high?

I’m going to go out-on-a-limb here and say there is zero chance that this new disease occurred “naturally”. The only rational assumption one can make, is that monkey-pox, like Covid, is a lab-generated pathogen spread by covert agents that are prosecuting a bio-war on the global population. But we’ll have to consult Dr Fauci on the matter and see if he agrees. Here’s more from the WSWS:

“In preliminary posts, scientists speculate that the virus, which is endemic in parts of Africa, could have evolved to become more contagious and better suited to human-to-human transmission. In addition, nearly all people under 42 years old have not received a smallpox vaccine (which is 85 percent effective at preventing monkeypox infection) since smallpox was eradicated in 1980. As a result, they have no immunity, and younger adults can be infected as easily as children.”(WSWS)

This simply confirms that another mass vaccination campaign is on the way. Here’s more from the same article:

“The emergence of multiple cases across different countries is deeply problematic….“Given that we have seen now confirmed cases out of Portugal, suspected cases out of Spain, we’re seeing this expansion of confirmed and suspect cases globally, we have a sense that no one has their arms around this to know how large and expansive it might be….

In nearly every public statement by epidemiologists, they have all admitted to being bewildered by how entrenched the virus already is in communities, given that it is normally extremely rare. Tom Inglesby, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told STAT News, “this is starting off with much more of a foothold, in a much more distributed way, and we don’t understand how it got into those networks.” (“Over 100 monkeypox infections detected in 10 countries as unprecedented outbreak spreads globally“, World Socialist Web Site)

So, it’s everywhere already? Then, what do we do?

The obvious answer is lock-down, mask up and get vaccinated as soon as possible. Otherwise, most of the world’s population could face an agonizing death… just like Covid, remember?. Of course, some people might conclude that we are being deliberately misled again, and that 2 pandemics in 2 years is a statistical impossibility. But why be reasonable when mass-hysteria is the order of the day? Here’s more:

“The number of severe side-effects of the smallpox vaccine makes its use in a mass vaccination campaign problematic. However, due to the long incubation period for monkeypox, the smallpox vaccine can work as a post-exposure prophylaxis in a “ring vaccination” model….” (WSWS)

In other words, don’t be dissuaded by the sky-high rates of heart attacks, strokes, blood clotting or death. Just follow the CDC’s thoughtful recommendations and everything will be just fine. Besides, the government has already purchased 13 million of these new-improved poison-death shots (U.S. Buys 13 Million Doses of Monkeypox Vaccine) so just calm down, take a deep breath and roll up your sleeve. We all know the drill by now.

We do, however, scratch our heads when we read about the suspicious goings-on at the Pentagon’s secret bio-labs that appear to be engaged in all manner of illicit skullduggery including the industrial-scale creation of lethal pathogens that could exterminate billions of people in one fell-swoop. That does keep us up at night. Check out this article in Tass:

“The US researched Ebola and smallpox viruses in Ukraine, says Irina Yarovaya, Co-Chair of the Parliamentary Commission on Investigation of US Biological Laboratories in Ukraine.

“Today, we presented an analysis of which pathogens the US was particularly interested in in Ukraine,” she told reporters Friday. “Aside from the pathogens that are territoriality bound to Ukraine, [the laboratories] researched viruses and pathogens that are endemically very far from Ukraine, such as Ebola and smallpox.”

According to the legislator, the information obtained indicates “aggressive goal-setting that underpins the foundation of these programs, de facto implemented by US Department of Defense on Ukrainian soil.”…

“I would like to underscore that the dialogue that we had with the SVR chief today, combined with the proof obtained by the commission, fully confirms the US-created network of biological intelligence worldwide and the implementation of active military-biological exploitation of the globe, and Ukraine in particular. This essentially poses a serious global threat”….

“But at the same time, [it should] urge the global community to seriously get to the bottom of this secret and dangerous military biological activity, implemented by the US. So that comprehensive measures pertaining to common, equal and indivisible security could be developed. Given the distinction between peaceful and non-peaceful use of bacteriological research and the study of toxins, it must be completely transparent and controlled. And there simply must not be any bacteriological weapons in the world, this is Russia’s principal position.” (“Key Russian lawmaker reveals illicit Ebola, smallpox research at US-run Ukraine biolab”, Tass)

So, what’s going on here? Why does the Pentagon have over 300 bio-labs spread around the world conducting secret gain-of-function research on pathogens that pose a clear threat to all of humanity? And why has the Pentagon partnered with notorious elites whose links to the eugenics, depopulation and climate movements suggest the research may be shaped to a particular strategic agenda that could involve significant casualties?

And what if Monkeypox is not, in fact, a natural occurring virus but merely the next phase of a relentless war on Constitutional government, individual freedom and the basic institutions of modern civilization? Perhaps, we are being prepared for a different civilization altogether, a civilization in which all of our decisions will be made for us by enlightened elders, corporate stakeholders and well-meaning philanthropists. Is that possible?

It’s certainly worth thinking about.

*

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This article was originally published on The Unz Review.

Michael Whitney is a renowned geopolitical and social analyst based in Washington State. He initiated his career as an independent citizen-journalist in 2002 with a commitment to honest journalism, social justice and World peace.

He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).

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***

There aren’t a lot of journalists that Americans can look up to these days, especially in the mainstream media. Edward R. Murrow and his “boys” are long gone. Americans don’t have a Walter Cronkite to set their minds at ease. Even the venerable 60 Minutes has had a carousel of unremarkable talking heads since the retirements of Mike Wallace, Morley Safer, and Harry Reasoner.

Instead, many (most, maybe?) Americans get their news from “news” channels that fall under the auspices of their networks’ entertainment divisions. They get their news from the likes of Ken Dilanian, the NBC News and MSNBC intelligence journalist who in 2014 was exposed sending his stories to the CIA for comment and clearance before he sent them to his own editor. (In one email exchange, a new CIA public affairs flack wrote, “I am looking forward to working with you, Ken!” Dilanian replied, “Hooray! Glad to have you guys.”

That’s what makes a new book by Nat Parry so welcome. “American Dispatches: A Robert Parry Reader,” is a compendium of the most impactful and important pieces of investigative journalism published by Nat Parry’s father Robert, the eminent reporter from the Associated Press, Newsweek, and PBS, and the founder of Consortium News.

Robert Parry is best known for breaking the news that the CIA had provided the Contra rebels in Nicaragua with a copy of their notorious “assassination manual” and that the CIA was helping the Contras send shipments of cocaine to the United States and then using the profits to buy weapons. Parry was a winner of the George Polk Award for his Contra stories, the I. F. Stone Medal for Journalistic Independence, and the Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism. He was also a Pulitzer Prize finalist.

Robert Parry with then AP’s executive editor Louis Boccardi receiving the George Polk award for journalistic excellent in 1984. [Source: theintercept.com]

One of the things that made Bob Parry so successful as an investigative journalist was the fact that he spent so much time and energy cultivating sources. Unlike the Ken Dilanians of the world, he didn’t just write to or call the CIA’s Office of Public Affairs and then get a CIA press release. He sought out sources, established relationships with them, and then reported the truths that they provided him.

American Dispatches reminds us that he was one of the first journalists to report that the CIA was surreptitiously opening the mail of American citizens. That was without a warrant or any legal authority whatsoever, of course. Parry reported the story at the ripe old age of 26.

American Dispatches is like a walk through modern American history with a tour guide who really knows what he’s talking about, who cares about getting the history right, and who knows that his real role is that of a teacher. For nearly 700 pages, the reader gets a fresh, fact-based, unbiased, and apolitical view of what was happening as some of the most important events in modern history unfolded. Divided into four parts, it examines in depth issues as eclectic as busing, organized crime, drugs, politics, and the role of the media.

But for those readers who consider themselves students of the history of the CIA, there is a lot here. The book covers virtually the entire history of the CIA from the time of the Church Committee through the September 11 attacks, and the illegal torture, secret prisons, and rendition programs. Parry pulled no punches in his work.

There is coverage of the CIA and Iran, the CIA and the mujahedin, the CIA and drugs, the CIA and the Contras, and the CIA and Iraq. He writes about every CIA leader over the course of nearly two generations, the mistakes they made, the promises they failed to keep, and the crimes they committed in the name of the Americans they were supposed to be working for.

Source: muckrock.com

I sat down to skim this book and I finally put it down two days later having read it in its entirety. Dozens of the people Parry wrote about were former bosses or colleagues of mine at the CIA. Some had been friends. In every single case, Parry got to the core of who they were. For the most part, they were people who considered themselves to be patriots. But they were also sociopaths who couldn’t see the line between serving their country and committing crimes against humanity.

American Dispatches reminds me very much of “The Untold History of the United States,” a work of truth, even if that truth is uncomfortable and is not the way we’d like to remember it. I hope that in the coming months it finds its way into college political science classrooms across America.

*

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John Kiriakou was a CIA analyst and case officer from 1990 to 2004. Kiriakou is the sole CIA agent to go to jail in connection with the U.S. torture program, despite the fact that he never tortured anyone. Rather, he blew the whistle on this horrific wrongdoing. John can be reached at: [email protected].

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***

 “If the indigenes had advanced beyond the state of nature only so far as to have developed language and the community of the family, but no further; if they had not yet mixed their labour with the earth in any permanent way; or if the region were literally uninhabited, then Europeans considered it to be terra nullius (i.e., belonging to no one), to which they might gain permanent title by first discovery and effective occupation.”

– Professor Alan Frost [1]

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The age of great exploration and conquest began in the fifteenth century. This is when the first peoples living in the territories of Africa and Asia and of North and South America were approached by European explorers. The prospect of profit and pillage from the new resources of a foreign land finds itself at odds with respecting the dignity of the people who lived there originally. Consequently, it was not long before the former individuals living in lands the latter sought to colonize would be subjected to conquest, capture, exile and slavery. [2]

According to the historian and educator Alfred McCoy in his book To Govern The Globe, papal bulls such as the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1493 allowed European powers to claim vast expansion of territory and reduce the rights of the people living there. It is therefore no surprise the rapid pursuit of wealth is intertwined with racism. Further, the vast increases in knowledge, the development of new insights and the new ways of thinking that coincided with the brand new possibilities of “boldly going where no man has gone before” go hand in hand with destroying the lives of those in the way. [3]

Sadly, after more than five centuries, Indigenous peoples from all over the world have had challenges and shed oceans of bloodshed. But we have seen their resilience and are even starting to re-assert their rights again. This combined with growing awareness among the general population may lead to a different assessment of how these scales of justice are balanced. Though it should also be noted that the current economic system of capitalism continues to profit from the previous inequitable treatment.

On this episode of the Global Research News Hour, we are looking at the current global situation and try to assess the prospects for this dynamic between peoples to finally correct itself.

In our first half hour, we air a conversation with Dr Rudolph Ryser, chair of the Center for World Indigenous Studies (CWIS). Professor Ryser describes the similar realities Indigenous people tend to face in the world today, and describes how successful actions at the United Nations and other projects are helping to make a difference.

In our second half hour, we air a documentary recorded by Michael Welch about Camp Morningstar and its resistance to a frac sand mining project being pursued by today’s corporate exploiters together with modern day colonialists to build a new industry at the expense of the people who will live with the resultant environmental disaster for generations. Ways to learn more and to contribute can be found at the Facebook site What the Frack Manitoba.

Dr Rudolph Ryser is chair of the Centre for world indigenous studies. He sits on the faculty of the School of Public Service Leadership at Capella University, and is an adjunct professor of History and Culture at the Union Institute and University. He is a 2011 Fulbright Scholar. And is one of the leading spokespeople for Fourth World political development and governance, tribal/state conflict resolution and international cooperation between indigenous nations.

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The Global Research News Hour airs every Friday at 1pm CT on CKUW 95.9FM out of the University of Winnipeg. The programme is also podcast at globalresearch.ca .

Other stations airing the show:

CIXX 106.9 FM, broadcasting from Fanshawe College in London, Ontario. It airs Sundays at 6am.

WZBC 90.3 FM in Newton Massachusetts is Boston College Radio and broadcasts to the greater Boston area. The Global Research News Hour airs during Truth and Justice Radio which starts Sunday at 6am.

Campus and community radio CFMH 107.3fm in  Saint John, N.B. airs the Global Research News Hour Fridays at 7pm.

CJMP 90.1 FM, Powell River Community Radio, airs the Global Research News Hour every Saturday at 8am. 

Caper Radio CJBU 107.3FM in Sydney, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia airs the Global Research News Hour starting Wednesday afternoon from 3-4pm.

Cowichan Valley Community Radio CICV 98.7 FM serving the Cowichan Lake area of Vancouver Island, BC airs the program Thursdays at 9am pacific time.

Notes:

1. Frost, Alan (1992). “Old colonisations and modern discontents: Legacies and concern” (PDF). Samuel Griffith Society Proceedings. 1. Chapter 11. “Papers by author”. Samuel Griffith Society (samuelgriffith.org).
2. McCoy, Alfred M (2021), pg 10-11, “To Govern The Globe: World Orders and Catastrophic Change”, Haymarket Books
3. ibid

The  historic March 11, 2020 lockdown triggered economic and social chaos Worldwide. It was an act of “economic warfare”: a war against humanity. 

This diabolical agenda has undermined the sovereignty of nation states. 

It has contributed  to a wave of bankruptcies. It has impoverished people Worldwide.

It has led to a spiralling dollar denominated global debt. 

The powerful structures of global capitalism, Big Money coupled with its intelligence and military apparatus are the driving force.

Using advanced digital and communications technologies, the lockdown and “closure” of the global economy is unprecedented in World history.

Sustained by media disinformation, the mRNA vaccine was put forth as a solution to curbing the pandemic. Amply documented, the Vaccine has triggered from the outset in December 2020 an upward trend in mortality and morbidity. 

Video:  “The Seventh Wave” Our Politicians are fraudulent, complicit and incompetent. Interview of Prof. Michel Chossudovsky with Caroline Mailloux, Lux-Media Montreal

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First published by Global Research on July 14, 2022

***

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***

July 8 was a muggy day in the ancient capital of Japan. Shinzo Abe, the most powerful figure in Japanese politics, was delivering a stump speech for a local Liberal Democratic Party candidate in front of the Nara Kintetsu railway station when suddenly a loud bang rang out, followed by an odd cloud of smoke.

The response was incredible. Among those in the unusually large crowd gathered, not a single person ran for cover, or hit the ground in terror.

Abe’s body guards, who stood unusually far away from him during the speech, looked on impassively, making no effort to shield him, or to pull him to a safe location.

A few seconds later, Abe crumpled and collapsed to the ground, lying there impassive in his standard blue jacket, white shirt, now speckled with blood, and trademark blue badge of solidarity with Japanese abductees in North Korea. Most likely he was killed instantaneously.

Only then did the body guards seize the suspect, Yamagami Toruya, who was standing behind Abe. The tussle with Yamagami took the form of a choreographed dance for the television audience, not a professional takedown.

Yamagami was immediately identified by the media as a 41-year-old former member of the Maritime Self-Defense Force who had personal grievances with Abe.

Yamagami told everything to the police without hesitation. He did not even try to run from the scene and was still holding the silly hand-made gun when the bodyguards grabbed him.

Even after Abe was lying on the pavement, not a single person in the crowd ran for shelter, or even looked around to determine where the shots came from. Everyone seemed to know, magically, that the shooting was over.

Then the comedy began. Rather than putting Abe in a limousine and whisking him away, those standing around him merely called out to passersby, asking if anyone was a doctor.

The media immediately embraced the “lone gunman” conclusion for this attack, repeating entertaining tale of how Yamagami was associated with Toitsu Kyokai, a new religion started by the charismatic shaman Kawase Kayo, and why he blamed Abe, who had exchanges with that group, for his mother’s troubles.

Because Toitsu Kyokai has followers from the Unification Church founded by Reverend Moon Sun Myung, journalist Michael Penn jumped to the conclusion that the conspiracy leading to Abe’s death was the result of his collaboration with the Moonies.

Although the mainstream media accepted this fantastic story, the Japanese police and security apparatus did not manage to squash alternative interpretations. Blogger Takashi Kitagawa posted materials on July 10 that suggested Abe was shot from the front, not from the back where Yamagami stood, and that the shots must have been fired at an angle from the top of one, or both, of the tall buildings on either side of the intersection across from the railway station plaza.

Takahashi Kitakawa’s postings:

Kitagawa’s analysis of the paths of the bullets was more scientific than anything offered by the media that had claimed, without basis, that Abe had only been shot once until the surgeon announced that evening that there had been two bullets.

The chances that a man holding an awkward home-made gun, standing more than five meters away in a crowd, would be able to hit Abe twice are low. The TV personality Kozono Hiromi, who is a gun expert himself, remarked on his show “Sukkiri” (on July 12) that such a feat would be incredible.

A careful viewing of the videos suggests that multiple shots were fired by a rifle with a silencer from atop a neighboring building.

安倍晋三元総理大臣暗殺について 言明します from Emanuel Pastreich on Vimeo.

The message to the world

For a figure like Shinzo Abe, the most powerful political player in Japan and the person to whom Japanese politicians and bureaucrats rallied in response to the unprecedented uncertainty born of the current geopolitical crisis, to be shot dead with no serious security detail nearby makes no sense.

Perhaps the message was lost on viewers at home, but it was crystal clear for other Japanese politicians. For that matter, the message was clear for Boris Johnson, who was forced out of power at almost exactly the same moment that Abe was shot, or for Emmanuel Macron, who was suddenly charged with influence peddling scandal for Uber, and faces demands for his removal from office, on July 11—after months of massive protests had failed to sway him in any way.

The message was written all over Abe’s white shirt in red: buying into the globalist system and promoting the COVID-19 regime is not enough to assure safety, even for the leader of a G7 nation.

Abe was highest ranking victim so far of the hidden cancer eating away at governance in nation states around the world, an institutional sickness that moves decision making away from national governments to a network of privately-held supercomputer banks, private equity groups, for-hire intelligence firms in Tel Aviv, London and Reston, and the strategic thinkers employed by the billionaires at the World Economic Forum, NATO, the World Bank and other such awesome institutions.

The fourth industrial revolution was the excuse employed to transfer the control of all information in, and all information out, for central governments to Facebook, Amazon, Oracle, Google, SAP and others in the name of efficiency. As J. P. Morgan remarked, “Everything has two reasons: a good reason and a real reason.”

With the assassination of Abe, these technology tyrants, and their masters, have crossed the Rubicon, declaring that those dressed in the trappings of state authority can be mowed down with impunity if they do not follow orders.

The Problem with Japan

Japan is heralded as the only Asian nation advanced enough to join the “West,” to be a member of the exclusive G7 club, and to be qualified to enter into collaboration with (and possible membership in) the top intelligence sharing program, the “Five Eyes.” Nevertheless, Japan has continued to defy the expectations, and the demands, of global financiers, and the planners within the beltway and on Wall Street for the New World Order.

Although it was South Korea in Asia that has constantly been berated in Washington as an ally not quite up to the level of Japan, the truth is that the super-rich busy taking over the Pentagon, and the entire global economy, were starting to harbor doubts about the dependability of Japan.

The globalist system at the World Bank, Goldman Sachs, or the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University has a set track for the best and the brightest from “advanced nations.”

Elites from Australia, France, Germany, Norway or Italy, learn to speak fluent English, spend time in Washington, London, or Geneva at a think tank or university, secure a safe sinecure at a bank, a government institution, or a research institute that assures them a good income, and adopt the common sense, pro-finance, perspective offered by the Economist Magazine as the gospel.

Japan, however, although it has an advanced banking system of its own, although its command of advanced technologies makes it the sole rival of Germany in machine tools, and although it has a sophisticated educational system capable of producing numerous Nobel Prize winners, does not produce leaders who follow this model for the “developed” nation.

Japanese elite do not study abroad for the most part and Japan has sophisticated intellectual circles that do not rely on information brought in from overseas academic or journalistic sources.

Unlike other nations, Japanese write sophisticated journal articles entirely in Japanese, citing only Japanese experts. In fact, in fields like botany and cellular biology, Japan has world-class journals written entirely in Japanese.

Similarly, Japan has a sophisticated domestic economy that is not easily penetrated by multinational corporations—try as they do.

The massive concentration of wealth over the last decade has allowed the super-rich to create invisible networks for secret global governance, best represented by the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders program and the Schwarzman Scholars program. These rising figures in policy infiltrate the governments, the industries, and research institutions of nations to make sure that the globalist agenda goes forth unimpeded.

Japan has been impacted by this sly form of global governance. And yet, Japanese who speak English well, or who study at Harvard, are not necessarily on the fast track in Japanese society.

There is stubborn independence in Japan’s diplomacy and economics, something that raised concerns among the Davos crowd during the COVID-19 campaigns.

Although the Abe administration (and the subsequent Kishida administration) went along with the directives of the World Economic Forum and the World Health Organization for vaccines and social distancing, the Japanese government was less intrusive in the lives of citizens than most nations, and was less successful in forcing organizations to require vaccination.

The use of QR codes to block service to the unvaccinated was limited in its implementation in Japan in comparison with other “advanced” nations.

Moreover, the Japanese government refuses to fully implement the digitalization agenda demanded, thus denying multinational technology giants the control over Japan that they exercise elsewhere. This lag in Japan’s digitalization led the Wilson Center in Washington D.C. to invite Karen Makishima, minister of Japan’s Digital Agency (launched under pressure from global finance in September, 2021) so that she could explain why Japan has been so slow to digitalize (July 13).

Japanese are increasingly aware that their resistance to digitalization, to the wholescale outsourcing of the functions of government and university to multinational tech giants, and the privatization of information, is not in their interest.

Japan continues to operate Japanese-language institutions that follow old customs, including the use of written records. Japanese still read books and they are not so enamored with AI as Koreans and Chinese.

Japan’s resistance can be traced back to Meiji restoration of 1867. Japan set out to create governmental system wherein Western ideas were translated into Japanese, combined with Japanese concepts, to create a complex domestic discourse. The governance system set up in Meiji restoration remains in place to a large degree, using models for governance based on pre-modern principles from Japan and China’s past, and drawn from 19^th century Prussia and England.

The result is feudalistic approach to governance wherein ministers oversee fiefdoms of bureaucrats who carefully guard their own budgets and who maintain their own internal chains of command.

The Problem with Abe

Shinzo Abe was one of the most sophisticated politicians of our age, always open to make a deal with the United States, or other global institutions, but always cagy when it came to making Japan the subject of globalist dictates.

Abe harbored the dream of restoring Japan to its status as an empire, and imagined himself to be the reincarnation of the Meiji Emperor.

Abe was different from Johnson or Macron in that he was not as interested in appearing on TV as he was in controlling the actual decision making process within Japan.

There is no need to glorify Abe’s reign, as some have tried to do. He was a corrupt insider who pushed for the dangerous privatization of government, the hollowing out of education, and who backed a massive shift of assets from the middle class to the wealthy.

His use of the ultra-right Nihon Kaigi forum to promote an ultranationalist agenda, and to glorify the most offensive aspects of Japan’s imperial past, was deeply disturbing. Abe gave his unflinching support for all military expenditures, no matter how foolish, and he was willing to support just about any American boondoggle.

That said, as the grandson of Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, and the son of foreign minister Shintaro Abe, Shinzo Abe showed himself to be an astute politician from childhood. He was creative in his use of a wide range of political tools to advance his agenda, and he could call on corporate and government leaders from around the world with an ease that no other Asian politician could.

I remember vividly the impression I received from Abe on the two occasions that I met him in person. Whatever cynical politics he may have promoted, he radiated to his audience a purity and simplicity, what the Japanese call “sunao,” that was captivating. His manner suggested a receptiveness and openness that inspired loyalty among his followers and that could overwhelm those who were hostile to his policies.

In sum, Abe was sophisticated political figure who was capable of playing one side against the other within the Liberal Democratic Party, and within the international community, while appearing to be a considerate and benevolent leader.

For this reason, Japanese hostile to Abe’s ethnic nationalism were still willing to support him because he was the only politician they thought capable of restoring global political leadership to Japan.

Japanese diplomats and military officers fret endlessly about the Japan’s lack of vision. Although Japan has all the qualifications to be a great power, they reason, it is run by a series of unimpressive, University of Tokyo graduates; men who are good at taking tests, but are unwilling to take risks.

Japan produces none like Putin or Xi, and not even a Macron or a Johnson.

Abe wanted to be a leader and he had the connections, the talent, and the ruthlessness required to play that role on the global stage. He was already the longest serving prime minister in Japanese history, and had plans for a third bid as prime minister, when he was struck down.

Needless to say, the powers behind the World Economic Forum do not want national leaders like Abe, even if they conform with the global agenda, because they are capable of organizing resistance within the nation state.

What went wrong?

Abe was able to handle, using the traditional tools of statecraft, the impossible dilemma faced by Japan over the last decade as its economic ties with China and Russia increased, but its political and security integration with the United States, Israel and the NATO block proceeded apace.

It was impossible for Japan to be that close to the United States and its allies while maintaining friendly relations with Russia and China. Yet Abe almost succeeded.

Abe remained focused and cool. He made use of all his skills and connections as he set out to carve a unique space for Japan. Along the way, Abe turned to the sophisticated diplomacy of his strategic thinker Shotaro Yachi of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to assure that Japan found its place under the sun.

Abe and Yachi used contradictory, but effective, geopolitical strategies to engage both East and West, making ample use of secret diplomacy to seal long-term deals that put Japan back in the great powers game.

On the one hand, Abe presented to Obama and Trump a Japan that was willing to go further than South Korea, Australia or other India in backing Washington’s position. Abe was willing to suffer tremendous domestic criticism for his push for a remilitarization that fit the US plans for East Asia.

At the same time that he impressed Washington politicians with his gung-ho pro-American rhetoric, matched by the purchase of weapons systems, Abe also engaged China and Russia at the highest levels. That was no small feat, and involved sophisticated lobbying within the beltway, and in Beijing and Moscow.

In the case of Russia, Abe successfully negotiated a complex peace treaty with Russia in 2019 that would have normalized relations and solved the dispute concerning the Northern Territories (the Kuril Islands in Russian). He was able to secure energy contracts for Japanese firms and to find investment opportunities in Russia even as Washington ramped up the pressure on Tokyo for sanctions.

The journalist Tanaka Sakai notes that Abe was not banned from entering Russia after the Russian government banned all other representatives of the Japanese government from entry.

Abe also engaged China seriously, solidifying long-term institutional ties, and pursuing free trade agreement negotiations that reached a breakthrough in the fifteenth round of talks (April 9-12, 2019). Abe had ready access to leading Chinese politicians and he was considered by them to be reliable and predictable, even though his rhetoric was harshly anti-Chinese.

The critical event that likely triggered the process leading to Abe’s assassination was the NATO summit in Madrid (June 28-30).

The NATO summit was a moment when the hidden players behind the scenes laid down the law for the new global order. NATO is on a fast track to evolve beyond an alliance to defend Europe and to become an unaccountable military power, working with the Global Economic Forum, the billionaires and the bankers around the world, as a “world army,” functioning much as the British East India Company did in another era.

The decision to invite to the NATO summit the leaders of Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand was a critical part of this NATO transformation.

These four nations were invited to join in an unprecedented level of integration in security, including intelligence sharing (outsourcing to big tech multinationals), the use of advanced weapons systems (that must be administrated by the personnel of multinationals like Lockheed Martin), joint exercises (that set a precedent for an oppressive decision-making process), and other “collaborative” approaches that undermine the chain of command within the nation state.

When Kishida returned to Tokyo on July first, there can be no doubt that one of his first meetings was with Abe. Kishida explained to Abe the impossible conditions that the Biden administration had demanded of Japan.

The White House, by the way, is now entirely the tool of globalists like Victoria Nuland (Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs) and others trained by the Bush clan.

The demands made of Japan were suicidal in nature. Japan was to increase economic sanctions on Russia, to prepare for possible war with Russia, and to prepare for a war with China. Japan’s military, intelligence and diplomatic functions were to be transferred to the emerging blob of private contractors gathering for the feast around NATO.

We do not know what Abe did during the week before his death. Most likely he launched into a sophisticated political play, using of all his assets in Washington D.C., Beijing, and Moscow—as well as in Jerusalem, Berlin, and London, to come up with a multi-tiered response that would give the world the impression that Japan was behind Biden all the way, while Japan sought out a détente with China and Russia through the back door.

The problem with this response was that since other nations had been shut down, such a sophisticated play by Japan made it the only major nation with a semi-functional executive branch.

Abe’s death parallels closely that of Seoul’s mayor Park Won Sun, who went missing on July 9^th, 2020, exactly two years before Abe’s assassination. Park took steps in Seoul City Hall to push back on the COVID-19 social distancing policies that were being imposed by the central government. His body was found the next day and the death was immediately ruled a suicide resulting from his distress over charges of sexual harassment by a colleague.

What to do now?

The danger of the current situation should not be underestimated. If an increasing number of Japanese come to perceive, as the journalist Tanaka Sakai suggests, that the United States destroyed their best hope for leadership, and that the globalists want Japan to make do with an unending series of weak-minded prime ministers who are dependent on Washington and other hidden players of the parasite class, such a development could bring about a complete break between Japan and the United States, leading to a political or military conflict.

It is telling that Michael Green, the top Japan hand in Washington D.C., did not write the initial tribute to Abe that was published on the homepage of CSIS (Center for Strategic and International Studies), his home institute.

Green, veteran of the Bush National Security Council and Henry A. Kissinger Chair of the Asia Program at CSIS, is the author of Line of Advantage: Japan’s Grand Strategy in the Era of Abe Shinzo. Green was a close associate of Abe, perhaps the closest of any American.  

The tribute to Abe was drafted by Christopher Johnstone (the Japan chair at CSIS and former CIA officer). The weird choice suggests that the assassination is so sensitive that Green instinctively wished to avoid writing the initial response, leaving it to a professional operative.

For responsible intellectuals and citizens in Washington, Tokyo, or elsewhere, there is only one viable response to this murky assassination: a demand for an international scientific investigation.

Painful as that process might be, it will force us to face the reality of how our governments have been taken over by invisible powers.

If we fail to identify the true players behind the scenes, however, we may be led into a conflict in which the blame is projected onto heads of state and countries are forced into conflicts so as to hide the crimes of global finance.

The loss of control of the Japanese government over the military the last time can be attributed in part to the assassinations of prime minister Inukai Tsuyoshi on May 15, 1932 and of prime minister Saito Makoto on February 26, 1936.

But for the international community, the more relevant case is how the manipulations of an integrated global economy by the Rothschild, Warburg, and other banking interests created an environment wherein the tensions produced by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary on June 28, 1914 were funneled towards world war.

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Emanuel Pastreich served as the president of the Asia Institute, a think tank with offices in Washington DC, Seoul, Tokyo and Hanoi. Pastreich also serves as director general of the Institute for Future Urban Environments. Pastreich declared his candidacy for president of the United States as an independent in February, 2020.

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image: Image from video footage shows former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe delivering a stump speech in Nara on July 8, 2022, shortly before he was shot by a gunman. (Kyodo)

First published by global research on December 27, 2020

***

It is important to focus on the history of experimental vaccines.

This article reviews the Tuskegee Syphilis Study in Macon County, Alabama that began in 1932 as well as other US government experiments that infected sick and vulnerable people with syphilis and other deadly diseases applied in Guatemala between 1946 and 1948.

In Macon County, Alabama, the U.S. government monitored more than 600 black sharecroppers including 399 who were already infected with syphilis while the remaining 201 who were not. 

Many people of color in the U.S. do not trust the medical establishment because of this troubling history of human experimentations. 

According to CNN who was there to witness the historical moment of the first Covid-19 vaccine given to a black woman but in reality, it was propaganda for Big Pharma

“A critical care nurse was the first person in New York and among the first people in the United States to get a shot of the coronavirus vaccine authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration.”

The US Government’s Human Experiments in Guatemala  

Image below: Female Patients at Psychiatric Hospital in Guatemala 1946-1948

The U.S. government under President Harry S. Truman, a Democrat from Missouri partnered with one of the poorest countries in Latin America, Guatemala, a U.S. puppet state with its President and lap dog, Juan José Arévalo and the rest of his criminal cohorts or shall we say his “health care officials” began experimenting directly with approximately 1,300 test subjects out of the 5,500 Guatemalans who were infected purposely without their informed consent.  They were infected with syphilis, gonorrhea and a bacterial sexual infection called chancroid that comprised of soldiers, prisoners, prostitutes and patients who had mental issues.  The experiments began in 1946 and ended around 1948.  In a report by the Boston Globe, Susan M. Reverby, a medical historian and professor at Wellesley College in Wellesley, Massachusetts discovered that “US government scientists in the 1940s deliberately infected hundreds of Guatemalans with syphilis and gonorrhea in experiments conducted without the subjects’ permission.”  Reverby discovered the documents about “four or five years ago while researching the infamous Tuskegee syphilis study” and discussed her findings with the US government.  The report said that “The US scientists — who had received the blessings of Guatemalan health authorities — were among the leading lights in the field of sexually transmitted disease research.” However, here is where the insanity was exposed:

Flush with optimism in the dawning era of antibiotic treatment, they decided to expose vulnerable subjects to further their understanding of the effectiveness of the new drugs in treating sexually transmitted diseases

The discovery happened while Reverby, who was at the University of Pittsburgh some years before conducting research for her book ‘Examining Tuskegee’ which she focused on Dr. Thomas Parran Jr’s archives.  Dr. Parran was a US surgeon general who was involved in studying methods in controlling the syphilis virus, but then Reverby discovered archives from another researcher who is deceased by the name of John C. Cutler who was a U.S. health service physician during the later years of Tuskegee syphilis study that began in 1932.

Cutler studied the effects and other different aspects such as the prevention and treatment of antibiotics called penicillin on individuals who were infected.  In a BBC article from 2011,

‘US scientists ‘knew Guatemala syphilis tests unethical’ said that “according to documents the commission had studied, at least 83 of the 5,500 subjects had died by the end of 1953.”

The article mentioned Dr Amy Gutmann, who was head of the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues at the time and stated that the research was a “shameful piece of medical history” and that “It is important that we accurately document this clearly unethical historical injustice. We do this to honour the victims.”

It was reported that then-President Barack Obama, Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton and other U.S. government officials had apologized to the Guatemalan government and its people most likely to show the Guatemalan government and its people that they care, but it was really about keeping the long-time US-Guatemala relationship intact since the US government  and it’s CIA overthrew Jacobo Arbenz Guzman in 1954.

In the Name of Science: The Tuskegee Syphilis Study On Poor Black People

Image on the right: Tuskegee Syphilis Study 1932-1972

According to ‘The National Center for Biotechnology Information’ (NCBI)

“That study, long-recognized as unethical, committed abuses against 399 African-American sharecroppers in Macon Country, Alabama who were the subjects of a 40-year USPHS study of the effects of untreated syphilis in Black men.”  That legacy has had an impact on the black community thus creating a distrust of the U.S. government and its past actions.  “The phrase, legacy of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, is sometimes used to denote the belief that Blacks are more reluctant than Whites to participate in biomedical research studies because of the infamous study of syphilis in men run by the U.S. Public Health Service from 1932-72.” 

What the NCBI report claims that they administered a questionnaire ‘The Tuskegee Legacy Project’ (TLP) among 826 black and white respondents and found that blacks did have “higher levels of general awareness” of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study with none of them willing to be guinea pigs for biomedical research:

We administered the Tuskegee Legacy Project (TLP) Questionnaire to 826 Blacks and non-Hispanic White adults in three U.S. cities. While Blacks had higher levels of general awareness of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, there was no association between either awareness or detailed knowledge of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and willingness to participate in biomedical research, either for Blacks or Whites observed in our survey

On July 25th, 1972,  a reporter by the name of Jean Heller of the Associated Press (AP) exposed the U.S. federal government for allowing hundreds of black men to live with the syphilis infections for more than 40 years without offering them any sort of treatment.  The report exposed the event as a shameful and immoral behavior of the American medical establishment.  The report ‘Black men untreated in Tuskegee Syphilis Study’ said that “during a 40-year federal experiment, a group of syphilis victims was denied proper medical treatment for their disease”, several participants had already died from the experiment.  The report went on to say that the experiment ” was designed to determine through autopsies what damage untreated syphilis does to the human body.”  

It is because of these historical events that distrust of the US medical system runs deep within the black and brown communities.  According to an article by Reuters, ‘Some U.S. Black pastors, key players in COVID education, are hesitating to push vaccine’ reported that A.R. Bernard who is the head of a Brooklyn mega church called the Christian Cultural Center was asked by a major healthcare organization to sit on a committee to propagandize the black and brown communities to accept Covid-19 vaccines as safe and effective.  Bernard said that “he turned down the offer because he worried some members of his congregation could view his participation as “joining forces with the system” to use African Americans “as guinea pigs” for vaccines that have been developed in record time.”  That was a powerful statement since his concerns rightfully goes back to the history of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study in Macon County, Alabama:

“What we’re dealing with right now is the byproduct of … generations of distrust, suspicion and fear with regard to how medical systems work,” said Edwin Sanders, head of Metropolitan International Church in Nashville, Tennessee, who has been involved with public health education since HIV/AIDS struck in the 1980s.

The distrust is rooted in decades of unequal healthcare access and treatment, under-representation in clinical trials and a record of being used as unwitting test subjects, such as in the infamous Tuskegee syphilis study that continued through 1972 and withheld syphilis treatment from infected Black men without their knowledge.  Pastors said this history has fed fears that the COVID-19 vaccine may not work in Black Americans, or that they may be given a different shot than the rest of society

It’s was not just in Guatemala and Alabama, USA that people were used as experimental guinea pigs.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which funds the World Health Organization (WHO) has performed vaccine experiments with US-based non-profit organizations (NGOs) in India and Africa. For example, in 2009, an NGO called the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH) based in Bill Gates home state of Washington began in India with the intention of testing experimental HPV vaccines that was developed by Big Pharma corporations such as Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK) and Merck on more than 20,000 Indian girls aged 10-14 years-old.  In the experiment, the girls were vaccinated with the HPV vaccines leaving more than 1,200 of them with severe side effects.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation continued its experiments in 2010 when it funded GSK’s experimental malaria vaccine that killed more than 151 African infants and also caused severe side effects including seizures and what is known as febrile convulsions to more than 1,000 African children. (See NEJM)

Those were just a couple of examples of human experiments taking place in modern-day society.  But at least the people are starting to wake up to the fact that media propaganda promoted by the medical establishment is not working anymore, perhaps joining a large segment of the world’s population in already resisting Big Pharma’s overreach in pushing dangerous vaccines especially those that were developed in under a year by overriding crucial testing procedures that studies long-term effects.

Maybe the next vaccine will be developed in 6 months, hey why not in 2 weeks?

We will probably see a race for Big Pharma corporations to develop new vaccines for almost anything in the shortest period of time for profit and control.  It is a new business model that is engineering our society so that the establishment technocrats can achieve total dominance over the people with the implementation of the ID2020 initiative which is basically a digital identity system that keeps a computerized record of who has received their required vaccinations.  Big Pharma is at full speed and it is headed for a crash as more people all over the world are doubting that vaccines are safe and effective, especially those that were developed in less than a year.

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Timothy Alexander Guzman writes on his blog site, Silent Crow News, where this article was originally published. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

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***

American officials are starting to admit Washington’s lies about Iran. William Burns, director of the CIA, said on Wednesday, July 20, that Iran has never resumed its nuclear weapons production program since it was interrupted, in 2004. The statement only confirms the suspicion of several analysts around the world, but it is truly impressive that it came from the head of American intelligence. Indeed, it reveals that Washington really bases its interventionist foreign policy on lies and distortions.

During his speech at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado, Director Burns stated:

“Our best intelligence judgment is that the Iranians have not resumed the weaponization effort that they had underway up until 2004 and then suspended, so that’s something, obviously we at CIA and across the US intelligence community keep a very, very sharp focus on”.

Earlier, in December of last year, the Director had already stated something similar to these lines, indicating that there were insufficient reasons for the US to believe that Iran planned to produce nuclear weapons. However, on neither occasion did Burns clarify why the US government had repeatedly mentioned this hypothesis of resuming the program in recent years, even without any scientific basis to justify the narrative.

Interestingly, it was not just Burns who recently commented on this topic. Tamir Hayman, director of Israeli intelligence, has already stated that Tel Aviv has not found evidence that Tehran plans to develop nuclear weapons, despite the fact that there is a large process of uranium enrichment.

“To the best of our knowledge, the directive has not changed, and they are not heading toward a breakout. They are not heading toward a bomb right now: It may be in the distant future. (…) There is an enriched amount [of uranium] in volumes that we have not seen before and it is disturbing (…) At the same time, in all other aspects of the Iranian nuclear project, we see no progress – not in the weapons project, in the financial area, not in any other sector”, he said.

According to the official speech of the Iranian State, any research related to the nuclear weapons program was stopped in 2004, with no interest in converting the current nuclear program into an atomic weapons platform. More than a mere political attitude to avoid sanctions, the Iranian government has also stated on several occasions that the decision to abstain from producing nuclear weapons is a consequence of the Shiite religion itself, which has an official role in the country’s theocratic regime. For Shia Islam, producing and using weapons of mass destruction is considered a sin – and it would be unethical on the part of the Shia government to disobey the principles of its own religion.

However, the mere act of not possessing nuclear weapons is not exactly what interests the US in the Iranian case. The peaceful use of nuclear technology could also become “dangerous” to American interests. Peaceful and clean nuclear technology allows, for example, high levels of industrial and scientific development, in addition to boosting military power, even without the possession of warheads – as, for example, through the manufacture of propulsion submarines. Obviously, any form of material development of its geopolitical enemies is seen by the US as a “problem”, which is why Washington tries to completely neutralize the Iranian nuclear program.

However, the main point is that the narrative around the Iranian nuclear program has become a kind of “rhetorical weapon” for the US. With this speech, it became possible to mobilize the entire international society against the “nuclearization”, justifying sanctions, military operations and even terrorist-like attacks with the objective of assassinating Iranian officials. In fact, the Iranian nuclear program has functioned in terms of US-Iran tensions in a way similar to the narrative around the “invasion against Ukraine”, in terms of tensions with Russia. They are mere baseless narratives that serve as a basis for maneuvers on the international arena.

It remains to be seen what the practical result of all this scenario will be from now on. Burns did not comment on the case for nothing. He has tried to take a more pragmatic line with Iran, given his experience in the negotiations of the 2015 deal – later unilaterally abandoned by the US. The Director does not see the possibility of a conflict with the Persian country as positive and bets on some level of diplomacy to guarantee American interests, even if concessions have to be made.

But in order for diplomacy to really advance and to materialize in agreements, it is not enough to admit that the nuclear weapons narrative is false, it is necessary that all sanctions be banned, and that Washington removes the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) from its list of terrorist organizations, in addition to establishing a truly neutral and impartial nuclear monitoring mechanism that does not act in an interventionist manner or violate Iranian sovereignty. Until this is achieved, there will be no concrete possibility of agreement.

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Lucas Leiroz is a researcher in Social Sciences at the Rural Federal University of Rio de Janeiro; geopolitical consultant. You can follow Lucas on Twitter.

Featured image is from The Unz Review

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***

As government efforts to contain it fails even in rich nations, the world’s hunger and livelihoods crisis is rapidly escalating into an emergency. Western leaders and media have been blaming Russia and the war in Ukraine for this unfolding catastrophe, but the facts say otherwise.

A month ago, the Food and Work Network, a coalition of academics, community activists, and trade unions in the United Kingdom issued an open letter to the government, drawing its attention to an alarming issue:

“Britain is now currently experiencing a National Food Emergency…  As things stand, millions of people in the UK are today feeling insecure about food. Inflation is the highest it has been in forty years, with food prices, alongside energy costs, at record levels. Millions of people, including millions of children, are unable to meet their basic needs. Destitution is on the rise and reliance on food banks is normalized.”

They revealed some startling data – “7.3 million adults and 2.6 million children in UK households going without food or physically unable to get food in the past month” – and called for a National Food Emergency Summit to be convened urgently. The group has also issued proposals for remedying the situation, including the raising of minimum wage and universal free school meals, and ended with a call to enshrine the right to food in law, so that the British government is statutorily bound to ensure that none of its citizens go hungry.

An unprecedented crisis

The hunger and livelihoods crisis that has gripped the world since Covid-19 hit, exacerbated by the lockdown-related disruptions, has now positively ballooned into an emergency (see earlier articles by this writer here).

The crisis is manifesting at just about every level: steadily increasing prices of food, but also of fuel and fertilizer (both directly linked to food prices); growing shortages of food and fuel locally, disruption of global supply chains; increasing unemployment and poverty, and the resultant fall in incomes and purchasing power for the majority; conflict-related disruptions and uncertainty; looming financial crisis and recession; growing public protests directly linked to these; and topping it all, widespread political paralysis, enabled by media silence on the crisis. In sum, we are seeing a multi-pronged crisis unprecedented in its breadth and depth in recent history, and from which few nations seem exempt, as the UK’s case so starkly illustrates.

If we are to believe Western leaders and international organizations such as the United Nations, the crisis is primarily a product of Russia’s war in Ukraine. A U.N. task force report on the issue was titled ‘Global Impact of war in Ukraine: Billions of people face the greatest cost-of-living crisis in a generation.” U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres was quoted as saying that the war was “supercharging” the crisis in poorer countries that were already struggling to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change.

Addressing the G7 summit in Germany this June, U.S. President Joe Biden too blamed the crisis on “Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine and the severe drought in the Horn of Africa region.” Not surprisingly, Biden’s statement came in the wake of what seems like a concerted campaign in mainstream Western media targeting Russia for the crisis (“Russia is weaponizing food supplies to ‘blackmail the world’”, a CNBC headline said).

Russian President Vladimir Putin denied the charge, in turn blaming the crisis on the crippling Western sanctions on his country, which have “created conditions that made it much more difficult” to deliver certain products internationally.” He also reportedly confirmed that Russia had not “put any restrictions on the export of fertilizers, nor on the export of food products.”

But is the Russia-Ukraine war really behind the present crisis? A closer look indicates otherwise. As a March 2022 World Bank report explained: “Here is a fact which may surprise you: Global stocks of rice, wheat, and maize – the world’s three major staples – remain historically high. For wheat, the commodity most affected by the war, stocks remain well above levels during the 2007-2008 food price crisis. Estimates also suggest that about three-quarters of Russian and Ukrainian wheat exports had already been delivered before the war started.” The report refers to the food security crisis as a “food price crisis,” emphasizing that it’s not caused by shortage of food.

Data from the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) monthly ‘Cereal Supply and Demand Brief’ confirms this. The FAO’s forecast for global cereal production in 2022 has been raised by 7 million tonnes in July from the previous month and is now pegged at 2,792 million tonnes and is only 0.6 percent short of the output for the same period in 2021. According to the FAO, the shortfall caused by the Russia-Ukraine war has not impacted global wheat stocks much, thanks to higher-than-normal harvests.

Source: Global cereal production. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

An assessment by the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES), too confirms that there is currently no risk of global food supply shortages. The IPES too identifies it as a “food price crisis,” but goes on to identify the causes. Stating that “the failure to reform food systems has allowed the war in Ukraine to spark a third global food price crisis in 15 years,” the report points to “fundamental flaws in global food systems – such as heavy reliance on food imports and excessive commodity speculation – for escalating food insecurity sparked by the Ukraine invasion,” adding that “these flaws were exposed, but not corrected, after previous food price spikes in 2007-8.”

Yet another report, by Navdanya, the organization founded by environmental activist Vandana Shiva, goes even further: it points to the evidence outlined above and says that the present crisis is the direct outcome of a broken global food system that exists primarily to serve agribusiness giants.”

The report, titled Sowing Hunger, Reaping Profits – A Food Crisis by Design, traces the crisis to excessive financial speculation, increased commodity future pricing and increased volatility in the market, all of it adding up to bigger gains for corporate players, even as it drives up food prices globally. As Shiva puts it, “what the Russian-Ukrainian conflict has once again laid bare is just how fragile globalized food systems are, and how quickly a fluctuation in the market goes on to detrimentally affect the poorest. The current globalized, industrial agrifood system creates hunger by design.”

An analysis of global wheat prices by economists C.P. Chandrasekhar and Jayati Ghosh reinforces this. Examining FAO data and projections from May 2021, much before the Russia-Ukraine war commenced, they find that the estimated global production of wheat in 2022 is likely to be lower than in 2021 by less than 1%, but around 2% higher than the average of 2018-20. Similarly, global trade in wheat is also projected to fall slightly when compared to 2021, but it will still remain higher than in 2018-20.

Global wheat production. Source: FAO Food Outlook June 2022, Appendix Tables 2A and 2B

The two major factors they have identified as driving the crisis are, “profiteering by major grain trading agribusinesses, which have already shown dramatic increases in profitability in January-March 2022 as they have raised their prices without being questioned, as everyone assumes that this is the result of war-driven supply shortages. The other is financial speculation in wheat futures markets, which can drive up prices even in spot markets.”

As a recent Rolling Stone magazine report summed up, “this crisis… is in some sense artificial, given that it is not driven by any actual shortage of food in the world,” adding, “Commodity traders make money off wild price swings, shippers make money off people desperate for grain, fertilizer manufacturers make money off farmers desperate to maximize their yields, and proto-fascist politicians are happy to exploit rising food prices as evidence of the failure of democracy.”

It’s important to note that a country like the UK, where civil society is calling for a food emergency to be declared, is not on the UN’s list of 107 severely affected nations, thus revealing the sheer gravity of the crisis in these nations. Multi-billion-dollar pledges apart, official efforts to tackle the crisis seem to be failing, even in rich nations.

The conclusion is stark. Without concerted efforts by citizens to force governments to act, the accelerating hunger and livelihoods crisis will engulf the majority of humanity, with grave and unforeseen consequences. Beyond that, it calls for a radical transformation of a global agricultural-industrial-financial system designed to reap windfall gains for a handful of big corporations and investors, even as it puts billions at risk.

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Sajai Jose is a freelance journalist and researcher.

All images in this article are from Countercurrents

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***

I was relaxing in our screened porch in our little cottage in the forest, feeling rather pleased with myself. It had been an arduous week of the usual combat for liberty, but there had been victories.

I was reading a decorating magazine (we all have our vices). The grass was dewy; birds were loud. The morning was glorious.

I was feeling pioneer-ish and independent. I was alone in the house; Brian was traveling. I enjoyed the narrative moment: “Lady in the woods.”

Then I heard a “thump” about eight feet away behind my head. It was an exasperated thump, like a teenager slamming the door to his room. Like, “Really??”

I glanced behind me and saw the enormous ears and forehead of a sizable brown bear, who was ducking insolently, clearly aware of me, to lower himself behind the trash cans.

I sped indoors, locking the door. I grabbed a weapon out of the hall closet. In my haste, I grabbed the weapon that looked like a rifle, instead of the actual rifle, which was in a case. Thus I found myself locked in an upstairs bathroom, cowering, armed with a BB gun.

I sort of knew this bear. Brian had captured on his trail camera about a year ago, what must have been this bear and his brother or sister, when the little ones were just adorable cubs. One of the cubs had nuzzled the trailcam til the mom had batted it away, urging her little ones to follow her deeper into the woods, far from the dangerous things of men. One of the cubs was now this massive creature, that bear-watchers call a “sub-adult.”

I saw, peering fearfully out of the window, that it was no longer cute and fat. It was was thin, but massively muscled, and looked disoriented. It must have been eight feet long.

I paced into the upstairs bedroom and secured the windows. The bear left the garbage cans, and followed me around the corner of the house. I could now see it pacing and sniffing directly opposite the bedroom windows, though on the ground level. There were windows all around the house on that level. Bears had been known to break into homes.

I looked under the bed: hiding there could not save me if the bear made it into the house. I realized I was holding a BB gun, and felt ridiculous. Even if I managed to shoot it, this would do nothing but enrage him. The thin bedroom doors that I had thought so rustic and charming, could be broken down by an angry animal of that size in no time.

My heart pounded as I realized that he was not leaving; he continued pacing and circling, no matter where I went.

I went back into the bathroom, and locked that door with its flimsy lock.

There he was again, outside on that side of the house, as if he was spotting me or as if he could scent me. Surely he could smell my fear.

I cowered behind the bathroom curtain. The bear paused in its ransacking of the trash, stood up again on hind legs, looked right at me — or smelled right at me — and bared its long, sharp yellow teeth.

If I had had sympathy for the hungry teenager abandoned by its mom (or “emancipated” by its mom, as the bear watching sites explain) it evaporated.

I was on the phone with Brian, frozen with fear.

“Make yourself big! Shout at him!” Brian instructed. That was impossible. I could not move. I could hardly breathe.

That would be it, surely, I thought, after he’d exhausted the trash bag. He’d leave now, surely. But no. He came back toward me again like a nightmare, and headed once more to circle the house.

I called the sheriff’s office.

Twice they told me that nothing could be done, and to stay inside. I don’t blame the Columbia County Sheriffs. They have issues to deal with more serious than a former city lady trapped in her house by a hungry bear.

But the bear kept circling right up against the walls of the house. This went on for an hour. Adrenaline poured through my bloodstream. I did wonder if I would die that day.

When I called back in spite of myself and begged the police for help, they told me to call again only if he managed to break into the house. (Thank you, ‘Defund the Police’ advocates…)

At certain points of extreme stress, I could not even bring myself any longer to look outside to see where the bear was. What if I looked and couldn’t see him because he was already in the house? I went right into a place that is familiar to those of us with PTSD – a traumatized place where you freeze, and where you engage in magical thinking.

If I don’t look at the bear he won’t be there. If I don’t meet his gaze he won’t see me or smell me. I am somewhere else. I am not really here.

Reader, after an hour I was saved when brave colleagues of mine, Craig Klein, Reinette Senum and Jamie Arrigo, who had been meeting nearby, drove down our wooded driveway, blowing their car horns. I raced down the steps, never so happy to see people in my life. Reinette laughed at the sight of me racing to open the door, still carrying my useless BB gun.

I think I was coherent, but I was in shock. An officer from the Sheriff’s department arrived at the same time, bless him. Humans saved me. The aggressor, the wild animal, had been scared away, and not by me. I’d been a wreck, hopeless.

For days, I ruminated about the sharp yellow teeth of that bear, exposed as he raised his snout into the air, sniffing, like a scene from a horrifying fairy tale.

Why do I tell this story?

Because – the bear had been growing more and more comfortable emerging from the woods; he grew more and more comfortable exploring our trash and then he took over territory in exploring our lawn; he was “habituated” ultimately, as bear watchers say; he had ownership of the lawn and was circling the house to mark his territory. He was comfortable at last in stalking the homeowners.

He was here because — I had done nothing to stop him. He was here because I let him slowly take over our home.

My not being able to look directly at the bear did not make me any safer. My denial put me in greater danger.

This all, of course, really happened. But that does not mean it is not also a metaphor.

The same week that this happened, I also finalized my reporting about the Pfizer vaccines, showing — what I knew for months I would eventually find.

The heart of the manufacture and distribution of millions of doses of the MRNA vaccines that are causing such a swath of death and destruction throughout North America and Western Europe, is enmeshed with the plans, methods and manufacturing infrastructure of our existential adversary.

The enemy is within our very bodies.

Since I first started reading the reports produced by the 3000 medical and scientific experts of the WarRoom/DailyClout Pfizer Documents Research Volunteers team, based on the 55000 Pfizer documents released under court order, I knew I was seeing not just medicine gone wrong, not just a greedy pharmaceutical company and a regulatory agency that was fully corrupted, but rather, or additionally, I was seeing a massive act of war. [See this]

When I saw the eighteen months’ worth of sudden deaths, slow deaths, encephalies, strokes, heart attacks, pericarditis, myocarditis, Guillain Barre, Bell’s palsy, MS, blood clots, lung clots, leg clots, blue-green breast milk, spontaneous abortions, stillbirths, neonatal seizures, neonatal multi-organ system failure, liver damage, kidney damage, suppressed lactation, suppressed sperm count, disrupted menses, all detailed the Pfizer documents; when I saw the fact that 34,000 plus of the 42000 plus adverse events “cases” itemized in the worldwide rollout of the Pfizer injections, were sustained in the US — with the next largest group being sustained in Western Europe – and that the 56 countries around the world that also had Pfizer injections rolled out, amounted for only a bit over 7000 adverse events total — I knew I was seeing not just medicine gone wrong on a massive scale, but rather that I was seeing an act of war.

When I saw the doubling of neonatal deaths in country after country, the rise of 34% above normal in stillbirths and spontaneous abortions for vaccinated versus unvaccinated mothers; when I saw that 3816 vaccinated women in the VAERS database lost their babies — 57% of all the neonatal deaths in all the time that VAERS records had been kept — [see this]; when I saw that of 36 pregnancies followed in the Pfizer documents, 28 of the babies died [see this]; when I saw the rise of 40 per cent in death rates and the shocking rise in cases of disability in the West [see this] I knew I was not seeing just medicine gone wrong on a massive scale, but that I was witnessing an act of war.

When I saw that you could boost the lethality or the damage caused by the injection by simply changing how dilute the solution is, or simply by reassigning which brand you use – with Moderna (100 mcg) far more damaging than Pfizer (30 mcg) — I knew that I was seeing not just medicine gone wrong on massive scale, but an act of war.

When I saw a study out of Hong Kong in 2021 — a study that, of course, was answerable to the CCP — that revealed that a second dose (a “booster”) into the bloodstreams of mice, resulted in visibly enlarged hearts with white patches that could be seen by the naked eye, as well as cytokine storms and liver damage, I realized that the two-dose regime and then the “boosters” were slow but progressive ways to damage and then destroy the health of Western patients. The study concluded: “Post-vaccination myopericarditis is reported after immunization with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines.”

And yet with this CCP-overseen finding, that by injecting mammals with the MRNA vaccine, their hearts were visibly damaged, the worldwide injection program kept going.

[See this; Intravenous Injection of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) mRNA Vaccine Can Induce Acute Myopericarditis in Mouse Model, Can Li, Yanxia Chen, Yan Zhao, David Christopher Lung, Zhanhong Ye, Wenchen Song, Fei-Fei Liu, Jian-Piao Cai, Wan-Man Wong, Cyril Chik-Yan Yip, Jasper Fuk-Woo Chan, Kelvin Kai-Wang To, Siddharth Sridhar, Ivan Fan-Ngai Hung, Hin Chu, Kin-Hang Kok, Dong-Yan Jin, Anna Jinxia Zhang, Kwok-Yung Yuen; Clinical Infectious Diseases, Volume 74, Issue 11, 1 June 2022, Pages 1933–1950, https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciab707]

We were told that Pfizer/BioNTech is a German company. But it is actually a German-Chinese company. Since I first found that Pfizer/BioNTech had an MOU with Fosun Pharmaceuticals, a major CCP-linked pharmaceutical company based in Shanghai, to make the Pfizer/BioNTech MRNA vaccines, I knew that with a bit more digging I would find China at the heart of these acts of war.

BioNTech’s SEC filing shows that the MOU with Fosun Pharmaceuticals includes an equity investment by Fosun in BioNTech. In other words, the CCP is an equity investor in BioNTech:

“As part of the strategic alliance with Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical (Group) Co., Ltd (“Fosun Pharma”; Stock Symbol: 600196.SH, 02196.HK) whereby the two companies will work together on the development of BNT162 in China, Fosun agreed to make an equity investment which was received in mid-April 2020. The issuance of 1,580,777 ordinary shares with the nominal amount of k€ 1,581 was registered within the commercial register (Handelsregister) as of April 23, 2020.” Not only that but: “Ai-Min Hui, President of Global R&D, and Chief Medical Officer of Fosun Pharma said: ”We are closely working with BioNTech and regulatory authorities to evaluate the safety and efficacy of the vaccine candidate, in order to synchronize the development process in China with other countries, and to bring the vaccine to public as soon as possible, if the vaccine succeeds.” [See this]

Fosun is not separate from the CCP; it is the CCP: Fosun acquired almost half of Sinopharm:

“In 2003 Fosun Pharmaceutical acquired 49% stake of Sinopharm Group(Chinese: 国药控股). […] In 2008, a year before the initial public offering of Sinopharm Group, Fosun Pharmaceutical owned the direct parent company of Sinopharm Group, Sinopharm Industrial Investment (Chinese: 国药产业投资) instead; the majority owner of the joint venture was state-owned China National Pharmaceutical Group(Sinopharm).” 2003年年报 [2003 Annual Report] (PDF). Fosun Industrial. 24 April 2004. Retrieved 5 August 2018– via Shanghai Stock Exchange website. [^ 国药集团复星联合成立首家混合所有制药企. 企业观察报 (in Chinese (China)). 4 August 2014. Retrieved 5 August 2018 – via Sina; ^ 2009年年报 [2009 Annual Report] (PDF). Fosun Pharmaceutical. 25 March 2010. Retrieved 5 August 2018 – via Shanghai Stock Exchange website.; ^ “Connection Transaction” (PDF) (Press release). Shanghai: Fosun International. 20 June 2008.]

Sinopharm, of course, as you see above, of which Fosun owns almost half, is owned in turn directly by the Chinese State and thus reports directly to the CCP.

The initial BioNTech/Fosun MOU seems to imply that all of the BioNTech/Fosun joint ventures’ activity is in China, or in regions aligned with or close to China. But is that now the case? Fosun Pharma did not stay in China.

It came here. Fosun Pharmaceuticals is now also Fosun Pharmaceuticals USA, with branches for R and D and product formulation in Boston, MA and Princeton, NJ: [See this]

It is producing formulations and products in the US for distribution in the US and around the world. Fosun Pharma has built a “global operation strategy” for the manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines, COVID-19 PCR tests and COVID-19 antigen tests:

“Fosun Pharma has built a strong root in China and developed a global operation strategy, with pharmaceutical manufacturing and R&D being the largest and core business segment, […]”

“In 2021, the revenue from new and sub-new products including COMIRNATY® (mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, also known as BNT162b2), […] accounted for over 25% of the revenue in the pharmaceutical manufacturing segment;
· Revenue from regions outside Mainland China and countries overseas reached RMB13,599 million, accounting for 34.86% of the total revenue, marking a step forward on globalization.” [Italics mine].

And more:

“Continuously strengthening the global operation capability and making further enhancement for globalization, Fosun Pharma has formed a global operating system for R&D, manufacturing and commercialization, and continuously expands overseas markets. [..] Globalization capability is continuously strengthened. The second headquarters in the United States help to build a global business landscape with full coverage of R&D, manufacturing and commercialization.[…]

“By the end of 2021, Fosun Pharma’s overseas commercialization team with over 1,200 employees has built marketing platforms in the United States, Africa and Europe [italics mine] and has achieved direct sales of formulations to the U.S. market. […] The COVID-19 test kit by Fosun Diagnostics has been sold in over ten countries. […] Gland Pharma, a holding subsidiary in India, received approvals from the US FDA for 13 generic drugs in 2021.

“Leveraging the current global manufacturing capability and world-class manufacturing facilities […] Fosun Pharma has accelerated the acquirement of international GMP certification of domestic production lines, laying a solid foundation for exporting domestic products. In January and March 2022, Fosun Pharmaceutical Industrial obtained the Medicines Patent Pool (MPP)’s license to produce and supply the generic version of Merck’s oral COVID-19 treatment Molnupiravir and Pfizer’s oral COVID-19 treatment Nirmatrelvir, as well as the co-packaged product of Nirmatrelvir and Ritonavir of Pfizer [….]. The license includes both ingredients and the finished drug. Through this license, Fosun Pharma devoted itself further to fighting against the pandemic around the world.”

Fosun Pharma USA offers potential partners: “A global reach with a focus on the United States and China markets”. It offers “US Rights” and “Global Rights” as well as “China Rights.” [See this]

[See this].

The FDA Filing for the Fosun Pharma USA facility says the facility is authorized to “develop specifications,” including for the PCR tests and antigen tests it creates, and that the facility can also have US agents: [See this]

This is crucial. Fosun Pharmaceuticals does not just partner with Pfizer/BioNTech to make the COVID-19 vaccines: they make, as noted, the PCR tests that are the one primary metric that determine the scale of the pandemic in North America and Western Europe and thus the “lockdowns” of whole countries, whole industrial sectors.

A CCP-run company, and CCP-created product, thus, decides — who can go to work or school, who must close his or her shop, who can or cannot travel — in all of Europe and the US: [See this]. A CCP-run company decides the formulation of the PCR and antigen tests that go deep into the nasopharyngeal cavities of Westerners who are forced, week after week, to test and test and test with these products. This is what is on the Fosun Pharma USA’s product pages:

The following products are developed in the Princeton NJ Fosun Pharma USA facility:

So this CCP-owned hybrid entity is here now and it is creating the diagnostic instruments that determine the scale of the pandemic in the West. The CCP can thus dial it up or down.

It also makes: millions of the Pfizer/BioNTech MRNA injections, the Merck COVID-19 pill Molnupiravir, the Pfizer COVID-19 pill Paxlovid — for which Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla just signed a contract with the US government for 10 million doses and $5.29 billion dollars for 2022 [See this] — all this for the US and for ten other countries including the EU.

These are all formulated and distributed by a company leading directly to Chinese Communist Party.

When Pres. Biden does a deal with Pfizer/BioNTech in the millions of dollars, with our tax money, he is giving a substantial portion of the funds to China. When he spends a billion dollars via omnibus bills for PPE, including millions for PCR and antigen tests, he is writing checks to — China.

This is from Fosun Pharmaceutical USA’s website section “R and D”: look at the last three entries:

Is Fosun a squeaky clean CCP-run Pharma enterprise? In 2018 a whistleblower — and in China that is courageous thing to be — broke a scandal revealing that Fosun Pharmaceuticals had “massively” faked its data and also bribed regulators. Facilities were so chaotic that the US FDA sent the company a stern letter. [See this].

BioNTech’s SEC filing reports as 100 per cent achieved, a tech transfer to — China. Not to a “Chinese company” or a “Chinese individual” but to the country of — China:

Source

Further, the SEC filing explains that it will effect the “technology transfer with China” after marketing approval has been granted. I don’t know what “Technology transfer” or “tech transfer” means in this SEC filing; SEC filing experts who have reviewed it for me have suggested that this can mean IP, manufacturing methodologies, formulas, data, or all four. But surely it is significant that the company BioNTech has declared as 100 % complete or in process, a “Tech transfer” to CHINA. It is not “sharing” the tech or “licensing” the tech — it is transferring the tech. That means that in some capacity, China will be or is in charge of some aspect of BioNTech’s technology, however that is defined here.

So take all of the above, and map it against the 150,000 plus adverse events in the Pfizer documents, the deadly harms to reproduction, the Western baby die-off, the babies in seizures; map it against the population drop, the rise in disabilities, map it against the rigid, cruel vaccine mandates aimed at Western defense forces (Canada’s, and Australia’s and all of Western Europe’s, as well as at the most powerful military in the world, that of the United States) — map it against the vaccine mandates aimed at our police, our health care workers, our firefighters, our pilots, our first responders, our kids, our babies — all this done by a White House captive, via Hunter Biden’s laptop, to the CCP. Add to all of this the evidence of birth rates declining, especially in the West, by 12-20 per cent:

How better to cripple the world’s other superpower than by destroying our American front lines and our American next generation, with tainted, murderous vaccines, flowed easily enough into the West via (not even that many) shell companies and cutouts? How easy to do the same to Western Europe, to Canada and Australia, as a whole?

Take all of the above and consider that the virus originated in China; and now all of the testing apparatuses, as well as millions of the vaccines, the catastrophically damaging or lethal “solutions” to the virus, also all originate from the same folks; the same leadership cadre who brought the world forced abortions, citizens welded into their homes, Uighur concentration camps, and organ harvesting.

I made the case in my new book The Bodies of Others that a transnational group of bad actors – including the WEF, The WHO, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, tech companies and the CCP — used the pandemic to crush humanity and in particular to destroy the West.

With the provenance of the vaccines and tests, you can see yet another mechanism, yet another core methodology of this warfare.

Mapping these points of evidence, I think you may start to see what I see.

This all means, of course, that we are staring into the abyss right now.

Traumatized or not, we all need to snap out of denial.

We let our adversary come too close to us. Into our very bloodstreams.

We need to save each other.

We need to turn and face the ravening beast.

*

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The Bodies of Others: The New Authoritarians, Covid-19 and the War Against the Human

By Naomi Wolf

Publisher: ‎All Seasons Pr (May 31, 2022)

ISBN-10: ‎ 1737478560

ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1737478560

Reviews

“Naomi Wolf is one of the bravest, clearest-thinking people I know. The reason you hear the forces of repression so desperately trying to dismiss her is because she is right.” – Tucker Carlson

“The pandemic response is the biggest crisis of our time. It is going to make wars look small. There are very few books exploring the pandemic, its origins and the ramifications of the response. Dr. Naomi Wolf’s ‘The Bodies of Others’ focuses on the extremely important issue of bodily autonomy, that you decide what happens to your body. The greatest loss to our freedom is when our leaders makes decisions on the bodies of others. Buy this important book to understand the consequences.” – Dr. Peter McCullough, cardiologist, COVID-19 early treatment advocate, president, Cardio Renal Society of America

“Dr. Naomi Wolf’s book stands apart in a world of groupthink. It is an impeccable, thought-provoking compilation of the troubling and distressing consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, including censorship and the suppression of alternatives to the mainstream narrative.” – Dr. Paul Alexander, former WHO COVID pandemic evidence-synthesis advisor

Click here to order.

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***

According to a report from Politico, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) told Secretary of State Antony Blinken to designate Russia as a “state sponsor of terrorism” or else Congress would do it.

The Politico report cited two sources familiar with the call who said the conversation happened earlier this week. As secretary of state, Blinken has the authority to designate a state as a sponsor of terror, and Congress could also do it by passing legislation.

The designation is meant to expand sanctions on the targeted nation. Currently, only Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and Syria are designated by the US as state sponsors of terror. Cuba’s designation was lifted by the Obama administration but was reimposed during the final days of the Trump administration.

Since the US has already hit Russia with so many sanctions, the designation would have little impact on Moscow. But designating a state as a sponsor of terrorism opens up sanctions on other countries that do business with them. The move would also signal that US-Russia relations won’t be repaired for years to come as such designations are usually difficult to reverse.

Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) are pushing for the designation and introduced a resolution that would call on Blinken to enact it. The two senators traveled to Kyiv earlier this month and met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss the idea. While in Kyiv, the two senators expressed support for a “hand-to-hand insurgency” in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine.

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Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.

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***

What do you do when you hear about a US F-18 Super Hornet getting blown off a carrier by the wind?  Naturally it got me wondering about a shortage of tiedowns, you know, because of the COVID global supply chain collapse.

Just kidding!  Pretty sure that wasn’t it; maybe the Navy is just being creative about getting rid of them.  It is – as we are seeing with domestic transportation infrastructure and power grid reliability, “explosions” on the nearly empty Hoover Dam, and a massive number of food industry mishaps, among other things –  a sign that the US is, shall we say, changing.

“Revealing” is a better word than “changing.”  Americans, and those who study the United States, are starting to see all the things that are really not there.  We are getting glimpses into the nature of the massive empire, domestic and international, and its fascistic international political leadership – and when we look closer we see it is hollow, inverted, vacant and empty.

We have, as Leonard Read noted, a kakistocracy – government of the worst.  Uncle Joe is not only a great president, he is our ideal president – an incoherent, senile grifter who cannot keep track of his location, his mouth, his history, or what part of the teleprompter screen he is supposed to be reading.  Those who supported Joe, as for those who supported The Donald in 2020, were in 100% agreement in what they thought about the opposition.  Yet, these were the choices offered to the 50 states and the 340 million people who live in those states.

Political vacancy aside, the US also has no economy!  The financialized economy that Dr Roberts describes – where “which consumer income is diverted by debt expansion away from the purchase of new goods and services into debt service and fees–interest on mortgages, car loans, credit card debt, student loan debt” – produces very little.  Franklin Sanders, of The Moneychanger, adds:

Dr. Roberts doesn’t mention the other thing that proves we have no economy:  50% of the  people in the US take their living from government in one form or the other, which means that actually 75% take their living from government, counting the half of the retail workers who serve them.  That’s right, half of the people take their living from government, either working for government or receiving welfare or pensions.  Of the 50% who live off government, about 3/5 live off of state or local government, the other 2/5 off the federal government.

You can look at US labor participation rates, or overhear anecdotes of people working two or three full time jobs online unbeknownst to their erstwhile employers.  When money is disconnected from productivity, why not?

The empty US economy is matched by an utterly void foreign and military policy.  We see a military that is so strapped for qualified volunteers that it is shrinking, despite a literal explosion of federal drawing rights.  Despite every effort since the 1940s to recruit via Hollywood fairytales, turns out that spitting on the culture and religion of military families, and destroying the middle class altogether isn’t a great recruiting approach.  Who knew?

Aside from shipwrecks and missile test failures, forced drug and vaccine testing on the previously healthiest age groups, the occasional aircraft blown overboard, mass murder, black sites, shrink-wrapped cash drops, and not winning a war in 70 years – I guess the US military is doing just fine.  Actually, it seems as if the Space Force is the only part of the service that is attracting recruits.  This in itself is revealing as the Space Force is an empty outfit doing absolutely nothing, by design.

All of the evidence is pointing not to a little man behind a curtain, but something far more insignificant.  The US “project” has become a centralized and oligarchical paper-mache pinata – with no candy, no prizes, and no delight.

One wonders if it would even be worth taking a whack at it.  Perhaps this is our real national defense strategy.

Inside the hollow empire, opportunities abound, as decentralization of power is uncheckable and individual innovation already required to get anything done.  An armed, innovative, citizenry taking responsibility for his and her own security and productivity are not just good Samaritans – we are 100 million John and Jane Galts living our lives despite, and outside, centralized institutions.  The hollow empire has no ability to force anyone to do anything, whether another country or a live shooter in a Texas elementary school.  Old Soviets  – like modern Americans – share the joke that “The government pretends to pay us, and we pretend to work.”  We may extract what may be extracted from the empty institutions, and build a world that is closer to our own value systems, as we wish, and many are already doing that. It’s worth celebrating on a daily basis.

As you listen to the federal agencies and their industrial satraps cry and whine about their failed vaccination programs, their inability to recruit soldiers, the mountain of debt and an international financial economy that is disconnected from the world of innovation and productivity – as these kakicrats complain about us, lecture us, lie to us and nag us – you may know we’ve already got them by their institutional short-hairs.

Neocon nutcase and truly average guy John Bolton gave us an illustration of where the empty empire is, as it sputters on what’s left in the tank, and looks over its shoulder nervously.  Bolton was speaking to a friendly CNN/government reporter about what it takes to overthrow a government.  In explaining why January 6^th had none of those attributes, Jake Tapper inadvertently insulted the mustachoied little parasite when he said, “One does not have to be brilliant to plan a coup.”  Chickenhawk Bolton demurred, “I disagree with that as someone who helped plan coups d’etat, not here, but in other places, it takes a lot of work,…”

Yes. Yes it does.  And no one in our government understands the definition of work, nor do they aspire to it.  Instead we have fake money, fake workers, fake defense, fake credentials, fake leadership, fake presidents, fake education, fake news, fake tolerance, fake medicine, and fake wars.  Looking at this list, it is indeed impressive in its own right, and worth little more than a chuckle as we go about our day.

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Karen Kwiatkowski, Ph.D. [send her mail], a retired USAF lieutenant colonel, farmer and aspiring anarcho-capitalist. She ran for Congress in Virginia’s 6th district in 2012.

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***

The world currently faces energy and food crises. Even before the war in Ukraine, there has already been a global energy shortage caused by supply-demand imbalances after the pandemic restrictions have been eased – as well as climatic and other natural reasons that have converged with the global supply chain crisis. The fact is that amid fuel wars in the Levant and elsewhere (made worse by US sanctions), a global food crisis, which threatens mostly African countries, has been aggravated by the Ukrainian conflict. Prices were already climbing internationally before, but the situation today is even worse. The two East Slavic countries indeed are major corn suppliers and also export almost a third of the world’s barley, and wheat.

Western discourse unjustly blames Moscow for this state of affairs, but the truth is way more complicated.

It is true that the confrontation currently prevents grains from leaving the so-called breadbasket of the world, and thus has made food more expensive globally. It is also true that ongoing negotiations on setting safe corridors up to allow grains to get out of Black Sea ports had been much to no avail until the recent talks in Turkey. Part of the grains has been rerouted through Europe (by rivers, rail, and road), but such routes cannot even compare with sea ones.

According to Joseph Glauber, a senior researcher at the Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute, grain now has to go “all the way around Europe to come back into the Mediterranean”, which adds “an incredible amount of cost” to it. The World Food Programme summed it up thusly, last month:

“A global food crisis fuelled by conflict, climate shocks and the COVID-19 pandemic is growing because of the ripple effects of the war in Ukraine driving rising prices of food items, fuel and fertilizer. Millions of people across the world are at risk of being driven into starvation”

Many Western voices thus blame the Russian blockades. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and European Council President Charles Michel all claim Moscow has weaponized food. Russian grain, however, is not getting out either. The Kremlin has been arguing that all the Western sanctions on its shipping industries – not to mention its banks – have made it almost impossible for Russia to export fertilizer and food as it did before, because the situation scares foreign shipping companies away.

Moreover, there is one crucial aspect missing from most coverages on the subject. The very fact that Ukraine itself has mined up all of its Black Sea ports, particularly Odessa, is not much discussed.

Ukrainian authorities in Kiev claim they have done so to prevent Russian warships from attacking their port cities. Exports, obviously, can only resume once Kiev has taken measures to ensure all such mines have been defused. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has repeatedly stated that, once this has been done, Moscow will take all necessary steps to “ensure that the ships can leave there freely”, not abusing its own naval advantage. Ukrainian and Western authorities  claim such promises cannot be trusted. In any case, the mines remain. And this fact alone makes any progress impossible.

There is no rational reason to believe Moscow would be against Ukrainian exports to Africa, for instance, or even to the EU. The truth is that foreign ships cannot sail safely when there is a real risk of being damaged by Ukrainian mines.

Finally, there is another aspect that cannot be overlooked. The Russian Federation is clearly concerned about the flow of weapons to Ukraine – and this is a matter that should concern Europeans too, as many of them end up in black markets, and thus risk being found in the hands of terrorists, not to mention far-right extremists. Therefore, Moscow wants all foreign ships to be checked and searched for weapons.

This is precisely what was discussed last week after meetings in Istanbul. On July 13, Turkey’s defense minister, Hulusi Akar, announced a deal with Moscow, Kiev, and the United Nations (UN) aimed at resuming grain exports. It has not been signed yet, but it involves joint controls for checking the ships. Russia has, once again, offered free passage.

On July 20, while in Tehran, Russian President Vladimir Putin said there has been “progress”, but added that “not all problems have yet been resolved.”

This is a very critical step forward, but whether the Ukrainian military possesses the technical capacity to diffuse all the mines it has installed on its own ports (or the will to do so) still remains to be seen.

One can of course be critical of the very Russian decision to launch what it describes as its military special operation in Ukraine or the way it has conducted it, but the fact that this unfortunate state of affairs is the result of a series of Western-backed Ukrainian provocations should not be forgotten in any serious analysis of the conflict.

NATO has been aggressively expanding, and Kiev, armed and aided by the West, has been waging war against Donbass for the last 8 years, and so things have escalated into this conflict.

At this point, the risk of global hunger is very real, but it is about time Ukraine too is held responsible for the current situation. It is up to Kiev to diffuse its port mines and to make concessions so that grain exports can resume.

*

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Uriel Araujo is a researcher with a focus on international and ethnic conflicts.

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***

The Ukrainian parliament has passed two new radical measures on labour liberalisation, prompting fears of Ukrainians losing workplace rights permanently as Russia’s war puts huge pressure on the country’s economy.

In two laws passed on Monday and Tuesday, MPs voted to legalise zero-hours contracts and made moves towards removing up to 70% of the country’s workforce from protections guaranteed by national labour law.

The latter measure means the national labour code no longer applies to employees of small- and medium-sized enterprises; instead, it is proposed that each worker strikes an individual labour agreement with their employer. It also removes the legal authority of trade unions to veto workplace dismissals.

Draft law 5371 had previously been criticised by the International Labor Organization, as well as Ukrainian and European trade unions, on the basis that it could “infringe international labour standards”.

Ukraine’s ruling Servant of the People party argued that the “extreme over-regulation of employment contradicts the principles of market self-regulation [and] modern personnel management”.

Red tape in Ukraine’s HR laws, it suggested, “creates bureaucratic barriers both for the self-realisation of employees and for raising the competitiveness of employers”.

The Federation of Trade Unions of Ukraine will now ask president Volodymyr Zelenskyi to veto draft law 5371 when it goes to him for signature – but will not make the same request over the proposed law on zero-hours contracts, Ukrainian MP Vadym Ivchenko told openDemocracy.

Nataliia Lomonosova, an analyst at Ukrainian think tank Cedos, warned that the two laws could further deteriorate an already difficult socio-economic situation for Ukrainians suffering from Russia’s military campaign.

According to the UN’s latest numbers, Russia’s invasion has led to at least seven million people becoming displaced inside Ukraine itself, which has been compounded by a severe economic crisis hitting families and individuals hard. At the same time, the World Bank has predicted that Ukraine’s economy will contract by 45% this year.

With these factors in mind, Lomonosova argued that Ukrainians have little choice or bargaining power when it comes to employers – the number of available vacancies is vastly disproportionate to the number of people now looking for work in the country. “People right now have no bargaining power, and trade unions cannot protect them,” she said.

Speaking to openDemocracy, Lomonosova expressed a fear that, as a result of the displacement, “many people will find themselves in the situation of Ukrainian migrant workers” in their own country – meaning, for instance, people will have little choice but to accept poor conditions and to be ever more dependent on their employers.

‘Window of opportunity’

A leading member of Zelenskyi’s party promised further liberalisation of Ukraine’s labour legislation earlier this month.

“These are draft laws that business is waiting for, draft laws that will protect the interests of all entrepreneurs. And workers, too, by the way,” wrote MP Danylo Hetmantsev on Telegram on 9 July.

“A worker should be able to regulate his relationship with an employer himself. Without the state,” noted Hetmantsev, who is head of the Ukrainian parliament’s finance committee.

“This is what happens in a state if it’s free, European and market-oriented. Otherwise, the country will be travelling with one leg on an express train to the EU, and with another inside a Soviet-era train going in the other direction.”

Ukrainian labour lawyer George Sandul previously told openDemocracy that MPs had used Russia’s invasion of the country as a “window of opportunity” in which to try to push through drastic changes to labour legislation.

Lomonosova, of Cedos, agreed with Sandul, arguing that deregulation and the stripping back of social guarantees was a long-term policy of the Ukrainian government even before the war, and was likely part of an effort to attract foreign investors.

She pointed to the fact that both of the laws passed this week date to an early attempt by the Zelenskyi administration and the ruling party to deregulate labour legislation in 2020-21. This attempt was beaten back as a result of a protest campaign by Ukrainian trade unions, a prospect now hard to imagine due to the war and martial law, Lomonsova said.

As she put it, the Ukrainian government and ruling party are also now increasingly talking about the fact that the state “cannot afford welfare, employment benefits or protection of labour rights” because of the war.

In contrast to the deregulation trend, Lomonsova says that there is clear support among the Ukrainian public for social democracy.

“Year on year, opinion surveys have shown that Ukrainians have strong social democratic attitudes, including in favour of welfare,” Lomonosova said. “They expect the government to protect their labour rights and offer a complete social package. Not even war can change this.”

Zero-hours contracts

Under Ukraine’s new zero-hours legislation, employers who choose to use the contract option will be able to call up workers at will, though contracts must define the method and minimum timeframe for informing an employee of work, and the response time of the worker to agree or refuse to work.

The legislation also says people employed on these new contracts must be guaranteed a minimum of 32 hours’ work a month, and that the percentage of employees on zero-hours contracts at company can’t be more than 10%.

In its explanation of the law, the Ukrainian government stated that people involved in irregular work are currently employed “without any social or labour guarantees”.

Therefore, it says, zero-hours contracts – a term the government used – will help “legalise the work of freelancers, who mostly work on short-term projects and are not limited to working for a single client”.

Labour lawyer and activist Vitaliy Dudin told openDemocracy that, as a result of the economic crisis caused by the war, Ukrainians are facing ever greater “economic risks” and poverty – and this means that Ukrainian employers “will be able to radically reduce labour costs”.

The new contracts proposed under zero-hours legislation, he suggested, could also lead to two-tier workplaces, where employers offer secure jobs to loyal or non-unionised staff, while others face precarious employment or immediate dismissal for reasons manufactured by the employers.

This could affect workplaces with hundreds of workers, including public sector jobs at risk of austerity policies, such as hospitals, railway depots, post offices and infrastructure maintenance, Dudin said.

“This is a disastrous step towards precarisation,” Dudin said, and one that “calls into question the very right of Ukrainians who have been affected by the war to get a means of living”.

What happens after the war?

European trade union groups have long criticised the growing trend towards labour liberalisation in Ukraine since Zelenskyi and his political party, Servant of the People, came to power in 2019.

On 14 July, as rumours of a new vote on draft law 5371 spread, three European trade union confederations expressed their concern that the Ukrainian government and ruling party “continue to reject the EU’s values of social dialogue and social rights” with its labour liberalisation programme.

“We are strongly concerned about regressive labour reforms continuing after the emergency of war is over,” the unions’ letter said, claiming the reforms “go in the opposite direction to EU principles and values”.

Ukrainian parliamentarians have previously criticised draft law 5371 as a potential danger to the country’s integration into the European Union. Ukraine was granted EU candidate status in late June.

Both Ukraine’s 2014 Association Agreement with the EU and its 2020 Political, Free Trade and Strategic Partnership Agreement with the UK contain provisions on ensuring workplace protections – including against attempts to attract international investment.

László Andor, a former EU commissioner for employment, social affairs and inclusion between 2010 and 2014, told openDemocracy that he believed this new legislation suggested that Ukraine was going in a “completely different direction” from EU norms on decent work.

“This case is a big dose of opportunism,” said Andor, now secretary general of the Foundation for European Progressive Studies, a Brussels think tank.

“Ukrainian lawmakers need to understand better what the difference is between a continental European model and these moves towards a very precarious labour market.

“Ukrainian trade unions are not being listened to sufficiently. This would be elementary in the European Union.“

“There is an enormous amount of national cohesion in Ukraine, which the rest of the world admires,“ Andor continued. “But these moves, in my opinion, can also undermine national unity – something very much needed for resisting a foreign invasion.“

Proponents of the law consider Ukrainian trade unions’ efforts at defeating labour liberalisation an attempt to “preserve their influence“, and that ILO conventions on workplace protections are “out of step“ with the modern labour market and the needs of small and medium-sized businesses.

While ruling party MPs have suggested that draft law 5371 will passed as a temporary, wartime measure, MP Mykhailo Volynets, a member of the same Batkivshchyna party as Ivchenko, argued “it is clear that no one will be able to undo this situation later” in a post on Facebook.

“The labour code will no longer apply, collective agreements will be eliminated, and even those mechanisms of employee protection that are in place today will not work. This is a brazen violation of international norms and standards in the field of labour,” he said.

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Featured image: A Ukrainian soldier carries a Javelin anti-tank missile through a trench in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. Photo courtesy the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine/Facebook.

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In early June 2022, the government of The Netherlands announced it would cut the size of livestock herds in the country by 30% to meet European Union nitrogen and ammonia pollution rules

According to Dutch Parliament member Thierry Baudet, the government is following the script of The Great Reset, which requires weakening the country, making it more dependent on food imports, and diluting nationalism by taking in more immigrants. To make room for immigrant housing, they need to take land from the farmers

The newly assigned Minister for Nature and Nitrogen Policy, Christianne van der Wal-Zeggelink, is married to Piet van der Wal, who together with his brother are heavily invested in the major online grocery retailer Picnic. In September 2021, Bill Gates invested an estimated half-billion dollars into Picnic, thereby becoming one of its lead investors. Gates’ involvement has raised questions about government corruption

At the same time the Dutch government is preparing to radically restrict livestock farming and meat production, Gates is gobbling up farmland back home. Despite land prices being at a record high, Gates purchased a 2,100-acre potato farm in North Dakota in June 2022, bringing the total land share held by the Gates’ Red River Trust above 270,000 acres

Gates claims he intends to lease the farmland to farmers. Viewed from the perspective of The Great Reset, it would then appear Gates may be engaged in the same kind of wealth-shift scheme as BlackRock and other investment groups that are buying up single-family homes and turning them into rentals. The end goal is to eliminate all private ownership and turn the population into serfs

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Click here to watch the video.

In early June 2022, the government of The Netherlands announced it would cut the size of livestock herds in the country by 30% to meet European Union nitrogen and ammonia pollution rules.^1,2 As a result of this “green” policy, many farmers will be driven out of business³ and they have gathered in protest across the country.

This is important because many may not realize that even though The Netherlands is a small country, it’s the second-largest exporter of agriculture in the world, after the United States.⁴ As with current energy shortages, the forced reductions in farming and food production are said to be an “unavoidable” part of the Green Agenda to improve air, soil and water quality.⁵

In a public statement about the new emissions targets, the Dutch government even admitted that “The honest message … is that not all farmers can continue their business.”⁶ Those who do continue will have to come up with creative solutions to meet the new emissions restrictions.

A Clear Case of Corruption?

The restrictions on nitrogen for livestock farmers have befuddled many. Why would government restrict farming at a time when food shortages and famine loom on the horizon worldwide? Some claim to have discovered conflicts of interest within the Dutch government that can help explain this irrational move.⁷

The newly assigned Minister for Nature and Nitrogen Policy (who created the nitrogen regulations and is responsible for overseeing the cuts to farming), Christianne van der Wal-Zeggelink, is married to Piet van der Wal, who together with his brother, Bouke van der Wal, own a massive supermarket chain called Boni.

As noted by The Conservative Treehouse,⁸ “when Dutch farmers sell product to Boni they are directly funding the wealth of the government minister who seeks to destroy their livelihoods.”

The van der Wal family is also heavily invested in a major online grocery retailer called Picnic. Picnic buys food at wholesale prices directly from Boni, which minimizes its operational costs. Picnic basically functions as a home delivery service for Boni.

In September 2021, Bill Gates entered the Dutch enterprise. He invested an estimated half-billion dollars into Picnic, thereby becoming one of its lead investors.⁹ Not surprisingly, Picnic focuses on selling the fake “food” that Gates is invested in and promotes, imitation beef in particular.

The CEO of Picnic, Michiel Muller, a Dutch climate change activist, has also publicly vowed to “change the entire food system” to be in line with sustainable goals,¹⁰ which falls right in line with Gates’ agenda.

The strong recommendation to replace beef with fake meat was made in Gates’ book “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need,” released in February 2021.¹¹ In an interview with MIT Technology Review, he also suggested that people could learn to like fake meat and, if resistance continues, regulations may be needed to force the switch.¹²

According to The Countersignal,¹³ “many participating in the ongoing farmers’ protests in Holland have openly stated they believe Gates may be partly responsible for pushing additional climate laws.” Curiously, July 10, 2022, a large Picnic delivery facility in Almelo, Holland, burned to the ground under mysterious circumstances.^14,15,16

Why Get Rid of Farmers Amid Rising Food Insecurity?

The attempt to rid The Netherlands of livestock farmers really only makes sense if seen from the globalists’ point of view, with an eye on The Great Reset, the Green New Deal, Agenda 2030 and related Sustainable Development Goals.

Indeed, according to Dutch Parliament member Thierry Baudet (video above), that’s really what the nitrogen restrictions are all about. The Dutch government is following the script of The Great Reset, he says, which requires weakening the country, making it less independent and more dependent on food imports.

The Great Reset script also calls for diluting nationalism and weakening borders by taking in more immigrants, and to make room for immigrant housing, they need to take land from the farmers. So, the new nitrogen rules are basically a precursor to a land grab. They intend to put farmers out of business so they can take their land and stack it full of low-income, government-assistance apartment buildings.

Aside from that, farmers also pose a threat to the technocratic elitists because they don’t need to rely on government for basics such as food and shelter, and they can allow those who buy their food to maintain their independence as well.

The globalists’ plan is to eliminate access to as much real food as possible, and replace natural foods with patented foodstuffs so that the population becomes entirely dependent on them for survival. At that point, they are easily controlled. Eliminating independent food producers — farmers — is therefore a key to the globalist cabal’s eventual success.

Gates Gobbles Up Farmland While Pushing Fake Foods

At the same time the Dutch government is preparing to radically restrict livestock farming and meat production — likely with Gates’ blessing, if not due to his influence — Gates is gobbling up farmland back home.

Despite land prices being at a record-high, Gates purchased a 2,100-acre potato farm in North Dakota in June 2022, bringing the total land share held by the Gates’ Red River Trust above 270,000 acres — up from about 242,000 acres in mid-September 2021.

The following map, from AgWeb,¹⁷ shows the distribution of his land holdings prior to his North Dakota acquisition. As you can see, the vast majority is farmland.

Gates Plan: Turn Farmers Into Modern Serfs

However, as reported by AgWeb at the end of June 2022, Gates didn’t get a warm welcome:¹⁸

“North Dakota hosts ‘corporate farming laws’ that barres [sic] corporations and limited liability companies from owning and leasing farms and ranches. With the Gates’s new $13.5 million farmland purchase, North Dakotans — including the attorney general — are concerned the sale violates the state’s law. The North Dakota attorney general’s office sent a letter to the Red River Trust on Tuesday, alerting the trustee of the North Dakota land law.

‘Our office needs to confirm how your company uses this land and whether this use meets any of the statutory exceptions, such as the business purpose exception,’ wrote Drew Wrigley, North Dakota attorney general.”

MoneyWise¹⁹ followed up on the story, reporting that by July 5, 2022, Gates had secured legal approval for his farm purchase — a decision that has raised the ire of many North Dakotans who don’t believe Gates has good intentions.

According to MoneyWise, “The anti-corporate farming law does allow individual trusts to own farmland if it is leased to farmers — and that’s what Gates’ firm plans to do.” Viewed from the perspective of The Great Reset, it appears Gates may be engaged in the same kind of subversive wealth-shift scheme as BlackRock and other investment groups that are buying up single-family homes.

They buy them, often sight-unseen and at above-market prices, with the intent of turning them into rentals. This too is part and parcel of The Great Reset and the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.

The intent is to eliminate all private ownership and turn the population into modern serfs. “Serf” is a term that describes people who are required to work for the “lord” who owns the land they live on, or who are otherwise underpaid, overworked or exploited in some way.

That’ll be all of us, one day, if the world doesn’t wake up and refuse to go along with the globalist cabal’s Great Reset plans. The plight of the Dutch farmers is just the beginning.

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Notes

¹ Substack, The Freedom Corner with PeterSweden July 1, 2022

² Reuters June 10, 2022

³ Bloomberg June 28, 2022

⁴ WEF. November 27, 2019

^5, 6 Indian Express July 3, 2022

^7, 8, 10 The Conservative Treehouse July 12, 2022

⁹ USSA News July 10, 2022

¹¹ Market Watch February 16, 2021

¹² MIT Technology Review February 14, 2021

^13, 14 The Countersignal July 11, 2022

¹⁵ Newspunch July 11, 2022

¹⁶ Sott.net July 11, 2022

^17, 18 AgWeb June 28, 2022

¹⁹ Moneywise July 5, 2022

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Dr Peter Breggin MD is a lifelong reformer known as “The Conscience of Psychiatry” for his criticism of biological psychiatry and his promotion of more effective, empathic, and ethical forms of psychological, educational, and social approaches to people with emotional suffering and disability. He graduated from Harvard College with Honors and his psychiatric training included a Teaching Fellowship at Harvard Medical School.

Following his training, he became a Full Time Consultant in the U.S. Public Health Service at NIH, assigned to the National Institute of Mental Health. Since then, he has taught at several universities, including Johns Hopkins, George Mason, and the University of Maryland, as well as at the Washington School of Psychiatry.

Dr. Breggin gives his no-holds-barred view of why America’s children are so depressed, suicidal and homicidal.

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This interview was originally published on TNT Radio.

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***

“The straw that broke the camel’s back” … an undesirable event that makes it apparent a burdensome load can no longer be tolerated without collapse!

Introduction

29 Jun 2022 – For decades, the straws of human struggle and suffering have been added to World’s back. Each adding to a burden exceeding limits of human and natural endurance and survival. Like thousands of others, I rejected the lies and propaganda of those in power seeking to mollify and calm the visibly apparent collapse of the World, as yet new straws were added for personal benefit of those individuals and nations whose wealth, power, and position enabled them to act with egregious disdain and contempt of the consequences of their actions – the “Extinction of Life on Earth.”

Like thousands of others across the World, empowered only by word and voice, I have written and prophesied like Cassandra, daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of ancient Troy, sister of the noble hero Hector, gifted by Apollo with the powers to predict the future, yet ultimately denied acceptance of her words, regardless of their accuracy. And so, I write once again to call attention to the dire situation facing the world as its essential life resources are exploited, destroyed, and cast aside in favor corporate, military, and nationalistic profits, ideologies, and interests bent on the limited survival of a chosen few.

With little hesitancy, Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, spoke of a coming global crisis in starvation, an unprecedented global hunger crisis impacting hundreds of millions of people, most in developing nations, because needed resources for agriculture (e.g., seeds, fertilizers, arable land, energy, workers, harvesting and distribution systems) are currently unavailable. He called for a reintegration of Russia and the Ukraine into the food production network, tragically a most unlikely response.  (See this) Global starvation, of course is only one of a spectrum of challenges, constituting a historic burden to the World. Yet another “straw” heaped upon a World mired in accumulating crises.

A Panorama of Global Challenges

I am writing this article on a panorama of global challenges with the specific purpose of increasing knowledge, consciousness, and urgent attention to the global context of our lives our lives today, especially with respect to their pressing severity, frequency, and resistance to solution.

What is at stake in this moment of time is the question of the “Survival of Life on Earth!” This is not hyperbole! I am not a Luddite! I am, like so many others, acutely aware of the perilous consequences of the many rapid, dislocating, and destructive changes occurring across the world today.

Life on Earth is experiencing a spectrum of challenges eluding control. Most of these challenges are a function of anthropogenic (human) origin, exacerbation, and perpetuation. When combined with the many natural challenges the World is facing, the spectrum of Global Challenges reveals the destruction of human and nature resources required for sustaining life.

Under the pretext of normal and acceptable progress and evolution in emerging technological advances, changes in the social formation, and essential Western nation cultural values, political priorities, and noble intentions, Global Challenges exceed our capacity to prevent the “Extinction of all Life on Earth,” from the most microscopic, to that of every vast expression.

Widespread pollution and destruction of ocean, atmosphere, and Earth, resources for financial purposes, has sealed the World’s fate. Anthropogenic failure to acknowledge Earth’s complex resources, raises the prophetic reality of “Eschatological” end times. Historical predictions, prophecies, and realities. (e.g., cyclical, linear, messianic), proposed across time and location in past centuries, are now visible and apparent.

Figure 1 displays the range of anthropogenic destruction of nature and civilization over the course of the presence of modern human species  in the last 50,000 years, especially the last eleven thousand years when humans moved from a hunting/gathering species to collective agricultural and societal forms of survival creating awe-inspiring civilizations which rose and collapsed from internal and external limitations.

While there is debate between environmental sciences, who favor the termed “Anthropogenic Era,” and geological sciences who  favoring more scientific terminology consistent with past practices (e.g., “Holocene”), it is no longer questioned humanity’s evolutionary rise from primate roots to tribal, societal, and civilization levels, brought with it a destructive impulse threatening to extinguish all forms of existing life.  Tragically, this harsh reality denies and erases the magnificence of humanity’s achievements in advancing noble knowledge, wisdom, and moral codes. There cannot be any doubt of humanity’s creative talents and abilities, yet these must be weighed against the consequences of Life’s demise and destruction.

Figure 1: Anthropogenic Destructions 

List of Global Challenges

In a previous article, I composed a list of Global Challenges, summarizing and categorizing well-know and self-evident problems accruing across present times. (i.e., Marsella, 2022). In my prior article, I was initially more concerned with the human mind’s pursuit of meaning by its capacity to accommodate disparate information, yielding acceptable beliefs and actions.

Unfortunately, lost in this process was the very list of Global Challenges I had compiled as a trope for my existential explorations. It was only after, I recognized I had stumbled across a far more important issue for our times, and that was the magnitude and consequences of the Global Challenges.

As a result, I began collecting, collating, and organizing global events and forces occurring within a condensed period of time to reveal the immense burden the challenges are imposing on individual, societal, and national survival. Each day seems to bring a new or augmented past challenge, and with a sense of uncertainty, confusion, and panic. It is too much to grasp and understand, bringing with it despair, chaos, and a helplessness the limits of human coping have been exceeded, and “end times” are near.

The compiled list of “Global Challenges, which follows is overwhelming in their scope and magnitude, raising to a new priority and call for action, the most important challenge humanity faces, “Extinction of Life on Earth.”

While daily attention is given to the many crises and disasters humanity faces, “Extinction” looms as the most critical.

Within the last decade, there has been a dramatic increase in interest and publications about extinction, much of it stimulated by the publication of Elizabeth Kolbert’s (2014), Pulitzer Prize Award volume, The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History. Kolbert’s publication reminded the Humanity of the Earth’s past extinctions, their sources, and the many current disasters threatening a “Sixth Extinction.” Kolbert writes:

Over the last half a billion years, there have been five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. This time around, the cataclysm is us. (Kolbert, 2014, opening).

Robert Burrowes and Anita McKone (2016), in an essential article, entitled “Life on Earth Is Dying’” (Transcend Media Service, December 12, 2016), write:

The human onslaught to destroy life on Earth is unprecedented in Earth’s history. Planet Earth is now experiencing its sixth mass extinction event and Homo Sapiens is the cause. Moreover, this mass extinction event is accelerating and is so comprehensive in its impact that the piece meal measures being taken by the United Nations, international agencies and governments constitute a tokenism that is breathtaking in the extreme. You and I are on the brink of driving to extinction some of the most iconic species alive today. (Burrowes, 2016)

James Lovelock, called one of the most brilliant minds of our time,  proposed a captivating hypothesis in two of his books: The Revenge of Gaia: Earth’s Climate Crisis & The Fate of Humanity Paperback – June 5, 2007 NY: Basic Books, Novacene: The Coming Age of Hyperintelligence (The MIT Press) Hardcover – August 27, 2019.  Lovelock suggested the Earth is a living planet, characterized by complex ecological interconnectedness in which all parts impact the whole, yielding an organic planetary existence.

Each day, there are “Challenges of the Day,” ranging from gun violence to romantic problems among banal celebrity lives. Too often, “Challenge of the Day,” has pushed other critical challenges aside. For example, Russia-Ukraine headlines, morph into economic issues of recession as consumer prices rise because of transportation, manufacturing problems, and supply lines. This is followed by the reality of mass starvation, especially in Africa and parts of Asia. This is followed by the perennial and enduring problem of violence, guns, and mass murders in the USA. The tragic Uvalde School massacre of 19 children and two teachers, became the focus of world attention, as nothing could bring comfort to shattered hearts and minds.

Within the span of a few weeks, my compiled List of Global Challenges had grown to Brobdingnagian proportion, characterized not only by number, but also by complexity and resistance to change. While many public and private (NGOs) have evidence admirable efforts to resolve entries, the harsh reality is people and the world are hurting. Amanda Gorman, USA Poet Laureate’ words, offer balm for our pain and suffering at this time when “everything hurts.”  Amanda’s moving poem is presented at the end of this article.

While there is a “Challenge of the Moment, occupying attention,” there is also an “accumulation burden” of Global Challenges constantly lurking in the background context.  This has critical implications for human stress and wellbeing, effective problem solving, and risks of extinction of all life on Earth. It is a harsh reality, but a reality nevertheless.

Of special note is the complex interaction and inter-relationship of the Global Challenges. Too many Global Challenges are dismissed “intentionally” by government, corporate, and military interests, keeping citizens in the “dark” about what is occurring, lest protests arise adding to the Challenges.

In many nations, protests now assume the form of national “populism” for governmental support, which is, in reality, denial, distortion, and a delusional reality. Humanity, through ignorance, greed, passivity, reliance, and acceptance, of unwarranted trust in corrupt public and private institutions, has forged its own demise, and the likely demise of other forms of life.

Because of their wealth, power, and position, some human elites may survive, by constructing alternatives to life on Earth. For example, elite corporate technocrats (e.g., World Economic Forum, Davos Cabal) believe a self-sufficient “Star-Wars” community in outer space will offer a solution for the privileged to survive. There are plans afoot to build a nuclear reactor on the Moon to support a human community. Their sins will follow them!

Global Challenges List: (Alphabetical Order)

• ABORTION RIGHTS (NATION VARIATION IN USE, ACCEPTABLE GESTATION TIMES, MORALITY ISSUES, RIGHT-TO-LIFE, ROE VS WADE, SUPREME COURT OVERTURN RESULTING IN MASSIVE PROTESTS)
• ACRONYMS OMNIPRESENT (USA, NATO, UN, FBI, MI5, MI6, CIA, KGB, WB, IMF, NSA, SCOTUS, WEF, UK, IRS, SOCSEC, NGO, AA, DARPA, MAGA, UDHR)
• AGING (AGING) (WORLD POPULATIONS ARE AGING PRESENTING NUMEROUS PROBLEMS REGARDING CARE AND COSTS. CULTURE CHANGES HAVE RESULTED IN LESS FAMILY CARE GIVERS
• AIRLINE TRAVEL (STAFF SHORTAGES, PASSENGER ABUSES, FUEL POLLUTION, LOST LUGGAGE, SAFETY, CRASHES, STEWARD PAY, INEBRIATED PILOTS, PILOT SHORTAGES AND STRIKES)
• ALCOHOLISM (ALCOHOL DEPENDENCE, ALCOCHOL ABUSE, ALCOHOL ADDICTION, BINGE DRINKING, FRATERNITY DEATHS, NIDA, FETAL ALCOHOL SYNDROME, BEER POPULARITY AS SOCIAL LUBRICANTS,           ADVERTISMENTS, NON-ALCOHOLIC BEERS)
• AMERICAN INDIGENOUS POPULATIONS (AMERICAN INDIAN TRIBES, NATIVE HAWAIIAN, PACIFIC ISLANDERS, SOME HISPANIC NEW REPORT OF MAJOR GENOCIDES, ABUSES, EXPLOITATION, BY USA GOVERNMENT, RELIGION GROUPS (CATHOLIC, PROTESTANT, MISSIONARIES, ESPECIALLY IN IRELAND AND CANADA)
• ASTROPHYSICS (AWESOME DISCOVERIES & ACHIEVEMENTS IN THIS FIELD OF STUDY OPENED MINDS TO THE ORIGINS AND NATURE OF EARTH, PLANETS, SOLAR SYSTEM, AND UNIVERSES. RISKS/VIRTUES          (MINING METALS) OF ASTEROIDS BECAME MOMENTARY HEADLINES, RISKS OF ASTEROID (BENTU), GOVERNMENTAL RESPONSES (E.G., SPACE FORCE, NEW TELESCOPES)
• ATHLETIC PREOCCUPATION, ADDICTION, COMPETITION ACROSS DIFFERENT SPORTS (SOCCER, CRICKET, RUGBY, LACROSSE, FOOTBALL, BASKETBALL, BASEBALL, TENNIS, GOLF, BADMINTON,           VOLLEYBALL, PING-PONG, BOWLING, OLYMPICS, PARA-OLYMPICS, TRACK & FIELD MARATHONS)
• BABY-FORMULA SHORTAGES (USA MANUFACTURES SHORTAGES, INFECTIONS, SUPPLY LINES PRESIDENTIAL INTERVENTION, DANGERS OF HOME PRODUCTS)
• CAPITALISM(PREDATORY, CORRUPT, EXPLOITIVE, CORPORATE, PHILANTHROPIC, CORPORATION RIGHTS, CITIZENS-UNITED POLITICAL DONATIONS, GREED, POWER. WALL STREET INVESTMENTS EXPERIENCE           DECLINE IN TECH STOCKS. INFLATION INCREASES, RISK OF GLOBAL DEPRESSION)
• CELEBRITIES (PERSONAL IDENTIFICATION WITH POLITICIANS, ATHLETES, MOVIE STARS, SINGERS. CELEBRITY WITH LOYALTY TO SYSTEM TO MAINTAIN THEIR STATUS; ISSUE OF PERSONAL IDENTITY)
• CHILD MENTAL AND PHYSICAL HEALTH (GROWING ATTENTION AND CONCERN FOR CHILD ABUSE, VIOLENCE, AND PERMANENT DISABILITIES, ORPHANS FROM COVID DEATHS, HEPATITIS C DEATHS)
• CHINA(LEADING COMPETITOR TO USA MONOLITHIC STATUS. YEN COMPETITOR FOR DOLLAR AS UNIT OF INTERNATIONAL CURRENCY. ABUSES OF MUSLIM POPULATIONS. HONG KONG RESISTANCE, FUTURE WAR WITH USA REGARDING TAIWAN AND ASIAN DOMINANCE, REPRESSION OF TIANAMEN SQUARE)
• CIA CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY (INCREASING FACTUAL INFORMATION OF CIA INVOLVEMENT IN POLITICAL ELECTIONS IN USA, REGIME CHANGE AROUND THE WORLD, INCLUDING UKRAINE,           FOMENTING WARS AND CIVIL STRIFE.  EVIDENCE OF INVOLVEMENT IN TORTURE, ASSASSINATION OF INTERNATIONALS).
• CIVIL DISORDER, REBELLIONS, INSURRECTIONS, WARS (PALESTINE, ETHIOPIA, RUSSIA, AFGHANISTAN, SOMALIA, MYANMAR, HAITI, COLOMBIA, PAKISTAN, SOUTH AFRICA)
• CLIMATE CHANGE DEADLINES (CO2, METHANE, GLOBAL IMPLICATIONS FOR EVERYTHING ESSENTIAL TO SURVIVAL, 50% CHANCE OF MEETING WARMING DESTRUCTION MARK BY 2026. CONTINUED           INTERNATIONAL MEETS TO DISCUSS AND EVALUATE CARBON DISCHARGE LEVELS)
• COLONIALISM(LAND, SEA, SKY OWNERSHIP) (E.G., BALKANS, TAIWAN, AFRICA, RUSSIA-UKRAINE, ISRAEL-PALESTINE)
• COMMODIFICATION (ASSIGNING MONETARY AND FINANCIAL VALUE AND COSTS TO ALL PRODUCTS AND PEOPLE)
• CONSUMERISM (BUY, BUY, BUY! ADVERTISING, TRANSFERRING, SELLING SITE VISITS, ESSENCE OF ECONOMIES AT ALL LEVELS: LOCAL, NATIONAL, INTERNATIONAL)
• CORPORATIONS (CITIZENS UNITED, EQUAL RIGHTS WITH INDIVIDUALS, OWNERSHIP AND CONTROL OF TECHNOLOGIES, CORPORATION-TECHNOLOGY PARTNERSHIPS – WEF/DAVOS)
• COVID (RECOGNITION OF ALTERNATIVE SOURCES, MUTATIONS, VARIANTS [OMICRON]). ISSUE OF DURATION [LONG, SHORT], SYMPTOMATOLOGY DISPLAYS AND TESTS. UNCERTAINTY ABOUT FREQUENCY, SEVERITY,           TREATMENT, AND PREVENTION. AUTHORITIES DISTRUSTED?], CONSPIRACIES, FINANCIAL PROFIT, LOCKDOWN CONSEQUENCES. ESTIMATED 5 (15) MILLION DEATHS, SIDE EFFECTS OF VACCINATION)
• CRIME/VIOLENCE/CARTELS/SYNDICATES/GANGS/NATIONS (MEXICO, COLOMBIA, EL SALVADOR, USA, HAITI, ITALY, INTERNATIONAL SOVEREIGN NATIONS, GOVERNMENTS, INTERPOL COOPERATION)
• CRYPTO CURRENCIES (BITCOIN, ETHER, LITECOIN, MONERO. INCREASING SCANDALS INVOLVING CELEBRITIES.)
• DIGITAL ID (MULTIPLE SOURCES OF DIGITIZING IPERSONL IDENTITY FOR RECORD PURPOSES.  SURVEILLANCE, MASS SOCIETY, CONTROL)
• DISEASE EPIDEMICS AND PANDEMICS (COVID VARIANTS, FLU, BIRD FLU FEVER, TUBERCULOSIS, OBESITY, DIABETES II, EBOLA, CHAGAS, MALARIA, MONKEY POD, LYME DISEASE)
• DISPOSAL OF NUCLEAR WASTE (WHERE, HOW, CONSEQUENCES, OFTEN SHIPPED TO DEVELOPING NATIONS, ENERGY NEEDS FAVOR NUCLEAR PLANTS)
• DISPROPORTIONATE MONOPOLISTIC CONTROL (BIG AG, BIG PHARM, BIG MEDIA, BIG ED, BIG FINANCE, BIG GOV, BIG BANKS, BIG PHILANTHROPIES)
• ECONOMY (GLOBAL RECESSION PRESENT OR PREDICTED. STAGFLATION WITH HIGH PRICES AND LOWER SALARIES. BILLIONAIRES INCREASE IN NUMBER)
• EDUCATION AT ALL LEVELS (PURPOSES, PROCESS, PROBLEMS – BULLYING, VIOLENCE, RACISM, DROPOUTS, CURRICULUM, TEACHER COMPETENCY, MASS SHOOTINGS IN SCHOOLS IN USA)
• EXTINCTION OF LIFE FORMS (MICRO-MACRO) (ACUTE & CHRONIC, ENDURING, PERMANENT). (INSECTS, BEES, BUTTERFLIES, PLANT SEED BANKS, TOXIC SPRAYS, HUMAN BEINGS, REGIONAL MINORITIES,           INDIGENOUS PEOPLES)
• EXTRA-TERRESTRIALS (TIME TRAVEL, SOURCE, CONTROVERSY, CONSPIRACY, SECRECY, EARLY PRESENCE IN ARCHEOLOGY, UFO, SKINWALKER RANCH)
• FINANCIAL PROBLEMS (SUPPLY CHAIN, IMBALANCE, INTEREST RATES, INFLATION, RECESSION, STAGFLATION.  RISKS OF COLLAPSE OF USA DOLLAR FOR WORLD TRADE [SWIFT]. FINANCIAL GIANTS: BLACK    ROCK, ROTHSCHILDS, CENTRAL BANKS CONTROL HUNDREDS OF TRILLIONS OF WEALTH; HIDDEN OR SECRET FREOIGN ACCOUNT (PANAMA PAPERS)
• FOOD-INSUFFICIENCY (WEATHER, WAR, POLITICS, TRANSPORTATION, SUPPLY CHAIN, COSTS, CLIMATE CHANGE IMPLICATIONS)
• FOREIGN AID (SELF-SERVING AID GIVEN WITH CONTIGENCIES, INADEQUATE, BIASED, WEAPONIZED, REGIME CHANGE)
• FOREVER CHEMICALS (PFAS, PERFLUOROOCTANOIC ACID (PFOA), A TYPE OF POLYFLUOROALKYL SUBSTANCE, OR PFAS – ALSO KNOWN AS “FOREVER CHEMICALS.” PFOA, A HIGHLY TOXIC MANMADE CHEMICAL, IS USED TO MAKE TEFLON)
• FRACTIONATION OF POPULATIONS (ALONG RACIAL, GENDER, ETHNIC, AGE, CULTURAL DIVISIONS, POLITICAL PARTIES. INEQUALITIES AND BIASES, PERSECUTIONS,   INJUSTICES, HATREDS ABOUND)
• GERRYMANDERING (UNETHICAL & ILLEGAL POLITICAL VOTING BOUNDARIES BASED ON RACE, POLITICAL PARTIES)
• GREED (THOUSANDS OF SCAMS (CRIMES) TO MAKE MONEY. MONEY ACQUISTION BECOMES ARBITER OF BEHAVIORS. EXPLOITATION OF  WILLS, ESTATES, INSURANCE FRAUD, ONLINE DATING, CORPORATE           PRICE CONTROLS AND MONOPOLIES)
• GUNS (AVAILABILITY, DISTRIBUTION, USE, MASS MURDER, PARTISAN POLITICS, SOME STATES PERMIT PEOPLE TO CARRY GUNS OPENLY IF REGISTERED, PARTISAN POLITICS. INADEQUATE LEGISLATION           FOCUSING ON AGE LIMITS NOT GUN AVALABILITY)
• HOUSING & HOMELESSNESS (MILLIONS HOMELESS, LACKING PROTECTION FROM ELEMENTS, REFUGEE CAMP INADEQUACIES, BLUE TENTS, RENTAL PAYMENTS VERY HIGH, CORPORATIONS BUYING HOUSES FOR RENTAL MONEY)
• HUMAN RIGHTS (UDHR, CONSTITUTIONS RIGHTS, UNENFORCED. WIDESPREAD GLOBAL-VIOLATIONS, REPRESSION)
• HYPOCRISY – HYPOCRACY (ACCUSATIONS OF OTHERS FOR DOING SAME USA IS PARTICULAR EXAMPLE OF ACCUSING OTHERS, INCLUDING RUSSIA OF INVASIVE ACTIONS. HYPOCRACY/DEMOCRACY, MANY)
• IDEOLOGICAL COMPETITION, ANGER, HATRED, VIOLENCE,  (ANARCHISM, NEOLIBERALISM, RACISM, CAPITALISM, THEISM, CONSERVATIONISM, FEMINISM, AGEISM, PATRIOTISM, NATIONALISM,           REGIONALISM). CPAC [Conservative Political Action Conference in Hungary led by Viktor Orban, Hungary Prime Minister, espouses Far Right Populist ideology: God, Nation, Family.]
• INCOME DISPARITIES (MEDIAN CEO PAY INCREASED 17% IN USA, WORKERS APPROXIMATELY 4%; EXCESSIVE DISPARITIES PROVOKING GLOBAL WORKER ANGER AMID RECESSION, FOOD COSTS)
• INSTITUTIONAL CORRUPTION (GOVERNMENT, MILITARY, CORPORATE, RELIGIOUS, LEGAL, SCHOOL BOARDS)
• INSTITUTION FAILURES (UNITED NATIONS, NATO, IMF, WORLD BANK, FOREIGN AID, MILITARY, CRIMINAL COURTS PROSECUTION, POLICE)
• INTERNATIONAL NUCLEAR WAR (AT PRESENT, SEVEN NATIONS KNOWN TO POSSESS NUCLEAR WEAPONRY (E.G., USA, RUSSIA, UK, FRANCE, INDIA, CHINA, PAKISTAN, ISRAEL. MORE NATIONS SEEKING: NORTH KOREA)  
• INTERNET SEARCH ENGINE PROFILES MARKETING (PRIVATE, PUBLIC, SECRET, PRIVATE EYES, ACCESS TO SCHOOLS, HOSPITALS, MILITARY)
• JUSTICE/INJUSTICE (GLOBALLY, LOCALLY, VISIBLE CORRUPTION, NEPOTISM, RACIAL AND ETHNO-CULTURAL MINORITIES)
• LIFE STRESS BURDEN (GLOBAL STRESS LEVELS ARE HIGH FROM WAR, POVERTY, SOCIAL CHANGE, GOVERNMENT OPPRESSION AND FAILURE)
• LONGEVITY (STEM CELLS, CRISPR SEQUENCING, RNA, VACCINES, GENE THERAPY, TRANSPLANTS, PLASTIC SURGERY, CLONING, 3D REPRODUCTIONS)
• MASS SHOOTINGS (WORLDWIDE, NATIONWIDE, USA, LOCAL. BUFFALO, NY, 10 PEOPLE DEAD, UVALDE, TEXAS, 19 SCHOOL CHILDREN SHOT, PLUS 2 TWENTY MASS SHOOTINGS IN USA IN SINCE 2012 (E.G.           COLO, ATLANTA, VIRGINIA BEACH, EL PASO TEXAS, PITTSBURGH PA, PARKLAND, FL)
• MASS SOCIAL AND POLITICAL PROCESSES (GLOBALIZATION, DIGITIZATION, URBANIZATION, WESTERNIZATION, REGIME CHANGE,  INSURRECTIONS, POPULATION GROWTH, DEMOGRAPHICS, AND           DISTRIBUTION, TECHNOCRACIES)
• MASS STARVATION (FOODS SUPPLIES ARE IMPACTED BY A COMPLEX ECOLOGY OF WAR, TRANSPORTATION, FERTILIZER, POPULATION)
• MEDICAL ADVANCES (NEW CELLS CAN HELP RESTORE LOST HEARING)
• MEDICAL AND HEALTH CARE (COSTS, AVAILABILITY, ACCESSIBILITY, ACCEPTABILITY, ROBOTIC PROCEDURES, QUALITY, EFFECTIVENESS, MEDICAL MALPRACTICE, FRAUD, PRIVATE, SOCIALIZED, GOVERNMENT ALTERNATIVES, DOMINANCE BY CERTAIN ETHNOCULTURAL AND NATIONAL GROUPS, RACISM IN TRAINING)
• MEMBERSHIP GROUPS (ORGANIZATIONS SERVING WEALTHY AND PRIVILEGED INDIVIDUALS AND GROUPS WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM [WEF], DAVOS FACTION, WORLD BANK, INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND, CENTRAL BANKING GROUPS, SECRET, QUASI-SECRET SOCIETIES, BILDERBERG GROUP, BOHEMIAN GROVE, FREE-MASONRY, KNIGHTS OF MALTA, ROSICRUCIAN’S, ROYALTY)
• “MENTAL HEALTH” AND WELL-BEING (THE REALITY AND SYMBOLIC BURDEN OF GLOBAL CHALLENGES HAS GIVEN RISE TO MANY INDIVIDUAL, SOCIETAL, AND NATIONAL PROBLEMS, DEMANDING             TRAGICALLY, INTERVENTIONS LOCATE THE PROBLEM IN THE HUMAN PSYCHE WITHOUT SERIOUSLY CHANGING EXTERNAL CONDITIONS. THIS MAY DO LITTLE TO RESOLVE PRESSING CHALLENGES.           PROFESSIONALS MAY LACK EFFECTIVE PERSONAL, PROFESSIONAL, AND TECHNICAL SKILL SETS, AND TREATMENT OPTIONS. EXCESSIVE RELIANCE ON PILLS.  MANY MEDICAL DISORDERS (E.G., LYME DISEASE,           COVID, OBESITY, DIABETES I & II) HAVE SERIOUS MENTAL HEALTH SEQUALAE).
• MILITARISM (MILITARIES ARE GROWING, SEEKING NEW WEAPONRY, TIES TO CORPORATIONS AND INTERNATIONAL ALLIANCES, USA HAS MORE THAN 750 KNOWN BASES WORLD WIDE. AFRICOM EXPANDING IN        MILITARISM IS INCREASING ARMS TO VARIOUS NATIONS [E.G. UKRAINE] WITH PERILOUS RISKS OF NUCLEAR WAR. POWERFUL MILITARY CULTURES ACTING INDEPENDLY OF GOVERNMENT CONTROL)
• MOVEMENT LABELS & TERMS (GREAT RESET, BUILD BACK BETTER, FOURTH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION, NEW NORMAL, GREEN NEW DEAL, TECHNO-STATE, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN-MAGA)
• MIGRATION, IMMIGRATION, ACCULTURATION, ASSIMILATION (LOCAL, NATIONAL, INTERNATIONAL, PLANETARY; MORE THAN FIFTY DIE IN SW USA IN TRUCK SEEKING ENTRY INTO USA)
• MIND & BEHAVIOR CONTROL (MICROWAVES, LASERS, INTERNET, INSERTS, NATIONAL POLICY, GOVERNMENTS, PRIVATE CORPORATIONS, MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE)
• NATIONAL DEBT ($30 TRILLION IN USA. EXCESSIVE USA NATIONAL EXPENDITURES ON MILITARY [$833 BILLION 2023] MORE THAN NEXT NINE COUNTRIES.  OTHER NATIONS BANKRUPT UNDER CENTRAL BANKS’           STUDENT TUITION DEBT OUT OF CONTROL)
• NATO (NORTH ATLANTIC TREATY ORGANIZATION) (MILITARY FORCE SUPPORTING USA FROEIGN POLICY. 30 MEMBER STATES, 28 IN EUROPE AND 2 IN NORTH AMERICA, ISSUE OF NEED, FINANCIAL PAYMENTS,           INVASION OF RUSSIA, CHINA; SWEDEN TO JOIN NATO, AFTER YEARS OF BEING A SILENT NATO STALWART; FINLAND IS JOINING NATO)
• NATURAL (NATURE) DISASTERS (INSECTS, EARTHQUAKES, TEMPERATURES, TYPHOONS, TORNADOES, FLOODS, TIDAL WAVES, VOLCANOES, FIRES)
• NURSE AND HEALTH CARE WORKER SHORTAGES (NUMBER, TRAINING, COMPETENCIES, PLACEMENTS, ROLES. URGENT NEED OF LPN, RN, BSN, MA, AND LICENSED MEDICAL ASSISTANTS.  HOME CARE PROFESSIONALS NEEDED FOR ELDERLY)
• NUCLEAR WASTE DISPOSAL (BECAUSE OF HUNDREDS OF YEARS LIFE, NCULEAR WASTE DISPOSAL ON EARTH IS A SEVERE PROBLEM. USE OF NUCLEAR PLANTS FOR ENERGY CONTINUE TO INCREASE AMOUNT AND           DANGER OF NUCLEAR WASTE. DEPOSITS IN NON-WESTERN COUNTRIES FOR PAY)
• OLIGARCHIES, PLUTOCRACIES, PARTISAN POLITICAL PARTIES, DICTATORS, BILLIONAIRES, FINANCIAL CORPORATIONS, MILITARY CONTROL, DAVOS FACTION, WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM, USA MONOLITHIC & MONOPOLAR DOMINANCE           
• ORGANIZED CRIME (SYNDICATES, CARTELS, GANGS, DRUGS [E.G., COCAINE, FENTANYL, PAIN PILLS, MARIJUANA] PROSTITUTION, KIDNAPPING, GAMBLING, PORNOGRAPHY)
• PARTISAN POLITICAL PARTY POLITICS (EXTREMISM, BLOCKING VOTES, THREATENING VOTERS, FILIBUSTER, VOTER IDENTIFICATION. DONALD TRUMP CRIMINAL CASE BUILDING)
• PERSONALITIES (TOO NUMEROUS TO MENTION. SITUATIONAL. MEDIA CREATES AND FLOOD THE WORLD WITH PERSONALITIES, INCLUDING ONEROUS DETAILS OF THEIR LIVES, MAGAZINES, FAN CLUBS)
• PHILIPPINES (PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS “BONG BONG MARCOS,” SON OF FORMER DICTATOR FERDINAND MARCOS, ELECTED VICE PRESIDENT ELECTED IS DUTERTE, DAUGHER OF CURRENT PRESIDENT OF PHILIPPINES UNDER INVESTIGATION FOR HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS. PROTESTOR WINS NOBEL PEACE PRIZE)
• PLASTICS (PRESENCE AND PENETRATION OF ALL ASPECTS OF LIFE. INCREASING PATHOGENIC CONSEQUENCES; CANNOT AVOID USE AND NOW IN ALL DRINKING WATER)
• POLLUTION (AIR, WATER, EARTH, ATMOSPHERE, SPACE, HOUSE, OFFICE)
• POPULATION GROWTH (7.5B – 9B 2040; MALI AFRICA WOMAN GIVES BIRTH TO NINE INFANTS; ONE YEAR LATER ALL NINE DOING WELL)
• POPULISM: GLOBAL & NATIONAL (RESENTMENT, RESISTANCE, REBELLION OF “ORDINARY” PEOPLE AGAINST ELITE IMPOSITIONS OF VALUES, CONTROL, GOVERNMENT)
• POVERTY, MALNUTRITION, FOOD INSUFFICIENCY, FAMINE, STARVATION, DEATH (DEPRIVATIONS, KWASHIORKOR, PERMANENT DISABILITY, COSTS, RESPONSIBILITY, MARASMUS, DEATH,           DEHUMANIZATION)
• PRIVACY/PRIVATE (VIOLATIONS AND ABUSES OF INDIVIDUAL, ORGANIZATION, NATION, REGIONS PRIVACY)
• PROPAGANDA (TRUTH, ACCURACY MANAGEMENT, SOURCE, METHODS)
• RACIAL, ETHNIC, CULTURAL, AGE, GENERATION, RELIGIOUS, GENDER, TRIBAL, DISABILITY, HOMELESS, VETERANS, DISCORD AND PERSECUTION)
• REFUGEES & INTERNALLY-DISPLACED PEOPLE, ENVIRONMENTAL REFUGEES (NUMEROUS AND WIDESPREAD REFUGEE CAMPS. SOME CAMPS HAVE EXISTED FOR TWENTY-FIVE YEARS [E.G., KENYA REFUGEE           CAMP FOR SOMALIS, ETHIOPIANS]
• REGIME CHANGE (USA HAS BEEN SOURCE OF SCORES OF REGIME CHANGES)
• RENEWAL TERMS (4TH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION, GREAT RESET, GREAT NARRATIVE, GREAT TRANSFORMATION, DAVOS AGENDA, GREEN REVOLUTION)
• ROBOTS (SMALLER THAN A FLEA ROBOT; REMOTELY CONTROLLED CRAB)
• RUSSIA/CHINA/EUROPE, USA, NATO ALLIANCES (STRIFE, RISK, VIOLENCE, WEST-EAST, NORTH-SOUTH, BOTH POLAR REGIONS)
• SANCTIONS (SOURCES: GOVERNMENT, ORGANIZATIONS, MILITARY, NGOS, VARIATIONS, FOOD, MEDICAL SUPPLIES, HARSH CONSEQUENCES, WEAPONIZATION, MORALITY)
• SPACE-OUTER (COLONIZATION OF MOON, PLANETS, INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT, COMMERCIALIZATION, OWNERSHIP, WEAPONRY, LASERS, SATELLITES)
• STATEHOOD FOR WASHINGTON, DC (CONSEQUENCES FOR VOTING RIGHTS, DEMOGRAPHICS, RACISM, PARTISAN CONTROL, COSTS)
• STATE-TERRORISM (ISRAEL-PALESTINE, INDIA-PAKISTAN, USA POLICY PREFERENCES, MYANMAR-ROHINGYA, NORTH KOREA, CHINA VS ISLAMIC GROUPS, NATO, SAUDI ARABIA VS YEMEN, RUSSIA-UKRAINE, USA-CUBA, USA-VENEZUELA)
• SUBSTANCE ABUSE (ALCOHOLISM, BEER, PAINKILLER, FENTANYL, COCAINE, HEROIN, ECSTASY, MARIJUANA, USA: 107,000 DEATHS IN 2021)
• SURVEILLANCE (GOVERNMENTS, POLICE & PRIVATE GROUPS GATHERING TOTAL INDIVIDUAL, GROUP, AND NATION INFO FOR STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL, EYE SURVEILLANCE PROMOTED)
• TECHNOLOGIES (A.I., ROBOTICS, GENETIC INTERVENTION, INFORMATION PROCESSING AMOUNTS, SPEEDS, STORAGE; WAR WEAPONRY, DARPA, 3D PRINTING)
• TERRORISM (TYPES [E.G., INDIVIDUAL, GROUP, NATION], METHODS, LOCATIONS, TARGETS, DEFINITION, CONTROVERSY)
• TOILETS (LACK OF HYGENIC TOILETS, WOMEN AT RISK IN PUBLIC TOILETS, SPREAD OF GASTROINTESTINAL DISEASES, LACK OF TOILETS IN MANY COUNTRIES)
• UFO (UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT (MANY REPORTS OF UFO SIGHTINGS BY GOVERNMENT WORKERS, GOVERNMENT SUPPRESSES REPORTS FOR NATIONAL SECURITY REASONS, USA AIR FORCE PROJECT BLUE BOOK, USA AREA 52 ROSWELL NEW MEXICO, DISCLOSURES, CONSPIRACIES, ET, DANGERS, SKINWALKER RANCH IN UTAH. USA CONGRESS HOLDS FIRST HEARINGS ON UFO IN 50 YEARS))
• UKRAINE/RUSSIA RISKS OF NUCLEAR WAR AND WAR CRIMES (USA TO SEND 39.8 BILLION DOLLARS OR MORE  TO UKRAINE; ISSUE OF MAY 2, 2014 MASSACRE IN ODESSA BY UKRAINE, UKRAINE USA-INSTALLED       RIGHT WING “NEO-NAZI GOVERNMENT AFTER REGIME CHANGE, UKRAINE BEOMES PROXY WAR BETWEEN USA AND RUSSIA, PROFOUND IMPLICATIONS FOR STARVATION IN AFRICA WHICH IMPORTS MOST OF ITS GRAIN FROM BOTH NATIONS. RUSSIA COMMITTING INTERNATIONAL WAR CRIMES)
• UNIONS LABOR & PROFESSIONAL (INCREASE IN UNION FORMATION AND MEMBERSHIP, STRUGGLES WITHIN UNIONS OCCURRING, SOME REJECTIONS OF UNIONS)
• UNIVERSITIES (TENURE, FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION, LIMITS TO TOPICS)
• URBANIZATION (MAJOR CITIES IN USA ARE LOSING POPULATION [LOS ANGELES, CHICAGO, PHILA DELPHIA]. CITIES IN ARE GROWING IN   NEW NATIONS AS CITIZENS SEEK WORK)
• VETERANS MILITARY (PTSD, POOR CARE, HOMELESSNESS, SUICIDES, FAMILY VIOLENCE, FORGOTTEN)
• VILIFIED GROUPS PREJUDICES (TRANSGENDER, GAY, LBTGQ, MUSLIM, JEWS, PALESTINIANS)
• VIOLENCE (OMNIPRESENT AT ALL LEVELS, ISSUE OF INDIVIDUAL, GROUP, TYPES OF VIOLENCE; USA CULTURE OF VIOLENCE)
• WARS (LOCAL, CIVIL, INTERNATIONAL: PALESTINE-ISRAEL; INDIA-PAKISTAN; INDIA-CHINA, NATO/USA VS RUSSIA WITH UKRAINE AS PROXY SITE. BILLIONS OF DOLLARS BEING SPENT ON WARS WHILE BILLIONS OF           PEOPLE LACK FOOD, MEDICAL CARE, HOUSING, TRANSPORTATION, STUDENT DEBT, NO GUN CONTROLS. SOME WRITERS CONCLUDE THERE IS “NO WAY OUT!  IS THERE AN ADDICTION TO WAR IN USA FOSTERED BY WEAPONS MANUFACTURERS (LOCKHEED MARTIN, RAYTHEON, BOEING, GENERAL DYNAMICS, BAE, NORTHROP-GRUMMAN)
• WATER (LACK OF POTABLE WATER, REDUCTIONS IN USE FOR CALIFORNIA, STANDARDS FOR TOXICITY, LEAD AND MERCURY LEVELS, EAST-AFRICA DROUGHTS [KENYA] KILLING PEOPLE)
• WEALTH DISPARITIES & DISTRIBUTION (1% VS 99%; .01% VS HUMANITY, MEGA BILLIONAIRES, MEGA FINANCIAL CORPORATIONS)
• WEALTH EXCESSES DISPLAYED AMID GLOBAL POVERTY (CANNES FILM FESTIVAL, OPENING OF NYC MET, TV AWARD SHOWS, OSCARS, ROYALTY DISPLAYS AMID POVERTY)
• WORKPLACE STRESSES AND ISSUES (INCREASING NUMBER OF WORKPLACE DISSATISFACTIONS REGARDING EMPLOYEE OVERWORK, LOW SALARIES, UNHEALTHY MILIEU, DISRESPECT, VIOLENCE (GUNS), UNION BLOCKAGE, CUT-THROAT CULTURE).

Here it is! A compilation of events and forces gathered in a brief time period from various information sources (i.e., alternative media, internet, reading, conversations, professional and academic listservs). The compilation is the reality of our time, and scores of writers have offered learned and opinion commentaries regarding the future of all Life on Earth. Please add any further. Human mind under overload.

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This article was originally published on Transcend Media Service.

Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D. is a past president of Psychologists for Social Responsibility, Emeritus Professor of psychology at the University of Hawaii’s Manoa Campus in Honolulu, Hawaii, and past director of the World Health Organization Psychiatric Research Center in Honolulu.  He is known internationally as a pioneer figure in the study of culture and psychopathology who challenged the ethnocentrism and racial biases of many assumptions, theories, and practices in psychology and psychiatry. In more recent years, he has been writing and lecturing on peace and social justice. He has published 21 books and more than 300 articles, tech reports, and popular commentaries. He can be reached at [email protected].

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Governor of the Russian Kursk region claimed that the Russian military had begun combat missions on the border of the Glushkovsky district with the Ukrainian Sumy region. Fighting was carried out within the Russian military operation in the neighboring country.

Thus, it can be supposed that the Russian military launched an offensive in the Sumy region, inflaming new front lines in Eastern Ukraine. The operation is likely aimed at repelling the Armed Forces of Ukraine from their positions in the border areas from where they are shelling the Russian territory.

At the same time, Russian artillery units carried out a number of strikes on the Ukrainian military positions in the Sumy region. The areas of Zarutsky, Starikovo, Budivelny and Esmani were hit.

The Ukrainian military in the city of Kharkov is also struck by Russian forces. One of the targets on July 17th was reportedly the Khartron plant, where foreign instructors were reportedly stationed.

So far, no advances by any of the warring sides were reported in the Sumy and Kharkov regions. But Ukrainian attacks on the Russian territory did not stop.

In the evening, explosions were reported on the western outskirts of the Russian city of Kursk. No casualties were reported and the damage caused by the attacks was not revealed.

The governor called on the locals to keep calm explaining the explosions by the ongoing operations on the border.

In the past days, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have carried out several artillery raids on the territory of Russia. The border villages of Zernovo and Tetkino in the Bryansk and Kursk regions were shelled. There was no significant damage or injuries. In the Belgorod region, some unidentified targets were intercepted by air defense systems.

DPR and LPR forces as well as civilians in the Donbass region are also shelled by Ukrainian forces, including with the weapons supplied by the Kiev’s foreign partners.

US-made MLRS HIMARS hit the town of Alchevsk in the LPR. An ammunition depot in the town Stakhanov was also damaged by Ukrainian artillery. Chaotic fire continued in the city of Donetsk and its outskirts.

The Kiev regime has claimed its readiness to use the US-made HIMARS to attack the Crimean peninsula. Despite the Kiev’s promises not to shell the Russian territories with their HIMARS, they claim Crimea a perfect targets as it is not recognized as the Russian territory by Kiev, or by Washington. Moscow has already warned of a terrifying response for Ukraine in the event of such an attack.

So far, the Russian military has destroyed three Ukrainian HIMARS out of 12 systems supplied by the West.

The third one was hit by Russian missiles in the Krasnoarmeysk region on July 17.

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The German Government publicly acknowledged on Wednesday that the Covid vaccines cause serious side effects for one in every 5,000 doses.

A tweet from the Ministry of Health stated (via Google translate): “One in 5,000 people is affected by a serious side effect after a COVID19 #vaccination. If you suspect #sideeffects, get medical attention and report your symptoms to @PEI_Germany.”

It later added a correction that the figure related to the reporting rate and to doses rather than individuals: “Correction: According to @PEI_Germany, the reporting rate for serious reactions is 0.2 reports per 1,000 vaccine doses.” Subsequently, the original tweet was deleted and a corrected version put up.

0,2 Verdachtsmeldungen pro 1.000 Impfdosen beträgt die Melderate ans @PEI_Germany für schwerwiegende Reaktionen. Sollten Sie den Verdacht auf #Nebenwirkungen haben, holen Sie sich ärztliche Hilfe und melden Sie Ihre Symptome: https://t.co/ajsedbBO7o pic.twitter.com/pfkP4cAL53

— Bundesgesundheitsministerium (@BMG_Bund) July 21, 2022

This is an unusual and welcome admission from a Government, and perhaps the beginning of governments properly acknowledging the scale of injuries caused by the novel Covid vaccines.

However, the one in 5,000 figure is certainly on the low side. The correction tweet clarified that it was a reporting rate of serious reactions, and it appears from the PEI website to refer to the rate of adverse event reports to the German equivalent of the Yellow Card and VAERS passive reporting systems. Assuming this is right, then we might expect an under-reporting factor of around 10, meaning the true number of serious side-effects may be 10 times higher.

The Germans are actually very good at monitoring vaccine safety. In addition to their passive reporting system, the German medicines regulator, the PEI, runs an active vaccine safety monitoring app called SafeVac 2.0. The data from this monitoring app were included in a Europe-wide report on vaccine safety published last month and showed that 0.3% of vaccine recipients in Germany reported at least one serious adverse reaction to the first dose of the vaccine. The report states:

Of the 520,076 participants from Germany who had received the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, 1,838 (0.3%) reported experiencing at least one serious adverse reaction. A total of 1,191 (0.2%) and 39 (0.2%) participants receiving BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna respectively reported experiencing a serious adverse reaction while 608 (0.7%) receiving AstraZeneca reported a serious reaction.

These German figures are in line with the overall rates across Europe, according to the report: “Across the sites 0.2-0.3% reported at least one serious adverse reaction after receiving the first and/or the second dose.”

However, note that a rate of 0.3% is 15 times higher than the rate of 0.2 per 1,000 (i.e., 0.02%) quoted in the tweet. If the figure in the tweet comes, as I suspect, from a passive reporting system (which seems likely as the tweet directs readers to the PEI’s passive reporting portal), this would be an under-reporting factor of 15, which is about what we expected.

But why, then, is the German Government using the 0.02% figure instead of the 0.3% figure from its state-of-the-art vaccine safety monitoring tool when drawing attention to vaccine side effects? I’d like to think that question didn’t answer itself.

I should add that it wasn’t easy to find the SafeVac 2.0 data. I searched in vain for them on the PEI website; if they’re there then they are nowhere obvious. In the end I could only find them, via a general web search, embedded in the Europe-wide study cited above.

Worries about high rates of serious vaccine side effects have been raised before in Germany. In May, Professor Harald Matthes, a scientist leading a separate study into the safety of the vaccines, said that according to his data around 0.8% of vaccinated people in Germany were struggling with serious side-effects. This was in line with international evidence, he said, and much more needs to be done to help them.

The number is not surprising. It corresponds to what is known from other countries such as Sweden, Israel or Canada. Incidentally, even the manufacturers of the vaccines had already determined similar values ​​in their studies… Most side effects, including severe ones, subside after three to six months, 80% heal. But unfortunately there are also some that last much longer.

In view of around half a million cases with serious side effects after Covid vaccinations in Germany, we doctors have to take action. We have to come to therapy offers, discuss them openly at congresses and in public without being considered anti-vaccination.

A board member of a large German insurance company also spoke out in February, saying that his company’s data showed serious vaccine injuries running at around 10 times the rate reported by the German Government.

Elsewhere, an Israeli Government survey found that 0.3% of vaccinated people reported being hospitalised as a result of their Covid vaccination, while a U.S. CDC survey found 0.9% of vaccinated people reported seeking medical care as a result of their vaccination.

The evidence is consistent, then: 0.3-0.9% of vaccinated people (the percentage partly depending on the number of doses) suffer a serious reaction to the vaccine that leads them to require medical care or hospitalisation.

These data should be much more widely publicised as part of obtaining informed consent. Everyone who receives a Covid vaccine should have been told in writing that the rate of serious side effects is around one in 300 doses (with variations for age and sex). Note that such a frequency is properly termed ‘uncommon’, rather than ‘rare’ as per the current labelling. This is an extremely high frequency for a vaccine of course, and raises serious questions about whether the vaccines should be approved at all, especially for younger age groups.

As it is, hardly anyone knows that these are the Government’s own data on serious vaccine reactions, and governments are making no obvious effort to tell them.

So, it’s one cheer for the German Government for actually doing something to raise awareness of serious vaccine side effects. But next time, maybe use the actual data, rather than a figure that’s 15 times smaller.

*

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***

This video presents a commentary by Prof. Anthony Hall on aspects of the continuing effort advanced by the Trudeau government and its funded agencies, including many regime media outlets, to smear the Canadian Truckers’ movement.

The video highlights especially the suspicious character of the charges against four men facing murder charges in the course of an episode where no murders have actually taken place.

Chris Carbert, Anthony Olienick, Jerry Morin, and Christopher Lsak are being set up for a show trial in Lethbridge Alberta.

This show trial is scheduled to take place in June of 2023. The spectacle will be based on the Crown’s allegation that some of those accused of crimes at the border crossing at Coutts Alberta “conspired to commit the murder” of RCMP officers.

None of the targeted individuals have been granted bail. Although they have been convicted of nothing, the four accused will have spent a year and a half in jail by the time they meet a judge and jury.

This maltreatment, together with abuses of the criminal justice system in related cases including those of Tamara Lich, Patrick King, and Pastor Arthur Pawlowsky, puts in the forefront the allegation that the Trudeau government is guilty of transforming some of its political opponents into political prisoners.

The effort to associate the Truckers’ movements with the imagery of violent terrorism is aided and abetted by organizations including the Canadian Anti-Hate Network. With Bernie Farber at its helm, this organization receives $250,000 annually from the Canadian government. This so-called anti-hate organization is being given wide access to Canadian media in order to depict the Coutts group as so-called “accelerationists” intent on the violent overthrow of the US and Canadian governments in order to create a new polity, “Diagolon.”

This very extravagant fiction is helped along by mud-slinging media reports, including Global News, whose role in generating systemic disinformation is highlighted in the Global Research essay on which the video here is based.

Global News conducted an interview with David L. Long, US Ambassador to Canada. In a really absurd comparison, Long grouped the Canadian Truckers’ movement with the governments of Russia and China. Ambassador Long accused all three entities of being meccas of authoritarianism and enemies of democracy.

The essay and the video which flows from it point to the close interactions between the politics of Global News along with its founders, and the genesis of the Canadian Museum of Human Rights.

The CMHR has failed to defend the human rights and civil liberties of Canadians against the deeply damaging incursions of the COVID restrictions and injection mandates.

As emphasized recently by the former Newfoundland Premier, Brian Peckford, this  failure of protection has taken the form of the malevolent sidelining of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The CMHR has done nothing to challenge this curtailment of the Charter and the human rights it is meant to safeguard. This curtailment was met, however, by the proactive and democratic creation of the Freedom Convoy and its subsequent pilgrimage to Ottawa and to the Montana-Alberta border crossing.

*

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***

Think tanks across Australia, tanked with cash from US sources and keen to think in furious agreement, are all showing how delighted they are with the AUKUS security pact and what potential it has for local, if subordinated industry.  The United States Studies Centre, a loudspeaker for Washington’s opinions based at the University of Sydney, has added its bit to the militarising fun with a report on what AUKUS will be able to do.

The author of the report, non-resident fellow of the US Centre’s Foreign Policy and Defence program Jennifer Jackett gushes about the “more consequential” nature of various “technological developments in quantum, cyber, artificial intelligence, undersea, hypersonics and electronic warfare” than nuclear-powered submarines. The latter are, after all, slated to appear much later on the horizon.  In the meantime, warring potential could be harnessed in other realms.

Jackett stresses the urgency of appreciating these fields, given that Australia faces “a more hostile Indo-Pacific”.  No ironic reflection follows that such hostility has been aided, in no small part, by the AUKUS security pact that has put countries in the region, with China being the primary target, on military notice.

In dealing with such threats, the AUKUS partners – the US, UK and Australia – had to “understand areas of comparative advantage, complementarity, and potential gaps or overlaps, between the three industrial bases.”

Reading, at points, like an intelligence comb through of local assets and wealth resources by a future colonising power, the report is revealing about what Vince Scappatura called that “loose networks of elites and institutional relationships” that nourish Australia’s umbilical cord to Freedom Land.

Australia’s population is described in glowing terms, with some nose-turning suggestions for improvement for the happily compliant subjects.  “Australia stands out for the quality of its educational institutions and skilled workforce.  Australian scientists are renowned for the global impact of their research in fields such as quantum physics and artificial intelligence.”  There is, however, a belated admission that Australia’s STEM workforce, with 16 per cent of qualifications in the field, come behind that of the United States, “where around 23 per cent of the total workforce has a university-level or below STEM qualification.”

Then comes a mild rebuke in terms of Australian approaches to venture capital.  One can see Jackett shaking her head in disapproval in writing this: “Australia remains an attractive destination for foreign direct investment, but the venture capital industry – the sort of financial entities willing to make riskier investments on unproven technology – remains small, less than half of the OECD average.”  (Come on Aussies, whole frontiers of lethal technology await your dosh.)

This is not a meditation about peace, about miracle responses to climate change, poverty or wretched disease.  It has nothing to do with harnessing the technological potential to aid good causes.  This is the paid-up chit-chat of imperial militarisation, and how “innovation” aids it.

Similar remarks have been made by Admiral Mike Rogers, former chief of the US National Security Agency, who has given a stirring performance on his visit to Australia in praising his hosts.

“I applaud Australia’s willingness to make that sort of commitment [to acquiring nuclear-powered submarines] and to speak about it so frankly,” he told Australia’s premier Murdoch rag, The Australian.

What troubles Rogers, as with those at the US Studies Centre and similar groupies, is a concern about what to do before those white elephants of the sea make their ponderous appearance.  He cites various other weapons capabilities as “alternatives in the interim”.  There are, for instance, options in “autonomous vehicles, robotics, sensors, situational awareness technologies”.  AUKUS was, and here, the warning is clear to us all, “much more than submarines”.  AUKUS needed to be used “to drive change.”

The disconcerting blindness to local security elites in turning Australia into something even more of a fortress for foreign military operations is palpable.  Its corollary is the idea that the United States does not get into the empire business.  The mechanism of kitting out Canberra as yet another appendage of US strategic operations and interests was already well underway with such fora as the Australian American Leadership Dialogue, which makes it very clear who the leaders are.

As things stand, the current makeup of the AALD features appropriately qualified vassals for the US mission.  There is Tony Smith, former Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives, who is the CEO of the group.  On being appointed to the position, he claimed it would “enable me to continue my service to our democracy and our nation in this vitally important, unique, bipartisan, private sector diplomatic endeavour”.  Grovelling journalists wondered if Smith got along with his future masters.  “Pretty good, I think,” came his response.

The newly appointed Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Glyn Davis, also appears as a prominent member on the advisory board, linking one of the most important civil service roles in Canberra to the US administration.  The grouping is secretive and observes non-disclosure rules that would make any official in Beijing proud.

From the Australian Strategic Policy Institute to the US Studies Centre, we are meant to celebrate the prospect of Australia as a military annexe to US power in the Asia-Pacific, its sovereignty status subsumed under the ghastly guff of freedom lovers supposedly facing oriental barbarians.  The analysis is then crowned by the praise of former US defence and security officials who ingratiatingly speak of Australian potential as they would mineral deposits.  The lie, packaged and ribboned, is duly sold for public consumption.  Australian sovereign capability becomes the supreme fiction, while its subservience is hidden, only to be exposed by heretics.

*

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Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge.  He currently lectures at RMIT University. He is a regular contributor to Global Research and Asia-Pacific Research. Email: [email protected]

Featured image is from Wikimedia Commons

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All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the “Translate Website” drop down menu on the top banner of our home page (Desktop version).

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***

The Tehran summit uniting Iran-Russia-Turkey was a fascinating affair in more ways than one. Ostensibly about the Astana peace process in Syria, launched in 2017, the summit joint statement duly noted that Iran, Russia and (recently rebranded) Turkiye will continue, “cooperating to eliminate terrorists” in Syria and “won’t accept new facts in Syria in the name of defeating terrorism.”

That’s a wholesale rejection of the “war on terror” exceptionalist unipolarity that once ruled West Asia.

Standing up to the global sheriff

Russian President Vladimir Putin, in his own speech, was even more explicit. He stressed “specific steps to promote the intra-Syrian inclusive political dialogue” and most of called a spade a spade: “The western states led by the US are strongly encouraging separatist sentiment in some areas of the country and plundering its natural resources with a view to ultimately pulling the Syrian state apart.”

So there will be “extra steps in our trilateral format” aimed at “stabilizing the situation in those areas” and crucially, “returning control to the legitimate government of Syria.” For better or for worse, the days of imperial plunder will be over.

The bilateral meetings on the summit’s sidelines – Putin/Raisi and Putin/Erdogan – were even more intriguing. Context is key here: the Tehran gathering took place after Putin’s visit to Turkmenistan in late June for the 6^th Caspian summit, where all the littoral nations, Iran included, were present, and after Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s travels in Algeria, Bahrain, Oman, and Saudi Arabia, where he met all his Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) counterparts.

Moscow’s moment

So we see Russian diplomacy carefully weaving its geopolitical tapestry from West Asia to Central Asia – with everybody and his neighbor eager to talk and to listen to Moscow. As it stands, the Russia-Turkey entente cordiale tends to lean towards conflict management, and is strong on trade relations. Iran-Russia is a completely different ball game: much more of a strategic partnership.

So it’s hardly a coincidence that the National Oil Company of Iran (NIOC), timed to the Tehran summit, announced the signing of a $40 billion strategic cooperation agreement with Russia’s Gazprom. That’s the largest foreign investment in the history of Iran’s energy industry – badly needed since the early 2000s. Seven deals worth $4 billion apply to the development of oil fields; others focus on the construction of new export gas pipelines and LNG projects.

Kremlin advisor Yury Ushakov deliciously leaked that Putin and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in their private meeting, “discussed conceptual issues.” Translation: he means grand strategy, as in the evolving, complex process of Eurasia integration, in which the three key nodes are Russia, Iran and China, now intensifying their interconnection. The Russia-Iran strategic partnership largely mirrors the key points of the China-Iran strategic partnership.

Iran says ‘no’ to NATO

Khamenei, on NATO, did tell it like it is:

“If the road is open for NATO, then the organization sees no borders. If it had not been stopped in Ukraine, then after a while the alliance would have started a war under the pretext of Crimea.”

There were no leaks on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) impasse between the US and Iran – but it’s clear, based on the recent negotiations in Vienna, that Moscow will not interfere with Tehran’s nuclear decisions. Not only are Tehran-Moscow-Beijing fully aware of who’s preventing the JCPOA from getting back on track, they also see how this counter-productive stalling process prevents the collective west from badly needed access to Iranian oil.

Then there’s the weapons front. Iran is one of the world’s leaders in drone production: Pelican, Arash, Homa, Chamrosh, Jubin, Ababil, Bavar, recon drones, attack drones, even kamikaze drones, cheap and effective, mostly deployed from naval platforms in West Asia.

Tehran’s official position is not to supply weapons to nations at war – which would in principle invalidate dodgy US “intel” on their supply to Russia in Ukraine. Yet that could always happen under the radar, considering that Tehran is very much interested in buying Russian aerial defense systems and state of the art fighter jets. After the end of the UN Security Council-enforced embargo, Russia can sell whatever conventional weapons to Iran it sees fit.

Russian military analysts are fascinated by the conclusions Iranians reached when it was established they would stand no chance against a NATO armada; essentially they bet on pro-level guerrilla war (a lesson learned from Afghanistan). In Syria, Iraq and Yemen they deployed trainers to guide villagers in their fight against Salafi-jihadis; produced tens of thousands of large-caliber sniper rifles, ATGMs, and thermals; and of course perfected their drone assembly lines (with excellent cameras to surveil US positions).

Not to mention that simultaneously the Iranians were building quite capable long-range missiles. No wonder Russian military analysts estimate there’s much to learn tactically from the Iranians – and not only on the drone front.

The Putin-Sultan ballet

Now to the Putin-Erdogan get together – always an attention-grabbing geopolitical ballet, especially considering the Sultan has not yet decided to hop on the Eurasia integration high-speed train.

Putin diplomatically “expressed gratitude” for the discussions on food and grain issues, while reiterating that “not all issues on the export of Ukrainian grain from the Black Sea ports are resolved, but progress is made.”

Putin was referring to Turkiye’s Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, who earlier this week assured that setting up an operations center in Istanbul, establishing joint controls at the port exit and arrival points, and carefully monitoring the navigational safety on the transfer routes are issues that may be solved in the next few days.

Apparently Putin-Erdogan also discussed Nagorno-Karabakh (no details).

What a few leaks certainly did not reveal is that on Syria, for all practical purposes, the situation is blocked. That favors Russia – whose main priority as it stands is Donbass. Wily Erdogan knows it – and that’s why he may have tried to extract some “concessions” on “the Kurdish question” and Nagorno-Karabakh. Whatever Putin, Russia’s Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev and Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev may really think about Erdogan, they certainly evaluate how priceless is to cultivate such an erratic partner capable of driving the collective west totally bonkers.

Istanbul this summer has been turned into a sort of Third Rome, at least for expelled-from-Europe Russian tourists: they are everywhere. Yet the most crucial geoeconomic development these past few months is that the western-provoked collapse of trade/supply lines along the borders between Russia and the EU – from the Baltic to the Black Sea – finally highlighted the wisdom and economic sense of the International North-South Transportation Corridor (INTSC): a major Russia-Iran-India geopolitical and geoeconomic integration success.

When Moscow talks to Kiev, it talks via Istanbul. NATO, as the Global South well knows, does not do diplomacy. So any possibility of dialogue between Russians and a few educated westerners takes place in Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan and the UAE. West Asia as well as the Caucasus, incidentally, did not subscribe to the western sanctions hysteria against Russia.

Say farewell to the ‘teleprompter guy’

Now compare all of the above with the recent visit to the region by the so-called “leader of the free world,” who merrily alternates between shaking hands with invisible people to reading – literally – whatever is scrolling on a teleprompter. We’re talking of US President Joe Biden, of course.

Fact: Biden threatened Iran with military strikes and as a mere supplicant, begged the Saudis to pump more oil to offset the “turbulence” in the global energy markets caused by the collective west’s sanction hysteria. Context: the glaring absence of any vision or anything even resembling a draft of foreign policy plan for West Asia.

So oil prices duly jumped upward after Biden’s trip: Brent crude rose more than four percent to $105 a barrel, bringing prices back to above $100 after a lull of several months.

The heart of the matter is that if OPEC or OPEC+ (which includes Russia) ever decide to increase their oil supplies, they will do it based on their internal deliberations, and not under exceptionalist pressure.

As for the imperial threat of military strikes on Iran, it qualifies as pure dementia. The whole Persian Gulf – not to mention the whole of West Asia – knows that were US/Israel to attack Iran, fierce retaliation would simply evaporate with the region’s energy production, with apocalyptic consequences including the collapse of trillions of dollars in derivatives.

Biden then had the gall to say,

“We have made progress in strengthening our relations with the Gulf states. We will not leave a vacuum for Russia and China to fill in the Middle East”.

Well, in real life it is the “indispensable nation” that has self-morphed into a vacuum. Only bought-and-paid for Arab vassals – most of them monarchs – believe in the building of an “Arab NATO” (copyright Jordan’s King Abdullah) to take on Iran. Russia and China are already all over the place in West Asia and beyond.

De-Dollarization, not just Eurasian integration

It’s not only the new logistical corridor from Moscow and St. Petersburg to Astrakhan and then, via the Caspian, to Enzeli in Iran and on to Mumbai that is shaking things up. It’s about increasing bilateral trade that bypasses the US dollar. It’s about BRICS+, which Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Egypt are dying to be part of. It’s about the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which formally accepts Iran as a full member this coming September (and soon Belarus as well). It’s about BRICS+, the SCO, China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU) interconnected in their path towards a Greater Eurasia Partnership.

West Asia may still harbor a small collection of imperial vassals with zero sovereignty who depend on the west’s financial and military ‘assistance,’ but that’s the past. The future is now – with Top Three BRICS (Russia, India, China) slowly but surely coordinating their overlapping strategies across West Asia, with Iran involved in all of them.

And then there’s the Big Global Picture: whatever the circumvolutions and silly schemes of the US-concocted “oil price cap” variety, the fact is that Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela – the top powerful energy-producing nations – are absolutely in sync: on Russia, on the collective west, and on the needs of a real multipolar world.

*

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This article was originally published on The Cradle.

Pepe Escobar, born in Brazil, is a correspondent and editor-at-large at Asia Times and columnist for Consortium News and Strategic Culture. Since the mid-1980s he’s lived and worked as a foreign correspondent in London, Paris, Milan, Los Angeles, Singapore, Bangkok. He has extensively covered Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia to China, Iran, Iraq and the wider Middle East. Pepe is the author of Globalistan – How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War; Red Zone Blues: A Snapshot of Baghdad during the Surge. He was contributing editor to The Empire and The Crescent and Tutto in Vendita in Italy. His last two books are Empire of Chaos and 2030. Pepe is also associated with the Paris-based European Academy of Geopolitics. When not on the road he lives between Paris and Bangkok.

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from The Cradle

All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the “Translate Website” drop down menu on the top banner of our home page (Desktop version).

To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.

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***

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, President Vladimir Putin of Russia, and President Ebrahim Raisi of Iran held talks yesterday in Tehran at the 7^th Astana summit for peace in Syria, stressing the need for respecting Syria’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The summits date from January 2017, and are named for the Kazakhstan capital they were first held at.  The trio of leaders decided the next meeting will be held in Moscow before the end of the year.

The Syrian Foreign Minister, Faisal Mekdad, arrived in Tehran late on Tuesday to be briefed about the latest decisions following the meeting of the presidents.

The joint conclusions

Many important issues were discussed by the trio concerning the situation in Syria, which has developed into a stalemate.  Global media has stopped covering Syria since 2019 when the battlefields went silent, but a political solution has been elusive.

One point that Turkey, Russia and Iran agreed upon was the need for the US occupation troops to leave Syria, and their unified opposition to the Biden administration policy in Syria, which includes the need to lift US sanctions on Syria which are oppressing the Syrian people.

“We have certain differences concerning what is happening on the Euphrates eastern bank. But we have a shared position that American troops must leave this territory,” Putin said while adding, “They must stop robbing the Syrian state, Syrian people, illegally exporting oil from there.”

The trio affirmed that there was “no military solution” to the conflict in Syria, and agreed on the need to eliminate terrorism and opposed any attempts to divide the country.

The three leaders also jointly condemned Israel’s ongoing attacks on civilian targets in Syria, and agreed that the crisis in Syria could only be resolved peacefully and by the Syrians themselves.

Raisi said,

“The international community bears the responsibility to solve the crisis of the displaced and Syrian refugees, and we will support any initiative to do so.”

The Turkish position

For at least two months, Erdogan has threatened to conduct a fourth military invasion into northern Syria.  Analysts had thought the summit would be used by Iran and Russia to convince Turkey a new attack on the US-sponsored SDF in the northeastern Kurdish region would be a destabilizing event for the region. It appears that Turkey was able to get assurances from Iran and Russia that the SDF would not present a border terrorist threat to Turkey.

The US, Russia and Iran had all shared the view that Turkey should not begin a new military attack in northern Syria.

Turkey and the US are NATO members and allies.  But, the US chose to partner with the SDF, which is a separatist group in Syria led by Kurds who are following a socialist political ideology based on the  framework of the PKK, an internationally outlawed terrorist group.

The trio agreed that terrorism must be eradicated everywhere, and there cannot be “good terrorists” who are used by the US, while others are deemed “bad terrorists” such as ISIS and Al Qaeda.

US President Obama began the US-NATO attack on Syria in 2011 for ‘regime change’.  He failed.  The US used the Muslim Brotherhood in the Middle East, as well as global Al Qaeda branches which were transported into northern Syria from their base in southern Turkey, were the CIA operated a terrorist headquarters which was finally shut down in 2017 by President Trump.

Erdogan is a Muslim Brotherhood follower, and his AKP party is aligned with the international terrorist group banned in Egypt, Russia, Syria, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

The US position

The Biden administration has made no changes to US policy in Syria since taking office.  The US is not present in any Syrian peace talks.  Obama started the destruction in Syria, but Biden is not offering any solution.  The US sanctions have prevented any reconstruction from beginning, and the Syrian people have been struggling under hyper-inflation, with no end in sight.

Russia, Turkey and Iran agreed the US-EU sanctions should be lifted and described them as being “in contravention of international law, international humanitarian law and the UN Charter including, among other things, any discriminatory measures through waivers for certain regions which could lead to this country’s disintegration by assisting separatist agendas.”

Trump had ordered the withdrawal of US troops from Syria, but the Pentagon insisted that they stay in support of the SDF who steal the oil from the main oil field in Syria and sell the oil to support their socialist administration.  That oil is the property of Syria, and because they are refused access to the oil, the Syrian people live with just two hours of electricity per day.

Damascus considers the US troops in Syria as a military occupation force which destabilizes the country and is against the UN charter and international law.

US raids on terrorists in Idlib

Idlib is the last remaining terrorist controlled area in Syria.  Hayat Tahrir al-Sham is the Radical Islamic terrorist group who keep about three million persons as human hostages.  Turkey protects the terrorists and keeps Russian and Syrian military from attacking Idlib, while the UN and other humanitarian groups keep the terrorists, their families, and civilians fed.  The US has also been very vocal and has accused the Syrian and Russian military for attacking terrorists in Idlib.

In a double-faced US policy in Idlib, the US has continued to kill ISIS leaders in Idlib, including the first assassination of the ISIS Calipha Baghdadi ordered by Trump. Since then, another five ISIS leaders have been killed by the US in Idlib.  The US know that the terrorists in control in Idlib are allies of ISIS, and yet they US policy is to protect Idlib from being cleared of terrorists.

In 2015, Russia was asked to enter Syria as the Al Qaeda affiliate Jibhat al-Nusra was threatening to create an Islamic State in Syria.  Putin recalled at the summit, “We broke the backbone of international terrorism there.”

Grain crisis discussion

Putin and Erdogan discussed the supply of grain from Russia and Ukraine to world markets.  Putin thanked Erdogan for his efforts “to mediate by providing Turkey with a platform for negotiating food issues and grain exports across the Black Sea.”  Putin called on the US to lift all restrictions on grain exports from Russia to improve the global food market situation.

Erdogan has been leading efforts to broker a deal to allow thousands of tons of grain to leave Ukraine’s ports. Turkey has responsibility under the 1936 Montreux convention for naval traffic entering the Black Sea, and is proposing that Russia allow Ukrainian grain ships to leave Odessa on designated routes.

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This article was originally published on Mideast Discourse.

Steven Sahiounie is a two-time award-winning journalist. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

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Guest: Golan Ashton, Human Rights Attorney based in Israel, specialized in Civil Law & Labour Law.

In this session, Golan shared that during the last years, he was part of a group of activists that fought against the tyranny of the laws that made workers and citizens take injections to be able to work and support themselves.

He got a group of about 300 workers of a military-industrial company to successfully stand up against the COVID vaxx mandate.

Now, he is suing, in numerous cases, people who, for example, made medical treatment dependent on vaccination status when that was still illegal.

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***

Ein Blick auf die Situation der Welt und die Menschheit gibt wenig Anlass zu Optimismus. Der historische Lockdown vom 11. März 2020 löste weltweit „wirtschaftliches und soziales Chaos“ aus und war ein „Akt der Wirtschaftskriegsführung, ein Krieg gegen die Menschheit“ (1). Inzwischen werden wir von der siebten Covid-19-Welle „heimgesucht“, was deutlich macht, dass „unsere Politiker betrügerisch, mitschuldig und inkompetent“ sind (2).

Zudem führt der US-Westen in der Ukraine seit Monaten einen verheerenden Stellvertreter-Krieg beziehungsweise einen Welt-Krieg gegen Russland (3) mit der „Aussicht“ auf ein „Jüngstes Gericht“ (Armageddon). Doch es ist nicht recht, die „Völker“ für ihre Kriege verantwortlich zu machen; es waren und sind immer nur die herrschenden Schichten, die sich befehden und wechselseitig zu unterjochen versuchen. Deshalb kann der Krieg nicht auf die menschliche Natur zurückgeführt werden: Die Natur des Menschen ist friedlich. Nur die Machtgier derer, die innerhalb der Völker als Obrigkeit fungieren und durch ihre soziale Stellung vom Geist der Gewalt durchdrungen sind, führt immer wieder zu kriegerischen Auseinandersetzungen, in denen die Völker zugunsten ihrer Herren und Ausbeuter verbluten. Die psychologische Fragestellung muss an diesem Punkt einsetzen und Klarheit darüber verschaffen, wieso der Mensch unserer Zeit immer noch bereit ist, seinen Mitmenschen jenseits der Landesgrenzen in barbarischer Weise umzubringen und wie es einer herrschenden Minderheit möglich wird, die Mehrheit des Volkes für ihre Ziele und Zwecke leben, arbeiten und sterben zu lassen. Oder präziser formuliert: Wie ist die Unterdrückung des Menschen durch den Menschen möglich?

Aufklärer betonten Freiheit und Gleichheit aller Menschen

Der Mensch im Mittelalter, der in einer ständisch gegliederten Welt lebte, nahm die Ungerechtigkeiten der Welt noch fatalistisch hin und ordnete sich den weltlichen und geistlichen Obrigkeiten ohne Widerspruch unter. Erst durch die Philosophie der Renaissance und noch mehr durch diejenige der Aufklärung wurde der Glaube an die „angeborenen Unterschiede“ zwischen den Menschen erschüttert: Herrschaft und Knechtschaft erschienen nun als geschichtlich gewordene Tatsachen, die sich lediglich durch die nackte Gewalt der Machthaber aller Zeiten aufrechterhalten konnten.

a

Die Freiheit und Gleichheit aller Menschen wurden von den Aufklärern immer wieder ins Gedächtnis gerufen. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, einer der größten unter ihnen, zeigte den Gegensatz zwischen Naturzustand und gesellschaftlicher Entartung, indem er seinen „Contract social“ (Gesellschaftsvertrag) mit den berühmten Worten einleitete: „Der Mensch wird frei geboren, und überall liegt er in Ketten.“

Diese Lehre gab dem Geiste der Auflehnung sein theoretisches Fundament. Die staatsphilosophischen Erörterungen mündeten schließlich in die glorreiche Französischen Revolution ein, die die „Rechte des Menschen und Bürgers“ erklärte und damit den Grundstein zur modernen Demokratie legte.

Obwohl der demokratische Gedanke in der Vergangenheit auch positive Entwicklungsschritte verzeichnete, ist die Idee der Freiheit im Bewusstsein der Welt nur wenig verankert. Zahlreiche Länder werden diktatorisch regiert und unterstehen einer offenen oder heimlichen Tyrannei, von der Wirtschaft her wird der Gleichheit und Brüderlichkeit aller Menschen Hohn gesprochen und bis zum heutigen Tage ist es dem Menschen nicht gelungen, eine gerechte Gemeinschaftsordnung zu verwirklichen und den Krieg – dieses uralte Menschheitsübel – aus der Welt zu bannen.

Wie ist die Unterdrückung des Menschen durch den Menschen möglich?

Wie bereits erwähnt, muss uns die psychologische Fragestellung Klarheit darüber verschaffen, wie es einer herrschenden Minderheit gelingt, die Mehrheit des Volkes für ihre Ziele und Zwecke leben, arbeiten und sterben zu lassen. Oder schärfer formuliert: Wie ist die Unterdrückung des Menschen durch den Menschen möglich?

„Macht“ allein scheint nicht auszureichen, um die Völker in Botmäßigkeit zu halten, da die Macht des Volkes immer größer wäre als diejenige seiner Herrscher, sofern sich die Bürger dazu entschließen würden, diese Macht in die Waagschale zu werfen. Es sind ideologische Hilfsmittel, die die Hörigkeit der Völker sicherstellen und es den Machthabern aller Zeiten ermöglichen, ein Regime der Privilegien und Ungerechtigkeit aufzurichten: Zum einen ist es die ideologische Verblendung des Menschengeistes im Sinne einer Verwirrung der Sinne oder einer Blindheit des Geistes, die dazu führt, den Menschen seine Liebe zur Freiheit vergessen zu machen. Sie bringt es sogar fertig, ihn die Ketten verherrlichen zu lassen, unter deren Last er zusammenbricht.

Doch über die massenpsychologische Ebene hinaus benötigt die Erörterung der Kriegsursachen und der Herrschaft des Menschen über den Menschen eine individualpsychologische Ergänzung: Welche Mentalität unterscheidet „Herr“ und „Knecht“? Wie muss die Seele eines Mitgliedes der herrschenden Schichten strukturiert sein, damit es bereit sein wird, über den Mitmenschen zu herrschen? Welche Gefühlsregungen müssen in den Angehörigen unterdrückter oder ausgebeuteter Volksklassen vorhanden sein, damit sie die Unterdrückung über sich ergehen lassen? Damit sich ein geschlossenes Bild ergibt, muss der massenpsychologische Befund durch denjenigen der Individual-Psychologie abgerundet werden.

Die ideologische Verblendung des Menschengeistes macht es möglich, den Menschen seine Liebe zur Freiheit vergessen zu machen

Eine der wichtigsten Stützen der ungerechten Sozialordnungen in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart ist der Glaube des Menschen, dass das Diesseits eine nur bedeutungslose Etappe ihres Daseins wäre und sie ihre wahre Existenz und ihr wahres Glück im Jenseits finden würden. Für diese Gleichgültigkeit gegen das irdische Schicksal erwarteten die Gläubigen reichen Lohn und unterließen es, sich gegen die Tyrannei aufzulehnen. Fügsam ergab sich ihr Fatalismus jeder Unterdrückung und der durch die Ausrichtung auf das Jenseits eingeschränkte Lebenswille brachte weder Mut noch Kraft zur Revolte auf.

Die Kirche, die stets auf der Seite der Mächtigen steht, bestätigte König und Adel als „von Gottes Gnaden“ inthronisiert. Sich gegen die Zustände in Staat und Gesellschaft zu erheben, wäre darum ein Verstoß gegen die göttliche Weisheit und Vorsehung gewesen. Diese Verklärung der Knechts-Mentalität schuf die Voraussetzungen für absolutistische Herrschaftsformen, in denen die Menschen ein willenloses Werkzeug ihrer Obrigkeit wurden und ihnen in Krieg und Frieden vorbehaltlos Gefolgschaft leisteten.

Ein weiteres Moment ist die nationale oder rassistische Ideologie, deren epidemischer Charakter uns in der Vergangenheit drastisch veranschaulicht worden ist – und in jüngster Zeit eine Renaissance erlebt.

Der Mythos der Nation und der Rasse schafft eine vorgegaukelte Einheit zwischen Herrschenden und Beherrschten. Die Beherrschten sollten glauben, sie gehörten zusammen mit ihren Herren einer geheimnisvollen und ruhmreichen Körperschaft an, an deren Glanz und Größe auch der geringste Knecht seinen Anteil hat. Der Knecht wird durch diese Täuschung veranlasst, über seine Knechtschaft hinwegzusehen: sind die anderen, die nicht zu seiner Rasse oder Nation gezählt werden, doch noch weniger als er. Dadurch wir es ihm erträglich, dass er selber wenig oder gar nichts gilt. Für Ruhm und Ehre der Nation war der Knecht bereit, sein Leben zu opfern.

Nationalismus und Rassenlehrer sind Geisteshaltungen des Stolzes und der Überheblichkeit, in denen immer auch ein Stück Aggressivität gegen Nachbarvölker oder benachbarte Rassen mitschwingt. Die gesellschaftlichen Missstände, durch die Ungerechtigkeit der Herrschenden entstanden, wurden und werden somit immer auf die Gegen-Nation oder Gegen-Rasse abgewälzt.

Als Sklave kam der Knecht nicht auf die Idee, sich mit den Sklaven jenseits der Landesgrenzen zu solidarisieren, um sich gegen die gemeinsamen Bedrücker zu wenden. Der Groll, der gegen seinen eigenen Tyrannen in ihm hätte entstehen sollen, wurde abgeleitet auf jene, die, wie er selber, unter dem Joch der Tyrannei seufzten. In diesem teuflischen Mechanismus liegt der Schlüssel zu den Minderheitenproblemen wie etwa dem der Neger in den USA oder der Juden in Europa. Die Herrschenden von einst und jetzt beweisen damit, dass sie die „Psychologie des Sündenbocks“ zur Sicherung ihrer Herrschaft vortrefflich auszunützen wissen.

Mentalitäten von Herrschenden und Beherrschten unterscheiden sich

Die Erörterung der Kriegsursachen und der Herrschaft des Menschen über den Menschen, die bisher auf massenpsychologischer Ebene durchgeführt wurde, bedarf der individualpsychologischen Ergänzung. In einer Gesellschaftsordnung, die Herrschende und Beherrschte kennt – bis heute gibt es keine andere! –, entstehen zweierlei Mentalitäten, zweierlei Ideologien, die im Wesentlichen gleich ausfallen: Überall, wo es Ober- und Unterschicht gibt, entwickeln sich Mentalitäten von Herren und Knechten.

Die hervorstechendsten Merkmale des Menschentypus, der in gesellschaftlich begünstigter Position aufwächst, sind die Gefühle der Selbstsicherheit und der Überlegenheit. In dieser Beziehung können Kinder des Bürgertums und der Arbeiterschaft nicht verwechselt werden. Ein Kind, das in Wohlstand oder Überfluss erzogen wird, das eine angemessene Pflege erhält und dem eine Großzahl von Wünschen erfüllt werden kann, nimmt eine andere seelische Haltung an als Kinder der Armut, der Not oder eingeschränkter wirtschaftlicher Verhältnisse.

Das Kind der herrschenden Volksschichten tritt mit der Grundstimmung an das Leben heran: „Mir gehört die Welt!“. Im Umgang mit Dienstboten im Elternhaus bekommt es früh den Eindruck, dass sich die Menschen in „Herren“ und „Diener“ unterscheiden, wobei letztere dazu da sind, für die Herrschaft zu leben und zu arbeiten. Die Beobachtung des Verhältnisses von Vater und Mutter in unserer patriarchalischen Welt führt dazu, dass das Kind mit der „Männlichkeit“ zugleich auch angeborene Auserwähltheit und Herrschaftsanspruch zu verbinden lernt.

Kein Wunder, dass in seiner Seele der Drang entsteht, auch einmal oben zu sein wie die Autorität und an dem von ihr geübten Regiment teilzuhaben. Unter dem Einfluss dieses Machtstrebens werden die Gemeinschaftsgefühle nur kümmerlich ausgebildet. Hinzu kommt, dass die verzärtelnde Erziehung Menschen hervorbringt, die der Welt mit einem Auserwähltheitsanspruch gegenüberstehen und nicht geneigt sind, anderen Menschen gleiche Ansprüche zuzubilligen.

Diese Mentalität des Ehrgeizes, des Stolzes und der reduzierten Mitmenschlichkeit ermöglicht es, „Chefs“ zu werden, in Wirtschaft, Militär oder Politik die leitenden Positionen einzunehmen, in denen die Herrschaft des Menschen über den Menschen vorgesehen ist. Auf dieser Grundlage werden Vorgesetzten geprägt, die als Politiker im Einverständnis mit Vertretern der Großindustrie und des Militarismus imstande sind, im Interesse der herrschenden Schichten einen völkermordenden Krieg zu beginnen. Das gesellschaftliche Gefüge, das auf dem Geiste der Gewalt aufbaut, bringt einen Menschenschlag hervor, für den die Aggression „prima et ultima ratio“ bedeutet.

Doch auch der Knecht bedarf einer Ideologie, um in der Knechtschaft zu verharren. Denn der Mensch erträgt die Gewalt schlecht; etwas in ihm lehnt sich gegen sie auf. Die Gewaltanwendung erweckt das Verlangen nach Abwehr, sie will durch Gewalt beantwortet werden. Somit liegt es im Interesse der Herrschenden, dem Knecht Ideologien zu vermitteln, die ihn dazu bewegen, sich mit seinem Schicksal abzufinden. So muss er unter anderem glauben, dass Gott oder die Natur in ihrer Allmacht sein Knechtsdasein vorgesehen haben.

Der Knecht krankt ebenso sehr an der Machtgier wie der Herr. Die Unterwürfigkeit wirkt wie ein ständiger Stachel, der die Bereitschaft zur Aggression hervorbringt. Der kleinste Dienstbote sucht noch jemanden, auf den er herabschauen und an dem er seinen Groll ausleben kann. Das betrifft auch das Verhältnis des Arbeiters zu seiner Frau und seinen Kindern, seinen „Herrschaftsbereich“.

Das Arbeiterkind fühlt sich frühzeitig in eine Welt hineinversetzt, in der es Bevorrechtete und Benachteiligte gibt. Sobald es Kleidung, finanzielle Mittel und gesellschaftliche Stellung zu vergleichen lernt, entwickelt es ein sozial bedingtes Minderwertigkeitsgefühl. Hieraus erwächst dann das Streben, mehr zu sein als die anderen. Dies kann nur dann gemildert werden, wenn die Erzieher den Gemeinschaftsgedanken pflegen, sodass das Kind seinen eigenen Freiheitsdrang mit dem anderen Menschen zu verbinden lernt.

Wo dies nicht der Fall ist und eine autoritäre und individualistische Erziehung dem Kind die ersten Lebenseindrücke vermittelt, wird es aus seiner sozialen Benachteiligung den Schluss ziehen, dass es einzig und allein sich selbst „in die Höhe“ bringen muss. Seine vom Bazillus der Machtgier infizierte Seele wird dann für rassische und religiösen Vorurteile anfällig sein, mit deren Hilfe in Vergangenheit und Gegenwart die Gesellschaftsordnung der Ungerechtigkeit aufrechterhalten wird. Der Traum des Knechts ist nicht, „Herren“ und „Knechte“ aus der Welt zu schaffen, sondern er wünscht, selber Herr zu werden. Die Gewalt hat ihn vergiftet und er besitzt nicht mehr die Kraft, den Traum der allgemeinen Freiheit zu träumen.

Es besteht kein Zweifel, dass die Fehlschläge der sozialen Bewegung auf diesen psychologischen Zusammenhang zurückzuführen sind. Die Wortführer des sozialen Fortschritts kranken am selben Geist der Gewalt, den sie zu bekämpfen vorgeben. Angesichts großer Entscheidungen verrieten sie die Idee der Freiheit immer wieder an die Autorität, der sie trotz kühner Parolen und Schlagworte hörig blieben.

Aufklärung und Erziehung

Der Sinn der aufklärerischen Bemühungen ist die Reinigung des menschlichen Bewusstseins von den oben beschriebenen individuellen und kollektiven Vorurteilen. Der „aufgeklärte Verstand“ ist fähig, gesunde Lebensziele ins Auge zu fassen. Die Zukunft unserer Kultur wird wesentlich davon abhängen, ob es genügend „Aufklärer“ geben wird, die imstande sind, den breiten Volksmassen jene Vorurteile zu nehmen, die der ideologische Hintergrund der Menschheitskatastrophen sind.

In einer Zeit, in der durch die Atombombe die Selbstvernichtung der Menschheit möglich erscheint, brauchen wir mehr denn je freie Geister, die uns lehren, was Wahrheit und was Lüge ist. Intellektuellen hätten die Pflicht, für die anderen Menschen zu denken (Romain Rolland) und mit der Freiheit des Denkens die Freiheit überhaupt zu verkünden.

Wichtiger noch als die Aufklärung aber ist die Erziehung, die nach Jean Paul der eigentliche Hebelarm der Kultur ist. Die tiefenpsychologische Einsicht hat die Erziehung in ihrer ungeheuren Tragweite deutlich gemacht. Das autoritäre Prinzip, jahrhundertelang als fraglos-gültige Grundlage des erzieherischen Verhaltens angesehen, drosselte bereits in den Kindheitsjahren das Gemeinschaftsgefühl der Menschen.

Heute wissen wir, dass wir durch psychologische Erziehungsmethoden Menschen heranbilden können, die gegen die Verstrickungen des Machtwahns gefeit sein werden. Indem die Pädagogik in Elternhaus und Schule auf unangemessenes Autoritätsgebaren und Gewaltanwendung verzichtet und sich mit wahrem Verständnis dem kindlichen Seelenleben zuwendet, wird sie Menschen hervorbringen, die keine „Untertanen-Mentalität“ besitzen und darum für die Machthaber in unserer Welt kein gefügiges Werkzeug mehr sein werden. Die Achtung vor der kindlichen Persönlichkeit und freundschaftliche Zuwendung des Erziehers zu seinem Zögling werden einen der wertvollsten Beiträge zum Aufbau einer humanen Gesellschaftsordnung zu leisten.

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Dr. Rudolf Lothar Hänsel ist Lehrer (Rektor a. D.), Doktor der Pädagogik (Dr. paed.) und Diplom-Psychologe (Schwerpunkte: Klinische-, Pädagogische-, Medien- sowie Individual-Psychologie). Als Pensionär arbeitete er in Lindau am Bodensee viele Jahre als Psychotherapeut in eigener Praxis. In seinen Büchern und pädagogisch-psychologischen Fachartikeln fordert er eine bewusste ethisch-moralische Werteerziehung und eine Erziehung zum Gemeinsinn und Frieden.

Noten 

1. https://www.globalresearch.ca/video-covid-19-engineered-destruction-of-civil-society-prof-michel-chossudovsky/5774749

2. https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-covid-19-crisis-and-the-seventh-wave-our-politicians-are-fraudulent-complicit-and-incompetent/5787031

3. https://de.rt.com/international/143552-vucic-es-tobt-weltkrieg-und/

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A look at the state of the world and humanity gives little cause for optimism. The historic lockdown of 11 March 2020 triggered “economic and social chaos” worldwide and was an “act of economic warfare, a war against humanity” (1). Meanwhile, we are being “afflicted” by the seventh Covid-19 wave, making it clear that “our politicians are fraudulent, complicit and incompetent” (2).

Moreover, the US West has been waging a devastating proxy war or world war against Russia (3) in Ukraine for months with the “prospect” of a “Last Judgement” (Armageddon). But it is not right to hold the “peoples” responsible for their wars; it was and is always only the ruling classes that feud and try to subjugate each other. Therefore, war cannot be attributed to human nature: Human nature is peaceful. Only the lust for power of those who function as authorities within the peoples and are imbued with the spirit of violence through their social position repeatedly leads to warlike conflicts in which the peoples bleed to death in favour of their masters and exploiters.

The psychological questioning must begin at this point and provide clarity as to why man of our time is still prepared to kill his fellow man beyond the national borders in a barbaric manner and how it becomes possible for a ruling minority to let the majority of the people live, work and die for their aims and purposes. Or to put it more precisely: How is the oppression of man by man possible?

Enlightenment thinkers emphasised freedom and equality of all people

People in the Middle Ages, who lived in a world divided into estates, still fatalistically accepted the injustices of the world and subordinated themselves to the secular and spiritual authorities without protest. It was not until the philosophy of the Renaissance and even more so that of the Enlightenment that the belief in the “innate differences” between people was shaken: domination and servitude now appeared as facts that had become historical, which could only be maintained by the naked violence of the rulers of all times.

The freedom and equality of all people were recalled again and again by the Enlightenment thinkers. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, one of the greatest among them, showed the contrast between the state of nature and social degeneracy by introducing his “Contract social” (Social Contract) with the famous words: “Man is born free, and everywhere he lies in chains.”

This doctrine gave the spirit of revolt its theoretical foundation. The discussions on the philosophy of the state eventually led to the glorious French Revolution, which declared the “rights of man and citizen” and thus laid the foundation for modern democracy.

Although the democratic idea also recorded positive developmental steps in the past, the idea of freedom is only little anchored in the consciousness of the world. Numerous countries are ruled by dictators and are subject to open or secret tyranny, the economy makes a mockery of the equality and brotherhood of all people, and to this day man has not succeeded in realising a just community order and banishing war – this age-old evil of mankind – from the world.

How is the oppression of man by man possible?

As already mentioned, the psychological question must provide us with clarity about how a ruling minority succeeds in making the majority of the people live, work and die for its aims and purposes. Or to put it more sharply: How is the oppression of man by man possible?

“Power” alone does not seem to be sufficient to keep peoples in bondage, since the power of the people would always be greater than that of their rulers, provided the citizens decided to bring that power to bear. It is ideological tools that ensure the bondage of peoples and enable rulers of all times to establish a regime of privilege and injustice: On the one hand, it is the ideological delusion of the human spirit in the sense of a confusion of the senses or a blindness of the mind that leads to making man forget his love of freedom. It even manages to make him glorify the chains under whose weight he collapses.

But beyond the mass-psychological level, the discussion of the causes of war and the domination of man over man needs an individual-psychological supplement: What mentality distinguishes “master” and “servant”? How must the soul of a member of the ruling classes be structured so that he will be willing to rule over his fellow man? What emotions must be present in the members of oppressed or exploited classes of people so that they will allow oppression to prevail over them? In order for a coherent picture to emerge, the findings of mass psychology must be rounded off by those of individual psychology.

The ideological blindness of the human spirit makes it possible, to make people forget their love of freedom

One of the most important pillars of the unjust social orders of the past and present is man’s belief that this world is only a meaningless stage of their existence and that they will find their true existence and happiness in the hereafter. For this indifference to earthly fate, the believers expected rich rewards and refrained from rebelling against tyranny. Docilely, their fatalism surrendered to every oppression and the will to live, limited by the orientation towards the hereafter, did not muster the courage or strength to revolt.

The Church, always on the side of the powerful, confirmed king and nobility as enthroned “by the grace of God”. To rise up against the conditions in state and society would therefore have been a violation of divine wisdom and providence. This transfiguration of the servant mentality created the conditions for absolutist forms of rule, in which people became a will-less tool of their authorities and gave them unreserved allegiance in war and peace.

Another moment is the national or racist ideology, whose epidemic character has been drastically illustrated to us in the past – and has recently experienced a renaissance.

The myth of the nation and the race creates an illusory unity between rulers and ruled. The ruled are supposed to believe that they belong, together with their masters, to a mysterious and glorious body in whose splendour and greatness even the least servant has his share. The servant is induced by this deception to overlook his servitude: are the others, who are not counted among his race or nation, still less than he? This makes it bearable for him that he himself counts for little or nothing. For the glory and honour of the nation, the servant was prepared to sacrifice his life.

Nationalism and race teachers are attitudes of pride and arrogance, which always include a touch of aggression against neighbouring peoples or races. Social grievances, caused by the injustice of the rulers, were and are thus always passed on to the counter-nation or counter-race.

As a slave, it did not occur to the servant to show solidarity with the slaves beyond the country’s borders in order to turn against the common oppressors. The resentment that should have arisen in him against his own tyrant was diverted to those who, like himself, groaned under the yoke of tyranny. In this diabolical mechanism lies the key to minority problems such as that of the Negroes in the USA or the Jews in Europe. The rulers of the past and present prove that they know how to exploit the “psychology of the scapegoat” to secure their rule.

Mentalities of rulers and ruled differ

The discussion of the causes of war and the domination of man over man, which has so far been conducted on the level of mass psychology, needs to be supplemented by individual psychology. In a social order that knows rulers and ruled – until today there is no other! –, two kinds of mentalities, two kinds of ideologies emerge that are essentially the same: Wherever there are upper and lower classes, mentalities of masters and servants develop.

The most salient characteristics of the type of person who grows up in a socially favoured position are the feelings of self-assurance and superiority. In this respect, children of the middle class and the working class cannot be confused. A child who is brought up in prosperity or affluence, who receives proper care and who can have a large number of desires fulfilled, assumes a different mental attitude from children of poverty, hardship or restricted economic conditions.

The child of the ruling classes approaches life with the basic mood: “The world belongs to me!”. In their dealings with servants in the parental home, they get the impression early on that people are differentiated into “masters” and “servants”, the latter being there to live and work for the rulers. Observing the relationship between father and mother in our patriarchal world leads to the child learning to associate “masculinity” at the same time with innate chosenness and a claim to dominance.

No wonder that the urge arises in his soul to be on top like the authority for once and to participate in the rule exercised by it. Under the influence of this striving for power, feelings of community are only poorly developed. In addition, a pampered upbringing produces people who face the world with a claim to chosenness and are not inclined to grant other people the same claims.

This mentality of ambition, pride and reduced fellow humanity makes it possible to become “bosses”, to take the leading positions in business, the military or politics, where the domination of man over man is envisaged. On this basis, superiors are shaped who, as politicians in agreement with representatives of big industry and militarism, are able to start a genocidal war in the interest of the ruling classes. The social structure, which is built on the spirit of violence, produces a breed of people for whom aggression means “prima et ultima ratio”.

But the servant also needs an ideology to remain in servitude. For man bears violence badly; something in him rebels against it. The use of violence arouses the desire to defend oneself, it wants to be answered by violence. Thus it is in the interest of the rulers to impart ideologies to the servant that make him resign himself to his fate. Among other things, he must believe that God or nature in their omnipotence have provided for his servitude.

The servant suffers as much from the lust for power as the master. Submissiveness acts as a constant sting that breeds a readiness for aggression. The smallest servant is still looking for someone to look down on and to vent his resentment on. This also affects the worker’s relationship with his wife and children, his “domain”.

At an early age, the working-class child feels placed in a world where there are privileged and disadvantaged people. As soon as he learns to compare clothes, financial means and social position, he develops a socially conditioned feeling of inferiority. This then gives rise to the striving to be more than the others. This can only be alleviated if the educators cultivate the idea of community so that the child learns to combine its own desire for freedom with that of other people.

Where this is not the case and an authoritarian and individualistic upbringing gives the child its first impressions of life, it will draw the conclusion from its social disadvantage that it must “raise itself up” alone. His soul, infected by the bacillus of the lust for power, will then be susceptible to racial and religious prejudices, with the help of which the social order of injustice is maintained in the past and present. The servant’s dream is not to eliminate “masters” and “servants” from the world, but he desires to become master himself. Violence has poisoned him and he no longer has the strength to dream the dream of universal freedom.

There is no doubt that the failures of the social movement are due to this psychological connection. The spokesmen of social progress suffer from the same spirit of violence that they claim to fight against. In the face of great decisions, they betrayed the idea of freedom again and again to the authority to which they remained in bondage despite bold slogans and catchwords.

Enlightenment and education

The purpose of enlightenment efforts is to purify human consciousness from the individual and collective prejudices described above. The “enlightened mind” is capable of envisaging healthy life goals. The future of our culture will largely depend on whether there will be enough “enlightened minds” capable of removing from the broad masses of people those prejudices which are the ideological background of the catastrophes of humanity.

At a time when the atomic bomb seems to make the self-destruction of humanity possible, we need free spirits more than ever to teach us what is truth and what is a lie. Intellectuals have the duty to think for other people (Romain Rolland) and to proclaim freedom in general with the freedom of thought.

More important than the Enlightenment, however, is education, which, according to Jean Paul, is the real lever of culture. Depth-psychological insight has made education clear in its immense scope. The authoritarian principle, for centuries regarded as the unquestionably valid basis of educational behaviour, already throttled people’s sense of community in their childhood years.

Today we know that through psychological educational methods we can train people who will be immune to the entanglements of power madness. By renouncing inappropriate authority and the use of violence in the parental home and school and turning to the child’s soul with true understanding, pedagogy will produce people who do not have a “subject mentality” and who will therefore no longer be docile tools for those in power in our world. Respect for the child’s personality and the friendly attitude of the educator towards his pupil will be one of the most valuable contributions to the building of a humane social order.

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Dr. Rudolf Lothar Hänsel is a teacher (retired headmaster), doctor of education (Dr. paed.) and graduate psychologist (specialisations: Clinical, educational, media and individual psychology). As a retiree, he worked for many years as a psychotherapist in his own practice in Lindau on Lake Constance. In his books and educational-psychological articles, he calls for a conscious ethical-moral education in values and an education for public spirit and peace.

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Notes

(1) https://www.globalresearch.ca/video-covid-19-engineered-destruction-of-civil-society-prof-michel-chossudovsky/5774749

(2) https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-covid-19-crisis-and-the-seventh-wave-our-politicians-are-fraudulent-complicit-and-incompetent/5787031

(3) https://de.rt.com/international/143552-vucic-es-tobt-weltkrieg-und/

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