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One may view every scientific advance as a means towards approximating and recreating the infantile environment of omnipotence. When the stimulus of hunger, with its accompanying representation in thought and feeling, is sated by a caring parent, the association is then made between that complex of sensation and ideation and the ensuing gratification. In other words, the wish to be fed is sufficient in and of itself to ensure that feeding takes place: the wish alone makes it happen and the child is godlike in his or her power.
Therefore every step in humankind’s mastery of the physical and natural world brings us one step closer to that ideal of effortless supremacy. It follows that science over the ages has become revered for the power it confers rather than the knowledge it reveals. Knowledge for knowledge’s sake, knowledge with little or no practical value, is generally ignored or dismissed or, if taken up, is taken up because it provides the illusion of achievement or control, the way a neatly solved riddle may give satisfaction.
I write this as a kind of preface to some general observations about the exercise of power, particularly in groups and by so-called leaders, and in the context of a live-action demonstration, thanks to Covid, of governmental manipulation at a scale unprecedented in human history. I write so that we who wish to resist propaganda and phoney narratives and the attempts to deny us our livelihoods and, indeed, our very lives, by measures imposed to ‘keep us safe’ may better learn, the better to oppose these measures.
First, those in power – individuals or groups – never willingly give their power up. The entire history of Western law is a record of the struggle of the weak who, by aggregating, sought protection from those who have ruled over them in the form of justice, the Magna Carta being a principal example, and the Declaration of Independence of the United States representing a culmination.
Second, those in power seek relentlessly to augment their power. If the weak besiege them with legal redress they will attempt to subvert the judiciary and, if possible, work outside the law to achieve their ends. For those in power the law works only when it works for their own ends.
Third, the astonishing advances in the concentration of technological force via computerization have allowed for an immense increase in the facility of exercising power. In short, it has never been easier for the ‘elite’ few to control the many.
Fourth, the endpoint of political State power is complete control over its population of underlings. We have had a taste of this with the coordinated subjugation of the world under the pretext of protecting us from Covid – lockdowns, distancing, masking, mandatory inoculations, the destruction of small businesses and individual lives, and the rending of the very social fabric that makes life worth living. We see it in even starker nakedness in the form of the social credit system and the Total Surveillance State exercised by Chinese authorities over its citizenry.
Fifth, digitization is innately a form of dehumanization. We have long been accustomed to regard Capitalism as the system wherein human beings have been rendered into dollars and cents, as it were. However our now-universal digital culture, in its essence, translates complexity into on-off states and seeks to reduce human choice to a sequence of multiple digital ‘decisions’ – left or right, up or down, yes or no, plus or minus.
Sixth, the Power Elite will employ every method of persuasion to manipulate its subjects – with every degree of truth and deception, every sophisticated lure, with fear, covert and overt threats, and with physical force.
Seventh, with every technocratic/scientific advance the distance between thought and action, between wish and deed, is lessened.
Eight, every scientific advance is appropriated by those in power to enhance their power.
The Covid era has brought the machinations of the Power Cartel into relief, and they have included deceitful diagnostic tests, the suppression of truthful information about ‘vaccines’, the silencing of physicians who attempted to conduct themselves in accordance with the basic principles of Medicine, the propagation of fear through traditional media outlets that have functioned as propaganda mouthpieces, the depredation of human liberty under cover of a so-called health emergency, and even outright large-scale murder, the details of which – and much more – are superbly delineated by Michel Chossudovsky in his recent book The Worldwide Corona Crisis.
We cannot and should not expect those in power to act lawfully or to respond to appeals of conscience.
Those in power today quite openly aspire to immortality and omnipotence, and this leads me to what I believe is the most pressing practical and philosophical question of our time:
If no further scientific or technological advances could be made; if, in fact, humanity were stuck with only the knowledge and tools at its disposal today; if nothing new could be discovered; if no novel use of technological power could arise – what would then occur?
Might the renunciation of godlike ambitions result in a fairer and more just world?
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Dr. Garcia is a Philadelphia-born psychoanalyst and psychiatrist who emigrated to New Zealand in 2006. He has authored articles ranging from explorations of psychoanalytic technique, the psychology of creativity in music (Mahler, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Delius), and politics. He is also a poet, novelist and theatrical director. He retired from psychiatric practice in 2021 after working in the public sector in New Zealand. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
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Many people in the West are asking just how much their elites will ask them to sacrifice for the sake of Ukraine.
However, they are asking the wrong question.
The correct question is rather how can they bear the coming cost to themselves for the sake of gaining global hegemony for the collective West.
The absolute “necessity” of defeating both Russia and China, and in so doing how to manage the crushing weight that this task will inevitably bring down upon their populations is THE primary conundrum for western elites.
That they MUST defeat Russia and China is totally clear to them and they will do absolutely anything to bring the defeat of these two about. If they fail to do this they know that a wholly new, multipolar paradigm will result. The central goal that the political leaders of the West are fixated upon, maintaining their global dominance in order to create liberal democracies (sic) worldwide, will be lost forever. The multipolar world where power is dispersed across a far greater number of national powers will bring as one of its central precepts a mutual tolerance of many diverse forms of governance instead.
With the goal to maintain a faltering patrician dominance, and in the face of a Chinese economy now matching and in the near future vastly exceeding that of the USA, standing alongside a Russian leadership able to combine with Eurasian economies in unity against western demands, the entire West faces a meltdown of its influence. This is an unbearable prospect for western leaders, a prospect that they are willing to do literally ANYTHING to forestall.
No one should be surprised that the western political elites are supplying weapons to the Ukrainian regime in the hope of killing as many Russians as possible. I suspect that many have still not come to terms with the fact that we are most undoubtedly within World War III and have been for some time now.
The Eurasian powers, China, Russia and others in the global south see clearly that their chance to win the future for maximal tolerance and trade in the face of what has been an era of western
Intolerance and aggression, is now and if it is not won now that future will be lost. This is why from their side they too cannot give up.
Neither side can give up and surrender to the other. This is a fight to the death of one vision or the other. There can be no middle ground achieved as the western powers are totally insistent on the future being their way and that no other future is acceptable.
If reasonable people stood at the apex of western political power things would be very different. The course of events would be eminently peaceful incorporating cooperation across a wide panoply of issues. This is the future that people such as Jeffrey Sachs envisions, a future where connection and communication are the order of the day among pragmatic leaders seeking to understand one another for the good of all.
In a multipolar world the emphasis would be on trade and agreements and ameliorating any disagreements arising through extensive arbitration. Areas of concern where ambitions or national priorities conflicted would be ironed out long before any major conflict could arise. International law and the United Nations as a forum would be preeminent. Waging war as a solution would become extremely rare if it occurred at all.
In a renewed unipolar world where the USA and its allies have successfully beaten Russia and China, the concept of a rules-based order based on rules formulated by them would be the order of the day. Due to fears concerning continued resistance to their newly won dominance, surveillance would be widespread and punishments for varying degrees of opposition would be agreed and applied. International law would no longer be the yardstick for legality or illegality on the global scene and the United Nations would most likely cease to exist or simply become a toothless entity and talking shop. In essence the world dominated in perpetuity by the western powers would become a de facto prison planet.
We are all now faced with these dual visions of our common future as laid down by these two sets of elites, one western, the other eastern and southern. The current political leaders of the West say there is no middle ground, that no compromise is possible and that there is no higher priority than them winning against those who wish for an entirely different future, even if their ambition was simply to have this for their own populations. For the western political elites they must be brought to heel and made to accept western global preeminence. Or else.
With no prospect of diplomacy intervening as this for the western powers would only delay their wished-for outcome, the only alternative path forward for them is the fomenting of war at every possible level and in every possible circumstance to create the destructive forces within their target nations to bring them to their knees. Thus we have the unlimited aggression and supply of weaponry and finance to the Ukrainian regime. As has been bare-facedly admitted by senior U.S. officials, the end goal of this policy is to weaken Russia and the effect upon Ukraine is largely inconsequential.
Inconsequential too by default will be the suffering of western populations as a result of the war being waged on Russia and the additional suffering they will undoubtedly have to endure as the war against China becomes ever more fierce. That western populations suffer incredibly traumatic deprivations never before seen in modern times, in the infamous words of Madeleine Albright, is now, and will continue to be seen by all present political elites in the West, as a price worth paying.
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If the non-stop dancing duo Biden and Blinken is seriously seeking to validate its view that the United States of America is and should be the world’s hegemon, they are going about it the wrong way. They should be taking their lead from Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky by turning their press conferences into entertainments with dancing bears and scantily clad chanteuses pirouetting and singing across the stage. They would benefit from recalling how Zelensky rose to power through his performances of comedy routines in which he would be prancing around on high heels with three colleagues who appeared to be mocking what might be construed as gay mannerisms to amuse the audience? Or perhaps the rather more outre performance where Zelensky would play a piano with his penis?
If one can remember all that it would most definitely help to understand the foreign policy that is somehow playing out in Ukraine, where Zelensky has transitioned into a serious, unsmiling guy who is adept at solicitations for money and weapons. His pleading has become a shameless full-time endeavor as he now appears on thousands of screens via video link all over the world, saturating the airwaves and dropping in on both major and minor gatherings. Australian journalist Caitlin Johnstone recalls how he has appeared on “the Grammy Awards, the Cannes Film Festival, the World Economic Forum and probably the Bilderberg group as well, [while also] having meetings with celebrities like Ben Stiller, Sean Penn, and Bono and the Edge from U2. It’s as busy a PR tour as he could possibly have without having a discussion about the strategic importance of long-range artillery with Elmo on Sesame Street.”
Elmo might in fact be coming next as NPR is clearly one of Zelensky’s biggest fans. One also suspects that before the Ukrainian President is finished, he will be addressing a rotary meeting in Sioux Falls South Dakota. And Zelensky has even turned begging into a family affair, with his wife Olena welcomed by the President and First Lady at the White House while also going on to address the US Congress, entreating America’s Solons to provide plenty of cash and things that go bang to thwart the ambitions of one Vladimir Putin.As she put it, she is concerned lest her son and daughter be unable to return to school and university in the fall. She then observed that “We would have answers if we had air defense systems” which would enable a “joint victory in the name of life, freedom and the pursuit of happiness.”
Indeed, a high point of the recent antics has to be the unique cover photo shoot by Vogue magazine, in which the lovey-dovey couple Volodymyr and Olena grin and hug before the cameras. Zelensky declares his undying affection. Vogue aside, the entire Zelensky performance, choreographed as it is by neocons inside and outside the administration, is perfectly color and image coordinated. Zelensky has an endless supply of olive drab t-shirts and he entertains in Kiev a steady stream of statesmen and even heads of government from Europe and the US, including the US Attorney General Merrick Garland, who has appointed a seasoned Justice Department “Special Investigations”, i.e. “Nazi hunter” investigator, named Eli Rosenbaum to look into possible Russian war crimes.
The Garland/Rosenbaum dynamic duo will not be looking into possible Ukrainian war crimes like the recent assassination of Darya Dugina in Moscow as it is not part of the mandate from Biden/Blinken and besides which the Ukes are America’s friends, just like the Israelis who are such great friends that they also get a pass on whatever they inflict on the Palestinians, including shooting or blowing up civilians. Indeed, Zelensky’s White House approved message is always the same: “give us money and guns and we will defeat the Russkies.” So Honest Joe Biden gives them the cash and the things that go bang in the night and in return they get a hearty hand shake when the bundles of Benjamins get transferred into the trunk of someone’s car. All of which leads one to wonder if Mr Z is the best reliable source for anything having to do with himself and the corrupt toadies that adhere to him, given the recurring reports that some donated weapons are already making their way into the black market just as quickly as the money goes into officials’ pockets. Zelensky has reacted to criticism by shutting down opposition parties and media, assassinating dissident politicians and firing or imprisoning any other official who might be inclined to disagree with him.
Apart from that, there is allegedly a war going on, which may not be evident from all the horse trading taking place at the presidential palace. It also would appear to be counter-intuitive that the Russians, blamed without much in the way of evidence for atrocity after atrocity, have apparently proven willing to let Zelensky entertain all his guests undisturbed. If you are truly committing a lot of war crimes, why not add one more to the list by blowing up the Kiev presidential palace and both killing Zelensky and probably ending the war at a stroke?
There are, in fact, two wars taking place simultaneously. There is, to be sure, fighting going on around Donbas, but the more important conflict is the phony war being waged by the Biden Administration and a number of European Chancelleries in support of whatever is actually taking place in Ukraine. This latter aspect of the war consists of perhaps the most stifling – and effective – propaganda effort the world has ever seen. It includes Joe Biden and his brigade of clowns, but it also has a supporting cast consisting of NATO, a number of European heads of state and virtually the entire western media. Social media has also joined in the struggle, banning Russian originating news stories and opinion, and using algorithms and other forms of manipulation to make reporting favorable to Moscow go away. The allied effort to defeat and destroy Russia relies on lies, half-truths, and out-and-out deception. But why bother to do it? It is because the war was preventable and avoidable, which is what the White House and other governments cannot admit to the public. It makes absolutely no sense and will benefit no one when it is over, and “over” might mean “really over” as nuclear weapons are on the table.
But what about the good old American exceptionalism which Biden-Blinken and that stalwart warrior Merrick Garland are supposed to be defending? Well, that seems to have taken a hit as much of the world, watching the fiasco unfold in Ukraine, apparently doesn’t appreciate the Anglo-Saxon sense of humor. To them, the war in Ukraine would never have started if the US and Europeans had invested in the tiniest effort as mediators to come to a negotiated solution. They have given up on the United States as a “force for good” and have rather concluded that Washington is a global bully and a regular aggressor.
Former US Air Force colonel and PhD Karen Kwiatkowski has an interesting tale to tell about how far the mighty have fallen. She writes “…I saw that the Solomon Islands refused (ignored really, which is even better) a US Coast Guard request to come to port, to buy fuel, like with real American dollars, y’all! Why was the US Coast Guard floating around the South Pacific – were they lost? After getting a fuller picture – they were looking for lawbreaking fishermen and that’s where their mission took them…” So what was the US response to this outrage, which was immediately blamed on interference by the Chinese? We need “a new embassy in the Solomon Islands… along with a new five year engagement plan in the Pacific.”
During the Cold War before the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, a commonly heard comment was that the country had become economically and politically an “Upper Volta with rockets,” which implied that the USSR spent so much on weapons that the civilian economy was starved of resources. Well, welcome to the former United States of America. As the nation’s decline and fall will no doubt be facilitated due to the millions of mostly Latino “asylum seekers” flowing over America’s southern border, the US as a “Bolivia with nukes” might be more appropriate. The world is tired of Washington and its pretenses and the walls will inevitably come tumbling down when the Biden unsustainable trillions of dollars of added debt-surge brings on bankruptcy Argentina style. A sharp change in course might be able to fix some of the problems, but there is an election coming up which the White House is keen to win by flooding its cherished constituencies with funny money in exchange for votes, a practice which once upon a time would have been seen as corruption. Come to think of it, the US has become a banana republic run by an essentially criminal gang that alternates every few years to pretend to be a democracy. Can’t get much lower than that, but Biden sure is trying!
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This article was originally published on The Unz Review.
Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a 501(c)3 tax deductible educational foundation (Federal ID Number #52-1739023) that seeks a more interests-based U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Website is councilforthenationalinterest.org, address is P.O. Box 2157, Purcellville VA 20134 and its email is temporarily [email protected].
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British Foreign Secretary Liz Trusswill replace Boris Johnson as the British prime minister after the UK’s Conservative Party voted to make her the leader of the government. She beat out former Finance Minister Rishi Sunak and is expected to be formally named prime minister by the Queen on Tuesday.
As the British foreign secretary, Truss has delivered some of the most hawkish rhetoric against Russia in NATO’s response to the invasion of Ukraine. When the war first broke out, Truss said that she supported individuals from the UK who wanted to fight in Ukraine.
According to a report fromThe Financial Times, Truss and her team have been frustrated that the US hasn’t taken a “harder line” on Russia even as Washington has pledged over $13 billion in weapons for Ukraine, dwarfing the $2.8 billion in military aid London has committed.
While the UK isn’t contributing nearly as much money as the US, Britain is one of the leading NATO supporters of Ukraine. The British are currently training thousands of Ukrainian soldiers inside the UK, with the goal of training 10,000 within 120 days. According to reports from The Times and The New York Times, British special operations forces are on the ground in Ukraine.
Truss has also voiced her opposition to negotiations with Russa, saying talks could only happen after Moscow is “defeated.” Johnson frequently discouraged negotiations and reportedly played an integral role in the failure of earlier peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, a pattern that will likely continue under a Truss premiership.
Liz Truss will be the next British prime minister. She told a town hall recently that she's 'ready' to launch a nuclear war. pic.twitter.com/Qo04IVIl9i
During a recent town hall, Truss was asked by host John Pienaar how she would “feel” if she had to order a nuclear strike, which Pienaar recognized would likely mean global annihilation. Truss said, “I think it’s an important duty of the prime minister and I’m ready to do that.”
When asked again how ordering a nuclear strike would make her feel, Truss simply responded, “I’m ready to do that.”
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Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.
Featured image is by Tim Hammond / No10 Downing Stree, from Flickr licensed under Creative Commons
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The Joe Biden administration pledged Ukraine $39.87 billion in military aid in the six months between February and August 2022, for an average of $228 million per day, fueling what even former US government officialsadmit is a “brutal proxy war” that is causing tens of thousands of deaths.
Researcher Stephen Semler documented the 21 distinct military aid packages that the Joe Biden administration approved for Ukraine in the year between August 2021 and August 2022, at a total of $40.13 billion.
Two of those 21 pledges were approved before Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Excluding these two presidential drawdowns from August and December 2021, which are worth $260 million combined, the Biden administration passed $39.87 billion for military aid in Ukraine between February 25, 2022 (the day after the Russian invasion) and August 19, 2022.
This $39.87 billion in pledged military aid divided by the 175 days between February 25, 2022 and August 19, 2022 comes out to an average of approximately $228 million per day.
This spending does not include the billions more that the US government has pledged in economic aid to Ukraine. It likewise excludes the tens of billions of dollars of military aid that European countries have approved for Ukraine.
Video
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Featured image: Ukrainian military exercise “Cossack Will” in 2018 (Source: Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense)
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The British Conservative Party selected Liz Truss as its new leader, and the United Kingdom‘s next prime minister, on Monday.
Truss, who is currently foreign secretary, will formally be confirmed as prime minister on Tuesday following her success in the contest to succeed Boris Johnson as leader of the governing party.
She has been called a political “shapeshifter” and someone whose views are “very black and white“. As prime minister she inherits a political agenda dominated by a domestic cost of living crisis fuelled by spiralling inflation and energy prices.
But her record as foreign secretary and previously as a minister for international trade also offers clues as to the likely direction the Truss-led government will take in the key policy areas involving the UK and the Middle East.
Israel-Palestine
As Israeli air strikes pummelled the besieged Gaza strip in early August, killing at least 45 Palestinian civilians, including 15 children, Truss issued a statement of support for Israel, saying: “The UK stands by Israel, and its right to defend itself.”
Closer to home, Truss will be taking over a government that is seeking to outlaw the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement by preventing public bodies, councils and their pension funds from boycotting investments in Israel.
Despite criticism from civil society organisations that the move would represent a “threat to freedom of expression, and the ability of public bodies and democratic institutions to spend, invest and trade ethically in line with international law and human rights”, Truss has offered no indication that she would reverse course.
The prime minister’s staunch support for Israel has even led to her stating that she had overruled long-serving bureaucrats at the Foreign Office by backing Israel at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), and suggesting that the UN body had been “used to peddle a particular agenda which frankly have strong elements of antisemitism”.
In June, UNHRC members passed two resolutions affirming the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and condemning illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem, and the occupied Golan Heights.
The UK voted against the resolutions, putting it largely out of step with the rest of the international community.
More recently, in a move that would reverse decades of British policy on Israel-Palestine, Truss said she would “review” the relocation of the country’s Israel embassy to Jerusalem.
“I’ve had many conversations with my good friend [Israeli] Prime Minister [Yair] Lapid on this topic. Acknowledging that, I will review a move to ensure we are operating on the strongest footing within Israel,” she wrote in a letter to the Conservative Friends of Israel advocacy group.
Under Truss, the British foreign office has also opened free trade negotiations with Israel, hoping to boost the more than $5bn worth of trade between the two countries.
UK and Gulf ties
When a committee of members of parliament asked Truss to name a time that she had raised human rights concerns with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries – a political and economic bloc made up of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman – she failed to do so.
Despite her past promises to hold countries engaged with human rights abuses “to account”, Truss believes it’s more important “to do business” with Gulf countries.
As foreign secretary, she oversaw the start of the UK’s efforts to secure a free trade agreement with the GCC countries. The British government has “identified the region as crucial to London’s interest for commercial and strategic reasons,” said Umberto Profazio, associate fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS).
“For the post-Brexit UK, it’s evidently important to diversify as much as possible its trade partners, and the Gulf is certainly an important region where London is nonetheless facing several competitors that have been able to make significant inroads in recent years,” Profazio told Middle East Eye.
“Facing China and Russia’s growing influence in the region, the UK is certainly losing ground like many other western powers, which are suffering from a lack of credibility in the eyes of their Arab partners,” added Profazio.
As Britain seeks to diversify its trading relationship, Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen, which has left thousands dead and millions on the brink of starvation, will likely take a back seat.
The humanitarian crises in Yemen hasn’t prevented the UK government from approving continuing weapons sales to the Saudis either, with the Department of International Trade dragging its feet when MEE asked to see documents which could offer insights into how decisions about policy regarding arms sales to Saudi Arabia has been shaped by the conflict.
Egypt’s human rights record
Liz Truss’s focus on doing business with Middle East countries and prioritising her leadership race to become the prime minister has meant the plight of the British-Egyptian activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah has been largely ignored.
The Egyptian state has hounded the Egyptian writer and political activist since 2014. He was arrested and imprisoned in 2019 and, in December 2021, was sentenced to five years for spreading “false news”. The evidence used against him was a retweet.
Since May, Alaa has been on hunger strike, with prison authorities denying him consular assistance, reading materials, a bed, and even a clock.
Alaa’s family recently slammed Truss for her failure to assist him, expressing their exasperation at her lack of help. “Honestly, it just feels like she is intentionally dismissing our plight and her responsibility towards us,” his sister Mona Seif wrote on Twitter.
Business as usual on Iran
While Truss was credited for helping Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the UK-Iranian charity worker who spent more than five years in jail in Iran on accusations of spying, back to Britain, her husband accused her of not doing enough to hold to account those responsible for his wife’s incarceration.
Richard Ratcliffe said Truss had not followed through on a promise to impose sanctions on individuals in Iran who had been involved in the affair.
On the pressing matter of the Iranian nuclear deal, Truss has taken a more hardline position.
“I have been clear that progress on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action is not moving fast enough, and I assure you that if the JCPOA collapses, all options are on the table,” she said recently.
There is every sign that Truss would follow a “business as usual” approach on the Middle East, said Profazio from ISS.
“While much of her attention would be inevitably devoted to the difficult economic situation and domestic policies, a Truss government would be managing the different crises according to its interests and privileging security and stability over any other issue,” added Profazio.
“I would expect much closer ties with Gulf partners, in consideration of the importance of the FTA negotiations for the UK, and further efforts to accommodate the interests of main partners such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE, including in the main conflict theatres where these countries are actively engaging,” Profazio told MEE.
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It all started on March 5, 2014: a US-sponsored fascist coalition government under the guise of democracy was installed in Ukraine. With historical foresight this article by Felicity Arbuthnot was first published on March 15, 2014 in the immediate wake of the US-sponsored EuroMaidan Coup d’état.
10 Downing Street is set to be bathed in social media guff with the victory of Liz Truss. Confirmed as Boris Johnson’s successor, the new British Prime Minister won by a slimmer margin over rival contender Rishi Sunak than anticipated. Nonetheless, 81,326 votes to 60,399 was sufficient to guarantee her a secure margin – for the moment.
In his book “The biggest Prison on Earth”, Israeli historian Ilan Pappe presents a historical account that undermines the Israeli narrative that Israel fought a defensive war to pre-empt a full-fledged Arab offensive in 1967.
The really decisive fighting in the First World War occurred during the opening few weeks of the conflict having broken out. The war’s outcome rested on the success or failure of the German Empire’s Schlieffen Plan, named after its principal strategist Alfred Graf von Schlieffen.
Mask wearing, social distancing, lockdowns, followed by work-from-home, were physically and psychologically damaging, lowering peoples’ self-esteem, immune system, and social belonging. These coerced measures were dividing countries, societies and even families – applying the principle of “divide to conquer”. These mandates were strictly forced upon society with threat of punishment – all under the false pretext of health protection, health security.
The US turned the Paraguayan political world upside down in a new cycle of Hybrid Warfare against the South American nation by employing sanctions and allegations of corruption against members of its political class. The article focuses on the incidences of these sanctions and allegations and their impact on Paraguayan political dynamics.
Particularly urgent today is infrastructure to counteract the record-breaking drought in the U.S. Southwest, where 50% of the nation’s food supply is grown. Subsidies for such things as the purchase of electric vehicles, featured in the IRA, will pad the coffers of the industries lobbying for them but will not get water to our parched farmlands any time soon.
Josep Borrell, EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, not only announced the suspension of visas for Russian tourists, dealing another blow to the Italian and European tourism sector. At a meeting of EU defense ministers, he said, “EU countries have been discussing the possibility of a training mission for Ukrainian forces since before the war: now is the time to act.”
It appears increasingly like our world is being shaped by ideas and intentions that have a pseudo-religious like commitment to limits and reducing human activity upon the earth.
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10 Downing Street is set to be bathed in social media guff with the victory of Liz Truss. Confirmed as Boris Johnson’s successor, the new British Prime Minister won by a slimmer margin over rival contender Rishi Sunak than anticipated. Nonetheless, 81,326 votes to 60,399 was sufficient to guarantee her a secure margin – for the moment. (The turnout had been 83 per cent.)
There is little doubt that the Tory selectorate – a good deal of it – seem to adore her. That hardly makes them, or her, representative of a broader constituency, and certainly the same constituency that voted for Johnson in 2019. Certain conservative voices have even warned that the Tory party now resembles, in part, the Labour Party of Jeremy Corbyn. Corbyn stormed through the ranks with an adoring base of party supporters and ideological brio. The broader electorate were not quite so enamoured.
The challenges the new prime minister faces are biting. The country is facing energy bills Truss has herself described as “eye-watering”. But despite this, she is willing to deliver £30 billion in tax cuts via an emergency budget and a reversal of April’s rise in National Insurance. Betraying a characteristically woolly understanding of economics, notably on progressive taxation, she sees no problem about the accrued benefits to higher-income earners. “The people at the top of the income distribution pay more tax – so inevitably, when you cut taxes you tend to benefit the people who are more likely to pay tax.” That’s sorted then.
Over the weekend, a promise was given of some emergency plan that would emerge within a week of her taking office, with a specific focus on targeting the sharp spike of energy bills. This would go “hand in hand” with a plan to increase domestic energy supplies. All of this was vague compared to Sunak’s promises to provide relief to pensioners and the low-paid from rising energy costs while also cutting Value Added Tax on energy bills.
BBC’s Newsnight, in an effort to get a sense of what the UK is in for, trotted out a few Conservative views favourable to Truss as the flexible, adjustable figure. Baroness Morgan of Coates predicts “a combination of approaches” that would make it hard to “pigeonhole” Truss. The editor of the Conservative Home website, Paul Goodman, noted her “adaptability” over the course of her political life. “So although she has this reputation as an idealogue and she has very clear ideological roots – originally as a Liberal Democrat – she is somehow the darling of the Leavers who in the [Brexit] referendum was a Remainer.”
What was striking, and utterly deceptive, was the effort by Truss to show herself as a changeling of sorts, rather than a figure of a dying status quo. This, despite being a Cabinet member for ten years. Sunak, despite being comparatively new, was given the touch-up of status quo inflexibility, one padded by expensive suits and tastes. It did not matter that he seemed, at least relatively speaking, less inscrutable and more focused on the immediate crisis.
In her speech of uneven quality and many fictions, Truss doffed her cap to Johnson in a tribute that can only trouble those who wished him gone for good. “Boris, you got Brexit done. You crushed Jeremy Corbyn. You rolled out the vaccine. And you stood up to Vladimir Putin. You are admired from Kyiv to Carlisle.”
Hardly agreed upon history, but it seemed to be an infection coursing through the ranks. Thanks were also given to Johnson by the Tory party co-chair, Andrew Stephenson, suggesting an outbreak of masochism.
Through this, both the disgraced Johnson and his opponents in the Labour Party will be holding out hope. Truss was critical of those who removed him for the number of calamities he inflicted upon himself, his party and the British public. And then there was that bitter distinctly non-concessional speech by Johnson, taking aim at the vicious, knife-bearing “herd instinct” that had robbed him of office.
Johnson’s supporters are promising to be a disruptive bunch. Many have already put out teasing feelers suggesting a return when the time is right. Johnson’s former chief of staff, Lord Udny-Lister, is one willing to wager that Johnson “is going to be watching all of this and if something happens in the future […] the ball comes loose in the scrum, then anything can happen.”
The Sunday Mirrorhas reported that 12 Tory MPs are willing to submit letters to the 1922 Committee to express no confidence in the incoming prime minister – and this, even before Truss sets foot in 10 Downing Street. For Jake Berry, MP for Rossendale and Darwen in Lancashire, such a move was “certainly suicidal”, while former Conservative chancellor Lord Hammond warned Johnson not to linger like a “malevolent shadow”.
The Truss factor has also given British Labour a boost of seven percentage points. Party strategists, as part of this bounce, have already readied a campaign in the so-called Red Wall seats, using previous, leaked remarks from Truss about how British workers produced “less per hour” than their foreign equivalents, “and that’s a combination of, kind of, skill and application.” But opinion polls do not deliver election victories. The Tory party machine, cunning, ruthless and mendacious, does at least know something about that.
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Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He currently lectures at RMIT University. He is a regular contributor to Global Research and Asia-Pacific Research. Email: [email protected]
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The Defense Ministry said that Ukrainian vessels with a force of about 250 Ukrainian troops attempted to land on the shore of a lake near the plant, which is located in the southern city of Enerhodar.
The alleged operation came as inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) were stationed at the plant.
“Despite the presence of representatives of the International Atomic Energy Agency at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the Kyiv regime once again attempted to seize the plant,” the Russian Defense Ministry said, according to Reuters.
The confirmation of strikes in Enerhodar is a rare admission of military operations in the area. The ZNPP and the areas around it have been the site of frequent shelling, but Ukraine has tried to blame Russian forces for the attacks, even though the territory has been controlled by Russia since March.
Shelling continued in the area on Saturday despite the IAEA presence, resulting in the ZNPP losing its main connection to the power grid again. The plant is still connected to the power grid thanks to a reserve line. Russian-installed officials in the region said there was no shelling on the ZNPP on Sunday.
“We are establishing a permanent presence on site, this time with two of our experts, which will be continuing the work,” he said.
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Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.
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***
Russia and Ukraine may have agreed on a tentative deal to end the war in April, according to a recent piece in Foreign Affairs.
“Russian and Ukrainian negotiators appeared to have tentatively agreed on the outlines of a negotiated interim settlement,” wrote Fiona Hill and Angela Stent. “Russia would withdraw to its position on February 23, when it controlled part of the Donbas region and all of Crimea, and in exchange, Ukraine would promise not to seek NATO membership and instead receive security guarantees from a number of countries.”
The news highlights the impact of former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s efforts to stop negotiations, as journalist Branko Marcetic noted on Twitter. The decision to scuttle the deal coincided with Johnson’s April visit to Kyiv, during which he reportedly urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to break off talks with Russia for two key reasons: Putin cannot be negotiated with, and the West isn’t ready for the war to end.
The apparent revelation raises some key questions: Why did Western leaders want to stop Kyiv from signing a seemingly good deal with Moscow? Do they consider the conflict a proxy war with Russia? And, most importantly, what would it take to get back to a deal?
For now, we can only speculate about the answers to the first two questions. The third is perhaps no less challenging, especially given the fact that both Ukraine and Russia have (at least publicly) hardened their negotiating positions significantly in recent months. But there are some clues that could help us answer it.
One possible path back to a peace deal is to build on July’s grain agreement, in which Kyiv and Moscow agreed to restart wheat exports from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports. The deal has held strong despite continued hostilities, allowing more than one million metric tons of grain to enter the world market so far. This accord shows that each side is at least interested in reducing the global impact of the war.
The other option is more complex but no less important. Just yesterday, a team of international inspectors arrived at the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which has been threatened by nearby shelling in recent weeks. The visit, which will allow experts to ensure that the plant remains in safe condition, is the result of intensive talks, backed by pressure from the international community. In this case, both Russia and Ukraine are signaling their commitment to avoiding a nuclear catastrophe.
In other words, Kyiv and Moscow have both shown that they want to mitigate the secondary effects of the conflict, and they’re willing to negotiate with the enemy in order to do it. But, as long as this war drags on, people around the world will continue to suffer, and the specter of a catastrophic event — whether through an errant strike on a power plant or an uncontrolled escalation to nuclear war — will continue to loom. It’s time for Russia, Ukraine, and the West to recognize that there’s only one way to put an end to those risks: Lay down arms and come to the negotiating table.
In other diplomatic news related to the war in Ukraine:
— The European Union is expected to suspend a visa agreement with Russia, which will make it more difficult (and more expensive) for Russian tourists to visit countries in the bloc, according to Reuters. The decision is a compromise between EU members that want to ban all Russian travelers from entering the Schengen Zone and others that see such a move as counter-productive. In a joint statement, France and Germany explained their opposition to a full ban: “We caution against far-reaching restrictions on our visa policy, in order to prevent feeding the Russian narrative and trigger unintended rallying-around the flag effects and/or estranging future generations.”
— Russia blocked a UN agreement aimed at shoring up the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT), citing concerns about clauses related to the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, according to the Guardian. The move highlights the negative effect that Russia’s invasion has had on non-proliferation efforts in recent months. But, as Shannon Bugos arguedin Responsible Statecraft, Washington should still do everything in its power to work with Moscow to reduce each country’s nuclear stockpiles. “The framework for a U.S.-Russian arms control arrangement is not perfect and will require concessions from both Washington and Moscow,” Bugos wrote. “[B]ut this is part of the arms control bargain, and the benefits, like the non-use of nuclear weapons in warfare since 1945, have consistently outweighed the perceived costs.”
— On Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron gave a detailed run-down of his stance toward the war in Ukraine, according to AP. Macron argued that Europe “must get prepared for a long war” in order to put Ukraine in the best possible position for negotiations. He also defended his decision to keep talking with Putin, arguing that “we must do everything to make a negotiated peace possible.”
U.S. State Department News:
In a Tuesday press briefing, spokesperson Vedant Patelresponded to concerns that U.S. weapons transfers to Ukraine have dropped Pentagon weapons stockpiles to “uncomfortably low” levels. “The United States has stood with the people of Ukraine for 31 years, and we will continue to firmly stand with them as they defend their freedom and independence,” Patel said. “We are going to continue to stand with Ukraine for as long as that takes.”
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***
The most perceptive ancient historians and philosophers could not have foreseen a time when a certain type of mass convenience and abundance becomes a threat to democracy, justice and dispersed power. Welcome to the incarcerations of the credit card payment systems Gulag and the corporate state’s drive to stop consumers from paying with cash.
So long as you have a credit card and a credit score, you’re in a world of easy credit (no down payments, etc.), and high interest rates, especially on unpaid monthly balances. All it takes is swiping your card and pushing buttons at retail establishments or online to make a purchase.
If you are in the lower 20% of the income scale, unbanked and outside the Gulag, consumer protections are really weak. Rip-off practices such as pay-day loan rackets and check cashing gouges proliferate.
For over a decade the screws have been tightening to coerce people into the credit-debt economy. Both the corporations and the government are to blame.
Try renting a car or getting home insurance without a credit card and credit history. Try using FedEx or UPS without a credit card. More retail outlets are experimenting with cashless transactions, even in places like the District of Columbia where a law barring discrimination against cash purchases goes unenforced.
“Cash” is defined for this article as paper money, checks and money orders. Many state laws define cash as only paper money.
The government, for example, is turning the screws by forcing Social Security recipients into receiving electronic monthly direct deposits or prepaid debit cards instead of receiving a check in the mail. This started in 2010. If you don’t have an “E-ZPass” on the Massachusetts Turnpike, an electronic camera catches your license plate and bills you with an added fee, even though you were willing to pay cash for which there is no toll gate.
Last month, the city of Newburgh, New York, converted its coin-only parking meters to cashless meters on the city’s business corridor streets. According to Blaise Gomez of “News12 Hudson Valley,” florist Christine Bello said the city is out of touch with its largely low-income demographic. “They eliminated an entire portion of my customer base by making this strictly cards,” she related. “So many of my customers do not have credit cards. They don’t have bank accounts. They don’t have smartphones. What were they thinking?”
Ms. Bello is speaking for tens of millions of poorer Americans who are being denied, excluded, penalized and harassed simply because they want to use paper cash which is “legal tender.” Isn’t that what 31 U.S.C. 5103 stipulates – that “United States coins and currency [including Federal Reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal Reserve Banks and national banks] are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes and dues”? Except for the loophole, which is that vendors can give you notice that they don’t accept cash, unless you are in one of the few states with laws declaring cash must be accepted.
There are many inducements for vendors getting you into the credit-card economy. First, you lose control over your money. The ever-tightening tentacles of their fine-print contracts dictate the terms of their grip over you and any remedies you may have to challenge abuses. While losing your bargaining power under this consumer servitude, you also are losing your privacy big time, compared to buying with cash. “Data mining” takes over and sends your purchase history and profiles to anyone in the world willing to pay or anyone able to hack. Corporate Big Brother – Equifax and Facebook – are profiting from your personal data.
With credit, you are more likely to make impulsive purchases and not be able to control your children’s buying escapades. Debt, high interest payments, and maybe harassment by bill collectors enter your life. Some who live beyond their means are seduced by the gambling industry’s lure of riches.
A new Gallup Poll reports that 64% of respondents say it is “likely the U.S. will be cashless in their lifetime!” Other countries are moving to cashless faster – some for authoritarian motivations. Just try being a tourist in Europe without a credit card.
There is a class stratification in the poll. The lower people’s income, the more likely they use cash for most purchases. The higher income and the younger they are, the more likely they use credit/debit cards or other digital payment systems. Interestingly, however, far more U.S. adults say they would be “upset” if the U.S. becomes a cashless society (46%) than the ones who say they would be “happy” with such an outcome (only 9%).
A majority (56%) of Americans, Gallup finds, say they “like to have cash with them at all times when they are outside their home.”
The poll registers a sharp partisan difference: “Republicans are most resistant to a shift to a cashless economy, with 60% saying they would not like it. Independents register 45% and Democrats register 28% taking that rejectionist position.
While the Covid-19 pandemic contributed to the shift from cash, all the corporate pressures and extreme surveillance capitalism are in that direction. Even the union-owned Amalgamated Bank recently announced that its Washington, D.C. branch is now “a cashless bank.” Imagine “a cashless bank” so you can no longer cash a check or get money for petty cash!
The ever-increasing loss of consumer freedom is a daily work in regress by the fine-print commercial planners of growing consumer peonage. They have corporate contract attorneys who brag about each step they originate, including blocking you from going to court for your grievances and relinquishing other rights.
There is no time to lose. Consumers need an all-American advocacy organization to protect and defend the use of paper cash, checks and money orders for the consumers’ control, freedom and the privacy these payment systems enable. We invite people interested in helping to create such an organization to write to Protect Cash, P.O. Box 19367, Washington DC 20036, or send an email to [email protected].
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***
The invasion of Ukraine has been going on for more than five months now and hostilities may continue for quite some time. In military terms, the outcome is still uncertain, but what is already clear is who the big winners and losers of this conflict are.
For the arms manufacturers, this war is like a gift from heaven. At the behest of NATO, European countries will increase their armament efforts by hundreds of billions in the coming years. In central Europe we may expect a new arms race — just think of the threat to deploy nuclear weapons in Belarus.
In the Arctic region, the same thing threatens to happen with the entry of Finland and Sweden into the Atlantic alliance. The push for a so-called “global NATO” may also lead to a new and dangerous arms race in Asia.
This militarization and new threats of war make the value of stocks in the defense companies in the U.S. skyrocket.
The same goes for the big fossil fuel companies. The unprecedented rise in gas and petroleum prices has increased their profits by 350 percent.
The third big winner is NATO itself. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the alliance’s raison d’etre ceased to exist — and under Trump, the alliance was even declared brain dead. Today, however, it is alive and well.
In Europe, two new members were added and operational combat troops have increased from 40,000 to 300,000. In Asia, as well as other continents, expansion is in the works, either through new partnerships or by increasing existing military deployments.
Over the past quarter century, NATO has waged wars against Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria, resulting in nearly one million deaths.
The fourth winner is the U.S. — 25 years ago, Zbigniew Brzezinski, advisor to several U.S. presidents, wrote that, for the U.S., control of the Eurasian continent was essential to maintaining hegemony. Close cooperation between Europe, Russia, and China had to be thwarted at all costs.
Over the past decade, stronger economic relations between Europe, China, and Russia have been growing. This war is reversing that trend.
China is also being targeted. Mike Pompeo, former director of the CIA and secretary of state under Trump, said it plainly: “We must prevent the formation of a pan-Eurasian colossus incorporating Russia, but led by China.”
Liz Truss calls for an “economic NATO” to cut off China and Russia from Western economies.
The losers
Those who stand to lose the most are Ukrainians, with thousands dead and wounded as well as millions fleeing the country. Ukraine is heading for complete bankruptcy.
Thousands of Russian soldiers have lost their lives while the population back home is suffering from Western sanctions and increased state repression.
This war has been particularly damaging to the global food system, already seriously weakened by Covid-19, climate change, and high energy prices.
A total of 50 million people in 45 countries are on the brink of famine.
The European population has also been affected by disproportionate food and energy price rises. Not only will that cause a lot of misery, but it also increases the likelihood of an economic recession.
Europe’s prestige has also taken a hit among a large proportion of non-Western countries which cannot understand how the EU has completely surrendered its sovereignty to the U.S. and Britain.
Another major loser is world stability. With the rise of China and other emerging countries, we seemed to be moving toward a multipolar world — a positive evolution, but now the world is heading towards a division into two camps: a bloc dominated by the West against the rest of the world.
It has to be noted that only a quarter of the countries worldwide have been willing to support sanctions against Russia.
The war has also jeopardized urgent action against global warming.
Last, as in all wars, truth is the first casualty. The mainstream Western media puts forward NATO’s version of events, while dissenting voices of the peace movement or some academics are barely heard.
Before the war, Ukraine was portrayed as “the most corrupt country” in Europe. Today, the country is the epitome of “liberal ideals.”
A broad front is urgently needed between the peace movement, the third world, labor, and environmental movements to stop the madness of this war.
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Marc Vandepitte is a Belgian economist and philosopher. He writes on North-South relations, Latin America, Cuba, and China. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
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***
The odious legacy of Stepan Bandera drives the suppression of those who dare challenge the narrative of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict promulgated by the Ukrainian government, its Western allies and a compliant mainstream media.
In May 1986 I received orders to attend a counterterrorism awareness course at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare School, in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. For the next two weeks I learned about the various terrorist threats facing the United States military, and was taught various skills to overcome them, such as high-speed evasive driving, counter-surveillance methodology and reactive shooting techniques.
Upon my return to Twenty-Nine Palms, where I was stationed as a Marine Corps intelligence officer, I was given the task of putting my newly learned skills to work by carrying out a base-wide counterterrorism exercise. I borrowed a scout-sniper team from the infantry battalion on base, and set them up in an apartment off base, where I turned them into a terrorist cell tasked with collecting intelligence on the senior officers who lived and worked on the base. The only rule was that the terrorists could not engage with civilians — no families were to be impacted by the drill.
Over the course of the next 30 days, my terrorist team was able to “assassinate” every battalion commander, the regimental commander and the base commander, using improvised explosive devices and sniper fire — and had the photographs to prove it.
The takeaway from this exercise was that if someone wanted you dead, you were probably going to die.
Vigilance was your only real defense — to be alert for anything suspicious. In short, to live a life governed by paranoia. In the age of terrorism, if you feel like someone is seeking to do you harm, it is probably because someone is seeking to do you harm.
Using Those Skills
Throughout my professional life, I have had occasion to use the skills I learned at Fort Bragg on several occasions — I was targeted for assassination while working as a U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq and I was informed that I was the subject of a “hit” put out by the Russian mafia for my role in breaking up an illicit missile component smuggling ring.
I would conduct a 360-degree inspection of my vehicle before entering it, looking for signs of tampering. And I would conduct counter-surveillance drills while driving, accelerating at odd intervals to see if anyone kept pace, or rapidly exiting a highway to see if anyone followed.
Today, I’m a 61-year-old writer living in the suburbs of Albany, New York. It’s a quiet neighborhood, where everyone knows everyone. And yet, due to recent circumstances, I once again find myself inspecting my vehicle before getting inside, keeping a watchful eye out for strange vehicles driving down my street and conducting counter-surveillance maneuvers while driving.
Why the paranoia? Simply put, my name has been added to a Ukrainian “kill list.” Think I’m getting too wound up? Ask the family of Daria Dugina, the 29-year-old daughter of the Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin. Both she and her father were on the same list. Both were targeted for death by an assassin dispatched by the Ukrainian security services. Only a last-second change of plans, which put Alexander Dugin behind the wheel of a different car, kept him from being killed in the blast that took the life of his daughter.
I’ve been writing for some time now about the Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation and their publication in mid-July of a “blacklist” containing the names of 72 intellectuals, journalists, activists and politicians from several countries who were labeled “Russian propagandists” by the Ukrainian government for having the audacity to speak critically, yet factually, about the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian conflict.
I took umbrage over this list for several reasons, first and foremost that the salaries of the Ukrainians who compiled this list appeared to be paid by the U.S. taxpayer using funds appropriated by Congress for that very purpose. The idea of Congress passing a law which empowered the Ukrainian government to do something — suppress the First Amendment guarantees of free speech and a free press — that Congress was Constitutionally prohibited from doing angered me.
So, too, did the fact that the Center for Countering Disinformation announced the existence of this “blacklist” at a function organized by a U.S.-funded NGO and attended by State Department officials who sat mute while their Ukrainian colleagues labeled the persons on this list “information terrorists” who deserved to be arrested and prosecuted as “war criminals.”
At the time, I cautioned that the use of such inflammatory language meant that the “blacklist” could be turned into a “kill list” simply by having a fanatic decide to take justice into his or her own hands. Given that the U.S. government funded the creation of this list, organized the meeting where it was presented to the world and gave an implicit stamp of approval to the list and its accompanying labeling through the attendance of U.S. government officials, these fanatics don’t have to be foreign sourced. Plenty of people in the U.S. adhere to the same hate-filled ideology that exists in Ukraine today and which gave birth to the “blacklist.”
Some of them are my neighbors.
In June I drove down to Bethel, New York (the site of the original Woodstock music festival), to participate in a Spartan Obstacle Course Race. To get there, I had to drive past Ellenville, a sleepy little town that is home to a camp belonging to the Ukrainian American Youth Association which, every summer, coordinates with the Organization for the Defense of Four Freedoms of Ukraine to hold a “Heroes’ Holiday” honoring veteran of the Ukrainian People’s Army and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists.
I just realized the principal CYM-A camp is in Ellenville, NY, the same Ulster county I live in. CYM-A [aka SUMA]'s Ellenville camp ("Oselia") pictured below: the year it opened (1955), on the 25th anniversary of the UPA leader's death (1975), and its "Heroes Monument" today. pic.twitter.com/1AHa9sDKL1
— Bandera Lobby Blog (@mossrobeson__) May 17, 2019
The camp boasts a “Heroes’ Monument”, consists of a 42-foot-tall structure with a Ukrainian trident at the top flanked by the busts of Yevhen Konovalets, Symon Petliura, Roman Shukhevych and Stepan Bandera —four leading figures in the history of Ukrainian nationalism, all of whom were involved in the murders, collectively, of hundreds of thousands of Jews, Poles and Russians.
Bandera has been elevated to the status of a national hero in Ukraine, and his birthday is considered a national holiday.
That a monument to men responsible for genocidal mass murder and who, in the case of two of them (Shukhevych and Bandera) openly collaborated with Nazi Germany, could be erected in the United States is disturbing.
That every year Ukrainian-American adherents of the odious ideology of Stepan Bandera gather to celebrate his legacy at a “children’s camp” where the youth are arrayed in brown uniforms that make them look like what they, in fact, are — ideological storm troopers for a hateful neo-Nazi ideology that promotes the racial superiority of the Ukrainian people, is an national abomination.
Here is another, newer CYM-A camp ("Beskyd") which can be found in Baraboo, Wisconsin, featuring its fascist "Heroes Monument," including a bust of the wanna-be Hitler of Ukraine, Stepan Bandera. pic.twitter.com/RYTqcTQTaD
— Bandera Lobby Blog (@mossrobeson__) May 17, 2019
From Ellenville to Bethel, I saw evidence of this hateful reality in every blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flag fluttering in the wind — and every red-and-black banner of the Bandera-worshipping Ukrainian neo-Nazi fanatics that fluttered next to them.
Stepan Bandera Legacy
The legacy of Stepan Bandera is at the very heart of what passes for Ukrainian nationalism today. It dominates the political arena inside Ukraine, where all competing political ideology and affiliations have been outlawed by President Volodymyr Zelensky.
It is behind the suppression of all dissenting voices — foreign and domestic — that dare challenge the narrative about the Russian-Ukrainian conflict being promulgated by the Ukrainian government, its Western allies, and a compliant mainstream media.
After Consortium Newspublished my letter to my New York congressional delegation (Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand and Rep. Paul Tonko), in which I called them out for voting for Public Law 117-128 appropriating $40 billion in U.S. taxpayer money to underwrite the Ukrainian government and military, there was concerted action by others impacted by the Ukrainian “blacklist,” which the legislation had funded. This was led by Diane Sare, the LaRouche Party candidate challenging Schumer for his Senate seat.
The publicity about congressionally-funded suppression of free speech appeared to be too much for those who are complicit in a frontal assault on the U.S. Constitution. The Center for Countering Disinformation’s “blacklist” was removed from the internet.
Victory, however, was short lived. Within days of the Center for Countering Disinformation’s “blacklist” being taken down, a list published by the Ukrainian “Myrotvorets” (Peacemaker’s) Center incorporated names that had been on the Center for Countering Disinformation “blacklist.”
Coat of Myrotvorets staff member with field version of their emblem on sleeve. (Shao, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons)
The Myrotvorets list has been in existence since 2014 and has been described as “effectively a death list for politicians, journalists, entrepreneurs and other public figures who have been ‘cleared for firing’” by the list’s creators.
Daria Dugina’s name was on that list.
And now so is mine, along with several other Westerners, such as Canadian journalist Eva Bartlett and British rock musician Roger Waters.
The Biden administration is silent about this abomination.
So is Congress.
According to 6 USCS § 101, the term terrorism is
“any activity that involves an act that is dangerous to human life or potentially destructive of critical infrastructure or key resources; and is a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State or other subdivision of the United States; and appears to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population, to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion, or to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping.”
There is little doubt that the murder of Daria Dugina was an act of terrorism perpetrated on behalf of the Ukrainian government. (Her photo on the list now has the word “liquidated” written diagonally across it in red.)
While the Ukrainians deny any such allegations, Russian authorities have assembled a convincing factual case to the contrary.
The existence of the Myrotvorets “death list” is an instrument of terror and should be taken down at the insistence of the U.S. Government.
The failure of the Ukrainian government to shut down the Myrotvorets Center and condemn its activities would constitute material support of terrorism.
The U.S. should also recognize any organizations which embrace the ideology of Stepan Bandera as terrorist entities — including those responsible for raising a new generation of brown-shirted neo-Nazis in the heartland of America.
The “Hero’s Monument” in Ellenville must be closed, and the statues of Bandera and the other three Ukrainian nationalists removed from public view.
It is a national disgrace that U.S. citizens are subjected to death threats from an erstwhile ally of the United States for simply exercising their Constitutional right of free speech. The adherents to the ideology of Stepan Bandera, in Ukraine and in the United States, must be treated as terrorists, and prosecuted with the same level of intensity and purpose as were the followers of al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.
Until this is done, I will have no choice but to take the appropriate precautions to make sure that neither my family nor I suffer the fate of Daria Dugina.
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Scott Ritter is a former U.S. Marine Corps intelligence officer who served in the former Soviet Union implementing arms control treaties, in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm and in Iraq overseeing the disarmament of WMD. His most recent book is Disarmament in the Time of Perestroika, published by Clarity Press.
Featured image: Stepan Bandera monument in Ternopil, Ukraine, 2017. (Mykola Vasylechko, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons)
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***
Maliciously smearing approximately half of the country as existential terrorist-inclined threats to “the soul of the nation” is nothing but the crudest Machiavellian means of dividing and ruling the population.
The Unprecedentedly Dangerous Divider-In-Chief
US President Joe Biden’s nationally televised speech on Thursday that the official White House website headlined as being about “the continued battle for the soul of the nation” saw the incumbent become the most dangerous and divisive American leader in history. Far from trying to cleanse and protect that very same soul, he shamelessly spit on it by pitting his people against one another as part of an obvious divide-and-rule plot ahead of the neck-and-neck midterm elections that are only two months away.
Debunking Biden’s False Belief In Equality & Democracy
The first part that stands out is Biden emphasizing how the location of his speech, Philadelphia’s Independence Hall where the Declaration of Independence was made and the Constitution signed, reinforces the mutually complementary concepts of equality and democracy connected with those two documents. He doesn’t truly believe in either of those though as proven by White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre condemning all minority views as “extremist” earlier that same day.
Nevertheless, he pretended that he’s a true believer in them in order to artificially manufacture the basis upon which to contrast himself with former US President Donald Trump. Biden claimed that his predecessor and those who still support his Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement supposedly “represent an extremism that threatens the very foundations of our republic.” Falsely framing them as existential threats so close to the midterms is obviously aimed at manipulating voters’ perceptions.
Applying The “Rules For Radicals” Against The MAGA Movement
This crude tactic would be condemned by the American Government if it was employed by any Global South leader irrespective of whether it’s baseless like in Biden’s case or genuinely backed up by facts. Biden then channeled the infamous Saul Alinksy’s “Rules For Radicals”, specifically the thirteenth rule to “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it”, when claiming that “the Republican Party today is dominated, driven, and intimidated by Donald Trump and the MAGA Republicans”.
By adding that “that is a threat to this country”, the incumbent ominously implied that the full authority of the state will be brought down to bear on those who are even simply suspected of being remotely connected to the former president or his movement on faux national security pretexts. He then instantly reverted to gaslighting once again just like he earlier did by unconvincingly claiming that he supports the Founding Fathers’ vision of equality and democracy by contrasting Democrats and MAGA on false bases.
Who Really Employs Political Violence & Election Conspiracy Theories?
The same man who represents the party that frenziedly fanned the flames of the joint Antifa- and BLM-ledHybrid War of Terror on America all throughout summer 2020, whose countless antagonists were manipulated into functioning as “useful idiots” of the anti-MAGA faction of the US “deep state” (permanent military, intelligence, and diplomatic bureaucracies), counterfactually claimed that it’s Trump and his supporters who divided the country through the use of violence for political ends.
Biden also insulted Americans’ intelligence by gaslighting that it’s only some MAGA folks who’ve ever rejected the outcome of a presidential election when most Democrats refused to recognize the legitimacy of Trump’s victory in 2016. Not only that, but their anti-MAGA “deep state” puppeteers literally concocted the Russiagate conspiracy theory that they laundered through allied congressional representatives, law enforcement, media, and NGOs to discredit the entirety of his four years in office.
The Democrats’ Path To A Dystopian Post-Modern Dictatorship
The ”carnage and darkness and despair” that the incumbent claimed that MAGA folks see when they look at America was actually the Democrats’ rallying cry during all of Trump’s term and especially ahead of the 2020 elections. When Biden said that “They spread fear and lies – lies told for profit and power”, this objectively described the Democrats as was earlier explained with respect to the Russiagate conspiracy theory as well as their false fearmongering about Trump being a “dictator worse than Hitler”.
On the topic of dictatorship, the author predicted shortly after 2020’s disputed election that “Biden’s America Would Be A Dystopian Hellhole”, which continues progressively unfolding exactly as foreseen. “Every Democrat Is A Wannabe Dictator”, so it naturally follows that the party’s latest figurehead would play to this fantasy by falsely describing his political opponents as supposed “threats” in order to create the “publicly plausible” pretext for imposing a Pakistani-like post-modern dictatorship.
His infamous speech perniciously manipulated the concept of pre-bunking in order to mislead Americans into falsely considering approximately half of the country to be an existential threat to “the soul of the nation.” By dividing and ruling them in such a stereotypically Machiavellian way, Biden (or rather those members of the “deep state” that are behind him and wrote his speech) is deliberately trying to radicalize the minority of at-risk MAGA folks to engage in highly publicized political violence.
The MAGA Mentality
Objectively speaking, they’ve always been on the strategic defensive even before Trump’s election since the whole reason why they voted for him in the first place was their hope that he’d reverse – or at least slow down – the Democrat-driven trend of comprehensively dismantling everything that America stood for. Upon the 45th President entering office, they then found themselves viciously targeted by their opponents, who ultimately waged a nationwide spree of urban terrorism against them in summer 2020.
After their hero’s scandalous departure from the White House and his replacement with the “deep state”-backed Democrat’s placeholder, those who sympathize with MAGA or are at the very least perceived as being associated with it are now at risk of being actively oppressed by the state. Biden’s hate-filled speech will only exacerbate these fears, which could very easily radicalize the absolute minority of those folks with preexisting mental illnesses and thus push them to political violence.
The Worst-Case Scenario
No sincerely law-abiding and patriotic American would ever harm their compatriots no matter how fierce their political disputes may get, yet it’s impossible to ever perfectly defend against “lone wolves”, including those that have previously been on the secret police’s (FBI) radar. In the worst-case scenario that one or some of them end up doing something terrible, God forbid, then there’s no doubt that the incident (which might even manifest as a terrorist attack) would be exploited by the ruling party.
Biden’s backers would certainly take advantage of it to accelerate America’s descent into a dystopian post-modern dictatorship, but for their plans to enjoy the greatest probability of success, they must first effectively divide and rule the population through gaslighting tactics exactly as the incumbent just did. The next step is to precondition them into expecting political violence by the side that’s misportrayed as an existential threat that’s supposedly predisposed to terrorism, which Biden also just achieved.
Upon the worst-case scenario transpiring, God forbid, so-called “cancel culture” can then immediately be weaponized to its most vicious political extreme by carrying out a nationwide crackdown against everyone even remotely suspected of being associated with MAGA. These devious plans aren’t anything that a sincere believer in “the continued battle for the soul of the nation” would plot, but that’s why nobody should fall for Biden’s, his backer’s, and their “useful idiots”’ false claims that they’re patriots.
Unity & Division
From top-down and bottom-up, the Democrats are united like never before when it comes to carrying out this nationwide crackdown, even though their agreement with one another in this respect is thus far only tacit and not explicit. Be that as it is, so too can it be said that MAGA is unprecedentedly united in bracing for this dystopian post-modern dictatorship scenario, though it’s only the former that have the power to be “legitimate” agents of change due to their monopoly over the state’s use of violence.
To be absolutely clear so that there’s no false perception of ambiguity whatsoever at all, the author is not in any way implying that MAGA should illegitimately employ violence (i.e. anything that isn’t the legally enshrined right to self-defense) against anyone, whether their political opponents or the state. The movement that coalesced around Trump but organically arose long before his political rise must absolutely remain committed to peaceful and political means for regaining power through the ballot.
Having clarified that crucial point of principle that should always be at the forefront of every MAGA-aligned person’s mind, political practice sometimes differs from political theory, so it can’t be taken for granted that at least one of those folks who’ve objectively been on the strategic defensive for years as was earlier explained won’t be triggered into committing political violence by Biden’s speech. However it might unfold, God forbid, that worst-case scenario would set drastic events into motion.
Reflecting On Biden’s Hateful Remarks
Those who have the time to reread the incumbent’s hateful remarks in full will more be able to more clearly discern the ulterior motives that are very strongly implied by his provocative words. He was tasked with repeating high-sounding rhetoric in order to gaslight people into not suspecting the Democrats of preparing for the sequence of events that would follow his deliberate attempt at radicalizing already the ultra-fringe minority of already psychologically disturbed MAGA folks.
Maliciously smearing approximately half of the country as existential terrorist-inclined threats to “the soul of the nation” is nothing but the crudest Machiavellian means of dividing and ruling the population. For as dark as the future might appear after Biden’s unprecedentedly divisive information warfare provocation against the American people, the worst-case scenario isn’t inevitable since nothing about the presently chaotic trajectory of the situation is deterministic.
Pulling America Back From The Brink of Civil War
While it arguably does indeed appear as though an undeclared civil war might soon be fought between the “deep state”-backed Democrats led on the streets by a coalition of Antifa, BLM, and ideologically aligned law enforcement on one side against MAGA-affiliated Americans on the other (or is already being waged according to some), that scenario could also still be averted. Responsible influencers from both sides should immediately make it known that they disavow any and all violence.
Those within their ranks who disagree with their peaceful methods of resolving political disputes must be disowned so that any rogue violence that they might God forbid commit isn’t credibly associated with either side’s cause. Law enforcement members should also remember their duty to impartially uphold the law and not allow themselves to be manipulated by anyone for political ends, while lawmakers mustn’t ever forget their sacred obligation to protect the people who they’re responsible for.
The Role Of Responsible Political Leaders & Law Enforcement Members
The Hybrid War of Terror on America could have easily been nipped in the bud had mayors/governors ordered local police/ National Guard to do so, but they purposely declined as part of their political plot to influence people’s perceptions ahead of the 2020 elections so that they’d vote against Trump. In the event of forthcoming large-scale unrest, whether driven by “deep state”-backed Democrat “useful idiots” or rogue MAGA folks, these same leaders must decisively act unlike before.
Likewise, law enforcement should prepare themselves to publicly disagree with those abovementioned leaders if their superiors once again decline to deploy them to protect the populace. The principled among them should also consider refusing to illegally restrict law-abiding citizens’ Second Amendment rights if they’re ordered to do so since that’s one of the scenarios that could be employed by the Democrats in response to the earlier speculative worst-case scenario or possibly even to provoke it.
Concluding Thoughts
America is dangerously on the verge of descending into a fast-moving and full-on dystopian post-modern dictatorship, pushed over the precipice by none other than its incumbent president and those shadowy “deep state” forces that are behind him. That disastrous outcome can still be averted, as well as the worst-case scenarios that would likely make this trajectory irreversible, but it’ll require Americans of all political views coming together to peacefully defeat those who want to divide and rule them.
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This article was originally published on OneWorld.
Andrew Korybko is an American Moscow-based political analyst specializing in the relationship between the US strategy in Afro-Eurasia, China’s One Belt One Road global vision of New Silk Road connectivity, and Hybrid Warfare. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.
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***
Autonomie ist der Zustand und das Lebensgefühl der Selbstbestimmung, Unabhängigkeit (Souveränität) und Selbstverwaltung. Philosophisch gesehen ist es die Fähigkeit, sich als Wesen der Freiheit zu sehen und aus dieser Freiheit heraus zu handeln. Sie ist auch die Kraft zum Nicht-Mitmachen (Adorno(Link ist extern)).
Das Naturrecht sagt, dass es etwas gibt, was von Natur aus recht ist. Es unterscheidet sich vom durch Menschen gesetztes, sogenanntes positives Recht dadurch, dass es dem Menschen allein schon deshalb zusteht, weil er Mensch ist. Da es durch keinen Machthaber oder wie auch immer gearteten Mehrheitsbeschluss geschaffen wird, ist es vorstaatliches Recht. Das heißt, die Gesetze eines Staates müssen sich kritisch am Naturrecht(Link ist extern) messen lassen. [1]
Das Wissen darüber, was von Natur aus recht ist, ermöglicht uns, totalitären Ideologien und Diktaturen von einem festen mitmenschlichen Standpunkt aus entgegenzutreten, ein Gefühl der Empörung gegen Unrecht und Unmenschlichkeit zu empfinden, auch wenn eventuell die ganze Gesellschaft einem Diktator zujubelt.
Was ist Naturrecht?
Das naturrechtliche Denken nimmt seinen Anfang in der antiken griechischen Philosophie, vor allem in der Auseinandersetzung Platons(Link ist extern) mit den Sophisten(Link ist extern). Ihnen hielt Platon entgegen, dass es objektive, absolut gültige Normen, Werte und Gesetze gibt, die nicht von den wechselnden Meinungen der Menschen abhängig sind. An diesen objektiven Ideen dessen, was Recht ist, muß sich der Staat und die Staatsführung zu allen Zeiten messen lassen. Platon hat hinter dem Recht die objektive Idee der Gerechtigkeit gesehen.
Das höchste Ziel im menschlichen Leben ist das vernunftbestimmte Leben und dazu kann der Mensch nur gelangen, wenn er in Kindheit und Jugend lernt, seine Begierden und Affekte zu mäßigen. Er muss das goldene Maß der Mitte einhalten lernen (Gerechtigkeit, Tapferkeit und Besonnenheit). Wenn das nicht schon im Kindes- und Jugendalter zur Lebensgewohnheit wird, dann wird er später von extremen Affekten hin- und hergerissen und wird nie zu einer tugendhaften, besonnenen, vernunftbestimmten Lebensführung (Klugheit) gelangen.
Der große Kirchenlehrer Thomas von Aquin(Link ist extern) hat die Philosophie des Aristoteles(Link ist extern) mit der von Augustinus(Link ist extern) herkommenden christlichen Philosophie und Theologie verbunden. Er hat damit überragende Bedeutung für die Herausbildung des christlichen Naturrechts, der christlichen Anthropologie und Theologie, in deren Zentrum der Mensch als Person steht.
Die von Gott erschaffene Seins-Ordnung sei vollkommen gut. In ihr wirke das „ewige Gesetz“, lex aeterna. Das ist die göttliche Weisheit, als oberstes Gesetz. Von diesem ewigen Gesetz könne der Mensch durch seine Vernunft einen Teil erkennen.
Der Mensch hat eine natürliche Neigung zum Guten, die ihm durch das ewige Gesetz „ins Herz geschrieben“ ist. Sie hilft ihm, das Naturrichtige besser zu erkennen. Die wesentlichen natürl. Neigungen des Menschen sind diejenigen zur Wahrheitserkenntnis und zum Gemeinschaftsleben. Mit seiner Vernunft kann der Mensch die Gesetze der Natur erkennen und erfasst damit die von Gott geschaffene Ordnung.[wer sowas glaubt; H.S.]
Die Würde des Menschen ist unantastbar
Artikel 1(Link ist extern) des deutschen Grundgesetzes (GG) lautet: „Die Würde des Menschen ist unantastbar. Sie zu achten und zu schützen ist Verpflichtung aller staatlichen Gewalt.“ Die Würde des Menschen stellt den obersten Verfassungsgrundsatz dar, an dem folglich alle staatliche Gewalt ihr Handeln auszurichten hat. Sie ist daher Maßstab für Legislative, Exekutive und Judikative. Der Staat hat alles zu unterlassen, was die Menschenwürde beeinträchtigen könnte. In der Interpretation des Artikels ist umstritten, ob die Menschenwürde als über-positives Recht (Naturrecht) aufzufassen ist, oder ob sie als positives Recht(Link ist extern) zu gelten hat. [geändert H.S.]
Was sich jedoch gerade nicht nur in Deutschland, sondern weltweit abspielt, ist das Gegenteil von dem, was das deutsche Grundgesetz fordert. Die Würde des Menschen wird mit Füssen getreten – und das erinnert an das Deutschland der 30er Jahre, den aufkommenden Faschismus. Jeder denkende und fühlende Mitbürger kann es „am eigenen Leib spüren“.
Wir sind nicht mehr frei und können unser Leben nicht mehr selbstbestimmt und unabhängig führen. Die Regierungen lassen uns keinerlei Handlungsspielraum und verweigern uns das verbriefte Recht, diesen Wahnsinn nicht mitzumachen, den totalitären Machenschaften entschieden und mit aller Willenskraft entgegenzutreten. Der Rechtsstaat ist gestorben.
Doch unsere Gedanken sind frei (Cicero(Link ist extern)) und niemand kann uns unsere Würde nehmen. Auch können wir den Mut aufbringen, uns unseres eigenen Verstandes zu bedienen (Kant). Und wir wissen, was von Natur aus recht ist. Deshalb werden wir uns dem Diktat korrupter Politiker, Wissenschaftler, Mediziner, Journalisten oder fragwürdiger Mäzene wie Bill Gates nicht unterwerfen. [> NRhZ Nr. 741 vom 8.04.2020: „Auf zum letzten Gefecht!(Link ist extern)“]
Bereits vor über 100 Jahren gab der große russische Schriftsteller Leo N. Tolstoi(Link ist extern) seine Einschätzung von Regierenden zu Protokoll:
„Man könnte die Unterordnung eines ganzen Volkes unter wenige Leute noch rechtfertigen, wenn die Regierenden die besten Menschen wären; aber das ist nicht der Fall, war niemals der Fall und kann es nie sein. Es herrschen häufig die schlechtesten, unbedeutendsten, grausamsten, sittenlosesten und besonders die verlogensten Menschen. Und dass dem so ist, ist kein Zufall.“[2]
Von der Wissenschaft – auch der Medizin – erwartet die menschliche Gemeinschaft zu Recht, dass sie die Not der Menschen lindert und dem Schutz des Lebens dient. Aber immer mehr Wissenschaftler verhökern ihr Wissen und Können und oft auch ihre Seele dem militärisch-industriellen Komplex. Sie entfernen sich sogar so weit von ihrem Menschsein, dass sie die Mittel für die allgemeine Vernichtung der Menschheit vervollkommnen helfen.
Einen wichtigen Beitrag zur Aufklärung und Ermutigung der Menschen könnten die Massenmedien leisten, da sie gemäß nationaler und internationaler Vereinbarungen der wahrheitsgemäßen Information von uns Bürgern und dem Frieden verpflichtet sind. Doch das Gegenteil ist der Fall. Sie stehen „im Dienst der Kriegshetze und Hasspropaganda“ und „im Dienst der Verdummung der Massen“ (Bertha von Suttner(Link ist extern), * 9. Juni 1843 in Prag; † 21. Juni 1914 in Wien).
Erhalten wir uns also das Lebensgefühl der Selbstbestimmung, Unabhängigkeit (Souveränität) und Selbstverwaltung und die Fähigkeit, uns als Wesen der Freiheit zu sehen und aus dieser Freiheit heraus zu handeln.
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Dr. Rudolf Hänsel, Jahrgang 1944, ist Rektor i.R., promovierter Erziehungswissenschaftler, ehemaliger Lehrer und Schulberater sowie Diplom-Psychologe mit den Schwerpunkten Klinische Psychologie, Pädagogische Psychologie und Medienpsychologie. Er ist Buchautor sowie Autor von Fachartikeln zu den Themen Jugendgewalt (beispielsw. über Gewaltprävention in der Schule als Beitrag zur Friedenserziehung), Mediengewalt (z.B. „Unterhaltungsgewalt“ in Fernsehen, Video- und Computerspielen) und bewusste ethisch-moralische Werteerziehung. Er schreibt regelmäßig Beiträge für Global Research.
Noten
[1] Messner, Johannes (1984, 7. unveränderte Auflage). »Das Naturrecht. Handbuch der Gesellschaftsethik, Staatsethik und Wirtschaftsethik«, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin. Mittlerweile in 8. unververä. Auflage (2018). ISBN 978-3-428-15576-7 (Print), ISBN 978-3-428-55576-5 (E-Book), ISBN 978-3-428-85576-6 (Print & E-Book). [> Leseprobe(Link ist extern); H.S.]
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***
On December 16, 2017, the Finnish daily newspaper Helsingin Sanomat published an investigative report on the activities of the Finnish Intelligence Research Centre. Titled “Finland’s Most Secret Place,” the report focused on the military intelligence agency’s tasks and noted its rough location.
The article was particularly pertinent, given debates at the time on whether the powers of the seemingly innocuous body in question should be expanded to monitor private data in digital networks while discussing an overall expansion of surveillance powers.
As the paper noted in scathing tone, the MPs debating the matter in Parliament seemed ignorant about what was actually at stake and taking place at Tikkakoski. In the miasma of celebrated political ignorance, powers could be enlarged with little care and worry, elected representatives remaining, as they often have in history, asleep as the needle is administered.
The Finnish Intelligence Research Centre sounds positively ordinary in terms of designation and function. Ditto in Finnish, where it passes for Viestikoelaitos. Over the years, the testing facility has not been reticent about aspects of its activities, much of it based on a campaign to gain broader acceptability. Its ultimate purpose, using radio signal intelligence, is to ensure that the Prime Minister of the day is apprised of the next potential attack on Finnish territory, were it to happen. The concern here is that the medium of such intelligence has degraded. Where intelligence and signals capacity degrade, broader powers tend to be sought.
As a result, reporters Tuomo Pietiläinen and Laura Halminen, and the paper’s acting manager at the time, Kalle Silfverberg, are facing the ire of the national security establishment. Halminen’s apartment was raided in December 2017 by the police, who also seized her computer and flash drives. According to MTV, a second instalment was not run by order of the editor-in-chief after the first publication drew criticism.
If convicted, the accused parties face prison sentences of up to four years. “It is completely exceptional that Finnish journalists are being accused of high treason,” Hanne Aho, chairwoman of the Finnish Journalists’ Union stated to Reuters.
In the amnesiac-rich field of social media, this sounds new. In fact, the process has been in train for some time. Originally, five suspects were named in the investigation, including the editor-in-chief Kaius Niemi. On October 29, 2021, charges for the disclosure and attempted disclosure of state secrets were announced against the three who now figure.
In terms of what defence may be mounted, the idea of prior publication, or material that is already available, seems the most sensible. It is standard fare and tends to catch out governments obsessed with not being embarrassed. In fact, pre-trial investigations did little to dispel this point.
International Press Institute Executive Director Barbara Trionfi, in responding to the charges last year, drew attention to its bizarre quality. “It is unacceptable and absurd that journalists in a European democracy like Finland are facing imprisonment for doing their job and reporting on an issue of massive public interest, which the discussion about the activities and powers of Finland’s security agencies undoubtedly was.”
Trionfi also notes that lengthiness in investigation and how it constitutes a form of constriction and deterrence. “This investigation itself – which has dragged on for years – had already cast a shadow over Finnish reporting on national security issues. These charges will now worsen this chilling effect, jeopardizing the public’s right to be informed on issues of tremendous importance to society.”
The Committee to Protect Journalists has also added its voice of concern. Its Europe Director Attila Mong is adamant: “It is unacceptable that investigative journalists in an EU country could face prison sentences for their work.”
There are some striking similarities to the battle being waged against journalists in another country, one supposedly liberal democratic and claiming to have, superficially at least, some respect for press freedoms. The Afghan Files, published by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, revealed alleged atrocities by Australian special forces in Afghanistan, and eventually resulted in a raid of the national broadcaster by the Australian Federal Police.
The AFP took its time before executing a warrant to raid the Ultimo headquarters in Sydney despite already knowing the core source of the files, the whistleblower and former SAS operative David McBride. The entire affair was one of abuse, deterring intimidation and even terror.
It further left the option for prosecuting one of the journalists who had compiled the report, Dan Oakes, open. The case was eventually dropped by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions on public interest grounds. While the CDPP had what could only be described as an attack of conscience, the entire measure was both dangerous and farcical.
The prosecutor in the case against the three Finnish journalists has demanded that the online version of the story be scrubbed from the newspaper’s website. But as Aho remarks, very little is being given away about the substance of charges.
This may well be a sign of things to come, suggesting that Finns may have more to worry about than the distracting antics of their dancing premier. The national security wonks, now in full embrace with NATO and keen to anticipate the next crisis, will not be thrilled about debates on intelligence and any proposed expansion of powers. For a country solid and reliable in its defence of press freedoms, this is a rotten turn up for the books.
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Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He currently lectures at RMIT University. He is a regular contributor to Global Research and Asia-Pacific Research. Email: [email protected]
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***
Before bidding good-bye to Covid 19 pandemic, WHO boss, Mr. Tedros has exhorted us to welcome yet another PHEIC under the shadow of monkeypox.
Since then one and half month has elapsed with no appreciable sense of horror and anxiety smouldering among the masses. Reports of the most innocuous sibling of deadly smallpox virus spreading like wildfire are disappearing as fast as they caught us unaware. Let alone the big headlines and frightening data on monkeypox, not even few lines in small print are now visible any longer.
It appears that monkeypox has either detested the co-ordinated and earth-shaking hullabaloo and preferred to remain incognito or it is waiting in it’s wings to allow the strengthening of vaccine-ecosystem. The purpose of this article is not to resurrect a horror story that has already started dying out. Rather, it will be more sensible to raise a pertinent question, is the fear campaign on monkeypox losing steam? Curiously, the answer is both yes and no.
What are the possibilities of the answer being ‘Yes’?
There is a host of implausible statements and goof-ups on the part of WHO boss who failed to create convincing and awe-inspiring pre-conditions that could lead the monkeypox borne PHEIC to a predictable pathway of pandemic and follow the foot-prints of Covid 19.
Firstly, he said that he acted as tie-breaker by unilaterally declaring monkeypox a PHEIC when his own advisors of EC, on 21 July, 2022 resolved against his decision by 9 against and 6 for opinion.
One month ago, on 23 June, the similar move of Mr. Tedros was also defeated by 11 against and 3 for PHEIC. Secondly, though he tried his best to outsmart those holding opposite view, he ended up with such statement, “scientific principles, evidence and other relevant information- which are currently insufficient and leave us with many unknowns”. It was the fourth component of five elements of IHR that he invoked to justify his action. In the same speech given on 23 July, he said, “outbreak that has spread around the world rapidly, through new modes of transmission, about which we understand too little.” In the same breath, he claimed, “with the tools we have right now, we can stop transmission and bring this outbreak under control.”
With many unknowns and insufficient informations how could he play a messiahto bring out magic “tools to stop the transmission”? wondered even the most hardened believer of vaccine and RT-PCR method of diagnosis of viral infection. While Mr. Tedros said,
“the outbreak has been concentrated largely among gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men, with many occurring in men who have had multiple recent sex partners,”
“Implement response actions with the goal of protecting vulnerable groups (immune suppressed individuals, children, pregnant women) who may be at risk of severe monkeypox disease.”
How can the children & pregnant women be vulnerable with a disease “largely concentrated among MSM” – is comprehensible only to a corrupt global leader of public health who knows how to make mockery of scientific truth.
All five deaths ostensibly occurred were confined to two African countries which are said to be the home of monkeypox. Untill then, no death was reported in USA or Europe. Yet, Europe was placed on high alert requiring “accelerated research into use of vaccine, therapeutics and other tools.”
On the day Mr. Tedros declared PHEIC, WHO published an interim guidance on Laboratory Testing for the Monkeypox. It says, to differentiate monkeypox from a group of closely resembling set of clinical features, laboratory confirmation of specimen is to be done by NAAT ( generic to Orthopox virus) or real-time PCR test specific to monkeypox virus. They cunningly brushed aside a fundamental question, can PCR test confirm the presence of an infectious virus? A research article published by CDC on 7 July, 2006 unequivocally said,
“PCR can only identify short stretches of poxvirus DNA (1,7). Nevertheless, since EM and PCR cannot discriminate between infectious and noninfectious virus particles or nucleic acids, they are not satisfactory when an evaluation of the infectious capacity of viral particles is required.”
It went on to say,
“Virus concentration should exceed 10 particles/mL; however, even at these concentrations only the virus family can be determined, and no additional classification is possible.”
The latest disclaimer on Monkeypox generic real time PCR test issued by CDC on 6 June, 2022 says, “The recipient testing laboratory is responsible for generating validation or verification data as applicable.” The generic test method was “just an example on how the test was done” in their lab. They did not claim that this test method was validated or verified for universal use. Nevertheless, by 22 June, “CDC in collaboration with US department of HHS began shipping orthopoxvirus tests to five commercial laboratory companies, including the nation’s largest reference laboratories.” Buoyed by the prospect of sharpening the most lucrative tool, HHS secretary said,
“All Americans should be concerned about monkeypox cases. Thankfully we have right now the tools to fight and treat cases in America by dramatically expanding the number of testing locations throughout the country, we are making it possible for anyone who needs to be tested to do so.”
All the hypes and hooplas about monkeypox and cacophony on mounting co –ordinated response with already approved vaccine, test method and drugs failed to seduce the monkeypox virus due to a simple reason. It is the fact that monkeypox has remained endemic in the wretchedly poor west and central African countries for last three decades causing almost zero death in healthy individuals. Therefore, when this self-limiting virus was reported to have hopped too far , on the developed European countries and number of exported cases occurred in hundereds which are far in excess of that happened in the countries where it is endemic, it poses an uncanny situation for the epidemiologists who are thinking very seriously to restore people’s trust in their science. Given the lack of validation and verification of generic rt-PCR tests, the poxvirus must have encountered profound identity crisis. So did Mr. Tedros, but in his case, credibility crisis has become so much disabling that monkeypox scare is surely fizzling out from public psyche.
What are the possibilities of the answer being “No”?
Let’s begin with a fundamental question, will the scare of PHEIC or future pandemic end with the frenzy on monkeypox losing steam?
Answer is a resounding ‘No’.
It is because fear is universal in nature. It has no species, family or population and pathogen specificity. So do the vaccines developed by CEPI against new and unknown pathogen. Does it sound crazy ? May be.
But, the claims made by CEPI (Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness & Innovations) are far more weird. The CEO of CEPI wrote an article, “Could monkeypox give us an R&D blueprint to end pandemics?” on 24 May, 2022. He said that wiping out a deadly disease called smallpox was the crowning glory.
Yet, he wanted us to believe that they have created a global stockpile of smallpox vaccine and anti viral drugs for use in case of outbreak or bio-terrorist attack. Even in wildest fantasy, it is difficult to conjure up bio-terrorists innovating means to weaponise an eradicated virus so much so that it would cause epidemic outbreak.
If they really exist on this planet and they are armed with cutting edge technology of genetically manipulating a plethora of deadly pathogens, why raising a gigantic fund of 3.5 billion US$. Why not eradicating the imagined bio-terrorists? Why so much furore and funding( read investment) to put out imaginary fire, instead of stamping out the source of fire? The greatest lesson of Covid 19 is that common sense and plain truths are the principal targets of blitzkrieg of high voltage campaign spiced up with pseudo- scientific jargons. As a perfect example of this fact, let me cite an outlandish statement of CEO of CEPI,
“COVID-19, and now monkeypox, have made us all too aware of an unfortunate biological truth: viruses do not respect borders. But if governments and industry can work together, transcending those same borders that viruses so effortlessly pass through, we can create a vaccine library with prototype vaccines against almost any viral threat.”
Nevertheless, the most pragmatic lessons learnt by Mr.Tedros is this – “let me highlight three specific lessons as they relate to CEPI, our CEPI”. In the key note speech at Global Pandemic Prepareness Summit, on 8 March, 2022 he made this statement explaining further,
“A commitment to CEPI is commitment to science.” …. “fully funded CEPI is a commitment for better future”. …. “That’s why I welcome CEPI’s 100 Days Mission and urge donors to fully fund CEPI’s 3.5 billion US dollar investment case.”
Such a glib talk makes us curious to know something more about his CEPI. It is a WHO-mediated platform for worldwide promotion of vaccines, drugs and diagnostics under the pretext of pandemic preparedness. Structurally, it is a coalition of big pharma companies manufacturing vaccines, anti- virals and diagnostics, big financial and banking giants like Goldman Sachs and private organizations like Welcome trust, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation & World Economic Forum. Founded in Davos summit of WEF in 2017, It coaxed most of the governments across the world to pump money into it’s coffer.
It’s annual report of 2020 mentioned that one of it’s missions is “to fill the critical gap in vaccine eco-system”. Needless to say that the critical gap is not imaginary, it is real. It owes it’s existence to the gap between production and market. They also answered how would they fill this ‘gap’-
It must be appreciated that they have enough wisdom to predict that the new and unknown virus will not only respect border but will certainly respect their seamless business strategy across the borders and will not undermine the critical gap they are bridging up. Anyone may ask, how will they manage the critical gap while taking out the chosen vaccine from the shelves of their so called vaccine library within 100 days, if drug regulatory bodies approves them only after due process?
The thought leaders of CEPI has already roped in EMA, FDA and WHO by co-opting them as a part of co-ordination group. On the otherside of the spectrum of this formidable coalition, the scientists and researchers are sitting in the scientific advisory committee. Quite expectedly, these greatest scientists of our time will be churning out hundreds of research papers and study results to justify the making of vaccines against new and unknown pathogen.
The whole pandemic preparedness project thus appears so watertight that no amount of truth-seeking criticism or relentless questioning will be able to make a dent on it. This is the reason why CEPI can non-chalantly say that they have had five priority pathogens on their portfolio. They even clarified. “In 2019, there were outbreaks of all of CEPI’s priority pathogens: Ebola, Nipah, MERS, Lassa, Rift, Chikungunya as well as many other diseases.”
Finally, the bombshell was dropped by Mr. Tedros himself. He clarified in his keynote speech at CEPI summit that two years before the CEPI was born or by 2015 they had already developed vaccines against SARS, MERS and yet then unidentified disease X which turned out to be Covid 19. He added,
“But of course, COVID-19 will not be the last Disease X.” and
“we are here to prepare for respond rapidly to future pandemics” and most important of all,
“This pandemic(Covid 19) is not over anywhere until it is over everywhere.”
Therefore, the pandemic preparedness is essentially a formidable two-pronged tool. On the one hand, there is the pretext of perpetual pandemic and on the other hand there shines the monkeypox-inspired blue print of R & D for vaccines for all possible future outbreaks. This is the reason why the saga of monkeypox is not going to fizzle out with the temporary waning of co-ordinated cacophony.
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Gautam Das is a medical doctor based in Kolkata, India practicing Family Medicine. He has been writing and speaking against the official Covid narrative and Covid mandates. His recent article on pandemic treaty was published in UHO website, India, see this and this.
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The side effects of anti-Russian sanctions are becoming increasingly unbearable for Western countries. Finland has activated maximum alert levels due to the energy crisis, initiating exceptional measures to manage supply difficulties. The head of government even stated that the country would be experiencing a “war economy”, despite the fact that Finland is obviously not at war with any other state. This scenario reveals the disastrous path that the West chose to follow by its own decision.
On 1 September, Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin described the economic situation in her country in the midst of the gas supply crisis as a “war economy”. Interestingly, in her speech, Marin blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for the crisis, despite the fact that the decision to sanction Moscow was taken unilaterally by Western countries. According to her, the gas crisis is occurring because the Russian government is using energy as a weapon in the current conflict.
“We seem to be living in a war economy. This is not a normal economic situation”, she said during a press conference.
She also added that this is the third calamity her country has faced since she took power in 2019:
“The first [crisis] was the pandemic, the second was the tide of war coming in Europe, and the third is the energy crisis, which both Finland and all other European countries in the grip of, due to the war and the fact that Putin is using energy as a weapon against Europe”.
Marin did not explain exactly how the gas was being used as a weapon by the Russians. She just blamed Putin in a generic and unjustified way. In fact, her words sounded like a desperate attempt to make a kind of scapegoat for the impending crisis that will damage her country. Marin just tried to evade her responsibility as the Finland’s head of government, pointing to the president of a foreign country as the cause of the problems.
However, it is necessary to emphasize that there is no validity in Marin’s rhetoric. Russia initially had no intention of using energy as a strategic point in its international disputes. On the contrary, it was the West itself that imposed a series of sanctions to which Moscow was forced to respond with some measures, such as demanding payment in rubles, controlling prices and even banning sales in some more serious cases.
If the West had not taken the initiative to try to “punish” Russia for starting the special operation in Ukraine, Moscow would certainly have kept the European energy supply intact. All Russian actions arose in response to Western provocations. The problem is that European countries do not seem to have acted with prudence and strategy, they simply adhered to the American plan to sanction Russia even though they are energetically dependent on Russia and lacking alternative sources of gas. Now, Marin tries to “blame” the Russians, but imposing sanctions and even asking for NATO membership was her government’s unilateral initiative.
The Finnish case is quite emblematic and sums up well the abyss that Europe has chosen for itself. Before the escalation of the Ukrainian conflict, the Nordic country depended on Moscow for the supply of 70% of its natural gas and 35% of its oil, in addition to 14% of its electricity. Without the partnership with Moscow, Helsinki would simply not have been able to meet the energy demands of the production chains and the population, but even so, the country chose to sanction Russia, ban imports and denied any form of dialogue. There is no way to analyze these facts and conclude that Russian President Vladimir Putin is the one “to blame” for the crisis. The responsibility undoubtedly lies with the Finnish government itself.
On the “war economy” situation, in fact, an unprecedented crisis threatens Helsinki. And the most curious thing is that the government takes measures that will only worsen the situation even more, instead of seeking improvement. Finland was one of the first states to impose restrictions on the entry of Russian tourists, halving the number of visas. Under the recently announced new rules, only 500 visas can be granted per day to Russian citizens, 100 of which are reserved for tourists and 400 for work, study and family trips. It is important to remember that more than 20% of all Finnish tourism income comes from Russian citizens. According to official sources, the country will lose more than 600 million euros with the new visa rules.
In addition, Finland remains firm in its application to join the Western military alliance. In fact, the more the country is affected by tensions with Russia, the more it seems to be willing to worsen these tensions. Moscow at no time showed any sign of threat to Helsinki, but the Nordic country appears to be absolutely influenced by the fallacious Western rhetoric that the operation in Ukraine will “expand” throughout Europe, so it prefers to go into recession and economic crisis instead of simply being diplomatic with Russia.
For now, Marin will certainly continue to try to make Putin the scapegoat for her administration’s mistakes. But that won’t convince the public for long. The PM has been heavily criticized for both mismanagement and scandals in her private life. Her popularity is likely to drop further as the country sinks into a “war economy” without being at war.
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Lucas Leiroz, researcher in Social Sciences at the Rural Federal University of Rio de Janeiro; geopolitical consultant. You can follow Lucas on Twitter.
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***
July 26, 2022, marked the 69th anniversary of the 1953 attack on the Moncada Barracks in Santiago de Cuba by a group of Cuban activists, patriots and revolutionaries.
The attack signaled the beginning of the end for the U.S.-backed, repressive and reactionary regime of Fulgencio Batista.
The insurrection, led by 26-year-old lawyer Fidel Castro, set out to put an end to the corrupt, fascist, and murderous regime of Batista, who ruled Cuba with an iron fist in order to maintain the primacy of capital over the lives of the Cuban people.
The multinationals dominating Cuba’s economy, such as Coca Cola, the United Fruit Company and others, had the support of the United States government; even the Mafia had a pivotal role in the corruption and political life of Cuba, which was marked at the time by sweeping inequality.
From a Banana Republic to an Independent Nation
On the eve of the storming of the Moncada Barracks by Castro and his associates, U.S. corporations and the local oligarchy owned and controlled the vast majority of Cuba’s sugar plantations, cattle ranches, mines and utilities.
Tourist brochure from the early 1950s. [Source: efe.com]
The consequence was described by the late Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr. Eric Williams, in his book From Columbus to Castro—The History of the Caribbean.
Dr. Williams wrote: “75 percent of rural dwellings were huts made from the palm tree…The peasantry was isolated on account of the state of the roads. There was one doctor for more than 2,000 persons in the rural areas…Only 4 percent of the Cuban peasantry ate meat as a regular part of their diet; while 1 percent ate fish, less than 2 percent eggs, 3 percent bread, 11 percent milk; none ate green vegetables.”
According to Dr. Williams: “Cuba’s backwardness was largely due to the fact that it was at the mercy of external forces on the world market.”
The failure of the attack on the Moncada Barracks was just a brief setback for the revolutionary forces. After their release from prison, they regrouped and returned to Cuba from Mexico in December 1956 and waged a valiant and successful war against Batista’s forces, culminating in a victorious march by the revolutionaries into Havana on January 8, 1959.
A French journalist reported after the Revolution tellingly that “Fidel Castro’s victory was no real military victory. It was primarily a moral victory of the people…Castro did not destroy the enemy. The latter collapsed because it was rotten to the core.”
Fidel (center) and Raul (left) surrounded by supporters and raising fists after the overthrow of the U.S.-backed bloody dictator Fulgencio Batista. [Source: en.vietnamplus.vn]
The Empire Tries to Strike Back
The empire predictably struck back by trying to destroy the Cuban people’s revolution, with the goal of setting the socio-economic clock back to pre-revolutionary Cuba.
After the Eisenhower administration severed diplomatic relations with Cuba on January 3, 1961, the Kennedy administration and its successors became obsessed with trying to overthrow and assassinate Castro, starting with the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961.
This latter invasion was organized by the CIA with a group of exiled Cubans (1,400) trained by the U.S.; the group was roundly defeated within 72 hours by the Cuban military forces.
By the end of 1961, Kennedy had approved an espionage and sabotage campaign against Cuba called Operation Mongoose. Efforts to assassinate Castro and spark regime change continued under Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon.
On October 6, 1976, right-wing CIA-backed terrorists bombed a Cuban airliner after it left Barbados, killing all 76 persons on board.
Earlier that year, there was an explosion from a suitcase bomb in Jamaica shortly before it was loaded onto an aircraft. This incident was two-fold: to sabotage and pressure Cuba and to embarrass and coerce the government of Michael Manley into severing ties with Cuba.
The bombing was part of the destabilization campaign by the CIA to topple the progressive Manley government.
The mastermind of the Cuban airline bombing, Luis Posada Carriles, who had a long relationship with the CIA, was noticeably sheltered by the United States despite being considered a terrorist by the FBI, and was never brought to justice or extradited.
Peoples Dispatch reported that there were at least 638 attempts against Castro’s life.
By contrast, the U.S. forged good relations with an assortment of tyrants whose crimes dwarfed those Castro was alleged to have committed.
Image: Michael Manley, left, with Fidel Castro in 1977. [Source: npr.org]
The rogues list includes: Augusto Pinochet of Chile; Anastasio Somoza Debayle of Nicaragua; Carlos Castillo Armas of Guatemala; the Shah of Iran; and, more recently, Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda.
For years, the United States supported or propped up these despots and never once instituted any sanctions or listed them as terrorists or the tyrants that they were or are.
Media Distort Purpose of 2021 Protests
Demonstrations in Cuba last summer had nothing to do with governmental mismanagement or “failure”—as claimed in the U.S. media.
Rather, the demonstrations resulted from the illegal, immoral, and unilateral embargo by the United States, which places unreasonable and additional hardships on a society that is still trying to live up to the ideals of the July 26th Movement by building an egalitarian society.
Castro was prophetic in a speech he delivered on January 8, 1989, marking the 30thanniversary of the Revolution, when he said: “If historical circumstances have prevented imperialism from liquidating socialism by war, imperialism has not renounced the idea of liquidating socialism by means of subversion, corrosion, and, if possible, destruction of the socialist system from within.”
The U.S.’s unilateral economic blockade has been unsuccessful for 61 years and has become globally unpopular. Just last year 184 countries of the UN voted in favor of lifting the blockade.
To further bolster its “regime-change” obsession with Cuba, the United States has again put Cuba on the list of “state sponsors of terrorism,” using the State Department’s rationale that Cuba has provided support of international terrorism. To this day, not one agency of the government has ever been able to provide any empirical evidence that Cuba has ever been involved in any such activity.
The Legacy of the July 26th Movement
A significant achievement of the Cuban Revolution is its ability to provide the basic fundamental social needs of the people in health care, education, affordable housing and vaccine development.
Further, Cuba has made unselfish sacrifices internationally in the ideological and material support for the National Liberation Movements and progressive socio-economic developments in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.
Illiteracy has been reduced essentially to zero and education is still free from primary school through university.
The Revolution has considerably reduced infant mortality rates and has almost eradicated Hepatitis B through vaccines developed locally at its Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology.
By the end of 2018, the infant mortality rate was reported at 4 deaths per 1,000 live births. Cuba Si reports that the “child vaccination schedule includes 11 vaccines against 13 diseases.” During the Pandemic, Cuba was able to develop three Covid-19 vaccines within a year, despite the difficulty of buying raw materials from outside sources because of the embargo.
At last count, Cuba has vaccinated upwards of 90% of its population with at least one dose; many developed countries have yet to meet this milestone. The country was also able to manufacture 250 ventilators that were distributed to hospitals all over the country; and they were working on a second batch.
The most indelible legacy of the July 26th Movement—and its child the Cuban Revolution—is Cuba’s consistent and principled practice of international solidarity with the oppressed peoples of the world.
Despite its own difficulties and challenges Cuba has sent medical personnel, teachers, technical experts, and military assistance to whoever has requested its help. Cuba has also opened its doors to the training of thousands of doctors and nurses without cost to the recipient countries or individuals, in Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America.
These internationalist gestures Cuba has done at great national and personal cost, including the loss of lives on battlefields alongside compatriots fighting apartheid and colonialism in Southern Africa. Cuba’s technical experts contributed to the upgrading of the Maurice Bishop International Airport (formerly Point Salines Airport) in Grenada; they facilitated the design and building of micro-dams for irrigation during the drought season and, the construction of the José Martí Technical High School in Jamaica.
Cuban doctors working with their South African counterparts to combat the coronavirus. [Source: vaticannews.va]
From the beginning of the revolution, Cuba’s global impact and achievements did not go unnoticed; Dr. Eric Williams wrote: “In 1959 Cuba, as the first Caribbean country to challenge successfully the power of the U.S.A. in the hemisphere, sought to establish a regime based on national independence and social justice, including racial equality. She is the first Caribbean country to have mobilized the entire population in the task of national reconstruction.”
Cuba Must Live!
The Cuban Revolution has shown the inherent immorality of capitalism. Despite limited resources, Cuba under socialism has been able to provide basic social needs for its people in healthcare, education, affordable housing, and a society based on economic and social justice.
The Revolution has exposed the irony and antagonistic relationship of social production and private accumulation, which intensifies capitalism’s voracious greed above the needs of the people.
The 26th of July Movement holds tremendous lessons in the subject of struggle and the role of the working class and democratic forces in the liberation struggle. Cuba continues to be a bulwark among developing countries struggling to rid their respective countries from the choke-hold of global capitalism and U.S. imperialism in particular.
Cuba must be allowed to develop and prosper; Cuba must not be coerced into becoming a lackey of the United States.
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Richard Dunn is a retired construction professional, trained in Architecture and Energy Management. He’s been a social justice activist since 1968 and was particularly active with the Walter Rodney defense demonstrations. Richard is an author, a contributing columnist to newspapers, an editor for a music industry magazine and operates a social justice website. Richard can be reached at: [email protected].
Featured image: Portrait of Fidel Castro in front of the Moncada Barracks. [Source: idcommunism.com]
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“The Biggest prison on earth was not created in June 1967 with the aim of maintaining the occupation, but rather it was a “practical response to the basic requirements of the Zionist ideology,” which is to control as much of the land of historic Palestine as possible, and try to create an absolute Jewish majority, if that Possibly, in Palestine”- Ilan Pappé
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In his book “The biggest Prison on Earth”, Israeli historian Ilan Pappe presents a historical account that undermines the Israeli narrative that Israel fought a defensive war to pre-empt a full-fledged Arab offensive in 1967.
Adds Pappe, in the summer of 1963 — A group of extraordinary Israeli students enrolled in a one-month course at the University Campus (Givat Ram) and they were almost all of them with a legal background. The political science department of the Hebrew University took over the invitation of this group. The course included lectures on military rule in general and the political situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and the curriculum also included a short introduction to Islam. It is noteworthy that the Israeli army had prepared four years before its occupation of the West Bank, to establish a judicial and administrative infrastructure to control the lives of one million Palestinians.
The “Shackham” plan, which was later merged with the “Granite” plan, was the most organized and detailed plan among all the Israeli preparations that preceded 1967 regarding how to occupy the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Ilan Pappe talks about the support of the extremist nationalist and aggressive Israeli press, which was supporting these generals and politicians. This idea was deeply rooted in the curricula and educational texts of the Israeli educational system. This plan was even in children’s games that included maps of Israel extending over the entire area of the West Bank and assumed that it would fall into the grip of the occupation.
Which brings us back to what Chomsky said. Politicians, academics, generals, and government officials agreed in 1967 to turn the West Bank and Gaza Strip into a huge prison, the largest ever on earth.
Ilan Pappé is an Israeli historian who belongs to the current of new historians who have rewritten Israeli history and the history of Zionism.
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Our thanks to Antonio Tujan for bringing this to our attention.
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The really decisive fighting in the First World War occurred during the opening few weeks of the conflict having broken out. The war’s outcome rested on the success or failure of the German Empire’s Schlieffen Plan, named after its principal strategist Alfred Graf von Schlieffen.
Yet von Schlieffen, at age 72, had retired late in 1905 as the German Army’s commander-in-chief (Chief of the German General Staff). His immediate successor was General Helmuth von Moltke, a less capable soldier. He would still be commander-in-chief when war erupted in the summer of 1914.
Von Moltke had never desired to lead the German Army, with the heavy responsibilities that it entailed. In December 1905 he informed Kaiser Wilhelm II, “I lack the power of rapid decision. I am too reflective, too scrupulous and, if you like, too conscientious for such a post”. These comments should have disqualified him from the position. Undeterred, the Kaiser insisted that he wanted him because of the famous Moltke name. His uncle Helmuth von Moltke the Elder was a well regarded 19th century field marshal. In pushing von Moltke into the commander-in-chief role, the Kaiser was unwittingly contributing to the demise of the German Empire.
The Schlieffen Plan called for a powerful and rapid advance of the German Army westward – mostly through Belgium and northern France – resulting in the planned destruction of the Belgian, French and British forces within the allotted 6 weeks. Having accomplished that the German divisions, as outlined by the Schlieffen Plan, would then march eastwards to engage and destroy the huge Russian Army; which by September 1914 would be at Germany’s eastern borders.
If the Schlieffen Plan’s first critical stage was to fail, that is should the Germans prove unable to swiftly eliminate the Western allies, the implications of a war on two fronts were obvious, at least to Berlin’s military command. The German Army generals were painfully aware their soldiers would be unlikely to win the dreaded two-front war, against some of the world’s strongest and most heavily populated countries.
As it turned out, the Schlieffen Plan was running almost exactly on schedule in its opening phase, following the German invasion of neutral Belgium launched on 4 August 1914. The early success of the Schlieffen Plan on the field of battle was mainly due to “extraordinarily efficient staff work”, according to military author Lt. Col. Donald J. Goodspeed. Moreover, the invention of the giant siege howitzer (Big Bertha) by Germany’s armament firm, the Krupp steel company, was crucial to the German conquest of the fortress city of Liège in eastern Belgium. Liège’s 19th century forts were reduced to rubble by Big Bertha’s shells, with Liège falling on 16 August 1914 after 12 days of fighting.
This opened the way for the German armies to progress at relative ease into the heartland of Belgium, a country smaller than Switzerland. Beyond Liège, most of Belgium’s terrain was empty of Belgian troops and devoid of defensive fortifications. This presented near-perfect marching ground for the German troops, who for miles at a time could see before them nothing but flat countryside, dotted by picturesque Belgian villages. German mobilisation of all of its forces was completed on 13 August 1914. This meant the Belgian Army’s defence of Liège, though gallant, had delayed the German Army’s advance for “only a few hours, if at all”, Goodspeed wrote. At the time, and since, it was claimed in France and Britain that the Belgians had critically stalled the German Army in Liège, but this was not the case.
Two days before Liège had collapsed, on 14 August the vitally important right wing, consisting of the bulk of the German Army, started entering Belgium. Leading the right wing were the German 1st Army commanded by General Alexander von Kluck, and the German 2nd Army led by General Karl von Bülow. These two armies comprised of 12 corps amounting to almost 600,000 soldiers.
The German 1st and 2nd armies had the furthest to go, which is why they moved first out of the right wing; the 1st and 2nd armies were tasked with advancing south-westwards through Belgium, entering northern France, wheeling back around the “gigantic fortress” of Paris, surrounding and taking the French capital with a detachment of 6 or 7 German corps; thereafter moving south of Paris to destroy the French Army in the field in a vast enveloping manoeuvre, similar to Hannibal’s encircling movement and victory against the Romans at Cannae, in the year 216 BC.
German soldiers on the way to the front in 1914; at this stage, all sides expected the conflict to be a short one. (Licensed under the public domain)
To the rear and left of the German 1st and 2nd armies was the German 3rd Army (General Max Klemens von Hausen), the German 4th Army (Duke Albrecht of Württemberg) and the German 5th Army (Crown Prince Wilhelm). These latter armies were each requested to advance more slowly than the German 1st and 2nd armies. The march south-westwards, through Belgium and towards the Paris region, was not to begin until the German 1st Army captured Brussels, the Belgian capital city, located in central Belgium. In little more than 2 weeks of marching, the German 1st Army advanced an impressive 180 miles across Belgian soil.
Even for the German 1st Army’s forward cavalry guards, there was hardly any fighting during that fortnight. On 17 August 1914, the Belgian government had fled Brussels. Three days later, the German 1st Army reached Brussels and captured the city unopposed. By now, 20 August, the greater part of Belgium’s army had retired to the north of the country, where it found refuge in the city of Antwerp. Also on 20 August the German 3rd Army, following a few failed attempts, had established a crossing over the Meuse river at the city of Dinant in southern Belgium.
After 10 days of fighting, the German 3rd Army defeated the French forces in the Battle of Dinant, capturing the city on 24 August 1914. With Dinant secured, the Germans were positioned 150 miles from Paris as the crow flies. By 25 August, a feeling of unease was permeating through Paris and much of northern France. Less than 20 miles north of Dinant, the city of Namur fell on 25 August, and the roads through Belgium were at the Germans’ mercy.
Already on 23 August, a Sunday, the German 1st Army was bearing down on the city of Mons in western Belgium, near to where was stationed the French 5th Army (General Charles Lanrezac) and the British Expeditionary Force (Field Marshal John French). On the morning of 23 August, many of the Belgian locals in Mons and the outlying villages went to church as usual, oblivious to the rapidly approaching German 1st Army.
The Germans reached Mons on the mid-morning of 23 August, breaking the deceptive tranquillity. The German 1st Army commander, General von Kluck, unwisely chose in his initial assault on Mons to pursue a head-on battle against the British Expeditionary Force; rather than, what he should really have done, to outflank the British and possibly force them to surrender or retreat. The advancing Germans suffered considerable casualties in the first frontal attacks, as they were driven back by well-aimed British rifle fire.
The British commander, John French, was pleased with how the opening skirmishes had gone; but he was not privy to the sheer numbers of the enemy that opposed him, which exceeded the many tens of thousands of troops, and not merely the thousands which he presumed. The Western allies were hindered by unreliable intelligence reports. French pilots were untrained in aerial reconnaissance, making serious errors not only in map reading but also in identifying enemy troops on the ground.
What useful reports the French airmen did issue were anyway generally disregarded. This was not chiefly because the Anglo-French military leaders distrusted the new service of aircraft, though such sentiment was present, but largely because they were aware of the pilots’ lack of training, and that they could not be counted on. After some previous failed attempts, the airplane had been successfully invented late in 1903 in the United States, barely a decade before the war in Europe erupted.
While Field Marshal French, through no fault of his own, was unaware of the weight of the German advance, his ally General Lanrezac commanding the French 5th Army was fearing the worst. His senses rightly told him there were enormous German forces before them. On the night of 23 August 1914, just hours after the German assault against Mons had begun, Lanrezac sent out orders that his army will retreat southwards from the Mons region to northern France, in order to avoid the threat of encirclement.
As would occur in 1940, resentment was emerging between the French and British in 1914. Goodspeed wrote, “What Sir John French could not take into account was that Lanrezac would retreat from his positions that night [23–24 August], without troubling to inform the British on his left until a short time before the retirement. When the British learned at midnight that the French were pulling out in an hour or two, they had no choice but to do the same. Nor did Sir John French desire to stay any longer. He was utterly disgusted with Lanrezac’s behavior, and felt that he had been badly let down by his ally”.
When Field Marshal French arrived at Lanrezac’s headquarters the day before, 22 August, he quickly perceived the French disarray. He was informed by Lanrezac that, on 21 August, the French 5th Army had lost to the Germans the crossings on the Sambre river, which flows through southern Belgium and northern France. This was grave news. The French suffered approximately 30,000 casualties in the Battle of the Sambre, or Battle of Charleroi as it is more commonly known, as opposed to about 11,000 German casualties.
Field Marshal French initially wanted to stay in Mons and continue the fight; but now, having no faith in Lanrezac who was retreating, he announced that he intended to withdraw 400 miles south-westwards to Saint Nazaire in western France, on the Atlantic coast, where the Royal Navy was stationed. Field Marshal French’s reaction was over-the-top and Lord Kitchener, the British Secretary of State for War, was greatly disturbed to hear of his commander’s drastic action, as were the British cabinet. Lord Kitchener travelled to France by destroyer, to impress upon Field Marshal French the importance of maintaining good relations with France’s hierarchy, and to conform with “the movements of the French Army”.
The British Expeditionary Force landed in France as recently as 16 August 1914. The reality is that the French were architects of their own troubles. Their war strategy completed in February 1914, overseen by commander-in-chief Joseph Joffre and titled Plan XVII, suited the Germans to such a degree one could be forgiven for thinking the Kaiser had drawn it up in his palace.
From the outset of the French campaign on 7 August 1914, their offensives were directed into their former provinces of Alsace and Lorraine – which the Germans had annexed in 1871 – located beside the border of Switzerland and which held no possible strategic importance. About 30% of the French Army’s entire manpower strength was committed to the Alsace-Lorraine offensives, which that August of 1914 ended in German victories and threatened the total defeat of France. The German Army high command had, for years, counted on the French entering Alsace-Lorraine at the outbreak of fighting; it was a core component of the Schlieffen Plan.
Even worse, slightly further north of Alsace-Lorraine the French initiated another suicidal attack in the Ardennes forest area, along the frontier of France and Belgium, terrain ideally suited to defending. The Battle of the Ardennes turned into a bloodbath as the Germans, camouflaged in the forest, inflicted more than 40,000 casualties against the advancing French 3rd and 4th armies, over the space of just a couple of days (21–23 August 1914).
As August 1914 was reaching its latter stages, the Allied retreat continued all along the front west of Verdun, a city in north-eastern France located 140 miles east of Paris. The British Expeditionary Force fell back from Mons to French soil. On 26 August, the British II Corps from the Expeditionary Force held its ground and fought at the commune of Le Cateau, in the far north of France, 110 miles from Paris. The Battle of Le Cateau, which concluded on the same day it started, resulted in a convincing German victory on paper. It saw the British II Corps suffer 7,812 casualties, more than twice that of the enemy. At Le Cateau, the Germans made devastating use of their artillery from concealed locations against the British troops.
Three days later, on 29 August, Lanrezac’s French 5th Army fought a delaying action against von Bülow’s German 2nd Army, at city of Guise, a mere 100 miles north of Paris. The Germans prevailed over 2 days of bloody fighting; still, the engagement in Guise delayed the German 2nd Army’s advance by 36 hours through to 30 August. Yet it seemed the Germans were edging relentlessly towards the Paris region.
At the end of August 1914, the unease which gripped Paris was descending to panic in some quarters. This feeling was certainly afflicting the Raymond Poincaré government; which, over the past 2 years, had worked consistently hard for a major European war they expected would restore Alsace and Lorraine to French control. In August 1912 prime minister Poincaré had been informed by Alexandre Millerand, the minister of war, that the French Army high command believed the map of Europe would probably be redrawn in France’s favor, in the event of a continental war.
Poincaré, who then assumed the French presidency early in 1913, had been born in Lorraine in 1860. He never forgave the Germans for taking the land of his birth. Poincaré said in public that his generation “had no reason for existence other than the hope of recovering the lost provinces”. The only way to recover them was through a general European war, as Poincaré and his colleagues of course knew.
Regarding the almost 2 million Alsace-Lorraine residents in 1914, it is difficult to ascertain their exact loyalties, whether to France or Germany. However, the historian Elizabeth Vlossak highlighted, “In general, the war was greeted in Alsace-Lorraine with indifference”. This suggests a lack of desire on the part of the population there to reunite with France. Vlossak wrote further that Alsace-Lorraine “became an important symbol in French and other Allied wartime propaganda”.
It is interesting to note after Alsace-Lorraine was returned to France in 1919, there was a strong separatist movement in the region between 1924 and 1929, with its advocates wanting reunion with Germany. Alsace-Lorraine was a mostly German-speaking territory, where fewer than 15% of its people spoke French as a first language in the early 20th century.
Now with the Germans approaching the gates of Paris, on 31 August 1914 the Poincaré government ingloriously departed the capital, and relocated over 300 miles southward to Bordeaux. They presumably chose Bordeaux because of its position beside the Atlantic, where they would be able to escape France by vessel if the country was defeated by Germany.
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Shane Quinn obtained an honors journalism degree. He is interested in writing primarily on foreign affairs and history , having been inspired by authors like Noam Chomsky. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).
Sources
Dr. John Rickard, “Battle of the Sambre of Charleroi, 21–23 August 1914”, HistoryOfWar.org, 15 August 2007
Michael Duffy, “The Battle of La Cateau, 1914”, FirstWorldWar.com, 22 August 2009
Parameters: Journal of the US Army War College, Volume 29, Issue 3
Donald J. Goodspeed, The German Wars (Random House Value Publishing, 2nd edition, 3 April 1985)
Elizabeth Vlossak, “Alsace-Lorraine”, 1914-1918-online International Encyclopedia of the First World War, 21 October 2016
Kennedy Hickman, “World War I: Battle of Charleroi”, Thoughtco.com, 7 December 2017
Featured image: SMS Rheinland, a Nassau-class battleship, Germany’s first response to the British Dreadnought (Photo by Bundesarchiv, DVM 10 Bild-23-61-23 / Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 de)
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***
In early 2020 when the public first learned that a novel virulent virus was making people sick in China and around the world, it made sense to institute public health measures to protect against it.
Instead of open, honest discussion about the effectiveness of preventative measures and the different treatment options, the world was told that the only way out of the Wuhan coronavirus crisis was via mass vaccination. If the public understood that there were options for treating COVID-19 and that the infection was mild in over 99 percent of the people who got it, they wouldn’t be as motivated to get a vaccine.
As someone born and raised in China, I (Joe Wang) saw firsthand how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) runs a well-oiled machine, controlling every aspect of people’s lives, not for the good of the country, but for the personal gain of party members. In the West, too, drawing from CCP’s playbook, some quickly realized that they could capitalize on human fear and turn the pandemic into opportunity for profit. The CCP used COVID-19 as yet another way to expand authoritarian control, which was not surprising. But Western countries, too, weaponized people’s fear in order to roll out unprecedented control over people’s freedom in an unprecedented way.
Profits Over People
Fear, it seems, is more contagious than any given infection. An imminent—or ongoing—apocalypse sells newspapers, blows up social media platforms, and can be parlayed into a breathtaking amount of financial gain.
According to Forbes, 493 people became billionaires in 2021. China minted 205 of these. The United States, in second place, had 98. Sixty-one of the world’s newest billionaires were in healthcare fields.
Among those: an Italian billionaire whose family makes the glass vials for COVID-19 vaccines; an Indian medical doctor whose hospital chain doubled its stock when it shifted its focus to COVID-19; the co-founder of BioNTech, the German company that worked with Pfizer to make the vaccine; as well as the CEO of the American-based pharmaceutical giant Moderna.
The Doctor Will Lie to You Now
So, when Jerry Daniels, founder of the Brothers Media Group, opened a panel during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas, Texas, with the insight that, “COVID has everything to do with marketing,” for a session entitled, “The Doctor Will Lie to You Now,” it is not surprising that practically the entire audience was nodding in agreement. “What is marketing supposed to do?” Daniels continued. “It’s supposed to influence people to take action and do something.” And much of public health’s job is “messaging,” that is, marketing the behaviors they want the public to adopt.
In the case of COVID-19, the action people have been most influenced to take was to get vaccinated. The marketing campaign surrounding the COVID-19 vaccines has been so effective that, as of August 29, 2022, more than 12.5 billion shots have been put in people’s arms.
Given the growing body of scientific evidence that shows quite clearly that the vaccines do not work to stop the spread of coronavirus, as well as the hundreds of studies and clinical testimonials showing that they have severe and even devastating health consequences, especially for young people, the fact that so many people continue to accept them is baffling. It is, according to Daniels, a triumph of marketing.
The Vaccine Doesn’t Work, So the Definition Was Changed
For nearly 15 years, from November 2007 to August 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s working definition of a vaccine was, “A product that stimulates a person’s immune system to produce immunity to a specific disease, protecting the person from the disease. Vaccines are usually administered through needle injections, but can also be administered by mouth or sprayed into the nose.”
But in September of 2021, according to Daniels, American public health authorities changed the definition of vaccines.
The new definition, which the curious reader can find under the title, “Vaccine Basics,” at the CDC BAM! website, a classroom resource for teachers, became: “A preparation that is used to stimulate the body’s immune response against diseases. Vaccines are usually administered through needle injections, but some can be administered by mouth or sprayed into the nose.”
The CDC has deleted a key part of the definition of vaccines. You will no longer find the assertion that a vaccine “stimulates a person’s immune system to produce immunity to a specific disease, protecting the person from the disease,” anywhere on the CDC website. However, a 2015 World Health Organization (WHO) document (pdf) cites the old CDC vaccine definition.
(Slide #4 from “Module 2: Vaccines and Drugs” by WHO Collaborating Centre for Advocacy and Training in Pharmacovigilance, Accra, Ghana. 7th – 18th September 2015)
The COVID-19 vaccines do not produce immunity protecting people who are vaccinated from getting the illness. This fact should have spurred the CDC, and every other health authority in the world, to stop the current vaccination program and work overtime to create a better, more effective, and safer vaccine.
But, instead, the CDC is working hard to dupe the American people by claiming that the mission of these vaccines was never to stop the spread of coronavirus in the first place.
Are They Really Vaccines?
Three doctors participated in the CPAC panel in Dallas on August 5: Dr. Robert Malone, Dr. Peter McCullough, and Dr. Brooke Miller.
According to Malone, it is highly problematic to call any of the injectables being used today against SARS-CoV-2 “vaccines.”
“Vaccines traditionally is a term that’s used for products which provide prophylactic protection against an infectious disease,” said Dr. Robert Malone, a physician and research scientist who was part of the team that developed the mRNA technology used in several brands of the COVID-19 injections. “We now have clear documentation that these products are not protecting against infection, replication, or spread of the virus, and the multiply-inoculated are actually having longer periods of infection.”
The COVID-19 injections, Malone insisted, do not meet the criteria for a vaccine.
“Disagreement is the method by which we make scientific progress,” said Dr. Peter McCullough, a cardiologist who has publicly voiced his concerns about the safety of these vaccines.
Family physician based in Virginia, Dr. Brooke Miller, said that he felt enormous pressure not to speak openly about his concerns about vaccine safety, and to not even ask questions about what the government health officials were saying about the safety, efficacy, and necessity of the COVID-19 injections.
“Fear is in part a business model,” Malone pointed out. “You need to understand that CNN is generating profit, by scaring our children and scaring our elders. It’s a profitable enterprise. We call it ‘fear porn,’” Malone said.
But it was perhaps Jerry Daniels’ question that resonated the most with us. “Why in the world are we still giving a genetic ‘jab’ to people when we know that it’s killing them at record rates?” Daniels asked. “Where is the sanity in that?”
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Jennifer Margulis, Ph.D., is an award-winning journalist and author of “Your Baby, Your Way: Taking Charge of Your Pregnancy, Childbirth, and Parenting Decisions for a Happier, Healthier Family.” A Fulbright awardee and mother of four, she has worked on a child survival campaign in West Africa, advocated for an end to child slavery in Pakistan on prime-time TV in France, and taught post-colonial literature to non-traditional students in inner-city Atlanta. Learn more about her at JenniferMargulis.net
Joe Wang, Ph.D., was a lead scientist for Sanofi Pasteur’s SARS vaccine project in 2003. He is now the president of New Tang Dynasty TV (Canada).
Featured image is from NaturalNews.com
“The Worldwide Corona Crisis, Global Coup d’Etat Against Humanity”
Michel Chossudovsky reviews in detail how this insidious project “destroys people’s lives”. He provides a comprehensive analysis of everything you need to know about the “pandemic” — from the medical dimensions to the economic and social repercussions, political underpinnings, and mental and psychological impacts.
“My objective as an author is to inform people worldwide and refute the official narrative which has been used as a justification to destabilize the economic and social fabric of entire countries, followed by the imposition of the “deadly” COVID-19 “vaccine”. This crisis affects humanity in its entirety: almost 8 billion people. We stand in solidarity with our fellow human beings and our children worldwide. Truth is a powerful instrument.”
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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***
Introduction
The objective of the video interview on 23 August 2022 with “Doctors for Covid Ethics” was shining light on the totality of the planned Great Reset. Though, of key importance for its implementation, covid is just one of a series of instruments. With WHO’s declaration of covid as a pandemic – let’s call it a “plandemic” – on March 11, 2020, the entire world, the 194 WHO member countries were obliged to follow the absurd, oppressive and health-damaging “measures” in lockstep.
Mask wearing, social distancing, lockdowns, followed by work-from-home, were physically and psychologically damaging, lowering peoples’ self-esteem, immune system, and social belonging. These coerced measures were dividing countries, societies and even families – applying the principle of “divide to conquer”. These mandates were strictly forced upon society with threat of punishment – all under the false pretext of health protection, health security.
This coercion was followed in December 2020 by an intense “vaccination” campaign, also called a “vaxx drive”, with an “experimental mRNA injection”. Later, in the course of 2021, “vaxxing” was dictatorially enforced, resulting in pressure by depriving the vaxx-deniers of human rights, like preventing them from using public transportation, or in a larger sense, from traveling, from attending public events, going to restaurants, movie theatres and more.
Most people – worldwide – went along with these tyrannical restrictions. Protests were brutally police-bulldozed, often times with military assistance. It was clear to anyone who was able to preserve a spark of clear-thinking that nothing had anything to do with health security, but was rather a preparatory act to brutal tyranny.
In hindsight, these jabs consisted not of a single-type bio-chemical injection, but of several different toxic bio-compositions, maybe of as many as 5 or more, including a fair number of control-placebos.
Most people still fail to see the Great Reset’s triple objective;
(i) massive population reduction, helped by the poisonous “experimental” vaxxes;
(ii) gigantic shift of assets from the lower and mid-levels of society to upper elite-echelons and giant corporate finance through massive covid-measures caused bankruptcies; and
(iii) digitization of everything, including the human mind – so, that the Great Reset’s glamourous ending concludes in “you will own nothing but be happy”.
Most people still don’t realize that the open covid-campaign – past and present – is also a disguise for other measures being implemented, many quietly, clandestinely or in disguise, as a series of outrageous deceptions on humanity.
And here is the Octopus. A hot, NATO-provoked war, between Russia and Ukraine, kills tens of thousands of people, and makes millions to refugees, fleeing their country.
The war continues to be fueled by tens of billions worth of western supplied weapons to Ukraine, rather than being halted by western facilitated mediation. There is obviously something wrong, very wrong with this scenario. But the western public, indoctrinated by 24/7 anti-Russia propaganda doesn’t see that peace is nowhere on the western agenda – and that covid was just the beginning, as a much larger picture is unfolding.
There is indeed no interest by western rulers – the “owners” of the Great Reset – to stop the war, to bring to a halt the disastrous ingeniously planned word-tyranny through the Great Reset, UN Agenda 2030 and Klaus Schwab’s (WEF founder and eternal CEO) dream of the 4th Industrial Revolution. They are all synonymous for disaster and tyranny – and ultimately deprivation of human rights, and the right of belonging to a sovereign state.
The war is being blamed on Russia for supply line disruptions, for food shortages, for energy shortages, for consequential inflation and increasing interest rates; when all kinds of services begin to fail, from airline industries to electricity deliveries, to internet blackouts; when poverty levels around the globe take on astronomical proportions, and excess death rates increase drastically from unemployment and despair-induced suicides, vaxx-caused diseases, immune deficiencies and outright death; and to food-shortage-prompted famine – we must see that these events – and certainly many more already visible, plus others to soon appear on the horizon, are all connected.
They are connected to what may be called the Octopus.
Each one of these nefarious occurrences – is a tentacle. Each one of them functions seemingly independently, when indeed, they are all linked together through the Octopus’s head. Even if the Octopus occasionally may lose a tentacle or two, concentration shifts to the others, all the while the damaged tentacle is being “repaired”, revamped and made all the stronger.
Let’s be aware, there are no coincidences. All is planned to the minutest detail. Only by realizing these connections, we may be able to resist this monstrously tyrannical project, called the Great Reset.
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Peter Koenig is a geopolitical analyst and a former Senior Economist at the World Bank and the World Health Organization (WHO), where he worked for over 30 years around the world. He lectures at universities in the US, Europe and South America. He writes regularly for online journals and is the author of Implosion – An Economic Thriller about War, Environmental Destruction and Corporate Greed; and co-author of Cynthia McKinney’s book “When China Sneezes: From the Coronavirus Lockdown to the Global Politico-Economic Crisis” (Clarity Press – November 1, 2020).
Peter is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG). He is also is a non-resident Senior Fellow of the Chongyang Institute of Renmin University, Beijing.
Featured image is from Mercola
“The Worldwide Corona Crisis, Global Coup d’Etat Against Humanity”
Michel Chossudovsky reviews in detail how this insidious project “destroys people’s lives”. He provides a comprehensive analysis of everything you need to know about the “pandemic” — from the medical dimensions to the economic and social repercussions, political underpinnings, and mental and psychological impacts.
“My objective as an author is to inform people worldwide and refute the official narrative which has been used as a justification to destabilize the economic and social fabric of entire countries, followed by the imposition of the “deadly” COVID-19 “vaccine”. This crisis affects humanity in its entirety: almost 8 billion people. We stand in solidarity with our fellow human beings and our children worldwide. Truth is a powerful instrument.”
All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the “Translate Website” drop down menu on the top banner of our home page (Desktop version).
To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.
Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.
***
I went to medical school to become a psychoanalyst. It was a time when, in the early 1980s, lay – non-medical – analysts were small in number and frowned upon in America. I knew that my road would be a difficult one but I also cherished becoming a real doctor of medicine. The mysteries of the human body, and the connection of the body to the human mind, fascinated me endlessly. When I graduated in 1986 I took the Oath of Hippocrates, whose principal tenet was to do no harm.
The prohibition not to harm was codified by the famous Greek physician because the potential to do harm, as a physician, was immense. Consulting a healer, on whom the hopes for treatment and recovery depend, becomes something akin to a sacred act of trust, because a person suffering, a person weakened and perhaps even terrified by illness, is at his or her most vulnerable. The physician therefore becomes a wielder of immense power over the supplicating patient. The laying on of hands during a doctor’s physical examination is an activity fraught with portent, and the allowances granted to a physician into the hidden recesses of the labyrinths of mind and body are unique and extraordinary.
As a result of this disparity in power, and the belief and trust in the expertise of the healing authority, a physician’s recommendations to a patient carry extraordinarily persuasive weight.
With the introduction of COVID onto the world stage, something uncanny and remarkable occurred. Aside from the global lockdowns – a term, incidentally, I had only associated with prison emergencies – and the commands to distance and wear masks, all of which had no basis in any reputable science, I was impressed most deeply by two things:
1) the absence of any vigorous attempt to treat patients unless they had reached a point of crisis and required hospitalisation, and
2) the universal push to use a so-called vaccine that had been developed hastily and was by definition experimental
Those doctors who attempted, as doctors should, to emphasize informed consent, and who were reluctant to recommend a novel agent universally in a kind of one-size-fits-all approach advocated by public health officials, soon found themselves under investigation by regulatory agencies. Here in New Zealand physicians who spoke out on behalf of basic medical principles, and who did as doctors should do by advocating early treatment and prevention, and who refrained from assuming that warp-speed ‘vaccines’ would miraculously have no adverse effects – these doctors have been harassed and persecuted by the Medical Council of New Zealand.
Other doctors – a very vast majority – did as they were told by the government.
It is one thing for warlords and ruling cabals and governmental cliques and ministries to exert powers of tyranny. For example, during the Peloponnesian Wars the democratic city-state of Athens approached the inhabitants of Melos, an island that sought to be neutral. Athens demanded that the Melians submit to their rule upon pain of conquest, and the Athenians justified their demands by reference to a brutal law of power: the strong do what they can and the weak must accept it. In the end the Melians resisted and Athens subjugated the island, killing the men and enslaving the women and children.
The history of the world is replete with many such examples of the sheer use of authoritative force. But it is another thing for physicians to allow such tyranny into their sacrosanct spaces.
The COVID era has done nothing if not lay bare the exploitation by the State of this doctor-patient relationship, in the service of an agenda that has, at bottom, nothing to do with health, and everything to do with control and, indeed, as we are seeing with the COVID inoculations, actual elimination of the population the State purports to protect.
The New Zealand government has successfully tyrannized its people with a dangerous, destructive and callous policy of mass inoculation. It continues to mandate up-to-date jabs for all healthcare practitioners, despite a crumbling healthcare system with endemic workforce shortages, and despite a Bill of Rights that stipulates “the right to refuse to undergo medical treatment.” It ensures compliance by making it virtually impossible to obtain either a medical or religious exemption, as I know firsthand.
The government would not be succeeding, however, without an army of physicians who function as willing executioners of medical coercion, which, given its most fundamental violations of body and soul, becomes the quintessence of tyranny.
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Dr. Garcia is a Philadelphia-born psychoanalyst and psychiatrist who emigrated to New Zealand in 2006. He has authored articles ranging from explorations of psychoanalytic technique, the psychology of creativity in music (Mahler, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Delius), and politics. He is also a poet, novelist and theatrical director. He retired from psychiatric practice in 2021 after working in the public sector in New Zealand.
The Worldwide Corona Crisis, Global Coup d’Etat Against Humanity
by Michel Chossudovsky
Michel Chossudovsky reviews in detail how this insidious project “destroys people’s lives”. He provides a comprehensive analysis of everything you need to know about the “pandemic” — from the medical dimensions to the economic and social repercussions, political underpinnings, and mental and psychological impacts.
“My objective as an author is to inform people worldwide and refute the official narrative which has been used as a justification to destabilize the economic and social fabric of entire countries, followed by the imposition of the “deadly” COVID-19 “vaccine”. This crisis affects humanity in its entirety: almost 8 billion people. We stand in solidarity with our fellow human beings and our children worldwide. Truth is a powerful instrument.”
ISBN: 978-0-9879389-3-0, Year: 2022, PDF Ebook, Pages: 164, 15 Chapters
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***
It has been a hobbyhorse of Greg Norman for years: a threatening, alternative golf tournament to draw the stars and undermine the musty establishment. Realising a most dubious project, the LIV Tournament has become blood money’s greatest symbol. Funded by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, it is a most noisy statement of sportswashing.
Some aspects of this are also a touch sinister. Last month, the Wall Street Journalrevealed the details of a draft LIV contract that has been offered to players. Provisions of the contract include requirements for the players to don LIV apparel when playing both LIV and non-LIV events. Non-LIV logos, at least for the most part, need to be cleared with management. This also covers logos used on branded products that might be used at the events. The contract provisions stipulate one exception: players can wear “the brand of a third-party supplier of golf equipment on the side of their hat.”
The claws of management also go deeper than logo approvals. Tight rein is maintained over player interviews relating to an “event or league activity”. Participation in the tournament also comes with the proselytising proviso: recruited golfers will, in turn, recruit other golfers for the tournament. Players must agree to “where requested, assist the League Operator in seeking to persuade players to enter into multiyear player participation agreements with the League Operator.”
The first three LIV Invitational events have seen rich splashings of $25 million in individual and team prize money. No participant has earned less than $120,000. It has also been reported that a number of golfers with profiles – Phil Mickelson, Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson and Brooks Koepka – have signed contracts of the eight- and nine-figure sort. In one of the tournaments under the LIV umbrella, the eventual winner, Henrik Stenson, left $4 million richer.
The success of such operations is based less on intelligence and integrity than gain and bulging bank balances. If PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan was hoping for something more than that, he was seriously misreading the mood. Hank Haney, Tiger Woods’ former coach, sees LIV Golf as “great for the players that left and for the players that stayed.” He has suggested that the tournament format co-exist with the PGA Tour. Norman, for his part, has filed an antitrust lawsuit against the PGA Tour, claiming that its actions in banning participants from participating in its competition are unlawful.
Woods has himself raised a number of suspicions for his opposition to LIV, having turned down a $700-800 million offer from the Saudis. Hardly a moralist, though very much a student of the game, he is being tasked by the PGA Tour establishment to come up with some countering format. As Alan Shipnuck, writing in Golf Digest asks, “what is the payoff for Woods to go all-in with the PGA Tour?” Best not ask.
This is the sort of amoral mindset that conveniently ignores how an ensemble of murderous skyscraper building oil-rich kleptocrats have globalised their footprint across a number of sports as part of Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman’s “Vision 2030”.
This year, the London-based human rights organisation Grant Liberty released a report noting that the Kingdom had spent something in the order of $2.1 billion on a number of international sporting events and the acquisition of sporting assets, such as the Newcastle United football team. Regarding the latter, the exiled UK-based Abdullah al Ghamdi made a plea “to all football supporters and players at St James Park to put pressure on the Saudi Government to release all those victims of its relentless crackdown.”
This sportswashing project gathers pace even as the theocrats pursue internal repressive policies against their citizenry, despite the reformist pretensions of the Crown Prince. The House of Saud has also shown itself to be a keen pursuer of dissenting citizens in other jurisdictions, evidenced by the savage carving up of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
The link between this gruesome assassination and the Crown Prince was confirmed by US intelligence officials in an unclassified report released in February last year. The report found that bin Salman was in “control of decision making in the Kingdom” and supported “violent measures to silence dissidents abroad, including Khashoggi”.
In terms of foreign policy, Riyadh continues its sponsorship of humanitarian misery in its vicious war in Yemen against the Iranian-backed Houthis. The Yemen conflict, one that has seen the displacement of a million people, the threat of famine, medicine shortages and cholera outbreaks, has been just about forgotten by those in Washington, Canberra and various European capitals, transfixed by all things Russian. With the war in Ukraine, Russia’s Vladimir Putin has been anointed the omnipresent bogeyman and oppressor, while the thuggish antics of the petulant bin Salman slip gently under radar and consciousness.
Sports figures the world over should be soul wary about a regime that uses cash to conceal the bodies of protesters thrown into prison, activists tormented and disappeared, and murdered journalists. But Riyadh have their number, cunningly seductive, and aware of perennial weakness. With its vast sovereign wealth fund, the Kingdom is willing to splash out, and sports figures are willing to be bought. They know the harlot’s score.
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Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He currently lectures at RMIT University. He is a regular contributor to Global Research and Asia-Pacific Research. Email: [email protected]
Featured image: Greg Norman, Chief Executive Officer of LIV Golf (2014 image). (Photo by Great White Shark Enterprises / Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0)
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The US turned the Paraguayan political world upside down in a new cycle of Hybrid Warfare against the South American nation by employing sanctions and allegations of corruption against members of its political class. The article focuses on the incidences of these sanctions and allegations and their impact on Paraguayan political dynamics. On July 22, 2022, the United States government sanctioned former Paraguayan President Horacio Cartes, who governed from 2013 to 2018, by including him in the Engel list of persons considered “significantly corrupt” by the US State Department, thus prohibiting his entry to the North American country and freezing his assets.
The announcement was made at a press conference by Marc Ostfield, US Ambassador to Paraguay in the capital of the South American nation, and jointly by Antony Blinken, Secretary of State, who issued a statement in Washington. Likewise, Ostfield’s announcement was preceded by great expectation and euphoria by leftist Paraguayan politicians, which demonstrates prior knowledge and synchronization on their part. Based on these allegations against the former president of Paraguay, Horacio Cartes, a series of events unfolded in the country that constitute an ongoing soft coup d’état. The Engel List serves as a device by which the US regulates the severity and logistics of sanctions in a given Hybrid War. This US-Northern Triangle Enhanced Engagement Act was passed in 2020 to supposedly sanction actors involved in acts of corruption or attacks on democracy in the Latin American region. However, it is more than a list, it is a nexus for the information they receive from their various proxy elements within Paraguay.
Following the first round of Hybrid Warfare in July against former President Cartes, a second round of accusations was made the following month, this time against Paraguay’s Vice President himself, Hugo Velázquez, as he was included in the Engel list on August 12, 2022. Vice President Velázquez was an aspiring candidate for the Colorado Party in the 2023 presidential elections if he won the party’s upcoming internal primaries in December 2022. But on the same day he was singled out by US State Department staff he publicly announced that he was resigning as vice president. However, days later on August 18, 2022, Hugo Velázquez held a press conference to make it clear that he would not resign from his position because the allegations made against him were not accompanied by evidence nor has he been accused of corruption in the United States at any level. Hugo Velázquez, desisted from formalizing his resignation as Vice President and anticipated that he will request evidence of the accusations against him from the corresponding agencies in the United States.
Paraguay is undergoing a technical soft coup d’état against the vice-presidency of the republic, the prosecutor’s office and the electoral process in general. This led Hugo Velazquez to initially resign from his post, having assumed that the allegations made by US government personnel were accompanied with criminal proceedings and evidence. While on the one hand Hugo Velazquez confirmed that he would continue to exercise his position as Vice President of Paraguay, on the other hand he did formalize his substitution by Arnoldo Wiens to the pre-candidacy for the Presidency of the Republic for the officialist movement Fuerza Republicana. A Communiqué of August 18, 2022 by Vice President Hugo Velazquez explains why he did not resign his position as he had originally said, reads as follows:
“I have decided not to resign from the Vice Presidency of the Republic because, as any Paraguayan citizen, I am protected by the Constitutional Right to Due Process and, fundamentally, the Presumption of Innocence. I will ask the relevant agencies about the details of what I am accused of: an alleged attempt to bribe a high local public official, through another person; something that I categorically deny and never happened.
Only last night I received confirmation that the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the body in charge of carrying out investigations into punishable acts in Paraguay, does not have an open Case against me and will request a detailed Report with specific data from the Embassy of the United States of America. When I initially spoke about my resignation, I did so because I assumed, given the statements, that there was some ongoing investigation, which I have proven is not the case. Therefore, I will even resort to the US courts to clear my name and that of my family. I also want to clarify that my resignation to the presidential pre-candidacy is immovable and I reaffirm my total support to comrade Arnoldo Wiens as well as to my movement Fuerza Republicana […]”
These allegations by the US government also included Juan Carlos Duarte, former prosecutor and friend of the vice-president, whose inclusion in the Engel list implies that he and his family members cannot enter the US. The allegations against the former president, the vice-president and the former prosecutor seek to delimit political processes, thus channeling electoral processes that should be purely sovereign. With this round of sanctions, allegations and political deception unleashed by the US and synchronized with groups of Paraguayan politicians acting as pro-US proxies, they called a press conference in the midst of all this political chaos to try to carry out an impeachment trial against the Attorney General of Paraguay, Sandra Quiñonez, but this attempt failed for lack of votes in the Chamber of Deputies. Ms. Quiñonez was appointed under the Cartes government and as a prosecutor is known for her efficiency in fighting terrorist acts in Paraguay such as the kidnapping and murder ofCecilia Cubas, and in the fight against the EEP and FARC guerrillas.
Political interference occurs when a foreign government initiates proceedings or allegations against a former president or democratically elected Paraguayan official. Therefore, if there is any pending justice, it must be resolved by the judicial process of the Republic of Paraguay. The Hybrid War against Paraguay takes the form of a soft coup d’état right in the middle of an electoral process of political primaries. This shows that one of the possible objectives of this coup d’état is effectively to filter the candidates in order to control the very pathways to power. What is equally worrisome are the groups of politicians who, from a left-wing perspective, serve as proxies for the US government within the South American country. In 2012, the then president of Paraguay, Fernando Lugo, was removed from office in a coup d’état by means of Lawfare in which he was removed as president of Paraguay in a one-day impeachment trial.
The US has been using for years the issue of smuggling in the region to continue the infowar Hybrid War pressure on Paraguay, repeating false news for the Paraguayan media about alleged links of the Hezbollah organization with the triple border. However, the real reason is that in Ciudad del Este, right on the triple border, it serves as a nexus for the entry of capital from the Middle East and Asia. This time in connection with the illegal hijacking of the Venezuelan plane held by Buenos Aires at the request of the US to justify the US militarization of the triple border. Currently there are negotiations for the construction of a US military base in the area where Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay converge, in an attempt to resist the multipolar influence in the region, especially the indirect commercial relations between Paraguay and China via the Ciudad del Este.
At the present time with the hijacking of the Venezuelan airplane by the Argentine government at the request of the United States. The game plan being followed by those who orchestrated this soft coup d’état in Asunción is that for the next elections there will be no other option than pro-US candidates to facilitate a zero-sum domination of Paraguay by the North American giant. There is a debate within the Paraguayan state about increasing trade and establishing bilateral relations with the People’s Republic of China. Documents reported that individuals close to Hugo Velasquez were about to move closer to China. Paraguay is, along with Belize, Guatemala and Honduras, among the few countries that still have official relations with the island of Taiwan over China. Secretary of State Blinken strongly recommends that Paraguay strengthen its relations with Taiwan and avoid recognizing China. Taiwan for its partaccuses Beijing of offering Chinese-made Covid vaccines to pressure Paraguay to break ties with the island. The US empire is losing the zero-sum control it exercised over its vassals in South America due to the global transition tomultipolarity, especially in terms of relations with Taiwan and China in tune with the Hybrid War. Thus, Washington is constantly pushing to suppress de facto trade between China and Paraguay.
Such a narrative of smuggling and Hezbollah emerges whenever the US embassy needs to justify its interference, its coups and its military ultimatums in order to solidify relations with Taiwan. It follows that the US wants Paraguay to minimize relations with China, which basically means that a foreign state sets Paraguay’s geo-economic policy in a fatal affront to its sovereignty. However, let us understand, the sanctions, political sabotage and character assassination — synchronized with pro-US proxies in Paraguay — that the US perpetrated against a number of members of the Paraguayan political class. It sought a consolidation of the electoral process that would favor US proxies in Paraguay, those who facilitate the surrender of Paraguayan sovereignty. This situation of neocolonial interference may possibly end up making it clear to the countries that still maintain relations with Taiwan that such relations do not make them immune from being destabilized by a US Hybrid War, but on the contrary, it predisposes them to always be constantly regulated from the outside. Being in the pocket of the US is the most dangerous and vulnerable situation a nation can be in.
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Miguel Santos García is a frequent contributor to Global Research.
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First published on September 5, 2022
The Legacy of the Late Prof. Graeme MacQueen will live.
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This week on 9/11 Free Fall, distinguished 9/11 scholar Graeme MacQueen joins host Andy Steele to talk about the soon-to-be-published paper he co-authored with Ted Walter entitled “The Triumph of the Official Narrative: How the TV Networks Hid the Twin Towers’ Explosive Demolition on 9/11.”
In that paper, they reviewed 70 hours of news coverage and found that the “explosion hypothesis” was the dominant hypothesis among reporters on the ground. In this new paper, using the same 70 hours of news coverage, they examine how the official narrative supplanted what journalists on the ground were reporting.
Don’t miss this fascinating interview with Graeme MacQueen, and stay tuned for the publication of the paper next week!
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The late Prof. Graeme MacQueen, author and distinguished professor of religious studies, Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG)
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Featured image is a screenshot from CNN via AE911Truth
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***
Six months into Russia’s “Special Military Operation,” fact-challenged reporting that constitutes Western media’s approach to covering the conflict in Ukraine has become apparent to any discerning audience. Less understood is why anyone would sacrifice their integrity to participate in such a travesty. The story of William Arkin is a case in point.
On March 30 (a little more than a month into the war), Arkin penned an article which began with the following sentence: “Russia’s armed forces are reaching a state of exhaustion, stalemated on the battlefield and unable to make additional gains, while Ukraine is slowly pushing them back, continuing to inflict destruction on the invaders.”
Arkin went on to quote a “high-level officer of the Defense Intelligence Agency,” who spoke on condition of anonymity, who declared that “The war in Ukraine is over.”
Image: William Arkin in 2013. (C-Span still)
A little less than three months later, on June 14, Arkin wrote a piece for Newsweek with the headline: “Russia Is Losing the Ukraine War. Don’t Be Fooled by What Happened in Severodonetsk.”
Apparently neither Arkin nor his editorial bosses at Newsweek felt any need to explain how Russia could be losing the war twice.
Anyone who has been following what I’ve been writing and saying since the beginning of Russia’s “Special Military Operation” in Ukraine knows I hold the exact opposite view. Russia, I maintain, is winning the Ukraine conflict, in decisive fashion.
But I don’t write for Newsweek.
William Arkin does.
Arkin proclaims that Russia is losing though it had, at the time the article was published, just taken the strategic city of Severdonetsk, killing and capturing thousands of Ukrainian forces, and rendering thousands more combat ineffective since they had to abandon their equipment to flee for their lives. (Russia has since captured all of the territory encompassing the Lugansk People’s Republic, including the city of Lysychansk, inflicting thousands of additional casualties on the Ukrainian military.)
“The Russian army’s so-called victory,” Arkin proclaimed at the time, “is the latest installment in its humiliating military display and comes with a crushing human cost.”
The humiliating display instead is Arkin’s lack of acumen in conducting an independent assessment of the military situation on the ground in Ukraine.
This was again reinforced last week when Arkin penned another article in which he helps disseminate the outlandish claims of his Pentagon sources.
“[F]rom late February through August, with only a moderate infusion of weapons from the West, some supportive declarations from Western leaders and a smattering of ‘We Stand with Ukraine’ signs on U.S. lawns,” Arkin writes, Ukraine has been able to “hold at bay the mighty Russian military,” something apparently none thought it could do.
Ignore the jaw-dropping contention by Arkin that the tens of billions of dollars in military assistance provided by the U.S. and its NATO and European allies constitutes but “a moderate infusion of weapons.” No, don’t ignore it — focus on it. This is the signature style of Arkin and his Pentagon handlers, a sort of Orwellian double-speak where one can rest assured whatever bold statement is made, the truth is the exact opposite.
Arkin quotes “U.S. intelligence officials who have been watching the war,” writing that “Russian troops have had to contend with bad battlefield leaders, inferior weapons and an unworkable supply chain.”
Anyone who has been tracking the events in Ukraine might have thought that this was the situation as it applies to the Ukrainian military. Not so, says Arkin and his source. Moreover, it is not Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky who has been interfering with his Ministry of Defense, but Russian President Vladimir Putin with his. These same Russian troops, Arkin declares, have “also been hobbled by Putin himself,” who has “ignored, overruled and fired his own generals.”
This is baseless fiction, written by a man who seems determined to cement himself in the annals of the Russian-Ukraine conflict as an unabashed Ukraine partisan and vehicle for Pentagon information warriors. Arkin’s narrative of the war to date is so far removed from the factual record it belongs in The Onion.
What Arkin writes cannot even be called propaganda, because for propaganda to be effective it needs to be both believable at the moment of consumption, and able to sustain a narrative over time. Arkin’s work fulfills neither criterion.
Image: Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu and President Vladimir Putin at a parade in Saint-Petersburg, July 30, 2017. (Kremlin.ru, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons)
His Sources
Like most erstwhile journalists covering the conflict for western media outlets, Arkin appears to be a prisoner to his sources, which in this case are a combination of anonymous U.S. defense intelligence personnel and pro-Ukrainian propagandists.
I used the term “erstwhile” in describing Western journalists because normal journalistic standards dictate that one seeks to report a story — any story — from a position of dispassionate neutrality, drawing on sources which reflect all sides of the story.
There is nothing wrong about drawing conclusions from such reporting, even assigning weight when it comes to which aspects of the coverage are deemed more credible than others. But before such conclusions can be made, foundational reporting needs to take place. Simply parroting what you’re being told from sources exclusively drawn from one part of the story is stenography.
In the interests of full disclosure, Arkin and I were colleagues for a brief period in late 1998-early 1999, when we were both contracted to NBC News as “on air talent” to talk about the situation in Iraq. Arkin apparently did not hold my analysis in high regard then. I have no idea what he thinks today — Consortium News has reached out for an answer, but as of publication has not received a reply.
Arkin did not respond to an invitation to debate me on Ukraine on a weekly podcast I do with Jeff Norman.
I’ll let our respective track records speak for themselves, especially when it comes to Iraq and the threat posed by weapons of mass destruction. Arkin says he is “proud to say that I also was one of the few to report that there weren’t any WMD in Iraq and remember fondly presenting that conclusion to an incredulous NBC editorial board.”
I’m pretty sure I was saying something similar to an equally incredulous Congress and to the entire mainstream U.S. media (NBC included), as well as the international press corps.
Congratulations, Bill — we once were on the same page.
But no more.
Arkin’s Achievements
Arkin is no run-of-the mill journalist. He’s a smart guy. He got accepted to New York University, although he dropped out to join the Army, claiming NYU “wasn’t for me.” While stationed in Berlin, he completed his undergraduate studies, getting a bachelor’s degree in government and politics. After leaving the Army he got a master’s degree in National Security Studies from Georgetown University.
For the next 40 years, Arkin worked for numerous employers, specializing in nuclear issues and military affairs, before landing his current gig as Newsweeks‘ senior editor for intelligence.
For The Washington Post in 2010, after a two-year investigation, he wrote a ground-breaking story with Dana Priest about the vast and until then little-understood explosive growth of the national security state post 9/11.
Arkin then showed integrity when he resigned from MSNBC and NBC News in 2019. His reasons for leaving, spelled out here, include how he was “especially disheartened to watch NBC and much of the rest of the news media somehow become a defender of Washington and the system.”
In March this year he wrote a startling story that questioned the dominant Western reporting that Russia was committing repeated war crimes by wantonly slaughtering huge numbers of civilians just for the hell of it.
“As destructive as the Ukraine war is, Russia is causing less damage and killing fewer civilians than it could, U.S. intelligence experts say. Russia’s conduct in the brutal war tells a different story than the widely accepted view that Vladimir Putin is intent on demolishing Ukraine and inflicting maximum civilian damage,” he wrote.
The article corroborated what Russia had been saying all along, which until that point was dismissed in the West as propaganda.
So how does Arkin transition from debunking Ukrainian and Western propaganda about Moscow deliberately killing huge numbers of civilians, to embracing the fanciful notion that Russia is losing the war? (Further underscoring Arkin’s assessment of Russia’s battlefield performance is the uninterrupted string of battlefield successes by Russia in the Donbass since that June article was published, further undermining his argument.)
It’s not a lack of education that has led Arkin down the path so many of his colleagues in mainstream media have stumbled down; there is no doubting the man is not only well educated, but also innately intelligent, something that doesn’t necessarily follow the other.
Military ‘Expertise’
Russian helicopters in a field during the invasion of Ukraine, March 2022. (Mil.ru, CC BY 4.0, Wikimedia Commons)
Arkin can be said to be a victim of his own CV, which is light on relevant military experience for someone selling himself as an expert in military affairs based on his time in the U.S. Army.
Arkin purports to be one of the foremost military analysts of our times, a man whose track record in military affairs dates to his time as a junior enlisted soldier in the U.S. Army where, from 1974 to 1978, he served in occupied West Berlin as an intelligence analyst working for the Deputy Chief of Staff Intelligence (DCSI), U.S. Commander Berlin (USCOB).
On his WordPress page, Arkin writes that in the army he “rose to be senior intelligence analyst for the Berlin military occupation authorities and served under civilian cover as part of a number of clandestine human and technical intelligence collection efforts.”
In Berlin, Arkin adds in his LinkIn bio, “I worked on a number of clandestine projects and was an analyst of Soviet and East German activities in East Germany.”
Alexanderplatz in Berlin, 1978. (Bundesarchiv, CC-BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons)
He was not just any military analyst, mind you, but someone who, according to himself, “was once one of the world’s leading experts on two military forces that don’t even exist anymore.” I worked closely with military officers who were in fact the foremost experts on both the Soviet and East German militaries during the time Arkin served. This Newsweek senior editor has engaged in more than a little self-promotion.
That someone of the rank of specialist or sergeant (I have no idea what rank Arkin achieved, but four years’ time in service is a self-limiting reality when it comes to advancement) being the “senior intelligence analyst” in all of Berlin on matters pertaining to the Soviet military is patently absurd; Berlin was home to numerous specialized intelligence units and organizations, any one of which would have been staffed with personnel far more senior and, as such, experienced, in intelligence analysis on the Soviet and East German target than Arkin. Simply put, Arkin was not, nor has he ever been, one of the world’s leading experts on the Soviet military.
Not even close.
Arkin was never involved in combat arms, nor did he serve in combat. Without that experience he cannot understand the military realities of war — logistics, communications, maneuvering, fire support, etc. Berlin was, from everything I’ve heard, a fascinating place to serve — but it wasn’t combat.
Not even close.
As Arkin has no combat experience, his military analysis is held hostage to his sources within the Defense Intelligence Agency who pass along such cutting-edge insights as the notion that Russia is suffering ten casualties for every Ukrainian soldier lost since the Donbass offensive began in April.
Arkin seemed unaware of documents alleged to have been leaked from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, dated April 21, which state that Ukraine had, as of the date, suffered 191,000 combined killed and wounded. According to Arkin’s math, this would mean Russia has suffered nearly 2 million casualties of its own.
Despite the absurdity, Arkin keeps parroting what his Defense Intelligence Agency sources tell him.
Defense Intelligence Agency headquarters viewed from the Potomac water taxi in 2019. (Antony-22, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons)
He repeats, without hesitation, his intelligence source’s assessment of Ukraine’s “greater morale and motivation, better training and leadership, superior knowledge and use of the terrain, better maintained and more reliable equipment, and even greater accuracy.”
It doesn’t matter that literally every assertion made by Arkin’s intelligence source is demonstrably false. If Arkin knew about artillery (the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine is primarily an extended artillery duel), he would understand the concepts of probability of hit and probability of kill, and how the volume of artillery fired increases both.
He might then understand how absurd it is to think that an artillery duel where one side fires 6,000 rounds and the other 60,000 rounds could produce an outcome where the side firing 10 times fewer rounds achieves a 10-fold advantage in lethality.
Any expert on Soviet/Russian military affairs would have known that artillery was going to be a major factor in any large-scale combat operation involving Russian forces. By way of example, three days before the Russian operation began, I tweeted (when I could still tweet):
“If you haven’t done a schedule of fires for at least three artillery battalions in the field using live rounds while maneuvering, I’m probably not interested in your military opinion about Ukraine.”
Arkin, to the best of my knowledge, has never done a schedule of fires for multiple battalions of artillery. His apparent lack of knowledge of artillery shows when he repeats verbatim the dreck fed him by his intelligence sources.
Arkin’s has to be aware that NBC News reported about the deliberate declassification and release by the U.S. intelligence community of intelligence information that intelligence officials knew was not true. And yet, Arkin still relies on these types of sources to provide the fodder for his headline-grabbing tales. The question of Arkin’s motives in writing such stories now remains.
That someone with Arkin’s background would allow a lifetime of diligent work to be squandered by serving as little more than a shill for U.S. intelligence is one thing. That media outlets like Newsweekkeep printing it is another. Together, these twin phenomena represent what I call “The Arkin Effect,” which is nothing less than the total debasement of journalism in the U.S. when it comes to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Six months into Russia’s “Special Military Operation”, most military analysts admit that Russia enjoys the upper hand on the battlefield, despite the billions of dollars in military aid that has been sent to Ukraine by the U.S. and its European allies.
But not Bill Arkin and his employers at Newsweek. They seem to be content with serving as the Defense Intelligence Agency’s stenographers, putting out stories which have not, and will not, stand the test of time.
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Scott Ritter is a former U.S. Marine Corps intelligence officer who served in the former Soviet Union implementing arms control treaties, in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm and in Iraq overseeing the disarmament of WMD. His most recent book is Disarmament in the Time of Perestroika, published by Clarity Press.
Featured image: Ukrainian soldiers training at the Yavoriv Combat Training Center at the International Peacekeeping and Security Center, near Yavoriv, Ukraine, March 16, 2017. (Anthony Jones, Public Domain)
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There are work-arounds the U.S. can use to fund affordable housing, drought responses, and other urgently-needed infrastructure that was left out of the two recent spending bills.
Congress has passed two major infrastructure bills in the last year, but imminent needs remain. The 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law chiefly focused on conventional highway programs, and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) mainly centered on energy security and combating climate change. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), over $2 trillion in much-needed infrastructure is still unfunded, including projects to address drought, affordable housing, high-speed rail, and power transmission lines. By 2039, per the ASCE, continued underinvestment at current rates will cost $10 trillion in cumulative lost GDP, more than 3 million jobs in that year, and $2.24 trillion in exports over the next 20 years.
Particularly urgent today is infrastructure to counteract the record-breaking drought in the U.S. Southwest, where 50% of the nation’s food supply is grown. Subsidies for such things as the purchase of electric vehicles, featured in the IRA, will pad the coffers of the industries lobbying for them but will not get water to our parched farmlands any time soon. More direct action is needed. But as noted by Todd Tucker in a Roosevelt Institute article, “Today, a gridlocked and austerity-minded Congress balks at appropriating sufficient money to ensure emergency readiness. … [T]he US system of government’s numerous veto points make emergency response harder than under parliamentary or authoritarian systems.”
There are, however, other ways to finance these essential projects. “A work-around,” says Tucker, “is so-called off-balance sheet money creation.” That was the approach taken in the 1930s, when commercial banks were bankrupt and the country faced its worst-ever economic depression; yet the government succeeded in building infrastructure as never before.
Off-budget Funding: The Model of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation
For funding its national infrastructure campaign in the Great Depression, Congress called on the publicly-owned Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC). It was not actually a bank; it got its liquidity by issuing bonds. Notes Tucker, “The RFC was allowed to borrow money from the Treasury and the capital markets, and then invest in relief and mobilization efforts that would eventually generate a return for taxpayers, all while skating past austerity hawks determined to cut or freeze government spending.”
The RFC was an executive agency with the ability to obtain funding through the Treasury outside of the normal legislative process. Thus, the RFC could be used to finance a variety of favored projects and programs without obtaining legislative approval. RFC lending did not count toward budgetary expenditures, so the expansion of the role and influence of the government through the RFC was not reflected in the federal budget.
The RFC lent to federal government agencies including the Commodity Credit Corporation (which lent to farmers), the Electric Home and Farm Authority, the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), the Public Works Administration, and the Works Progress Administration (WPA). It also made direct loans to local governments and businesses and funded eight RFC wartime subsidiaries in the 1940s that were essential to the war effort.
The infrastructure projects of one agency alone, the Works Progress Administration, included 1,000 miles of new and rebuilt airport runways, 651,000 miles of highway, 124,000 bridges, 8,000 parks, and 18,000 playgrounds and athletic fields; and some 84,000 miles of drainage pipes, 69,000 highway light standards, and 125,000 public buildings (built, rebuilt, or expanded), including 41,300 schools. For local governments that had hit their borrowing limits on their taxpayer-funded general obligation bonds, a workaround was devised: they could borrow by issuing “revenue bonds,” which were backed not by taxes but by the revenue that would be generated by the infrastructure funded by the loans.
A bill currently before Congress, HR 3339, proposes to duplicate the feats of the RFC without increasing the federal budget deficit or taxes, by forming a National Infrastructure Bank (NIB).
China’s State “Policy Banks”
China is dealing with the global economic downturn by embarking on a stimulus program involving large national infrastructure projects, including massive water infrastructure. For funding, the government is drawing on three state-owned “policy banks” structured like the RFC.
The Chinese government is one of those systems referred to by Todd Tucker as not being hampered by “a gridlocked and austerity-minded Congress.” It can just issue a five-year plan and hit the ground running. In May 2022, it began construction on 3,876 large projects with a total investment of nearly 2.4 trillion yuan (about $350 billion).
Funding is coming chiefly from China’s “policy banks” set up in 1994 to provide targeted loans in areas where profit-driven banks might be reluctant to lend. They are the China Development Bank, the Export-Import Bank of China and the Agricultural Development Bank of China. As noted in a June 30 article in the Washington Post, China could also draw on its “Big Four” banks – Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., China Construction Bank Corp., Agricultural Bank of China Ltd., and Bank of China Ltd. – but “they are essentially profit-driven commercial banks that can be quite picky when it comes to selecting borrowers and projects. The policy lenders, however, operate on a non-profit basis and are often recruited to pour cheap funds into projects that are less attractive financially but matter to the longer-term development of the economy.”
Like the RFC, the policy banks mainly get their funds by issuing bonds. They can also get “Pledged Supplementary Lending” directly from the Chinese central bank, which presumably creates the money on its books, as all central banks are empowered to do.
Dealing with China’s Water Crisis
According to the Xinhua News Agency, on July 7 construction began on a project linking China’s two mega water infrastructures – the Three Gorges Project and the South-to-North Water Diversion Project – transferring water from the water-abundant south to the arid northern region of the country. The goal is a national water grid, increasing the quantity of water available for use nationally by about 20% and increasing China’s irrigated area by about 10%.
The South-to-North Water Diversion Project is already well underway. The middle route, the most prominent one due to its role in feeding water to the nation’s capital, begins at the Danjiangkou Reservoir in the Hanjiang River in central China’s Hubei and runs northeastward to Beijing and Tianjin. It was completed and began supplying water in December 2014. The eastern route began supplying water in November 2013, transferring water from Jiangsu to areas including East China’s Shandong Province. The new project will channel water from the Three Gorges Reservoir area to the Hanjiang River, a tributary of the Yangtze River. It is scheduled to be completed in nine years.
Solving Our Water Crisis
The total estimated investment for China’s national water grid is about 2.99 trillion yuan (U.S. $470 billion). This is comparable to the $400 billion the National Infrastructure Bank Coalition proposes to allocate through HR 3339 to address the serious drought in the U.S. Southwest.
As in China, one alternative being considered by the NIB team is to divert water from areas that have it in excess. One proposal is a pipeline to ship Mississippi River floodwaters to the parched Colorado River via a Wyoming tributary. Another option is to pump water from the Columbia River in the Pacific Northwest to California via a subterranean pipeline on the floor of the Pacific Ocean – not upstream water used by Washington and Oregon residents, but water from the ocean outflow where the river feeds into the Pacific and its freshwater becomes unusable saltwater.
Those are doable alternatives, but political and regulatory obstacles remain. Ideally, sources of water would be found that are new not just to the Southwest but to the surface of the planet. This is another proposal being explored by the NIB team – to tap “deep seated water” or “primary water,” the plentiful water supplies below normal groundwater tables.
Studies have found evidence of several oceans’ worth of water locked up in rock as far down as 1,000 kilometers below the Earth’s surface. (See The Smithsonian Magazine, “How the Earth’s Mantle Sends Water Up Toward the Surface,” June 2022.) This water is not part of the hydrologic cycle (clouds to rain to ground to clouds again), as shown on testing by its lack of environmental contaminants. From the time when atomic testing began in the Pacific, hydrologic water has contained traces of tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen used as a fuel in thermonuclear bombs. Primary water shoots up tritium-free —clean, fresh and usually drinkable without filtration.
There are many verified cases of mountaintop wells that have gushed water for decades in arid lands. This water is now being located and tapped by enterprising hydrogeologists using technological innovations like those used in other extractive industries, but without their destructive impact on the environment. For more on primary water and the promising vistas it opens up, see my earlier articles here and here.
Funding Through the National Infrastructure Bank
Critically needed water and other infrastructure projects can be funded without tapping the federal budget, with funds generated through a national infrastructure bank. Unlike the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, the publicly-owned bank proposed in HR 3339 is designed to be a true depository bank, which can leverage its funds as all depository banks are allowed to do: with a 10% capital requirement, it can leverage $1 in capital into $10 in loans.
For capitalization, the NIB will follow the model of Alexander Hamilton’s First U.S. Bank: shares in the bank will be swapped for existing U.S. bonds. The shares will earn a 2% dividend and are non-voting. Control of the bank and its operations will remain with the public, an independent board of directors, and a panel of carefully selected non-partisan experts, precluding manipulation for political ends.
The NIB is projected to lend $5 trillion over 10 years, or roughly $500 billion per year. That means each year the NIB will have to add $50 billion in new capitalization in the form of debt for equity swaps. The incentive for investors is the extra 2% yield the NIB provides on its preferred stock, plus a government guarantee. The U.S. Postal Service, the fourth largest holder of U.S. Treasuries globally, is one possible investor. Others are pension funds and builder associations with investment portfolios, all of which need a certain number of triple-A-rated investments. NIB bonds will have a better rate of return than Treasuries, while achieving the laudable purpose of filling the critical infrastructure gap.
To clear checks from the newly-created loan deposits, the NIB will bring in cash from incoming customer deposits, loan repayments, NIB-issued bonds, and/or borrowing from the Federal Reserve. How much cash it will need and its timing depends on how many infrastructure companies maintain their deposit accounts with the NIB.
The $5 trillion the NIB lends over 10 years will add $5 trillion to the total money supply; but the “productive” loans it will be making are the sort that do not add to price inflation. In fact, they can reduce it – by raising GDP growth, increasing the supply side of the supply-versus-demand inflation equation.
America achieved its greatest-ever infrastructure campaign in the midst of the Great Depression. We can do that again today, and we can do it with the same machinery: off-budget financing through a government-owned national financial institution.
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Josep Borrell, EU High Representative for Foreign Policy, not only announced the suspension of visas for Russian tourists, dealing another blow to the Italian and European tourism sector. At a meeting of EU defense ministers, he said, “EU countries have been discussing the possibility of a training mission for Ukrainian forces since before the war: now is the time to act.” By sending weapons and training Kiev’s forces, the EU becomes a belligerent unity against Russia alongside NATO.
At the same time Ursula Von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, reiterates that we must: “end our dependence on dirty Russian fossil fuels.” She thus announces the EU’s decision to continue on the path that is causing a devastating economic crisis in Europe, due to the price of gas that has risen from 15 euros to over 300 euros per megawatt hour.
The real cause is not the fact that Russia is no longer supplying us with gas, but that the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, the one that decides the price of gas in Europe, belongs to a U.S. financial company, which determines the price based on speculative and political mechanisms. ENI itself, while buying Russian gas at a low price, resells it at a high price according to the Amsterdam quotations. A real scam against Italians covered up by the Draghi government-
Europe is at the same time being increasingly endangered by the huge amount of arms NATO and the EU are sending to Ukraine. Washington has announced military supplies of another $3 billion, part of the $40 billion “assistance package” approved by Congress. Of these supplies – a U.S.- a CBS report shows – most end up in the clandestine arms market, in the hands of terrorist and criminal organizations.
A further serious danger is caused by the fact that Ukrainian forces – armed, trained and in fact commanded by NATO – are firing the guns and missiles supplied to them by NATO and the EU on the Zaparozhye nuclear power plant currently under Russian control, exposing Italy and Europe to the very serious risk of a new Chernobyl.
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This article was originally published on byoblu.
Manlio Dinucci, award winning author, geopolitical analyst and geographer, Pisa, Italy. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).
Featured image: EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell. (EU)
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It appears increasingly like our world is being shaped by ideas and intentions that have a pseudo-religious like commitment to limits and reducing human activity upon the earth.
Whether it is in the halls of Davos, where big wig corporate magnates and powerful technocrats proclaim how important it is to cut back on food consumption, energy use and breathing or in such events as COP26 where these same elites promote decarbonization schemes that threaten to reduce not only carbon production through “global Green New Deals” but life itself, we find notions of “nature”, “equilibrium” and “limits to growth” shaping the contours of all permitted discussion of ecological, economic and political policy among those stuck within the trans-Atlantic “rules based order”.
Where does this dismal “science of managing scarcity” come from?
Certainly it has not always been this way.
Previous generations created abundance through investments into large scale infrastructure and cutting-edge discoveries that not only improved the conditions of life of people and increased the industrial productive powers of nations but even increased the abundance of the biosphere itself as we find in such former desert zones of California which were turned into lush agricultural areas through projects like the New Deal and water projects of the 1960s.
But we are told that those days are long gone, and anti-Malthusian leaders like FDR, Enrico Mattei, Charles de Gaulle and JFK have disappeared from the political landscape of western societies.
In their stead, we find only synthetic political hacks, misanthropic technocrats and several generations of Malthusians who took over the helm of our ship of state in the early 1970s. This takeover was punctuated by such policy documents as Henry Kissinger’s NSSM-200 in 1974 which redefined U.S. foreign policy from the “old wisdom” of promoting infrastructure to poor nations, to the “new wisdom” of promoting population control. Kissinger’s close misanthropic associates who shared his commitment to stasis and control found themselves in positions of vast influence during this time, as witnessed by Kissinger’s student Klaus Schwab inaugurating the World Economic Forum in 1971, and Kissinger’s patron David Rockefeller co-founding the Trilateral Commission in 1973 where the paradigm of limits to growth was turned into a political religion.
Large scale infrastructure investments seized up along with the crash science programs that had defined our earlier breakthroughs with NASA’s funding collapsing from 4.5% of GDP in 1966 to less that 1% in 1976 [see graph].
Fusion research similar shrivelled up as all research into next generation breakthroughs in science were handicapped throughout the 1970s resulting in the demoralized adage “fusion is always 30 years away” which become a cynical truism.
With the Malthusian takeover of Trans-Atlantic governments, the world was slowly turned inside out and a former viable industrial economic system was turned into a post-industrial consumer cult whose growth was defined increasingly in purely speculative monetary terms devoid of any actual genuine metrics of value or GDP.
And so now, we find ourselves trapped within a shrinking box of resources, and increased rates of scarcity across all fields that directly support life: energy, healthcare, agriculture. It isn’t that this scarcity is necessary. Even if next generation technological breakthroughs in all domains had not been sabotaged (they were), then even existing technologies and resources, IF organized and used justly, as the new multipolar alliance is doing, could eliminate hunger and want for the currently existent 7.7 billion souls on the earth with relative ease.
However, we don’t want to be merely satisfied with solving the errors in thinking that have brought us into today’s absurd crisis of scarcity, but we want to ensure that such errors are never brough back in the future.
As such, it were expedient to exit for the time being the realm of geopolitics and appreciate the more subtle scientific ideas shaping standard theory physics itself which in turn influence the thinking of both economic, ecological and political science in profound ways since all three “practical” domains derive their legitimacy from concepts of science that are in turn influenced by theories that extend into the largest domains of existence and the smallest domains of subatomic physics.
NASA’s James Webb Telescope Threatens Big Bang Cosmology
In June of this year, NASA’s James Webb telescope began its work scanning the cosmos with a high powered infra red lens providing a measure of clarity and definition to the images of both deep space and our surrounding environment within the solar system unlike anything ever seen before.
However, with new deep penetrating images of the furthest reaches of the cosmos ever photographed, problems have begun to emerge which are threatening the entire edifice of the already fragile and self-contradictory ivory tower of Standard Model Cosmology.
Images of deep space galaxies which should be few in number, and underdeveloped in form are turning out to be so old (according to the rules of current physics that interpret red shift as a measure of distance and velocity from a point of observation) that current calculations are determining must have existed long before the supposedly 13.77 billion year date which mainstream physicists have agreed the universe was “born” from nothing in the form of the big bang.
Renowned physicist Eric Lerner (author of the 1992 best seller ‘The Big Bang Never Happened’) had this to say about the crisis and newly published scientific papers which acknowledge the crisis in physics:
“Since that hypothesis [big bang theory’] has been defended for decades as unquestionable truth by the vast majority of cosmological theorists, the new data is causing these theorists to panic. “Right now I find myself lying awake at three in the morning,” says Alison Kirkpatrick, an astronomer at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, “and wondering if everything I’ve done is wrong.”
In this sequal to my previous article “Open System Thinking with Vladimir Vernadsky”, I would like to discuss additional evidence for the fallacies underlying Big Bang cosmology which will hopefully liberate our crisis-ridden world from certain poisonous dogmas that have kept the scientific community in a stagnant box for far too long, and have justified the outdated and closed-system pseudo-science of “limits to growth” and Malthusianism permeating the western world.
This exercise will bring us into an appreciation of some major suppressed discoveries in embryology, life sciences and cosmology during the 19th and 20th centuries and will have us encounter certain scientists with names like Halton Arp, Alexander Gurwitsch, Hans Driesch and Fritz Popp. These names should be known far and wide due to the profound nature of their discoveries into the creative foundations of life, electromagnetism etc. However, due to the infantile period of oligarchism which humanity has struggled with in its still-early stages of life in the universe, these names have remained in obscurity.
Who was Halton Arp?
The recently deceased Halton Arp (1927-2013) remains one of the pioneers of modern astrophysics whose observational work during the 1960s formed the bedrock for much of today’s descriptive cosmology.
In 1966, Arp published an incredible book called “The Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies” which catalogued hundreds of cases of anomalous observations which broke the chains of “standard theory cosmology” which was quickly shackling mainstream scientific research. For this work and the decades of advances on these insights, Arp was never forgiven by the scientific establishment and his work at the Carnegie Institute of Washington was ended along with his access to the telescopes needed to conduct his work, while his writings would no longer be published or peer reviewed, forcing him to eventually leave the U.S.A all together.
Even though he recruited a loyal following of students and researchers internationally, his work which totally abolishes the foundations of Big Bang (and implicitly Heat Death) cosmology remains inaccessible for most students of physics and citizens alike.
What Did Arp Discover?
In his decades of fruitful work, Arp tackled the Achilles heal of big bang cosmology by demonstrating that quasars (the furthest and thus oldest objects visible from the earth), do not give off their extremely large red shifts due to the doppler effect which mainstream theorists wish to believe, but actually contain a form of “intrinsic redshift” indicative of their young age as “galactic seedlings” or embryos having only recently been born of more mature parent galaxies in their vicinities. These parent galaxies were found to exhibit redshifts of a much lower magnitude indicating their age and phase of evolution more than serving as any form of indication of the recession or speed from the point of observation as is commonly thought.
Figure 1 A simple example of the Doppler Effect as it expresses red or blue shifting observations
The importance of maintaining adherence to the Doppler Effect interpretation of redshift (the phenomenon caused by degrees of shifting of spectroscopic data from electromagnetic signatures of various celestial bodies towards the red or towards the ultraviolet part of the spectrum) is due to the fact that linear extrapolations into the past using redshift permits scientists to determine “when” the universe began. In the case of quasars, their redshift is especially important since it’s extreme intensity implies a maximum distance from us putting them onto the supposed “edge” of the universe (beyond which a vast nothingness is assumed to exist).
This assumed distance creates a certain “boundary condition” around which all other metrics of time, relationships and distances of all other visible objects are established. Imposing this bounded, finiteness onto a potentially unbounded, infinite universe has given big bang cosmologists the arrogance to assert in absolute terms that our universe is definitely 13.77 billion years old[1]. Before the universe exploded onto the scene in the form of the Big Bang from an infinitely dense and small singularity which contained all energy now in existence, these physicists insist that all that existed was an expanse of eternal nothingness and just as National Geographic reported in the opening quote, it will be this nothingness that we are destined to eventually return once more.
These big bang models have also established with certainty that in only 4.5 billion years the blue shifted Andromeda galaxy near the Milky Way’s Galaxy will smash into us[2] causing unimaginable destruction.
In his work Arp catalogues hundreds of instances of galaxies who exhibit immensely different redshifts which would suggest incredible distances of hundreds or even thousands of light years of separation from one another and yet whom are consistently bounded by material filaments emitting electromagnetic energy from all across the spectrum. The three cases of the companion galaxies NGC7630 and its companion galaxy taken from x ray and radio wave filters showcases this phenomenon excellently. Each galaxy feature vastly different redshifts implying a separation of over hundreds of millions of light years, but they are undeniably connected by filaments of gas and energy making this interpretation impossible! Additionally we see two extremely redshifted quasars which would imply a distance of thousands of millions of light years more [see figure 4].
During his years of research, Arp accumulated a vast array of quasars which tended to be found in the proximity of parent galaxies either within the filaments themselves connecting galaxies [as featured in images 3 and 4], or in the jet streams emitted by the polar axis of seyfert galaxies (ie: spiral) galaxies [image 5 and 6]
Figure 5 Galaxy NGC 4258 with two optically active x ray emitting quasars found symmetrically within the conic zones surrounding the parent galaxy’s line of axis.
Keep in mind, most galaxies feature some form of jet streams visible in various parts of the electromagnetic spectrum which also creates vast problems for big bang cosmologists who wish to maintain that galaxies are held “together” by a combination of powerful black holes internally, and vast arrays of “dark matter” and “dark energy” pushing all stuff together. The case of Centaurus A Radio galaxy (featuring filters of other parts of the spectrum) is useful to showcase the point. The fact that vast emissions of new energy is being created by these jet streams including small quasars should not be seen as surprising.
These anomalies demonstrated several revolutionary truths:
That high redshift quasars could not exist on the “edge of our universe” as mainstream scientists imply, but rather must exist in close proximity to the parent galaxy that birthed them
That among the thousands of quasars documented, the expected continuous array of various redshifts one would expect to find in a universe governed by randomness were nowhere to be found. Rather only a handful of harmonically ordered frequencies moving from higher (younger) to lower (older) frequencies in a discrete manner[3]. This harmonic character implies an organized state of the universe which favors order over chaos and also specific phases of the quasar’s evolution towards maturity as its parts differentiate and the space time field of the system matures accordingly. [see figure 8]
That since redshift properties were “intrinsic” to their respective galaxies and expressed a signature to said galaxies’ rate of maturation, a process of creative life rather than death and decay fundamentally organize our universe!
Describing this process in 2009, Arp wrote:
“When quasar-like companions are associated with a parent galaxy they tend to be smaller, higher surface brightness and show emission line activity. In quasars large energies are packed into absurdly small initial volumes. As they evolve they have no place to go except to brighten towards being galaxies and lessening intrinsic redshifts with time. The important point however is that the excess redshift companions are in the process of evolving into more “normal” galaxies and it is the numerical value of the redshifts themselves evolving by steps into smaller values”.[4]
When one treats the facts discovered by Arp seriously, we confront the happy reality that evidence points not towards a dying heat death as the ultimate abysmal conclusion of our death-dominated universe, but rather to a universe characterized by life, creativity and directed upward evolution! This is a universe which has more in common to the principles of open system embryology than to the closed system lifeless processes that characterized an engine or randomized “gas theory”, and the second law of thermodynamics (entropy) underlying the statistical logic of big bang cosmology.
A Fresh Look at Embryology
Just as astronomers began to discover the fascinating geometries of galaxies at the end of the 19th century, parallel discoveries were being made on the microcosm with new insights into the mechanisms defining the growth of living matter. Embryology was a relatively new field as two opposing schools of thought began to clash in Europe. One school known as vitalism found its champion in the form of the great epigenesist Hans Driesch (1867-1941), the other was called the mechanistic/preformism school led by the figure of Wilhelm Roux (1850-1924).
Both schools were fascinated by the obvious directionality and design expressed by the unfolding of an organism from a fertilized single cell all the way to becoming a fully formed organism.
In the field of embryology, it was more obvious than any other field that randomness, chaos and chance played no role in this complex yet harmonic process of growth, multiplication and differentiation of cells over the course of an embryo’s existence. What mechanisms determined how the parts would unfold over time as the embryo grew?
An elementary question during this time was: did the parts define the whole or did the whole define the parts? How could we know at what point the undifferentiated cell’s fate becomes sealed by its destiny?
The mechanist school of Roux assumed that one could know only what a cell would do a “moment” before or after one observes it, but that the pathway was assumed generally unknowable beyond this point. The vitalist school of Driesch on the other hand presumed that only the “end phase” of an embryo could be known, but nothing of its individual changes.
To prove his case, Roux began by burning one of the two cells making up a frog zygote which resulted in the eventual formation of a half frog. This incredible experiment implied of course that all information determining the fate of all subsequent phases of embryonic evolution were contained within each of those two original cells. If Driesch were correct, then that single cell should have grown up into a full frog. While this appeared at first to be a “win” for the mechanist school, it wasn’t long enjoyed, as Driesch formulated a new experiment whereby instead of killing one of the two cells of the frog zygote, he used a four celled sea urchin embryo cut in half using a fine baby’s hair which now resulted not in two half organisms as Roux and the mechanists had expected, but rather two fully formed sea urchins!
While these experiments contributed much towards answering some fundamental questions about the mechanism of creative growth, many other questions remained unanswered and still required a few decades for a new generation of scientists to tackle the problem with a fresh perspective. One of the most prominent of these scientists being a brilliant Ukrainian naturalist named Alexander Gurwitsch.
Gurwitsch Takes the Stage
Rather than simply side with the vitalists or mechanists, Gurwitsch took the best of both schools and added something extra by asking the question “how do cells communicate and harmonize their behaviour in one unifying system”?
Considering that the average human baby comprises approximately 10 trillion cells with 10 million dying and being born with every passing second, and considering that each cell has within it over one million molecular actions/second it is nothing short of a miracle that these trillions of cells can communicate and harmonize with one another, let alone “decide” when an undifferentiated cell should take on a function such as a liver cell, brain cell, heart cell, etc that will define its “destiny”.
Gurwitsch realized that the vast intercommunication of cells could not be accounted for through mere molecular activity or the motion of enzymes from one place to another in the body. Something more had to be occurring. But what?
It was in the period of rich creative development of the 1920s that Gurwitsch configured his famous “onion root experiment” which involved simply configuring two onion roots in a perpendicular set up. While one onion root grew downwards, the other was caused to grow towards it [see image]. When the stems came into close proximity, a 30% increased rate of growth was induced in the first onion stem and it was now obvious that high rate of young cell mitoses occurring at the tip of the stem were accompanied by some form of invisible energy emission inducing the increased growth rate, but what was its nature? What sort of energy was being admitted from one stem to another?
To answer this next question, Gurwitsch tested various quartzes that blocked all but the ultraviolet part of the electromagnetic spectrum and discovered that the increased cell growth only occurred when UV light was permitted to transmit. Even though no instrumentation would be invented for another 30 years sensitive enough to pick up these ultra weak UV photon emissions, Gurwitsch’s elegant experiment demonstrated what sort of electromagnetic properties were causing living tissues to harmonize!
Gurwitsch termed this newly discovered phenomena “Mitogenetic Radiation” with this idea created several new interconnected fields of 1) molecular morphology, 2) cellular morphology and 3) organismic morphology which all encompassed the concept of Gurwitsch’s “biogenic field”.
Despite an intensive counter operation run by the Rockefeller Foundation which attempted to discredit Gurwitsch under the scientific hack A. Hollaender who intentionally bungled his experiments producing negative results, small networks of committed scientists continued this valuable work [5]. Several decades had to pass until A.B. Burkalov, inspired by Gurwitsch’s onion roots, set up a similar experiment using two sets of fertilized fish embryos separated by a glass divider and a small opening- one set of embryos being slightly older than the other. Burkalov discovered that as long as the age separating the two sets was not too great, placing each set into proximity caused the younger eggs to speed up in their development greatly. However when the age difference was too far removed beyond a certain bandwidth, the younger eggs grew into malformed mutants [6].
Popp, Montagnier and the Schumann Resonance
Over the years, this research continued in the fringes of the scientific community with some of the most interesting developments occurring under the guidance of Fritz Popp who discovered a wide array of ultra weak bio-photon emissions from all forms of life[7]. Popp established that coherent photon fields are emitted by all cells and molecules expressing life- each carrying unique signatures and information from that cell across the entire body triggering an intricate array of chemical reactions necessary for the functions of living matter to endure. Working with Walter Nagel, Popp additionally discovered techniques which interpreted the scattering patterns of cell photons in order to adduce information about viral and bacterial infections.
Popp claimed that “every change in the biological field or physiological state of the living system is reflected by a corresponding change of biophoton emission”.
This work was amplified by the later work by the Nobel Prize winning virologist Dr. Luc Montagnier who discovered how ultra weak photon emissions were not only occurring in the UV range but also in the radio wave spectrum[8].
Montagnier went even further to measure the frequency of these emissions occurring from DNA which was placed in liquid solutions within test tubes. In these experiments which advanced the work of Jacques Benveniste on water memory, Montagnier discovered how the radio signals emitted from the DNA structured the water molecules in such a manner that even after all traces of the DNA were filtered out of the water, DNA-specific radio signatures continued to be emitted from the liquid solution and even caused a clone replica of the original DNA to be created out of random organelles, proteins and nucleotides when placed within the resonant solution. The only caveat here was that this cloning only occurred under the singular condition that the solution were exposed to a 7.8 Hertz background radiation in the laboratory.[9]
This 7.8 Hz background radiation is of course the same frequency which characterizes the earth’s natural electromagnetic environment between the ionosphere and surface of the earth itself. This phenomenon was first discovered in 1923 and was given the name Schumann Resonance for its discoverer Winfried Otto Schumann (1888-1974)[10]. As Magnetic Resonance Imaging developed in the 1970s, it was also discovered that 7.8 Hz happens to also be the same frequency that the human brain emits when in a calm meditative state. The electromagnetic environment shaped by the earth’s evolving ionosphere, magnetosphere and Van Allen Belts (themselves influenced by the growth of free oxygen over long expanses of time contributing to the ozone layer) not only “tunes” but is tuned in return by the evolving systems of life on the earth leading up to the most advanced yet seen: the human brain.
Re-Uniting the Macro and Microcosmos
As you can see, the flow of these discoveries has brought us from the macrocosm of galaxies birthing seedling galaxies in the form of quasars within a dense intergalactic and interplanetary medium of plasma (not dark matter or the nebulous dark energy which so many statistical Big Bang Cosmologists assume must exist by virtue of their denial of Arp’s discoveries). We moved from the realm of galaxies into the realm of cellular evolution, and the dynamic equilibrium maintained by the space time of living organisms. We then continued our journey through the electromagnetic properties and fields of life throughout the 20th century until we arrived back at the Schumann resonance defined by the earth’s Van Allen belts, magnetic field and the broader magnetic field shaped by the sun in our small corner of the Milky Way galaxy which is itself just one of billions if not trillions of suns being shaped by our galaxy.
Although it is not well understood, our solar system exists not in “empty space” with planetary bodies falling in random locations orbiting our star, but rather in a densely saturated ocean of plasma and cosmic radiations with harmonic least action pathways defining each pulsating orbit. While each revolution of our star the sun occurs every 365 days, our solar system itself is revolving around the galactic center once every 220-250 million years during which time our solar system passes through arms of the Milky Way and bobs above and below the galactic plane. These insights are inferred primarily from measuring the relative rates of radioactive decay in fossil records and the relatively cyclical mass extinction (and mass creation events) which have been archeologically uncovered in recent years.
Just as the living organism is a sort of universe unto itself defined by trillions of cellular interactions occurring throughout a life, a galactic body is made up of trillions of stars and many more planetary bodies within each system harmonized by the living space time of that particular galaxy’s phase of evolution from young Quasar seedling to a more advanced mature state such as the blue-shifted Andromeda galaxy which may in fact be MUCH closer than the 2.5 million light years assumed by Big Bang theorists.
From this new and healthier re-framing of the forces and principles at play in our living, creative universe, Andromeda’s blue shift is no longer seen as the rate at which this large galaxy is racing towards our Milky Way where we are destined to collide in 4.5 billion years… but rather becomes seen as indicative of its older, parental relationship to our younger galaxy from which it once gave birth (as well as all other galaxies within our local galactic constellation).
If you haven’t realized it, the two opposing cosmologies currently at odds with each other (open vs closed systems) strike on the very nature of life vs death. Where one system assumes the principle of death to be primary in a universe of decay and entropy, the other paradigm sees life as primary within a universe of creative growth and perfectibility.
So before you find yourself agreeing to the assumption that “scarcity” and “limits to growth” are absolute laws which define our choices going into the 21st century and beyond, it were wise to look at nature itself from this standpoint and ask if it were not MORE NATURAL to leap beyond our mental and physical limits by making discoveries into our potentially unbounded, albeit finite universe and live as though we were made in the image of the creator ?
The author recently delivered a lecture on this topic which can be viewed here:
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[1] Oldest surviving light reveals the universe’s true age, Rafi Letzter – LiveScience, July 17, 2020
[2] We Finally Know When Our Milky Way Will Crash Into the Andromeda Galaxy, Mike Wall, Space.com, February 08, 2019
[3] The redshifts found among quasars do not occur at any randomized interval but tend to occur at specific quantized periodicities implying a higher yet-to-be discovered harmony which Arp termed “harmonic oscillations”. These periodicities are: 0.3, 0.6, 0.96, 1.41 and 1.96 which physicist Ray Gallucci discovered to correlate directly with the rates of decreasing density of the quasars on their transformative journey to becoming galaxies
[5] Describing his visit to Hollaender alongside Fritz Popp in 1985, the eminent mathematician Jonathan Tennenbaum wrote: “Hollaender admitted having been deployed by the Rockefeller Foundation to Russia with the sole purpose to “investigate” Gurwitsch and his laboratory, bringing back the story that Gurwitsch’s experimental technique was allegedly “sloppy” and his results “unreliable”. Hollaender subsequently carried out and published in 1937 his own botched series of experiments, alledgly failing to discover any evidence of Gurwitsch’s radiation. Confronted with Popp’s detailed measurements of mitogenetic radiation using modern photomultiplier instruments, Hollaender admitted, without blinking an eyelash, that he “had always suspected Gurwitsch had been right.” [21st Century Science and Technology, Winter 1998-99 “On the Fate of Gurwitsch’s Work”]
[10] It is worth noting that like the quasar redshifts, the Schumann resonances do not occur in randomized frequencies, but rather in harmonic oscillating maxima of 7.83, 14.1, 20.3, 26.4, and 32.4 Hertz
Featured image is from the Public Domain
The Clash of the Two Americas
Vol. 1 & 2
by Matthew Ehret
In his new two volume series The Clash of the Two Americas, Matthew Ehret introduces a new analysis of American history from the vantage point that the globally-extended supranational shadow government that managed the British Empire was never fully defeated and has acted within the USA itself since 1776 as a continuous multi-generational fifth column managing every significant event and assassination of American presidents for the next 250 years.
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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***
Edward Dowd is a hedge fund “guru” and former equity portfolio manager for the largest asset manager in the world, BlackRock. Over the past two years, Dowd has courageously come forward to awaken people to the collateral damage of the COVID pandemic
A global financial collapse is a mathematical certainty. Dowd predicts the collapse will begin in earnest within the next six to 24 months
COVID provided cover for central banks and governments, allowing them to temporarily hide the reality that the financial system is crashing
COVID also allowed for the erection of a control system to shield governments and central banks from the fallout from collapsing food, energy and finance systems. It allowed them to restrict travel and introduce digital IDs and central bank digital currencies by linking them together with vaccine passports
Insurance companies report a 40% increase in excess mortality among working-age adults during the fourth quarter of 2021. Millennials aged 25 to 44 had an 84% increase in excess mortality in that same timeframe. Since the rollout of the COVID jabs, the number of Americans who claim to be disabled has risen by at least 10%, possibly more
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In this video, I interview Edward Dowd, a hedge fund “guru”1 and former equity portfolio manager for BlackRock, one of the two largest asset managers in the world, Vanguard being the other. Over the past two years, Dowd has courageously come forward to awaken people to the collateral damage of the COVID pandemic.
For example, in early March 2022, Dowd shared mortality statistics on Steve Bannon’s War Room,2showing Millennials aged 25 to 44 had an 84% increase in excess mortality during the fall of 2021.
An Education in Booms and Busts
Dowd became interested in finance right out college. He got a job with HSBC Holdings, the largest bank in Europe, as an institutional, fixed income salesperson, selling bonds.
“That was a five-year education in what really happens in the capital markets,” he says, “and everything you learn in the textbooks is garbage … I learned about Wall Street, how it worked and how it was incentivized.
Back when I was a bond salesman from 1990 to ’95, there were a bunch of scandals. Wall Street is basically a boom and bust operation. There’s usually a boom created by the Federal Reserve that puts money into the system. They don’t control where their money goes and Wall Street takes advantage of that. And usually it ends in fraud.
The scandal in the early ‘90s was the fraud with the mortgage-backed securities. There was a big Wall Street firm that went under because they had some trades in the drawer. Computer systems weren’t as robust, so some traders were hiding losses and that firm went belly up.
Interestingly enough, BlackRock at the time helped fix that problem. They had computer systems [the Aladdin system] that helped analyze the mortgage-backed securities … it’s just risk management software basically.
So, I learned the engines of Wall Street, but I wanted to get into the stock business. I went back to business school at Indiana University, graduated in ’97 and went to Wall Street to Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, where I was an electric utility analyst down the hall from the internet folks who were doing all the IPOs [initial public offerings].
Basically, fraud on the IPOs was at every investment house, and it wasn’t hard fraud, it was soft fraud. They just were not doing the due diligence that the institutions used to do. Before they would IPO a company, they would make sure that the company had things like revenues, and in the late ‘90s that went by the wayside.
So, a lot of firms without revenues and just ideas were IPO’d … Eventually the Fed [Federal Reserve] did what they do. They tightened interest rates, the bubble popped and a whole host of corporate fraud was exposed: WorldCom, Enron, Lucent Technologies, Nortel Networks.”
After that bust, the Federal Reserve went back to printing money and, in 2008, the real estate bubble burst, resulting in a massive recession. I describe the forces at work — then, and now — in “Who’s Behind the Economic Collapse?” At the time of that economic collapse, Dowd was working for State Street Investment Research, which was bought up by BlackRock.
Asset Managers and the Global Cabal
To many, BlackRock appears to play an important role in the globalist cabal’s effort to usher in The Great Reset. Dowd, having signed a non-disparagement agreement, is not free to discuss his views on BlackRock, but he can talk about similar players, such as Blackstone and Vanguard, the latter of which is a similarly sized institution.
“I don’t believe they control these corporations [the companies they own shares in], but they have undo influence, which Charlie Munger of Berkshire Hathaway has written about,”Dowd says.
“Basically, because of the growth of passive ETFs [exchange-traded funds] the voting of those shares goes to the senior executives of the firm. And so, there is some influence at Vanguard over some of the board votes.
Back in the day … most of the money inequities were managed by fundamental portfolio managers. I used to vote for the board but because we were so busy, we had like 80 companies in our portfolio, there was a firm called Institutional Shareholder Services, ISS, which would help us figure out the votes.
It was a software system that would analyze all the proposals and then tell us how to vote accordingly. And, if we wanted to withhold a vote or change a vote, we would. So, there seems to be a concentration of power in the votes. The vote used to be more spread out over many, many different people.
So, they don’t control [the companies they own]. Vanguard and BlackRock are agents. They manage other people’s money. But they do vote on some of the shareholder board proposals. So, they don’t get on the phone and call Bourla at Pfizer and say, ‘Do what we say.’ It’s more soft influence.
But I do believe, as concentration of market share, Vanguard and BlackRock are the biggest passive investment asset management firms. Charlie Munger had a point that it’s too much decision making in too few hands.
Again, I don’t think they run the companies. But where there’s a concentration of power, there’s definitely things that can go awry and aren’t exactly above board, but I have no proof of that. Its’ just when power’s concentrated bad things usually happen.”
Kicking the Financial Doomsday Can Down the Road
Lately, I’ve written many articles discussing the coming financial collapse. Worldly signs all point in that direction, and according to Dowd, it’s a mathematical certainty.
The Federal Reserve system, which is a debt-based monetary system, was created in 1913, the same year the IRS and tax system were created. The system of creating money through debt is inherently fraudulent. In the early days, banks would lend the debt and the debt would find its way into different areas of growth, which would then get overheated. Fraud occurred because money was too easy, but it was mostly free market fraud.
In the late ‘90s, corporate fraud took over and we had a 50% stock market correction. The Federal Reserve responded by turning on the money spigot: They lowered interest rates and the money found its way into the real estate market, which turned into an unsustainable bubble.
Real estate was being hypothecated through collateral debt obligations and mortgage-backed security. Wall Street levered up 20-to-1, 30-to-1 on their balance sheets to make money and thought the party would go on forever. But inevitably, the Fed started to raise interest rates and the whole thing collapsed.
According to Dowd, the problem with this bank fraud was that it was systemic in nature. The central banks had to step in and buy this fraudulent debt. So, this fraud still remains, today, on the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet, and on the balance sheets on countless other banks. In other words, the fraud didn’t go away. It was just baked in and hidden.
Financial Collapse Is a Mathematical Certainty
“Then, governments, because the economy collapsed globally, started spending like drunken sailors,” Dowd says. “The last 12 years have been a ballooning of what I call the central bank-government bubble, the sovereign debt bond bubble.”
Who’s going to save that bubble? Who’s going to be the buyer of all that debt when this bubble finally blows up? Answer: No one. Many who are aware of the situation are just surprised the system has lasted this long.
It looked like it was ready to burst in 2019, and then, conveniently, COVID showed up, which granted emergency powers to all central banks. Governments went on another spending spree, printing money, and this allowed them to kick the proverbial can down the road for another two years.
“Here we are in 2022 and it’s unraveling again,” Dowd says. “And the reason why COVID was important is because the Federal Reserve was able to plug the hole in what was beginning to become a liquidity debt crisis.
They printed 65% more money. The money stock went up 65% year over year in 2020, and that was able to paper it over. Then, when the economy was shut down, it was an external shock, not in the internal shock, so when they reopened with all the money in the system, we had a recovery for a year and a half. Stock markets went crazy, credit markets went crazy, and we went back up again.
But here we are two years later, [with] inflation caused by the bad policies of the Biden administration, the EU, the money growth … also, COVID broke a lot of supply chains … Basically, we hadn’t had inflation in goods and services for the last 12 years. We had inflation in assets, stocks and bonds.
What’s going on now is the real economy is feeling the effects of the inflation, the bad policies. We’re starting to see the U.S. dollar go up, and the dollar is a reserve currency of the world. Over the last 22 years, there’s been a tremendous growth in what’s called dollar denominated debt … We have about $15 trillion in dollar denominated debt.
So, when you see the dollar going up, that’s indicative of a debt crisis because money’s becoming tight. There are fewer dollars out there. People are scrambling for dollars. And the reason why I think we’re imminently going to collapse is we’ve never seen a commodity inflation cycle with the dollar going up at the same time …
You can make the case that it’s intentional because the policies are so bad that they’re shutting down energy production. Before the Ukraine War, Biden’s first executive order on Day 1 of his administration was to shut down the Keystone pipeline. So, here we are. I think we’re at the end.
COVID provided cover for the central banks and the governments, but it also allowed for a control system. If everything’s going to collapse, wouldn’t it be nice to have a control system where travel is restricted, you can blame it on a virus, you create vaccine passports, which then get linked to digital IDs, and then central bank digital currency. So, I think COVID was a convenient excuse.
As we roll through time, I’m starting to think this was a plan. I don’t have evidence, but the fact that we’re not stopping what’s going on suggests to me that it’s a conspiracy of interests, and they don’t want to stop the rollout of these vaccines.
And the longer this goes on, the more convinced I become that COVID may have been a plan. I used to say it was a convenient excuse, but the longer this goes on, the more ridiculous this becomes. So, I think there was ill intent.”
A Question of When
Dowd believes the initial financial collapse will occur within the next six to 18 months, or at most 24 months. If stock markets become seriously unhinged and we start getting declines of more than 40% in the indices, the Federal Reserve may start buying stocks outright, which will result in a neo-feudalism system that will only magnify already existing discrepancies between the have and the have not’s. The reason for that, Dowd explains, is because:
“There’s no market mechanism to punish anybody for making bad decisions. Their bad decisions are bailed out by the central banks. The moral hazard is so high that if you just are a C-suite executive at a major Fortune 500 company, you’re going to become phenomenally wealthy and not have to really be good. You’re going to be one of the lords and the workers and everybody else are going to be struggling to make ends meet.
That’s what’s been going on for the last 12 years. The economy for the most part has been an economy of the big and those close to the printing machine … If you’re trying to actually create a small business, if you’re a worker at one of these corporations and you don’t get a lot of stock options, you’re not getting ahead.”
Why Dowd Started Speaking Out About the COVID Jab
Dowd, who lives in Maui, first got involved in the anti-jab fight when the mandates were rolled out. In Maui, you had to have a vaccine passport just to enter a restaurant or gym.
“I was suspicious of the jab from the get-go,” he says, “because I knew two things: Operation Warp-anything sounds like a disaster. Seriously. And No. 2, it was experimental, and I knew that most vaccines took seven to 10 years of safety data to be vetted before they were put into people’s arms.
So, I just thought everybody would be like me — rational — and not take it. Then, when I saw the propaganda machine, the social pressure, I knew something else was afoot, that something was going on, and that’s when I got super involved. I started going to rallies on Maui. I started meeting like-minded people and that’s how I got hooked up with Dr. [Robert] Malone here on Maui.
Now I’m part of the crew that’s trying to expose this crime. When I met [Malone] in October of 2021, I told him I had a suspicion there were lots of bad things going on with the vaccines … I said I would be monitoring the insurance companies and the funeral home companies, and if my thesis was correct, they’d show up in those results — and sure enough, they did.”
The choice to focus on nongovernment databases was prescient, as the CDC in recent months has started compromising mortality statistics. They’re supposedly upgrading servers and reloading all-cause mortality data, and now tens of thousands of death reports are missing.3
All-Cause Mortality Is a Crucial Endpoint for Any Drug
“I was using the fraud word pretty liberally in the fall of 2021 in regards to Pfizer,” Dowd says, and as soon as he saw that the FDA wanted to hide Pfizer’s data for 75 years, he was utterly convinced. “That’s prima fascia evidence of cover up,” he says. Now, as those documents are starting to pour out, at a pace of 55,000 pages per month, we’re coming to realize what the FDA and Pfizer were so eager to hide.
“The all-cause mortality endpoint, this is something we need to talk about. Normally, if you’re a single product biotech company and you do a clinical trial that fails the all-cause mortality endpoint, the drug does not get approved [by the FDA].
At the end of the day, if the risk is higher than the benefit, this thing doesn’t get approved. The all-cause mortality endpoint for the Pfizer vaccine, when they touted its effectiveness, they conveniently hid that data point from everybody. It came out in the FOIA request in the fall and, again, the trial was only 28 days.
This is also just unprecedented. So, in 28 days, there was something like 23 deaths in the vaccine group and 17 in the placebo group, which gives all-cause mortality excess of 23%. It should not have been approved on that alone. That’s fraud in my humble opinion.”
As noted by Dowd, one of the most remarkable counterarguments to come out of a fraud litigation case against Pfizer in recent months is Pfizer’s attorneys claiming that even if there is fraud, Pfizer cannot be prosecuted because the government knew about it. “Why is this not the biggest headline in the mainstream media?” Dowd asks. “Only those of us in the echo chamber that are on top of this issue seem to know this.”
In the real world, the all-cause excess mortality demonstrated in Pfizer’s trial is turning out to be on the money. The U.K., for example, has seen excess mortality rise between 10% and 20% since the shots rolled out. In other areas, and/or in certain age categories, excess mortality is far greater, yet the FDA and CDC are just going along with it, doing absolutely nothing to warn anyone of the risks.
Shocking Increases in Excess Mortality
As noted by Dowd, insurance companies were reporting a 40% increase in excess mortality among working-age adults during the fall of 2021. A 10% all-cause mortality rise is a once in a 200-year catastrophe, so 40% is just off the charts.
Before the CDC started manipulating its death statistics, that too showed all-cause mortality was up by about 40%, Dowd says. The smoking gun in the CDC data was found when excess mortality was broken down by age group. Millennials, those between the ages of 25 and 44, had a whopping 84% increase in excess mortality during the fall of 2021.
“They try to explain it away by saying, well, lockdowns cause deaths of despair, suicides, drugs and alcohol, and people missing their cancer screenings. Well, in a three-month timeframe, we went from 40% to 50% excess mortality in the summer, to 84% excess mortality into the fall for the millennial age group, which represented about 61,000 people between March of ’21 and February of ’22.
Sixty-one thousand excessive deaths represents a Vietnam War in one year for that age group. That’s what occurred. And look, these are ages 25 to 44. You shouldn’t be dying at that age unless it’s accidental or self-induced via suicide or drug abuse. And you can’t tell me that everyone decided, in a three-month timeframe, to commit suicide and overdose on drugs. Makes no sense.”
There was also a huge shift in deaths during 2021 from the old to the young, with younger people now dying at an alarming rate.
“At this point, we have evidence of the crime,” Dowd says. “What I’m shocked at is the fact that the mainstream media are still blacking this out. The good news is there seems to be word of mouth, and more and more people, because the vaccine doesn’t work, aren’t getting boosters.”
Massive Increase in Disabilities
According to Dowd, insurance companies are also reporting increases in disability payments for the first quarter of 2022, and both insurance companies and funeral homes are also seeing a continued rise in excess mortality.
“In the second quarter, insurance companies are playing games right now where they’re releasing reserves, they’re increasing pricing, so, it doesn’t look as bad, but it’s still not good.
The funeral home companies are still seeing growth above what they thought they’d be seeing. They thought they’d be returning to trend line and they’re still getting year over year growth. You got to remember their year over year growth is versus 2021.
So, they shouldn’t be growing. And these are same store sales, not via acquisitions. So, these are same store sale comparables year over year. And both funeral home companies that I looked at for Q2 grew same store sales between 2% and 3%, which is comparable to Q2 of 2021. It should be collapsing 20%, 30%, and it’s not.
Let’s talk about the disability data. This is super important. I think we’re going to find — as tragic as the worst adverse event, death, is — there are some things worse than death; life-altering disabilities that make your life unlivable, and those who live with you have to take care of you.
And the impacts to society are way worse than a sudden death … My partner, who was an ex-Wall Street insurance analyst, discovered a Federal database, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and the good news about them is they don’t have any skin in this game.
They do a household survey every month. Every month we get the employment numbers that comes from them, and they do a bunch of different questions, some of which are in regards to disability, which essentially come down to ‘Are you disabled and/or is anybody in your household disabled of working age?’
For the five years prior to 2021, that number was between 29 million and 30 million. It’s now 33 million and growing significantly since 2021. And it really started to take off in May, June of 2021. I had some Ph.D. physicists who’ve done some statistical analyses, and they’re saying that it’s almost a four-standard deviation above the norm, and the slope of it, the rate of change, is alarming.
We’ve increased the disabled by 10%. Now, this has nothing to do with disability claims. This is self-identification. This is not tied to a doctor’s note or getting on disability. This is just someone saying, voluntarily, that they’re disabled …
So, the number of disabled could be way, way more. We’re just scratching the surface here. But the signal is the change, the rate of change, the standard deviation above the norm, which is four. Three standard deviations is crazy. Four is like, ‘WOW!’ So, this is what’s going on. If you ask yourself, why is there a labor shortage? I think this explains a lot.
And you multiply this globally, and they talk about supply chains and inability to hire people — this is definitely going on. I also think a large part of the inflation we’re seeing is due to people not able to work.”
Silver Linings
If there’s a silver lining to this mess, it’s that parents are waking up to the dangers of not just the COVID jab but also the childhood vaccination schedule as a whole. As of early August 2022, only 3% of children under age 5 had received the COVID jab.4 Many are also taking a second look at other vaccines, including adult vaccines.
This is long overdue, as none of the vaccines on the childhood vaccination schedule has ever been compared to true placebo to confirm safety and effectiveness, and no studies have been done to confirm that giving multiple vaccines simultaneously is actually safe.
“I think as this scandal collapses and unfolds, it’s going to remake a lot of our institutions,”Dowd says, “and I think that’s a good thing. I think people like yourself and others who’ve been out in the wilderness are going to be vindicated. I’ll never take another vaccine again, or a flu shot. I’m done. I’m out.”
Are You Prepared?
With regard to what you can do to prepare for the inevitable financial crash, Dowd says:
“People ask me for investment advice. I’m loathe to give it, but I will say this: If financial assets are going to collapse, don’t worry about inflation. It’s probably a good idea to have some of your portfolio … in cash, to take advantage of the blood in the streets scenario that’s coming. So that, when everyone’s selling, you’re doing what JP Morgan of old did — you’re buying. That’s not a bad idea.”
Aside from protecting your financial assets, you’d be wise to prepare for other related scenarios as well, such as food, water and energy shortages. Shore up supplies and figure out how to live in an “off grid” scenario, in case daily conveniences suddenly vanish.
Also prepare yourself mentally, emotionally and spiritually for what could be stressful and challenging times as the globalist cabal continues to push The Great Reset forward, which will require more “emergencies.”
“We got the midterms coming up. The people in power are deathly afraid because crimes have been committed, so I suspect shenanigans,” Dowd says. “They’re trying to get monkeypox going. That doesn’t seem to be capturing the imagination of the people. They may try, I suspect, good old-fashioned war. War usually takes care of a lot of problems.
The thing we need to worry about is China. China has a demographic problem. They’re in a demographic decline that started in 2020 … In the ‘80s and ‘90s, everyone said Japan was going to overtake the U.S. Well, Japan had a demographic bust.
They collapsed and they’ve lost two decades. China is just hitting that now. Larry Fink’s a good businessman, but he is going into China at exactly the wrong time. China is done in my humble opinion. It’s a contrarian viewpoint, but it’s backed by data …
They’re over-indebted and they’re literally imploding as we speak. A lot of these COVID lockdowns you see in the last couple months are nothing more than covering up bank runs. One of their biggest fears … is their own population.
As long as they kept people fed and getting jobs, they didn’t have to worry. If there’s an economic collapse, what traditionally most countries do is they create an outside demon that unites everybody. If I’m China, and I’m running the show and I’m an evil person, I would start something with Taiwan just to get everybody focused outside of the internal issues in China.”
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Michel Chossudovsky reviews in detail how this insidious project “destroys people’s lives”. He provides a comprehensive analysis of everything you need to know about the “pandemic” — from the medical dimensions to the economic and social repercussions, political underpinnings, and mental and psychological impacts.
“My objective as an author is to inform people worldwide and refute the official narrative which has been used as a justification to destabilize the economic and social fabric of entire countries, followed by the imposition of the “deadly” COVID-19 “vaccine”. This crisis affects humanity in its entirety: almost 8 billion people. We stand in solidarity with our fellow human beings and our children worldwide. Truth is a powerful instrument.”
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It wouldn’t be fair to say I’m outmatched. I feel more than outmatched. I thought that today I came to deliver some books for the young people; It’s a book about the history of the United States and the war. It’s called “ADICTO A LAGUERRA”.
In English it’s titled: ADDICTED To WAR, written & illustrated by Joel Andreas. So I am shaken by the way I have been honored, for my work in favor of Justice and Peace in the World. You should know that when I lay down on the railroad tracks with 2 more Veterans and about 45 witnesses, what I expected was to go to jail for a year. I did not know that I had been designated as a terrorist suspect, nor that the train crew had been ordered not to stop.
So that day, when I positioned myself, I wasn’t worried about my safety; Three days later I woke up in a hospital and my partner from that time was next to me and I saw the flowers lying around the bed and I said to myself: Why does this cell have flowers? I don’t remember what happened, I have no memory of what happened that day, September 1st, 1987. At that moment my friends and my partner told me what had happened, that the train did not stop.
So it was on the TV in my room at the Hospital where I watched the News every night, for about 8 days, the replication of the video of what had happened to me. I still didn’t believe that had happened. But I had a friend that day who had his camcorder, who wanted to make sure that when they stopped me it was recorded, and when the train didn’t stop, he actually dropped his camera because he was so surprised. So I didn’t order that train to hit me, that was their decision.
I first learned about the Revolution from the Vietnamese while I was there participating in the cruelty against the Vietnamese and their villages. I saw how the Vietnamese lived, how they worked and how they tried to live with the invasion of those invaders of which I was one.
I thought that I was a good boy, from a small town, who went to Mass every Sunday and was serving my Country. But I quickly realized that all this was a lie; a series of crimes against humanity every day and every night on all sides of the planet. So I started studying United States History.
I realized that all the history that I had been taught, beginning in 1607, was a myth, a story that was heard beautifully, that we were told in our homes, in our Communities, in our Churches, for 20 generations. A deeply nosy story.
Since I learned my lesson, my deep lesson in Vietnam, I came back home and I knew I had to tell the truth, after realizing that we have been doing that, the United States, all over the Planet for a long time, beginning in this Hemisphere and later in all sides of the Planet, more than Rome.
Although it was never my intention to be an Activist, I became one by listening to the inner guidance of my heart, which told me that I had to speak the Truth and seek Justice.
I found out that I was in a minority, but one of the first things I realized was that I couldn’t continue paying taxes to a government that was killing people in Latin America and around the world. What sense did it make for me to be giving money to an organization that is committing mass murder? I got rid of my car, my house, all my possessions, and I had many meetings with the Treasury explaining that I did not have to pay any taxes. I had more than a dozen meetings with Hacienda over a decade. They said that I had to pay all the money they said I owed them, and I told them: It’s not that complicated, I’m not going to pay for the homicide! I’m not stupid, like I was.
That was the beginning, for me, of thinking what are the consequences of my own actions, and the actions and policies of my country towards other people in other places. And all of my actions over the years, of civil disobedience, of blocking a gate, of going on extended fasts, were not complicated, it was simply responding to injustice.
Perhaps it was my upbringing in the countryside where things are slower and easier and somehow I wanted to replicate that in my actions as an adult. But my parents never understood me after I came back from the war; until they died they never understood what I was thinking and what I was doing. But once the toothpaste comes out of the tube you will never put it back. There was no turning back!
And in Nicaragua, when I came for the first time in 1986 to study Spanish, I had been there for 5 days when the Contras attacked 3 cooperatives and killed several peasants. And that is what the United States does everywhere: They kill peasants, they kill poor people. Unfortunately for me, I was so angry that, lacking the vocabulary in Spanish, I looked for people who spoke English in Estelí in order to express the anger that I felt for that violence.
It makes me very sad and sometimes depresses me that after studying Spanish for 10 months at the School I still don’t understand or speak Spanish. And I told myself, I’m not going to move to Nicaragua until I learn Spanish, but when I turned 77, I was so tired of the gringo culture that I decided to move to Nicaragua once and for all. There was no way I was going to live with translators and interpreters, but I wasn’t going to return.
The truth is that you are my Heroes; the Vietnamese are my Heroes. They are the ones who taught me to fight and work tenaciously for Justice. And Nicaraguans have the great fortune of having had a Revolution of which I consider myself a part, even though I am a gringo-nica.
So your Revolution is worth defending, and the United States would love to put an end to it. But your Revolution is priceless, it has so much value, I can’t even tell you how much the Nicaraguan Revolution has helped me in my own Revolution.
So, I thank you all for attending the event where I thought I was going to deliver some books, I did not imagine that this Grand Ceremony was going to be.
I have brought you 3,700 copies of a book in Spanish called “Adicto a la Guerra”. It is a book that was written and illustrated by Joel Andreas, a gringo who studied the Chinese Revolution and went to China to study it and get his PHD from it. And it is an incredible book, because it tells not the History of Nicaragua but the History of North American Imperialism. And in the United States there are some 350,000 copies of this book in English, which are being used in classrooms by good Teachers who do not even tell the Principal they are using it in their classrooms.
You already have a lot of experience dealing with bullying in the North, but you’re going to see things here that you don’t know. So I hope that soon you’re reading this book and you’re going to see the great sense of humor he has in drawing and telling the story, so you’re going to be laughing, as well as crying when you read that book. Here are 2 boxes of these books, but there are 35 more boxes outside.
I cannot thank you enough for the Honors you have given me, for this Doctorate, for this Ceremony, I cannot thank you enough. I have never felt that I am brave, for me it has been very simple, you respond to the Justices, regardless of whether the Government responds or not. It has never been an intellectual question for me. I have not required much intellectual understanding to do what I do, it is the most basic thing in the world. I don’t understand why others sometimes don’t understand.
Thanks, University. Thank you, Teachers, Administrators, Students. I will always be Nicaraguan, and I will be until I am on earth.
S. Brian Willson
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This was first published on Tortilla con Sal, translated from Spanish to English.
S. Brian Willson is a Vietnam war veteran, renowned peace activist, human rights lawyer and award winning author, Granada, Nicaragua. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG)
Featured image: Photo of Brian Speaking on September 1st, 2022, Accepting the “Doctor Honoris Causa in Humanidades” from the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua (UNAN), Managua Nicaragua
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Without a completed safety study or expert committee review, the FDA issued a supplemental Biologics License Application (“sBLA”) approval letter granting full FDA approval to Pfizer-BioNTech’s COMIRNATY® COVID-19 mRNA vaccine for use in children ages 12-15. This was done even though safety study completion, on which approval should be based, will not be completed until May 31, 2023. [see this and this] Additionally, the approval was issued even though COMIRNATY is still not available in the United States. [DeMasi, Maryanne. “Is Pfizer’s FDA-approved COMIRNATY Vaccine Available in the US?” Brownstone Institute, May 22, 2022] Thus, the FDA has approved a commercial drug for children without appropriate evidence of safety.
There was no emergency to approve this vaccine without a full safety evaluation. The only vaccine currently available for American children is Pfizer’s Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) drug, a drug that is legally distinct from COMIRNATY® per the FDA. [ Johnson, Ron. “Sen. Johnson Continues to Press the FDA, Pfizer, BioNTech on Transparency and Politicization of Vaccine Approval Process.” Ron Johnson Senator from Wisconsin, Senate.gov, 8 Oct. 2021] The FDA has approved COMIRNATY® over a year before the results of the safety data will be known. In short, the FDA approved a drug for children without complete safety data and without the participation of an expert panel. Moreover, it approved a drug for children that is not currently available in the U.S. and has no known date when it will be available. [DeMasi, Maryanne. “Is Pfizer’s FDA-approved COMIRNATY Vaccine Available in the US?” Brownstone Institute, May 22, 2022] Therefore, children are still receiving an experimental vaccine with the original Wuhan Alpha spike protein mRNA, which is outdated and known to have serious adverse side effects.
The FDA’s mission statement purports to protect residents of the United States from harms, including those from medications, from the products that it regulates. [See this] So why did the FDA skip the standard safety steps to approve COMIRNATY® for adolescents before its level of safety was fully understood? To answer this, one must look at what has happened and what has been omitted.
Background
In a new low for the agency charged with keeping Americans safe and ensuring the drugs it regulates are effective, the FDA gave full approval on August 23, 2021, to Pfizer-BioNTech for its BLA STN 125742/0 mRNA vaccine, also known as COMIRNATY®, to be used in adolescents 16 years of age and older. The FDA issued a post-marketing requirement related to this approval. The associated Pediatric Study C4591001 to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of COMIRNATY® in children 12-15 years of age is due to be completed in May 2023, with final report submission due in October 2023. [p. 5.] It is noteworthy that the initial approval letter from August 2021 approved the use of COMIRNATY in children 16 years and older, despite increasing evidence of serious side effects, including myocarditis. [p. 5.]
Can we trust the data from this trial?
There has been extensive criticism of this trial since November 2021, and of the FDA’s reliance on it for granting Emergency Use Authorizations (EUAs) for vaccinating young children. [Shir-Raz, Yaffa, M.D. “Serious violations and manipulations of trial protocol: How Pfizer obtained FDA emergency authorization for children.” AFLDS Frontline News, November 23, 2021] The efficacy claims, for instance, are based on data from before Delta and before Omicron. Children’s Health Defense also sent a letter to the FDA Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) explaining the problems with the children’s trials. [See this]
Are there not pre-existing protections for children with higher standards than protections for adult medications?
Yes. The Pediatric Research Equity Act (PREA) “requires the conduct of pediatric studies for certain drug and biological products.” [See this] It requires biologics licensing applications (BLAs), or supplements to applications, for any new active ingredient, new indication, new dosage form, new dosing regimen, or new route of administration to contain a “pediatric assessment” showing that it is safe for children, unless the applicant has obtained a waiver or deferral (reference section 505B(a) of PREA).
What does the deferred language mean in the FDA approval letter?
The FDA approval allowed for “deferral” of the usual testing process. “If a deferral has been granted, the pediatric assessment will be due on or before the date specified by the Agency (section 505B(a)(3) of PREA).” [See this]
Although the trial purportedly showed 100% effectiveness and that the drug was tolerated well, the safety of patients in the trial was not fully established prior to the FDA’s approval of this injection for minors. All participants in the trial needed to be monitored for long-term protection and safety for an additional two years after their second dose. That is why data will continue to be collected until May 2023, and a final report will be submitted to the FDA by October 31, 2023. [p. 5.] So the approval for the Pfizer mRNA injection for minors short-circuited this process.
Under those circumstances, how can we ensure this vaccine’s long-term safety to our children?
We cannot ensure long-term safety under this truncated process. The trial that was used only follows the candidates within the trial itself, and the FDA’s only requirement of Pfizer, in this case, was that they present their own data. Thus, there is no reference to any adverse events that are subsequently reported in the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS), which has been shown to only report 1% of vaccine injuries, a gross level of underreporting. [AHRQ’s Lazarus Report, 2011] Under these circumstances, there is no mechanism by which the FDA can look at the totality of the data in terms of harms to children over time.
What could the FDA do to provide safety during medical interventions, especially in pediatric patients?
The safety of a product should be paramount in infants and children, with proper observation and reporting of serious adverse events, and a longer time should be allocated for this to happen prior to any drug approval, as is usually the case.
The Pfizer pediatric trial does not end for nearly another year, and yet the FDA committee decided that completion of such longer-term follow-up did not need to be a prerequisite to licensure unless warranted by a specific safety concern. [See this and this]. By truncating the timeline of the trials and restricting the data observed, they did not look for and, thus, chose not to find safety concerns.
Call to Action
Americans must demand that the VAERS database be improved, and people should be strongly encouraged to report adverse events directly into its online portal. The database findings should be reviewed by the VRBPAC, alongside any trial data from a pharmaceutical company. Additionally, no drug should be approved for use in children without fully completed, submitted, and evaluated safety studies over the appropriate length of time.
Potentially ALL American children aged 12-15 are affected, as this is a full commercial approval. The stakes could not be higher for the health and wellbeing of our next generation of Americans.
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Featured image is from DailyClout
“The Worldwide Corona Crisis, Global Coup d’Etat Against Humanity”
Michel Chossudovsky reviews in detail how this insidious project “destroys people’s lives”. He provides a comprehensive analysis of everything you need to know about the “pandemic” — from the medical dimensions to the economic and social repercussions, political underpinnings, and mental and psychological impacts.
“My objective as an author is to inform people worldwide and refute the official narrative which has been used as a justification to destabilize the economic and social fabric of entire countries, followed by the imposition of the “deadly” COVID-19 “vaccine”. This crisis affects humanity in its entirety: almost 8 billion people. We stand in solidarity with our fellow human beings and our children worldwide. Truth is a powerful instrument.”
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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***
India is taking baby steps toward green energy. Two of India’s biggest business houses are spearheading it — Adani and Ambani groups. India has made several ambitious commitments at the Glasgow climate summit and two key pledges were that India’s non-fossil energy capacity will reach 500 GW by 2030 and the country will transition to net zero emissions by 2070. Sceptics doubt whether such timelines are realistic.
Meanwhile, the climate agenda itself has gone for a six with theconflict in Ukraine weaponising energy security in a way that was unthinkable. In all probability, both green energy and zero emission targets will need an extended timeline, as the major industrial countries grapple with economic recession and high inflation. The momentum has been lost and the geopolitics of energy security will inevitably impact the calculus in ways not quite foreseeable. When an energy superpower such as Russia is treated as an outlier by the West, and China defers its climate dialogue with the US due to tensions over Taiwan issue, all bets are off.
Meanwhile, natural gas, as a bridge fuel, is likely to outlast coal and oil in the age of global warming. Gas burns much cleaner than coal and this saves significant amounts of greenhouse gases emitted to the atmosphere. Europe calls gas “green energy”! Natural gas can indeed be a bridge to a carbon-free future, provided methane leaks are kept under check by installing reliable measurement equipment.
In fact, bp has predicted a strong future for natural gas, that by 2050 it would provide 22% of primary energy in their “Rapid” future scenario, compared with 45% for renewables. Above all, natural gas also manages to survive on the geopolitical stage, as is evident through the 6-month long Ukraine war. Simply put, it is a safe prediction that gas will stay fairly constant between 2020 and 2050, while oil and coal start declining in 2025 or thereabouts.
We are now seeing inevitable price spikes as countries around the world compete for LNG shipments. The Asia-Pacific region is expected to account for half of the expected growth in global gas demand to 2025. However, the European Union’s commitment to phase out gas imports from Russia –- historically, its largest supplier –- is having global repercussions, as Europe’s surging demand for LNG draws in deliveries initially intended for other regions.
On the other hand, according to a recent estimate in July by the International Energy Agency, Russian pipeline gas exports to the EU will fall by over 55% between 2021 and 2025— perhaps, in an accelerated case, by over 75%.
This becomes an extremely favourable setting for India to work on a gas pipeline project from Russia. Significantly, last Tuesday, the prominent Russian daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta carried a report on the visit by the Russian gas Leviathan Gazprom’s CEO Alexey Miller to Ashgabat and his meeting with the Turkmenistan President Serdar Berdimuhamedov, which inter alia flagged that a pipeline project to send Russian gas to the South Asian region would be under consideration in Moscow.
By the way, for the benefit of the uninitiated, following the transition in leadership in Turkmenistan in March, the Moscow-Ashgabat strategic axis has had a phenomenal makeover. On Monday, in Moscow, President Putin conferred Russia’s high honour of the Order of Merit of the Fatherland on Berdimuhamedov in a symbolic gesture signifying the Kremlin’s great appreciation for Turkmenistan’s gesture of spurning an overture from Brussels seeking additional gas supplies for the EU via Azerbaijan and Turkey to replace Russian gas!
Gazprom chief Miller told Turkmen television in an interview that Russia intends to “continue large-scale purchases of Turkmen gas on a long-term basis.” Evidently, Moscow is mopping up the surplus Turkmen gas (after exports to China) to preclude the EU or other third parties from playing politics with it against Russia. In effect, it is a political gesture by Moscow that also reinforces the robust cooperation between the security agencies of the two countries, which is a vital brotherhood for both sides in today’s era of colour revolutions. (Ashgabat is not only a Caspian state but also has a 800-km long border with Afghanistan (whichruns from the tripoint with Iran to the tripoint with Uzbekistan.)
The Russian daily hinted that Miller’s talks with President Berdimuhamedov in Ashgabat might have touched on an “overland route to Asian market” for surplus Russian gas, which used to be delivered to Europe previously. As the paper puts it, “And the way to Hindustan lies through Turkmenistan. There is a developed gas transportation infrastructure between it (Turkmenistan) and Russia.”
The daily cited an expert opinion that since Russia’s domestic market is already overstocked and the European market is “gradually closing” for Russian gas, and the supplies to China are being carried out anyway by both Turkmenistan and Russia, “coordination and joint activities for gas supplies to Pakistan and India no longer seem like something fantastic. Given the recent contacts between the authorities of the Russian Federation and Afghanistan on economic issues, there is more and more logic in Gazprom’s joint work with Turkmenistan on the implementation of TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline).”
The daily added that Turkmenistan will be open to the idea of Russia constructing a gas pipeline on its territory leading to the south for Russian gas to be marketed. It disclosed that Kabul is not only receptive but negotiations have already taken place between Russian and Taliban authorities on building a pipeline to Afghanistan — and, an agreement is ready for signature.
All this seems to be related to the recent visit by the Afghan Minister of Commerce and Industry with a delegation of officials from the finance ministry for weeklong consultations in Moscow in mid-August for supplies of wheat, gas and oil. Reuters also separately reported that talks are in the “final stages over the terms of a contract for Afghanistan to purchase gasoline and benzene from Russia.”
Of course, a Russian gas pipeline project — instead of TAPI — is an entirely different ball game. Gazprom has enormous experience in building and operating pipelines. In effect, this idea presages Turkmenistan becoming an energy hub connecting the Russian gas grid with the vast South Asian market.
Gazprom chief Miller told Tass yesterday that Russia has huge gas reserves for the next 100 years, and certain deposits will only be operational and producing gas by 2120! Miller explained that such grand panorama can be visualised today thanks to a new Russian gas production facility in the Yamal gas fields in northwest Siberia, which holds Russia’s biggest natural gas reserves, estimated to be in the region of 44 trillion cubic feet of gas and 550 million barrels of condensate.
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Specifically, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said that it expects its supply of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments to be depleted in the coming months, and is now preparing for the availability of these products to transition to the commercial market.
This announcement comes despite the Biden administration’s purchase of 170 million doses of updated COVID-19 booster shots, which are expected to be available to the public sometime in September as part of an autumn vaccination campaign.
The Hill described the announcement as one which marks “a new phase in fighting the pandemic,” adding that it “would be another sign that the administration views the acute emergency phase of the pandemic as ending.”
However, HHS, the parent agency of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), indicated in mid-August it will likely extend the COVID-19 public health emergency for another 90 days, when the current 90-day period expires on Oct. 15. The public health emergency had previously been renewed on July 15, its tenth extension since initially being declared on Jan. 31, 2020.
Adding to the mixed messaging, the CDC Aug. 11 announced the reversal of its COVID-19 guidance, rescinding its previous distinctions between the vaccinated and unvaccinated. This was followed by the CDC’s Aug. 17 announcement that the agency will undergo an “overhaul” as a result of its “botched” response to COVID-19.
The Biden administration’s plans to shift the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics to the private sector were first indicated the same week as the aforementioned CDC announcements.
On Aug. 16, Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House’s COVID-19 response coordinator, speaking at an event sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, said the government was working on emerging out of the “acute emergency phase” and moving COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and tests to the commercial market.
In remarks made to The Defender, Mary Holland, president of Children’s Health Defense, described the Biden administration’s COVID-19 policies as “incoherent.”
“It seems to me that these policies are at cross-purposes,” Holland said, referring to the Biden administration shifting distribution of COVID-19 therapeutics to the private sector while maintaining the public health emergency.
She added:
“[HHS] has asserted that there is a continuing emergency, giving the federal government the broadest of liability protections, and at the same time, HHS’ own CDC has, in a sense, walked back every dimension of their control.
“They shouldn’t be able to have it both ways. Either there’s an emergency and they do everything possible to alleviate the burden of this disease threat in the way that they have told us to do it, or there’s no emergency and they lose all of their emergency powers, including the liability protection.
“In this case, the Biden administration should end the Secretary of Health’s emergency declaration that still continues in effect.”
Maintaining the declared public health emergency may, however, be connected to the continued availability of the COVID-19 vaccines themselves.
As reported by Politico, although therapeutics such as COVID-19 vaccines were issued under an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) granted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), it is a separate declaration — under the HHS’ Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act — that allows the agency to issue EUAs in the first place.
According to Politico, the eventual termination of the COVID-19 emergency declaration will not necessarily mean that products currently being administered under EUAs will be withdrawn from the market. HHS Sec. Xavier Becerra will have to announce an end to the separate HHS declaration under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.
This is of particular significance considering COVID-19 vaccines that are “fully licensed” by the FDA, including Pfizer’s Comirnaty and Moderna’s Spikevax, continue to be largely or wholly unavailable throughout the U.S., with vaccines issued under EUA being administered instead.
There may also be political implications in the Biden administration’s intended shift to private distribution of COVID-19 therapeutics, and the CDC’s recent rollbacks of its COVID-19-related policies.
In a recent interview with The Defender, Dr. Robert Malone, a critic of vaccine mandates and COVID-19 countermeasures, suggested that Fauci’s sudden resignation is at least partly motivated by his flagging popularity hurting the Democrats in polls, with the midterm Congressional elections looming in November.
In March 2022, The Defender reported that the Biden administration was following the recommendations of a prominent polling firm which advised it to shift away from aggressive policies and messaging concerning COVID-19, due to flagging poll numbers.
Remarking on the possibility that the Biden administration’s recent COVID-19-related moves may be politically motivated, Holland likened the government’s strategy to “Pavlovian techniques,” referencing an MIT Technology Review article published in 2020 suggesting what was to come.
She told The Defender:
“Pavlovian techniques are not constant pressure. They are pressure, release, pressure, release, freeze.
“So they’re taking off the pressure now. And I believe after the midterm elections are over, there will be an effort to reestablish more draconian measures, like at least social distancing, recommended masks, potentially reasserting discrimination between the vaccinated and unvaccinated.”
Dr. Joseph Mercola in a recent article expressed a similar perspective, writing:
“The CDC’s about-face appears to be politically motivated, to give the Biden administration a ‘win’ before the midterm elections.
“Post-election plans include ‘the biggest vaccination campaign in history,’ so tyrannical overreaches may later resume, even as mounting data show the COVID-19 shots are causing depopulation.”
However, Holland added her view that perhaps, above all, there is simply a great deal of confusion within the Biden administration regarding its next steps pertaining to COVID-19.
She told The Defender:
“I would be hesitant to ascribe too much coherence to any of this. I think the narrative has fallen apart because the shots don’t work and they’re incredibly dangerous. They don’t stop transmission or infection.
“The evidence that they’ve now stopped collecting data overwhelmingly supports the idea that these shots are causing all-cause excess mortality.
“I think it’s just an incoherent situation in a sense. I would tend to think there are some people in control who don’t really know exactly what to do next.”
According to The Hill, the Biden administration likely believes that “purchasing and distribution of measures to fight COVID-19 should [now] work more like the rest of the health care system,” instead of the government “playing the leading role.”
Speaking on Aug. 16, Jha said, “My hope is that in 2023, you’re going to see the commercialization of almost all of these products.”
In an Aug. 30 blog post, Dawn O’Connell, an assistant secretary of HHS, stated that it was always the Biden administration’s intent to shift away from its central role in coordinating the availability and distribution of COVID-19 treatments, but said that the process has now been hastened due to a lack of Congressional funding for the continued procurement of therapeutics.
As a result, according to O’Connell:
“As early as January 2023, the administration anticipates no longer having federal funds to purchase or distribute vaccines and will need to transition these activities to the commercial market, similar to seasonal flu or other commercially available vaccines.”
A lack of continued funding has also been cited as the reason why the government will cease making free at-home COVID-19 tests available to Americans beginning next week.
O’Connell said Congress could still provide funding that would facilitate an “orderly” transition to the private sector, allowing for “equitable distribution and coverage for the underinsured and uninsured.”
She also argued that “additional COVID-19 funding” from Congress is “urgently needed for a range of critical response needs, including the development of next-generation vaccines, therapeutics, and tests.”
Presumably, in preparation for this transition, HHS held a planning meeting with representatives of the healthcare industry, state governments and patient advocates Aug. 30, The Hill reported.
The impending transition of COVID-19 vaccine and treatment procurement to the private sector raised some concerns from public health advocates, who argued that the uninsured would have a more difficult time accessing these products.
Others argued that this transition may worsen vaccine uptake and make it more difficult to overcome “vaccine fatigue” and encourage the public to receive boosters.
Concerns were also raised over “issues of equity,” based on claims that “minority and ethnic populations will not be able to take advantage of the new updated COVID-19 vaccines as readily as better-advantaged people.”
The latter argument mirrors concerns that were recently raised in response to Washington, D.C.’s vaccine mandate for schoolchildren age 12 and over, addressing particularly low vaccination rates among African American students. The enforcement date of the vaccine mandate was ultimately postponed.
Perhaps in response to flagging vaccination rates among some minority groups, as well as white conservatives and others, the Rockefeller Foundation and the Social Science Research Council recently launched a new initiative, The Mercury Project, aimed at developing more “effective” messaging promoting COVID-19 vaccines.
Indeed, Newsweek reports that, according to CDC data, vaccination rates have lost momentum, as “just” 51.6% of U.S. adults have received a booster shot, and only 33.7% of those age 50 and over have received the second booster, which was first recommended by the CDC in March.
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Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D., is an independent journalist and researcher based in Athens, Greece.
Featured image is from CHD
“The Worldwide Corona Crisis, Global Coup d’Etat Against Humanity”
Michel Chossudovsky reviews in detail how this insidious project “destroys people’s lives”. He provides a comprehensive analysis of everything you need to know about the “pandemic” — from the medical dimensions to the economic and social repercussions, political underpinnings, and mental and psychological impacts.
“My objective as an author is to inform people worldwide and refute the official narrative which has been used as a justification to destabilize the economic and social fabric of entire countries, followed by the imposition of the “deadly” COVID-19 “vaccine”. This crisis affects humanity in its entirety: almost 8 billion people. We stand in solidarity with our fellow human beings and our children worldwide. Truth is a powerful instrument.”
All Global Research articles can be read in 51 languages by activating the “Translate Website” drop down menu on the top banner of our home page (Desktop version).
To receive Global Research’s Daily Newsletter (selected articles), click here.
Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.
***
An Indigenous man known as “The Man of the Hole” has died in Brazil. He was the last member of his tribe, and the only inhabitant of Tanaru Indigenous Territory in Rondonia state, in the western Brazilian Amazon.
The rest of his people had been massacred in a series of attacks from the 1970s onwards, but little was known about his people as he resisted attempts to contact him. Known to outsiders as The Man of the Hole for his habit of constructing deep holes, some with sharpened stakes in them, he was filmed by a government team in 2018 during a chance encounter.
Tanaru territory stands as a small island of forest in a sea of vast cattle ranches, in one of the most violent regions in Brazil. Survival, together with organizations inside Brazil, campaigned for many years for his land to be protected.
Fiona Watson, Survival’s Research and Advocacy Director, visited the territory in 2004 with a government monitoring team, and wrote an account of the visit.
She said today: “No outsider knew this man’s name, or even very much about his tribe – and with his death the genocide of his people is complete. For this was indeed a genocide – the deliberate wiping out of an entire people by cattle ranchers hungry for land and wealth.
“He symbolized both the appalling violence and cruelty inflicted on Indigenous peoples worldwide in the name of colonization and profit, but also their resistance. We can only imagine what horrors he had witnessed in his life, and the loneliness of his existence after the rest of his tribe were killed, but he determinedly resisted all attempts at contact, and made clear he just wanted to be left alone.
“If President Bolsonaro and his agribusiness allies get their way, this story will be repeated over and over again until all the country’s Indigenous peoples are wiped out. The Indigenous movement in Brazil, and Survival, will do everything possible to ensure that doesn’t happen.”
OPI, the Observatory for the Human Rights of Uncontacted and recently-contacted Peoples, has called for the Tanaru reserve to be permanently protected as a memorial to Indigenous genocide. Survival backs that call.
Note to Editors: The 8,000 hectare Tanaru Indigenous Territory is one of seven territories in Brazil protected by Land Protection Orders. President Bolsonaro and his allies have long campaigned to abolish these protections.
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Due to skyrocketing energy prices, Britons could soon face higher costs for charging their electric vehicles (EVs) at home than filling up gasoline-fueled cars, The Washington Times reports.
Julian is fighting for his life – his life depends on not being extradited to the United States. This is a political case, it can be stopped here and it must be stopped here. So on the 8th of October, come to London to show your solidarity, come help free Julian Assange.
Big Tech employees met regularly with Biden administration officials to discuss what to censor, according to court documents recently released by Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt.
As I drive Route 309 past Allentown to see Mumia Abu-Jamal at SCI Mahanoy in Frackville, PA, I know I am scaling formidable walls. Just yesterday, I heard Maureen Faulkner tell Ashley Strohmier on Fox and Friends that she was going after Brown University for illuminating Mumia’s archival materials. This is a powerful development. See “Brown University Acquires the Papers of Mumia Abu-Jamal” New York Times story 8-24-22.
It did not take long for the Kremlin to respond to the G-7 plan to impose price-caps on Russian oil, with Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak warning that Moscow will ban exports of oil and other petroleum products to countries that impose a cap on the price of Russian crude.
The Pentagon signed a contract with Boeing on Thursday to supply Israel with four KC-46 refueling planes that are needed for potential Israeli strikes on Iran, although the aircraft won’t be delivered until at least 2025.
The New York Times reported this morning that the pandemic reversed 20 years of progress in reading and math among elementary school students in the United States. Commentators emphasized the dire effect this would have on life prospects for these children and, by implication, the American economy at an especially challenging moment in its history.
Databit by databit, we are building our own electronic concentration camps. With every new smart piece of smart technology we acquire, every new app we download, every new photo or post we share online, we are making it that much easier for the government and its corporate partners to identify, track and eventually round us up.
March 2022 marks 19 years since the US-UK-led war on Iraq in 2003. And that war is still ongoing. Historically however this war on Iraq did not start in 2003. It was preceded by the so-called “Gulf War” in 1991 (The First War against Iraq). And in 2014, a third US-led war against Iraq was launched under the banner of Obama’s 2014 “counter-terrorism bombing campaign”.
The US envisions India becoming a bulwark against China and functioning as Washington’s premier “Lead From Behind” partner in “containing” it, though it recognizes that it probably can’t sustain this role for too long unless it receives multilateral support, ergo the so-called “Quad” that also involves Japan and Australia and could unofficially be called the “Hex” through Vietnam and France’s participation as well.
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Big Tech employees met regularly with Biden administration officials to discuss what to censor, according to court documents recently released by Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt.
Schmitt posted the documents he obtained as part of his and Louisiana’s lawsuit against the Biden administration and Big Tech companies for allegedly colluding to censor information on social media.
One email from a Facebook employee to two Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) staffers asked about setting up a monthly “misinfo/debunking” meeting, “in addition to our weekly meetings.”
A February 17 email from a Treasury Department employee to Facebook employees asked about setting up “potential influence operations on social media.”
The Deputy Secretary at Treasury sought to connect with social media platforms and influence operations on social media. pic.twitter.com/MZ46VuUw5X
“The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) reached out to Twitter, Google, Meta, and Microsoft following the botched rollout of DHS’ Disinformation Governance Board,” Schmitt wrote on Twitter, along with copies of the email. The board has since been disbanded.
Facebook officials also deleted a parody Anthony Fauci account on Instagram, after a White House official named Clarke Humphrey complained.
“[Department of Justice] identified 45 federal officials who have interacted with social media companies on misinformation,” Schmitt wrote, summarizing his findings on Twitter.
“Beyond DOJ, Meta [Facebook] identified 32 additional federal officials including White House Officials who communicated with them, and YouTube identified 11 federal officials including White House Officials who communicated with them, many of whom were not disclosed by DOJ,” according to the emails provided to Schmitt. “This is a vast censorship enterprise, and the American people deserve to see the truth.”
Beyond DOJ, Meta identified 32 additional federal officials including White House Officials who communicated with them, and YouTube identified 11 federal officials including White House Officials who communicated with them, many of whom were not disclosed by DOJ.
Others emails reveal coordination between Health and Human Services employees, including Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, and Facebook, discussing a “misinformation health advisory” as well as the suppression of information on COVID and potential harms from the jabs. Twitter also hosted a meeting with White House officials to discuss “vaccine misinformation.”
Further communications show that Facebook is “increasing the strength of our demotions for COVID and vaccine-related content that third party fact checkers rate as ‘Partly False’ or ‘Missing Context.’
The DOJ is reportedly not turning over its communications as part of the lawsuit, leading to a further filing from Louisiana and Missouri.
“We have already received a number of documents that clearly prove that the federal government has an incestuous relationship with social media companies and clearly coordinate to censor freedom of speech, but we’re not done,” the Missouri attorney general stated in a news release on Thursday. “The Department of Justice is cowering behind executive privilege and has refused to turn over communications between the highest-ranking Biden Administration officials and social media companies.”
“That’s why, yesterday, we asked the Court to compel the Department of Justice to produce those records,” he stated. “We’re just getting started – stay tuned.”
The news adds further information to the idea that Big Tech is not acting independently as a private company, but rather as an arm of the government, according to Newsweek opinion editor Josh Hammer.
“These technology platforms, in short, have proven themselves to not be ‘private’ actors in any meaningful sense of the term,” Hammer wrote in response to the released emails. “They are now direct appendages of the state, and they must be constitutionally treated and regulated as such.”
He referenced Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s comments on Joe Rogan’s show posted on August 25 that the FBI spoke to his company about stories about Hunter Biden’s laptop being “Russian propaganda.”
The New YorkTimes and The Washington Post belatedly verified the authenticity of the contents of the laptop, but not until after Big Tech censored the story and not until after the 2020 presidential election.
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***
“We know that Mumia will be free. We just want to delay Mumia’s release as long as possible.” Maureen Faulkner, at a Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) Lodge.
This is a startling admission. They know it and we know it: Mumia will be free. Freedom is coming and it is going to be a fast, harrowing last lap.
As I drive Route 309 past Allentown to see Mumia Abu-Jamal at SCI Mahanoy in Frackville, PA, I know I am scaling formidable walls. Just yesterday, I heard Maureen Faulkner tell Ashley Strohmier on Fox and Friends that she was going after Brown University for illuminating Mumia’s archival materials. This is a powerful development. See “Brown University Acquires the Papers of Mumia Abu-Jamal” New York Times story 8-24-22.
Mumia, the intellectual, the man, and the scholar, has a critical role in the discourse of abolition. And every accolade must acknowledge the demand for his immediate and unconditional freedom..
Bringing Mumia’s voice out beyond the walls to the airwaves is Prison Radio’s job. Freedom is our mission.
The brutality and banality of oppression in Pennsylvania prisons is tangible, palpable, naked.
On this visit, at least there are no snarling drug dogs circling my pockets for dog biscuit crumbs, and no one in the line to get in is turned away for setting off the notoriously fallible drug scanner.
Image: Mumia Abu-Jamal with his grandson and paralegal Jamal Jr.
We were on a legal visit — in an open room, with a recording camera and microphone just above our heads: a blatant affront to the Sixth Amendment right to counsel. The back of the room holds a fully stocked vending machine with cold bottled water on every shelf. But there is no water for this visit. A sign taped to the machine reads: “Out of Order. Use the next one”. When you try “the next one,” it flashes “Sold Out”. There is no water fountain. The only food on offer is a few overpriced pork hoagies, which no Muslim can eat and which are deadly for an aging population fighting heart disease.
The cavernous room is practically empty of regular visitors; the online portal makes it difficult to schedule a visit. Only 9 men have visits today. Although there is plenty of room, we are all expected to sit still. Stretching and standing is frowned upon — god forbid you want to get up and walk around.
Guards tell me that photos are no longer allowed on legal visits. This is both petty and unconstitutional. Obviously, these pictures below have power.
We know Mumia endures a full cavity strip search before and after every single visit. We know he is in his cell 21 hours a day with just 7 steps from the front to the back of the cell. His diet of processed food, with few fresh vegetables or fruit, is a violation of the 8th Amendment and ADA guidelines. After undergoing double bypass surgery in March of 2021, Mumia needs adequate exercise and healthy food. We work with Mumia to pursue administrative remedies, file Right To Know Requests, and document nutrition required for cardiac health. So much work for basic needs like healthy foods.
We continue. We plan, we strategize.
For 42 years, Mumia has appealed for a new trial in the 1981 shooting death of Philadelphia Police officer Daniel Faulkner. The current delays are a tactic designed to prevent justice and delay accountability.
On October 19th 2022 Common Pleas Court Criminal Division Supervising Judge Lucretia Clemens will issue her opinion regarding Mumia’s new trial. At issue are the practices of removing African Americans from his jury and burying evidence. Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner is fighting to deny Mumia the right to challenge his conviction. Krasner has decided to defend a system (the cops, the prosecutors and the courts) that has literally victimized a generation.
Fighting to keep Mumia in prison is all about limiting exposure. It is about preserving the fiction that decades of mass incarceration (prosecuted by former Philadelphia police chief and mayor Frank Rizzo and former DA, Mayor, and Governor of Pennsylvania Ed Rendell) is not tainted by police and prosecutorial misconduct.
Their goal is to prevent the white hot spotlight on Philadelphia’s long and sordid racist history. Everyone knows that Mumia’s judge, Albert “I am going to help them fry the N-word” Sabo, is a stone-cold racist. Sitting Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Barbara McDermott told me, “Sabo is the most racist, sexist, and homophobic jurist I have ever met.” Rendell (The DA at the time of Mumia’s trial) and Mayor Frank Rizzo, hand in hand, violated defendants constitutional rights at every turn. They knew what the cops were doing: everyone knew. Everyone still knows.
Image: Noelle Hanrahan, Esq, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and investigator Mike Africa Jr.
The immediate question is will the current court order an evidentiary hearing; in fact, they should simply order a new trial. This moment must be met with strong and strategic action. The FOP have promised to try to intervene and delay any new court hearing. They have been emboldened by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, which heard their frivolous Kings Bench Petition.
Part of our job is to keep the shining light of the public on this case, and its impact on so many others.
We are struggling to have the funds to print our mailings, make payroll, and keep the phones on. We are poised to help the world hear this critical information. We rely on you. We just do. To keep us traveling to the prison and the phones on. You are a critical part of that small circle of folks that make this work possible.
We need you to help make these freedom dreams a reality. Can you give the largest amount you have ever given us? If not that, can you give double what you gave last year? Can you donate a building? Stock? We are so close. Your gift will help us make our next strategic, crucial, step.
We just got two cars, an Audi and a Subaru donated by Rod and Marcia. Thank you. But we need gas money and airfare ticket money.
We are in the final home stretch to freedom, and yes abolition. Please join us.
When We Fight, We Win, Cuando luchamos ganamos!
*
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***
I did this new video to give everyone an idea of what the Surround Parliament human chain will look like on 8 October.
Julian is fighting for his life – his life depends on not being extradited to the United States.
This is a political case, it can be stopped here and it must be stopped here.
So on the 8th of October, come to London to show your solidarity, come help free Julian Assange.
Thank you for your support,
Stella Assange
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Featured image: Julian Assange in Belmarsh Prison in 2019 (Source: WSWS)
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***
Due to skyrocketing energy prices, Britons could soon face higher costs for charging their electric vehicles (EVs) at home than filling up gasoline-fueled cars, The Washington Times reports.
The high energy and electricity prices that could undermine the growth in EVs uptake in the UK and globally could be a cautionary tale for what could be the future in the U.S. if the energy transition is pushed to accelerate without accounting for whether EVs and renewable energy sources could replace fossil fuels, analysts tell The Washington Times.
“For the U.S., this actually gets to an underlying fallacy of a lot of people that are pushing electric vehicles: they assert electric vehicles are cheaper because they assume electricity prices are going to stay cheap,” Kenny Stein, policy director of the Institute for Energy Research, told The Washington Times.
Last week, the UK energy regulator Ofgem said the new price cap for household energy bills would be $4,113 (£3,549) per year, an 80-percent hike in the energy price cap aimed at shielding consumers from price swings, promising to plunge millions more into energy poverty.
The chief executive of Ofgem, Jonathan Brearley, has also warned that another hike in the price cap would be coming in January next year, raising household energy bills much further, to above $6,952 (£6,000), according to recent forecasts. That would be almost double on the latest hike.
The price cap currently stands at $2,285 (£1,971) per year, based on typical use for the average household, which is already a 54% increase on the $1,480 (£1,277) per year that was in place between October 2021 and March 2022.
Many British households are already struggling with paying their bills, and they are accumulating more debt, too. The government is helping, but more help would be needed for the higher bills.
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Tsvetana is a writer for Oilprice.com with over a decade of experience writing for news outlets such as iNVEZZ and SeeNews.
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***
It did not take long for the Kremlin to respond to the G-7 plan to impose price-caps on Russian oil, with Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak warning that Moscow will ban exports of oil and other petroleum products to countries that impose a cap on the price of Russian crude. Novak made the remarks to reporters in Moscow on Sept. 1, according to Russian state media Tass, which came as Western powers were preparing to meet on Sept. 2 to agree on a Russian oil price cap.
“We will simply not supply oil and petroleum products to such companies or states that impose restrictions, as we will not work non-competitively,” Novak said, while denouncing the price cap as “completely absurd.”
“It will completely destroy the market,” Novak continued, arguing that interference in market mechanisms in a key commodity like oil would have a destabilizing impact on energy security in countries across the world.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen took the opportunity of G-7 agreement to a nothingburger plan to take a victory lap:
“The price cap will advance our two key objectives; The first, of course, is reducing revenues that Putin needs to continue waging his war of aggression. And the second is maintaining a reliable supply of oil to the global market and putting downward pressure on the price of energy for people in the U.S., in the UK, and around the world.”
But, echoing Novak’s remarks about a Russian oil export ban targeting countries that sign onto the cap, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters during a conference call on Sept. 2 that “companies that impose a price cap will not be among the recipients of Russian oil.”
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As we detailed earlier, in what we are sure will be heralded as a critical step forward in the globally unified response to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, G-7 finance ministers have agreed to implement a price cap for global purchases of Russian oil – a measure the US hopes will ease energy market pressures and slash Moscow’s overall revenues.
“We confirm our joint political intention to finalize and implement a comprehensive prohibition of services which enable maritime transportation of Russian-origin crude oil and petroleum products globally,” G-7 finance ministers said in a joint statement.
“The provision of such services would only be allowed if the oil and petroleum products are purchased at or below a price (“the price cap”) determined by the broad coalition of countries adhering to and implementing the price cap.”
No details were offered as to the mechanism for the buying-cartel but the stated goal set out by G7 leaders was two-pronged:
to limit upward pressure on global oil prices
to curb Russia’s revenues from oil sales.
To achieve those goals, the allies agreed to explore a new mechanism that aims to impose a ceiling on Russian oil prices. The idea behind this price cap is to permit countries that have not imposed import bans to buy Russian oil as long as it is priced at or below a predetermined price. The cap could be enforced via limits on availability of European insurance for Russian oil cargoes as well as shipping services and US finance.
While G7 leaders have not indicated where the price cap would be set, it must be lower than the $80/bbl at which Russia’s Urals grade trades today (a $32/bbl discount to Brent) and higher than Russia’s marginal cost of maintaining production levels, estimated at around $40/bbl to ensure Russia’s earnings are reduced while production is maintained.
A $50-60 per barrel price cap would likely serve the G7 goals of reducing oil revenues for Russia while assuring barrels continue to flow.
But it remains unclear how effective a price-cap regime would be, since for the price-cap to work, oil importers like India, China, and Turkey – which have significantly increased their purchases of heavily-discounted Russian grades – would need to agree to participate to access even cheaper oil.
“Quite extensive measures are going to have to be taken to ensure that companies don’t’ find ways around price limitations,” said Richard Watts, the managing director at Geneva commodities trading advisory HR Maritime.
“This was the challenge in Iraq’s food-for-oil scheme in the 1990s. The question is how does the G-7 police this?”
Scenario 1: Russia does not cooperate and retaliates – a 3 mbd cut would likely deliver a $190/bbl oil price
Scenario 2: China and India don’t cooperate – the end of the European insurance dominance
Scenario 3: Russia fully re-routes exports from west to east but loses pricing power, prices stabilize in low-$100s
There has so far been no reaction to the headlines…
Which we suspect reflects the market’s reality check that this G-7 plan has no chance of becoming operational as to implement a cap, diplomats will have to convince European Union member nations to amend its sixth round of sanctions on Russia over the invasion of Ukraine – and that may still prove to be tough. That package, which prohibits the purchase of Russian oil starting Dec. 5, included a ban on the use by third countries of the bloc’s companies for oil-related insurance and financial services.
“The price cap fundamentally lacks impact unless the G-7 can persuade the other main buyers (i.e. China, India, Turkey, etc) to sign up,” Christopher Haines, a global crude analyst at consultant Energy Aspects, said in an emailed response to questions.
“They are all reluctant despite the offer of exemptions from Western financial and shipping insurance sanctions. Meanwhile Russia will be determined to undermine the policy for both political and economic reasons.”
Russia said Friday that it won’t sell oil to nations that impose a price cap on its oil. “We simply won’t interact with them on such non-market principles,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call, adding that Russian oil will find alternative markets.
*
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***
The really annoying thing about being asked to write an article detailing the lies of Boris Johnson is that I am not paid by the word.
There are so many lies that even if you listed just the blatant, shameless, immediately disprovable ones, you could not fit them all into one edition of this paper. So, this is not a full folio of his falsehoods; rather it is just the cream of the crap he has spouted in a political life of deception.
And let us not forget that Boris Johnson was known to be a liar long before he became PM. He was fired twice for lying, once by the leader of the Conservative Party. But each time he was allowed to return to work, to win promotion and to get away with it. It worked for him and so he kept doing it. The damage he has been allowed to inflict on the country as a result is immense.
“We send the EU £350 million a week, let’s fund our NHS instead”
Johnson did not actually say this; but It was emblazoned on that big red bus that drove him around the country during the referendum campaign. Even at the time the UK Statistics Authority described the figure as “potentially misleading” and “a clear misuse of official statistics” as it didn’t take into account the rebate which was applied before Britain paid its contributions to the EU. Johnson gave not a damn. The whole point was to just get a lie on the news all day every day, and it worked.
Shamelessly, in 2021 he claimed the figure was, if anything, an “underestimation” of the UK’s contributions. This is another lie; the true figure is much lower (around £250m) and the cost to the UK of leaving the EU has far outweighed those contributions. Meanwhile, the UK is still paying into EU funds, as agreed in the withdrawal deal. This year the figure is expected to be £9.4 billion or £180 million a week.
“It is the government’s policy that Turkey should join the EU”
The other plank of the Brexit platform was to stir up fear of mass immigration, hence Johnson’s claim that Turkey was about to join the EU, threatening an influx of 70 million Muslims and giving the EU a border with Iraq. Nudge, nudge, say no more.
In fact, there was no chance of this happening – the UK was opposed to Turkey’s membership and like every other member state, had a veto. Six years on, Turkey has not joined the EU and its membership is now further away than ever.
The effect of these two big lies – on the cost of EU membership and on Turkey’s imminent arrival – can be measured. We left the EU as a result and doing so has ripped through theBritish economy. Fully accurate calculations are impossible but the total cost of lower growth because of Brexit is close to £200bn and will continue to rise for years.
“Fuel bills will be lower for everyone” under Brexit Johnson and others claimed this in a joint article for The Sun in May 2016, just days before the referendum, writing: “In 1993, VAT on household energy bills was imposed… This makes gas and electricity much more expensive. EU rules mean we cannot take VAT off those bills.” And that “As long as we are in the EU, we are not allowed to cut this tax. When we vote Leave, we will be able to scrap this unfair and damaging tax.”
To be fair, Johnson only claimed he would be able to remove VAT after Brexit, not that he would do it – just as well as it has never happened during his premiership. But if being a member of the EU meant you could not cut VAT on energy bills, it seems rather strange that several EU states have done just that during this current energy crisis and the UK hasn’t.
“There is no threat to the Erasmus scheme”
Said in 2020. Turned out there was a threat to the Erasmus scheme, from which British students are now locked out.
“The economy, under this Conservative government, has grown by 73 per cent”
Curiously, the statistics show GDP grew by only 20% between 2010 and 2020, when Johnson made this claim.
“There will be no border down the Irish Sea – over my dead body”.
Johnson lied about the Northern Ireland Protocol from day one, telling “ a room full of Northern Irish business leaders, “There will be no checks on goods going from GB to NI, or NI to GB” and claiming that if they were ever handed paperwork to fill in they could throw it in the bin. Yet the Treasury’s own damage assessment of the protocol was already spelling out in complete detail the very checks and tests that Boris Johnson had signed up to.
His government then spent a small fortune building the facilities at Belfast and Larne to check those non-existent forms and introduced numerous other checks at the borders. Johnson now professes himself so shocked by these barriers to trade that he wants to tear up the “oven-ready” deal he signed, breaking international law and quite possibly starting a trade war with the EU. To justify this he is also lying about the alleged “damage” the NIP is doing to the Northern Irish economy, and also about the legality of his new Northern Ireland Protocol Bill.
There are “more people in work than before the pandemic”
A claim made by Johnson in parliament on nine occasions, but untrue each time. The true figure is around 500,000 lower.
Staying in the European Medicines Agency “would have made (the Covid vaccine) roll-out impossible”
The UK was first off the mark to get a vaccine programme started, but that had nothing to do with leaving the EU or its Medical Agency, as Johnson has repeatedly claimed. The UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), which approved the vaccine, has confirmed that even if Britain was still in the EU, a Covid-19 vaccine would have been able to be approved by the UK regulator alone.
“This Government are building a record number of hospitals – a total of 48 – across the country”
Claimed at various points in his premiership and likely to be rehashed as he says farewell, it’s a cynical lie. Only a handful of the 48 are actually completely new hospitals. Six are being upgraded by 2025 and up to 38 others have received money to plan for building work, but not the funds to actually do it.
“I am sure that whatever happened, the guidance was followed and the rules were followed at all times”.
This is the lie that helped bring Johnson down. As we now know, 126 fines were issued to 83 individuals for breaking Covid rules in Downing Street, including to the prime minister himself. Yet ultimately it was his habit of consistently sending ministers out to lie on his behalf and them then being caught in those lies that turned his party against him.
Johnson has broken the “decent man” convention of British politics – the idea that we did not need checks and balances because our decent politicians would never dare do what he has done and lie through their teeth, again and again and again.
The problem is that you cannot put the genie back in its bottle. Johnson has proved that lying wins elections and large majorities. His successor has no more incentive than he did to tell the truth.
In fact, she may have even less. Telling the truth now would mean having to admit that Brexit was won in lies, that Northern Ireland was betrayed by lies, that the economy is worse off, that social care and the NHS are collapsing before our eyes.
Why do that when you can just lie again? After all, Boris Johnson got away with it for a very long time.
*
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***
The Pentagon signed a contract with Boeing on Thursday to supply Israel with four KC-46 refueling planes that are needed for potential Israeli strikes on Iran, although the aircraft won’t be delivered until at least 2025.
The deal is worth $927 million, and Israel is purchasing the planes from Boeing with money from the $3.8 billion in military aid it receives from the US each year. Of that amount, Israel receives $3.3 billion in Foreign Military Financing, a State Department program that gives foreign governments money to purchase US-made military equipment.
Israel has the option to order four more KC-46s in the future. The deal has been in the works for a long time, and Israel has previously asked the US if it could accelerate the delivery of the planes, but the US has denied the request. The US military would need to give up its spot in line to receive KC-46s in order for Israel to receive the planes earlier.
Israel currently relies on aging tankers for mid-air refueling, which aren’t expected to be capable of supporting attacks on Iran. According to the Times of Israel, Israeli jets would need to travel about 1,200 miles to strike targets in Iran, which would require either the KC-46s or stopping in a Gulf country to refuel.
Over the past year, Israel’s military has been focused on making preparations to bomb Iran. Israeli warplanes recently simulated launching large-scale attacks on Iran over the Mediterranean Sea.
The signing of the contract comes as the US and Iran are engaged in EU-mediated negotiations to revive the Iran nuclear deal, which Israel is strongly against. Israeli officials have stepped up their efforts to sabotage the agreement and are calling for the US to prepare a military option.
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Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.
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***
The New York Times reported this morning that the pandemic reversed 20 years of progress in reading and math among elementary school students in the United States. Commentators emphasized the dire effect this would have on life prospects for these children and, by implication, the American economy at an especially challenging moment in its history.
These are easy to imagine. The structure of the labor market increasingly demands greater computational and literacy skills; upward financial and social mobility hinges on successful navigation of this market. And administrative states, such as the U.S., require these skills in the labor force for effective governance, let alone national defense. So, the impact of the pandemic on education and therefore on the nation’s future will be profound.
This awful news should help Americans better understand the effects of violent conflict and economic sanctions on countries around the world. Their populations have been battered by the equivalent of terrible pandemics every year. When we observe political instability, a shattered middle class, high poverty rates, and poor economic performance in say, Iraq, it is easy to blame these conditions on intrinsic social defects.
While cultural factors might play a role, they are difficult to define and nearly impossible to measure. Other, secular factors, especially the destruction of educational systems and psychological and nutritional effects on children who grow up to participate and shape their countries’ lives can be observed and quantified.
As we in the United States cope with the longer-term effects of a single pandemic on American children, we should think about the consequences for war torn and sanctioned societies of educational deprivation for, among other things, political stability. The costs of conflict and message sending via damage to the minds and bodies of children can be extremely high.
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Featured image: Children who fled the escalating violence in the southern part of Iraq share a small house with relatives in Turaq. 04/07/2011. Erbil, Iraq. UN Photo/Bikem/Flickr
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***
First published by Global Research on August 11, 2022
***
Ordinary people in the West reading and listening to the mainstream media have been presented with a series of narratives regarding the war in Ukraine. These are the key points upheld by the media:
Apparently, Russia has been losing its war in Ukraine since the first days of the conflict. The evidence to support this is the fact that Russia apparently failed to conquer Kiev and other northern cities in the first few weeks of the conflict.
During its failed attempt to conquer these cities, Russian troops have committed numerous war crimes due to the artillery and missile attacks that they have launched on civilian infrastructure and residential areas.
To compound matters, Russia’s armed forces have suffered staggering losses, high desertion rates and its generals are a set of bungling fools who could not organise a booze up in a brewery.
Apparently, it is only a matter of time before the evil Russian hordes are pushed back across the border with their tails between their legs due to a combination of Ukrainian bravery and Western weaponry.
The picture that has been presented of the war in Ukraine is completely at odds with the reality of the situation on the ground. Surprisingly, information that supports this assertion, which totally undermines the Western media narratives regarding the war, is provided by an article in the August edition of the United States Marine Corps Gazette.
Writing under under the pen name Marinus, a senior marine corps officer, provides an objective analysis of Russian military strategy since late February. It totally undermines the narratives provided by Western media and pro-Washington politicians.
Marinus observes how Russia has pursued three distinct military campaigns since the beginning of the war in late February 2022. In the north fast moving Russian troops never attempted to capture cities such Kiev or Kharkov, they never made any attempt to convert temporary occupation into permanent possession. Their whole purpose was to act as a ‘grand deception’ which led the Kiev government to divert large forces from its main field army in the Donbass. This gave the Russian army the time to deploy its artillery units in large numbers into the Donbass, secure transport networks and accumulate large quantities of ammunition for the long campaign ahead.
In the southern campaign Russian armed forces ‘took immediate possession of comparable cities’. This was accompanied by a thoroughgoing political transformation whereby Russian civil servants took control of local government and Ukrainian banks and cell phone providers were replaced with Russian ones. Alongside this, Russian forces conducted raids in the vicinity of the city of Mikolaiv. These raids as in the ones around the northern cities forced the Ukrainian military to send forces to defend Mikolaiv and Odessa that otherwise could have been sent to the main theatre of operations in the Donbass.
Marinus emphasised how these Russian raids in both the north and south of Ukraine avoided heavy bombardments of civilian areas which directly contradicts the propaganda of the Western media about Russian attacks on civilian areas. He notes that this attempt to avoid bombardments of civilians areas in the north ‘stemmed from a desire to avoid antagonizing the local people’ who supported the Kiev government. Marinus states that in the south Russian forces attempted to preserving the lives and property of communities who identified as ‘’Russian’’.
He observes how the Russian use of guided missile strikes ‘created a number of moral effects favourable to the Russian war effort’. Marinus emphasises how Russian guided missile strikes went out of their way to avoid collateral damage i.e. civilian casualties by their judicious use of military targets and the precision of the missiles. He does note that occasionally Russia strikes on ‘dual use facilities’ such as the main TV tower in Kiev did undermine the ‘advantages achieved by the overall Russian policy of limiting missile strikes to obvious military targets’.
In the east of Ukraine in the Donbass region Russian forces conducted bombardments ‘that, in terms of both duration and intensity, rivalled those of the great artillery contests of the world wars of the twentieth century’. Made possible by short supply lines these heavy bombardments in the Donbass served three purposes. Firstly, they pinned down Ukrainian infantry in their fortifications. Secondly, they inflicted a large number of casualties both physical and psychological. The psychological effect has led many Ukrainian units either to retreat and abandon their positions or refuse orders to attack. Thirdly, when conducted for a sufficient period of time these bombardments have forced defenders to with draw from their trecnhes or surrender.
Marinus compares the scale of the Russian bombardment in the Donbass by comparing the struggle for the town of Popasna (18 March to 7 May 2022) to battle of Iwo Jima (19 February to 26 March 1945). At Iwo Jima US marines fought a ferocious battle to capture eight square miles of fortified ground. In Popasna Russian gunners bombarded the Ukrainian infantry in their trenches for eight weeks before they withdrew after suffering heavy casualties.
Russia’s offensive operations in the east of Ukraine have been criticised by many, both pro Ukrainian and pro Russian as slow and ponderous. Marinus contrasts Russian operations in the Donbass with the war on the Eastern Front during World War 2 where both German and Russian forces made extensive use of cauldrons where enemy forces were encircled and then destroyed or forced to surrender. He observes that:
“Freedom from the desire to create cauldrons as quickly as possible relieved the Russians fighting in Eastern Ukraine from the need to hold any particular piece of ground. Thus, when faced with a determined Ukrainian attack, the Russian often withdrew their tank and infantry units from the contested terrain. In this way, they both reduced danger to their own troops and created situations, however brief, in which the Ukrainian attackers faced Russian shells and rockets without the benefit of shelter.’’
This point also counters all the triumphant Western propaganda which proclaims major defeats for Russia when Ukraine forces win minor tactical victories and Russia withdraws troops from a position. The Russian withdrawal from Snake Island being a good case in point.
In the final section of his article Marinus emphasis the stark contrast between the different types of warfare waged by Russian forces in different parts of Ukraine. They all formed part of an overall grand strategy whose primary goal was to destroy Ukrainian forces in the Donbass and free the Peoples Republics of Donetsk and Lugansk from Kiev’s control.
Russia’s three key objectives of the ‘special military operation’ the protection of the DPR/LPR, denazification’ and ‘demilitarization’ of Ukraine required ‘the infliction of heavy loses on Ukrainian formations fighting in the Donbass’. Marinus is at pains to point out that none of these key objectives required Russian forces to occupy parts of Ukraine where the majority of the population identified as Ukrainian and supported the Kiev government. Again, this is a point lost on the so called military analysts of the Western media. However, in the south of Ukraine the Russian campaign served direct political aims which were to incorporate territories inhabited by large numbers of ethnic Russians into the ‘’Russian world’’.
In conclusion this senior marine officer declares that Russia’s military campaign owes much to traditional Soviet models of warfare. However, he goes on to express his admiration for the unique nature of the current military campaign being fought by Russian forces in Ukraine:
“At the same time, the programme of missile strikes exploited a capability that was nothing short of revolutionary. Whether new or old, however, these component efforts were conducted in such a way that demonstrated profound appreciation of all three realms in which wars are waged. That is, the Russians rarely forgot that, in addition to being a physical struggle, war is both a mental contest and a moral argument.’’
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Dr. Leon Tressell is a regular contributor to Global Research.
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The American colonies have not stopped criticising the Hungarians for their rational approach to the war in Ukraine and yet another reason for an anti-Magyar hate campaign appears. As a predictable country, not adventurous and going on about own business, Hungary becomes leading European centre of cooperation with China.
China’s necessity for Europe
Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd (CATL), China’s largest producer of electric car batteries recently announced that it will locate its main European plant in Hungary. The investment value is estimated at EUR 7.34 billion, but its importance is primarily strategic. China is a leader in renewable energy technologies (RE), thanks to its dominant position on the rare earth elements (REE) market and the largest share in the production of components for i.a. advanced magnetic wind turbines and car batteries.
One can notice the importance of REE: examples of the embargo imposed by China on REE export to Japan in 2010, the Sino-American conflicts caused by subsidising solar panels production in 2012/2013, dispute about subsidies for the wind turbines producers, and previous controversies about customs tariffs for REE within China-USA and China-EU trade relations.
There is also the threat of supply shocks of REE used in the production of hybrid electric vehicles and some types of wind turbines, caused by assumed increase in demand on neodymium (forecasted 7% increase) and dysprosium (even 2600% increase!) in the next 25 years. Demand for lithium used in battery cells is expected to grow at 674% by 2030.
This makes Beijing an absolutely indispensable partner for energy transformation in the Western Europe, covered by the ‘Climate Change’ pretext. The pandemic turmoil, as well as the recent anxiety caused by the Taiwanese crisis, make European-Chinese relations extremely fragile. Another slowdown or disruption of the global supply chain would not only blow up the entire Western energy transition but would also hit the consumer model of capitalism at the time when nations are not yet ready to reject it immediately.
In this context, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), as well as direct Chinese investments on the European side of Eurasia, constitute a potential emergency solution and Beijing’s indication of future regional centres of power. And Budapest wants to take advantage of it.
Realism favours investments
Hungarians were the first in Europe to sign a memorandum of understanding with the Chinese on joint ventures within the RDI. As a result, only in 2021 bilateral trade increased by 34.5%. China has become Hungary’s third in general and largest non-EU trade partner. In May 2021 was commissioned Hungary’s largest 100 MW solar power plant, CMC Kaposvar Solar PV Park, built by China National Machinery Import & Export. In June 2022, the first European factory of the LENOVO concern was opened in Budapest, hiring over 1,000 local employees.
As it is typical for the Chinese politics, these are calm, even slow and non-ostentatious operations, but clearly determined to increase own presence and soft influence. Another example is growing flow of Chinese students sent to Hungary. Of course, 2,700 of them on the Hungarian universities that is still not a number much compared to the crowds studying in developed countries of the West, but it clearly indicates the leader of Chinese interest in Central Europe. The Hungarians themselves also see the partnership with Beijing as promising, and despite attempts to shake the mood during the COVID (“Chinese pandemic”) period, 51 percent of respondents are optimistic about Chinese activity in their country.
Globalists and Imperialists
Of course, Hungarian profits achieved thanks to good relations with China constitute “annoyance” for:
the liberal-globalist, precisely or not, but personified by Hungarians in George Soros,
and the Anglo-Saxon military-industrial complex, aimed at eliminating the Chinese threat even with a global war.
So, from the one side there are standard voices of condemnation that Budapest hesitates “numerous violations of human rights in China, while the Americans keep pointing out the Hungarian “Trojan horse”, still in hope that it is possible to discipline Victor Orbán.
“The United States should not shy away from pushing the EU and key member states (especially Germany, which is Hungary’s most important trading partner) to impose greater pressure on Orbán, including the potential use of sanction mechanisms against officials and businessmen engaged in local corruption schemes involving China. Brussels should consider applying the EU’s rule of law conditionality regime”.
Washington officially recognises that Chinese progress in Europe is not yet very dangerous and the Sino-Hungarian relations are not overwhelming in absolute numbers, but at the same time they urge that this is the best or even the very last moment to blackmail the Hungarian prime minister.
Budapest would be faced with a threat of complete cut-off from European financing in case of further cooperation with Beijing. Well, typical friendly manner within Euro-Atlantic, ‘democratic and liberal alliances’…
The New Global Game of Thrones and how to earn on it
Then, the most important question for Eastern Europe is whether Western European funds and Anglo-Saxon diplomatic-military supervision could be replaced by Chinese loans and direct investments, like in Africa and South America.
That is also the Globalists’ and Atlantists’ most horrifying nightmare. Russia’s attractiveness for Europe is limited to its position of energy supplier what should be dealt with by the Western ‘Climatestrategy’. However, China, with its capital surplus and dominant industrial position, is a viable alternative to the financial capitalism New World Order. The competition of global centres will therefore accelerate and the wise, even small ones, will be able to earn on it.
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Konrad Rękas is a renowned geopolitical analyst and a regular contributor to Global Research.
Featured image: China’s rare earths (Source: asiafinancial.com)
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They told you they needed just three weeks to flatten the curve.
They lied.
They told you if you stayed at home that it would protect the Health Service.
Now they’re trying to tell you that the Covid-19 vaccines lose effectiveness over time and that you need repeat booster shots.
But they are lying yet again. The Covid-19 vaccines do not lose effectiveness. Instead, we are witnessing the degradation of the immune system of most people who have had more than one dose of the Covid-19 injection. In other words, the Covid-19 injections cause a new form of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. and we can prove it…
To fathom how one could possibly come to the conclusion that the Covid-19 vaccines severely damage the natural immune system and effectively cause Acquired Immunodeficiency syndrome, one needs to understand why it is that official government data shows the vaccinated population are more likely to be infected than the unvaccinated population.
One also needs to understand that once authorities realised the data showed things were getting worse for the vaccinated population by the week, they suspiciously and conveniently decided it was in the public interest to stop publishing the data altogether.
The following table has been stitched together from the case-rate tables found in the Week 3, Week 7 and Week 13 UK Health Security Agency Vaccine Surveillance Reports –
The following chart has been created using the figures contained in the above table –
The above shows a rapid improvement in case rates among the unvaccinated population in every single age group over three months, and a frightening rise in case rates per 100,000 among triple vaccinated individuals in every single age group over a period of three months.
In fact, the difference between the two groups was so significant that by week 12 of 2022, real-world vaccine effectiveness was proving to be as low as minus-391% among 60 to 69-year-olds. This had fallen from an already concerning effectiveness of minus-104.7% among the same age group by week 2 of 2022.
Pfizer’s Formula: Unvaccinated Case Rate – Vaccinated Case Rate / Unvaccinated Case Rate x 100 = Vaccine Effectiveness
But let us be absolutely clear. Despite a mass media campaign to have you believe getting a booster is essential to “top up your immunity” due to declining effectiveness, it is actually impossible for vaccine effectiveness to wane when it comes to the Covid-19 injections.
The Covid-19 vaccine is supposed to work by injecting mRNA into your body, which then invades your cells and instructs them to make the spike protein found on the alleged SARS-CoV-2 virus. Once your body has produced millions of spike proteins, your immune system is supposed to get to work, rid the body of the spike proteins, and then remember to release those same antibodies if you ever encounter the actual alleged SARS-CoV-2 virus.
So, when the authorities state that the effectiveness of the vaccines weaken over time, what they really mean is that the performance of your immune system weakens over time.
The problem we are seeing in the real world data is that the immune system isn’t returning to the natural state seen among most of the unvaccinated population. If it was we would be seeing vaccine effectiveness close to 0%, not a shocking minus-391%.
The week 13 UKHSA Vaccine Surveillance report was the final report published containing data on Covid-19 cases, hospitalisations and deaths by vaccination status. UKHSA claimed this was because the UK Government had decided to put an end to free mass Covid-19 testing from April 1st.
But we imagine it was actually because of the horrific case-rate figures among triple vaccinated and the horrific hospitalisation and death rate figures among the fully vaccinated.
The following chart shows the Covid-19 hospitalisation rate per 100,000 individuals by vaccination status between 28th Feb and 27th March 22. The unvaccinated case rate has been taken from page 45 of the UKHSA Vaccine Surveillance Report – Week 13 – 2022, and the double vaccinated case rate has been calculated with the number of hospitalisations provided on page 41 of the same report –
The rates per 100,000 were highest among the fully vaccinated in every age group except for the 18-29-year-olds. This data proved that all double vaccinated people aged 30 and over were more likely to be hospitalised with Covid-19 than unvaccinated people.
The following chart shows the Covid-19 death rate per 100,000 individuals by vaccination status between 28th Feb and 27th March 22. The unvaccinated case rate has been taken from page 45 of the UKHSA Vaccine Surveillance Report – Week 13 – 2022, and the double vaccinated case rate has been calculated with the number of deaths provided on page 44 of the same report –
The death-rate per 100,000 was highest among the fully vaccinated in all age groups excluding the 30-39 year olds where the death rate was the same as the unvaccinated, and the 18-29-year-olds where the death rate was lower. This data proved that all double vaccinated people aged 40 and over were more likely to die of Covid-19 than unvaccinated people.
Fast forward to the end of May though, and we can actually see that mortality rates per 100,000 are lowest among the unvaccinated in every single age group courtesy of data published by the UK’s Office for National Statistics which can be viewed here.
The following chart shows the monthly age-standardised mortality rates by vaccination status among each age group for Non-Covid-19 deaths in England between January and May 2022, the figures can be found in table 2 of the recently published dataset –
These are age-standardised figures. There is no other conclusion that can be found for the fact mortality rates per 100,000 are the lowest among the unvaccinated other than that the Covid-19 injections are killing people, and this is because they are causing recipients to develop Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome.
But whilst the evidence points to severe immune system degradation and a new form of Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, it still doesn’t answer the exact process that is causing this to happen.
One potential scenario could be as follows.
Messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) is a single-stranded molecule of RNA that corresponds to the genetic sequence of a gene, and is read by a ribosome in the process of synthesizing a protein.
Covid-19 injections contain mRNA that invades the body’s cells and instructor them to create the spike protein of the alleged SARS-CoV-2 virus. Millions of these spike proteins are then released from cells and the immune system allegedly recognises it as a virus/foreign body and believes the body is under attack.
It then fights the spike protein, creating antibodies to “kill” it and remembers to do so if it encounters the spike protein/SARS-CoV-2 virus again.
But what if the process never ends? What if the mRNA that has been injected into the body constantly invades cells and instructs them to create millions of spike proteins?
Authorities claimed that the Covid-19 vaccine remains at the injection site. But they lied, and the science proves otherwise.
The problem with the study is that after 48 hours they stopped observing the accumulation. So how does anybody know if that accumulation reverses? How do they know it doesn’t go on for months or even years? Until they can prove otherwise they are only guessing.
If the mRNA that has been injected into the body constantly invades cells and instructs them to create millions of spike proteins over a long period of time then this is one more constant thing that the immune system has to do. But then they tell you to get a booster jab, and then a fourth dose. Now the body is constantly creating millions more spike proteins and working the immune system even harder.
Whilst the body is busy battling millions of spike proteins, it’s unable to fight off other opportunist infections or cancer cells. This is similar to what occurs with HIV. HIV infects and destroys immune system cells, making it hard to fight off other diseases.
When HIV has severely weakened the immune system it can lead to Acquired Immunedeficiency Syndrome. But it isn’t the HIV virus that kills people infected with it, it is the opportunistic infections and cancers that the immune system can no longer fight off.
So this theory would make perfect sense as to why official Government data shows the triple vaccinated are more likely to be infected with Covid-19 and transmit Covid-19 than the unvaccinated.
It would make perfect sense as to why the fully vaccinated are more likely to be hospitalised and die of Covid-19 than the unvaccinated.
And it would make perfect sense as to why age-standardised mortality rates per 100,000 are lowest among the unvaccinated in all age groups.
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“Americans deserve the freedom to choose a life without surveillance and the government regulation that would make that possible. While we continue to believe the sentiment, we fear it may soon be obsolete or irrelevant. We deserve that freedom, but the window to achieve it narrows a little more each day. If we don’t act now, with great urgency, it may very well close for good.”—Charlie Warzel and Stuart A. Thompson, New York Times
First published on March 17, 2021
Databit by databit, we are building our own electronic concentration camps.
With every new smart piece of smart technology we acquire, every new app we download, every new photo or post we share online, we are making it that much easier for the government and its corporate partners to identify, track and eventually round us up.
Saint or sinner, it doesn’t matter because we’re all being swept up into a massive digital data dragnet that does not distinguish between those who are innocent of wrongdoing, suspects, or criminals.
This is what it means to live in a suspect society.
The government’s efforts to round up those who took part in the Capitol riots shows exactly how vulnerable we all are to the menace of a surveillance state that aspires to a God-like awareness of our lives.
Relying on selfies, social media posts, location data, geotagged photos, facial recognition, surveillance cameras and crowdsourcing, government agents are compiling a massive data trove on anyone and everyone who may have been anywhere in the vicinity of the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
The amount of digital information is staggering: 15,000 hours of surveillance and body-worn camera footage; 1,600 electronic devices; 270,000 digital media tips; at least 140,000 photos and videos; and about 100,000 location pings for thousands of smartphones.
And that’s just what we know.
More than 300 individuals from 40 states have already been charged and another 280 arrested in connection with the events of January 6. As many as 500 others are still being hunted by government agents.
Also included in this data roundup are individuals who may have had nothing to do with the riots but whose cell phone location data identified them as being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Forget about being innocent until proven guilty.
In a suspect society such as ours, the burden of proof has been flipped: now, you start off guilty and have to prove your innocence.
For instance, you didn’t even have to be involved in the Capitol riots to qualify for a visit from the FBI: investigators have reportedly been tracking—and questioning—anyone whose cell phones connected to wi-fi or pinged cell phone towers near the Capitol. One man, who had gone out for a walk with his daughters only to end up stranded near the Capitol crowds, actually had FBI agents show up at his door days later. Using Google Maps, agents were able to pinpoint exactly where they were standing and for how long.
All of the many creepy, calculating, invasive investigative and surveillance tools the government has acquired over the years are on full display right now in the FBI’s ongoing efforts to bring the rioters to “justice.”
FBI agents are matching photos with drivers’ license pictures; tracking movements by way of license plate toll readers; and zooming in on physical identifying marks such as moles, scars and tattoos, as well as brands, logos and symbols on clothing and backpacks. They’re poring over hours of security and body camera footage; scouring social media posts; triangulating data from cellphone towers and WiFi signals; layering facial recognition software on top of that; and then cross-referencing footage with public social media posts.
It’s not just the FBI on the hunt, however.
They’ve enlisted the help of volunteer posses of private citizens, such as Deep State Dogs, to collaborate on the grunt work. As Dinah Voyles Pulver reports, once Deep State Dogs locates a person and confirms their identity, they put a package together with the person’s name, address, phone number and several images and send it to the FBI.
According to USA Today, the FBI is relying on the American public and volunteer cybersleuths to help bolster its cases.
This takes See Something, Say Something snitching programs to a whole new level.
The lesson to be learned: Big Brother, Big Sister and all of their friends are watching you.
They see your every move: what you read, how much you spend, where you go, with whom you interact, when you wake up in the morning, what you’re watching on television and reading on the internet.
Every move you make is being monitored, mined for data, crunched, and tabulated in order to form a picture of who you are, what makes you tick, and how best to control you when and if it becomes necessary to bring you in line.
Simply liking or sharing this article on Facebook, retweeting it on Twitter, or merely reading it or any other articles related to government wrongdoing, surveillance, police misconduct or civil liberties might be enough to get you categorized as a particular kind of person with particular kinds of interests that reflect a particular kind of mindset that might just lead you to engage in a particular kinds of activities and, therefore, puts you in the crosshairs of a government investigation as a potential troublemaker a.k.a. domestic extremist.
Chances are, as the Washington Post reports, you have already been assigned a color-coded threat score—green, yellow or red—so police are forewarned about your potential inclination to be a troublemaker depending on whether you’ve had a career in the military, posted a comment perceived as threatening on Facebook, suffer from a particular medical condition, or know someone who knows someone who might have committed a crime.
In other words, you might already be flagged as potentially anti-government in a government database somewhere—Main Core, for example—that identifies and tracks individuals who aren’t inclined to march in lockstep to the police state’s dictates.
The government has the know-how.
It took days, if not hours or minutes, for the FBI to begin the process of identifying, tracking and rounding up those suspected of being part of the Capitol riots.
Imagine how quickly government agents could target and round up any segment of society they wanted to based on the digital trails and digital footprints we leave behind.
Of course, the government has been hard at work for years acquiring these totalitarian powers.
Long before the January 6 riots, the FBI was busily amassing the surveillance tools necessary to monitor social media posts, track and identify individuals using cell phone signals and facial recognition technology, and round up “suspects” who may be of interest to the government for one reason or another.
As The Interceptreported, the FBI, CIA, NSA and other government agencies have increasingly invested in corporate surveillance technologies that can mine constitutionally protected speech on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in order to identify potential extremists and predict who might engage in future acts of anti-government behavior.
When the government sees all and knows all and has an abundance of laws to render even the most seemingly upstanding citizen a criminal and lawbreaker, then the old adage that you’ve got nothing to worry about if you’ve got nothing to hide no longer applies.
As for the Fourth Amendment and its prohibitions on warrantless searches and invasions of privacy without probable cause, those safeguards have been rendered all but useless by legislative end-runs, judicial justifications, and corporate collusions.
We now find ourselves in the unenviable position of being monitored, managed and controlled by our technology, which answers not to us but to our government and corporate rulers.
Consider that on any given day, the average American going about his daily business will be monitored, surveilled, spied on and tracked in more than 20 different ways, by both government and corporate eyes and ears. A byproduct of this new age in which we live, whether you’re walking through a store, driving your car, checking email, or talking to friends and family on the phone, you can be sure that some government agency, whether the NSA or some other entity, is listening in and tracking your behavior.
This doesn’t even begin to touch on the corporate trackers that monitor your purchases, web browsing, social media posts and other activities taking place in the cyber sphere.
For example, police have been using Stingray devices mounted on their cruisers to intercept cell phone calls and text messages without court-issued search warrants. Doppler radar devices, which can detect human breathing and movement within a home, are already being employed by the police to deliver arrest warrants.
License plate readers, yet another law enforcement spying device made possible through funding by the Department of Homeland Security, can record up to 1800 license plates per minute. Moreover, these surveillance cameras can also photograph those inside a moving car. Reports indicate that the Drug Enforcement Administration has been using the cameras in conjunction with facial recognition software to build a “vehicle surveillance database” of the nation’s cars, drivers and passengers.
Sidewalk and “public space” cameras, sold to gullible communities as a sure-fire means of fighting crime, is yet another DHS program that is blanketing small and large towns alike with government-funded and monitored surveillance cameras. It’s all part of a public-private partnership that gives government officials access to all manner of surveillance cameras, on sidewalks, on buildings, on buses, even those installed on private property.
Couple these surveillance cameras with facial recognition and behavior-sensing technology and you have the makings of “pre-crime” cameras, which scan your mannerisms, compare you to pre-set parameters for “normal” behavior, and alert the police if you trigger any computerized alarms as being “suspicious.”
State and federal law enforcement agencies are pushing to expand their biometric and DNA databases by requiring that anyone accused of a misdemeanor have their DNA collected and catalogued. However, technology is already available that allows the government to collect biometrics such as fingerprints from a distance, without a person’s cooperation or knowledge. One system can actually scan and identify a fingerprint from nearly 20 feet away.
Developers are hard at work on a radar gun that can actually show if you or someone in your car is texting. Another technology being developed, dubbed a “textalyzer” device, would allow police to determine whether someone was driving while distracted. Refusing to submit one’s phone to testing could result in a suspended or revoked driver’s license.
It’s a sure bet that anything the government welcomes (and funds) too enthusiastically is bound to be a Trojan horse full of nasty, invasive surprises.
Case in point: police body cameras. Hailed as the easy fix solution to police abuses, these body cameras—made possible by funding from the Department of Justice—turn police officers into roving surveillance cameras. Of course, if you try to request access to that footage, you’ll find yourself being led a merry and costly chase through miles of red tape, bureaucratic footmen and unhelpful courts.
The “internet of things” refers to the growing number of “smart” appliances and electronic devices now connected to the internet and capable of interacting with each other and being controlled remotely. These range from thermostats and coffee makers to cars and TVs. Of course, there’s a price to pay for such easy control and access. That price amounts to relinquishing ultimate control of and access to your home to the government and its corporate partners. For example, while Samsung’s Smart TVs are capable of “listening” to what you say, thereby allowing users to control the TV using voice commands, it also records everything you say and relays it to a third party, e.g., the government.
Drones, which are taking to the skies en masse, are the converging point for all of the weapons and technology already available to law enforcement agencies. In fact, drones can listen in on your phone calls, see through the walls of your home, scan your biometrics, photograph you and track your movements, and even corral you with sophisticated weaponry.
All of these technologies add up to a society in which there’s little room for indiscretions, imperfections, or acts of independence, especially not when the government can listen in on your phone calls, monitor your driving habits, track your movements, scrutinize your purchases and peer through the walls of your home.
“To think that the information will be used against individuals only if they’ve broken the law is naïve; such data is collected and remains vulnerable to use and abuse whether people gather in support of an insurrection or they justly protest police violence… This collection will only grow more sophisticated… It gets easier by the day… it does not discriminate. It harvests from the phones of MAGA rioters, police officers, lawmakers and passers-by. There is no evidence, from the past or current day, that the power this data collection offers will be used only to good ends. There is no evidence that if we allow it to continue to happen, the country will be safer or fairer.”
As I point out in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, this is the creepy, calculating yet diabolical genius of the American police state: the very technology we hailed as revolutionary and liberating has become our prison, jailer, probation officer, Big Brother and Father Knows Best all rolled into one.
There is no gray area any longer.
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With historical insight this article by Andrew Korybko was first published on June 12 2018.
The US military rechristened its Pacific Command to the Indo-Pacific Command as a means of strongly signaling its growing interest in India and its eponymous ocean.
The importance of this development shouldn’t be underestimated because it sets the strategic basis for the US’ 21st-century policy of “containing China”. The People’s Republic depends just as much on the Indian Ocean as it does the Pacific because of the role that this body of water plays in facilitating commerce with Europe & Africa and the energy trade with the Mideast, hence why it’s pivotal for the US to prioritize military operations in this ocean and its surrounding Rimland. To that end, America has entered into a game-changing military-strategic relationship with India through the 2016 LEMOA logistics agreement that allows both Great Powers to use one another’s facilities as part of what former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson described late last year as their planned partnership for entire 21st century.
The US envisions India becoming a bulwark against China and functioning as Washington’s premier “Lead From Behind” partner in “containing” it, though it recognizes that it probably can’t sustain this role for too long unless it receives multilateral support, ergo the so-called “Quad” that also involves Japan and Australia and could unofficially be called the “Hex” through Vietnam and France’s participation as well. India’s LEMOA-like deal with France to also use its Indian Ocean military facilities gives New Delhi the potential to massively expand its strategic reach in the region and fulfill its US-backed geopolitical destiny, which just received a strong strategic boost last week after Prime Minister Modi clinched an agreement to develop a base in Indonesia’s Sabang island right near the mouth of the Strait of Malacca.
A new American-encouraged Great Power constellation is therefore in the process of forming all across the Indo-Pacific Rimland in seeing India, Indonesia, and Japan deepening their multilateral strategic integration with one another, with Washington desiring for New Delhi to play the role of regional hegemon in the Indian Ocean, Tokyo to do so in the Pacific, and Jakarta to bridge the two together in the Southeast Asian archipelago connecting both of their bodies of water. Seeing as how half of this grand strategy geographically involves the Indian Ocean, it’s therefore appropriate that the erstwhile Pacific Command updated its name to the Indo-Pacific Command to better reflect the bulk of its future efforts.
The next step that could be expected would for the US to organize a so-called “Eighth Fleet” in the Indian Ocean region in order to more effectively concentrate its strategic focus in this part of the world. The Japanese-based Seventh Fleet covers the same area of maritime operations as the Indo-Pacific Command does, which includes the half of the Indian Ocean south and east of its namesake country, so it would make sense to “decentralize” operations by setting up a separate regional branch that’s actually based in this body of water. Although the Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet would probably still remain responsible for activities around the Arabian Peninsula, the Italian-based Sixth Fleet wouldn’t have to take care of East Africa like it already does because everything east of the Cape of Good Hope would prospectively fall under the Eighth Fleet’s area of responsibility.
So as not to be misunderstood, there presently aren’t any serious plans to create an Eighth Fleet, but it’s logical that this might eventually follow the rechristening of the Pacific Command as the Indo-Pacific Command, and naturally have an Indian Ocean base of operations either in Diego Garcia or somewhere on the South Asian mainland in order to more effectively “contain” China.
Andrew Korybko is an American Moscow-based political analyst specializing in the relationship between the US strategy in Afro-Eurasia, China’s One Belt One Road global vision of New Silk Road connectivity, and Hybrid Warfare. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.
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First published by Global Research on December 13, 2021
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I studied medicine at the University of Zurich, obtained a doctorate in immunology and virology, specialized in internal medicine and cardiology and have 33 years of experience in diagnosis and therapy of acute respiratory infections, in hospitals, in intensive care units and, for 23 years, in my medical practice.
In February 2020, I sat in my practice and was amazed. What I had learned in medical school, during my scientific training and in my practical medical work was suddenly turned upside down. Anyone who felt even a sore throat, no longer treated himself, to visit his or her GP only if the symptoms got worse, but ran to the nearest hospital with the request to be tested immediately, and with the fear of perhaps having to die, and not only having to die, but perhaps of having to suffocate miserably.
Worldwide, the prevailing corona narrative was established in a very short period. At the same time, humanity was divided into its supporters and opponents.
Such an extent of division of the society we have never experienced before. It divides friendships, families, and even partnerships. Such a division is always an expression of the fact that a large partof humanity is not living in reality, but is caught up in a context of delusion imposed by a handful of psychopaths and their many narcissistic lackeys. In such a situation, we must always ask ourselves first: “Am I a realist, or in fact a totally deluded one?” This question can only be answered by looking at reality as soberly as possible.
It is my duty as a doctor to treat my patients to the best of my knowledge. This includes to inform them about their disease in a way that laypeople can understand and make informed decisions about what to do.
In February / March 2020 I realised that it is my duty as a doctor to educate the public about this disease of the whole society, in a way that laypeople can understand and make informed decisions about what to do. I am still doing this, no more but also no less, and nobody and nothing will stop me from continuing to do so.
I confront the myths and intellectual absurdities of the prevailing corona narrative with the scientific evidence. I do this chronologically, and so that also laypeople can understand and make informed decisions as to what further actions seem appropriate, for themselves and for their loved ones.
Scientific references to my statements can be found on the homepages of ‘Aletheia – ourSwiss network of doctors and scientists for proportionality’, of the ‘Corman-Drosten Review Report’, and of ‘Doctors for Covid Ethics’, all of which I am a member, and on my simple homepage, which I had created after having been banned from social media.
Dr. Herndon, internist at a medical centre in the U.S. state of New Hampshire, coughs seemingly incessantly for a fortnight starting in mid-April 2006. Soon, an infectious disease specialist has the disturbing idea that this could be the beginning of a pertussis epidemic. By the end of April, other hospital staff are also coughing. Severe, persistent coughing is a leading symptom of whooping cough. And if it is whooping cough, the outbreak must be contained immediately because the disease can be fatal for babies in the hospital and lead to dangerous pneumonia in frail elderly patients.
It is the Start of a Bizarre Episode: the Story of an Epidemic that wasn’t.
For months, almost everyone involved believes there is a huge whooping cough outbreak at the medical centre with far-reaching consequences. Nearly 1,000 staff members are given a quick PCR test and put on leave from work until the results are in; 142 people, 14.2% of those tested, including Dr. Herndon, are positive on the quick PCR test and diagnosed with pertussis. Thousands, including many children, receive antibiotics and a vaccine as protection. Hospital beds are taken out of service as a precaution, including some in the intensive care unit.
Months later, all those apparently suffering from whooping cough are stunned to learn that bacterial cultures, the diagnostic gold standard for pertussis, could not detect the bacterium that causes whooping cough in any single sample. The whole insanity was a false alarm.
The supposed pertussis epidemic had not taken place in reality, but only in the minds of those involved, triggered by blind faith in a highly sensitive quick PCR test that had become, oh, so modern. In truth, all those who had fallen ill had suffered from a harmlesscold. Infectiologists and epidemiologists had put aside their expertise and common sense and blatantly ignored this most likely differential diagnosis of the symptom cough.
Many of the new molecular tests are quick but technically demanding. Each laboratory performs them in its own way as so-called ‘home brews’. Often they are not commerciallyavailable and there are rarely good estimates of their error rates. Their high sensitivity makes false positives likely. When hundreds or thousands of people are tested, as happened here, false-positive results can give the appearance of an epidemic.
An infectiologist said, I had a feeling at the time that this gave us a shadow of a hint of what it might be like during a pandemic flu epidemic.
And an epidemiologist explained: One of the most troubling aspects of the pseudo-epidemic is that all the decisions seemed so sensible at the time.
I recommend you read this article published in the New York Times in 2007 and ask yourself: “Shouldn’t we all have learned a lot from this for the future?”
In spring 2009, a highly contagious, very dangerous influenza virus, H1N1, seems to threaten humanity. The disease it causes is clinically indistinguishable from seasonal flu. It is called swine flu.
Experts like the German virologist Prof. Christian Drosten spread horror scenarios predicting millions of deaths worldwide. In May, the WHO relaxes the criteria for declaring a pandemic for reasons that have never been explained. It removes the dangerousness of the causative pathogen from the definition of a pandemic. Now, the rapid massive spread of a comparatively harmless pathogen over at least two WHO regions is enough. Any endemic, every seasonal wave of any flu or cold virus, no matter how harmless it is, can be called a pandemic. Promptly, the WHO declares an H1N1 pandemic on June 11th.
Politicians are taking seriously the warnings of the experts and the WHO. Without consulting the population, they are procuring hundreds of millions of packages of sparsely effective, expensive antiviral drugs and hundreds of millions of doses of hastily approved vaccines which are, after all, produced using conventional methods.
Critics, who describe the virus as comparatively harmless, are ridiculed or ignored initially. Finally, scientists, in Europe especially the German microbiologist and infection epidemiologist Prof. Sucharit Bhakdi, and the German pneumologist and politician Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg, gain media and political attention. The global madness, already threatening at that time, can be averted.
Worldwide, about 150 000 to 600 000 people died with or from H1N1, which turned out to be less dangerous than seasonal influenza. Correspondingly, vaccination readiness was low. Nevertheless, in Sweden alone, about 700 children contracted disabling narcolepsy, sleeping sickness, caused by hastily approved unnecessary and unsafe vaccines. In Switzerland alone, 1.8 million vaccine doses were sold abroad or given away, and 8.9 million were disposed of.
Therewashardlyanymediacoverageoftheswinefluscandal. The temporary success of the media-fuelled panic was primarily due to the interconnectedness of experts, the pharmaceutical industry, the WHO and health politicians. Intheend,theseeminglycompletelyoverwhelmedhealthauthoritieshadfallenforanalmostperfectlyorchestratedpropagandacampaign.
I recommend you watch the documentary ‘Profiteers of Fear – The Swine Flu Business’, produced in German by Arte in November 2009, and ask yourself: “Shouldn’t we all have learned a lot from this for the future?”
‘Event 201’: Corona Pandemic Simulation, 2019
The situation is threatening. A new corona virus is spreading across the world. Case numbers on the Johns Hopkins University dashboard are rising and rising. The highly contagious, immune-resistant, dangerous virus is paralysing trade and transport globally and sending the world economy into free fall.
WhatsoundsliketheallegedoutbreakoftheallegedpandemicofSARS-CoV-2inChina’sWuhanprovinceinDecember2019,isthescenarioof‘Event201′, which, because the figure zero is actually a globe, should rather be called “Event 21”.
On October 18th 2019, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Johns Hopkins University and World Economic Forum are organising a pandemic simulation under this name. After the Spanish flu, the bird flu and the swine flu, they do not choose another influenza virus as the pathogen, but a corona virus that was completely unknown to laypeople so far, especially not to politicians and journalists.
This simulation of a corona pandemic that broke out in South America is not attended by doctors, but by Western representatives of the organisers, the UN, the WHO, governments, authorities and global corporations from the fields of high finance, pharmaceuticals, logistics, tourism and the media, as well as Dr George Gao, virologist and director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (see list of participants below)
The Event 201 Pandemic Exercise. October 18, 2019 also addressed within the simulation how to deal with online social media and so-called “misinformation”. (Listen carefully)
Video
The participants agree that a corona pandemic is disruptive, can only be overcome by global governmental and private cooperation, that system-relevant global corporations must be propped up financially while medium-sized businesses must be sacrificed if necessary, that voices who deviate from the prevailing narrative must be censored consistently in the social and mass media, and that the pandemic can only be terminated by vaccinating the entire world population.
“The entities directly or indirectly “represented” by the “players” included the WHO, John Hopkins, the Global Alliance on Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) (Dr. Timothy Grant Evans), US Intelligence, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (Dr. Chris Elias), the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) (Chairwoman Jane Halton), the World Economic Forum (WEF), the UN Foundation, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (Stephen Redd), China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (Director Dr. George Fu Gao). Big Pharma (Adrian Thomas), the World Bank and Global Banking, the Airline and Hotel industries. For more details click here.” (quoted in Michel Chossudovsky, E-Book, Chapter I)
The simulation ends with 65 million deaths worldwide.
“Shouldn’t the mass media have reported on this in detail?”
Corona Scandal, 2020 and ongoing
Two and a half months later, on December 31st 2019, the Chinese CDC, led by Dr. George Gao Fu, reports 27 cases of pneumonia of unknown cause to the WHO – out of a Chinese population of 1.4 billion. On January 7th 2020, the Chinese health authorities identify a novel corona virus as the causative agent.
On January 21st, Prof. Christian Drosten et al. submit a paper, the recipe for which laboratories can produce a rapid RT-PCR test for the detection of the virus called ‘2019-nCoV’. It is accepted just the next day and published in the journal Eurosurveillance another day later.
The WHO had already posted the Corman-Drosten RT-PCR quick test on its website one week earlier and recommended it as the global diagnostic gold standard.
On January 30th, Drosten et al. published the justification of the narrative of epidemiologically relevant asymptomatic transmission of 2019-nCoV in the letter to the editor of the ‘New England Journal of Medicine’, virtually one of the bibles of us doctors whose integrity we still trusted at the time, with the title ‘Transmission of 2019-nCoV Infection from an Asymptomatic Contact in Germany’.
On February 11th, the WHO names the novel corona virus SARS-CoV-2, the disease it causes COVID-19; coronavirus disease. It does so against the request of Chinese virologists. They preferred to call it HCoV-19, human coronavirus, because of the danger that the name SARS-CoV-2 could stir up unfounded fears out of its biological and epidemiological lack of similarity to the much more dangerous SARS-CoV-1.
On March 11th, the WHO declares a COVID pandemic. Meanwhile, its Director-General, the biologist, immunologist and philosopher Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has been charged with genocide in Ethiopia before the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The presumption of innocence applies, of course.
Now, almost everything is going on as it did during the swine flu scandal in 2009, but in an even more lubricated way. Experts, mostly laboratory physicians and biologists working as virologists or epidemiologists, who have never examined anyone suffering from a respiratory infection, let alone treated them, declare that SARS-CoV-2 is virtually an alien about which we know absolutely nothing and that we must regard as extremely dangerous, until largely the same experts will have proven otherwise at some point. In Switzerland, they constitute themselves as ‘Swiss National COVID-19 Science Task Force’ and offer themselves to the Swiss Federal Council as scientific advisors.
The executive and legislative politicians as well as the federal and cantonal health authorities, all panicked by them, accept their offer and seem to follow them as blindly as the Federal Council apparently blindly followed the WHO when it declared the COVID pandemic. Unlike any ninepins club, the now official scientific advisory board to the Swissgovernment through what is supposed to be Switzerland’s biggest crisis since the Second World War does not keep any record of its activities.
On March 16th, the Swiss Federal Council declares the ‘exceptional situation’, the highest danger level of the epidemic law, based on exactly zero scientific evidence.
The mass media, including the Swiss public service broadcaster SRG, take on the third part in this conglomerate of mutually escalating ignorance, arrogance, incompetence and organised irresponsibility. Brainless and heartless themselves, they hammer into our heads around the clock:
There is a pandemic of a highly contagious and even epidemiologically relevant asymptomatically transmissible corona killer virus. Every seemingly hale and hearty fellow human being can be your angel of death!
Unlike in 2009, the mass media consistently censor, discredit and defame questioning doctors and scientists, including luminaries such as John Ioannidis, Professor of medicine, epidemiology and public health at Stanford University School of Medicine, oneof the world’s most renowned and most cited scientists, specialised in science fraud, Prof. Sucharit Bhakdi, and Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg. At Easter 2020, after having been libelled, including an alleged threat to politicians and to my family, by a private person well known to me, myself, was brutally arrested by an anti-terrorist squad in my practice and, after it immediately turned out that I had not threatened anyone, merely the world view of insane people, I was shipped off to a closed psychiatric ward for six days becauseof ‘self-endangerment while in COVID insanity’.
The governments of almost all countries seem to have forgotten their epidemic plans, which wisely spare the individuals, the society and the economy. In blind obedience to the WHO and to lobbyists, called experts, they are enacting self-destructive non-pharmacological interventions, including lockdowns never considered before, following the authoritarian Chinese role model. They are doing this almost globally, in lockstep.
Without consulting the population, they procure billions of doses of emergency mRNA and DNA injections, which are even temporarily approved by Swissmedic. This technology is being widely used on humans for the first time. Almost worldwide, the constitution, the rule of law, human rights, civil liberties, ethics, science and common sense are being sacrificed in favour of a quasi-global authoritarian regime under the control of the WHO.
Who controls the WHO, controls the world!
The prevailing corona narrative is this: Since early 2020, there is a pandemic of a perennial killer virus, that must be searched for with the Corman-Drosten RT-PCR test in everybody, that is even spreading epidemiologically relevantly asymptomatically, against which there is no basic or cross-immunity, whose provoked disease, COVID-19, is barely treatable, which is becoming increasingly infectious and dangerous due to erratic mutations, and which can only be overcome by non-pharmacological measures that have never been applied before, such as antisocial distancing, masks in public sphere, contact tracing, isolation, quarantine, school closures and curfews, nowadays called lockdowns, even for asymptomatic, previously called healthy, people, and by serial vaccination of the entire world population.
All myths of the prevailing corona narrative are made up out of a fact-free vacuum
Based on the current state of science, these are my top 10.
In many countries, for example in Switzerland, there was no exceptional excess mortality when adjusted to changing demographics. The excess mortality in other countries is the best proof that the real killer is not the virus, but our paradoxical response to it, which differs from country to country and from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. Also, the occupancy of the intensive care units, whose capacities have been massively reduced in the course of the alleged pandemic, has never been unusually high.
If the causes of death are established correctly by substituting the number of deceased from whatever cause within 28 days after a positive RT-PCR test with the number of deceased from COVID-19, the infection fatality rate, IFR, is below that of influenza viruses, which are deadly to some people, of course, and, unlike SARS-CoV-2, sometimes are also deadly to children.
2. Theindicationtotest, namely not only critically ill hospitalised patients with a need forspecific antiviral therapy, in the surveillance system for respiratory infections and in an epidemiological study cohort, but to test even asymptomatic people and, on top of that, to test only for one single of all respiratory viruses that must be considered in the differential diagnosis of respiratory infections, iswrong.
3. TheCorman-DrostenRT-PCRtestisneitherdiagnosticforaninfectionwithSARS-CoV-2norforasicknessordeathfromCOVID-19. On November 27th 2020, an international group of 22 life scientists, including myself, published an ‘External Peer Review of the Corman-Drosten Paper’, the recipe by which laboratories developed the RT-PCR test for SARS-CoV-2. In it, we declared that conflicts of interest existed, that the alleged peer review within 24 hours was absurd, and ten fundamental scientific flaws. This most momentous medical publication of 2020, which can hardly be surpassed in terms of lack of scientificity, should never have been published.
The Corman-Drosten RT-PCR test protocol is fabricated poorly and vaguely, without validation and standardisation. From a laboratory survey conducted in Germany, we know that due to cross-reaction with other beta coronaviruses its specificity of about 98.6%, correspondingto 1.4% false positives, which is already low in the absence of any virus, is further reducedto up to 92.4%, corresponding to 7.6% false positives, during the flu season. These rates offalse positive tests may seem low to many laypeople and allegedly even to many ‘experts’, because they do not realise that in the virtual absence of the virus between the flu seasons, at prevalence close to 0, almost all positive RT-PCR tests are false positives. Please consider that if we test 1000 men with a 99% specific pregnancy test, 1%, 10 tests, will be positive and because of prevalence 0 of pregnancy in men, these positive pregnancy tests are all false positives. Everywhere, the test is performed differently and at too high cycle thresholds.
Although studies have shown that no culturable viruses are present in samples with a Ct value above 28, the tests are still carried out with cycle threshold values above 35. Their results are reported without reference to clinical symptoms and findings, worldwide. The Corman-Drosten RT-PCR test is scientifically incorrect and serves mostly to create an epidemic of case numbers, a testing pandemic.
4. Thereisnoepidemiologicallyrelevantasymptomatictransmissionofrespiratoryviruses. What we learned in medical school has been confirmed also for SARS-CoV-2 by numerous peer reviewed studies. The ‘asymptomatic contact’ invented by Prof. Drosten in the Letter to the Editor of January 30th 2020 was very much symptomatic: the patient had suppressed her symptoms with medication.
Therefore, all non-pharmacological interventions for asymptomatic, formerly called healthy, people beyond the proven effective measures to contain the spread of respiratory viruses, namely hygiene and self-isolation of sick people, are harmful and ineffective also against SARS-CoV-2.
5. Thereiseffectiveprophylaxis, for example, healthy lifestyle, lots of social contacts, and vitamin D3, andthereiseffective,welltolerated,lowcosttherapyofCOVID-19, for example, anti-inflammatory drugs, topical budesonide, hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, and anticoagulants.
6. Unlike influenza viruses, SARS-CoV-2does not mutate erratically, but slowlyandpermanently. For this reason alone, even the most effective vaccines always lag behind its new variants.
7. SARS-CoV-2is not becoming more and more contagious AND more and more dangerous. Like all other respiratory viruses, it obeys the laws of evolution. Without human intervention, the variant that spreads most easily prevails. That is why it is becomingmoreandmorecontagious indeed,butlessandlessdangerous, of course.
8. SARS-CoV-2, like all viral pathogens of acute respiratory infections, does not occur perennially, but seasonally, in our mid-northern latitudes from November to April.
What ‘experts’ call the heroic overcoming of the pandemic of a killer virus by non-pharmacological interventions and vaccination of the whole populace, we doctors call, the end of the flu season.
9. Duetobasicandcross-immunity,duringeachfluseasononlyabout10-20%ofthepopulationcontracttheseasonalbetacoronaandinfluenzaviruses. This is also true for SARS-CoV-2.
An ‘nth wave of a respiratory virus’ is a biological impossibility.
Rather, the season of Corona-19 is followed by that of Corona-20 and now by that of Corona-21, to which most people are partially cross-immune, at least.
10. TheallegedpandemicoftheallegedkillervirusSARS-CoV-2cannotbeovercomebyvaccinatingtheentireworldpopulation, including the immune or recovered. The serial experimental mRNA and DNA injections are unnecessary because the IFR is 0.15%, for less than 70-year-olds below 0.05%, for children 0.00%, and even much lower if the causes of death are established correctly, so below that of seasonal influenza. Moreover, SARS-CoV-2 is mutating permanently and always in the sense that it becomes more infectious while less dangerous. The experimental foreign gene injections are ineffective.
We had already known this from the registration studies, which are not worth the paper they are written on. For example, the mRNA injections reduced the risk of mild COVID-19 disease absolutely by less than 1%. There were no data for severe courses, for disease transmission and for over 75-year-old sick persons. Their ineffectiveness has alsobeen proven in the real world by now.
Finally, the gene injections are unsafe. They can cause anaphylactic reactions, thromboembolism, thrombocytopenia, disseminated intravascular coagulation, and myocarditis in the short term. There is possible immunosuppression and antibody-dependent enhancement, ADE, in the medium-term. And in the long term there are possible autoimmune diseases, cancer and infertility, risks that have not been ruled out yet.
Furthermore, natural immunisation is stronger and more sustainable than the best vaccine, and immune or recovered people do neither need basic immunisation nor a booster. Or, if you had gone through measles, mumps andrubella as a child or had received the basic MMR immunization, did anyone ever recommend that you get vaccinated against measles, mumps and rubella for the first time or again? The mainly testing pandemic present since the end of the 2020 flu season,at least, can only be overcome by ending the unscientific testing of even asymptomatic people.
Yet, in the second year, as medical students we had to study basic epidemiology. There we learned that in the event of a possible epidemic of national scope, a study cohort representative of the population must be formed immediately. Its purpose is to monitor the prevalence, incidence, and severity of the disease and the status of immunity, here by testing for antibodies AND T-cell immunity. Thus, in April 2020 we would already have realised that there was no epidemic of national scope, presumably that almost everyone was already largely immune and that there was exactly 0 scientific evidence for painful and costly nonsensical interventions, for the enactment of epidemic laws, for the draftingof COVID laws and for digital COVID certificates.
Allegedly, no one in the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health (FOPH) and in its affiliated Swiss National COVID-19 Science Task Force has the knowledge of a second-year medical student. For, although it is 20 months since the WHO declared the COVID pandemic, such a representative epidemiological surveillance cohort does not exist. Even worse, from week 13 to 44/2020 the FOPH had also paused the surveillance systemof viral respiratory infections based on representative medical practices, thereby completing the blind flight in favour of total interpretive sovereignty of the arbitrarily manipulable useless RT-PCR test ‘case numbers’. Do not gloat. It is the same shame in your country.
During each alleged wave happens the same. Completely synchronously and to almost the same extent as the number of COVID patients, yellow curve, goes up, the number of non-COVID patients, green curve, goes down, although there are high reserves of intensive care beds, dashed curve, throughout the whole course of he alleged epidemic. At the end of each alleged wave, the same thing happens in the opposite directions.
Accordingtothetestresult,heorsheisassignedtothegreen,non-COVIDpatients,ortheyellow,COVIDpatients,curve,in short: other diagnoses areoften mislabelled as COVID-19.This fraud occurs not so much in the intensive care units themselves, as rather in the direct reporting by the laboratories to the FOPH, which reports these and all other meaningless “case numbers” to the mass media, who then bombard us with them around the clock.
Since April 2020, at least, the total number of ICU patients, black curve, changes little due to this fundamental fraud in the prevailing corona narrative. It also explains why the intensive care units were not overloaded in any country, regardless of whether there are almost three times as many ICU beds per capita, for example in Germany, or only about half as many, for example in Sweden, as in Switzerland.
Thoseresponsiblemusthaveknownthis.OtherwisetheywouldnothavecutICUcapacityworldwidesinceApril2020,inSwitzerlandfromover1500tounder900,butwouldhavebuiltupmore. Instead of redistributing 100 billion taxpayers’ Swiss Francsfrom the bottom and the middle to the very top, I would have recommended to my government investing a fraction of it in recruiting retired and in increasing the workload of part-time ICU staff.
I guess the coming so-called 5th wave will be very similar to the so-called 2nd wave during the last flu season with the usual hump in the total number of ICU patients, black curve, due to more frequent severe acute respiratory infections during every flu season.
I wish that the alleged ‘killer variant’ Omicron is natural and will therefore be more contagious, but less dangerous than the alleged ‘killer variant’ Delta, and that there will not be many very severe COVID cases due to ADE, and not too many very severe adverse events of the experimental mRNA and DNA injections.
Should you have a better explanation for the almost perfect symmetry of the yellow and green curves with an imaginary mirror axis located between the two, I will be the first to examine it closely and publicly apologize for my, then fake news.
SARS-CoV-2isnotanalien,butanewlydiscoveredmemberofthewell-knownbetacoronavirusfamily. From my allegedly crazed cardiologist’s view, this is the prevailing corona nonsense narrative.
If you still do not realise that this is, pardon, utter nonsense, from A for epidemiologically relevant Asymptomatic transmission to Z for Zero COVID, I am afraid I can’t help you either and this German proverb comes to my mind, translated into English:
The greater the damage of the roof, the more beautiful the view of the stars!
Thestillprevailing corona nonsense narrativejustifiesthegloballydominatingunscientific,inhumanemadness. Such can be wrought with any respiratory virus, by the way: if we no longer test everybody with a hypersensitive, low-specific RT-PCR test, that cross-reacts with other viruses, for theoretically one RNA fragment of SARS-CoV-2, but for one of, say, influenza or metapneumo viruses, we immediately have an influenza or metapneumo virus testing pandemic.
The alleged pandemic is mainly an unreal PCR testing pandemic, but the totalitarian repressive measures it has spawned are real: they threaten our freedom, our livelihoods and even our lives.
Dearresponsiblecolleagues!
PleaseremembertheHippocratic Oath,‘Primumnonnocere,secundumcavere,tertiumsanare’;‘Firstdonoharm,secondbecareful,thirdheal’,andtheGeneva Declaration of the World Medical Association,especially ‘I will not use my medical knowledge to violate human rights and civil liberties, even under threat!
Finally help to end this total insanity, first and foremost by no longer applying unnecessary, ineffective, unsafe experimental mRNA and DNA injections and by reporting all their adverse events. Then the corona house of nonsense cards will immediately collapse.
DearresponsiblefellowSwiss!
Wake up, stand up and vote against the unscientific, unconstitutional, unlawful, inhumane, insane COVID law, for you, for your loved ones and for the whole human family, today!
Dearresponsiblefellowhumans!
Wake up, stand up and fight, peacefully but firmly; if not for yourself, then for your children’s future and that of your grandchildren, now!
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This article was originally published on the author’s blog site, Humanismus 2020.
Josep Borrell, Alto rappresentante per la politica estera UE, non solo annuncia la sospensione dei visti ai turisti russi, assestando un altro duro colpo al settore turistico italiano ed europeo. In una riunione dei ministri UE della Difesa ha dichiarato: “I Paesi dell’Unione Europea hanno discusso l’ipotesi di una missione di addestramento per le forze ucraine sin da prima della guerra: ora è il momento di agire”. Con l’invio di armi e l’addestramento delle forze di Kiev la UE diviene un paese belligerante contro la Russia a fianco della NATO. Allo stesso tempo Ursula Von der Leyen, Presidente della Commissione Europea, ribadisce che bisogna: “porre fine alla nostra dipendenza dagli sporchi combustibili fossili russi”. Annuncia così la decisione della UE di proseguire sulla via che sta provocando in Europa una devastante crisi economica, dovuta al prezzo del gas cresciuto da 15 euro a oltre 300 euro al megawattora.
La vera causa non è il fatto che la Russia non ci fornisce più gas, ma che la Borsa di Amsterdam, quella che decide il prezzo del gas in Europa, appartiene a una società finanziaria statunitense, che ne determina il prezzo in base a meccanismi speculativi e politici.La stessa ENI, mentre compra gas russo a basso prezzo, lo rivende ad alto prezzo secondo le quotazioni di Amsterdam. Una vera e propria truffa aidanni degli italiani coperta dal governo Draghi,
L’Europa viene allo stesso tempo messa sempre più in pericolo dall’enorme quantità di armi che NATO e UE inviano in Ucraina. Washington ha annunciato forniture militari per altri 3 miliardi di dollari, parte del “pacchetto di assistenza” da 40 miliardi di dollari approvato dal Congresso. Di queste forniture – dimostra un servizio della statunitense CBS – la maggior parte finisce nel mercato clandestino delle armi, in mano a organizzazioni terroristiche e criminali. Un ulteriore grave pericolo è provocato dal fatto che le forze ucraine – armate, addestrate e di fatto comandate dalla NATO – sparano con i cannoni e i missili forniti loro da NATO e UEsulla centrale nucleare di Zaparozhye atttualmente sotto controllo russo, esponendo l’Italia e l’Europa al gravissinmo rischio radioattivo di una nuova Cernobyl.
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***
For more than five months, full-scale hostilities have taken place on the territory of Ukraine. The number of victims is growing every day on both sides of the front line.
From the signing of the “Minsk 2” peace agreement in February 2015 until February 2022—seven long years—hostilities in the Donbas region raged with regular shelling and small arms attacks by the Ukrainian military and paramilitaries against the towns and cities of the region. Ukrainians throughout the country have become accustomed to this routinized, “low intensity” warfare.
However, the entry of the Russian Federation into the conflict on the side of the Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics more than five months ago has upset the routine, causing much confusion and bewilderment among Ukrainians. They are asking themselves, how can it be that Kyiv could also be shelled in response to the shellings of Donetsk? “Isn’t the strongest military power in the world on our side? Why can’t it stop this war that has broken out?”
Western propaganda (and since 2014, Ukrainian propaganda, too), deeply corrupts a person’s understanding. It encourages the idea that a country like Ukraine, subordinated to the West, can do whatever it wishes so long as it supports the goals of the large Western countries. In this context, liberal-minded views in favor of peace do not count. Non-Western countries are, by default, considered inferior and local opponents of Western imperialism are suspect, be they governments or simple political movements.
Internal Dissent in Ukraine
To combat internal dissent, the Ukrainian state encourages its citizens to speak up against those it labels as “traitors” and “collaborators.” People who behave “suspiciously” by criticizing the actions of the authorities or even daring to declare responsibility of the Ukrainian authorities for the military intervention by the Russian Federation are considered traitors by default.
Of late, the news reporting of “criminal conduct” in Ukraine is telling the stories of the woman convicted by a court for the crime of reading Russian Telegram channels while using public transport; the man who was found in possession of the flag of the Soviet Ukrainian Republic; and the teenager who photographed an airport building.
A Ministry of Digital Transformation was established in Ukraine in 2019 with the help of the European Union and the U.S. It is part of implementing a strategy of silencing dissent. The ministry goes so far as to offer guidelines on how to correctly fill out a “collaborator report” to finger suspect acquaintances of “the enemy.”[1] The ministry cites a typical letter sent to the chatbot єВорог: “His sister is the wife of a separatist who is fighting for Russia. They keep in touch and exchange information about the location of our army in the city.”
Vice Prime Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine Mykhailo Fedorov speaks at conference announcing new ministry. [Source: ukrinform.net]
Often such denunciations become simply a method of settling old personal scores. These raise uncomfortable memories of the pogroms against Jews which marked Ukraine during the years of Nazi German occupation. For example, one of the examples of denunciations sent to the Ministry of Digital Transformation has been highlighted by Maksim Buzhansky, deputy leader of President Zelensky’s political party. He writes of a woman being targeted for the crime of collaboration: “She is pregnant by a Russian and considers herself to be something of a first lady of the village.”[2] This is how simple envy or personal dislike can become a pretext for a witch-hunt under the guise of a political agenda.
One of the most egregious recent cases was the expulsion of Elvira Khomenko, a student from a university in the city of Bila Tserkva, 80 km south of Kyiv. Elvira was a student in the veterinary department. She wrote that enemies should be treated with kindness, that she does not eat meat, does not support the Ukrainian army, and does not support the killing of people.[3] She is described as something of a hippie and peacenik who strongly maintains her beliefs and opinions.
At the end of July, she was expelled from the university and denounced to the SBU, Ukraine’s political police service. Elvira has since disappeared without a trace. Police are refusing to accept her mother’s statement in defense of her daughter, treating the mother with contempt. [As of August 1, 2022, the whereabouts of Elvira Khomenko are known only to Ukrainian authorities.]
In order to carry out its widespread, anti-Russia brainwashing in Ukraine, the Zelensky-led government has banned all opposition political parties and closed critical media. Over the past two years, half of the television channels in Ukraine have gone off the air, accused of pro-Russia sympathies. Since February 2022, all remaining media are obliged to relay only the point of view of the Office of the President, under threat of being accused of treason.
During this period, the opposition parties Platform for Life (social democratic), the Communist Party, the Socialist Party, the “Socialists,” the Union of Left Forces, the Sharij Party, the Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine and the Labor Party of Ukraine have been banned and their property seized. Earlier, only party activity was suspended; the seizure of party properties is a new escalation. As the list of banned parties makes clear, they are left-wing for the most part. Their “fault” is their disapproval of the eight-year-old conflict waged against Donbas (which became the reason for the start of the Russian special operation in Ukraine).
In July 2022, the wealthiest Ukrainian, billionaire Rinat Akhmetov (number one on Forbes-Ukraine’s list of wealthiest people in the country) gave up control of his media holdings, although he and his media have been quite loyal to Zelensky’s office. Hundreds of employees lost their jobs. The “logic” of this business decision by Ahkmetov is that a Ukrainian billionaire has no need to own costly media if it cannot be used to advance his or her personal interests and “merely” serves to relay the point of view of the authorities.
Worker and trade union rights under attack
Under the pretext of the war in Ukraine, authorities have begun to actively attack worker and trade union rights. They are promoting regressive “reform” of existing labor legislation. This had failed earlier due to pressure by international trade unions. In early July, the parliament sent to Zelensky for his signature Bill No. 7251, which regulates the “optimization of labor relations” under martial law.
This legislative innovation significantly curtails the rights of Ukrainian employees and nullifies the main historical gains of the working class, rolling them back to the situation of the 19th century. Among the provisions of the new law is that Ukrainian employers are no longer required to limit the working day to eight hours and the working week can stretch up to 60 hours. That could mean a ten-hour working day with one day off per week, a twelve-hour working day with two days off, or seven days of eight and a half hours each with no day off! Thus will Ukrainian employers be able to save on overtime pay.[4]
Back in 1810, the British educator and social philosopher Robert Owen advocated for a reduced work day; by 1817, he had formulated the slogan: “Eight hours’ labor, eight hours’ recreation, eight hours’ rest.” Oh, how the world of the 21st century is evolving—backwards!
In addition, from now on, Ukrainian workers can be fired on vague pretexts of no available work. Employers themselves will determine how this applies, depending on their interests.
A second regressive labor law
In July the Ukraine legislature (Verkhovna Rada) also adopted Bill No. 5371, on simplified termination of employment contracts during martial law. It regulates labor contracts for businesses of fewer than 250 employees, essentially canceling the provisions of the Labor Code for them. This amounts to some 80% of all companies in Ukraine.
Working conditions, working hours, holidays and wages will now be regulated not by law but by the terms of contracts drawn up by the employer. “Anything can be written in the contract, especially in conditions of unemployment. In fact, this means that Ukrainians will have to work on the conditions that employers will impose on them,” says Ukrainian lawyer Rostyslav Kravets.[5]
The governing regime in Kyiv pushed through the bill, citing a familiar theme: “Russian aggression.” But the bill was originally registered in April 2021, nearly one year prior to Russia’s military intervention.
Formally, the bill was submitted on behalf of the head of the parliamentary committee on social policy, Galina Tretyakova, and a number of other deputies from the ruling Servant of the People party. Ukrainian trade unions had demanded Tretyakova’s resignation following a sickening speech in which she said that poor people should be sterilized to reduce the country’s welfare bill.
Bill 5371 was developed by the Ukrainian public organization “Office of Simple Solutions,” which was originally created by the former president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvili (2008-13), together with the associations of Ukrainian employers and the USAID program.
In other words, the deprivation of Ukrainian labor rights has been financed by a U.S. government agency. (As for Saakashvili, he is awaiting trial in Georgia under charges of violence against his political opponents as well as harsh restrictions against media outlets before and during his presidency. He is also charged with entering the country illegally, in October 2021, when he was first arrested and detained.)
George Sandul, a lawyer at the Kyiv public organization “Labor Initiatives,” commenting on Bill 5371, noted that the employee always has less power than the employer, and at the international level, numerous conventions of the International Labor Organization (ILO) are devoted to this issue. “De facto, this regime assumes that literally anything can be entered into an employee’s employment contract, without reference to Ukrainian labor laws. For example, additional grounds for dismissal, liability, or even a 100-hour week,” explains Sandul.[6]
In June, the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) appealed to Ukrainian authorities to remove the scandalous bill No. 5371 from consideration, as it contradicts the ILO conventions ratified by Ukraine’s “association agreement” with the EU (entered into force in September 2017) and European legislation.
Ukraine has in recent years served as a testing ground for anti-social reforms and cuts, which are then carried out in other European countries. These are all the more misplaced considering that Ukraine is one of the poorest countries in Europe and over the past eight years, there has been a massive outflow of Ukrainian workers westward in Europe or eastward to Russia.
Resisting military service in wartime
Since the beginning of Russia’s military operation, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian men have been drafted into the army and thousands have illegally fled across the border to dodge military service. Millions of women, too, have left the country, leaving many manufacturing facilities at a standstill. Even regular public utilities are understaffed, while many restaurants in the capital city Kyiv have closed as their chefs and other staff have left.
In July, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine reported on the elimination of 45 escape routes used by men of military age. Those caught were traveling by foot, car or boat. One enterprising draft dodger tried to leave the country by swimming across a river in a diving suit.[7] Fees charged by those guiding the escapees range from the equivalent of US$1,000 to US$20,000.
Forced conscription was brought on and has been intensified due to huge combat losses. David Arakhamia, the head of the Zelensky-led party’s parliamentary faction, has stated that losses amount to about 1,000 killed and wounded per day.[8] The British Daily Mail reported in July that the death toll was around 20,000 a month.[9] But official statistics of Ukraine’s losses are treated as classified information by the Ministry of Defense.
Funeral for one of many Ukrainian war dead. [Source: voanews.com]
“The numbers of dead are a state secret during martial law. This is due to military expediency and the fact that the enemy should not know these numbers and use it for their own opportunities,” Deputy Defense Minister Anna Malyar said on July 14.[10]
Economically, Ukraine survives almost exclusively on loans from Western partner governments and international banks. It finances its public budget expenditures only by some 30%.[11] The main sphere of government expenses is, to no surprise, military. To a certain extent, the Ukrainian military can be described as a mercenary force of the United States, Great Britain and other NATO countries.
Ideologically, Ukrainian authorities openly position themselves as part of a “civilized West” waging war with a “barbaric East.” “We are the European army of a European country. The enemy will be destroyed consistently, systematically and as planned and expected, by a decent army of the good old West,” Aleksey Arestovych, an adviser to the head of the President’s Office, recently stated.[12]
However, for this army, a significant part of its recruits must be snatched off the streets or from parks and workplaces. Since February, Ukrainian men between the ages of 18 and 60 have been barred from leaving the country. Starting October 1, this ban will also apply to women, who are being made liable for military service under the cunning theme of “combatting gender discrimination.” But this “fight against discrimination” is far from being an extension of rights; it is an extension of duties as defined by an increasingly unpopular and isolated governing regime.
Russian-controlled southern Ukraine
The populations of the southern and eastern regions of Ukraine oppose the regime in Kyiv for the most part, but since 2014 they have been forced to hide this. Soldiers of Ukraine’s armed forces continue to complain that, since the start of the Russian military operation, local residents are betraying their positions to Russian forces and to the forces of Luhansk and Donetsk, allowing these to more accurately target their military operations.
In one video from the city of Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region, still held by Kyiv, a soldier of the Ukrainian army complains that the locals do not like them and do not want war against the Russian Federation. He explains, “There are a lot of people here who are not being called up by the military registration and enlistment offices. We are brought here from all over Ukraine, but no one will involve the locals. The recent scenarios in Lisichansk [small city in the Lugansk region] and other territories showed that residents were willing to go to war, but against Ukraine.”[13]
In fact, many Ukrainian soldiers are telling the truth of what is happening in the territories controlled by the Russian Federation and the Lugansk and Donetsk republics. However, “control” by Russia or the Donbas republics does not mean peace. Deliveries of heavy artillery from the U.S. and other large NATO powers now allow Ukrainian forces to shell more heavily their former territories in the east, sometimes reaching deep behind Russian/Donbas republic lines. The shelling of the territories controlled by Kyiv receives wide coverage in the Western press, but the shelling of uncontrolled territory by the Ukrainian army is completely ignored, underlining once again the prevailing system of a double standard in Western media.
In July, three Ukrainian drones with explosives attacked the nuclear energy complex (the largest in Europe) near the city of Zaporozhye located on the Dnieper River, the fourth largest river in Europe.[14] The purpose was to disrupt the operation of the station, which supplies electricity to several nearby regions. Luckily, the concrete ceilings of the complex withstood the attacks by what was light munitions. The complex was designed and built in Soviet times to operate during wartime. Russian forces control the complex and are working with its Ukrainian engineers and other specialists to keep it operating.
At the same time, the Ukrainian special services, in conjunction with Western intelligence services, wage regular terror attacks in uncontrolled territories, threatening those citizens of Ukraine who cooperate with the Russian Federation or the Donbas republics. Many leaders of the Donbas rebels have been assassinated since 2014, notably the revered, former head of the Donetsk People’s Republic, Alexander Zakharchenko, assassinated in 2018.
Terror tactics are being used to prevent a return to peaceful life. These are prompting even former Ukrainian ultra-nationalists to reconsider their views on the conflict. In June, for example, Dmitry Kuzmenko, the head of a Ukrainian “territorial defense” (ultra-nationalist) paramilitary unit, and many of his former fighters decided to adopt Russian citizenship.[15]
Meanwhile, deliveries of American “HIMARS” precision multiple rocket launchers and the shelling of Kherson led even the former leader of the Kherson cell of the Ukrainian fascist party Svoboda (“Freedom”), Eduard Bekharsky, to reconsider his views. “Today’s shelling of my hometown by the Armed Forces of Ukraine using American HIMARS put a bullet in my relations with Ukraine. My father was an officer in the Soviet army. I remember my childhood in the garrisons in the Urals. I am more Soviet than Ukrainian. And now I’m finished with Ukraine,” he wrote.[16]
Since Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree in July on simplified admission of Ukrainian citizens to Russian citizenship, residents of other regions have been moving to Russian-controlled Kherson. However, their route, according to eyewitnesses, is quite difficult since it is necessary to pass through front lines and mined territories. Taxi drivers in the Kyiv-controlled city of Zaporozhye charge up to US$1,000 for such a dangerous trip.
There is also a legal option, but it costs $400 and up. To make such a trip legally, the traveler must submit an application to Ukrainian authorities and then pass a verification procedure by the SBU. Men do not use this option since they would immediately receive a summons to military service.
The coming social and political transformations in southern Ukraine
In July, the local authorities of the southern regions of Ukraine controlled by the Russian Federation–Kherson and Zaporozhye—announced the preparation of a referendum on joining the Russian Federation.[17]
Preliminary plans call for the votes to take place in mid-September. This will severely curtail stated plans of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to return these regions under their control, since a vote to join the Russian Federation formally places the regions under the military umbrella of Russia and, perhaps, opens the way for entry of international peacekeeping forces from the Collective Security Treaty Organization, in which Russia is a leading member.
In Russian-controlled cities and towns in southern Ukraine, the interim administrations are distributing one-time social payments of 10,000 rubles (app. US$165) to residents, which is equal to the minimum monthly Ukrainian pension for elderly.[18]
In June, internet service began to be provided from Crimea to these regions and mobile communications were established through Russian operators.
Unlike Kherson, many larger cities of Donbas have been heavily damaged due to the frequently used tactics of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to use schools, hospitals and residential buildings as shields.
Reconstruction in the heavily damaged city of Mariupol began in June. Russia is mounting an ambitious program of reconstruction assistance throughout Donbas. Large teams of building workers are being mobilized in Russia, including a clever program in which Russian cities partner with a selected city in Donbas and provide technical as well as material assistance.
Following the recognition of the Donetsk and Luhansk republics by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, brigades of workers from there are helping in the restoration. “They will provide serious help in solving the problems of restoring destroyed social, infrastructural and industrial facilities,” said Russian Ambassador to North Korea Alexander Matsegora.
He also said the DPRK already uses building equipment manufactured by enterprises in Donbas. “Our Korean partners are therefore very interested in acquiring spare parts and units manufactured in Donbas in order to update their own production base.”[19] Kyiv has severed diplomatic relations with North Korea and Syria in response to their respective recognitions of the independence of the Luhansk and Donetsk republics.
In the Russian-controlled part of the Zaporozhye region, the roads damaged or destroyed in the fighting are being restored. A resident of the DPR, author of the left-wing Telegram channel “Concretely,” describes the process as follows: “Yesterday, I watched a road being repaired in the liberated territory. Repairs are being done more substantially than Ukraine ever did. Not only is the roadbed completely removed and restored, its support bedding (so-called pillow) is one and a half meters deeper. From the original road dating from Soviet times and ‘killed’ by Ukraine through neglect, only its direction will remain. A completely new road is being built, 100 kilometers long. The locals, I think, have never seen such a miracle; modern civilization has come to our steppes.”[20]
In Ukrainian media, this news was presented as a case of Russians “stealing” the old asphalt from the roads because they themselves do not have such roads.
In the Russian-controlled parts of the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions, new tariffs for utilities were approved in July. Utilities in those regions are much less expensive than in the rest of Ukraine: Natural gas is less than one-fifth the price in the Russian-controlled areas; hot water is almost 60% less; heating is more than 60% less; and electricity is 45% less. Such are the economic benefits brought by Russia and which are very appealing to local populations.[21]
Previously, Russian authorities announced the cancellation of all the debts of Ukrainian citizens owed for gas, electricity and water utilities, as well as bank debts. As a result, thousands of households in Kyiv-controlled territories have stopped paying their bills, expecting that Russia may some day arrive and write off their debts as well. This is one of the reasons why the regime of Zelensky is obliged to step up requests to the Western powers for additional financial assistance.
Crimea
Apparently, the regions of Donbas and southern Ukraine will follow the path of rebuilding and restoration taken earlier in the Chechen Republic and Crimea.
Crimea and most of what became Ukraine following 1991 lived off the infrastructure legacy of the Soviet Union without repairing or updating it. After the 2014 referendum in Crimea (March 15 of that year), the Russians involved in restoring the infrastructure of Crimea were shocked by the degree of deterioration of buildings, pipes and roads.
In 2014, average wages and pensions almost tripled for Crimeans as a result of their vote to join Russia. Naturally, this only strengthened their loyalty to Moscow. Now Crimea and Chechnya are the most loyal regions to the Russian central government, not least due to the substantial financial injections into the economies of these regions. These are much higher, proportionately, than in other regions of the Russian Federation. The volume of infrastructure investments per capita in Crimea, for example, is 29% ahead of the Russian average.[22]
In 2013, by comparison, the per capita GRP (gross regional product) of Crimea was 25% of that in Russia, the average salary was less than 40% of that in Russia, and investments were 30% of that in Russia.
Because of Western sanctions, tourism in Crimea has suffered heavily. As well, the blockade of water supply imposed by Kyiv did not allow the development of agriculture in the arid northern regions of Crimea. Ukrainian authorities blockaded the Northern Crimea Canal in 2015, which provided most drinking and agricultural water to Crimea from the Dnieper River to the north. The canal was built during the 1950s.
In place of tourism, the Crimean economy is now shifting toward industrial production, in particular, shipbuilding and engineering at Soviet factories that were virtually abandoned or on the verge of bankruptcy under Ukraine’s rule. Ukraine has allowed much of its industrial production capacity to degrade since 1991, saying it can instead buy superior equipment from Western corporations.
Among the largest projects in Crimea since 2014 have been extensive water supply and pipeline infrastructure; a new airport in the capital city of Simferopol; and the historic Kerch Strait Bridge, 19 km long and carrying trucks and autos as well as a two-track railway to and from Crimea and the Russian mainland.
Ukraine is today threatening to strike the bridge with missiles. Perhaps it is too much of an embarrassment to Ukrainian officials. Since 1992, several plans to build a Podolsky Bridge, four kilometers long, in the Kyiv region across the Dnieper River have failed due to bad planning or escalating costs.[23]
In 2015, Ukrainian nationalists organized, in addition to the water blockade, an energy blockade of Crimea, blowing up power lines in the Kherson region. The destroyed power lines were finally restored at the end of July 2022. “Crimea has overcome the water, food, and transport blockades set up by the Kyiv regime, and now the latest energy blockade,” Oleg Kryuchkov recently announced. He is an information officer for the head of Crimea. “Crimea receives water through the unblocked North Crimean Canal, trade and transport links with the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions have been restored, and the energy system has been fully restored. Everything is returning to normal.”[24]
All this said, there remain conflicting loyalties among business people in Crimea toward Moscow or Kyiv. Due to policies deregulating business in Ukraine, in accordance with the loan requirements of the IMF, private businesses in Crimea often lean in favor of Ukraine. Such businesses are more prone to evade taxes and not comply with sanitary and labor standards. The Russian state tightly regulates private businesses, in contrast to Ukraine, causing dissatisfaction with private taxi drivers who worked in Ukraine, at times without licenses and without paying any taxes. Some hotel owners—those who built their hotels in protected areas prior to 2014—are also dissatisfied, thanks to bribery and corruption.
Behind the scenes in Ukraine and its former territories, there is also competition between state-planned and private, neoliberal economies. In the Russian Federation, workers and technicians employed in state-run enterprises receive higher salaries and benefits.
Similar trends should be expected in the Russian-controlled territories of southern Ukraine and Donbas as soon as peace comes to them.
*
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Dmitri Kovalevich is a Ukrainian journalist and activist of the banned Ukrainian communist organization ‘Borotba’.
Comments Off on Ukraine Regime Led by Zelensky Kidnaps Student Dissidents, Bans Opposition Parties, Shuts Down Independent Media, Commits Egregious War Crimes and Imposes Regressive Labor Laws
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***
The US government has a well-documented history of backing extremist groups as part of a panoply of foreign policy misadventures, which inevitably end up blowing up in the American public’s face. In the 1960s, the CIA worked with Cuban anti–Fidel Castro radicals who turned Miami into a hub of terrorist violence. In the 1980s, the agency supported and encouraged Islamic radicals converging in Afghanistan, who would go on to orchestrate the September 11 attack. And, in the 2010s, Washington backed Syria’s not-so-“moderate” rebels who ended up cutting a swath of atrocities through civilians and the Kurdish forces that were meant to be US allies.
Based on a new report, it looks like we may soon be able to add another to that list of fatally unlearned lessons: Ukrainian neo-Nazis.
According to a recent Yahoo! Newsreport, since 2015, the CIA has been secretly training forces in Ukraine to serve as “insurgent leaders,” in the words of one former intelligence official, in case Russia ends up invading the country. Current officials are claiming the training is purely for intelligence collection, but the former officials Yahoo! spoke to said the program involved training in firearms, “cover and move,” and camouflage, among other things.
Given the facts, there’s a good chance that the CIA is training actual, literal Nazis as part of this effort. The year the program started, 2015, also happened to be the same year that Congress passed a spending bill that featured hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of economic and military support for Ukraine, one that was expressly modified to allow that support to flow to the country’s resident neo-Nazi militia, the Azov Regiment. According to the Nation at the time, the text of the bill passed in the middle of that year featured an amendment explicitly barring “arms, training, and other assistance” to Azov, but the House committee in charge of the bill was pressured by the Pentagon months later to remove the language, falsely telling them it was redundant.Despite sometimes open acknowledgement of its Nazism — its former commander once said the “historic mission” of Ukraine is to “lead the White Races of the world in a final crusade for their survival” in “a crusade against the Semite-led Untermenschen” — Azov was incorporated into the country’s National Guard in 2014, owing to its effectiveness in fighting Russian separatists. US arms have flowed to the militia, NATO and US military officials have been pictured meeting with them, and members of the militia have talked about their work with US trainers and the lack of background screening to weed out white supremacists.
Given all this, it would be more of a surprise that the neo-Nazis of Azov haven’t been trained in the CIA’s clandestine make-an-insurgency program. And we’re already seeing the early signs of blowback.
“A number of prominent individuals among far-right extremist groups in the United States and Europe have actively sought out relationships with representatives of the far-right in Ukraine, specifically the National Corps and its associated militia, the Azov Regiment,” states a 2020 report from the West Point US Military Academy’s Combating Terrorism Center. “US-based individuals have spoken or written about how the training available in Ukraine might assist them and others in their paramilitary-style activities at home.”
A 2018 FBI affidavit asserted that Azov “is believed to have participated in training and radicalizing United States–based white supremacy organizations,” including members of the white supremacist Rise Above Movement, prosecuted for planned assaults on counterprotesters at far-right events, including the Charlottesville “Unite the Right” rally that Joe Biden later co-opted as a rationale for his presidential campaign. While it seems the perpetrator of the Christchurch mosque massacre didn’t travel to Ukraine as he claimed, he clearly took inspiration from the far-right movement there, and wore a symbol used by Azov members while carrying out the attack.
Since taking office, Biden has launched an incipient domestic “war on terror” on the basis of combating far-right extremism, even though the strategy is quietly aiming to target left-wing protesters and activists, something it has already done. Yet at the same time, three separate administrations, Biden’s included, have been providing training, weapons, and equipment to the very far-right movement that’s inspiring and even training those same white supremacists.
Destroying the Village to Save It
Adding to the absurdity here is that the reason Washington has been giving Ukrainian Nazis its assistance is so they can serve as a bulwark against Russia, which war hawks liken, as they always do, to Adolph Hitler’s regime and its expansion through Europe in the 1930s. While Vladimir Putin’s Russia may be a malevolent actor on a number of fronts, Putin’s recent incursions into neighboring states like Ukraine are driven largely by the expansion of the NATO military alliance up to his borders and the security implications that come with it.
In other words, to stop what US hawks classify as the next Hitler and Nazi Germany, Washington has been backing literal neo-Nazi militias in Ukraine, who are in turn communicating with and training homegrown white supremacists, which Washington in turn is ramping up a menacing repressive bureaucracy at home to counter. It’s what some have called the “self-licking ice cream cone” in action — the US national security establishment creating the very threats that justify itself. Instead of defusing the tensions by simply agreeing to long-standing Russian demands to set a hard limit on NATO’s eastward expansion, Washington has apparently decided that unlimited planetary military dominion is so important that it would rather just get into bed with actual fascists.
The US alliance with Nazi-infected Ukraine has already proven awkward for a president who is both trying to strike a contrast with his far-right predecessor and establish the United States as the leader of a global effort to strengthen democracy. Late last year, in a vote that went completely unreported in the press, the United States was one of just two countries (the other being Ukraine) to vote against a UN draft resolution “combating glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fueling contemporary forms of racism.” Both countries have consistentlyvotedagainstthis resolutionevery singleyear since 2014.
The Biden administration deployed a nearly identical, boilerplate explanation for its no vote that Donald Trump had used, citing the constitutional right to free speech even for those with repugnant views. But this concern is hard to square with the text, which simply expresses concern about public memorials, demonstrations, and rehabilitation of the Nazis, condemns Holocaust denial and hate violence, and calls on governments to eliminate racism through education and addressing far-right terrorist threats — all roughly the same as Biden’s own rhetoric and policies.
Washington’s real concern here lies in its description of the resolution as “thinly veiled attempts to legitimize Russian disinformation campaigns denigrating neighboring nations” — meaning Ukraine. But Ukraine’s connections to modern Nazism are far from Russian fake news, and are in fact extensive and well-documented: from Azov’s official incorporation into the ranks of Ukrainian law enforcement and government officials with far-right ties to state-sponsored tributes to Nazi collaborators and promotion of Holocaust denial.
It’s no small irony that the US president, elected in large part to halt the perceived march of fascism at home, is continuing long-standing US support for literal Nazis in what might well be the nexus of international fascism. And if these Ukrainian Nazis really are among the insurgents being trained by the CIA, it will be no small tragedy if they one day take the same career trajectory as Osama bin Laden.
*
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Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.
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There are credible reasons to suspect that the United Kingdom has been more dangerously forward-leaning in its support for Ukraine than most members of the transatlantic anti-Russia coalition.
During a 2016 speech laying out the pillars of the United Kingdom’s post-Brexit foreign policy, then-Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson articulated an approach to international relations infused with globalist rhetoric. “We are a protagonist – a global Britain running a truly global foreign policy”, Johnson said, while calling for more “free trade” agreements and strengthening and reforming the “rules-based international order.” As prime minister, Johnson then issued the Integrated Review 2021, “Global Britain in a Competitive Age,” which outlined a hard power strategy and investments for a period of “systemic competition” among middle and great powers. One commentator noted in response that “the ambitions of ‘Global Britain’ have delivered a bargain-basement version of American grand strategy.” This is the grand strategy that has set the United Kingdom’s course in Ukraine and one that British foreign secretary Liz Truss, who is likely to be Britain’s next prime minister, will surely carry out.
As a top member of Johnson’s cabinet, Truss has had a leading role in shaping British policy toward the Russo-Ukrainian War. On this score, Truss’ diplomatic performance has been unremarkable and, at one point, even counterproductive. In line with her boss’ internationalist convictions, Truss believes her country is better off when it plays the role of deputy sheriff to help the United States police the world. For instance, Truss declared in a March speech at the Atlantic Council that “Our ultimate aim … [is] to make the world safe for freedom and democracy.”
Like Washington, London views the war in Ukraine as an opportunity to bleed Russia dry and weaken a great power rival. However, there are also credible reasons to suspect that the United Kingdom has been more dangerously forward-leaning in its support for Ukraine than most members of the transatlantic anti-Russia coalition.
Citing Ukrainian military commanders, an April 15 report in The Timesnoted that “British special forces have trained local troops in Kyiv for the first time since the war with Russia began.” Four months later, the Washington Examiner’s Tom Rogan, using information gleaned from “three Western government sources,” described in detail how British special forces, supervised by MI6, were at points operating “very close to the front lines” to help Ukrainian forces conduct “deep battlespace” strikes behind Russian lines to degrade command nodes, logistics trains, and supply depots. While Rogan added that British advisors were not authorized to directly engage Russian forces and that other Western paramilitary units (including CIA elements) are also on the ground in Ukraine, his previous reporting has highlighted how the Johnson government’s risk appetite in Ukraine, and Truss’ willingness to expand the envelope of support, is higher than the Biden administration’s.
Whether this serves the interests of the United Kingdom is up to the British people to decide. Yet British activism in Ukraine risks undermining the Biden administration’s stated policy that it will not intervene directly—a declaration that was meant to restrain the belligerency of certain NATO members as much as it was a signal to Moscow that U.S. forces organizing in Eastern Europe were not preparing to enter an active war zone. Biden’s commitment to avoid a direct confrontation with Russia eventually became the baseline strategic imperative of transatlantic action as NATO members developed their policies of support toward Ukraine.
But if policymakers in Washington are going to address the fact that a close NATO ally is too eager to escalate Western involvement in the Russo-Ukrainian War just short of an overt armed intervention, some introspection is in order. British involvement in Ukraine might exceed the outer limits of the United States’ risk tolerance, but not by much. Remember that intelligence shared by U.S. officials helped Ukrainian forces sink the Moskva, the guided missile cruiser and flagship of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, using two Neptune anti-ship missiles. More alarmingly, the New York Times reported in May that U.S. intelligence enabled Ukrainian forces to target and kill Russian generals leading troops from the front lines. In both instances, the United States identified specific high-value Russian assets while Ukrainians executed the strike. Viewed in these terms, Russia’s claim that the West is waging a proxy war against it in Ukraine is hard to dispute.
Given the depth of the United Kingdom’s involvement on the ground, it would be imprudent to assume that British military operators can avoid direct contact with Russian forces indefinitely, or that Moscow will not begin to target Western special forces units directing strikes against its troops in Ukraine. When a new prime minister takes office, Washington, London, and any NATO allieswith special forces in Ukraine need to develop a joint transition plan that will equip Ukrainian troops to conduct these missions without the direct aid of Western military operators, who should promptly begin leaving the country. More importantly, diplomatic channels with Moscow, both bilaterally and through NATO directly, should be reopened to begin probing for the possibility of a ceasefire.
During her intra-party campaign for prime minister, Truss has not shown any inclination to de-escalate her country’s involvement in Ukraine. But if she is elected as prime minister, U.S. policymakers would do well to discourage any further British involvement on the ground and urge a pullback from the front lines in Ukraine. Along with reassessing U.S. exposure in Ukraine, it would be sensible for the White House to level with its “closest ally” across the Atlantic and make explicit that the West’s first priority is to avoid, as Biden once bluntly stated, “World War III.”
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Matthew C. Mai is an Associate Editor at The National Interest.
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President Joe Biden is planning to declare Ukraine an official U.S. military operation, the Aug. 24 Wall Street Journal reports, making it a separate command with its own general. Should Biden do that, it would put the Ukraine operation on par with the U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“The naming of the operation formally recognizes the U.S. effort within the military, akin to how the Pentagon dubbed the missions in Iraq and Afghanistan Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Freedom’s Sentinel. The naming of the training and assistance is significant bureaucratically, as it typically entails long-term, dedicated funding and the possibility of special pay, ribbons and awards for service members participating in the effort.
“The selection of a general, expected to be a two- or three-star, reflects the creation of a command responsible to coordinate the effort, a shift from the largely ad hoc effort to provide training and assistance to the Ukrainians for years,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Biden and Congress are stepping up war spending and expansion, while workers have taken a pay cut of almost 4% this year. This is good old guns-not-butter politics. In the words of Gen. Dwight Eisenhower: “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”
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Ukraine’s Air Force staff have been essentially eliminated by Russia’s Aerospace Forces and air defense systems, a military-diplomatic source told the Russian agency TASS on Monday.
“The entire qualified operating personnel of Ukraine’s former air force – of Mig-29, Su-27 and Su-25 aircraft – have been practically eliminated by the effective actions of the Russian Aerospace Forces and the air defense systems,” the source declared.
The source also stated that the West’s vows to deliver more Soviet-manufactured combat planes will most likely remain void, adding that Ukraine was coerced to include poorly trained air cadets for combat sorties which led to “catastrophic losses among the remnants of the Ukrainian aviation.”
According to the source, attempts to bring on more pilots in Poland and other Eastern European countries were not fruitful. “The few who agreed are already in grave or in hospitals,” he explained.
This comes after Russian President Vladimir Putinrequested the increase of the size of Russian military personnel from 1.9 to 2.04 million last Thursday and amid continuous attacks by Ukrainian forces on the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant (NPP).
Following the attacks, two power units of the Zaporozhye NPP have been automatically disconnected from the network after a fire erupted near a high-voltage line, Yevgeny Balitsky, the head of the Zaporozhye regional administration, said on Thursday, adding that one power unit is still connected to the network. Just a day later, the Ukrainian military targeted the Zaporozhye NPP, and four shells hit the area where radioactive isotopes are stored.
The concurrent damages have led to action by the IAEA inspectors who are due to be on their way to the Zaporozhye NPP amid mounting fears over a potential nuclear accident.
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“Biden should immediately reverse his executive order,” said one humanitarian. “With millions of Afghans impoverished and starving, the U.S. must return to the Afghan people what is rightfully theirs.”
The United Nations aid chief on Monday led calls for a resumption of the humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan that ended after the Taliban reconquered the war-ravaged nation one year ago—pleas that came as six million Afghans face famine and the Biden administration continues to refuse to return billions of dollars in frozen funds.
“The people in Afghanistan continue to face extreme hardship and uncertainty,” U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffithstold the world body’s Security Council.
Noting that the U.N.’s Humanitarian Response Plan for Afghanistan is currently facing a more than $3 billion shortfall, Griffiths called on donors to immediately provide $754 million in aid to help Afghans survive the coming winter.
“Close to 19 million people are facing acute levels of food insecurity, including six million people at risk of famine,” he warned. “More than half of the population—some 24 million people—need humanitarian assistance. And an estimated three million children are acutely malnourished. They include over one million children estimated to be suffering from the most severe, life-threatening form of malnutrition. And without specialized treatment, these children could die.”
#Afghanistan is more than a humanitarian crisis. But it is not a hopeless crisis.
Preserving basic service delivery alongside humanitarian assistance remains the only way to prevent a catastrophe even greater than what we have seen in the past year.
This malnutrition crisis is fueled by recurrent drought, including the worst in three decades in 2021, and whose effects are still lingering. Eight out of 10 Afghans drink contaminated water, making them susceptible to repeated bouts of acute watery diarrhea. Around 25 million people are now living in poverty and three quarters of people’s income is spent on food. There’s been a 50% decline in households receiving remittances; unemployment could reach 40%; and inflation is rising due to increased global prices, import constraints, and currency depreciation.
“So these relentless layers of crisis persist at a time when communities are already struggling,” Griffiths added. “In June, a 5.9-magnitude earthquake affected over 360,000 people living in high-intensity impact areas. And since July, heavy rains have led to massive flash floods across the country, and indeed the region, killing and injuring hundreds of people, and destroying hundreds of homes as well as thousands of acres of crops.”
Not only has the US deprioritized Afghan refugees. The US continues to fuel crisis in Afghanistan with the criminal economic warfare on the Afghan economy which starves the Afghan people. #UnfreezeAfghanistan! https://t.co/4Wh2Ewgtmz
Because the Taliban—which fought for two decades to oust U.S.-led forces and the coalition-backed Afghan government in a war that claimed over 170,000 lives—is not formally recognized by any nation and is under international sanctions, it is difficult to deliver humanitarian assistance to the country.
U.S. policy is exacerbating the crisis. Despite pleas from economists and humanitarians, the Biden administration continues to withhold around $7 billion in Afghan central bank funds stored in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
On Monday, a U.S. federal judge concluded that relatives of victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States should not be allowed to claim billions of dollars of the frozen funds to settle legal judgments against the Taliban, who sheltered al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden before unsuccessfully offering to turn him in for trial in a third country as the U.S.-led invasion began. However, another judge can decide whether to accept that conclusion.
U.S. President Joe Biden had sought to set aside $3.5 billion of the $7 billion to settle 9/11 claimants’ cases, while signing a February executive order allocating the remainder “to be used for the benefit of the Afghan people.”
However, six months later, the administration still has not released the funds, citing the Taliban’s apparent sheltering of al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri—who was killed by a U.S. drone strike on Kabul on July 31.
Also addressing the U.N. Security Council on Monday, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the world body, contended that “no country that is serious about containing terrorism in Afghanistan would advocate to give the Taliban instantaneous, unconditional access to billions in assets that belong to the Afghan people.”
Today marks a year since U.S. forces withdrew from Afghanistan.
Several key indicators reveal that people in Afghanistan are suffering more now than before the U.S. invasion in 2001.
Assal Rad, research director at National Iranian American Council Action, tweeted Monday that “the U.S. is still collectively punishing the people of Afghanistan.”
“For millions of Afghans facing starvation,” she added, “the war never ended.”
From Common Dreams: Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
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Featured image: An Afghan man and children, suffering hardships from America’s longest war, pose for a portrait in Kabul, Afghanistan, on March 19, 2021. [Source: theintercept.com]
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