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There is war within Big Pharma.

Amply documented: all mRNA covid “vaccines” (including Pfizer BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneka and J and J) have resulted in deaths and injuries.

There are indications that Pfizer wants the edge out both AstraZeneca and Johnson and Johnson 

(M. Ch. Global Research Editor)

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From today’s WaPo: “Of Americans not yet vaccinated, fewer than 1 in 4 people said they would be willing to get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, a Washington Post-ABC News poll found. Confidence in the other two vaccines remained high.”

Emergent Solutions, which has been beaten and bloodied by the Washington Post and NY Times over the past few weeks, and continues to fail FDA inspections, is the ONLY source of Johnson and Johnson Covid vaccine produced in the US.

It is also the only source of AstraZeneca Covid vaccine produced in the US.  Only the uninformed would accept either product from Emergent BioSolutions’ stocks. What can be done about that?

Dump this unapproved, unauthorized and potentially contaminated vaccine on other countries, like India, of course.

The White House also announced Monday that the United States will share up to 60 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine with other countries. That vaccine has not been authorized for use in the United States but has been available in countries such as the U.K. for months…

The AstraZeneca vaccine, which is not yet authorized for use in the U.S. by the Food and Drug Administration, will be sent to other countries once it clears federal safety reviews, officials said…We do not need to use AstraZeneca in our fight against covid,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters… 

The situation in India, where record global daily covid-19 cases have been set in recent days, is especially dire… 

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Earlier this month, the U.S. Army hosted a Facebook live town hall on the topic of concerns about COVID-19 vaccines.

The virtual town hall followed this format:

  • Affirm soldiers who took the experimental vaccine or question soldiers who have not yet taken the vaccine.
  • Legitimize an Army doctor as a drug expert to counter risks or concerns without citing any references for the information provided.
  • Leverage the influence of the Sergeant Major of the Army, the highest ranking non-commissioned officer, to persuade soldiers to risk taking the experimental drug without providing factual informed consent.

This format was designed to not only promote maximum conversion of soldiers to take the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) drug, but also to convince them to persuade their friends and family to do the same.

The overall tone of the town hall was respectful and caring, but the false efficacy claims and risk omissions are indicators of dysfunctional groupthink at best, or cult mentality at worst.

The U.S. Army leadership is persuading soldiers to put blind faith in an EUA drug using miraculous claims even the manufacturers do not make about their products.

The six-person town hall panel consisted of Sergeant Major of the Army (SMA) Michael Grinston; Dr. Steven Cersovsky, science advisor to the U.S. Army Medical Command; three U.S. Army service members; and a moderator.

The one-hour session addressed three main concerns about the COVID vaccine among military members: infertility, variants of the virus and the speed with which the vaccines were developed.

Cersovsky began the town hall with an evangelistic sales pitch for the vaccine beginning with this statement:

“The good news is the vaccine is available, there is light at the end of the tunnel and taking the vaccine protects you, protects the community and protects our nation.”

Cersovsky went on to acknowledge concerns about the speed with which the vaccines were developed and the risks that may pose to public safety, but then said, the “only risk to public safety is not getting vaccinated.”

According to Cersovsky, viral salvation can be achieved only by getting the vaccine. He vaguely referred to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and “data” without actually providing any data from the clinical trials or surveillance systems.

The medical ethics of informed consent requires doctors to tell patients the risk of the disease, the known benefits of the medical intervention, the known risks of the intervention and alternatives to the intervention. Cersovsky mentioned none of these.

In the case of the COVID vaccine, informed consent requires doctors inform soldiers of the following:

  • Risk of disease: Most people have a 99.9% survival rate for SARS-CoV2, with increased risk of severe disease in elderly populations with co-morbid health conditions. Per the CDC, the most frequent underlying medical conditions were obesity (35.1%), diabetes (8.4%) and pulmonary disease (7.8%).
  • Efficacy of Intervention: EUA COVID vaccines did not demonstrate prevention of infection or transmission of the virus in the clinical trials. Symptom prevention is the primary endpoint for the clinical trials. Consent to a COVID vaccine is equivalent to voluntary participation in an ongoing phase 3 clinical trial ending in 2022 or 2023.
  • Risks of Intervention: The manufacturers reported a comprehensive list of known adverse reactions in the Moderna COVID-19 EUA Fact Sheet and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 EUA Fact Sheet including severe reactions of anaphylaxis, appendicitis, Bell’s Palsy and death. On April 13, U.S. health officials temporarily suspended the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine over concerns of potential fatal blood clotting disorders. In the event of an adverse reaction, participants are not eligible for compensation because COVID vaccines are shielded from liability under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act of March 2020 as a “countermeasure.”
  • Alternatives: There is a research-based meta-analysis of more than 562 studies of effective preventative alternatives including long-term established therapeutics of Ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine and vitamin D.

Fertility risks

In addressing concerns about infertility, Cersovsky definitively stated, “I can tell you for certain that’s not the case.” Although pregnant women were excluded in the original clinical trials, Cersovsky claimed that over the past several months after vaccine rollout there is a ”very robust data set that the CDC has and others … very safe vaccines for use in pregnancy.”

Cersovsky added that for pregnant women, “the safety profile has been excellent. No adverse events in that group, just as we have seen in the broader population.”

Yet Cersovsky did not mention that as of April 16, 462 pregnant women reported adverse events related to COVID vaccines to the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System. The reports included 132 reports of miscarriage or premature birth.

The CDC is currently enrolling pregnant women in the v-safe COVID-19 Vaccine Pregnancy Registry, and has confirmed 4,478 pregnant women, but the CDC has yet to publish a report from the v-safe registry nor publish data from healthcare systems in the Vaccine Safety Datalink to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP).

It is manipulative and unethical for anyone to claim there is no risk in pregnancy, in the absence of evidence the drug is safe in pregnancy.

Cersovsky claimed there are benefits in pregnancy from the vaccine that are neither established by data nor research. He asserted:

“ … there are advantages, especially in pregnant women, in getting the vaccine. One, it protects them because they may be at higher risk from severe outcomes if they do get infected. Two, there’s the ability to pass on — what is called passive immunity — to pass on some of that immunity to the fetus, to the unborn child which will persist for many months after birth. So that gives the baby some protection too.”

Cersovsky refuted any possibility of the vaccine impacting the fertility of women, declaring,“there is no possible mechanism for that to happen.”

However, if there were no mechanism of reproductive risks, then why is the CDC dedicated to studying the unknown effects of the vaccine through the Vaccine Safety Datalink, which states: “Miscarriage and stillbirth that occurs among people who received COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy; Adverse outcomes in pregnancy following COVID-19 vaccination, including: Pregnancy complications, Birth outcomes, Infant outcomes for the first year of life (includes infant death, birth defects, and developmental disorders)?

Cersovsky is gaslighting women in uniform.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) assessment report of the Moderna mRNA-1273 COVID=19 vaccine reported in March the following for the developmental and reproductive toxicity in female rats: “The overall pregnancy index was numerically lower in mRNA-1273-vaccinated female rats (84.1%), compared to control animals (93.2%).”

The CDC declares pregnancy outcomes are unknown because the clinical trials did not scientifically study developmental and reproductive toxicity in female or male humans in the experimental design, and yet irresponsibly the CDC assumes no risk to pregnancy based on what “experts believe.”

According to the CDC statement on pregnancy and the COVID19 vaccine:

“Limited data are available about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines for people who are pregnant. Based on how these vaccines work in the body, experts believe they are unlikely to pose a specific risk for people who are pregnant. However, there are currently limited data on the safety of COVID-19 vaccines in pregnant people. Clinical trials that look at the safety and how well the COVID-19 vaccines work in pregnant people are underway or planned. Vaccine manufacturers are also monitoring data from people in the clinical trials who received vaccine and became pregnant. Studies in animals receiving a ModernaPfizer-BioNTech, or Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen (J&J/Janssen) COVID-19 vaccine before or during pregnancy found no safety concerns. CDC and the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) have safety monitoring systems in place to gather information about vaccination during pregnancy and will closely monitor that information. Most of the pregnancies in these systems are ongoing, so we don’t yet have information on the outcomes of these pregnancies. We need to continue to follow pregnancies long-term to understand effects on pregnancy and infants.”

Vaccine effectiveness with COVID and variants

The U.S. Army has developed a dangerous groupthink strategy that the vaccine guarantees health protection and has no short-term or long-term risks for anyone. The Army leadership is obediently following the CDC guidance, like victims of a cult mentality, without scrutinizing industry motives.

Per the clinical trial data presented to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for EUA, the prevention of infection and transmission were not assessed nor were these criteria a part of the primary efficacy endpoints established in the clinical trials.

Yet not only did Cersovsky fully endow the vaccines with infection prevention, he also endowed the vaccine with the supernatural ability to block all future variants. Cersovsky preached a message of super-immunity: “The vaccines, in fact, are so good at causing an immune response in most people, that even if a variant finds a way to diminish some of our immune systems protection, we still have the ability to fight off infection from this virus.”

These claims have not been confirmed in published data or research.

Cersovsky sermonized the idea that vaccines can stop, block or suppress the natural mutation of viruses to become more transmissible: “The vaccine is our mechanism in which we can stop these variants” and “The way to block that is through vaccination.”

He alluded to variants becoming stronger, without acknowledging that viruses naturally become less virulent as they become more transmissible.

In his concluding remarks, Cersovsky contradicted himself, stating there is limited data on the ability of the vaccine to actually block infection after previously stating that the vaccine blocked infection for both the virus and variants.

He contradicted himself a second time when he stated the vaccine is preferred over natural immunity because it “locks in immunity” and even boosts immunity with a greater protection in the previously infected, after stating that it is also likely that booster doses will be needed annually.

Sergeant Major Grinston doubled down on the notion that the vaccine will stop variants and credited the vaccine’s unproven efficacy for removing the restricted movement (quarantine) requirement of soldiers stating, “If I get vaccinated, I can stop that variant spread.”

Grinston added that soldiers can “take some leave without spending all their leave on restricted movement” which has been recently revised as a virus-containment strategy only for the unvaccinated sect.

This containment strategy is based on the CDC’s unsubstantiated belief of asymptomatic transmission. A November 2020 Nature research study of 10 million people in China found “no evidence of transmission from asymptomatic positive persons to traced closed contacts.”

A December 2020 JAMA meta-analysis of 54 studies by the University of Florida research concluded “no asymptomatic or presymptomatic spread.”

Yet Army leadership is blindly following CDC pseudoscience without any scrutiny, just as it did with the anthrax vaccine program, actively facilitating a program that is potentially even more dangerous.

Grinston expressed his concern for the “readiness” of the Army, and yet seems oblivious to the inherent risk of a goal to inject an experimental drug into 100% of soldiers with no data on long-term effects.

Not one military leader mentioned the immunopathological complications documented in the research of SARS-CoV vaccines from the past 20 years of animal trials: antibody dependent enhancement (ADE). This adverse effect results in an increase in viral production and decrease in viral clearance.

The military has not prepared for the worst-case-scenario of an epidemic of ADE fatalities when the vaccinated are exposed to wild strains of the virus. It is noteworthy that the CDC omitted the long-term risk of ADE from the marketing campaign and the chain of command has not conducted its own risk assessment.

Behavioral health concerns

During the town hall, Grinston expressed valid concerns about the behavioral health and harmful impacts of wearing masks, social distancing, quarantines and social isolation. He then suggested that beneficial social interactions could resume with the vaccine.

It is disappointing to see a respected leader and mentor advocate that social well-being can be restored only by taking an experimental drug, when quarantines for healthy people were never justified in the first place.

Grinston defended the policies of Army gyms that require a COVID vaccine card, and dining facilities that allow seated meals only to soldiers with COVID19 vaccine cards. Grinston said, “There should be an advantage to this.” He added:

“If there is no advantage, if I still have to wear a mask, or stay apart and I can’t do this, I can’t do that, and I’ve been vaccinated, I’d be sitting here going, why get vaccinated, what’s the point?”

And with that statement, the Sergeant Major of the Army disqualified anyone with natural immunity from having the same access and privileges as the vaccinated, who now have preferential treatment despite not knowing how long natural immunity lasts and if the vaccine confers immunity at all.

There is no contingency plan for antibody testing those who question the risks of the fast-tracked mRNA drug, rather a presumed leper status for the unvaccinated.

In the implementation of these policies, the unvaccinated wear their scarlet letters of shame and are shunned from the righteous vaccinated.

The pregnant soldier who is risk averse is told to stand outside in line for a sack lunch, while her peers eat inside restaurant style.

The injured soldier who needs specialized fitness equipment at the gym to rehabilitate is told he must exercise outside.

Soldiers are told they are now non-deployable if they are unvaccinated and removed out of leadership positions. Basic training graduations will allow only vaccinated guests to attend.

One command sergeant major gave the vaccinated soldiers a three-day pass, and required all of the unvaccinated soldiers to stay and write a 1,500-page essay defending their choice.  Only the vaccinated may attend military balls.

All of these unofficial Army policies will backfire on the purported social benefits of the vaccine. It is irreconcilable that a senior leader who can grasp the detrimental impact of long-term isolation then endorses a culture of exclusion for up to 30% of personnel.

While Grinston aims to protect the Army with a vaccine, he sacrifices the well-being of the unvaccinated with segregation policies.

In “For the Greater Good? The Devastating Ripple Effects of the COVID-19 Crisis,” this paradox is poignant:

“Currently, more evidence becomes available that the lockdowns may have more negative effects than positive effects. For instance, many measures taken in a lockdown aimed at protecting human life may compromise the immune system, and purpose in life, especially of vulnerable groups. This leads to the paradoxical situation of compromising the immune system and physical and mental health of many people, including the ones we aim to protect.”

How can anyone be expected to trust the lockdown proponents who claimed the lockdowns were protective, and are now also claiming the vaccine is protective? This breach of trust is why one-third of service members are declining this vaccine.

In response, the CDC has given the military orders to use “trusted leaders in the community” to persuade uptake, just as the CDC also requested church leaders persuade uptake in civilian communities.

Heaping sin upon sin

The omissions by Cersovsky and Grinston suggest they are promoting a belief in the vaccine and allegiance to the CDC that is disconnected from many red flags in the scientific community.

Neither seem to be aware the RT-PCR test cannot discriminate between the infectious virus and non-infectious viral fragments (live or dead nucleotide), and therefore the entire pandemic continues based on wide-scale false positives.

Neither leader mentioned that the entire world is challenging the PCR test as an unsuitable diagnostic tool as there is no Standard Operating Protocol that limits the cycle rate to detect only infectious SARS-CoV2 virus.

Neither raised the concern that the efficacy of the vaccine was calculated based on the flawed RT-PCR test.

Neither mentioned the hundreds of “breakthrough” cases of vaccinated people who are testing positive for SARS-CoV2. This is an indicator of lack of efficacy.

Neither addressed that the primary efficacy endpoint of the Pfizer and Moderna trials were symptom reduction, thus making vaccinated asymptomatic carriers. This necessitates an explanation on how vaccinated asymptomatic carriers are allegedly safe, but unvaccinated asymptomatic carriers are a risk. Symptom reduction does not equal immunity.

Neither discussed that a reported 94-95% efficacy in reducing symptoms or Relative Risk Reduction (RRR) is a deceitful way to sell a product with 1.1% Absolute Risk Reduction (ARR) for Moderna and 0.7% Absolute Risk Reduction (ARR) for Pfizer.

It appears that Cersovsky and Grinston were recruited as missionaries by Pharma to convert military members who commit the heresy of being skeptical of a deceptive marketing campaign for a lifetime commitment.

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Pam Long is graduate of USMA at West Point and is an Army Veteran of the Medical Service Corps.

Featured image is from Children’s Health Defense

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In Aldous Huxley’s 1932 novel “Brave New World,” people aren’t born from a mother’s womb. Instead, embryos are grown in artificial wombs until they are brought into the world, a process called ectogenesis. In the novel, technicians in charge of the hatcheries manipulate the nutrients they give the fetuses to make the newborns fit the desires of society. Two recent scientific developments suggest that Huxley’s imagined world of functionally manufactured people is no longer far-fetched.

On March 17, 2021, an Israeli team announced that it had grown mouse embryos for 11 days – about half of the gestation period – in artificial wombs that were essentially bottles. Until this experiment, no one had grown a mammal embryo outside a womb this far into pregnancy. Then, on April 15, 2021, a U.S. and Chinese team announced that it had successfully grown, for the first time, embryos that included both human and monkey cells in plates to a stage where organs began to form.

As both a philosopher and a biologist I cannot help but ask how far researchers should take this work. While creating chimeras – the name for creatures that are a mix of organisms – might seem like the more ethically fraught of these two advances, ethicists think the medical benefits far outweigh the ethical risks. However, ectogenesis could have far-reaching impacts on individuals and society, and the prospect of babies grown in a lab has not been put under nearly the same scrutiny as chimeras.

Mouse embryos were grown in an artificial womb for 11 days, and organs had begun to develop.

Growing in an artificial womb

When in vitro fertilization first emerged in the late 1970s, the press called IVF embryos “test-tube babies,” though they are nothing of the sort. These embryos are implanted into the uterus within a day or two after doctors fertilize an egg in a petri dish.

Before the Israeli experiment, researchers had not been able to grow mouse embryos outside the womb for more than four days – providing the embryos with enough oxygen had been too hard. The team spent seven years creating a system of slowly spinning glass bottles and controlled atmospheric pressure that simulates the placenta and provides oxygen.

This development is a major step toward ectogenesis, and scientists expect that it will be possible to extend mouse development further, possibly to full term outside the womb. This will likely require new techniques, but at this point it is a problem of scale – being able to accommodate a larger fetus. This appears to be a simpler challenge to overcome than figuring out something totally new like supporting organ formation.

The Israeli team plans to deploy its techniques on human embryos. Since mice and humans have similar developmental processes, it is likely that the team will succeed in growing human embryos in artificial wombs.

To do so, though, members of the team need permission from their ethics board.

CRISPR – a technology that can cut and paste genes – already allows scientists to manipulate an embryo’s genes after fertilization. Once fetuses can be grown outside the womb, as in Huxley’s world, researchers will also be able to modify their growing environments to further influence what physical and behavioral qualities these parentless babies exhibit. Science still has a way to go before fetus development and births outside of a uterus become a reality, but researchers are getting closer. The question now is how far humanity should go down this path.

Human-monkey hybrids

Human–monkey hybrids might seem to be a much scarier prospect than babies born from artificial wombs. But in fact, the recent research is more a step toward an important medical development than an ethical minefield.

If scientists can grow human cells in monkeys or other animals, it should be possible to grow human organs too. This would solve the problem of organ shortages around the world for people needing transplants.

But keeping human cells alive in the embryos of other animals for any length of time has proved to be extremely difficult. In the human-monkey chimera experiment, a team of researchers implanted 25 human stem cells into embryos of crab-eating macaques – a type of monkey. The researchers then grew these embryos for 20 days in petri dishes.

After 15 days, the human stem cells had disappeared from most of the embryos. But at the end of the 20-day experiment, three embryos still contained human cells that had grown as part of the region of the embryo where they were embedded. For scientists, the challenge now is to figure out how to maintain human cells in chimeric embryos for longer.

Regulating these technologies

Some ethicists have begun to worry that researchers are rushing into a future of chimeras without adequate preparation. Their main concern is the ethical status of chimeras that contain human and nonhuman cells – especially if the human cells integrate into sensitive regions such as a monkey’s brain. What rights would such creatures have?

However, there seems to be an emerging consensus that the potential medical benefits justify a step-by-step extension of this research. Many ethicists are urging public discussion of appropriate regulation to determine how close to viability these embryos should be grown. One proposed solution is to limit growth of these embryos to the first trimester of pregnancy. Given that researchers don’t plan to grow these embryos beyond the stage when they can harvest rudimentary organs, I don’t believe chimeras are ethically problematic compared with the true test–tube babies of Huxley’s world.

Few ethicists have broached the problems posed by the ability to use ectogenesis to engineer human beings to fit societal desires. Researchers have yet to conduct experiments on human ectogenesis, and for now, scientists lack the techniques to bring the embryos to full term. However, without regulation, I believe researchers are likely to try these techniques on human embryos – just as the now-infamous He Jiankui used CRISPR to edit human babies without properly assessing safety and desirability. Technologically, it is a matter of time before mammal embryos can be brought to term outside the body.

While people may be uncomfortable with ectogenesis today, this discomfort could pass into familiarity as happened with IVF. But scientists and regulators would do well to reflect on the wisdom of permitting a process that could allow someone to engineer human beings without parents. As critics have warned in the context of CRISPR-based genetic enhancement, pressure to change future generations to meet societal desires will be unavoidable and dangerous, regardless of whether that pressure comes from an authoritative state or cultural expectations. In Huxley’s imagination, hatcheries run by the state grew a large numbers of identical individuals as needed. That would be a very different world from today.

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 is Professor of Philosophy and Integrative Biology, The University of Texas at Austin College of Liberal Arts.

Featured image: Researchers have grown mammal embryos later into development than ever before in an artificial womb. Vitalii Kyryk/WikimediaCommons, CC BY-SA

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A team of researchers from Hospital del Mar in Barcelona, Spain, recently examined whether high-dose vitamin D can reduce the risk of death in hospitalized coronavirus patients. Impressively, they found that if given early enough the vitamin cut the risk of death by a dramatic 60 percent. This suggests an outcome twice as effective as that attributed to the steroid dexamethasone, a medication currently considered the most effective drug for treating the virus. Patients given vitamin D in the study were also found to be 80 percent less likely to need intensive care treatment. Significantly, these findings have been widely promoted in the international media.

The researchers followed a total of 930 coronavirus patients, 551 of whom were randomly assigned to receive vitamin D alongside standard coronavirus treatment. Patients receiving vitamin D were given a dose of 532 micrograms on day 1, followed by a dose of 266 micrograms on days 3, 7, 15, and 30.

From the 551 patients given vitamin D, a total of just 30 (5.4 percent) required intensive care treatment. By comparison, from the 379 patients not given supplemental vitamin D, a total of 80 (21.1 percent) required intensive care treatment. Only 6.5 percent of the patients given vitamin D died, while 15 percent of those who were not given it died. After adjusting the data to take account of factors such as age, gender, vitamin D levels at the beginning of the study, and the presence of other diseases, the researchers concluded that patients given vitamin D had a reduced risk of requiring intensive care treatment and a lower mortality risk.

While awaiting peer-review of their study the researchers had initially published their findings online in preprint form. Following a storm of protest by certain so-called ‘experts’, however, the paper was subsequently taken offline. One particularly vocal opponent, Naveed Sattar, a Professor of Metabolic Medicine at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, claimed it was “not a useful study.” Tellingly, perhaps, Sattar has served as an advisor, consultant, speaker, or member of a speakers bureau for drug companies including Amgen, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Lilly, and Merck. He has also received grants from Merck.

Politicians starting to promote vitamin D

This study is hardly the first to link vitamin D with the prevention or treatment of coronavirus infection. Researchers at the Boston University School of Medicine in the United States have already shown that having adequate levels of vitamin D reduces complications and death in coronavirus patients, for example.

Similarly, researchers in the UK have looked at 20 European countries and compared average levels of vitamin D with coronavirus infection rates and mortality. They found that people with low levels of the micronutrient may be more likely to die after contracting the virus.

It has also been shown that people with insufficient vitamin D have 60 percent higher rates of coronavirus infection compared to those having adequate amounts. Other research has found that, in combination with magnesium and vitamin B12, daily doses of vitamin D3 can reduce disease severity in older coronavirus patients.

Promisingly, therefore, politicians in some countries are beginning to pick up on these findings and promote the use of vitamin D. In the United States, Representative Glenn Grothman has recently introduced a House Resolution to recognize the significant role it may play in the fight against COVID-19.

David Davis, a British politician, has also become a prominent campaigner for the use of vitamin D and recently spoke about it in the UK House of Commons. Citing the example of the Andalusia region in Spain, where there has been widespread distribution of vitamin D to care home residents and some patients, Davis explained how the death rate had almost halved. Describing vitamin D as a “cheap, safe and apparently effective treatment”, he urged Prime Minister Boris Johnson to ask his advisors to “look urgently, again, at the very latest Spanish research.

While Boris Johnson’s government had already committed to distributing free low-dose vitamin D supplements to at-risk groups in the UK, as yet only a limited number of people have been receiving them. As a result, over the same period that the death rate from the virus halved in Andalusia, the rate in the UK more than doubled.

If used alongside vitamin C and a combination of other micronutrients including certain minerals, amino acids and plant extracts, vitamin D can clearly play an important role in helping bring the pandemic to an end. Towards this goal it is up to all of us to share this lifesaving science-based information as widely as possible.

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Paul Anthony Taylor is Executive Director of the Dr. Rath Health Foundation and one of the coauthors of our explosive book, “The Nazi Roots of the ‘Brussels EU’”, Paul is also our expert on the Codex Alimentarius Commission and has had eye-witness experience, as an official observer delegate, at its meetings. You can find Paul on Twitter at @paulanthtaylor

Featured image is from Dr. Rath Health Foundation

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Vienna Shadow Play Hangs over Iran Nuke Deal

April 28th, 2021 by Pepe Escobar

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Few people, apart from specialists, may have heard of the JCPOA Joint Commission. That’s the group in charge of a Sisyphean task: the attempt to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal through a series of negotiations in Vienna.  

The Iranian negotiating team was back in Vienna yesterday, led by Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi. Shadowplay starts with the fact the Iranians negotiate with the other members of the P+1 – Russia, China, France, UK and Germany – but not directly with the US. 

That’s quite something: after all, it was the Trump administration that blew up the JCPOA. There is an American delegation in Vienna, but they only talk with the Europeans. 

Shadowplay goes turbo when every Viennese coffee table knows about Tehran’s red lines: either it’s back to the original JCPOA as it was agreed in Vienna in 2015 and then ratified by the UN Security Council, or nothing.   

Araghchi, mild-mannered and polite, has had to go on the record once again to stress that Tehran will leave if the talks veer towards “bullying”, time wasting or even a step-by-step ballroom dance, which is time wasting under different terminology. 

Neither flat out optimistic nor pessimistic, he remains, let’s say, cautiously upbeat, at least in public:

“We are not disappointed and we will do our job. Our positions are very clear and firm. The sanctions must be lifted, verified and then Iran must return to its commitments.”

So, at least in thesis, the debate is still on. Araghchi:

“There are two types of U.S. sanctions against Iran. First, categorized or so-called divisional sanctions, such as oil, banking and insurance, shipping, petrochemical, building and automobile sanctions, and second, sanctions against real and legal individuals.”

“Second” is the key issue. There’s absolutely no guarantee the US Congress will lift most or at least a significant part of these sanctions. 

Everyone in Washington knows it – and the American delegation knows it. 

When the Foreign Ministry in Tehran, for instance, says that 60% or 70% has been agreed upon, that’s code for lifting of divisional sanctions. When it comes to “second”, Araghchi has to be evasive:

“There are complex issues in this area that we are examining”.    

Now compare it with the assessment of informed Iranian insiders in Washington such as nuclear policy expert Seyed Hossein Mousavian: 

they’re more like pessimistic realists. 

That takes into consideration the non-negotiable red lines established by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei himself. Plus non-stop pressure by Israel, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, who are all JCPOA-adverse. 

But then there’s extra shadowplay. Israeli intel has already notified the security cabinet that a deal most certainly will be reached in Vienna. After all, the narrative of a successful deal is already being constructed as a foreign policy victory by the Biden-Harris administration – or, as cynics prefer, Obama-Biden 3.0. 

Meanwhile, Iranian diplomacy remains on overdrive. Foreign Minister Javad Zarif is visiting Qatar and Iraq, and has already met with the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim al Thani. 

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, virtually at the end of his term before the June presidential elections, always goes back to the same point: no more US sanctions; Iran’s verification; then Iran will return to its “nuclear obligations”.   

The Foreign Ministry has even released a quite detailed fact sheet once again stressing the need to remove “all sanctions imposed, re-imposed and re-labeled since January 20, 2017”. 

The window of opportunity for a deal won’t last long. Hardliners in Tehran couldn’t care less. At least 80% of Tehran members of Parliament are now hardliners. The next President most certainly will be a hardliner. Team Rouhani’s efforts have been branded a failure since the onset of Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign. Hardliners are already in post-JCPOA mode.  

That fateful Fateh 

What none of the actors in the shadowplay can admit is that the revival of the JCPOA pales compared to the real issue: the power of Iranian missiles. 

In the original 2015 negotiations in Vienna – follow them in my  Persian Miniatures e-book – Obama-Biden 2.0 did everything in their power to include missiles in the deal. 

Every grain of sand in the Negev desert knows that Israel will go no holds barred to retain its nuclear weapon primacy in the Middle East. Via a spectacular kabuki, the fact that Israel is a nuclear power happens to remain “invisible” to most of world public opinion.      

While Khamenei has issued a fatwa clearly stating that producing, stockpiling and using weapons of mass destruction – nuclear included – is haram (banned by Islam), Israel’s leadership feels free to order stunts such as the sabotage via Mossad of the (civilian) Iranian nuclear complex at Natanz.    

The head of Iran’s Parliament Energy Committee, Fereydoun Abbasi Davani, even accused Washington and London of being accomplices to the sabotage of Natanz, as they arguably supplied intel to Tel Aviv. 

Yet now a lone missile is literally exploding a great deal of the shadowplay. 

On April 22, in the dead of night before dawn, a Syrian missile exploded only 30 km away from the ultra-sensitive Israeli nuclear reactor of Dimona. The official – and insistent – Israeli spin: this was an “errant”.  

Well, not really. 

Here – third video from the top – is footage of the quite significant explosion. Also significantly, Tel Aviv remained absolutely mum when it comes to offering a missile proof of ID.  Was it an old Soviet 1967 SA-5? Or, rather more likely, a 2012 Iranian Fateh-110 short range surface-to-surface, manufactured in Syria as the M-600, and also possessed by Hezbollah?   

A Fateh family tree can be seen in the attached chart. The inestimable Elijah Magnier has posed some very good questions about the Dimona near-hit. I complemented it with a quite enlightening discussion with physicists, with input by a military intel expert. 

The Fateh-110 operates as a classic ballistic missile, until the moment the warhead starts maneuvering to evade ABM defenses. Precision is up to 10 meters, nominally 6 meters. So it hit exactly where it was supposed to hit. Israel officially confirmed that the missile was not intercepted – after a trajectory of roughly 266 km. 

This opens a brand new can of worms. It implies that the performance of the much hyped and recently upgraded Iron Dome  is far from stellar – and talk about euphemism. The Fateh flew so low that Iron Dome could not identify it. 

The inevitable conclusion is this was a message/warning combo. From Damascus. With a personal stamp from Bashar al-Assad, who had to clear such a sensitive missile launch. A message/warning delivered via Iranian missile technology fully available to the Axis of Resistance – proving that regional actors have serious stealth capability.  

It’s crucial to remember that when Tehran dispatched a volley of deliberately older Fateh-313 versions at the US base Ayn al-Assad in Iraq, as a response to the assassination of Gen Soleimani in January 2020, the American radars went blank.

Iranian missile technology as top strategic deterrence. Now that’s the shadowplay that turns Vienna into a sideshow.  

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This article was originally published on Asia Times.

Pepe Escobar, born in Brazil, is a correspondent and editor-at-large at Asia Times and columnist for Consortium News and Strategic Culture in Moscow. 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 frequent contributor to Global Research.

Featured image: Iranian Fateh-110 missile. Photo: Wikipedia / YPA.IR

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On 9 April 2021, retired physician and health and environmental campaigner Dr Rosemary Mason wrote to the Danish Environmental Protection Agency (DEPA). She wanted to draw the agency’s attention to the findings that indicate the glyphosate-based herbicide Roundup causes high levels of mortality following contact exposure in bumble bees (glyphosate-formulated herbicides are the most widely used weedicides in agriculture across the globe).

This, Mason argued, has led to a decline of bumblebees in Denmark. She asked the agency why it had used “fraudulent science” on glyphosate from the European Commission and the European Chemicals Agency, which in turn take their ‘science’ from Monsanto/Bayer, rather than from the direct observations of The Danish Nature Agency.

Mason’s correspondence focused not only on the destructive environmental impacts of glyphosate but also on the devastating human health aspects.

In relation to sanctioning the continued use of glyphosate in Europe, Mason has previously noted that it was totally unacceptable, possibly negligent or even criminal, for the European Union to have allowed a group of plant scientists on the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed (PAFF) – whose knowledge of human physiology was so lacking that they did not recognise that glyphosate has effects on humans – to make decisions that affect human health.

PAFF’s role was pivotal in the decision to re-licence the use of glyphosate in the EU in 2017.

To date, aside from the DEPA acknowledging receipt of Mason’s letter, there has been no response to the issues raised.

As a follow up, Mason has sent the latest insights to DEPA on the Monsanto-Bayer lawsuits in the US. Three cases brought by Lee Johnson, Edwin Hardeman and Alva and Alberta Pilliod have already gone to trial. In each case, the courts found that Roundup caused their cancers and that Monsanto hid the risks of its product.

Mason also forwarded information to Magnus Hennicke, the health minister, indicating the role glyphosate plays in fuelling cancers and other diseases in Denmark. Minister for Food, Agriculture and Fishery Rasmus Prehn and Special Adviser Casper Steen Petersen also received copies of this information.

Their attention was drawn to the Institute for Responsible Technology claims that cancers caused by Roundup include non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, bone cancer, colon cancer, kidney cancer, liver cancer, melanoma, pancreatic cancer and thyroid cancer.

Mason also quoted Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the renowned environmental attorney, who in 2018 talked of:

“… cascading scientific evidence linking glyphosate to a constellation of other injuries that have become prevalent since its introduction, including obesity, depression, Alzheimer’s, ADHD, autism, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s, kidney disease, and inflammatory bowel disease, brain, breast and prostate cancer, miscarriage, birth defects and declining sperm counts. Strong science suggests glyphosate is the culprit in the exploding epidemics of celiac disease, colitis, gluten sensitivities, diabetes and non-alcoholic liver cancer which, for the first time, is attacking children as young as 10.”

Mason concluded her correspondence by saying:

“I will leave Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen (to whom I have also sent a copy) and other ministers to demand answers from the Danish Environmental Protection Agency. Are they or their relatives suffering from any of these diseases – Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, autism, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, etc? Until Roundup is eliminated from food and from drinking water, these conditions will continue to afflict us all. That means that farmers must stop using Roundup.”

Rosemary Mason has been writing to officials in the UK and Europe about the effects of Roundup and other agrochemicals for over a decade, documenting the health and environmental impacts as well as the institutional corruption that has led to their continued use. Her many reports are littered with peer reviewed scientific literature to support her claims and can be accessed on the academia.edu website.

New study

It seems that not a month goes by until some new paper or study appears and supports what Mason has been saying for a long time. For example, according to the recent multiple author paper ‘In-depth comparative toxicogenomics and Roundup herbicides’, glyphosate and Roundup changes gene function and causes DNA damage.

The research found that glyphosate and glyphosate-formulated herbicides activate mechanisms involved in cancer development, including DNA damage – and these effects occur at doses assumed by regulators to have no adverse effects. The study found that DNA damage was caused by oxidative stress, a destructive imbalance in the body that can cause a long list of diseases.

Writing on the GMWatch website, Claire Robinson summarises the findings and the policy implications. She states that the findings, according to the EU’s pesticide law, should result in a ban on glyphosate and all its formulations.

The study was led by Dr Michael Antoniou and Dr Robin Mesnage at King’s College London. It builds on the findings of a previous study by the same authors. In that study, the findings showed that glyphosate and Roundup, given at doses that regulators say are safe, result in gut microbiome disturbances and oxidative stress, with indications that the liver is affected and possibly damaged.

In the new follow-up study, the researchers carried out some of the standard tests that regulators require the pesticide industry to conduct to gain market authorisation for their products – namely blood biochemistry and kidney and liver histopathology (microscopic examination of tissue).

They also carried out in-depth tests (molecular profiling) that are not demanded by regulators or typically carried out by the industry. In addition, the researchers undertook tests that can detect direct damage to DNA.

Robinson notes that, worryingly for public health, it was the non-standard molecular profiling tests that are not required by pesticide regulators that were most revealing.

Roundup was found to alter the expression of 96 genes in the liver specifically linked to DNA damage and oxidative stress as well as disruption of circadian rhythms or ‘body clocks’. The findings strongly suggest that the key changes in gene function reflective of oxidative stress and DNA damage was due to glyphosate and not the additional substances (adjuvants) present in the Roundup formulation. Direct DNA damage to the liver was found to increase with glyphosate exposure.

Protect public health

Claire Robinson says that these findings potentially constitute a bombshell that could end the authorisation of glyphosate in the EU because the EU pesticide regulation (1107/2009) has what is known as hazard-based cut-off criteria.

She states:

“This means that if a pesticide active ingredient is shown to cause a certain type of harm to health at whatever dose, it must be banned. One of the named types of harm is damage to DNA. The discovery that glyphosate alone damages DNA in a living animal should, if regulators follow the law, result in a ban on glyphosate.”

The study indicated that both glyphosate and its commercial formulation Roundup activate mechanisms involved in cancer development, causing gene expression changes reflecting oxidative stress and DNA damage.

The UK is currently pushing for the deregulation of genetically engineered crops and products and the non-regulation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) derived from newer techniques like gene-editing. This in itself is worrying given the scientific evidence pointing to the health and ecological dangers associated with this technology.

At the same time, however, the government’s proposed strategy would only further serve the bottom line of the agrochemical companies while contributing to the ongoing public health crisis brought about by their products.

For instance, the recent paper ‘Herbicide Resistance: Another Hot Agronomic Trait for Plant Genome Editing’ (in the peer reviewed journal ‘Plants’) says that, in spite of claims from GMO promoters that gene editing will reduce pesticide use, what we can expect is just more of the same – GMO herbicide-tolerant crops and increased herbicide use.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has stated that he wants to “liberate the UK’s extraordinary bioscience sector from anti-genetic modification rules”. The type of ‘liberation’ Johnson really means is the UK adopting unassessed GM crops and food and a continuation of the chemical bombardment of our food, environment and bodies.

It is time for Johnson to serve the public not the bottom line of the government’s corporate masters.

It is time for the EU to ‘follow the science’ and side-line industry influence.

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Colin Todhunter is a frequent contributor to Global Research and Asia-Pacific Research.

Cracks in QUAD as US Violates Indian Sovereignty?

April 28th, 2021 by Paul Antonopoulos

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Government councils in the UK are hiring COVID Marshals to patrol streets from July until the end of 2023, despite the fact that all lockdown restrictions are supposed to end in June.

“A new army of Covid Marshals is being recruited for roles that could last until 2023 despite Government plans to lift all remaining restrictions on June 21,” reports the Telegraph.

“Councils around the country are advertising jobs that do not begin until July – several days after the supposed freedom day.”

One example is Hertfordshire County Council, which is “offering a contract of up to £3 million to firms that can supply 60 marshals from July 1 until January 31 next year.”

“The contract comes with a possible one-year extension, meaning marshals would still be patrolling until 2023,” states the report.

The Marshals will be tasked with ensuring “compliance” and helping the public understand “regulations and guidance,” despite the fact that all regulations are supposed to be terminated in 8 weeks time.

“We know that the virus is still circulating and will be for some time. We know from last year that numbers of infections can change rapidly, and Government are very clear that we should plan in case a third wave arises. It would be a dereliction of duty not to prepare for a third wave,” said Jim McManus, director of public health for Hertfordshire County Council.

Critics have accused the government of wasting taxpayer money by allowing councils to use government grants to fund the program.

“To start hiring people based on the situation we faced last year, before we had rolled out the vaccines, does seem to be a waste of public money,” said Mark Harper MP, Tory chairman of the Covid Recovery Group.

The fact that COVID Marshals will be patrolling the streets beyond June once again illustrates how the timetable to lift restrictions is completely phony.

Just like the UK government promised for months that it wouldn’t introduce vaccine passports while secretly funding their creation, the state has been caught lying yet again.

In all likelihood, fearmongering over a “third wave” of the virus, despite the UK vaccinating virtually all of its vulnerable population, will be used to reintroduce lockdown at the beginning of Autumn.

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The UK government has abandoned attempts to shield members of its armed forces from prosecution for murder and war crimes committed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Ministers agreed to amend its deeply controversial Overseas Operations Bill following stiff opposition from members of parliament’s upper house, the Lords.

The initial proposal – to shield soldiers from prosecution for torture or genocide as well as murder and war crimes – had also faced condemnation by human rights groups and retired senior officers.

This does not mean that soldiers and ex-soldiers will be prosecuted, however.

Just one British soldier pleaded guilty at court martial to committing a war crime in Iraq, after a Basra hotel receptionist, Baha Mousa, was tortured to death, despite there being video evidence that other soldiers were involved.

Separately, three soldiers were prosecuted and jailed after photographic evidence emerged showing the abuse of prisoners.

In other cases, soldiers were prosecuted and acquitted.

In the civil courts in London, evidence has emerged suggesting that British special forces in Afghanistan may have been running an “execution squad”, killing unarmed civilians.

The provisions in the Overseas Operations Bill were widely denounced as dangerous and damaging to the UK’s standing in the world.

The United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Michell Bachelet, warned Boris Johnson’s government that the proposals would put the UK “at odds” with the Geneva Conventions.

After the government’s final climb-down on Tuesday, David Davis, an ex-soldier and former Conservative government minister, told parliament’s lower house, the Commons, that the bill had raised the danger of British troops being prosecuted by the International Criminal Court: “A truly shameful outcome.”

Stephen Timms, a member of the Labour opposition, said it was bewildering that the government had “ploughed on” with a Bill that was so widely condemned.

Steve Crawshaw, director of policy and advocacy at the London-based NGO Freedom from Torture, said: “This is a historic win for torture survivors, and for Britain’s international standing.

“It is chilling how close Boris Johnson came in his bid to decriminalise torture and other crimes. It should never have taken so long for the government to abandon these immoral proposals, but today’s collapse of the government’s position is a reason for celebration.

“Even the most obstinate leaders must eventually give way to reason. We must work to repair this country’s damaged international standing, and to ensure that such dangerous attempts to weaken the global torture ban will never see the light of day again.”

The government had argued that the bill was intended to protect service personnel from repeated investigations. Some have faced many investigations over several years.

The bill’s critics say that this was done because many of the investigations were neither thorough nor effective, and that the proposed legislation did nothing to rectify this.

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Microchip Can Detect COVID Before You’re Sick

April 28th, 2021 by Dr. Joseph Mercola

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Pentagon scientists and Profusa have developed a tiny biosensor that can be embedded under your skin to detect disease

Its purpose is to track chemical reactions going on inside your body, which may reveal that you’re infected with a virus like COVID-19 or influenza and about to start having symptoms the next day

In addition to the under-skin sensor, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has been working on a customized filter that can be put on a standard dialysis machine to remove COVID-19 from the blood

Profusa said it intended to seek FDA approval for their tissue-integrating biosensor in 2021, and a DARPA-backed study is also underway to measure early signs of influenza via the biosensor technology

The biosensors may detect disease outbreaks, biological attacks and pandemics up to three weeks earlier than current methods, but you may have to give up your privacy in exchange

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In the “60 Minutes” clip here, Bill Whitaker speaks with Dr. Matt Hepburn, a retired Army infectious disease physician, about a tiny sensor that can be embedded under your skin. Its purpose is to track chemical reactions going on inside your body, which may reveal that you’re infected with a virus like COVID-19 or influenza and about to start having symptoms the next day.

Hepburn describes it as a “check engine light,”1 which could have tremendous usefulness, for instance, on an aircraft carrier where thousands of sailors live in close quarters. If the sensor gives the signal that you’re “sick,” even though you have no symptoms, a blood draw could be self-administered, giving you a diagnosis in three to five minutes.

“As you truncate that time, as you diagnose and treat, what you do is you stop the infection in its tracks,” Hepburn said.2 Admittedly, a sensor that’s implanted under your skin has an Orwellian ring to it, which is why Whitaker made the disclaimer, “It’s not some dreaded government microchip to track your every move, but a tissue-like gel engineered to continuously test your blood.”

But in light of the government’s recent intrusions on personal liberties and ability to force quarantines on anyone in the name of public safety, even in the absence of illness, isn’t that essentially the same thing?

Vaccine Coordinator for Operation Warp Speed

To put this into perspective, consider that Hepburn is the vaccine coordinator for Operation Warp Speed (OWS). OWS, a joint operation between U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Defense (DOD), continues to be shrouded in secrecy but, little by little, information is emerging that long-term monitoring of the U.S. public is part of the plan.

At face value, OWS is a public-private partnership that was tasked with producing therapeutics and a fast-tracked COVID-19 vaccine.3 OWS invested an estimated $18 billion primarily in late-stage clinical development and early manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccines, and agreements to purchase at least 455 million doses were made.4

Rather than just ensuring a vaccine is produced and made available for those who want it, however, Moncef Slaoui, the chief scientific adviser for Operation Warp Speed — he’s been dubbed the coronavirus vaccine czar5 — said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal in October 2020 that the rollout would include “incredibly precise … tracking systems.”6,7

Their purpose? “To ensure that patients each get two doses of the same vaccine and to monitor them for adverse health effects.”8 In an interview with The New York Times, Slaoui described it as a “very active pharmaco vigilance surveillance system.”9

Similar language was reiterated in an October 2020 perspective article published in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), written by Slaoui and Hepburn.10 Writing in NEJM, the duo wrote, “Because some technologies have limited previous data on safety in humans, the long-term safety of these vaccines will be carefully assessed using pharmacovigilance surveillance strategies.”11

In addition to working with OWS, Hepburn is a former program manager for the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), where he oversaw the development of the implantable biosensor shown in the “60 Minutes” clip with its maker, Profusa.12 The sensor allows a person’s physiology to be examined at a distance via smartphone connectivity. Profusa is also backed by Google, the largest data mining company in the world.

Is Military Leadership and Total Surveillance the Plan?

OWS, rather than being directed by public health officials, is heavily dominated by military, technology companies and U.S. intelligence agencies, likening it to a successor for Total Information Awareness (TIA), a program managed by DARPA that sprung up after the 9/11 attacks.

At the time, TIA was seeking to collect Americans’ medical records, fingerprints and other biometric data, along with DNA and records relating to personal finances, travel and media consumption.13

Hepburn has praised the DOD’s role in OWS, calling it “transformative.” “One of the most important lessons learned is the value of military leadership,” he said during a speech to the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States’ virtual annual meeting in December 2020.14

In addition to the vaccine contracts the DOD obtained “in record time that was mutually beneficial” for the vaccine manufacturers, Hepburn told members of the health care community “‘to convey a message that these vaccines are safe and efficacious, and that vaccination is important’ as a counterpoint to widespread misinformation in the general public about vaccines …”15

Rather than taking over a public health initiative, as it may first appear, Hepburn said the DOD’s role in the pandemic was a collaboration not only for Americans but for people globally, and it’s set to become the new standard: “[T]his is the new standard for rapid product development, and will apply not only to pandemics but also to develop product for combat health in half the time,” he said.16

Stopping Pandemics Before They Begin?

In addition to the under-skin sensor, DARPA has been working on other projects, including a customized filter that can be put on a standard dialysis machine to remove COVID-19 from the blood.

As blood passes through the machine, the virus is removed, returning only healthy blood back to the body. A critically ill spouse of a military member, known only as “Patient 16,” reportedly received the treatment for four days and made a full recovery.17

Other scientists have recovered human antibodies for the 1918 Spanish flu, which they got from people still alive today who had lived through that pandemic. When they infected animals with the 1918 flu virus — yes, they still have it — the antibodies were effective in stopping it.18

Hepburn and his team have also funded research on a simulated Zika virus outbreak, creating a cure in 78 days, while other Pentagon researchers are in the process of creating a vaccine that would work against all coronaviruses, even the common cold. It’s currently in clinical trials.19

Injectable Biosensor Seeking FDA Approval

Hydrogel is a DARPA invention that involves nanotechnology and nanobots. This “bioelectronic interface” is part of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines’ delivery system. The biochip being developed by Profusa is similar to the proposed COVID-19 mRNA vaccines in that it utilizes hydrogel.

The implant is the size of a grain of rice, and connects to an online database that will keep track of changes in your biochemistry and a wide range of biometrics, such as heart and respiratory rate and much more.

The technology consists of three components:20 the implanted sensor, a reader placed on the surface of the skin and the software that allows the reader to send the collected data via Bluetooth to your phone or tablet, which in turn can be connected to other online sources such as your doctor’s website. As Defense One explained in March 2020:21

“The sensor has two parts. One is a 3mm string of hydrogel, a material whose network of polymer chains is used in some contact lenses and other implants. Inserted under the skin with a syringe, the string includes a specially engineered molecule that sends a fluorescent signal outside of the body when the body begins to fight an infection.

The other part is an electronic component attached to the skin. It sends light through the skin, detects the fluorescent signal and generates another signal that the wearer can send to a doctor, website, etc. It’s like a blood lab on the skin that can pick up the body’s response to illness before the presence of other symptoms, like coughing.”

Profusa said it intended to seek FDA approval for their tissue-integrating biosensor in 2021,22 and a DARPA-backed study is also underway to measure early signs of influenza via the biosensor technology. The injectable sensors will be used to measure physiological statuses to reveal not only indicators of human response to infection but also “exposure to disease in healthy volunteers.”23

A wireless patch that measures tissue oxygen levels would also be used, sending information to a mobile device for real-time data. According to Profusa, the biosensors may detect disease outbreaks, biological attacks and pandemics up to three weeks earlier than current methods.24 It would seem, however, that in order for such sensors to work on a widespread scale, extensive adoption would be required.

24-Hour Monitoring in Exchange for ‘Safety’

There are glaring privacy and ethical concerns when it comes to rolling out an implantable sensor that will track your every sniffle, even before you reach for a tissue. The information will then be sent digitally to your cellphone, and who will have access? Perhaps an even worse prospect is, what information could potentially be sent the other way — from the sensor into your body? For instance, technology critic Adam Keiper pointed out in The New Atlantis:25

“Aside from nanotech’s potential as a weapon of mass destruction, it could also make possible totally novel forms of violence and oppression. Nanotechnology could theoretically be used to make mind-control systems, invisible and mobile eavesdropping devices, or unimaginably horrific tools of torture.”

In order to stop a disease outbreak three weeks early, offering a fearful public an illusion of safety, you’d only have to give up your privacy, and submit to being monitored and hooked up to “the cloud,” perhaps permanently.

If you remember TIA after the 9/11 attacks, you may also remember that it was quickly defunded by Congress after significant public backlash, including concerns that TIA would undermine personal privacy.

In the case of OWS and the emerging biosensors, there’s little negative press, and media outlets are overwhelmingly supportive of the operation as a way to resolve the COVID-19 crisis and future pandemics. One of my favorite independent journalists, Whitney Webb, put it this way:

“It’s certainly alarming, and it seems to point to the fulfillment of an agenda that was attempted to be pushed through or foisted on the American public after 9/11, called Total Information Awareness, which was managed, originally, by DARPA.

It was about using medical data and non-medical data — essentially all data about you — to prevent terror attacks before they could happen, and also to prevent bioterror attacks and even prevent naturally occurring disease outbreaks.

A lot of the same initiatives proposed under that original program after 9/11 have essentially been resurrected, with updated technology, under the guise of combating COVID-19.”

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Notes

1, 2, 18, 19 CBS News April 11, 2021

3, 6, 8, 13 Humans Are Free October 30, 2020

4 The Lancet Global Health March 26, 2021

5 CNBC September 23, 2020

7 Wall Street Journal October 9, 2020

9 The New York Times October 5, 2020

10, 11 N Engl J Med 2020; 383:1701-1703 DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp2027405

12 Bio Optics World May 25, 2016

14, 15, 16 Health.mil December 11, 2020

17 New York Post April 12, 2021

20 MD+DI March 26, 2020

21, 22 Defense One March 3, 2020

23, 24 Profusa March 3, 2020

25 The New Atlantis, The Nanotechnology Revolution

Featured image is a screenshot from the CBS video

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In a bizarre turn of events, the COVID vaxxed are apparently causing ill effects to the unvaccinated around them, as countless reports and anecdotes affirm. The more time goes by, the more horrible effects of the COVID “vaccine” (which is not a vaccine but a medical device and experimental gene therapy) come to light. If you thought you’d be safe just by avoiding being COVID vaxxed, think again! These reports reveal that the unvaccinated are getting sick or suffering some kind of ill effect just by being in the vicinity of the COVID vaccinated. Women are feeling it most, especially in the reproductive realm. They are coming donw with irregular and heavy menstruation, bleeding while pregnant and suffering miscarriages. Other non-vaccinated people are getting migraines, random bruising and sudden nosebleeds just being around those who got the COVID shot. Others report their pet died when touched by someone who got the COVID jab. Is the COVID vaccine excreting pathogens? Is this more than viral shedding? It is transmitting disease in some way? What is going on here?

COVID Vaxxed Women Greatly and Negatively Affecting Menstrual Cycles of Unvaccinated Women

It is well known that, when women live together or spend time in close proximity, their menstrual cycles naturally synchronize. While that is a natural phenomenon, what has been happening recently is decidedly unnatural. Chloe Angeline (“Self-Healing Mama”), who works as a holistic reproductive practitioner and doula, and is in touch with fertility and pregnancy communities, put out this video last week warning people, especially women, to be careful of other women who have been COVID vaxxed. Unvaccinated women have been suffering intense and negative period pain just by being around COVID vaxxed women. She suggests that the COVID vaccine is directly related to infertility and sterilization. Here is what she said:

“Women, in their menstruating years and not, are experiencing severe side effects from people around them having received this jab. We’re not quite sure what’s happening here; it’s happening too quick for us to really know … we’re having women miss their periods, we’re having women have the most excruciating periods of their life to the point where they are bleeding so profusely that it is completely out of character. Women who are in menopause have gotten their period back … in this community, something that is well known is that if a women bleeds, and she is postmenopausal, that it is cancer.”

“This is about standing up for the health of humanity … something is happening behind the scenes and they are coming after women’s health … it is significantly dropping men’s sperm counts … they are trying to sterilize us … we’ve seen miscarriage go up by almost 400%.”

There is also this video from a nurse who got reports that COVID vaxxed people have inadvertently killed people’s pets just by touching them. She has collected a lot of info at her website. She says:

“A lot of people want to call it shedding, but when people think of shedding, they are thinking … of the weakened viral [vaxxes] but that’s not what this is. This is gene therapy that is causing your body to make these spike proteins, this is mRNA gene therapy, this is … human experimentation, this is not anything that’s been done before. It is in fact altering the human makeup of the body … that process starts in the human body and doesn’t stop. It’s coming out in their breath, it’s coming out through their pores, so spike proteins … this is what is causing reproductive problems in people, this is what is causing sterilization of people.

Women … and men … who have come into contact with people who have had this [vax] … have suddenly become covered in strange bruises … women as young as 10 years old starting their periods early, 11 year olds getting 2 periods in a month, people getting severe migraines … people having clots the size of their fists, people that were in menopause for years suddenly having severe periods … men [whose spouse had the vaccine] go to bed and wake up covered in bruises.

There’s a risk of people having stillborn or damaged fetuses if they’re around people who have had this [COVID vax] because it can affect and cause miscarriages … There’s no way of knowing if the human body will ever shut off this mechanism of producing the spike proteins, so the people that get the [vax] may produce them forever …”

It certainly is a bizarre phenomenon. These 2 women are not the only ones warning about it; there have also been articles such as this one entitled Unvaccinated Women Report Miscarriages After Interactions with Vaccinated People which show that this is becoming a widespread phenomenon. In a recent roundtable discussion, 5 well-known doctors who have been outspoken in exposing the COVID scamdemic (Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, Dr. Larry Pavlovksy, Dr. Carrie Madej, Dr. Christiane Northrup and Dr. Lee Merritt) analyzed this phenomenon, however there are still more questions than answers. Dr. Tenpenny stated that she believes what is happening is some kind of transmission not shedding. Dr. Pavlovksy reminded us that COVID is the clinical presentation “of the poisoning of the blood” as can be seen by blood clotting and low blood oxygen levels, not a typical viral infection.

The COVID Vaccine Infertility-Sterilization-Depopulation Connection

Many doctors are pulling no punches and loudly calling a spade a spade. German microbiologist Dr. Sucharit Bhakdi, who has debunked the official COVID narrative, recently alluded to the role of the COVID scamdemic in the depopulation agenda when he said that “COVID “vaccines” are set to cause a global catastrophe and a decimation of the human population.” Dr. Michael Yeadon, a former chief scientific officer and vice president at Pfizer, was also bold when he said that “if someone wished to harm or kill a significant proportion of the world’s population over the next few years, the systems being put in place right now will enable it. It’s my considered view that it is entirely possible that this [COVID vaccine] will be used for massive-scale depopulation.” Yeadon has launched a petition in Europe along with Wolfgang Wodarg which requests a stay order to suspend all clinical trials involving COVID/SARS-CoV-2 until a study design is produced which addresses the significant safety concerns raised.

One of the issues revolves around the protein syncytin-1, an essential prerequisite for a successful pregnancy. As I have documented, there is no SARS-CoV-2, so therefore there is no “spike protein”however, putting that aside for a moment, there is a striking similarity between human syncytins and the alleged SARS-CoV-2 spike protein (even if it is a digital or theoretical model). The significance of this is that antibodies against the alleged SARS-CoV-2 spike protein also act like anti-syncytin antibodies. Therefore, if you get the COVID “vaccine” that induces you into making these antibodies, they could attack and destroy your body’s natural syncytin. For pregnant women, this would prevent the formation of a placenta, thus rending vaccinated women infertile.

What Exactly Are the COVID Vaxxed Being Programmed to Do or Become?

We are in the middle of a giant human experiment. No one knows exactly how this is going to turn out. Keep these quotes in mind from the top brass at Moderna:

“mRNA is like software. You can just turn the crank and get a lot of products going into development.”

Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel

“So if you could change that … if you could introduce a line of code, or change a line of code, it turns out, that has profound implications for everything, from the flu to cancer … We are actually hacking the software of life.”

Moderna Chief Medical Officer Tal Zaks

What exactly are the COVID vaxxed being programmed to do or become?

Some believe the New World Order (NWO) only wants to kill people and bring down the population of “useless eaters” up to a certain point. After that point (which I assume would be a certain ratio where they calculate they can easily squash any would-be future rebellion), they are more interested in having people around under their control than dead (remember Brzezinski talking about killing vs controlling?); in other words, they want human slaves. This will not be the old-fashioned idea of slavery (people in ball and chain carrying logs and doing hard labor). The slaves of the future will be technological slaves, programmed to love their servitude as Aldous Huxley predicted. If the NWO manipulators get their way, these technological slaves will be barely human, having had their genetics continuously modified to serve the ruling elite.

Final Thoughts

Women bleeding uncontrollably. 10-year-old girls who have never had a period suddenly getting their first period. Menopausal women suddenly bleeding again. This COVID not-vaccine is clearly targeting and wreaking havoc with our reproductive systems. Since this phenomenon is so new, all we can do at this stage is gather data and ask questions. Who knows the exact mechanism by which the COVID vaxxed are causing unvaccinated people to suffer these strange effects? In closing, I will say that I would not be surprised if it turns out that the COVID not-vaccine, by virtue of re-wiring people’s genetic code, is also affecting their physical and energetic fields. Since we live in a holographic universe, this alteration or disruption in the field may be affecting people close by via resonance or frequency, firstly at an invisible level, which later manifests in a disruption on a denser visible level.

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Makia Freeman is the editor of alternative media / independent news site The Freedom Articles, author of the book Cancer: The Lies, the Truth and the Solutions and senior researcher at ToolsForFreedom.com. Makia is on Steemit and LBRY.

Sources

https://thefreedomarticles.com/not-a-vaccine-mrna-covid-vaccine-chemical-pathogen-device/

https://www.bitchute.com/video/FUjGlekiK12N/

https://rumble.com/vfwv7z-nurse-warns-stay-away-from-vaxxed-people.html

http://www.truthunmasked.org/p/stay-away.html

https://montanadailygazette.com/2021/04/16/unvaccinated-women-report-miscarriages-after-interactions-with-vaccinated-people/

https://rumble.com/vfyvcn-critically-thinking-with-dr.-t-and-dr.-p-episode-44.html

https://thefreedomarticles.com/doctor-reveals-corona-effect-blood-coagulation/

https://healthimpactnews.com/2021/german-microbiologist-they-are-killing-people-with-these-covid-vaccines-to-reduce-the-worlds-population/

https://www.lifesitenews.com/opinion/former-pfizer-vp-to-aflds-entirely-possible-this-will-be-used-for-massive-scale-depopulation

https://2020news.de/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Wodarg_Yeadon_EMA_Petition_Pfizer_Trial_FINAL_01DEC2020_EN_unsigned_with_Exhibits.pdf

https://thefreedomarticles.com/no-virus-isolation-sars-variants-rest-on-big-assumption/

https://thefreedomarticles.com/10-reasons-sars-cov-2-imaginary-digital-theoretical-virus/

https://www.statnews.com/2017/01/10/moderna-trouble-mrna/

https://theirishsentinel.com/2021/03/21/bombshell-moderna-chief-medical-officer-admits-mrna-alters-dna/

https://thefreedomarticles.com/brzezinski-easier-to-kill-than-control/

Featured image is from Children’s Health Defense

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DOD created a plan to vaccinate its service-members against many biowarfare threats in the 1990s.  At the time, of the potential bioterrorism vaccines that were being considered, only anthrax and smallpox vaccines had licenses, so anthrax vaccine initiated the program in March of 1998. 

The first 2 million doses of anthrax vaccine came from a stockpile that had been made for the US army by Michigan’s state vaccine lab.  What was apparently unknown when the program was planned, but became known in November 1997 when the FDA finally performed an inspection, was that the army’s 11 million dose stockpile, stored at the Michigan lab, was mostly expired and contaminated, with obvious bacterial and fungal growth in some of the lots.  FDA immediately shut down the anthrax vaccine factory, and quarantined 9 million of the 11 million existing doses. Unfortunately, FDA allowed 2 million doses to be used.

The FDA’s inspection report, termed a “483” can be read here.

The Michigan state lab was a massive affair with many buildings on a campus in downtown Lansing.  It produced a large variety of different vaccines and blood products for the state of Michigan, and some items for other commercial uses.  However, over the years it had become run down, and the state had not made the required repairs and updates.  After the 1997 FDA inspection, Michigan had to repair the place or close it.  Republican Governor John Engler decided to privatize the lab, and looked for a buyer.

Meantime, the former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral William Crowe, got wind of the Michigan lab.  He had come to know the el Hibri family when he was Ambassador to the UK.  The el Hibri’s had purchased anthrax vaccine from the UK government laboratory at Porton Down just before the Gulf War, and resold it to the Saudi Arabian government at a 10,000% markup.

Admiral Crowe had changed parties to support Presidential candidate Bill Clinton, and some suggested that the deal to buy the lab was a reward.

Crowe and the el Hibri family made common cause with several of the lab’s officials, and the newly formed group bid to purchase the lab.  A good deal was had by all.  The purchase price was about 19 million dollars.  The el Hibri’s put in about $4 million, the lab employees contributed several hundred thousand, and Admiral Crowe was given a 13% share in exchange for his role as Chairman of the Board, risking none of his own funds.  Much of the remaining cost was later paid by the transfer of vaccines to the state of Michigan.

The new company, formed in the first half of 1998, was named Bioport.  It sold off most of the licenses for childhood vaccines and other medical products that came with the purchase, choosing to focus on its sales of anthrax vaccine to the Army.  However, the new company was deeply concerned about potential liability for the lab’s products.  So the purchase was delayed until one day after the Secretary of the Army signed an indemnification for injuries that might result from use of anthrax vaccine in soldiers, and also indemnify the company in case the vaccine failed to provide the expected protection against anthrax.  In other words, the Army became Bioport’s insurance company, at no cost to Bioport. This maneuver disincentivized Bioport to produce the highest quality products.

Although FDA had shut down the vaccine plant for manufacturing defects, the Army paid to bulldoze and then rebuild the anthrax vaccine factory in 1999.  But even after it was rebuilt, FDA withheld its approval, and the plant laid idle.

Meantime, the 2 million doses that FDA had failed to quarantine were injected into over 500,000 military service-members between 1998 and 2001.  Many thousands became ill.  An official report on the program, quoting unnamed government officials, claimed that 1-2% of recipients had developed permanent disabilities.  Despite this, the military made the vaccinations mandatory, threatening refusers with a court martial or other punishments and the loss of a month’s pay.  Nonetheless, seeing the injuries sustained by their colleagues, thousands refused.

The anthrax vaccine label, a legal document that describes what is known about the product, listed the CDC’s definition of Gulf War syndrome as a possible adverse effect of the vaccine.  (It has since been removed.)

Five Congressional hearings were held throughout 1999 on different aspects of the anthrax vaccine program by the House Committee on Government Reform and National Security (now known as the House Committee on Oversight and Reform). Additional hearings held by other Congressional committees also touched on the vaccine program.  The Government Reform and National Security Committee wrote up its findings in a report titled Unproven Force Protection.

But Bioport has had remarkable luck.  Although the Pentagon was considering ending the anthrax vaccine program in the summer of 2001, the sudden appearance of the anthrax letters after the 9/11 attacks breathed new life into the vaccine program, and turned Bioport’s fortunes around.  DHHS Secretary Tommy Thompson announced in November 2001 that the anthrax vaccine plant would finally open and begin production.  At the end of January 2002, FDA gave the go-ahead, and that is what happened.

But that was not the end of Bioport’s problems.  Soldiers challenged the legality of the vaccine’s license in federal court.  It was learned that while there had been efficacy testing of an earlier version of the vaccine, the current vaccine formulation had never undergone either efficacy or safety testing in a clinical trial.  Aware of this major omission, FDA had withheld the issuing of a “final rule and order” for the anthrax vaccine for over thirty years.

The soldiers prevailed on the legal issues, and First District Court Judge Emmett Sullivan rescinded the vaccine license in 2004, based on the company’s failure to prove efficacy or meet basic FDA standards for licensure.

Unwilling to bow to mere judicial authority, the Defense Department rolled out a backup plan.  A new regulatory authority had just been created, the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA).  An EUA was slapped on the unlicensed anthrax vaccine, and DOD quickly restarted its mandatory vaccinations.

The attorneys for the soldiers took the case back to court, and Judge Sullivan ruled that even if a medical product was given an EUA, it was still experimental and could not be mandated.  The law required that EUA products be offered with informed consent.  To receive an EUA (unlicensed) product, the recipient must be apprised of the risks and benefits of the product, be informed of alternatives to the product, and no coercion in any form could be applied.  Ergo, no mandate.

FDA waited about 18 months, and then issued a full license for Bioport’s anthrax vaccine, although there were still no efficacy data. FDA instead claimed that a 1950’s era trial of a very different anthrax vaccine was sufficient for licensure, even though that trial failed to show benefit against inhalation anthrax.

When the soldiers and their attorneys challenged the licensing decision in court, the next judge ruled in favor of FDA on the basis of “deference”—meaning that FDA could ignore its own regulations and make its own determinations on safety and efficacy, with or without acceptable data.  In 2006 mandatory vaccination restarted.

Bioport then shed its old skin in an attempt to leave its baggage behind.  It renamed itself Emergent BioSolutions.

Emergent BioSolutions (EBS) then branched out, buying other companies, primarily those making other sole source biodefense products, including smallpox vaccine. The military continued to mandate anthrax and smallpox vaccines for service-members.  Eventually EBS purchased the smallpox company as well, and the cholera and typhoid vaccines used in the US.

A 2010 report on Emergent BioSolutions, written by Scott Lilly for the Center for American Progress, was titled, “Getting Rich off Uncle Sucker.” It revealed 300% profit margins, unique for a government contractor.

The company’s business plan was to rely on insiders to sell sole source biodefense products to the US government, most of which were stockpiled and never used–inking contracts with multiple federal agencies, including CDC, DOD, NIAID, the State Department, ASPR and BARDA.

In 2012 EBS got one of three fat DHHS contracts to house a so-called Center for Innovation in Advanced Development and Manufacturing (CIADM) that could be used to produce pandemic or biodefense products in the event of emergencies.  With this grant EBS purchased and expanded what became its Bayview factory in Baltimore.  The CIADM contract essentially guaranteed Emergent a big role in any future pandemic response.

Emergent then acquired the maker of Narcan nasal spray, the opioid overdose antidote. Soon FDA began recommending to prescribers that they write a Narcan script whenever they wrote a narcotic script, just in case.  States started buying large quantities for free distribution.  Sales rose 600% after EBS bought the company.

Under the Trump administration retired Air Force Colonel, physician and Beltway Bandit Robert Kadlec was appointed to the position of Assistant Secretary of DHHS for Preparedness and Emergency Response (aka ASPR).  You may remember him for having coined the phrase “Dark Winter” during a pandemic tabletop exercise.  Kadlec had also been a consultant and business partner of EBS’ founder and chairman Fuad el-Hibri.  Kadlec had omitted this information from the required disclosures for Senate confirmation.  Once confirmed as Assistant Secretary, Kadlec was able to transfer responsibility for the National Strategic Stockpile (containing the US stockpiles of pandemic remedies and equipment) from the CDC into his own agency.  Kadlec then gave multiple sweetheart deals to EBS, until the value of EBS’ contracts with ASPR exceeded those of every other contractor.  

ASPR Kadlec was blamed for cancelling a federal contract to make N95 masks while buying more and more anthrax and smallpox vaccines, pre-Covid.

Anthrax Vaccine Adsorbed

Covid-19 presented a huge opportunity for Emergent BioSolutions.  EBS received $628 million from DHHS to retool its CIADM factory.  It inked additional contracts with Astra-Zeneca, Johnson and Johnson, Novavax and VaxArt companies to provide bulk manufacturing of their vaccines in its Baltimore (Bayview) CIADM facility. Altogether its pandemic contracts were worth about $1.5 Billion.  It was slated to manufacture 9 separate medical products to address Covid-19, all of which would bear the primary name of the company that designed them, not EBS.

But there were serious potential problems.

While it had a storied Board of former federal officials, Emergent BioSolutions had never brought a single product to market. Its expertise was in contracting and acquisitions, not production.  It had a history of production failures, and had demanded that the federal government bail the company out, or else the sole source products the company provided would become unavailable.  Some of this was detailed in the Congressional report Unproven Force Protection. Entering the pandemic, EBS was still making the same mistakes it had been guilty of twenty years earlier:

EBS did not have an active workforce in Baltimore.  On September 30, EBS held an online job fair which it titled “Warp Speed Careers Event.” The event sought to recruit 300 employees.  Yet EBS had begun inking vaccine contracts 5 months earlier, and could have hired and trained a workforce that was ready to go when FDA gave it the go-ahead.  Instead, doing things on the cheap, EBS hired late, failed to provide adequate training to its employees, and experienced a spectacular series of production failures. Many millions of doses of its Johnson and Johnson and its Astra-Zeneca Covid vaccines had to be dumped. J and J missed its 20 million dose quota for the end of March, and FDA, despite repeated inspections, would not give the plant an authorization so its products could be used.

Despite this, somehow millions of doses were shipped to Canada and Mexico, unauthorized.  How did that occur?  We don’t know. Did any get distributed in the US?  We can’t be sure none did.

As of last week, EBS was facing another lawsuit from its shareholders, and its stock price had fallen to half its value from the peak earlier this year.  However, Emergent’s CEO Robert Kramer exercised his stock options in January and February, near the stock’s peak, earning himself over $7 million dollars profit.

In summary, EBS, despite considerable manufacturing shortcomings, has been extremely successful at obtaining government contracts and earning huge profits.  But its products have repeatedly been unreliable.  The company has managed to turn failures into success, especially when its products, like civilian stockpiles of anthrax and smallpox vaccine, and nerve gas auto-injectors, are stockpiled but not used.

The public has only gradually been learning that the vaccines it thought were being produced by huge Pharma companies Astra-Zeneca and Johnson and Johnson were in fact being manufactured by the anthrax vaccine company, Emergent BioSolutions.  How did it come to pass that the federal government, and these established pharmaceutical companies, bet the farm on EBS’ production of Covid-19 vaccines?

The House Committee on Oversight and Reform and the Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis will be looking into this question on May 19, when they hold a joint hearing on the subject.

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The Russians Aren’t Coming

April 28th, 2021 by Daniel Larison

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The New York Times reported on the end of the Russian military buildup on the Ukrainian border in a very strange way:

The Russian president went up to the brink — and then, with the eyes of the world upon him, stepped back from it.

Last week, the Russian government announced that it was ending its military exercise and most of the troops involved would be returning to their permanent bases. Conducting military drills in the territory that they claim is theirs isn’t really brinksmanship, so it is hard to see how the Russian government went to the brink. The troop movements were not linked with any demands, so they weren’t really being used as leverage. There was no attempt to conceal the buildup, which is what a government would usually do if it is about to launch a surprise attack.

Despite a fair amount of alarmism in the Western press, there was never any good reason to think that a Russian offensive was in the offing, but that didn’t stop quite a few pundits from seizing on the buildup as proof that Russia was “testing” American resolve and that this was somehow linked to the announcement of U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. It was commonplace for news articles to frame the buildup as a “test” for Biden, and Biden was inundated with advice on the hawkish measures he needed to take. When Biden chose not to send U.S. ships into the Black Sea, we were assured by Russia hawks that this would “embolden” Putin. Just a few days later, the supposed threat has evaporated and the fearmongering about Russian invasion proved to be completely wrong. The Russia hawks were primed to blame a crisis on Biden’s supposed “weakness” and then the crisis never materialized.

This latest episode illustrates some of the recurring problems in our foreign policy debates. Everything begins with threat inflation. Instead of taking a measured and balanced view of a foreign threat (and instead of checking to make sure that the threat actually exists), hawks immediately jump to the worst-case scenario by default. Taking this worst-case scenario to be very likely or certain, they skew the entire debate towards confrontation. There is no attempt to understand why the other government is acting the way it is, because they automatically assume the worst motives and twist the evidence to fit their assumption. There is little or no consideration of U.S. interests, and it is simply taken for granted that if something undesirable is happening then it is a “test” for the U.S. and the president must pass the “test” or jeopardize U.S. standing everywhere.

All of these errors badly distort analysis and lead people to jump to the wrong conclusions about what U.S. policy ought to be. No matter how many times hawks misjudge things, they don’t check their assumptions or learn from these mistakes, but just keep repeating them. Our political culture gives hawks every reason to be aggressively wrong about the world rather than being reasonable and right. There is no penalty for error as long as you hold the “right” hostile attitude towards the other country. That is a recipe for foreign policy dysfunction and failure, and that is why so many of our government’s policies are unsuccessful and destructive.

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The China-Africa Relationship in the 21st Century

April 28th, 2021 by Danny Haiphong

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“US corporate media have called China a ‘new colonizer’ in Africa so many times it has been digested as truth.”

The following interview was published on April 8th as part of Black Alliance for Peace’s AFRICOM Watch Bulletin (AWB) issue no. 25, which can be found here .

AFRICOM Watch Bulletin: To what do you attribute the misconceptions about China in Africa?

Danny Haiphong: The biggest misconception about China in Africa is the predominantly Western argument that China is the “new colonizer” in Africa. This is problematic on many levels. For one, China and Africa share a common history in that each has been on the receiving end of Western and U.S.-led imperialism for much of their modern existence. As Western colonial powers were colonizing and dividing Africa amongst themselves in the late 19th century, so too were these same powers occupying parts of China and fueling mass migration to the U.S. where racist laws were implemented to maintain their super exploitation and ultimate exclusion.

Furthermore, there is a lack of evidence for the claim of “colonialism.” Colonialism is the economic, political, and social domination of one nation upon another and is the engine of the Euro-American imperial project. None of China’s relations with Africa can be described as such. Does China control the monetary policy of 14 African countries as France does? Does China use its military and political system to control the governance structures of African societies? The answer is always no, but the Western and US corporate media have called China a “new colonizer” in Africa so many times it has been digested as truth.

Deborah Bräutigam is the Director of the China and Africa Research Initiative at John Hopkins University, hardly an anti-establishment source of information. Yet her observations, based on field research into Chinese investment in Africa, demonstrate that much of the financial and economic relations between China and Africa serve a real infrastructure need and make up a small portion of the African continent’s overall debt portfolio. I would encourage readers to review this op-ed in The  Washington Post   and read her book “The Dragon’s Gift: The Real Story of China in Africa.”

AWB: Are there connections between how China is viewed in Africa and America and the indifference to the spike in anti-Asian violence in America?

Danny: Most definitely. Corporate media celebrity comedian Bill Maher expressed the connection clearly when, in a monologue berating the United States for focusing too much on social issues (identity politics) rather than “real problems,” he remarked that “China bought Africa.” China is viewed as an invading force and an all-powerful one at that. A Yellow Peril 2.0 has emerged where the Western populace is driven by the fear that the colonial spoils accumulated over the course of centuries of imperialist plunder are at risk of being taken by China. This fits nicely with the larger U.S.-led New Cold War at the center of the ruling class’ varied attempts to stabilize and defend the imperialist world order from ongoing decline through an intense but unsuccessful focus on stopping China’s economic growth.

Every day, Americans and Westerners are fed a daily dose of reasons to fear China in the corporate media. We are told China is invading Africa, stealing intellectual property and jobs, interfering in elections abroad, stifling freedom within its own borders, building up militarily in the South China Sea and on and on. This barrage of propaganda has spurred the largest dip in public opinion toward China since relations normalized between Washington and Beijing nearly fifty years ago. Such an intense atmosphere of Cold War racism and anti-communism coupled with a global pandemic and economic depression is bound to inspire the most reactionary and racist elements of society. We cannot understand the rise of violence toward people of Asian descent outside of this context.

AWB: What are some steps that those in Africa or America can do to reduce those misconceptions?

Danny: Political education will be key. China cannot and will not be bullied by the United States or the West, and this will continue to drive the imperialists to ever more desperate acts of violence and sabotage against China. These acts will reverberate and impact greatly the futures of the Global South, especially Africa. We are seeing how the long legacies of racism and anti-communism have made it attractive to join in the crusade against China along humanitarian interventionist lines, even among some sections of the so-called “democratic” socialist left.

There are two kinds of political education that we must engage in to counter the strength of New Cold War propaganda. The first is study. We must study the Chinese perspective(s), the African perspective(s), and the various perspectives of nations and movements across the world on this issue. We must then make firm conclusions about where the true problem resides. That is, in the endless war drive of the imperialist world system and its lust for private profit.

The second is experience. We must engage directly in the struggle for peace and develop relationships with Chinese, African, and all non-aligned forces worldwide to truly understand the situation. My short trip to China in 2019 and early 2020 was deeply informative on the immense achievements made by a country once dominated by Western imperialism. We will need to organize people to people exchanges that help us answer questions which cannot be answered in books. The imperialists want us divided, and they want Americans and Westerners no matter how “progressive” or “radical” to look upon the Chinese as inherently corrupt and incapable of determining their own destiny or even understanding their own interests. This narrative should be familiar because its roots lie in the same racist social order that continues to oppress and exploit Africans on the African continent and in the imperialist core.

Lastly, it is important to join anti-imperialist organizations. Join Black Alliance for Peace, participate in the No Cold War campaign, and begin working with those already engaged in efforts to dispel imperialist propaganda and develop solidarity among the oppressed. We all have a role.

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Danny Haiphong is a contributing editor to Black Agenda Report and co-author of the book “American Exceptionalism and American Innocence: A People’s History of Fake News- From the Revolutionary War to the War on Terror.” Follow his work on Twitter @SpiritofHo and on YouTube as co-host with Margaret Kimberley of Black Agenda Report Present’s: The Left Lens. You can support Danny at www.patreon.com/dannyhaiphong

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As can be expected when new experimental “vaccines” that are not approved by the FDA are given emergency use authorization to fight a “pandemic” that is now over a year old, reported deaths following the injections of these shots have now skyrocketed in the U.S. population by over 6000% here at the end of the first quarter of 2021, as compared to recorded deaths following FDA-approved vaccines at the end of the first quarter of 2020.

These new products, which many doctors and scientists claim do not even meet the legal definition of a “vaccine,” are described by the manufacturers themselves as “operating systems” called the “software of life,” and prior to COVID they have never been approved to be used on human populations.

There are literally thousands of doctors and scientists around the world who have spoken out against these experimental injections, some even calling them “biological weapons of mass destruction.”

Their voices are censored in the pharma-controlled corporate media and by Big Tech, so the people dying and becoming injured by these injections are the pro-vaccine people who primarily only get their information from these censored sources that are funded by Wall Street corporate billionaires, such as Bill Gates.

The CDC Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), a U.S. Government funded database that tracks injuries and deaths reported to be caused by vaccines, reported only 36 deaths during the first quarter of 2020 through March 31st, and almost 50% of those deaths were infants below the age of 3.

Source

Since today, the day this report is being written and published, is the last day of March, 2021, we do not have complete stats from VAERS on injuries and deaths following vaccination yet. But here’s what we know based on what the CDC has published through yesterday, March 30, 2021.

The last data dump into VAERS was published last week on March 26, 2021, and it listed 2050 deaths following the experimental COVID injections. See the report here.

However, some of those deaths following the COVID injections occurred in December, 2020, when the Pfizer and Moderna shots were issued EUA’s by the FDA.

So we ran the report for this year, 2021, from which we know the data is only current through March 19, 2021, and it showed 1,754 deaths following ALL vaccines, not just the COVID injections.

Source

Notice that 80% of these recorded deaths are among seniors over the age of 65!

How is this NOT a national tragedy that should be headline news everywhere??

As noted above, there are 2050 deaths recorded following COVID injections as of March 19th, but those include some deaths in December, 2020.

Yesterday, the CDC reported that deaths following COVID injections are now 2,509. (Source.)

That is an increase of 459 deaths from what the CDC reported through VAERS through March 19th. So 1754 plus these 459 deaths gives us the total deaths so far through March 2021, which is 2,213, although after the next data dump in to VAERS this coming Friday, this number will increase even more when we add the non-COVID vaccine deaths also.

That is an increase of over 6000% from last year during the same time period.

The increase in deaths reported is most certainly related to the new experimental COVID injections, and yet the CDC and FDA’s position is that NOT ONE of these deaths are related to the COVID injections.

A review of available clinical information including death certificates, autopsy, and medical records revealed no evidence that vaccination contributed to patient deaths. (Emphasis theirs – Source.)

As we have reported numerous times now, the CDC and FDA are criminal organizations run by Big Pharma insiders controlled by the Wall Street Billionaires and bankers. Their main interest is in protecting Big Pharma and their products, and not the health of the public.

Those in the public who continue to trust them for accurate medical advice will suffer dearly, many with their own lives, as seen happening right now in the first quarter of 2021 with a 6000% + increase in deaths by injection.

So far, these tragic deaths are among the foolish who drank the COVID Kool Aid and did not bother to research these new medical products themselves first, blindly trusting in “health authorities” like Anthony Fauci and Bill Gates who are MASS MURDERERS.

But once all of these pro-vaccine people eager to get the COVID “software of life” have been injected with this new human operating system which will need constant updates (booster shots), the eugencists will turn their attention to the “vaccine hesitant,” and they have all their ducks lined up in a row now.

They control the corporate mass media, including Big Tech, and they also control the American judicial system. At the very top we are dealing with psychopaths, most of them pedophiles involved in the Occult, and their goals are to control the world’s financial system, reduce the world’s population, and destroy the family and take over control of raising children for their own evil purposes.

The time is short now, where not a single person on this planet will be exempt from making very difficult choices that will no longer be optional.

This was written to a different group of people in a different day and age, but its principles are eternal, and as true today as any other point in history, if not more so today:

See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction.

For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.

But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. (Deuteronomy 30:15-18)

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Featured image is from Children’s Health Defense

Between Us. “That guy in the mask thinks I was conspiring to infect him”

By Edward Curtin, April 27 2021

The road led up the hill between houses until it came to the lake where it ran between the lake and the woods and the thought of people disappeared if he was lucky. He was sick of people, especially those he saw in masks because of their obsessive fear of death.

Afghanistan, the US Plan for a New Catastrophe

By Manlio Dinucci, April 27 2021

Civilian deaths are in fact incalculable: according to the United Nations, they would have been around 100,000 in just ten years. It is impossible to determine the “indirect deaths” from poverty and disease, caused by the social and economic consequences of the war.

The WEF’s Great Reset – Euphemism for a WWIII Scenario?

By Peter Koenig, April 27 2021

Let’s make no mistake, we are already in WWIII. A more noble term is “The Great Reset” – the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) eloquent description of a devastated worldwide economy, countless bankruptcies and unemployment, abject misery, famine, death by starvation, disease and suicide.

America’s “Testing Mess”: The Healthcare System in COVID Testing and Vaccinations.

By Dr. Meryl Nass, April 27 2021

Let me start by explaining that an antigen test, performed by (minimally trained) personnel in a nursing home, homeless shelter, or other congregate living setting, rather than in a lab, is often the basis for a diagnosis of Covid. The test does not need to be ordered by a doctor.

Coming “COVID Commission” Is a Gates-Led Cover-Up

By Dr. Joseph Mercola, April 27 2021

A corporate-funded COVID Commission Planning Group is being set up to create and support an investigative commission like that for 9/11. This is a classic illustration of the fox guarding the henhouse.

Depression, Fear of Life, Suicidal Thoughts: For Heaven’s Sake, Talk to the Youth and Listen to Them!

By Dr. Rudolf Hänsel, April 27 2021

For months, depression, fear of life, suicidal thoughts and completed suicides have been increasing by leaps and bounds among the young generation. Children tell their mothers that they no longer want to live. Psychologists and youth psychiatrists in psychiatric institutions are sounding the alarm.

Canadian Doctor Defies Gag Order and Tells the Public How the Moderna COVID Injections Killed and Permanently Disabled Indigenous People in His Community

By Dr. Charles Hoffe and Brian Shilhavy, April 27 2021

Dr. Hoffe reports that the result of injecting 900 people among the indigenous First Nations community was that 2 people went into anaphylactic shock, one person died, and several others have suffered what appear to be permanent disabilities.

Why Are We Vaccinating People on the Brink of Death?

By Luke Yamaguchi, April 27 2021

Given the high frequency of adverse reactions from Covid vaccines, why are we vaccinating people on hospice who are near the end of their life? Hospice and comfort care are for people who are in the final stages of an incurable illness.

Your Honor: Justice in a Time of Collapse

By Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin, April 27 2021

The two main modern theories of retributive justice (or punishment for wrongdoing) are Utilitarian theories that “look forward to the future consequences of punishment, while retributive theories look back to particular acts of wrongdoing, and attempt to balance them with deserved punishment.”

Geopolitics of The Arctic: Canada as a Bridge of Cooperation or a Platform for War and Confrontation?

By Matthew Ehret-Kump, April 27 2021

The Arctic remains the world’s last frontier of human exploration. It is also a domain of great potential cooperation among great civilizations, or inversely a domain of militarism and confrontation.

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Afghanistan, il piano Usa di una nuova catastrofe

April 27th, 2021 by Manlio Dinucci

Il generale Scott Miller, comandante delle forze Usa e alleate in Afghanistan, ha annunciato il 25 aprile l’inizio del ritiro delle truppe straniere che, secondo quanto deciso dal presidente Biden, dovrebbe essere ultimato entro l’11 settembre. Gli Usa terminano così la guerra condotta per quasi vent’anni? Per capirlo, occorre anzitutto fare un bilancio dei risultati della guerra.

Il bilancio in vite umane è in gran parte inquantificabile: le «morti dirette» tra i militari Usa ammonterebbero a circa 2.500, e i feriti gravi a oltre 20.000. I contractor (i mercenari Usa) uccisi sarebbero circa 4.000, più un numero imprecisato di feriti. Le perdite tra i militari afghani ammonterebbero a circa 60.000. Le morti di civili sono di fatto incalcolabili: secondo le Nazioni Unite, sarebbero state circa 100.000 in soli dieci anni. Impossibile determinare le «morti indirette» per povertà e malattie, provocate dalle conseguenze sociali ed economiche della guerra.

Il bilancio economico è relativamente quantificabile. Per la guerra – documenta il New York Times in base ai dati elaborati dalla Brown University – gli Usa hanno speso oltre 2.000 miliardi di dollari, a cui se ne aggiungono oltre 500 per l’assistenza medica ai veterani. Le operazioni belliche sono costate 1.500 miliardi di dollari, ma l’ammontare esatto resta «opaco». L’addestramento e armamento delle forze governative afghane (oltre 300 mila uomini), sono costati 87 miliardi.

Per «l’aiuto economico e la ricostruzione» sono stati spesi 54 miliardi di dollari, in gran parte sprecati a causa della corruzione e inefficienza, per «costruire ospedali che non hanno curato nessun paziente e scuole che non hanno istruito nessun studente, e che talvolta neppure esistevano». Per la lotta alla droga sono stati spesi 10 miliardi di dollari, col seguente risultato: la superficie coltivata ad oppio è quadruplicata, tanto che è divenuta la principale attività economica dell’Afghanistan, il quale fornisce oggi l’80% dell’oppio prodotto illegalmente nel mondo.

Per finanziare la guerra in Afghanistan, gli Stati uniti si sono pesantemente indebitati: hanno dovuto quindi pagare finora, sempre con denaro pubblico, 500 miliardi di dollari, che nel 2023 saliranno a oltre 600. Inoltre, per i militari Usa che hanno riportato gravi ferite e disabilità nelle guerre in Afghanistan e Iraq, sono stati spesi finora 350 miliardi, che saliranno nei prossimi decenni a 1.000 miliardi, di cui oltre la metà per le conseguenze della guerra in Afghanistan.
Il bilancio politico-militare di questa guerra, che ha versato fiumi di sangue e bruciato enormi risorse, è catastrofico per gli Usa, salvo che per il complesso militare-industriale che ha realizzato con essa enormi profitti. «I talebani, divenuti sempre più forti, controllano o contendono gran parte del paese», scrive il New York Times.

A questo punto, il segretario di Stato Blinken e altri propongono che gli Stati uniti riconoscano ufficialmente e finanzino i talebani, poiché in tal modo «dopo aver preso il potere, parzialmente o pienamente, essi potrebbero governare meno duramente per ottenere il riconoscimento e il sostegno finanziario delle potenze mondiali».

Allo stesso tempo, riporta il New York Times, «il Pentagono, le agenzie spionistiche americane, e gli Alleati Occidentali stanno mettendo a punto piani per dispiegare nella regione una forza meno visibile ma ancora potente, comprendente droni, bombardieri a lungo raggio e reti spionistiche». Secondo l’ordine di Biden, riporta sempre il New York Times, gli Usa stanno ritirando i loro 2.500 soldati, «ma il Pentagono ha attualmente in Afghanistan circa 1.000 militari in più di quelli pubblicamente riconosciuti, appartenenti a forze speciali agli ordini sia del Pentagono che della Cia», cui si aggiungono oltre 16.000 contractor Usa che potrebbero essere usati per addestrare le forze governative afghane.

Scopo ufficiale del nuovo piano strategico è «impedire che l’Afghanistan riemerga quale base terroristica per minacciare gli Stati uniti». Scopo reale resta quello di 20 anni fa: avere una forte presenza militare in quest’area al crocevia tra Medio Oriente, Asia centrale, meridionale e orientale, di primaria importanza strategica soprattutto verso Russia e Cina.

Manlio Dinucci

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***

Heute bekam ich aus dem Kreis meiner Familie, die in einem wohlhabenden Land lebt, einen schockierenden Anruf. Ein 19jähriger junger und noch nicht stabiler Erwachsener, den ich sehr ins Herz geschlossen habe, hat sich bei den Freunden seiner Wohngemeinschaft, in der er seit längerem lebt, schriftlich verabschiedet, ließ Handy und Computer als deren zukünftigen Besitz zurück und wird seit Tagen von der Familie und Polizei ergebnislos gesucht. Es war, als wäre ein Stück von mir gegangen.

Dieser junge Mann hat sich inzwischen aus einer nahegelegenen Stadt telefonisch bei der Mutter gemeldet. Er lebt also. Nähere Umstände sind mir noch nicht bekannt. Doch was auch immer geschehen ist, das eine weiß ich seit langem und wiederhole es als Vater, Großvater, ehemaliger Lehrer, Schulberater und Schulpsychologe, als Erziehungswissenschaftler und Diplom-Psychologe das xte Mal: Ihr Väter und Mütter, Ihr Lehrpersonen, Erzieherinnen und Erzieher, Ihr Betriebsmeister, Freunde, Verwandte und Bekannte, sprecht mit Euren Kindern, mit den Euch anvertrauten oder mit Euch lebenden Jugendlichen, seid ihnen erstrebenswerte Vorbilder, hört ihnen zu und versucht zu erfahren, wie es ihnen wirklich geht, wie sie sich fühlen, was ihnen am Herzen liegt!

Seit Monaten nehmen Depressionen, Lebensängste, Suizidgedanken und vollendete Suizide unter der jungen Generation sprunghaft zu. Kinder sagen ihren Müttern, dass sie nicht mehr leben wollen. Psychologen und Jugendpsychiater in psychiatrischen Anstalten schlagen Alarm. Doch viele Erwachsene schlagen alle Warnungen in den Wind, wissen es besser, haben zuhause oder in der Schule, im Verein, im Betrieb oder in der Wohngemeinschaft gar keine Probleme; die haben nur die anderen.

Wie soll sich die Jugend in einer Welt zurechtfinden, in der wir Erwachsene uns schon lange nicht mehr zurechtfinden, weil sie aus den Fugen geraten ist? Jeden Tag kommen neue Anweisungen „von oben“ – um vorgeblich unsere Gesundheit zu schützen: man raubt uns die Freiheit, der Jugend werden keine privaten und beruflichen Perspektiven mehr eröffnet, viele Familien wurden und werden weiterhin in den finanziellen Ruin getrieben, das Gesicht wird durch sogenannte Schutzmasken entstellt und ist für den Gesprächspartner nicht mehr erkennbar, von den Familienmitgliedern, Klassenkameraden, Arbeitskollegen, Freunden und anderen Mitmenschen sollte man sich tunlichst distanzieren, die körperliche Unverletzlichkeit und Freiwilligkeit ist trotz Nürnberg-Kodex von 1947 durch den allgemeinen Impfzwang nicht mehr gewährleistet und so weiter und so fort.

Und diejenigen freien Geister – inzwischen auch Schauspieler –, die aus gutem Grund versuchen, ihre Mitbürger aufzuklären und ein sofortiges Ende der krankmachenden und tödlichen politischen Maßnahmen und des Schürens irrationaler Ängste in den alten Medien fordern, werden als Verschwörungstheoretiker oder kranke Irre diskriminiert und medial „hingerichtet“.

Erwachsene Mitbürger, sprecht am gemeinsamen Mittagstisch oder am Abend beim Tee mit euren Kindern und mit der Jugend über das, was in unserer Gesellschaft Merkwürdiges und noch nie Dagewesenes abgeht – und fragt sie, wie es ihnen dabei geht! Wenn Ihr unsicher seid, dann holt Euch Rat bei aufgeklärten Mitmenschen oder bei den neuen Medien. Es gibt noch viele ehrenwerte Wissenschaftler, die die wahren Gründe für den gewaltigen und fatalen Umbruch in unserer Gesellschaft genau und verständlich darlegen, aber in den alten Medien nicht zu Wort kommen. Die Menschen sollen die Wahrheit nicht erfahren.

Mit denen, die das gegenwärtige Unheil weltweit anrichten, kann man nicht sprechen; sie sind zu krank. Ihr Mitbürger müsst selbst den Mut aufbringen und Euch Eures Verstandes bedienen und aufwachen und NEIN sagen – bevor es zu spät ist!

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Dr. Rudolf Hänsel ist Diplom-Psychologe und Erziehungswissenschaftler.

Featured image: Neckerchief designed by Pablo Picasso for the Third World Youth Festival in Berlin (GDR), 1951

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Afghanistan, the US Plan for a New Catastrophe

April 27th, 2021 by Manlio Dinucci

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***

General Scott Miller, US and allied forces commander in Afghanistan, announced on April 25 the beginning of foreign troops withdrawal that should be completed by September 11, according to President Biden’s decision. Is the US ending the war waged for almost twenty years? In order to understand this communication, it is first of all necessary to consider the results of the war.

The toll in human lives is largely unquantifiable: the “direct deaths” among the US military would amount to about 2,500, and the seriously injured soldiers are over 20,000. The contractors (US mercenaries) killed would be about 4,000, plus an unknown number of wounded men. Losses among the Afghan military would amount to around 60,000. Civilian deaths are in fact incalculable: according to the United Nations, they would have been around 100,000 in just ten years. It is impossible to determine the “indirect deaths” from poverty and disease, caused by the social and economic consequences of the war.

The economic balance is relatively quantifiable. For the war – the New York Times documented on the basis of data compiled by Brown University – the US  spent over 2,000 billion dollars, plus over 500 billion for medical assistance to veterans. The war operations cost $ 1,500 billion, but the exact amount remains “opaque“. Training and arming the Afghan government forces (over 300,000 men) cost 87 billion. 54 billion dollars were spent on “economic aid and reconstruction”, largely wasted because of corruption and inefficiency, to “build hospitals that never treated patients and schools that did not educate any student, and sometimes they didn’t even exist”. 10 billion dollars have been spent on drug fight with the following result: the opium cultivated acreage has quadrupled, so much so that it has become the main economic activity in Afghanistan, and today supplies 80% of opium illegally produced in the world.

The United States has become heavily in debt to finance the war in Afghanistan: so far, it had to pay 500 billion dollars, again with public money and it will rise to over 600 billion dollars in 2023. Furthermore, 350 billion have been spent so far for the US military who have suffered serious injuries and disabilities in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and it will rise to 1,000 billion in the next decades, more than half of this expense due to the consequences of the war in Afghanistan. 

The political-military balance of the war, that shed rivers of blood and burned enormous resources, is catastrophic for the United States, except for the military-industrial complex which made enormous profits with it. “The Taliban, who have grown stronger, control or contend much of the country,” wrote the New York Times. At this point, Secretary of State Blinken and others propose that the United States officially recognize and finance the Taliban, since thus “they might govern less harshly than feared after taking partial or full power — in order to win recognition and financial support from world powers”. 

At the same time, the New York Times reported, “the Pentagon, American spy agencies and Western allies are refining plans to deploy a less visible but still potent force in the region, including drones, long-range bombers, and spy networks.” According to Biden’s order the US is withdrawing its 2,500 soldiers, the New York Times reported,  “but the Pentagon actually has about 1,000 more troops on the ground there than it has publicly acknowledged, belonging to special forces under both Pentagon and  CIA ”, in addition to over 16,000 US contractors that could be used to train Afghan government forces.

The official purpose of the new strategic plan is “to prevent Afghanistan from re-emerging as a terrorist base to threaten the United States”. The real purpose remains the same as twenty years ago: to have a strong military presence in this area at the crossroads among the Middle East, Central, Southern and Eastern Asia. It is an area of primary strategic importance especially towards Russia and China.

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This article was originally published in Italian on Il Manifesto.

Manlio Dinucci is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization.

Featured image is from New Eastern Outlook


waronterrorism.jpgby Michel Chossudovsky
ISBN Number: 9780973714715
List Price: $24.95
click here to order

Special Price: $18.00

In this new and expanded edition of Michel Chossudovsky’s 2002 best seller, the author blows away the smokescreen put up by the mainstream media, that 9/11 was an attack on America by “Islamic terrorists”.  Through meticulous research, the author uncovers a military-intelligence ploy behind the September 11 attacks, and the cover-up and complicity of key members of the Bush Administration.

The expanded edition, which includes twelve new chapters focuses on the use of 9/11 as a pretext for the invasion and illegal occupation of Iraq, the militarisation of justice and law enforcement and the repeal of democracy.

According to Chossudovsky, the  “war on terrorism” is a complete fabrication based on the illusion that one man, Osama bin Laden, outwitted the $40 billion-a-year American intelligence apparatus. The “war on terrorism” is a war of conquest. Globalisation is the final march to the “New World Order”, dominated by Wall Street and the U.S. military-industrial complex.

September 11, 2001 provides a justification for waging a war without borders. Washington’s agenda consists in extending the frontiers of the American Empire to facilitate complete U.S. corporate control, while installing within America the institutions of the Homeland Security State.

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***

Today I received a shocking phone call from my family, who live in a wealthy country. A 19-year-old young and not yet stable adult, whom I have taken very much to my heart, has said goodbye in writing to the friends of his shared flat where he has been living for some time, left behind his mobile phone and computer as their future possessions and has been searched for by the family and police for days without result. It was as if a piece of me had gone.

This young man has since contacted the mother by phone from a nearby town. So he is alive. I am not yet aware of further circumstances. But whatever happened, I have known one thing for a long time, and as a father, grandfather, former teacher, school counsellor and school psychologist, as an educational scientist and graduate psychologist, I am repeating it for the umpteenth time: You fathers and mothers, you teachers, educators, company foremen, friends, relatives and acquaintances, talk to your children, to the young people entrusted to you or living with you, be worthwhile role models for them, listen to them and try to find out how they are really doing, how they feel, what is close to their hearts!

For months, depression, fear of life, suicidal thoughts and completed suicides have been increasing by leaps and bounds among the young generation. Children tell their mothers that they no longer want to live. Psychologists and youth psychiatrists in psychiatric institutions are sounding the alarm. But many adults ignore all the warnings, know better, have no problems at home or at school, in a club, at work or in a shared flat; only the others have them.

How are young people supposed to find their way in a world in which we adults have not been able to find our way for a long time because it has gone off the rails? Every day, new instructions come “from above” – ostensibly to protect our health: We are robbed of our freedom, young people are no longer offered private and professional prospects, many families have been and continue to be driven into financial ruin, the face is disfigured by so-called protective masks and is no longer recognisable to the person we are talking to, one should distance oneself from family members, classmates, work colleagues, friends and other fellow human beings as far as possible, bodily inviolability and voluntariness are no longer guaranteed by the general compulsory vaccination despite the Nuremberg Code of 1947, and so on and so forth.

And those free spirits – now also actors – who for good reason try to enlighten their fellow citizens and demand an immediate end to the sickening and deadly political measures and the stoking of irrational fears in the old media are discriminated against as conspiracy theorists or sick lunatics and “executed” by the media.

Adults, talk to your children and youth about what is going on in our society – strange  and unprecedented – at lunch or over tea in the evening and ask them how they feel about it! If you are unsure, then seek advice from enlightened fellow human beings or from the new media. There are still many honourable scientists who explain the true reasons for the enormous and fatal upheaval in our society in a precise and comprehensible way, but who do not have their say in the old media. People are not supposed to know the truth.

You cannot talk to those who are causing the present disaster worldwide; they are too sick. You fellow citizens must muster up the courage yourselves and use your brains and wake up and say NO – before it is too late!

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Dr Rudolf Hänsel is a qualified psychologist and educationalist. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

Featured image: Neckerchief designed by Pablo Picasso for the Third World Youth Festival in Berlin (GDR), 1951

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***

US policymakers aim to marginalize, weaken, contain, and isolate China and Russia, an agenda doomed to fail.  Why? 

1. Russian super-weapons are superior to the best in the West, developed at a small fraction of Washington’s bloated military budget.

2. China is an economic, industrial, and growing technological powerhouse.

***

In February, Biden signed an executive order on America’s supply chains for chips, other hi-tech products, batteries, pharmaceutical ingredients, and rare-earth minerals.

It aims to further its own interests and undermine China’s — notably by wanting it excluded from global supply chains, especially for semiconductors and other hi-tech products.

Since Trump took office, scores of tech-related Chinese enterprises were blacklisted — on the phony pretext of protecting national security.

They’re barred from purchasing US technology without Washington’s permission, tech giant Huawei and its 70 affiliate companies most prominent on its so-called “entity list.”

What continues under Biden aims to give corporate America a competitive advantage against China and other nations.

When G7 leaders meet in June, Biden’s team reportedly will pressure Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Canada to contain China by excluding it from the global supply chain for semiconductors, communications, and other hi-tech products.

Phony accusations of forced labor, genocide and other alleged human rights abuses against Xinjiang Muslims is part of the US strategy.

Biden regime deputy national security advisor Daleep Singh reportedly said Washington intends further get tough on China policies related to Xinjiang.

Introduced in mid-April, the so-called (US) Strategic Competition Act of 2021 will impose more illegal sanctions on China and build closer relations with Taiwan.

It also aims to more greatly challenge China politically, economically, technologically, and militarily.

It falsely accuses Beijing of committing human rights abuses and other abusive practices against Uyghur Muslims in Jinjiang.

No evidence supports these claims.

What’s going on that aims to exclude China from the global supply chain flies in the face of economic cooperation with the country prioritized by European and other nations.

Relying heavily on access to its market, they oppose decoupling.

White papers prepared by Beijing explain ongoing economic and social development in Jinjiang.

Its regional government invited hundreds of foreign diplomats, journalists, and others from over 100 countries to visit Jinjiang — to see positive developments firsthand.

According to European studies director at China’s Renmin University Wang Yiwei:

“(S)o-called Western democratic values that the US plays as a lighthouse are merely an illusion,” adding:

“Human rights have become a complete double-standard show of the US.”

“Instead, the country is good at using this gimmick to divert public attention from its own poor human rights record onto affairs of other countries.”

Bipartisan-supported US tech war on China began after Trump took office — in response to its 10-year Made in China 2025 blueprint for transforming the country from a “manufacturing giant into a world manufacturing power.”

Seeking self-sufficiency to counter hostile US actions, Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2018 stressed the importance of Beijing “stick(ing) to the path of self-reliance amid rising unilateralism and protectionism in the present world.”

After tech giants Huawei and  Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC) were barred or restricted from access to US technology, Chinese self-sufficiency gained added importance.

China’s 2021-25 Five-Year Plan and Vision 2035 development strategy prioritize spending billions of dollars to develop self-sufficiency in semiconductors, artificial intelligence, quantum information, and other scientific areas.

The Biden regime considers China Washington’s “most serious competitor.”

It’s “confront(ing) (invented Chinese) economic abuses (sic), counter(ing) its (nonexistent) aggressive, coercive actions (sic), (and) push(ing) back on China’s attack on human rights, intellectual property, and global governance (sic).”

All of the above and more apply to how Washington and its imperial partners operate worldwide — in stark contrast to China’s pursuit of peace, stability and cooperative relations with other nations.

US war on China by other means risks turning hot.

The same applies to Russia if US hardliners push things beyond red lines of no return against both countries.

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

VISIT MY WEBSITE: stephenlendman.org (Home – Stephen Lendman). Contact at [email protected].

My two Wall Street books are timely reading:

“How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion, and Class War”

https://www.claritypress.com/product/how-wall-street-fleeces-america/

“Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity”

https://www.claritypress.com/product/banker-occupation-waging-financial-war-on-humanity/

Featured image is from InfoBrics

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).

***

In the coming week, the commander of the US Central Command Gen Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. is expected to provide Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin with options for potential future counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan. During a hearing at the US House Armed Services Committee Tuesday, McKenzie indicated that many issues are still being figured out by the administration. 

Given the high sensitivity involved, McKenzie offered to dilate on them in closed-door briefings with lawmakers, but he and other witnesses made the following open remarks: 

  • Biden Administration is “further planning now for continued counterterrorism operations from within the region.” 
  • Pentagon is considering “how to continue to apply pressure with respect to potential [counterterrorism] threats emanating from Afghanistan. So, [we are] looking throughout the region in terms of over-the-horizon opportunities.”  
  • US diplomats will be talking to countries in the region where the US could potentially base resources that it could use to conduct operations in Afghanistan. These basing agreements would allow the US to legally station their soldiers in another country, and, depending on the terms of the agreement, conduct either surveillance or kinetic operations.
  • US is seeking more opportunities for “expeditionary basing” in the region. US might not seek permanent bases due to Iran’s proximity.
  • Although the US military was leaving, “we will keep providing assistance to the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces.” (Emphasis added.) 

All of the above issues will be worth watching in the coming months. From the Indian perspective, what matters most is Delhi’s involvement, if any, in the US’ basing arrangements in the region. The US has a logistics agreement with India, which could facilitate mission-based deployments in Indian bases. 

On April 16, the Afghan National Security Advisor Hamdullah Mohib had briefed his Indian counterpart Ajit Doval about “what should happen as we prepare for this dialogue (on the transition in Afghanistan with the US and NATO).” This was immediately after the daylong visit to Kabul by the Secretary of State Antony Blinken. India’s role presumably figured in Blinken’s talks in Kabul. 

On April 19, Blinken himself had a call with EAM S. Jaishankar when they reaffirmed “the importance of the US-India relationship and cooperation on regional security issues” and “agreed to close and frequent coordination in support of a lasting peace and development for the people of Afghanistan.” 

Washington has a long diplomatic history of transactional relationships. Currently, the US-Indian relationship is under duress due to one particular ‘non-transaction’ — the Biden Administration’s apparent unwillingness to lift the ban on raw materials for the manufacture of Covid-19 vaccines in India. The Biden Administration has been sitting tight. 

That is, until April 24, when, in a mood softening, Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan suddenly took recourse to megaphone diplomacy. Blinken tweeted,“Our hearts go out to the Indian people… We are working closely with our partners in the Indian government, and we will rapidly deploy additional support.” Sullivan was candid: “We are working around the clock to deploy more supplies and support to our friends and partners in India as they bravely battle this pandemic. More very soon.”  

This is an overnight turnaround. Just the day before, the state department spokesmen had stonewalled, maintaining with a straight face that America’s needs took priority. What prompted this turnaround is unclear. One reason could be the Chinese offer to help India, which Delhi promptly began considering. 

However, the bottomline is that Washington almost always expects a quid pro quo in its transactional relationships. Conceivably, Afghanistan could be the quid pro quo, since vital US interests are at stake, including the prestige of the Biden presidency. 

Now, McKenzie had disclosed that US diplomats were pulling all stops to firm up the basing arrangements for Afghan operations and based on their inputs, he’d develop options by next weekend. Aside India, Blinken has consulted the Central Asian countries. He spoke to his Kazakh and Uzbek counterparts and took a meeting of the so-called ‘C5+1’ (exclusive format of the US and the five ‘Stans’) where Afghanistan was the leitmotif (here, here and here.) 

However, unlike in 2001 when Moscow helped to secure the access to Central Asian bases for the US military to launch its operations in Afghanistan in the downstream of the 9/11 attacks, this time around, the US-Russia tensions are escalating toward open hostility. In an extraordinary piece on Friday, former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev voiced the Kremlin’s stark warning to Biden that “relations between Russia and the US have shifted from competitiveness to confrontation, effectively going back to the Cold War era” and this is “plunging the world into a state of permanent instability.” 

A report in the US-funded RFERL seemed despondent that the Central Asian states may not get associated with the Pentagon and CIA’s future operations in Afghanistan. Wherever the CIA goes in the post-Soviet space, the virus of ‘colour revolution’ spreads and the Central Asian regimes must be wary of it. Belarus’ current experience is a stark reminder. 

Besides, the major regional states — Russia, China, Iran and Pakistan — would disfavour any spillover of the Afghan conflict into Central Asia. A massive Russian-Tajik military exercise on April 19-24 involving 50000 troops underscored that Moscow views the US intentions in Afghanistan with disquiet. 

Thus, India would probably be the only remaining regional state in Washington’s consideration zone today as a potential collaborator. No doubt, the US is in desperate hurry as the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan has commenced. The big question is whether the US is relenting on the vaccine front with a view to cut a deal with India on Afghanistan. 

The very thought of it, of course, is very frightening. But if past experience is any guide, Washington has shown savviness to exploit India’s travails. A big step recently toward institutionalising the QUAD was possible only due to India’s border tensions with China. 

However, Afghanistan is a ‘graveyard of empires.’ The calculus of fratricidal wars keeps changing and India is best advised to steer clear of the Afghan civil war. Predicating any policy on the US’ consistency is risky too. 

Therefore, India should never contemplate a Faustian deal allowing Pentagon’s basing arrangements on its soil for the upcoming Afghan operations as quid pro quo for raw materials for the Covid-19 vaccine. This should be delimited as a purely commercial transaction between the Indian vaccine manufacturing company and the US supplier of raw materials. 

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The Arctic remains the world’s last frontier of human exploration. It is also a domain of great potential cooperation among great civilizations, or inversely a domain of militarism and confrontation.

In recent years, Russia and China have increasingly harmonized their foreign policies around the Framework unveiled by President Xi Jinping in 2013 dubbed the Belt and Road Initiative. Since its unveiling, this megaproject has grown in leaps and bounds winning over 136 nations, accruing $3.7 trillion of investment capital and evolving new components such as the “Digital Silk Road”, “Health Silk Road”, “Space Silk Road”, and of course the “Polar Silk Road”. In March 2021, the Polar Silk Road, first announced in 2018, was given a prominent role in the 2021-2025 Five Year Plan with a focus on Arctic shipping, resource development, scientific Arctic research and conservation.

With the enthusiastic support of Russia, China has increasingly become a leading force in icebreaker technology, northern resource development, arctic infrastructure construction, with an aim to be a world leader in shipping across the rapidly melting Northwest Passage cutting between 10-15 days off of goods moving between Asia and Europe. The recent clogging of the Suez Canal and over congested Straits of Malacca have been stark reminders that Arctic shipping is a domain of global strategic significance during the 21st century.

Russia’s role as Chair of the Arctic Council between 2021-2023 will also put a major spotlight on the evolving Russia-China paradigm for win-win cooperation of the north as a territory of dialogue and development which is the theme of the upcoming St. Petersburg Arctic Summit later this year.

The Threat of Confrontation Heats Up

Despite these positive strides, many geopoliticans in the west have repeatedly attacked such developments as “efforts to conquer the world and replace the USA as global hegemons”. Those promoting this Hobbesian outlook not only choose to ignore the countless olive branches offered to the west by the Eurasian powers for mutual development, but have also accelerated a policy which some have dubbed a ‘Full Spectrum Dominance’ ballistic missile encirclement of both Russia and China. This latter policy was recently called out by Foreign Minister Lavrov on April 1, 2021 who said:

“We now have a missile defence area in Europe. Nobody is saying that this is against Iran now. This is clearly being positioned as a global project designed to contain Russia and China. The same processes are underway in the Asia-Pacific region. No one is trying to pretend that this is being done against North Korea… This is a global system designed to back U.S. claims to absolute dominance, including in the military-strategic and nuclear spheres.”

Instead of acknowledging the fact that Russian and Chinese military strategies are defensive in nature, advocates of full spectrum dominance have chosen to push an opposing narrative painting both Eurasian nations as competitors and rivals with ghoulish secret intentions to annex the world. Under this confrontational paradigm, both NORAD and NORTHCOM continental defense systems are undergoing a reform under General Glan van Herck who stated in his Declassified Executive Summary of NORAD’s New Strategic Vision:

“Both Russia and China are increasing their activity in the Arctic. Russia’s fielding of advanced, long-range cruise missiles capable of being launched from Russian territory and flying through the northern approaches and seeking to strike targets in the United States and Canada has emerged as the dominant military threat in the Arctic.”

Why the general believes this to be the dominant cause of military threats rather than the USA’s unilateral withdrawal from all confidence building measures such as the 1972 ABM Treaty, the 1987 INF Treaty and Open Skies Treaty is beyond the capacity of this writer’s imagination.

An important part of this continental reform involves an upgrading and expansion of the U.S.-directed Ground Based Midcourse Defense system of 44 silo-based interceptors located in Alaska and California with an additional 20 in response to both China and Russia’s development of hypersonic, maneuverable warheads as well as a new generation of submarine and land-based ICBMs. Former Assistant Secretary of Defense Philip Coyle recently attacked this upgraded GMD program by stating not only is the system woefully inept (only half of its 18 tests since 1999 hit their targets), but is also unnecessarily provocative, forcing Russia and China to upgrade their own systems in response to a threat that never should have existed in the first place. In a 2019 interview Coyle stated:

“All of this is causing Russia and increasingly China to build more and more offensive systems, so that they can overwhelm U.S. missile defence- assuming that they would work… We have no way of dealing with more and more missiles from Russia or China and so building up more and more missile defense is backfiring”.

General van Herck has also championed Artificial Intelligence and machine learning technology across all domains of data collection and even supplementing human decision making as part of the goal of achieving “global integration, all domain awareness, information dominance to reach decision superiority”. Dubbed Pathfinder, van Herck has stated “I absolutely believe it can be a model for the Department of Defense. It lays the foundation for improved data-driven decision making and enhanced capability”. Whether it is wise to strive to cut decision making on matters such as thermonuclear war down to 12 minutes as is currently celebrated by Pathfinder supporters while leaving strategic decision-making protocols in the hands of soulless algorithms, or whether it is a living prophecy of Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove can be left up to debate. The fact remains that this is the game plan.

Since both unipolar and multipolar paradigms gripping the Arctic are creating an objective tension which threatens humanity and since appreciation for the origins and evolution of the Russia-China alliance is misunderstood and mischaracterized in the west, a few words of context are in order.

A Brief History of Russian Chinese Arctic Synergy

In 2015, Russia’s Eurasian Economic Union first signed an MOU to integrate with the Belt and Road, and as of 2019, China and Russia signed a series of major programs to extend the Belt and Road Initiative into the Arctic. The synergy between what Prime Minister Medvedev called the “Silk Road on Ice” and Putin’s Great Eastern Vision were obvious and in April 2019, both nations released a joint statement “Joint efforts will be made in Arctic marine science research, which will promote the construction of the ‘Silk Road on Ice.” The statement asserted that both nations “look forward to more fruitful and efficient partnerships worldwide to contribute to the sustainable development of the world oceans and a shared future for mankind.”

During an April 2019 BRI forum, President Putin laid out his concept of Russian and Chinese foreign policy doctrines saying:

“The Great Eurasian Partnership and Belt and Road concepts are both rooted in the principles and values that everyone understands: the natural aspiration of nations to live in peace and harmony, benefit from free access to the latest scientific achievements and innovative development, while preserving their culture and unique spiritual identity. In other words, we are united by our strategic, long-term interests.”

In recent months, the Russian-Chinese Joint Statement on Global Governance of March 23, 2021, represented the clearest response to the collapse of diplomatic bridges uniting west and east whose already weak edifices have been set ablaze in recent months. This diplomatic arson took the form of increased anti-Russian and anti Chinese sanctions, accelerated NATO war games on Russia’s perimeter, increased efforts to consolidate an anti-Chinese Pacific NATO, not to mention Biden’s infamous remarks that Putin was a “soulless killer”. These diplomatic disasters culminated in the infamous ambush of Chinese officials in Alaska on March 19, 2021.

Economic Cooperation and Shared Interests

Russia and China’s collaboration on Arctic resource development has seen both nations focus on transportation corridors, energy and research with a consistently open offer for all nations among their western counterparts to join at any time. Among the most important of the Arctic Projects now underway as part of Russia’s Arctic 2035 Vision announced in 2019, the 6000 km Power of Siberia natural gas pipeline is at the top of the list which will make Russia the primary supplier of China’s energy needs by 2030. This project will be joined by a Power of Siberia II doubling the natural gas output to China via Mongolia and both projects are part of the historic $400 billion energy deal signed between China and Russia in 2014 with the aim of sending 38 billion cubic meters of gas to China for 30 years.

A similar strategic project is the LNG-2 involving Chinese, Japanese, Indian and Russian companies on a joint project showcasing the importance of Polar Silk Road thinking in alleviating tensions among Pacific neighbors. Global energy analyst Professor Francesco Sassi of Pisa University stated that this project “will see an unprecedented level of cooperation between Japanese and Chinese energy companies in one of the most important Russian energy projects of the next decade”.

Additionally China’s 30% stake in the Yamal LNG pipeline which involves the Silk Road Fund ties China’s energy interests ever more deeply into the heart of Russia’s north east.

Russia’s program of expanding Trans Siberian Rail traffic 100 fold from the current 3000 twenty foot units/year to 300 000 twenty foot units/year by upgrading and doubling rail is vital as well as the program for the completion of the Northern Latitudinal Railway connecting west Siberian ports to the Arctic. On the strategic point of shipping, Russia is not only expanding its fleet of icebreakers to include new models of Project 22220 nuclear powered icebreakers, but also will increase freight traffic to 80 million tons/year by 2025 (up from the current 20 million). Several of Russia’s 40 icebreakers are nuclear powered, making it the only nation in the world enjoying this claim… a title it will enjoy until later this year as China rolls out its first 33,000 ton nuclear icebreaker which will join its growing inventory (already far advanced of both Canada’s and the USA’s dismal capacity).

Part and parcel of Russia’s new 15-year plan for the Arctic are plans to commit state support for broad transport and energy infrastructure via direct investments as well as the creation of “economic preference zones” giving private sector actors tax incentives. State support will also be directed towards efforts to mitigate climate change, scientific research, monitoring of environmental damage and pollution clean up.

The Rise of China as an Arctic Powerhouse

China deployed their first Arctic research expedition in 1999, followed by the establishment of their first Arctic research station in Svalbard, Norway in 2004. After years of effort, China achieved a permanent observer seat at the Arctic Council in 2011, and by 2016 created the Russia-China Polar Engineering and Research Center to develop better techniques to access Arctic resources. In 2012, China rolled out its first icebreaker (Snow Dragon I) and has quickly surpassed both Canada and the USA whose two out-dated ice breakers have passed their shelf life by many years.

As the Arctic ice caps continue to recede, the Northern Sea Route has become a major focus for China. The fact that shipping time from China’s Port of Dalian to Rotterdam would be cut by 10 days makes this alternative very attractive. Ships sailing from China to Europe must currently follow a transit through the congested Strait of Malacca and the Suez Canal which is 5000 nautical miles longer than the northern route. The opening up of Arctic resources vital for China’s long term outlook is also a major driver in this initiative.

In preparation for resource development, China and Russia created a Russian Chinese Polar Engineering and Research Center in 2016 to develop capabilities for northern development such as building on permafrost, creating ice resistant platforms, and more durable icebreakers. New technologies needed for enhanced ports, and transportation in the frigid cold was also a focus.

The Questionable Role of Canada in the Arctic Great Game

Amidst this dramatic rate of Arctic development both towards militarization and towards economic cooperation, the Canadian government has managed to remain remarkably aloof and non-committal.

Despite the fact that a 2016 Foreign Policy Review called for Canada’s integration into the northern missile defense shield last championed by Dick Cheney in 2004, Canada’s policy establishment has not committed to any course and while the field remains open for a potential Arctic policy based on diplomacy and cooperation as a bridge between East and West, time is running out.

On the one side, high ranking war hawks among Washington and Ottawa’s policy elite make every effort to court Canada as a participant of the NORAD/NORTHCOM Strategic Vision as the war drums continue to pound. On the other side, Russia has made its desires for Russian-Canadian Arctic cooperation known as Russian chargé d’affaires Vladimir Proskuryakov stated on April 6:

“Despite political difference between our two countries, prospects for Russia-Canadian Arctic cooperation look wide and generally positive. We should only use our possibilities properly.”

Proskuryakov continued:

“Being neighbours across the Arctic Ocean, we want to make maximum use of the Arctic potential as a territory of peaceful dialogue and sustainable development, which naturally combines realities and technological solutions of the 21st century with cultural and historic traditions of the indigenous populations.”

If Russia’s hopes for collaboration are to make any headway, then it is certain that Canada’s September 2019 Arctic and Northern Policy Framework will play a role. This framework was an honest attempt by the Federal government to create a “long term strategic vision for activities and investments for Arctic 2030 and beyond”. Having committed to an $800 million fund for Arctic development and amplifying the National Trade Corridors Fund of $2.3 billion/year for 11 years devoted to transportation infrastructure, Canada’s Transportation Minister Marc Garneau called for northern infrastructure proposals in October 2020 with a March 2021 deadline saying:

“Efficient and reliable transportation networks are key to Canada’s economic prosperity. Enhancing Arctic and northern transportation will support trade diversification and social development and ensure greater connectivity for Northerners. I encourage eligible transportation infrastructure owners, operators and users to apply for funding under the National Trade Corridors Fund.”

Sadly, months later, the deadline came and went with no concrete projects placed on the table and no mechanisms established to carry out any potential construction. No funding mechanisms were set in place and without a vision the potential use of the Canadian Infrastructure Bank or Bank of Canada continues to go untapped.

The only concretized policies for the Arctic put in place by the Trudeau government during this time are a stark inversion of actual development with three omnibus bills C-48, C-69 and C-88 passing in short order under the fog of a climate emergency declared by the Parliament. Under these bills, a moratorium was placed on all oil tankers in Northern BC stretching from Vancouver to Alaska (C-48), total bans on offshore drilling were passed declaring Arctic waters off limits to development (C-88) and environmental review processes-already among the most elaborate and bureaucratic among developed nations, was expanded (C-69), making new energy projects in the Arctic nearly impossible.

The Private Sector Steps In

When opportunities to connect Canada’s interests with China were advanced, as seen in the case of China’s efforts to purchase Canadian construction giant Aecon Inc in 2018 or the Hope Bay TMAC Resources in Nunavut in 2020, the Federal Government swept in at the last minute to kill the deals ensuring that no Chinese capital would have any influence in Canada’s development prospects.

Stephen van Dine (VP of Public Governance at Canada’s Institute of Governance) wrote that pension funds, the Canadian Infrastructure Bank and Bank of Canada should be used to play a positive role in arctic development. Van Dine wrote in January 2021: “The Canadian arctic is almost investment-ready for the next 50-100 years with a reliable, predictable infrastructure program for schools, public housing, health centers and power generation. What’s missing is a long-term plan.”

Frustrated with this commitment to inaction, Canadian business leaders at various times formed consortiums outside of the influence of Ottawa as seen in the Alaska-to-Canada Railway Development Corporation which won the support of both the Albertan government as well as former President Donald Trump in September 2020. The A2A Program called for building 2500 miles of rail and finally closing the gap separating Canada from Alaska, which to this day remains one of the most underdeveloped frontiers on earth. Despite the billions of dollars of annual federal transfers to the native bands of each of the northern territories, drug abuse, suicide rates, depression and school drop out rates are magnitudes higher among the static, disconnected northern communities of Canada relative to the national average.

Many were curious if Biden would continue Trump’s support of this program but considering the new president’s swift killing of the Keystone XL pipeline and his passage of Executive Orders ensuring a total halt to all economic development of Arctic resources, the answer has become less ambiguous. These orders made Biden’s ideological stance on Arctic economic development and the A2A Project transparent, and also defined what should be expected of the Biden-Trudeau “Roadmap for a Renewed U.S.-Canada Partnership”.

Another group of thought leaders representing interests in the public, private and academic centers, frustrated at the plague of stasis recently formed a group called Arctic360 with the mandate to drum up support for a positive vision for Canada’s High North. Comparing Canada with other members of the Arctic Council, Jessica Shadian (President and CEO of Arctic360) wrote:

“When it comes to Canada’s truly competitive advantage for becoming a global leader in innovation it is time to break out of the usual mould and go where few Canadians go: the North. One just needs to glance at Canada’s Nordic Arctic neighbours to see that there is precedence. The often-made arguments as to why the North is an inopportune place for everything from living to working to starting a business or building a road is its real advantage. That the North is vast, cold, remote, dark six months of the year, has harsh weather and a critical infrastructure gap is one of Canada’s biggest innovation assets. Add to this, that the North is home to many of the critical minerals that China and others want for building technologically advanced infrastructure. The North could be Canada’s unrealized key to leap-frog existing infrastructure and industries and play a global leadership role in 21st Century innovation. The question is whether we have the ambition or the conviction to lead.”

A True Vision for Inter-Civilizational Cooperation: The Bering Strait Corridor

It was in March 2015, foreseeing the Arctic extension of the Belt and Road Initiative by a number of years, that former Russian Railways president Vladimir Yakunin, brilliantly called for a Trans-Eurasian Development Belt with rail stretching all the way up to the Bering Strait crossing and integrating into Asia. Yakunin, who for years has been a proponent of the connection of the Americas and Eurasia by rail, said the project should be an “inter-state, inter-civilization, project. It should be an alternative to the current (neoliberal) model, which has caused a systemic crisis. The project should be turned into a world ‘future zone,’ and it must be based on leading, not catching, technologies.”

Having been originally conceived in the 19th century as outlined by Governor William Gilpin in his 1890 Cosmopolitan Railway, and supported by Czar Nicholas II who sponsored feasibility studies on the project in 1906, the Bering Strait tunnel connecting Eurasian and American continents fell from general awareness for decades. It was briefly revived during discussions held between FDR’s Vice President Henry Wallace and Russian Foreign Minister Molotov in 1942 but was again lost under the fog of Cold War insanity. This century-old idea again resurfaced when Russia signaled its willingness to construct the project in 2011 offering over $65 billion towards its funding, which only required the cooperation of the United States and Canada. China put its support behind the Bering Strait Tunnel in May 2014.

While such a grand design would provide the most direct pathway for the west to synchronise our development paradigm with the Polar Silk Road, and Greater Eurasian Partnership, it is admittedly a far cry from the realities plaguing current geopolitical thinking.

The best that can be hoped for in the short term would be a successful war avoidance strategy adopted by Ottawa in alignment with Moscow’s desires for cooperation on the field of anti-coronavirus programs, education and arctic medical needs and environmental management. If these simple trust building mechanisms can begin to take hold, and if war hawks are kept at bay, then perhaps Canada can eventually play the role of intermediary and diplomatic bridge both for the benefit of its own citizens and the wellbeing of the world as a whole.

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Matthew J.L. Ehret is a journalist, lecturer and founder of the Canadian Patriot Review.

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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“A lie told once remains a lie, but a lie told a thousand times becomes the truth.”- Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s Propaganda Minister, 1933-1945

President Ortega is a dictator!  President Ortega is a dictator!  President Ortega is a dictator!  Etc., Etc., Etc!!  Say it over and over, and it becomes accepted truth with absolutely no evidence whatsoever. Welcome to the post-truth world – A Goebbels’ world.

In 1979, the The Sandinista National Liberation Front (Spanish: Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, FSLN) triumphed over the more than four decades of US-supported Somoza dictatorship.  Thus ended the “stable” playground for the wealthy, right-wing Nicaraguan families and their affluent US investor friends, preserved at the expense of the vast majority of the Nicaraguan people. To this day the US has never forgiven the social-minded Sandinistas (“Sandinismo”) for having forced the end of the Somoza era. Many of the wealthy opposition now live in Miami, Florida.

Ten years of Reagan’s brutal terrorist war against the Sandinista government came to an end in 1990 after more than 50,000 casualties.  The FSLN lost the 1990 elections in which the US financed with nearly $50 million dollars a “Liberal” Party candidate, Violeta Chamorro, as an alternative to the FSLN[1].

During run-up to the 1990 Nicaragua elections, the Bush administration stated its intention of “keeping the Sandinistas guessing” through secret intelligence operations (New York Times, June 11, 1989) aimed at influencing the election. New monies for the opposition parties were justified in order to “level the playing field” to boost the U.S.-created opposition forces’ chance of ousting Sandinista President Daniel Ortega (Miami Herald, Oct. 18, 1989).

President Bush had promised in November 1989 that the devastating trade embargo and terrorist war against Nicaragua would be immediately lifted if the U.S.-backed presidential candidate, Violeta Chamorro, was elected by a majority of the Nicaraguan people (Washington Post, Nov. 9, 1989). Understandably, the exhausted Nicaraguans and the FSLN lost the election, but did regain power through democratic elections again in 2007 after 16 years of repressive Liberal rule.

In diplomatic cables, the US described the Violeta Chamorro government (1990-1995) as one in “economic shambles”, and the subsequent Aleman and Bolanos administrations (1996-2006) as totally corrupt. Women’s rights experienced serious setbacks during this period. Nonetheless, every US administration since 2007 has continued its determination to oust the Sandinista government headed by President Daniel Ortega who remains demonstrably popular with the vast majority of Nicaraguans. The US uses the same old ad nauseum evidence-free accusations –corrupt dictatorship.

The incoming Sandinista-led coalition created a National Unity and Reconciliation (NUR) government where the “recuperation of rights” has played a major role, guiding diverse policies, including the renewed literacy campaigns, and the reconstruction of public education and public health care, among other key areas.[2]

Social infrastructure, including roads, parks, farmers’ markets, child care centers, and maternity homes in each municipality of the country, has been the hallmark of the NUR government.  These policies have contributed to Nicaragua having among the highest rates of economic growth in Latin America between 2007 and 2020. Nicaragua has the highest human development index score in Latin America, and has been considered the country with the greatest level of gender equality in the region.

Examining Wikileaks cables, Department of State memos, National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and US Agency for International Development (AID) budgets, and documents seized in arrests of the US-orchestrated 2018 Nicaraguan coup suspects, it is clear the US has expended perhaps as much as $200-300 million to oust the Ortega-led Sandinista government. Depressed over the November 2006 Sandinista electoral victory, the US explicit goal has been “the achievement in an immediate future of a government akin to the interest of the US government,” and “creation of conditions for regime change.”

In a memorandum, an NED affiliate, identified ways to destabilize and change Nicaragua’s “regime” that includes strengthening civil society to facilitate a “coup d’état against Daniel Ortega.” The US Embassy and USAID have been preparing conditions for a coup since at least 2013. Their efforts culminated in the violent but unsuccessful US orchestrated and financed April – July 2018 coup attempt that took several hundred Nicaraguan lives, including 23 uniformed police.  Between 2017-2020, USAID has funded numerous “humanitarian” efforts with over $100 million dollars, all designed to weaken the Sandinista government.

AID claims its purpose is to “further America’s interest while improving lives in the developing world”. In that same period, 2017-2020, NED has funded 68 projects in Nicaragua with over $5 million, ostensibly to teach Nicaraguans about Democracy, even though the US has never experienced one, nor ever intended to have one.[3]

[Note, that USAID claims its purpose is to further “America’s interest”, meaning of course, the United States of America. The US is but one of 35 “American” countries which have a combined population of just over 1 billion, residing on 16.4 million square miles. The USA with 331 million people comprises 31 percent of the “Americas” population, residing on 3.5 million square miles, or 21 percent of the “Americas” land area. Thus, USAID typically expropriates the entire Western Hemisphere as its domain.]

Propaganda on Steroids: Weaponizing Social Media[4]

Image on the right is from The Grayzone

The US incorporates the latest in DOD’s DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) tools in using social media – the Social Media in Strategic Communication project (SMISC).[5] Using voluminous paid social media sites and platforms, including YouTube, Facebook, Whatsapp, and Twitter, complemented by the pathetic, reliable lapdog corporate media, the US and its proxies spin propaganda narratives that spread like wildfire at the speed of light with a click of the mouse. This has proven effective in creating an instant group mind, a collective hallucination convincing much of the US American public, and the international community, of “repressive dictators” in social democracies. Thus, the cast is set for Congressional and public opinion support of US “corrective” intervention, i.e., “humanitarian regime changes”, even as the scripted narrative is totally fabricated – absolutely untrue.  The US was able to use these communications techniques in 2018 to claim that Nicaraguans were violently oppressing its own citizens to provoke a coup.

Overwhelming Power of Propaganda – Molding Our Thoughts – Spin and Hype

Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s Propaganda Minister, 1933-1945, formulated a principle that if a lie is told often enough, it becomes accepted as the truth.[6] And he wanted the masses to believe so fervently that the people became “addicted” to the German cause.[7] Thus, through the contrived use of propaganda to manage and manipulate public opinion, one can effectuate the death of the integrity of language – distort the genuine meanings of words in efforts to convey a fact or idea to suit an agenda – or what I call linguicide[8].

The United States obsession with ousting the democratically elected Sandinista President Daniel Ortega approaches a kind of insanity.  With socialist policies benefitting the impoverished, Ortega is perceived as impeding “US interests.” But the history of US meddling and intervention reveals a vast arsenal of techniques, tricks, lies, bribery, methods for “manufacturing consent”, and infliction of domestic economic and political pressures to achieve its goals of neoliberal regime change. As many readers know, for the US privatization of capital is like a neoliberal religion, which inevitably creates de facto class warfare.

The Progressive Sandinistas

Since the Sandinistas regained political power in 2007, they have overseen emergence of the most progressive state in Central America (CA):

  • 2nd highest economic growth rates and most stable economy in Central America (CA)
  • only country in the region producing 90 percent of the food it consumes
  • poverty, and extreme poverty rates halved – country with greatest reduction of extreme poverty
  • reached the UN Millennium Development Goal of cutting malnutrition in half
  • free basic healthcare, including medicine
  • free education for all primary and secondary students
  • illiteracy virtually eliminated, down from 36 percent in 2006
  • average economic growth of over 5 percent for past 5 years (per IMF and WB)
  • safest country in CA with one of lowest crime rates in Latin America
  • highest gender equality in the Americas (World Economic Forum Gender Gap Rept, 2017)
  • kept out drug cartels, while pioneering community policing
  • has not contributed to the migrant exodus to the US (unlike Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala)
  • has the best roads in CA
  • leader in renewable energy
  • the leading tourist destination in CA (before the 2018 US coup attempt and orchestrated media demonization campaign)
  • virtually uninterrupted electricity to 97 percent of the country

US-Orchestrated unsuccessful Coup in 2018

On May 1, 2018, Benjamin Waddell wrote an article in a National Endowment for Democracy (NED) funded news website, Global Americas, “Laying the groundwork for Insurrection: A closer look at the U.S. role in Nicaragua’s Social Unrest”. He reported that NED had funded 54 projects in Nicaragua between 2014 and 2017, promoting “a new generation of democratic youth leaders…defending democracy”.  Waddell concluded by saying that “regardless of whether Mr. Ortega is removed from power, the NED’s involvement in Nicaragua reveals the power of transnational funding to influence political outcomes in the 21st century”.  The problem is that Nicaragua possesses a stable democratically elected government, but the fact is simply ignored by the US because Nicaragua possesses socialist programs, rejecting strict neoliberal privatization.

NED’s education programs at universities within Nicaragua, especially UCA and UPOLI, have prepared a network of over 2,000 young people (some estimates are as high as 5,000) in courses such as social media skills for “democracy defense”. Gifting the students with computers, phones, etc., they are trained to troll Facebook and Twitter with disinformation.  Use of social media campaigns where origins of information are unknown and uncorroborated, is able to create thousands of fake profiles, sponsor Facebook ads, produce thousands of WhatsApp messages to distort facts, and issue fake reports.

The DARPA SMISC program is able to identify persuasive campaign structures that influence messaging across social media sites and communities, and detects counter-messaging of adversaries. Employing fake news and false reporting on the internet traveling at the speed of light launched into the infectious cyberspace instantaneously creates rumors, lies, and misinformation. It is very difficult to subsequently correct with the lies with corroborated truth. The systematic destabilization strategy often successfully manipulates public opinion.

From April 18-22, 2018, this group of social media warriors immediately shaped and controlled public opinion by “reporting” that Nicaraguan police “massacred” protesting students, which in turn contributed to violent protests throughout Nicaragua. There were students peacefully protesting changes in the nation’s social security laws, but they had immediately been infiltrated by thugs who provocatively fired at the police, and the police defended themselves.

The entire nation was awash with news of massacres (which in fact did not happen) which inflamed the populace and enraged people in the US and Europe about the “repressive” Nicaraguan police.

It was a planned set-up by the US, complicit with Nicaraguan paid opposition leaders and delinquent thugs.  With the “uprising” lasting until late July, the participants were very confident of victory over the Sandinista government as they followed their disruption “instructions” collecting huge amounts of US funds. They openly daily posted on various social media sites their murders and burnings of Sandinistas in the streets; the burning of a number of Sandinista homes, schools and offices; kidnappings and tortures; all designed to terrorize the entire population.  Hundreds of roadblocks manned by heavily armed and hooded thugs were located throughout Nicaragua, making transportation both difficult, and dangerous. By July 23, the police finally forcefully removed all the roadblocks, and since many of the blockers refused to surrender upon police commands, 9 policemen were killed in the process.

Edgar Chamorro, member of the prestigious Chamorro family, a former Jesuit priest and full professor at UCA (University of Central America), was an early member of the Directorate of the main Contra fighting force in the early 1980s, serving as their major public relations spokesperson.  In 1987, Chamorro authored, Packaging the Contras: A Case of CIA Disinformation:

“In the excesses of inventing an artificial force, and in the need to stage events and to create impressions without consideration for substantial realities, there was no longer a distinction between reality and fiction. The image and impression were more important than substance….[L]ies were used to manipulate people and events to such an extent that behind the lies there was nothing but self-illusion and self-deception….[T]here was a negation of the moral distinction between good and evil…let to a legitimization of concepts such as a good war, a good crime, a good rape, a good lie. This is how murder and torture were justified, how the destruction of property and the sabotage of an economy and the social fabric of a nation were excused, all in the name of patriotism and anticommunism”.

This is exactly what happened in the coup of 2018, as the coup participants completely concealed reality with fiction using social media, negating the moral distinction between good and evil.

A leaked USAID memo in the summer of 2020, revealed up-to-date brazen US plans called “Responsive Assistance in Nicaragua” (RAIN) to overthrow the Nicaraguan government by “destroying public order and other violent actions”, that will include “network monitoring to create fake news”.  Over 220 years ago, the Iroquois Indians described George Washington as the “Town Destroyer” (Iroquois: “Conotocarious”) after all their New York villages had been destroyed under his orders.  The US has been destroying nations and villages ever since in the cause of the White Man’s Burden” (civilizing the world), justified by “exceptionalism”.

The same disinformation principles are being applied today with intentions of overthrowing the social revolutionary Sandinista government.  That is why I choose to live in progressive Nicaragua, to document all the lies and disinformation that intends to negate the incredible achievements of the Sandinista government.

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S Brian Willson is a Viet Nam veteran and trained lawyer. He has visited a number of countries examining the effects of US policy. He wrote a psychohistorical memoir, Blood on the Tracks: The Life and Times of S. Brian Willson (PM Press, 2011), and in 2018 wrote Don’t Thank Me for my Service: My Viet Nam Awakening to the Long History of US Lies (Clarity Press). He is featured in a 2016 documentary, Paying the Price for Peace: The Story of S. Brian Willson, and others in the Peace Movement, (Bo Boudart Productions). His web essays: brianwillson.com. He can be reached: [email protected]

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

Notes

[1] “How the U.S. Purchased the 1990 Nicaragua Elections”: http://www.brianwillson.com/how-the-u-s-purchased-the-1990-nicaragua-elections/

[2] National Human Development Plan of Nicaragua (PNDH), (2012), Plan Nacional de Desarrollo humano Actualizado 2012–2016. Available at http://www.pndh.gob.ni/  

[3] “Exposing the Founding Fathers and the US Constitution”: http://www.brianwillson.com/exposing-the-founding-fathers-and-the-us-constitution/

[4] P.W. Singer and Emerson T. Brooking, Like War: The Weaponization of Social Media (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018). 

[5] “DARPA’s SMISC Program To Identify Misinformation or Deception Campaigns on Social Media and Conduct Its Own Propaganda Campaigns”, https://idstch.com/home5/international-defence-security-and-technology/technology/ict/darpa-using-mind-control-techniques-manipulate-social-media/; “DARPA wants to simulate how social media spreads info like wildfire – DARPA SocialSim program develop high-fidelity computational simulation of online social behavior,” https://www.networkworld.com/article/3158707/darpa-wants-to-simulate-how-social-media-spreads-info-like-wildfire.html.

[6] Leonard Doob, “Goebbels’ Principles of Propaganda,” Public Opinion Quarterly 14 (1950), 419-442, cited in Dan D. Nimmo and Chevelle Newsome, Political Commentators in the United States in the 20th Century: A Bio-Critical Sourcebook (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1997); Anthony Pratkanis and Eliot Aronson, Age of Propaganda: The Everyday Use and Abuse of Persuasion (New York: W.H. Freeman and Co., 1992), 8.

[7] Michael Zezima, Saving Private Power: The Hidden History of the ‘Good War’ (New York: Soft Skull Press, 2000), 4.

[8] Tragically, this long pattern of committing harm to others and the Planet Earth to materially benefit ourselves has occurred with little or no critical thought from the prevailing political, religious, economic or academic structures. Thus we tend not to think about it. When confronted by reality we have a way of denying it, and have developed such a rhetorical double-speak that we may have committed linguicide of our own English language. Our obsession with limitless materialism (and the huge profits derived therefrom) requires a constant need to steal more and more resources. Thus, we need to be assured of control over vast regions of the world where the resources, markets, and labor are located. In effect, the Cold War was a cover for this deeper battle of the Haves against the Have-Nots. Any kind of genuine local or regional people’s movement for economic and political autonomy, local reliance, and justice (the essentials of real democracy) becomes a threat to USA need for global hegemony. These perceived threats must be eliminated to assure the continuance of the American Way Of Life (AWOL). Thus, for example, Cuba’s existence as a revolutionary society has been a “threat” since its 1959 people’s revolution, as it is an experiment of a people’s society not subject to the whims and exploitation of an outside force such as the United States or Spain. Of course, many other people’s movements over the past century, especially since World War II, have been ruthlessly thwarted because they have posed similar “threats.”

Featured image is from Wikimedia Commons

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***

Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) has come a long way since its liberal Zionist days, finally declaring its anti-Zionist position, and has since been a staunch supporter of the Palestinian cause. But apparently there are still limits.

These limits surfaced in a recent meeting between JVP’s Executive Director Stefanie Fox and Professor Rabab Abdelhadi of AMED Studies, SFSU on the issue of Zoom’s censorship of a scheduled event by Abdelhadi.

“Is JVP National willing to help us liberate Palestine but only if we conduct our liberation struggle peacefully”?

In September, I wrote about the abrupt cancellation by Zoom, Facebook and YouTube of Professors Abdulhadi’s and Tomomi Kinukawa’s (Women and Gender Studies, SFSU) virtual historic round-table conversation with Palestinian feminist, militant, and leader Leila Khaled.

The cancellation was a result of the Lawfare Project (among other Zionist groups), which threatened Zoom with criminal liability (under 18 U.S.C. § 2339) if Zoom “knowingly permitted Leila Khaled to use its platform to communicate directly to U.S. college students.”

The cancellation resulted in widespread protests against Zoom’s action (most notably in an amazing campaign by USACBI titled, ‘We will not be silenced: Day of action against the criminalization and censorship of campus political speech’) with the result that Zoom has recently changed its policy announcing it will leave content moderation issues to universities for virtually all matters “related to the institution’s academics or operations” and engage in content-based censorship only under rare, clearly delineated conditions.

These “rare, clearly delineated conditions” mean that Zoom still reserves the right to act if Zionist organizations persuade the company that it is in legal jeopardy, which is what Zoom has claimed (falsely) re: Leila Khaled.

Zoom’s policy in this regard was borne out on April 21 when a twitter account calling itself @ BDSreport circulated a petition to put a stop to a second upcoming talk Professor Abdelhadi had announced involving Leila Khaled and reported gleefully that Zoom has cancelled it. The tweet calls @AmedStudies of San Francisco State University (SFSU) “a radical group” and Khaled a “Jew hater”. Facebook has also cancelled AMED’s Page.

The tweet’s language and mindset are typical of venomous Zionist language heard loudly all over the internet. But why in the world would JVP go along with it? Following is a glimpse of what transpired between Stephanie Fox and Rabab Abdulhadi based on an e-mail being widely shared:

JVP National informed us yesterday that JVP will not support our petition. In her response, Stefanie said, “Our board has been very clear with me that we cannot promote anything that has to do with armed resistance, and an event with Leila Khaled would fall under that.” However, she offered to meet with Rabab and we hurriedly put together a meeting this afternoon.

In the meeting, we argued that the scheduled event involved issues of freedom of speech for liberation movements and had nothing “to do with armed resistance”. We argued that our petition was asking for the restoration of the AMED FB page, ending FB’s interference with academic freedom, and allowing Palestinian voices to be heard on FB’s platform. Rabab argued that JVP’s silence on this issue was tantamount to tacit approval of FB’s actions. It also contradicts … [JVP’s] petition “Facebook, We Need To Talk” which highlights FB’s continuing censorship of Palestinian voices. Furthermore, JVP’s rejection of a leadership role on this issue signals an intention on the part of JVP to choose which Palestinian voices they are willing to uplift.

Stefanie responded that the by-laws of JVP are clear that the group can only support non-violent action (a petition is hardly a violent action). She stated that she understands that AMED and Rabab have been the target of repressive actions by the Zionist lobby. Furthermore, she supports, in principle, the intention of AMED to take on a leadership role in the academic discussion of all issues of justice and liberation, not only with regard to Palestine. However, she is concerned that in supporting the restoration of the AMED FB page, it will immediately be linked to the event that featured Leila Khaled. According to Stefanie, the inevitable coupling of the event with the AMED page would put JVP in a position that they are not willing to defend. For JVP, it seems to come back to Leila Khaled.

Rabab pointedly asked Stefanie that if JVP compromises its stated progressive positions on censorship and supporting Palestinian voices, what is the next compromise that JVP will have to make to protect its position in the movement?

Stefanie said she would continue to consider the matter and discuss it with the JVP Board of Directors. We asked her to reach out to JVP’s partners in their myriad campaigns and consider joining together to support our petition. She agreed to speak with Palestinian groups within their umbrella of allies. She promised to get back to us and report on her discussions.

I hope the Jewish Voice for Peace Board of Directors will reconsider and support Professor Rabab Ibrahim Abdulhadi’s petition to Facebook to restore the Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies (AMED) Page they cancelled over a scheduled talk with Leila Khaled.

Professor Abdulhadi, whose advocacy for Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas studies, and Palestinian liberation are both longstanding and well-known, responded with: “We will not be silenced! We will continue teaching, researching and advocating for justice in/for Palestine as part and parcel of the indivisibility of justice.”

What’s most shocking to me related to what Fox said is this statement: “we cannot promote anything that has to do with armed resistance, and an event with Leila Khaled would fall under that.”

Is JVP National willing to help us liberate Palestine but only if we conduct our liberation struggle peacefully?

It’s one thing to condemn terrorism, but this goes way beyond such a position, one that does not even acknowledge Israel’s state terrorism.

Isreali soldiers and Israeli politicians who have led, or been involved in, terrorist actions resulting in mass murders of Palestinians have long been invited to speak on US campuses. Not a peep about that from JVP, ever!

On the question of armed struggle against colonization, the best position to take is one that Dan Segal, Vice-President, Claremont Colleges AAUP, communicated to me:

“My own view on the violence question is that personally, given my own positionality, I do not think I can or would participate in violent resistance, but I also am not willing to make a categorical judgment against the use of violence in resistance to oppression. I am not an oppressed person, and I cannot say to those who are that it is wrong for them to deploy violence in pursuit of freedom. Or perhaps I can turn this around and say, I love non-violent resistance, but I also am not willing to take a categorical stance against violent resistance.”

(Read also: It’s time for Israel to accept that as an occupied people, Palestinians have a right to resist — in every way possible.)

People may have different views, but they certainly cannot dictate to Palestinians and still call themselves in solidarity.

To invoke Frantz Fanon, Israel has a choice whether or not to act violently against Palestinians, whereas Palestinians do not have that choice. That’s the equation between the colonizer and the colonized, the oppressed and the oppressor. (See: “THE LIBERATION PSYCHOLOGY OF FRANTZ FANON: STRUGGLE AS NORMATIVE AND NECESSARY”)

In “What’s Stopping the 3rd Intifada?” Jamil Hilal writes,

“Palestinians must understand resistance to mean a holistic strategy that goes beyond military resistance and covers all forms of engagement, including legal, diplomatic, political, cultural, and economic avenues, as well as measures to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel as advocated by the BDS movement. As for the private sector, it needs to be oriented so that it promotes an economy capable of functioning under and resisting the Israeli occupation while meeting the needs of the WBG Palestinians in their struggle for survival.”

A holistic strategy includes armed struggle.

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Rima Najjar is a Palestinian whose father’s side of the family comes from the forcibly depopulated village of Lifta on the western outskirts of Jerusalem and whose mother’s side of the family is from Ijzim, south of Haifa. She is an activist, researcher and retired professor of English literature, Al-Quds University, occupied West Bank.

Featured image: Left inset, JVP’s Executive Director Stefanie Fox/ Right: Professor Rabab Abdelhadi of AMED Studies, SFSU

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***

Let’s make no mistake, we are already in WWIII. A more noble term is “The Great Reset” – the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) eloquent description of a devastated worldwide economy, countless bankruptcies and unemployment, abject misery, famine, death by starvation, disease and suicide. Hundreds of millions of people have already been affected by this “collateral” damage of the “covid-19” fear-propaganda bio-war, with a death-toll maybe already in the tens of millions, but which in reality cannot even be assessed at this time.

And this only one year into this criminal madness, a diabolical elite of multi-multi billionaires has pushed upon us, We the People. We are only in the first year of the war which by the Reset’s plan is to last the entire decade 2020-2030. The agenda is supposed to be completed by 2030 – it’s also called UN Agenda 2030.

See this.

The WEF is, in fact, nothing more than an NGO, registered in a lush suburb of Geneva, Switzerland. Its members are, however, a collection of dirty-rich people: High-ranking politicians, heads of corporations, banking gnomes, artists and Hollywood personalities – none of them are people’s elected officials with a mandate to rule the world.

Yet, they are effectively ruling the world, by coopting, coercing, or threatening the entire UN system and its 193 member countries into their obedience. Because they think they have all the money in the world, and they can. Mind you, money acquired in a fraudulent system designed by them. – But more importantly, because We, the People, let them.

The Great Reset has three major goals, all of equal importance

(i) massive depopulation,

(ii) shifting all assets from the bottom and the middle to the top; following the motto for the masses, at the end “You will own nothing and be happy”. That is Klaus Schwab’s conclusion for the completion of The Great Reset; and

(iii) a complete digitized control over everything – money, mind, personal records and behaviors – a combination of Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World”, and George Orwell’s “1984”. See this.

As we can see, the WEF is involved at every level in the Plandemic and its consequences, especially the consequences that favor the Great Reset. As Klaus Schwab in the Great Reset so revealingly says, the pandemic opens a “small window of opportunity” during which these consequences (meaning the reshaping of the world) have to be realized. Everything has to work like clockwork.

So far, it seems to be on track. Though, as more people are waking up and scientists consciousness make them leaving their straight-jacketed matrix-jobs, resistance is growing exponentially.

The NGO, trillion-dollar members-powerhouse, WEF, is outranking the world’s peoples designed and implemented UN system by far. Recently the WEF, now in association with Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, was warning of a cyber-attack on the western monetary system. To emphasize their point, they said, it is “Not a Question of If but When.

According to the Last American Vagabond (LAV), a “report published last year by the WEF-Carnegie Cyber Policy Initiative, calls for the merging of Wall Street banks, their regulators and intelligence agencies as necessary to confront an allegedly imminent cyber-attack that will collapse the existing financial system.”

The LAV article goes on saying

“In 2019, the same year as Event 201 took place (Event 201 – 18 October 2019, in NYC, simulating the current SARS-CoV-2 plandemic and destruction of the world economy), the Endowment launched its Cyber Policy Initiative with the goal of producing an “International Strategy for Cybersecurity and the Global Financial System 2021-2024.” That strategy was released just months ago, in November 2020 and, according to the Endowment, was authored by “leading experts in governments, central banks, industry and the technical community” in order to provide a “longer-term international cybersecurity strategy”, specifically for the financial system.”

The Cyber Policy Initiative emanating from the joint venture’s WEF- Carnegie Endowment report of  November 2020, is contained in a paper titled

International Strategy to Better Protect the Financial System.

It begins by noting that the global financial system, like many other systems, are “going through unprecedented digital transformation, which is being accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic.” It concludes with the warning that:

“Malicious actors are taking advantage of this digital transformation and pose a growing threat to the global financial system, financial stability, and confidence in the integrity of the financial system. Malign actors are using cyber capabilities to steal from, disrupt, or otherwise threaten financial institutions, investors and the public. These actors include not only increasingly daring criminals, but also states and state-sponsored attackers.”

A fully digitized monetary system has been on the WEF’s and IMF’s agenda for years. They cannot wait to implement it. So, if indeed, a cyber-attack on the western monetary system actually will take place, there is no question, who has planned and implemented it.

The drive for total digitization of everything, but foremost the (western) world’s monetary system, is an integral part of The Great Reset. It is supported, of course, by the banking and finance sector, including western central banks. Its implementation is to be accelerated by the covid-fraud, but encounters fierce resistance in many countries, especially in the Global South but also in the western industrialized countries, where intellectual groups realize what this means for the resources and assets worked for and owned by the people – it will be easily ‘expropriated’ so to speak, for example, for disobedience, as the control will be fully with the banks.

And this leads to the conclusion of the nefarious Great Reset“You will own nothing and be happy”.

Luckily, the East, led by China and Russia, has gradually withdrawn from the western monetary system and are largely independent, monetary-sovereign countries. Therefore the western digitization drive does not apply to the East which is further enhanced by the China-Russia led Shanghai Cooperation Organization – SCO – accounting for about half the world’s population and a third of the world’s economic output – GDP.

See here for the full LAV article.

If Klaus Schwab and the WEF’s “Illuminati” would have their way, by 2030 the grand flock of humans will be transformed into “transhumans” – a kind of semi-robots that responds to AI signals controlled by The Great Reset’s masterminds (sic), which by then will have become the leaders of a tyranny, called the New or One World Order – OWO.

We, the People, would then have become the new AI-directed serfs. Or, as per Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, the “epsilon people”.

Let that not happen.

Let’s unite and resist with all our powers.

We are still 7.8 billion people against a few pathological soulless multi-billionaires.

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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 has worked for over 30 years on water and environment 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).

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

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***

Let me start by explaining that an antigen test, performed by (minimally trained) personnel in a nursing home, homeless shelter, or other congregate living setting, rather than in a lab, is often the basis for a diagnosis of Covid.

The test does not need to be ordered by a doctor.  It is possible that the patient’s doctor does not even know their patient was tested, nor will they receive the results.  In most cases, there will be no billing of an insurance company.  The results are determined within the facility, and the only required reporting is to a local health authority, which forwards results to the CDC.

Like the Covid vaccinations, these Covid tests are being handled completely outside the regular healthcare system.  No MD is responsible, nor can anyone be sued if the results are wrong and lead to a bad outcome.  Only government employees have access to the results.

States may provide test kits under federal grants to the facilities and require a certain frequency of testing.

In terms of diagnosing cases of Covid, a sole positive antigen test is defined by CDC and the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists as a probable Covid case, even without a single symptom. Some jurisdictions, and the CDC itself, recode probable cases as confirmed cases of Covid.

One positive PCR result is defined as a confirmed case of Covid, even without a single symptom.

Beginning in December, a similar rapid antigen test, called a lateral flow test, was approved for home use.  It must be combined with an app, which reports your results to the government.

Both in Europe and the US, these products can be sold solely on the basis of manufacturer data, without independent evaluation by FDA or another regulatory agency. They are authorized under the minimal EUA standard. There are no standard protocols for measuring performance.  CDC pretends there are, and suggests that users keep in mind the test sensitivity when interpreting the results.  But you cannot find an accurate measure of sensitivity for Covid tests anywhere. All the numbers available are simply claims made by their manufacturers, when tests were performed under perfect conditions.

Nature magazine noted that Porton Down science park and the University of Oxford had performed some testing of rapid antigen tests; “The full results, which have not yet been peer reviewed, were posted online on 15 January. These stated that many fast antigen (or ‘lateral flow’) tests “do not perform at a level required for mass population deployment…”’

Nature also pointed out that laboratory scientists achieved nearly 79% sensitivity on all samples (including those with very low viral loads) using the Innova rapid test, but self-trained members of the public got only 58%. (Sensitivity means the chance of getting a positive result when someone has the disease.)

Harvard School of Public Health professor Michael Mina, PhD, perhaps the most vocal proponent of these tests, admitted, “Throwing tools at people who don’t know how to use them appropriately is a terrible idea.”

Now let’s look at CDC’s January clarifications regarding these rapid antigen tests.

“As of January 7, 2021

Revised guidance on when to perform confirmatory tests. 

  • In general, asymptomatic people who test antigen positive should have a confirmatory test performed. Symptomatic people who test antigen negative should have a confirmatory test performed.
  • Confirmatory test should be performed with nucleic acid amplifications tests (NAAT) such as reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).
  • Expanded the intended audience to include all long-term care facilities, including nursing homes.”

What does this mean?  If you think the person is negative and they test negative, stop. Consider them negative.  If you think they are negative, but they test positive, get a PCR to supplant the first test, because it is not trustworthy.

If you think they are positive and the test result is positive, stop and treat accordingly.  If you think they are positive, but they test negative, get a PCR test to supplant the first result.

Wait, what?  Why don’t we just get PCR tests on everyone (or else just get them on everyone the doctor or nurse isn’t sure about) and forget the antigen tests, which seem to have lots of false positives and negatives?  But the US government has spent billions on these rapid tests, so we can’t stop using them.  They were supposed to save time, but if you really have to do PCR tests whenever the result disagrees with your hunch, they seem to actually waste time.

But how many facilities are actually following up unexpected test results with PCR tests?

In December and January, WHO advised the world to turn down the cycle thresholds on the PCR machines. 

WHO issued instructions similar to the CDC instructions above, which said, if you are getting a result you were not expecting from the PCR test, then do a second PCR test.  Hmmm. Are the PCR tests accurate enough to rely on?  It does not seem so, but since their performance varies with cycle threshold (CT), if the CT has been adjusted, we need to reevaluate the test sensitivity and specificity.

But, since their cycle thresholds have not been provided, and the actual test performances of the 300 different authorized PCR tests in the US are a secret, we may never learn how accurate these tests really are.

Can I boil this down?

1. With the government approving rapid tests, buying the tests, distributing the tests and collecting all the data from them, the government has a lot of room to influence the reported numbers of probable new Covid cases.  [These tests are rolling out very rapidly now.]

2. The government seems to have created a parallel medical system to deal with these Covid tests, and the CDC has issued guidance for how to manage positive cases in long term care facilities. Is part of the goal to cut out the middleman (the doctor) and allow government edicts to make diagnoses and establish the rules for medical care?

3. I found it interesting that vaccinations are not being given in doctors’ offices, similarly cutting out the doctor.  At first, the reason given was the very low refrigerator temperatures needed for the vaccines.  But now those temperatures are allegedly not needed after all.

I suspect that the government does not want people getting the shots in doctors’ offices because doctors are a lot more likely to discuss the risks and the unknowns with their own patients than are the unknown paraprofessionals and reserve military servicemembers who are administering many of the shots.  They are also more likely to be made aware of side effects and deaths that may occur.

Many Covid vaccine clinics were designed with speed in mind.  There is no time for a conversation before the shot. There is also no mechanism nor means for informed consent–there is no doctor on site to explain the risks and benefits of the vaccines, as required by the EUA statute.  Instead, recipients are given an information sheet and asked to sign an (uninformed) consent.

4. I think we will need to remain watchful of case and death numbers in our local areas, so we can’t be fooled with spurious statistics.  While it seems that PCR tests are identifying fewer false positives, it could be that the proliferation of rapid tests will replace the PCR tests with a new method of generating false positives.

With many additional millions of rapid tests to be performed monthly, there might be a huge rise in cases, but no rise in illnesses. Let’s remain mindful of the possibilities.

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Credits to the owner of the featured image/taken via Meryl Nass

Palestinian Prisoners’ Action Week 2021: Global Action Report and Growing Solidarity

April 27th, 2021 by Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network

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Organizations and activists around the world demanded freedom for Palestinian political prisoners as part of the Palestinian Prisoners’ Week of Action between 17 and 23 April. Every year, since 1974, Palestinians, Arabs and internationalists commemorate a day of action on 17 April, Palestinian Prisoners’ Day. This week of action involves protests, boycott actions, mobilization and education to demand freedom for all Palestinian prisoners jailed by Israel, expose the complicity of imperialist and reactionary regimes and stand with the Palestinian people and the Palestinian resistance.

The Week of Action also comes to a close as Palestinians in Jerusalem and throughout Palestine are resisting escalating attacks by the Israeli occupation, including racist Zionist mobs roaming the streets of occupied Jerusalem and the threatened expulsion of Palestinian families from the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, both manifestations of the ongoing Nakba carried out by the Israeli regime against the Palestinian people.

We urge all friends and supporters of Palestine to continue to take action and stand with the Palestinian people and their heroic resistance, confronting colonial incarceration, land theft, home demolition, siege on Gaza, denial of the right to return, military occupation, extrajudicial executions, apartheid and colonialism. Join in the Week of Action for Palestinian Struggle, 15-22 May 2021 – read the call from the Masar Badil (Alternative Palestinian Path) and take action in your community. Protests are already being organized in Berlin, New York, Athens and more: Organize for Palestine’s liberation, from the river to the sea!

Events and Actions for the Palestinian Prisoners’ Week of Action

During the Week of Action, Samidoun launched the Communicating despite the jailer – Letters to our prisoners in occupation’s jails campaign, soliciting online messages and letters to Palestinian prisoners from people around the world. Hundreds of letters have already been submitted. These letters will be translated to Arabic and read over radio programs by Samidoun Palestine, reaching the prisoners directly inside occupation prisons. Many will also be posted on the Samidoun website in the coming days and weeks. Add your letter (form available in English, Arabic, German, Spanish and French: https://samidoun.net/letters)

Palestine

Samidoun Network in occupied Palestine organized two events on 17 April and 18 April in support of Palestinian prisoners. On Saturday, 17 April — Palestinian Prisoners’ Day — Samidoun joined together with the youth committee in Beit Ummar, al-Khalil, occupied Palestine, to visit with prisoners’ families and extend support and collective commitment to see all 4,500 Palestinian prisoners liberated from Israeli occupation prisons.

That evening, following Taraweeh prayers, night prayers performed during Ramadan, Samidoun activists, family members of prisoners and youth in Al-Arroub refugee camp near al-Khalil gathered to recognize Palestinian Prisoners’ Day and call for the liberation of imprisoned Palestinian strugglers.

The following day, Sunday, 18 April, Samidoun Network in occupied Palestine gathered in the village of Kobar, outside Ramallah.

They gathered to salute the Palestinian prisoners, including the longest-held prisoner, Nael Barghouthi, himself from Kobar. They met with the families of prisoners and martyrs, especially Dr. Widad Barghouthi, Bir Zeit University professor, mother of the prisoners Qassam and Karmel Barghouthi, whose home was demolished by the Israeli occupation.

On 21 April, Samidoun Palestine in Yabad, Jenin, Palestine, postered on the walls of the village with images and slogans in support of Palestinian political prisoners, including Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, jailed in France for nearly 37 years.

They followed up on this by meeting with the families of child prisoners throughout Yabad, expressing support and pledging not to leave imprisoned Palestinian children alone.

These events came amid a number of demonstrations and actions throughout occupied Palestine organized by many groups and organizations to mark Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, including protests and marches in Ramallah, Gaza City, Nablus and elsewhere. In Rafah, Gaza, Palestinians protested for the release of all Palestinian prisoners, highlighting the case of Georges Abdallah, imprisoned in France for the past 37 years. They also carried signs for the Collectif Palestine Vaincra, based in Toulouse, France, a member organization of the Samidoun Network.

France

The Collectif Palestine Vaincra (a member organization of the Samidoun Network) kicked off the Week of Action for Palestinian Prisoners in Toulouse, France with a Palestine Stand on Saturday, 17 April.

For over two hours, the Collectif organized an information booth, distributed hundreds of leaflets on Palestinian prisoners, discussed with passers-by, played Palestinian music and presented several speeches over the loudspeaker explaining how mass incarceration is a colonial weapon in the hands of the Israeli occupation.

Collectif Palestine Vaincra continued their actions throughout the week. On Saturday, 24 April, the collective organized a new Palestine Stand in Toulouse to promote the boycott of Teva, the Israeli pharmaceutical firm: Later that day, the Collectif joined a large demonstration against Islamophobia, systemic racism and the “separatism law” in Toulouse:

Also on 17 April, the Unitary Campaign for the Liberation of Georges Abdallah marked Palestinian Prisoners Day and international political prisoners’ day in Paris, France, with a rally and action, and will be releasing videos throughout the week in support of Palestinian prisoners and the Palestinian struggle for freedom, as well as the liberation of Georges Abdallah from French prisons after 36 years.

Also in Paris, on 23 April, the Unitary Campaign joined a popular demonstration for social and economic justice, highlighting the case of Georges Abdallah.

On 24 April in Paris, CAPJPO-EuroPalestine organized a demonstration to demand freedom for Palestinian child prisoners. There are approximately 150 Palestinian children currently jailed by the Israeli occupation.

Activists urged the expansion of the campaign to boycott Israel and called for freedom for Georges Abdallah.

In Tarbes, France, the Collectif 65 pour la libération de Georges Abdallah gathered to mark Palestinian Prisoners’ Day on 17 April, displaying signs and banners highlighting the imprisonment of Palestinian leader Ahmad Sa’adat and Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, imprisoned for over 36 years in French prisons.

In Roubaix, Franceactivists created a mural on the wall on 17 April demanding the release of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah for Palestinian Prisoners’ Day.

In Lyon, France, activists marked Palestinian Prisoners’ Day on 17 April. The Collectif 69 de Soutien au Peuple Palestinien distributed over 500 leaflets calling for the release of Georges Abdallah, and collecting dozens of cards to send to French president Emmanuel Macron demanding his liberation.

In Grenay, France, the Muncipality organized a commemoration of Palestinian Prisoners’ Day on 17 April, highlighting in particular the campaigns for the liberation of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah from French jails and the liberation of Marwan Barghouthi and his fellow political prisoners in Palestine.

On 17 April in Pays de Morlaix, France, the AFPS (Association France-Palestine Solidarite) organized a large display and street theater performance highlighting Palestinian Prisoners’ Day. They displayed a banner demanding freedom for Palestinian prisoners above the town market and read out testimonies from imprisoned Palestinians.

On 19 April, AFPS 63 in Clermont-Ferrand made a presentation to dozens of people at the Comédie hall, part of a protest occupation since 15 March 2021. They highlighted the centrality of the prisoners’ struggle to justice and liberation in Palestine, urged a broad boycott of Israel to free Palestinian prisoners and gathered letters of solidarity in support of Georges Abdallah and imprisoned Palestinian children.

In Saint Girons, France, Couserans-Palestinorganized a table at the Market on Saturday, 24 April, highlighting Palestinian prisoners’ struggle for freedom. They distributed information about Palestinian political prisoners, administrative detention without charge or trial and the Israeli apartheid regime in Palestine.

Further organizations in France designed posters and issued solidarity statements for Palestinian political prisoners, as well as organizing actions in cities, towns and communities such as Auch. The Union des Etudiants Communistes created a poster highlighting the hundreds of Palestinian students jailed by the Israeli occupation and demanding their freedom. Communist Youth in Saint-Etienne also produced a report on the situation of Palestinian political prisoners, highlighting the campaign for the Week of Action.

German

On 17 April, an enthusiastic march for Palestinian Prisoners’ Day wound through Neukölln, Berlin, Germany, organized by Samidoun Deutschland in partnership with several organizations, including Palästina Spricht Palestine Speaks, FOR-Palestine, Young Struggle Europe, Volksrat der Eelam Tamilen – Deutschland e.V., und Netzwerk Freiheit für alle politischen Gefangenen.

Marking Palestinian Prisoners’ Day, the march progressed from Rathaus Neukölln to Hermannplatz, marching through Sonnenallee, home to many Palestinian and Arab restaurants and businesses in Berlin. They concluded by calling on attendees’ to join and mobilize for the 15 May March for Return and Liberation in Berlin.

In Stuttgart, the Palästinakomitee Stuttgart, together with several organizations, joined in an anti-racist and anti-fascist demonstration on 17 April in the city with signs, banners and Palestinian flags to mark Palestinian Prisoners’ Day. The committee drew attention to the campaign to free Palestinian students and highlighted the conditions and unjust detention of Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails.

In Frankfurt, members of Samidoun Deutschland organized a public display on 17 April highlighting the imprisonment of Palestinian students, with large posters and collages of the photos of jailed students in Israeli prisons. They set up a wooden chair to illustrate the stress positions and forms of torture used by Israeli interrogators against Palestinian students and other political prisoners.

Palestinian and Arab community organizations in Germany also organized sit-ins and actions in Köln, Koblenz and elsewhere on 17 April.

On Friday, 23 April, Samidoun Deutschland took to the streets in Frankfurt, displaying slogans in solidarity with Palestinians fighting land confiscation in Sheikh Jarrah, struggling for freedom in occupation prisons, remembering Basil al-Araj and calling for a complete boycott of Israel.

Sweden

In Gothenburg, Sweden, Samidoun Göteborg joined with anti-imperialist organizations for a banner display and public action on Saturday, 17 April, marking Palestinian Prisoners’ Day. They distributed information and displayed banners and posters calling for the liberation of Georges Abdallah, all Palestinian prisoners, and liberation for Palestine.

Also on 17 April, in Stockholm, Sweden, Samidoun Stockholm, together with Aktion Proletär Järva and Rojavakommittéerna Stockholmorganized a public action for Palestinian Prisoners’ Day. They distributed leaflets and information and delivered a speech: “Freedom for Ahmad Sa ‘adat! Freedom for Khitam Safin! Freedom for Khalida Jarrar! And freedom for all political prisoners from Palestine to Ireland and from the US to Morocco!”

Samidoun Malmö and the Sweden Local Preparatory Committee for the Alternative Palestinian Path (Masar Badil) organized an online event over Zoom on Sunday, 18 April. Moderated by former Palestinian political prisoner and poet Dareen Tatour, the event featured a number of released prisoners, including Shatha Hassan, Susan Oweiwi, Hamza Younis and Abu Aseel Asaleh. The Masar Badil also released a short animated video highlighting Palestinian Prisoners’ Day.

Spain

In Madrid, Spain, Samidoun España, Alkarama, and international associations for political prisoners gathered for a protest outside the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Relations on Saturday, 17 April to demand freedom for Palestinian political prisoners and international revolutionary prisoners.

They carried signs and banners demanding freedom for Palestinians in Zionist, Arab and imperialist jails, including Khitam Saafin, Ahmad Sa’adat, Ramy Shaath, Issam Hijjawi Bassalat, Georges Abdallah and Ghassan Najjar.

For the Week of Action for Palestinian Prisoners, Palestina Libre Murcia and Samidoun in Murcia organized a video reading out the call to action in Spanish and highlighting the posters and images of many Palestinian political prisoners.

Galiza

On 21 April, the Palestine.gal Platform, of which Confederación Intersindical Galega is a part, delivered a letter to the three parliamentary groups of the Galiza Parliament, in Santiago de Compostela, requesting a position condemning the situation of Palestinian prisoners.

Belgium

In Brussels, Belgium, the Palestinian Community In Belgium and Luxembourg, Intal, and many other organizations protested outside the Gare Centrale, the central train station, marking Palestinian Prisoners’ Day and calling for the liberation of detained Palestinians.

Luk Vervaet delivered a speech at the protest, in which he linked the imprisonment of Palestinians with the criminalization of the movement, highlighting the cases of Samidoun, Collectif Palestine Vaincra, CAPJPO-EuroPalestine and Palestine Action and urging collective solidarity.

Britain

On 17 April, Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! and the Revolutionary Communist Group joined a #KillTheBill protest in Manchester, Britain, resisting the unjust, oppressive police legislation. They carried Palestinian flags and signs highlighting Palestinian prisoners’ struggle for freedom.

The following week, on 24 April in London, the Revolutionary Communist Group and Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! organized the Break the Chains! protest for political prisoners, highlighting the birthday of Mumia Abu-Jamal, U.S. political prisoner of the Black Liberation Movement as well as the campaigns to free Palestinian prisoners and all revolutionary prisoners. Both Samidoun and Collectif Palestine Vaincra provided statements read out at the demonstration.

Netherlands

In Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Samidoun Nederland marked Palestinian Prisoners’ Day with postering, displaying signs and images demanding freedom for the hundreds of Palestinian student prisoners inside Israeli jails and the liberation of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah.

Greece

On Sunday, 25 April, the Samidoun Network in Greece and the Anti-Imperialist Front organized a protest in Athens, Greece urging freedom for revolutionary political prisoners, including Palestinian political prisoners and international prisoners, such as Ali Osman Kose and Georges Ibrahim Abdallah. Signs, posters and chants in Turkish, Greek and Arabic accompanied the event.

Lebanon

The Lebanese Democratic Youth Union conducted a public education campaign on the case of Georges Ibrahim Abdallah in the Ruwais neighborhood of Beirut on 17 April, calling for his liberation and highlighting the need for popular struggle to obtain his freedom.

Also on 17 April, the Palestinian Arab Cultural Center in Baddawi Refugee Camp in Lebanon created a solidarity video highlighting Palestinian prisoners’ struggle for liberation:

On 18 April, the Global Campaign to Return to Palestine, with Muhjat al-Qudsorganized a program for Palestinian Prisoners Day in Bourj al-Barajnehrefugee camp in Lebanon. They displayed photos and played videos highlighting the prisoners’ struggle for liberation, including a message from Samidoun.

Puerto Rico

Puerto Rican former political prisoner Oscar Lopez Rivera issued a new painting highlighting the struggle of Palestinian political prisoners for Palestinian Prisoners’ Day.

Ireland

From Ireland, Stephen Murney, the head of the International Department of Saoradh, issued a solidarity statement and message in support of Palestinian political prisoners and the Week of Action, highlighting the deep ties of struggle between the Irish and Palestinian liberation movements.

In Derry, Ireland, Saoradh activists engaged in banner drops at various locations throughout the city highlighting the struggle of Palestinian prisoners:

Saoradh members from County Cork, Ireland, also took part in the International Week for Palestinian prisoners, while in East Tyrone, Ireland, Saoradh and the Irish Republican Prisoners Welfare Association sent solidarity greetings to Palestinian strugglers.

On 23 April, Saoradh activists gathered outside the historic Kilminhaim Gaol to show support for Palestinian political prisoners and demand the liberation of Dr. Issam Hijjawi Bassalat, jailed alongside Irish Republicans as a political prisoner of Britain:

Saoradh activists in Belfast, Ireland also took part in the Week of Action for Palestinian political prisoners, including an action at the International Wall in West Belfast on 24 April. They also emphasized the importance of escalating the boycott of Israel. Watch all the Saoradh videos at their Facebook page.

United States

Students for Justice in Palestine in Houston, Texas, organized a banner drop and sign display for Palestinian student prisoners, demanding justice and liberation for all prisoners, from Palestine to Turtle Island.

Online Events and Actions

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, many organizations held online events, actions and social media campaign to highlight the struggle of Palestinian prisoners. Samidoun participated in, endorsed and promoted many of these initiatives.

In addition to the actions in Paris and elsewhere, the Unitary Campaign for the Liberation of Georges Abdallah gathered a number of videos and statements for Palestinian Prisoners’ Week of Action, releasing them throughout the week of action on the Campaign’s YouTube channel.

Watch the videos and find links at Samidoun’s website.

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All images in this article are from Samidoun

Coming “COVID Commission” Is a Gates-Led Cover-Up

April 27th, 2021 by Dr. Joseph Mercola

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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A corporate-funded COVID Commission Planning Group is being set up to create and support an investigative commission like that for 9/11. This is a classic illustration of the fox guarding the henhouse

The planning group is led by Philip Zelikow, former executive director of the 9/11 Commission and a member of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Development Program Advisory Panel

Zelikow is also a strategy group member of the Aspen Institute, a technocratic hub that has groomed and mentored executives from around the world about the subtleties of globalization

The COVID Commission Planning Group includes more than two dozen virologists, public health personas and former government officials, and is backed by four charitable foundations — all of whom have histories revealing them to be part of the technocratic alliance that for years have been plotting and planning for the wealth redistribution and global power grab we’re now experiencing

These foundations include Schmidt Futures, the Skoll Foundation, Stand Together Foundation (Koch Network) and the Rockefeller Foundation. The Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, which co-hosted Event 201, a pandemic preparedness simulation for a “novel coronavirus,” is also involved

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Having gone as far as he can with the World Health Organization’s cover-up, Bill Gates takes another bite at the apple with his corporate-funded investigation into the origins of COVID-19 to cleverly cover up this massive conspiracy with an “official” investigation.

While the so-called COVID Commission Planning Group — set up to create and support an investigative commission like that for 9/11 — is advertised as a nonpartisan effort, you really couldn’t come up with a more dangerously biased set of participants.

In short, individuals and organizations with some of the most egregious conflicts of interest, and everything to gain by being in charge of analyzing and writing the history of this pandemic, are leading and supporting this effort. This is a classic fox guarding the henhouse scenario.

According to the Miller Center, the planning group will lay out the plans for nine separate task forces, each focused on one of the following topics, to lay “the foundation for a future commission to investigate”:1

  • The origins of SARS-CoV-2 and its prevention
  • Threat assessment, including the creation of an international network for detection and warning, “biological intelligence” and other data collection
  • National readiness and a review of the initial response
  • At-risk communities and how to address gaps in public health capacities, worker safety and the responsibilities of private businesses
  • State and local readiness, containment and mitigation, including when and how to use lockdowns, mandates and school closings
  • Health care challenges surrounding patient care, including those with long-hauler syndrome
  • Diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines, including the regulatory environment that might benefit or stifle innovation and/or global supply chains
  • Telling the stories of COVID-19 victims, frontline workers and public health officials (i.e., propaganda generation)
  • Solving data issues

Philip Zelikow — Chief Investigator for the Cabal

RS3J6340.jpg

The chosen leader of this new planning group is Philip Zelikow (image on the right), former executive director of the 9/11 Commission2 and a member of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Development Program Advisory Panel.3,4 While Gates may not be a physical member of this planning group, he’s certainly involved indirectly. Of that we can be virtually assured.

Zelikow, a former director of the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, is also a current strategy group member of the Aspen Institute,5 a technocratic hub that has groomed and mentored executives from around the world about the subtleties of globalization.

He also directed the Markle Foundation’s Task Force on National Security in the Information Age,6the focus of which has been to make information relating to potential security threats discoverable and accessible to officials without breaking civil liberty laws.7 As reported by the University of Virginia:8

“The planning group hopes to prepare the way for a potential National COVID Commission set up to help America and the world learn from this pandemic and safeguard against future threats. ‘This is perhaps the greatest crisis suffered by America, if not the world, since 1945,’ said Zelikow … ‘It is vital to take stock, in a massive way, of what happened and why.

These sorts of civilizational challenges may become more common in the 21st century, and we need to learn from this crisis to strengthen our society … Scholars and journalists will do their jobs, but there is also a role for the kind of massive investigation and research effort that only a large-scale commission can provide.’”

Foundations Backing the COVID Commission

As reported by the Miller Center,9 the COVID Commission Planning Group includes more than two dozen virologists, public health personas and former government officials, and is backed by four charitable foundations — all of whom have histories revealing them to be part of the technocratic alliance that for years, in some cases decades, have been plotting and planning for the wealth redistribution and global power grab we’re now experiencing. These foundations include:

  • Schmidt Futures,10 founded by Eric Schmidt, former CEO and executive chairman of Google and Alphabet Inc., which owns the greatest artificial intelligence (AI) team in the world.11
  • The Skoll Foundation, founded by Jeff Skoll, a former eBay president, to “pursue his vision of a sustainable world” by catalyzing “transformational social change.”12 It acts as a support organization to the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.

Skoll has funded pandemic preparedness and prevention since 2009 through the Skoll Global Threats Fund, and his movie production company Participant Media produced the movie “Contagion” and Al Gore’s documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.”13

  • Stand Together Foundation, which is part of the Koch Network, founded by Charles Koch. Its primary focus is criminal justice and poverty issues, and it teaches Koch’s “market based management” philosophy to community leaders.14
  • The Rockefeller Foundation, which in April 2020 released the white paper,15 “National COVID-19 Testing Action Plan,” laying out a strategic framework clearly intended to become part of a permanent surveillance and social control structure that severely limits personal liberty and freedom of choice. I wrote about this in “Rockefeller Foundation’s Plan to Track Americans.”

The tracking system it calls for is eerily similar to that already being used in China, where residents are required to enroll in a health condition registry. Once enrolled, they get a personal QR code, which they must then enter in order to gain access to grocery stores and other facilities.16 The plan also demands access to other medical data.

Operation Lockstep

The Rockefellers, like Gates, built an empire around health and medicine despite having no medical expertise whatsoever. Their influence is rooted in money, which is spent in self-serving ways. While Rockefeller and Gates are both known as philanthropists, their donations grow their wealth, as the money they spend on “charity” ultimately ends up benefiting their own investments and/or business interests.

In addition to the COVID-19 Action Plan document cited above — which doesn’t even try to hide its draconian overreach and intent to permanently alter life and society as we know it — the Rockefeller Foundation also published a 2010 report17 titled “Scenarios for the Future of Technology and International Development,” in which they laid out their “Lockstep” scenario — a coordinated global response to a lethal pandemic.

While the name and origin of the virus differs, the scenario laid out in this document matches many of the details of our present. A deadly viral pandemic. A deadly effect on economies. International mobility coming to a screeching halt, debilitating industries, tourism and global supply chains. “Even locally, normally bustling shops and office buildings sat empty for months, devoid of both employees and customers,” the document reads.

“In the absence of official containment protocols,” the virus spread like wildfire. In this narrative, the U.S. administration’s failure to place strict travel restrictions on its citizens proved to be a fatal flaw, as it allowed the virus to spread past its borders. China, on the other hand, fared particularly well due to its rapid imposition of universal quarantines of all citizens, which proved effective for curbing the spread of the virus.

Many other nations where leaders “flexed their authority” and imposed severe restrictions on their citizens — “from the mandatory wearing of face masks to body-temperature checks at the entries of communal spaces like train stations and supermarkets” — also fared well.

These and other reports spell out what the ultimate plan actually is. It’s to use bioterrorism to take control of the world’s resources, wealth and people. It’s to use coordinated pandemic response as a justification for wealth redistribution and the resetting of the global financial system.

What most fail to realize is that the wealth distribution they’re talking about is not distribution from the wealthy to the poor, even though that’s what they want you to believe. It’s to centralize wealth at the top and eliminate private property rights and private business ownership from the lower and middle classes. The “equitable” living standards they’re talking about is poverty for all but themselves. It’s really crucial to begin to grasp this reality now, before it’s too late.

Pieces of a Global Puzzle

The Rockefeller Foundation is also a founding sponsor of The Mojaloop Foundation, set up to “promote digital payments for people outside the financial system, with support from Google and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.”18

Right there we have Google, the Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, all in one little nonprofit with a heart set on giving poor people access to digital banking using their cellphones. This is probably the three most dangerous nonprofits on the planet, as they are likely the most powerful and committed to global tyranny.

All-digital banking using a centralized digital currency is a key component of the Great Reset, so this project has little to do with honest philanthropy and everything to do with making sure everyone can be swept into the digital net, which will include round-the-clock surveillance and tracking of physical location and biological data, a digital ID, along with your health data (including but not limited to vaccination status), banking and, ultimately, a social credit system.

All of the pieces needed for the Great Reset are already in place; it’s just a matter of seeing how all the separate pieces fit together. For example, Gavi, the vaccine alliance, set up with funds from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, partnered with the ID2020 Alliance to launch a digital identity program called ID2020.19

Gates also funded the creation of EarthNow, a project involving 500 satellites equipped with machine learning technology to surveil the entire planet with real-time video.20 As one would expect, AI — a Google specialty — is also a key component of this global surveillance plot.

COVID-19 — A Launch Pad for the Great Reset

Another key player in the COVID Commission Planning Group is the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security at the Bloomberg School of Public Health. As you may recall, Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security co-hosted the pandemic preparedness simulation for a “novel coronavirus,” known as Event 201, in October 2019 along with the Gates Foundation and the World Economic Forum.

The event eerily predicted what would happen just 10 weeks later, when COVID-19 appeared. Gates and the World Economic Forum, in turn, are both partnered21 with the United Nations which, while keeping a relatively low profile, appears to be at the heart of the globalist takeover agenda.

The World Economic Forum, while a private organization, works as the social and economic branch of the U.N. and is a key driving force behind modern technocracy and the Great Reset agenda. Its founder and chairman, Klaus Schwab, publicly declared the need for a global “reset” to restore order in June 2020.22

Technocratic rule, which is what the Great Reset will bring about, hinges on the use of technology — in particular artificial intelligence, digital surveillance and Big Data collection (which is what 5G is for) — and the digitization of industry, banking and government, which in turn allows for the automation of social engineering and social rule (although that part is never expressly stated).

Beyond pandemic preparedness and response, the justification for the implementation of the Great Reset agenda in its totality will be climate change. The Great Reset, sometimes referred to as the “build back better” plan, specifically calls for all nations to implement “green” regulations and “sustainable development goals”23,24 as part of the post-COVID recovery effort.

But the end goal is far from what the typical person envisions when they hear these plans. The end goal is to turn us into serfs without rights to privacy, private ownership or anything else. In short, the pandemic is being used to destroy the local economies around the world, which will then allow the World Economic Forum to come in and “rescue” debt-ridden countries. The price for this salvation is your liberty.

The Great Reset

While the New World Order was long derided as a “conspiracy theory” that you’d have to be crazy to believe, the Great Reset, which is simply a rebranding of the same old NWO plan that has been in circulation for well over a decade, is now public fact.

Many world leaders have spoken about it in an official capacity, and in June 2020, Zia Khan, senior vice president of innovation at the Rockefeller Foundation penned the article25 “Rebuilding Toward the Great Reset: Crisis, COVID-19, and the Sustainable Development Goals,” reviewing the “social crisis” necessitating the world’s acceptance of a new world order.

The article was co-written with John McArthur, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute, which is one of several technocratic think-tanks. Keeping in mind what I’ve just said about what the Great Reset is really all about, and the justifications used to implement the theft of wealth and freedom, read how they posit these changes as being in your best interest:

“Upheaval can yield new understanding and opportunity. Outdated or unjust norms can succumb to society’s pressing need for better approaches. For example, the need for massive and urgent government intervention has drawn fresh attention to social safety nets and the possibility of dramatic policy enhancements.

Tragic consequences of racial discrimination have catapulted awareness of systemic problems and triggered prospects for much-needed social reforms. Rapid environmental improvements linked to economic shutdown have rekindled consciousness of the profound interconnections between ecosystems, economies, and societies …

Rather than passively allowing norms to evolve through inertia or randomness, we can all pursue actions for Response and, soon enough, Recovery in a manner that improve the odds of a Reset toward better long-term outcomes.

Fortunately, we already have a strong starting point for what the world’s economic, social, and environmental outcomes should be. Five years ago, in 2015, all 193 UN member states agreed on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a common set of priorities to be achieved in all countries by 2030.”

Another article titled “The Great Reset,” written by Jimmy Chang, CFA, for the Rockefeller Capital Management blog, reads, in part:26

“Regarding the post-pandemic reconstruction effort, progressives, led by the so-called Davos elites (of the World Economic Forum fame), are advocating an urgent ‘Great Reset’ of capitalism to ensure equality and sustainability. They also call for harnessing the Fourth Industrial Revolution (i.e., Big Tech) to address health and social challenges.

Their vision for the future could be gleaned from a 2016 article penned by a young Danish politician with the title ‘Welcome to 2030. I Own Nothing, Have No Privacy, and Life Has Never Been Better.’ This title was so controversial that its posting on the World Economic Forum website was changed to a bland ‘Here’s how life could change in my city by the year 2030.’

The pace of the Great Reset will in part depend on the final outcome of the U.S. election as it will determine whether Trump’s ‘America First’ doctrine will be relegated to the dustbin of history. Still, some resets will be unavoidable since COVID-19 has exacerbated some longstanding issues such as the world’s debt dependency and the widening gap between the haves and the have-nots.

There will be elevated levels of bankruptcy and debt restructuring. Governments may further increase their leverage to bail out the economy and placate electorates that demand more generous social contracts.

Riccardo Fraccaro, Italy’s Secretary of the Council of Ministers and a close aide of Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, even floated a trial balloon on sovereign debt restructuring by suggesting that the European Central Bank consider ‘canceling sovereign bonds bought during the pandemic or perpetually extending their maturity.’

Businesses will also need to respond to lasting behavioral changes caused by the pandemic. In sum, there is no going back to the pre-COVID-19 world, and markets will need to adjust.”

Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing

The Great Reset is not some wild conspiracy theory but a publicly released agenda that is moving forward, whether we like it or not. I believe the only way to stop it is through our collective responses to the various pieces and parts of the plan that are being rolled out. They want you to believe that none of the things being introduced have anything to do with each other but, in fact, they are all pieces of the same puzzle.

The final image is the inside of a prison cell. It may not be a physical prison. It may be largely digital in nature. It may look like the four walls of your own home. But it’s a prison nonetheless.

I believe it would be a tragic mistake to trust Gates, Rockefeller, Google or any of the other players — including Zelikow — that are being brought before us as the saviors of the day. They’re all wolves in sheep’s clothing.

To learn more about the hidden power structure running this global reorganization toward authoritarian control, see “Bill Gates Wants to Realize Global Vision in His Lifetime,” “The Great Reset and Build Back Better,” “Technocracy and the Great Reset” and “Who Pressed the Great Reset Button?

Be Part of the Answer

The good news is, Americans now have a brand-new weapon in our fight for freedom. I recently interviewed Naomi Wolf about her new digital platform, Daily Clout, that will allow citizens to lobby bills to their legislators.

Many state legislators are not lawyers, and they don’t have lawyers at their beck and call. Daily Clout has hired an attorney who is busy drafting turnkey bills that protect us against the continued erosion of freedom and reestablish rights and liberties. Citizens can now send these model bills to their legislators, knowing that they’ve undergone legal review and are ready to be passed. You can also go even further than that. As explained by Wolf:

“You can tell us the bill you want. We can upload a campaign for that bill. We can hire our lawyer to draft a model bill and then you can pass it. What we’ve been doing is gathering names and zip codes, so that we can add real voters to this piece of model legislation in real states and send it to real state legislators and say, ‘Look, the supporters are all there. All you have to do is pass this.’

It’s a fantastic intervention in the political process, restoring real democracy. It’s why we founded Daily Clout, but it’s beautiful to see hundreds and hundreds of people from all walks of life rushing to give us support and resources, to become members and give us donations, which we appreciate, so that we can keep our lawyer busy creating these draft bills. It’s not just for this issue.

Once we get our rights and freedoms back, whatever [citizens] want, we can draft a bill for you, and you can [call on your legislators to] pass it.”

To get involved, go to dailyclout.io and sign up to become a paying member or free subscriber. You will then receive an email explaining how to use the Five Freedoms Campaign. Presently, there is a model “no vaccination passports” bill that you can send to your state legislator.

There’s a feature called BillCam, where you can see who your state legislator is by entering your zip code. Once you’re a subscriber or member, you’ll get regular updates about happenings around the U.S. and community events.

The Great Reset is at our doorstep, and your freedom, and that of future generations, hinges on you getting involved and fighting for it. The Daily Clout platform can be a major help in this regard, as using legislation to preserve and protect our rights and freedoms is far preferable to more violent alternatives or resigning ourselves to the fate prescribed by our globalist would-be “overlords.”

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Notes

1, 9 Miller Center, COVID Commission Planning Group

2 The Last American Vagabond September 7, 2016

3 Source Watch Philip Zelikow

4, 6 Miller Center, Philip Zelikow

5 Aspen Institute, Philip Zelikow

7 Markle.org

8 University of Virginia April 14, 2021

10 Schmidt Futures

11 TechCrunch January 26, 2014

12 Skoll Foundation

13 Forbes How the Billionaire Behind “Contagion” is working to stop this pandemic

14 Influence Watch, Stand Together Foundation

15 The Rockefeller Foundation, National COVID-19 Testing Action Plan — Strategic Steps to Reopen Our Workplaces and Our Communities, April 21, 2020 (PDF)

16 Berggruen Institute March 6, 2020

17 Scenarios for the Future of Technology and International Development

18 Techxplore.com May 6, 2020

19 Biometric Update September 20, 2019

20 Technology Review April 18, 2018

21 Canadian Truths, COVID-19 Bill Gates, United Nations and World Economic Forum

22 Technocracy.news June 29, 2020

23 Canadian Post, World Economic Forum Wheel of Evil

24 Intelligence.weforum.org COVID-19

25 Rockefeller Foundation June 19, 2020

26 Rockefeller Capital Management December 1, 2020

Your Honor: Justice in a Time of Collapse

April 27th, 2021 by Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin

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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A well-meaning New Orleans judge, Michael Desiato, finds himself in a frightening situation when he discovers that his son, Adam, was in a hit and run accident with a son of the local mafia boss, Jimmy Baxter. Adam had been visiting the site of his mother’s death when approached by local guys. He drives off at speed only to drop his inhaler on the car floor during an asthma attack. As he struggles to drive the car and pick up the inhaler at the same time his car is in a collision with Jimmy Baxter’s son’s first spin on his motorbike. Rocco Baxter, the son, chokes to death on his own blood at the side of the road as Adam panics and drives off. When Michael realises who the dead boy was he tries to protect his son by arranging with Adam to cover up what happened.

He asks a friend to organise the destruction of Adam’s car but it ends up in the hands of a teen, Kofi Jones, who is caught with the car after running a red light. The police discover that this was the car involved in the hit and run when a piece of the motorbike is dislodged from underneath the car. Jimmy Baxter now believes it was Kofi who killed his son in a crime gang hit. Kofi is sentenced without parole for the hit and run. Things escalate when Jimmy’s other son kills Kofi in prison and Jimmy has Kofi’s family house blown up, basically getting his retaliation in first. For Judge Michael Desiato, things go from bad to worse as the more he uses his middle-class power and influence to protect his son, the greater the negative effect this has on the working-class family and friends of Kofi, extending out like ripples in a pond. Or worse still, more like the Butterfly Effect, as the initial freak accident sparks off intergang rivalry and then further knock-on wider repercussions on a political level.

Your Honor, starring Bryan Cranston, combines elements from Breaking Bad (well-meaning professional gone bad) and The Sopranos (ruthless mafia boss) in a show which goes beyond middle-class fascination with organised crime and its ill-gotten wealth and demonstrates the disastrous effects that chess-like power-plays have on the ordinary people caught up in the resulting tsunami of deadly consequences. While the powerfully corrupt seek revenge outside the system, and powerful professionals try to avoid justice within the system, the working class can only hope for ‘saviours’ (e.g. empathetic lawyers) or fair-minded judges conscious of the social context of much crime (like Judge Michael Desiato). Like a Greek tragedy, the more Judge Michael Desiato tries to avoid Fate, the more he brings about the show’s ironic deadly ending. Had he just trusted the institutional justice system in the first place, the final outcome would most likely not have been so tragic.

The fact is that the struggle against the ideology of revenge (i.e. ‘an eye for an eye’) is one that has been going on since the Enlightenment, the intellectual and philosophical movement of the 17th and 18th centuries. The insidious effect of revenge on the judicial system, unpredictable and outside of the law, was a motivating force for philosophers like Cesare Beccaria (1738–1794) to try and establish a fairer system not based on fear or favour. Thus:

“Enlightened reformers moved away from corporal punishment, seeking to design a penal system that would make punishment more useful, edifying the prisoner while simultaneously repairing the damage the prisoner had inflicted upon society. Central to these plans were work and imprisonment. Work was a common corrective technique, and many reformers believed the regularity and discipline of labor would lead to the moral rejuvenation of the wrongdoer while serving social needs at the same time.”

Thus, the two main modern theories of retributive justice (or punishment for wrongdoing) are Utilitarian theories that “look forward to the future consequences of punishment, while retributive theories look back to particular acts of wrongdoing, and attempt to balance them with deserved punishment.”

Image on the right: Justitia by Maarten van Heemskerk, 1556. Justitia carries symbolic items such as: a sword, scales and a blindfold

At the very least Enlightened views on justice try to reform the criminal, stop him from repeating the crime, while at the same time, deterring others. The main purpose of punishment, then, is to create a better society and avoid revenge.

Leon F Seltzer summarises the important differences between justice and revenge:

“1. Revenge is predominantly emotional; justice primarily rational.
2. Revenge is, by nature, personal; justice is impersonal, impartial, and both a social and legal phenomenon.
3. Revenge is an act of vindictiveness; justice, of vindication.
4. Revenge is about cycles; justice is about closure.
5. Revenge is about retaliation; justice is about restoring balance.”

The cycles that Seltzer discusses can be seen, for example, in the Gjakmarrja (English: “blood-taking”, i.e. “blood feud”) or hakmarrja(“revenge”) of Albanian culture referring to the social obligation to commit murder in order to salvage honour. Gjakmarrja can be initiated when a guest is killed, failure to pay a debt, or rape. The profound consequences of the gjakmarrja on society is shown when the feud extends over many generations or leads to family members living in shame and seclusion for the rest of their lives, imprisoned in their own homes because they refuse to pay with the lives of their family members.

The overwhelming psychological power of revenge in Your Honor is demonstrated by the fact that the narrative centres around a judge, an important representative of the modern justice system. It shows why it is so important to gain general acceptance of a system of punishment that deters others from committing crimes while at the same time preventing criminals from repeating their crimes. In this way justice acts like a controlling carbon rod in the potential fission of escalating cycles of revenge.

We live in a time when disillusionment with the justice system (short sentences, crimes committed on bail, clever lawyers getting offenders off, etc.) is amplified in the popular press, making the justice system appear to be a lot less ineffectual than it actually is. However, Your Honor, with its relentlessly depressing atmosphere and its narrative of desperate actions and reactions gives us some inkling of what societies would be like if that was the norm rather than the exception, and when your honor is more important and sacred than life itself.

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Caoimhghin Ó Croidheáin is an Irish artist, lecturer and writer. His artwork consists of paintings based on contemporary geopolitical themes as well as Irish history and cityscapes of Dublin. His blog of critical writing based on cinema, art and politics along with research on a database of Realist and Social Realist art from around the world can be viewed country by country here.

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

Featured image: Cranston at the 68th Berlin International Film Festival in 2018

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“I was impressed frankly with the obsession of your prime minister, he called me thirty times, thirty times. He would call me at 3:00 o’clock in the morning and he would ask me what about the variants, what data we have, and I said, “Prime minister it’s three o’clock…”. He said, “No, no! don’t worry, tell me.” Or he would call me to ask about children, “I need to vaccinate the schools,” or to ask about pregnant women. So, he convinced me frankly that he will be on top of it.”

(Pfizer CEO Dr. Albert Bourla, interview on Israeli TV, March 2021)

Abstract

The Israeli People’s Committee has uncovered a multitude of malfunctions and failures at the administrative, ethical and legal levels during the COVID-19 vaccination campaign at the beginning of 2021 in Israel.

In this document, we aim at presenting and elaborating the main features of these malfunctions, which have led to severe damages in many Israelis in the short term, and sadly to possible future damages. It seems that the entire country got caught up in a medical-social chaos, where the leadership has enabled a situation of fear and uncertainty to run its course out of control, and even contributed to its further enhancement.

But most of all, we cannot ignore severe suspicions shared by all the committee members, that the fundamental sin, which led to the chaos and its casualties, is the way in which two very powerful personages, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Pfizer CEO Dr. Albert Bourla, agreed upon a massive vaccination campaign in Israel that is unprecedented in scale and nature. A vaccination campaign that lacks effective safeguards for public safety, that is devoid of any concern for people who may be harmed by the vaccine, and that has allegedly guaranteed to encompass populations, for which the safety of the vaccine has not been tested (pregnant women and their fetuses), and later also children, for whom the need to be vaccinated is totally unclear, while pushing aside any safety considerations. From this exact episode, where both parties came to an agreement regarding the vaccination campaign, which involved a wide variety of ethical and safety violations, an unrestrained drama was initiated that has revealed itself to be impulsive, neglectful and reckless. The agreed upon vaccination campaign concerns matters of life and death, yet is being conducted in an amateurish, irresponsible and aggressive manner, and it led to the political arena taking over the medical arena and bending it to its needs, while paralyzing all alarm systems, monitoring measures and open scientific discussion. Unfortunately, most of the medical system collaborated with this unsupervised process, starting with the higher ranks, and ending with field doctors – some actively, some by keeping quiet from fear of reprisal.

Prologue

The Israeli People’s Committee is an independent and apolitical group of Israeli citizens, who vary in their worldviews and areas of expertise. Among us there are physicians, lawyers, scientists and researchers from a wide range of academic disciplines. The glue that binds us together is our deep concern with respect to the safety of the Israeli people and the fate of our country in view of the chaotic vortex, which was orchestrated by the Israeli leadership during the last year in the shadow of the corona crisis, and which the Israeli public finds itself trapped in. In the vacuum that was created due to the disintegration of all the systems of our country, we arrive at the understanding that the cure for all the (health, moral, social, economic) ills, which were brought by the spin of the irresponsible government’s management of the corona crisis, must come from the people. We therefore banded together a few weeks ago and established The Israeli People’s Committee in an attempt to of initiate a process of investigation, exposure, change, correction and recovery, and with the hope to encourage many other Israeli citizens to follow us and join our self-healing journey.

It is only recently that our investigation has been underway, and we are interested here in reporting the public our initial findings and insights. Given the multitude of harms caused to the public during the COVID crisis, we had to prioritize the investigation topics and chose to focus first on the wrongs emerged during the COVID vaccination campaign in Israel that were piled on top of the already painful distress that the Israeli population has suffered due to the policy of repeated lockdowns. This is based on our perception that taking care of these wrongs is top urgency. Our report is addressed not only to the Israeli public, but also to people all over the world. This is because of our impression that the whole world is looking at the Israeli vaccination campaign in envy.

Since things seen from here are not seen from there, we find it important to explain to the people from around the world that there is no reason at all to envy us and also to warn them from similar events and their harmful consequences that may happen in their own countries. It should be noted that we don’t take or present any stand regarding the COVID vaccine itself (as long as it is being distributed to the adult population). Rather, we raise many questions and concerns regarding the manner in which the vaccination campaign was conducted in Israel. Regarding the recent intent to vaccinate children, we do hold a strong clear opinion that will be presented later in this report.

Based on the information we have gathered from the public and many other sources, we were exposed to a wide range of severe wrongs caused to the public since the COVID vaccination campaign in Israel began. These wrongs are spread across all areas of life and are characterized, among other things, by total disregard for ethical codes and proper governance rules, ruining the foundation of democracy, and delivering a fatal blow to the Israeli social fabric. After analyzing the preliminary findings, as will be explained below, we believe there is reason for concern that the multitude of wrongs brought upon the Israeli public during the COVID vaccination campaign may be the consequence of a disorder known in psychology as “impulse control disorder.”1 In psychology, an impulse control disorder is defined as an unstoppable inner need of a person to perform a certain action even knowing it may harm oneself or others. Whilst impulses themselves are natural and even essential to human behavior, surely the absence of ability to control impulses makes it dangerous for the individual and his or her surroundings. This is because such uncontrollable impulses become the obsessive objective of a blind decision making process that lacks any reference to its potential negative implications.

We wonder if all the decisions and procedures associated with the Israeli COVID vaccination campaign, including those that encompassed intrinsic disruption of acceptable (locally and globally) course of treatment and research, derive from an uncontrollable impulse to vaccinate the entire population of Israel overwhelmingly – an impulse shared by two entities, the Israeli leadership on one hand and the pharmaceutical industry on the other.

Is it possible that the state leaders of Israel suffer from an uncontrollable impulse to vaccinate the entire Israeli population, which arises from their need to be portrayed as the saviors of the people, in light of the accumulated stress from the ongoing erratic lockdown policy that was embraced as a failed attempt to deal with the COVID crisis?

Is it possible that also the pharmaceutical industry suffers a similar uncontrollable impulse, which stems from its need to accelerate the spread of its scientific development all over the globe, while using the Israeli population as the science lab of the world?

Is it possible that the convergence of the uncontrollable impulses of the two main players, who enabled the Israeli vaccination campaign, is the one that led to the spin of explicit violations of civil rights that we were exposed to during our investigation?

We believe that a positive answer to all these questions is not groundless. Furthermore, we are having trouble finding another satisfactory explanation to the irresponsible manner that the COVID vaccination campaign was performed in Israel, while exposing the Israeli public to many risks and in the process harming its fundamental human rights, as elaborated hereinafter.

Violation of Medical Ethics

IN SHORT: We find that the ethical defense systems, which were built in the medical world over hundreds of years, were dismantled in order to execute one and only impulse – to vaccinate the entire Israeli population as fast as possible.

The innovative Pfizer COVID vaccine was given to the Israeli citizens without receiving their informed consent and without giving them information about the vaccine’s safety, potential risks, possible side effects, expected efficiency, and medical alternatives, whether conventional or otherwise. This is unlike the common practice in many other countries. Even in Italy, which was severely harmed by the COVID-19 virus, citizens who wish to be vaccinated are required to sign an informed consent form.2 They sign it in front of two medical personnel after reading a document that is 14 pages long and receiving a detailed and clear explanation in simple language, which presents them with what is known about the vaccine and what is still unknown, the benefits, and the short-term and long-term risks, even though this procedure slows down the vaccination pace of the population. The same is true in the U.S. where citizens, who come to get vaccinated, receive four detailed forms loaded with information about the vaccine and its possible risks,3 and they are given a free choice without pressure or coercion to decide based on the information received whether to vaccinate or not, in accordance with the standard procedure in the medical world ever since. We cannot but wonder why this important procedure was waived in Israel, especially regarding an experimental vaccine that has not yet been approved or licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and has only been authorized for emergency use. It is hard to understand the impulse to urgently vaccinate the Israeli population without taking the necessary precautions while distributing a new medical treatment for extensive use in the population.

Review of the contract between Israel and Pfizer enhances our doubts. As part of the general lack of transparency that has characterized the government’s handling of the COVID crisis, as reflected in the fact that all transcripts and records of government discussions on the COVID crisis are sealed for thirty years, the Israel-Pfizer contract regarding the vaccine presented to the public was also heavily redacted (including the contract’s signature date and also page numbers). Yet, those parts of the contract, which were revealed to the public, indicate that the vaccination campaign is designed to provide Pfizer with data regarding the vaccine’s efficiency. This is also implied by the words of both Israeli prime minister and Pfizer’s CEO, according to which the state of Israel is the international testing lab for the experimental Pfizer vaccine towards its approval and for the sake of the world. This extensive medical experiment is being performed through violation of the Nuremberg Code, the Patient’s Rights Law, the ministry of health’s protocol for medical experiments in human subjects (protocol 14), and especially the protocol of informed consent for experiments in human subjects, and without pre-approval of the national Helsinki Committee on Human Rights.

Medical ethics are at the core of the medical profession, maintaining its trustworthiness, its commitment to the civil service, its lack of ulterior motives, and its reliance on universal principals designed to benefit human beings as safely as possible with transparency and out of responsibility to the methodical use of knowledge and research tools. Most doctors adhere to medical ethics, which keeps them from losing their way, acting out of hubris, and involving ulterior motives in their work. Then, what is the explanation of the willingness of the heads of the health care system in Israel to give up these fundamental ethics and lead the Israeli population to an experimental medical intervention while ignoring the rules that are supposed to protect both the public and doctors? Were they defeated by a tremendous pressure that instilled them with confusion and recklessness and thus led them to make unethical decisions? Did the prime minister’s uncontrollable impulse to present achievements in the eradication of the pandemic find a partner in the form of a weak health care system, which finds it difficult to steer the ship in rough waters and is in a desperate need of a lifeline, and for that is ready to agree to a hasty vaccination campaign that has dismantled all precautions and medical considerations related to such a procedure?

Whilst writing this report, the Israeli media announced the resignation of professor Eran Dolev, a member of the committee in charge of Israeli vaccination policy, who previously served as IDF chief medical officer and chair of the Ethics Bureau of the Medical Association. He resigned in protest after the rejection of his view regarding the necessity of informing pregnant women before vaccinating them that pregnant women were not enrolled in Pfizer’s trial. The deeply troubling aspect of this news item is the fact that professor Dolev’s insistence was not merely academic – it was an attempt to keep medical practice in the framework of ethics and law. We hereby ask professor Dolev to approach the public and add information regarding the decision-making processes and all the facts involved.

Misleading Propaganda

IN SHORT: We shed light on an intensive communication campaign, which includes manipulative tools that influence human consciousness in an attempt to make people decide to vaccinate without thinking or hesitating, while generating panic and anxiety on one hand, alongside far-reaching promises on the other hand. All this in order to satisfy and execute the impulse to vaccinate the entire Israeli population, at any cost.

The way the Israeli vaccination campaign is being promoted raises our concern that it is contaminated from its outset and every step of the way with misleading the public and even deception with alleged criminal suspicion. The misleading began with the declaration of government officials and senior officials of the ministry of health that the Pfizer COVID vaccine, being aggressively and coercively marketed to the Israeli citizens, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The institutional system hides from the Israeli public the fact that the FDA authorized this product only for emergency use and it is not approved or licensed,4 and that the clinical trial process required to approve (or reject) the product is only expected to end in two years, February 2023.5 Time and time again, government officials and senior officials of the ministry of health repeat unequivocally and unhesitatingly the misleading declaration that the Pfizer COVID vaccine was authorized by the FDA, it is written as part of the official information presented by the ministry of health to the public in its website6,7,8,9 and also proudly written on the government propaganda signs to encourage vaccination against the coronavirus. 10,11

Furthermore, as part of the aggressive propaganda to encourage the Israeli public to vaccinate against the coronavirus, senior officials of the ministry of health declare firmly that the vaccine is safe and risk free, while knowing it is impossible to evaluate its safety before all clinical trial phases are completed. Some make these declarations while being in clear conflict of interest due to their financial ties with Pfizer and without proper disclosure to the public of these ties. And as if it is not enough, the ministry of health rushes pregnant women to vaccinate when declaring the vaccine is safe for them and their fetuses, although pregnant women were not enrolled in the Pfizer trial, and while health organizations all over the world are reluctant to recommend all pregnant women to vaccinate12,13,14,15. Considering the extreme uncertainties regarding the nature of the new virus and the new vaccine, which attempts to protect from it and was just recently developed and still was not gathered enough data about and is based on new technology never experimented on human, it is beyond our comprehension how our ministry of health can be so full of confidence about the vaccine’s safety.

In their propaganda to encourage vaccination, the health system officials in charge of the public safety sadly have appeared more than once as salespeople trying their best to pitch their products, while exaggerating their advantages and intentionally hiding their downsides, and using any possible manipulation to influence the potential clients regardless of their true needs. The aggressive propaganda that the Israeli government chose to use to market an experimental vaccine, as if it was goods in the marketplace, raises vast concern in us. We fear that the opaque propaganda saturated with deception was designed to brainwash and form misperception among the public with the single purpose of getting all to vaccinate, since they might have not done so were it not for being subject to all these psychological manipulations.

Not only are the messages of the ministry of health during the vaccination campaign misleading and biased, but they also seem to suffer from inconsistencies and internal contradictions. Repeatedly, senior health officials are instilling false hopes in the citizens and urging them to hurry up and get vaccinated so that we can all return to a normal life. But, in practice, they continue to enforce mask wearing and social distancing and do not guarantee that immunization will prevent contagion – this on the pretext that there is not enough information as we are still in the course of study. However, if research is still ongoing and there is insufficient information on the safety and efficacy of the vaccine, then the vaccine cannot be promoted as safe and effective, and certainly citizens of the country cannot be forced to be vaccinated by threatening their fundamental rights and violating basic laws, using intimidation campaigns. Alternatively, if the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine are clear, then we wonder why the social distance policy continues, why all life systems do not return to full activity, and why it is necessary to adopt a policy of separation that means apartheid against the unvaccinated people. It is unclear to us why there are no clear reassuring messages from the government that those who have been vaccinated are indeed protected. Is it because the information about it is unknown? And if it is not known, how can one explain the great urgency of vaccinating the entire population in such a hasty and uncontrolled manner? Are the vaccine campaign leaders themselves confused and driven by motives that do not befit their historical role and its implications?

We should add that the campaign to encourage vaccination is based, to a large extent, on what is known in the public as “consciousness engineering”. This includes the use of manipulative tools purport to brainwash and form misperception among the citizens in order to push them all to vaccinate. The manipulative tools in use are designed, on the one hand, to cause the people an extreme anxiety and a sensation that they have no choice, if they want to save their life, but to get vaccinated. On the other hand, they are directed to spread messages of blaming those who choose not to get vaccinated, as if they are traitors or egoists who harm the national effort to get out of the crisis. These manipulative messages, which are delivered by public figures as well as the vast majority of the media, permeated well the Israeli public and caused massive social, family and organizational pressure on people to be vaccinated, even against their will. We continuously receive reports of disputes in families, in workplaces and recreational places that derive directly from this misleading psychological messages.

It was particularly surprising and worrisome to find that doctors in the health care system, from the field level to the top of the pyramid, almost all without exception, also took part in the same misleading propaganda, without themselves being equipped with the medical knowledge necessary to recommend one treatment or another. There have been many reports of doctors encouraging, and even pressuring citizens to get vaccinated, and it seems they are guided by a systemic instruction

that this is how every patient should be treated, regardless of almost any detail in his or her medical history. There is no need to elaborate on how confusing such conduct is, dismantling public trust and crumbling very thinly the power of the medical system to operate among citizens. Here, too, we can recognize how an uncontrollable urge, in conjunction with systems that succumb to it overwhelmingly, can undo basic norms of public medical administration, lead to sweeping deception bordering on criminal behavior and lead an entire medical system to treat its patients compulsively and manipulatively, while significantly weakening the judgment and decision-making authority of doctors.

Read the full report here.

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Why Are We Vaccinating People on the Brink of Death?

April 27th, 2021 by Luke Yamaguchi

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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In mid-January 2021, Bloomberg published an article titled Norway Warns of Vaccination Risks for Sick Patients Over 80. According to the article, Norway warned that Covid vaccines may be too risky for the very old and terminally ill. Norwegian officials said 23 people had died in their country a short time after receiving the first dose of the Covid vaccine. Of those deaths, 13 have been autopsied, with the results suggesting that common side effects may have contributed to severe reactions in frail, elderly people, said the Norwegian Medicines Agency.

“For those with the most severe frailty, even relatively mild vaccine side effects can have serious consequences… For those who have a very short remaining life span anyway, the benefit of the vaccine may be marginal or irrelevant.” – Norwegian Institute of Public Health

In clinical studies of Pfizer’s Covid vaccine, adverse reactions in participants included: pain at the injection site (84%); fatigue (63%); headache (55%); muscle pain (38%); chills (32%); joint pain (24%); fever (14%); and injection site swelling (11%).[1]

Clinical studies of Moderna’s Covid vaccine revealed an even higher frequency of adverse reactions in participants including: pain at the injection site (92%); fatigue (70%); headache (65%); muscle pain (62%); joint pain (46%); chills (45%); nausea/vomiting (23%); fever (16%); and swelling at the injection site (15%).[2]

Given the high frequency of adverse reactions from Covid vaccines, why are we vaccinating people on hospice who are near the end of their life? Hospice and comfort care are for people who are in the final stages of an incurable illness. The aim is to ensure they are comfortable. When someone enters hospice care they generally have fewer than six months to live and have decided to stop treatments to prolong their life.

“We have now repeated our existing advice not to give the vaccine to terminally ill patients” – Norwegian Medicines Agency[3]

For some reason, this advice does not seem to be standard of care in the United States of America. According to reports submitted to the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) many people on hospice have been given a Covid vaccine, only to die very soon thereafter. What follows is a compilation of VAERS reports in which terminally ill patients received a Covid vaccine, and then died within seven days of vaccination.

Deaths Same Day as Vaccination

VAERS ID: 1077079

VAERS ID: 956225

VAERS ID: 960552

VAERS ID: 1003106

VAERS ID: 921880

VAERS ID: 940855

VAERS ID: 959729

VAERS ID: 971736

VAERS ID: 993998

VAERS ID: 915920

VAERS ID: 956966

VAERS ID: 914961

Deaths One Day After Vaccination

VAERS ID: 943442

VAERS ID: 977426

VAERS ID: 941607

VAERS ID: 996105

VAERS ID: 1052738

VAERS ID: 1074599

VAERS ID: 1104430

VAERS ID: 1112123

VAERS ID: 1139186

Deaths Two Days After Vaccination

VAERS ID: 1038442

VAERS ID: 929359

VAERS ID: 1057363

VAERS ID: 1004206

Read the full article here.

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Luke is a health educator and wellness consultant dedicated to creating greater well-being in our world through education and empowerment. He is a functional nutritionist and the founder of GutResolution.com

Featured image is from The Dark Side of Vaccines

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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Taylor Hudak reminds us that the EU parliament will be voting on a bill that would allow for a digital green certificate which is essentially a vaccination passport. This is a violation of freedom of movement and bodily autonomy.

Watch the video below for her full statement.

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The road led up the hill between houses until it came to the lake where it ran between the lake and the woods and the thought of people disappeared if he was lucky.  He was sick of people, especially those he saw in masks because of their obsessive fear of death. They ran in packs. They seemed insane to him, as if germs might fly through the country air and infect them with a virus in a reversal of the way the insects were starting to fly low over the water and the fish would jump to devour them. He preferred the fish and the bugs and was glad no masked bandits were on the road to rob him of the morning’s beauty.

There was a young boy fishing, casting and reeling back in a rhythmic way. The boy yelled out as he reeled in his first catch of the season, a glittering rainbow trout that sparkled in the sun.

Once he was twelve years-old and started out very early between the edge of night and the dawn of day.  Alone, beautifully alone, with the dew thick upon the grass and the fog still clinging to the water in the creek.  His family was at the farm.  He awoke in the dark while his sisters and his mother slept and his father snored loudly. He tiptoed through the cabin and quietly shut the door behind him, almost catching his hair in the flypaper on the way out.  He got his fishing gear from the porch.  In an old Maxwell House coffee can were the night crawlers and the other worms he had dug the previous evening under the apple tree by the bull’s pen.

Now it was April and the ice on the lake was gone and the two geese he had seen last year had returned to their old nest.  Last spring he had watched them very closely for more than a month as the goose sat patiently on her eggs and the gander sailed the waters on alert for predators.  Some days he would see them swimming together near the nest.  This worried him.  He wondered if leaving the eggs unprotected for even a short time would give a predator an opening to attack.  When the goslings never appeared, he assumed a predator had seized them.

The worms in the can were big and juicy.  When he moved the dirt, they gyrated to the surface and tickled his fingers.  He felt sorry for them. They seemed so alive and would soon be dead.  Maybe he should set them free. The dirt where he dug them behind the old shed between its back wall and the thick wooden slats of the sad bull’s pen was dark and wet and redolent of fallen apples.  The huge ring-nosed bull had heard the grating of his spade and had come over to the fence.  It was dark there in the enclosed space and he got the chills as the bull snorted at him through the empty spaces.  A strange vibration passed between them.

The boy showed him the trout as he unhooked it.  He grasped it with two hands and gently bent and released it into the shallow water where it hesitated, as if shocked, and then swam away.  The boy turned to the man and they gave each other high fives. Something passed between them. They laughed and the man walked on wondering why people liked to kill and capture free creatures.

He thought: Is it possible not to remember to forget but just to live forward in a forgetfulness that is a constantly emerging present?

The road turned sharply there and a man in a mask approached him.  On an impulse, he asked the man why he was wearing a mask when he was outside on a gorgeous morning.  The man said, “To protect myself from the virus.  Why aren’t you wearing one?”

“Because I don’t think pigs can fly,” he said.

The other man gasped and his eyes flared in fear and he rushed away.

He walked on and saw the gander standing on the beach, looking around like a proud sentry.  The goose was on her nest.  Maybe, he thought, they, at least, had learned something.

Then it was raining lightly.  The only sounds were the birds and the rain and he opened his mouth for the rain and his ears for the birds and his heart for the day.  He walked down the gravel path up past the barn to the road and crossed the bridge across the creek to get to the side where the fishing was really good because the river twisted and turned over there to create little peninsulas that protected deep pools where the fish lay in wait.  It was also where the Hermit of the Esopus was said to live. His name was Billy Bush and he wondered if he was a fictional character. He had never seen him.

Maybe he was asking the wrong question.  He felt in a flash that he knew the answer but couldn’t say what the true question was.  But it didn’t seem to matter now.  He felt as he walked ahead he was heading back to find his future in the present.

Back in time and the city, his parents had appeared on a television show called, “Do You Trust Your Wife?”  The host of the show was Johnny Carson.  This was his first gig before he would become famous as the long-running host of “The Tonight Show” and an iconic figure in TV lore.  This is true, but he wasn’t sure back then whether the hermit was as real as Carson because he saw Carson and they talked but the hermit seemed like a legendary figure.  Carson asked him to stand up in the audience and he asked him if he felt weird being the only boy as the middle child with seven sisters.  He said, “No.”  Carson persisted, “I guess you feel like the baloney between the bread.” The boy hated baloney and he was silent. A man held up big cue cards that said applause. Carson looked like a giant cardboard cutout. The audience clapped and the show went on as it always does.

A year later they changed the name of the show to “Who Do You Trust?”.  Not a bad title for the first Cold War era, but that guy in the mask probably thinks I was conspiring to infect him, that I was a Russian agent.  Maybe pigs do fly now.  Everything seems to have changed between people.  How can you trust someone whose face you can’t see?  To face the faces that you faced was once upon a time the way things were.  You had a chance to tell if the words that passed between you were true or not, but now the masquerade is complete. Deep darkness has descended.   Do we have to wait for death to see face to face?

He passed the goose on her nest near the swampy end of the lake.  Although he couldn’t see her face clearly, he imagined she looked expectant, feeling urgent for the future.  He wondered what it might be for both of them. What was he looking for in the days ahead, what did he desire, where was he going?  He thought of the guy in the mask and all the people everywhere enchained by fear.  Why was it so hard for them to see that the prison gates were closing around them and the living-dead elites were devouring their futures?

The path down to the river twisted through dense woods.  He could tell people had traveled it but not heavily.  The sun had risen behind him and the mist on the water had given way to glitter on the fast-running water and the wet rocks throughout it.  When he reached the water’s edge, he felt relived.  Now he could fish but had this strange sensation that he didn’t want to, now that he had reached his destination. It’s funny how when you think you want something and you are about to get it you have second thoughts.  Maybe not thoughts.  He sat down on an old log and stared at the water.  The sound of the water moving fast over the rocks and the sun hitting the water spray put him into a cataleptic state in which he lost himself. He was jolted by a voice.  He jumped.  A man with a grayish-white beard and bright blue eyes under a worn fisherman’ cap stood to his left.

The man said, “I’m surprised to see you here.  No one comes here.”

The boy was frightened.  He stammered, “Oh, I was about to fish.”

“It’s a great spot,” the man said.  “I come here to read and meditate.”

An awkward silence came between them.  The boy had an impulse to jump up and run.  Then the thought: Could this be the Hermit of the Esopus?  He’s real?

Then: Am I dreaming?

The man said, “My name is William Bush.  What’s yours?”

Without thinking, the boy also gave his formal name, “Edward Curtin.”

“People call me Billy,” the man said. “I’ve heard they even think I’m a hermit and I live in these woods by the river.”  He laughed.

Past the swamp, the road curved up a steep hill that led to the local college that had previously been a Jesuit seminary.  In the woods to his left were the crumbling remains of wooden stations of the cross that the young men once followed. He thought of his father and where he was now.  He said, “Good morning, Dad.  I miss you.”  The bond between them had always been powerful and when his father died it became even stronger in a sad way.  It was such a beautiful morning that he started to cry.  Three deer were grazing in the clearing halfway up the hill.  A doe and two fawns.  They looked up, then looked down, ignoring him as they resumed eating. His father made the best pancakes.  Then there were the father and son Communion Breakfasts with the buns.  He was hungry now.  There was no end to it.

“What do people call you?” he asked.

“Eddy,” the boy said.

“How do you spell it?”

“E-d-d-y,” the boy answered.

Billy Bush chuckled and pointed to a spot in the river where the fast water hit a big rock and turned back to create a whirlpool.  “There you are,” he said, “that’s an eddy. Eddys always run contrary to the main current, so you’re in good company.”  The man laughed, which made the boy laugh.  Then the man told him that he was not really a hermit but lived in the old farmhouse up the hill near Brown’s sheep farm but that he found it amusing that people created this legend about him and so he played along.  He said he had once been a philosophy professor who came from the city to his sister’s country house to be alone and think and write while his family stayed in the city.  Since he was only here off and on and loved to wander through the woods down along the river people had for some reason come to create a legend about him.  “I have found,” he said, “that people are so afraid of being alone that they create weird stories like the one about me being the Hermit of the Esopus to scare themselves to death.”

He didn’t like going onto the college campus because it reminded him of being trapped in school and so at the top of the hill he turned and started down. He remembered when he was a boy how down he would feel when his mother would send him to the front door to greet his father on the threshold when he came home from work to see if his father had stopped for a drink. He hated being put between them.  He felt guilty for having done her bidding. The deer were gone and he wondered what they did all day.  He wondered what people did all day and why.  He wondered how they spent their lives and where they thought they were going in their masks.  He wondered what they thought was at the end of the road.  He wondered why they drank and why they didn’t.  He wondered so many things he wondered why he was always wondering them.

The goose was still on her nest.  The gander was nowhere in sight.  He stopped at the beach that extended out into the lake and took a gander.  Nothing.  He wondered where he was, what did he do all day except stand watch for death to come flying trough the air. The boy who was fishing was gone.  Four masked people dressed in black approached him. He said, “Good morning.”  They looked away in silence as if he didn’t exist.

Billy Bush said he had to go.  He asked the boy if he liked to read.  The boy said, “Yes.”  He took a book out of his back pocket and handed it to the boy and said, “It’s a good one and some of it may be difficult for you now but it will grow on you.  I’ve learned a lot from the author.  He once said to wonder is to begin to understand, and that’s why I come to the river.  It always surprises me.  But please do me a favor, don’t tell anyone you met me and I told you I wasn’t this legendary hermit people want to believe in. They love their illusions.  Let’s keep it between us. Okay?”

The boy said, “Yes.”  He took the book.  Billy Bush left.  The boy sat  where he was, looking and listening to the river flow.  Sometime later he got up and left without fishing.  He told no one about the hermit.

When he arrived home from his walk, the man went to his bookcase and pulled out the old, battered paperback book Billy Bush had given him years ago.  He had never read it for some reason.  He had never even opened it as if to do so was to spoil his encounter with the hermit. To break the spell.  Now seemed like the right time.  He opened the book whose title was What Is Philosophy? by José Ortega y Gassett, the Spanish philosopher.  In the front was a signature: William J. Bush, S.J.  He flipped through it.  It was unmarked except for a few lines near the end.  He read them:

The future is always the leader….We live forward into our future, supported by the present, with the past, always faithful, off to the edge, a little sad, a little frail, as the moon, lighting a path through the night, goes with us step by step, shedding its pale friendship on our shoulders….the vast majority of human beings….are preoccupied with becoming un-preoccupied.  Under their apparent indifference throbs a secret fear of having to solve for themselves the problems posed by their acts and emotions – a humble desire to be like everybody else, to renounce the responsibility of their own destiny, and dissolve it among the multitude.

He said to Billy Bush, “Thank you, it took me a while, but between us, that sure explains the masked desperadoes running in packs. But I won’t tell them, for as you told me long ago, they prefer their illusions.”

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This article was originally published on the author’s blog site, Behind the Curtain.

Distinguished author and sociologist Edward Curtin is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization. 

Featured image: Esopus Creek/CC BY 2.0

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No one can say that the BBC takes its role as state broadcaster lightly. On Monday, its flagship radio news show The Today Programme was partly presented from on board HMS Queen Elizabeth, Britain’s new hi-tech aircraft carrier.

The ‘story’ behind this move was that in around a month’s time the HMS Queen Elizabeth is leading an armed flotilla on a 28-week cruise more than halfway around the world. The mission’s purpose, which will involve stopovers at more than 100 ports, is to show that Britain is still a global power to be reckoned with. In the words of Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, the aim is ‘projecting our influence, signalling our power.’

The carrier strike group’s mission will be Britain’s biggest deployment of UK naval and aerial military firepower since the Falklands war in 1982. It will include a squadron of 10 US Marine Corps F35 jets, an attack submarine armed with Tomahawk missiles, 2 destroyers, a number of other battleships and the greatest quantity of helicopters assigned to a single UK Task Group in a decade.

What the Ministry of Defence is describing as the “largest concentration of maritime and air power to leave the UK in a generation” will visit more than 40 countries for more than 70 engagements, including an exercise marking the 50th anniversary of the Five Power Defence Arrangements with Malaysia, Singapore, Australia and New Zealand.

The last leg of the voyage will take the strike group into the South China Seas, close to Taiwan and end with military exercises with Japan. As the MOD admits the deployment has been organised as part of the “UK’s tilt to the Indo-Pacific region” to “bolster deep defence partnerships” in the region. In other words, a central part of the operation is to back the US’s increasingly hostile posture towards China.

The aircraft carrier and its sister ship HMS Prince of Wales cost more than £6bn but with all the connected operating costs and support the total price will be in the tens of billions. This is an extraordinary allocation of resources at a time when public services are in such a desperate state and the NHS is at breaking point.

It will of course do nothing to enhance our ‘security’, the military buzzword of the moment. Re-forging links with former colonial outposts across Asia, aspiring to global military pretensions ‘East of Suez’ is a policy based on a Tory post-colonial fantasy. Even some of the commentators on the Today Programme had to admit that it would be very difficult for Britain to get involved in any serious foreign fighting after the ‘controversial’ wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. All that sending a flotilla bristling with weapons into the disputed waters of the South China Seas can do is escalate tensions and even risk an accidental confrontation with another nuclear armed state.

As we get nearer the 23 May launch date expect more flag waving and banging drums from the government, the BBC and the rest of the media.  Stop the War is working with the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament to protest against this futile and dangerous exercise. Please get on board with our campaign.

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Featured image: Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II fighter jet takes off from HMS Queen Elizabeth (Source: Stop the War Coalition)

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The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the American Civil Liberties Union, and the ACLU of Massachusetts today filed a petition for a writ of certiorari, asking the Supreme Court to hear a challenge to the Department of Homeland Security’s policy and practice of warrantless and suspicionless searches of travelers’ electronic devices at U.S. airports and other ports of entry.

The lawsuit, Merchant v. Mayorkas, was filed in September 2017 on behalf of several travelers whose cell phones, laptops, and other electronic devices were searched without warrants at the U.S. border. In November 2019, a federal district court in Boston ruled that border agencies’ policies on electronic device searches violate the Fourth Amendment, and required border officers to have reasonable suspicion of digital contraband before they can search a traveler’s device. A three-judge panel at the First Circuit reversed this decision in February 2021.

“Border officers every day make an end-run around the Constitution by searching travelers’ electronic devices without a warrant or any suspicion of wrongdoing,” said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Sophia Cope. “The U.S. government has granted itself unfettered authority to rummage through our digital lives just because we travel internationally. This egregious violation of privacy happens with no justification under constitutional law and no demonstrable benefit. The Supreme Court must put a stop to it.”

“This case raises pressing questions about the Fourth Amendment’s protections in the digital age,” said Esha Bhandari, deputy director of the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. “When border officers search our phones and laptops, they can access massive amounts of sensitive personal information, such as private photographs, health information, and communications with partners, family, and friends—including discussions between lawyers and their clients, and between journalists and their sources. We are asking the Supreme Court to ensure that we don’t lose our privacy rights when we travel.”

Every year, a growing number of international travelers are subject to warrantless and suspicionless searches of their personal electronic devices at the U.S. border. These searches are often conducted for reasons that have nothing to do with stopping the importation of contraband or determining a traveler’s admissibility. Border officers claim the authority to search devices for a host of reasons, including enforcement of tax, financial, consumer protection, and environmental laws—all without suspicion of wrongdoing. Border officers also search travelers’ devices if they are interested in information about someone other than the traveler—like a business partner, family member, or a journalist’s source.

The petitioners in this case—all U.S. citizens—include a military veteran, journalists, an artist, a NASA engineer, and a business owner. Several are Muslims and people of color, and none were accused of any wrongdoing in connection with their device searches.

“It’s been frustrating to be subjected to this power-grab by the government,” said Diane Zorri, a college professor, former U.S. Air Force captain, and a plaintiff in the case. “My devices are mine, and the government should need a good reason before rifling through my phone and my computer. I’m proud to be part of this case to help protect travelers’ rights.”

The certiorari petition asks the Supreme Court to overturn the First Circuit’s decision and hold that the Fourth Amendment requires border officers to obtain a warrant based on probable before searching electronic devices, or at the least have reasonable suspicion that the device contains digital contraband.

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Featured image is from Flickr

‘Every Time the US “Saves” a Country, It Converts It Either into a Madhouse or a Cemetery’.

By Prof. Vijay Prashad, April 26 2021

After great loss of life and the further destruction of Afghan society, the US departs – as it did from Vietnam in 1975 – in defeat: al-Qaeda [covertly supported by the US] has regrouped in different parts of the world, and the Taliban is set to return to the capital, Kabul.

Urgent! 5 Doctors Agree that COVID-19 mRNA Experimental Shots Are Bioweapons and Discuss What to Do About It

By Brian Shilhavy, April 26 2021

Every single one of these doctors believe that these shots are NOT vaccines, but bioweapons designed to kill human beings.

Public Masking Does Not Stop the Spread of the Virus. The Ultimate Goal is “Mandated Vaccination”

By Prof. Bill Willers, April 26 2021

The mask is intended as the first of a one-two punch combination, the second — and the ultimate goal — is mandated vaccination. Requiring masks is a means of getting the public to warm to the idea of minding governmental orders.

World War III: Depopulation, Nuclear War vs. “Bio War”

By Peter Koenig, April 25 2021

With a technologically advanced nuclear war, atomic weapons, the kind available today certainly in the US, Russia, Israel and several European countries, a nuclear war could devastate, if not extinct humanity.

April 2009, The H1N1 Pandemic: Political Lies and Media Disinformation regarding the Swine Flu Outbreak

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky, April 25 2021

The media reports are twisted. Realities are turned up side down. Policy statements are not backed by medical and scientific evidence.

Members of European Parliament Served with Notices of Liability for COVID-19

By Doctors for COVID Ethics and Catherine Austin Fitts, April 25 2021

The Doctors for Covid Ethics has served the members of the European Parliament with Notices of Liability advising them that they may be held personally liable for harm and death caused by implementation of a Digital Green Certificate (Vaccine Passport).

Mass Murder: 3,486 Deaths in the U.S. Following COVID Injections in 4 Months: More Vaccine Deaths Recorded Than in the Past 15 Years Combined

By Brian Shilhavy, April 26 2021

To get a perspective on the magnitude of deaths following COVID shots that are being reported to the CDC, there were only 3,445 deaths reported to the CDC following all vaccines from 1/1/2005 through 11/30/2020.

French Drug Assessment Center Demands Removal of All Four Widely Used COVID Vaccines

By Jeanne Smits, April 26 2021

“These new excipients should be considered as new active substances,” the Cholet hospital team stated, in a study that according to them raises issues that have not been commented to date.

Philantrocapitalism: Gates, the World’s Largest and Most Powerful Foundation

By Jacob Levich, April 26 2021

“You’re trying to find the places where the money will have the most leverage, how you can save the most lives for the dollar, so to speak,” Pelley remarked. “Right. And transform the societies,” Gates replied.

Growing Opposition to the Bayer Monsanto Roundup Settlement

By Gerson Smoger and Corporate Crime Reporter, April 26 2021

Bayer wants to resolve the thousands of remaining cancer claims with an $8 billion to $9 billion compensation fund. Those cases are being negotiated by Monsanto lawyers and the lawyers representing the cancer victims.

The Politics of Heroin and the Afghan US Pullout. Private Mercenary Occupation

By F. William Engdahl, April 25 2021

What is clear is that the US Administration is not being straightforward with its plans for Afghanistan and the so-called pull-out. The previously agreed May 1 date versus September 11 is clearly not about making a more graceful exit after a two decade war that has cost US taxpayers more than $2 trillion.

How the Rich Distort Politics. “Government by the 1% for the 1%”

By Rod Driver, April 26 2021

They lobby for policies that benefit themselves, even if they hurt society. They actively work to shrink the role of government in helping the poor, to decrease social security, to cut taxes for the rich, to cut regulation of big business, to allow the environment to be destroyed, and to privatise more and more.

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Global Research: The Silencing of Independent Media. We Need Your Help

April 26th, 2021 by The Global Research Team

We are currently facing an unprecedented threat to the independent media and freedom on the Internet.  An increasing number of search engines & social media implement algorithms which are negatively biased against independent news and analysis websites such as Global Research. The ultimate goal is the silencing of any voice of opposition to the mainstream narrative.

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The Injection Fraud – It’s Not a Vaccine

April 26th, 2021 by Catherine Austin Fitts

Of relevance to the debate on vaccines, this incisive and carefully researched article was first published by Global Research on May 28. 2020

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I am not a scientist. I am not a doctor. I am not a biotech engineer. I am not an attorney. However, I read, listen, appreciate and try to understand those who are.

I was an investment banker until politics made it impossible to continue to practice my art. I was trained as a portfolio strategist—so I map my world by watching the financial flows and allocation of resources. I was also trained as a conspiracy generator and foot soldier—conspiracies being the fundamental organizing principle of how things get done in our world. It was not until I left the establishment that I learned that those not in the club had been trained to disparage and avoid conspiracies—a clever trick that sabotages their efforts to gather power.

My response to living at war with agencies of the U.S. government for a time was to answer the questions of people who were sufficiently courageous and curious to solicit my opinion. Over many years, that response transformed into two businesses. One was The Solari Report, which continues to grow as a global intelligence network – we seek to help each other understand what is happening, to navigate and contribute to positive outcomes. The other was serving as an investment advisor to individuals and families through Solari Investment Advisory Services. After ten years, I converted that business to doing an ESG screen. What those who use it want—that is not otherwise readily available in the retail market—is a screen that reflects knowledge of financial and political corruption. Tracking the metastasizing corruption, it’s an art, not a science.

When you help a family with their finances, it is imperative to understand all their risk issues. Their financial success depends on successful mitigation of all risk – whether financial or non-financial – they encounter in their daily lives. All non-financial risks impact the allocation of family resources – attention, time, assets and money.

Many of my clients and their children had been devastated and drained by health care failures and corruption–and the most common catalyst for this devastation was vaccine death and injury. After their lengthy and horrendous experiences with the health care establishment, they would invariably ask, “If the corruption is this bad in medicine, food and health, what is going on in the financial world?” Chilled by the thought, they would search out a financial professional who was schooled in U.S. government and financial corruption. And they would find me.

The result of this flow of bright, educated people blessed with the resources to pay for my time was that, for ten years, I got quite an education about the disabilities and death inflicted on our children by what I now call “the great poisoning.” As a result, I had the opportunity to repeatedly price out the human damage to all concerned–not just the affected children but their parents, siblings and future generations—mapping the financial costs of vaccine injury again and again and again.

These cases were not as unusual as you might expect. Currently 54% of American children have one or more chronic diseases. Doctors that I trust assure me the number is much higher as many children and their families can not afford the care and testing necessary to properly diagnose what ails them.

One of the mothers featured in VAXXED—a must-watch documentary for any awake citizen, as is its sequel VAXXED II:

The People’s Truth—estimated that a heavily autistic child would cost present value $5MM to raise and care for over a lifetime. When my clients who were grandparents insisted that they would not interfere with their children’s vaccine choices because it was “none of their business,” I would say, “Really? Who has the $5MM? You or your kids?

When your kids need the $5MM to raise their vaccine-injured child, are you going to refuse them? You are the banker, and it is your money that is at risk here, so it is your business. Do you want to spend that $5MM on growing a strong family through the generations or on managing a disabled child who did not have to be disabled?” Often, that $5MM in expenditures also translates into divorce, depression and lost opportunities for siblings.

My clients helped me find the best resources—books, documentaries, articles—on vaccines. You will find many of them linked or reviewed at The Solari Report, including in our Library.

Of all the questions that I had, the one that I spent the most time researching and thinking about was why. Why was the medical establishment intentionally poisoning generations of children? Many of the writers who researched and wrote about vaccine injury and death assumed it was a mistake—resulting from the orthodoxy of a medical establishment that could not face or deal with its mistakes and liabilities. That never made sense to me. Writings by Forrest Maready, Jon Rappoport, Dr. Suzanne Humphries and Arthur Firstenberg have helped me understand the role of vaccines in the con man trick of saving money for insurance companies and the legally liable.

Here is one example of how the trick may play out. A toxin creates a disease. The toxin might be pesticides or industrial pollution or wireless technology radiation. The toxin damages millions of people and their communities. Companies or their insurance provider may be liable for civil or criminal violations. A virus is blamed. A “cure” is found in a “vaccine.” The pesticide or other toxic exposure is halted just as the vaccine is introduced, and presto, the sickness goes away. The vaccine is declared a success, and the inventor is declared a hero. A potential financial catastrophe has been converted to a profit, including for investors and pension funds. As a portfolio strategist, I admit it has been a brilliant trick and likely has protected the insurance industry from the bankrupting losses it would experience if it had to fairly compensate the people and families destroyed.

Thanks to the work of Robert Kennedy and Mary Holland of Childrens Health Defense, I now understand the enormous profits generated by so-called “vaccines” subsequent to the passage of The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986 and the creation of the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program – a federal no-fault mechanism for compensating vaccine-related injuries or death by establishing a claim procedure involving the United States Court of Federal Claims and special masters.

Call a drug or biotech cocktail a “vaccine” and pharmecutical and biotech companies are free from any liabilities – the taxpayer pays. Unfortunately, this system has become an open invitation to make billions from “injectibles” particularly where government regulations and laws can be used to create a market through mandates. Unfortunately, various schemes have developed for government agencies and legislators as well as corporate media to participate in the billions of profits – resulting in significant conflicts of interest.

The Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act became law in 2005, adding to corporate freedoms from liability. The Act

“is a controversial tort liability shield intended to protect vaccine manufacturers from financial risk in the event of a declared public health emergency. The act specifically affords to drug makers immunity from potential financial liability for clinical trials of avian influenza vaccine at the discretion of the Executive branch of government. PREPA strengthens and consolidates the oversight of litigation against pharmaceutical companies under the purview of the secretary of Health and Human Services (~ Wikipedia.)”

Over time, this has evolved to the engineering of epidemics—the medical version of false flags. In theory, these can be “psyops” or events engineered with chemical warfare, biowarfare, or wireless technology. If this sounds bizarre, dive into all the writings of the “Targeted Individuals.”

I learned about this first-hand when I was litigating with the Department of Justice and was experiencing significant physical harassment. I tried to hire several security firms; they would check my references and then decline the work, saying it was too dangerous. The last one took pity and warned me not to worry about electronic weaponry, letting me know that my main problem would be low-grade biowarfare. This biowarfare expert predicted that the opposing team would drill holes in the wall of my house and inject the “invisible enemy.” Sure enough, that is exactly what happened. I sold my house and left town. That journey began a long process of learning how poisoning and nonlethal weapons are used—whether to move people out of rent-controlled apartments, sicken the elderly to move them to more expensive government subsidized housing, gangstalk political or business targets, or weaken or kill litigants—and the list goes on. Poisoning turned out to be a much more common tactic in the game of political and economic warfare in America than I had previously understood.

After I finished my litigation, I spent several years detoxing from heavy metal toxicity – including of lead, arsenic, and aluminum. As I drove around America, I realized it was not just me. Americans increasingly looked like a people struggling with high loads of heavy metals toxicity. In the process of significantly decreasing my unusually high levels of heavy metals, I learned what a difference the toxic load had made to my outlook, my energy, and my ability to handle complex information.

This brings me to the question of what exactly a vaccine is and what exactly is in the concoctions being injected into people today as well as the witches brews currently under development.

In 2017, Italian researchers reviewed the ingredients of 44 types of so-called “vaccines.” They discovered heavy metal debris and biological contamination in every human vaccine they tested. The researchers stated,

“The quantity of foreign bodies detected and, in some cases, their unusual chemical compositions baffled us.” They then drew the obvious conclusion, namely, that because the micro- and nanocontaminants were “neither biocompatible nor biodegradable,” they were “biopersistent” and could cause inflammatory effects right away—or later (see this)

Aborted fetal tissue, animal tissue, aluminum, mercury, genetically altered materials—and what else?

Whatever the ingredients of vaccines have been to date, nothing is more bizarre than the proposals of what might be included in them in the future.

Strategies—already well-funded and well on the way—include brain-machine interface nanotechnology, digital identity tracking devices, and technology with an expiration date that can be managed and turned off remotely. One report indicated that the Danish government and US Navy had been paying one tech company in Denmark to make an injectible chip that would be compatible with one of the leading cryptocurrencies.

I was recently reading Mary Holland’s excellent 2012 review of U.S. vaccine court decisions (”Compulsory vaccination, the Constitution, and the hepatitis B mandate for infants and young children,” Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law, and Ethics) and I froze and thought, “Why are we calling the injectibles that Bill Gates and his colleagues are promoting ‘vaccines’? Are they really vaccines?”

Most people are familiar with how Bill Gates made and kept his fortune. He acquired an operating system that was loaded into your computer. It was widely rumored that the U.S. intelligence agencies had a back door. The simultaneous and sudden explosion of computer viruses then made it necessary to regularly update your operating system, allowing Gates and his associates to regularly add whatever they wanted into your software. One of my more knowledgeable software developers once said to me in the 1990s—when Microsoft really took off—”Microsoft makes really sh***y software.” But of course, the software was not really their business. Their business was accessing and aggregating all of your data. Surveillance capitalism was underway.

The Department of Justice launched an antitrust case against Microsoft in 1998, just as the $21 trillion started to disappear from the U.S. government—no doubt with the help of specially designed software and IT systems. During the settlement negotiations that permitted Gates to keep his fortune, he started the Gates Foundation and his new philanthropy career. I laughed the other day when my tweet of one of Robert Kennedy Jr.’s articles from Children’s Health Defense—describing the gruesome technology Gates is hoping to roll out through “injectibles” –inspired a response: “Well, I guess he is finally fulfilling his side of his antitrust settlement.”

If you look at what is being created and proposed in the way of injectibles, it looks to me like these technological developments are organized around several potential goals.

The first and most important goal is the replacement of the existing U.S. dollar currency system used by the general population with a digital transaction system that can be combined with digital identification and tracking. The goal is to end currencies as we know them and replace them with an embedded credit card system that can be integrated with various forms of control, potentially including mind control.

“De-dollarization” is threating the dollar global reserve system. The M1 and M2 money supply have increased in the double digits over the last year as a result of a new round of quantitative easing by the Fed.

The reason we have not entered into hyper-inflation is because of the dramatic drop in money velocity occasioned by converting Covid-19 into an engineered shut down of significant economic activity and the banruptcy of millions of small and medium sized businesses. The managers of the dollar system are under urgent pressure to use new technology to centralize economic flows and preserve their control of the financial system.

Just as Gates installed an operating system in our computers, now the vision is to install an operating system in our bodies and use “viruses” to mandate an initial installation followed by regular updates.

Now I appreciate why Gates and his colleagues want to call these technologies “vaccines.” If they can persuade the body politic that injectible credit cards or injectible surveillance trackers or injectable brain-macine interface nanotechnologies are “vaccines,” then they can enjoy the protection of a century or more of legal decisions and laws that support their efforts to mandate what they want to do.

As well, they can insist that U.S. taxpayers fund—through the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program–the damages for which they would otherwise be liable as a result of their experiments – and violations of the Nuremberg Code and numerous civil and criminal laws – on the general population. The scheme is quite clever. Get the general population to go along with defining their new injectible high-tech concoctions as “vaccines” and they can slip them right into the vaccine pipeline. No need to worry about the disease and death that results from something this unnatural delivered quickly. The notion of an emergency along with contact tracing and freedom from liability can protect you from the millions of likely deaths from such human experimentation. Ideally, you can blame the deaths on a virus.

A colleague once told me how Websters Dictionary came about. Webster said that the way the evildoers would change the Constitution was not by amending it but by changing the definitions—a legal sneak attack.

I believe that Gates and the pharma and biotech industries are literally reaching to create a global control grid by installing digital interface components and hooking us up to Microsoft’s new $10 billion JEDI cloud at the Department of Defense as well as Amazon’s multi-billion cloud contract for the CIA that is shared with all US intelligence agencies.

Why do you think President Trump has the military organizing to stockpile syringes for vaccines? It is likely because the military is installing the roaming operating system for integration into their cloud. Remember—the winner in the AI superpower race is the AI system with access to the most data. Accessing your body and my body on a 24/7 basis generates a lot of data. If the Chinese do it, the Americans will want to do it too. The role out of human “operating systems” may be one of the reasons why the competition of Huawei and 5G telecommunications has become so fractious. As Frank Clegg, former President of Microsoft Canada has warned us, 5G was developed by the Israelis for crowd control.

In the face of global “de-dollarization,” this is how the dollar syndicate can assert the central control it needs to maintain and extend its global reserve currency financial power. This includes protecting its leadership from the civil and criminal liabiility related to explosive levels of financial and health care fraud in recent decades.

Which brings me back to you and me. Why are we calling these formulations “vaccines”?

If I understand the history of case law, vaccines, in legal terms, are medicine. Intentional heavy metal poisoning is not medicine. Injectible surveillance components are not medicine. Injectible credit cards are not medicine. Injectible brain-machine interface is not a medicine. Immunity for insurance companies is not the creation of human immunity.

We need to stop allowing these concoctions to be referred to by a word that the courts and the general population define and treat as medicine and protect from legal and financial liability.

The perpetrators of this fraud are trying a very neat trick–one that will help them go much faster and cancel out a lot of risk at our death, disease and expense. I understand why they are doing it.

What I don’t understand is why we are helping them. Why are we acquiescing in calling these bizarre and deeply dangerous concoctions “vaccines”? Whatever they are, they are not medicine.

So, what shall our naming convention be? What name shall we give to the relevant poisons, neurological damaging metals and digital shackles?

Whatever we call them, I know one thing. THEY ARE NOT MEDICINE, WHICH MEANS THEY SURE ARE NOT VACCINES.

*

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This article was originally published on Solari Report.

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First published on April 21, 2020.

***

Three-quarters of a century ago, on 21 April 1945 the Soviet Army had encircled Berlin and was unleashing its final attack upon Nazi Germany.

With the Germans having killed more than 10 million Soviet troops since their June 1941 invasion, the last remnants of the Wehrmacht and SS were still vastly outnumbered in their defence of Berlin. Soviet ruler Joseph Stalin, on the cusp of celebrating his most important triumph, amassed around 2.5 million Red Army soldiers for this assault on the German capital, supported by over 6,000 tanks and 7,500 aircraft. (1)

For the Battle of Berlin, Stalin’s old nemesis Adolf Hitler managed to gather almost a million troops, but a proportion of them had seen too many winters, or too few. The cream of German armies had either been wiped out by the Soviets over preceding month and years, or were in captivity. By 16 April 1945, the Red Army began their assault towards Berlin, with a massive artillery bombardment on the German defences along the Oder-Neisse river line.

Raising a Flag over the Reichstag, a photograph taken during the Battle of Berlin on 2 May 1945 (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

The previous day – 15 April 1945 – Hitler, dressed in full military attire, emerged in the morning from the cramped, overcharged atmosphere of the Führerbunker. Stepping outside into the fresh spring air, he looked about at his surroundings. Everything was still and quiet, the sky clear. Hitler walked the short distance from the Führerbunker to the Reich Chancellory, and he was joined by Hans Baur, his personal pilot since early 1932. During the 1920s, Baur was one of Germany’s most renowned commercial pilots, earning a variety of awards and recognition from the Weimar government.

Writing in his memoirs originally published in 1956, Baur recalled how,

“Hitler had personally taken charge of the defence of the Reich Chancellory, and on 15 April [1945] – it was a beautiful sunny day – he appeared in the garden to give various instructions… A thousand men of his Leibstandarte under the command of General Mohnke were there to defend Hitler’s last stronghold to the end”. (2)

With the Soviets closing in, Hitler rejected the pleas of underlings urging him to flee southwards towards Bavaria. Captain and crew would go down with the ship together. Apart from the Leibstandarte, very few remained in this area during the final days. Even SS commando Otto Skorzeny, the saviour of Benito Mussolini 18 months before and one of Hitler’s favourite soldiers, had since left.

Hitler saw Skorzeny for the last time in the Reich Chancellory in late March 1945, when the Nazi leader awarded him the prestigious Oak Leaves to the Knight’s Cross. Skorzeny got out of Berlin while he could. On 12 April 1945 he was present in Linz, the Austrian town where Hitler spent most of his youth and had planned to remodel. By 15 April Skorzeny moved on and “was drawing up plans for a full-scale guerrilla war should conventional methods fail to halt the Allies”, according to Skorzeny’s recent biographer, English historian Stuart Smith. (3)

That same day, standing outside the Führerbunker on 15 April 1945, Hitler inspected the defences of the Reich Chancellory perimeter. He then made his way into the Reich Chancellory itself, one of the very few large buildings standing in Berlin.

Suddenly appearing in the Reich Chancellory was Magda Goebbels, wife of propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels. Shocked to see her at this late date Hitler said,

“For heaven’s sake Frau Goebbels, what are you doing here in Berlin? You should have gone away long ago. Baur here will fly you to the Berghof whilst there’s still time. You will be safe there with your children”. (4)

Magda Goebbels protested and Hitler’s orders were refused, for once. Instead she saw fit to remain in Berlin to die – before killing herself, she would allow her six children to be poisoned with cyanide as they slept in their beds, drugged with morphine.

Hitler had not foreseen the catastrophe that was engulfing his empire. Only two and a half years before, he was convinced that the Russians were finished. It appeared that way to many at the time. During the summer and early autumn of 1942, this was the period of the great German advance into far-eastern Ukraine, southern Russia and the Caucasus: principally towards the Russian cities of Stalingrad and Astrakhan, along with another drive further south to capture Baku, the capital of energy rich Azerbaijan, or so it was hoped. As Hitler knew, Baku was dripping in oil. This city provided 80% of the oil consumed by the Soviet war machine (5). Taking Baku would constitute a hammer blow to the Soviets.

Reminiscing on developments, the Nazi war minister Albert Speer acknowledged that by August 1942 “there actually no longer seemed to be any resistance to Hitler left in Europe” (6). It should be recognised that, from the summer of 1942, this German advance hundreds of miles into the western and southern Soviet Union was one of the most incredible feats in military history. During Napoleon’s invasion of Russia 130 years before, he was simply unable to progress as far as this, failing to survive the winter even.

Nevertheless the Wehrmacht could not replenish the casualties they suffered from June 1941. In the first six months of their invasion of the USSR, the Germans lost more than 900,000 men, along with being shorn of 6,000 aircraft and over 3,200 panzers and other armoured vehicles. Most German troops partaking in the 1942 offensive, had been involved from the start of Operation Barbarossa the year before.

Jacques R. Pauwels, the veteran Belgian-born historian, wrote that German forces “available for a push toward the oil fields of the Caucasus were therefore extremely limited. Under those circumstances, it is quite remarkable that in 1942 the Germans managed to make it as far as they did”. (7)

The Soviet Union, with almost twice the population of Nazi-occupied Europe, was able to replace much of their losses relating to manpower. The Soviets could also count on their greater industrial strength, and the bigger quantities of raw materials at their disposal.

It can be recalled that large-scale German victories were achieved in the early summer of 1942 – before Hitler’s offensive eastwards, Case Blue, had gained a head of steam in the high summer. Beginning on 12 May 1942, a huge clash unfolded in eastern Ukraine, known as the Second Battle of Kharkov. This city, Kharkov, was the Soviet Union’s third largest metropolis.

At the commencement of fighting in Kharkov, which the Soviets initiated, the Germans and their Axis partners were outnumbered on the ground by more than two to one. However, during the next fortnight, the Wehrmacht inflicted over 200,000 fatalities on the Soviets, along with the capturing of up to 240,000 Red Army soldiers. By comparison, the Axis powers lost less than 30,000 men in the Second Battle of Kharkov, and the city was taken by German-led forces on 28 May 1942.

Five weeks later, on 4 July 1942, the Crimea was in German hands, after they finally eliminated (with Romanian help) Soviet resistance at Sevastopol – the Crimea’s biggest city. Hitler was increasingly impatient for Sevastopol to be taken, and he had said as early as 21 August 1941 that, “the Crimean peninsula has colossal importance for protection of oil supplies from Romania” (8). Soviet bloodletting was again terrible. Since late October 1941 they had suffered over 300,000 casualties during the Battle of Sevastopol. Also on 4 July 1942, Soviet forces retreated from the cities of Kursk and Belgorod further north.

Meanwhile, the fine weather seemed as if it would last forever. On 5 July 1942, German soldiers from the 4th Panzer Army marching under a blazing sun saw water shimmering on the horizon. It was what they hoped to see. They had reached the Don River, just 200 miles west of Stalingrad (9). Ten days after, on 15 July, Soviet forces fled the towns of Boguchar and Millerovo, less than 200 miles from Stalingrad. The way appeared open to advance upon the city.

The following day, 16 July 1942, Hitler relocated hundreds of miles eastwards, settling into new surroundings near the town of Vinnitsa, in central Ukraine. His complex at Rastenburg, East Prussia, was positioned too westward and no longer deemed suitable. Hitler’s headquarters beside Vinnitsa again had the word “wolf” inserted into it, and was called Führerhauptquartier (FHQ) Werwolf. The title was apt here.

Hitler’s chief pilot, Baur, remembered how,

“It sticks in my mind in particular as the place where I first saw wolves outside a zoo. We were taxiing towards the start with Hitler on board, when I spotted a couple of wolves at the edge of the airfield. They didn’t seem much disturbed at our approach, and we got quite close to them before they finally looked at us, and then loped off into the forest. My mechanic had drawn Hitler’s attention to them, and we all saw them very clearly”. (10)

As July 1942 moved on the successes continued, one after another. The German 1st Panzer Army took the city of Voroshilovgrad, in far eastern Ukraine, on 18 July 1942 – followed by the capture of Krasnodon, two days later, another city in the Ukraine’s extreme eastern reaches. Virtually all of the Ukraine was now under Nazi rule.

On July 22nd, the German 6th Army reached the great bend in the Don River, as they approached ever closer to Stalingrad. Rostov-on-Don, a sizable Russian city 250 miles from Stalingrad, fell just hours afterwards to the 1st Panzer Army on July 23rd. The taking of Rostov was a significant victory, as the Wehrmacht was previously driven from this city by the Soviets in early December 1941. Older Rostov inhabitants were familiar with the sight of German troops. Rostov had also fallen to the German Army a quarter of a century before, under the leadership of Erich Ludendorff and Paul von Hindenburg.

Image below: A Soviet KV-1 heavy tank destroyed near Voronezh (1942) (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

The day after Rostov’s capitulation, 24 July 1942, another major German success was secured with the conclusion of the Battle of Voronezh, near the Don River. The Soviets lost over 550,000 men during the Battle of Voronezh, while the Wehrmacht and their Hungarian allies had less than 100,000 casualties (11). This battle, lasting for almost four weeks, is little known. Yet Soviet losses during it were comfortably higher than German casualties during all of the fighting at Stalingrad. The Red Army could just about afford to sustain such disasters, while the Germans clearly could not. That same date, July 24th, the city of Novocherkassk was taken by the Wehrmacht in Rostov oblast.

There is little doubt that, overall, German troops were of much superior quality to Red Army soldiers, time and again inflicting a far higher casualty rate on the Soviets. The problem was that, in the end, there were simply not enough German soldiers in existence while, as mentioned, the Soviets could call on a vast reserve of fresh troops to fill in their horrendous casualty list.

Yet the German advance continued relentlessly. German Army Group A marched towards the Caucasus on 25 July 1942, and further victories were clocked up. On July 27th, Bataysk, a city in Rostov oblast was taken. The following day Stalin issued Order No. 227 demanding of his soldiers “Not a step back!” Unfortunately for Stalin, this unrealistic order would be disregarded and had a largely detrimental effect upon morale. There were to be lots of steps back in the days ahead.

From July 30th, the Battle of Rzhev was beginning around 150 miles west of Moscow. Over coming weeks the Soviets would suffer in excess of 300,000 casualties there, about five times as much as the Germans.

On 2 August 1942, a long column of German motorised infantry from the 4th Panzer Army stormed the town of Kotelnikovo, 110 miles south-west of Stalingrad (12). Two days later, the 4th Panzer Army crossed the Askay River in its drive on Stalingrad. A few hours after, the city of Voroshilovsk fell on August 5th. Its airport would be used by the Luftwaffe to execute bombing raids on Soviet oil routes. On August 6th, the southern Russian towns of Tikhoretsk and Armavir, 80 miles apart, were taken within hours of each other in the separate advance towards the Caucasus.

On 9 August 1942, special forces led by Waffen-SS officer Adrian von Fölkersam captured the city of Maikop without a fight, at the base of the Caucasus Mountains. In fear of a major German assault, Soviet forces were fleeing in disarray from Maikop, ignoring Stalin’s order. Quickly following von Fölkersam’s units in the rear, the 1st Panzer Army then occupied Maikop, but found the surrounding area had endured scorched earth tactics. It would prove difficult to exploit Maikop’s famous oil reserves. On reaching Maikop the 1st Panzer Army, commanded by Field Marshal Ewald von Kleist, had advanced more than 300 miles in less than two weeks.

On 10 August 1942, the German 6th Army crossed the lower Don River. German officers, pausing for breath under the sun and looking into their binoculars, could clearly see the outer suburbs of Stalingrad before them. Having been shorn of much of their armour the month before, Hitler now expected the 6th Army to take the whole of Stalingrad by October 1942. This industrial city stretched for 25 miles along the western bank of the Volga River. (13)

Southwards, the march to the Caucasus was indeed advancing as planned. On August 15th, the German 23rd Panzer Division captured the town of Georgiyevsk, deep into south-western Russia (14). They were positioned 1,500 miles from Berlin, and within striking range of the frontiers of Georgia.

At this time, in the middle of August 1942, Speer travelled to see an elated Hitler at the FHQ Vinnitsa Werwolf, and he noticed that “The entire headquarters was in splendid humour”. Speer joined the dictator outside the latter’s modest bungalow, and they sat down on a bench under trees to discuss the next steps.

Hitler explained how they would now “advance south of the Caucasus and then help the rebels in Iran and Iraq against the English. Another thrust will be directed along the Caspian Sea towards Afghanistan and India”. Addressing Speer and several industrialists the next day, Hitler expected that “by the end of 1943 we will pitch our tents in Tehran, in Baghdad, and on the Persian Gulf. Then the oil wells will at last be dry as far as the English are concerned”. (15)

Within a few months, these dreams of conquest would be shattered. Spread out across endless expanses of the western and south-western Soviet Union by the autumn of 1942, the Germans and their Axis allies were under growing strain.

Pauwels, the experienced world war historian, wrote of the Germans that “when their offensive inevitably petered out, in September of that year [1942], their weakly held lines were stretched along many hundreds of kilometres, presenting a perfect target for a Soviet counterattack. This is the context in which an entire German army was bottled up, and ultimately destroyed, in Stalingrad”. (16)

As further noted by Pauwels, the real turning point of the war in Europe did not occur at Stalingrad, but in fact took place a year before in late 1941, when the Germans failed to capture Moscow. By 1942, the Wehrmacht was irreversibly weakened, their aura of invincibility gone, in spite of all of the above victories.

*

Note to readers: please click the share buttons above or below. Forward this article to your email lists. Crosspost on your blog site, internet forums. etc.

Shane Quinn obtained an honors journalism degree. He is interested in writing primarily on foreign affairs, having been inspired by authors like Noam Chomsky. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

Notes

1 Warfare History Network, “Doomed: How the Battle of Berlin Ended Nazi Germany for Good”, The National Interest, 7 April 2020, https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/doomed-how-battle-berlin-ended-nazi-germany-good-141872

2 Hans Baur, I Was Hitler’s Pilot (Frontline Books, 30 Sep. 2019), p. 174

3 Stuart Smith, Otto Skorzeny: The Devil’s Disciple (Osprey Publishing, 20 Sep. 2018), p. 227

4 Baur, I Was Hitler’s Pilot, p. 175

5 Georg Woodman, 2033-The Century After: How the World Would Look/Be If Nazi Germany & Empire Japan Had Won World War II (Strategic Book Publishing & Rights Agency, LLC (October 18, 2017), p. 128

6 Albert Speer, Spandau: The Secret Diaries, (Fontana, London, 1977) p. 58

7 Jacques R. Pauwels, “75 Years Ago, the Battle of Stalingrad”, Global Research, 5 February 2018, https://www.globalresearch.ca/75-years-ago-the-battle-of-stalingrad/5628316

8 C. Peter Chen, “Battle of Sevastopol”, World War II Database, January 2008, https://ww2db.com/battle_spec.php?battle_id=214

9 Donald A. Bertke, Gordon Smith, Don Kindell, World War II Sea War, Vol 6: The Allies Halt the Axis Advance (Bertke Publications; null edition May 31, 2014), p. 337

10 Baur, I Was Hitler’s Pilot, pp. 134-135

11 David Glantz, Armageddon in Stalingrad, Brad DeLong’s Grasping Reality, 18 November 2012, https://www.bradford-delong.com/2012/11/liveblogging-world-war-ii-november-18-1942.html

12 Jochen Hellbeck, Stalingrad: The City that Defeated the Third Reich (Public Affairs, 11 Oct. 2010)

13 Hellbeck, Stalingrad

14 Robert Forczyk, The Caucasus 1942-43: Kleist’s Race for Oil (Osprey Publishing, 19 May 2015)

15 Speer, Spandau: The Secret Diaries, pp. 58-60

16 Pauwels, “75 Years Ago, The Battle of Stalingrad”, Global Research, https://www.globalresearch.ca/75-years-ago-the-battle-of-stalingrad/5628316

Featured image: The Brandenburg Gate amid the ruins of Berlin, June 1945 (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

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).

***

After twenty years, the United States government – and the forces of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) – will depart from Afghanistan. They said that they came to do two things: to destroy al-Qaeda, which had launched an attack on the United States on 11 September 2001, and to destroy the Taliban, which had given al-Qaeda a base. After great loss of life and the further destruction of Afghan society, the US departs – as it did from Vietnam in 1975 – in defeat: al-Qaeda [covertly supported by the US] has regrouped in different parts of the world, and the Taliban is set to return to the capital, Kabul.

The speaker of Afghanistan’s parliament, Mir Rahman Rahmani, warns that the country is poised to enter a new period of civil war, a repeat of the terrible civil war that ran from 1992 to 2001. The United Nations calculates that in the first quarter of 2021, civilian casualties rose by 29% compared to last year, while the number of women casualties increased by 37%. It is unclear if there will be further talks between the Taliban, the Afghan government of President Ashraf Ghani, the Turks, the Qataris, the United States, and the United Nations. Afghanistan sits on the brink of further violence, whose impact can so aptly be described by the words of the poet Zarlasht Hafeez:

The sorrow and grief, these black evenings,
Eyes full of tears and times full of sadness,
These burnt hearts, the killing of youths,
These unfulfilled expectations and unmet hopes of brides

‘Saving’ Afghan women, advancing the cause of human rights: these words have lost meaning after two decades. As Eduardo Galeano put it, ‘Every time the US “saves” a country, it converts it either into a madhouse or a cemetery’.

Alicia Leal (Cuba), Un soldado de América, 1997.

The US government calculates that this war, which would enter its twentieth year, is the longest US war in the modern period (the US engagement in Vietnam lasted for fourteen years, from 1961 to 1975).

But this war in Afghanistan is not the longest war prosecuted by the United States government. There are two US wars that continue: a war against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea or DPRK (since August 1950) and against Cuba (since September 1959).

Neither of these conflicts have ended, with the US continuing to execute hybrid wars against both the DPRK and Cuba. A hybrid war does not necessarily require the full arsenal of a military to come into force; it is a war fought through the control of information and financial flows as well as the use of economic sanctions and illicit means such as sabotage. There is no question that the longest and unfinished US wars have been against Korea and Cuba.

Sixty years ago, on 17 April 1961, the CIA’s Brigade 2506 landed at Cuba’s Playa Girón (‘Bay of Pigs’). The Cuban people resisted this invasion as they would six decades of hybrid war against their sovereign revolutionary processes. Cuba has never threatened the United States; it never has violated the UN Charter of 1945. The United States, on the other hand, has routinely threatened the Cuban people. In October 1962, when the Soviets sent a missile cover to protect Cuba, General Maxwell Taylor, the head of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, planned for a full-scale invasion. In this now-declassified memorandum, Taylor pointed out that such a military venture might result in 18,500 casualties on the US side because of the determination of the Cubans to protect their land and their political project. The plot was to reinstate the old Cuban oligarchy that had sought refuge in Miami and turn Cuba back into a gangster’s paradise.

After the Cuban government sent troops to assist the national liberation project in Angola in November 1975, US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger told his team on 24 March 1976, ‘if we decide to use military power, it must succeed. There should be no halfway measures – we would get no award for using military power in moderation. If we decide on a blockade, it must be ruthless, rapid, and efficient’. The US planned to mine Havana’s harbour and bomb Cuba’s cities. ‘I think we are going to have to smash Castro’, Kissinger told US President Gerald Ford. Ford replied, ‘I agree’. Such is the attitude of the US government, from 1961 to the present.

Carlos Garaicoa (Cuba), Puzzle la Malenka, 2009.

Before he left office in January 2021, US President Donald Trump placed Cuba on the US government’s ‘state sponsors of terrorism’ list. Seventy-five US lawmakers asked his successor, President Joe Biden, to reverse this decision. On 16 April, Biden’s press secretary Jen Psaki told the briefing room that ‘A Cuba policy shift or additional steps is currently not among the President’s top foreign policy priorities’. Biden, in other words, has decided to passively continue Trump’s policy, dictated to him by the likes of Republican Senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott from Florida and Senator Ted Cruz from Texas (as well as Democratic Senator Robert Menendez from New Jersey). Biden has opted to persist in this cruel six-decade long policy to suffocate the Cuban people.

Just after the 1959 Cuban Revolution, the US government made it clear that it would not tolerate a sovereign Cuba only 145 kilometres from Florida’s coast. Cuba’s commitment to people over profit is a standing rebuke of the hypocrisies of the United States rulers. This has been clarified once more during this pandemic, during which the infection and death rates per million are strikingly higher in the US than in Cuba (recent figures indicate the US has recorded 1,724 deaths per million, whereas Cuba stands at 47 deaths per million). While the US locked itself into vaccine nationalism, Cuba’s Henry Reeve Brigade of doctors continued with their work amongst the world’s poorest people (for this, of course, they deserve the Nobel Prize for Peace).

Unable to successfully invade Cuba, the US has persisted with a tight blockade of the island. After the fall of the USSR, which had provided Cuba with ways to circumvent the blockade, the US attempted to tighten its grip on the island. US lawmakers then attacked Cuba’s economy through the Cuban Democracy Act (1992) and the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act (1996) – both laws with names that demean the words in them. From 1992 onwards, the UN General Assembly has voted overwhelmingly for the United States to end this blockade. A group of UN Human Rights Council Special Rapporteurs wrote a statement calling on the US to withdraw these measures, which have only made Cuba’s attempt to fight the pandemic harder.

The Cuban government reported that between April 2019 and March 2020, Cuba lost $5 billion in potential trade due to the blockade; over the past almost six decades, it has lost the equivalent of $144 billion. Now the US government has deepened the sanctions against shipping companies that bring oil to the island. The head of US Southern Command, Admiral Craig Faller, described Cuba’s medical internationalism as a ‘regional corrosive influence’. There is cruelty in Washington.

Far from the bitterness of the US government, the Cuban communists held their eighth Party Congress, where the discussion was on how to improve the state enterprises and how to innovate to meet the aspirations of the Cuban people. Deputy Prime Minister Inés María Chapman said that the party members must be active in their communities to build and defend socialism. Rafael Santiesteban Pozo, president of the National Association of Small Farmers, said that working people must produce more with what resources are available. Minister of Economy and Planning Alejandro Gil pointed to the need for greater efficiency in the state enterprise system, the expansion of self-employment, and the expansion of cooperatives.

These are serious people who recognise the problems but are not overwhelmed by them; they are part of a project that has fought to defend its sovereignty against enormous odds since 1959. Defeat is not in their vocabulary. Their agenda is hopeful, unlike the bilious agenda that comes from the US government and the Miami-based Cuban oligarchy.

At this Congress, Raúl Castro stepped down from his post. Castro, one of the original Cuban revolutionaries, had been imprisoned for his role in the Moncada uprising of 1953. Upon his release, he went to Mexico with his brother Fidel and then returned on the Granma to lead the rebellion against the US-backed dictator Fulgencio Batista. After the victory of the Revolution, Castro served in the government and as a leader in the Communist Party, guiding it alongside Fidel and others through the difficult Special Period (1991-2000) and then continuing to lead it after Fidel’s death in 2016. His quiet role in defending and elaborating the Cuban Revolution has been immense.

José Rodríguez Fuster (Cuba), Granma, 2013.

After the Playa Girón attack by the CIA, the Spanish poet Jaime Gil de Biedma wrote a poem about Cuba called ‘During the Invasion’ (collected in Moralidades, 1966). The Venezuelan poet Diego Sequera translated this poem for us as we celebrate the 60th anniversary of the defeat of the US on those beaches:

The morning newspaper is open on
the tablecloth. The sun glows in the glasses.
Lunch at the small restaurant,
a working day.

Most of us remain silent. Someone speaks with an elusive voice;
these are conversations with special sorrow
about the things that always happen and
that never end, or that end in disgrace.

I think that at this time of day, the sun rises in Ciénaga;
nothing is yet decided, combat doesn’t stop,
and I look in the news for some hope
that doesn’t come from Miami.

Oh, Cuba in the distant dawn of the tropics,
when the sun is simmering, and the air is clear:
may your land sow tanks and your broken sky
be grey from the wings of airplanes.

With you are the people of sugar cane,
the man of the streetcar, those from the restaurants,
the thousands of us that today search in the world
for a bit of hope that doesn’t come from Miami.

Hope comes from the warm sun of Cuba.

Warmly,

Vijay Prashad

This article was first published by the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.

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Tens of thousands of people have sued Monsanto owner Bayer AG alleging their non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and other cancers were caused by glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide.

Three cases brought by Lee Johnson, Edwin Hardeman, and Alva and Alberta Pilliod went to trial.

And in each case, the courts found the Roundup caused the cancers, that Monsanto hid the risks, and that compensatory and punitive damages were justified.

Bayer wants to resolve the thousands of remaining cancer claims with an $8 billion to $9 billion compensation fund. Those cases are being negotiated by Monsanto lawyers and the lawyers representing the cancer victims.

But last year, in a surprise to the Monsanto plaintiffs lawyers, a separate settlement was put forward to handle everyone else who might bring a case against Monsanto in the future – including people who have yet to get sick or contact a lawyer.

A handful of class action lawyers, led by Elizabeth Cabraser and Sam Issacharoff, proposed a settlement that would put a four year hold on any Roundup litigation against Bayer, prohibit punitive damage claims against Bayer, and set up a secret science panel.

That proposal was rejected by a federal judge sitting in San Francisco – U.S. District Court Judge Vince Chhabria.

Now, the settlement lawyers have come back with a revised $2 billion proposal.

A May 12 public hearing is scheduled before Judge Chhabria.

More than 300 lawyers have challenged the settlement.

One of those lawyers is Gerson Smoger (image on the right) of Dallas, Texas. (Smoger filed a 57 page brief in opposition to the settlement on March 31, 2021.)

“I’m challenging this because it’s an abomination to the tort system,” Smoger told Corporate Crime Reporter in an interview last week. “Monsanto continues making this material without any restrictions. Roundup will stay on the market. People’s future lifetime exposure to Roundup is included in the settlement, even though they haven’t been exposed yet for a product that is going to continue to go on the market.”

“There is a four year stay on all litigation. And the stay is not just against people with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. That stay includes all contract claims against Monsanto. Nothing can be brought for four years. At the end of four years, every single person in the United States who has been exposed to Roundup can never sue Monsanto for punitive damages or medical monitoring.”

What does the settlement offer deliver to people who are exposed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma?

“If you have non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma during the period of the active settlement, then there are provisions for amounts of money you can apply for within a settlement grid. Theoretically you can go up to $200,000. But I don’t believe you can go above $65,000. The best you can probably do is between $25,000 and $65,000 for your injury of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, which probably costs you between $100,000 and $200,000 to treat, none of which you are entitled to get reimbursed for.”

Compare that to the tens of millions awarded to the three cases that went to trial.

“They were each in the tens of millions or more in punitive damages. And for those people, if they were covered under this proposed settlement, they would get somewhere between $10,000 and $25,000.”

I thought the top number was $200,000.

“It is. But if under the proposed settlement, you go through rungs on a ladder. And if you miss any of those rungs on a ladder, you are stuck at a lower level. Three of the cases that went to trial – Hardeman and the Pilliods – would have been stuck at the second level because of how old they were. Mr. Johnson didn’t have a long enough exposure to get up to the third level, so he would be stuck at the second level. The second level is between $10,000 and $25,000.”

This wasn’t the first such proposed settlement.

A previous settlement was rejected by Judge Chhabria. How is that settlement different from this?

“That settlement had a private secret science panel that would make a determination binding on the class. The panel would be put together by the proponents of the settlement and Monsanto and they had people operating in secret. And they would conclude what the literature said.”

The previous settlement had the science panel. Does this settlement have it also?

“It has it well dressed. The dressing is better, the result is a little different. They have a science panel whose conclusions will be determined the same way. At the end of the day, if the science panel decides no causation, as it likely would, the juries will be told that is a stipulated fact for any opt-out. And the judge is not allowed to tell the jury that they could look elsewhere. The judge has to be silent on it. And that judge is told that an independent science panel as a stipulated fact has made a determination.”

Why did the judge reject the first agreement?

“One was that the science panel took away from the province of the jury to decide. The other was the difficulty of giving notice to such a large amorphous group of exposed people, the vast majority of them being future claimants.”

“I argued this issue of not binding future claimants in the Agent Orange case before the U.S. Supreme Court. You should not be able to have a large class that is not identified and take away their rights in the future when they will not have the information necessary to make an informed choice as to whether they want to be part of the settlement or not.”

“And that’s what this settlement does. If you don’t have non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, you are not going to pay attention to this case. You are not going to think about the fact that ten years ago you spent five years working every summer with Roundup. You are going to think about it when you are diagnosed and find out that there are things you can’t do, that you can’t have punitive damages in your case. But you are not going to find that out when you are not injured and can’t imagine that you are going to get non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.”

What is the purported reason put forward by the proponents of the settlement for the four year stay on litigation?

“The best they say is that it is essential to Monsanto. They don’t give a reason that it would help the class. One of the difficulties is that a number of people who get non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma during the course of the four years will die before the four years are over.”

And that’s because non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma kills something like 20 percent in the first year?

“Exactly. Lee Johnson got a priority under California law to have his case tried faster, while he was still alive. People are going to get sick and die and not be able to get near a courtroom.”

What’s the purported reason for a ban on punitive damages?

“That is given up to get the settlement. They say they have sufficiently paid in compensatory damages. But compensatory damages are for compensation. They are for the injury. They are not designed for punishment in any fashion. In fact, any compensatory settlement says that they are not settling for punitive damages. But that is what they are saying – we have paid enough in compensatory damages and therefore we shouldn’t be punished.”

How were these lawyers chosen to do this?

“This settlement is patched on to the MDL by law firms that have no part whatsoever in the organization of this case. Did these lawyers say – there is a hole in the negotiations of this case, we’ll negotiate it, we will wrap this up? Or did Monsanto come to them and say – we need somebody to wrap this up? It’s rather significant that the actual lawyers that have been bringing this MDL litigation are not bringing this class action. It is not them. It is people that are well known for settling class actions.”

“Elizabeth Cabraser has a great deal of experience in large scale settlements. What she does not have any experience in is Roundup or this particular litigation. She is foreign to this litigation.”

Who is representing Monsanto in this case?

“Monsanto hasn’t filed any papers. They have a number of law firms. But they have not filed any papers yet in support of the class.”

Does there need to be some kind of settlement for people who have not yet spoken with a lawyer?

“No. There does not need to be a settlement. These injuries are substantial.”

You would ban glyphosate?

“The elimination of the product is the way to go. Under our laws, it would be difficult to ban. But you would structure it out of business. Because the way our laws work, you have to phase it out. Yes, it needs to be banned.”

Did the plaintiffs lawyers know that this settlement was being negotiated? Or was it a surprise?

“The first one last summer was a surprise. Clearly there was a belief that there was going to be a plan B. But the settlement negotiations have not involved the people most intimately a part of the litigation. They didn’t bring this to the table. There is that $8 billion to $9 billion attempt at a settlement. And then Monsanto is on this separate track with other lawyers to get this global resolution that they didn’t try to get with the people involved in the litigation.”

Why would these class action attorneys tie the hands of victims? No punitives. No lawsuits for four years. Limited amounts of recoveries even if they entered the settlement agreement?

“It’s hard for me to say. And this has occurred over the years for both Elizabeth and Sam. I believe the importance of the tort system is in vindicating individual rights. Individuals have a right to decide their own fate and bring their own lawsuits. We should always weigh in favor of individual decisions to be represented in that fashion. Elizabeth and Sam believe efficiencies of resolutions are more important than individual needs. That’s the best I can say.”

Have you spoken with any of the settlement lawyers about this case?

“The answer is no. But I know the settlement lawyers. There are others that would give less beneficent reasons as to why this settlement is taking place. But I have considered the three people who are proposing this to be friends for a very long time. And I’d rather think that we just view the world differently.”

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Ever since reports have surfaced in recent days that people who have chosen NOT to receive the experimental COVID-19 shots but have been exposed to those who have received them, and have suffered what appear to be infections coming from these fully “vaccinated” people, affecting mainly women who have reported menstruation difficulties, heavy bleeding, miscarriages, and reduction of breast milk, I have been watching my newsfeed to see if any of the dissenting doctors and scientists we feature regularly here at Health Impact News would address these issues.

Fortunately, a team of 5 doctors in the U.S., all of whom we have featured in the past here at Health Impact News and are highly qualified to address this topic, just held a round-table discussion a couple of days ago to address these issues.

The issues they discuss affect ALL of us in the U.S. (and around the world) right now, and it is imperative that you take 79 minutes of your time to watch this video.

Not only do these highly qualified doctors discuss why they think this is happening, they also give practical advice at the end about what we can be doing right now to protect ourselves and stop this attack on the human race by the Globalists seeking to reduce the world’s population.

Every single one of these doctors believe that these shots are NOT vaccines, but bioweapons designed to kill human beings.

Whatever else you are doing when you come across this video, it is highly unlikely that anything else you do the rest of your day will be more important than watching this video so you can be informed of the evil effects of these injections that are being censored in the corporate media and Big Tech social media.

Then share this video with as many people as you can.

This is from our Bitchute channel, and it will also be available on our Rumble channel.

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A new study conducted by MIT scientists and released this week reveals that the six foot social distancing and limited occupancy guidelines made law in most of the civilized world have done little to slow the spread of COVID-19, and suggests the only way to reduce the spread of COVID-19 is to limit exposure to highly populated areas and areas where people are physically exerting themselves, such as gyms, or areas where people are singing or speaking, such as churches.

The study reveals that the social distancing guidelines employed throughout much of the world for over a year have done nothing to limit the spread of COVID-19, suggesting that the adaption of the guidelines did not stop the spread of the of the China-originated virus, and it can only be slowed with the employment of severe lockdowns. Paradoxically, states and cities that have engaged in severe lockdowns have seen the largest spikes of COVID-19.

“We argue there really isn’t much of a benefit to the 6-foot rule, especially when people are wearing masks,” MIT professor Martin Z. Bazant said, as reported by NBC. “It really has no physical basis because the air a person is breathing while wearing a mask tends to rise and comes down elsewhere in the room so you’re more exposed to the average background than you are to a person at a distance.”

In other words, widespread mask wearing may simply change the physical vectors of transmission within a given room rather than stop it, effectively making six foot distancing rules pointless.

In their study, Bazant and the other researchers declare,

“Adherence to the Six-Foot Rule would limit large-drop transmission, and adherence to our guideline, [of limiting time spent in densely populated areas], would limit long-range airborne transmission.” In the guideline, the researchers write, “To minimize risk of infection, one should avoid spending extended periods in highly populated areas. One is safer in rooms with large volume and high ventilation rates. One is at greater risk in rooms where people are exerting themselves in such a way as to increase their respiration rate and pathogen output, for example, by exercising, singing, or shouting.”

Bazant also told the media,

“What our analysis continues to show is that many spaces that have been shut down in fact don’t need to be. Often times the space is large enough, the ventilation is good enough, the amount of time people spend together is such that those spaces can be safely operated even at full capacity and the scientific support for reduced capacity in those spaces is really not very good.” He added, “I think if you run the numbers, even right now for many types of spaces you’d find that there is not a need for occupancy restrictions.”

This comes on the heels of a study that suggests the Pfizer vaccine could cause severe neurodegenerative diseases caused by brain prions created by the mRNA-style vaccine. National File reported,

“‘The current RNA based SARSCoV-2 vaccines were approved in the US using an emergency order without extensive long term safety testing,’ the report declares. ‘In this paper the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine was evaluated for the potential to induce prion-based disease in vaccine recipients.’ Prion-based diseases are, according to the CDC, a form of neurodegenerative diseases, meaning that the Pfizer vaccine is potentially likely to cause long term damage and negative health effects with regards to the brain.”

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The Illusion of Evidence-Based Medicine

April 26th, 2021 by Jon Jureidini

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An exposé of the corruption of medicine by the pharmaceutical industry at every level, from exploiting the vulnerable destitute for drug testing, through manipulation of research data, to disease mongering and promoting drugs that do more harm than good.

Authors, Professor Jon Jureidini and Dr Leemon McHenry, made critical contributions to exposing the scientific misconduct in two infamous trials of antidepressants. Ghostwritten publications of these trials were highly influential in prescriptions of paroxetine (Paxil) and citalopram (Celexa) in paediatric and adolescent depression, yet both trials (Glaxo Smith Kline’s paroxetine study 329 and Forest Laboratories’ citalopram study CIT-MD-18) seriously misrepresented the efficacy and safety data.

The Illusion of Evidence-Based Medicine: Exposing the Crisis of Credibility in Clinical Research (Wakefield Press, 2020) provides a detailed account of these studies and argues that medicine desperately needs to re-evaluate its relationship with the pharmaceutical industry. Without a basis for independent evaluation of the results of randomised, placebo-controlled clinical trials, there can be no confidence in evidence-based medicine.

Science demands rigorous, critical examination and especially severe testing of hypotheses to function properly, but this is exactly what is lacking in academic medicine.

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It is established that public masking does not stop the spread of viruses, and that prolonged use is detrimental to health. The sudden mandating of masks in 2020 has been a program of mass behavior modification based on constant repetition of a lie. The mask is intended as the first of a one-two punch combination, the second — and the ultimate goal — is mandated vaccination. Requiring masks is a means of getting the public to warm to the idea of minding governmental orders.

Laughing at “face diapers” as trivial is a serious mistake. They are a psychological assault beyond adverse physical effects and are part of the isolating strategy that includes “social distancing” and home quarantine. The crucial importance of the mask in the larger scheme to vaccinate the whole of society is seen In the unyielding coercion by official public health authorities to keep people masked.

To acknowledge public masking as the fraud that it is would spell doom for the Gates Foundation/Gavi Vaccine Alliance/WHO project to vaccinate the world. That is why the pharmaceutical industry is doubling down on masking with all of its considerable power, which it exerts through the World Health Organization (WHO), state organizations such as the CDC, and the university-affiliated schools of public health that send forth the “public health experts” seen in mass media and in communities across the nation.

Public health is primarily about policy, policy is about politics, and politics is a specialty of Big Pharma. What has come to be known as “public health” has been captured absolutely by the pharmaceutical industry to become a mechanism for framing policies according to its interests. The uppermost interest now of the pharmaceutical-governmental complex is to vaccinate the world and to make regular vaccination a mandatory aspect of the ’new normality’ of a globalized society.

As billionaires have joined the pharmaceutical industry’s global vaccine initiative, it has formed an unrivaled financial power, magnified as it links to the World Economic Forum (WEF) with its goal of The Great Reset of the world economy.

This interview of bioethicist Leemon McHenry, author of “The Illusion of Evidence-Based Medicine”, is a revelation of the degree to which this collective power is so pervasive that it has been able to get its ghost-written articles into the most distinguished medical journals, thereby dragging down the reputations of the journals and trust in mainstream medicine itself.

Trace the backgrounds of public health experts displayed by mainstream media and placed in advisory positions in state governments, and you find virtually all derive from, or connect to, university-linked schools of public health that are awash in pharmaceutical money, e.g. Bloomberg School at Johns Hopkins, T. H. Chan School at Harvard, Rollins School at Emory, and the Milken Institute School at George Washington University. These high-profile “experts” hew to an official blueprint opposed by many medical voices from around the world that are being scrubbed from public awareness because of media ‘lying by omission’ or through active ‘deplatforming’.

Society has been coached to rely on the pronouncements of media-showcased experts for its views of world events.

If any one expert could be understood to personify medical opinion in the service of mass vaccination, it would, these days, be Dr. Leana Wen, a professor at the Milken Institute School. Young, articulate, smooth and telegenic, and with a power-packed bio — (“Young Global Leader” for the World Economic Forum, “Global Health Fellow” at the World Health Organization, one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People, member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), consultant for the China Medical Board, and much more) — she hammers mask and vaccine advocacy into the public mind.

You see her on CNN, then on PBS, then on MSNBC, and you see her columns in the Washington Post, that CIA molder of public opinion:

“As more states lift restrictions … there will be no carrot left to offer.” Leana Wen, Washington Post

“[T]he vaccine is the ticket back to pre-pandemic life … we have a very narrow window to tie reopening policy to vaccination status [and] if everything is reopened, then what’s the carrot going to be? How are we going to incentivize people to actually get the vaccine? [O]therwise, people are going to go out and enjoy these freedoms anyway. –Leana Wen on CNN

“[A]fter vaccination … still keep on wearing a mask … We are now in this race of vaccines versus variants … We need to understand masks and vaccines as the ticket back to pre-pandemic normal … Then, [after vaccination] you can travel [and] see your family.” Leana Wen on PBS News Hour

Wen reveals that lockdowns are related not to well being of the public but to manipulation of the public.

Take the jab, she says, and then you can have your freedoms back.

Her’s is a classic example of one of Singer’s listed techniques for controlling humans: “Manipulate a system of rewards, punishments, and experiences in order to promote … group-approved behaviors.” Lifting lockdowns is the “carrot” she refers to, dangled in front of a herd longing to be free, and she frets that the herd is wanting to “enjoy these freedoms anyway” without waiting for permission from the army of ‘public health experts’ she so perfectly exemplifies. Oh dear, she’s declaring, opening up society too soon negates the carrot that could be used to force public compliance.

And she talks of a “ticket back to pre-pandemic life”. Really? Take a look!

There is no ‘going back’ in The WEF’s Reset plan, and there is no way that Wen could be ignorant of that fact. Any figure claiming a path to pre-2020 normality at this late date should not be trusted further.

Reading the signs it’s obvious that what is planned (as she perhaps unwittingly reveals with “this race of vaccines versus variants”) is a future of new “variants” and “mutant strains” coming in wave after wave, to be attacked with ever more vaccines ’til the end of time — strategy for an unending river of riches for the industry now in firm control of ‘western medicine’. Anyone who hasn’t had at least a glimmer of suspicion about this global show by now is either hopelessly gullible or living in willful ignorance.

It’s disheartening to watch Wen, with her wealth of polished credentials and honors, articulating bilge. But then, she is representative of the uniform message coming from schools of public health. How has such a situation arisen?

During a discussion of journalistic self-censorship, Noam Chomsky said to his interviewer, “I’m sure you believe everything you’re saying, but what I’m saying is that if you believed something different, you wouldn’t be sitting where you’re sitting”.

Chomsky is referring to a winnowing process existing within establishment systems that identify early in careers those with certain desired traits and inclinations for advancement. So it is, apparently, in the industry-driven world of official public health policy, as its army of experts proclaim mask and vaccine orthodoxy.

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Bill Willers is Emeritus Professor of Biology at the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh.

Featured image is from Wikimedia Commons

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In February the U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, made it a priority to phone Rui Figueiredo, the Foreign Affairs and Defense Minister of Cape Verde. They spoke about commerce and “security.” [1]

Why is the tiny African nation of Cape Verde (population 550,000) a U.S. priority? It is because the U.S. is behind China in the latest “scramble for Africa.”

Cape Verde Islands | Operation World

Source: operationworld.org

To rectify its position, vis-à-vis China, in Africa, U.S. President Joe Biden pledged to put values at the heart of his administration’s China policy. Since entering office, he has called on the world’s democracies to “gird for a new era of strategic competition with China.”[2]

To cut through U.S. rhetoric and reveal the covert value system of the U.S. in Africa, the word “security” is instructive.

Antony Blinken’s concern for the “security” of Cape Verde automatically activates a destructive infrastructure that’s summed up in the Americanisms: “war on drugs,” “war on terror” and the “United States African Command” (AFRICOM). War and its latest accoutrements actually define U.S. values in Africa.

A Pentagon map, for example, shows a network of 29 bases stretching from one side of Africa to the other.

Map of U.S. bases in Africa. [Source: bing.com]

The U.S. at the same time has provided billions of dollars in security assistance to local partners, conducted persistent counterterrorism operations that include commando raids, combat by U.S. Special Operations forces in at least 13 African countries between 2013 and 2017, and a record number of U.S. airstrikes in Somalia (just over one attack per week in 2019).

The Chinese by contrast have focused on the development of large infrastructural projects across the continent, which have been financed in part as a form of payback for Chinese exploitation of Africa’s mineral wealth.

Cape Verde has few mineral resources, and China’s investments there are mainly designed to spread goodwill and convey a positive image on the African continent.[3]

The centerpiece of China’s efforts in Cape Verde is the opening of a university in Praia—the capital city of the archipelago.

China’s government has just funded the building of a campus that includes 34 laboratories, five auditoriums, a convention center with capacity for 654 people, and dormitories with 382 beds, in addition to classrooms, computers and reading rooms, a library, cafeterias and sport facilities. It was built by China’s LongXin Construction Group.[4]

In Cape Verde, China has also funded the expansion of the presidential and government palaces and a national stadium, which has been hailed by then-ambassador Su Jian as “the greatest construction after independence.”

The juxtaposition between China’s spectacular contributions to Cape Verdean society and U.S. militarism captures two contemporary approaches to Africa. In simple terms, one involves the barrel of a gun and the other involves a wheelbarrow.

One is marked by violence and racism and the other by a solidarity with roots in the Third World movement. One is imperialist and the other, to a certain degree, liberationist.

Kickstarting the Slave Trade

The tragic humiliation of Africa began in Cape Verde. In 1462, Portugal began the European colonization of tropical Africa on the island of Santiago—in a settlement then called Ribeira Grande.[5]

In the process, the Portuguese kick-started the Atlantic slave trade that eventually spawned the USA. Or, as Walter Rodney put it in his seminal volume entitled How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Africa developed Europe at the same rate as Europe underdeveloped Africa.

A picture containing text, group, several Description automatically generated

Painting of the Portuguese slave trade in Cape Verde. [Source: cratediggs.blogspot.com]

Although not entirely analogous, China’s century of humiliation echoed what happened in Africa. The British colonization of a tropical island (Hong Kong) triggered fragmentation and the obnoxious opium trade—the trade which gave rise to powerful U.S. dynasties and U.S. institutions (Forbes, the Astors, the Delanos, U.S. Steel, Ford, General Motors, and the universities of Harvard, Yale and Princeton).[6]

The humiliation of Africa and China at the hands of Europe and the U.S. cannot be brushed aside. When considering China’s current investment in Africa and Africa’s openness to this investment, it is imperative to include the long African and Chinese struggles against Western imperialism.

The founders of modern China and modern Cape Verde—Mao Zedong and Amilcar Cabral—were two of the greatest anti-imperialists of the 20th century. And both nations still tap into the Third-World perspective to develop their people.

For example, China’s Belt and Road Initiative—of which Cape Verde is a strategic part—is boldly uniting the economies of Asia, Africa and Latin America. It is the materialization of the South-South alternative which first emerged in the 1955 Bandung Conference in Indonesia.

Where Africa Fits Into China's Massive Belt and Road Initiative - allAfrica.com

Map of China’s one-belt-one-road initiative. [Source: allafrica.com]

The 20th century struggle against Western imperialism was even more global than imperialism itself. To bring down the Portuguese empire, for instance, required not just pan-Africanism but universalism (the equality of all races and all nations). Amilcar Cabral identified this in his speeches and writing:

“One should not forget that the African revolution is in the service of the peace and progress of humanity as a whole. If the African peoples succeed in taking into their hands, exploit and develop rationally all the material and human resources of their countries, it will be a decisive contribution to world peace, to the total disappearance of imperialism …”

“One should not forget that whatever the particularities of the African case and the possible originality of African societies, the laws of their development are the same as those of all the other human societies.”[7]

These were not abstract thoughts. Cabral, in the 1960s, explicitly connected the struggle for freedom in Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau with universalistic societies throughout the world.

Cabral and other leaders of PAIGC [African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde] became regular guests at the Chinese embassy in Conakry [Guinea]. In 1960, the PAIGC received an invitation from the Chinese Committee for Afro-Asian Solidarity to visit China. A delegation from the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) was invited as well. During this visit, China agreed to use their military academies to train combatants from both the PAIGC and the MPLA.

As a result of Cabral’s leadership and diplomacy, China would emerge as one of Guinea-Bissau’s [and Cape Verde’s] first supporters in the early stage of its struggle for independence. China provided the PAIGC with a great diversity of support, from weaponry to assistance broadcasting radio messages denouncing the regular, horrific crimes of the Portuguese military in Guinea-Bissau. With support from China on one hand, and Portuguese brutality on the other, the anti-colonial struggle intensified between 1963 and 1974.[8]

After the collapse of Portuguese imperialism in 1974, and the independence of Cape Verde in 1975, the relationships Cape Verde made during its struggle against Western racism continued. None was more important or more lasting than that with China.

Since its own birth in 1949, the People’s Republic of China has been supporting the construction of an Africa free from imperialism. This revolutionary narrative—in one way or the other—forms the backbone of China’s modern engagement with the continent.

Zhou Enlai, the first Premier of the People’s Republic of China, was a key signatory to the ten Bandung principles in 1955—which outlined Afro-Asian solidarity. These guiding points were based on the Charter of the United Nations and its idea of peaceful cooperation. But explicit, in the principles, was the belief “in the equality of all races and … the equality of all nations large and small.”[9]

Zhou Enlai: Peacemaker at Bandung

Zhou Enlai signs autograph for an admirer at the 1955 Bandung Conference. [Source: chinadaily.com]

The U.S. response to this egalitarian initiative within the Third World was an act of covert war: The CIA planted a bomb on the airplane it believed was transporting Zhou Enlai to Bandung. On April 11, 1955, 16 people died in the mid-air explosion between Hong Kong and Indonesia. The Chinese Premier, however, was on a different aircraft.[10]

In the decades following the Bandung Conference, China outlined its position regarding Africa more clearly. Speaking in Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1964, Zhou Enlai said:

“Although the Chinese people and the African peoples speak different languages and are thousands of miles apart, we have similarly experienced aggression and oppression by imperialism and colonialism, and we face the common fighting tasks of opposing imperialism and building up our respective countries. We understand each other best and we share each other’s feelings.” [11]

And, significantly, this message of solidarity and common struggle against Western racism continued after the death of Mao in 1976.

In 1996 the Chinese leader, Jiang Zemin, speaking to the Organization of African Unity (OAU), stated that the Chinese and African people “never have … had any conflicts between them.” Instead, “both [have] suffered enormously under colonialists and foreign aggression.” And as a result, they are “joining hands in building the solid foundation of Sino-African friendship and cooperation …” The developmental goal was to eliminate “the unjust and inequitable economic order left over from the past.” [12]

This decades-long anti-imperialist approach to Africa was then institutionalized in 2000 in the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). And it was clarified in the words of China’s leaders when they addressed the first Forum in Beijing. Premier Zhu Rongji spoke of the

“road towards friendship and cooperation [that] is covered with the footprints of Chinese and African leaders of several generations….”

Image on the right: Zhu Rongji [Source: britannica.com]

Zhu Rongji | Biography & Facts | Britannica

He spoke of this “joint struggle waged by the Chinese and African peoples shoulder by shoulder … [to create] a fair and rational new international political and economic order.” [13]

And President Jiang Zemin could not have been more explicit:

“[H]aving smashed the shackles of the colonial rule that lasted for several centuries, the African people won their national liberation and independence … and the Chinese people did away with imperialism, feudalism and bureaucratic capitalism …

“We have come to the conclusion after a review of the history of the past one hundred years that the Chinese people and the African people both treasure independence … and … are both important forces for world peace and common development.”[14]

This anti-colonial value system underlies China’s investment in Africa today. And it helps to explain not only the new Chinese-built university in Cape Verde but also the Chinese-built Poilão dam in Cape Verde—as well as the Chinese-built national stadium in Cape Verde. It explains why China is building a special economic zone in Cape Verde—on the island of São Vicente. And it explains why the U.S. government is today so anxious about Africa.[15]

However, the fact is that China’s deep anti-imperialist narrative regarding Africa is only credible if there is an opposing deep imperialist narrative. It is only believable if Chinese construction in Africa is countered by imperialist destruction. It only holds water if the imperialist leopard—in Africa—has not changed its spots.

The evidence suggests that it has not. Portugal may have pulled back from Cape Verde and its other colonies, but the U.S. has rushed in to fill its imperialist boots.

In 1949, the U.S. aligned itself with Europe’s empires—U.S. President Joe Biden now calls these “the world’s democracies”—the British, French, Dutch, Belgian and Portuguese. At the time, Africa was still in the grip of these European racists. And one of the objectives of this new alignment—NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)—was to tighten that grip on Africa.

Cape Verde’s hero—Amilcar Cabral—was completely aware of the post-World War II restructuring of imperialism. In 1968, he noted:

“[T]he Portuguese government is able to count more than ever on the effective aid of the NATO allies …

“It is our duty to stress the international character of the Portuguese colonial war against Africa and the important and even decisive role played by the USA … If the Portuguese government is still holding out on the three fronts of the war which it is fighting in Africa, it is because it can count on the overt or covert support of the USA, freely use NATO weapons [and] buy B26 aircraft for the genocide of our people …” [16]

Since the assassination of Cabral in 1973, the U.S. and its NATO proxies may have lost their formal grip on Africa; but they continue to strangle Africa militarily. The most blatant example of this is NATO’s destruction of Libya in 2011.

Before the U.S. and its “democratic” partners bombed Libya, that country “had the highest Human Development Index, the lowest infant mortality and the highest life expectancy in all of Africa.”[17] There was also—at the time of the bombardment—75 Chinese companies (36,000 employees) working inside Libya—constructing housing, railways, telecommunications and hydroelectric facilities. [18]

The end result of NATO’s unprovoked act of war against Libya (and Africa) was a catastrophic socio-economic reversal in the region, summarized in headlines such as “Slavery in Libya: Life inside a container”[19] and “Slavery and Human Trafficking in Libya.”[20]

When asked about the murder of the man (Muammar Gaddafi) who led Libya to the top of the African human development index, the then U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, succinctly expressed the barbaric values underpinning the U.S. approach to Africa: “We came, we saw, he died.” And then she laughed. [21]

War is the language of imperialism and, in Africa today, the U.S. speaks it fluently. Under the cover of “counterterrorism” and “counterinsurgency,” the U.S. and its NATO allies are inserting their forces throughout the continent.

On the one hand, there is the ongoing French Operation Barkhane (2014) that has spread thousands of NATO soldiers across West Africa.

And on the other hand, there is the United States African Command (AFRICOM—founded in 2007). The mission statement of AFRICOM is clear: It exists to “to advance U.S. national interests … and … support U.S. Government foreign policy … through military-to-military activities.” [22]

In 2019, just 12 years after its creation, AFRICOM had a “network” of 29 military bases spread across 15 African countries. [23]

Indeed, for U.S. leaders Africa is now “a petri dish and a proving ground for the development of a limited power-projection paradigm of drones, Special Operations forces, military advisers, local proxies, and clandestine intelligence missions.” [24]

This is alarming for Africa because it recalls the covert role of the U.S. military in post-World War Two Latin America. U.S. “military-to-military activities” in that part of the Third World resulted in neo-fascist dictatorships and “lost decades of development.”

Only a few decades after losing Africa, Western imperialism is back in Africa with a bang. And “Great Power Competition” is its excuse.

NATO’s purpose is to defend the economic order into which it was born. In 1949 the global economy revolved around the North Atlantic and its Bretton Woods system. To guarantee the flow of global wealth toward Western Europe and North America, NATO teamed up with institutions like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF).

However, it is this precise order—an order which props up the West at the expense of the Third World—which was challenged by the 1949 Chinese revolution and the decolonization of Africa in the 1960s and 1970s.

The exponential growth of the People’s Republic of China and the current export of that growth to Africa amount now to being a supercharged extension of that challenge.

The struggles for political freedom in Africa, therefore, have transformed into struggles for economic freedom—indeed for economic survival.

After NATO’s wars against African liberation there followed “NATO’s neoliberal attack” on Africa. NATO’s neocolonial debt traps and structural adjustment policies have plagued Africa since the 1980s. In fact, U.S. free-market fundamentalism sabotaged the freedom which Africa fought for.

The values underpinning this U.S. faith in the market—a propos Africa—were revealed in the infamous Summers memo of 1991. At the time Lawrence Summers was Chief Economist and Vice President at the World Bank. In his opinion,

the “under-populated countries in Africa are vastly under-polluted; their air quality is probably vastly inefficiently low [sic] compared to Los Angeles.” [25]

In other words, this top U.S. economic strategist was advocating “the dumping of toxic waste in Africa.”[26]

For many observers, though, it is even worse than that: The dictates of the U.S.-based World Bank and IMF created an “apocalyptic situation” in post-colonial Africa.

“The most basic index of well-being is life itself—how many years a human can expect to live. Yet while other regions’ life expectancy is steadily improving … Africa’s is now going backwards:

“Life expectancy declined in no fewer than 31 African countries between 1995 and 1998.”

The imperialist logic of neoliberalism in Africa is clear: “[It] is actually planned and reminiscent of the paleo-liberal strategy of the British state in the famines in Ireland and India and the Clearances of the Scottish Highlands in the 19th century.”

The objective conclusion can only be that U.S.-trained economists—the disciples of Milton Friedman inside the IMF and World Bank—since the liberation of Africa, “[have] knowingly … incorporated the death of millions as an element in their strategy … Theirs is clearly a strategy of ‘terror from above.’”’[27]

As the 21st century began, China entered into this “apocalyptic” U.S.-made situation. And as it did in the 1960s, it changed the orientation of Africa for the better. In contrast to Western “terror from above” (dictates and drones), China has been building up from below.

Since 2011, China has been the biggest player in Africa’s infrastructure boom, claiming a 40% share that continues to rise. Meanwhile, the shares of other players are falling precipitously: Europe declined from 44% to 34%, while the presence of U.S. contractors fell from 24% to just 6.7%. [28]

Today’s partnership between Cape Verde and China is the cutting edge of this “construction boom.” In the 1960s these two nations combined to defeat the politics of imperialism. Now they are combining to battle the economics of imperialism: “the unjust and inequitable economic order left over from the past.”

If there is “great power competition” in Africa today, the U.S. has already lost the moral high ground since it remains committed to the infrastructure of imperialism—a system which creates nothing but destabilization. For the U.S., therefore, Africa is first and foremost a “security issue”—a “heart of darkness.”

Africa, however, is not an ahistorical enigma or a prize to be won in a competition. It is a proud continent which broke free from imperialism around the same time as China broke free from imperialism. And at the 1955 Bandung Conference both Africa and China invested in freedom from empire and peaceful cooperation. No evidence to date suggests that China has disavowed the spirit of Bandung.

In stark contrast, the U.S.—around 1950—chose to partner with Western Europe (NATO) rather than with the world. It chose empire. It chose to violently oppose “Bandung.” It chose war, racism and the neoliberal apocalypse. If Africa must now choose between China and the U.S., the choice is obvious.

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Notes

  1. Ken Moriyasu, Ryo Nakamura and Kaori Yoshida, “Great power competition: US boosts Africa diplomacy on land and sea,” February 25, 2021, www.asia.nikkei.com
  2. Hal Brands and Zack Cooper, “U.S.-Chinese Rivalry Is a Battle Over Values,” March 16, 2021, www.foreignaffairs.com
  3. Pedro Ramos, “Cape Verde: A Blueprint for China’s Positive Role in Africa,” The Diplomat, October 28, 2016.
  4. Andreia Nogueira, “New multi-million dollar island campus a ‘significant’ expansion,” October 15, 2020, www.universityworldnews.com
  5. Ribeira Grande is now called Cidade Velha.
  6. Jarele E. Soyinka, “Opulence and Opium: The Legacy of Harvard’s Drug Syndicate,” March 30, 2017, www.thecrimson.com; Martha Bebinger, “How Profits From Opium Shaped 19th-Century Boston,” July 31, 2017, www.wbur.org
  7. Amilcar Cabral, speech before the Third Conference of the African Peoples in Cairo, March 1961, Yves Benot, and Nzongola-Ntalaja. “Amilcar Cabral and the International Working Class Movement.” Latin American Perspectives, vol. 11, no. 2, 1984, pp. 81-96. JSTORwww.jstor.org/stable/2633523. Accessed March 15, 2021.
  8. Curry Malott, Amilcar Cabral: Liberator, theorist and educator, January 20, 2021, www.liberationschool.org
  9. The Ten Principles of Bandung, www.china daily.com.cn, updated April 23, 2005.
  10. N.D. Jayaprakash, “Why the CIA Tried to Kill Chou En Lai,” July 9, 2005, www.counterpunch.org
  11. Zhou Enlai, formal address to a mass rally in Mogadishu, February 3, 1964, Strauss, Julia C. “The Past in the Present: Historical and Rhetorical Lineages in China’s Relations with Africa.” The China Quarterly, no. 199, 2009, pp. 777–795. JSTORwww.jstor.org/stable/27756501. Accessed March 15, 2021.
  12. Jiang Zemin, Towards a new historical milestone in Sino-African friendship, 1996, Strauss, Julia C. “The Past in the Present: Historical and Rhetorical Lineages in China’s Relations with Africa.” The China Quarterly, no. 199, 2009, pp. 777–795. JSTORwww.jstor.org/stable/27756501. Accessed Mar 15, 2021.
  13. Zhu Rongji, “Strengthen Solidarity, Enhance Cooperation and Pursue Common Development,” October 12, 2000, FOCAC Beijing Summit, www.china.org.cn
  14. Jiang Zemin, “China and Africa-Usher in the New Century Together,” FOCAC Beijing Summit 2000, www.china.org.cn
  15. Pedro Ramos, “Cape Verde: A Blueprint For China’s Positive Role in Africa,” October 28, 2016, www.thediplomat.com; Christopher Marc “Lilyblad, Cape Verde is Emerging as a Global Pivot Point,” October 20, 2020, www.foreignpolicy.com; Roncevert Ganan Almond, “Cabo Verde’s Gamble: Chinese Island-Building in the Atlantic,” April 25, 2017, www.thediplomat.com
  16. Amilcar Cabral, The Development of the Struggle, Declaration made to the OSPAAAL General Secretariat December 1968, www.marxists.org
  17. Garikai Chengu, “Libya: From Africa’s Wealthiest Democracy Under Gaddafi to Terrorist Haven After US Intervention,” October 20, 2015, www.counterpunch.org
  18. ANSAmed, China in Libya – investments and neutrality, www.ansamed.info; Tania Branigan, “China looks to protect its assets in a post-Gaddafi Libya,” August 23, 2011, www.theguardian.com
  19. Fatma Naib, “Slavery in Libya: Life Inside a Container,” January 26, 2018, www.aljazeera.com
  20. Andrea Duleux, “Slavery and Human Trafficking in Libya,” February 14, 2020, www.borgenmagazine.com
  21. Corbett Daly, “Clinton on Qaddafi: ‘We came, we saw, he died,’” October 20, 2011, www.cbsnews.com
  22. What We Do, AFRICOM Mission Statement, www.africom.mil
  23. Nick Turse, “Pentagon’s Own Map of U.S. Bases in Africa Contradicts Its Claim of ‘Light’ Footprint,” February 27, 2020, www.theintercept.com
  24. Danny Sjursen, “The future of war, American-style,” February 3, 2021, www.salon.com
  25. Basil Enwegbara, “Toxic Colonialism, Lawrence Summers And Let Africans Eat Pollution,” April 6, 2001, www.the tech.com 
  26. Ibid.
  27. George Caffentzis, “Neoliberalism in Africa, Apocalyptic Failures and Business as Usual Practices,” Fall 2002, ALTERNATIVES Turkish Journal of International Relations, www.dergipark.org.tr
  28. Wade Shepard, “What China Is Really Up To In Africa,” October 3, 2019, www.forbes.com

Featured image: Chinese President Xi Jinping (right) meets with Cape Verde’s Prime Minister Ulisses Correia e Silva at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, Sept. 6, 2018. [Source: xinhuanet.com]

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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Israeli lawyers and human rights activists Arie Suchovolsky and Ruth Machnes have filed a petition against Israel claiming that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israeli Minister of Health Yuli Edelstein have violated Nuremberg codes against experimenting on humans by making deals with with Pfizer/Biontech to deliver Israel’s citizens as subjects for experimental genetic treatment by using draconian measures to force them to take Pfizer’s vaccine.

Click here to listen to the interview. This was removed by YouTube.

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At some level of extreme wealth, money inevitably corrupts… it buys political power, it silences dissent, it serves primarily to perpetuate ever-greater wealth, often unrelated to any reciprocal social good.”(Farhad Manjoo(1))

Distorting Politics – Dark Money and Oligarchy 

In earlier posts I have discussed how powerful companies are able to manipulate politics. This also applies to excessively wealthy individuals. They lobby for policies that benefit themselves, even if they hurt society. They actively work to shrink the role of government in helping the poor, to decrease social security, to cut taxes for the rich, to cut regulation of big business, to allow the environment to be destroyed, and to privatise more and more. They do this by funding politicians who share these views.

They promote ideas that will make the rich richer and the poor poorer, even though they are unpopular with many people. This has decreased the willingness of our political leaders to deal with real problems.(2) Most wealthy people do not care about unemployment, food banks or homelessness. They are more interested in legalising ever more complex forms of tax manipulation.

They spend a great deal of what is known as ‘dark money’ under the radar to influence these politicians.(3) They do it very quietly, with no media discussion, no transparency and no accountability. The billionaire Koch brothers are notorious for operating businesses engaged in corporate wrongdoing. They increase their wealth by doing things that harm society, but they are also notorious for spending huge amounts to manipulate politics. One writer described the events of the last few decades as an:

“audacious project, decades in the making, to fundamentally change the relationship between the people and the government and to do so permanently in a manner that is designed to pin the proverbial pendulum to the right [in favour of the rich] so that it cannot swing back again.”(4)

Many commentators have pointed out that what we have now in Britain and the US is ‘government by the 1% for the 1%’,(5) or ‘by millionaires for billionaires’. This is known as oligarchy. The wealthy try to ensure that political power is aligned with their economic power. The whole system becomes self-reinforcing. We have a society geared ever more towards the needs of excessively wealthy people, and inequality keeps increasing. We no longer have a functioning democracy. 

The propaganda around immense wealth has been very effective:

“They have justified their wealth by describing themselves as wealth creators, brilliant innovators, or world-changers. They also claim that they are necessary to fill the gaps left by incompetent government. What is missing from this is a discussion about their role in destroying the ability of governments to do things.”(6) 

The evidence indicates that high taxes and high government expenditure are beneficial to societies, yet the rich continually lobby for lower taxes.(7) Tax rates have generally decreased for the richest people over the last few decades. At the same time there has been an increase in other taxes that affect the poor, such as Value Added Tax (VAT). Tax systems would almost certainly be much fairer if the wealthy weren’t so influential in influencing politicians.(8)

The same applies to choices about where governments spend their money. We have seen in earlier posts that governments pay large subsidies to big companies, but there are many other ways for governments to spend money that would be much more useful, such as a properly funded healthcare system, or better social services. Because the rich determine policy, the poor are squeezed in every direction: Lower pay, higher prices, and less support in times of need.

Occasionally we hear discussions about wealth taxes, land taxes or financial transactions taxes. The reason these are not part of policymaking discussions is that the rich successfully keep them out of serious consideration.

Excessive Wealth Undermines Democracy in Poor Countries  

The writer, Oscar Wilde, wrote of philanthropists (rich people who use their money for good causes) many years ago:

“They seriously and very sentimentally set themselves to the task of remedying the evils that they see in poverty, but their remedies do not cure the disease: they merely prolong it…the proper aim [should be] to try and reconstruct society on such a basis that poverty will be impossible.”

The same is true today. People with excessive wealth create foundations which allow them to use their power and wealth to influence events overseas. Billionaires such as George Soros fund political groups, but their opinion of what an ideal society might look like might not be the same as that of the local population. They are therefore undermining democracy.(9) The influence of some excessively-wealthy individuals can be so great that it affects global political issues. A report in 2020 showed that 3 billionaires lobbied US President Trump to undermine an important negotiation with Iran.(10)

Other rich people use foundations to try to influence the policies of charitable and international organisations.(11) The most notorious example of this is Bill Gates, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Gates has been manipulating policy on health, farming and education, among other things. Strategies include placing people in international organisations, and gaining privileged access to policymakers.

Gates is influential at the World Health Organisation, and there is a revolving door between his foundation and the big pharmaceutical companies.(12) He provides medicines in poor countries by buying them from those companies, but he doesn’t challenge the patent system, which stops poor countries making their own medicines in the first place. His policy recommendations involve ideas like technology in schools, which increases Microsoft profits and enriches himself.

Foundations have been widely criticised for isolated and poorly coordinated solutions; for spreading corporate farming, and opening up African markets to US agriculture and biotechnology companies; for financial arrangements (known as public-private partnerships) that have already been disastrous in rich countries; and for possibly weakening public health systems in developing countries.(13) Many of these policies create downsides for local populations. The focus becomes whatever rich, white donors are interested in, instead of what might be the top priorities for people in recipient countries.

The people who set up these foundations made their wealth by exploiting the economic system to extract wealth from everyone else, and being among the greediest profiteers in history.(14) They are unlikely to be the right people to set up long-term policies for poor countries. Modern researchers have echoed Wilde’s sentiment:

“Appealing to the megarich to be more charitable is not a solution to global health problems. We need a system that does not create so many billionaires and, until we do that, this kind of philanthropy is either a distraction or potentially harmful to the need for systemic change.”(15) 

Controlling the News – Distorting How We Think About The World

In earlier posts we also saw that the mainstream media in Britain and the US have become a propaganda system controlled by excessively wealthy individuals, or governments. We also saw how the positive presentation of historical wealth by the media plays a propaganda role. Media output is distorted to serve the interests of their owners, which usually means the interests of rich people in general. Even mainstream commentators, such as Paul Krugman,(16) have commented on the extent to which the richest people get to define the agenda. The former US Secretary of Labour, Robert Reich, has said:

“They have employed one of the oldest methods used by the wealthy to maintain wealth and power – a belief system that portrays wealth and power in the hands of a few as natural and inevitable”(17)

All problems, and their possible solutions, are presented within a narrow framework, which fails to question the status quo, to challenge excess wealth, or to question how the economic and financial systems really work. The really important criticisms of the system are rarely discussed. It therefore becomes difficult to understand why many people are poor, or for members of the public to engage meaningfully in policy discussions. 

The media reinforces the idea that we should define success by how much money we have. Discussions about redefining success in other terms, such as happiness, culture, selflessness and helping others, rarely receive mainstream attention.

People Used To Talk About This 

The serious downsides of excessive wealth have been known for many years, and measures were put in place to decrease its effects at various times in the past. In the US from 1936-1980 the top tax rate never dropped below 70%.(18) In the UK, the top rate of tax peaked at 98%.(19) It is only in the last 40 years that these downsides have been ignored by most politicians and by most of the mainstream media. They unquestioningly assume that it’s ok to have extremely rich people and extreme inequality. 

What Can Be Done? Plutocracy Prevention Program 

Britain and the US could easily provide a high standard of living, and good quality of life, to all their citizens. Their failure to do so is a conscious choice by the rich and powerful, whose primary goal is manipulating the system to benefit themselves. Some people in the US are beginning to talk about this, with suggestions for income tax rates of up to 70%, and the introduction of taxes on existing wealth of 2-3%.(20) These would produce significant revenues for the government, but they are only a small fraction of what is required to eliminate vast concentrations of wealth.Taxing income at 70% still leaves some people with incomes of $250 billion / year. Wealth taxes of 2-3% would also leave the richest people becoming richer by billions of dollars / year.

These mainstream conversations are a sign of how the range of possibilities that are considered reasonable is limited to fit within the existing framework. The proposals don’t get to the source of the problem, which is that the entire economic system is rigged to make the rich richer. If we accept that excessive wealth is harmful to society then we need to transform the system so that the highest incomes drop to a small fraction of what they are now, and remove existing concentrations of wealth.

We would have to change many parts of the existing system. We would have to end all mechanisms that allow powerful people and companies to extract excess wealth from everyone else. The first step is to overcome decades of corporate propaganda, which brainwashes us into thinking that the existing system is reasonable. We have to begin a conversation where all options are discussed, with nothing ruled out because it is difficult. This would include challenging the right of people or organisations to own or control unlimited wealth.

For example, some people recommend an estate tax (inheritance tax in the UK) to reduce inheritances, but this still allows billions to be inherited. Instead, if we had a limit of say £100,000 (or dollars) as the maximum that anyone can inherit in their lifetime, it would transform the situation. Some people have even suggested ending inheritance altogether.(21) These ideas would require changes to many parts of the legal system, such as trusts, offshore accounts, and control of big companies, but should be discussed seriously.

A complementary approach is to reduce the role of wealth in leading a comfortable life. If the poorest people have excellent, free healthcare, an affordable home, and enough income to do what they consider important, then wealth becomes unnecessary. However, when billionaires manipulate politics, this approach is undermined. We therefore also need policies to reduce the power and political influence of those with excessive wealth, in order to allow for a much broader, wide-ranging discussion of possible options.

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Rod Driver is a part-time academic who is particularly interested in de-bunking modern-day US and British propaganda, and explaining war, terrorism, economics and poverty, without the nonsense in the mainstream media. This article was first posted at medium.com/elephantsintheroom

Notes 

1) Farhad Manjoo, ‘Abolish Billionaires’, New York Times, at https://medium.com/new-york-times-opinion/abolish-billionaires-c87593db0c22

2) Nancy Maclean, Democracy in Chains: The deep history of the radical right’s stealth plan for America, 2017

3) George Monbiot, ‘How US Billionaires are fuelling the hard-right cause in Britain’, The Guardian, 7 Dec 2018, at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/07/us-billionaires-hard-right-britain-spiked-magazine-charles-david-koch-foundation 

4) Nancy Maclean, ‘Capturing Democracy’, in EPI, ‘Taxing the (Very) Rich: Finding the Cure for Excessive Wealth Disorder’, Economic Policy Institute, 25 Jun 2019, at https://www.epi.org/event/taxing-the-very-rich-finding-the-cure-for-excessive-wealth-disorder/

5) Joseph Stiglitz, ‘Of the 1%, By the 1%, For the 1%’, Vanity Fair, 31 March 2011, at https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2011/05/top-one-percent-201105 

6) Unknown speaker, taken from EPI, ‘Taxing the (Very) Rich: Finding the Cure for Excessive Wealth Disorder’, Economic Policy Institute, 25 Jun 2019, at https://www.epi.org/event/taxing-the-very-rich-finding-the-cure-for-excessive-wealth-disorder/

7) ‘The super-rich and Us, part 1’, at https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2eiirb

‘The super-rich and us Part 2’, at https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x67qpdu

8) EPI, ‘Taxing the (Very) Rich: Finding the Cure for Excessive Wealth Disorder’, Economic Policy Institute, 25 Jun 2019, at https://www.epi.org/event/taxing-the-very-rich-finding-the-cure-for-excessive-wealth-disorder/ 

9) Daniel Bessner, The George Soros Philosophy – and its fatal flaw, The Guardian, 6 July 2018, at https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/jul/06/the-george-soros-philosophy-and-its-fatal-flaw 

10) Philip Weiss and James North, ‘Adelsons got a lot from Trump for $75 million – But media won’t tell you what’, 16 Oct 2020, at https://www.globalresearch.ca/adelsons-got-lot-trump-75-million-media-wont-tell-you-what/5727752

11 Chuck Collins ‘A cure for Excessive Wealth Disorder’, Commondreams, 3 April 2019 https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/04/03/cure-excessive-wealth-disorder 

12) Andrew Bowman, ‘The flip side to Bill Gates’ charity billions’, New Internationalist, 1 April 2012, at  https://newint.org/features/2012/04/01/bill-gates-charitable-giving-ethics

13) John Vidal, ‘Are Gates and Rockefeller Using Their Influence to Set Agenda in Poor States?’, The Guardian, 15 Jan 2016, at https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/jan/15/bill-gates-rockefeller-influence-agenda-poor-nations-big-pharma-gm-hunger 

14) Aditya Chakrabortty, ‘Winners Take All by Anand Giridharadas review – superb hate-reading’, The Guardian, 14 Feb 2019, at https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/feb/14/winners-take-all-by-anand-giridharadas-review 

15) David McCoy, cited in Andrew Bowman, ‘The flip side to Bill Gates’ charity billions’, New Internationalist, 1 April 2012, at  https://newint.org/features/2012/04/01/bill-gates-charitable-giving-ethics

16) Paul Krugman, ‘Taxing the very rich: finding the cure for excessive wealth disorder’, 25 Jun 2019, at https://www.epi.org/event/taxing-the-very-rich-finding-the-cure-for-excessive-wealth-disorder/ 

Paul Krugman, ‘Notes on Excessive Wealth Disorder’, New York Times, 22 June 2019, at https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/22/opinion/notes-on-excessive-wealth-disorder.html 

17) Robert Reich, ‘To reverse inequality, we need to expose the myth of the ‘free market’, The Guardian, 9 Dec 2020, at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/dec/09/inequality-free-market-myth-billionaires 

18) Henry Blodget, ‘The truth about taxes: Here’s how high today’s rates really are’, Busines Insider, 12 July 2011, at https://www.businessinsider.com/history-of-tax-rates?r=US&IR=T 

19) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxation_in_the_United_Kingdom

20) EPI, ‘Taxing the (Very) Rich: Finding the Cure for Excessive Wealth Disorder’, Economic Policy Institute, 25 Jun 2019, at https://www.epi.org/event/taxing-the-very-rich-finding-the-cure-for-excessive-wealth-disorder/ 

21) James Butler, ‘Inherited wealth is an injustice’, The Guardian, 26 Mar 2014, at https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/26/inherited-wealth-injustice-lets-end-it

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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Twenty years ago, a group of neoconservative think tanks used their power to push for disastrous wars in the Middle East. Now, a new set of think tanks staffed with many of the same experts and funded by Taiwanese money is working hard to convince Americans that there is a new existential threat: China.

At MintPress, we have been at the forefront of exposing how Middle Eastern dictatorships and weapons contractors have been funneling money into think tanks and political action committees, keeping up a steady drumbeat for more war and conflict around the world. Yet one little-discussed nation that punches well above its weight in spending cash in Washington is Taiwan.

By studying Taiwan’s financial reports, MintPress has ascertained that the semi-autonomous island of 23 million people has, in recent years, given out millions of dollars to many of the largest and most influential think tanks in the United States. This has coincided with a strong upsurge in anti-China rhetoric in Washington, with report after report warning of China’s economic rise and demanding that the U.S. intervene more in China-Taiwan disputes.

These think tanks are filled with prominent figures from both parties and have the ears of the most powerful politicians in Washington. It is in their offices that specialists draw up papers and incubate ideas that become tomorrow’s policies. They also churn out experts who appear in agenda-setting media, helping to shape and control the public debate on political and economic issues.

Twenty years ago, a group of neoconservative think tanks like the Project for a New American Century, funded by foreign governments and weapons manufacturers, used their power to push for disastrous wars in the Middle East. Now, a new set of think tanks, staffed with many of those same experts who provided the intellectual basis for those invasions, is working hard to convince Americans that there is a new existential threat: China.

A fistful of dollars

In 2019, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States (TECRO) — for all intents and purposes, the Taiwanese embassy — donated between $250,000 and $499,999 to the Brookings Institute, commonly identified as the world’s most influential think tank. Taiwanese tech companies have also given large sums to the organization. In turn, Brookings Institute staff like Richard C. Bush (a former member of the National Intelligence Council and a U.S. national intelligence officer for East Asia) vociferously champion the cause of Taiwanese nationalists and routinely condemn Beijing’s attempts to bring the island more closely under control.

TECRO think tanks

TECRO featured prominently among myriad defense interests on the donor rolls for both the Atlantic Council, left, and Brookings Institute

Last week, Brookings held an event called “Taiwan’s quest for security and the good life,” which began with the statement that “Taiwan is rightly praised for its democracy. Elections are free, fair, and competitive; civil and political rights are protected.” It went on to warn that the “most consequential” challenge to the island’s liberty and prosperity is “China’s ambition to end Taiwan’s separate existence.”

According to another organization’s latest financial disclosure, TECRO also gave a six-figure sum to the Atlantic Council, a think tank closely associated with NATO. It is unclear what the Atlantic Council did with that money, but what is certain is that they gave a senior fellowship to Chang-Ching Tu, an academic employed by the Taiwanese military to teach at the country’s National Defense University. In turn, Tu authored Atlantic Council reports describing his country as a “champion [of] global democracy,” and stating that “democracy, freedom and human rights are Taiwan’s core values.” A menacing China, however, is increasing its military threats, so Taiwan must “accelerate its deterrence forces and strengthen its self-defense capabilities.” Thus he advises that the U.S. must work far more closely with Taiwan’s military, conducting joint exercises and moving towards a more formal military alliance. In 2020, the U.S. sold $5.9 billion worth of arms to the island, making it the fifth-largest recipient of American weaponry last year.

Other Taiwan-employed academics have chided the West on the pages of the Council’s website for its insufficient zeal in “deter[ring] Chinese aggression” against the island. “A decision by the United States to back down” — wrote Philip Anstrén, a Swedish recipient of a fellowship from the Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs — “could damage the credibility of U.S. defense guarantees and signal that Washington’s will to defend its allies is weak.” Anstrén also insisted that “Europe’s future is on the line in the Taiwan Strait.” “Western democratic nations have moral obligations vis-à-vis Taiwan,” he added on his blog, “and Western democracies have a duty to ensure that [Taiwan] not only survives but also thrives.”

The reason this is important is that the Atlantic Council is an enormously influential think tank. Its board of directors is a who’s-who in foreign policy statecraft, featuring no fewer than seven former CIA directors. Also on the board are many of the architects of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, including Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and James Baker. When organizations like this begin beating the war drums, everybody should take note.

Perhaps the most strongly anti-Beijing think tank in Washington is the conservative Hudson Institute, an organization frequented by many of the Republican Party’s most influential figures, including former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former Vice-President Mike Pence and Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton. The words “China” or “Chinese” appear 137 times in Hudson’s latest annual report, so focused on the Asian nation are they. Indeed, reading their output, it often appears they care about little else but ramping up tensions with Beijing, condemning it for its treatment of Hong Kong, Taiwan and Uyghur Muslims, and warning of the economic and military threat of a rising China.

Pompeo Hudson China

An excerpt from a 2020 Hudson Institue report on existential threats to the United States

Over the years, Hudson’s efforts have been sustained by huge donations from TECRO. The Hudson Institute does not disclose the exact donations any sources give, but their annual reports show that TECRO has been on the highest tier of donors ($100,000+) every year since they began divulging their sponsors in 2015. In February, Hudson Senior Fellow Thomas J. Duesterberg wrote an op-ed for Forbes entitled “The Economic Case for Prioritizing a U.S.-Taiwan Free Trade Agreement,” in which he extolled Taiwan’s economy as modern and dynamic and portrayed securing closer economic ties with it as a no-brainer. Hudson employees have also traveled to Taiwan to meet and hold events with leading foreign ministry officials there.

The Hudson Institute also recently partnered with the more liberal Center for American Progress (CAP) to host an event with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, who took the opportunity to make a great number of inflammatory statements about the “ever more challenging threats to free and democratic societies” China poses; applaud the U.S.’ actions on Hong Kong; and talk about how Taiwan honors and celebrates those who died at the Tiananmen Square massacre. TECRO gave the CAP between $50,000 and $100,000 last year.

It is the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), however, that appears to receive the most Taiwanese money. According to its donor list, Taiwan gives as much money to it as the United States does — at least $500,000 last year alone. Yet all of the Taiwanese government money is put into CSIS’s regional studies (i.e., Asia) program. Like Hudson employees, the CSIS calls for a free trade agreement with Taiwan and has lavished praise on the nation for its approach to tackling disinformation, describing it as a “thriving democracy and a cultural powerhouse.” Although acknowledging that the reports were paid for by TECRO, CSIS insists that “all opinions expressed herein should be understood to be solely those of the authors and are not influenced in any way by any donation.” In December, the CSIS also held a debatesuggesting that “[w]ithin the next five years, China will use significant military force against a country on its periphery,” exploring what the U.S. response to such an action should be.

Like the Atlantic Council, the CSIS organization is stacked with senior officials from the national security state. Its president and CEO is former Deputy Secretary of Defense John Hamre, while Henry Kissinger — former secretary of state and the architect of the Vietnam War — also serves on its council.

The CSIS accepts money from the Global Taiwan Institute and the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy (TFD) as well. The former is a rather shadowy pro-Taiwanese group that appears not to disclose its funding sources. The latter is a government-funded organization headed by former Taiwanese President You Si-kun. Every year, the TFD publishes a human rights report on China, the latest of which claims that “the Chinese Communist Party knows no bounds when it comes to committing serious human rights violations” — accusing it of “taking the initiative” in “promoting a new Cold War over the issue of human rights” and trying to “replace the universal standing of human rights values around the world.” Ultimately, the report concludes, China “constitutes a major challenge to democracy and freedom in the world.”

CSIS Taiwan

Joseph Hwang of The War College in Taiwan speaks at a CSIS about how Taiwan acts a buffer to protect US data infrustructure from China

The TFD has also been a major funder of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, a far-right pressure group that insists that Communism has killed over 100 million people worldwide. Last year, the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation added all global COVID-19 fatalities to the list of Communist-caused deaths on the basis that the virus started in China. The Foundation also employs Adrian Zenz, a German evangelical theologian who is the unlikely source of many of the most controversial and contested claims about Chinese repression in Xinjiang province.

In the past 12 months, TECRO has also donated six-figure sums to many other prominent think tanks, including the German Marshall Fund of the United States, the Center for a New American Security, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. MintPress reached out to a number of these think tanks for comment but has not received any response.

“It would be naive to believe that Taiwan’s funding of think tanks is not pushing them to take pro-Taiwan or anti-China positions,” Ben Freeman, the director of the Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative at the Center for International Policy, told MintPress, adding:

After all, why would Taiwan keep funding think tanks that are critical of Taiwan? There’s a Darwinian element to foreign funding of think tanks that pushes foreign government funding to think tanks that write what that foreign government wants them to write. Taiwan is no exception to this rule.”

TECRO is not just sponsoring American think tanks, however. It has also given funds to the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), a hawkish and controversial group described as “the think tank behind Australia’s changing view of China.” The country’s former ambassador in Beijing described ASPI as “the architect of the China threat theory in Australia” while Senator Kim Carr of Victoria denounced them as working hand-in-hand with Washington to push “a new Cold War with China.” ASPI was behind Twitter’s decision last year to purge more than 170,000 accounts sympathetic to Beijing from its platform.

“We must be ready to fight our corner as Taiwan tensions rise,” ASPI wrote in January, having previously castigated the West for being “no longer willing to defend Taiwan.”

ASPI — like Brookings, the Atlantic Council and others — are directly funded by weapons manufacturers, all of whom also have a direct interest in promoting more wars around the world. Thus, if the public is not careful, certain special interests might be helping move the United States towards yet another international conflict.

While the situation outlined above is concerning enough, the Foreign Influence Transparency Initiative’s research has shown that around one-third of think tanks still do not provide any information whatsoever about their funding, and very few are completely open about their finances. Freeman maintains that, while there is nothing inherently wrong with foreign governments funding Western think tanks, the lack of transparency is seriously problematic, explaining:

This raises a lot of questions about the work they’re doing. Are their secret funders saying what the think tank can do in a pay-for-play scheme? Are the funders buying the think tanks silence on sensitive issues? Without knowing the think tank’s funders, policymakers and the public have no idea if the think tank’s work is objective research or simply the talking points of a foreign government.”

Freeman’s study of the Taiwanese lobby found that seven organizations registered as Taiwan’s foreign agents in the U.S. Those organizations, in turn, contacted 476 Members of Congress (including almost 90% of the House), as well as five congressional committees. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was their most frequent contact, the Californian being contacted 34 times by Taiwanese agents. Pelosi has been a great supporter of Taiwanese nationalists, successfully promoting pro-Taiwan legislation and proudly announcing that the U.S. “stands with Taiwan.”

Foreign agents working on behalf of Taiwan also made 143 political contributions to U.S. politicians, with former Alabama Senator Doug Jones the lead recipient (Pelosi was third).

Losing China, regaining Taiwan?

The reports listed above understand the dispute as purely a matter of Chinese belligerence against Taiwan and certainly do not consider U.S. military actions in the South China Sea as aggressive in themselves. That is because the world of think tanks and war planners sees the United States as owning the planet and having a remit to act anywhere on the globe at any time.

To this day, U.S. planners bemoan the “loss of China” in 1949 (a phrase that presupposes the United States owned the country). After a long and bloody Second World War, Communist resistance forces under Mao Tse-tung managed to both expel the Japanese occupation and overcome the U.S.-backed Kuomintang (nationalist) force led by Chang Kai-shek. The United States actually invaded China in 1945, with 50,000 troops working with the Kuomintang and even Japanese forces in an attempt to suppress the Communists. However, by 1949, Mao’s army was victorious; the United States evacuated and Chang Kai-shek retreated to Taiwan.

The Kuomintang ruled the island for 40 years as a one-party state and remains one of the two major political groups to this day. The war between the Communists and the Kuomintang never formally ended, and Taiwan has now lived through 70 years of estrangement from the mainland. Polls show a majority of Taiwanese now favor full independence, although a large majority still personally identify as Chinese.

While many Taiwanese welcome an increased U.S. presence in the region, Beijing certainly does not. In 2012, President Barack Obama announced the U.S.’ new “Pivot to Asia” strategy, moving forces from the Middle East towards China. Today, over 400 American military bases encircle it.

In recent months, the United States has also taken a number of provocative military actions on China’s doorstep. In July, it conducted naval exercises in the South China Sea, with warships and naval aircraft spotted just 41 nautical miles from the coastal megacity of Shanghai, intent on probing China’s coastal defenses. And in December, it flew nuclear bombers over Chinese vessels close to Hainan Island. Earlier this year, the head of Strategic Command made his intentions clear, stating that there was a “very real possibility” of war against China over a regional conflict like Taiwan. China, for its part, has also increased its forces in the region, carrying out military exercises and staking claims to a number of disputed islands.

A new Director of National Intelligence (DNI) report notes that China is the U.S.’ “unparalleled priority,” claiming that Beijing is making a “push for global power.” “We expect that friction will grow as Beijing steps up attempts to portray Taipei as internationally isolated and dependent on the mainland for economic prosperity, and as China continues to increase military activity around the island,” it concludes.

In an effort to stop this, Washington has recruited allies into the conflict. Australian media are reporting that their military is currently readying for war in an effort to force China to back down, while last week President Joe Biden met with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga to shore up a united front against Beijing vis-a-vis Taiwan.

In February, the Atlantic Council penned an anonymous 26,000-word report advising Biden to draw a number of red lines around China, beyond which a response — presumably military — is necessary. These included any military action or even a cyber attack against Taiwan. Any backing down from this stance, the council states, would result in national “humiliation” for the United States.

Perhaps most notably, however, the report also envisages what a successful American China policy would look like by 2050:

[T]he United States and its major allies continue to dominate the regional and global balance of power across all the major indices of power;… [and head of state Xi Jinping] has been replaced by a more moderate party leadership; and … the Chinese people themselves have come to question and challenge the Communist Party’s century-long proposition that China’s ancient civilization is forever destined to an authoritarian future.”

In other words, that China has been broken and that some sort of regime change has occurred.

Throughout all this, the United States has been careful to stress that it still does not recognize Taiwan and that their relationship is entirely “unofficial,” despite claiming that its commitment to the island remains “rock solid.” Indeed, only 14 countries formally recognize Taiwan, the largest and most powerful of which is Paraguay.

Along with a military conflict brewing, Washington has also been prosecuting an information and trade war against China on the world stage. Attempts to block the rise of major Chinese companies like Huawei, TikTok and Xiaomi are examples of this. Others in Washington have advised the Pentagon to carry out an under-the-table culture war against Beijing. This would include commissioning “Taiwanese Tom Clancy” novels that would “weaponize” China’s one-child policy against it, bombarding citizens with stories about how their only children will die in a war over Taiwan.

Republicans and Democrats constantly accuse each other of being in President Xi’s pocket, attempting to outdo each other in their jingoistic fervor. Last year, Florida Senator Rick Scottwent so far as to announce that every Chinese national in the U.S. was a Communist spy and should be treated with extreme suspicion. As a result, the American public’s view of China has crashed to an all-time low. Only three years ago, the majority of Americans held a positive opinion of China. But today, that number is only 20%. Asian-Americans of all backgrounds have reported a rise in hate crimes against them.

Cash rules everything around me

How much of the United States’ aggressive stance towards China can be attributed to Taiwanese money influencing politics? It is difficult to say. Certainly, the United States has its own policy goals in East Asia outside of Taiwan. But Freeman believes that the answer is not zero. The Taiwan lobby “absolutely has an impact on U.S. foreign policy,” he said, adding:

At one level, it creates an echo-chamber in D.C. that makes it taboo to question U.S. military ties with Taiwan. While I, personally, think there are good strategic reasons for the U.S. to support this democratic ally — and it’s clearly in Taiwan’s interest to keep the U.S. fully entangled in their security — it’s troubling that the D.C. policy community can’t have an honest conversation about what U.S. interests are. But, Taiwan’s lobby in D.C. and their funding of think tanks both work to stifle this conversation and, frankly, they’ve been highly effective.”

Other national lobbies affect U.S. policy. The Cuban lobby helps ensure that the American stance towards its southern neighbor remains as antagonistic as possible. Meanwhile, the Israel lobby helps ensure continuing U.S. support for Israeli actions in the Middle East. Yet more ominously with Taiwan, its representatives are helping push the U.S. closer towards a confrontation with a nuclear power.

While Taiwanese money appears to have convinced many in Washington, it is doubtful that ordinary Americans will be willing to risk a war over an island barely larger than Hawaii, only 80 miles off the coast of mainland China.

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Alan MacLeod is Senior Staff Writer for MintPress News. After completing his PhD in 2017 he published two books: Bad News From Venezuela: Twenty Years of Fake News and Misreporting and Propaganda in the Information Age: Still Manufacturing Consent, as well as a number of academic articles. He has also contributed to FAIR.orgThe GuardianSalonThe GrayzoneJacobin Magazine, and Common Dreams.

The Globalist Takeover of the American Educational System

April 26th, 2021 by somebitchtoldme.com

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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Summary

It’s easy to look at the individual things that are happening in our country as just that: individual things. However, that would also be quite naïve. In a recent push in our public schools to “achieve equity” and “dismantle racism” you see a lot of the same narratives, even in separate school districts across the country that seemingly have nothing to do with each other other than the fact that they’re schools.

This deep dive will explore changes being made to Virginia’s school curriculum that aims to rid its educational system of any advanced math courses for primary school students before grade 11. The reasoning behind this is to make education more equitable for all students, going on to say that students must “give up their privilege” to make it happen.

This language has been bought and paid for primarily by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (who else could be behind it at this point, really?). If you didn’t know already, Bill Gates was also the nearly-singular force behind the funding and political push to get our nation’s K-12 educational system onto Common Core. And now he’s behind the new ‘racial equity’ push set out to “challenge the ways that math is used to uphold capitalist, imperialist, and racist views.”

Why does this matter?

Bill Gates is the second largest funder of the United Nations. Second only to the United States (yes, the entire country) alone.

His vision for this earth aligns greatly with the “Sustainable Development” model and Agenda 2030 touted by the UN, which derives directly from Agenda 21. And no, Agenda 21 is not a “conspiracy theory.” It’s real, and anyone who tries to convince you otherwise is a liar and a snake.

By radically changing the way our children are educated, we also change the way they think.

The way they see themselves within this world, and the way they interact with those who see it differently. It would be genius if it weren’t evil.

At a glance, it seems that the people involved in the shift in our educational system have nothing to do with Gates. However, if you dive deep into the organizations and people pushing it, you’ll find ties and thought processes shared by the same small cluster of globalist organizations and their ultra-wealthy lackeys.

Namely: The United Nations, The World Economic Forum, and Bill Gates, along with a slew of nonprofits that surround and support them filled with globalist sycophants.

A few days ago I decided to plot out a rudimentary map of the web of connections to make sure I wasn’t just crazy.

I’m not. See below:

Click here to see larger image.

So, without further ado, this is the story of how the Globalist cabal took complete control of America’s educational system without anyone noticing it happened. You can click the sections below to skip around this deep dive, or read it all as a whole. Enjoy!

To Read complete article, click here

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Featured image is from BAZA Productions, courtesy of ShutterStock.

The “Russian Threat”

April 26th, 2021 by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts

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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During 2016  CIA director John Brennan and FBI director James Comey, together with the corrupt Democrat party, began orchestrating Russiagate in order to prevent Trump from reducing the risk of nuclear war and by normalizing relations with Russia.  President Trump tried to nip a New Cold War in the bud, but that was not in the interest of the power and profit of the military/security complex which desperately needs the “Russian threat” as its raison d’etre. 

Stephen Cohen, myself and a few others expressed concern that the tensions between the two  nuclear powers were being driven to more dangerous highs than ever existed during the 20th century Cold War.  Many websites joined in debunking the orchestrated Russiagate fabrication.

To discredit these voices, a new website, PropOrNot, suddenly appeared with a list of 200 “Russian agents/dupes.”  Those of us who had raised red flags about Russiagate and the worsening of tensions were on the list. The Washington Post gave the accusation credibility by reporting the PropOrNot accusation that those who dissented from a hostile policy toward Russia were “Putin agents.”

A number of the falsely accused websites were intimidated and abandoned the truth.  CounterPunch went even further. It dropped its best and most incisive writers—people such as Mike Whitney and Diana Johnstone.  CounterPunch, which  had once collected, published, and marketed a collection of my essays as a book, suddenly discovered that it preferred fiction over fact.  Other websites that had religiously reproduced all of my columns now became selective about which parts of the official narrative they would permit to be examined on their sites.  This was, perhaps, the beginning of the movement to de-platform all who challenge the narrative.

The threat to truth-tellers has now been elevated by election thief Joe Biden’s latest Executive Order declaring a “national emergency” to “deal with the Russian threat.” Pepe Escobar reports that Biden’s order opens every American to being accused of being a Russian agent engaged in undermining US security. “A sub-paragraph (C), detailing ‘actions or policies that undermine democratic processes or institutions in the United States or abroad,’ is vague enough to be used to eliminate any journalism that supports Russia’s positions in international affairs.”

“Supports Russia’s position” includes an objective description and non-partisan analysis of Russian policy. The crucial point is that, in effect, Biden’s executive order places everyone reporting objectively on Russia’s political positions as a potential threat to the United States. See this 

If we are honest, we will acknowledge that we have undergone the complete collapse of the United States.  Truth is prohibited in the media, school systems, and universities if it conflicts with the elite agendas served by the official narratives. The First Amendment is dead and buried. Free speech is reserved for the official narratives, such as “systemic racism”  and “Russian threat.” Those who exercise their Constitutional right find themselves de-platformed or fired.  

To understand how the victory of propaganda over truth elevates the likelihood of nuclear Armageddon, consider the difference between the 20th century and 21st century cold wars.

In the original Cold War both Soviet and American leaders worked to defuse tensions.  Agreements were made on arms control and the anti-ballistic missile treaty. There were regular meetings or summits between American and Soviet leaders.  Diplomatic decorum was maintained.  There were agreements that permitted each side to inspect the other’s compliance.  

This process began with President John F. Kennedy and  Soviet First Secretary Nicolai S. Khrushchev.  It continued through President Reagan and, more or less, President George H. W. Bush.  It ended with the Clinton regime and has been downhill ever since. 

President Trump intended to reduce the dangerous tensions, but was not permitted.  Indeed, his intent was sufficient cause for the Establishment to drive him from office.  2020 was a coup, not an election.

In the 20th century Cold War Russian experts differed in their assessments of the threat, and their differences were publicly aired. Differing assessments were debated. Dissenters were not demonized as Russian agents.  Today American Russian experts find that being Russophobic is a career boost. In the 20th century the New York Times and Washington Post were aligned with peace efforts. Today they are part of the neoconservative warmongers’ propaganda ministry.

The alarming conclusion is that since the Clinton regime, the US government has worked consistently to worsen relations with Russia even to the extent of publicly demonizing the Russian president and strangling objective debate in the US.  This is the perfect foundation for war.

All the while insouciant Americans elected governments that successively raised the likelihood of nuclear annihiliation while shutting down dissident concerns.  As I reported on March 17, “In the United States Russian Studies has degenerated into propaganda.  Recently, two members of the Atlantic Council think tank, Emma Ashford and Matthew Burrows, suggested that American foreign policy could benefit from a less hostile approach to Russia. Instantly, 22 members of the think tank denounced the article by Ashford and Burrows.”

Today even in Republican and conservative circles to question Putin’s demonization raises disapproving eyebrows (the same for China and Iran).  The US Establishment has succeeded in labeling objective analysis as “pro-Russian” (or pro-Chinese or pro-Iranian). This means that an objective view of US/Russian relations is off-limits to US policymakers.  

The “Russian threat” is another hoax, one that will destroy the world.

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Dr. Paul Craig Roberts writes on his blog site, PCR Institute for Political Economy, where this article was originally published. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from The Intercept

Why the U.S. Embargo Against Cuba?

April 26th, 2021 by Jacob G. Hornberger

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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Now that Cuban president Raul Castro has resigned the presidency of Cuba, will the U.S. government lift its six-decades-long economic embargo against Cuba?

Don’t count it. Squeezing the life out of the Cuban people as a way to get regime change has become such a normalized way of life for the United States that it is unlikely that this cruel and brutal policy will be ended anytime soon.

Back in the day, the embargo was justified as part of the Cold War against “godless communism” and, specifically, the international communist conspiracy that was supposedly based in Moscow, Russia and that supposedly threatened to envelope the United States and the rest of the world. (Yes, that Russia, the one we are being called upon, once again, to treat as our official enemy.) The Pentagon and the CIA steadfastly maintained that the “national security” of the United States was gravely threatened by a communist outpost only 90 miles away from American shores.

But when the Cold War suddenly and unexpectedly came to an end in 1989, the embargo just kept going and going. And even though Fidel Castro has now passed, and his brother Raul is now out of the presidency, there is no push within the federal government to finally bring an end to this cruel and brutal program.

What’s up with that? The U.S. government doesn’t have an embargo against communist Vietnam, whose northern half killed some 58,000 American men. Why have an embargo against a country that has never attacked the United States or even threatened to do so?

I suspect that part of the reason is that the CIA has never been able to get over the humiliation of having been defeated when its ragtag army of Cuban exiles invaded Cuba in 1961 in a futile attempt to secure regime change on the island. In fact, my hunch is that the CIA and the Pentagon have never been able to get over the fact that their entire regime-change operations against Cuba, including sabotage, terrorism, and assassination, as well as the embargo, failed to oust the communist regime and replace it with a U.S.-installed regime, one that would, once again, do the bidding of the U.S. government.

In the ultimate analysis, it’s all about empire and control. During the Spanish-American War in 1898, the U.S. came to the defense of Cuba in its war for independence from the Spanish Empire. Once Spain was defeated, however, the U.S. government double-crossed the Cubans and refused to permit them their independence. Instead, the fledgling U.S. Empire simply replaced the Spanish Empire.

The U.S. Empire then proceeded to control Cuba for the next 60 years through a succession of pro-U.S. dictators who agreed to do the bidding of the U.S. government. They were what are sometimes referred to as “puppets”—dancing to the strings of U.S. control. That’s in fact how the U.S. government got its imperial outpost in Cuba’s Guantanamo Bay. The U.S. government’s puppet regime in Havana gave that portion of Cuba to the United States.

One of the U.S. puppets was Fulgencio Batista, a corrupt pro-U.S. tyrant who was ousted by the Cuban revolution in 1959. One of his programs was to have his government goons go out into the Cuban countryside and kidnap young girls — minors. They would then bring them back to Havana, where they would be handed over to the Mafia-controlled casinos, which were giving Batista a cut of the action. The girls would be handed over to the high-rollers in the casinos as sexual favors.

U.S. officials loved Batista and were hoping that he would remain in power. It was not to be. The person who instigated the revolution was a woman named Celia Sanchez, who had a young girlfriend who was kidnapped by Batista’s goons and then raped as a sexual favor in the Mafia’s casinos.

What the Pentagon and the CIA want today is to resume control over Cuba with another pro-U.S. dictator who will do their bidding, just like before the Cuban revolution. That’s what the embargo is all about. That’s why they continue to target the Cuban people with death and economic privation. They want to resume control over Cuba, and they want it bad.

There is something else to keep in mind about the U.S. government’s relationship with Cuba for the last 60 years: It has always been the U.S. government that has been the aggressor. It is the U.S. government that has targeted the Cuban people with death and economic privation with its embargo. It has been the U.S. government that has engaged in sabotage and terrorism against the Cuban people. It is the U.S. government that has repeatedly tried to murder Cuban officials, even in partnership with the Mafia, one of the biggest criminal organizations in the world.

Finally, I would be remiss if I failed to point out that the U.S. government’s embargo against Cuba has always been a direct attack on the natural, God-given rights of freedom of travel and economic liberty of the American people. After all, let’s not forget that Americans are the ones who are arrested, prosecuted, and incarcerated for traveling to Cuba and spending money there without the official consent of their Washington overlords.

If the American people wished to begin restoring a sense of morality to the U.S. government and a small bit of economic freedom to their lives, a good place to begin would be by bringing about an end to the six-decades-old embargo against Cuba. It’s an evil and destructive Cold War dinosaur that deserves extinction.

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Jacob G. Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation. He was born and raised in Laredo, Texas, and received his B.A. in economics from Virginia Military Institute and his law degree from the University of Texas. He was a trial attorney for twelve years in Texas. He also was an adjunct professor at the University of Dallas, where he taught law and economics. In 1987, Mr. Hornberger left the practice of law to become director of programs at the Foundation for Economic Education. He has advanced freedom and free markets on talk-radio stations all across the country as well as on Fox News’ Neil Cavuto and Greta van Susteren shows and he appeared as a regular commentator on Judge Andrew Napolitano’s show Freedom Watch. View these interviews at LewRockwell.com and from Full Context. Send him email.

When America Believed in Eugenics

April 26th, 2021 by Victoria Brignell

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Of relevance to the current debate on Eugenics and Depopulation, this article was first published in December 2010 in the New Statesman.

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In the decades following the publication of Darwin’s Origin of Species, a craze for eugenics spread not only through Britain but through America as well. Overbreeding by the poor and disabled threatened the quality of the human race, American campaigners warned. Drastic measures must be taken to avert a future catastrophe for humanity.

Amid popular fears about the decline of the national stock, one of the main drives behind the formation of American immigration policy at the end of the 19th century was the desire to exclude disabled people. The first major federal immigration law, the Act of 1882, prohibited entry to any ‘lunatic, idiot, or any person unable to take care of himself or herself without becoming a public charge.’

As the eugenics movement gathered strength, the exclusion criteria were gradually tightened to make it easier for immigration officials to keep disabled people out of America. The 1907 law denied entry to anyone judged ‘mentally or physically defective, such mental or physical defects being of a nature which may affect the ability of such alien to earn a living.’ It added ‘imbeciles’ and ‘feeble-minded persons’ to the list of automatically excluded people and inspectors were directed to exclude people with ‘any mental abnormality whatever’. Regulations in 1917 included a long list of disabilities that could be cause for exclusion including arthritis, asthma, deafness, deformities, heart disease, poor eyesight, poor physical development and spinal curvature.

Detecting physical disabilities was a major aspect of the American immigration inspector’s work. The Commissioner General of Immigration reported in 1907: “The exclusion from this country of the morally, mentally and physically deficient is the principal object to be accomplished by the immigration laws.” Inspection regulations stated that each individual ‘should be seen first at rest and then in motion’ in order to detect ‘abnormalities of any description’. It was recommended that inspectors should watch immigrants as they carried their luggage upstairs to see if ‘the exertion would reveal deformities and defective posture’. As one inspector wrote: “It is no more difficult to detect poorly built, defective or broken down human beings than to recognise a cheap or defective automobile.” An abnormal appearance meant a chalked letter on the back – L for lameness, G for goitre, X for mental illness. Once chalked, a closer inspection was required, which meant that other problems were likely to be established.

Preventing disabled people immigrating to America was motivated by both economic and eugenic concerns. Officials wanted to keep out people considered likely to be unemployed and who might transmit their ‘undesirable qualities’ to their offspring. There was widespread support for this approach to immigration. In 1896, Francis Walker noted in the Atlantic Monthly that the necessity of ‘straining out’ immigrants who were ‘deaf, dumb, blind, idiotic, insane, pauper or criminal’ was ‘now conceded by men of all shades of opinion’ and indeed there was a widespread ‘resentment at the attempts of such persons to impose themselves upon us.’ William Green, president of the American Federation of Labor, argued that immigration restrictions were “necessary to the preservation of our national characteristics and to our physical and mental health”. A New York Supreme Court judge feared that the new immigrants were “adding to that appalling number of our inhabitants who handicap us by reason of their mental and physical disabilities.”

Disabled people born in the USA were as despised as disabled immigrants. A leading American-based scientist, Alexis Carrel, who worked at the prestigious Rockefeller Institute in the early years of the 20th century, advocated correcting what he called “an error” in the US Constitution that granted equality to all people. In his best-selling book Man, the Unknown, he wrote: “The feeble-minded and the man of genius should not be equal before the law. The stupid, the unintelligent, those who are dispersed, incapable of attention, of effort, have no right to a higher education.” Arguing that the human race was being undermined by disabled people, he wanted to use medical advances to extend the lives of those he deemed worthy and condemn the rest to death or forced sterilisation. He later praised Hitler for the “energetic measures” he took to prevent the contamination of the human race.

Carrel was not a lone maverick in America. His views were shared by large sections of the American population. While some scientists distanced themselves from him, much of America idolised him and welcomed his ideas. His book sold more than two million copies and thousands of people in America would turn up to hear Carrel’s talks, sometimes filling venues to capacity. He was even awarded the Nobel Prize.

Soon the White House itself was intent on restricting the right of disabled people to reproduce. President Theodore Roosevelt could not have been more blunt: “I wish very much that the wrong people could be prevented entirely from breeding; and when the evil nature of these people is sufficiently flagrant, this should be done. Criminals should be sterilised and feeble-minded persons forbidden to leave offspring behind them”. Theodore Roosevelt created an Heredity Commission to investigate America’s genetic heritage and to encourage “the increase of families of good blood and (discourage) the vicious elements in the cross-bred American civilisation”. Funding for the eugenics cause came from such distinguished sources as the Carnegie Institution and the WK Kellogg Foundation, and support also came from the influential leaders of the oil, steel and railroad industries.

In an effort to prevent unfit offspring from being born, sterilisation laws were introduced in many American states to stop certain categories of disabled people from having children. The first such law was passed in Indiana as early as 1907. This was 26 years before a similar law was introduced by the Nazis in Germany in 1933, The Law for the Prevention of Progeny with Hereditary Disease. In their sterilisation propaganda, the Nazis were able to point to the precedent set by the United States.

From 1907 onwards, many American men, women and children who were “insane, idiotic, imbecile, feebleminded or epileptic” were forcibly sterilised, often without being informed of what was being done to them. The German geneticist Fritz Lenz commented in 1923 that “Germany had nothing to match the eugenics research institutions in England and the United States”. He went on to castigate the Germans for “their backwardness in the domain of sterilisation as compared to the United States, for Germany had no equivalent to the American laws prohibiting marriage… for people suffering from such conditions as epilepsy or mental retardation”.

A landmark Supreme Court case in 1927 upheld America’s sterilisation legislation on the grounds it was necessary “to prevent our being swamped with incompetence”. Judge Holmes, reflecting in his judgement that our “best” citizens may be called on to give up their lives in war, said of sterilising the feeble-minded or insane: “It would be strange if we could not call upon those who already sap the strength of the state for these lesser sacrifices …It is better for all the world if, instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind”.

By 1938, 33 American states permitted the forced sterilisation of women with learning disabilities and 29 American states had passed compulsory sterilisation laws covering people who were thought to have genetic conditions. Laws in America also restricted the right of certain disabled people to marry. More than 36,000 Americans underwent compulsory sterilisation before this legislation was eventually repealed in the 1940s.

America was not the only country in the Western world to introduce compulsory sterilisation of disabled people. Sweden sterilised 60,000 disabled women from 1935 until as late as 1976. Thousands of children labelled as having learning difficulties were sent off to live in “Institutes for Misled and Morally Neglected Children” where they were required to undergo “treatment”. When the extent of Sweden’s sterilisation programme came to light in the 1990s, some heartbreaking stories emerged. One woman was told that she would remain shut away in an institution for the rest of her life if she didn’t agree to be sterilised. She recalled crying as she was forced to sign away her rights to have a baby. Another man described how he and his teenage friends, terrified by the prospect of an operation, hatched a plan to run away. Other countries which passed similar sterilisation laws in the 1920s and 30s included Denmark, Norway and Finland. However, America led the way in promoting such a practice.

With such a prevailing culture, it is not surprising that some disabled Americans felt compelled to remain single voluntarily. According to a recent biography by Lyndall Gordon, the acclaimed American poet Emily Dickinson was epileptic. For this reason, Dickinson chose to spend the second half of her life as a recluse, refusing to leave her father’s house. In middle age, Dickinson had a passionate romance with a widower who wanted to marry her but she turned him down, regarding herself as unfit for marriage. People with epilepsy in America were warned against marrying for fear that sexual arousal might provoke seizures.

Following the first International Eugenics Conference in London in 1912, two more were held, in 1921 and 1932. Both were hosted by New York and both were dominated by America. At the 1921 conference, 41 out of the 53 scientific papers presented were written by Americans and the invitations were even sent out by the American State Department. At one stage, 375 courses covering eugenics were on offer at American universities including Harvard, Colombia and Cornell.

Not only did the American authorities take measures to stop disabled people immigrating, marrying or having children, but there are examples of American disabled people dying needlessly because society believed their lives were not worth living. In 1915 a leading Chicago surgeon Dr Harry Haiselden decided to allow a disabled new-born baby to die. This wasn’t the first time he had permitted a baby with an impairment to die, but no disciplinary action was taken against him. He was investigated three times by different legal authorities and each time they found in his favour. He was expelled from the Chicago Medical Society but only because he wrote newspaper articles about his work, not for his treatment of these children. Indeed, Haiselden received support from many prominent Americans and also won endorsements from some of America’s most well-regarded publications including the New York Timesand the New Republic.

In 1937, a Gallup poll in the USA found that 45 per cent of supported euthanasia for “defective infants”. A year later, in a speech at Harvard, WG Lennox argued that preserving disabled lives placed a strain on society and urged doctors to recognize “the privilege of death for the congenitally mindless and for the incurable sick”. An article published in the journal of the American Psychiatric Association in 1942 called for the killing of all “retarded” children over five years old.

After World War II, the Nuremburg court established by the Allies did not order reparations to be paid to the families of disabled people killed by the Nazis nor that those responsible be punished. German doctors accused of murdering disabled people defended themselves by claiming (with some justification) that they were only implementing ideas which had found support in other countries, including America.

What’s more, the Allied authorities were unable to classify the sterilisations of disabled people in Nazi Germany as war crimes because similar laws either did exist or had recently existed in America and other European countries. The new West German administration only provided compensation for people who had been sterilised against their will if they could prove they had been sterilised outside the provisions of the 1933 sterilisation law – in other words, if they could prove they were not genetically disabled. Following the defeat of the Nazis, compulsory sterilisation ended in Germany but it continued elsewhere in America and Europe. Only in the 1950s was the eugenic philosophy finally discredited in most countries.

There was no wholesale slaughter of disabled people in the UK and USA as there was in Nazi Germany. However, there are disturbing similarities in the history of these countries.

The widespread support given to eugenics in America and Britain shows that many people in these countries shared the values and ideology of the Nazis towards disability. Eugenicists in Britain and America like those in Nazi Germany believed it was socially desirable to prevent the creation of new human beings who might be physically or mentally disabled. Just as the Nazis set out to eliminate disabled people during the Holocaust, so the long-term aim of America’s sterilisation programme was to rid the country of people deemed to be “inadequate”. Although no formal mass sterilisation programme was implemented in the UK, an unknown number of forced or coerced sterilisations occurred in this country.

Forced sterilisation and mass killing are ethically different. But underlying both these measures was the presumption that there are people who are unworthy of life. The Nazis believed that disabled people’s lives had little value and wanted to relieve society of the burden of having to care for people they regarded as useless. We need to recognize that there was a time when such attitudes also received considerable support throughout America and Britain as well.

Social reformers in America and Britain wanted to create a perfect society, but the kind of society they envisaged contained an intolerant, illiberal, authoritarian dimension which allowed no place for disabled people. As Isaiah Berlin once put it, “Disregard for the preferences and interests of individuals alive today in order to pursue some distant social goal that their rulers have claimed is their duty to promote has been a common cause of misery for people throughout the ages.”

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Victoria Brignell works as a radio producer with the BBC. After reading classics at Downing College, Cambridge, she undertook journalism training at Cardiff University. She lives in West London and is 30 years old and is a tetraplegic wheelchair-user.

Taiwan Strait: A Shooting War Involving China, Taiwan and the US?

April 26th, 2021 by Prof. Joseph H. Chung

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We are witnessing the fourth Cross-Strait Crises. Chinese and American armed forces are undertaking dangerous, spectacular and threatening show of military might. 

What makes the present crisis different from the previous ones is the fact that it happened during and after the mutual cold-war declaration by Washington and Beijing in Anchorage, Alaska on March 18-19, 2021

The world is wondering how far this military show will go. Many are afraid of a shooting war involving China, Taiwan and the U.S.

 Indeed, many are even afraid of the possibility of the third world war which will kill us all.

However, I do not share such pessimistic views. My view is that the inter-China cold war is likely to remain cold, not hot, because none of the three actors involved in the conflict – two Chinas and the U.S.- will gain from the shooting war.

The Sino-American shooting war – if there will be one – will be ignited somewhere else.

My argument may be summarized as follows.

First, the U.S. does not want the inter-China hot war, because through its ambiguous Taiwan policy, it can continue to sell weapons to Taiwan and, at the same time, keep Taiwan as the primary outpost of its China containment policy.

Second, China is not eager to declare a hot war with Taiwan, because Taiwan has not provided the reasons for China’s Taiwan invasion.

There are five reasons for China’s Taiwan invasion including the declaration of Taiwan independence, internal turmoil, military alliance with another country, acquisition of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and negotiations under the violation of the 1992 Consensus for “one-China”. None of these conditions are present. Therefore, China has no reason to invade Taiwan.

Third, Taiwan does not want the hot war with China for the reason that it will be most likely defeated and the cost of such defeat will be too high in terms of economic development and the loss of its identity. In fact, if and when China wins, it is likely that the two Chinas will be united under the banner of PRC.

The U.S. does not want inter-China hot War

To understand Washington’s role in the inter-China conflict, it is important to understand its Taiwan policy.

Washington’s Taiwan policy is based on the three joint communiqués, the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979 (TRA) and the Six Assurances imposed by Ronald Reagan in 1982. The followings are the contents of the three Communiqués, TRA and the Six Assurances.

The First China-U.S. Communiqué (28 February 1972)

  • The U.S. Government acknowledges (not accept or recognize) that all Chinese in either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but One China
  • Taiwan is a part of China
  • The U.S. Government does not challenge this position
  • . It reaffirms its interest in peaceful settlement of the Taiwan question by Chinese themselves
  • With this prospect in mind, it affirms its ultimate objective of the withdrawal of all the U.S. forces and military installations from Taiwan. 

The Second China-U.S. Communiqué (January 1, 1979)

  • Neither should seek hegemony in the Asia-Pacific region or any other region of the world.
  • Each is opposed to efforts by any other country or group of countries to establish such hegemony
  • The government of the USA acknowledges the Chinese position that there is but one China and that Taiwan is part of China
  • PRC is the sole legal government of China

Third China-U.S. Communiqué (August 17, 1982)

  • The U.S. Government attaches great importance to its relation with China.
  • It has no intention of infringing on Chinese sovereignty and territorial integrity or interfering in China’s internal affairs or pursuing a policy of ‘two Chinas’ or ‘one China, one Taiwan.’
  • The U.S. Government states that it does not seek to carry out a long-term policy of arms sales to Taiwan
  • Its arms sale to Taiwan will not exceed, either in qualitative or in quantitative terms the level of those supplied in recent years
  • It intends to reduce gradually its sales of arms to Taiwan, leading over a period of time to a final solution.
  • The U.S. Taiwan policy cannot be changed by the president and requires the consent of the Congress.

The Taiwan Relations Act (enacted by the U.S. Congress on April 10, 1979)

The principal contents of the Act is in Section 2 of the Act

  • Taiwan is treated as a country, a nation or a state as sub sovereign nation
  • Informal diplomatic relations are carried out by the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT)
  • The U.S. Government normalizes its diplomatic relations with PRC (Beijing) under the condition that the future of Taiwan will be determined by peaceful means.
  • Any efforts to determine the future of Taiwan by other than peaceful means including by boycotts, or embargoes, a threat to the peace and security of the Western Pacific are grave concern to the U.S.
  • The Sino (Taiwan)-U.S. Mutual Defence Treaty is terminated.
  • The U.S. Government does not intervene in case of invasion by People’s Republic of China (PRC)
  • The U.S. Government provides arms of defensive character and maintains the capacity to resist any resort to force or other forms of coercion that would jeopardize the security, or the social or economic system, of the people on Taiwan
  • The decision related to the quantity and the quality of defence articles and services is determined by the Congress and the president.

The Six Assurances 

The administration of Ronald Reagan unilaterally added in 1982 “Six Assurances” to the TRA and this has become the mains part of the U.S. Taiwan policy

  • The U.S. Government has not agreed to set a date of the termination of its arms sale to Taiwan.
  • The U.S. Government has not agreed to consult with PRC (China) or ROC (Taiwan) for arms sales to Taiwan.
  • The U.S. Government does not perform the mediation role between ROC and PRC
  • The U.S. Government has not agreed to revise the TRA
  • The U.S. Government has not revised its position regarding the sovereignty of Taiwan
  • The U.S. Government will not exercise pressure on Taiwan to enter into negotiation with PRC.

The positive aspect of Washington’s Taiwan policy is the termination of the bloody civil war between ROC and PRC which caused the two cross-strait crises (1954 and 1958); the civil war lasted until 1979.

But, the end of the inter-China civil war was also desirable for Washington as well, because Washington badly needed China to counter the aggressive assertiveness of the Soviet Union in Asia.

So, Washington and Beijing were strange bed fellows with different dreams. Another possible reason for the U.S. initiative to end the inter-China civil war was the fear of Beijing’s victory over Taipei, which means the loss of a lucrative American arms market and reliable outpost of China containment strategy.

On the other hand, Washington’s Taiwan policy is characterized by the amazing ambiguity of Washington’s perception of the cross-strait problems and tactics which was most likely designed to maximize the American interests at the expense of China’s interests.

What comes out of the three communiqués, the TRA and the six assurances may be summarized in terms of the issue of regional hegemony, the legal status of Taiwan and the American arms sales.

Regional hegemony

In the second communiqué of 1979, there are items preventing China from becoming a hegemonic power in the region. Neither the U.S. nor China should seek for hegemonic power in Asia. But the U.S was already the hegemonic power there.

Legal Status of Taiwan 

The second feature of Washington’s Taiwan policy is its contradictory and ambiguous position regarding the legal status of Taiwan.

In the joint communiqués, the U.S. acknowledges that China is one and Taiwan is a part of China and that Beijing is the sole legal government of China. But this should mean that since Taiwan is a part of China, Beijing should also govern Taiwan.

But, in the Taiwan Relations Act, Taiwan is given the status of a de facto sovereign country.

China can argue that Washington did no respect the contents of the joint communiqués. But Washington can say this: “We have never accepted one-China regime, we said we acknowledged the regime”. Here, we see the strategic political ambiguity of Washington.

In fact, in the TRA, it says that Taiwan is treated as a nation of sub sovereignty. The U.S. has established de facto diplomatic relations with Taiwan conducted through the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT).

Here, Washington’s position regarding the sovereignty of Taiwan is not clear. The hidden purpose of the U.S. could be to make the sovereignty issue ambiguous so that it can change its position in function of needs.

Washington’s Arms Sales to Taiwan 

Now, as for the issues of arms sales to Taiwan, the U. S. is even more ambiguous.

In the third communiqué, the U.S. says that it has no long-run plan of arms sales to Taiwan. But in the same communiqué, the U.S. says that it will reduce arms sales, which contradicts each other.

In the TRA, the Sino (ROC)-U.S. defence Treaty is terminated. Therefore, Washington should not intervene militarily if and when Taiwan is in armed conflict with Beijing. But, already, in media, the US intervention in case of PRC’s Taiwan invasion is openly discussed. One wonders what the reliability of the joint communiqués, the TRA and the Six Assurances is.

Now, in the Six Assurances, it is written that the U.S. has no date for the ending of its arms sales to Taiwan. The U.S. is not obliged to consult PRC or ROC for its arms sales to Taiwan. So, Washington has absolute freehand in handling the arms sales to Taiwan.

In short, the U.S. Taiwan policy is so confusing and so ambiguous that it has useful flexibility for the sales of arms to Taiwan. The following table shows the pattern of American arms sales to Taiwan.

Table: Washington’s arms sales to Taiwan by U.S. Presidents

The table above allows these observations.

  • Washington’s arms sales to Taiwan has increased over the years, which is contrary to what the U.S. Government had promised.
  • The Trump administration spent as much as US$ 4.45 billion per year which represents as much as 30% of Taiwan’s annual defence budget of $15 billion
  • By and large, the Republican Party sells more than the Democrats.
  • Washington sells more when the anti-Beijing liberal party of Taiwan, the Democratic and Progressive Parry (DPP) is in power, that is, under the DPP government of Chen Shui-bian (2000-2008) and under the DPP government of Tsai Ying-wen (2016-2021)

This has an important meaning. Remember that the DPP is the party which seeks independence of Taiwan. Hence, the data can be interpreted as Washington’s strategy of encouraging the independence movement leading to ROC-PRC tension and more U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.

Now, coming back to the question of whether the U.S. wishes hot war over the Taiwan Strait, the answer is that it will not want the hot war, because, the hot war means the unification of China and Taiwan will no longer be able to play the role of Washington’s primary China-containment outpost and its function of being the lucrative market of American military equipments. 

Neither PRC (People’s Republic of China) nor ROC (Republic of China-Taiwan) wants the hot War.

When we discuss Taiwan and China, it is important to remember that they were enemies. The army of the ROC was defeated in 1949 and Chiang Kai-sek fled to Taiwan and continued the Republic of China which was created in 1912 by Sun Yat-sen. The civil war between ROC and PRC continued until 1979.

Even though the civil war was terminated, the ROC and PRC relations have not been smooth partly because of the past history and partly because of different political and economic regimes. In other words, there are always the possibilities of hostility in the cross-strait relations.

However, they have established viable relations which have been beneficial to both through political and economic cooperation.

Political Cooperation 

The evolution of the Taiwanese political orientation may be measured in terms of the way in which its presidents consider the legal status of Taiwan vis-à-vis PRC.

The evolution of Taiwanese political leaders’ perceptions of Taipei-Beijing political relations is shown below. By and large, such relations have evolved by the following periods.

  • The civil war period (1949-1979)
  • The period of good relations (1979-1998)
  • The period of hostility (1998-2008)
  • The resumption of high level dialogue period (2008-2016)
  • The frozen relation period (2016-2021)

The period of civil war (1949-1979) was characterized by two cross-strait crises and never ending armed conflict between two Chinas.

During the friendly relation period (1979-1998), Deng Xiaoping met frequently the head of the Nationalist Party, Kuomintang (KMT) in order to develop cooperative relations.

President Chiang Ching-kuo (1980-1988) of KMT, son of Chiang Kai-shek, declared the three NOs:

  • No declaration of independence,
  • No unification of Chinas and
  • No use of force between the two Chinas.

On July 9, 1999, President Lee Teng-hui (1988-2000) of KMT defined the ROC-PRC relation as “country to country relations.” So, there is no need for the independence declaration.

However, Lee’s visit to the Cornel University Alumni in 1995 alarmed Beijing and it led to the 1996 show of military might of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of  PRC. This was, in fact, the third Taiwan Strait crisis.

During the period of hostility (1998-2008), President Chen Shui-bian (2000-2008) of the anti-PRC party, DPP, changed the name of “Chunghwa Post Co.” to “Taiwan Post Co.” He changed also the name of “China Petroleum Corporation” to “Taiwan Petroleum Corporation.”

But, under KMT president Ma Yong-Jeou (2008-2016), the old names came back. This episode shows how Taiwanese people are sensitive about the identity of Taiwan vis-à-vis China of main land.

In 2008, Ma Ying-Jeou of KMT (2008-2016) took over the power and the friendly relations across the Strait were resumed.

The year 2008 was marked by the efforts of PRCs president Hu Jintao to improve the bilateral relations across the Taiwan Strait. On March 26, 2008, he talked to President G.W. Bush, who endorsed the 1992 consensus on “One China”..

President Hu Jintao also met the Chairman of the KMT, Wu Po-hsing, who also accepted the 1992 Consensus.

As for President Ma, he defined the bilateral relations as “One Country on each side” or “two states in the same nation.”

In 2016, the power went back to DPP and Tsai Ying-wen became President. Tsai’s perception of Taiwan’s legal status was not more certain than those of other Taiwan presidents.

Her victory has put Beijing in even uncomfortable position. In 2016, Beijing cut all communications with ROC.

But, in the same year, some leaders in Taiwan being aware of the deteriorating cross-strait relations formed a Taiwanese delegation composed of eight magistrates and city mayors went to Beijing to improve the relations.

However, the cross-strait relations were not peaceful. In 2018, PLA conducted military exercises which surely alarmed Taiwan.

In 2019, Xi Jinping reaffirmed his position in favour of “one China, two systems.”

President Tsai Ying-wen refused Xi Jinping’s idea.

To the surprise of the world, in 2020 Tsai Ying-wen won the election again; the world was expecting that she would take more radical position regarding Taiwan’s independence.

True, her victory has encouraged the independence movement in Taiwan and pro-independence political parties and civic organizations asked for a referendum on independence.

However, Tsai maintained her position that since Taiwan is already independent country, there is no need for the declaration of independence.”

To sum up, none of the presidents of the major parties, the KMT and the DPP, opted for the declaration of Taiwan’s independence.

True, there are some pro-independence parties such as The Taiwan Independence Party, the Taiwan Solidarity and the Formosa Alliance, but they have no electoral support.

Thus, the danger of Taiwan’s declaration of independence seems nonexistent and therefore, Beijing has no reason to invade for now.

What has intrigued me is the Taiwanese people’s perceptions regarding Taiwan’s legal or political status. There are three public opinion polls which are meaningful.

In the poll of 2008 by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) no less than76% of the respondents rejected the idea of “one China, two systems.”

In the 2017 poll by MAC, 85% of the respondents said that the future of Taiwan should be determined by the Taiwanese themselves.

In the 2019 poll by MAC, 75% of the respondents rejected the 1992 Consensus (There is only one China which should be governed by PRC).

In the 2020 poll by the Academia Sinica, one finds very interesting phenomena.

  • 73% of the respondents identified themselves as Taiwanese.
  • 27.5% of them identified themselves as Chinese-Taiwanese
  • 2.4% of tem identified themselves as Chinese
  • 52.3% of them would prefer the postponement of the question of Taiwan independence and keep the status quo
  • 35.1% of them prefer immediate independence
  • 5.5% of them would prefer immediate or eventual unification of China.

In the Poll of MAC, 90% of the respondents refused PLA’s military threats.

To sum up, the Taiwanese are eager to greater autonomy, even independence, but they seem to avoid military confrontation by postponing the solution of the independence issue. In short, Taiwan does not want a shooting war with China.

Economic Cooperation 

There is another reason why the ROC-PRC hot war will not take place. It is the cross-strait economic cooperation.

Taiwan has achieved a remarkable success in economic development. In the 19960s, the per capita GDP was as low as $60. Now, in 2020, its GDP (nominal) was $730 billion USD and the per capita GDP was $32,000. This is, in fact, the miraculous achievements of the Taiwanese people.

The information industries account for 35 % of the country’s industrial production. The semi-conductor producers such as Taiwan Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) and the United Microelectronic Corporation (UMC) are world leaders. Taiwan is the 13th largest producer of steel; its steel products are exported to 130 countries. The most spectacular entrepreneurial performance has been shown by the SMEs accounting for 85% of industrial outputs.

Such achievement has been possible because of the courage, the innovative entrepreneurial spirit, the productivity and, especially the hard work of the Taiwanese. However, Washington’s economic aid, its imports of Taiwanese products and technology transfer have all contributed. In addition, we should not forget the cooperation between Mainland China and Taiwan which were enemies.

Under President Chiang Ching-kuo (1978-1988), two important semi-official organizations were was established: the Strait Exchange Foundation (SEF) under ROC’s Mainland Affairs Council and the Association of Relations across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) under PRCs Taiwanese Affairs Office.

These two organizations have been the center of bilateral political and economic cooperation. They have initiated the three links: postal services, transportation and trade.

The Taiwan’s Investment Guidelines and similar measures taken by ROC have led to mutual business investments. In fact, 40 % of Taiwan’s outbound FDI stock went to Mainland China. Chinese tourists contribute to more than 40% of ROCs tourist industry. The Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement of 2010 is another mechanism of the bilateral economic relations.

Above all, Taiwan depends heavily on China for trade. In 2020, the value of Taiwan’s total exports was $ 345 billion of which 29.7% went to China. In the same year, the value of Taiwan’s total imports was $ 286 billion of which 22% came from China.

It is true that the RCO-PRC relations are not peaceful. But these economic relations are beneficial enough to keep the status quo as long as possible.

The conclusion of my analysis is that none of the three actors involved in the cross-strait drama wants shooting war.

The U.S. does not want the hot war because it will mean the unification of China, the loss of Taiwan as the primary China-containment outpost and the loss of the lucrative arms market.

Taiwan does not want the shooting war, because it will mean the ruin of its economy, loss of its autonomy becoming one of the Chinese provinces.

China does not risk the hot war because Taiwan prefers the status quo; it has no intention of getting weapons of mass destruction; there is no internal turmoil; it does not seek military alliances.

However, even without the shooting war, as long as the Sino-U.S. cold war continues, the cross-strait tension will continue.

Washington will sell more military equipments and services and Taiwan will have to play the dangerous role of Washington’s the primary outpost of China containment strategy and that of main buyer of American military weapons.

I wish to add this. The bilateral conflict between two Chinas like all other major bilateral conflicts is an integral part of Washington’s strategy of global hegemony. One of the most productive components of the American global hegemony is the proxy war, that is, some member country of Washington’s alliances will fight for the U.S.

Japan might be asked to play this role, because Japan is the best qualified for such task; it is a world class military power and it has the ambition of dominating Asia again; to do so, Japan has to destroy China. I hope I am wrong in thinking such an awful thing.

Finally, I would like add this too. Taiwan is a country which has achieved an amazing economic miracle of which all Chinese should be proud. Taiwan has established viable democracy under very challenging conditions; this is a regime which will surely contribute to the further advancement of China’s socio-political system.

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Professor Joseph H. Chung is professor of economics and co-director of the East Asia Observatory (OAE)-the Study Center for Integration and Globalization (CEIM), Quebec University in Montreal (UQAM).

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

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Pfizer is the corporation that has profited most from Covid-19 vaccines to date. Pfizer uses its power to aggressively defend and extend its patents.

The total sales for the Pfizer vaccine will likely exceed $30 billion in 2021 alone. Pfizer shares its profits with its partner company – which means they are expecting at least $15 billion this year, bumping their total revenue next year to around $60 billion – one quarter of which will be accounted for by the vaccine.

According to one financial journalist That would make it the second-highest revenue-generating drug anytime, anywhere”

Profiting from the pandemic

These sales will bring in a substantial profit for the company – particularly because the vaccine received nearly $6 billion from the American government’s contract for production and roll out costs. The German government supported the research, while official reports suggest Pfizer and its partner spent only around $1 billion in additional research costs last year.

Unlike other corporations Pfizer has explicitly said it will profit throughout the pandemic. It has sold very small quantities to the global distribution body Covax and African Union “at cost”, which it claims to be about $6.75 per dose. In fact, experts have suggested these types of vaccines could cost as little as 60 cents to $2 per dose to make. However, Pfizer is selling to most countries at $19.50 per dose, supposedly a special pandemic price, but clearly one which allows the corporation to make a large profit.

But a large profit isn’t enough for Pfizer, and it seems clear prices will rise steeply once they decide the pandemic is ‘over’. A senior executive has suggested $150-175 per dose would be more ‘normal’ pricing for a vaccine of this sort.

Pfizer claims these astronomical prices are needed to recoup R&D costs. But a glance at their accounts last year shows that the corporation returned a whopping $8.4 billion to shareholdersin dividends and reported a profit of $8.7bn.

Pfizer has sold its vaccines largely to rich countries. They’ve sold more than three times the amount to high income countries (1.6 billion) as they have to the rest of the world (560 million), while tiny quantities have been sold to low income countries. The international distribution network Covax has managed to secure a mere 40 million.

A vast lobbying effort

Pfizer’s former CEO was instrumental in developing the global patent agreement – known as TRIPS – and intellectual property is a bedrock of Pfizer’s profits. Pfizer’s CEO led the charge to bypass the WHO’s technology sharing programme CTAP, labelling it “nonsense”. This has helped render this important tool ineffective to date.

In its most recent annual report the corporation seems proud of its role in pushing for even stronger patent law stating “Our industry advocacy [lobbying] efforts focus on seeking a fair and transparent business environment for foreign manufacturers, underscoring the importance of strong intellectual property systems.” They say that “While the global intellectual property environment has generally improved following WTO-TRIPS and bilateral/multilateral trade agreements, our growth and ability to bring new product innovation to patients depends on further progress in intellectual property protection [emphasis added]”

This lobbing clout is important. Pfizer and its lobbying body PhRMA were the top spending lobbyists in the US healthcare sector in the last 2 decades. They use the power lobbying gives them to promote and extend their rights of secrecy (‘data exclusivity’) over medical development and their monopoly protection which allows them to charge astronomical prices. They support the US government including higher levels of monopoly protection in new trade deals.

It’s not just Covid-19

Last year, we looked at Pfizer’s troubling history of profiteering. In one example, Pfizer and its British distributor hugely hiked the prices of anti-epilepsy drug phenytoin which 48,000 NHS patients relied upon. NHS expenditure on the drug rose from £2 million a year to £50 million in a single year, with the cost of 100mg packs rising from £2.83 to £67.50. Overall, UK wholesalers and pharmacies faced price hikes of between 2,300% and 2,600%.

In 2009, Pfizer was forced to pay $2.3 billion in a set of complex suits which included the company’s illegal marketing of arthritis drug Bextra, as well as giving kickbacks to doctors. A whistleblower claimed that sales staff were incentivised to sell Bextra to doctors for medical conditions for which the drug wasn’t approved and at doses up to eight times those recommended. “At Pfizer I was expected to increase profits at all costs, even when sales meant endangering lives. I couldn’t do that,” he stated.

MSF ran a campaign against the price of Pfizer’s pneumonia vaccines, which it claimed were 68 times more expensive in 2015 than in 2001. While Pfizer did reduce prices for the lowest income countries, MSF said the cost to vaccinate remained “roughly US$9 for each child to be vaccinated in the poorest countries, and as much as $80 per child for middle-income countries”. It claimed Pfizer and GSK have earned over $50 billion for the drug, but “Today, 55 million children around the world still do not have access to the pneumonia vaccine, largely due to high prices.”

What we can do

Pfizer’s obsession with maximising its profits during the pandemic is in keeping with its troubling record. But there is no reason big pharma companies should remain in the driving seat.

Governments have the power to put global public health first.

We are campaigning for the suspension of patents on all Covid-19 vaccines to help scale up the global vaccine effort and give the world the best chance of getting this disease under control.

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Data released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on the number of injuries and deaths reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) following COVID vaccines showed a notable increase in reports of injuries and deaths compared with last week’s numbers.

VAERS is the primary government-funded system for reporting adverse vaccine reactions in the U.S. Reports submitted to VAERS require further investigation before a causal relationship can be confirmed.

Every Friday, VAERS makes public all vaccine injury reports received as of a specified date, usually about a week prior to the release date. Today’s data show that between Dec. 14, 2020 and April 16, a total of 86,080 total adverse events were reported to VAERS, including 3,186 deaths — an increase of 584 over the previous week — and 10,152 serious injuries, up 1,867 since last week.

Fromthe4/16/21 release of VAERS data.

Of the 3,186 deaths reported as of April 16, 26% occurred within 48 hours of vaccination, 17% occurred within 24 hours and 41% occurred in people who became ill within 48 hours of being vaccinated.

In the U.S., 202.3 million COVID vaccine doses had been administered as of April 16. This includes89 million doses of Moderna’s vaccine, 105 million doses of Pfizer and 8 million doses of the Johnson &Johnson (J&J) COVID vaccine.

This week’s VAERS data show:

  • 20% of deaths were related to cardiac disorders.
  • 54% of those who died were male, 44% were female and the remaining death reports did not include gender of the deceased.
  • The average age of death was 75.9 and the youngest death reported was an 18-year-old. There are a few reported deaths in children under 18, including a 5-month old who died of a rare blood clot two days after the mother received her second dose of Pfizer vaccine and a 2-year-old, but these reports have not been confirmed.
  • As of April 16, 462 pregnant women reported adverse events related to COVID vaccines, including 132 reports of miscarriage or premature birth.
  • Of the 820 cases of Bell’s Palsy reported, 55% of cases were reported after Pfizer-BioNTechvaccinations, 41% following vaccination with the Moderna vaccine and 24 cases (6%) of Bell’s Palsy were reported in conjunction with J&J.
  • There were 92 reports of Guillain-Barré Syndrome with 50% of cases attributed to Pfizer, 40% to Moderna and 13% to J&J.
  • There were 24,841 reports of anaphylaxis with 43% of cases attributed to Pfizer’s vaccine, 47% to Moderna and 10% to J&J.

New reports of blood clots as CDC panel votes to resume J&J vaccine

Blood clotting disorders have been reported following vaccination with Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and J&J COVID vaccines. In the U.S., the J&J vaccine, marketed under the company’s Janssen subsidiary, was paused April 13 while U.S. health officials investigated reports of rare blood clots.

The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) Friday voted 10 – 4 to lift the pause and recommended continued use for persons 18 years of age and older. The panel did not recommend adding any extra warning about the risk of rare blood clotting disorders.

The ACIP said the link between blood clots and J&J’s COVID vaccine was “plausible,” but concluded the vaccine’s benefits still outweigh the risks. The recommendation by the ACIP has to be approved by the CDC and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before becoming official government policy, USA TODAY reported.

The Daily News reported today the CDC is investigating the deaths of two more women from a rare blood clotting disorder possibly linked to the J&J vaccine. The CDC’s advisory panel found 15 women who were diagnosed with rare blood clots, including three deaths, seven who remain hospitalized and five recovering at home, according to a slide presentation shared at today’s committee meeting.

Only two of the women were older than 50, with the risk highest in women ages 30-39, according to the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. The findings appear to confirm the suspicion that younger women are more vulnerable to developing blood clots.

The Hill reported today the CDC is reviewing the death of an Oregon woman who died after receiving J&J’s vaccine. The woman, in her late 50s, was vaccinated before the state issued a pause. Two weeks after receiving the vaccine, she developed a rare but serious blood clot associated with very low platelets. The Oregon Health Authority said it was notified about the death on April 20, two days after the CDC was notified on April 18.

U.S. health authorities also are investigating the report of a Texas woman who was hospitalized after receiving J&J’s vaccine. The Department of State Health Services told The Hill in a statementthat the CDC notified state officials on Wednesday afternoon of a “possible case in Texas reported through VAERS. Symptoms reported “appear to be consistent with the six cases reported elsewhere last week,” the department said.

On April 21, The Defender reported that a Nevada teen underwent three brain surgeries to repair blood clots she developed about a week after receiving J&J’s COVID vaccine. Emma Burkey, 18, suffered seizures, was placed in an induced coma and on a respirator before undergoing surgeries for a massive brain injury.

Burkey was one of the initial six cases under review by the CDC. A CDC panel said Burkey and other women experienced headaches and back pain prior to the discovery of blood clots, and also disclosed she was given heparin, a blood thinner which typically is standard treatment for blood clots, but in cases like Burkey’s, can make the condition worse.

Children’s Health Defense queried the VAERS data for a series of adverse events associated with the formation of clotting disorders and other related conditions. VAERS yielded a total of 1,123 reports for all three vaccines from Dec. 14, 2020, through April 16.

Of the 1,123 cases reported, there were 512 reports attributed to Pfizer, 448 reports to Moderna and 160 reports to J&J — far more than the six J&J cases U.S. health officials were originally investigating.

As The Defender reported April 20, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said Tuesday it found a “possible link” between the J&J COVID vaccine and blood clots, but concluded the vaccine’s benefits outweigh the risks.

EMA’s safety committee (PRAC) said a warning should be added to the product label, but the blood clot-related disorders should be listed as “very rare” side effects of the vaccine. J&J had delayed the vaccine’s rollout in the EU after U.S. health officials paused the vaccine.

Woman paralyzed after Pfizer vaccine

The Defender reported this week that a healthy 33-year-old woman in Pennsylvania experienced paralysis 12 hours after getting her first dose of the Pfizer COVID vaccine. Doctors at the Cleveland Clinic performed a series of tests, but said they didn’t know what caused the woman to develop paralysis.

Although the woman, who asked to remain anonymous, regained feeling and strength in her arms, as of April 21, she had no function from her lower chest down besides very slight movement in a few toes. The woman’s family confirmed with Channel 11 that her case was reported to Pfizer.

CDC ignores The Defender, no response after 46 days

According to the CDC website, “the CDC follows up on any report of death to request additional information and learn more about what occurred and to determine whether the death was a result of the vaccine or unrelated.”

The Defender reached out to the CDC on March 8 with a written list of questions about reported deaths and injuries related to COVID vaccines, the status of ongoing investigations reported in the media, if autopsies are being done, the standard for determining whether an injury is causally connected to a vaccine and education initiatives to encourage and facilitate proper and accurate reporting.

After repeated attempts to obtain a response, a representative from the CDC’s Vaccine Task Force contacted us March 29 and said she had never received our list of questions — even though employees we talked to several times said their press officers were working through the questions and confirmed the representative had received them. We provided multiple deadlines, none of which were met. The Defender also provided the list again and attempted to follow-up multiple times with no response.

After repeated calls to the CDC’s media department this week, we were told the COVID response unit would be informed we had still not received answers. The person we spoke with did not know why our inquiries were being ignored. We also asked why the CDC appeared to have the ability to respond to other news media outlets in a timely manner and questioned why the agency, funded by taxpayer dollars, appeared to be selectively responding to inquiries. No answer was provided.

We were told someone would get back to us. It has been 46 days since our original email was sent inquiring into VAERS data and reports.

New study shows Pfizer’s COVID vaccine may trigger herpes virus that causes shingles

The Defender also reported this week that Pfizer’s COVID vaccine may trigger a herpes virus that causes shingles. A recent study published in the journal Rheumatology found six women out of 491 patients developed a skin rash known as herpes zoster (HZ) infection — or shingles — within three to 14 days of receiving either the first or second dose of the Pfizer’s COVID vaccine. Five of them developed shingles infection after the first dose and one after the second.

Lead researcher Dr. Victoria Furer said five of the six patients were young, had mild cases of autoimmune disease and were taking little if any medications for it — which means they should not have been at increased risk for developing the infection, as HZ tends to develop more in people over the age of 50.

“We cannot say the vaccine is the cause at this point,” Furer said. “We can say it might be a trigger in some patients.” She said further research, including a larger epidemiological study, would be needed to prove cause and effect.

Third dose of COVID vaccines and annual boosters are on the way

The Defender reported this week, vaccine makers told investors and the media that COVID booster shots are in the works. But some independent scientists warn trying to outsmart the virus with booster shots designed to address the next variant could backfire, creating an endless wave of new variants, each more virulent and transmissible than the one before.

Dr. Ozlem Tureci, co-founder and CMO of BioNTech, which developed the vaccine with Pfizer, said she also expects people will need to get vaccinated against COVID annually, like the seasonal flu. That’s because, she said, scientists expect vaccine-induced immunity against the virus will decrease over time, CNBC reported.

Tureci’s comments came after Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in an interview that aired April 15 that people would likely need a booster shot, or third dose, of the COVID vaccine within 12 months of getting fully vaccinated with possible additional shots each year.

J&J vaccine manufacturer Emergent BioSolutions shuts down

The Defender reported this week a J&J COVID vaccine manufacturing plant, where an ingredient mix-up last month resulted in 15 million doses of J&J vaccine being discarded, may have contaminated additional doses. A report released Wednesday by the FDA also identified a series of other problems at the Baltimore facility owned by Emergent BioSolutions.

Emergent, which in June received $628 million in taxpayer funding through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to establish the primary U.S. manufacturing facility for J&J’s and AstraZeneca’s COVID vaccines, agreed this week to temporarily shut down operations.

A congressional investigation was launched Tuesday into the company’s federal vaccine contract and shareholders filed a class action lawsuit Monday for false and misleading statements that drove up stock prices and misleading statements regarding the company’s readiness to mass-produce COVID vaccines.

According to CNBC, an FDA inspection of the Baltimore plant in April 2020 revealed Emergent lacked necessary personnel to produce a COVID vaccine. Another inspection, in June 2020, determined Emergent’s plan for producing vaccines was inadequate due to poorly trained staff and quality control problems, raising questions as to why the company did not fix problems earlier and why federal officials who oversaw its contracts did not demand better performance.

Children’s Health Defense asks anyone who has experienced an adverse reaction, to any vaccine, to file a report following these three steps.

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Megan Redshaw is a freelance reporter for The Defender. She has a background in political science, a law degree and extensive training in natural health.

Featured image is from Children’s Health Defense

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The Montana state legislature overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan and unprecedented resolution Tuesday calling on the federal government to end endless wars. The resolution passed 95-3 in the House and 47-2 in the Senate.

House Joint Resolution 9, sponsored by Rep. Ron Marshall (R-Hamilton), is the first of its kind to be introduced by any state and is currently being used as a model for other states across the country.

The resolution specifically urges President Joe Biden and the United States Congress to “end the endless war in Afghanistan,” repeal the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force, resist sending U.S. troops into combat without a declaration of war from Congress or specific authorization to do so, and to “execute a prudent foreign policy.”

Concerned Veterans for America, a veteran-run organization, endorsed the resolution and plans on utilizing it at the national level. The organization’s Deputy Director Russ Duerstine said in a statement that “the passing of the Endless War resolution is a firm statement—a strong message on behalf of Montanans that there is a better way than continuing to fight endless wars.”

According to USA Today, Montana has the third-highest percentage of veterans of all states in the United States. A recent YouGov and Concerned Veterans for America poll also determined that two-thirds of all US veterans support the complete withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and Iraq.

“Our troops have served valiantly in Afghanistan and elsewhere, but perpetual war and fruitless nation building is not in America’s best interests,” Duerstine added. “Worse, endless conflicts marginalize the service of those who have sacrificed for our freedom. We owe our military community better, and we thank Rep. Marshall and Sen. Bogner for leading on this measure and commend all those who showed their support for it.”

Some lawmakers have asked what the resolution will accomplish, referring to it as a “letter to Santa” since it isn’t legislation, but Concerned Veterans for America’s Montana Grassroots Engagement Director Chris Enget, a Purple Heart recipient who served in Afghanistan in 2012, said the resolution would put pressure on Montana’s congressional delegation to take action to end overseas conflicts.

Enget, who helped write the resolution, added that the organization is using it as a model in other states and will also pressure their congressional delegations by passing similar resolutions.

Concerned Veterans for America will also send the resolution to Washington D.C. and use their lobbyists to put pressure on Congress, according to Enget.

“We are going to use this to show America is fed up,” Enget said. “We’re not just going to let it sit there. We’re going to continue to bring it up and we’re going to continue to show that the state of Montana has made this very large statement that we can not keep participating in endless wars.”

The resolution passed a week after President Biden announced that the timeline for U.S. removal from Afghanistan would be delayed from May 1 to Sept. 11, 2021. Biden said, “I’m now the fourth United States President to preside over American troop presence in Afghanistan: two Republicans, two Democrats. I will not pass this responsibility on to a fifth.”

Concerned Veteran’s senior adviser Dan Caldwell said in a statement, “while we still believe a full withdrawal by the May 1st deadline in the Doha agreement best serves America’s interests, we are pleased to hear Biden is firmly committed to bringing our troops home within the next few months.”

The organization’s Montana chapter feels the same way.

“We’re going to support President Biden’s timeline, but we’re not going to let the pressure up,” Enget said. “We now have a concrete date from him that this is what he wants to do and we’re going to be supportive of the fact that he wants to fully withdraw troops, but he needs to keep that timeline then. We’re going to pressure his administration to keep that timeline.”

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Liam McCollum is an independent journalist and the host of The Liam McCollum Show, a libertarian-oriented podcast. He’s a Philosophy, Journalism, and Pre-Law student at the University of Montana.

Featured image is from The Libertarian Institute