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This article was previously published November 15, 2020, and has been updated with new information.

There’s an entire school of research within public health on how to frighten people, known as “fear appeal”

Fear appeal is based on the premise that to successfully implement a public health measure, you must first highlight a threat. And, to work, the threat must be made personal, so that people fear for their personal safety

Next, you give people something immediate to do that will set them on the path of cooperating with the plan in its entirety. Examples during the COVID-19 pandemic included not leaving your house, wearing a mask, staying 6 feet apart, closing certain businesses and keeping children home from school

By adding confusion to the mix, you can bring an individual from fear to anxiety — a state of confusion in which you can no longer think logically. In this state, you are more easily manipulated

Eventually, when the fear and anxiety are great enough, desperation sets in, at which point people are willing to do just about anything to get relief

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Dr. Peter Breggin, a psychiatrist, has written more than a dozen best-selling books on psychiatry and the drug industry. He’s frequently referred to as “the conscience of psychiatry” because he was able to successfully reform the psychiatric profession, abolishing lobotomies and other harmful experimental psychosurgeries.

During the pandemic, he homed in on COVID-19 and the fears around it, which is the topic of this interview. He also started researching the history of Dr. Anthony Fauci, who has been the face of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, and learned more than he bargained for in the process.

“He just looked like this kindly gentleman, until I started to listen to what he was saying and to look into what he was doing,” Breggin says. “In early April, [my wife] Ginger brought this scientific article to me and said, ‘Honey, this looks like it’s impossible, it’s fake or something.’

It was a 2015 article by a big team from North Carolina [led by] Ralph Baric,¹ He’s the final author on it and the power behind it, although the lead author is Vineet D. Menachery.² This article is talking about making a coronavirus that’s going to be a new epidemic agent. They’re talking about it. They’ve actually accomplished it — and it’s a SARS coronavirus.

It’s a virus that will infect the lungs that comes from bats … And they’re checking it out and they find that it will infect human lung epithelium. They give it to mice and the older mice are getting very sick and ones that are compromised die.

And then I look who’s funding it. Well, China is funding it. And Fauci is funding it from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. I’m thinking to myself, ‘My God, we’re giving the Chinese a biomedical weapon’ … [The two Chinese authors] turn out to be two of the very, very top Chinese people in this, what is essentially a military lab. The Wuhan Institute, nothing like that is anything but military in China.”

What Is Fauci’s Role in the Bio-Assault on the World?

Breggin claims he was able to share the information with someone close to President Trump, and three days after sharing this finding, the president canceled the U.S.-Chinese research collaboration that was working on coronavirus gain-of-function research.

However, Fauci quickly took hold of the American research efforts and in October 2020 injected additional funding. Some of that funding will surely still end up in China, Breggin says, by way of the EcoHealth Alliance, which for years has subcontracted research work to the Wuhan Institute. Fauci also gave additional money to the University of Texas. Breggin explains:

“In Galveston, there is a Level 4 biosafety lab that can work with the most dangerous viruses. So, I decided to look into this. It’s not great magic to it, you have to use some search engines like DuckDuckGo. I [searched for] ‘China’ and ‘the Galveston Institute,’ and I got … a press release … bragging about their relationships with the Wuhan Institute, working on viruses.

So, no wonder he’s sending them money. I start digging deeper and I come across a letter from the education department to the University of Texas, saying they’ve not been forthcoming about their connections to China and the Communist Party (CCP), and in particular from the institute in Galveston.

So, I’m looking at this network of connections with China. They list them all. We have a blog out about that too now. And I realized there’s nothing stopping Fauci. Absolutely nothing is stopping him. He is going to carry on his assault on the world. And Fauci knew that the Wuhan Institute was unsafe.”

Breggin delves into some of the backstory that helps explain what’s been happening. In 2014, then-President Obama called for a moratorium on gain-of-function research [making harmless viruses virulent] in the U.S. He did not, however, mention collaborations with the CCP. To get around Obama’s moratorium, Fauci outsourced the gain-of-function research to the Wuhan Institute.

Indeed, a series of email exchanges between Jinping Chen of Guangdong Entomological Institute — who was working in collaboration with EcoHealth Alliance — surfaced after Judicial Watch successfully sued for records under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in July 2021.³ In those emails, Dr. James LeDuc, head of the NIH-funded biosecurity lab at the University of Texas in Galveston, was outed:

“Leduc told Chen that he had been working on an initiative to ‘form long-term scientific and technical collaborations with the new BSL4 laboratory’ in Wuhan, under the direction of Dr. Yuan Zhiming, with whom Leduc had met “repeatedly,” Judicial Watch reports. And, Leduc adds, ‘we are already attempting to build the kind of partnership [with the Wuhan Institute of Virology] that I think is envisioned under the GHSA [Global Health Security Agenda].'”

Seeing that the same Judicial Watch report shows that Fauci’s National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases funded 490 out of 2,221 grants awarded to Chinese Collaborators between 2010 and 2018, based on the evidence, Fauci appears to play an important role in the global takeover by technocrats.

Technocracy is an economic system in which the world is ruled not by democratically elected politicians but by technocrats — a conglomerate of ultra-wealthy elites, scientists and technicians whose aim is to rule the global population and the allocation of resources through the use of technology.

Fear Is the Tool of Tyrants

Breggin was asked to be the medical legal expert in a lawsuit to put a stop to the never-ending emergency edict by the governor of Ohio. In his medical legal brief,⁴ Breggin detailed why shutdowns aren’t working, and the harm they inflict on the population.

This lawsuit has also stirred up other anti-lockdown projects around the U.S. You can find more information about all of this on Breggin.com. It’s important to recognize that the primary tool that enables local and state leaders to implement unconstitutional mandates such as universal mask wearing, business shut-downs and draconian stay-at-home orders is fear.

Unless people are terrified, they won’t agree to such freedom-robbing edicts. This is a well-known fact, and as noted by Breggin, there’s an entire school of research within public health on how to frighten people, known as “fear appeal.”

“What an odd name: Fear appeal. It’s a euphemism for scaring people to death. That’s how you ‘appeal’ to them. And it’s a very long standing [field of research].

The particular article [Ginger and I] studied together made several points. It said, first, you have to not only create something or have something that people are afraid of in order to get your public health measures imposed, but you have to make it personal to them, you have to make them afraid personally.

Then you have to give them something immediate to do to begin cooperating with the plans that you have. We have many examples of that. Things to immediately do [are]: Don’t leave the house; wear a mask; stay 6 feet apart; start closing down businesses and so on. Don’t let your kids go to school and on and on …

That got me into looking more deeply at the whole question of public health. And public health, sad to say, is essentially a totalitarian model. It does not raise issues of collateral damage, it doesn’t raise issues of the Bill of Rights, the constitution, of liberty, the right to people to die with their boots on, the American tradition of individuals and their own communities making decisions.

There is no such concept. It starts with the assumption that what public health officials think is true and must be applied regardless of the context. And we see this with this globalism.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re working in Africa or in Communist China, North Vietnam or America, these are the principles, they’re about politics above everything. It’s quite astounding. So, [public health] became something that was perfectly usable by the most extreme totalitarianism …

At the top is extraordinarily wealthy and powerful people and organizations. I see it as a kind of a cooperative but competing group that welcomed Communist China, which shows how little these people — like Fauci and the World Bank and our governments in the Western world — worry about anything except wealth and power.

Once they invited Communist China into this circle, China became a big, big player along these world predators and let each other be. Until Trump came along, no major figure stood up and said, ‘No, no, we’re going to go back to the [way things were].'”

The Psychology of Learned Helplessness

Fear is undoubtedly one of the most powerful motivating emotions for individuals, and the single most powerful intervention capable of controlling an entire population. It’s certainly hard to miss that fear has been used to control the masses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Governments now have access to incredibly sophisticated technologies, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, which is being used for all it’s worth to push this fear propaganda. The end goal is to push us into a state of helplessness, so that they can come in and “rescue” us. For decades, Breggin has studied learned helplessness and its remedies.

“When we’re born, we’re fundamentally helpless. All we can do to be taken care of is to express pain, we can cry, we can wiggle, we can express suffering. But we have no ability to take control of the environment other than by hopefully attracting our caregivers that cuddle us or look for a thorn in the side or whatever.

And that remains an aspect of humanity. That never leaves us. All of us can at some point be made to feel helpless again. And when we feel helpless, we become like the infant. We feel we have to be saved, basically. We look to other people, we look to drugs, alcohol, we look to authoritarian religions, we look to leaders of all kinds.”

From Fear to Anxiety to Desperation

As explained by Breggin, by adding confusion to the mix, you can bring an individual from fear to anxiety, a state of confusion in which you cannot think straight anymore. One of the characteristics of a panic attack or an anxiety attack is the loss of the ability to think. You become helpless and confused. Eventually, desperation sets in, at which point people are willing to do just about anything to get relief.

“So this, folks, is a web of fear,” Breggin says. “It’s all about scaring us, confusing us, making us helpless. I recently wrote a chapter that I may or may not put it in the book about my 85 years of looking at fear, because I was alive during World War II. I went down to the beach when I was 4 or 5 years old and would find remnants of our sailors’ life rafts where they sunk right off the water’s edge.

We were afraid of bombs called blockbusters, we hid under the tables and chairs and whatever we could find in school desks for fear of blockbusters. I went through the horrors of the polio [epidemic]. My closest friend died of polio two days after I was wrestling with him. I know fear, I know epidemics … the Vietnam War … 9/11.

And never until Fauci … have I seen leaders say ‘Be afraid.’ I couldn’t believe it when they found a comment made in private by Trump that he wanted to reassure and not scare the people. That was his supposed villainousness — not wanting to scare people.

That’s what Roosevelt did, that’s what every single person has done in great moments of crisis — they have said ‘Let us not be afraid,’ because we all know that a country that is unafraid and is doing as much of its normal activity as possible, is the strongest possible country.

That’s an actual public health principle — that we function best when we are living a normal life, unafraid, and we have ideals and goals like American liberty and freedom to strive for.”

The Biology of Fear

So, just what happens in your body when you experience fear? Importantly, it “quite literally scrambles our brains,” Breggin says. The good news is you have the power to control your mind and to calm down. The bad news is you don’t think you have any control over your mind.

“Anxiety overwhelms us, it makes us stupid, it makes us desperately want somebody to take over. But what we need is somebody who says you don’t have anything to fear, the anxiety won’t kill you; [someone who] will calm you down and tell you everything’s going to be fine, you don’t have to be helpless.

But we are getting the exact opposite message from Biden and Fauci … The pharmaceutical industry and the very wealthy need this fear because they’re making a fortune on this fear … getting all their drugs and vaccines ready.”

The Antidotes to Corruption Are Reason, Love and Liberty

Realizing the depth of the scientific corruption was part of why Breggin and his wife, Ginger, decided to take on this whole new field of investigation.

“We knew we had the research expertise and the scientific expertise. And I’ve got so many published books and scientific articles that I don’t think anybody can doubt I’m a researcher and a scientist,” he says.

“It was so mind-blowing to see the degree of corruption. I actually imagined standing in front of God, explaining why I didn’t do anything. That didn’t fly very well. I think the best antidote to looking at all this corruption is, first of all, to know this world has always been a corrupt place …

So, we need to learn to keep our own free will intact, and to love. We need reason and love. We can reason, we can love and respect the liberty of other people. Those are my three key words in life: Reason, love and liberty … You want to overcome your helplessness, [and you] do that with reason.”

What’s at Stake

Educating and supporting others are other strategies that can be helpful. Investigate things for yourself, and then share what you’ve learned with others. The way out of helplessness is to be of service to others, to contribute in some way. As noted by Breggin:

“We need to buckle up at this point and really see ourselves as an example of succeeding in the face of all this, and to spread it however far and wide we can … We weren’t promised an easy life.

There’s just no place that I know of that is a mammoth promise of an easy life. Life is difficult. Right now, I think the single most important thing is not the virus, it’s saving freedom in America.

One of the things I want to say to the progressive folks — and for a good chunk of my life, I was a very strong progressive — most of you are idealists, most of you would like to see the improvement of mankind. But that is not what’s going on in the world right now …

It is not about being a conservative, it is not about being a progressive. We are dealing with international predators that are just as happy to work with Iran, or North Korea, or North Vietnam or China. They are only interested in wealth and power. They have no real deep commitment to progressivism or capitalism. And … they haven’t got the slightest interest in free enterprise. Bill Gates is not a figure of free enterprise.

You got to get this straight. These people are not for liberty. This entire powerful international movement that I’m calling predatory globalists are motivated by wealth and power. They have reached the pinnacles of power, which are always corrupting.

Bill Gates has three people on his board of trustees: Himself, his wife and Warren Buffett — the No. 2 and No. 4 wealthiest people in the world. This is power beyond imagination. They are not wedded to anything except power and wealth. Wealth is a way to [power] and they’re using technocrats to do this.”

More Information

I agree with Breggin that the most important thing right now is to recognize that what we’re facing is an acute challenge to our society, our culture, that must be faced head-on. We need to aid our fellow human beings as best as we can with information, knowledge, that the conventional mainstream media is not telling them.

In fact, mainstream media are a significant part of the problem, because they’re being used as a tool to implement the technocrats’ agenda. For this reason, it has become imperative to seek out other channels of information, most of which are becoming progressively more censored and harder to find.

To stay on top of Breggin’s investigations, be sure to sign up for newsletter alerts on his website, breggin.com. He also has a radio and TV show that airs once a week. On his website, you’ll also find links to Breggin’s report⁵ on Fauci’s CCP connections, titled “Dr. Fauci’s COVID-19 Treachery,” and his legal report,⁶ “COVID-19 & Public Health Totalitarianism: Untoward Effects on Individuals, Institutions and Society.”

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Notes

¹ Ralph Baric, Ph.D.

² Nature Medicine, 21 (12), 1508-1514. December 2015. With follow-up letter included

³ Judicial Watch July 8, 2021

⁴ Breggin.com Legal Report to Stop Emergency Declaration in Ohio and Elsewhere

⁵ Dr. Fauci’s COVID-19 Treachery October 19, 2020 (PDF)

⁶ COVID-19 & Public Health Totalitarianism: Untoward Effects on Individuals, Institutions and Society August 30, 2020 (PDF)

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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On August 4, Ukrainian army rockets struck the drama theater of Donetsk and a neighboring area, killing famed ballerina and teacher, Galina Vasilyevna Volodina, and one of her protégés, Katya Kutubaeva, 12, a rising young star with a brilliant future ahead of her.

According to Canadian journalist Eva Bartlett, Volodina, Kutubaeva and the latter’s grandmother were walking to the theater on Pushkin Boulevard when they were torn to pieces by the blast. See YouTube video:

Bartlett interviewed Vadym Pysarev, Art Director of Donetsk State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, who was badly shaken by their deaths, saying that both were “very, very nice people.”

Pysarev worked closely with Galina, who he said had a very successful career as a dancer until she was about 35 and then became among the “best ballet teachers in the world.”

According to Pysarev, she had a “gift for dancers;” “training them from many different places including Germany, Moscow, Amsterdam, France,” and was “really something special.”

Because of her, they had developed a very successful dance school in Donetsk and the theater was always packed.

Pysarev said that Katya was an “incredibly talented ballerina who was destined for greatness—until Ukraine killed her.”

She was “very, very talented and very, very smart and had the possibility to be one of the best dancers—a star.”

Katya [Source: twitter.com]

Pysarev told Bartlett that “ballet is life, but war is horrible. For eight years the people of Donetsk have suffered terribly from the war and yet nobody has paid any attention or cared about us.”

Phoenix Program Redux

On August 18, The New York Times published a front page article about Ukrainian guerrilla fighters, or partisans, who carry out terrorist activity in violation of the international laws of war.^[1]

Andrew E. Kramer reported that the partisans “sneak down darkened alleys to set explosives…post leaflets and graffiti with dark warnings for collaborators as part of their psychological operations….gather intelligence….and identify Russian targets for Ukrainian artillery and long-range rockets provided by the United States. They blow up rail lines and assassinate officials they consider collaborators with the Russians.”

These latter activities are easily reminiscent of the Phoenix program in Vietnam along with the Operation Rollback in Eastern Europe at the dawn of the original Cold War, where the CIA trained Ukrainian nationalists with fascist leanings to carry out terrorist acts in an attempt to overthrow a pro-Russian government.^[2]

Anti-Soviet partisan fighters trained by the CIA to commit terrorist acts behind the Iron Curtain during the early Cold War as part of the Operation Rollback–whose exploits are being repeated in modern-day Ukraine. [Source: nationalwww2museum.org]

According to The New York Times, today’s partisans have become increasingly aggressive in “taking the fight against Russian forces into Russian controlled areas.”

The goal, said one guerrilla fighter, is to “show the occupiers [Russians] that they are not at home, that they should not settle in, that they should not sleep comfortably.”

Many Eastern Ukrainians, however, do not view the Russians as occupiers but rather liberators from eight years of Ukrainian army terror.

In a testament to the use of terrorist methods, one Ukrainan government official described a poisoning in the Zaporizhzhia region that killed around 15 Russian soldiers and the sabotage of a grain elevator in the Kherson region that prevented Russian forces from taking 60,000 tons of grain.

Partisans were also behind an explosion that disabled a railroad bridge connecting Melitopol to Russian-controlled Crimea.

The Ukrainian government made select partisans available to the media because they wanted to “highlight the partisans’ widening threat to Russian forces and signal to Western donors that Ukraine is successfully rallying local resources in the war, now nearly six months old.”

The partisans say they are civilians and thus their activity is regulated under Ukrainian law and not the international laws of war that prohibit, for example, a soldier from targeting a civilian officer.

One of the fighters, nicknamed Svarog, trained with a branch of the Right Sector and neo-Nazi Azov battalion.

After the Russian invasion in February, he was directed to a storage shed outside Melitopol, where he found slabs of high explosives, detonators, Kalashnikov rifles, a grenade launcher and two pistols equipped with silencers.

South eastern Ukraine and the Sea of Azov. [Source: ukrainetoday.org]

Svarog told Andrew Kramer that with little movement of the front lines, his group of partisans “strike stealthily in environs they know intimately using car bombs, booby traps and targeted killings with pistols—and then blend into the local population.”

One night this spring, Svarog and several members of his cell in Melitopol snuck through the town, and, by his own admission, planted a bomb into a wheel of a patrol car parked at the Russian-controlled police station.

When it went off the next day, a police officer was killed and another was wounded. “Anybody who would drive that car would be a traitor,” Svarog said. “Nobody there is keeping public order.”

Last week, Svarog’s cell booby-trapped the car of Oleg Shostak, a city official in Melitopol who joined United Russia (pro-Russian political party) and was targeted because he was suspected of “tailoring propaganda to appeal to local residents.”

After his car exploded, Shostak was badly wounded, though survived. Svarog was happy with the outcome because a signal had been sent to Russian collaborators: “you are never safe.”

Svarog and another partisan nicknamed Viking, said that the ranks of traitors whom the partisans have been hunting down include municipal and regional government employees and teachers who agree to work under the Russian educational curriculum—even when the majority of students in Eastern Ukraine are ethnic Russians from families opposed to the attempt to force Ukrainian language instruction and curriculum on them.

But according to Viking, “the Russians want to teach by their program, not the truth. A child is vulnerable to propaganda and if raised in this program, will become an idiot like the Russians,” he said. “A teacher who agrees to teach by the Russian program is a collaborator.”

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Jeremy Kuzmarov is Managing Editor of CovertAction Magazine. He is the author of four books on U.S. foreign policy, including Obama’s Unending Wars (Clarity Press, 2019) and The Russians Are Coming, Again, with John Marciano (Monthly Review Press, 2018). He can be reached at: [email protected].

Notes

1. Andrew E. Kramer, “Ukrainians Behind Enemy Lines Tell Invaders: You’re Never Safe,” The New York Times, August 18, 2022, A1. 

2. See Douglas Valentine, The Phoenix Program (New York: William & Morrow, 1990); Peter Grose, Operation Rollback: America’s Secret War Behind the Iron Curtain (New York: Mariner Books, 2001). 

Featured image: Galina Vasilyevna Volodina (left), and twelve-year-old Katya Kutubaeva. [Source: slippedisc.com]

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

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.

***

Cancer begins when genetic changes interfere with the normal replication and replacement of cells in the body. Cells start to grow uncontrollably and may form a tumour. It is the No. 2 leading cause of death in the United States.

Unfortunately, it appears the disease may be on the rise thanks to the experimental Covid-19 injections. Because official U.S. Government data confirms the risk of developing cancer following Covid-19 vaccination increases by a shocking 143,233%.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) hosts a Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) which contains historical data on adverse reactions reported against every vaccine that has been administered in the United States of America.

A quick search of the CDC VAERS database on the number of cancer cases reported as adverse reactions to the Covid-19 injections since they were first rolled out in the USA, reveals that from December 2020 up to 5th August 2022, a total of 2,579 adverse events related to cancer were made in just 1 year and 8 months.

Covid-19 Vaccines (Source)

But performing a similar search of the VAERS database on the number of cancer cases reported as adverse events to all other available vaccines between 2008 and 2020, a period of 13 years, reveals there were just 791 adverse events related to cancer.

All other Vaccines (Source)

Many would simply argue without backing their claim up with any evidence, that this is just because of the volume of Covid-19 injections administered compared to all other vaccines. But unfortunately, anyone who argues this is wrong.

We can see this by looking at the number of doses administered.

The following chart shows the total number of flu vaccine doses administered in 13 full flu seasons all the way from the 2008/2009 flu season to the 2019-2020 flu season. The data has been extracted from the CDC info found here.

Source

In all between the 08/09 flu season and the 19/20 flu season, there were a total of 1,720,400,000 (1.7204 billion) doses of the flu jab administered in the USA.

The CDC also confirms that between 2008 and 2020, a period of 13 years, there were just 64 events related to cancer reported as adverse reactions to the influenza vaccines.

Flu Vaccines (Source)

Based on the number of adverse events related to cancer alone, we can see that there have been 40.3x as many cancer cases related to Covid-19 vaccination than there have been related to flu vaccination.

But whilst shocking, this statistic doesn’t properly represent the severity of the situation. To do that we need to know the number of cancer cases per 100,000 doses administered.

Based on the above numbers provided by the CDC, the number of adverse events related to cancer reported per 100,000 doses of flu vaccine administered equates to just 0.0003 per 100,000 doses.

According to ‘Our World in Data’, as of 9th August 2022, 606 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccines have been administered in the USA. This means there have been actually nearly 3x as many flu vaccines administered between 2008-2020 than Covid-19 injections since the end of 2020, let alone all of the other vaccines that have been administered.

Source

Therefore, the number of adverse events related to cancer reported per 100,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccine administered equates to 0.43 per 100,000 doses.

This means Covid-19 vaccination is 1433.33x / 143,233.33% more likely to cause cancer than flu vaccination. It can be argued that because the numbers are so extraordinarily low for the flu vaccine, that flu vaccination does not cause cancer. Therefore, it can be argued that the risk of developing cancer following Covid-19 vaccination is 1433x greater than the background risk.

This should however not come as much of a surprise considering we already have scientific proof that the Covid-19 mRNA injections can cause cancer of the ovaries, pancreas and breast.

The homologous recombination DNA repair pathway is one of the mechanisms that the body uses to stop your cells from turning cancerous in response to environmental stress.

And in October 2021, two revered scientists, called Jiang and Mei, had a paper published, after peer review, in MDPI, showing that the SARS-Cov-2 spike protein obliterated the DNA repair mechanism in lymphocytes.

The viral spike protein was so toxic to this pathway that it knocked 90% of it out. If the whole spike protein got into the nucleus (in the ovaries), and enough of it was produced and hung around long enough before the body was able to get rid of it all, it would cause cancer.

Fortunately, in the case of natural infection, this is unlikely to occur. But the experimental mRNA “vaccines” induce spike protein to be produced in and around the cell nucleus and this occurs for at least 60 days and almost certainly longer.

This is probably why cases of ovarian cancer are now at an all-time high.

Official UK data published by Public Health Scotland, which can be found here, reveal the number of women suffering ovarian cancer from the introduction of the Covid-19 injection to the general population. Unfortunately, the known trend in 2021 was significantly higher than 2020 and the 2017-2019 average.

Ovarian Cancer – Source

The above chart shows up to June 2021, but the charts found on Public Health Scotland’s dashboard now show figures all the way up to December 2021 and unfortunately reveal that the gap has widened even further with the number of women suffering from Ovarian cancer increasing significantly.

Click here to enlarge.

If you still wish to get a jab that doesn’t stop you from getting Covid-19, doesn’t stop you from spreading Covid-19, increases your risk of mortality significantly (see here), and increases your risk of suffering cancer by 143,233% then that’s up to you. But perhaps you can now be a little more understanding of why many others simply refuse to do so.

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Featured image is from Children’s Health Defense

The Collapse of America: What History Teaches Us About the Rise and Fall of Empires. Prof. Alfred McCoy

By Michael Welch and Prof Alfred McCoy, August 21, 2022

Afghanistan would only be the latest in a series of military accomplishments that have proved expensive both in terms of money and in terms of bloodshed. Iraq has proven to be a disaster where President George W Bush early on declared it victory.

Top Biden Official: US Would Overthrow Colombia’s New Left-wing President 40 Years Ago

By Ben Norton, August 22, 2022

Biden’s top Latin America advisor Juan González threateningly said of Colombia’s new left-wing president, “40 years ago, the United States would have done everything possible to prevent the election of Gustavo Petro” and “sabotage his government.”

After Data Show Vaccinated at Higher Risk of Dying from COVID, Canadian Province Ends Monthly Reports

By Dr. Julie Comber and Madhava Setty, August 22, 2022

After the Manitoba, Canada, public health agency reported data showing those fully vaccinated (not boosted) for COVID-19 are at higher risk of dying from the virus compared to unvaccinated individuals, health officials stopped reporting on the data — a trend seen in other countries, including Scotland, the U.K. and the U.S.

US Military Still Stealing Oil in Syria

By Steven Sahiounie, August 22, 2022

The US forces who invaded in 2014 are in control of the main oil and gas fields in Hasakah and Deir Ez Zor, and they are assisted by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who were US partners in the fight to eliminate ISIS.

A Letter to UK’s Chief Coroners Office on Disturbing COVID and COVID Vaccination Deaths

By John O’Looney, August 20, 2022

I have seen massive efforts made to deliberately inflate Covid death numbers by relabelling cancer patients and stroke victims and all manner of normal regular deaths as Covid, in fact virtually anyone getting into an ambulance, this effort has been deliberate and the methods used to do so were totally flawed, PCR tests for example being run on 45 cycles we all know to be worthless, yet people are being euthanised on this basis and sometimes only on the basis of a chest x-ray alone.

Life at the End of an Empire with St Augustine

By Matthew Ehret-Kump, August 19, 2022

It isn’t often that a generation lives through a systemic breakdown crisis. While many shallower minds are quick to lay blame to the cause of their troubles on a convenient scapegoat, the fact is that these sorts of systemic collapses take time and the root causes are to be found in something both more universal and more subjective.

An Apology to the Billionaires for My Irresponsible Comments

By Emanuel Pastreich, August 19, 2022

I have been subject to tremendous criticism from all sides over the last week for my recent comments concerning billionaires, and specifically concerning the man who put the “bill” in “billionaire,” none other than the “workingman’s hero” Bill Gates, the inventor of just about everything he can get his hands on.

Europe Decreasing Military Aid to Ukraine

By Lucas Leiroz de Almeida, August 19, 2022

Apparently, European countries are understanding that the path to peace in Ukraine requires stopping military aid. Data show that in July the six major European powers abstained from making new military agreements with Kiev.

Censorship and Global Information Control: Who Is Behind the “Trusted News Initiative”(TNI)?

By Dr. Joseph Mercola, August 19, 2022

What is the Trusted News Initiative (TNI)? As you may have discovered, Orwellian doublespeak is rampant these days, and many organizations are named in complete opposition to their intended purposes. Such is the case with the TNI as well.

44 Percent of Pregnant Women in Pfizer Trial Lost Their Babies; FDA and CDC Recommended Jabs for Expectant Mothers Anyway. Report

By Debra Heine, August 19, 2022

More than 40 percent of pregnant women who participated in Pfizer’s mRNA COVID vaccine trial suffered miscarriages, according internal Pfizer documents, recently released under court order. Despite this, Pfizer, and the Biden administration insisted that the vaccines were safe for pregnant women.

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***

Biden’s top Latin America advisor Juan González threateningly said of Colombia’s new left-wing president, “40 years ago, the United States would have done everything possible to prevent the election of Gustavo Petro” and “sabotage his government.”

The top Latin America advisor for US President Joe Biden, Juan Sebastián González, threateningly said of Colombia’s new left-wing president:

“40 years ago, the United States would have done everything possible to prevent the election of Gustavo Petro, and once in power it would have done almost everything possible to sabotage his government.”

González is the Western hemisphere director for the US National Security Council (NSC). He previously worked in the State Department and NSC in the Barack Obama administration.

González made these incendiary comments in Spanish in an interview with the Colombian media.

Obliquely acknowledging the long history of US meddling in Latin America’s sovereign internal affairs, González added,

“Those are the policies of the Cold War, that to a certain point today for some people are a justification from revisionist perspectives that characterize the policy of the United States in the context of a local manifestation of an empire.”

Petro is Colombia’s first ever left-wing president. He is a former revolutionary with socialist armed movement M-19, which signed a peace treaty and demilitarized. Petro subsequently established himself as a lawmaker and became mayor of the capital Bogotá.

Although he ran a center-left campaign harshly condemning the socialist governments in Venezuela and Nicaragua, Petro has tempered his criticism since entering office.

In the first vote by Petro’s administration at the US-dominated Organization of American States (OAS) on August 12, Colombia refused to join in the politically motivated condemnation of Nicaragua’s leftist Sandinista government. Colombia was absent from the vote, alongside the governments of Mexico, Bolivia, Honduras, and El Salvador, which abstained.

Petro has also rapidly pursued the normalization of relations between Colombia and its neighbor Venezuela.

Just a few days after winning the election in June, then President-elect Petro held a phone call with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, discussing plans to reopen the border and establish peace.

The president of Venezuela’s National Assembly, Jorge Rodríguez, announced on August 16 that the parliamentary body was coordinating with Colombia’s Senate in order to re-establish formal commercial and diplomatic relations.

Petro was inaugurated on August 7. The ceremony was full of important political symbolism. Petro requested that the sword of anti-colonialist leader Simón Bolívar be present.

Colombia's armed socialist and anti-imperialist group M-19 put down its weapons in 1990 after signing a peace treaty with the government

M-19 became a legal political party. Its leader Carlos Pizarro was a presidential candidate

But Colombia's intelligence agencies murdered him

— Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) August 16, 2022

At the inauguration, Petro was also given the presidential sash by María José Pizarro, a lawmaker from Petro’s left-wing Pacto Histórico party and the daughter of Carlos Pizarro.

Carlos Pizarro was the leader of the revolutionary socialist 19th of April Movement (M-19) that Petro had been involved in in his youth.

The M-19 demilitarized in 1990 after signing a peace agreement with the Colombian government. Having put down its weapons, M-19 became a legal political party, and Carlos Pizarro was its presidential candidate.

But just a few weeks after signing the peace deal, the Colombian state murdered Carlos Pizarro, in an operation organized by the feared Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad (DAS), a notorious intelligence agency that acted as a kind of secret police.

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After the Manitoba, Canada, public health agency reported data showing those fully vaccinated (not boosted) for COVID-19 are at higher risk of dying from the virus compared to unvaccinated individuals, health officials stopped reporting on the data — a trend seen in other countries, including Scotland, the U.K. and the U.S.

Manitoba, population 1.4 million, was the first Canadian province whose public health agency reported data showing those who are fully vaccinated (not boosted) for COVID-19 are at higher risk of dying from COVID-19 compared to unvaccinated individuals.

The age-standardized data are from May 2022, but last appeared in Manitoba’s August 3 report:

Credit: Manitoba Public Health

As the figure above indicates, for the month of May, Manitoba Public Health reported a 40% increased risk of death associated with COVID-19 in “fully vaccinated” individuals compared to unvaccinated.

The risk of death for those who were boosted was the same as for unvaccinated individuals.

Though three months old, the May data are, as of this writing, the last reported by the Canadian province.

Manitoba’s trending risk of severe outcomes by vaccination status

The May data on severe outcomes by vaccination status are part of a monthly trend suggesting reduced vaccine effectiveness over time.

By the end of December 2021, 74.7% of Manitobans were vaccinated for COVID-19 and 18.7% were not vaccinated, according to Manitoba Public Health’s weekly report for December 19-25, 2021.

At that time, Manitoba was not reporting on severe COVID-19 outcomes by vaccination status.

On Jan. 12, 2022, Global News reported that between Nov. 22, 2021, and Jan. 2, 2022, boosted individuals (purple bar) were 63 times less likely to die from COVID-19 than unvaccinated individuals (red bar):

Credit: Global News

Boosted individuals also were 26 times less likely to be hospitalized:

Credit: Global News

And boosted individuals were 139 times less likely to be admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) than unvaccinated individuals:

Credit: Global News

The Manitoba Public Health’s weekly reports did not report this data at the time.

Manitoba first reported severe outcomes by vaccination status in March 2022, and then updated the numbers each month for the next three months.

In those reports, the risk of a severe outcome was age-standardized and reported per 100,000 person days.

Age-standardization, also called age-adjustment, is a statistical procedure that allows for the comparison of groups with different age structures. It is used because the risks of death and severe outcomes are different depending on a person’s age.

With COVID-19, for example, it is well known that older adults are at a higher risk of hospitalization and death from COVID-19. If older adults are more likely to opt for vaccination and boosting, then the vaccinated and boosted groups would have a greater proportion of older people, who are at higher risk of severe outcomes, than the unvaccinated group.

Without age-standardization, the statistics would not show the impact of vaccination independent of age.

Here were Manitoba Public Health’s first comparative data around COVID-19 age-standardized severe outcomes:

Credit: Manitoba Public Health

Though there were nearly 5 of 16 weeks that overlapped with the time window on which Global News reported, the vaccine’s effectiveness against severe outcomes had somehow plummeted.

Then in the subsequent report that covered the month of March only, vaccine effectiveness dropped more (notice the 3 times greater risk of ICU admission in the partially vaccinated):

Credit: Manitoba Public Health

And in the next report, vaccine effectiveness dropped further still:

Credit: Manitoba Public Health

Manitoba Public Health, without explanation, stopped reporting the rate of severe outcomes in the “partially vaccinated.”

Finally, the most recent report showed us results from May 2022:

Credit: Manitoba Public Health

For the month of May, Figure 6 (above) shows that unvaccinated individuals were 40% less at risk of COVID-19-associated death than fully vaccinated individuals, and their risk was the same as boosted individuals.

Unvaccinated people also were 30% less likely to require hospitalization than vaccinated people, and 10% more likely to be hospitalized than boosted people.

Unvaccinated people were more likely to require ICU admission — 20% more than fully vaccinated people and 80% more likely than boosted individuals.

Manitoba did not report on these outcomes for the month of June or any time period since.

Manitoba’s latest report, dated August 11, announced:

“Monthly updates about severe outcomes after vaccination have been discontinued starting Week 31 [July 31-Aug. 6]. Manitoba Health will continue to monitor COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness and report periodically when data allow.”

At the time of this writing, Manitoba Public Heath had not responded to a request to explain why it stopped reporting this data.

Despite their latest data showing an increased risk of death and hospitalizations in vaccinated individuals and no survival benefit in the boosted, the authors paradoxically summarize:

“COVID-19 vaccines continue to provide important protection against serious illness following infection due to all variants of concern (VOC) of COVID-19.”

Public health agencies stop reporting inconvenient data

Though independent journalist Alex Berenson brought attention to this official data, there have been no news reports in the mainstream media about this disquieting trend in Manitoba.

Nor have the media reported on why Manitoba suddenly stopped releasing this data. This appears to be part of a larger trend of public agencies ending reporting on severe COVID-19 outcomes by vaccination status.

For example, the Canadian province of British Columbia (BC), like Manitoba, for a time produced weekly reports that included age-stratified data on severe COVID-19 outcomes by vaccination status.

But at the end of July, the BC Centre for Disease Control website stated, “As of July 28, the Outcomes by Vax and Vax Donut Charts have been retired.”

CTV News Vancouver, a Canadian news station, asked the BC Ministry of Health for an explanation. An emailed response from a ministry spokesperson read, in part:

“As most of the population has now been vaccinated with at least two doses of vaccine and many more have been infected with COVID-19, the data became hard to interpret.”

Ontario, next door to Manitoba, also used to report weekly on severe COVID-19 outcomes by vaccination status.

However, the “COVID-19 Vaccine Data in Ontario” website now states that hospitalization by vaccination status data and cases by vaccination status data will no longer be published as of June 30, and that case rates by vaccination status and age group data will no longer be published as of July 13.

Ontario continues to report deaths by vaccination status, but as raw data in a CSV file that can be downloaded and that requires the person who downloads it to generate the graph.

Scotland stops reporting data due to ‘increasing risk of misinterpretation from growing complexities’

Scotland releases weekly reports and used to report severe COVID-19 outcomes by vaccination status.

In the weekly report released on March 2, Public Health Scotland (PHS) announced that severe outcomes by vaccination status “will no longer be reported on a weekly basis from 16 February 2022.”

Officials said:

“Due to the increasing risk of misinterpretation from growing complexities as the COVID-19 pandemic enters its second year (as described below), PHS has taken the decision to no longer report COVID-19 cases, hospitalisations and deaths by vaccination status on a weekly basis.”

If we examine Scotland’s last published comparative data, we see the unvaccinated enjoyed significant protection from infection compared to the vaccinated:

Credit: Public Health Scotland

The above table shows that the age-standardized case rate was growing in the fully vaccinated and boosted compared to the unvaccinated.

In other words, the vaccine effectiveness was negative and growing more negative as time went on.

With regard to severe outcomes like hospitalization, the fully vaccinated had a greater risk than the unvaccinated every week and approached nearly double of the unvaccinated by the end of the reporting period:

Credit: Public Health Scotland

PHS highlighted the advantage the boosted had over the unvaccinated in green. Was that the intent? Or was it to distract us from what was happening in the fully vaccinated?

Finally, with regard to COVID-19 mortality, once again the fully vaccinated were at a greater risk of dying:

Credit: Public Health Scotland

Boosted Scots remained at lower risk of dying than the unvaccinated as the green shading accentuates.

Nevertheless, the last time Scotland reported these numbers the fully vaccinated were doing worse against the very disease the vaccine was intended to protect them from.

UK stops publishing data because . . . no more free COVID testing?

The UK Health Security Agency’s weekly reports also once included a section called “Vaccination status in cases, deaths and hospitalisations.”

However, in the Week 14 report, released April 7, the agency announced, “Data on the vaccination status of COVID-19 cases, and deaths and hospitalisations with COVID-19, is no longer published.”

In the relevant section of the report, it states:

“From 1 April 2022, the UK Government ended provision of free universal COVID-19 testing for the general public in England, as set out in the plan for living with COVID-19.

“Such changes in testing policies affect the ability to robustly monitor COVID-19 cases by vaccination status, therefore, from the week 14 report onwards this section of the report will no longer be published.

“For further context and previous data, please see previous vaccine surveillance reports and our blog post.”

The agency provided no explanation for why ending free COVID-19 testing would affect reporting of hospitalizations and deaths associated with COVID-19.

The previous week’s report, released on March 31, still had the data in “Table 14. Unadjusted rates of COVID-19 infection, hospitalization and death in vaccinated and unvaccinated populations.”

But unlike the Canadian provinces, the data did not include fully vaccinated individuals, only those who received a booster.

Nonetheless, the data still tell a disappointing story about vaccine effectiveness. Here is the last data reported by the U.K. that compares the unvaccinated to the boosted population:

Credit: UK Health Security Agency

This table was stratified by age group, and three doses appeared to have little impact on the already very low death rate in people under 50 years old, while deaths in those 80 and older were halved in the boosted group.

What is most remarkable is that in every age group, the risk of contracting COVID-19 was 3 to 5 times higher in boosted individuals than in the unvaccinated. Given the inferior protection provided by full vaccination alone, we can surmise that the fully vaccinated fared even worse.

The United States

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) does report deaths by vaccination status, but does not include boosted individuals.

The data also are nearly three months old, despite assurances that these numbers are updated monthly. There are too few deaths in the under-18 age category to report.

CDC data indicate that as of May 2022, in the 30 to 49 age group, about 1 million people needed to be vaccinated to prevent a single COVID-19 death per week.

That number is nearly 3 million for adults ages 18 to 29.

When will the CDC resume its reporting on COVID-19 deaths, if ever? And, why did the CDC stop comparing hospitalizations in the unvaccinated to those who completed the primary series (unboosted) back in November 2021?

As in the U.K., comparisons are made with the boosted only.

Unlike the Canadian provinces, Scotland and the U.K., the CDC has yet to make a formal announcement about ending reporting of COVID-19 outcomes between the vaccinated and unvaccinated.

Instead, the agency seems to have tacitly admitted that the available vaccines are essentially ineffective by issuing “streamlined” guidelines that do not differentiate by vaccine status as of August 11.

Though the CDC is signaling we can relax restrictions on the unvaccinated, let us not forget that the “latest data” from Manitoba, the U.K. and Scotland indicated COVID-19 outcomes were worse in the fully vaccinated and had been trending downward prior to the mysterious and concurrent decision by multiple public health agencies to end such reporting.

Some of the “latest data” were reported more than six months ago. How are the vaccinated doing now?

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Julie Comber is a freelance science reporter for The Defender.

Madhava Setty, M.D. is senior science editor for The Defender.

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***

With rising tensions and continued shelling at Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) and nearby areas, Russian President Vladimir Putin and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron have discussed the need to send UN monitors to assess the besieged facility. Both Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of planning provocations and false flags at the site, amid dire warnings of a possible nuclear catastrophe at Europe’s largest nuclear plant.

After a call between Putin and Macron on Friday, their first in three months, the Kremlin issued a statement reiterating the Russian offer to provide security for an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) mission. The statement said that Moscow “confirmed its readiness to provide the [IAEA] inspectors with the necessary assistance.”

Putin also emphasized that Ukraine’s shelling at the plant could cause a “large-scale catastrophe,” telling Macon that inspectors should visit the ZNPP “as soon as possible.” The French readout of the call said the two leaders “will speak about this subject again in the next few days following discussions between the technical teams and before the deployment of the mission.”

While Ukraine asserts that Russian forces are attacking the ZNPP, Moscow has controlled the plant and surrounding areas since March, giving it little reason to risk a major nuclear incident that would imperil ethnic Russians under its protection in the Zaporizhzhia oblast.

Though Russia controls the plant, it is still run by Ukrainian operators. Moreover, Russia has voiced ever-greater concern over the situation, calling for independent inspectors to review evidence they say will prove who is responsible for attacks at the site. For weeks, the area has seen frequent shelling, and a Russian-backed official in the oblast recently accused Kiev of attacking the power plant repeatedly with US-provided M777 howitzers. On Friday, Moscow submitted a letter to the UN Security Council warning of Kiev’s planned “provocations” at the ZNPP.

Ukraine’s Energoatom state nuclear company claims Moscow plans to switch off the functioning power blocks at the plant, cut it off from Ukraine’s power grid and reconnect it to the Russian grid in an attempt to deprive the country of a major power source. Petro Kotin, the head of Energoatom, told Reuters that decoupling and reconnecting the plant is a “technically difficult process,” and noted the Russian military is looking for diesel to keep the nuclear fuel cooling systems working once the external power supply is cut. While there are back-up diesel generators at the site, it remains unclear if the supplies are sufficient. Igor Kirillov, a Russian Defense Ministry official, said the ZNPP’s back-up support systems had been damaged as a result of attacks and might have to be shut down.

The Reuters report adds,

“If cooling systems failed, the nuclear reaction would slow but a reactor would heat up very swiftly. At such high temperatures, hydrogen could be released from the zirconium cladding and the reactor could start to melt down.”

Kiev claims Russian shelling earlier this month damaged three power lines connecting the plant to Ukraine’s power grid, though Moscow said the Ukrainians were behind the shelling, in line with conflicting narratives offered by both sides throughout the conflict.

Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev has also accused Washington of encouraging Kiev to attack the plant. He says if there is a “technological disaster, its consequences will be felt in every corner of the world,” adding “Washington, London and their accomplices will bear full responsibility for that.”

For its part, Moscow has defended its military presence at the facility, with Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov stating that troops are there to prevent a disastrous “Chernobyl scenario.”

On Wednesday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg declared Russia is using “the ground around the nuclear power plant as a staging area, as a platform, to launch artillery attacks on Ukrainian forces,” but Moscow denied this claim. The Russian Defense Ministry said “Russian troops have no heavy weapons either on the territory of the station or in areas around it. There are only guard units.”

Russia has alleged that Washington and Kiev plan to trigger an accident at the ZNPP deliberately, citing a threat of the core overheating. Moscow’s Defense Ministry also said Kiev’s forces were being deployed in the area to hit the plant with artillery strikes from the city of Nikopol, adding “blame for the consequences (of the strikes) will be placed on the Russian armed forces.”

Ukraine’s Defense Ministry says the Russians are planning a “large-scale terrorist attack” at the ZNPP and plan to pin it on Kiev, while US State Department spokesman Ned Price argued that false flag operations would be right out of the “Russian playbook.” Even before the war began, however, Price and other US officials notoriously accused the Russians of planning false flags in Ukraine without providing evidence. Likewise, the Pentagon is squarely blaming Russia for the ordeal, with a senior defense official telling reporters that “we see Russia’s current actions in and around this plant as really the height of irresponsibility.”

Some residents in the area have begun to flee to neighboring European countries, though only women and children are being permitted to leave. Kiev has banned men aged 18-60 from leaving the country so that they may be conscripted to keep the war going.

While Russia has rejected UN proposals for the plant be demilitarized, Bruce K. Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, recently sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres condemning Kiev for the dire situation.

In part, the letter reads

 “I have been following this dangerous situation for many weeks. It is abundantly obvious to me that the US-installed Kiev government is doing the shelling of the nuclear plant. Why would Russia want to contaminate the very region of Russian-ethnic citizens it is attempting to save from this out-of-control Kiev regime? The fact that the Ukrainian plant personnel remain on their posts, and that Russia is trying to protect the plant from a disaster, indicates its good intentions in this matter. I urge your offices to get the IAEA to the plant ASAP and you must publicly pin the blame for the shelling on the appropriate source – the Kiev regime that is clearly taking their marching orders from Washington.”

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Connor Freeman is the assistant editor and a writer at the Libertarian Institute, primarily covering foreign policy. He is a co-host on the Conflicts of Interest podcast. His writing has been featured in media outlets such as Antiwar.com, Counterpunch, and the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity. He has also appeared on Liberty Weekly, Around the Empire, and Parallax Views. You can follow him on Twitter @FreemansMind96.

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***

While Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz was launching his assault on seven Palestinian NGOs on Thursday, Prime Minister Yair Lapid was pressing the United States closer to an attack on Iran that could send the entire region into an unprecedented conflict. 

Lapid sent a message to the White House that “In the current situation, the time has come to walk away from the table. Anything else sends a message of weakness to Iran.” He said this in a meeting with outgoing uber-hawk Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL) and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides.

“Now is the time to sit and talk about what to do going forward in order to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon,” Lapid further stated. Given that Iran currently endures not only the sanctions that it suffered under before the 2015 JCPOA, or Iran Nuclear Deal, was struck but also the “maximum pressure” sanctions that Donald Trump placed on the country that current President Joe Biden never saw fit to lift, it is unlikely that Lapid has even more sanctions in mind.

Lapid was reacting to the latest turn in the JCPOA drama, a turn that, not coincidentally, has also brought closer than ever the possibility of a return to the deal that the United States unilaterally, and without any justification, abrogated in 2018.

On August 8, the European Union submitted what it considered to be a final draft of an agreement to fully re-establish the JCPOA, stating it could not be negotiated further. The United States immediately agreed that the draft could be the basis of an agreement; this was unsurprising as it was very similar to the deal the U.S. was prepared to embrace back in March.

Iran responded this week with a few reservations, but with a clear message that a few changes could make it a deal they could sign. Since the deal was presented to both Washington and Tehran as a “take it or leave it” offer, Israel is claiming that this is tantamount to an Iranian rejection. That’s a criminally flippant attitude about taking a course that is very likely to a regional war. But it’s important to understand that Iran has some legitimate concerns and this is not, as is being portrayed by some, just a delaying tactic.

Iran’s concerns

There are three issues that Iran feels must be addressed in the “final text;” a text which, it must be noted, few expect will be truly final as long as neither Tehran not Washington reject it outright or put irreconcilable demands on its completion.

The issue of the designation of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) once seemed insurmountable. But Iran offered a compromise that could help address the economic effects of the FTO designations. The IRGC is an ubiquitous force in Iran, for better or worse, and the inability of its financial arms to function due to this designation would hamper Iran’s economic recovery.

Tehran therefore backed off the demand that the IRGC be de-listed and adjusted it to a demand that some of its subsidiary organizations be de-listed instead, primarily Khatam-al Anbiya Construction Headquarters, a large engineering firm. The company has been under U.S. sanctions since 2007.

Second, Iran wants an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) case against it closed. This case involves three unexplained incidents of nuclear material that the IAEA has detected. The draft text stipulates that the IAEA will close the case if Iran provides a credible explanation of the nuclear material detected.

Iran’s response to the “final draft” did not include anything, according to reports, about the IAEA case. This is notable because Iran was deeply concerned, understandably, that this issue could be used to moot at least some sanctions relief even if the JCPOA was restored, particularly if the IAEA referred the case to the UN Security Council. Tehran’s silence may indicate that it finds the formula of providing a credible explanation in exchange for dropping the case acceptable.

Finally, Tehran wants assurances that the United States will keep its word this time. This is largely about Trump’s unjustifiable withdrawal from the deal, but it also refers to the fact that American rhetoric, even during the Obama administration, was discouraging investment in Iran, limiting Iran’s economic recovery, and minimizing the benefits Iran was getting from the deal.

This is a trickier issue. On the first two, Iran says the U.S. has “shown flexibility,” implying that this issue of guarantees is the most difficult. Whether or not he wants to, Biden legitimately can’t promise that a future president won’t do exactly what Trump did. And there’s nothing he can do if a member of Congress, from either party, decides to make threatening statements toward Iran that any investor will take as a warning not to invest there.

The current thinking seems to be that the renewed JCPOA would include “indemnities” that would guarantee Iran “certain economic returns” even if the U.S. backs out again. Tehran seems to be indicating that this is acceptable, but they want it spelled out in the new deal, which, so far, it has not been.

All of these are sensible solutions to the remaining problems, and their very reasonableness explains Lapid’s bellicose reaction. Election season is not the time a sitting Israeli prime minister wants the specter of a nuclear Iran to diminish. After all the negative things that both Lapid and his chief rival, opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu have said about the Iran Deal its restoration will be seen as a major setback.

Israel lobby struggles to counter

While Lapid will certainly not try to undermine Biden to the extent that Netanyahu did to Barack Obama in 2015 by working with the Republicans openly, his reaching out to Deutch—who, though he is retiring, remains one of the more influential Democrats in Congress and is eager to show his worth to his next employers, the anti-Palestinian American Jewish Committee—indicates he is about to mobilize a full court press on Capitol Hill.

That makes this an “all hands on deck” moment. Recent polling indicates that a strong majority of U.S. citizens continues to support a return to the JCPOA. But opponents of the deal will seize on Lapid’s opposition, and that can be more potent than Netanyahu’s was back in 2015. Lapid and Biden have a much better relationship than Obama did with Netanyahu, and Biden is both considerably less committed to the JCPOA and much more cautious about, and sympathetic to, pro-Israel domestic forces than his former boss.

Yet the distaste for U.S. involvement in yet another Middle East conflict runs very deep. Moreover, while groups like AIPAC, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, and other pro-war, pro-regime-change institutions carry considerable weight on Capitol Hill, they have absolutely no argument against the clear reality that Iran was complying with the JCPOA before we pulled out of it and has since moved significantly closer to nuclear breakout capability, whether or not it actually intends to build a bomb, something that is far less certain than the U.S. and Israel present it as.

Even Lapid is not offering a viable alternative to diplomacy. He is mouthing generic, warmongering platitudes. “The EU sent Iran a final offer, which does not comport with the principles to which the Americans committed, and established that the offer was ‘take it or leave it.’ Iran refuses the offer, and therefore the time has come to get up and go. Anything else sends a message of weakness.”

But he doesn’t know what to do if the U.S. does leave the table. “Now is the time to sit and talk about what to do going forward in order to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.”

Next week, Israel’s national security adviser will arrive in Washington to meet his U.S. counterpart. Ahead of that meeting, it is time to raise a voice loud and clear. Only 8% of Americans back a military option with Iran. Next to that kind of pro-diplomacy majority, what the prime minister of a foreign country, especially one running an apartheid state, wants means less than nothing. We need to make that clear to everyone in Washington.

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***

On August 16, 2022, the Syrian Arab News Agency reported that the US occupation forces have stolen 398 tankers full of Syrian oil in one week and transported the stolen oil to US bases in Iraq using an illegal route. 

The US forces who invaded in 2014 are in control of the main oil and gas fields in Hasakah and Deir Ez Zor, and they are assisted by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who were US partners in the fight to eliminate ISIS.  Previously, it was ISIS who stole the oil and sold it to President Erdogan of Turkey, and now the US has taken over from ISIS, while Turkey is not benefitting from the deal, and further aggravated by the US support of the SDF, who are partners with the YPJ, and are aligned with the PKK, a terrorist group who have killed thousands in Turkey over three decades.

The Syrian Oil Ministry said in a statement that the US and its mercenaries are stealing an average of 66,000 barrels of oil per day in Syria, about 80 percent of Syria’s oil production. The prolonged crisis has cost Syria’s oil industry direct and indirect losses of 105 billion US dollars.

Before 2011 petroleum output in Syria

In 2008, Syria produced 406,000 barrels per day (bpd), according to the British Petroleum Statistical Review of World Energy for 2019. In 2011, production dropped to 353,000 bpd and had plunged to just 24,000 bpd by 2018 – a reduction of more than 90%.

The Free Syrian Army (FSA) was the first large armed group fighting the Syrian Arab Army (SAA); however, the FSA was ineffective even though they were supported by the US. After a few years, it was the Al Qaeda branch in Syria, Jibhat al-Nusra which became the dominant force, and finally, ISIS appeared on the scene. All of these terrorist groups fought in the area where the main oil fields are in Syria, and at times the oil wells passed from one group to another. Today, they are in the possession of the US military.

Electricity production, factories, exports

Before 2011, Syria had full electricity on the national grid, which was supplied by burning oil and natural gas to generate electricity.  The factories in Aleppo were fully supplied with electricity and diesel fuel for production, and Syria also exported some petroleum products.

In late 2019, President Trump said,

“We’re keeping the oil. I’ve always said that — keep the oil. We want to keep the oil, $45 million a month. Keep the oil. We’ve secured the oil.”

However, a senior State Department official said to do so is a war crime. The oil in Syria belongs to their government, and according to US law and treaties it has ratified, seizing it would be pillaging, a technical term for theft during wartime that is illegal under the US and international law.

In late 2015, Russian President Putin accused Turkey of being business partners with ISIS while stealing and selling Syrian oil.  Putin said,

“IS has big money, hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars, from selling oil. In addition, they are protected by the military of an entire nation. One can understand why they are acting so boldly and blatantly. Why do they kill people in such atrocious ways? Why they commit terrorist acts across the world, including in the heart of Europe.”

Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov also pointed at Turkey as he was addressing the press in Moscow.

“According to the information we’ve received, the senior political leadership of the country — President Erdoğan and his family — are involved in this criminal business. Maybe I’m being too blunt, but one can only entrust control over this thieving business to one’s closest associates. In the West, no one has asked questions about the fact that the Turkish president’s son heads one of the biggest energy companies, or that his son-in-law has been appointed energy minister. What a marvelous family business!”

In January 2013, the FSA were admitting they were corrupt.

“There has been a lot of corruption in the Free Syrian Army’s battalions – stealing, oppressing the people – because there are parasites that have entered the Free Syrian Army,” said Abu Ahmed, an engineer who headed a 35-man unit of the Tawheed Brigade in Aleppo province.

“The Free Syrian Army has lost its popular support,” said Abu Ahmed, while putting support for President Assad at 70 percent among an urban Aleppo population that includes many ethnic Kurds and Christians. He admitted that the looting of homes and resources had caused hatred among the community.  People had no electricity, but the FSA was profiting from selling the stolen oil to Turkey.

Once the FSA faded away, ISIS took control of the oil fields, and trucked the oil in tankers to Turkey, to be refined there and used domestically, or transported to tankers at the ports of Ceyhan or Dortyol for export to European markets that were well aware they were buying stolen Syrian oil from ISIS, but they were getting a low price.

In September 2014, US intelligence officials revealed that the Islamic State group was making millions every day from the illicit oil trade.  ISIS took control of the oil assets from the previous terrorist groups of the FSA and the Al Qaeda affiliate in Syria, Jibhat al-Nusra.  Today, the US military is occupying the oil fields.

In 1998, Richard N. Haass wrote about the US use of sanctions against countries as a tool of foreign policy.  He found that sanctions are unlikely to achieve desired results if the aims are large.  In the case of Syria, the US aim is to overthrow the government which has been in place for 22 years and institute a US-friendly Muslim Brotherhood leader, in the only secular state in the Middle East.  Is that large enough?

Haass said that sanctions can boost an authoritarian administration, trigger large-scale emigration, and hurt the middle class and civil society. In Syria, the government has withstood an armed revolution supported by the US and NATO, withstood a massive migration in the summer of 2015 which saw Syrians walking through Europe, and due to the economic collapse the middle class is now the newly poor.

Humanitarian exceptions are supposed to guarantee that medicines and medical supplies are allowed into Syria, but according to the former director of the WHO in Damascus, Elizabeth Hoff, the hospitals in Syria were not able to order replacement parts for medical machines from western manufacturers due to their fear of facing US sanctions.

Iranian oil tankers to Syria were hijacked by the US

In the darkest days of deprivation for the Syrian residents, they followed news reports of the US high-jacking of the Iranian ship bringing much-needed petroleum products to Syria to be used for electricity, diesel fuel for trucks, and gasoline for cars.

The US needs to leave Syria, lift the sanctions and allow the Syrian people to rebuild their homes and businesses. Humanitarian organizations say most Syrians live under the poverty line, but they fail to mention the US-EU sanctions which caused this poverty.

Syria today

Life in Syria today is difficult.  Most homes have only a few hours of electricity per day, and cooking gas is expensive and in short, supply, as is gasoline.  Soon students will be back in school and electricity needs increase with studying in the evenings, washing school clothes, and preparing healthy meals for building young minds.  With gasoline in such short supply and highly expensive, kids will be walking long distances to school this winter. Home heating is a distant memory, and wearing sweaters and ski caps indoors is the only way to stay warm.  The US-EU sanctions have caused immense hardship to the Syrian people who have fought against terrorism, chaos, and upheaval.

*

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This article was originally published on Mideast Discourse.

Steven Sahiounie is a two-time award-winning journalist. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

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First published on March 24, 2020, in the immediate wake of the Covid lockdown

***

I found this message scrawled on a single sheet of paper and crammed in a bottle that washed up on the coast. I present it to you for your reference exactly as I found it.

“Thanks for nothing, you citizens of that country formally known as the United States. Have a good life because now you are totally on your own.

“Sorry we had to borrow more than $2 trillion of your money in order to hold up the stock prices we had been inflating for the last five years with stock buybacks and other ‘instruments.’ But what can we say? We needed some time to set up untraceable offshore accounts around the world where we could transfer our loot without anyone even noticing.

“And we hope you understand that it took some time for us to quietly sell off our assets using fake front companies and other tools of the trade in a manner that did not shake things up too much. We are much obliged that you looked the other way.

Source: Emanuel Pastreich

“But the best part of the show was the media maelstrom that we whipped up for you over the last three weeks that has left you completely terrified.

“Are you terrified of climate change, of nuclear war, or of economic collapse? Are you staying up late worrying about the lead and the other deadly chemicals from runaway fracking that are in your drinking water? No? Excellent!

“Oh yes! You were up at nights worrying about COVID-19, or as we like to say back at the club, ‘COVID 911: The controlled demolition of the global economy.’ That sure was a pandemic from hell.

“Mission accomplished, and more.

“From now on, please do wear those pretty little white masks all you want, but they sure the hell are not going to protect you from the anomy coming down the pike. And feel free to message each other about those COVID19 old wives’ tales that we fed to you, to your heart’s content.

“It was sweet then, but now it is all completely and irreversibly over.

“We know that many of you thought that somehow something would trickle down to you. You thought that your Harvard degree meant that you too were somehow part of the party.

“Democrats? Republicans?

“There is only one party, but wow, what a hell of a party.

“We don’t know how to break this to you, but the radical concentration of wealth over the last 15 years has completely rewritten the rules of the game. Now, a lawyer, doctor or professor is closer to the homeless than he or she is to us, the rich. In fact, from our altitude, we cannot tell you guys apart at all. And to be honest, we cannot afford any of that trickle down any more either. We need that cash to pay for our private security details.

“Now that we have quarantine in place and can enforce ‘social distancing,’ a lawyer will be the same as a telemarketer for Amazon, a doctor will provide services over the internet from the Philippines, and a professor or teacher can be replaced by a cartoon character in most cases.

“If you are unhappy with this contract we signed for you in a classified form, feel free to email your ideas to the government. We are sure that the skeleton crew left there will get back to you sometime before Hell freezes over.

“All of our actions were done for the sake of the economy, or for reasons of national security. As the great philanthropist of the 19th century J. P. Morgan once said: ‘There are always two reasons: a good reason and a real reason.’

“Hugs and kisses to all you grade-A American chumps. We will be at Club Epstein (location classified).

“You have been left holding the bag. Hold your nose and keep your distance when you open it ’cause it sure don’t smell too good.”

*

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This article was originally published on The Korea Times. March 24, 2020

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***

(Originally published Nov 20, 2021)

“I wonder if the Emperor Honorius watching the Vizigoths coming over the seventh hill truly realized that the Roman Empire was about to fall. This is just another page in history isn’t it? Will this be the end of our civilization?”

– Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Star Trek the Next Generation [1]

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As thousands of civilian contractors and hundreds of soldiers hustled to get out of Afghanistan by August 31 of this year, and as the formerly defeated Taliban began to re-establish their toe hold in the locations they once inhabited, there is one inescapable conclusion one could come to. And I can assure you that after nearly two decades of the U.S. occupation there, over a trillion dollars in military spending, and over 100,000 civilians killed or injured, the first word out of a sane individual’s mouth will not be victory! [2]

Afghanistan would only be the latest in a series of military accomplishments that have proved expensive both in terms of money and in terms of bloodshed. Iraq has proven to be a disaster where President George W Bush early on declared it victory. They are still at it in Syria ten years after the beginning of the civil war there was initiated with U.S. help. U.S. – led NATO is still failing to set up a neo-colonial government in Libya, an advanced African country turned into a calamity of economic devastation, human rights abuses and gangster rivalry. In Latin America, Maduro is enduring in spite of years of sanctions and a failed attempt to sink the government with one of their sock puppets Juan Guaido.

There are accelerating tendencies in recent years to pick fights with Russia and China, however they seem to be surviving the sanctions, the increased war training, and the diplomatic rhetoric quite well.

This spectacular run of defeats suggest that the age of the U.S. dominating the world as its one remaining superpower is now at a cross-roads. It suggests that the fearsome spectre of violent military might is losing its fangs.

It seems the era of the U.S. Empire is coming to an end.

To get a more comprehensive understanding if what fate may befall the once mighty “City on a Hill” as it fades from glory, we need to put the story of their decline through the lens of history. How did other empires win the gold of imperialism and how did they ultimately lose it overtime? This will be the approach of this week episode of the Global Research News Hour.

Joining me for the duration of the program is Alfred W McCoy. A historian and educator based in Madison-Wisconsin, he will be guiding us through his book, in stores as of this past week, entitled To Govern the Globe: World Orders and Catastrophic Change.

Professor McCoy will go back seven centuries to the Black Death and the rise of the Portuguese and Spanish empire and guide us through the British and later the American era of empire. He also points to the features these imperial ages had in common, the world orders of ethics that transcribed each separate age in transition. And he also points to the reality of climate change as the current catastrophe from which China, will make its debut as a successor to America.

Alfred W. McCoy is a TomDispatch regular and the Harrington professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the author of The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia: CIA Complicity in the Global Drug Trade (Harper & Row,1972) and of In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of U.S. Global Power (Dispatch Books, 2017). His latest book is To Govern the Globe: World Orders and Catastrophic Change (Dispatch Books, 2017). He is also published frequently at Global Research.

(Global Research News Hour Episode 333)

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

Other stations airing the show:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Notes:

1. Star Trek the Next Generation (1990), ‘The Best of Both Worlds’
2. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-47391821

La rassegna stampa internazionale di Byoblu | 60° puntata

Sempre più evidente è il fatto che la guerra in corso non è solo tra Russia e Ucraina, ma tra Russia e NATO. Lo conferma la notizia data dal New York Times che migliaia di soldati ucraini vengono addestrati sul suolo britannico. Stati Uniti, Gran Bretagna, Canada, Danimarca, Polonia e altri paesi hanno addestrato e armato fin dal 2015 decine di migliaia di soldati ucraini, impiegati contro la Russia di fatto sotto comando USA-NATO.

Viene condotta allo stesso tempo una crescente campagna per diffondere l’odio contro la Russia. Nel Central Park di New York è stata installata, in un parco giochi, una statua di Putin di colore rosso sangue, seduto su un carrarmato, contro cui i bambini sparano con le loro pistole giocattolo. Si sta così diffondendo in Occidente il tipo di “educazione” attuato da anni in Ucraina nei campi scuola del battaglione Azov dove bambini e ragazzi ricevono una formazione improntata alle idee del suprematismo bianco e del neonazismo. Mentre il governo ucraino annuncia che manderà al rogo 100 milioni di libri russi (compresi tutti i classici della letteratura) considerati “fonte del Male”, l’Italia contribuisce a questo tipo di “istruzione” stanziando 200 milioni di euro, sottratti alla Scuola italiana, per il pagamento dei salari degli insegnanti delle scuole ucraine.

Il crescente impegno militare italiano sul fronte orientale e in altri scenari bellici comporta una crescente spesa militare. Mario Draghi, dal giorno dello scioglimento delle Camere (21 luglio) a oggi, ha trasmesso alle Camere 7 decreti per programmi di armamento il cui costo supera i 7 miliardi di euro. Tra questi l’armamento dei droni Predatori made in USA attraverso un accordo con il Governo USA. Continua così ad aumentare la spesa militare italiana, salita nel 2022 a 29 miliardi di euro annui, equivalenti a 80 milioni di euro al giorno, sottratti alle fondamentali spese sociali.

Video : https://www.byoblu.com/2022/08/19/fuori-litalia-dalla-guerra-grandangolo-pangea/ :

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***

On 10 August, Paul Craig Roberts wrote:

“People love the digital revolution.  It allows them to work from home and avoid stressful commutes and office politics.  The young love their cell phones that connect them to the world. For writers the Internet offers, for now, a far larger audience than a syndicated columnist could obtain.  But while we enjoy and delight in its advantages, the tyranny inherent in the digital revolution is slowly closing its grip on our lives.” 

He hits the nail on the head; couldn’t be more accurate.

Meanwhile, in Switzerland – host country and paradise of and for the WEF, WHO, BIS (Bank for International Settlements also called Central Bank of all Central Banks), as well as the hub of the international banking cartel and more – coming blackout scenarios are propagated on the media and desk-top simulated.

That’s on the news today – every hour on the hour. Fearmongering, or real? In any case, people debate the potential consequences of such a blackout, or several blackouts to come – in a predicted cold-cold winter.

Similar reports come out of Germany and France- and possibly most EU (European Union) countries. Could this be a concerted effort by the WEF? Let’s not forget, Ms. Ursula Von der Leyen, unelected President of the European Commission, is a member of the WEF’s Board of Trustees. And you should know, so are BlackRock, Vanguard, StateStreet, as well as many of the top private banking and financial institutions. Everything connects. Remember? No coincidences. See WEF Leadership.

Swiss electricity reserve capacity – 1 hour. They say.

Everything, infrastructure, public transport, internet, cellphone services, supermarkets, banking services, ATM-cash machines and not least electronic bank accounts would be “out of order” – or in the case of bank accounts, in the extreme, possibly wiped out, depending on who would be served by a wipe-out.

Hospitals and other vital services would be exempt from the blackout(s) – how is that? A managed blackout?

Now the struggle is on, at least in the simulated debate – who may be considered and wants to be considered as “vital service”.  It would be laughable, if it wasn’t so sad.

For the last week or so, the mainstream news is telling us how people are buying up home generators, hoping to become electricity-autonomous. Vendors of such machines are desperate. They are in short-supply and have long waiting lists…. Don’t know how to serve their new customers. Demand has apparently increased ten to twenty-fold over the year, depending whom you ask or listen to.

Many firewood suppliers are sold out for the year.

Doesn’t it occur to these people, that a home generator wouldn’t bring back internet, cellphone connections, ATM, digital bank accounts, transport systems, food supplies supermarkets, restaurants, and?

Home generators would need fuel to work. If there are energy shortages – let’s not forget, artificially, wantonly made shortages – one among many tools to dominate the masses, there would most likely also be shortages of oil, and gasoline, petrol, to operate the generators.

Why not, instead buy some candles, batteries, and non-perishable food and warm clothing?

There is literally a stampede to store up on potential sources of energy for individual use, at best for family use.

So far, there is hardly a trace of growing solidarity among people, to built up a common front against the energy tyrants.

The same Luciferian Cult that is creating food shortages through most likely weather engineered droughts, floods, fires — CLIMATE CHANGE, beware! And by oligarchs and financial giants buying up and destroying farm land around the globe, thus creating famine, misery and death.

Engineered weather is difficult to prove. Only circumstantial evidence, namely cui bono (who benefits) points to some very good reasons for these extended and extreme weather phenomena: prolonged waves of heat and drought, as well as life- and food-crop threatening and destroying flash floods, might indicate that there is an ulterior purpose in DARPA-style weather-weaponizing,

See this, this and this.

DARPA, a strategic military thinktank, is linked to the Pentagon. Wikipedia describes it as follows:

“The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency [Darpa] is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military.”

Weaponizing weather is one of the least visible, but deadliest armaments of recent history.

The dark cabal, or the Beast, as it were, counts with human egocentricity, everyone for himself, instead of a solidarity mass awakening and mass movement. That’s how they believe they will win the battle for global tyranny.

Such blackouts – false or real – may trigger an awakening in those young and “progressive”, misinformed people, who are delighted about digitization, QR coding everything, who would die for advancing Klaus Schwab’s 4^th Industrial Revolution even faster – they may finally see the light, the real awakening light in the imposed darkness, when their money and freedom disappears in a digital tyranny.

To top it all off, some high-level scientist-professors of Swiss Ivy League universities have apparently participated in an international rainwater study that concluded rainwater was toxic and should by no means be used as drinking water. There we go. Should there by any chance be a water shortage (artificial of course in Switzerland, considered the water castle of Europe), under no circumstances should you collect and drink rainwater. It’s dangerous.

Well, maybe they were thinking of the chemtrail pollutants….

Finally, if we, in solidarity, abandon the Dark Cult’s system, the Beast’s monetary system, let the Beast be Beast – while we occupy our agricultural land, and ascend as a massive human movement to the real light – far outshining their artificial fuel-based light in their eternal darkness. We may see into a bright future.

This may not be as difficult as it appears – as soon as we realize the strength of togetherness, of pulling on one solidarity string, a whole new panoply of opportunities may open up in harmony, inspiring new opportunities under the banner of Peace and Love.

*

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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 The Last American Vagabond

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***

First published October 29, 2021

.

Incisive analysis of Funeral Director John O’Looney 

***

Dear Sir,

My name is John and I run my own funeral home in Milton Keynes – this is me www.mkffs.co.uk.

I have been a funeral director for 15 years, ten of those were spent with the cooperative funeral care and the last five I have been running my own funeral home.

During this time I spent 7 years working as a coroners removal man, dealing with the recovery of deceased on behalf of the coroner in my area which was Northamptonshire.

I write to you with very grave concerns around these Covid vaccinations and Covid generally, over the last 20 months I have seen a series of very disturbing patterns and patterns in death rates and circumstance’s surrounding Covid.

I have seen massive efforts made to deliberately inflate Covid death numbers by relabelling cancer patients and stroke victims and all manner of normal regular deaths as Covid, in fact virtually anyone getting into an ambulance, this effort has been deliberate and the methods used to do so were totally flawed, PCR tests for example being run on 45 cycles we all know to be worthless, yet people are being euthanised on this basis and sometimes only on the basis of a chest x-ray alone.

I have heard the first hand testimony from those involved, nurses on wards have told me directly this is happening.

I have seen many deaths in care homes, especially March and April of 2020 at a time that huge amounts of Midazolam were purchased and used and I suspect that there has been a campaign of unlawful killings in these care homes for some time, again labelled as Covid deaths.

There has been no doctor present, no police present and no Covid test present – yet they were all labelled as Covid deaths? Why is this and why is it being ignored?

More concerningly I now see primarily vaccine recipient’s coming into my care, almost exclusively in fact.

Some pass away as little as a few hours after being injected and other up to 24 weeks after, the primary cause of death seem to be consistently thrombosis leading to heart attack or stroke.

Other deaths I see are shortly after a booster and consist of very sudden organ failure in previously very healthy people, people I suspect being damaged by these injections they are being scare-mongered, coerced and blackmailed into taking.

Now I know full well that coroners across the country will be seeing this and I question why alarm bells are not being raised, in fact I have had 80 other funeral workers in all positions, get in touch now to voice their own concerns as well as hundreds of families – but not a single coroner.

Why is this being ignored?

I know you guys are seeing this unprecedented thrombosis death rates, because I speak to a vast number of other funeral homes and these deaths will virtually all be in vaccine recipients.

I speak regularly to NHS Nurses and Doctors seeing this on their wards prior to these deaths and in fact one nurse told me of a ward with 12 patients with thrombosis in their arms – this is not normal, it’s criminal.

I write to you in the hope that these patterns will be acknowledged by you and addressed and that some effort will begin to stop what is happening as they target children in schools now, children not old enough to vote, drive a car, get married or place a wager, but apparently now old enough to be coerced behind their parents’ backs and without parental consent to consent themselves (illegally) to become part of an experiment using a gene therapy.

I also know that many of these children are now very sick and many are dying – I have spoken to the parents of some of these children personally.

Prior to children being injected, not a single child to my knowledge had died from Covid and again I have spoken to many other funeral homes globally to confirm this – they are dying now in numbers after these injections Sir and death rates in teenagers are on the rise, again you will be aware of this.

I have seen video testimony from one headmaster who explains he now has 14 of his pupils off and very ill after these injections, that is in a single school.

I also find a growing number of people coming into my funeral home very upset and the medical neglect they feel they have suffered over the last 20 months as GP’s work from the comfort of their sitting rooms, earning far more money NOT seeing patients and I can go into great detail about this, but I am sure you are aware of it.

As a man with a moral compass I want this to stop Sir and id like to think you feel the same way – it has to stop.

On September 21^st 2021 I met with Sir Graham Brady from the 1922 committee in a meeting in Birdcage Walk, Westminster.

We sat with Sir Graham and at least 16 of the very scientific and legal minds, it was disappointingly reported as a group of “anti vaxxers” in the times.

Let me be clear Sir that when you have the calibre of people like Dolores Cahill in a room that is anything but the truth.

Dolores is a wonderful woman who was advising the British government in her twenties, she has been in charge of running level 3 bio labs and has worked in level 4 bio labs. My point is this, she has built her career on vaccines, she is anything BUT anti Vax.

The room was full of people of the same calibre, myself excluded of course, people who actually care about human life and are experts in their respective fields.

We all gave testimony in our respective fields about out concerns and the science was delivered in heaps of papers submitted to him.

Sir Graham knew what we were saying was true and he left making no promises and nothing has changed.

There are grave concerns over cardio inflammation and sterilization in children receiving these injections – those concerns were raised, nothing has changed and we now see deaths in those children across the country.

I am sure that the people included in this email would be happy to support my concerns and supply with scientific data and credible evidence if asked to do so.

I look forward to hearing from you and I hope that you do what is right, please Sir will you engage with us to stop this madness before humanity is ruined.

I have CC’d in a large number of very well respected people into this email, people you will know, well respected and well qualified people, people who all feel the same way as me to see if we can collectively save lives instead of destroying them and ignoring it happening.

I write to you in the hope you are a force for good and i worry that I now conduct many funerals for people who are being unlawfully killed sir and this is why I speak out – and I am being joined daily by thousands who feel the exact same way.

Can you help us save lives please ? Children’s lives.

Thank you Sir.

John O’Looney

*

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Originally published March 26, 2022.

“Joe Biden looked Vladimir Putin in the eye last June and threatened him with massive sanctions should he act on Ukraine. Sanctions like you’ve never seen before! … He had months to sit down with his inner circle and say, “how do we prepare for this?” Nothing the U.S. and its allies are doing has taken the Russians by surprise. NOTHING! They anticipated EVERYTHING! And they have a plan in response.”

– Scott Ritter (from this week’s interview)

Today, the dangers of military escalation are beyond description.

What is now happening in Ukraine has serious geopolitical implications. It could lead us into a World War III scenario.

It is important that a peace process be initiated with a view to preventing escalation. 

It is absolutely essential that Freedom of Speech prevail as a means to resolving this crisis which potentially threatens the future of humanity.

Global Research,  March 4, 2022

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The company BlackRock, Inc manages $10 trillion dollars in assets, and as such investors tend to place close attention to the views and opinions of chairman and CEO Larry Fink. Here is what he said in his recent letter to shareholders:

“the Russian invasion of Ukraine has put an end to the globalization we have experienced over the last three decades… Russia’s aggression in Ukraine and its subsequent decoupling from the global economy is going to prompt companies and governments worldwide to re-evaluate their dependencies and re-analyze their manufacturing and assembly footprints – something that Covid had already spurred many to start doing.”[1]

In other words, the spectacle of the last few weeks, and the response by NATO has had far-reaching ramifications beyond the aggression mustered by the United States as they invaded or devastated one country after another for years and years. Globalization is dead! A massive decoupling is taking place!

Indeed, the sanctions put in place to hurt Russia are hitting Americans, Canadians and the European communities too as we pull up to the gas station or watch our food prices start to escalate. [2][3]

Meanwhile, on Friday, President Biden, flanked by  European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced an agreement to lower the European Union’s dependence on Vladimir Putin’s oil and gas supplies. According to Biden:

“We’re going to have to make sure the families in Europe can get through this winter and the next while we’re building the infrastructure for a diversified, resilient and clean energy future.”[4]

So the stakes for the Ukraine literally go far beyond the bullets, bombs and bravery of troops in the Eastern European country. While NATO still won’t engage them on the battlefield (let us hope) the many other financial measures levelled against Russia that are having consequences potentially as devastating as an actual war.

With Saudi Arabia now pursuing talks allowing some of it’s oil to be priced in the Chinese currency the Yuan, the dominance of the American dollar as part of the standard for maintaining its power is in jeopardy. As well, 5 nations including Russia itself rejected the United Nations General Assembly vote to immediately end Russia’s military aggression in Ukraine. The 35 nations that abstained did so, in many cases as suspecting that the West incited the conditions that led to the conflict. So Russia is not exactly “isolated.” [5]

Is a new divided world part of the New World Order that has been unraveled in front of us? This week’s Global Research News Hour makes an attempt to peek at the future of this gawd awful war!

In our first half hour, we are joined once again by US military intelligence officer and strategist Scott Ritter. He will assess the longevity of the Russian mission in Ukraine (not long by his standards), the role of President Zelenskyy calling for help NATO can’t provide, and the sanctions war which will hurt the U.S. and Europe far more than Russia.

In our second half hour, we will be joined by the great economic thinker Prof. Michael Hudson. He will explain the true strategy of provoking Russia’s war, describe the accelerating slide of the US currency, and what the dynamics of this new separation of states is going to play out.

Scott Ritter is a U.S. Marine Corps Intelligence officer, former UN Chief Weapons Inspector from 1991 -1998, and is currently engaged as a commentator and columnist on Huffington Post, consortiumnews and the American Conservative.

Michael Hudson is President of The Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends (ISLET), a Wall Street Financial Analyst, and Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri in Kansas City. He is also the author of J is for Junk Economics from (2017), Killing the Host from (2015), and his 1968 classic Super-Imperialism: The Economic Strategy of American Empire. His website is michael-hudson.com

(Global Research News  Hour Episode 349)

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Transcript – Interview with Michael Hudson, March 24, 2022

Part One

Global Research: Great privilege to speak with you again Mr. Hudson. Welcome!

Michael Hudson: Thanks for having me on!

GR: Now, We’re seeing NATO unifying together behind the US call to sanction Russia, including removal from the SWIFT system. They’re being hit with sanctions to hurt, sanctions from hell as President Biden would say, and it doesn’t look as if it’s working. But the sanctions are boomeranging, and hitting the EU and the US pretty hard with soaring rates for food, fertilizer, oil and gas. They seem to provoke Russian aggression. He’s kind of compelled them to do that. We know it wasn’t the response, I mean it’s something they have been working on all along. But what really was the strategic goal of provoking Russia to go to sanctions war with Ukraine?  Do they foresee Russia begging for mercy or is there more going on here?

MH: I think it’s just the opposite of what you said. The war isn’t against Russia. The war isn’t against Ukraine. The war is against Europe and Germany. The purpose of the sanctions is to prevent Europe and other allies from increasing their trade and investment with Russia and China, because the United States saw that the centre of world growth is not in America now that it’s deindustrializing. Following neoliberal policies since the 1980s has ended up hollowing out the US economy. And how on earth can the United States maintain prosperity if it’s lost the ability to do wealth creation?

The only way of maintaining prosperity if you can’t create it at home is to get it from abroad. And the attempt, beginning a year ago, by President Biden and by the US neocons, was to block Nord Stream 2, and failing that, to block all energy trade and other trade with Russia. So that the United States could monopolize it itself. One of the main tools for the last hundred years of US control of the world economy has been by the oil industry. Controlling world energy trade. Energy is the key to the GDP, the productivity and every country, and the thought of energy trade passing out of US control into that of other countries threatened the United States’ ability to turn off other countries.

So the provocation of war in Ukraine and the provocation of a US response has enabled the US to say, look at how awful the Russian is doing, it’s defending itself. Defending itself against the United States is a declaration of war. Because it means that you are breaking away from the dollarized system, and so by the thought that other countries have the potential of becoming independent was viewed at the United States as a challenge to the United States’ ability to dictate their policies and to use dollar diplomacy to take control of their commanding heights.

The fear of the United States of course is that the environmental movement would be able to move to stop global warming by slowing the carbon fuels, oil and gas, and so by creating this crisis in Europe, the United States has greatly…it bases its foreign policy on accelerating global warming. Accelerating coal and oil as the fuels of the future. I think President Biden in Poland today is promising Polish coal to replace Russian oil. And American coal. That’s why President Biden has Senator Manchin from the coal industry lobby as head of the environmental and energy agency.

So what you’re seeing is not the US backfiring and shooting it in their foot by creating a world crisis. That’s the idea! Because it realizes that in the world crisis, energy prices are going to go way up, benefiting the US balance of payments. Not only as an energy exporter, but the oil companies that control the world oil trade, once they exclude Russia from it, agricultural crop prices will go way up, benefiting the United States as an agricultural exporter, especially if they prevent Ukrainian and Russian wheat exports, and this is going to create a debt crisis for third world countries whose debts are coming due. And the United States can use this debt crisis to force them, or attempt to force them, if they go along with it, to continue privatizing and selling off their public domain to US buyers so they can sell off their patrimony in order to get the money to pay the debts to pay for the higher oil and food imports.

The US strategy is to create exactly the world crisis that you are presented as being accidental. You can be sure that these people read the newspapers enough to know that this is the obvious result of what they’re doing. Look at what they’re doing as deliberate. Don’t assume they’re dumb. They’re smart, they’re evil, but they’re not dumb.

GR: You know it’s quite a bit there, but I want to point out that in one of your articles you talked about basically three areas, economic areas, that seemed to be dominating things in the US right now. There’s the oil and gas sector, there’s the military-industrial complex, and then there’s the FIRE sector, finance, industry, and real estate. And I think all three of those areas are benefiting from the current situation. You can see this clearly. The levels, the rates of Raytheon and Lockheed Martin going up…

MH: Well, I’m not sure about the banks. Where did the banks’ interest end up in all this? Banks, since the 13th century, have made the bulk of their money on trade financing. Receivables, if you’re an importer of oil, you get a letter of credit so that the bank promises to pay when the delivery is made. Trade financing is a huge banking activity, and now, the US banks are locked out of this trade financing as long as it concerns Russia, China and probably the Belt and Road Initiative countries. So it’s hard to see how the banks are benefiting. Especially if the third world countries, the global south countries, say we are not going to sacrifice our economies and impose austerity just to pay for bondholders. The loans have gone bad, they’re odious loans, we’re repudiating. We’re not paying them.

That is not going to help banks and investors. So the banks seem to have taken a… They’re a beat behind in all of this. The war doesn’t seem to be economic as much as neoliberal, a visceral hatred of Russia, and a hatred of Germany also, among the neocons. And I think that’s, it’s not understood, but there’s this non-economic, almost a racist hatred at work here when it extends to China for instance. And the United States is, you don’t know what’s going to happen in anarchy. If there’s a financial war, and, the world is splitting into two economic blocs, it’s very much like a military war. You really don’t know what’s going to happen in anarchy. It’s brad-bag. The United States thinks that it has enough power by bribery, by force, by assassination, if need be, as some of the senators have called for, to get its way, but I’m not sure that that’s going to be met with simple passivity on the part of everybody who the United States declares to be an enemy.

GR: Well, Saudi Arabia recently announced it would be pricing oil in the yuan. That means that the dollar now has a competitor, I guess, when it comes to buying oil.

MH: Oil trade with China. Other countries are not going to do their trade in dollars because the United States can simply grab whatever dollar assets they have. If a country does something independent, as when Chile became, wanted to take control of the copper trade, under Allende, the United States can simply grab its money. When Venezuela thought to undertake land reform in the popular policy, the United States simply seized its money, and the Bank of England seized Venezuela’s gold. The United States simply seized Afghanistan’s foreign reserves before it seized Russia’s foreign reserves.

So all of a sudden, countries or afraid to keep, are afraid to use US banks, afraid to use any connection with the dollar, or to have any, anything available for the United States to grab, because that’s its policy now. That is what’s really driving other countries away. Even America’s allies must be frightened, because Germany is asking for its gold supply to be sent back to it from the New York Federal Reserve Bank in airplane loads.

GR: Yeah, so you are seeing sort of like a domino effect, I mean is the American dollar, it was already in some difficulty, but now, you can see that really accelerating as we continue, and in all of those other global south countries and other places that you mentioned, they’re going to ditch that and go with the other currency?

MH: The crisis is political. It’s not going with another currency. President Putin, in his speeches, said this war is not about Ukraine. This war is about restructuring the international order. And what that means is an alternative to the IMF. An alternative set of institutions to the World Bank. An alternative to the World Court. And an alternative to the US rules-based order based on the United Nations rules for instance, but that can’t be done as long as the United States is a member of that group.

So it means that there’s going to be a new grouping of international organizations, of which the United States will not join because it won’t join any organization that it does not have veto power in. So you’re going to have to parallel paths. You’ll have a neoliberal financialized, debt-financed path in Europe and North America, and you’ll have an industrial capitalism evolving into socialism path in China and the Belt and Road Initiative, Shanghai Cooperation Organization Block.

– Intermission-

Part Two

GR: I think that resolving Ukraine is sort of like a short-term deal, but the longer term is going to be in fact shaking Europe away from NATO and the United States degree of influence.

MH: United States is thoroughly in control of European politicians. The only opposition to NATO and the US in Europe is the right wing. The nationalist wing. The left wing is fully behind the United States and has been ever since, really the National Endowment for Democracy and other US Agencies really took control of the left-wing parties throughout Europe. They’ve Tony Blairized the European left, the Social Democratic parties in Germany and the rest of Europe, the labour parties in England, these are not labour and not socialist, they’re basically pro-American neoliberal parties.

GR: I know that Russia is very rich in mineral deposits, its rich in oil and gas as well. Russia and Ukraine form part of the breadbasket of the world. And as they control the important minerals like lithium and palladium and so forth, so they’re dealing with Ukraine, part of that plan, as a result you’re going to see, as I mentioned, a lot of impacts worldwide including food, and we’re probably going to start to see even food shortages pretty soon.

MH: That is the intention, You have to realize that this was anticipated. Without gas, already German fertilizer companies are going out of business because fertilizer is made out of gas, and if they can’t get their Russian gas, they can’t make the fertilizer, and if you don’t have the fertilizer, the crops are not going to be as prevalent and abundant as they were before. So all of this, you have to assume that, it’s so obvious, they knew this would happen, and they expect the United States to benefit from the cost squeeze that it’s imposing on food importers to the US benefit.

GR: I just want to get a sense of what the United States has to fight back with. I mean, they had the prestige of the dollar in their ability to make up things, but they also have control, through using, confiscating, for example, the gold and the deposits of the Russian government, the Russian Central Bank. Are these efforts going to be, is that the sort of thing that they have, I mean we could also talk later on about the actual military, but could you talk about those sorts of tools that the United States has to fight back against Russia?

MH: Well, the obvious tool is that’s used for the last 75 years has been bribery. European politicians especially are very easy to bribe. And most countries, just simply paying them money, and backing their political campaigns, meddling in other countries by huge financial support of pro-US politicians is the obvious way. Targeted assassination ever since World War II when the British and Americans moved into Greece and began shooting all of the anti-Nazis because they were largely socialists, and England and America wanted to restore the Greek monarchy. You have Operation Gladio in Italy, you have the targeted assassinations from Chile all the way through the rest of Latin America and its wake. So, if you can’t buy them, kill them.

Then there are various military forces. And the main tool that the US has tried to use is sanctions. If they can’t get their oil, or finance it in gas or food from Russia, then America can simply turn off their food supply. And turn off critical raw materials and interrupt their economic processes because there are so many different components that you need for almost any kind of economic activity…

The United States was looking for pressure points. And it is going to try to work on the pressure points, sabotage certainly, is another tool that’s being used, as you see in Ukraine. So the question is whether this attempt on pressure points is going to force other countries to, certainly it’s going to cause suffering. In the short term for these countries.

Over the longer-term, they’re going to see, we’re going to have to become self-sufficient in the main pressure points. We’re going to have to produce our own food. Not import our wheat. We’re going to have to shift away from growing export plantation crops and have our own grain, maybe return to family size farming to do all this. We’re going to have to produce our own arms, we’re going to have to have our own fuel sources, and that would include solar energy and renewable energy to become independent of the American-dominated oil and gas and coal trade. So the longer-term, even medium-term effect of all of this is going to make other countries self-sufficient and independent.

There will be a lot of interruptions, even starvation, a lot of property transfers and disruption, but over the long term, the United States will, is destroying the idea of a single interconnected globalized order because it’s separated Europe and North America from the whole rest of the world.

GR: How is… When it comes to dealing with the oligarchs in Russia, and what they’re facing with these sanctions, do they want the sanctions to be ended so they can get involved with the United States, or are they taking to Putin and a “let’s do it on our own approach?”

MH: In the past, the oligarchs were very western oriented because when they transferred Russia’s oil and gas and nickel and real estate into their own hands, how did they cash out? There wasn’t any money in Russia because it was all destroyed in the, after 1991 in the shock therapy. The only way they could cash out was by selling some of their stocks to the west. And that’s what Khodorkovsky wanted to do when he wanted to sell Yukos to, I think, the Standard Oil Group. And now that they realize that the United States can simply grab their yachts, grab their British real estate, grab their sports teams, grab the assets they hold in the west, they’re realizing their only safety is to hold it within Russia and its allied economies, not US-based economies where whatever they have in the west can be grabbed.

So yes today, or yesterday, Chubais left Russia for good and went to the west, and you’re having the oligarchs choose. Either they remain in Russia and look at their wealth by creating Russian means of production or they leave Russia, they take their money and they run and hope that the west will let them keep some of what they stole.

GR: Among the countries that are not going to be supporting the sanctions against Russia or China, India, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kurdistan, I mean all those countries in the Central Asian region. And that seems to be benefiting the Belt and Road Initiative, I think.

MH: You’d think so. The big question mark is India. Because it’s so large. And India has already positioned itself to be the intermediary for a lot of financial trade financing with Russia. India is also prone to be pro-American. And Modi in the past politically has been very pro-American. But the fact is if you’re looking at India’s implicit national economic interests, its economic interests lies with the region it’s in. With Eurasia, not with the United States.

So the question is, I think within the Pentagon and the state department, their big worry is, how do we keep control of India in the US hands? That’s going to be the big crisis areas for the next few years.

GR: Maybe I’ll, maybe get you to put on your glasses to sort of looking ahead into the future. Maybe a couple of years from now. Given the prevailing trends, how is this going to play out? Is this, is it going to have one side advanced more than the other or is it going to be a nuclear husk? What is your thinking?

MH: I don’t think it’ll be nuclear, although it could, given the crazy neocons with their Christian fundamentalists in Washington, people like Pompeo thinking that Jesus will come if you blow up the world. I mean, these people are literally crazy.

I worked with National Security people 50 years ago at the Hudson Institute, and I couldn’t believe that human brains were as twisted as they were, wanting to blow up much of the world for religious reasons. And for ethnic reasons, and for personal psychology reasons. And these are the people that have somehow risen to a policy-making position in the United States, and they’re threatening not only the rest of the world, but of course the US economy as well.

But I don’t think atomic war is likely. I think that the United States is going to try to convince other countries that neoliberalism is the way that they can get rich. And of course, it’s not.

Neoliberalism impoverishes. Neoliberalism is a class war against labour by finance, primarily, and a class war against industry. A class war against governments. It’s the financial class really against the whole rest of society seeking to use debt leverage to control companies, countries, families and individuals by debt. And the question is, are they really going to be able to convince people that the way to get rich is to go into debt. Or are other countries going to say, this is a blind alley. And it’s been a blind alley really since Rome that bequeathed all the pro creditor debt laws to western civilization that were utterly different from those of the near east, that, where civilizations take off.

GR: And just maybe a final thought, I mean, I’m based in Canada, and it seems when I’m hearing about de-dollarization at the sinking of the US economy and how things are going to go for ordinary individuals, and I’m wondering if Canada can somehow escape that trajectory next to me or are we kind of manacles at the wrists, where the United States goes, we’re going there too?

MH: Canada is completely controlled by the banking sector. I wrote an article for the government’s think-tank, Canada and the New Monetary Order, in 1978, detailing how Canada was dependant. It’s very debt-financed, financially controlled, and its government is utterly corrupt. The neoliberal party, the liberal party there is fairly corrupt, and so are most of the other parties, and they look at the United States as protecting the corruption and economic gangsterism that enables them to control Canada.

GR: Well, Michael Hudson, I guess we’ve got to go now, but thanks for that very large and interesting discussion on our survival, how we survive this war, and what the consequences will be. Thank you very much for being my guest on Global Research.

MH: It’s good to be here.

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Notes:

1. https://www.blackrock.com/corporate/investor-relations/larry-fink-chairmans-letter
2. Polansek and Ana Mano(March 23, 2022), “As sanctions bite Russia, fertilizer shortage imperils world food supply,” Reuters; https://www.reuters.com/business/sanctions-bite-russia-fertilizer-shortage-imperils-world-food-supply-2022-03-23/
3. Dan Eberhart (March 23, 2022), “As sanctions bite Russia, fertilizer shortage imperils world food supply“, Reuters; https://www.forbes.com/sites/daneberhart/2022/03/23/expanded-sanctions-on-russian-oil-will-cause-economic-pain-for-everyone/?sh=300dec32bcb0
4. Emily Rauhala, Tyler Pager, Ashley Parker (March 25, 2022), “Biden, E.U. announce plan to reduce Europe’s reliance on Russian energy,” The Washington Post; https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/biden-eu-announce-plan-to-reduce-europe-s-reliance-on-russian-energy/ar-AAVtSsS?ocid=BingNewsSearch
5. Tom O’Connor (March 2, 2022), “The 4 Nations Who Back Russia’s War in Ukraine, and 35 Who Won’t Condemn It,”Newsweek; https://www.newsweek.com/4-nations-who-back-russias-war-ukraine-35-who-wont-condemn-it-1684250 

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First published on July 19, 2022

The White House keeps insisting that it will not directly involve American soldiers in the war in Ukraine, but it keeps taking steps that will inevitably lead to a large-scale open combat role for the US against Russia. Among the most recent moves to increase the pressure on the Kremlin, Biden revealed at a NATO summit meeting in Madrid on June 29^th that the US will establish a permanent headquarters in Poland for the Fifth Army Corps, maintain an additional rotational brigade of thousands of troops in Romania and bolster other deployments in the Baltic states. Also, the number of US troops in Europe, currently approaching 100,000, will be increased. Biden also was pleased to learn that Turkey had been enticed to drop its objection to Finland and Sweden joining NATO.

On the way to the NATO summit aboard Air Force One, Biden’s National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan advised that “By the end of the summit what you will see is a more robust, more effective, more combat credible, more capable and more determined force posture to take account of a more acute and aggravated Russian threat.” Presumably Sullivan was reading from a prepared script, but the objective surely seemed to be to heighten tension with Moscow rather than attempt to reduce it and come to some kind of diplomatic settlement.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also did his bit. In an astonishing display of derriere kissing, he responded that the new US force posture commitments were demonstrative of Biden’s strong leadership. What Stoltenberg did not mention was that Biden has been lying for some time about the presence of US military personnel in Ukraine. He let the cat out of the bag back in March, when he told troops belonging to the 82^nd Airborne division in Poland that they would soon be going to Ukraine, observing that “You’re going to see when you’re there, and some of you have been there, you’re gonna see —” It was an admission that US forces are already in place inside Ukraine even though the White House quickly did damage control, asserting that the president continues to be opposed to American soldiers being directly engaged in the fighting. Biden also claimed that the US was working to “keep the massacre [of Ukrainians] from continuing.” Again, the language was hardly designed to make some room for a possible accommodation with Russia to negotiate an end to the fighting.

And now there is a New York Times report entitled “Commando Network Coordinates Flow of Weapons in Ukraine, Officials Say: A secretive operation involving US Special Operations forces hints at the scale of the effort to assist Ukraine’s still outgunned military.”

The article describes a more active US role in Ukraine than the Biden Administration has been willing to admit publicly. Back in February, before intervened in Ukraine, the US reportedly withdrew its own 150 military instructors, many of whom were training Ukrainian soldiers on newly acquired American produced weapons. However, some Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) paramilitary operatives and special ops troops continued their service in the country secretly, directing most of the intelligence flow the US is sharing with Ukrainian forces. In addition to that, special ops soldiers from Washington’s NATO allies have been managing the movement of weapons and equipment into Ukraine and providing some specialized training. It has also been reported that British SAS commandos are actually guarding President Volodymyr Zelensky. The NYT specifies, citing American and other Western officials, that the soldiers and CIA officers are currently not on the front lines with Ukrainian troops. Also according to the Times, even though the US and NATO member states have not acknowledged the presence of their paramilitaries soldiers in operational roles in Ukraine, Russia and other intelligence services around the world are aware of this.

The New York Times report appears to be generally correct, though it does omit some details, some of which I have been hearing from former colleagues in the intelligence services. There has been considerable overt training at the Grafenwoehr German army base as well as at the Ramstein US Air Base to familiarize the Ukrainians with the new weapons arriving. Other NATO countries are also participating in the training. Meanwhile, the cadres of special operations soldiers and intelligence personnel operating primarily in western Ukraine are not in uniform and many of them are working under various contrived cover designations, including sometimes loose affiliations with foreign embassies and NGOs. There are also a conventional CIA Station, a group from the National Security Agency and a Military Attache’s office in the recently reopened US Embassy in Kiev.

All of the above means that Biden and other western leaders have been dissimulating regarding their active participation in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Apart from his possible gaffe, Biden will not admit that there are American boots already on the ground, but they are there and are playing a major role in both logistics and intelligence sharing. The potential downside for the president could come when some of these soldiers in mufti get killed or, worse, captured and start to talk about their role.

Retired US Air Force Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski, a former analyst for the US Department of Defense, observes that deploying plausibly deniable non-uniformed personnel “is completely typical of the initial stages of a US-backed long war, and for long-term political manipulation of the target country. This is the future that neoconservative ‘strategists’ in DC and their British and European allies imagine for Ukraine. Rather than a negotiated conclusion, with a new Ukrainian role as a neutral and productive country, independent of both Russian and US political influences, the US government and CIA see Ukraine as an expendable yet useful satrap in its competition with the Russian Federation.”

Former CIA analyst Larry Johnson sees the activity in stark terms, while also commenting that the CIA has not won a semi-clandestine insurgent war in forty years. He observes that “Ukraine is a proxy; the West is trying to destroy Russia, it’s that simple. It would be one thing if Russia was the most evil, oppressive, authoritarian regime in the world. It’s nowhere even close. Even though the West keeps trying to portray Russia as such. The fact of the matter is, the West wants the resources that Russia has and it wants to control Russia. [But] Russia is not about to be controlled.”

In other words, Washington might be seeking an unending war entangling Russia and limiting its options globally. The Biden Administration has staked its reputation and possible political future on enabling Ukraine to survive without succumbing to Russian territorial demands. It is a risky and even dangerous policy, both in practical terms and politically. The persistence of the Ukrainians in their defense is largely a product of US and Western Europe guarantees that they will do all that is necessary to support Zelensky and his regime, which is already seeking $750 billion in aid for “reconstruction.” If western military casualties begin to surface, the political support for the Ukraine war will begin to fade in Washington and elsewhere and there will be consequences in the upcoming midterm US elections in November.

A final comment on the Times piece is in response to the question why it has appeared at all at the present time.

The mainstream media has been a cheerleader for aggressive US support of Ukraine and Zelensky, but now it is beginning to step back from that position, as have also the Washington Post and other media outlets. Perhaps they are becoming convinced that the game plan being promoted by Washington and its European allies is unlikely to succeed at great cost to the respective economies. Larry Johnson puts it this way: “I think the purpose of this article coming out now is just to lay the groundwork for why we can’t put or shouldn’t put any more US military personnel or even CIA personnel inside Ukraine because continuing to put US personnel…inside Ukraine to train is becoming too risky because of Russia’s success on the battlefield.” One might also add that it is exceptionally dangerous. A misstep or even a deliberate false flag coming from either side could easily make the war go nuclear.

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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 [email protected].

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

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It isn’t often that a generation lives through a systemic breakdown crisis. While many shallower minds are quick to lay blame to the cause of their troubles on a convenient scapegoat (1), the fact is that these sorts of systemic collapses take time and the root causes are to be found in something both more universal and more subjective.

Many generations of bad ideas must be embraced without self-criticism or correction before a foolish society unwilling to break from popular delusions faces the consequence of their folly. Machiavelli once noted in his Discourses on Livy (investigating the causes of the decay and collapse of Rome published in 1517 AD) that unless a wayward republic returns to its founding principles, it isn’t long for this world.

Such was the world of the late 4th century when a young Manichean teacher of Rhetoric hailing from North Africa had decided to convert to the new religion of Christianity in 386 AD under the influence of a powerful church leader named St Ambrose (340-397 AD).Augustine didn’t have much love for Christianity itself when he found himself first attending the lectures of Ambrose in Milan and found the religion to be a rather overbearing doctrine relying too much on blind faith and too little on reason.

Ambrose threw the young man’s presumptions out the window, and although he first found himself fascinated by the bishop’s use of rhetoric to persuade his audience, he increasingly found himself actually listening to the substance of the man’s words, soon realizing that for the first time, here was a Christian not preaching AT him, but actually using reason to explain why it were better to be good and virtuous than to hold onto the hedonistic ethos in Rome’s still Pagan-dominated cultural milieux.

Like Augustine, Ambrose had mastered the classics including the works of Plato and especially the writings of Cicero whose death ushered in the collapse of the republic into full blown empire four centuries earlier. These studies gave both men a powerful edge lacking in those Christians who chose to defend their position from a literalist reading of the text of their canonized works, transcending matters of dogma and activating powers of universal reason behind the surface appearance of church doctrine.

Speaking in his Confessions, Augustine writes:

“And to Milan I came, to Ambrose the bishop, famed through the whole world as one of the best of men, thy devoted servant… To him I was led by thee without my knowledge, that by him I might be led to thee in full knowledge. That man of God received me as a father would, and welcomed my coming as a good bishop should. And I began to love him, of course, not at the first as a teacher of the truth, for I had entirely despaired of finding that in thy Church–but as a friendly man. And I studiously listened to him–though not with the right motive–as he preached to the people. I was trying to discover whether his eloquence came up to his reputation, and whether it flowed fuller or thinner than others said it did. And thus I hung on his words intently, but, as to his subject matter, I was only a careless and contemptuous listener. I was delighted with the charm of his speech, which was more erudite, though less cheerful and soothing, than Faustus’ style. As for subject matter, however, there could be no comparison, for the latter was wandering around in Manichean deceptions, while the former was teaching salvation most soundly. But “salvation is far from the wicked,” such as I was then when I stood before him. Yet I was drawing nearer, gradually and unconsciously.”

A World on the Brink of Collapse

Even though Christianity had been adopted as a state-supported religion in 381 AD, old habits die hard, and just as the Roman elite often simply adapted their pagan rites and rituals into new Christian wineskins, the lessons of Christ were not necessarily high priorities even for many of the Roman converts within the general population who valued personal comfort and stability over the higher message of loving God and loving your fellow man as you love yourself outlined by Christ.

What made this more complicated is that Rome had over-extended itself several times over and had little capability to maintain its international concessions with a capital that had long found itself addicted to ever greater spoils of pillage and slave labor from the subdued peoples of the world. The governing class, military leaders and administrative managers had all glutted themselves in a corrupt system of governance which had grown fat with lethargy and arrogance over the centuries.

Amidst this decay, a growing armada of organized Germanic forces among the Goths, Huns and Visigoths were growing in influence pressing ever harder on Rome’s borders. With the death of Theodosius in 395 AD, any remnant of stabilizing influence in the Roman empire had disappeared, and the disorganized, undisciplined forces of Rome became increasingly incapable of organizing any resistance to the growing assaults of Alaric (leader of the Visigoths). After Theodosius died, Rome was divided into Eastern and Western segments with the west the least manageable.

By 410 AD, the walls of the capital were breached for the first time in history and the first sacking of Rome occurred with a ferocity that none had imagined possible.

From the moment of his conversion to his final breath, Augustine’s leadership skills, mastery of the Platonic method and power of rhetoric made him an organic leader within a beleaguered Church. Not only was Rome in an existential crisis on a geopolitical level, but the very church itself had faced an internal rot with splintered heresies breaking away as cults and sub-cults, each declaring themselves the one true heir to Christ’s mission.

After the first sacking of Rome in 410 AD, things were looking rather bleak and the desperate population was looking for a scapegoat to absorb their hate.

Were the gods punishing the people for having abandoned them when Rome stopped trying to wipe Christianity off the map and instead chose to embrace it as the official state religion? Augustine found himself doing battle with this trend and the City of God was his defense of Christianity which he began in 412 AD and finished in 426 AD. Its lessons have as much application in diagnosing today’s systemic crisis as they did 1600 years ago.

Augustine’s Defense of Christianity

In the City of God, Augustine described how the mob of Rome was quickly turning on the Christians in the following remarks:

“Rome having been stormed and sacked by the Goths under Alaric their king, the worshipers of false gods, or pagans, as we commonly call them, made an attempt to attribute this calamity to the Christian religion, and began to blaspheme the true God with even more than their wonted bitterness and acerbity. It was this which kindled my zeal for the house of God and prompted me to undertake the defence of the City of God against the charges and misrepresentations of its assailants.”

Within the City of God, Augustine argues that it isn’t Christianity that is to blame for the collapse of Rome, but rather Rome itself which had fallen from obedience to Natural Law upon whose adherence the survival of societies absolutely depends. While God allows for a certain degree of flexibility to his wayward children who fall into corruption- patience is not infinite and the disobedience to Natural law devoid of redemption can only be tolerated for so long.

Citing Cicero (106 – 43 BC), Augustine’s insight into the true causes of Rome’s downfall hinged on the positive conception of a healthy society which is in harmony with the mandate of the ideal City of God. This is a society which has wisely rejected the law of “might makes right” of empire.

In the case of Rome, Augustine makes the point that the seeds of her own destruction were sewn long before the birth of Christ.

Even before the debauched revelries normalized under the oversight of the Roman imperial cults of the Committee of 15 which interpreted the oracular gobbledygook in the Sibylline Books of Apollo, and before the hegemony of the cults of Cybele and Mithras which saw a total collapse of the minds and morals of both Roman plebians and elites alike, and before the age of bloodlust that the coliseum’s gore entailed as “popular entertainment”, Cicero perfectly diagnosed Rome’s spiritual self-destruction in his Commonwealth.

Citing Cicero, Augustine defines a healthy community saying “a community of commonwealth is not an association of units, but an association united by a common sense of right and a community of common interest”. Continuing to cite Cicero’s 64 BC opus, he writes “the morality has passed away and we are bound to be called to account for the disaster… for we retain the name of a commonwealth, but we have lost the reality long ago, and this was not through any misfortune, but our own misdemeanors”.

The key moment cited by both Cicero and Augustine that saw Rome embrace her tragic destiny was located in the events surrounding the Third Punic War of 149-146 BC.

How Rome Lost the Mandate of Heaven

The third Punic war with Carthage was a moment not unlike the choice which the American elite made to launch into the Vietnam War and the murder of Cicero was not unlike the same decision those same elite made to stay silent and coverup the truth of John Kennedy’s murder in 1963. It also saw parallels to the collapse of Athens into empire with the judicial murder of Socrates in 399 BC and her embrace of wars with the Delian league in the 5th century BC.

It was during this war that Rome’s once loyal ally Carthage found herself the target of total destruction as Roman ships landed on the coasts of today’s Libya in 149 BC. Rome’s General Scipio Aemilianus had one mission to carry out which was immortalized in his words “Carthage delenda est”… Carthage must be destroyed.

The Carthaginians were desperate to avoid another war, and quickly offered to lay down her weapons and engage in terms of surrender. Sadly, their placation fell on deaf ears and the oligarchy managing Rome had decided that her large territories stretching across Africa, the Mediterranean and Southwest Asia had to be consolidated. After two years of war, Carthage’s capital was sieged, ending with every last man, woman and child killed or sold into slavery. The oligarchical system of families and cults which had once used Persia as their enforcer of global controls had found a new host on whom to exert their influence, and once-proud Roman republic was set there upon a new and darker destiny.

Augustine writes: “After the destruction of Carthage and before Christ’s coming, the degradation of traditional morality ceased to be a gradual decline and became a torrential rush.”

Augustine makes the point that “if the values of Christ’s teaching had been practised rather than license, Rome would be prospering. But now there is despair and even the true Christians must submit to endure the wickedness of an utterly corrupt state and by that endurance to win themselves a place of glory in that holy and majestic assembly as we call it on the Heavenly Commonwealth whose law is the Will of God”.

Here it is important to note, that Augustine is not saying that Rome needed to convert to Christianity in order to be saved, for Rome did just that, and it was not saved.

More important than simply being Christian in name, Augustine makes clear that Rome could have redeemed herself even before Christ was born by following the universal values contained in Christ’s teachings both on the individual level and the broader governmental level.

Augustine’s City of God is in many ways his attempt to do what Plato laid out in his life’s work and especially his Republic (published in 375 BC) and also what Cicero did in his Commonwealth published in 64 BC. In both cases the great philosopher/statesmen laid out their solutions to their nations’ slide into empire. All three noted that whenever societies fall into decadence which empire entails, the love of wisdom is replaced for the love of hedonism and other ephemeral pleasures. Love of the other is replaced with love of the self and considerations of the wellbeing of the whole community are reduced to the wellbeing of the individual member with power to impose their will onto the masses.

What is needed for a society to break free of the cyclical collapses which such a corrupt society is destined to face? The solution offered by Plato, Cicero and Augustine amounts to simply recognizing that government exists to advance the happiness of a people. This simple concept is much deeper than it appears.

True Happiness and the Pursuit of Philosopher Kings

Augustine writes

“If Plato says that the wise man is the man who imitates, knows and loves God, and that participation in this God brings man happiness, what need is there to examine the other philosophers? There are none who come nearer to us than the Platonists… Plato defined Sovereign Good as the life in accordance with virtue and he declared that this was possible only for one who had the knowledge of God and who strove to imitate him; this was the sole condition of happiness.”

As you can see, this idea of happiness is much higher than the lowly notion of happiness among today’s popular philosophers who attempt to define the sentiment within narrow egotistical terms of “satisfying my desire to do what I want to do”. Instead, Plato, Cicero and Augustine raise the concept along with later thinkers like Thomas More and Erasmus, to a standard of spiritual pleasure contained in the pursuit, acquisition and sharing of truth (aka: wisdom).

All things are designed by God to have loves that are premised on their natures. Just as a plant yearns for water, nutritious soil and CO2 (sorry Greta), and just as a body yearns for food, water, warmth so too does the soul have its own loves towards which it yearns to be made more healthy. The absence of the loves of each thing cause pain, disease and decay for their subjects, and this is the case for the soul whose food is wisdom, without the which no durable happiness were ever attainable.

Here Augustine notes “in all cases where love is rightly bestowed, that love is itself loved even more. For we are justified in calling a man good not merely because he merely knows what is good but because he loves the Good.”

Hammering at the lessons of Paul’s 1 Corinthians 13 which emphasizes the importance of love’s substance over the mere shadows of behavior Augustine clarifies his position:

“When a man’s resolve is to love God and to love his neighbor as himself, not according to man’s standards but according to God’s, he is undoubtedly said to be a man of good will, because of this love. This attitude is more commonly called ‘caritas/agape’ in holy scripture; but it appears in the same sacred writing under the appellation ‘Love’. When the apostle is giving instructions about the choice of a man to rule God’s people, he says that such a man should be a lover of the Good… There is indeed a love which is given to what should not be loved and that love is hated in himself by one who loves the love which is given to a proper object of Love. For these can both exist in the same man and it is good for man that what makes for right living should increase in him and what makes for evil should die away until he is made perfectly sound and all his life is changed into good.”

This idea was expressed nearly a thousand years earlier at the other edge of the world island by none other than Confucius who wrote: “At 15 I set my heart on learning; At 30 I firmly took my stand; At 40 I had no delusions; At 50 I knew the Mandate of Heaven; At 60 my ear was attuned; At 70 I followed my heart’s desire without overstepping the boundaries of right.”

Even Christ’s golden rule was a focal point of Confucian thought as the old sage stated “do not unto others as you would not have them do unto you”. The Christian notion of Natural Law as outlined in Augustine’s City of God also finds its parallel expression in Chinese thought vis a vis the concept of Tianming (aka: Mandate of Heaven) whose disobedience by a ruler is sufficient cause for a people to overthrow said ruler in favor of a new government better suited to maintaining the general welfare.

Although Augustine never saw the redemption of society in his lifetime, having died in 430 AD amidst a siege held by the Vandals in the former colony of Hippo located in today’s Algeria, the infusion of Augustine’s Platonic Christian outlook provided the basis for several major renaissances in the centuries after his death.

A New Hope for Humanity

It was a young Augustinian monk named Patrick who successfully launched a major transformation of Ireland into a Christian nation as outlined in Thomas Cahill’s ‘How the Irish Saved Civilization’ and it was an Irish Augustinian missionary named Saint Columba who finally returned to mainland Europe after several generations of war, decay and famine had reduced the continent to squalor. Starting in 565 AD, St. Columba led the largest Christianizing movement far outside the clutches of the Holy See’s control in the form of the Hiberno-Scottish mission which used Scotland as a new springboard for a mass organizing campaign across all Europe.

When St. Columba arrived on the mainland in 590 AD there was very little of substance to be found within the highly fragmented world of Europe.

The entire domain of the former western Roman Empire had been ravaged by territorial warlords fighting for terrain in a similar pattern that was experienced by China during the 480 year dark age that came in the wake of the Han Dynasty’s fall in 200 AD.

Just as the rediscovery and application of Confucian principles animated the Tang Dynasty’s revival of the Silk Road and unification of the divided land in 680 AD, so too did the rediscovery of Plato via the Augustinian Christian movement then sew the seeds for the re-unification of Europe under the Frankish King Pepin the short and his son Charlemagne who ended the age of Europe’s warring states and established the Carolingian Empire. This story is covered extensively by Professor Pierre Beaudry in Charlemagne’s Ecumenical Principle.

Among the most celebrated and widely transcribed books in Charlemagne’s court were Augustine’s City of God and On Christian Education which were read to Charlemagne extensively by the grand strategist Alcuin.

Under Charlemagne, an age of internal improvements were launched the likes of which had not been seen since the days of Alexander the Great. Besides the canals, roads, schools and new cities, we also see a mass education of children, social welfare reforms, economic reforms and perhaps most importantly, peace treaties and commercial ties with the Abbasid Dynasty of Haroun al Rashid, and the northern Jewish empire of Khazaria. It was this northern kingdom that served as a key strategic gateway of the Steppes Silk Road between China and Europe.

This Confucian-Christian-Muslim-Jewish alliance set an example which the oligarchy has been desperate to scrub from humanity’s collective memory for 1300 years.

For anyone who thinks that this potential alliance only involved the western branch of Catholic Christianity, and ignored the eastern orthodox Christian movement dominant in the Byzantine eastern Roman Empire of the day, it is worth noting that after Charlemagne had made an important maneuver to avoid war with Byzantium in 801 AD by asking Empress Irene of Athens her hand in marriage.

The fact that Irene accepted the offer at this moment presents the mind of a historian with an incredible sense of the possibilities of a world united by all major civilizations under an ecumenical alliance of cooperation. Could Christianity have re-united under a policy of cooperation with both itself and with the diverse civilizations surrounding her instead of embarking upon a new age of Balkanization within and inter-civilizational wars without? Would the leading factions of the ruling Roman oligarchical families centered in Venice, Rome and Byzantium have been able to subvert such an alliance of the forces of humanity?

Sadly, with the palace coup that overthrew Irene in 802, such potentials were destroyed forever and the world will never have an answer to such questions.

From Dante to the League of Cambrai

Despite the eventual sabotage of the ecumenical alliance of great civilizations after the 10th century, the Augustinian current of Christianity again found its champion in the form of Dante Alighieri who did much to revive St. Augustine’s thesis in his De Monarchia published in 1312 AD. Augustinian Christian leaders around Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464 AD) organized a unification of the church during the 1438 Council of Florence (again, soon sabotaged with the 1452 destruction of Constantinople) and again Augustinian Christians regrouped and set the stage for the Golden Renaissance.

It were these same leaders who organized the 1509 League of Cambrai which nearly finished the job begun by Alexander the Great by wiping the central command of the oligarchy from the face of the earth.

Despite its eventual subversion, European philosophers continued to rise into positions of power who looked to Plato, Cicero, and Augustine as the basis of Europe’s moral salvation. It should be here noted that a perverse effort to restore Charlemagne’s empire in the form of an expansionist program of war and tyranny also grew across the centuries and justified the eventual creation of the European Union in the late 20th Century. This nasty movement should not be confused with the genuine heirs of Charlemagne who saw the basis of their power not on might-make-right, but on the opposing idea of right-makes-might.

Among the most noteworthy of these leaders were France’s King Louis XI, England’s King Henry VII, Sir Thomas More, Erasmus of Rotterdam, King Henry IV of Navarre, Cardinal Jules Mazarin of France, Finance Minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert and the great scientist/statesman Gottfried Leibniz (1649-1716).

Leibniz’s Augustinian Vision

On top of organizing many of the greatest reforms in administration, law and science policy within both Prussia and Russia (serving as Privy Councillor to Peter the Great), Gottfried Leibniz organized to unify the splintered branches of Christianity around a renewed Augustinian reform, and a broader age of reason by looking beyond the limits of the corrupted European courts to… China and Russia.

Corresponding with leading missionaries and advisors to the Kangxi emperor of China, Leibniz created the first major journal on Chinese thought and politics called Novissima Sinica (News from China) in 1696 where he laid out his grand design writing:

“I consider it a singular plan of the fates that human cultivation and refinement should today be concentrated, as it were, in the two extremes of our continent, in Europe and in China, which adorns the Orient as Europe does the opposite edge of the Earth. Perhaps Supreme Providence has ordained such an arrangement, so that as the most cultivated and distant peoples stretch out their arms to each other, those in between may gradually be brought to a better way of life. I do not think it an accident that the Russians, whose vast realm connects Europe with China and who hold sway over the deep barbarian lands of the North by the shore of the frozen ocean, should be led to the emulation of our ways through the strenuous efforts of their present ruler [Peter I].”

It is no coincidence that we find in the works of Leibniz and the Augustinian Christian movement, the key to the strategic thinking of Confucian Platonist Benjamin Franklin who applied the practical and metaphysical insights of Confucius, Christ and Plato into a new system of governance which he defined as a “science of happiness”.

If you have made it this far and don’t yet see any of the keys to the salvation of our current society within the context of the rising multipolar alliance and Confucian renaissance which is animating China’s New Silk Road, I highly advise reading this essay again.

The author delivered a lecture on this topic which can be viewed here

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Matthew Ehret the Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Patriot Review , and Senior Fellow at the American University in Moscow. He is author of the ‘Untold History of Canada’ book series and Clash of the Two Americas trilogy. In 2019 he co-founded the Montreal-based Rising Tide Foundation.

Note

(1) be it immigrants, jews, Chinese boogeymen, Russians or right wing domestic terrorists, there are scapegoats catering to everyone

All images in this article are from TCP

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.

Click here to order.

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Squeezed between Western and European sanctions due to its “special military operation” in Ukraine since late February and its dilapidating effects on Africa’s economy on one side and its decades-old desire to regain part of the Soviet-era influence despite the weak economic presence and negative perceptions at the core among the public especially the youth and middle class, Russia is gearing up for the next traditional African leaders summit.

With preparations underway, Russia would have to begin preparing for and play different attractive rhythms at the second African leaders summit in 2023 at St. Petersburg, Russia.

Reports monitored by the author indicate that the modest economic gains are gradually eroding due to Covid-19 these past two years and the situation is turning complicated currently due to the Russia-Ukraine crisis. The Russia-Ukraine crisis has a strong immeasurable negative impact, generating social discontent across large spectrum of the population in Africa. Therefore, African leaders would indiscriminately have to cooperate with any foreign investors willing to invest and support their development process. Across Africa, more than 282 million people are food insecured – and that number is rising, according to the estimates by the World Bank.

Throughout Africa, the vulnerable groups of the population are displaying discontent and dissatisfaction due to unbearable rising prices for commodities and consumables. This latest food crisis, which did not originate in the continent, is reaching alarming dimensions especially in Africa. In fact, African leaders are confronted with these hurdles and emerging challenges. They are feverishly looking for both short-term solutions to calm down existing tensions among the people, and also long-term strategies to push sustainable development and make pace for growth.

The United States percieves most of the challenges and opportunities with a difference in Africa. It is constantly investing and its private investors are active exploring the continent. The United States is well-connected with its public outreach diplomacy. American institutions and organizations are linking up with the youth, women and the civil society.

After a peak in 2014, foreign direct investment (FDI) in Africa from the United States dropped to US$47.5 billion in 2020. During the pandemic, it provided more than 50 million doses to 43 African countries. It has further given more than US$1.9 billion in Covid-related assistance, for urgent needs like emergency food and other humanitarian support.

President Joe Biden has launched the Emergency Plan for Adaptation and Resilience. The year, the Congress allocated US$3 billion every year by 2024 to finance climate adaptation projects, the largest commitment ever made by the United States to reduce the impact of climate change on those most endangered by it.

Through the Power Africa programme, the U.S. has connected more than 25 million homes and businesses across the continent to electricity, 80 percent of which is based on renewables. Development Finance Corporation supports renewable energy across Africa, including a solar project in Nigeria, wind farms in Senegal and Kenya. Nigeria marked a new chapter with the signing of a US$2.1 billion development assistance agreement that supports collaboration in the fundamentals: in health, in education, agriculture, good governance.

And then four U.S. companies are collaborating with the Senegalese Government on infrastructure projects; that’s the Institut Pasteur de Dakar, which is working toward Covid-19 vaccine production with American support and investment; and pushing innovation, technology and entrepreneurship with women and youth groups in Africa. The popular partnership between the United States and Africa is YALI – the Young African Leaders Initiative. With various useful programmes, it concretely focuses on the youth – the youth is the future of Africa.

The Prosper Africa initiative aims to increase two-way trade and investment.  The Africa Growth and Opportunity Act – known as AGOA – provides duty-free access to American markets, and most African countries have taken full advantage of it. U.S. investors are seriously leveraging unto the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Similarly, China, Japan and South Korea have started localizing production of automobiles and tech gadgets.

Despite some criticism, international development institutions and organizations are ready and offering support. In addition, external countries are stepping up efforts in that direction. The World Bank stands ready. Its latest three-year, US$93 billion global programme – about 2/3 of which will support Africa’s development agenda – delivered through the International Development Association (IDA). The IDA is the world’s largest source of concessional funds, including grants for low-income countries, helping them seize opportunities to reduce poverty and stimulate inclusive growth.

This latest IDA replenishment will support Africa to increase even more in the years ahead.  Africa has become the prime region benefiting from IDA resources – growing more than tenfold its annual program of about US$3 billion in 2000 to well over US$30 billion currently. This support, plus growing on the ground presence across Africa, is enabling to work hand-in-hand with governments, with the private sector, and civil society to implement the continent’s ambitious development agenda.

While in Dakar, capital of Senegal, meeting more than a dozen Heads of State from across Africa, Axel van Trotsenburg, World Bank Vice President for Latin America and the Caribbean, said “African leaders have, through the African Union process, articulated clear goals – from digitalization to electricity to education – and we are committed to helping Africa translate these ambitions into strong programmes that can, within a short period of time, improve people’s lives and transform the continent.”

Foreign countries including the United States, European Union, Asian states such China, and from the Gulf and Arab states are, indeed, at the forefront in Africa. They offer all kinds of support for investments and credit lines for infrastructure projects and development programmes, while Russia seems ultra-hesitant to do. In March during the heat of Russia-Ukraine crisis, the United States and European Union supported Africa through the African Development Bank (AfDB), when the bank sought funds more than US$50 billion for curated bankable projects in key priority sectors identified in the Africa Investment Forum’s 2020 Unified Response to Covid-19 initiative.

According to the China-Africa Economic and Trade Relationship Annual Report (2021), while Covid-19 has shaken the global economy, Chinese investment in Africa has been climbing. The report says China invested US$2.96 billion in Africa in 2020, up 9.5% from 2019.  The turnover of Chinese enterprises’ contracted projects in Africa amounted to US$383.3 billion in 2020, that is a 16.7% drop from 2019.

In a media release, the U.S. Government’s lead development agency, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), has renewed its partnership with many African countries. Quiye recently, it offered to fund various projects, including investment in health and education, women and youth, and infrastructures in a number of African countries. For instance, in April this year, it gave assistance funding of US$1.5 billion to promote a more peaceful, prosperous and healthy Mozambique.

The economic significance of Eurasian Union for Africa’s development here need not be over-discussed. Members of the European Union such as Britain, France, Germany and The Netherlands are playing visible roles in Africa. The European Union, as a substantial economic power bloc, has long-term working relations with African Union.

With its new Global Gateway Strategy, the EU is demonstrating the readiness to support massive infrastructural investment in Africa.  It also seeks to unlock new business and investment opportunities, including in the areas of manufacturing and agro processing as well as regional and continental value chains development. In a document entitled “Toward a Comprehensive Strategy with Africa” – the document sets forth the template of what the EU plans to do with Africa.

Valdis Dombrovskis, Executive Vice-President and Commissioner at the EU Secretariat pointed out that “In this new approach towards Africa, we can build a modern, sustainable and mutually rewarding partnership of equals. Of course, there will be challenges along the way but the EU stands ready to help. We want to share the lessons from our own process of economic integration, and with our new Global Gateway Strategy. We have demonstrated that we are ready to support massive infrastructural investment in Africa.”

That said, African leaders are exploring available possibilities and windows that have been opened after the last EU-Africa summit. The European Union has unveiled €300 billion (US$340 billion) alternative to China’s Belt and Road initiative – an investment programme the bloc claims will create links, not dependencies.

There great rivalry and keen competition among key global players now. And Africa is now seen from different perspectives, but more importantly, it has been described as the last investment frontier due to the current transformations taking place there. During the 35th Assembly of the Heads of State and Government of the AU in Addis Ababa in February, António Guterres argued that Africa was “a source of hope” for the world.

In November 2021, a report prepared by 25 Russian policy experts, titled ‘Situation Analytical Report’ explicitly noted that many external countries are using diplomacy in all ways to support their efforts in Africa. It further criticized the inconsistency of Russia’s current policy towards Africa. The intensification of political contacts is only with a focus on making them demonstrative. Russia’s foreign policy strategy regarding Africa needs to spell out and incorporate the development needs of African countries.

While the number of high-level meetings has increased, the share of substantive issues on the agenda remains small. There are little definitive results from such high-level meetings. Many bilateral agreements largely remain not implemented, and many pledges undelivered. It pointed to lack of coordination among various state and para-state institutions working with Africa. According to the report, Russia has to intensify and redefine its parameters as it has now transcended to the fifth stage in its relationship with Africa.

That report was also critical about public speaking. The report lists insufficient and disorganized Russian-African lobbying, combined with the lack of “information hygiene” at all levels of public speaking among the main flaws of Russia’s current Africa policy. In several ways, ideas and intentions are often passed for results, and worse Russia’s possibilities are overestimated both publicly and in closed negotiations.

Several reports monitored by this author show clearly that there has been little approach, in terms of government and institutional public relations, in Russia’s foreign policy in Africa. Understandably, after thirty years most of its institutions connecting Africa are still in transitional mode from the Soviet era. This author has written a lot about this, emphasizing the seriousness of using media networks – an ordinary calculated attempt to build an atmosphere of trust and confidence. Quite obviously, Russians have to devote a great deal of thought to creating strategic communication group that could highlight its diverse performance and practical genuine interests in Africa.

Opening a new stage of relations becomes important especially when analyzing the contradictions and confrontations posed by the Russia-Ukraine crisis and its multiple effects on future relations. Without doubts, African leaders complained bitterly that they have become direct victims of the Russia-Ukraine crisis. Overall Russia’s investment in economic sectors is still staggering there in the continent and comparatively, the fact still remains that the United States, the European Union and a number of Asian and Gulf States are investing heavily in Africa.

The Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Deputy Mikhail Bogdanov, most often show their crosshair of consistent criticisms for Western and European dominance and investment in Africa. While Russia boasts of bilateral agreements with African countries, it lacks strategies for implementing the oftentimes ear-deafening, resonating and forward-looking policy for Africa. The passion for repeating the same things in different ways in speeches has become a style in Russian diplomacy. In a general sense, their repetitive theme of Soviet-era support for political liberation and now efforts to help Africa fight neocolonialism are highly appreciated but Russia has to, in practical terms, show its latest concrete policy achievements in various sectors for the past two decades in Africa.

On another side note, Russia most probably needs to design its own template of communication strategy ahead of the 2023 summit, that has to largely win the hearts of African leaders to the emerging New World Order. As already promised, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, Sergey Lavrov, indicated in a mid-June message that “in these difficult and crucial times the strategic partnership with Africa has become a priority of Russia’s foreign policy. The signed agreements and the results will be consolidated at the forthcoming second Russia-Africa summit.”

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

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***

Why has there been almost no coverage of U.S.-led naval maritime exercises in the South China Sea at the same time multi-millionaire Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was visiting Taiwan? 

Consider what is being said, as well as what is totally omitted, in the U.S. coverage of China’s naval action around Taiwan.

The U.S. naval command RIMPAC (Rim of the Pacific Amphibious Assault Training) was carrying out maneuvers involving 170 aircraft, 38 ships, 4 submarines, and 25,000 military personnel from all the G7 imperialist countries.

Some 19 other Asia Pacific countries were pulled in for symbolic participation. RIMPAC is the world’s largest international maritime exercise.

This aggressive maritime action took place from June 29 to August 4. In other words, it was going on as Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was visiting Taiwan.

The shaping of information is all-pervasive. Whether it is FOX News, CNN, AP, The New York Times or The Washington Post, the multibillion-dollar media are part of and totally intertwined with U.S. military industries.

They collaborate in hiding U.S. war plans and provocations.

They also neglect the history which suggests that the U.S. has never had the best interests of the Taiwanese people at heart.

Taiwanese rapper and anti-imperialist commentator Zhong Xiangyu explains:

“The U.S. government has never been a protector of Taiwan. The U.S. Navy was the first country to attack Taiwan with a warship in 1867. The U.S. Navy supported Japan in invading Taiwan in 1874. The U.S. government sold weapons to Japan during the Sino-Japanese War, leading to China’s defeat and forcing China to cede Taiwan to Japan in 1895.

“Today Taiwan separatism is not true independence. It just means serving U.S. interests in a hegemonic, unequal relationship.”

China’s right to self-defense 

The media coverage of China’s military drills around Taiwan never describe them as self-defense. The media display absolute unity, blocking any mention of China’s right to safeguard its national sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Every statement or action taken by China is relentlessly described as “threatening,” “provocative” or “expansionist.” The same words are used again and again in news articles and politicians’ statements.

Typical CNN story that puts China as the aggressor and fails to provide proper context for the conflict over Taiwan. [Source: foxnews.com]

There is only one accepted political line. The media repeat that China is irrational, paranoid, belligerent, menacing and overreacting.

U.S. actions, even military maneuvers in which thousands of troops employ jet bombers and aircraft carriers, are described as “routine rotations” or normal schedules—that is, if the mainstream media report on them at all.

The Chinese media are always described as state-controlled propaganda. By comparison, the U.S. corporate media are always defined as free and democratic.

This is so relentless that it impacts even social forces who oppose U.S. militarism and endless U.S. wars.

Routine threats by U.S. Navy 

RIMPAC is planned and coordinated by the U.S. Navy’s Third Fleet. According to its commander, their massive training is meant to deter escalation by China’s military.

Only part of the Third Fleet is engaged in RIMPAC. The fleet’s total size comes to a combat-ready force of more than 68,000 people, 100 ships and 400 aircraft.

Vice Adm. Scott D. Conn delivers remarks during a change of command and retirement ceremony after relieving Vice Adm. John D. Alexander as Commander, U.S. 3rd Fleet, aboard Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71) on September 27, 2019. [Source: news.usni.org]

Moving into place as Pelosi visited Taiwan was the even larger U.S. Navy Seventh Fleet, the largest of its forward-deployed fleets. At any given time, it amounts to 50 to 70 ships and submarines, 150 aircraft, and more than 27,000 sailors and Marines.

The Seventh Fleet is led by the USS Ronald Reagan, accompanied by guided-missile destroyers, nuclear submarines and jet aircraft. This ship has now been joined by aircraft carrier battle groups of the USS Nimitz and USS Theodore Roosevelt.

It is comparable to a scenario in which Chinese destroyers were to sail into the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of New Orleans and Houston.

The U.S. Pacific Fleet consists of approximately 200 ships/submarines, nearly 1,200 aircraft, and more than 130,000 sailors and civilians. The U.S. Navy maintains 11 carrier strike groups in international waters.

Hiding in plain sight 

Isn’t this aggressive and threatening? Yet this vast and deadly armada is hidden in plain sight. It is barely mentioned, but even when hundreds of ships and aircraft are involved, they are described as simply participating in “routine” or “business as usual” exercises.

These continuing assaults are not top news, but they are reported in military news media, such as the Navy Times.

When the guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold conducted its third transit through the South China Sea in a week, the Chinese government was prompted to label the move as a provocation.

The U.S. Navy’s Seventh Fleet has so far this year sent an average of one guided-missile destroyer per month through the Taiwan Strait as a challenge to China.

According to the Navy Times, China’s foreign ministry protested:

“The U.S. military’s actions have seriously violated China’s sovereignty and security, seriously undermined peace and stability in the South China Sea, and seriously violated international law and norms governing international relations.”

China’s long-held position is that “the two sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one China and should work together to seek national reunification.”

The Taiwan Strait is part of the South China Sea, and China has claimed the area as its territorial waters. However, the United States has consistently said that it considers the strait to be international waters.

Freedom of Navigation – imperialist piracy 

“Freedom of Navigation” is similar to the grand term “Free Trade.” It is not about freedom. Freedom of Navigation has meant unrestricted U.S., British, French and Japanese access to the looting of China.

Few people in the U.S. are aware of the fact that, more than a century ago, the U.S. Navy sent fleets of armored ships to patrol Chinese rivers and coastal waters.

c. 1932. [Source: frankstaylorhistoryandroyalnavyhistory.net]

Special fleets of gunboats of the U.S. Navy and Marines patrolled Chinese rivers up to 1,000 miles inland. They were there to enforce U.S. trade interests and suppress uprisings. Armies of occupation from the U.S., Britain, France, Germany and Japan were stationed in Chinese cities.

“Concessions” were forced on China by brutal gunboat diplomacy and enshrined by onerous unequal treaties that made China pay imperialist countries huge indemnities and grant such “concessions” as control of its cities, major ports and largest waterways.

Britain, with U.S. and French participation, fought two Opium Wars in China to enforce its “right” to sell opium. The merchants called this “defending free trade” and “protecting freedom of navigation.”

It was the 1949 victory of the Chinese Communist Party that finally ended these “Freedom of Navigation” invasions into China’s mainland, opening the opportunity to rebuild a strong, united China which is increasingly able to defend its coastal waters and resist U.S. imperialist demands.

The corrupt and defeated former military forces, defending the rights of the old landlord class, withdrew, with U.S. Navy protection, to the island province of Taiwan. This was hardly a democratic process. It was a totally militarized U.S. occupation of the island.

China has held a consistent, well-understood position on its sovereignty and territorial integrity that is recognized internationally in all world bodies. China has repeatedly asserted its right to resolve this unfinished national reunification.

U.S. violates signed agreements 

Washington is openly violating three different signed agreements—Joint Communiques it made with China in 1972, 1979 and 1982—affirming that China is one country and Taiwan is a province of China.

Any focus on these signed agreements of “One China” in the Western media today would expose that the U.S. has broken its promises not to interrupt China’s efforts to reunify the island peacefully.

Once in a while the truth slips in. Roger Waters, co-founder of Pink Floyd, an English rock band formed in London in 1965, is now on a final U.S. tour titled: “This is not a drill.” In an interview with CNN on August 7, Waters refuted the narrative about Taiwan.

When CNN host Michael Smerconish said in the interview that “China is too busy encircling Taiwan,” Waters immediately said, “They’re not encircling Taiwan, Taiwan is part of China, and that’s been absolutely accepted by the whole of the international community since 1948.”

Smerconish tried to interrupt Waters, saying that China is “on the top of the list of human rights offenders.” Waters immediately shot back: “The Chinese didn’t go to Iraq in 2003 and kill one million people.”

Pelosi and insider trading 

The U.S. corporate media are united in hostility to China. At the same time, different media can favor either a Democratic or Republican presidency.

For example, Fox News, guilty of a daily barrage of racist stereotypes against China, was at the forefront of exposing Nancy Pelosi’s husband, Paul Pelosi, for his multimillion-dollar insider stock trading in a semiconductor firm just before Congress voted to give $52 billion to chip manufacturers in the U.S., called the CHIPS Act.

Despite this scandal and her role as Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi met with the chairman of the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturer and a beneficiary of the U.S. legislation.

TSMC plans to build a $12-billion chip factory in the U.S. The semiconductor industry is a priority for the U.S. “containment” of China. At the same time, the U.S. government is using various sanctions to suppress Chinese high-tech companies and break chip supply chains away from China.

Effort to reverse U.S. corporate decline 

Wang Peng, a research fellow at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, explained: “The U.S. is using the CHIPS Act to force companies in countries and regions of key status on the global chip supply and industrial chains to play by U.S. rules, as well as encircling and suppressing chip industries in emerging markets.”

The bill’s requirement is for companies to pick one of only two choices: business ties with China, or subsidies from the U.S. government.

The problem U.S. imperialists face is how to force countries in the region to act against their own economic interests.

Taiwan’s annual exports to China come to $126.2 billion, almost double its exports to the U.S. of $65.9 billion. South Korea’s exports to China, at $132.5 billion, far outweigh the $74.4 billion to the U.S. Japan’s exports to China come to $163.8 billion, compared to only $135.9 billion in exports to the U.S.

In order to force high-tech companies to decouple from the People’s Republic of China, U.S. imperialism needs a political/military crisis with China. Every U.S. plan for sanctions on China starts with a manufactured crisis over Taiwan.

U.S. imperialism’s strategy of restructuring and distorting the global economy to serve its own short-term interests of maximizing immediate profits has led to an aggressive U.S. expansion of NATO and provocations in Ukraine.

The immediate threat to U.S. hegemony was the EU trade with Russia of $260 billion a year—10 times its trade with the U.S. The EU has also been the largest investor in Russia.

Breaking this growing economic integration of the EU with Russia, and at an even greater level with China, serves the long-term strategic interests of U.S. corporate domination that have been in place since World War II.

In 2021 China’s GDP was roughly 10 times larger than Russia’s. China is the world’s top trading economy and the number-one exporter of manufactured goods. It is in an increasingly strong position to resist U.S. demands.

The desperate imperialist strategy to reverse the declining global position of the U.S. will be far more disruptive to the global economy.

This information on U.S. provocations must be dragged into the daylight by all the forces determined to prevent another imperialist war.

The role of the U.S. corporate media is to make imperialist threats seem palatable and entirely reasonable. This is possible only by blocking all past history of U.S. wars while using racism to smear and demonize China’s legitimate, reasonable and lawful responses and countermeasures.

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Sara Flounders is an American political writer active in progressive and anti-war organizing since the 1960s. She is a member of the Secretariat of Workers World Party, as well as a principal leader of the International Action Center. Sara can be reached at [email protected].

Sara Flounders is a regular contributor to Global Research

Featured image: Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer Benfold conducts routine underway operations in the Philippine Sea on June 24, 2022. [Source: navytimes.com/no copyright infringement intended]

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***

Apparently, European countries are understanding that the path to peace in Ukraine requires stopping military aid. Data show that in July the six major European powers abstained from making new military agreements with Kiev. It was the first month without European aid pledges to Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian special military operation, in February. In fact, this indicates that Western support is on decline, leaving only Kiev to decide whether or not to continue with the conflict.

The news was announced by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy – more specifically through Ukraine Support Tracker, which operates within the Institute. According to the researchers, European authorities have become unable to keep up with the speed with which the US, UK and Poland send military aid. This situation has led to a slow decline in the supply of money, weapons and equipment, resulting in July’s absolute absence of support contracts.

The decline has been occurring since April. Looking from a realistic point of view it is possible that the Russian advance may have discouraged European leaders from maintaining high spending on the conflict, considering it as simply “lost”. Also, the discouragement may have been intensified especially after the Russian victory at the battle of Azovstal in May, when Western analysts finally began to admit that Kiev is losing the conflict.

More than geopolitical realism, there is also the direct pragmatic factor: Europe cannot promise Kiev more than it currently promises simply because it cannot give Kiev more than it currently does. Americans, British and Poles are managing to fulfill their promises because they have taken the Ukrainian situation as a national emergency and are mobilizing their productive forces to meet this demand. However, the EU has many other priorities that make it impossible to give more help to Kiev. In other words: whatever is happening at the front, Europe is not promising Kiev any more aid simply because it can no longer help.

Obviously, the situation will not lead to an abrupt interruption of aid, but a gradual decline. Certainly, the end of support will not be definitive or linear, having expectations for modest resumptions and new interruptions again. For example, at the beginning of August, there was a meeting between European authorities in Copenhagen to re-discuss aid strategies. It was decided that an amount of 1.5 billion euros would be sent. Although the act somehow means that Europeans still “care” about Ukraine, the number is far lower than previous conferences’ packages.

Commenting on the topic, Christoph Trebesch, head of the team compiling the Ukraine Support Tracker, said: “Despite the war entering a critical phase, new aid initiatives have dried up. (…) When you compare the speed at which the checkbook came out and the size of the money that was delivered, compared to what is on offer for Ukraine, it is tiny in comparison (…) I would say [current European support is] surprisingly little considering what is at stake (…)“.

Trebesch believes that the correct European stance would be to invest in the Ukrainian conflict the same amount of money invested in overcoming previous events, such as the eurozone crisis and the new coronavirus pandemic. Trebesch’s opinion reiterates that of many other pro-Kiev activists, who believe that a Russian victory would be an absolute disaster for the entire Europe and lead to the bloc’s collapse, which is why every possible effort should be made now in order to prevent Moscow from reaching its goals.

And even though political realism is growing among Europeans, many authorities still think like Trebesch. For example, Latvian Defense Minister Artis Pabriks asked: “If we are wanting the war to end as soon as possible, they need to ask themselves, are they doing enough?”.

In fact, realism may overcome ideological or humanitarian arguments. The EU certainly has other priorities to address. The conflict itself brings with it many problems, such as the energy and food supply crisis. Thinking about solutions to problems that affect Europeans should be a priority over thinking about strategies to reverse the military scenario.

Furthermore, the argument that the current crisis should receive the same investment funds from previous crises is unfounded. The pandemic has killed thousands of Europeans, requiring direct state intervention. The conflict in Ukraine, as much as it worries the EU, is a foreign matter and cannot be a priority now. If the US, UK and Poland keep Ukraine as a priority, it is because these countries maintain a geopolitical and ideological rivalry against Russia, which is not the case in Europe.

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

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***

The Trusted News Initiative (TNI) was founded by the BBC in July 2019. While TNI claims to promote democracy and freedom, its purpose for being is global information control.

Partners in the initiative include global media outlets such as The Washington Post, Reuters, The Associated Press, AFP, the Financial Times and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), and Big Tech partners such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Microsoft

TNI was formed mere weeks after a Reuters Institute report revealed trust in U.S. media had slipped to an all-time low of just 29% — the lowest of the 46 countries included. Clearly, people were going elsewhere for the facts, and that probably had everything to do with the creation of TNI. They have no control over alternative media, so they needed a comprehensive way to shut them all down

By suppressing information about early treatment and the adverse effects suffered from the COVID shots, TNI partners have played a direct role in the destruction of lives. In short, TNI is the converse of “trusted news.” It is the very “fake news” it claims to combat

In addition to TNI, Google also has a similar program going on, called the Google News Initiative, which includes a $300 million funding commitment to the future of the news industry. The Google News Initiative is partnered with advertising agencies in a program called Trusted News for Trusted Advertising (TNTA), to ensure advertisers don’t have their ads associated with “false or misleading news,” thereby allowing them to “regain control of the media on which they publish the advertising”

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What is the Trusted News Initiative (TNI)? As you may have discovered, Orwellian doublespeak is rampant these days, and many organizations are named in complete opposition to their intended purposes. Such is the case with the TNI as well.

As explained in the video above, created by Steve Kirsch’s Vaccine Safety Research Foundation (VSRF), TNI is an organization created for the purpose of global information control. It was founded by the BBC in July 2019,^1,2,3 mere months before the COVID pandemic shattered all semblance of free speech rights.

Partners in the initiative include global media outlets such as The Washington Post, Reuters, The Associated Press, AFP, the Financial Times and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), and Big Tech partners such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Microsoft, just to name a few.^4,5

TNI Formed as Trust in Mainstream Media Hit Rock Bottom

As astutely noted by Elizabeth Woodsworth in The Liberty Beacon,⁶ TNI was formed mere weeks after a Reuters Institute report revealed trust in U.S. media had slipped to an all-time low of just 29% — the lowest of the 46 countries included. Canadians trust in mainstream media was only slightly better at 45%.

Also supporting the distrust in the media is an even more appalling recent Gallup Poll.⁷ Just 16% of U.S. adults now say they have “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in newspapers and 11% in television news. Jimmy Dore goes into more details below.

This massive slip “can only mean that people are going elsewhere for their news,” Woodsworth said. And that probably had everything to do with the creation of TNI. They realized people didn’t trust mainstream media anymore and were looking elsewhere for the facts.

This presented a serious problem, as they had no control over alternative media. How then would they shut down undesirable facts and theories that might jeopardize the smooth transition into the New World Order? Enter TNI and a new cadre of “fact checking” organizations to wrangle the unruly masses back into the brainwashing line.

Promoting ‘Freedom and Democracy’ Through Censorship

According to TNI, its first order of business was to “promote freedom and democracy” by preventing foreign interference in the 2020 election. However, TNI’s mission didn’t end there. Its Big Pharma backers had a vaccination agenda right from the start, and TNI has been instrumental in promoting that agenda and upholding their financial interests.

In 2019 — before we knew anything about the COVID shots to come — TNI warned that “anti-vaxxers are gaining traction” and that online platforms would need to intervene using algorithms to suppress the growing anti-vaccine movement.

In addition to suppressing undesirable vaccine content, TNI also floods online users with pro-vaccine messages to drown out what little opposition is left. As noted by VSRF, from the start, TNI sought to normalize the use of this experimental gene transfer technology, despite a mountain of unanswered questions about the safety and efficacy of mRNA technology.

Suppressing early treatment successes was also part of the vaccine agenda, as early treatment options posed a direct threat to the Emergency Use Authorization of these experimental shots.

To that same end, TNI also fueled hatred against the unvaccinated, and hired so-called “fact checkers” to publish false fact checks and hit pieces on those who questioned the sanity and safety of pandemic countermeasures, such as masks and lockdowns, or raised concerns about the experimental shots.

We’re Made to Pay for Our Own Destruction

Hundreds of outspoken doctors and scientists — including experts from Harvard, Stanford and Oxford — have been banned and deplatformed over the past two and a half years.

No matter how prestigious their careers, they’ve been labeled “dangerous” and targeted for neutralization. Many have lost their careers. They’ve been ousted from professional associations and stripped of their medical licenses.

Thousands of vaccine-injured people have also been accused of spreading “misinformation” and have been targeted for elimination from social media, while mainstream media (MSM) have roundly ignored their plight and pleas for recognition and help.

As noted by VSRF, by suppressing information about early treatment and the adverse effects suffered from the shots, TNI partners have played a direct role in the destruction of lives. In short, TNI is the converse of “trusted news.” It actually creates and promotes mis- and disinformation. It is the very “fake news” it claims to combat.

And “Who’s paying for this harmful suppression of science?” VSRF asks. The answer: YOU are. We all are, through our taxes. Government has spent billions of tax dollars to promote the experimental COVID jabs, which benefits no one but Big Pharma, various patent holders and investors.

Legacy Media Is on the Wrong Side of History

In a June 25, 2021, article, unidentified staff at TrialSite News commented on the shocking censorship that was already becoming apparent:⁸

“Since time immemorial, those with power have used it to control those without. In the modern world, big government and big tech represent the seats of power when it comes to who is allowed to say what. Of course, many think that ‘private companies’ can regulate speech in any way they see fit. But from either an ethical or legal point of view, this is false …

Legally, the Supreme Court has long held that when a private company creates something that functions as a public square (think of a company town), the First Amendment comes into play.

Way back in April 2020, it was already clear that the then-existing online socio-political censorship was going to expand into the world of science, medicine, and academia in the new COVID-19 era. On April 1 of that year, early in the pandemic, Foreign Policy took a look at these questions in a piece titled, ‘Coronavirus Has Started a Censorship Pandemic’⁹ …

[D]isallowing good-faith medical information because the public can’t be presumed to properly weigh claims is infantilizing said public, along with dismantling the free speech culture …

The efforts now underway to completely suppress positive data associated with early-onset treatment prospects such as ivermectin or the squelching of any discussion of vaccine safety issues is completely unacceptable in a civilized, democratic market-based society. Those perpetuating such offenses are in fact on the wrong side of history.”

And who are the ones perpetuating these offenses? The TNI, for sure. TNI partners have censored and tried to ruin the reputations and careers of fully qualified and licensed public health experts, doctors and scientists — all in the name of protecting you, the audience, from the life-saving information these experts are trying to share. In her closing remarks, Woodsworth says:¹⁰

“Regarding COVID-19, Dr. Piers Robinson, co-director of the Organization for Propaganda Studies, has judged, ‘It wouldn’t be an underestimation to say that this is probably one of the biggest propaganda operations that we have seen in history,’ concluding ‘what happens is down to how people resist and how much force and coercion the authorities use.’

Indeed, the very foundation of democracy is that public wisdom should be consulted and given its head in self-rule. The public has the constitutional right to full information to form and express its own conclusions and does not need a coordinated TNI to corral and contain it.

It is utterly outrageous that the voices the public needs from the top public health figures at its best universities are being denied to its hearing. A far superior job of investigative reporting is being done by the hard-working alternative media researchers without Big Pharma’s blood-stained advertising dollars.”

Organized Control

The reason the TNI has been so effective in shutting out opposing views is because all of the partners work together in a highly-organized manner. When one identifies a piece of “misinformation,” the order to quash it is shared across platforms. The same goes for the official narrative. Everyone supports and promotes it, no matter how illogical.

A debunking piece by one legacy media partner is used as “proof” by another, and Big Tech platforms, of course, have unprecedented ability to suppress unwanted content and push “official” or approved content to the front using algorithms alone.

As for who actually decides what the official narrative is supposed to be, your guess is as good as mine. What we do know is that wealthy and powerful interests control media worldwide.

Two major media controllers are BlackRock and the Vanguard Group, which combined own a vast majority of the world’s assets, including media companies. Another is Bill Gates, whose self-serving “donations” ensure media treat him like a medical expert (or climate expert, or nutritional expert, or agricultural expert) when, in reality, he’s just promoting ideas that will make him a ton of money.

TNI’s Not-so-Trustworthy Sources

And what about TNI’s “trusted sources”? Aside from other TNI partners and their fact checkers, trusted sources are the public health agencies, such as the World Health Organization, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Every one of these agencies has a long “rap sheet” when it comes to corruption and errors in judgment, and their unreliability have been highlighted time and again over the course of the COVID pandemic. They’ve broken a long list of rules and regulations intended to ensure public safety, and rewritten others on the fly — again without following proper protocols.

Time and again, people have scratched their heads, saying, “How can they do that? That’s not lawful. They CAN’T do that!” Well, the reality is, they used to be merely corrupt, but now they’re completely lawless. And no one is stopping them.

Decisions made by the FDA, CDC, NIH and the WHO over the course of the pandemic have been downright shocking in their absolute absence of any moral compass. They’ve repeatedly deferred to Big Pharma and blatantly ignored even the most basic of safety protocols, putting even babies lives at risk.

In the past, we’d expect the Fourth Estate — journalists with integrity — to expose the kind of fraud and lawlessness these agencies are engaging in. But sadly, legacy media, just like nearly every federal regulatory agency, has been captured by the military industrial complex.

Legacy media is no longer the “free press.” It certainly is in no way shape or form your trusted source of news. Those days are long gone. They are completely captured; hardly a sentence is uttered that isn’t directed to them by the government and repeated parroting by all of legacy media in all their varied forms.

Google News Initiative

In addition to TNI, Google also has a similar program going on, called the Google News Initiative, which includes a $300 million funding commitment to the future of the news industry.

The Google News Initiative is partnered with advertising agencies in a program called Trusted News for Trusted Advertising (TNTA),¹¹ to ensure advertisers don’t have their ads associated with “false or misleading news,” thereby allowing them to “regain control of the media on which they publish the advertising.”

This is wrong on so many levels. Advertising and news/editorial departments are not supposed to be mixed, period. They are intended to operate independently, not as complements or supporting helpmates. The very fact that newspapers are failing and ad revenue is dropping makes the entire press corps susceptible to doing whatever the advertisers want.

And, online, advertisers include the CDC and NIH, as evidenced by their many ads on social media. So, the TNTA program is really all about building revenue. It has nothing to do with providing trustworthy news.

Several other copycats also exist that have nearly the same name as TNI. There’s the Trusting News Initiative, the Trust Project, the News Integrity Initiative, the Journalism Trust Initiative, you get the idea.¹² Some share partners with the TNI, further widening the media network of controlled news.

Add to that NewsGuard and scores of fact-checking organizations, all of whom work in tandem to promote the official narrative while suppressing opposing views. As I’ve stated before, NewsGuard received startup funds¹³ from the Publicis Groupe, one of the largest PR companies in the world, which serves the needs of several of the largest drug companies in the world.

Last but not least, there’s a tightly woven web of interlocking “fact-checking” agencies that work for advertisers in an effort to manipulate the news in favor of the advertisers or other entities with vested interests, such as governments and health organizations.

This web of fact-checkers is funded by hundreds of millions, possibly billions, of dollars. I believe this was planned long before the pandemic, and their goal is to steer the news into a second horn for advertisers. Not surprisingly, the drug industry has one of the largest advertising budgets, which is part of why you can’t get the truth about drugs and health from the legacy media or any of these fact-checkers.

TNI and Hitler’s Principles

In his Substack article, “Propaganda, Corporatism and the Hidden Global Coup,” Dr. Robert Malone describes the TNI thus:¹⁴

“The TNI uses advocacy journalism and journals to promote their causes. The Trusted News Initiative is more than this though; if you go back to Hitler’s basic principles, the members of the TNI are using these core principles to control the public.”

Hitler’s basic principles are described in the book, “Propaganda and Persuasion,” and are listed as:¹⁵

• Avoid abstract ideas — appeal to the emotions
• Constantly repeat just a few ideas. Use stereotyped phrases
• Give only one side of the argument
• Continuously criticize your opponents
• Pick out one special “enemy” for special vilification

I believe Dr. Malone is onto something. These principles have certainly become media norms over the past couple of years. Who knows — perhaps I was picked to be a “special enemy for special vilification” because the TNI and those who pull their puppet strings are all Nazis. I didn’t expect it to be that simplistic, but who knows?

We’re all getting an education in psychopathy these days, and there’s nothing normal about psychopathic logic. Their brains are wired differently and you won’t be able to understand their motivations no matter how hard you try. Is this perhaps why so many decisions handed down to us make no rational sense, either from a scientific, medical or humanitarian perspective?

If it’s true that many of those who are trying to take over the world in a global coup are in fact on the psychopathic spectrum, then our response needs to be suitably appropriate.

Appropriate responses when faced with a psychopath include keeping your emotions in check (as they seek to manipulate your emotions); standing your ground in an assertive manner; not buying into their stories (especially not victim stories); and paying attention only to their actions, not their words.^16,17

To be more precise, most experts have one primary suggestion for dealing with a psychopath, and that is, “Don’t.”¹⁸ Since we’re talking about media here, that’s a fairly simple action item. Just turn them off, and find alternative news sources that aren’t tainted by blood money and an overt attempt for global slavery.

You owe it to yourself and your family to take control of your health and avoid these propaganda tools and restrict your information to truly trusted and vetted sources.

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Notes

¹ Parispeaceforum TNI

² BBC TNI

^3, 6, 10 The Liberty Beacon August 13, 2021

⁴ Media Space TNI

⁵ EBU July 13, 2020

⁷ Gallup July 18, 2022

⁸ TrialSite News June 25, 2021

⁹ Foreign Policy April 1, 2020

¹¹ Google News Initiative TNTA

¹² Nieman Lab A Guide to the New Efforts Fighting for Journalism

¹³ CrunchBase NewsGuard

^14, 15 RW Malone Substack February 28, 2022

¹⁶ INC How to Deal With a Psychopath

^17, 18 Bakadesyo How to Deal With Psychopaths

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The Hybrid War waged by the US on multiple fronts against El Salvador had escalated by November 2018 as punishment for establishing relations with China, accepting that Taiwan is only a province. Now, within the context of the New Cold War, the Northamerican empire is redoubling efforts to limit the growing sovereignty that El Salvador and its democratically elected government have shown in recent years. In August 2018 the country severed diplomatic relations with Taiwan to establish them with China, and in 2022 followed a principled neutrality regarding the Russian Special Military Operation in Ukraine that began in February.

Since then the US has expanded its New Cold War defense mechanism against this Central American country, seeking to limit and obstruct the government of Nayib Bukele through NGOs and Salvadoran government officials. The pressure exerted on the country by the US Hybrid War continues through threats, ultimatums and sanctions, despite the fact that “Chinese-Salvadoran cooperation poses no threat to US interests” as Andrew Korybko pointed out in an article in 2021.

A bitcoin ATM in El Zonte. (By Karlalhdz, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0)

The Bukele government in 2021 made Bitcoin legal tender along with the dollar. Soon after that the International Monetary Fund and the rating agencies — the West’s usual economic warfare institutions — expressed concern about the currency move. Months later, in February 2022, U.S. Senators Bob Menéndez and Jim Risch called for an investigation into El Salvador’s adoption of Bitcoin. Global South countries becoming sovereign is something that terrifies the US, they prefer that their Centralamerican vassals know their place and their limits so their behavior does not divert from those ends enshrined by their government and their oligarchies. Central America’s role under US rule is to be a servant state, whose purpose is to satisfy the economic and political needs of foreign states and not its own national needs, exemplifying the most basic definition of neocolonialism just as it occurs in other countries of the region.

On July 28, 2022, Democratic Senator Bob Menéndez in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee while interviewing the candidate for U.S. ambassador to El Salvador made a series of comments that demonstrate the seriousness of the Hybrid War against El Salvador. As if that weren’t enough, Menéndez also compared President Nayid Bukele to Hitler, and accused him of making pacts with organized crime. Here are the most significant excerpts from the recordings of the interview:

Senator Bob Menéndez: In Nicaragua Daniel Ortega has become what he once fought to overthrow a ruthless dictator his disdain for democracy and decency are attest to the international community as we confront the rising global tide of authoritarianism. In El Salvador President Bukele is wielding populism and new digital tools to perpetuate a cult of personality even as he undermines El Salvador’s democratic institutions at an alarming rate. […] Our Renacer Act lays out congressional guidance on suspending Nicaragua from the CAFTA (Central America Free Trade Agreement) trade agreement and I know it’s a powerful tool, the same thing with El Salvador. […] Mr Duncan I was a little surprised at your response to Senator Rubio about president Bukele’s popularity, Hitler was popular, Putin is popular in Russia, it doesn’t mean that because a person is popular in their country that in fact we don’t press extremely hard on violations of human rights and democracy […] So we have an increasingly challenging situation in El Salvador, one that threatens both the future democracy and the country in bilateral relations with the United States. Over the last two years president Bukele has presided over a number of alarming setbacks for democratic governments, undermining judicial independence intimidating opposition lawmakers by using security forces to occupy the legislature negotiating political pacts with gangs regularly attacking journalists and media outlets and in addition to these actions Bukele has also repeatedly used his network of Twitter trolls to attract and to attack and threaten not only government critics within El Salvador but also United States officials including my colleague in the house of representatives congresswoman Norma Torres. It’s amazing what he is doing directing against a member of the United States congress and former ambassador Gene Manz […] What other steps do you believe the United States needs to take to prevent further democratic backsliding in El Salvador?

Nominee Duncan: Senator […] I agree with you there have been a number of developments in El Salvador over the last two years that are concerning. When it comes to the strength and the health of El Salvador’s democracy I think we have made judicious use of the various sanctions tools that congress has given us to highlight some of those problems whether it’s the removal of the supreme court magistrates in the constitutional chamber, the gang truce that you referred to or other acts of either corruption or acts that tend to undermine democracy and I think we need to continue using those tools appropriately judiciously but we need to keep using them to send the message that El Salvador’s best future lies on the path of democracy.

Indeed, there are several elements to unpack from what was said in the committee proceedings, I would like to draw attention to how these US elected officials — as well as their NGO complex — use the words corruption and democracy as a shield and as code to disguise what they are really interested in, which is to neutralize the growing sovereignty of countries in the Global South like El Salvador whose government is increasingly sovereign in seeking to progress in order to strengthen their interests. Senator Menéndez openly threatens both Nicaragua and El Salvador with punishment if they continue their sovereign behavior, insisting that he wants to exclude them from DR-CAFTA. This treaty between the United States and Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua regulates numerous trade issues, and controlled by the U.S. simplifies the neocolonial administration of the economies of several countries at the same time. This in turn serves the commercial interests of the United States which controls the awarding of contracts from afar. This makes the Central American countries that signed the treaty vulnerable, since it profoundly overexposes their economies to manipulation by US corporate power as their inclusion or exclusion from the treaty is conditioned.

At a July 2022 press conference, Patrick Ventrell, who is the director of Central American Affairs for the US State Department, announced new sanctions against Nayib Bukele’s government officials, which were accompanied by sanctions against Honduras and Nicaragua in an expansion of the Engel List.

The Enhanced US-Northern Triangle Engagement Act was passed in 2020 to sanction actors involved in acts of corruption or attacks on democracy in the Central American region, but it is more than a list, it is a nexus for the information they receive from their different proxy elements within El Salvador, meaning that the list contains their own networks of information and action, this without counting related NGOs that are part of this infrastructure of deception. According to Ventrell

“It is a very serious list and obviously the sanction of not being able to enter the United States is something serious for many people, but as I mentioned we have other tools […] We are always investigating and receiving information, these decisions are based on a lot of information that we obtained through our missions abroad and all the information that the US government has”.

The list facilitates the synchronization of the networks of pro-U.S. officials, lawyers and NGOs that are responsible for gathering it. Understand the Engel List as a device by which the US can regulate the severity and logistics of Hybrid War economic sanctions. The government of El Salvador, while not a supporter of leftist revolutionary ideologies like Venezuela, Cuba or Nicaragua, is considered somewhat dangerous — though not to the degree of the others mentioned — because the Northamerican empire fears the economic, political and security sovereignty of countries in the Global South.

In September 2021 it included five El Salvadoran judges on its sanctions list for allegedly “undermining democracy”, however the real reason is that they interpreted the Salvadoran Constitution in such a way that President Bukele could run for presidential reelection after his current term ends in 2024 — a blatant foreign attempt to impact El Salvador’s internal presidential-related processes.

In December 2021, the U.S. sanctioned two El Salvador officials for alleged negotiations with Salvadoran gangs, for which they offer no tangible evidence in addition to unsubstantiated accusations by U.S. proxies inside the Central American nation. However, this accusation is somewhat ominous because Bukele’s government has done so much to neutralize gang members, pacify regions, and economically rehabilitate areas rescued from the terror of organized crime. Nevertheless, under Bukele’s leadership and his Territorial Control Plan more than 40,000 elements of organized crime have been arrested, freeing the population from captivity and dismantling the defacto system of drug trafficking and criminal protection money that was paid as a form of taxation. Entire populations of citizens as well as immigrants lived under a second government of criminal overlords. President Bukele declared a state of exception strategically designed to strengthen Democratic Security, while Western media, NGOs and other US proxies inside and outside the Central American nation have been protecting the gang members from the Salvadoran state in a macabre synchronization of efforts.

The Hybrid War of Terror fueled by terrorist criminal gangs complements the economic Hybrid War of sanctions and infowar through pro-US NGO networks and US-dominated international institutions like the UN and the OEA. The NGOs as well as the governments and the press of the ‘Golden Billion‘ countries synchronize Hybrid Warfare tools that impact the flow of information and news by confusing the population about what is really going on. This sinister indirect support for criminal factions follows — albeit on a smaller scale — a modus operandi used by the media to cover the Syrian conflict since 2013 to protect terrorist forces ravaging the Arab country. When Russian and Syrian forces managed to push back the US and EU-backed mercenary forces, there was a media spectacle of those same powers humanizing the terrorists so that sanctions against the Assad government would be put in place. Likewise, when the government of El Salvador makes significant advances in Democratic Security, the ‘Golden Billion‘ press cries.

The Territorial Control Plan has been vital to winning the war against the gangs because since its launch it has achieved a sustained reduction in homicides, the state regained control of the prisons, as well as the training of thousands of new elements. Without this work in democratic security it would not have been possible for El Salvador to leave the list of the most dangerous countries in the world, something it achieved in 2021, nor to have the personnel and equipment necessary to win the war against the gangs and maintain peace with the following phases, making security sustainable in the long term, preserving the peace and productivity lost for so many decades so it is very difficult for the Salvadoran people to deny all the good created with Bukele’s Territorial Control Plan along with the neutralization of the gangs, it was achieved in three years what past governments of El Salvador did not achieve in three decades.

Fully realizing that the state of El Salvador is already besieged and infiltrated by various strata of Hybrid War agents and that there is no way to neutralize them by verbally insisting naively that El Salvador is pro-US or pro-capitalism — or that it is not Nicaragua. Since the global transition to multipolarity accelerated, the US is operating under its New Cold War, in which it divides the world into two camps. For the US-led West it is routine to call for the total surrender of sovereignty and independence to the nations of the region, as a sort of inter-american death cult. The state of El Salvador is already in the process of creating the basis for full Democratic Security in the territory by neutralizing organized criminal elements that were effectively operating as a mercenary army over the population. The Hybrid War will continue to intensify in the foreseeable future, as the sovereignty shown by the Central American country — although quite limited in comparison with sovereign countries of the Global South — clashes directly with the United States prerogatives, which has entered fully into the New Cold War as a defense mechanism against the global systemic transition to multipolarity.

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More than 40 percent of pregnant women who participated in Pfizer’s mRNA COVID vaccine trial suffered miscarriages, according internal Pfizer documents, recently released under court order. Despite this, Pfizer, and the Biden administration insisted that the vaccines were safe for pregnant women.

Out of 50 pregnant women, 22 of them lost their babies, according to an analysis of the documents.

In a January court ruling, U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman of the Northern District of Texas, ordered the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to release around 12,000 documents immediately, and then 55,000 pages a month until all documents were released, totaling more than 300,000 pages.

The nonprofit group, Public Health and Medical Professionals for Transparency, sued the FDA last September, after the agency denied its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to expedite the release of mRNA vaccine review documents. In a November 2021 joint status report, the FDA proposed releasing only 500 pages of the documents a month, which would have taken up to 75 years.

Trial documents released in April revealed that Pfizer had to hire 1,800 additional full-time employees in the first half of 2021 to deal with “the large increase” of adverse reactions to its COVID vaccine.

The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine was made available under the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) on Dec. 11, 2020. By February of 2021, the company was seeing so many safety signals, including in pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, it had to immediately hire 600 employees to process the data.

A batch of documents released in late July showed that 44 percent of women who were pregnant during the trial suffered miscarriages, feminist author and journalist Dr. Naomi Wolf revealed on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast. Wolf has been spearheading research and analysis of the Pfizer documents through her website Daily Clout.

In the past, only 10 to 15 percent of known pregnancies ended in miscarriage.

“Pfizer took those deaths of babies—those spontaneous abortions and miscarriages—and recategorized them as recovered/resolved adverse effects,” Wolf told Bannon. “In other words, if you lost your baby, it was categorized by Pfizer as a resolved adverse event, like a headache that got better,” she added.

Wolf said adverse event cutoff report showing the miscarriages was March 13, 2021, and the FDA received the report on April 1, 2021.

Therefore, the FDA had this data nearly a year and a half ago, and instead raising an alarm, they, along with the CDC, went ahead and recommended the experimental injections for expectant mothers anyway.

“Over a year ago, the FDA received this report that out of 50 pregnant women, 22 of them lost their babies, and they did not say anything,” Wolf said, choking back tears. “Thus the FDA was aware of the horrifying rate of fetal death by the start of April 2021 and were silent.”

The CDC, as recently as last month, still recommended the experimental mRNA vaccines for pregnant and breastfeeding “people.”

“COVID-19 vaccination is recommended for all people 6 months and older. This includes people who are pregnant, breastfeeding, trying to get pregnant now, or might become pregnant in the future,” the CDC claims in a July 2022 post on its website. “CDC also recommends COVID-19 vaccines for infants 6 months and older who’s mother was vaccinated or had a COVID infection before or while pregnant.”

The FDA and CDC could conceivably claim they were unaware of high rate of miscarriages in the trial because Pfizer attempted to obscure the data.

“Pfizer notes the miscarriages as serious adverse events with moderate or severe toxicity ratings,” Wolf explained. “However, all of them were recategorized, by Pfizer, in the internal documents under the category of adverse events that were ‘recovered’ or ‘resolved.’”

Wolf noted that the Pfizer trial data correlates with the massive increase in miscarriages seen worldwide since the vaccine rollouts.

“If you extrapolate, globally, to all the pregnant women who are injected, it could explain what we’re seeing now of a baby die-off. 200 percent rise in neonatal deaths or spontaneous abortions and miscarriages in Scotland,” she said, adding, “86 babies died in Ontario when they usually have five or six [per quarter], and in Israel, a 34 percent rise of spontaneous abortions and miscarriages to vaccine.”

Back in January, three military doctors who had access to vaccination data in the DoD’s Defense Medical Epidemiology Database (DMED) disclosed that miscarriages and cancers among members of the US military had increased by about 300 percent in 2021 over the five year average.

These alarming safety signals were among several others brought to light by Thomas Renz, a member of America’s Frontline Doctors’ legal team, during a panel discussion convened by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) in January.

The CDC, however, still maintains on its website that “evidence continues to build showing that: COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy is safe and effective.”

The agency also claimed “there is currently no evidence that any vaccines, including COVID-19 vaccines, cause fertility problems in women or men,” despite recent studies showing otherwise.

Dr. James Thorp, an physician MD board-certified in obstetrics and gynecology, as well as maternal-fetal medicine, said in a recent interview that he has seen a massive spike in fetal death and adverse pregnancy outcomes after the mass vaccination campaign began.

Dr. Thorp told Epoch Times he has practiced obstetrics for over 42 years and sees 6,000–7,000 high-risk OB patients a year.

The obstetrician declared that the use of the experimental COVID vaccines on expectant mothers “broke all the rules.”

“We have always been guided by that principle, that longstanding, six millennia principle—the golden rule of pregnancy—you never, ever use an investigational drug, a new substance, a new drug, a new vaccine—even if there’s a potential benefit,” he said. “You don’t ever use a new substance in pregnancy.”

Thorp said that in his practice, he’s seen a “significant increase” in problems, including “extraordinarily abnormal menstrual periods” before pregnancy.

“The vaccine I’m very concerned about and I do believe that in pregnancy, it’s contraindicated,” he said.

He said that his attempts to disclose these adverse events have been hampered by the imposition of gag orders on physicians and nurses that were imposed in September 2021.

In September of 2021, the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ABOG) put out a statement in support of the Federation of State Medical Boards’ (FSMB) contention that “providing misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine contradicts physicians’ ethical and professional responsibilities.” The ABOG said physicians disseminating “misinformation” would be subject to “disciplinary actions, including suspension or revocation of their medical license.”

The ACOG, like the CDC, recommends the experimental injections for “pregnant people.”

“The fact that ABOG would recommend this “vaccine” in pregnancy is an abomination and may well be the greatest disaster in the history of obstetrics,” Thorp wrote in an article in the Gazette of Medical Sciences (GMS), titled: Patient Betrayal: The Corruption of Healthcare, Informed Consent and the Physician-Patient Relationship.

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Debra Heine is a conservative Catholic mom of six and longtime political pundit. She has written for several conservative news websites over the years, including Breitbart and PJ Media.

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On 18 August, Israeli troops forcibly shut down the offices of several Palestinian civil society and human rights NGOs in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.

At dawn, occupation forces stormed Ramallah and began breaking into the offices of the organizations, confiscating their equipment and welding their doors shut.

The organizations targeted are Al-Haq, Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCIP), Bisan Center for Research and Development, the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees (UPWC), the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), and the Union of Health Work Committees (UHWC).

In October of 2021, Israel’s Defense Ministry designated the NGOs — with the exception of UHWC — as “terrorist organizations,” over alleged links to Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a leftist Palestinian resistance movement.

In July of this year, however, the foreign ministries of nine EU countries issued a joint statement rejecting Tel Aviv’s designation of the Palestinian NGOs, to which the concerned EU states serve as donors.

“They raided our offices at dawn, broke the doors, they took documents, computers, we are still assessing what’s gone. They wrecked the place and welded the doors shut with metal,” the head of UHWC’s board of directors, Mazen Rantisi, told media.

“The goal is to put obstacles in the way of civil society so that it doesn’t develop, it is part of destroying Palestinian society, and to make people feel defeated,” he added.

Several hours after the raid, a group of Palestinian activists held a demonstration in front of Al-Haq’s offices in order to protest Tel Aviv’s unlawful closure of the NGOs.

Just a few hours before the raids, Israel clamped down on the Palestinian rights groups, Israeli troops raided Nablus to secure the entrance of Joseph’s Tomb and facilitate the entry of extremist settlers into the Islamic holy shrine.

According to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS), 18-year-old Palestinian Waseem Nasr Khalifa was killed, and another 36 were injured during intense clashes in the vicinity of the tomb.

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The writing is on the wall for Europe in terms of this coming winter – It’s going to get ugly.  With natural gas imports from Russia cut by 80% through Nord Stream 1 along with the majority of oil shipments, the EU is going to be scrambling for whatever fuel sources they can find to supply electricity and heating through the coming winter.  Two sources that were originally suggested as alternatives were Iran and Venezuela.

Increased Iranian oil and gas exports to the west are highly dependent on the tentative nuclear deal, but as Goldman Sachs recently suggested, such a deal is unlikely anytime soon as deadlines on proposals have not been met and the Israeli government calls for negotiators to ‘walk away.’

Venezuela had restarted shipments to Europe after 2 years of US sanctions under a deal that allows them to trade oil for debt relief.  However, the country’s government has now suspended those shipments, saying it is no longer interested in oil-for-debt deals and instead wants refined fuels from Italian and Spanish producers in exchange for crude.

This might seem like a backwards exchange but Venezuela’s own refineries are struggling to remain in operation because of lack of investment and lack of repairs.  Refined fuels would help them to get back on their feet in terms of energy and industry.  Some of Venezuela’s own heavy oil operations require imported diluents in order to continue.  The EU says it currently has no plans to lift restrictions on the oil-for-debt arrangement, which means Europe has now lost yet another energy source.

Sanctions on Venezuela along with declining investments have strangled their oil industry, with overall production dropping by 38% this July compared to a year ago.  Joe Biden’s initial moves to reopen talks with Maduro triggered inflated hopes that Venezuelan oil would flow once again and offset tight global markets and rising prices.  Europe in particular will soon be desperate for energy alternatives, which will probably result in a scouring of markets this autumn to meet bare minimum requirements for heating.

If this occurs and no regular sources of energy can be found to fill the void left by Russian sanctions, prices will rise precipitously in the EU.  Not only that, but with European countries buying up energy supplies wherever they can find them, available sources will also shrink for every other nation including the US.  Get ready for oil and energy prices to spike once again as winter’s chill returns.

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Since the beginning of the COVID vaccine rollout, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have made false and unsubstantiated claims that have misled and harmed many people. For over a year, the CDC contended that the mRNA quickly degrades in the body after it is injected. They also claimed that the translated spike proteins stay in the deltoid muscle, where they are quickly neutralized by immune-responsive cells. These vaccine-encoded spike proteins were heralded as a “safe and effective” immunization, preparing the body to fight SARS-CoV-2. However, the entire process has made vaccinated individuals more susceptible to future strains of the virus. Even worse, the persistence of spike proteins in the blood causes blood clots and inflammation of other organs, especially the heart.

CDC silently retracts “settled science” after misleading millions of people

Scientists, doctors and researchers who questioned or challenged the CDC’s assertions were blocked across social media and accused of spreading “misinformation.” Many have lost their jobs or had their license threatened. Now, the CDC is silently retracting “settled science” they once demanded the public worship. The CDC quietly altered its website, confessing that the mRNA and the spike proteins persists in the body for an extended duration of time. Also, the CDC finally admitted that there is no logical reason to treat vaccinated people differently than unvaccinated people because both can readily contract and transmit coronavirus variants. Even worse, the vaccine subverts the initial surveillance immune cells, leading to inferior intracellular T-cell response.

The CDC once claimed that “our cells break down mRNA from these vaccines and get rid of it within a few days after vaccination.” Now the CDC says, “Scientists estimate that the spike protein, like other proteins our bodies create, may stay in the body up to a few weeks.” Additionally, the CDC recently removed this statement from their website: “mRNA and the spike protein do not last long in the body.” The vaccine manufacturers drastically underestimated the replication force of the mRNA. The regulatory agencies never fully understood how the immune responsive cells would react to these foreign proteins.

Runaway spike protein synthesis has serious implications for human health. If the mRNA does not degrade quickly, it can force human cells to replicate inflammatory spike proteins for a longer duration, causing cardiovascular and organ damage. This would inevitably block the production of natural proteins that the body needs in order to function properly. If the spike proteins are not being properly neutralized by the immune system, they may colonize in distant organs, causing inflammation in unpredictable locations throughout the body.

Another CDC lie debunked: COVID vaccines DO negatively affect human DNA

Under a tab titled, “Facts About mRNA COVID-19 Vaccines, the CDC also claims that the shots “do not affect or interact with our DNA.” “[The] mRNA from these vaccines do not enter the nucleus of the cell where our DNA (genetic material) is located, so it cannot change or influence our genes,” the CDC contends. However, a study out of Sweden finds evidence that the SARS-CoV-2 spike enters the nuclei of the cell and impairs the DNA damage repair process. The study, SARS–CoV–2 Spike Impairs DNA Damage Repair and Inhibits V(D)J Recombination In Vitro, confirms that the COVID vaccines interfere with human DNA just hours after vaccination. The spike proteins that are translated by the mRNA vaccines were found to enter the nuclei of cells, blocking the cell’s ability to repair damaged DNA.

The researchers found that the mRNA vaccines impede important DNA repair proteins (BRCA1 and 53BP1). In essence, the COVID vaccines are altering DNA through a molecular mechanism that damages adaptive immunity. Breached cell nuclei could also spell further harms in the long term. “Our study shows that [Pfizer’s mRNA injection] … can be reverse-transcribed to DNA … and this may give rise to concern if BNT162b2-derived DNA may be integrated into the host genome and affect the integrity of genomic DNA, which may potentially mediate genotoxic side effects,” wrote the researchers.

The CDC is collapsing, and every lie emanating from the vaccine industry will be exposed.

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In the wake of the record-breaking heatwave and intense drought, China has been trying to induce rains in some parts of the nation’s central and southwest areas. According to the CNN report, Chinese planes are shooting rods into the sky to increase rainfall as certain places of the Yangtze River begin to dry up. It is worth mentioning that Asia’s longest river, the Yangtze, is currently at record low levels. Although some Yangtze River regions have started weather modification initiatives, several drought-stricken areas of the river’s basin have stayed on standby due to insufficient cloud cover. 

In addition to this, on Wednesday, the Ministry of Water Resources cautioned in a notice that the Yangtze River basin’s drought has been negatively “affecting drinking water security of rural people and livestock, and the growth of crops.” Further, the Hubei province in central China announced on Wednesday that it will use ‘silver iodide rods’ to create clouds and induce rainfall.

According to the CNN report, the silver iodide rods which are basically the size of cigarettes, are fired into existing clouds to aid in the formation of ice crystals. The cloud is subsequently given a boost for producing rains by the crystals, further increasing the amount of moisture in the cloud and its likelihood of release.

Notably, China has the largest system in the world and has been using the cloud seeding technique since the 1940s. This technique may also be used to soften hail or create snowfall.

China is facing severe drought condition

As per Hubei’s Provincial Emergency Management Department, a severe drought has afflicted nearly 4.2 million people in Hubei since the month of June. Approximately 400,000 hectares of crops have been harmed by the heat and drought, and over 150,000 people there have trouble getting access to drinking water, CNN reported.

Moreover, large areas of China are experiencing unexpectedly high temperatures and a persistent drought, which are impacting agriculture output and drinking water supplies. Chinese authorities have issued alerts for temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius, and many regions of the nation have already surpassed previous records for high temperatures in 2022, Associated Press reported.

The droughts in provinces like Hubei, Anhui, Jiangxi, and Sichuan have been brought on by sustained high temperatures and a lack of precipitation since July, according to state television CCTV, which on Wednesday aired clips of dried-up soil and crops in southern China. In the meantime, temperatures in Sichuan and other regions have surpassed 40C, as per a BBC report.

Furthermore, factories in China’s southwest have closed as a result of hydropower reservoirs running low due to an intensifying drought. According to news reports published on Wednesday, businesses in the Sichuan Province, including those that produce solar panels, cement, and urea, shut down or decreased output after receiving orders to ration electricity for up to five days. That happened as reservoir levels dropped and the demand for electricity for air conditioning rose amid sweltering heat.

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Featured image: Dusk on Chang Jiang (Yangtze) (By Andrew Hitchcock – Flickr, licensed under CC BY 2.0)

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***

In January 2021, FranceSoir interviewed Canadian lawyer Michael Swinwood regarding COVID-19 and his filing of lawsuit on genocide and crime against humanity. 

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Featured image is a screenshot from the video/no copyright infringement intended

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***

The Biden administration’s latest reckless anti-China escalation is playing out on the economic front with newly-unveiled negotiations for a trade deal with Taiwan. The Chinese government said today that it “firmly opposes” the talks, which were announced yesterday by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. 

The negotiations aim to reach agreements in key areas to boost the volume of trade between the two countries by minimizing regulations and making it more difficult to do business with China. The official announcement from the U.S. Trade Representative stated that the two sides would seek accord on “ways to address distortive practices of state-owned enterprises and non-market policies and practices.” This is clearly a reference to China, whose state-owned enterprises play a key economic role and which pursues socialist policies that could broadly be defined as “non-market”. Despite the extremely tense political situation, China is still Taiwan’s most important trading partner – something the U.S. government and secessionist Taiwanese leaders want to change.

This new economic initiative comes just two weeks after Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s high-profile visit, a profoundly provocative move that raised the specter of all-out war. Pelosi is the most senior U.S. political leader to visit the island in decades, a level of recognition that China considers a clear signal to those who want to permanently sever Taiwan from the mainland. The Biden administration made Pelosi’s visit possible through a major show of naval and air power aimed at ensuring her safe arrival and departure.

The Chinese armed forces held large-scale military drills in the waters and airspace surrounding Taiwan in response to Pelosi’s trip. But even still, another delegation of U.S. politicians led by Senator Ed Markey visited Taiwan this week. The political elite in the United States remains determined to move even further down the path towards catastrophic confrontation between the two major world powers.

China is right to view Taiwan as part of its sovereign territory. Taiwan only has a separate government because the forces of dictator Chiang Kai-Shek retreated to the island after being defeated in 1949 in the Chinese Civil War, and massive U.S. military and political support allowed him to consolidate a lasting regime on the island. Taiwan is not ethnically distinct from the rest of China, its population speaks Chinese, and the Taiwanese government calls itself the “Republic of China”. The conflict is purely about politics – with the Taiwanese authorities representing the capitalist, pro-western forces that were long ago defeated in the civil war. This division of their homeland is of course considered to be unacceptable by China.

The new trade talks with the United States take aim at one of the only remaining avenues of positive interaction between Taiwan and the mainland. While Taiwan and the rest of China are geopolitically at odds, the two became increasingly commercially connected over the years as China emerged as an economic powerhouse. Trade between the two totaled over $328 billion in 2021 – double what it was in 2011. Taiwan gets 21 percent of its imports from the mainland, and 56 percent of its exports go to the mainland. Deepening economic ties with the United States, and taking action against “non-market policies”, could reduce this proportion and remove one of the few remaining barriers to escalation.

Authorities in Beijing are concerned that any agreement that comes out of these negotiations could serve as a stepping stone towards a full-scale free trade agreement between Taiwan and the United States. Free trade agreements in general are aimed at protecting the interests of big business at the expense of the working class in all of the countries involved. Moreover, a U.S.-Taiwan FTA could be seen as essentially de facto recognition of Taiwan as an independent country – something that has the potential to trigger a war.

The Biden administration and the U.S. ruling class as a whole is addicted to escalation as it pursues its dangerous “new Cold War” policy against China. The people of the world need to force them to change course before it’s too late.

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Featured image: Protest in Boston Aug. 8 against U.S. provocations towards China. Credit — Pivot to Peace

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***

The United States conducted another round of airstrikes in Somalia — the third this summer. If you were unaware that we were bombing Somalia, don’t feel bad, this is a completely under-the-radar news story, one that was curiously absent from the headlines in all of the major newspapers this morning.

Thanks to Dave DeCamp at Antiwar.com, however, we know that over a dozen of al-Shabab fighters were killed in an Aug. 14 operation by (US Africa Command) AFRICOM, as described in an official statement Wednesday. He writes:

US Africa Command (AFRICOM) announced the airstrike on Wednesday and claimed it killed 13 al-Shabaab fighters. The command said the strike was launched against al-Shabaab members that were attacking Somali government forces in a remote location near Teedaan, Somalia.

AFRICOM said its “initial assessment” found that “no civilians were injured or killed,” but the Pentagon is known for severely undercounting civilian casualties in Somalia.

The last US airstrike AFRICOM announced in Somalia took place on August 9, and before that was July 17. The escalation comes after President Biden ordered up to 500 troops to be sent to the East African nation, reversing a Trump-era drawdown.

The AFRICOM statement goes on to say that “US forces are authorized to conduct strikes in defense of designated partner forces.” There is no clarity on what that means, so we can only guess it is referring to the agreements the United States has with the fragile central government there, which is never not under siege by one militant opposition or another.

When pressed, the military would no doubt say that it is authorized to strike whenever it wants under the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force because al-Shabaab is considered an al-Qaida offshoot. We know that justification is a stretch. Other justifications in the past have included “tactical defense” of U.S. forces and partners, which was used after questions were raised about a 2016 airstrike. Unfortunately, the mainstream media has given so little energy to sussing out authorizations anymore that it’s practically a moot point.

Al-Shabab, by the way, was created when the United States helped to overthrow the Islamic Courts Union after 9/11, which left a convenient vacuum for a new form of violent repressive rule to take hold in the embattled country. There was no serious al-Qaida presence in Somalia, but the U.S. military and CIA have been able to keep a foothold here, conducting over “several hundred declared and alleged US actions…involving drones, AC-130 gunships, attack helicopters, naval bombardments and cruise missile strikes – which between them according to local communities have killed scores of civilians” since 2007, according to Airwars.

There were 52 airstrikes in 2020 and nine since Biden took office, according to DeCamp.

Bottom line, it’s been a long time since the United States was not bombing Somalia. This comes after a particularly bloody period during the GWOT in which the CIA was using the country to detain and torture terror suspects from across North Africa. Whether this has ultimately been a good thing for the country or for the broader security of the region, one need only to look at the continued instability and impoverishment of the people, and of course, the persistent presence of al-Shabab itself.

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Featured image: Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles drop 2,000-pound joint direct attack munitions. (Michael B. Keller/U.S. Air Force)

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***

In his State of the Union address, President Biden announced that Russia was “isolated from the world more than [it] ever has been.” He said that “We are choking off Russia’s access to technology that will sap its economic strength and weaken its military for years to come.”

But the facts on the ground are less certain than Biden’s words.

Oil

In an attempt to relieve world markets from the pain and pressure caused by sanctions on Russian oil, Biden went to Saudi Arabia as a supplicant seeking oil. The Saudis gratefully accepted everything Biden brought them and then, laughing, escorted him out of their house. The Saudis did increase their oil production: by a drop. The 100,000 barrels per day increase, “equivalent to 86 seconds of global oil demand” was described by analysts “as an insult to U.S. President Joe Biden.”

Biden asked for help isolating Russia; Saudi Arabia seemingly sided with Russia.

What’s equally problematic for the isolation of Russia is that Saudi Arabia has actually more than doubled its imports of Russian oil, importing 647,000 tons compared to 320,000 tons the same time last year. And Saudi Arabia and China are discussing paying for Saudi oil in yuans as well as US dollars.

China and India have done the same. The New York Times reports that “In May, China’s imports of Russian oil rose 28 percent from the previous month, hitting a record high and helping Russia overtake Saudi Arabia as China’s largest supplier, according to Chinese statistics.” China is now importing 1.98 million barrels a day of Russian oil: a 55% increase over this time last year. The Times says that “India, which once purchased little Russian oil, is now bringing in more than 760,000 barrels a day.” That level of important, which has increased to 819,000 barrels a day, now makes Russia the second largest supplier of crude oil to India, overtaking Saudi Arabia. China and India alone, The Times reports, have balanced Western sanctions on Russia by increasing imports by about the same amount as the West has decreased them.

Exports

And it is not just that countries are increasingly importing Russian oil. They are also increasingly exporting goods to Russia.

According to analysis of a sample of 39 countries that accounted for 72% of Russian imports prior to the war, as the sanctions kicked in, exports to Russia dropped by 57%. But, since April, that has started to reverse. By June, exports were nearly back to pre-war levels, going back up by 47%. Most of that recovery was attributable to countries, including European countries, who signed up for sanctions.

And the trade trend is continuing. Chinese exports to Russia in July went up by 35% over June, lifting them above prewar levels. Like China, Turkey is currently exporting more to Russia – 40% more – than they were before the war.

And Turkey is doing more than sending goods to Russia. Turkey is increasingly engaging in trade and tourism with Russia. Imports of Russian oil account for almost half of Turkey’s energy requirements. This month, Erdogan and Putin met, agreeing to increase energy, economic and other ties. And Russia is helping Turkey build its first nuclear power plant.

Friends

Russia also seems to be far from friendless. Much of the world has declined to join the US led sanctions. BRICS is an important Russia and China led international organization that aims to balance US hegemony. Members also include India, Brazil and South Africa. But far from being ostracized and contained, BRICS seems to be building. Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirate, Argentina and Iran are all seeking membership. In May, Indonesia – who also invited Putin to the G20 summit they were hosting in defiance of US pressure – was welcomed as a guest to a BRICS Foreign Ministers’ Meeting for the first time, as were the foreign ministers of several other countries, including Kazakhstan, Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal and Thailand. And with Brazil’s elections coming up in October, and Lula da Silva leading in the polls by 12%, Brazil seems poised to put the BRIC back in RIC, correcting a lapse that has partially occurred during the unsteady Bolsonaro years.

The other crucial Russia-China led organization that shares the aim of balancing US hegemony is also gaining in popularity. Iran has been accepted into the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), officially becoming a full member in April 2023. In September, 2021, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Qatar were admitted to the SCO as a dialogue partner. Bahrain and the Maldives have also acquired dialogue partner status, and Azerbaijan and Armenia are now included as observers. The UAE wants to be next.

Much of Latin America and Africa have refused to join the sanctions on Russia. The US recently felt the need to scold Africa and warn them away from violating US led sanctions even if they haven’t joined the sanction regime. It seems they don’t get the choice. In early August, the US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told African countries that, although they “can buy Russian agricultural products, including fertilizer and wheat . . . if a country decides to engage with Russia, where there are sanctions, then they are breaking those sanctions.” What happens if they break sanctions? “They stand the chance of having actions taken against them.”

Biden’s claim that Russia is more isolated from the world than it has ever been seems to be increasingly questionable. From oil sales to imports to countries staying out of sanctions and growing friendships, Russia may not be as isolated as Biden boasts.

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Ted Snider has a graduate degree in philosophy and writes on analyzing patterns in US foreign policy and history.

Featured image is from intellinews.com

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First published on August 4, 2022

***

A new US-funded report out of Kiev assesses $108.3 billion in economic damages for Ukraine, but requests a 7x replenishment of $750 billion so that the country can “Build Back Better.”

The Kyiv School of Economics has released a new assessment claiming that Ukraine will need hundreds of billions of dollars to “Build Back Better” from its war against Russia.

As of August 1, 2022, the new update from the Ukrainian institution assesses $108.3 billion in economic damages from the war, roughly the equivalent of the country’s gross domestic product in 2020.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has caused $108.3 billion in damage to the country’s infrastructure, according to a study from Kyiv School of Economics released the same day Ukraine’s defense ministry estimated the war has left 3.5 million people homeless. https://t.co/c7mV6cD4Sx pic.twitter.com/ugeeHC9SoZ

— Forbes (@Forbes) August 3, 2022

But as you’ll see in a moment, those damages are rookie numbers. In this era of money printing madness, Ukraine has much more ambitious plans than simply replacing damaged infrastructure. These “expert” economists are about to send the tab soaring.

The study says Ukraine will need a bare minimum of $185 billion, almost twice the amount in damages, in order to repair the nation, citing what they refer to as the “Build Back Better principle.” The slogan was popularized by The World Economic Forum, and is used by governments to refer to their plans to impose digital tyranny and accomplish ESG-compliant objectives.

Ukraine is seeking the “modernization of assets that have not suffered damage and destruction,” the report adds That request will mark up the economic aid request to the tune of $750 billion dollars.

Notably, President Volodomyr Zelensky’s office has previously cited the exact $750 billion number, but claimed it was the total cost of losses.

“Now we are working on a long-term plan for the recovery of Ukraine. It defines the list of national reconstruction programs. We have incorporated the Build Back Better principle into this plan,” Zelensky’s deputy said last month.

At the end of the report, we find that the robust damages assessment is not an independent effort. In fact, it is funded by the U.S. taxpayer, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

The “assessment” is just the latest document that advances the continuing global campaign to solicit funds for the rebuilding, reconstruction, and “modernization” of Ukraine, despite the fact that the war is ongoing. There has been a concerted effort in the D.C. lobbying and military contracting space to score massive funds for the “reconstruction” effort.

Meanwhile in D.C., Congress is beginning  to whip the votes for a new funding round for Ukraine, yet very few lawmakers having any idea where the first $40 billion ended up.

The Biden Administration continues to send regular military assistance to Ukraine, depleting U.S. stockpiles in the process, and it hasn’t helped the country turn the tide of the war. On Monday, the White House authorized an additional $550 million in weaponry for Kiev.

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Featured image is from The Last Refuge

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***

As winter approaches, Europeans, both in the continent and in Britain, are facing hard times, with extreme inflation as well as economic, political, and migration crises.

In the UK, inflation is taking a heavy toll on its population.  About 13 million Britons are expected to be pushed into debt by the rise in energy prices. According to Citizens Advice, one in four won’t be able to afford bills. The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rose to 10.1% in July. This means that, for the first time in 40 years, the inflation rate hit double figures.

As is often the case, a political crisis accompanies an economic one. Although Boris Johnson remains the incumbent PM until a new one is chosen by his party, he has announced his resignation on July 7, over a series of indecent scandals (such as the so-called “Partygate”) which have completely demoralized his government. One could say then that right now the UK is without a PM de facto.

In France, after being re-elected, President Emmanel Macron’s party has lost its absolute majority in the legislature, which amounts to a moral and political defeat. Macron has also been the target of a lot of investigations pertaining to several shady deals, such as the issues exposed by the “Uber files”, the McKinsey Affair and so on. The Italian parliament in turn was dissolved by President Sergio Mattarella in July, after Prime Minister Mario Draghi resigned. Draghi remains in office as a caretaker PM, and the crisis goes on. In both the Italian and French cases one can see the rising influence of the far-right.

Amid such political turmoils, the coming European winter will likely be accompanied by a recession. According to Eurostat estimates, sales in the Euro area have fallen by 3.7 percent year-on-year, while retail trade volume shrank by 2.8 percent compared with June 2021. Transportation and other costs are all rising, which brings more downward pressure on demand. Germany’s stagnated economy is also in a bad shape, much affected by supply shortages.

The EU is encouraging its member states to save energy consumption, but even that is not sure to work, as distribution ability and gas storage capacity varies within the bloc. Austria, Italy, and Germany have announced their plans to restart coal power projects (with a tremendous environmental impact), but this will not come in time for this year’s winter.

Of course, rising inflation has been a global phenomenon even before the current Ukrainian crisis – which has of course made things worse. Amongst the industrialized nations, the US too has been suffering the impact of it. Europe’s energy dependence on Russia however makes its situation unique. It is in fact quite ironic that the European powers have chosen to antagonize Moscow (by playing along with NATO’s policy of inviting Ukraine into the Alliance). Much is talked about such dependence, but the truth is that the Nord Stream-2 pipeline project could have at least partly avoided the energy price in the continent in 2021 had it not been delayed and then abandoned.

The real dependence issue here is Europe’s lack of a sovereign foreign policy and its political submission to the United States. It is about time European countries rethink the sanctions policy – which has obviously backfired – and start opening communication channels with Russia for a negotiated settlement to put an end to the conflict.

The truth is that US interests and European ones are different, no matter how much NATO rhetoric tries to mask this fact. In his June lecture on the causes of the Ukraine conflict at the Robert Schuman Centre, University of Chicago Professor John J. Mearsheimer claimed the main European powers in fact did not quite support the US policy on Russia which was detrimental to their own interests, but they had to play along because, quite simply, the Americans “run NATO”, in spite of all the talk about “joint decision making” within the alliance.

With discredited governments, the specter of poverty haunting their middle classes as well as their shop-keepers and workers, and a migration crisis, Europeans should expect a rise in political extremism, both from the far-left and from the far-right. This in turn can certainly have an impact on elections in the future and then change European countries’ foreign policies.

One should remember that Marine Le Pen, for example, defeated by Macron in April, wanted France out of NATO. This rise of populism and extremism will certainly be a challenge for current Western European notions of democracy. This very notion has been in crisis for a while in much of the world, including the West. Alternatives to it have been proposed, such as Hungary’s own brand of so-called “illiberal democracy”, but, in the meantime, a lot of instability and political turmoil might ensue. Be it as it may, even by opening its arms to Ukraine, the European bloc has already short-circuited its “European values”, and no amount of Vogue photo sessions will be able to cover up Azov battalion swastikas. In the end, this is about a real identity problem, a crisis of values.

These are some of the challenges for Europe in the long run, pertaining to reinventing its democracy and its very self-image. In any case, the most pressing and urgent issue remains the winter. It is coming – and the European continent does not seem to be ready for it.

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Uriel Araujo is a researcher with a focus on international and ethnic conflicts.

Featured image is from InfoBrics

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Unspoken History: Early Fighting in World War I. France’s “Continental War Plan” Titled Plan XVII

By Shane Quinn, August 18, 2022

Germany, and its formidable armed forces, had for decades been recognised by a large part of the French elite as their country’s principal foe. This was especially the case from 1871, when early that year German-led troops defeated the French Army in the Franco-Prussian War, a conflict which lasted for 6 months.

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The takeaway from China’s insight into the “Kabul moment” is that the US is seeking to impose the same failed hegemonic model onto the Asia-Pacific as it earlier attempted to impose in Eurasia. Rhetoric about “democracy”, “human rights”, and the “rules-based order” is nothing but a smokescreen for disguising its unipolar agenda that’s being pushed at everyone else’s expense and aims to destabilize their region.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin was asked on Monday about what CCTV described as the “Kabul moment”, which refers to the Taliban retaking control of the Afghan capital on 15 August 2021 without firing shot. This symbolically occurred prior to the full withdrawal of those Western forces that had been occupying this geostrategically positioned state for the past two decades. The images that accompanied that moment have since come to infamously represent the failure of that US-led war.

The diplomat responded by sharing some worthwhile insight. In his words, “The ‘Kabul moment’ marks the failure of the ‘democratic transformation’ imposed by the US”, which he said can never be imposed by foreign forces, let alone in advance of ideologically driven aims that contradict the targeted society’s culture and history. Mr. Wang then added that the pretext of the US invading other countries to spread “democracy” and protect “human rights” has conclusively been discredited.

Nevertheless, he predicted that more such “Kabul moments” might be inevitable so long as the US refuses to learn its lessons from Afghanistan. This diplomat’s professional assessment is that “the US has never ceased to engage in political interference and manipulation worldwide in the name of democracy and human rights. It has even tried to build ‘small circles’ in economic and technological spheres.” The last part is presumably in reference to the anti-Chinese coalition that the US is attempting to assemble.

In particular, last September’s AUKUS alliance between Australia, the UK, and the US is regarded by most experts as one of the most regionally destabilizing developments in decades. It’s especially concerning since it involves the sharing of nuclear technology in violation of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, thereby leading to fears that this troika’s Anglo-American members might one day help their Australian partner secretly develop nuclear weapons in the worst-case scenario.

The economic aspect of this larger trend concerns various programs that the US has unveiled in recent years, all of which share the commonality of being closed blocs intended to counteract what Washington wrongly regards as Beijing’s “destabilizing influence”. The reality is that the dozens of countries that cooperate with China through the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI) have universally recognized governments that voluntarily decided to enter into mutually beneficial cooperation with it.

By contrast, these emerging US-led structures either rely on countries that are already antagonistic to China like Australia has recently been manipulated by America into becoming or coerce prospective members into joining under the implied threat of information warfare consequences if they refuse. Some comparatively smaller- and medium-sized lack the confidence to reject this bullying, especially if the US has succeeded in influencing them through neo-colonial means.

Against this context, it’s clear that more such “Kabul moments” might occur in the coming future, albeit in the Asia-Pacific instead of Eurasia considering the fact that the first-mentioned is being transformed by the US into a theater of competition with China against the regional countries’ will. Just like in Afghanistan, the US is seeking to advance its unipolar hegemonic interests under the false pretext of spreading “democracy” and supporting “human rights” through rhetoric about the “rules-based order”.

That phrase is nothing more than the latest propaganda point intended to imply that all regional states must unilaterally concede on their objective national interests by complying with the US’ demands since this is supposedly a better alternative that subjecting themselves to China’s alleged “hegemony”. The truth, however, is that China has consistently fought against hegemony wherever it may be and regardless of whoever’s attempting to impose it since the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949.

As the world’s largest developing country, China has a responsibility to its peers across the Global South to help them follow in its footsteps by facilitating their full liberation from the US-led West’s neo-colonial yoke. BRI is the means to this end since it embodies mutually beneficial and sustainable economic cooperation without any strings attached, unlike those that always come with American “aid”, which is just a euphemism for buying off corrupt elites and/or clandestinely expanding its influence.

The takeaway from China’s insight into the “Kabul moment” is that the US is seeking to impose the same failed hegemonic model onto the Asia-Pacific as it earlier attempted to impose in Eurasia. Rhetoric about “democracy”, “human rights”, and the “rules-based order” is nothing but a smokescreen for disguising its unipolar agenda that’s being pushed at everyone else’s expense and aims to destabilize their region. Just like in Afghanistan, however, the US is also doomed to fail in the Asia-Pacific.

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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.

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

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The US has imposed new export restrictions affecting China’s semiconductor industry. The new ban includes export restrictions of Equipment Data Acquisition (EDA) and diamond – used for semiconductor substrates instead of silicon and is the latest generation chip. The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) of the US Department of Commerce has announced new export control measures for national security reasons. Although the document does not mention China, it is clear that the decision was made to prevent the Asian country from accessing advanced technology.

US President Joe Biden signed on August 9 the “Science and CHIPS Act of 2022” to create an impetus to produce semiconductors in the US. Under the law, $52 billion is allocated in subsidies to leading chipmakers to develop manufacturing in the US. This law has two goals:

• to increase the US share of the global chip market as the country currently accounts for no more than 12% of global semiconductor chip production; and,
• to prevent US investments from contributing directly or indirectly to the development of manufacturing in China.

In the past, Washington forced Dutch consortium ASML – which has a monopoly position in the manufacture of extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) systems – to stop exporting EUV machines to China. The company complied with the demand, but in the end, it was not enough to hold back the growth of China’s semiconductor industry. China is the production platform for end products for all the leading manufacturers, such as Intel, TSMC and Texas Instruments. All these companies have their own chip testing and packaging facilities in China.

Chip companies in China, such as SMIC, continue to develop and master new technologies. Recently, the press reported that China’s SMIC was able to master the production of chips based on the 7nm process. Furthermore, SMIC is using ASML equipment of previous generations: Deep ultraviolet (DUV) lithography is not prohibited. The US tried to persuade ASML to ban the export of DUV systems to China, but the Dutch company is thus far resisting pressure since China accounts for about 16% of ASML sales, which is the third largest market after South Korea and Taiwan. In addition, ASML emphasises that DUV equipment has been sold on the global market for a long time and China has been able to create a significant reserve of it.

Washington realizes that the existing bans on the Chinese semiconductor industry are no longer effective – China can still move forward in making next-generation chips. Indeed, the ban on providing chip manufacturing technology using the 28nm process, or even the 10nm process, looks ridiculous when China has just produced chips based on the 7nm process. As a result, the US made the decision to ban the supply of promising technologies that no major manufacturers were using yet.

A microchip is a collection of electrical circuits containing semiconductor components. In modern chips there are billions of such components. In order to reduce the size of the chip and reduce power consumption, the transistors on the chip are getting denser, and the silicon wafer itself is becoming thinner, i.e. “nanotechnology”. The problem is that it is impossible to reduce the size of silicon wafers to infinity – essentially new microprocessor architectures and materials are needed to make silicon wafers.

In addition, diamonds and gallium oxide will be used to make chips. Unlike silicon, such materials can withstand higher voltage, frequency and temperature loads. Because of this, it will be possible to multiply the density of transistors and connections on a chip. With this development, Samsung has announced that it will start manufacturing chips on the 3nm process using Gate-All-Around technology. Widespread use of the new technology is expected no earlier than 2024-2025.

The export restrictions imposed by the BIS are all aimed at such promising technologies and attempts to restrict China from accessing it. Importantly, it is probably a long time before these technologies become widely used. Therefore, in the short term, such restrictions will not have any significant impact on the development of China’s semiconductor industry.

Limitations are related to 3nm process technology, and China currently produces the majority of 28nm chips – technology of a previous generation. In fact, currently, there is a great demand for chips manufactured according to this technology and manufacturers receive their largest income from this product.

The long-term effects of these restrictions on China will depend on how the country develops its own industry. China’s long-term goal is to develop its own technologies and this is not hinged on the successes of Western developers, but China’s own scientific thought. The Asian Giant is completely capable of coming up with breakthrough solutions.

Huawei, as an example, conquered the global market after the company developed its own SingleRAN radio access technology, which allows operators to support all communications standards according to 2G, 3G and 4G standards. In the semiconductor industry, China is developing its own technology to use silicon carbide in chip production – a task outlined in the five-year plan to develop smart manufacturing.

Besides, China can get out of this situation by using old equipment to make next-generation chips, as happened with DUV equipment. This will increase production costs but China spares no expense in Research and Development in promising industries and technologies. Last year, China allocated 2.44% of GDP – a record 2.79 trillion-yuan ($441.3 billion) budget to Research and Development. This makes it nearly impossible for the US to stop China from developing its own technology.

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

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Moderna documents regarding their COVID vaccine trial on animals, obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request by Judicial Watch, showed that some of the offspring of rats that were injected with Moderna’s mRNA shot developed rib malformations.

The 700 pages contain a portion of the formal Biologics Licensing Application (BLA) package that a manufacturer is required to submit to the FDA for approval.

The documents have not yet been made public, but were analyzed by former pharma executive Alexandra Latypova and reviewed by The Epoch Times.

Included in the documents are test results that show that Moderna mRNA shots caused statistically significant skeletal malformations in the offspring of the rats that took the mRNA-1273 (Spikevax mRNA) doses.

“mRNA-1273-related variations in skeletal examination included statistically significant increases in the number of F1 rats with 1 or more wavy ribs and 1 or more rib nodules. Wavy ribs appeared in 6 fetuses and 4 litters with a fetal prevalence of 4.03% and a litter prevalence of 18.2%. Rib nodules appeared in 5 of those 6 fetuses,” according to Moderna’s internal documents.

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Using vaccine “shortages” as an excuse, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration arranged a liability shield for the Jynneos monkeypox vaccine by issuing a new Emergency Use Authorization for “fractional doses” using a different mode of administration, and allowing the vaccine’s use in “high risk” children under age 18.

For totalitarians and technocrats bent on shredding constitutional protections and wresting control from ordinary people over personal decision-making in areas ranging from health to finances, the events of the past two-and-a-half years were a proving ground — showing that promises of safety via injection could persuade many people to act against their own best interests, often with disastrous results.

But with the public growing increasingly ho-hum about the COVID-19 pandemic and the U.S. discarding tens of millions of COVID-19 vaccines — including over a quarter of some states’ doses — tyrants wanting to “further advance draconian biosecurity policies and global power grabs” needed a new emergency to keep the injection scam going.

In May 2022, right on cue, entered monkeypox, with (echoes of decades past) cases reported “predominantly … in networks of men who have sex with men.”

Just like the coronavirus Event 201, the reported monkeypox outbreak was prefigured by a “tabletop simulation” one year prior and by “suspiciously” timed, before-the-fact clinical trials of monkeypox treatments and vaccines.

With the “outbreak” thus positioned in the headlines, what happened next?

• After allowing suspense to build for a couple of months but with fewer than a dozen deaths worldwide, the World Health Organization (WHO) head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in late July “side-stepped” his own advisors to pronounce monkeypox a “public health emergency of international concern,” the WHO’s first such ruling since SARS-CoV-2.
• With no U.S. deaths, the Biden administration and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) followed suit, declaring a public health emergency.
• Around the same time, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Dr. Robert M. Califf soothingly told Americans, “We understand … an emerging disease may leave people feeling concerned and uncertain, but it’s important to note that we already have medical products in place …”

One of the “products in place” was the Jynneos smallpox vaccine (brand names Imvanex or Imvamune), which the FDA licensed for adults in September 2019, conveniently approving it not only for smallpox but for “prevention” of monkeypox — even though in primate studies, pox lesions developed just the same.

At the time of licensure, the CEO of Bavarian Nordic — the Danish biotech company that developed the smallpox jab in partnership with the U.S. government, funneling millions of doses into America’s Strategic National Stockpile — crowed that the green light for monkeypox would create “new commercial opportunities.”

At present, a suddenly woke WHO is “accepting proposals” to rebrand monkeypox so as to “avoid offense,” but with the historically loaded “pox” word planted in the public’s subconscious — a word that calls to mind not only unsightly skin eruptions but social stigma and Shakespearean curses — the damage has been done.

Officials no doubt expect the latest “pox” — which also has exotic associations with prairie dogsand African rodents — to stoke the types of fears that will send people running straight into the arms of the nearest vaccinator.

In cities like San Francisco — where long lines of “mostly men” reportedly have been queuing up in the wee hours of the morning for a chance at a shot — the drum-beating about a “rapid rise in cases” already appears to be working.

What’s the big deal?

The same fallacious PCR (polymerase chain reaction) technology used to conjure up large numbers of COVID-19 “cases” out of thin air — a technology that inventor Kary Mullis warned should never be used for diagnosis — is once again the WHO’s preferred laboratory test for monkeypox.

Setting aside the thorny PCR issue, there are many other questions one could ask about monkeypox and its supposed discovery in humans in 1970, including why, after half a century in which the condition labeled monkeypox “never really [got] off the ground outside of a couple of countries in Africa,” it is “suddenly in every Western nation and being hyped up by public health authorities, the mainstream media and the World Health Organization.”

Other than the skin lesions, the symptoms of so-called monkeypox “could describe hundreds of millions of cases of simple flu-like illness or even the common cold.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) characterizes monkeypox as “generally a mild disease,” involving little more than rashes, fevers and chills that typically require “no specific treatment.”

A public health expert at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health said, “Monkeypox is not likely to kill anybody in the United States,” with short-lived pain being about the worst that it might do.

In the 2021 pandemic tabletop exercise focused on monkeypox, one of the features of the “fictional” scenario under discussion was that an “unusual strain” of monkeypox would come along to wreak global havoc.

Obligingly, media accounts in 2022 are evoking a monkeypox that “seems to have changed,” though reporters are issuing mixed messages.

In a conversation on NPR, for example, a science reporter described “very localized” and “extremely subtle” monkeypox symptoms not “matching up” to the “horrible rash” depicted in medical textbooks, prompting the interviewer to remark on the “good news” of a milder disease — at which point the reporter felt compelled to correct the benign impression, adding, “it can also be really severe and really painful” and “make you sick for, like, up to four weeks.”

Skin reactions of all kinds are well-documented adverse consequences of vaccination. In Israel, a renowned vaccine scientist has been making the case that the immune system breakdown caused by COVID-19 mRNA vaccines is the culprit responsible for the current monkeypox situation.

Why else, others are asking, would symptoms appear simultaneously in multiple countries and continents that just happen to correspond to the locations that deployed Pfizer’s COVID-19 jab?

Atrocious smallpox vaccine track record

From their earliest days through today, smallpox vaccines had a dreadful track record — and this fact is not even particularly controversial.

In 2003, researchers openly characterized the smallpox vaccine available at the time, Wyeth’s Dryvax, as “less safe than other vaccines,” describing “known adverse events that range from mild to severe,” including death, brain swelling, lesions and other skin problems.

They concluded the “net harm would result if smallpox vaccine were made available to the general public on a voluntary basis” and that some individuals would be “unable to weigh the risks and benefits for true informed consent.”

Although Dryvax fell out of favor in the mid-1980s, it continued to be used to vaccinate groupssuch as military personnel, lab workers and others deemed “high risk.”

In 2007, the FDA approved Acambis’s ACAM2000, made with a “clone” of Dryvax and grown in lab cultures of African green monkey kidney (Vero) cells.

Right after Acambis won a 10-year contract to supply the U.S. government with the vaccine, the company was gobbled up by Sanofi Pasteur.

The U.S. military, which by then had given Dryvax to more than 1.4 million military personnel and contractors, immediately switched to ACAM2000, albeit with a first-ever, FDA-imposed requirement that each person vaccinated receive a “medication guide.”

ACAM2000’s “unwieldy” method of administration involves using a two-pronged needle to make “a series of tiny jabs at the skin” designed to elicit a “kind of gnarly pustule” which, if it doesn’t show up a week later, necessitates yet another attempt.

In an article published by The Defender in November 2020, Pam Long, an Army veteran, described smallpox vaccination (whether Dryvax or ACAM2000) as one of “four horsemen of pharma” destroying veterans’ health.

Long highlighted cardiac risks, in particular.

Back in 2003, CDC authors described adverse reactions from Dryvax ranging from “benign, if frightening in appearance” to “life-threatening,” conceding that myopericarditis was “truly” an adverse outcome but admitting to not knowing about long-term consequences.

In 2021, when the Military Vaccine Agency published a study involving monthly surveillance of clinically “adjudicated” cardiac and neurological adverse events experienced in temporal association with ACAM2000 vaccination, it reported a significantly higher rate of myopericarditis in younger men (under age 40), and overall rates of “any cardiovascular event” of 1.14 per 1,000.

As Long noted, the FDA documented a much higher incidence of 6.9 cardiac events per 1,000 for ACAM2000, and one study reported myocarditis in one in every 175 recipients.

New kid on the block

By June 2022, the media build-up promoting monkeypox vaccination and the Jynneos injection in particular was on full display, with headlines playing up the idea of hordes eager for jabs that are in short supply.

To tee up demand for the “newer generation” — and largely unfamiliar — Jynneos vaccine, CNBC classified its competitor, ACAM2000, as practically a dinosaur, an “older generation smallpox vaccine that can have serious side effects.”

In late July, Vox agreed there would be “trade-offs” if the U.S. were to tap into its “100 million-odd doses” of ACAM2000 “currently sitting on the shelves at the Strategic National Stockpile, largely untouched” — trade-offs such as “potentially concerning side effects, the complex way it has to be administered, and limits on who can safely receive the vaccine” (no immunocompromised individuals, no pregnant women, no one with eczema and no babies).

While ACAM2000’s “cumbersome” mode of administration does not lend itself to “assembly-line” distribution, Jynneos, Vox assured us, “can be given in public venues, like festivals and even bathhouses.”

However, we know very little about Jynneos, other than the serious adverse events listed in the package insert — Crohn’s disease, sarcoidosis (an inflammatory disease affecting multiple organs, notably the lungs), eye weakness and throat tightness (a potential sign of anaphylaxis).

A higher proportion of Jynneos recipients (1.3%) also experienced cardiac adverse events compared to placebo recipients (0.2%) who received saline.

A CDC scientist who led a clinical trial that was supposed to provide information about efficacy and side effects — a trial that recruited subjects in the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 2017 to 2020 — gave a monkeypox briefing to CDC advisors in late June but, according to Dr. Meryl Nass, scientific advisor to Children’s Health Defense, he was “coy” about sharing the study’s results.

Liability-free yet again

Nass also pointed out that although Jynneos is licensed and, under ordinary circumstances, would be susceptible to vaccine injury lawsuits, the FDA and HHS pulled a fast one yet again that effectively shields Bavarian Nordic and the U.S. government from liability.

Using vaccine “shortages” as their excuse, they arranged the liability shield by putting Jynneos under an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) umbrella that shifts the U.S. over to administering “fractional doses” and using a different mode of administration (injection into the skin rather than between skin and muscle).

The EUA also permits administration of Jynneos to children if they are deemed “high risk.”

After the EUA announcement, Bavarian Nordic’s CEO expressed “reservations” about the altered dosing and mode of administration, stating further studies would have been a “prudent” step “before overhauling the nation’s monkeypox vaccine strategy.”

The Biden administration’s rejoinder was that Bavarian Nordic was just voicing sour grapes about “a potential loss in profits.”

The company needn’t worry — its stock has gone up by more than 150% since the announcement of a “moneypox” outbreak.

As for Americans, we have a choice: We can join the crowds supposedly clamoring for yet another vaccine that doesn’t prevent anything.

Or we can “just say no,” recognizing that there just might be something “unusual about a global pandemic occurring just months after a simulation of a global pandemic of exactly that kind, followed shortly after by the first-ever global outbreak of an even-more-obscure virus just months after a simulation of an outbreak of exactly that kind.”

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Eric Miller wants to sound the alarm about future Chinese bases in Africa, but mostly he just recycles the same unpersuasive claims we have been hearing for months:

Chinese military basing efforts abroad have become a topic of great international interest and scrutiny. The completion of Beijing’s first overseas military base in Djibouti in 2017, revelations last year of a potential military base in the United Arab Emirates, and the announcement this spring of Chinese investment in a Cambodian military base with suspected exclusive Chinese use all support the realization that China is methodically moving forward on improving its ability to project power globally. Deciphering where Beijing plans to place its next flag is challenging because it is a dynamic equation—one that must factor in China’s goals and those of a host nation, along with the willingness of those involved to deal with the invariable regional and international questions and blowback. One area of the world where this calculus appears favorable for China is Africa.

Miller is U.S. Africa Command’s director of intelligence analysis, so it is a bit worrisome that there is so little analysis in this article. The entire piece comes across as a longer version of the threat inflation we saw in news reporting about a possible Chinese base in Equatorial Guinea that does not exist and may never be built. Nine months later, there have been no moves towards establishing a base, and neither government has given any indication that there ever will be. Even if Equatorial Guinea agreed to a Chinese base on its territory, that would bring the number of Chinese overseas bases in the world all the way up to two. The U.S. has 29 bases and outposts just in Africa.

Pointing to a naval base in Cambodia as evidence for Chinese ambitions in Africa is hard to take seriously. It is not even certain that China will be granted exclusive use of any part of the facility at Ream. The U.S. has been overreacting to the possibility of a Chinese presence in Cambodia, but at least there is something real to overreact to. In Equatorial Guinea, there doesn’t appear to be anything to the rumors of a future base. It is questionable whether the Chinese government has much interest in establishing a military presence on Africa’s Atlantic coast to begin with. That hasn’t stopped the head of Africom from asserting in March that China is “actively seeking” a base and zeroing in on Equatorial Guinea as the “likeliest” candidate for a host country.

The main problem for Miller’s argument is that there is very little evidence that the Chinese government is even trying to establish any additional bases in Africa, and there is even less evidence that they are having success in doing so. Miller addresses this problem by waving away the lack of evidence and appealing to an unproven assumption about Chinese ambitions:

The lack of visible, publicly available evidence of Chinese basing progress in Africa has fueled skepticism, with some commentators suggesting that concern about such basing efforts is overblown. This is understandable, but it overlooks the secretive nature and substantial timelines associated with these diplomatic and military negotiations. One just has to look closely enough and understand that China has a patient, long-term approach to achieving its global military ambitions.

Concerns about these basing efforts are indeed overblown, as Cobus van Staden explained in an article earlier this year. He commented on the reporting about a possible base in Equatorial Guinea, saying that “the current flurry of rumors seems to reveal more about Washington’s priorities than Beijing’s.” He added that “worries among U.S. officials about a Chinese naval presence on Africa’s Atlantic coast seem to be based more on speculation than superior intelligence about Beijing’s intentions.” That seems right to me, and I would add that this speculation starts from the assumption that China has “global military ambitions” that would require them to acquire bases in the Atlantic and then moves to conclude that this must be what they are doing to realize the ambitions that Washington assumes them to have.

Africom has some obvious incentives to exaggerate Chinese military ambitions in Africa, since every U.S. command is hoping to make itself relevant to “great power competition” or “strategic competition.” Van Staden argued that the head of Africom is doing exactly this: “Townsend, as head of U.S. Africa Command, may be less focused on any real threat of Chinese expansion than on getting emotional buy-in from policymakers on Capitol Hill, who will be deciding his command’s future budgets.” The head of Centcom, Gen. Kurilla, did the same thing earlier this year when he boasted that “[t]his region [i.e., the Middle East] is at the center of America’s strategic competition with Russia and China” despite the fact that the Middle East is mostly a sideshow when it comes to competing for influence with those states. The public worrying about Chinese military installations in Africa seems to be mostly an attempt to bid for more attention from Washington and to get more resources to “counter” the imagined Chinese presence.

According to a report in the South China Morning Post earlier this year, this fixation on Chinese bases in Africa is largely an American one:

However, senior research fellow Zhou Yuyuan, with the Centre for West Asian and African Studies at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies, said that from his communications with some officials “it seems China has no new plans to build a military base”.

Zhou said that, while the topic was a hot discussion in the US, there was little talk in China on the issue, and there appeared to be no interest in establishing another military base.

“America’s concern on this, in my opinion, is mainly driven by its domestic considerations, or by demand from different stakeholders,” he said.

In order for analysis to inform policymaking constructively, it cannot start off assuming that another state must be doing something unseen because that is what is required to pursue its unproven “ambitions.” To determine what another government is likely to do in the future, analysis has to begin with an accurate assessment of what it has done and what it is currently doing, and it must also understanding that government’s view of its own interests. What we have here in Miller’s article does neither of these things. This article ascribes grand ambitions to the Chinese government because that fits the enemy image many people in Washington have of them, and then it works backwards from that to fill in the gaps when there is no evidence that supports the exaggerated assessment of the other state’s goals.

As van Staden said in his article, “Reports about Chinese plans for another African base have been both alarmist and vague.” They remain just as alarmist and vague in Miller’s argument, and they should be viewed with considerable skepticism.

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In an interview on The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro Show, the former prime minister of Israel — and the likely next PM — Benjamin Netanyahu claimed on Sunday that he had an ingenuous Plan B for forcing regime change in Iran. Netanyahu said, “With low-flying satellites” and other miniature devices, “you might break their (regime’s) hold—their monopoly on information. That begins to challenge them.” 

Netanyahu insisted that “there are devices the size of a matchbook” that could help destabilise the Iranian regime. “There are many other things I could talk about, but I won’t,” he added. 

The hawkish politician was speaking at a defining moment when Tehran was expected to give its “final thoughts” to the European Union’s “final text” on behalf of the Americans, at the end of the 16-month long negotiations in Vienna that would enable Washington to return to the 2015 nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA.) 

Netanyahu’s thesis was that Israel cannot and will not put all its eggs in the American basket. He sarcastically illustrated the point, narrating  how naive top American diplomats could be, as the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan testifies. 

Conversely, the big question is also how naive would the Iranians be to place their eggs in the American basket when it comes to their national security. From details available so far, Iran’s response, which was transmitted to Brussels Monday evening mostly focuses on outstanding questions related to sanctions and guarantees around economic engagement. An EU spokesman reacted today, “We are studying it and are consulting with the other JCPOA participants and the US on the way ahead.”

An IRNA report says that Iran’s response is “calling for flexibility” from the US side, without elaborating, as a final deal is “closer than ever if the US accepts the requirements of a sustainable, reliable deal in action.” [Emphasis added.] 

Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said yesterday that Iran has shown enough flexibility and the US knows this and that it was the latter’s turn “to show flexibility this time.” Indeed, the IRNA report also adds vaguely that “the disagreement is over three issues, two of which have been orally accepted by the US, but Iran insists on including them in the text.” 

Importantly, Tehran’s response falls short of a rejection of the EU’s proposal. The Nour News, Iranian website linked to the Supreme National Security Council, reported yesterday after an extraordinary meeting chaired by President Ebrahim Raisi that a “final result” will depend on the US response to “the legal demands of Iran.” 

The bottom line appears to be that Tehran needs guarantees that the West’s promise of economic engagement will not once again remain a chimera as it turned out with the 2015 deal. Conceivably, Iran wants this aspect to be included in the text of the agreement. 

From available details, Tehran no longer makes an issue of the IAEA seeking Iran’s accountability for the “missing uranium” or over the IRGC continuing to remain in the US watchlist of terrorist groups. But the emphasis is on the efficacy of implementation and the durability of the new agreement. 

Past experience shows that unless the POTUS puts his weight behind the agreement, it becomes rudderless. The paradox is that the shelf life of a new agreement is far from certain, although no expiry date is put on its label. It all depends on the end-user — in this case, the western companies who may be  wary about a long-term relationship with Iran, with an eye on Washington. 

But then, Iran’s oil is much sought-after today, and for a conceivable future, it will be an indispensable energy source for western economies. This was not the case previously in 2015 when Europe (and the US) could easily access Russian oil, which was in abundant supply at low prices.

In turn, the criticality of the Iranian oil to salvage the EU economies means that Brussels will now be a genuine stakeholder ensuring the implementation of the new agreement that lifts the sanctions on Tehran’s oil exports and fire walling the deal in the near and medium terms. 

Meanwhile, the expert assessment is that even if large scale investments are made by oil producing countries, there is a gestation period for the  results in the form of increased production capacity to appear. 

Then, there is also the question of the oil producing countries having their own interest in high oil prices. A report in the weekend showed that Saudi Aramco has doubled its profits due to the high oil prices. 

Suffice to say, this time around, the market forces — high demand for oil and the need of the western economies to recover from recession — provide a reasonable guarantee that the EU and the US dare not upset the apple cart. Surely, Iran cannot but be aware of it. 

The odds, therefore, may seem to be favouring the conclusion of the new agreement at Vienna. As a statement on Monday by the so-called Elders shows, there is no dearth of advice cajoling the Iranian regime to be reasonable and cooperative. And it is difficult to see how Tehran will let this moment pass as history.

That said, Tehran can also afford to wait. The status quo is not so bad, as some may make out. After all, Iran is selling its oil and generating appreciable income, and, importantly, the international environment has created more space lately for it to manoeuvre, while also advancing its nuclear programme. (See a recent interview with Ali Akbar Velayati, senior adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei on international affairs and a former foreign minister for over sixteen years during 1981 to 1997.)

Fars news agency which is close to the IRGC has quoted FM Amirabdollahian as saying that Iran has a “Plan B” if no agreement could be reached. As he put it, “failure to revive the pact would not be end of the world.”

From the American perspective too, Biden Administration cannot hope to make any political capital out of the deal in the November 8 mid-term elections as if this is some great arms control deal. Of course, Biden is sure to be criticised by the Republicans. 

If anything, after the knife attack on Salman Rushdie and the purported plot to kill former White House national security adviser John Bolton, the optics are probably not congenial for the Biden team to have a photo-op with Iranian officials. 

The Reuters has noted wryly in an analysis, “The lack of better policy options for Washington, and Tehran’s view that time is on its side, could leave the deal dangling.” Netanyahu probably senses that his matchbox like contraption may still have its uses. Elections are due in Israel on 1st November. 

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Former President Donald Trump will soon be indicted by a federal grand jury.

He is the victim of a federal government that knows no bounds and has assumed powers nowhere granted in the Constitution by the sheer force of its own will. It has created a security state, replete with three lettered acronymic-named agencies — FBI, CIA, DEA, NSA, DIA — that are nowhere recognized in the Constitution, regularly break the written and moral laws, and are themselves far more dangerous to human freedom than the folks they pursue.

How many laws have the feds broken? Ha. No one knows how many criminal laws Congress has enacted. Estimates range from 4,400 to 5,500. How can this be? For starters, members of Congress in both parties rarely if ever read the legislation they enact. House members were given 15 minutes to read the 132-page Patriot Act, which passed overwhelmingly. And much federal law is so convoluted that a simple reading leaves even an experienced lawyer and judge bewildered as to how many different behaviors were made criminal by the statute in question.

Yet, nearly all federal criminal laws — including those now confronting Trump — are wildly unconstitutional. That’s so because the Constitution only authorizes the feds to enact criminal statutes in two areas — criminalizing treason and debasement of the money supply. All remaining criminal laws — those that are intended to protect life, liberty and property, even those intended to protect government assets — were intended by the drafters of the Constitution to be addressed by the states.

The search warrant of Trump’s home could only have followed the submission of one or more detailed affidavits by FBI agents explaining to the federal judge who received them that the Department of Justice has evidence to conclude that it is more likely than not that a crime was committed by someone in connection with the acquisition and retention of government documents, and it is more likely than not that evidence of that crime was located inside Trump’s home.

The affidavits are normally filled with much detail, and they explain and justify what the DOJ believes and why it believes it. The judge must agree with the DOJ’s conclusions in order to sign the warrant.

The signing of the warrant was also preceded by a stenographically recorded interrogation of the FBI agents by the judge. It would have centered on not only what the FBI believes Trump was concealing but also how it knows that.

We now know that Trump took many documents with him to Florida when he left the White House. He returned 15 boxes of them to the National Archives. When he failed to satisfy the Archives with the documents that he returned, the Archives called in the DOJ, which empaneled a grand jury to hear evidence of potential criminal behavior.

The grand jury subpoenaed the documents remaining at Trump’s home, and Trump’s lawyers met with DOJ lawyers to discuss compliance with the subpoena. After that meeting and the surrender of more documents, one of Trump’s lawyers wrote to the DOJ and assured its lawyers that there were no documents subject to the subpoena remaining in Trump’s home.

Thereafter, the FBI learned from a confidential source that there were documents marked “Top Secret” remaining in the home and thus subject to the subpoena. We learned from the inventory of documents that the FBI took that Trump’s lawyer’s representation of full compliance with the subpoena was inaccurate.

This is critical as, if the lawyer intentionally misled the DOJ, then that lawyer will become a defendant and cannot represent Trump. If Trump intentionally misled his own lawyer and caused the lawyer to make a material misrepresentation to the DOJ, the lawyer must resign as Trump’s counsel, as that lawyer will become a witness. Since the matter involves deception, the attorney-client privilege does not apply.

The warrant itself reveals three categories of crimes that the DOJ told the judge it is investigating. They are (a) gathering and transmitting national security secrets, and (b) concealing and removing national security secrets, and (c) destroying or altering national security secrets.

All of these statutory crimes are contained in the Espionage Act of 1917, which Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., has rightly moved to repeal. It punishes speech, reading and dissent. Trump himself, in a misguided moment, once offered it as a basis for executing Edward Snowden. In another misguided moment, when Trump announced that his home had been the subject of the execution of the warrant, he also announced that he had declassified all documents in his possession while he was still president. Criminal Defense 101: Never deny until you are accused.

Declassification is not a defense to the allegations stated in the warrant, as secrets — information that, if revealed to any person not authorized to see them, would likely cause grave harm to the nation — need not be classified. As well, President Joe Biden — unbeknownst to Trump — could easily have reclassified the documents as top secret prior to the search, thereby giving the DOJ another potential charge against the former president.

Many of Trump’s legal woes were brought about by himself. He is institutionally averse to strategic silence, to accepting norms and to abiding professional advice that does not immediately produce what he wants. Yet, the feds contemplate a prosecution of him for silently reading and securing pieces of paper. And they call that espionage.

Crime is intentionally caused harm proscribed by law or nature. Who was harmed by documents sitting in Trump’s safe? The egos of the security state.

After four years as president fighting the security state, Trump should know that the federal government is a monster that can only be tamed, occasionally by a fair jury, or permanently when it collapses of its own weight. The latter will happen sooner rather than later. But not soon enough to help Donald Trump.

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The US publication pv magazine reported on 16 August 2022 that a large quantity of Chinese solar panels had been seized by US customs authorities. The seizure were carried out under US anti-China legislation, the so-called “Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act” (UFLPA).

The legislation is one of many US government actions designed to wage economic warfare against China and to undermine adoption of affordable renewable energy. The US is both the world’s largest producer and the largest consumer of oil, and has the world’s highest per capita emissions of CO₂.

The pv magazine cited US industry sources had reported that as much as 3 GW of Chinese solar equipment had been seized since the law came into effect in mid-2022. These sources said that as much as 12 GW of solar equipment were likely to be seized and “prevented from entering the US market by the end of the year.”

NPR reports that a related, massive US Department of Commerce investigation focusing on whether Chinese manufacturers could be “skirting US customs duty rules” on solar imports from China by “funneling components through affiliates in four nearby countries — Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam”.

Industry bodies in the US say that “hundreds of large-scale solar power projects are on hold in the US” as the solar industry awaits the outcome of the investigation into solar panels bought from Asian suppliers. According to the Financial Times, 7 June, 2022:

More generally, China supplies roughly 80% of global production of silicon used to make polycrystalline wafers for solar panels – which does not need to be as pure as the silicon used in semiconductors — with about half of that coming from Xinjiang, the main target of the US regime’ anti-solar energy sanctions (i.e. economic warfare).

According to Niki Asia (4 July 2021), US sanctions against the Chinese solar manufacturing industry “are now casting a shadow over the solar industry” as “one of the world’s biggest sources of silicon.” This has resulted in market instability as solar panel makers and buyers became concerned about the potential disruptions to global supply chains and manufactures hurried to build up silicon stock piles. It has, according Niki Asia significantly pushed up the price of solar panels by around 30-40%.

The pv magazine reported that these sanctions by the Washington regime is also causing a serious decline of up to 50% in US domestic solar deployment. The article reported that the US Energy Information Administration (EIA) had said that developers across the US had planned to install 17.8 GW of new solar capacity in 2022. However, in the first six months of this year, “only 4.2 GW has been installed and brought online as module supply challenges led to cancellations and delays”, and this trend was expected to continue.

In June 2022, following bitter internal division within the US, Biden exempted solar panel imports from Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam from tariffs (up to 240%) in order to get stalled solar power project moving.

China has repeatedly denied US allegations of so-called “slave labor” in Xinjiang. Earlier this month delegation of 32 envoys and senior diplomats from 30 Muslim-majority countries have paid a 5-day visit to China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region at the invitation of China. The envoys were widely reported to have found that “freedom of religious belief and various rights of Muslims are duly guaranteed” in Xinjiang.

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Sources

PV Magazine, August 16, 2022. https://www.pv-magazine.com/2022/08/16/more-than-3-gw-of-solar-panels-held-by-us-customs-under-forced-labor-law/

NPR, May 11, 2022. https://www.npr.org/2022/05/11/1097644931/solar-panels-solar-power-u-s-investigates-china-trade-rules

Featured image is from China Environment Net

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The people of Venezuela for the last several years have taken to the streets to reject sanctions, asset freezing, and coup attempts by the far-right.

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Chemtrails are considered to be one of the most reviled conspiratorial theories of recent decades. Anyone who addresses this topic is immediately pushed into the corner of the really insane conspiracy theorists.

But the World Economic Forum has already admitted that techniques like “spraying aerosols into the upper atmosphere” were part of a science called geoengineering and touted as a “large-scale solution to climate change”.

It’s also no secret that tech billionaire and vaccination messiah Bill Gates believes in interventions in nature.

Why is the CIA interested in climate change experiments?

Alan Robock has sounded the alarm over CIA funding of a National Academy of Sciences report on different approaches to combating climate change, and the fact that the CIA has not yet explained its keen interest in an engineered “nuclear winter“.

Lawyer Aitor Guisasola meanwhile highlighted the legal situation on the subject of “artificial weather manipulation” in Spain. The climate in Spain can be influenced by geoengineering because these interventions have been regulated by law since July 27, 2001 by Royal Decree 1/2001.

In this decree, under Chapter 1, Article 3 , under the title “Modification of atmospheric conditions”, it reads: “The modification of the atmospheric conditions of the hydrological cycle may only be artificially modified by the state administration or its agents.”

Of course, this also means precipitation or the lack thereof, explained Guisasola. “The Royal Decree clearly states that they may do it. This is very clear, obvious and evident. They can do it and they do it. Because a government doesn’t make laws and then doesn’t apply them.”

Also on the official website of the state meteorological agency, AEMET, one can find information on geoengineering in Spain and other countries around the world.

Drought can be engineered

AEMET conceded that over 50 countries were currently conducting “artificial weather modification” activities. The expert committee of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is informed about their status in “regular reports”.

These modifications are aimed at increasing the amount of precipitation, the reduction of the associated damage and the size of the hail and to the dissipation of clouds. It is also claimed that dry spells are engineered only “in certain airports or important traffic routes”. These activities are based on “developing technologies” that may not yet have a “solid scientific base”, AEMET noted.

Why does geoengineering exist?

The term geoengineering is used to refer to a wide range of techniques, including more recent experiments in weaponizing the weather associated with “climate change“. The objective is to manipulate the climate to reduce mainly two aspects: the variations in solar radiation and the increase in CO2 and thus alleviate the increase in temperature. These techniques suggest theories aimed at reducing the solar radiation that reaches the earth’s surface by increasing the reflection capacity of the surface or the atmosphere. This second group of techniques have an impact on a regional and even global scale.

Various experiments have also been carried out in cities near the poles to provide light during the winter night, using satellites that reflect sunlight on the earth’s surface using sails.

Military interest in the weather is not new: Over North Vietnam, Laos and South Vietnam, the US military had secretly seeded clouds to increase and control the rainfall for military purposes.

Experiments that do not work

From the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the Federal Government of the United States, experiments and financed campaigns began at the beginning of the 1960s, as was the case of the Stormfury project, which sought to attenuate the intensity of hurricanes. This project, despite criticism from countries like Cuba, was maintained for two more decades, until it was recognized that it did not influence the behavior of hurricanes. It was likely used as a cover for a military interest in a Cuban adversary.

In addition to protection against frost, traditionally through the use of fans or irrigation of crops, the most important project in Spain has been the one carried out in the Duero basin between 1979 and 1981, proposed and carried out by the WMO, with the name of “Project of Intensification of Precipitation” (PIP).

In this trial only the first phase was completed, the results were disappointing and impractical. The main conclusion was that it was necessary to deepen the knowledge of cloud physics and the structure of cloud systems before undertaking new research or operational projects.

The Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Food and the Environment in its latest report alluded to food security and curiously stated: “It should be kept in mind that the energy associated with weather systems is of such a magnitude that it is impossible to create cloud systems that drop precipitation, modify wind patterns to bring water vapor to a region, or completely eliminate extreme weather events. Artificial weather modification technologies that claim to achieve such large-scale or extraordinary effects lack a solid scientific basis (for example hail guns or ionization methods) and are not scientifically credible.”

Harmful substances

Some of the substances used, for example silver iodide, are certainly toxic and harmful to the environment, although the amounts used in artificial rainfall intensification programs are allegedly small, according to WMO reports.

In the absence of other nuclei, one gram of silver iodide supposedly widely distributed in the cloud could lead to a precipitation of 1 l/m2 in an area of ​​1000 km2. Annual worldwide cloud seeding has been estimated to account for 0.1 percent of the amount of silver iodide incorporated into the atmosphere by human activities in the United States.

In addition to the US, other leading countries for investments in operational weather modification programs are China, Thailand and India.

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Featured image: Strange clouds: Photo credit: Joachim Süß 

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Should a human rights organisation apologise for publishing important evidence of war crimes and human rights abuses?

If it does apologise, what does that suggest about its commitment to dispassionately uncovering the truth about the actions of both parties to war? And equally, what message does it send to those who claim to be “distressed” by the publication of such evidence?

Those are questions Amnesty International should have pondered far more carefully than it obviously did before issuing an apology last week over its latest report on the war in Ukraine.

In that report, Amnesty accused Ukrainian forces of committing war crimes by stationing troops and artillery in or near schools, hospitals and residential buildings, thereby using civilians effectively as human shields. Such practices by Ukrainian soldiers were identified in 19 different towns and villages.

These incidents did not just theoretically endanger civilians. There is evidence, according to Amnesty, that return fire by Russian troops on these Ukrainian positions led to non-combatants being killed.

The Israeli army regularly accuses Palestinian factions like Hamas of hiding among civilians in Gaza, while obscuring its own, long-documented practice of using Palestinians as human shields.

But whatever the truth of Israel’s claims, unlike the tiny and massively overcrowded Gaza, which offers few or no hiding places outside of built-up areas for Palestinian fighters to resist Israeli aggression, Amnesty concluded of the situation in Ukraine: “Viable alternatives were available that would not endanger civilians – such as military bases or densely wooded areas nearby, or other structures further away from residential areas.”

In other words, it was a choice made by the Ukrainian army to put its own civilians in harm’s way.

Mounting pressure

Notably, this is the first time a major western human rights organisation has publicly scrutinised the behaviour of Ukraine’s soldiers. Until now, these watchdog bodies have focused exclusively on reports of crimes committed by Russian forces – a position entirely in line with the priorities of their own governments. By its own admission, Amnesty has published dozens of reports condemning Russia.

The pushback against the latest report was relentless, coming even from Amnesty’s own Ukrainian team. Oksana Pokalchuk, its head, quit, explaining that her team “did everything they could to prevent this material from being published”.

Under mounting pressure, Amnesty made a statement last week in which it said it “deeply regrets the distress and anger” caused by its report, while at the same time stating: “We fully stand by our findings.”

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Read the original English version:

The Globalists have Launched a New Offensive against the Citizens of the Earth.

By Emanuel Pastreich, August 08, 2022

グローバリスト達は、地球上に住む人々に対して新たな攻撃を開始しました。グローバリスト達は、最も狡猾な方法で、文化、人種、習慣を利用して私達を分断させようとしています。この目的は、世界経済フォーラム（WEF）のような犯罪シンジケートを打倒し、解体することに特化した同盟、連合、さらにはコミュニティまでも形成できないようにさせ、市民達の連帯を妨害することです。世界経済フォーラムはグローバルガバナンスを掌握し、ますますその支配力を国や地方政府にまで猛然と拡大させつつあります。

民間の投資家が雇ったこの影の傭兵は、私達の間でも高い教育を受けた人々に賄賂を贈り、人々をそそのかすことによって、このような所業を行ってきたのです。抜け目のない人達は、高額な対価を得て、悪に対して目をつぶる方が得策であるということをよく分かっているということです。

一方の側である想定上の「西側」と他方の側であるロシア、中国、北朝鮮、イランとの間に「偽」の世界大戦を作り出すと同時に、これらの全ての国、さらには、世界の全ての国の経済的・政治的システムを操作し、支配しようとする現在の試みは、その規模において前例のない、卑劣で巧妙な計画であると言えるでしょう。

しかしながら、そのような絶対的な支配の計画は、歴史上、新しいものではないということは確かであり、単にAI、スーパーコンピューター、CTVカメラ、5G、低軌道衛星、ドローン、そして国境を持たない武器と化したメディアエンターテインメント複合体を使用したものに移り変わったにすぎません。

皆さんがそのような大それたことをするような悪人や、自己中心的な人はいないと思うなら、残念ながら、それは大きな間違いです。

「偽」の世界大戦を生み出すための最初のステップは、ロシアをウクライナに侵攻させるためにとられた（今も機密でありアクセスできない）作戦行動から始まっているのです。

この作戦は長期的かつ複雑であり、米国、ドイツなどのNATO加盟国、その他の国々、そしておそらくはロシア国内の一部派閥も関与していたことは明らかです。ロシアは、世界経済フォーラムとその影の支援者たちの犯罪的なアジェンダに立ち向かってはいませんでした。むしろ、プーチン大統領はこれらのグローバル組織の仲間でした。しかしながら、キエフで運命の分かれ道がありました。そして今、ロシアは今回の襲撃を受けて、WHOからの脱退をはじめとして、グローバル・ガバナンス・システム全体の解体に向かって動き出しているのです。

対話の余地はもう残されていません。ドイツと日本をはじめとする欧州、アジアの国々は、軍事予算と国内の監視体制を抜本的に強化し、核兵器を保有する国の数は今後10年間で簡単に倍増する可能性があるのです。だから、同じように、核兵器の総数も倍増する可能性があるのです。要するに、油断のならない政治家達がそこまでのことを意図していなかったとしても、私達は世界大戦の危機に直面しているのです。

ウクライナへの侵攻の後、目に見えない力によって上海でロックダウンが発生しました。これは大富豪達によって計画されていたものであり、多額の報酬と引き換えに実行されたと見て間違いないでしょう。

上海は監獄となり、特殊部隊はCOVID-19という偽の名目で人々を家に閉じ込め、人々を飢餓におびえさせるようになりました。

全世界に向けて、明確なメッセージが発信されたのです。

もちろん、これまでにも民間の投資家や多国籍企業が上海を支配してきたのは事実です。今回異なるのは、超富裕層を除いた全ての人々がロックダウンされたということなのです。

大手企業系列のメディアは、上海のストーリーをあり得ないほど歪めました。大手企業系列のメディアは、上海を牛耳ったのは寄生虫のような大富豪家達ではなく、むしろ「左翼」、「社会主義」によるものだ、そして何よりも、血で汚れた「中国共産党」によるものだと発表したのです。

「西側」の大手企業系列のメディアは、李克強首相が地方政府を支援し、COVID-19のロックダウンに反対している一方で、現在「共産主義者」として赤いレッテルを貼られた習近平国家主席が全体主義のゼロコロナ政策を推進し続けていることを嬉々と伝えています。

おそらく習近平は、国内外のグローバリストが扇動したロックダウンの責任を押し付けられ、李は西側が手を組める英雄的人物に祭り上げられているのです。グローバリスト達が自分たちの痕跡を慌てて隠している間に、李は、グローバリスト達の勢力下に入りつつあるということなのです。

グローバルファイナンスは上海でこの悪夢を生み出し、それを社会主義のせいにしました。その結果、現在グローバルファイナンスによって完全に支配されている国である米国、英国、そして日本では、市民は、「自分達は自由であり、中国は独裁的な共産主義国家である」と信じ込まされています。

政府がグローバルファイナンスを支配し、富を再分配し、労働者を保護する役割を果たす「社会主義的な」体制は、独裁国家として馬鹿にされ、否定されることになります。

右翼のブロガー達は、欧州、オーストラリア、米国などの先進的な白人諸国が、アジア人によって作り上げられた致命的な計画によって人口減少の標的になっているという、レポートやグラフを発表しています。

この戦争が白人に対するものであるかどうかは疑わしいですが、その視点を裏付けるために提供される統計データ（本物かどうかは別として）は、階級戦争を人種戦争と誤解させるように流布される可能性があります。実際に、第二次世界大戦ではそれが起こりました。米国には、1850年代にさかのぼれば、人種戦争の影に階級闘争を隠すという古い伝統があります。

同様の戦略は、公然に「西側」のもう１つの敵となっているイランでも用いられています。イランは大抵の国々よりもグローバリストの攻撃に対して上手に抵抗していましたが、今では食料の購入に生体認証ID、つまり、デジタルパスポートを義務付ける最初の国として紹介されるまでになっています。

グローバリストの工作員は、イランを取り込む手段として、貧しい人々や無力な人々を対象にこの政策を推進しています。それはまた、反グローバリストの右派、つまりグローバリストからのキックバックを受け、偏った人種差別的な方法でグローバリズムを攻撃している人達が、イランは敵であり、非キリスト教的に国民を独自に虐待していると主張する機会にもなっているのです。

最後に、朝鮮民主主義人民共和国があります。この国は、COVID-19詐欺に最も長く抵抗し、国民がこの空想上の病気に感染したことを発表したり、ワクチン、社会的距離、マスクなどの医療兵器システムを支持したりすることを、拒否し続けました。

その後、2022年5月12日、北朝鮮の金正恩委員長は、自国でCOVID-19、特に、馬鹿げた変異株であるオミクロン株の感染者が発生したことを突然発表し、平壌がロックダウンの対象になると宣言しました。

発情期にあるハイエナのように、大手企業系列の新聞社はこの捏造された危機に嬉々として飛びつきました。

私達が何が起こったのかを知る前に、北朝鮮人は愚かなマスクを着用し、役立たずで危険な消毒剤を至るところにまき散らし始めました。

北朝鮮は、世界経済フォーラムや超富裕層向けの他のグローバリスト機関を運営している勢力と同じ、裏の勢力の攻撃を受けています。北朝鮮は理想的な国ではありませんでしたが、かつてはこの買収に抵抗することができました。しかし、今ではもはやそうすることができません。おそらく、平壌の意思決定者は脅迫され、買収されたのでしょう。同じことが他の全ての国でも起こりました。

特筆すべきことは、韓国がマスクの着用要件を緩和し、レストランやショップのワクチンパスポートを廃止したのと同じタイミングで、北朝鮮がCOVID-19の取り締まり始めたことです。この一連の出来事は偶然とは言えないでしょう。

予想通り、大手企業系列のメディアは、これらのイデオロギー的に異質な国々が、開放的で、合理的且つ民主的な「西側」とは対照的に、極端なCOVID-19対策で人々を抑圧していると報道しました。

この計画は中国、北朝鮮、イランに対して、全体主義のイメージを植え付けることです。この瞬間にも大富豪家達は、テレビ、インターネット、学校や研究機関を通じた、CCTVカメラ、ジオフェンシング、5Gによる徹底したターゲット広告を使って、米国、ドイツ、イスラエル（および他の国々）の民間技術企業によって支配されている「西側」諸国で技術専制政治の基盤を築いています。

つまり、新自由主義思想に抵抗した国々は、結果として全体主義の元凶とされているのです。これは、プロパガンダの専門家達による巧妙な仕業であると言えるでしょう。

その渦中において、彼らは企業国家によっていつでも運用を停止することができるデジタル通貨、スマートシティ、そして、スマートカーを私達に強引に推奨しています。これらは、私達を家の中に囚人として閉じ込め、常に監視の対象とすることを可能にしているのです。

シンディ・ナイルズ氏の言葉を借りれば、「地獄への道は、持続可能な開発目標（SDGｓ）で舗装されている」のです。

つまり、私達はグローバリストの乗っ取りに断固抵抗して、平壌、上海の市民と一緒に立ち向かわなければならないということです。私達は、仲間である犠牲者達を侵略者として扱うように私達を信じ込ませようとする大富豪家の自己陶酔的なレトリックを決して許してはなりません。

地域単位で代替的な臨時政府を形成すると同時に、企業のファシズムに対抗する「グローバリスト」ではない国際的な同盟を形成しない限り、グローバリスト達を打ち負かすことはできないのです。

大富豪家達は、私達が共通の目的のために地球の全ての国で志を同じくする人々を連帯させれば、自分達に勝ち目はない、ということを知っています。大富豪家達は、地球上の過激な構造改革を実行するために、私達を混乱させ、分裂させ、可能な限り多くの公人を脅し、買収しようとします。そして、大富豪家達は、その目的のためなら、幾らでもお金を支払うでしょう。

グローバリストの陰謀の一部として、意図的に敵へと仕立て上げられた国々の国民に手を差し伸べることは、私達の戦いを有利に進めるための、非常に重要な戦略です。

*

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

He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

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***

He has survived death threats and attempts on his life since February 1989.  But Salman Rushdie’s luck just about ran out at the Chautauqua Institution, southwest of Buffalo in New York State.  On August 12, at a venue historically celebrated for bringing education to all, the writer was stabbed incessantly by a fanatic who felt little sense of guilt or remorse.  Hadi Matar only had eyes for Rushdie’s neck and abdomen.  As a result of the attack, the author is likely to lose sight of one eye and possibly the use of an arm.

It was a chilling reminder that the fatwa condemning him to death never risked going stale, even if it might have been put into a form of archived cold storage.  Declared by the Iran’s sickly spiritual ruler, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Rushdie’s remarkable crime was to have blasphemed against the Prophet Muhammad in the novel The Satanic Verses.  The supreme leader, having hardly distinguished himself in a bloody war against Iraq, needed a supreme distraction.

The entire exercise was an example of how irony and humour have no place for dour, dogmatic priestliness.  How dare an author, in a work of fiction, playfully and plausibly claim that the Prophet was not the sole editor of the message to Angel Gibreel (Gabriel), and that Satan had cheekily inserted his role into it?  And that this was done using the medium of Gibreel Farishta’s hallucinations?

Dare Rushdie did, and this exhortation to state-sanctioned killing of an author and all those associated with translating and disseminating the book exposed the underbelly of cowardice that often accompanies attempts to defend literary freedoms.  Rushdie’s translator Hitoshi Igarashi was, in fact, murdered, while his Norwegian publisher, William Nygaard, was gravely wounded.  The Turkish translator, Aziz Nesin, escaped a mob assault that led to 37 deaths in Silvas, Turkey.

It was one thing to find fanatics who had never read the book and wished to do away with the author in a fit of state subsidised zealotry.  But then there was that camp: those who, in principle, opposed the fatwa but still wished to attack Rushdie as an act of cultural understanding and solidarity with his enemies.  (Grahame Wood of The Atlantic calls them the “Team To Be Sure”, who rubbished the West’s free speech defence of Rushdie, claiming that mischief might have been averted if only he hadn’t been so inclined to offend.)

The events of 1989 cast a long shadow.  There were those in holy orders, who thought that the Ayatollah had a point.  There was Dr. Robert Runcie, Archbishop of Canterbury, who called for a strengthening of blasphemy laws to cover religions other than Christianity, though he was also careful to “condemn incitement to murder or any other violence from any source whatever.”  Very Church of England.

And there was former US President Jimmy Carter, who seemed to take issue that an author’s rights were considered fundamental even in the face of insulting religions.  What, came the insinuation, about the insulted?  Where would their anger go?  Rushdie’s First Amendment freedoms might be “important”, but there had been “little acknowledgment that this is a direct insult to those millions of Moslems whose sacred beliefs have been violated and are suffering in restrained silence”.  Contemplated homicide against an author, in other words, was being excused, even if the “death sentence” was an “abhorrent response”.

It was even more galling to see fellow novelists mauling the underdog, showing how solidarity among scribes is rarer than you think.  The Marxist author John Berger did not think much of Rushdie’s case, hiding behind a sham argument that producing threatening literature might well endanger “the lives of those who are innocent of either writing or reading the book.”  Berger’s ingratiating note was an attempt to convince other Islamic leaders and statesmen to avoid “a unique 20^th-century holy war, with its terrifying righteousness on both sides.”

Roald Dahl, man of dysfunctional virtue and author of disturbed children’s tales, decided in a letter to The Times that Rushdie was a “dangerous opportunist”, as if engaging in irony in such matters is to be avoided.  He had to have been “aware of the deep and violent feelings his book would stir up among devout Muslims.”  His suggestion: a modest dose of self-censorship.  “In a civilized world we have a moral obligation to apply a modicum of censorship to our own work to reinforce this principle of free speech.”  Censors from Moscow to Tehran would have approved.

Nor did John le Carré, consummate writer of espionage novels, disagree.  “I don’t think it is given to any of us to be impertinent to great religions with impunity,” he told The New York Times in May 1989.

In November 1997, with le Carré complaining of being unfairly branded an anti-Semite, Rushdie wrote a pointed reminder it would have been easier “to sympathize with him had he not been so ready to join in an earlier campaign of vilification against a fellow writer.”  It would have been gracious were “he to admit that he understands the nature of the Thought Police a little better now that, at last in his own opinion, he’s the one in the line of fire.”

Le Carré sniped back accordingly, taking the position he claimed to have had in 1989: “that there is no law in life or nature that says great religions may be insulted with impunity.”  Little time was spent then, and now, on the malicious, sinister nature of religious totalitarianism that has been a monstrous burden on expression, critique and sober thought.  Instead, the creator of Smiley and the Circus wished to strike a “less arrogant, less colonialist, and less self-righteous note than we were hearing from the safety of his admirers’ camp.”

As Wood writes, the honourable response to the attack on Rushdie would have been to admit a failure to protect a brave author and declare “that we are all Rushdie now”.  Read his work; throw his name in the faces of the regime’s apologists and their homicidal dolts.  After all, while the Republic of Iran has claimed to have lost active interest in killing the author, it will not object to an independent enthusiast doing the same.  The decision encouraging Rushdie’s murder, stated Khomeini’s successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, “is a bullet for which there is a target.  It has been shot.  It will one day sooner or later hit the target.”

This crippling germ of authorial assassination is incarnated in more current forms, without the lethal element: cancel culture, the desire to actively enact one’s offended disposition to liquidate, banish and extirpate the views of your opponent.  They offend you because you, somehow, have answers beyond question.  Assassination is simply one of the most extreme forms of censorship, an attempt to silence and kill off the vibrant chatter that makes an intellectual world live.  Sadly, as Rushdie recovers, the maybe mob and their complicity should be noted, their names marked on walls high.  The inner censoring assassin is everywhere.

*

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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: Salman Rushdie in 2018 (By ActuaLitté, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0)

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***

On August 15, an illegal US military base in Syria came under a drone attack.  The base is located at Al-Tanf in southern Syria on the Damascus-Baghdad highway.

A number of drones were used in the attack, and while some hit their mark, others were thwarted and no casualties were reported.

US Army Maj. Gen. John Brennan, commander of the US-led international coalition in Iraq and Syria, said “Coalition personnel retain the right to self-defense, and we will take appropriate measures to protect our forces.”

Under international law, the US military have no right to self-defense as they are illegally occupying Syria, and it is the Syrians who have the sole right to self-defense.

This was the latest attack on American forces and the militias they support in Syria.  The Al-Tanf base was illegally established when the US invaded Syria as part of the US-led coalition to fight ISIS.  That ended years   ago, and President Trump ordered the withdrawal of US troops from Syria in December 2018, but the Pentagon would not agree with the order, and the US troops remain in two locations: one in the oil-rich north east region, and the other in the south east at Al-Tanf.

In June, Russian aircraft bombed an outpost affiliated with Al-Tanf after Russian officers reported to their US counterparts that Syrian government troops had been attacked by the US-supported mercenary group known as Magahawir al-Thawra (MaT). The Americans responded that MaT is only supposed to fire or attack ISIS.

In April 2020, members of the MaT who were drug smugglers left the US base.  Not far from Al-Tanf is the Rukban refugee camp which holds thousands of men, women and children in dire conditions.  Jordan won’t help, the US military won’t help, and the Syrian government can’t help the residents for fear of engaging in a military confrontation with the illegal American occupiers.  The residents are in a no-man’s land and are in a chronic state of desperation, in which the MaT act as their jailers and suppliers.  Every drop of water, and morsel of food from humanitarian aid passes first through the hands of the MaT, who extract as much benefit as they can from it, first to feed their own numerous wives and children, and next to extract money or favors from the camp residents who remain subservient to the MaT.

Yankee go home

Maher Ihsan is a journalist and political expert. He exposes the real purpose the US remains in Syria as occupiers. According to Ihsan, the US is stealing resources and imposing its will upon the political future of Syria.

“Look at the situation now, the United States is controlling key gas and oil fields in oil-rich areas in Syria, it’s also controlling key agricultural areas … the United States didn’t come here to help, but to take advantage of the situation and impose their own will,” Ihsan said.

Ahmad Al-Ashqar, a journalist and political expert, echoed Ihsan’s views, that the US occupies and plunders the oil-rich regions in Syria.

On August 8, the Syrian oil ministry said in a statement that the average daily output of Syrian oil in the first half of 2022 is 80,300 barrels, while the US occupying forces and their mercenaries are stealing an average of 66,000 barrels a day, accounting for over 83 percent of Syria’s oil output.

According to the ministry, the prolonged crisis in Syria has cost Syria’s oil sector about 105 billion US dollars in direct and indirect losses.

It is the illegal US occupation of Syria which is the main obstacle to normal life, the urgent reconstruction of Syria, and the lack of electricity which sees most households receiving one to two hours of electricity per day.

“From sanctions to controlling the Syrian natural resources, the United States has actually caused severe damage to Syria as a state and people. Look at the people now, humanitarian organizations say most Syrians live under the poverty line, but they do not mention who is responsible,” Ihsan said.

Erdogan election 2023

On August 11, protesters in Azaz burned the Turkish flag in response to the statement by the Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, that Turkey may repair its relationship with Syria.

Turkey had been sponsoring the Radical Islamic terrorists who fought the Syrian government beginning in 2011.  The US CIA office which was headquarters for the terrorist fighters was shut down in Turkey in 2017 by President Trump.  The Obama-Erdogan war on Syria for regime change had failed.

In less than a year, President Erdogan faces re-election, and his economy has collapsed, and the Turkish society wants the 3 million Syrian refuges to go home.  By repairing the relationship with Syria, Turkey’s economy would flourish as the largest market of Turkish goods would be restored, and the Syrians can be forcibly sent home by not renewing their residency status.

On August 13, Turkish Minister of Interior, Suleiman Soylu, announced the arrest of two people on charges of burning the Turkish flag during the protest in Syria, and it was Syrians aligned with Turkey who handed them in.

Syrian refugees going home from Lebanon

On August 15, Syrian and Lebanese officials met in Damascus to discuss the return of Syrians in Lebanon.

Hussein Makhlouf, Syrian Minister of Local Administration and Environment, held a meeting with Issam Charafeddine, Lebanese Minister of the Displaced, during which they discussed measures taken by Syria to secure a safe home return for the refugees based on a timeline set by both countries, Syrian state news agency SANA reported.

“Lebanon and Syria agree on the necessity to facilitate the return of all refugees to their homeland, not just 15,000 monthly, as stated in the plan presented by the Lebanese side,” Makhlouf told a joint press conference with the Lebanese minister.

According to Maklouf, the Syrian government has pledged to secure basic services including transportation, accommodation, medical care, and education for all the refugees who want to return home.

The war in Syria is long over, and most of the territory is administered by Damascus and is safe and secure. The sole remaining terrorist controlled area is Idlib in the north west and returnees would not be going there.

4 million internally displaced Syrians, and over 1 million Syrian refugees have returned home from outside the country so far.

The officials asked for the UN to be an active participant in the return of refugees, but the UN have been reluctant to support the plan for political reasons.

Charafeddine said “we discussed our plan in detail with Syrian authorities who expressed readiness to receive all refugees, pledging to provide them with needed facilities,” according to Lebanon’s National News Agency.

Lebanon is hosting the largest number of refugees per capita, with the government estimating 1.5 million Syrian refugees, 880,000 of whom are registered with the UN.

Charafeddine said earlier in August that Lebanon would implement its plan regardless of the UN position as his country suffers from an unprecedented financial crisis and the influx of refugees has weighed heavily on the economy and infrastructure

Austin Tice negotiations

On August 15, US spokesman Ned Price said,

“We have engaged extensively, and that includes directly with Syrian officials and through third parties.”

 “Unfortunately despite our calls, despite our engagement, despite the engagement of third parties in other countries, Syria has never acknowledged holding him. But we are not going to be deterred in our efforts,” Price said.

The 10-year anniversary of Tice’s disappearance has renewed pressure on the Biden administration to secure his release.

Austin Tice is a veteran US Marine Corps officer, who entered Syria illegally in the company of terrorists in order to report favorably in the US media concerning the US-sponsored Free Syrian Army (FSA).  He went missing on August 14, 2012 in Daraya, a suburb of Damascus.

At the time of Tice’s presence in Daraya, the FSA was in control and occupation of Daraya, with about 3,000 fighters. Two months before his disappearance, the Syrian military forces had withdrawn from the town.

Tice was embedded with the FSA, who were supported by the CIA program in the south of Turkey, code name Timber Sycamore, which was shut down by Trump in 2017.

The FSA have a history of selling Americans in Syria to ISIS. Kayla Mueller was a young woman from Arizona.  She went to Aleppo to volunteer in a hospital treating terrorists and civilians.  The FSA provided security for her, and sold her to ISIS.  She was killed in 2015.

The FSA had a very dark side which included rapes, kidnappings and executions. Eventually, the FSA morphed into Al Qaeda, and finally some of its members were in ISIS.  Idlib is currently under the occupation of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, who were previously Jibhat al Nusra, the Al Qaeda affiliate in Syria.  The US has killed the head of ISIS, Baghdadi, in Idlib, and more recently another commander of ISIS. This proves the close working relationship between Al Qaeda and ISIS in Idlib.  Radical Islamic terrorist groups have many names, but are all cut from the same cloth.

*

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This article was originally published on Mideast Discourse.

Steven Sahiounie is a two-time award-winning journalist. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from MD

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***

As far back in history as the period of enslavement of African people in North America, resistance and rebellion has been met with retaliatory repression from the ruling interests.

Freedom fighters such as Gabriel Prosser, Denmark Vessey, Nat Turner, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, among many others named and unknown, have been either brutally executed or left with no alternative other than to seek flight from oppression.

This same legacy of confinement, brutality and lynching continued into the post-slavery era of the 20th and 21st centuries. Between the 1880s and the Great Depression of the 1930s, thousands of African Americans were extra-judicially murdered by mobs of law-enforcement agents and vigilantes.

When the Civil Rights Movement erupted on a mass level during the 1950s with the Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955-56) and other actions, activists were subjected to unjustified arrests, sentencings and the bombing of homes and churches. During the 1960s, scores of Civil Rights workers were arrested, beaten, intimidated into leaving their home areas, wounded by gunfire and killed. People such as Medgar Evers (1963) and Herbert Lee (1961) of Mississippi were gunned down for their organizational work against racism and disenfranchisement.

In Birmingham, Alabama on September 15, 1963, the Ku Klux Klan bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church killing four African American girls. During the Freedom Summer of 1964 in Mississippi, three Civil Rights workers: Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner and James Chaney, were lynched by KKK members who were employed as law-enforcement officers.

In later years, key leaders such as Malcolm X (1965), Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1968), Fred Hampton and Mark Clark (1969) were all assassinated in plots carried out by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) working in conjunction with police agencies and mercenaries. With the emergence of armed self-defense organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Monroe, North Carolina chapter led by Robert F. Williams, the Deacons for Defense (DOD) founded in Louisiana, the Lowndes County Freedom Organization (LCFO), the first independent political formation to utilize the black panther symbol in Alabama; the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, Republic of New Africa (RNA), Black Liberation Army (BLA), among others, the Justice Department’s FBI and other intelligence and law-enforcement agencies heightened their disruptive tactics against the African American liberation struggle.

Assata and the BLA

Assata Shakur, born in 1947, joined the Black Panther Party in the New York City area while she was a college student in 1970. She had already been active in Black students organizing when she made contact with the BPP, which during 1970, maintained dozens of chapters across the United States as well as an International Section in Algiers, Algeria in North Africa.

Many militant youths in urban areas joined and were influenced by the BPP during 1967-1970 as the level of repression coordinated by the federal government accelerated. A split within the Party leadership during early 1971 over tactics, led to the activation of the Black Liberation Army (BLA) which advocated armed struggle as a defensive measure in response to the widespread harassment and imprisonment of BPP members.

The BLA and the International Black Panther Party with its newspaper entitled “Right On”, supported the International Section in the 1971 split. Panther leaders such as Eldridge and Kathleen Cleaver, Field Marshal Don Cox, Connie Matthews, etc. had maintained the Algiers office since the August 1969 Pan-African Cultural Festival, when the Algerian government recognized the BPP as the official representatives of the African American people. The International Section hosted an Afro American Cultural Center during the festival and would later move into an official diplomatic residence which had been occupied by revolutionaries from Vietnam.

Panthers inside the U.S. who were aligned with the BLA continued to work in their underground structures. There were several armed engagements with law-enforcement agents between 1971-1973.

On May 2, 1973, an encounter between Assata Shakur, Zayd Malik Shakur and Sundiata Acoli resulted in the wounding and capturing of Acoli and Assata Shakur and the death of Zayd. One New Jersey State Trooper was killed in what was described as a routine traffic stop on the Turnpike.

This incident came amid enormous propaganda within the U.S. corporate and government-controlled media that characterized the BLA as a violent criminal gang bent on the killing of police officers. However, almost no mention was made by the mainstream press outlets related to the systematic repression under which the BPP and other revolutionary organizations were subjected to by the federal government.

In an open letter from Assata which coincided with the National Jericho March in Washington, D.C. in 1998, that demanded a general amnesty for all U.S. political prisoners, she articulates her position saying:

“Neither Sundiata Acoli nor I ever received a fair trial. We were both convicted in the news media way before our trials. No news media was ever permitted to interview us, although the New Jersey police and the FBI fed stories to the press on a daily basis. In 1977, I was convicted by an all- white jury and sentenced to life plus 33 years in prison. In 1979, fearing that I would be murdered in prison, and knowing that I would never receive any justice, I was liberated from prison, aided by committed comrades who understood the depths of the injustices in my case, and who were also extremely fearful for my life.” (See this)

By late 1981, other BLA cadres and their supporters were the subject of a nationwide dragnet by the FBI. Dr. Mutulu Shakur, an acupuncture specialist, was targeted by the U.S. government claiming he was the leader of the BLA and other revolutionary organizations operating in the New York/ New Jersey area. Scores of activists were subjected to surveillance, grand jury questioning, jailing and imprisonment. Dr. Shakur went underground in 1980 after establishing an acupuncture clinic in Harlem. Today, Dr. Shakur, having been unjustly held in prison since 1986, is suffering from bone marrow cancer and has been given only a few months to live. A campaign to win compassionate release has been underway for several months.

Assata Shakur and the Cuban Revolution

After being liberated from a maximum security prison in New Jersey, Assata lived underground for five years. In 1984, she was granted political asylum by the socialist Republic of Cuba then under the leadership of President Fidel Castro.

Image: Cuban and Angolan leaders Fidel Castro and Jose Eduardo dos Santos (Source: Abayomi Azikiwe)

Cuban revolutionaries within the July 26th Movement had won genuine liberation for the Caribbean island-nation on January 1, 1959. The revolutionary government immediately outlawed racism and national discrimination while committing themselves to assisting the national liberation struggles in Africa.

In 1961, Robert F. Williams and Mabel Williams were granted refuge in Cuba where they fled after being subjected to threats of arrest and prosecution in North Carolina. Williams was given a program called Radio Free Dixie which broadcast via shortwave deep into the U.S.

Later other political refugees were welcomed by the Cuban Revolution during the 1960s and 1970s. When Assata arrived in Cuba in 1984, there were thousands of Internationalist volunteers operating in the Southern African state of Angola in efforts to secure the revolutionary government of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) under fierce attack by the racist apartheid South African Defense Forces (SADF) and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). By 1988, the apartheid military forces had been driven out of Angola and the-then racist government based in Pretoria soon agreed to withdraw from neighboring Namibia where they had attempted to suppress the Southwest Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO), the sole legitimate voice of the Namibian people.

The Republic of Namibia was declared independent on March 21, 1990, just weeks after the release of African National Congress (ANC) of South Africa political prisoners such as future President Nelson Mandela. The apartheid regime would eventually fall after the first democratic nonracial elections of April 1994. Since this time period, the MPLA of Angola, SWAPO of Namibia and the ANC of South Africa have remained in power.

Since the beginning of the Cuban Revolution, the socialist government has continued to exemplify international solidarity with oppressed and working people around the world. Hundreds of students from African American and Latin American communities in the U.S. have studied medicine in the Republic of Cuba at the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) through full scholarships provided by the Communist Party government.

These developments since 1959 have endeared the Cuban Revolution to revolutionaries in the U.S., Africa, Latin America and other geo-political regions. The political biography of Assata Shakur provides a clear reflection of the interrelationship of revolutionary movements from the U.S., Latin America, the African continent and throughout the globe.

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Featured image: Cuban solidarity with African American people (Source: Abayomi Azikiwe)

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***

Read Part I:

Analysis of the Early Fighting in the First World War, 108 Years Ago

By Shane Quinn, August 08, 2022

After extensive military analysis the French Army’s plan of campaign for a continental war, titled Plan XVII, was completed in February 1914, about 6 months before the First World War broke out.

Germany, and its formidable armed forces, had for decades been recognised by a large part of the French elite as their country’s principal foe. This was especially the case from 1871, when early that year German-led troops defeated the French Army in the Franco-Prussian War, a conflict which lasted for 6 months.

France was stripped of the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, located in north-eastern France, which were annexed to the new German Empire in 1871. The loss of Alsace and Lorraine was felt very deeply in France. The famous German philosopher Karl Marx had warned at the time,

“If Alsace and Lorraine are taken, then France will later make war on Germany in conjunction with Russia. It is unnecessary to go into the unholy consequences”.

Otto von Bismarck, the German chancellor, had also expressed misgivings about the annexation of Alsace and Lorraine. He believed, correctly, that it would increase French hostility towards Germany.

The French Army’s war strategy in 1914 suited the Germans so well, it was almost as though it had been compiled by Berlin’s military staff. General Joseph Joffre, commander-in-chief of the French forces, was right in assessing that the German Army would attack neutral Belgium at the outbreak of hostilities; but General Joffre, through inept strategic planning, did not believe the bulk of the German Army would advance west of the Meuse river, and swing back around Paris through northern France. In reality, for almost a decade before 1914, it was planned in Berlin that in the event of war most of Germany’s divisions would indeed advance through Belgium and northern France, which the author covered in the previous article.

Such a strategic move was the central concept of the Schlieffen Plan, named after its chief strategist Alfred Graf von Schlieffen, who died in January 1913 aged 79. Field Marshal von Schlieffen had been Chief of the German General Staff from 1891 to 1905, when he retired late that year. He was succeeded early in 1906 by General Helmuth von Moltke (The Younger), who was the nephew of the renowned 19th century commander, Helmuth von Moltke (The Elder).

French military intelligence committed a grave misjudgement in 1914, by underestimating German manpower strength in the west by 12 corps. In Germany’s case this amounted to over half a million men. The German 1st Army and 2nd Army comprised altogether of 12 corps, totalling around 580,000 soldiers. These 2 armies would lead the offensive through northern France, in the hope of capturing Paris and destroying the French forces in the field.

Such was France’s desire to reclaim Alsace and Lorraine, their opening attack of World War I was directed into that region. At 5 am on 7 August 1914, the French VII Corps (General Louis Bonneau) from the 1st Army advanced towards the city of Mulhouse, in southern Alsace, close to the border of Switzerland. This French offensive into Alsace, sanctioned by commander-in-chief General Joffre, served no strategic purpose at all. It was launched for mystical reasons, not military ones. General Joffre, who was not a devoutly religious man, found other outlets for what would normally be religious sentiment, and so he was fixated to an unusual degree on Alsace and Lorraine.

Field Marshal von Schlieffen had, in fact, anticipated years before that the French would almost immediately enter Alsace and Lorraine, should war break out. He had hoped that would be so, as such a venture could only draw French forces away from the decisive northern sector, where the German right wing would be advancing southwards from Belgium to the Paris region.

French soldiers presented arms as they crossed the long-desired frontier into Alsace, saluting the redemption of their Promised Land. The next morning, 8 August 1914, as according to the Schlieffen Plan the German 7th Army, which was based in Alsace, fell back, allowing the French VII Corps to capture Mulhouse without fighting. The French troops in Mulhouse rejoiced, drank wine and complimented themselves for making history, rather than preparing defensive positions. The following day, 9 August, the Germans counterattacked and swept the French forces out of Mulhouse. The city was retaken by German soldiers on 10 August. Donald J. Goodspeed, a military historian, observed how “There had been no point to this futile French expedition”.

Beginning on 14 August 1914, the first major French offensive of World War I was launched into the other lost province, Lorraine, which borders Alsace to the north west. As with Alsace, the French assault in Lorraine served as another potentially disastrous adventure. Goodspeed wrote “if Schlieffen rather than Moltke had been German commander-in-chief, this silly French offensive into Lorraine would, in all likelihood, have spelled the defeat of France”.

With the French attack on Lorraine set to commence, on the right General Auguste Dubail’s French 1st Army was to drive forward in the direction of Strasbourg in Alsace, its right flank protected by a newly formed force, the Army of Alsace, under General Paul Pau. On the French 1st Army’s left, General Edouard de Castelnau’s French 2nd Army was to capture the commune of Morhange in northern Lorraine.

Almost a third of the entire French Army was committed to an intervention in Lorraine which, even if successful, would bring France no strategic prize. For 4 days from 14 August 1914, the German 6th and 7th armies in Lorraine withdrew as intended before the French, allowing the latter to become committed, while the Germans inflicted heavy casualties on the attackers through their rear guards and artillery strikes. The Germans counterattacked on 20 August, which was a strategic error on their part, for they would have been wiser to allow the French to enter more deeply into the trap.

Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria, the German 6th Army commander, had seen the possibility of a tactical victory with a counterattack, and he could not resist the temptation to pursue it. Rupprecht asked the German commander-in-chief, General von Moltke, for permission to counterattack in Lorraine on 20 August. Rupprecht’s request was granted with disconcerting ease, showing von Moltke’s lack of strategic awareness, a mistake von Schlieffen would not likely have made. Moreover, von Schlieffen had visualised Supreme Headquarters holding all 7 German armies in the field on a tight rein; but von Moltke, based far back at the city of Coblenz in western Germany, exercised a much looser control over his armies.

In Lorraine, the French 1st Army resumed its attack at first light on 20 August 1914, but they were stopped by the Germans, and then driven back in some confusion. The French 2nd Army on the left also came under assault, and the situation there was more serious. Comprising part of the French 2nd Army, General Ferdinand Foch’s XX Corps fought brilliantly, and its stand saved the day from complete disaster; but the French centre and right corps panicked and fled from the battlefield, the sort of indiscipline which the Germans had not displayed.

The French 2nd Army retreated to the fortified positions on the Grand Couronné, the heights above Nancy, Lorraine’s biggest city. Since the left flank of the French 1st Army was now exposed, it had to retire to its original starting line on the Meurthe river. The Battle of Lorraine, which lasted for 12 days, concluded in German victory on 25 August 1914. General Joffre was not greatly disheartened by the inability to take Lorraine, along with the sharp defeat there of the French 1st and 2nd armies. The Germans had appeared in greater numbers than anticipated in that area, so they could not be strong everywhere, which is what General Joffre expected.

Slightly further north of Lorraine, beside the Ardennes forest, the French high command calculated that a maximum of 18 German divisions were present there. This was more wishful thinking. Actually, 25 German divisions were operating in the Ardennes region, consisting of the German 4th Army commanded by Albrecht, Duke of Württemberg, and the German 5th Army commanded by Crown Prince, Wilhelm; the latter being the eldest child of the ruling Kaiser, Wilhelm II.

In preparation for the imminent French assault, on the afternoon of 21 August 1914 German troops moved into the fringes of the Ardennes forest, which provided excellent cover. There the Germans waited, preparing ambushes in which to snare the impetuous French attackers. On 22 August the French began their second large-scale offensive, this time towards the Ardennes; with the French 3rd Army on the right commanded by General Pierre Ruffey, and on the left the French 4th Army led by General Langle de Cary. A newly formed Army of Lorraine, under General Michel-Joseph Maunoury, would act as the right-flank guard against a possible German counterattack from the city of Metz, in northern Lorraine.

Very seriously, not only were the French continually underestimating German troop numbers, but neither did they take the trouble of sending out proper reconnaissance sorties in the Ardennes area. The French conduct of battle was therefore based on vain imaginings. They pushed boldly, but blindly, into such areas of the Ardennes called Virton, Ochamps, Rossignol and Neufchâteau, located mainly along the French-Belgian frontier. In these places, as the Battle of the Ardennes began, the advancing French troops entered killing grounds, where they were slaughtered by artillery and rifle fire from the mostly unseen German soldiers.

At the commune of Longwy, at the northernmost edge of Lorraine, a corps in the centre of the French 3rd Army broke to the rear, leaving its 2 adjoining corps isolated and vulnerable, both with open, unguarded flanks. Much the same thing happened in the French 4th Army at Tintigny, in the far south of Belgium beside the Ardennes.

Most French soldiers fought with courage, but it is undeniable that the French Army was failing in the test of war against the well organised Germans. An emphasis on flair and spirit (élan) pervaded the French military ranks, often at the expense of following sound and prosaic details of warfare. Even Napoleon Bonaparte had very occasionally committed blunders in his career but he would not, of course, have sent his soldiers into potential deathtraps without firstly discovering the lay of the land. Unfortunately for the French, Joseph Joffre was no Napoleon Bonaparte.

It was the case too, after the Franco-Prussian War, that something of an inferiority complex permeated French thought regarding the Germans. They tried to overcome this unpleasant feeling, by stressing the need for élan among their troops and a desire for revenge against Germany, which they hoped would overcome any deficiencies. By 1914 the German population had risen to 67 million, while the French population was 40 million; the German birth rate was increasing further and the French birth rate was dropping; even worse, Germany had become a stronger industrial state than France; in 1914 Germany was the 2nd most powerful nation in the world, behind the United States.

France, once the dominant country in mainland Europe, had been regressing as a power for a century before the First World War. General Charles de Gaulle said, “Napoleon’s disastrous decision to attack Alexander I [of Russia] is the biggest mistake he ever made. Nothing obliged him to do so. It was against our interests, our traditions, our genius. Our decline dates back to the war between Napoleon and the Russians”.

In the meantime, the Battle of the Ardennes was quickly descending into a massacre. On 22 August 1914, a tragic loss of life occurred as 27,000 French soldiers were killed, the single most bloodstained day in the history of the French Army. With the attacking forces having gained no ground, the Battle of the Ardennes concluded in German victory on 23 August, lasting in all for a couple of days. Total French casualties were unsustainable, amounting to 42,557, almost 3 times that of German casualties of 14,940.

It was far too soon in the war for French commanders to lose faith in the offensive, but the frontline soldiers were learning better. By 23 August 1914, after less than 3 weeks of fighting, France’s war strategy (Plan XVII) lay in ruins. The French Army was already losing men at a rate it could not afford, while it was becoming clear that the weight of the German advance was falling through Belgium and northern France, west of the Meuse river.

The French left flank was now so endangered that General Joffre could no longer ignore the threat, but he did not suspend the Ardennes offensive until 26 August. General Charles Lanrezac, leading the French 5th Army guarding the extreme left of the French line of battle, knew that between him and the English Channel were only a few hastily prepared units and some cavalry. All of General Lanrezac’s instincts told him the main German attack was going to reach far to the west, enveloping his open left flank. An intelligent and perceptive commander, Lanrezac had previously implored the French high command not to send its troops into “that deathtrap of the Ardennes”.

Through August 1914, the Germans had the best of both worlds. When they advanced into Belgium and northern France, the countryside was relatively open and provided good marching ground, while they were opposed by inadequate forces; where the Germans reverted to the tactical defence, the French obliged them by unwisely attacking in close country. Thus, the Germans retained the initiative both in offensive and defensive warfare, and the French conformed to their will.

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Shane Quinn obtained an honors journalism degree. He is interested in writing primarily on foreign affairs, having been inspired by authors like Noam Chomsky. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG).

Sources

Holger H. Herwig, The Marne, 1914: The Opening of World War I and the Battle That Changed the World (Random House Inc., 1 Dec. 2009)

Oliver Stein, “Schlieffen, Alfred, Graf von”, 1914-1918-online International Encyclopedia of the First World War, 21 February 2017

Karl Marx, The Political Writings (Verso, 3 Sept. 2019)

Donald J. Goodspeed, The German Wars (Random House Value Publishing, 2nd edition, 3 April 1985)

Pierre de Gaulle, “Ukraine, Trapped In A Spiral Of War”, Geopolitica, 5 July 2022

Stéphanie Trouillard, “August 22, 1914: The bloodiest day in French military history”, France24, 22 August 2014

Michael Kennedy, “Battle of the Ardennes, 1914”, UnderstandingWars.com, 15 February 2019

Featured image: French poilus (soldiers) posing in a trench, 16 June 1917. (By Paul Castelnau – base mémoire Ministère de la Culture (France), licensed under the Public Domain)

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***

A group of family members of 9/11 victims has sent a letter to President Biden urging him to return the $7 billion in frozen Afghan reserves held by the US Federal Reserve to the Afghan people.

Earlier this year, President Biden signed an executive order that would make $3.5 billion of the Afghan funds available to 9/11 families. But in the letter that was sent Tuesday, 77 family members of 9/11 victims said receiving that money would be “morally wrong.”

The letter reads:

“Any use of the $7 billion to pay off 9/11 family member judgments is legally suspect and morally wrong. We call on you to modify your Executive Order and affirm that the Afghanistan central bank funds belong to the Afghan people and the Afghan people alone.”

US officials said this week that the Biden administration has decided not to return any of the $7 billion to Afghanistan and suspended talks with the Taliban on the issue. One year since the Taliban’s takeover of the country, Afghanistan is facing a dire humanitarian crisis, with millions of Afghans facing starvation.

The letter says that a small number of 9/11 families sought the Afghan funds to pay off a debt from a default judgment they won against the Taliban years ago. But the 9/11 families that signed the letter argue that the money does not belong to the Taliban. “This money comes from Afghanistan’s central bank, and as such, it belongs to the Afghan people,” they said.

The letter’s signatories said that they have joined other lawsuits and do seek a “measure of justice.” But they add that “no 9/11 family member joined these lawsuits to take money away from starving Afghans.”

“We ask you to use your executive power to modify your recent order and commit to the only legally and morally correct approach – affirming that all $7 billion of the Afghan central bank funds being kept in New York belong to the Afghan people,” the letter concludes.

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

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On Saturday, August 6, Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., in Manila and pledged greater U.S. military support for the Philippines because of “rising tensions in Asia, including those involving China and Taiwan.”

In a press conference following the meeting, Blinken emphasized the Biden administration’s commitment to working collaboratively with the Philippines to “defend the rule of law, protect human rights and fundamental freedoms—including freedom of expression.”

Blinken was noticeably silent two days after his visit, however, when Filipino authorities arrested Walden Bello, a renowned scholar and former vice-presidential candidate, on charges of cyber-libel.

These charges had originally been filed against him by a former Davao City employee, Jefry Tupas, whom Bello reportedly called a “drug dealer.”

Tupas had worked under Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio—the daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte (2016-2022) and current Filipino Vice-President —and attended a party where ₱1.5 million worth of illegal drugs were seized.

Speaking to the media present at his arrest, Bello—who has been released on bail—said that he was “innocent of the charges,” and that its only been a few weeks but the new Filipino administration was “already showing its fangs.”

Since Marcos Jr. took over in May, the websites of several progressive media organizations in the Philippines have been banned and, in July, a conviction against the online news platform Rappler for cyber-libel was upheld by the Court of Appeals.

Laban ng Masa—the socialist coalition that Bello leads—said that Bello’s arrest “speaks volumes on the state of democracy and freedom in the Philippines. It also serves as a warning to democracy and human rights advocates on what would befall them while standing up for the right to express one’s views and criticize wrongdoings by the rich and powerful.”^[1]

Joseph Gerson, Director of the Committee for a SANE U.S. China policy, wrote in a letter to the Philippines ambassador to the U.S., José Manuel del Gallego Romualdez, that “the arrest of this Vice-Presidential candidate [Bello] appears to be an act of retribution by Vice President Duterte against her opponent in the recent election. It also appears to be designed to serve a chilling warning to democracy and human rights advocates at the time when the son of former dictator Marcos assumes power in the Philippines.”

Back-to-the-Future Nightmare

Filipinos today find themselves living in a back-to-the-future nightmare with Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., as their president.

From 1965 to 1986, Ferdinand Marcos, Sr., ruled the Philippines with an iron fist, detaining more than 53,000 people and killing upwards of 3,200 after martial law was declared.^[2]

A secret 1969 CIA report on Marcos stated that he and his wife Imelda had stolen “funds ranging from not lower than several hundred million U.S. dollars to two billion U.S. dollars”—much of which was hidden away in CIA banks in Hawaii (Bishop, Baldwin, Rewald, Dillingham & Wong) and Australia (Nugan Hand).^[3]

According to journalist Sterling Seagrave, Marcos Sr. first worked for the CIA in the 1950s as a congressman when he participated in a CIA-engineered rebellion against Indonesia’s socialist President Sukarno.

The CIA subsequently assisted Marcos in his rise to the presidency, writing a phony biography that made him into a war hero, while training his police forces to repress all opposition.^[4]

Marcos was valued because he provided the U.S. with air bases that were used to bomb Vietnam while supplying Filipino troops to Vietnam and opening the Philippines’ economy to U.S. corporations.^[5]

Today, Marcos’s son—who called the period of martial law under his father a “golden age in Philippines history”—is valued by the U.S. for similar reasons.

During Mr. Blinken’s visit, he and Marcos Jr. spoke of deepening the economic relationship and building on the mutual defense arrangement between the U.S. and the Philippines.

The New York Times reported that “the two countries are treaty allies, and the U.S. military has long maintained a presence in the Philippines. American officials have been discussing possible greater access to military bases in the country, doing more exercises between the two militaries and making their defense systems more interoperable—part of Washington’s Indo-Pacific strategy aimed at increasing cooperation with allies and partners to counterbalance China.”

Marcos Jr. has earned particular plaudits from the U.S. for his pledge to uphold the ruling by an international court at The Hague rejecting China’s claims to territorial control over waters and land in the South China Sea where the Philippines and Taiwan have competing claims.

Marcos’s predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte, had tried to adopt more conciliatory policies toward China, including backing down from territorial assertions over the South China Sea, while also threatening to end an important military agreement with the U.S.

Duterte was best known for the excesses of his War on Drugs, which the Marcos-Duterte regime is expected to continue.

Bello’s arrest is another marker of Philippines’ rising authoritarianism, which undercuts the official purpose of the New Cold War; namely to advance democracy against China’s authoritarianism. No wonder then that Mr. Blinken was silent.

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Jeremy Kuzmarov is Managing Editor of CovertAction Magazine. He is the author of four books on U.S. foreign policy, including Obama’s Unending Wars (Clarity Press, 2019) and The Russians Are Coming, Again, with John Marciano (Monthly Review Press, 2018). He can be reached at: [email protected].

Notes

1. Charles Santiago, chairperson of the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights, said that Bello’s arrest was “nothing but an act of political harassment and persecution aimed at silencing one of the most prominent critics of the Duterte administration.” 

2. Jeremy Kuzmarov, Modernizing Repression: Police Training and Nation Building in the American Century (Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 2012), 118. 
3. Sterling Seagrave, The Marcos Dynasty (New York: Harper & Row, 1988), 121. 
4. Seagrave, The Marcos Dynasty, 121; Kuzmarov, Modernizing Repression, 118, 119. 

5. Seagrave, The Marcos Dynasty, 186. 

Featured image: Walden Bello in 2007 (By Socy major, licensed under the Public Domain)

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***

This session is a review of what happened in Israel in the last 2.5 years, an analysis of injuries and death reports on VAERS among infants and children, testimony of a vaccine-injured person… and more!

The Corona Committee Israel was initialized by attorney and economist Viviane Fischer and attorney Dr. Reiner Fuellmich, together with Avital Livny, Dr. Yaffa Shir-Raz, and Ilana Rachel Daniels. Avital Livny, Dr. Yaffa Shir-Raz, and Ilana Rachel Daniels head this committee branch and conduct an evidence review of the Corona crisis and actions.

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Featured image is a screenshot from the video

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“A standing military force, with an overgrown Executive will not long be safe companions to liberty.” —James Madison

The IRS has stockpiled 4,500 guns and five million rounds of ammunition in recent years, including 621 shotguns, 539 long-barrel rifles and 15 submachine guns.

The Veterans Administration (VA) purchased 11 million rounds of ammunition (equivalent to 2,800 rounds for each of their officers), along with camouflage uniforms, riot helmets and shields, specialized image enhancement devices and tactical lighting.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) acquired 4 million rounds of ammunition, in addition to 1,300 guns, including five submachine guns and 189 automatic firearms for its Office of Inspector General.

According to an in-depth report on “The Militarization of the U.S. Executive Agencies,” the Social Security Administration secured 800,000 rounds of ammunition for their special agents, as well as armor and guns.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) owns 600 guns. And the Smithsonian now employs 620-armed “special agents.”

This is how it begins.

We have what the founders feared most: a “standing” or permanent army on American soil.

This de facto standing army is made up of weaponized, militarized, civilian forces which look like, dress like, and act like the military; are armed with guns, ammunition and military-style equipment; are authorized to make arrests; and are trained in military tactics.

Mind you, this de facto standing army of bureaucratic, administrative, non-military, paper-pushing, non-traditional law enforcement agencies may look and act like the military, but they are not the military.

Rather, they are foot soldiers of the police state’s standing army, and they are growing in number at an alarming rate.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the number of federal agents armed with guns, ammunition and military-style equipment, authorized to make arrests, and trained in military tactics has nearly tripled over the past several decades.

There are now more bureaucratic (non-military) government agents armed with weapons than U.S. Marines. As Adam Andrzejewski writes for Forbes, “the federal government has become one never-ending gun show.”

While Americans have to jump through an increasing number of hoops in order to own a gun, federal agencies have been placing orders for hundreds of millions of rounds of hollow point bullets and military gear. Among the agencies being supplied with night-vision equipment, body armor, hollow-point bullets, shotguns, drones, assault rifles and LP gas cannons are the Smithsonian, U.S. Mint, Health and Human Services, IRS, FDA, Small Business Administration, Social Security Administration, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Education Department, Energy Department, Bureau of Engraving and Printing and an assortment of public universities.

Add in the Biden Administration’s plans to grow the nation’s police forces by 100,000 more cops and swell the ranks of the IRS by 87,000 new employees (some of whom will have arrest-and-firearm authority) and you’ve got a nation in the throes of martial law.

The militarization of America’s police forces in recent decades has merely sped up the timeline by which the nation is transformed into an authoritarian regime.

What began with the militarization of the police in the 1980s during the government’s war on drugs has snowballed into a full-fledged integration of military weaponry, technology and tactics into police protocol. To our detriment, local police—clad in jackboots, helmets and shields and wielding batons, pepper-spray, stun guns, and assault rifles—have increasingly come to resemble occupying forces in our communities.

As Andrew Becker and G.W. Schulz report, more than $34 billion in federal government grants made available to local police agencies in the wake of 9/11 “ha[ve] fueled a rapid, broad transformation of police operations… across the country. More than ever before, police rely on quasi-military tactics and equipment… [P]olice departments around the U.S. have transformed into small army-like forces.”

This standing army has been imposed on the American people in clear violation of the spirit—if not the letter of the law—of the Posse Comitatus Act, which restricts the government’s ability to use the U.S. military as a police force.

A standing army—something that propelled the early colonists into revolution—strips the American people of any vestige of freedom.

It was for this reason that those who established America vested control of the military in a civilian government, with a civilian commander-in-chief. They did not want a military government, ruled by force.

Rather, they opted for a republic bound by the rule of law: the U.S. Constitution.

Unfortunately, with the Constitution under constant attack, the military’s power, influence and authority have grown dramatically. Even the Posse Comitatus Act, which makes it a crime for the government to use the military to carry out arrests, searches, seizure of evidence and other activities normally handled by a civilian police force, has been greatly weakened by exemptions allowing troops to deploy domestically and arrest civilians in the wake of alleged terrorist acts.

The increasing militarization of the police, the use of sophisticated weaponry against Americans and the government’s increasing tendency to employ military personnel domestically have all but eviscerated historic prohibitions such as the Posse Comitatus Act.

Indeed, there are a growing number of exceptions to which Posse Comitatus does not apply. These exceptions serve to further acclimate the nation to the sight and sounds of military personnel on American soil and the imposition of martial law.

Now we find ourselves struggling to retain some semblance of freedom in the face of administrative, police and law enforcement agencies that look and act like the military with little to no regard for the Fourth Amendment, laws such as the NDAA that allow the military to arrest and indefinitely detain American citizens, and military drills that acclimate the American people to the sight of armored tanks in the streets, military encampments in cities, and combat aircraft patrolling overhead.

The menace of a national police force—a.k.a. a standing army—vested with the power to completely disregard the Constitution, cannot be overstated, nor can its danger be ignored.

Historically, the establishment of a national police force accelerates a nation’s transformation into a police state, serving as the fundamental and final building block for every totalitarian regime that has ever wreaked havoc on humanity.

Then again, for all intents and perhaps, the American police state is already governed by martial law: Battlefield tactics. Militarized police. Riot and camouflage gear. Armored vehicles. Mass arrests. Pepper spray. Tear gas. Batons. Strip searches. Drones. Less-than-lethal weapons unleashed with deadly force. Rubber bullets. Water cannons. Concussion grenades. Intimidation tactics. Brute force. Laws conveniently discarded when it suits the government’s purpose.

This is what martial law looks like, when a government disregards constitutional freedoms and imposes its will through military force, only this is martial law without any government body having to declare it.

The ease with which Americans are prepared to welcome boots on the ground, regional lockdowns, routine invasions of their privacy, and the dismantling of every constitutional right intended to serve as a bulwark against government abuses is beyond unnerving.

We are sliding fast down a slippery slope to a Constitution-free America.

This quasi-state of martial law has been helped along by government policies and court rulings that have made it easier for the police to shoot unarmed citizens, for law enforcement agencies to seize cash and other valuable private property under the guise of asset forfeiture, for military weapons and tactics to be deployed on American soil, for government agencies to carry out round-the-clock surveillance, for legislatures to render otherwise lawful activities as extremist if they appear to be anti-government, for profit-driven private prisons to lock up greater numbers of Americans, for homes to be raided and searched under the pretext of national security, for American citizens to be labeled terrorists and stripped of their rights merely on the say-so of a government bureaucrat, and for pre-crime tactics to be adopted nationwide that strip Americans of the right to be assumed innocent until proven guilty and creates a suspect society in which we are all guilty until proven otherwise.

All of these assaults on the constitutional framework of the nation have been sold to the public as necessary for national security.

Time and again, the public has fallen for the ploy hook, line and sinker

We’re being reeled in, folks, and you know what happens when we get to the end of that line?

As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, we’ll be cleaned, gutted and strung up.

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This article was originally published on The Rutherford Institute.

Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His most recent books are the best-selling Battlefield America: The War on the American People, the award-winning A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, and a debut dystopian fiction novel, The Erik Blair Diaries. Whitehead can be contacted at [email protected].

Nisha Whitehead is the Executive Director of The Rutherford Institute. Information about The Rutherford Institute is available at www.rutherford.org.

US Recent Ballistic Missile Test Boosts World’s Re-nuclearization

By Lucas Leiroz de Almeida, August 17, 2022

Nuclear tensions are rising more and more. The US military said on August 16 that it had conducted a test with the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile. In the official statement, it was also informed that the operation was already previously scheduled, having been postponed in order to avoid increasing tensions with Beijing during China’s show of force near Taiwan earlier this month.

Neurodegenerative Illnesses: Commonly Used Glyphosate Herbicide Crosses Blood-brain Barrier, “Infiltrates the Brain”: New Study

By Richard Harth, August 17, 2022

Neurodegenerative illnesses, such as Alzheimer’s disease, are among the most perplexing in medical science. The underlying causes of such diseases range from genetic factors and overall cardiovascular health to dietary influences and lifestyle choices.

When Roger Waters Cried. “Has any Israeli shed tears for a boy from Gaza?”

By Gideon Levy, August 17, 2022

Has any Israeli shed tears for a boy from Gaza? Are many Israelis even aware of what happened to children in Gaza during those three days of colossal success that deluged Israel in waves of pride and self-satisfaction such as we haven’t seen here in a long time? There hasn’t been a success like this since Israel’s victory in the 1967 Six-Day War. Another few days of fighting and there would even be albums.

Mumia Abu-Jamal Remains the Voice of the Voiceless

By Abayomi Azikiwe, August 17, 2022

During the late 1960s, Mumia Abu-Jamal became a youth activist in the city of Philadelphia where a succession of racist police chiefs engaged in widespread abuse against the African American community.

Israel’s Friends Struggle to Justify Unprovoked Attack that Killed 17 Children

By Philip Weiss, August 17, 2022

Israel’s onslaught on Gaza last week was shocking to many of us. It was unprovoked by any Palestinian attack and comprised three days of strikes on a captive, fenced-in population. Those strikes were aimed at the leadership of a militant group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and killed and injured many children.

History of the FBI: J. Edgar Hoover’s Evil Brainchild. John Kiriakou

By John Kiriakou, August 17, 2022

COINTELPRO, an abbreviation for Counter-Intelligence Program, was the illegal brainchild of the F.B.I.’s first and longest-serving director, J. Edgar Hoover, whose obsession with communism and “subversion” allowed him to justify violating the civil rights and civil liberties of millions of Americans.

NATO’s 2030 Strategic Concept Threatens to Destabilise the World

By Ahmed Adel, August 17, 2022

The new NATO 2030 Strategic Concept indicates a disturbing change in the Alliance’s strategic orientation. As a result, provocations towards Moscow, as well as Beijing, are escalating, especially after the former was labelled by NATO as “the most significant and direct threat to Allies’ security and to peace and stability in the Euro-Atlantic area.”

WEF’s “Global Intelligence Collecting AI” to Erase Ideas from the Internet

By Igor Chudov, August 17, 2022

The World Economic Forum is becoming a little concerned. Unapproved opinions are becoming more popular, and online censors cannot keep up with millions of people becoming more aware and more vocal. The censorship engines employed by Internet platforms, turned out to be quite stupid and incapable. People are even daring to complain about the World Economic Forum, which is obviously completely unacceptable.

Canada, Sweden and Finland Announce Sending of Military Instructors to Ukraine

By Lucas Leiroz de Almeida, August 17, 2022

The West continues to insist on indefinitely prolonging the suffering of the Ukrainian people. The policy of sending military aid seems to have no limits. In addition to financial remittances and arms shipments, Western countries are also mobilizing to give military instructions to Kiev. Considering the war crimes and human rights violations repeatedly committed by Ukrainian forces, supporting Kiev militarily means co-participating in the crimes – and the West must be judged responsible for that.

With Help from WEF, Canada to Launch Federal Digital ID Program

By Michael Nevradakis, August 17, 2022

The Canadian government, building on a partnership with the World Economic Forum (WEF), is developing a new federal “Digital Identity Program.” The aim of the new initiative is to develop a digital proof-of-identity document, which could be used across different systems and environments ranging from government services to airports and border control, according to Slay News.

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Neurodegenerative illnesses, such as Alzheimer’s disease, are among the most perplexing in medical science. The underlying causes of such diseases range from genetic factors and overall cardiovascular health to dietary influences and lifestyle choices. 

Various environmental contaminants have also been implicated as possible players in the development or advancement of neurodegenerative disease. Among these is a broad-spectrum herbicide known as glyphosate. Glyphosate is commonly used herbicide, applied to agricultural crops around the world.

In a new study, Arizona State University Graduate Research Assisstant Joanna Winstone, Assistant Professor Ramon Velazquez and their colleagues at the Translational Genomics Research Institute explore the effects of glyphosate exposure on the brains of mice.

Glyphosate is a widely used herbicide sprayed on a variety of crops worldwide. A new study explores the possible effects to the brain of glyphosate exposure. The herbicide is shown to cross the blood-brain barrier and may be correlated with hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease. Graphic by Shireen Dooling. Download Full Image

The research demonstrates, for the first time, that glyphosate successfully crosses the blood-brain barrier and infiltrates the brain. Once there, it acts to enhance levels of a critical factor known as TNF-α.

When levels of TNF-α are dysregulated, however, a host of diseases linked with neuroinflammation can result. Among these is Alzheimer’s disease.

The study further demonstrates in cell culture studies that glyphosate exposure appears to increase the production of soluble beta amyloid (Aβ) and reduce the viability of neurons. The accumulation of soluble beta amyloid, the sticky protein responsible for the formation of soluble beta amyloid plaques, is one of the central diagnostic hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease.

Further evidence suggestive of potential hazards to neurological health were observed when the researchers examined changes in gene expression via RNA sequencing in the brains of mice following glyphosate exposure.

These RNA transcripts hinted at disruptions in the expression of genes related to neurodegenerative disease, including dysregulation of a class of brain cells responsible for producing the myelin sheath critical for proper neuronal communication. These cells, known as oligodendrocytes, are affected by elevated levels of TNF-α.

“We find increases in TNF-α in the brain, following glyphosate exposure,” said Velazquez, the senior author of the paper. “While we examined (Alzheimer’s disease) pathology, this might have implications for many neurodegenerative diseases, given that neuroinflammation is seen in a variety of brain disorders.”

Velazquez and Winstone, the first author on the study, are researchers with the ASU-Banner Neurodegenerative Disease Research Center and Arizona State University’s School of Life Sciences.

The research appears in the current issue of the Journal of Neuroinflammation.

An enigmatic disease; a path of destruction

A hundred years have passed since the first diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. Despite vast investments in research and drug development, the affliction remains without effective treatment. A suite of therapies, developed over many decades at extravagant cost, have one by one failed to alleviate the symptoms of the disease.

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia. The progression of the disease usually begins with mild memory loss. As the disease develops, increasing confusion and a breakdown in communication abilities often result, as the affliction attacks brain pathways involved in memory, language and thought.

Some 5.8 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease, as of 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Unlike heart disease or cancer, the death toll for Alzheimer’s disease is on a frightening upward trajectory. By 2040, costs of the disease are projected to rise dramatically to between $379 billion and more than $500 billion annually. The staggering toll of the illness is currently projected to nearly triple to 14 million people by 2050.

The onset of symptoms typically occurs after age 60, and the risk to individuals doubles every five years after age 65. Although genetics are believed to play a role in some cases of Alzheimer’s disease and a family history of the disorder is considered a significant risk factor, environmental factors are believed to play a significant role in the disease.

Researchers are trying to learn how genetic correlates may subtly interact with environmental and other factors to decrease or enhance the likelihood of developing the affliction. Some recent research suggests that lifestyle changes, including proper physical activity, nutritious food, limited alcohol consumption and not smoking may help prevent or slow cognitive decline, noting that brain and cardiovascular health are closely linked.

Toxic effects: The jury is out

The new study examines the neurological effects of glyphosate, the most ubiquitous herbicide in global use. Each year, around 250 million pounds of glyphosate are applied to agricultural crops in the U.S. alone. Although the chemical is regarded as generally safe to humans by the Environmental Protection Agency and the European Food Safety Authority, researchers are taking a second look.

Studies of acute herbicide use suggest they are not harmful, but little is known about possible long-term effects from prolonged exposure. One issue of considerable concern is that glyphosate can cross the blood-brain barrier, a layer of endothelial cells preventing dissolved substances in the circulating bloodstream from readily passing into the extracellular fluid of the central nervous system, where the brain’s neurons reside.

Potential risks to brain health posed by glyphosate should be critically evaluated, particularly for those consistently exposed to the herbicide.

“The Alzheimer’s connection is that there’s a much higher prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease in agricultural communities that are using this chemical,” Winstone said. “We’re trying to establish a more molecular-science based link between the two.”

The study exposed mice to high doses of glyphosate, then detected elevated levels of TNF-α in their brains. The researchers then exposed extracted mouse neurons in petri dishes to the same levels of glyphosate detected in the brains of mice, observing elevated amyloid beta and cell death in cortical neurons. Dysregulated oligodendrocyte RNA transcripts, which could indicate disruption of myelination, were detected in brain tissue.

Taken together, the results demonstrate a correlation between glyphosate exposure and classic symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, though the authors stress that much more work will be required before a causative link can be established.

Nevertheless, the widespread use of the chemical and the disturbing correlates highlighted in the current study underscore the need for intensified investigation. Among the pressing questions to be answered: How does prolonged, low-dose exposure to glyphosate affect the brain; does glyphosate act synergistically with other chemicals present in common herbicides; and can glyphosate be detected post-mortem in patients who died of Alzheimer’s disease?

On the horizon, new drugs designed to reduce TNF-α in the brain are being explored, offering renewed hope for those with Alzheimer’s disease as well as other neurodegenerative ailments.

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Richard Harth, Science writer, Biodesign Institute at ASU. [email protected]

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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Nuclear tensions are rising more and more. The US military said on August 16 that it had conducted a test with the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile. In the official statement, it was also informed that the operation was already previously scheduled, having been postponed in order to avoid increasing tensions with Beijing during China’s show of force near Taiwan earlier this month. For some unexplained reason, Washington considered the current moment to be the most “appropriate” for the maneuver.

The missile was launched from the Vandeberg Space Force base in California and traveled about 6,760 km. Military spokespeople indicated that the self-propelled projectile was unarmed and equipped with a test reentry vehicle. Additionally, the statement makes clear that the mission was intended to demonstrate the readiness of US nuclear forces.

“Air Force Global Strike Command Airmen launched an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile equipped with a test re-entry vehicle from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, Aug. 16 at 12:49 a.m. Pacific Time to demonstrate the readiness of U.S. nuclear forces and provide confidence in the lethality and effectiveness of the nation’s nuclear deterrent”, the statement says.

Manufactured by Boeing, the Minuteman III is a missile with nuclear capability and high destructive power. Currently, this missile is a key element in the US military’s strategic arsenal. The weapon has a range capability of over 9,660 km and can travel at a speed of approximately 24,000 km per hour. Minuteman III is also considered a part of the so-called American “nuclear triad”, along with the submarine-launched ballistic missile Trident and nuclear weapons carried by long-range strategic bombers.

Commenting on the relevance of the test, Colonel Chris Cruise, 576th Flight Test Squadron Commander, said:

“Make no mistake – our nuclear triad is the cornerstone of the national security of our country and of our allies around the globe (…) This scheduled test launch is demonstrative of how our nation’s ICBM fleet illustrates our readiness and reliability of the weapon system. It is also a great platform to show the skill sets and expertise of our strategic weapons maintenance personnel and of our missile crews who maintain an unwavering vigilance to defend the homeland”.

It must be mentioned that tests with this equipment had previously been canceled by the US on at least two occasions, one in April and another in early August. The first cancellation was motivated by the need to avoid nuclear tensions with Russia in the midst of the special military operation in Ukraine. The second one was due to tensions with China over Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei.

What is not clear, however, is why the current moment was considered appropriate by the US military to conduct this type of test. Tensions with Russia and China have not ceased – not even decreased. Washington continues to destabilize Eastern Europe’s security by sending weapons to the Ukrainian government in order to “delay” Russian victory in Ukraine – even though it is well known that these weapons are being used to hit civilian targets and nuclear plants (Zaporozhye). In the same sense, provocations against China are still on the rise, with recent new visits by American officials to the island, even after constant Chinese messages for the US to stop violations of Beijing’s sovereignty.

So, in fact, the American test can only be interpreted as a real show of force. Despite previous cancellations, the choice of the current moment was not motivated by being a “more stable” scenario – because it is not. The choice was made precisely to, in the midst of the global security crisis, show the world the power of the American war arsenal. Furthermore, it is obviously a response to Chinese military activities in the Taiwan Strait, considering that this issue is the current major global focus of tensions.

The result of the American attitude will be only one: boosting even further the militarization and re-nuclearization of the world. What is expected for the near future is that the US rival countries put themselves in a state of alert – including nuclear alert, in the case of the powers that have this technology. For example, the North Korean government, according to recent reports, is planning a new nuclear test. With the US launching ballistic missiles, it is likely that projects in this direction will be heightened. Something similar can be said about Iran, which, in the face of the US threat, is expected to become even more resistant in negotiations on a new nuclear deal.

Once again, the US is pushing for the re-nuclearization of international politics. It is unreasonable for a country to provoke its rivals and then, faced with the responses, decide to dissuade them by launching missiles. Washington needs to understand that the multipolar world order will be built through multilateral dialogue and non-interventionism, not through military intimidation.

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

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***

Roger Waters cried Wednesday. It was on his Twitter page, as he read, on camera, an essay he had read on the Mondoweiss news website the night before. It was about a boy from the Gaza Strip.

“I really wish I could rest, or have some psychologist help me like other people in the world who suffer wars,” said Mohammed. “No one during or after the war asks me or my family ‘How are you doing?’”

He’s the family breadwinner, a boy of 13. And only his crying, wrote Tareq Hajjaj, “melts the manly shield” he is forced to wear. “I do not want my mother to suffer like the mothers of the kids who were killed,” the boy sobbed.

Mohammed wished he could have grown up somewhere else, where he would only die “when his body is fully grown,” Hajjaj wrote. And this is where Waters could no longer restrain his tears and burst out crying. No decent person could remain indifferent to the sight of the musician’s tears. Waters, the great man of conscience.

What is Wrong With Them?
Love
R. pic.twitter.com/UzSb7AGajD

— Roger Waters (@rogerwaters) August 9, 2022

But for Israelis, this was a performance from a different planet. They have a thousand defense mechanisms against Waters’ tears. Let’s even assume that Waters really is an “antisemite” and “someone who hates Israel” – which he isn’t. But crying over a boy from Gaza? What about the children of Sderot?

Has any Israeli shed tears for a boy from Gaza? Are many Israelis even aware of what happened to children in Gaza during those three days of colossal success that deluged Israel in waves of pride and self-satisfaction such as we haven’t seen here in a long time? There hasn’t been a success like this since Israel’s victory in the 1967 Six-Day War. Another few days of fighting and there would even be albums.

Only the death of Zili, a Border Police dog, in Nablus – which garnered a front-page headline in the Yedioth Ahronoth daily, along with his funeral, the tears, the grave, the eulogies and the official statement of mourning by the prime minister – weighed a bit on the intoxicating mood of victory. It wasn’t disturbed for a second by the scenes from Gaza, because scenes from Gaza were never shown here. Never before has there been such a sterile killing operation here. The Israeli media showed nothing this time, absolutely nothing.

This was one of the most corrupting operations in Israel’s history. Instead of being priced at a steep discount, like its predecessors in Gaza, it was completely free. Not a drop of Israeli blood, not a single destroyed home and no condemnations from the world, not even lame ones. With a zero cost like this, the appetite for further operations will obviously grow. In Nablus on Tuesday, it would at least have been possible to argue about the results.

The usual arrogance was accompanied this time by the addictive feeling of a sweet, easy victory. Just bring us more wars at rock-bottom prices. After all, no one was killed and almost no homes were damaged in last weekend’s Operation Breaking Dawn.

But it’s impossible to ignore another factor that fed these feelings of victory. This time, the operation was launched by the good Israelis. They’re the ones in power now. Look at how they embarked on this war, with flying colors.

Consequently, this was the most political war Israel has ever fought. The right was united; it can never utter a word of criticism about killing Arabs. The center-left was bursting with pride – what a success, what management, what daring. The flattery for the operation’s commanders – Prime Minister Yair Lapid and Defense Minister Benny Gantz, who are two of “our own” – ran overtime.

Yossi Verter described how Lapid’s wardrobe changed due to this success. His “empty suit has been filled,” he wrote understatedly. And the next day he added, “Without a doubt, this is a feather in the cap” for Lapid (Haaretz, August 8). The suit that was filled (with blood) and the feather in the cap are the real spoils of this war, which ended in “a dream for Israel.” A dream of war.

Verter was soon followed by Uri Misgav, who shed all the disguises. The real victory picture from this war, he wrote, was that of Lapid briefing opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu (Haaretz in Hebrew, August 7). It was worth going to war for this victory picture. For Misgav and his ilk, nothing could be sweeter.

Roger Waters cried. “What is wrong with the fucking Israelis? What is wrong with them?” he asked, in anger and despair. I just wish I knew how to answer him.

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