Uyghur Tribunal: US Lawfare at Its Lowest

October 13th, 2021 by Brian Berletic

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The Biden China Initiative, a Flawed and Dysfunctional Policy

October 13th, 2021 by Prof. Mel Gurtov

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US, Iran Exchanging Glances

October 13th, 2021 by M. K. Bhadrakumar

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While on a ‘farewell’ visit to Israel, outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday in Jerusalem at a joint press conference alongside Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett that negotiations in Vienna over the return to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal have entered “very decisive weeks.” She noted, “I never considered the JCPOA to be ideal, but it’s better than having no agreement.” 

When it came to Bennett’s turn to speak, to be sure, he didn’t fail to highlight the danger that Iran’s nuclear program poses to the world, and pledge that Israel would do what it takes to stop Tehran from reaching nuclear weapons capability.

But there was no Netanyahu-style sabre rattling. Instead, Bennett concluded, “This is a critical point, and Germany’s position is especially important.” Israel’s resignation that the Biden Administration shall not be deflected from the path of negotiations to revive the JCPOA is self-evident. 

The Biden Administration is preparing a soft landing for the lifting of US sanctions against Iran with the Secretary of State Antony Blinken scheduling meetings with Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and the UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan on October 13 in Washington in separate bilateral meetings and then in a trilateral setting. 

Meanwhile, last Thursday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian called for “practical actions” to underscore the US’ sincerity of purpose. Earlier, after returning from New York, where he had a crowded schedule on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session, Amir-Abdollahian had specifically urged Washington to release “some of Iran’s blocked funds.” 

On Friday, the Biden administration removed two Iranian firms alleged to have been involved in Iran’s ballistic missile program from the US’s sanctions blacklist. The Trump administration had alleged in August 2020 that these companies “are key producers and suppliers of military-grade, dual-use goods for Iran’s missile program.” The Biden Administration has not cared to explain why the two Iranian firms are now being removed from the US sanctions list. Presumably, there is some messaging here. 

After all, it was only the previous day that Amirabdollahian had said,

“It is important that we receive signals from the other side (Western powers), including from the United States, showing that they are intent on returning fully to their commitments. We are assessing the behaviour of the United States. If it reflects a full return to their commitments, we can be optimistic about the Vienna talks.” 

Curiously, on Thursday, the US special envoy for Iran Robert Malley spoke with South Korea’s First Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-Kun to discuss the nuclear negotiations! Now, two South Korean banks hold $7 billion of Iran’s funds from the time when Seoul was purchasing oil from Tehran before full US sanctions on Iran’s crude exports were imposed in May 2019.

Tehran has been hinting that Washington should release the frozen Iranian funds before it returns to the talks. According to the South Korean media, Malley asked for Seoul to play a “constructive” role in efforts to resume the negotiations, without specifying what on earth South Korea has got to do with the JCPOA!

The South Korean news agency Yonhap quoted the foreign ministry in Seoul as saying Choi reiterated to Malley South Korea’s willingness to provide support necessary for the resumption of the nuclear talks “in consideration of the importance of Seoul-Tehran relations.” Evidently, the Biden Administration is open to releasing the frozen funds.

These are tell-tale signs. A broader shift is also visible in the US’ Middle East strategy as a whole. Clearly, the Biden Administration takes no interest to impose sanctions under the so-called Caesar Act, which came into force last year with the intent of adding to the pressure on President Bashar al-Assad, although the Arab allies of the US — UAE, Jordan, Egypt — are lately stepping up efforts to bring him in from the cold by reviving economic and diplomatic ties with Damascus. 

King Abdullah of Jordan spoke to Assad for the first time in a decade this month and the border between Syria and Jordan was fully reopened for trade last month. Without an explicit US acquiescence, Amman couldn’t have pushed through the recent deal to pipe Egyptian natural gas to Lebanon via Syria.   

On the other hand, the Biden Administration seems to be watching impassively the Iran-Saudi talks to normalise relations which are making headway. In a lengthy interview last week with France 24, Saeed Khatibzadeh, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman said,

“We are now in a position with great hope that we can have clear and frank talks with our Saudi friends; I believe that if we see a change in approaches, we will see good results and a good outcome of these talks.” 

The bottom line is that the Biden Administration is reviewing its old US approach to Iran. Significantly, a sub-text of the announcement by the CIA chief William Burns on Thursday regarding the reorganisation of the agency’s work by creating two new mission centres — one focused on China, the other focused on emerging technology, climate change and global health — is that the Biden administration is also undoing what the previous administration did by creating mission centres focused on North Korea and Iran. 

Those two mission centres are now being folded back into regional centres focused on the Middle East and East Asia. The Iran mission centre was a sign of the Trump administration’s hard line on Iran and its chief Michael D’Andrea was known to be a passionate advocate of a muscular approach towards Iran. (D’Andrea is now retiring from the CIA.) The winding up of the CIA mission centre implies that the Biden administration is abandoning the regime change agenda on Iran.

However, Iran will not lower its guard, given the vagaries of the US policies and a long history of US interference in Iran’s internal affairs. In fact, Iran has reacted warily to the ISIS attack on the Shias in Kunduz last week. 

A lengthy statement by President Ebrahim Raisi said,

It is no secret that the development of this Takfiri terrorist movement (ISIS) has taken place with the support and plans of the United States, and in recent years, the United States has facilitated the expansion of the activities of ISIS criminals in Afghanistan and prevented their eradication.

“I hereby express my concern over the continuation of terrorist acts and the combination of religious agitation with ethnic agitation, which is part of the new US security project for Afghanistan.”

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An Ontario town prohibits engaged couples who have chosen not to take the COVID shots from obtaining a marriage license. 

Oakville’s regulations require that anyone who wants a marriage license from now on must show proof of inoculation.

“Appointments for marriage licenses and ceremonies that have already been booked prior to September 22 will not require proof of full vaccination,” the city website says. “[H]owever, any new appointments for marriage licences [sic] and ceremonies will be required. Ceremonies will be held inside town hall as of November 4, 2021.” 

A marriage license is required to get legally married in Canada, meaning that Oakville’s rules effectively prohibit people who refuse the COVID shots from tying the knot. Couples cannot obtain a license online.

“You must schedule an appointment to receive your marriage licence,” the city’s website says. “To be eligible for an appointment, please ensure that the intended date of your marriage is finalized and you have an officiant that has agreed to perform the marriage.” 

However, even proof of vaccination may halt plans to legally wed.

“When you arrive at Town Hall for your scheduled appointment, you will be required to complete a COVID-19 self-assessment,” the city said. “If you do not successfully meet the screening criteria, you will not be allowed to enter the building and your appointment will be cancelled.” 

There could be a way around the COVID jab passport system for now, as not every city in Ontario requires proof of the jabs in order to obtain a marriage license. Halton Hills, for example, does not currently require inoculation proof to get the government marriage license. 

The new restriction on people who haven’t taken COVID-19 jabs fits in well with the province’s general approach to requiring the shots to access public places of business such as restaurants and movie theaters. 

Ontario has implemented a “vaccine passport” system for a host of private businesses as of September 22. 

The passport system applies to places such as bars, restaurants, gyms and theaters, according to CBC.

“[S]taff must ask patrons to show certification that they received two doses of an approved vaccine at least two weeks before, along with identification that matches their vaccination document,” CBC reported. 

“It is not stated in the policy how businesses are expected to enforce the measures,” LifeSiteNews previously reported. “With the amount of people who may come and go in an establishment at a given time, it will not be practical for employees to diligently enforce the segregation mandate at all times.” 

Also in tune with restrictions in the province, an Ontario school board has barred unvaccinated children from participating in extracurricular activities.

“The Limestone District School Board in Kingston, Ontario, unveiled a new policy on Tuesday that bans unvaccinated children from school sports teams and clubs,” LifeSiteNews reported October 6. “[A]ll eligible participants (born 2009 and earlier) including students, staff, officials and volunteers in all inter-school sports and some high-risk activities like extra-curricular music programs must be fully vaccinated (two doses plus 14-day waiting period),” the school board’s education director said. 

“Nearly 500 people took to the streets of Calgary on picnic blankets Sunday to protest the COVID-19 vaccine passports now required of restaurants and other businesses in Alberta,” LifeSiteNews reported September 28. 

“This is our protest because all the businesses in Alberta have denied access to unvaccinated people,” one attendee said. “So we have taken it to the streets and have created our own picnics. We have empty patios, busy streets.” 

Hundreds of police officers and other citizens joined together in Toronto on September 2 to reject COVID mandates and vaccine passports. 

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An independent Dutch Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry set up in 2020, has new evidence it presented to the International Criminal Court in The Hague about the harmfulness of the Corona vaccinations.

The BPOC 2020 is a committee set up by citizens and is completely separate from government, business and politics. The committee was set up by Pieter Kuit and his daughter Jade Kuit.

“It comes from a sense of justice. People have needlessly lost their freedoms. But everything the government says is widely reported in the media. You can hardly find any other information.”

Kuit says he receives about 600 to 700 e-mails and 80 telephone calls a day from people who have the same concerns about the government’s lack of transparency. According to Kuit, the government “cannot provide any scientific substantiation”.

The committee has examined the proportionality of the policy and measures with regard to Covid-19 and also investigates whether the government is complying with the law. To this end, the committee hears experts such as doctors, scientists, lawyers and professors, who focus on the following question:

“Why have restrictive measures been imposed in our country since March 15, 2020 due to Covid19, are these measures effective and are the measures imposed in proportion to the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus?”

The interviews with experts are public, filmed and streamed. A written report is made of the information sessions. Interim reports and ultimately a final report with findings and conclusions are drawn up which are presented to the House of Representatives and all relevant social authorities such as youth care, trade unions and the National Ombudsman.

Right of Parliamentary Inquiry

The House of Representatives can independently conduct research into policy and projects and have that research carried out by MPs. Several instruments can be used for this. The most efficient means is research based on the Parliamentary Inquiry Act. Since 2016, the House of Representatives has also been able to hold a parliamentary inquiry.

Thus a large number of views from experts, doctors, virologists, mathematicians, economists, but also entrepreneurs have been videotaped without any editing and live-streamed on Facebook as befits a transparent parliamentary democracy.

Covid vaccines are not safe

The experts consulted by the BPOC2020 believe that the vaccines are not safe for use. This is also apparent from the reports received by the Committee’s Vaccination Reporting Center.

Until October 8, 2204 deaths and 2835 cases of serious injury after the Corona vaccine have been registered by the vaccine adverse reaction hotline. The government’s database on adverse events Lareb,  however refuses to process these reports.

The Rutte administration does not wish to take note of the reports

Cases of serious health damage, leukemia in young people, miscarriages, myocarditis and thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome have been noted.

The BPOC2020 is convinced that the Dutch government is aware of the deaths and serious cases of health damage that have occurred and still occur daily after vaccination.

However, the government does not wish to take cognizance of the reports. Larebis also silent about the investigation into the reports that have been received at the center.

This has been the reason for the Committee to hand over all its evidence regarding the deaths and serious vaccine injuries reported, to the International Criminal Court for investigation.

The BPOC2020 also handed over the interview reports of its visit to the Ministry of Health and visit to the Lareb to the ICC. It is not yet clear what will happen to the evidence.

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COVID Totalitarianism: The Deification of Error

October 13th, 2021 by John Waters

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Belgian psychologist Dr. Mattias Desmet may be the most articulate voice on the most clear and present danger facing us: the mob-baiting now being pursued by formerly democratic governments.

The most significant obstacle to our developing the necessary capacity to fight back against what is engulfing us is an imaginative block preventing us conceiving of the possibility that what seems to be happening could actually be happening. These things could not be happening here, now, for the very simple reason that they are the kind of thing that used to happen far away, in different times, to people who were not as ‘intelligent’ or ‘educated’  or ‘advanced’ as we are.

Dr. Mattias Desmet begs to differ with such perilous smugness. He is a professor of Clinical Psychology at Ghent University in Belgium. He lectures on Individual psycho-analytics psychotherapy, and the psychology of the crowd. He holds a master’s degree and PhD in clinical psychology, and a master’s in statistics.

As the Covid subterfuge shifts from the manufacture of mass terror concerning a dubious virus — and a related indoctrination with spurious medical data — to the mass mobilisation of mesmerised populations in silencing voices threatening to expose these crimes, Dr Desmet has emerged as the clearest and most meticulous voice describing the dangers and intimating what we need to do to offset them. A selection of his remarkable video interviews can be found at the end of this article, which I have written by way of an introduction to his thoughts and interpretations, which I believe are among the most crucial things we might hear at this precise moment.

Dr. Desmet’s observations over the past 18 months have led him to conclude that the overwhelming majority of the world’s population has indeed fallen under a kind of spell. It is not literally a spell, he stresses, but a ‘mass formation’, a term first used by Gustave Le Bon, the French philosopher who 126 years ago in The Psychology of Crowds, was the first thinker systematically to outline how herd psychology differs from that of the individual. Le Bon it was who observed that the consciousness bestowed by membership of a crowd can be transformative, possessing individual members with ‘a sort of collective mind which makes them feel, think and act in a manner quite differently from that in which each individual would feel, think and act were that person in a state of isolation.’ In such a ‘psychological crowd’, individual personality disappears, brain activity is replaced by reflex activity: a lowering of intelligence, provoking a complete transformation of sentiments, which collectively may manifest as better and worse than those of the crowd’s constituent members. A crowd may just as easily become heroic or criminal, but is generally disposed towards destruction.

‘The ascendancy of crowds,’ wrote Le Bon, ‘indicates the death throes of a civilisation.’ The upward climb to civilisation is an intellectual process driven by individuals; the descent is a herd in stampede. ‘Crowds are only useful for destruction.’

These symptoms are manifesting now, perhaps as never before, in our once free Western world, in a process substantively resembling mass hypnosis, as a collective psychological response to the unrelenting, single-focus campaign of fear to which we have all been subjected for a year and a half. Indeed, we may now have reached a stage in this process that even Le Bon did not anticipate, for now the mesmerisers have available to them tech and techniques he could scarcely have envisaged. Using electronic means, it is infinitely easier to convert the individual to the collective mindset than if he were a member of an actual physical crowd. The advent of social media has made the present situation not merely possible, but possibly inevitable.

In his own time, approaching the end of the nineteenth century, Le Bon perceived a shifting in the nature of human reflection and attention. In an odd way, his words read to us now as quasi-contemporaneous: They might have been uttered just a handful of years ago.

‘The present epoch is one of these critical moments in which the thought of mankind is undergoing a process of transformation. Two fundamental factors are at the base of this transformation. The first is the destruction of those religious, political, and social beliefs in which all the elements of our civilisation are rooted. The second is the creation of entirely new conditions of existence and thought as the result of modern scientific and industrial discoveries.’

What is called progress comes at a cost, sometimes a great cost, and that cost is rarely visible until considerably after the fact of its causation, which then becomes prone to the phenomena of historical disconnectedness and plausible deniability.

‘Nature has recourse at times to radical measures, but never after our fashion, which explains how it is that nothing is more fatal to a people than the mania for great reforms, however excellent these reforms may appear theoretically. They would only be useful were it possible to change instantaneously the genius of nations.’

The effects of such changes, mediated via the psyches of human beings, may in time provoke consequences that not only were unforeseen to begin with but may perhaps undo and outweigh any beneficial aspects. Societies craving change for its own sake are especially vulnerable. A society in tumult is ripe for destruction. But the crowd always seek to justify that which it has been told is good, and demonise that which it has been warned to eschew.

‘The masses have never thirsted after truth,’ wrote Le Bon. ‘They turn aside from evidence that is not to their taste, preferring to deify error, if error seduce them. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim. An individual in a crowd is a grain of sand amid other grains of sand, which the wind stirs up at will.’

Facts are as nothing to crowds, which function via a kind of collectivised imagination, operating off images and the slogans which evoke them.

‘A crowd,’ Le Bon elaborates, ‘thinks in images, and the image itself calls up a series of other images, having no logical connection with the first. . . . A crowd scarcely distinguishes between the subjective and the objective. It accepts as real the images invoked in its mind, though they most often have only a very distant relation with the observed facts.’

Le Bon’s is one of the names most frequently dropped by Dr Mattias Desmet in the course of the interviews he has been giving in recent months, having spent some time reflecting on the situation facing the world in the light of what history and its sages has to tell it, and what he himself knows of the modern world.  His interviews can be mixed in quality, but this is usually to do with the quality and interventions of interviewers, some of whom do not play to his remarkable strengths, which reside in exploring the granular nature of psychological processes as they play out in reality, and especially in collective reality. He is excellent on the way people’s projection of their own free-floating personal anxieties, frustration and aggression on to the Covid/lockdown sagas enables the ‘mass formation’ process.

Mass formation, he explains, is a form of hypnosis imposed on a crowd, a factor which we have explored in previous articles here. He is in no doubt that we speak of a literal hypnosis, with all the potential effects and symptoms of same.

He explains many aspects of what we have been witnessing, including the strange phenomenon of people’s apparent indifference to their own deprivations, hurts and incurred damage arising from the lockdowns of the past 18 months: loss of freedoms, loss of work, income, education, human contact, leisure et cetera. During mass formation, he describes, there is ‘a narrowing of the field of attention’, which allows the crowd’s constituent members to close out everything but that which the hypnotist tells them is important, which results in insensitivity to personal losses, and a willingness to sacrifice everything — education, jobs, homes, romance, health — and to disregard the losses and griefs of others. By offering a strategy to deal with the anxieties imposed by the crisis, the would-be totalitarians are able to create a bogus solidarity in a society that has destroyed true solidarity.

He is remarkably open about his own history of engagement with the Covid ‘pandemic’, acknowledging his early doubts about some of his own pronouncements. In the very early days, he briefly bought into the idea of a pandemic, but his suspicions were soon aroused by the disproportionality he observed between the measures being introduced and what he understood about the visible levels of risk from the virus. In those early weeks of the crisis, he wrote a paper titled The Fear of the Virus is More Dangerous than the Virus Itself.

Occasionally, in the early weeks, (April/May 2020) he worried that he might have been wrong to publish this paper, but by the end of May was satisfied that his thesis was entirely correct. Looking at the data from a statistical perspective, he rapidly came to the conclusion that the danger was overestimated. He believed the psychological aspects were more threatening than any biological danger. Yet, he observes, ‘the narrative continued as if the initial models were correct.’

‘From the beginning I was afraid of the societal dynamics that were going on,’ he says, and this fear appears to have been the prime motivation for his recent interventions.

By August 2020, he had come to see that he could describe how this process occurred. ‘We were dealing with a massive phenomenon of mass formation.’

He also, interestingly, speaks of how, in December 2019, some weeks before the crisis erupted in China, he had some kind of premonition of impending menace. He went to his bank and paid back his mortgage — because he felt ‘the society was moving towards a tipping point.’

‘I wanted to be as free as possible,’ he says. He remembers telling the bank manager: ‘All the negative parameters of society have started to rise exponentially.’ He believed that a major catastrophe was on the way, but is not entirely sure why he knew this.

He says there are four conditions that need to be in place to enable mass formation to occur in a society. The first is the presence of large numbers of socially isolated, atomised, people. The social bonds between people need to have been weakened. This is the most important, and the other conditions follow from it. Secondly, there will be large numbers of people who experience lack of sense-making in their lives and work — people who feel that their jobs are senseless, meaningless. Thirdly, there requires to be ‘a lot of free-floating anxiety’ — i.e. anxiety that is not connected to a mental representation so that the sufferer doesn’t know why he is anxious and afraid. And fourthly, there needs to be a lot of ‘free-floating psychological discontent’ — anger and frustration at, again, apparently nothing in particular.

And you also need mass media — without which mass formation would be impossible. Desmet does not explicitly say so, but of course it is also essential that these media be biddable and readily prone to corruption.

These conditions, he says, existed in Western societies long before the Covid crisis. There was, he says, ‘an epidemic of burnout’. He says something between 40 and 70 per cent of people in modern societies experience their jobs as senseless. He points also to the escalating use of psycho-pharmaceutical medicines to treat anxiety and depression.

As evidence of the presence of these conditions in Western society prior to the pandemic, he instances the consumption of anti-depressants n Belgium, his own country. There, a population of 11 million was using 300 million doses of anti-depressants per annum.

According to Desmet, the key root mechanism of mass formation, free-floating anxiety, is the most painful psychological phenomenon a human being can experience. It refers to anxieties that have no clear focus: The sufferer does not know why he feels anxious.

‘Free-floating anxiety is very serious. It leads to panic. When a society is saturated with it, sufferers are desperate to connect it to a representation, and if someone presents a narrative in the mainstream media that offers an object of anxiety, and at the same time presents a strategy to deal with this anxiety, there is a good chance that all this free-floating anxiety in the society will connect to this object of anxiety indicated by this narrative presented by the mainstream media, and that there will be a huge willingness to go along with the strategy.’

The orchestrators of the mass formation are able to appropriate these variegated anxieties and direct them in their entirety at a single point of focus, in this case a virus. By then offering a strategy to deal with the virus crisis, the mass formation process also offers sufferers relief from their anxieties. The same happens with frustration and aggression, all of which were, in a sense, piled on to the Covid basket.

This is where the ‘narrowing of the field of attention’ enters in. The members of the hypnotised mass are enabled to close out everything but that which the hypnotist tells them is important. They acquire not just an indifference to the losses of others, but an insensitivity to losses of their own. They become willing to sacrifice everything under the attrition of the collective injunction — in this case, at least initially, the project of ‘saving lives’. People do not see the consequences of the lockdown, nor feel empathy for the victims.  Their relief at being relieved of their free-floating anxieties is enough to have them cleave to the newly-formed mob. It’s similar, he says, to when a person is under hypnosis: It is possible to use the hypnosis as an anaesthetic to cut into the person’s flesh, having thus made the patient completely insensitive to pain.

In these circumstances, the mesmerised acquire meaning and purpose they previously lacked. In a society in which solidarity has already been destroyed, a new bogus solidarity is formed. Once the solution/strategy is offered, he says, ‘people start a collective and heroic battle with this object of anxiety.’ This results in what he calls a ‘mental intoxication’ and it is this that makes mass formation indistinguishable from hypnosis.

Arising from this combination of factors, people acquire an intense interest in believing the dominant narrative. ‘It doesn’t matter whether the narrative is wrong. It’s all about that they don’t want to go back to this painful state of free-floating anxiety.’

‘The more absurd a narrative is the better it functions as a ritual,’ says Desmet. ‘Whether the narrative is correct or incorrect doesn’t make any difference.’

As part of the same process, he says, politicians who may have lost their grip on the people, now have a way of becoming ‘true leaders’ again. There is, therefore, at this stage of the totalitarian process, a symbiosis of motivation between the leaders and the led; or, more correctly, the rulers and the ruled.

These circumstances combine to ensure that people don’t want to go back to the ‘old normal’. This is important: Many among the mesmerised do not want their prior meaningless lives back.‘We need to avoid giving people the impression that we want them to go back to the old normal,’ cautions Desmet. We need instead to  ‘show them there are other ways to change this “old normal”. We need to tell people that we don’t need a crisis like this to create a new social bond.’

In such a crucible of explosive feeling and foreboding, some unsettling dynamics soon become visible. People begin to regard each other as either friends or foes. The ‘friends’ are to be cherished and cleaved to; the foes are to be excoriated and, where possible or necessary, banished or destroyed.

There are, in situations of mass formation, says Desmet, three distinct groups that manifest themselves. Only 30 per cent, he says, are really hypnotised, and cannot be reached in any way. In addition, however, there are about 40 per cent who usually follow the crowd, and from the outset go along with that 30 per cent of total believers. There is another cohort of about 30 per cent who are not hypnotised, who try to speak out and resist. This group, he says, is extremely heterogeneous and disunited. If these people could unite, he says, they could bring the whole thing quickly to an end, but this seldom proves possible.

The reason some people appear to be immune to the hypnoidal power of the mass formation, he says, has to do with underlying ideological outlook. In this present situation, he says, the ultimate destination-point of the totalitarianism is to effect the total acquiescence of the global population in a transhumanist project in which, in substance and effect, man will be absorbed into the world of the machine. He thinks that essentially the objectors are people with an aversion to this unnatural way of seeing the human person. This is an interesting theory, and may help to explain why so many religious-minded people are opposed to the lockdown, vaccines et cetera: Many of them, having had a deeper inculcation in fundamental anthropological understandings, instinctively or reasonably object to the unknowable and unnatural dimensions of what is proposed. Desmet may be on to something important here: that, although not yet explicit, the transhumanist agenda is already visible as the distant destination-point, with its meanings already saturating the playing area in the context of mandatory vaccines, biometric ID, social credit schemes and the accompanying surveillence regimes, restrictions, penalties, et cetera.

Intelligence, he says, is no guarantee of resistance to the hypnoidal attack. ‘In mass formation, highly intelligent, highly educated people become exactly as intelligent as everybody else in the masses — everybody becomes equally intelligent, which usually means extremely stupid, in the masses.’  At the start of the lockdown, many people said to him, ‘Yes, it is terrible, but we can stop the rat-race for a while.’ This was mainly the well-off, who had less concerns about the economic destruction threatened by the lockdowns. The anxiety of the educated become fixated on different things, perhaps on the possibility of ‘populists’ taking advantage of the crisis. This is how the ludicrous ‘far right’ trope, stoked by cynical media, gained ground.

He speaks, too, about the dynamics of totalitarianism and what makes the present episode different to, for example, the totalitarianisms of the twentieth century. In this, and much else, he draws on the writings of the brilliant German philosopher Hannah Arendt, whose book The Origins of Totalitarianism remains the definitive deconstruction of the totalitarian process, which she characterises as an entirely new phenomenon of the twentieth century.

He reiterates Arendt’s core point about the radical differences between totalitarianism and ‘traditional’ forms of dictatorship. Classical dictatorships are primitive and simple — a single dictator using uncomplicated fear. But in a totalitarian state, the psychological and societal basis of the tyranny is mass formation.

In a totalitarian state, a large part of the population believes in the narrative and is psychologically convinced that the proffered object of anxiety is the cause of all their concerns.

These beliefs, he says, are related to the penetrative effects of mass media but also the image of man as a machine — in part a consequence of industrialism, in part due to an ‘obsession with science’, another core theme of Arendt’s, who emphasises also the key role of ideology as a nutrient of totalitarianism.

He is not convinced of the ‘psychopathy’ thesis of totalitarianism, with particular reference to the Covid despotisms. The people who organise and impose this tyranny, he says, ‘often do not believe in the things they say, but they do really believe in the ideology they promote, and they really believe that the best way to organise society is to treat people like cows on a large farm. They really do believe in this mechanistic, materialist, biological, reductionist ideology.’

Again, Desmet is citing Arendt, who did much to uncover and describe the ugly underbelly of Nazi machinations, in particular the propaganda and psychological elements. Totalitarianism, she believed, has specific characteristics that are constructed to appear random, arbitrary and senseless, when really they amount to a complex interworking of manipulations designed to break and isolate the human person, to lead him methodically out of his ‘ordinary’ life of hoping, working, thinking, loving, into a world where his every moment is dominated by the imposed irrationality that leads to a new, dehumanised existence for others and himself, and to a new, irrational form of ‘sense-making’.

Arendt wrote:

‘While the totalitarian regimes are thus resolutely and cynically emptying the world of the only thing that makes sense to the utilitarian expectations of common sense, they impose upon it at the same time a kind of supersense which the ideologies actually always meant when they pretended to have found the key to history or the solution to the riddles of the universe. Over and above the senselessness of totalitarian society is enthroned the ridiculous supersense of its ideological superstition. Ideologies are harmless, uncritical, and arbitrary opinions only as long as they are not believed in seriously. Once their claim to total validity is taken literally they become the nuclei of logical systems in which, as in the systems of paranoiacs, everything follows comprehensibly and even compulsorily once the first premise is accepted. The insanity of such systems lies not only in their first premise but in the very logicality with which they are constructed. The curious logicality of all isms, their simple-minded trust in the salvation value of stubborn devotion without regard for specific, varying factors, already harbors the first germs of totalitarian contempt for reality and factuality.’

Ideologies are always dangerous reductions of reality, in many instances comprising pseudo-science masquerading as the real thing, rendering them exceptionally well-adapted to totalitarian rule. For the sake of justifying and validating the ‘supersense’ — the final triumph of the ideology — Arendt declared, it is necessary for totalitarianism to completely destroy human dignity. This is because the recognition of their dignity implies an acceptance of our fellow men as co-builders of a world held in common on the basis of individual and consensual choice. This, to the totalitarian, is out of the question. An ideology which lays claim to interpreting all events of the past, and setting in train all events of the future, can have no place for the plans and choices of mere citizens. The danger lies in the very creativity of the human, which may seek to introduce something that is not foreseen in the ideology, and therefore likely to undermine it. Thus, totalitarianism requires the complete transformation of the individual and the collective, so as to align the minds of men with the perspectives and objectives set down in the ideology. Once the supersense is installed, men will think only what the ideology allows.

Before Hitler and Stalin, wrote Arendt, such things were not imagined. Ideology is, literally, ‘the logic of an idea’, a schema of pseudo-thinking that creates a web of delusion. ‘Its subject matter is history, to which the “idea” is applied; the result of this application is not a body of statements about something that is, but the unfolding of a process which is in constant change. The ideology treats the course of events as though it followed the same “law” as the logical exposition of its “idea”. Ideologies pretend to know the mysteries of the whole historical process — the secrets of the past, the intricacies of the present, the uncertainties of the future — because of the logic inherent in their respective ideas.

‘Ideologies are never interested in the miracle of being. They are historical, concerned with becoming and perishing, with the rise and fall of cultures, even if they try to explain history by some “law of nature”.’

As Václav Havel has elaborated, ideology is an instrument for presenting time and history as immutable successions of events and ‘progressions’, indifferent to human longing or wishes.

The question at the heart of our exploration of the nature and meaning of totalitarianism, wrote Arendt, is: ‘[W}hat kind of basic experience in the living-together of men permeates a form of government whose essence is terror and whose principle of action is the logicality of ideological thinking?’

This is the most chilling aspect: that totalitarianism finds its roots in some dislocated aspect of the human that is still human, that arises from actual human wants and needs — for peace, for serenity, for love.

‘That such a combination was never used before in the varied forms of political domination is obvious,’ she added. ‘Still, the basic experience on which it rests must be human and known to men, insofar as even this most original of all political bodies has been devised by, and is somehow answering the needs of, men.’

Totalitarianism in its full-blown form, then, is something that comes after, but ‘after’ what? It comes after a lengthy ‘preparation’, not necessarily planned with malign intent, in which human beings become isolated, atomised, alienated and lonely — conditions for which the totalitarian has ready solutions in the promulgation of bogus community and imagined bonds of mutual hatreds. The negative undertones of these processes suggests some form of prior error, and this may well have been present, perhaps in the pursuit of greed or exploitation, but this is not any longer admissible. Totalitarianism is like a secondary condition that descends on a society that has first of all been subjected to certain processes of modernity: technologisation, industrialisation, individualisation, atomisation. It is, in a sense, like the lung cancer that ensues from a lifetime of smoking, or the type 2 diabetes that results from an excessively sweet tooth. But it is not ‘secondary’ in the sense suggesting ‘lesser’ or ‘minor’ or ‘subordinate’: When it arrives, totalitarianism announces itself as the actual purpose and destination-point of the entire historical process, the discovery of the actual meaning of history. It follows, but is not collateral to, the events which preceded it. Indeed, its arrival announces a coherence to those previous events that had not hitherto been perceived: It ‘makes sense’ of the drifts and apparent randomness of the past, and in doing so turns common sense on its head and compels man to admit his prior errors of understanding and accept that the true direction of history has now been revealed.

The totalitarian leader, unlike the classical kind, who becomes more benign as opposition falls away, becomes more vicious when unopposed, stoking up the masses to carry out atrocities, long after he has suppressed all dissent. This is why every voice of dissent is so vital: to delay the moment when the totalitarian has a free rein.

There is a distinction, Desmet emphasises, between ‘totalitarian thinking’ and ‘totalitarian regime’. Totalitarian thinking, he says, is characterised by absurd argumentation and illogic, which seems extremely persuasive and ‘drives a society across all ethical boundaries.’ Eventually, by traversing the wastes of senselessness, the society evolves a totalitarian regime that uses totalitarian thinking to rule. Right now, he believes, we are at an advanced stage in totalitarian thinking. ‘They consider the human being to be a biological organism who should be manipulated and controlled through biological means. That’s the ideology by which institutions like the WHO and individuals like Bill Gates start. It’s tempting to say that these people are sociopaths or even psychopaths, but I don’t think it is right. They are people who are ideologically blind. That is their main characteristic.’ Gustave Le Bon, he points out, said that ‘the hypnosis is even deeper in the leaders of the masses than in the masses themselves. They are more convinced of the ideology than the population. They have the feeling that in the end when they have reshaped society according to their ideal image, they will end up in a technological transhumanistic paradise, almost without human suffering, and that is why they feel it is justified to inflict a lot of damage and a lot of suffering, because in the end the result of this revolution will be so marvellous that it justifies everything they do now.’

He also believes that we ought not to presume that every apparent phenomenon and effect of the tyrannical circumstances we endure are necessarily the outcome of a strategy or plan of the perpetrators. Totalitarianism metastasises. ‘I think that once a society is grasped by one narrative, and once this mass formation emerges, I think that, more or less in a spontaneous way, it organises the entire dynamic of a society — very often without people being grasped by it, being aware that they actually reinforce and contribute to the dynamics. Things that seem to be intentional are often spontaneous outcomes of the processes.’

Now we may be at or approaching the most difficult phase of the totalitarian thinking process: when the mob, like an attack dog, awaits the instruction to go for its designated enemy. Dr. Desmet again cites Gustave le Bon: ‘The masses only exist if they have an enemy.’ In the beginning, the ‘enemy’ was the virus; now it is those who are not in thrall to or in fear of the virus, who question its severity and challenge the legitimacy of the official global response — those who refuse to go along with the official narrative. This causes the majority to bond together in a new way against the new object of anxiety, having formed a new ‘social bond’ against the dissenting group, providing itself with a new meaning in life. This, says Desmet, gives rise to a ‘mental intoxication’, providing a ‘new deeply fundamental type of satisfaction for a human being’.

Under mass formation, people become ‘radically intolerant of dissonant voices’, while at the same time being ‘radically tolerant’ of their lying leaders.

Again, he cites Hannah Arendt on the ‘atomised subjects’ who have no connection with the larger whole — now, in fighting the new object of anxiety, their negative state becomes positive. Social isolation is replaced by an experience of a strong social bond, ‘which is the reason why people are continuing to believe in the mainstream narrative — even when it is blatantly wrong and utterly absurd. . . . They do not believe in the narrative because it is correct, but because it leads to this new solidarity, to this new kind of social bond, to this mental intoxication of feeling.’

‘Usually this only stops after a lot of destruction,’ he warns. Crowds are always ‘intrinsically self-destructive,’ as Le Bon repeatedly stated. ‘The only positive way this comes to an end is if people can discover the real reasons for their dissatisfaction and [find] a new meaning. But once a mass emerges, it’s hard to get people to search for the real reasons for their anxiety.’

Society, he says, was being prepared for such a narrative for a long time. For centuries, the dominant view of man has been a mechanistic-materialist view: Man is a machine, a little part of the larger machine of the universe — ‘that is the ideology that has prepared the world for mass formation, and for connecting all our anxiety to a mechanistic-materialist organism such as a virus.’

The chief characteristics of modern masses, according to Hannah Arendt, is that they ‘do not believe in anything visible, in the reality of their own experience; they don’t trust their eyes and ears but only their imaginations, which may be caught by anything that is at once universal and consistent in itself. What convinces masses are not facts, and not even invented facts, but only the consistency of the system of which they are presumably part. Repetition, somewhat overrated in importance because of the common belief in the masses’ inferior capacity to grasp and remember, is important only because it convinces them of consistency in time.’

Imagination, again, is the key — the process of engaging with reality through a gauze of fantasy. It is important that we grasp this: In the average victim of Covid propaganda, we are not dealing with the same person in the way we have known him or her hitherto. We encounter someone who has been fed with, and swallowed, a grotesquely distorted view of reality. She does not see what we see, or know what we know. And, on detecting this dissonance, she becomes, as she has been programmed to become, highly alert and intensely suspicious. Our disbelief in the things she cleaves to is connected in her mind with a danger to herself. We ought not to underestimate the dangers of this, or its potential for leading rapidly to confrontation and even violence. We are not dealing with people in control of themselves; we are not dealing even with people who remain themselves. The word ‘hypnosis’ must here be treated with the utmost respect and literalism.

We deal with extraordinarily powerful and largely unbridled forces. We ought not to approach our fellows in this condition with the mindset that we might change their minds. That is folly indeed. Instead, we must wait, watch, choose our moments, and strike delicately and precisely.

The most important thing, Desmet says, is to continue speaking out, to keep saying that we do not agree with the mainstream narrative, to interrupt the constant flow of lies (propaganda) with the truth. This unsettles the hypnosis, causing the mesmermised to turn in their sleep.

Desmet says we have to continue to share rational counter-arguments, in the hope of breaking the link of free-floating anxiety to the virus, which he describes as a kind of welded joint created at the highest level of anxiety. Warning people of the dangers of a totalitarian state — itself a possible new object of anxiety — might cause this joint to be broken and a new one formed.

The presence of alternative voices also serves to curb the viciousness of the rulers and constrains the mob in its excesses. ‘Alternative voices, as Le Bon said, do not succeed in waking up the masses, but if the same group continues to talk and utter a different story, and ensure there is a different voice in the public space, then the masses might not become very cruel.

‘We have to aim to keep a path for the small group that doesn’t want to conform to the mainstream narrative. We have to continue to talk and to establish a parallel society that produces its own foods, its own clinics and hospitals and that can provide the means of surviving outside mainstream society.

‘Mass formation gets deeper as the narrative is repeated and as other narratives disappear. The only way to prevent it becoming deeper and more intense is to make sure there is another narrative that leads to a certain cognitive dissonance that at least means that people will be a little confused while following the mainstream narrative.’

And, yes, he agrees, the short-to-medium-term outlook is bleak. When a society reaches the point of transgressing all ethical limits, there are no longer any guarantees. We must not be in any doubt as to the suggestibility of our neighbours. If we doubt that it could go much further,  he warns, we should consider how far it has gone already. He ironically asks of people who are prepared to vaccinate children, to force pregnant women to wear face masks, to allow old people die alone, ‘Why don’t we move to the next step and build concentration camps for people who test positive for Covid?’ Their answer? — ‘Why not?’

When he asks people how far they think the tyranny should go, they reply:  ‘Until the end of the [Covid] danger’.

‘Do not believe that we could not end up with the same kind of measures that Hitler considered necessary to create his pure race. To be honest, I think it will be difficult to avoid ending up in some kind of new totalitarianism. But it will be a newtotalitarianism. It will be, on the one hand, the same as the totalitarianism of the first half of the twentieth century, but it will also be radically different, because it will be a worldwide totalitarian system. It won’t have external enemies; it will only have internal enemies, and it will treat these internal enemies in a different way — as the external enemies were treated. This is something that is essential for the logic of totalitarian systems  — totalitarian systems need an enemy; without an enemy they collapse. So I think there is a good chance that the new totalitarian systems will tolerate the existence of the enemies, but it will marginalise them, push them outside of mainstream society.’

Which, up to a point, will suit the dissenters, who have never wanted much more than simply that they be let alone.

His dark prognostications notwithstanding, he is a little optimistic. We should remember, he says, that ‘totalitarianism and mass formation always ends up destroying itself.’ All we have to do is to make sure that our story survives and that we survive outside the system ‘for a few years’.

How might it happen?

‘If the masses wake up, they start to realise what has happened.’

Then what?

‘Then they kill their leaders.’

‘You will see that the small group will survive and, in one way or another, after the collapse, it will play an important role in the rebuilding of a society according to more human and more ethical principles.’

We may have some distance to travel, he says, but he believes this model of totalitarianism will destroy itself much more quickly than those of the twentieth century, because none of those systems intruded on the personal lives of the people to the extent that this one has ‘in such a systematic and straightforward way’. He cites vaccines as a cardinal example of this form of intrusion and expresses the belief that the vaccination campaign may end up as ‘the most spectacular disaster we’ve ever seen.’

There is, although it may not be obvious, something of an anomaly here in the phenomenon of a clinical psychologist offering a critique of materialist-mechanistic society, in the sense that the discipline of psychology is itself part of the mechanisation of man, part of the apparatus that seeks to break human behaviour and responses into a set of instrumental principles and patterns which, although they can often appear to have individual application, have not, in general produced overall beneficial results. Indeed, as I’ve pointed out elsewhere, the discipline of psychology has all but destroyed the art of fiction. The reduction of understandings of the human to manmade scientific polarities has destroyed the mysteriousness that was once the forte of the novel and short story. In the realm of modern literature, the once revered novelist — the source of so much of our understandings of the human — has been demoted by psychology to the role of bumbling amateur who, to be taken ‘seriously’, has to immerse him/herself in Freud and adhere religiously to what he appeared to be saying.

Sigmund Freud was undoubtedly a genius — an artist, in fact, in his own right, who took us on epic journeys within our own minds. His ruminations on, for example, conscience and (though reductionist) happiness, have given us much food for self-scrutiny. But Freudianism, the pseudo-science that grew out of this remarkable corpus, has done untold damage, being absorbed into the societal machines of Western societies to impose itself on actually breathing humans as a form of Holy Writ. In the wrong hands, it can be lethal to human happiness, functioning and freedom. Psychoanalysis, too, has rendered instrumental everything about the human person, reducing the possibilities concerning human action to comprehensible, even simplistic pathologies and crypto-mechanical processes. This enabled the elevation of psychiatrists, psychoanalysts and psychologists to the status of engineers of human souls, capable of diagnosing patterns of behaviour in a stranger in much the way an old-style mechanic would detect the source of a rattle in the gearbox of a 1984 Volkswagen Mk2 GTI. Perhaps more than anything — yes, even more than the notion of chemical imbalances in the human brain — these developments caused the human person to think of himself as a sort of, well, Volkswagen.

So there is, as I say, this anomaly (even a dangerous anomaly) in people like Mattias Desmet (and, to give another example, Jordan Peterson) voyaging forth to diagnose the condition of the human person in these opening decades of the third millennium. A human person seeking self-understanding could, as quickly as becoming enlightened, feel hit over the head with Dr. Peterson’s 25,000 hours of clinical practice. If anything, the problem with the modern world is a surfeit of experts telling us not just what is good for us, but what we are actually doing and thinking wrongly, and why — and what we supposedly need to do.

But there is also an upside. One could also note that all these practitioners have, in the era of YouTube, started to stray outside their disciplines, to commentate on macro, collective trends in human psychology, and this may actually be where they redeem themselves and their role. There is a lacuna in the conversation of modern society in relation to the actions and ‘thought-processes’ of mobs. Most of the more interesting reflections on this aspect of human coexistence occurred in the last century or towards the end of the one before. For the past half-century, there have emerged no substantial practitioners in the precise area of crowd behaviour, perhaps because there are no ‘patients’ and few enough potential clients with a monied interest in exploring these matters. And it is hard to avoid thinking that there is nowadays something of an omertà concerning the differences and interactions between individual responses and those of the crowd. YouTube — probably unwittingly — has provided a generation of psychologists with a platform to begin filling in this lacuna.

In general, the new trend we perceive involves clinical psychologists co-opting the work of thinkers like Le Bon and Arendt, and merging it with their own clinical experience in the individual context. This is not without value, but it is also beset by the contradiction already mentioned: that the interpretations of engineers of human souls must be taken with a soupcon of axle grease when it comes to arriving at any definitive understandings of flesh-and-blood beings. This discussion remains preliminary and tentative. There is a huge gap between the condition of (approximately) the first half of the twentieth century — dominated by Gustave Le Bon, Hannah Arendt, Jacques Ellul  and Joost Meerloo — and the present, a span of time in which nothing radically innovative was added to our understanding of what we shall but loosely call collective psychology and its seemingly osmotic inclination towards totalitarian patterns — and this during a time of the most rapid growth in the promulgation of technologies lending themselves to the manipulation of collective psychology as never before. The great masters — Le Bon, Arendt, Ellul, Meerloo — are all gone and have had no significant successors to update or revise their thoughts in the light of an avalanche of tech diversion, tech addiction, tech toxicity, cyber-censorship, mass baiting and herding, and sundry other pathologies of this ‘most modern’ moment. It is to the end of updating these understandings, rather than the application of more elaborate or dubious schemas to the condition of the individual, that clinical psychology might today make itself most useful.

Desmet, Peterson and others — the British psychologist Richard Grannon, for example — are with us, have read their Le Bon and Arendt, and are capable of hypothesising us into some form of (albeit restricted) collective reflection on our plight. Desmet has so far emerged as the most interesting voice on the Covid totalitarian play, discoursing brilliantly on mass psychology and how it might be manipulated. Peterson has adhered to the continuing Combine-enforced omertà.

And none of these figures shows signs of having yet read their Jacques Ellul — another serious lacuna. For this and other reasons, I propose to devote Part II of this article/essay to the mid-twentieth century reflections of that remarkable Frenchman on the emergence and consequences of the ‘technique society’ – (something more, and more ominous, than mere technology).

Here is a short selection of recent interviews with Dr. Mattias Desmet. Some are better than others and I have placed them in order of quality of content. The first is the best; the other two get better as they go along (skip the first half hour of each!). There are other interviews, and more are now being added with every passing week.

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Joe Biden’s federal vaccine mandate is toothless. He cannot make it work. He cannot enforce it, and so the federal government has tried to ‘back door‘ a national vaccine mandate by pushing corporations to do their dirty work. Maybe the feds can’t really order you to take the jab, but if they can prevent you from earning a living without the vaccine, they can achieve the same objective.

It seems simple enough and strangely fitting for a government that is increasingly indistinguishable from giant multinational corporations, Big Tech, and the oligarchs that run the entire enterprise.

Except, a funny thing is happening. The people, those Neanderthals clinging to their Bibles and guns, who are supposed to do what they are told, pay taxes and fight the corporate wars are pushing back. Deserted by their elected representatives, who answer to their corporate masters, average Americans are refusing to comply.

Take a look at Southwest Airlines, and you will see exactly what this new civil disobedience looks like. You may also see the future.

The White House has pressed the airlines to adopt vaccine mandates using the leverage of federal contracts. United knuckled under first and announced a vaccine requirement. Southwest recently announced its employees had until December 8, 2021, to get vaccinated or lose their jobs.

The pilot’s union for Southwest Airlines responded to the mandate by filing suit and trying to block the action, but the pilots themselves are not waiting for court action to make clear where they stand. They have started using vacation and sick days and refusing to show up for work. Other employees have followed suit.

The entire airline has been brought to a standstill. The pushback began Friday when a grand total of 3 out of 35 employees showed up for work at the Jacksonville center. Almost every flight out of Orlando had to be canceled. Almost 50% of Southwest pilots remain unvaccinated. There is no indication that any large numbers are moving to get the vaccine. As bad as things are, they are going to get a lot worse.

Over the weekend Southwest canceled 1900 flights. As of the time this article was published it had already canceled 365 flights for Monday, and 600 more are “delayed.” Southwest Airlines is effectively shut down.

Southwest Airlines’ stock fell more than 4% on Monday when trading opened.

Southwest Airlines is continuing to maintain that there is no work stoppage in progress and blaming cancellations on mythical weather problems or air traffic control issues. The pilot’s union is keeping silent because any official action on its part would likely be considered illegal. In reality, their position is largely true. Pilots are not calling out, because they have been ordered to do so. They are calling out because they have had enough.

Southwest pilots are drawing a line in the sand. They, like so many other Americans, are done with the creeping tyranny, and they have grasped that in Washington no one is going to stand up for them and push back. It is time for citizens to act on their own.

This is the beginning, not the end. Other airlines are already reported to be seeing the same issues as Southwest. Those issues will expand. Rumors are swirling that United pilots may join the “sickout” any time.

Amtrak just announced the cancellation of several scheduled trains, because personnel are not showing up to work. The expectation is that such actions will spread.

Across the country, in recent months there has been an increasing number of “walkouts” by various professional groups protesting vaccine and mask mandates. These have all been designed to bring attention to the issues at hand. The Southwest action and those that will follow it are fundamentally different.

This action by the Southwest pilots is not designed to attract attention. It is designed to use economic leverage to compel Southwest to change course. The pilots are not saying they want a conversation. They are saying that if Southwest does not change its policy, they will destroy the company.

In 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama Rosa Parks, a black woman, refused to give up her seat on a city bus to a white person. When Rosa was thrown off the bus the entire black population of Montgomery stopped riding the bus. They made up 60% of the ridership at the time.

Within a matter of months, Montgomery’s Jim Crow law about black people sitting in the back of the bus went away. Turns out dollars that come out of the pockets of black people are just the same as those that come out of white pockets. The bus company folded.

This is where we have come to today in America on issues of personal freedom. The Oligarchy thinks it owns us. Our “representatives” seem unable to act on our behalf. Increasingly, it is now up to us as individuals to simply refuse to comply.

Southwest Airlines is on the verge of collapse. We are seeing a glimpse of the future and of hope.

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In what is likely a deceptively positive development in policy between the US and Russia, the two countries have lifted targeted sanctions to allow U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland to visit Moscow. Meaning that sanctions were lifted from just one person on each side.

As a senior state department official, Nuland took an active part in what transpired in Ukraine back in 2014, namely the Euromaidan. She visited Kiev on several occasions during the height of the protests.

From 2019 onwards she’s been entirely banned from entering Russia. Her visit on October 11th was completely at the initiative of the American side.

Nuland who was a part of the “very successful” destabilization efforts in Kiev is now being sent to Moscow in order to foster “stable and predictable” relations.

And to highlight that, Nuland said that alongside Russian officials, she is to meet with representatives of business, as well as various individuals who graduated exchange programs with the US, i.e., she plans to check “the ranks” of American influence agents in the Russian Federation.

It is, however, puzzling that Victoria Nuland came in such a rush, the US side quickly proposed the meeting, and agreed on the sanctions being lifted. She will not meet with top Russian politicians, like Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, but his deputies, and officials from the Presidential Administration, but not Vladimir Putin himself.

Currently, it is not too far-fetched to say that the US has no single head of the executive branch of government in the person of President Joe Biden. These functions appear to be assumed by a group of individuals, referred to as the “deep state”.

It is likely that Nuland’s visit is a mission on behalf of that very specific group, as urgent negotiations are needed. The developments in Ukraine, as well as in Afghanistan or in the Middle East, are only a pretext for the meeting. The recent US-China tensions and the energy crisis are a much more significant focal point.

The United States is attempting to take advantage of the energy crisis, as China is one of its main victims. Washington is doing its best to inflict competitive damage to Beijing and to strengthen its own position. Improving on its competitive advantages over the EU comes as an added bonus.

China, for its part, is drawing closer to Russia, as it has no other choice. As a result of Nord Stream 2, and the United States proving to France, and earlier to Afghanistan, that it is a disloyal “ally”, the EU is likely to grow “fonder” of Russia. This is a worrisome development for Washington in both of these cases.

The United States needs to move quickly, due to political turmoil within, and the foundations of its global hegemony being undermined, these developments could lead to the ultimate fall of the dying empire.

It is yet to be discovered exactly what Victoria Nuland’s negotiations in Moscow will bring forth. Will it be some sort of concessions in exchange for Russia stepping back from some dealings with China and the European Union? And what does Washington have in trade? It remains questionable, as the Kremlin clearly understands the strategic advantage and necessity that the fostering of its relationships with China and Europe provide.

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Since the beginning of the lockdowns in March 2020, the impact on public transportation networks, their commuters and workers has been disastrous.

The outbreak of COVID-19 crisis has dealt a heavy blow to the already fragile United States economy.

Over 20 million people were thrown out of their jobs between March and June of last year while tax revenues generated by municipal, state and the federal governments took a drastic turn downward due the closing of many businesses and public institutions which relied on in-person customer service. With many people either laid off or mandated to work from home due to the pandemic, the ridership on all forms of public transport declined sharply.

Even though labor statistics indicate that many millions have returned to work, millions of others have witnessed their places of employment severely trim staff. At the same time, with the permanent closings of an estimated 200,000 small and medium-size business enterprises, many jobs will be lost forever.

A jobs report for the month of September stated that only 194,00 new jobs were created for the workers in the U.S. Many of the jobs that have been created since the emergence from the Great Recession of the last decade are in the low-wage category. This trend is undoubtedly continuing as the enhanced unemployment benefits have been discontinued by the states and the federal government.

Political officials at the aegis of business interests began criticizing the extended jobless benefits saying they were providing incentives for people to remain at home rather than reenter the labor market. Yet these programs were essential in preventing a complete economic collapse on the level of the Great Depression of 1929-1941.

Considering the massive cutbacks in public transportation and the lack of funding for childcare services, large numbers of workers face considerable difficulties in returning to many of the low-wage jobs which are available to them.

Moreover, millions remain ill after contracting COVID-19 themselves along with the trauma of losing close relatives, friends, neighbors and co-workers. More than 700,000 people have died of the infectious disease over the last 19 months out of a total of 44.5 million cases.

The mounting crisis of public transportation services was recognized during the first few months of the pandemic and the subsequent economic decline. An article published in vox.com during December noted:

“In the early days of the pandemic, public transit ridership dropped precipitously. Americans were urged to stay home, which prompted transit agencies to swiftly implement service cuts to match this declining demand. Transit networks needed a financial lifeline. Fare money was drying up, and existing budget gaps were further exacerbated. Through the CARES Act in March, local agencies received $25 billion in aid — bailout money that was crucial to keep networks operating through the summer despite steep declines in revenue from riders, advertisers, and taxes as people stayed home.”

Fares for buses and trains have never provided municipalities with the necessary revenue to maintain a thriving public transportation system. Subsidies from municipal, state and federal budgets are indispensable in the maintenance of public transport networks.

Those who are able to work from home, largely people employed in higher-income sectors of the labor market, will not be as adversely impacted by the cancelling of routes, the slow-down in the frequency of service and the elimination of employees. However, many people who are considered “essential workers” are in the low-income categories and rely on public transport because they may not own automobiles to take them to work, school, medical appointments, shopping and to visit friends and relatives.

Disproportionately the low-wage workers considered essential to the operations of the national economy are from the African American, Latinx, immigrant and other people of color communities. Therefore, the problems being generated by the cutbacks in public transportation have both racial and class dynamics.

Detroit Riders and Drivers Rally Downtown Demanding a Reversal of Cuts

On October 5 the Motor City Freedom Riders (MCFR) hosted a press conference and rally right outside City Hall in downtown Detroit. The MCFR has served as community advocates for the improvement and expansion of public transportation in Detroit and throughout southeastern Michigan.

Present at the event was the President of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 26, Glenn Tolbert, who spoke to the crowd about the monumental challenges facing bus drivers during the current period. Many bus drivers have contracted COVID-19 while at work leading to several deaths.

Pay for the ATU Local 26 workers has not kept apace with the rising cost of living in the city of Detroit where the burden of over assessed property taxes and rising rents serve to drive people away from living in the municipality. Detroit bus drivers were only awarded “hazard pay” for two months during the first few weeks of the pandemic in 2020. Tolbert mentioned that the suburban Southeast Michigan Regional Transit Authority (SMART) drivers make ten dollars per hour more than those working for the Detroit Department of Transportation (DDOT).

Detroit activists and union members hold rally to protest cuts in public transportation, Oct. 5, 2021 (Source: Abayomi Azikiwe)

In September the DDOT officials announced a series of cuts in service in the city which has perhaps one of the worst public transportation systems in the U.S. Popularly known as the Motor City, Detroit has since the mid-1950s consistently reduced investment in bus and rail services encouraging the purchase of automobiles to fuel the profits of the car industry.

Thomas Zerafa, a longtime public transportation advocate and board member of the Michigan Coalition for Human Rights (MCHR), spoke at the rally stating that he was old enough to remember the discontinuation of the streetcar rail services in 1956. A public transportation system prior to the late 1950s encompassed bus and rail routes which extended through large sections of Detroit and the region.

The Q-Line, a hybrid rail service along Woodward Avenue between West Grand Boulevard and the Riverfront, was opened in 2017. The Q-Line construction was largely opposed by most bus riders since it only covered a limited geographic area which has been targeted for gentrification over the last decade. Even this prestige project was closed down after March 2020. The rail line only began servicing customers again in September.

MCFR at the press conference and rally circulated what they described as a “City of Detroit Transit Platform”. The document has seven important demands related to public transportation issues in the city and suburbs.

These demands include raising expenditures by 300% for the bus services in order to hire more drivers and to increase the frequencies of routes. Another important call was made for greater accessibility for people living with disabilities and the construction of more enclosed bus stops with route information being available at each location.

Other issues raised were the demand to reduce fares for seniors, Medicare recipients, and students. The MCFR wants a pilot project with no far routes which would eventually lead to the elimination of cost for riders within ten years.

In regard to the labor force, the document says:

“DDOT is currently experiencing a driver shortage which means that only 70% of scheduled buses are actually leaving the terminal. Drivers should have wage parity with SMART drivers in order to prevent them from leaving for better paying jobs. They should also implement retention programs to keep drivers on staff once they complete their training.”

The two final demands propose better land use policy and coordination with the SMART and the Regional Transit Authority (RTA) in order to facilitate better services for riders and drivers throughout the city and suburbs. Finally, the question of planning democracy was raised demanding that riders and drivers be consulted in regard to route changes and other major policy changes.

Federal Responsibility and Corporate Obligations

The City of Detroit has received over $800 million in recovery funds under the American Rescue Plan (ARP) enacted by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden. Therefore, in Detroit and other municipalities people are wondering why cuts in service and the failure to increase salaries are the dominant themes being discussed by local and state governments.

In order for any economic recovery to have sustainability there must be huge investments into public infrastructure in the transportation, educational, environmental, housing and healthcare sectors of the U.S. At present the U.S. Congress has been incapable of agreeing on a multi-trillion dollars infrastructure plan which could address some of these pressing problems.

Corporate interests including the financial institutions have systematically fostered the large-scale disinvestment in public transportation. Consequently, mass organizations in the urban and suburban areas of the country must mobilize to demand that the needs of the workers and oppressed are met in the present period.

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Abayomi Azikiwe is the editor of Pan-African News Wire. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

Featured image: Detroit public transportation press conference and rally on Oct. 5, 2021 (Source: Abayomi Azikiwe)

Video: “The PCR-RT is a Process. It Does Not Tell You that You Are Sick”: The Late Dr. Kary Mullis, Nobel Laureate and Inventor of the PCR-RT

By Kary B. Mullis, October 12, 2021

Nobel Prize Laureate Kary B. Mullis was the inventor of  the polymerase chain reaction technique. Dr. Kary B. Mullis, who passed away on August 7, 2019 at age 74, stated emphatically that no infection or illness can be accurately diagnosed with the PCR-RT.

Prices Explode in the Gas Battle

By Manlio Dinucci, October 12, 2021

The gas price explosion hits Europe at the critical moment of economic recovery after the disastrous effects of the 2020 lockdowns. The explanation, claiming it is due to the growth in demand and decline in supply, hides a much more complex scenario, where financial, political and strategic factors play a primary role.

U.S Air Transportation in Crisis: Pilots Taking a Bold Stand against “Killer Vaccine”

By Joachim Hagopian, October 12, 2021

The worldwide mandate for all airline pilots and air travel industry personnel to be vaccinated with a known kill shot which some analysts describe as depopulation is having major repercussions, hemorrhaging the entire transportation industry and for that matter the entire planet.

The People Are Unaware of the War Being Conducted Against Them

By Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, October 12, 2021

The extent of the propaganda in behalf of a “vaccine” that is known not to protect but to cause death and serious health impairments, and against known proven cures increasingly used world wide, is astounding.

The Final Solution. Full Digitization. “The QR Codification of the World”

By Peter Koenig, October 12, 2021

Imagine humanity would one day – very soon – decide to stop wearing masks. In unison. Not in the streets, not in restaurants, not in shops, not in sports events – simply nowhere. Against all orders of a good portion of the 193 UN member governments, or at least the western governments.

The Green Agenda and the Plan to Collapse the Industrial World Economy

By F. William Engdahl, October 12, 2021

The price of energy from all sources conventional is exploding globally. Far from accidental, it is a well-orchestrated plan to collapse the industrial world economy that has already been weakened dramatically by almost two years of ridiculous covid quarantine and related measures.

Havana’s Response to COVID-19: Has Socialist Cuba Fallen for Big Pharma’s “False Narrative”?

By Timothy Alexander Guzman, October 12, 2021

Corrupted governments have also used the pandemic to expand their control of its people like what you see is happening in Australia and New Zealand which is an Orwellian nightmare come true.

Merrick Garland’s America. The US Department of Justice Targets Dissenters

By Philip Giraldi, October 12, 2021

There have been a number of suggestions online that the withdrawal of American soldiers from overseas is being undertaken to use the troops against those individuals and domestic groups that are being targeted by the Justice Department.

The Curious Case of Haitian Pigs and Canadian Imperialism

By Yves Engler, October 12, 2021

Recently, African Swine Fever (ASF) was detected in Haiti. Specialists were not surprised since a couple months earlier pigs in the neighboring Dominican Republic were detected with a disease that is harmless to humans but can kill hogs.

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New Documentary: The Man Who Knew Too Much

October 13th, 2021 by Michael Oswald

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The Man Who Knew Too Much is a documentary film by Michael Oswald about Colin Wallace a former intelligence officer who blew the whistle on fake news and was framed for a murder.

Colin Wallace was involved in psychological operations in Northern Ireland. He spread fake news, created a witchcraft scare, smeared British politicians and attempted to divide and create conflict amongst communities, organisations and individuals. He fell out with members of the intelligence community and found himself accused of murder.  

The documentary provides a unique insight into how intelligence services engaged with the media in the 1970s, before the advent of the internet. It shows how easy it was to smear individuals, frame events and even fabricate stories entirely. The viewer is faced with the question of how different the media might be today and what opportunities have arisen for disinformation in the information age?

Colin Wallace went from being at the centre of spreading fake news, to being a victim of it, to clearing his name.

Today, Colin Wallace believes the issues of fake news and accountability of intelligence services have not been addressed and closure in the Northern Ireland Troubles has not been achieved. Two days after the release of this documentary Colin Wallace announced in The Belfast Telegraph that he would be taking legal action against the British Ministry of Defence.

The film premiered at the Investigative Film Festival Skopje in 2020 and received a “Special Award for Investigation & Reporting” from the Harrogate Film Festival, UK.

The lengths to which MI5, MI6 and the psyops warriors of the British military will go to suppress the truth about their dirty tricks in Ireland is astonishingly well told in this marvellous new film.” David Miller, @Spinwatch

In a modern world driven by information, instant messaging and social media, we have much to learn from The Man Who Knew Too Much. Disinformation and psychological operations may be easier to deploy today than they were half a century ago.” Ciaran McAirt – Paper Trail Legacy Archive Research (www.papertrail.pro)

Watch the full documentary below.

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Featured image is a screenshot from the film

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It would be tempting to picture the Iraqi parliamentary elections last Sunday as a geopolitical game-changer. Well, it’s complicated – in more ways than one. 

Let’s start with the abstention rate. Of the 22 million eligible voters able to choose 329 members of Parliament from 3,227 candidates and 167 parties, only 41% chose to cast their ballots, according to the Iraq High Electoral Commission (IHEC).

Then there’s the notorious fragmentation of the Iraqi political chessboard. Initial results offer a fascinating glimpse. Of the 329 seats, the Sadrists – led by Muqtada al-Sadr – captured 73, a Sunni coalition has 43, a Shi’ite coalition – led by former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki – has 41 and the Kurd faction led by Barzani has 32.

In the current electoral setup, apart from Shi’ite coalitions, Sunnis have two main blocks and the Kurds have two main parties ruling autonomous Kurdistan: the Barzani gang – which do an array of shady deals with the Turks – and the Talabani clan, which is not much cleaner.

What happens next are extremely protracted negotiations, not to mention infighting. Once the results are certified, President Barham Saleh, in theory, has 15 days to choose the next Parliament speaker, and Parliament has one month to choose a President. Yet the whole process could last months.

The question is already in everyone’s minds in Baghdad: true to most forecasts, the Sadrists may eventually come up with the largest number of seats in Parliament. But will they be able to strike a solid alliance to nominate the next prime minister?

Then there’s the strong possibility they may actually prefer to remain in the background, considering the next few years will be extremely challenging for Iraq all across the spectrum: on the security and counter-terrorism front; on the ghastly economic front; on the corruption and abysmal management front; and last but not least, on what exactly the expected US troop withdrawal really means.

The takeover of nearly one-third of Iraqi territory by Daesh from 2014 to 2017 may be a distant memory by now, but the fact remains that out of 40 million Iraqis, untold numbers have to deal on a daily basis with rampant unemployment, no healthcare, meager education opportunities and even no electricity.

The American “withdrawal” in December is a euphemism: 2,500 combat troops will actually be repositioned into unspecified “non-combat” roles. The overwhelming majority of Iraqis – Sunni and Shi’ite – won’t accept it. A solid intel source – Western, not West Asian – assured me assorted Shi’ite outfits have the capability to overrun all American assets in Iraq in only six days, the Green Zone included.

Sistani rules 

To paint the main players in the Iraqi political scene as merely a “Shi’ite Islamist-dominated ruling elite” is crass Orientalism. They are not “Islamist” – in a Salafi-jihadi sense.

Neither they have set up a political coalition “tied to militias backed by Iran”: that’s a crass reductionism. These “militias” are in fact the People’s Mobilization Units (PMUs), which were encouraged from the start by Grand Ayatollah Sistani to defend the nation against takfiris and Salafi-jihadis of the Daesh kind, and are legally incorporated into the Ministry of Defense.

What is definitely correct is that Muqtada al-Sadr is in a direct clash with the main Shi’ite political parties – and especially those members involved in massive corruption.

Muqtada is a very complex character. He’s essentially an Iraqi nationalist. He’s opposed to any form of foreign interference, especially any lingering American troop presence – in whatever shape or form. As a Shi’ite, he has to be an enemy of politicized, corrupt Shi’ite profiteers.

Elijah Magnier has done a sterling job focusing on the importance of a new fatwa on the elections issued by Grand Ayatollah Sistani, even more important than the “Fatwa of Reform and Changes” which addressed the occupation of northern Iraq by Daesh in 2014 and led to the creation of the PMUs.

In this new fatwa Sistani, based in the holy city of Najaf, compels voters to search for an “honest candidate” capable of “bringing about real change” and removing “old and habitually corrupt candidates.” Sistani believes “the path of reform is possible” and “hope … must be exploited to remove the incompetent” from ruling Iraq.

The conclusion is inescapable: vast swathes of the dispossessed in Iraq chose to identify this “honest candidate” as Muqtada al-Sadr.

That’s hardly surprising. Muqtada is the youngest son of the late, immensely respected Marja’, Sayyid Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr, who was assassinated by the Saddam Hussein apparatus. Muqtada’s immensely popular base, inherited from his father, congregates the poor and the downtrodden, as I saw for myself numerous times, especially in Sadr City in Baghdad and in Najaf and Karbala.

During the Petraeus surge in 2007, I was received with open arms in Sadr City, talked to quite a few Sadrist politicians, saw how the Mahdi army operates both in the military and social realm and observed on the spot many of the Sadrist social projects.

In the Shi’ite collective unconscious Muqtada, at the time based in Najaf, made his mark in early 2004 as the first prominent Shi’ite religious leader cum politician to confront the US occupation head-on, and tell them to leave. The CIA put a price on his head. The Pentagon wanted to whack him – in Najaf. Grand Ayatollah Sistani – and his tens of millions of followers – supported him.

Afterward, he spent a long time perfecting his theological chops in Qom – while remaining in the background, always extremely popular and learning a thing or two about becoming politically savvy. That’s reflected in his current positioning: always opposed to the US occupation forces, but willing to work with Washington to expedite their departure.

Old (imperial) habits die hard. Out of his status of sworn enemy, routinely dismissed as a “volatile cleric” by Western media, at least now Muqtada is recognized in Washington as a key player and even an interlocutor.

Yet that’s not the case of the Asa’ib Ahl al-Haq group, which was born of the Sadrist base. The Americans still don’t understand that this is not a militia but a party: they are branded by the US as a terrorist organization.

US occupation actors also conveniently forget that the way Iraq’s “dysfunctional” Parliament is configured, along confessional lines, is inextricably linked to the project of Western liberal democracy being bombed into Iraq.

Geopolitically, looking ahead, Iraq’s future in West Asia from now on will be inextricably linked to Eurasian integration. Not surprisingly, Iran and Russia were among the first actors to officially congratulate Baghdad for running a smooth election.

Muqtada and the Sadrists will be very much aware that the Axis of Resistance – Iran-Iraq-Syria-Hezbollah in Lebanon – is strengthening by the minute. And that is directly linked to the Iran-Russia-China partnership strengthening Eurasia integration. But first things first:  let’s get an “honest” prime minister and Parliament in place.

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This article was originally published on Asia Times.

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

He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is licensed under CC BY 4.0

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).

Visit and follow us on Instagram at @crg_globalresearch.

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We need to be honest about this global pandemic which has a not-so hidden agenda to lead civilization back into the dark ages.  It is easy to see what is happening around us with the constant lies about the lockdowns, facemask rules and the forced vaccination mandates and passports that is promoted and in some cases, enforced by the Biden Regime, the mainstream media, Big Pharma, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the National Institute of Health (NIH), the World Health Organization (WHO), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and others. 

More than 4.5 million people worldwide have tragically died from Covid-19 at least in theory [according to the PCR-RT test which is invalid] , but I will say this, the majority had underlying health conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, many suffered from obesity, many were the elderly in their last stages of life who were the most vulnerable.

There is more than enough evidence that can attest to what I’m saying.  However, there are many diseases such as cardiovascular disease (CVDs) (which is a leading cause of death globally) plus other types of diseases such as cancer that kills millions of people each year. In 2018 alone, it was estimated that 9.5 million people had died of lung cancer worldwide, yet no lockdowns, facemasks or rushed experimental injections.

The point is, it’s all an over-exaggerated lie.  Covid-19 is about control of the population by any means necessary.  Many governments and people fell for this narrative.

Corrupted governments have also used the pandemic to expand their control of its people like what you see is happening in Australia and New Zealand which is an Orwellian nightmare come true.

In a positive note, there were several countries such as Tanzania and Burundi including millions of people worldwide who do not believe nor follow the dictates of the global order to enforce lockdowns, experimental injections, facemask mandates or passport mandates.

Certain governments have been slowly waking up to the fact that the Covid-19 pandemic is over-exaggerated thus becoming more clear that it is all nonsense according to the President of Croatia, Zoran Milanović who was recently speaking at a press conference when a reporter said the following “Croatia is not sufficiently vaccinated, unlike the EU average.  We are only at 50%.” Milanovic’s response was classic (see video here):

I don’t care.  We’re vaccinated enough, and everyone knows it. We will not go more than 50%.  Let them fence us in with wire.  They won’t do that. We are vaccinated enough, because they are vaccinated enough.  So from their perspective, we are vaccinated enough.  There is simply no chance of endangering those people.  And I’ll finish.  if the goal is…we need to know what the goal of this frenzy is? If the goal is to completely eradicate the virus, then we have the goal.  I have not heard that this is the goal.  If someone tells me it’s a goal,  I’ll tell him it’s out of his mind.  That is impossible. Get vaccinated, then get vaccinated one more time.

We want to eradicate Covid-19! That is impossible. It is obviously impossible.  I start everyday with CNN and those few channels.  And I wonder if I’m normal or are they crazy? They spread panic.  They do it from the beginning.  They are not the only ones.But there is simply no absolute certainty.  There is no life without risk, without the possibility of getting sick. People get sick from a thousand other more serious things.  And while that’s happening   we’ve been talking about Covid-19 for a year and a half.  OK, 1 year.  I understand.  I justify. I was for it. Since the new year, I only listen to nonsense

Milanovic’s response to the press shows that he and his government obviously has had enough of the Covid-19 propaganda.  This shows that some nations are finally waking up to the fact that Covid-19 was a scam from the start.

But sadly, many governments have fallen for the Covid-19 narrative including Cuba, which is disappointing to me.  To be honest, the reason why I am singling out Cuba over other countries is because I thought they would have woken up to the fact that the Covid-19 pandemic is an over-exaggerated lie.

It is known that Fidel Castro was an avid reader of alternative media sites as well as a supporter of Global Research, but what is more interesting about Cuba today is that they have also imposed lockdowns and restrictions under its current President, Miguel Diaz Canel following the guidelines of the global medical establishment like many other countries around the world.

First I want to say is that Cuba has valiantly stood up against US Imperialism for decades, in fact, Cuba has faced a short-lived conflict known as the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, a decades-old US embargo, and assassination attempts against Fidel Castro.

In 1962,  there was also the  idea of committing false-flag terrorist acts in New York City and elsewhere to blame it on Cuba in order to start another war called Operation Northwoods.

There was also US-sponsored terrorist attacks from Miami’s right-wing terrorists to Washington’s biological warfare that had unleashed ‘Dengue Fever’ also known as ‘Hemorrhagic fever’ on Cuba effecting more than 273,000 Cubans killing more than 158 back in 1981.  Despite the hardships, Cuba has stood up to Washington.

Cuba has surely inspired revolutions across Latin America against Washington’s colonial and neoliberal policies.

I admire Cuba’s revolution, I really do, but there is one thing I need to point out and that is the fact that the Cuban leadership and its people has been deceived into believing the Covid-19 narrative sponsored by the global medical establishment.

I am not discrediting Cuban doctors and scientists in any way, the work they have done to help humanity around the world deserves recognition.  A 2015 article from the Morning Star ‘A Year of Achievement for Cuban Healthcare’ said that Cuba has world-leading achievements which in many respects is undeniable:

In June, Cuba became the first country in the world to receive validation from the World Health Organisation (WHO) to successfully achieve the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and syphilis.  Given the global scale of the HIV/Aids epidemic, where an estimated 1.4 million women living with HIV become pregnant each year, the potential global health impact is phenomenal if the world can learn from Cuba.

The WHO said: “Eliminating transmission of a virus is one of the greatest public health achievements possible. Cuba’s success demonstrates that universal access and universal health coverage are feasible and indeed are the key to success, even against challenges as daunting as HIV.”  This year also saw the largest contingent of health workers who were fighting the Ebola outbreak in west Africa return home after completing their successful missions.  These world-leading achievements are from a very long list of Cuban healthcare accolades — and are a testament to the Cuban revolution and its people

But I must point out that Covid-19 has turned Cuba’s intellectual capabilities completely upside-down.  I thought by this time, Cuba would be two steps ahead of the lies that come from the same Western-based medical institutions and individuals who are aligned with the political establishment and the Military-Industrial Complex that would love nothing more to have Cuba under its control.

Cuba should have led Latin America in exposing Covid-19 for what it is, an over-exaggerated disease brought to you by the global establishment to impose medical tyranny around the world.

Cuba seems to be following in their footsteps in their fight against Covid-19, for example, they have imposed harsh penalties for those who violate facemask rules including the threat of doing some prison time if you don’t follow the rules.  Reuters published an article on Cuba’s actions it took to enforce its facemask mandates, ‘Cuba tightens COVID-19 measures as visitors fuel record contagion’  said that

“Since the start of the pandemic, Cuban authorities have fined citizens for wearing their face masks incorrectly in public or contravening other rules, even sentencing some to jail time.” 

So why is Cuba still enforcing the use of facemasks with all of the studies that prove they are dangerous to your health?  On May 2020, Dr. Russell Blaylock, a board-certified neurosurgeon, health practitioner and author wrote an article on the subject of wearing facemasks or what I like to call face diapers titled ‘Face Masks Pose Serious Risks to the Healthy’ based on recent studies said that “researchers found that about a third of the workers developed headaches with use of the mask, most had preexisting headaches that were worsened by the mask wearing, and 60% required pain medications for relief” but the most likely cause of headaches in this situation is either hypoxia which is described as a reduction in blood oxygenation and/or hypercapnia, an elevation in blood C02.

\“A more recent study involving 159 healthcare workers aged 21 to 35 years of age found that 81% developed headaches from wearing a face mask.   Some had pre-existing headaches that were precipitated by the masks. All felt like the headaches affected their work performance.”

Dr. Blaylock also mentioned a study on how the virus can enter the brain:

It gets even more frightening. Newer evidence suggests that in some cases the virus can enter the brain. In most instances it enters the brain by way of the olfactory nerves (smell nerves), which connect directly with the area of the brain dealing with recent memory and memory consolidation. By wearing a mask, the exhaled viruses will not be able to escape and will concentrate in the nasal passages, enter the olfactory nerves and travel into the brain

Global Research published ‘Twenty Reasons Mandatory Face Masks are Unsafe, Ineffective and Immoral’ by John C. Manley quoted John F. Kennedy Jr. on the issue of totalitarianism associated with facemasks.  JFK Jr said that

“If you look at the history of totalitarian regimes… they all do the same thing, which is they try to crush culture, and crush any evidence of self-expression…” continued “And what is the ultimate vector for self-expression? It’s your facial expressions…. [Yet] we’ve all been told to put on the burqa and be obedient.”

Does Cuba really want to take part of a medical tyrannical agenda pushed on the planet by the same political elite that has been trying to destroy Cuba since the 1959 revolution?

Cuba and its people have political issues they need to work out among themselves, but to enforce facemasks despite the evidence that they don’t work and are considered a danger to human health in order to protect the public only makes its political situation more complicated.

Are Vaccines the Only Answer?  What about Ivermectin or Vitamin D?

Cuba believes that their vaccines can cure or prevent Covid-19, but did they research other alternative medicines such as Ivermectin or even vitamin-D?  The Desert Review, an independent online news source published an article by Dr. Justus R. Hope India’s Ivermectin Blackout. Censorship of Peer-reviewed Analysis on the media’s blackout on the success of how Ivermectin defeated Covid-19 in India:

There is a blackout on any conversation about how Ivermectin beat COVID-19 in India. When I discussed the dire straits that India found itself in early this year with 414,000 cases per day, and over 4,000 deaths per day, and how that evaporated within five weeks of the addition of Ivermectin, I am often asked, “But why is there no mention of that in the news?”

Dr. Hope continues,

“Yes, exactly. Ask yourself why India’s success against the Delta variant with Ivermectin is such a closely guarded secret by the NIH and CDC.”

Then he asks the question on why the mainstream media has not reported on the positive outcomes of Ivermectin, “ask yourself why no major media outlets reported this fact, but instead, tried to confuse you with false information by saying the deaths in India are 10 times greater than official reports.”

Dr. Joseph Mercola, one of the most outspoken doctors on the Covid-19 deception has written about the effectiveness of Ivermectin and the clinical evidence associated with it in ‘COVID, Ivermectin and the Crime of the Century’ said the following :

Data clearly show ivermectin can prevent COVID-19 and when used early can keep patients from progressing to the hyper-inflammatory phase of the disease. It can even help critically ill patients recover.

Ivermectin has a long history of use as an antiparasitic, but its antiviral properties have been under investigation since 2012.  Studies have shown ivermectin inhibits replication of SARS-CoV-2 and seasonal influenza viruses, inhibits inflammation through several pathways, lowers viral load, protects against organ damage, prevents transmission of SARS-CoV-2 when taken before or after exposure, speeds recovery and lowers risk of hospitalization and death in COVID-19 patients.

Doctors have been told not to use ivermectin as large controlled trials are still lacking. However, once you can see from clinical evidence that something is working, then conducting controlled trials becomes unethical, as you know you’re condemning the control group to poor outcomes or death. In fact, this is the exact argument vaccine makers now use to justify the elimination of control groups and giving everyone the vaccine

Author Jonathon Cook explains how effective is vitamin D against Covid-19 from a Spanish study in his article ‘Why Politicians and Doctors Keep Ignoring the Medical Research on Vitamin D and Covid’:

It is time to speak out forcefully now that a new, large-scale Spanish study demonstrates not a just a correlation but a causal relationship between high-dose Vitamin D treatment of hospitalised Covid patients and significantly improved outcomes for their health.

The pre-print paper in the Lancet shows there was an 80 per cent reduction in admission to intensive care units among hospitalised patients who were treated with large doses of Vitamin D, and a 64 per cent reduction in death. The possibility of these being chance findings are infinitesimally small, note the researchers. And to boot, the study found no side-effects even when these mega-doses were given short term to the hospitalised patients

One other fact about Cuba is that it is an island-nation that has sunshine all year-round that gives you natural vitamin-D.  So why did Cuban authorities close the beaches?  In fact, many countries around the world who have beaches did the same thing and that just makes no logical sense at all.

Cuba is also pushing forward with a plan to vaccinate its children from the early age of 2 through 18 with 2 doses of Soberana-2 vaccine that was developed by Cuban scientists.  According to Reuters

“Cuba will begin vaccinating adolescents against COVID-19 this week and younger children from mid-September as part of a drive to immunize more than 90% of the population by December, state-run media said on Wednesday” continued “all children ages 2 through 18 will receive at least two doses of the Cuban-developed Soberana-2 vaccine beginning Sept. 3, the official Cubadebate digital news outlet reported.”

Maybe the vaccine is safe according to their data and its most likely a traditional vaccine that has nothing to do with the new MRNA technology found in Pfizer and the Moderna vaccines, but for everything that can make you sick should not require a vaccine.

“Both Cuban vaccines, with a reported efficacy of more than 90%, have been approved by local regulators for emergency use, although the data has not yet been published in peer-reviewed journals.”

There are alternative drugs that can either cure you from Covid-19 or reduce the chances of you getting sick such as Ivermectin and vitamin D to name a few.  Now Cuban officials say “the campaign would resemble annual vaccinations against various childhood diseases, taking place at thousands of community-based family medical practices and clinics” meaning forever Covid-19 vaccinations will be the new normal.

On August 3rd, 2021, an article by Dr. Pascal Sacre titled The Specter of Vaccine Fundamentalism: Bowing Down and Serving the “God of Vaccines” has one part I would like to share with you when it comes to Cuba’s unrelenting belief in the use of vaccines:

For a drug as essential as ivermectin, with today’s accumulating evidence of its benefit in treating COVID-19, at all its stages, the number of randomized double-blind peer-reviewed studies will never be high enough for the Vaccine believer.

No paper, no scientist, even one with five Nobel Prizes, will ever convince the Vaccine believer.  On the other hand, for the God of Vaccines, any contradictory information will be fake news, disinformation, automatically demolished by the fact checkers, even before being analyzed, which it will never be anyways by the believers of the Vaccine.

The Vaccination religion feeds on the scientific aura, drapes itself in objectivity, rationality but in the case of Vaccination, it is only that, rags, appearance, fog. In reality, the belief in vaccination is nothing but subjectivity, emotionality and faith.  The “science” of Vaccination, as it is spread among today’s fundamentalists, is a parasite of true Science, a tumor invading true medicine

One thing I will say about the Cuban medical system is at least they are not driven by western-based pharmaceutical cartels and the profits associated with it or have a plan to depopulate the island-nation, they are not part of that globalist agenda.

The main problem is that they believe the only way that they can combat Covid-19 effectively is through the use of vaccines.  Granted they had some success at fighting other diseases such as lung cancer with their own vaccine developed by the Center for Molecular Immunology called Cimavax which has shown to help patients with terminal lung cancer live at least 3-months longer.  But for the purpose of defeating covid-19, vaccines should not be the only way to fight a disease.

Can the RT-PCR Test Realistically Confirm Covid-19 Cases?

Cuba uses the RT-PCR test which has been controversial to say the least.  However, according to the Pan-American Journal of Public Health who released a special report by the Cuban National Health Systemtitled ‘Equity and the Cuban National Health System’s response to COVID-19’ shows the confidence level of the Cuban government by using the Covid-19 RT-PCR test:

Use of the real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test was essential for confirming cases. Administration of these tests increased as the epidemic gained momentum, with a relatively uniform distribution across most of the regions. The main exception was the capital, which was the epicenter of the epidemic from the outset

Prof. Michel Chossudovsky, the editor of Global Research wrote an article that should be considered a wake-up call on why the RT-PCR tests produce inaccurate and basically useless results, ‘The WHO Confirms that the Covid-19 PCR Test is Flawed: Estimates of “Positive Cases” are Meaningless. The Lockdown Has No Scientific Basis’ on why the Covid-19 PCR tests are problematic.

Acknowledged both by scientific opinion and the WHO, the RT-PCR test used to “detect” the spread of the virus (as well as the variants) is not only flawed but TOTALLY INVALID

Chossudovsky points out what was admitted by the WHO in terms of the accuracy of the RT-PCR test in what he described as a carefully formulated retraction: 

WHO guidance Diagnostic testing for SARS-CoV-2 states that careful interpretation of weak positive results is needed (1). The cycle threshold (Ct) needed to detect virus is inversely proportional to the patient’s viral load. Where test results do not correspond with the clinical presentation, a new specimen should be taken and retested using the same or different NAT technology. (emphasis added)

WHO reminds IVD users that disease prevalence alters the predictive value of test results; as disease prevalence decreases, the risk of false positive increases (2). This means that the probability that a person who has a positive result (SARS-CoV-2 detected) is truly infected with SARS-CoV-2 decreases as prevalence decreases, irrespective of the claimed specificity

What is more evident of the RT-PCR test on what it really does was discussed by its inventor, Kary Mullis, a chemist who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry back in 1993 for his  invention of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique.  Here is what he said about the results of the PCR test and what implications it has:

Click here to watch the video.

Cuba’s Own Digital Vaccination Passport

An article published on May 28, 2021 by oncubanews.com ‘Cuba develops its own digital COVID vaccination passport’ reported that Cuba is falling indirectly in-line with the global medical establishment who are relentless in promoting vaccine passports, “Cuba is developing its own digital Covid vaccination passport, similar to the one promoted by other countries and regions of the world, the official media reported” which is not a good sign:

The Cuban passport is a project of the University of Computer Sciences (UCI) and is currently in the testing phase. “The different versions of the digital vaccination passports existing in the world were analyzed” for its creation, Allan Pierra Fuentes, director of the Technological Support Center of that house of advanced studies, commented to Granma daily.

The digital document developed by the UCI uses a QR code, “which will include the encrypted data of each person with an authorized signature, recognized by the WHO, which would only be provided by the Ministry of Public Health (MINSAP) and which can be read anywhere in the world, as it follows international standards,” said the publication

This is unbelievable to say the least.  Pierra Fuentes, director of the Technological Support Center of that house of higher studies said that

the idea is that any Cuban can have that digital passport printed, in the application on a mobile phone, send it by mail to the interested party or that it can be seen as an image on the cell phone,” he continued, “with that objective they have developed “three fundamental computing solutions.”

Pierra Fuentes explains the three computing solutions that will supposedly make life easy for the Cuban people:

The first of these solutions is a web page in which “users enter their vaccination data and the digital passport is generated,” while the second is “the verifier, capable of saying what information is stored by that QR code and if it was generated with a valid signature,” the source said.

Finally, the third application is the so-called “Passport Wallet,” which, according to the specialist, “will allow not only the user to have information, but also of other people in the family, and it can be displayed once it is requested”

According to Granma, Cuba’s  official newspaper said that the digital passport is to impose a

“health certification at the border” that will “provide Cubans and foreigners vaccinated in Cuba with the possibility of traveling with a valid vaccination document.”

The digital passport will also “regulate access to public places of concentration with health interest.” 

This is a disappointing.  It falls into the hands of the global establishment who want to impose a global medical dictatorship and Cuba is just blindly going along with this insanity.

Why Cuba Should Change Its Course of Action Regarding its Covid-19 Response

So why is Cuba following the Covid-19 narrative that has paralyzed the world?  Cuba has brilliant doctors and researchers that are capable of doing the necessary research to determine Covid-19 is an over-exaggerated lie, yes it does exist, but it is no more dangerous than the seasonal flu.

I understand that Cuba wants to uphold its reputation around the world as a responsible nation with an advanced medical system that has helped numerous people in-need around the world for decades, but their ideas about Covid-19 is clearly wrong on every level in terms of the lockdown and its mandates it had imposed right from the start.  From mandating the use of facemasks or their vaccines as a cure-for-all to developing its digital vaccination passports, they are in fact heading in the wrong direction.

If the Cuban government researched what is behind the Covid-19 agenda to control and enslave humanity, they would expose the truth to the world.  Their legacy stands as one of the main Latin American nations who resisted the US empire which did become an inspiration to many of us around the world.  By exposing the Covid-19 scam, Cuba could essentially create a second revolution against a medical tyranny that has crippled many nations both rich and poor.

This is not going to end anytime soon, so it’s time for them to re-evaluate what is actually going on around us and join a new worldwide revolution against the New World Order’s medical agenda that wants to have every nation on earth including Cuba, under their control.

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Timothy Alexander Guzman writes on his blog site, Silent Crow News, where this article was originally published. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

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Esplodono i prezzi nella battaglia del gas

October 12th, 2021 by Manlio Dinucci

L’esplosione dei prezzi del gas colpisce l’Europa nel momento critico della ripresa economica, dopo i disastrosi effetti dei lockdown del 2020. La spiegazione che ciò è dovuto alla crescita della domanda e al calo dell’offerta nasconde un quadro ben più complesso, in cui svolgono un ruolo primario fattori finanziari, politici e strategici. Gli Stati uniti accusano la Russia di usare il gas quale arma geopolitica, riducendo le forniture per costringere i governi europei a stipulare contratti a lungo termine con la Gazprom, come ha fatto la Germania col gasdotto North Stream. Washington preme sull’Unione europea perché si sganci dalla «dipendenza energetica» dalla Russia, che la rende «ostaggio» di Mosca.

Fondamentalmente per effetto di tale pressione sono calati nella Ue i contratti a lungo termine con la Gazprom per l’importazione di gas russo, mentre sono aumentati gli acquisti sui mercati spot (o cash), dove si acquistano partite di gas che vengono pagate in contanti nell’arco della giornata. La differenza è sostanziale: mentre col contratto a lungo termine si acquista gas a un prezzo basso, che viene mantenuto costante negli anni, nei mercati spot si acquista gas a prezzi volatili, generalmente molto più alti, determinati da speculazioni finanziarie nelle Borse merci. Enormi quantità di materie prime minerali e agricole vengono acquistate con contratti futures, che prevedono la consegna a una data stabilita e al prezzo convenuto al momento della stipula.

La strategia dei potenti gruppi finanziari che speculano su questi contratti è quella di far lievitare i prezzi delle materie prime (compresa l’acqua) per rivendere i futures a un prezzo più alto. Per avere un’idea del volume delle transazioni speculative delle Borse merci, basti pensare che solo la statunitense Chicago Mercantile Exchange, con sedi a Chicago e New York, effettua 3 miliardi di contratti l’anno per l’ammontare di un milione di miliardi di dollari (oltre dieci volte il valore del pil mondiale, ossia del valore reale prodotto in un anno nel mondo). Nel 2020, mentre l’economia mondiale era in gran parte paralizzata, il numero dei futures e contratti analoghi ha raggiunto il livello record di 46 miliardi, il 35% in più rispetto al 2019, provocando un rialzo dei prezzi delle materie prime.

Contemporaneamente, gli Usa premono sulla Ue perché sostituisca al gas russo quello statunitense. Nel 2018, con la dichiarazione congiunta tra il presidente Trump e il presidente della Commissione europea Juncker, l’Unione europea si è impegnata a «importare più gas naturale liquefatto (Lng) dagli Stati uniti per diversificare il suo approvvigionamento energetico». Il gas che arriva nella Ue è estratto negli Usa da scisti bituminosi con una tecnica di fratturazione che provoca danni ambientali gravissimi; viene quindi liquefatto raffreddandolo a -161°C e trasportato con navi gasiere a circa 30 terminali in Europa, dove viene rigassificato. Il gas statunitense, nonostante goda di benefici statali, resta molto più caro di quello russo e, per entrare nel mercato, ha bisogno che il prezzo generale del gas si mantenga ad alti livelli.

Si aggiunge a tutto questo la «guerra dei gasdotti», quella che l’Italia ha pagato a caro prezzo quando nel 2014 l’amministrazione Obama, di concerto con la Commissione europea, ha bloccato il South Stream, il gasdotto in fase avanzata di realizzazione che, in base all’accordo tra Eni e Gazprom, avrebbe portato direttamente in Italia attraverso il Mar Nero gas russo a basso prezzo. La Russia ha aggirato l’ostacolo con il TurkStream che, attraverso il Mar Nero, porta il gas russo nel lembo europeo della Turchia, proseguendo nei Balcani per rifornire Serbia e Croazia.

Il 29 settembre a Budapest, la Gazprom e la compagnia Mvm Energy hanno firmato due contratti a lungo termine per la fornitura all’Ungheria di gas russo a basso prezzo per 15 anni. Una sconfitta per Washington, appesantita dal fatto che Ungheria e Croazia fanno parte della Nato. Washington sicuramente risponderà non solo sul piano economico, ma su quello politico e strategico. Il conto lo paghiamo noi, con il rincaro delle bollette e in genere del costo della vita.

Manlio Dinucci

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Prices Explode in the Gas Battle

October 12th, 2021 by Manlio Dinucci

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The gas price explosion hits Europe at the critical moment of economic recovery after the disastrous effects of the 2020 lockdowns. The explanation, claiming it is due to the growth in demand and decline in supply, hides a much more complex scenario, where financial, political and strategic factors play a primary role.

The United States accused Russia of using gas as a geopolitical weapon, reducing supplies to force European governments to enter into long-term contracts with Gazprom, as Germany did with the North Stream pipeline. Washington pressed on the European Union to free from its “energy dependence” on Russia making itself a “hostage” to Moscow.

Basically, as a result of this pressure long-term contracts with Gazprom for Russian gas import have dropped in the EU, while purchasing on the spot (or cash) markets have increased, where gas lots are purchased and paid for in cash throughout the day. The difference is substantial: while you buy gas with a long-term contract at a low price, which is kept constant over the years, in the spot markets you buy gas at volatile prices, generally much higher, and determined by financial speculations in the Commodities Exchanges.

Huge quantities of mineral and agricultural raw materials are purchased with future contracts, which provide for delivery on a set date and at the price agreed upon at the time of signing. The strategy of powerful financial groups, that speculate on these contracts, is to raise the prices of raw materials (including water) to resell futures at a higher price.

To get an idea of the speculative transaction volume of the Commodities Exchanges, just think that only the US Chicago Mercantile Exchange, with offices in Chicago and New York, carries out 3 billion contracts a year for one million-billion-dollar amount (over ten times the value of world GDP, or the real value produced in a year in the world). In 2020, while the world economy was largely paralyzed, the number of futures and similar contracts reached a record level of 46 billion, 35% more than in 2019, causing a rise in commodity prices.

At the same time, the U.S. is pressing the EU to replace Russian gas with U.S. gas. In 2018, in a joint statement between President Trump and European Commission President Juncker, the EU pledged to “import more liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States to diversify its energy supply.” The gas that arrives in the EU is extracted in the U.S. from oil shale using a fracturing technique that causes serious environmental damage; it is then liquefied by cooling it to -161°C and transported by gas tankers to about 30 terminals in Europe, where it is regasified. US gas, despite enjoying state benefits, remains much more expensive than Russian gas and, in order to enter the market, needs the general price of gas to remain at high levels.

Add to all this the “gas pipeline war”, a war that Italy paid dearly when in 2014 the Obama Administration, in agreement with the European Commission, blocked South Stream, the gas pipeline at an advanced stage of construction which would have brought low-cost Russian gas directly to Italy via the Black Sea under the agreement between Italian Eni and Gazprom.

Russia has circumvented the obstacle with the TurkStream which across the Black Sea carries Russian gas to the European edge of Turkey, continuing to supply Serbia and Croatia in the Balkans. On September 29 in Budapest, Gazprom and the MVM Energy Company signed two long-term contracts for the supply of low-cost Russian gas to Hungary for 15 years. A defeat for Washington, weighed down by the fact that Hungary and Croatia are part of NATO.

Washington will certainly respond not only economically, but politically and strategically. We will pay the bill, with the increase of gas bills, and the cost of living in general.

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This article was originally published in Italian on Il Manifesto.

Manlio Dinucci, award winning author, geopolitical analyst and geographer, Pisa, Italy. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization.

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These social reforms are meant to address some of the more glaring social contradictions produced by four decades of neoliberal policies, but with the objective to strengthen capitalism and preempt radicalism.

For more than a week the country has been caught up in the ongoing melodrama of the “Build Back Better” (BBB) legislation, the Democrat Party’s “social investment” bill now languishing in the House because of the inability of the Democrats to come to an agreement. The fight is characterized by the corporate media as an intra-party struggle between the emerging “progressive/left” pole of the Party and the “center,” represented by the recalcitrant neoliberal corporate Democrats in the persons of Senators Joe Manchin from West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema from Arizona.

But the media’s tendency to reduce this struggle to a battle of personalities distorts, in a fundamental way, the real interests at play in this fight. The intra-party struggle of Democrats is a crystallization of the complex and contradictory reality of the intra-class struggle within the dominant wing of the capitalist class on the correct strategies for dealing with the ongoing and deepening capitalist crisis.

The real terms of the struggle are between the class faction that sees the need to preempt potential radical working-class rebellion by making non-threatening reforms meant to bring some psychological relief and minor material benefits to the laboring classes as some of the provisions in the BBB legislation would bring.

Another faction of the ruling class, however, is concerned with the legislation’s cost, the threat it poses to their economic interests, and a potentially dangerous shift of influence, if not power, to the laboring classes. They see expanded social-welfare spending as inflationary and providing leverage to the working class. Being militantly committed to the logic of the neoliberal project, this faction wants to hold the line on government spending, impose austerity at every level of government and is opposed to state interventions into the economy that would reduce the precarity of workers by undermining the carefully constructed labor management policy goals that have been faithfully carried over the last forty years of discipling U.S. labor and driving down its costs in the U.S.

It is imperative that the left, particularly left forces representing Black and nationally oppressed peoples, employ a materialist, class analysis as the lens and framework to inform their critique of the BBB legislation. If we fail to engage this legislation in this way, we run the risk of inadvertently helping to obfuscate the political and ideological agenda of capital, whose objective is to dissipate and manage the class struggle

Was Build Back Better Really Intended to Be Passed in Its Entirety? 

It is clear that the main focus of Joe Biden’s legislative priority was getting the infrastructure bill passed. It received bipartisan support and was able to pass in the Senate, and is being supported by a majority in the House because it represents the consensus across all elements of the capitalist class.

That consensus, however, does not exist for the BBB. Yet, there is a reason that Joe Biden, the consensus choice of the neoliberal ruling class, embraced a number of reforms during his campaign and after assuming office that cannot be understood as just the result of “pressure” from the left-pole of his party.

The fact that Biden was comfortable enough to at least pretend to be committed to a number of “liberal” policies like expanding Medicaid and investing in pre-K and child-care was precisely because an important faction of the capitalist class has arrived at the position that, if not correctly managed, the more blunt-edge elements of domestic neoliberalism were posing dangerous and potentially irreversible legitimation challenges to the entire system.

From advocating for a 70% marginal tax rate and 3% tax on every dollar over one billion in wealth to support a basic income for every “American,” and redefining the role of corporations to entities committed to serving “all of the people,”  tThe Business Roundtable, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and capitalists like Warren Buffet and the CEO of BlackRock represent the tendency among the U.S.-based but transnationally-oriented capitalist class that sees redistributionist state policies and some kind of brake on the obscene economic inequality as vital to preempt serious social upheavals from workers and members of a shrinking middle-class.

The editors at the Wall Street Journal, the flagship paper of the U.S. ruling class, also argued that adjustments to what has been called neoliberalism had to be made.

But the editors of the Financial Times, the paper of choice for the international bourgeoisie, made what was a startling claim on April 4, 2020 that the era of neoliberalism was basically over:

“Radical reforms – reversing the prevailing policy direction of the last four decades – will need to be put on the table. Governments will have to accept a more active role in the economy. They must see public services as investments rather than liabilities and look for ways to make labor markets less insecure. Redistribution will again be on the agenda; the privileges of the elderly and wealthy in question. Policies until recently considered eccentric, such as basic income and wealth taxes, will have to be in the mix.”

Biden got the message and shared his thinking on how to advance a public relations approach that would offer some marginal and temporary relief without changing anything when he told his Wall Street funders:

“When you have income inequality as large as we have in the United States today, it brews and ferments political discord and basic revolution. It allows demagogues to step in and blame ‘the other’ . . . You all know in your gut what has to be done. We can disagree in the margins. But the truth of the matter is, it is all within our wheelhouse and nobody has to be punished. No one’s standard of living would change. Nothing would fundamentally change.”

Just a few months ago, what was once unthinkable, ideas that were rejected as extreme and a threat, are now subject of serious discussion, not because capitalists have suddenly experienced a scrooge-like transformation but because they are recognizing that even the absence of a militant movement putting pressure on them, they have to have stop-gap measures to address the now glaring contradiction of neoliberal capitalism that the economic crisis in 2008 and the 2020 pandemic exposed. Therefore, there is no “radical” departure here. The consummate servant of capital, Biden, is simply carrying out the new program.

However, what is also becoming clear is that the BBB was not meant to be passed in whole. It was pure political theater meant to placate the Party’s “left-pole.” The real target is/was the infrastructure bill. The Party bosses’ plan was to draw the progressives into a deal in which they would support the infrastructure bill, accept a “framework” for the BBB that would then get whittled down and backlogged with delayed spending that would then get reduced even more when the Republicans came back into office.

The clashing of interests within the ruling class, even among some of those same elements who supported some minor ameliorative reforms and the delay in passing the BBB as a result of the progressives holding firm, suggest that the above scenario is not that far fetched.

Welcome the Change, But Recognize the Ruling Class’s Fears and Build for More Independent Power

The New York Times is correct: “The Build Back Better Act is centrism taken seriously;,” it is “an effort to fix American democracy through economic support rather than structural political change.”

So, while the left could welcome this so-called stimulus bill if it is passed in whole, we must not have any illusions. The capitalist class is clear. They are supportive of this partial Keynesianism as long as the policies do not threaten their fundamental interests or require real sacrifices for their class.

For workers, and especially Black and other colonized workers and the poor, the provision for universal pre-K and support for child-care, paid parental leave, expanded Medicaid and Medicare, free community college, new funding for public housing support, elder-care, and possibilities of new job creation as a result of public investments in green-oriented industries, are important.

However, it is equally important that we do not become cheerleaders for what the rulers understand, perhaps better than some of us, that these social reforms are meant to address some of the more glaring social contradictions produced by four decades of neoliberal policies, but with the objective to strengthen capitalism and preempt radicalism.

Biden’s mission is to restore U.S. capitalism’s profitability, ability to compete with China, and to preempt domestic radicalization. By advancing reforms that blunt some of the sharpest contradictions of the system, it is believed that it will stabilize the neoliberal order while not substantially reversing the logic of labor discipline that four decades of neoliberal policies have created.

Yet, it is truly an “impossible mission.” The competing and conflicting interests among capitalist factions will continue to make it impossible for their class to support a relative “disciplining” of their fractional interests for the longer-term interests of the system. Once the “progressives” did not cave and insisted on both bills being passed together, not only did the Pelosi/Schumer/Biden plan fail, but the delay of the vote also exposed the irreconcilable interests among the ruling class.

Powerful capitalist associations like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), and Business Roundtable, as well as energy company interest groups like the American Petroleum Institute (API) are vigorously challenging the climate elements in the bill. Democratic Party representatives are also getting enormous pressure from the pharmaceutical and health insurance companies.

And the corporate media is constructing a narrative that is shifting the blame for a deal not being done unto the “progressives” as opposed to the two front persons for the neoliberal agenda, which, of course, exposes the con that those two individuals were the real holdouts.

Therefore, Biden and Democrats’ “Keynesianism” is strategic. It is designed to draw the millions of workers back to the Democratic Party that voted for Obama but went over to Trump and reversed the dangerous legitimation crisis generated by the capitalist crisis that began in 2008 and deepened with COVID in 2020 and exposed the precarious nature of the economic rebound that Trump was claiming for himself up to that moment.

The expansion of welfare state spending will do little to mitigate the profound social inequalities of the U.S. Expanded social programs cannot reverse the structural contradictions caused by stagnant wages, escalating housing costs, tendencies toward continued and deepening unemployment with automation, AI, continued offshoring, unaffordable and inadequate access to healthcare, a class-based discriminatory education funding, and a crumbling public transportation system.

The people are starting to understand that radical change is necessary. The question is what kind of change. Those of us on the left who are committed to socialism know that as long as the means of production are in the hands of a few, the wealth that is generated in the production process will continue to produce obscene levels of wealth inequality in capitalist societies that translates into the power to dominate, dehumanize, and degrade the rest of us.

So, we should accept these reforms but fight for more. Workers, in particular women workers, will benefit materially if those provisions that address child poverty, childcare, the grotesque levels of maternal and infant mortality among Black and Brown working class women. And, therefore, cannot be casually dismissed as unimportant.

But we will not give unearned praise to our class enemies. We must fight even more furiously knowing that they fear us, and that victory is ours to claim.

From Common Dreams: Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

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This article was originally published on Common Dreams.

Ajamu Baraka was the 2016 candidate for vice president on the Green Party ticket. He is an editor and contributing columnist for the Black Agenda Report and contributing columnist for Counterpunch magazine.  His latest publications include contributions to Killing Trayvons: An Anthology of American Violence (Counterpunch Books, 2014), Imagine: Living in a Socialist USA (HarperCollins, 2014) and Claim No Easy Victories: The Legacy of Amilcar Cabral ( CODESRIA, 2013). He can be reached at www.AjamuBaraka.com

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COVIDSafe: The Failure of an App

October 12th, 2021 by Dr. Binoy Kampmark

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Labor Rights: The Great Strike of 2021

October 12th, 2021 by Dr. Jack Rasmus

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The best definition of a strike is when ‘workers withhold their labor’ for better wages and working conditions. The conventional wisdom is that unions go on strike. But that is incorrect. Workers go on strike and they don’t necessarily need to be members of unions. That fact is evident today as millions of US workers are refusing to return to their jobs. They are ‘withholding their labor’ searching for better pay and a future.

We are witnessing the ‘Great Strike of 2021’ and it’s composed mostly of millions low paid non-unionized workers!

Workers returned to jobs at a rate of 889,000 a month during the 2nd quarter 2021 (April-June) as the economy reopened. That average fell to only 280,000 per month in the just completed 3rd quarter 2021 (July-Sept), according to the Economic Policy Institute.

The most recent September month figure was only 194,000 jobs were refilled, according to the US Labor Department’s monthly ‘Employment Situation Report. That missed mainstream economists’ prediction of 500,000.

According to various Tables in the US Labor Department’s monthly ‘Employment Situation Reports’ (A-1, A-13, B-1), only half of the workers who were jobless at the start of 2021 have returned to work. Officially, per the Labor Dept. more than 5 million still have not. But that 5 million is a gross under-estimation. It doesn’t count the 3 millions more who have dropped out of the labor force altogether and are no less jobless than those officially recorded as unemployed. Nor does the 5 million include a several million or so workers who were mis-classified by the Labor Dept. as employed in March 2020 when the pandemic began simply because they indicated when surveyed by the government that they expected to return to work even though they weren’t working at the time of survey. The Labor Dept. soon thereafter acknowledged it was an error to count them as employed, but to date it has still refused to correct the numbers. That number of mis-classified as employed today remains around 1 million or so.

So there are somewhere around 8 to 10 million workers in the US still without any work at all, (which doesn’t account for the millions more who are underemployed working part time or a few hours a week here and there).

Many of the 9 million or so are not returning to work out of choice—i.e. they are ‘withholding their labor’. They are in effect on strike for something better.

While most are low paid, their ranks aren’t limited to just those industries that first come to mind—like hospitality or retail work. The ranks of the low paid are common across nearly all industries in the US today, not just hospitality or retail.

Comparing the US Labor Dept.’s level of employment as of September 2021 to the pre-pandemic months of January-February 2020, number show workers withholding their labor is widespread across industries and occupations: Leisure & Hospitality shows 1.6 million fewer working today, in September 2021, compared with pre-pandemic months of January-February 2020. But the Health Care industry, with hundreds of thousands low paid workers in home health care and clinics, shows 524,000 fewer employed today compared to January 2020. Professional & Personal business services shortfall is 385,000; Education services—with its hundreds of thousands of adjuncts in higher education and millions of K-12 teachers paid low wages in small non-union school districts—is down by no fewer than 676,000. One would think manufacturing was a case to the contrary. But no. Millions of manufacturing workers are employed as ‘temps’ with low pay and no benefits—even in union contracts. Manufacturing has 353,000 fewer jobs today than it had in early January 2020. Ditto for Construction, with 201,000 fewer. And so on.

That’s more than 5 million fewer—not counting those having dropped out of the labor force altogether or those still mis-classified as working.

It’s safe to assume that at least half of the 9 million with no work whatsoever are refusing to return to work out of choice. That’s 4 to 5 million who are de facto ‘on strike’. The USA is in the midst of the ‘Great Strike of 2021’, involving millions of the low paid and super-exploited US workers across virtually all US industries!

Signs are beginning to appear that their example may now be spreading to the unionized workforce as well. Union contract renewals are being rejected—and strikes imminent or in progress—in industries from food processing (Kellog workers) to agricultural equipment (John Deere) to hospitals and healthcare on the west coast. These are large union bargaining units involving thousands, and tens of thousands of union workers.

Capitalist Ideology: Reversing Cause & Effect

Employers, business media, politicians and most mainstream economists won’t acknowledge they’re in a strike wave of both the unorganized and organized. They are united, however, in trying to blame the workers for what is a de facto walk out by millions. They are all lamenting, and scratching their heads, with no answers as to why so many workers are not returning to their jobs or willing to leave them—especially now that vaccines are available and employers are advertising job openings.

Their explanation earlier this past summer was unemployment benefits were too generous and were thus responsible for keeping millions of workers not returning to work. This theme was especially popular among politicians in the Red states. Starting last June 2021 many Red state governors and legislatures unilaterally and pre-emptively cut unemployment benefits, even though the benefits were to continue until September. The then went silent as data over the summer showed that the few ‘blue’ states that did not cut benefits early—like California, New Jersey, etc.—actually showed a greater rate of return of workers to their jobs over the summer than did Red states that cut unemployment benefits early. So much for that argument.

Now the drumbeat by employers, politicians, and Red states is that child care benefits and improvement in food stamps are keeping workers from returning. It’s the old employer strike strategy: starve them out and they’ll come back to work.

In other words, workers’ refusing to return to work has nothing to do with unlivable low wages, with lack of alternative health care for themselves and their families since returning to work means loss of government COBRA payments or Medicaid, with unavailable or unaffordable child care. It has nothing to do with employers offering many workers to return to work but at fewer hours and no guarantee of hours needed to ensure sufficient weekly earnings to cover their bills. It has nothing to do with employers insisting on unstable family-destroying work schedules, no civilized paid leave, and in general no hope for the future ever getting out of what is in effect a system of modern work indenture afflicting tens of millions of US workers today.

According to many employers, their media, and their politicians, it’s the fault of the workers themselves. They’ve been given too much during the pandemic and now they don’t want to work! That’s the Capitalist mantra and explanation for the millions refusing to return.

With that explanation, employers, media, politicians and mainstream economists turn reality on its head! As is typical of the language games played by capitalist ideology, they have reversed cause and effect. The victims—the workers—are the cause of the problem and not the result or effect. Workers are the cause of the rate of job returns falling by two-thirds the past three months compared to the previous April-June period. Left unmentioned is the decades-long practices of paying unlivable low wages, few or no benefits, and working conditions so inadequate that virtually all other advanced capitalist economy have abandoned them years ago (i.e. no paid leave, child care, national health care, etc.).
The more accurate way to look at what’s going on is that perhaps as many as half of the 9 to 10 million still without any work today are withholding their labor and looking for better wages, benefits, conditions, and new jobs that provide some hope for the future. 4 to 5 million US workers are in effect ‘On Strike’.

The Great Strike Wave of 1970-71

The last great strike wave in America was 50 years ago, in 1970-71. At that time it was union workers who walked out en masse in construction, trucking, auto, on the docks and in dozens of other big manufacturing, construction and transport companies.

This working class history has largely been ignored by academics and the capitalist media. Probably because the strikes were so successful, in nearly all instances the striking workers and their unions winning big victories! On average, that strike wave resulted in 25% immediate increases in wages and benefits in no more than three year term agreements. The workers and unions could not be stopped by employers. They were so successful the companies had to turn to the US government to halt the successful strikes and contract settlements. They turned to Nixon, president at the time, in the summer of 1971 who quickly issued emergency executive orders to freeze wages won by the strikes and then roll back the 25% wage and benefit gains to no more than 5.5%.

The wage freeze and rollbacks were central elements to Nixon’s so-called New Economic Program (NEP) issued that same August 1971 along with the wage freeze. In the NEP Nixon also attacked US Capitalist competitors in Europe and elsewhere with various trade measures and by ended the guarantee of exchanging the US dollar for 32 ounces of gold. That blew up what was called the ‘Bretton Woods’ international capitalist system that the US itself had set up in 1944.

In the former great strike wave of 1970-71 there were 10,800 strikes during the two years, with more than 6.6 million workers participating and 114 million work days lost due to the strikes. The 1970-71 strike wave was in some ways as great as the preceding big wave of 1945-46. In that period there were approximately 9,750 strikes involving 8.1 million workers resulting in an even larger 154 million work days lost due to the strikes. (Source: Analysis of Work Stoppages, US Department of Labor, Bulletin 1777, 1973)

Fast forward another half century, to the present day. There are almost as many workers ‘withholding their labor’ at around 4 to 5 million—with the number possibly rising as union workers join their ranks as their contracts expire. Number of work days lost is still to be estimated. But there is no doubt that there’s a new militancy rising, as workers take their fate into their own hands—or should one say ‘with their feet’ as they walk away from their jobs and withhold their labor!

What’s different today is today’s Great Strike of 2021 is not led by the unions. Private sector unions in the US have been decimated and almost destroyed since 1980 as a consequence of Neoliberal policies of decades of offshoring of jobs, free trade agreements, and massive government tax subsidies to corporations to replace workers with automation, machinery, and new capital equipment.
Replacing this job destruction the past four decades were tens of millions of low paid minimum wage and substandard service, temp, part-time, gig and similar indentured ‘precariate’ jobs as they are called. The recent Covid crisis exacerbated and deepened the economic contraction of 2020-21. And now the low paid, precarious, and de facto indentured work force are in revolt.
Many industries and companies are now having to raise their wages and pay recall or hiring bonuses to try to get workers to return, as they continue to withhold their labor and create a labor supply shortage. Shortages of labor supply usually mean wages must rise. But the practice is uneven across industries and still largely anecdotal.

Historical Significance of the Great Strike of 2021

The US is in the midst of an historical event. Sections of the US working class may be awakening—on their own—and not led by unions that have either been destroyed or are being led by senior union leaders who don’t want to strike out of concern it might ‘embarrass’ their Democrat Party senior friends.

The great strike of 2021 is composed, in contrast, of mostly the non-unionized workforce—lower paid service workers, independent long haul truckers, delivery drivers in the cities, hospitality workers in hotel and restaurant service, workers in retail, on local construction projects, teachers and school bus drivers, nurses ‘burned out’ by chronic overtime, warehouse and food processing workers pushed to the limit for the past 18 months, home care aide workers exploited by US middleman ‘coyotes’, and so on. The list is long.

Mainstream economists and politicians have very little understanding of the fundamental, structural changes to production processes and to product-service markets that the Covid period and deep contraction has wrought. Those changes are still be revealed. And many will prove profound. The restructuring of US labor markets now appearing is just the beginning The Great Strike of 2021 is but the symptom. Product markets and global distribution of goods and services are under similar great stress and change as well. Not least, the full effect of financial asset markets—i.e. stocks, bonds, derivatives, forex, digital currency, etc.—is yet to be felt as well. That one is yet to come and when it does may prove the most de-stabilizing of all.

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Jack Rasmus blogs at http://jackrasmus.com and hosts the weekly radio show, Alternative Visions, on the Progressive Radio Network every Friday at 2pm eastern time. Join him at twitter for daily updates at @drjackrasmus.

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There have been a number of suggestions online that the withdrawal of American soldiers from overseas is being undertaken to use the troops against those individuals and domestic groups that are being targeted by the Justice Department. The possibility has a certain coherency given that we have a White House that it believes it has the right to forcefully inflict medical procedures on anyone who happens to live in the US, but it falls down due to the fact that the soldiers themselves might side with the dissidents as they are being sent to reeducation camps and subsequently weeded out based on their political views, even to the extent of having their social media covertly monitored. Quis custodet custodes?, one must ask.

If there is one thing that all Americans should feel pleased with the Republican Party performance it is the fact that the then Republican dominated Senate was able to block President Barack Obama’s bid to place Merrick Garland on the Supreme Court. The downside of that is, of course, that he now is Joe Biden’s Attorney General, where he is very well placed to engage in mischief that will potentially affect all Americans. In fact, he has proven to be a more than willing accomplice in the social engineering that the Biden Administration is engaged in, to include his declaration of war against white supremacists as the single greatest terrorist threat the United States faces today.

One might well recall Taki Theodoracopulos’s recent comment that “If America survives in its current form, years from now people will wonder how society was enslaved by a minority of privileged people who would surrender and give up their mother at the first sign of an attack.” That defines Garland and those around him, but he is generally regarded by the media and those who care about such things, as a moderate, judicially speaking. As I can hardly confirm his actual views on anything, I would not dispute that assessment, but I would note that he certainly walks like a standard Democratic Party liberal duck since he has been appointed Attorney General, very tolerant of bizarre “woke” culture and taking the lead on finding and punishing domestic terrorists. The enemies list admittedly features white supremacists regarded ipso facto as extremists, but it now also includes parents who do not support “critical race theory” (CRT) in the nation’s public schools.

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky has observed how “The Department of Justice’s fight against angry parents is a real testament to the authoritarian nature of the Biden administration and indeed, the entirety of the left. It takes a lot of hubris to declare that you know how to raise someone’s child better than them and send authorities to shut you down when you protest that.” To be sure, Critical Race Theory has been fairly criticized as it pretends to be an antidote to systemic racism but is itself racist in nature as it opposes a race neutral system that equally benefits everyone. It proposes that America’s governmental bodies and infrastructures are racist and supportive of “white supremacy” and must be deconstructed. It requires everything to be examined through a value system determined by identity politics and race and it views both whites and their institutions as hopelessly corrupted, if not evil. This is what will be taught to children and this is why parents are protesting.

One has to wonder if a “moderate” jurist would support using the nation’s law enforcement resources to come down on hard on people, most of whom are committing something that might be referred to as thought crimes. The mainstream media has little to say on the issue, most probably because Garland is a protected species called “Jewish” and he is also serving a liberal Democratic Administration. One notes in particular that Garland has said nothing about intensifying FBI efforts to identify, arrest, prosecute and confine the black lives matter punks who rioted, burned and looted last summer, causing billions of dollars-worth of damage, and beating and even killing those who resisted. Could it be because they are part of the Democratic Party coalition?

Some of the press coverage on Garland that does exist is embarrassing because it is exculpatory of what might be an egregious violation of the Constitution by a government that might be described truthfully as neo-totalitarian. Indeed, Garland’s most recent pronouncement on cracking down on CRT critics triggered an approving puff piece from Newsweek, which once upon a time was considered a reliable news magazine.

The article is headlined “Merrick Garland Tackles Threats to Educators Amid Critical Race Theory Furor,” which is all you need to know about what will follow. Per News-weak and Garland, educators are being threatened by racists. Its lead paragraphs states that “Attorney General Merrick Garland is taking aim at intimidation and threats of violence directed at educators and school administrators who are working to give children ‘a proper education in a safe environment.’ Garland issued a memorandum to FBI Director Christopher Wray and federal prosecutors on Monday saying there had been a ‘disturbing spike’ in threats against school personnel and promising to take measures to deal with the issue. The move from the Department of Justice comes after fraught scenes at school board meetings across the country, with heated exchanges about COVID-19 regulations and Critical Race Theory (CRT).”

Garland’s action was reportedly in response to a letter from the politically left-leaning National School Boards Association (NSBA) to President joe Biden on September 29th, comparing threats against school personnel to “domestic terrorism.” It said “…many public school officials are…facing physical threats because of propaganda purporting the false inclusion of critical race theory within classroom instruction and curricula. As these acts of malice, violence, and threats against public school officials have increased, the classification of these heinous actions could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes.”

Garland is mobilizing what he refers to as a “Partnership among federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial law enforcement.” The FBI memorandum itself argues that “In recent months, there has been a disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff who participate in the vital work of running our nation’s public schools. While spirited debate about policy matters is protected under our Constitution, that protection does not extend to threats of violence or efforts to intimidate individuals based on their views. Threats against public servants are not only illegal, they run counter to our nation’s core values. Those who dedicate their time and energy to ensuring that our children receive a proper education in a safe environment deserve to be able to do their work without fear for their safety. The Department takes these incidents seriously and is committed to using its authority and resources to discourage these threats, identify them when they occur, and prosecute them when appropriate. In the coming days, the Department will announce a series of measures designed to address the rise in criminal conduct directed toward school personnel.”

Merrick Garland, like Newsweek, makes pretty clear where he sits on the issue and it is beyond amusing to see him write about the “nation’s core values,” which he and his accomplices are attempting to subvert and destroy. The school boards are presumed to be completely innocent while the parents protesting against the “values” being forced down the throats of their children by the recently empowered “woke” fanatics who tend to make up many of the boards are the criminals. If Garland had looked a little deeper, he would have discovered that quite a lot of the harassment and intimidation is coming from the members of the school boards and their political allies in local government and the media, as has been evident in Loudoun County Virginia. Indeed, while Garland states his intention to stop those who would “intimidate individuals based on their views,” that is exactly what he and his friends in the world of education are trying to do, and succeeding in many places. A “proper education in a safe environment” is precisely what students are not receiving as standards are dropped and the focus on racism and transgenderism begin to influence and generally dominate what is in the curriculum, aided and abetted by hypocrites like Merrick Garland and his nominal boss the perpetually befuddled President Joe Biden.

No one can make a better assessment of what is happening to our country than former congressman Ron Paul. In a recent piece entitled “Parents Should Control Education” he observes: “In contrast to an authoritarian society, a free society recognizes that parents have both the responsibility and the right to provide their children with a quality education that reflects the parents’ values. Teachers who use their positions to indoctrinate children in beliefs that contradict the views of the parents are the ones overstepping their bounds. Restoring parental control of education should be a priority for all who believe in liberty. If government can override the wishes of parents in the name of ‘education’ or ‘protecting children’s health’ then what area of our lives is safe from government intrusion?”

Indeed Dr. Paul, with Merrick Garland at the helm and Captain Queeg in the White House no area of our lives is safe from the government.

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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 https://councilforthenationalinterest.org address is P.O. Box 2157, Purcellville VA 20134 and its email is [email protected]

He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

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Pigs and Canadian imperialism. Most people would have difficulty understanding the connection. But for many Haitians the relationship is a historical memory.

Recently, African Swine Fever (ASF) was detected in Haiti. Specialists were not surprised since a couple months earlier pigs in the neighboring Dominican Republic were detected with a disease that is harmless to humans but can kill hogs.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency statement said it would support “efforts by the Dominican Republic and Haiti to manage the spread of ASF within their borders.” While seemingly innocuous, this statement could unearth deep scars among Haitians.

In the early 1980s Ottawa helped fund and oversee the eradication of the country’s “Creole” pigs. Fearing ASF from Haiti might harm the North American hog industry, the US and Canada pressured notorious dictator Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier to eradicate all the indigenous “Creole” pigs on the island and replace them with northern animals. A number of Agriculture Canada veterinarians and officials participated in the $17.3 million ($50 million today) campaign to eradicate the disease.

Despite receiving minimal compensation, Haitian pig owners largely complied with the order. Afterall, the experts from a wealthy and educated country like Canada must know best. Plus, paid informers reported on hidden pigs and Duvalier’s henchman threatened those failing to comply.

The campaign was highly effective. ASF was eliminated in Haiti but so were an entire breed of animals that “could make do with whatever food it found under foot, including human excrement.”

Rather than replace the pigs with similar animals from elsewhere in the Caribbean, hogs from Canada and the US were brought in. But, these ”improved breeds” required a pen, feed and other niceties far beyond the reach of most Haitian peasants. In effect, the foreign pigs could not survive Haiti’s harsh conditions.

An Agriculture Canada veterinarian who participated in the eradication later expressed regret about the slaughter. ”They should have kept a nucleus of creole pigs,” Roland Brunet told the Globe and Mail in 1987. “After all, it’s pretty terrible to have got rid of a breed that corresponded to the needs of the people.”

The pig eradication devastated the countryside. Hogs were the primary means for the peasantry to store wealth in case of emergency (to pay for school, seeds, baptisms or a funeral). A nearly 50% reduction in school enrollment was linked to the pig eradication. According to an estimate by a French veterinarian specializing in tropical medicine, 610,000 families owned at least one pig before the extermination, but by 1987 the number had fallen to 40,000 families. The eradication program wiped out much of the peasantry’s savings.

Jean-Jacques Delate labeled the eradication “a monumental blunder and a phenomenal swindle.” The French government funded veterinarian told the Globe and Mail, “the extermination profited only two countries, the United States and Canada. Canada was as dishonest as the United States.”

Haitians have not forgotten about the devastation wrought by this policy. A few months ago, Moïse Jean-Charles, one of the country’s most popular politicians, decried the pig eradication in a speech to hundreds of supporters.

Canada, and some Haitians, thought North Americans knew best 40 years ago. The result was an economic disaster for already poor farmers and some profits for Canadian and American agricultural interests. Does the Canadian Food Inspection Agency remember? Does it care? Or will it once again be used as an imperialist tool to extract wealth from people who have been exploited far too much?

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Argentinian Doctor Shares His Ivermectin Experience

October 12th, 2021 by Dr. Joseph Mercola

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Argentina has extensive medical experience with ivermectin. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, it was used to treat dengue fever, which is endemic in Argentina

Early in the pandemic, Dr. Hector Carvallo, a retired medical professor in Argentina, devised two ivermectin trials to assess the drug’s usefulness against SARS-CoV-2. His treatment protocols are used in five Argentinian provinces. In one province, the death rate was reduced to one-third in less than a month, in the middle of the outbreak

When used preventatively, ivermectin is administered in conjunction with carrageenan, which also has antiviral properties

When treating mild cases, ivermectin is administered with aspirin; in moderate cases with aspirin and corticosteroids, and in severe cases, ivermectin is given with enoxaparin, an anticoagulant drug

These drug combinations were selected based on what was known about other viruses that cause similar health effects as SARS-CoV-2, such as the rhabdovirus’ effect on neurology, the paramyxovirus, which causes hyperinflammation in the lungs, and the dengue virus, which overamplifies the immune system

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Click here to watch the video.

In this interview, we continue the COVID-19 discussion with a medical expert from Argentina, Dr. Hector Carvallo, whose focus since early 2020 has been the prevention and treatment of COVID-19.

Carvallo graduated from medical school in 1981 — the same year AIDS emerged as a global pandemic. In the first two years, AIDS killed 2 million people. Since 1981, it has claimed the lives of 35 million. While officially retired for a couple of years, the 2020 COVID pandemic brought him out of retirement.

“My first fire baptism was with AIDS,” he says. “I have dedicated my professional time to teaching and assisting. I graduated as a professor in 1996, and worked as a professor for the School of Medicine in Buenos Aires, which is public. Later, I was an associate professor of internal medicine for two private schools of medicine until I retired a couple of years ago.”

Ivermectin Is a Potent Antiviral

Interestingly, Carvallo had experience with ivermectin as an antiviral before the COVID outbreak. Argentinian doctors were using it against dengue fever, which is endemic in Argentina. So, when SARS-CoV-2 emerged, they decided to take another look at the drug to see if it might be useful.

“We came across some studies that were being conducted in Australia at the Monash University by people like Dr. Kylie Wagstaff,” Carvallo says. “We supposed that it would be very useful because the virology in effect already proved that, and we decided — even before they published their first findings — to replicate what they were doing, but in vivo. That is, not in the laboratory but in human beings.”

In early April 2020, Carvallo and his team developed two trials submitted to the National Library of Medicine in the United States. One was for preexposure1 (prevention) and the other for treatment. In both cases, ivermectin was used as an adjunct to other compounds, as they didn’t believe it was a silver bullet by itself.

For preventive purposes, they used ivermectin together with carrageenan, a food emulsifier and thickener that has a long history of use in both food and medicine. According to Carvallo, carrageenan has antiviral effects too, so the ivermectin was used in combination with topical carrageenan, administered through the nose and mucus membranes of the mouth.

In the treatment trial, ivermectin was combined with aspirin for mild cases, aspirin and corticosteroids for moderately severe cases, and enoxaparin (an anticoagulant drug) for severe cases.

These drug combinations were selected based on what was known about other viruses that cause similar health effects as SARS-CoV-2, such as the rhabdovirus’ effect on neurology, the paramyxovirus, which causes hyperinflammation in the lungs, and the dengue virus, which overamplifies the immune system.

Early Treatment Is Crucial

Like so many other doctors, Carvallo knew right from the start that early treatment would be crucial and that telling patients to just wait it out at home until they couldn’t breathe would be a death sentence.

“We knew from the very first day we entered the school of medicine that the sooner you treat any illness, the more chances you will have to be successful in the treatment,” he says. “You have to treat quickly, and strongly. This is natural thinking. Nobody has to be a genius to know that. In this case, inexplicably, many doctors have been told to do nothing.

To keep the patients in their homes on their own with just a few pills of Tylenol — which we know it’s good for nothing — until they cannot breathe properly. Then they have to be referred to the hospital. That is patient abandonment under any law in any country …

If you walk around a corner and you see your neighbor’s house on fire, you may call 911. You may play hero and enter the house and try to save them. You may cry out for help. The only thing you must not do is nothing.

I believe in any attempt to keep a mild patient, mild. What I cannot accept as a medical doctor — because it is against our oath — is to remain with arms folded until that person gets worse. That’s criminal … There’s only one reason for all this. The reason is summarized in one word, greed.”

Aspirin was chosen for its anticoagulant effects. Another option recommended by American doctors is NAC, an over-the-counter supplement that both prevents blood clots and breaks up existing ones. NAC also has other benefits that makes it useful against COVID-19. Argentina does not allow the sale of supplements without prescription, so no dietary supplements were used in these particular trials.

“That doesn’t mean we say they are not good,” Carvallo says. “We simply adjusted ourselves to what was there. We believe in the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine. We believe in the effectiveness of azithromycin. Vitamin D, zinc, doxycycline. We believe in those compounds too. But we have not tried them.”

Situational Update in Argentina

So far, only five of the 24 provinces in Argentina have authorized these ivermectin-based protocols for prevention and early treatment, but at least that’s better than the U.S., where ivermectin is rejected outright. In many U.S. hospitals, doctors who dare prescribe it face being fired.

As you’d expect with something that actually works, those five provinces are indeed faring better in terms of infection rates, hospitalizations and deaths. In one province, the death rate was reduced to one-third in less than a month, in the middle of the outbreak, when no vaccines were available.

Argentina didn’t start rolling out their COVID shots until March 2021, and the vaccination campaign has been slow. Carvallo estimates no more than 40% of the population has received two doses so far.

He believes the slow vaccine uptake is partly due to logistical challenges, and partly due to safety concerns. “Many people have preferred to use alternative methods instead of vaccines,” he says. Argentina may still move to make the injections mandatory, though.

“You know what? Making an experiment mandatory and using the media to convince everybody to use it is not new,” Carvallo says. “It was done during the second World War. Josef Mengele and Joseph Goebbels did that.

One made any experiment he wanted on people that were hopeless and at the camps. The other one was a minister of propaganda who convinced everybody that everything was OK … That’s what we are seeing. Let’s forget about science — common sense has been disregarded.”

Carvallo himself ended up taking the Chinese COVID shot, as proof of vaccination was required for him to travel to Europe. In an effort to counter any potential side effects, he continues to take aspirin to prevent blood clots, and ivermectin. “I keep on using Ivermectin,” he says, “I’ve been using it for over a year.”

Recommended Dosing Schedule

In the U.S., ivermectin has been mocked and misrepresented as a veterinary drug. In reality, it’s been approved for human use for decades, and won the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1995, at which time it was considered a miracle drug.

“Even people from the CDC have said, ‘You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Why should you use Ivermectin?’” Carvallo says. “I would answer them, if they consider ivermectin is only for veterinary use, they are neither horses nor cows, they are asses. The fact is, we use ivermectin on a weekly basis for preexposure, that’s for prevention. The dose is 0.2 mg per kilo [of bodyweight. To calculate pounds into kilos, divide your weight in pounds by 2.2].

We adjust the dose to the patient’s weight. One of the worst comorbidities for somebody contracting the virus is obesity. You cannot give the same dose to a skinny person and to an obese or morbid obese person. So, we adjust for that.

We use it once a week. Now that Delta is appearing in South America, we are considering reducing it to three or four days between doses. Do you know why we use it on a weekly basis? Because ivermectin will work for 3.5 days. For the other three days, you will be exposed.

You may contract the virus, but even before the virus can replicate enough to pass from the incubation period to the invasion period, you will take ivermectin again. So, you won’t know it exists. You won’t even realize you have contracted the disease. Your immune system will have [encountered] the virus and will start creating immunity …

We keep on using that four months. We’ll stop for a couple of months because ivermectin will accumulate in the fat tissue. After two months of not using it, we start again.”

Carvallo also points out that natural immunity is far stronger than artificial immunity created by the COVID shots. This is no surprise, because that’s how it’s always been with all other viruses. The key is to prevent the infection from getting a strong foothold. With early treatment, you’ll get through the infection just fine, and have robust and likely lifelong immunity.

Addressing Toxicity Concerns

As for the safety of ivermectin, studies in Africa have used doses that were 10 times higher than the 0.2 mg/kg recommended for COVID, without toxic effects. Hydroxychloroquine, on the other hand, has a far narrower safety margin. This is well-known, and was clearly used to discredit the drug. As explained by Carvallo:

“What they did with hydroxychloroquine in order to discredit it was easy. Hydroxychloroquine is also very useful against COVID. But the safety margin is narrow. What they did was to use three times the dose in order to cause toxicity. There were 200 studies in favor of hydroxychloroquine.

There was one study talking about the toxicity, and all the scientific community in the world latched on to that one. That’s crazy. In the case of ivermectin, it was so wide a gap between safety and toxicity that they couldn’t do that. So, they just disregarded it.”

Now, there are veterinary formulations of ivermectin. Do not use these, as they typically contain polyethylene glycol (PEG), which is toxic to humans. Ironically, the COVID shots actually contain PEG. Many are allergic to this substance, which is why anaphylaxis is such a common acute side effect of the jabs.

Why Are COVID Jabs Still Recommended?

As of September 24, 2021, the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) had received 15,937 reports of deaths following the COVID shot, 71,036 hospitalizations and more than 752,800 adverse events in total.2

Calculations by Steve Kirsch, executive director of the COVID-19 Early Treatment Fund, based on VAERS data suggests the actual death toll may be around 212,000.3 He estimates side effects and deaths are under-reported by a factor of 41 or more, so the total number of injuries is likely between 2 million and 5 million.

Even if we were to accept the official VAERS numbers, the death toll is astronomical. Under normal circumstances, a pandemic vaccine would be pulled after about 50 deaths. No explanation has ever been given for why the COVID shots are still being universally recommended after nearly 16,000 reported deaths.

What we’re living is really a classic imitation of George Orwell’s book “1984.” Almost everything government and health officials say is the exact opposite of the truth. Right is left. Up is down. Black is white. For those who know the facts, it’s a surreal experience. Double standards have also become the norm. As noted by Carvallo:

“The vaccine is almost sacred. It’s like a Bible. Whatever we say in favor of other treatments is a sin. Nobel Prize [winners] of medicine, like Luc Montagnier and Satoshi Omura, have been censored on the media. It’s crazy.”

What’s more, we already have evidence showing the shots don’t work as advertised. They lose effectiveness very rapidly. The answer we’re given is booster shots. Israel is already talking about a fourth dose, and the injections have not even been out for a full year yet.

“If you give a medicine and don’t get a positive result in a few days, you reconsider either your diagnosis or your treatment,” Carvallo says. “You don’t insist on the same thing because it’s insane to insist on the same thing trying to get different results.”

The reason we keep getting more variants is because the vaccine is “leaky.” It doesn’t prevent you from getting infected, so the virus starts to mutate to evade the vaccine-induced antibody. Carvallo agrees, adding that it’s equally insane that the shots are designed to produce antibodies against just one portion of the virus, the spike protein, rather than act against the pathogenesis of the virus.

When you recover from a natural infection, you have both humoral and cellular immunity, and even though humoral immunity (antibodies) will decrease within a few months, you still have latent cellular immunity that will spring into action when needed.

The COVID shots do not provide any cellular immunity, which is why they cannot achieve herd immunity, even if 100% of a population is injected. Carvallo also points out that the SARS-CoV-2 virus is now the weakest it’s ever been. The real enemy at this point is the propaganda that keeps fear alive.

Now’s the Time to Take Control of Your Health

Carvallo is one of those rare individuals who has been able to perform research others cannot at this time. He’s retired, so he has no funding or career to lose. He hopes that, eventually, more doctors will go back to thinking for themselves and return to their oath to do no harm, and to focus on what’s best for their patients rather than the bureaucracy currently dictating what they can and cannot do.

According to projections, we could potentially see billions of people die or be permanently disabled from these experimental injections. How are we going to take care of them all? Who’s going to pay for their care? Already, U.S. entitlement programs — Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid — are nearing bankruptcy.

According to David Martin, Ph.D.,4 pension programs and entitlement programs will all run out by 2028, and as they run out of money, the drug industry will collapse as well, as they are the primary beneficiaries of these programs. Medicare and Medicaid pay for the bulk of the drug dependency in America.

So, in just a few years’ time, we’ll be facing a convergence of collapses on multiple fronts, and at the same time, large portions of the population may be severely ill and wholly dependent on these systems for their survival.

Society also requires all sorts of infrastructure, and if large portions of society are crippled or dead, society will collapse from lack of qualified workers alone. So, the COVID shot mandates are clearly making an already precarious situation far worse, as the financial system would be collapsing anyway.

The best thing anyone can do right now to prepare for this convergence of collapses is to focus on your health. Make sure you’re as healthy as you can be. Be sure to optimize your vitamin D level, for example, and avoid toxins of all kinds. Getting used to growing some of your own food would also be a good idea, as would looking into ways to protect your retirement assets.

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Notes

1 Journal of Biomedical Research and Clinical Investigation November 17, 2020; 2(1.1007) (PDF)

2 OpenVAERS Data as of September 24, 2021

3 SKirsch.io/vaccine-resources

4 Z3News October 2, 2021

Will US Require Shots for Flying?

October 12th, 2021 by Dr. Joseph Mercola

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The White House is seriously considering a “no shot, no fly” rule within the U.S.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Biden administration’s top medical adviser, is in favor of the idea and stated that “nothing has been taken off the table” when it comes to domestic air travel vaccine mandates

COVID-19 shots do not prevent transmission and people who have been injected can still spread COVID-19 to others, making vaccine mandates more about compliance than science

The “science” behind social distancing is also nonexistent, and the 6 feet requirement an arbitrary number created by politics, not science

The vaccine mandate rhetoric is also ignoring the basic and long-established phenomenon of natural immunity; those who’ve recovered from COVID-19 are naturally immune and don’t need a shot

The only way to compensate for the assault on freedom happening all around is for people to hear about it and stand up against it

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COVID-19 injection mandates are gaining speed in the U.S. and it may not be long before you’re required to get a COVID-19 shot if you plan to travel by air. While injection mandates already exist for cruises and international travel, you could still fly domestically whether you’ve been injected or not. This may soon change.

In former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul’s September 20, 2021, Liberty Report, it’s noted that the White House is seriously considering a “no shot, no fly” rule within the U.S.,1 and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Biden administration’s top medical adviser, is in favor of the idea.

Fauci Supports Injection Mandate for Domestic Air Travel

When asked whether he would support vaccine mandates for airline travel, Fauci told theSkimm,2“I would support that if you want to get on a plane and travel with other people that you should be vaccinated.” He also stated, in an interview with “Meet the Press,” that “nothing has been taken off the table” when it comes to domestic air travel vaccine mandates.3

Despite Fauci’s many inconsistencies and outright lies during the pandemic — such as denying that the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) funded coronavirus research at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology4 — he still hasn’t been arrested and he still has a job, Paul noted. “You’d think that his flip-flopping would call attention to his ineptness,” Paul said, adding that Fauci is partners with Bill Gates and the deep state is clearly on his side:5

“Fauci changes his mind every once in a while, only in words, never in actions. His actions have been very consistent. More government, more intimidation, more of elimination of personal liberties and personal decisions. So that’s going to continue. I don’t see how it could be improved unless they have somebody replace him. Some day that will happen.”

September 20, 2021, White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients announced that international travelers flying into the U.S. would need to present proof of injection. This increased speculation that a domestic injection requirement for air travel could follow, putting personal and medical freedom further at risk. When asked about it, Zients echoed Fauci in saying, “We’re not taking any measures off the table.”6

More About Compliance Than Science

People who have received two COVID-19 shots can still spread COVID-19 to others. According to the CDC, “If you are fully vaccinated and become infected with the Delta variant, you can spread the virus to others.”7

So people on a plane who are infected with COVID-19 can transmit the virus, period. It doesn’t matter if they’ve been injected or not, since the shot does not prevent transmission. The CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) posted online July 30, 2021, detailed an outbreak of COVID-19 that occurred in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, in which 74% of the cases occurred in fully vaccinated people.8

This finding was pivotal in yet another CDC turnaround, in which they loosened mask requirements for vaccinated people and then abruptly tightened them again, suggesting that everyone needs to wear a mask indoors whether they’d gotten injected or not,9 because even the vaccinated are spreading the virus and can infect others.

The New York Times published another example, quoting data from Israel showing that an increasing number of vaccinated people were ending up hospitalized for COVID-19:10,11

“Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis, Israel’s head of public health services said the summer’s rise in the number of hospitalized patients who had been fully vaccinated with Pfizer’s vaccine was ‘scary.’ She said 60 percent of severely or critically ill patients and 45 percent of those who died during what she called the fourth surge had received two injections of Pfizer’s vaccine.”

Vaccine mandates are, quite simply, more about compliance than science. According to Paul, it’s a matter of punishing people for noncompliance:12

“It’s getting the people conditioned that they will obey. And if they don’t, they’re either going to be punished or they’ve been intimidated to think that they’re going to die from a disease and the problems are much, much greater than they really are.

They’re made to be very frightened and they work on fear. This is what social distancing was all about. This is what masks were all about. They never proved any of that.”

Six Feet Social Distancing Rule ‘Arbitrary’

The “science” behind social distancing is also nonexistent, and the 6 feet requirement an arbitrary number created by politics, not science, since SARS-CoV-2 is transmitted by aerosols.13 Scott Gottlieb, former FDA commissioner who later joined Pfizer’s board of directors, admitted on “Face the Nation”:14,15

“The six feet was arbitrary in and of itself. But if the administration had focused in on that, they might have been able to effect a policy that would have actually achieved their outcome. But that policy making process didn’t exist, and the six feet is a perfect example of the lack of rigor around how CDC made recommendations.

Nobody knows where it came from. Most people assume that the six feet of distance, the recommendation for keeping six feet apart, comes out of some old studies related to flu, where droplets don’t travel more than six feet. We now know COVID spreads through aerosols.

The initial recommendation that the CDC brought to the White House … was 10 feet, and a political appointee in the White House said we can’t recommend 10 feet. Nobody can measure 10 feet. It’s inoperable. Society will shut down. So the compromise was around six feet.”

So the idea that health officials are following science is a ridiculous one, Paul said. In essence, “they’ve cancelled science.”16

Why Isn’t Anyone Talking About Natural Immunity?

The vaccine mandate rhetoric is also ignoring the basic and long-established phenomenon of natural immunity. There are an estimated 33 million people in the U.S. who have recovered from COVID-19.17 This is likely an underestimate, as it doesn’t include people who were asymptomatic or had mild cases and didn’t even know they were infected. These 33 million-plus people are now naturally immune to COVID-19.

“For as smart a guy as he [Fauci] is, he doesn’t understand or believe, or just is in denial of, natural immunity,” Paul said.18 It defies common sense and logic to mandate a shot for someone who is already immune to the disease. This is likely to prompt more than a few lawsuits, especially since it’s been shown that natural immunity may protect you significantly better than an injection.

Data presented July 17, 2021, to the Israeli Health Ministry revealed that, of the more than 7,700 COVID-19 cases reported since May 2021, only 72 occurred in people who had previously had COVID-19 — a rate of less than 1%. In contrast, more than 3,000 cases — or approximately 40% — occurred in people who had received a COVID-19 vaccine.19 As reported by Israeli National News:

“With a total of 835,792 Israelis known to have recovered from the virus, the 72 instances of reinfection amount to 0.0086% of people who were already infected with COVID.

By contrast, Israelis who were vaccinated were 6.72 times more likely to get infected after the shot than after natural infection, with over 3,000 of the 5,193,499, or 0.0578%, of Israelis who were vaccinated getting infected in the latest wave.”

In other words, those who were vaccinated were nearly 700% more likely to develop COVID-19 than those who had natural immunity from a prior infection — and this is largely in response to the Delta variant.20 While it’s not surprising that U.S. health officials haven’t made this distinction, penalizing or removing privileges from a person for not receiving an injection they don’t need is an ethical nightmare.

What Other Privileges Will Be Taken Away?

Vaccine passports are a slippery slope that erode your freedom and personal liberty. Already, the shots are being required by employers, schools, nursing homes, restaurants and hospitals across the U.S., and the government intends to make this the “new normal.” In the White House’s “Path Out of the Pandemic,” it’s stated:21

“The President’s plan will reduce the number of unvaccinated Americans by using regulatory powers and other actions to substantially increase the number of Americans covered by vaccination requirements — these requirements will become dominant in the workplace.”

In addition to requiring all federal workers and millions of contractors that do business with the federal government to get injected, the White House is also calling on large entertainment venues such as sports arenas and concert halls to require injections or proof of a negative COVID-19 test for entry.22

Paul pointed out the irony, that you can lose your job if you talk about natural immunity, as though it’s a crime to do your best to tell the truth, but it’s being encouraged that, if you haven’t received the shot, you lose liberties. Many people are fed up with the loss of freedom and increasing authoritarianism, prompting massive protests worldwide.

Protests have taken place in the Netherlands, Australia and in the U.S. against mandatory vaccination. Demonstrations are good, Paul said, as “we want people standing up for liberty … We’re trying to motivate people to stand up for their rights and do their best to resist the demands and control that government is imposing on them.”23

Public trust in the U.S. government is hovering at near historic lows, with only 2% of Americans stating that they can trust the government to do what is right “just about always,” while only 22% said they can be trusted “most of the time.”24

The only way to compensate for the assault on freedom happening all around is for people to hear about it and stand up against it, because now it’s a COVID-19 shot that’s being required and the unvaccinated who are being excluded, but tomorrow it will be another requirement and another pool of people — smokers, the obese — being targeted. The silver lining is that, as things worsen, Paul said, “My guess is that people are going to wake up.”25

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Notes

1, 15, 16 YouTube September 20, 2021

2 Twitter, theSkimm September 12, 2021

3 NBC News Meet the Press September 19, 2021

4 Sky News September 19, 2021

5 YouTube September 20, 2021, 1:25, 5:00

6 Roll Call September 23, 2021

7 CDC, When You’ve Been Fully Vaccinated September 16, 2021

8 MMWR Weekly August 6, 2021 / 70(31);1059-1062

9 AP July 30, 2021

10 YouTube September 20, 2021, 36:34

11 The New York Times September 17, 2021

12 YouTube September 20, 2021, 6:50

13 AAPS Online September 26, 2020, Transmission of SARS-CoV-2

14 The Hill September 19, 2021

17 Worldometer September 24, 2021

18 YouTube September 20, 2021, 2:55

19 Israel National News July 13, 2021

20 Reuters July 13, 2021

21, 22 The White House, Path Out of the Pandemic

23, 25 YouTube September 20, 2021, 22:35

24 Pew Research Center May 17, 2021

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Investigative journalist Michelle Edwards exposes the findings of a health data analytics company hired by the Department of Defense (DOD), which suggests that the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines are doing more harm than good.

Humetrix has conducted data analysis on 5.6 million Medicaid beneficiaries aged 65 and older under a DOD program called “Project Salus.”

An innovator in consumer-centered mobile platforms for over two decades, Humetrix is under contract with the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC) and the DOD to “carry out COVID-19 surveillance and population risk mapping in the highest risk Medicare population for severe COVID-19.”

The complete analysis, titled “Effectiveness of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines against the delta variant among 5.6M Medicare beneficiaries 65 years and older,” was released on Sept. 28.

Analysts at Humetrix have determined that “based on what they’re seeing, antibody-dependent enhancement is definitely taking place,” Edwards tells international best-selling author Daniel Bobinski during his program “The Voice of Conservative Values” on Brighteon.TV.

“Meaning, the mass vaccination against COVID-19 is resulting into mutations [variants] – occurring and strengthening the virus, driving up the rate of infection,” Edwards explains.

The study examined a total of 20 million Medicare beneficiaries nationwide, with 16 million of the subjects aged 65 years and up. The study data consisted of 5.6 million vaccinated Medicare beneficiaries from January to late August 2021.

Of the study group, 2.7 million individuals received the Pfizer vaccine and 2.9 million received the Moderna vaccine. Out of 161,000 breakthrough infections, the investigators observed 33,000 breakthrough hospitalizations and 10,400 breakthrough intensive care unit (ICU) admissions. (Related: Coronavirus breakthrough cases continue to rise among the fully vaccinated as “vaccine pandemic” worsens.)

Natural immunity offers strongest protection against infection

Project Salus data suggests that the majority of COVID-19 infections occur among those fully vaccinated, with outcomes worsening over time. Additionally, analysts at Humetrix have found that individuals who have contracted and recovered from COVID-19 boast natural immunity –which offers the strongest protection against infection.

“It’s something that you don’t see often in the news,” says Edwards. The government, mainstream media and Big Tech apparently like to keep it that way as the slide presentation has been immediately removed from the internet.

But Edwards is prepared for that, digging through archives and putting important parts of the presentation in her article at UncoverDC.com.

In Slide 8 of the 17-slide presentation, the information exhibits a significant decline in vaccine effectiveness within a short span of three to four months.

The slide states: “Breakthrough infection rates 5-6 months post-vaccination are twice as high as 3-4 months post-vaccination.” This data brings into question the overall effectiveness of the vaccines and the Biden administration’s call for boosters every three to four months. Slide 10 concludes that “Age has a minor contribution to the reduced vaccine protection seen in the group vaccinated 5-6 months ago.”

In Slide 11, analysts at Humetrix recognize specific waning vaccine immunity. They note that Moderna’s protection outperforms Pfizer’s. In Slide 12, the study gives a graph indicating the number of COVID-19 cases from February 6 to August 21. As delta cases increase, the study data reveals that by August, 71 percent of all COVID-19 cases were in vaccinated individuals.

Slide 13 shows that vaccine effectiveness against breakthrough hospitalization wanes considerably after five or six months compared to months three and four. Slide 16, which does not include unvaccinated individuals in the estimates, outlines data showing that mRNA vaccine effectiveness falls short of study predictions.

The study completely destroys the narrative espoused by President Joe Biden, which falsely claims America is experiencing “a pandemic of the unvaccinated.”

Results of the study “are completely reinforcing what we’re saying, that those with natural immunity – those who have recovered from COVID without being vaccinated – are in better position to fight the virus,” Edwards says. (Related: Policymakers ignoring natural immunity to covid in favor of “vaccine” immunity.)

Mass vaccinations lead to emergence of more dangerous variants

Dr. Geert Vanden Bossche, a vaccine research expert, has warned governments around the world that mass vaccinations could lead to the emergence of more dangerous forms of the virus.

He believes that the ongoing mass vaccination drives are “likely to further enhance adaptive immune escape as none of the current vaccines will prevent replication or transmission of viral variants.”

Immune escape is a term used to describe when the host is no longer able to recognize and counter a pathogen such as a relevant variant or mutant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

“The more we use these vaccines for immunizing people in the midst of a pandemic, the more infectious the virus will become,” says Vanden Bossche. “With increasing infectiousness comes an increased likelihood of viral resistance to the vaccines.”

Meanwhile, neuroscientist has explained why people vaccinated against COVID-19 are still contracting and spreading the disease at a high rate.

In an article published at the Wall Street Journal, Dr. Michael Segal explains that COVID-19 vaccines only stimulate internal immunity but do nothing to address mucosal immunity. Internal immunity protects the inside of the body while mucosal immunity provides the first line of defense by protecting the nose and mouth, and by doing so also reduces spread to others.

Segal says that all COVID-19 vaccines “are largely ineffective at stimulating the secretion of a particular form of antibodies called Immunoglobulin A (IgA) into our noses that occurs after actual infection with a virus.”

Those who have contracted and recovered from the disease have both mucosal and internal immunity.

Watch the Oct. 7 episode of “The Voice of Conservative Values” here:

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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has issued an executive order that prohibits entities in the Lone Star State from forcing individuals to get vaccinated against COVID-19 if they object to vaccination on grounds of conscience, religious beliefs or medical reasons.

“No entity in Texas can compel receipt of a COVID-19 vaccine by any individual, including an employee or a consumer, who objects to such vaccination for any reason of personal conscience, based on a religious belief, or for medical reasons, including prior recovery from COVID-19,” the order states.

“The maximum fine allowed under Section 418.173 of the Texas Government Code and the State’s emergency management plan shall apply to any ‘failure to comply with’ this executive order. Confinement in jail is not an available penalty for violating this executive order,” the order notes.

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Customs and Border officials captured two small packages of Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport recently. The two drugs would not have raised an eyebrow before the COVID pandemic. But since the Democrats and media politicized the completely safe, inexpensive and effective medications the Customs agents are on the lookout for these cheap drugs.

The agents captured packages of 100 Ivermectin pills, 32 Ivermectin pills and 40 hydroxychloroquine pills.

Meanwhile Mexican cartels continue to smuggle record amounts of fentanyl into the country this year.

Newsweek reported:

Shipments containing Ivermectin tablets and Hydroxychloroquine pills were recently seized by customs officials in Chicago.

According to a press release from Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the seizure happened at the international mail facility within Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport on October 4.

The press release said that while officers were conducting an x-ray inspection of a package from China, “officers noticed some discrepancies.” The package stated that it contained “decorative beads,” CBP said.

After officers noticed the discrepancies within this package, they conducted a further investigation and discovered that instead of “decorative beads,” the package actually contained 100 tablets of Ivermectin…

…In addition to the package from China, CBP said that they intercepted another package arriving from Mexico that contained 32 more Ivermectin tablets and 40 Hydroxychloroquine pills.

Hydroxychloroquine was previously given emergency use authorization from the FDA for treatment against COVID-19 but on June, the agency repealed its authorization and warned against using it outside of a hospital setting.

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Jim Hoft is the founder and editor of The Gateway Pundit, one of the top conservative news outlets in America. Jim was awarded the Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award in 2013 and is the proud recipient of the Breitbart Award for Excellence in Online Journalism from the Americans for Prosperity Foundation in May 2016.

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It wouldn’t make sense in a military battle to get out of an armored tank and walk around on the battlefield swinging a stick. In the same light, during this pandemic battle, it makes no sense to get a next-to-useless Covid vaccine after establishing powerful, long-lasting natural immunity to Covid-19. That’s why even the scientists who create these toxic spike protein jabs admit that natural immunity is stronger, better and longer-lasting than the gene therapy injections, and now it’s on video. Pfizer scientist Nick Karl, and several other Pfizer scientists, admitted all of this on video, thanks to James O’Keefe at Project Veritas, and when he was confronted with his admission video, he ran away like a frightened chicken.

Will the Pfizer thugs punish their big-mouth scientist who bled out the truth about the power of natural immunity on tape?

How could he have done this? Was he drunk? Is he just tired of lying about the not-so “safe and effective” vaccines he makes, or is the guilt just too much to bare, knowing these toxic spike protein clot shots are NOT all they’re cracked up to be?

Will experienced biochemist Nick Karl be fired, demoted, fined, or just put back on the clot-shot assembly line, to make the next deadly Covid booster? He’s really just a pawn in the whole plandemic game, but still, Pfizer is reeling from the damage done, as well as Nick Karl himself, as obvious in the latest Veritas exposé.

Since those who have caught Covid and beat it have STRONGER immunity than those who get the Pfizer vaccine, why would any of those folks be required to get the gene therapy jabs?

It just doesn’t make sense, this whole Covid pandemic and its not-so ‘safe and effective’ treatments, and that’s why many truth journalists refer to it as the scamdemic or plandemic. The vaccines offer no immunity to Covid, as the CDC admits. The vaccines do not stop the vaccinated from transmitting Covid either, as the scientists confess. The vaccines only keep some people from catching a more severe case of Covid (this hasn’t been proven by science either), but that effect wanes within a few months, requiring “boosters” that introduce billions more blood-clotting spike proteins into the body.

Nick Karl confessed on (hidden) video that natural immunity is stronger than vaccine-induced artificial immunity, as he stated, “When somebody is naturally immune, like, they got Covid, they probably have better, not better, but more antibodies against the virus.”

Two other Pfizer scientists were caught on video admitting natural immunity is better than their own company’s lab concoctions can offer, including Rahul Khandke and Chris Croce, the latter of whom is a senior associate scientist. Khandke even agreed that if you have “antibodies built up” that you should be able to prove that and not be mandated to take a Covid vaccine.

This natural immunity is the single biggest contention right now with Covid ‘protocol,’ besides the fact that the vaccines offer no realized, evidence-based benefit, yet the risks are high that complications can erupt from the toxic clot shots, including blood clots, myocarditis, loss of motor controls and much more.

Be on the look out for vaccinated individuals suffering from Spike Protein Syndrome, where billions of virus-mimicking particles clog their blood, causing deadly blood clots and myocarditis. Tune your truth news dial to Pandemic.news to stay informed of the engineered pitfalls of the Covid scamdemic.

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Below is my column in the Hill on the increasing calls for censorship and speech regulation on the Internet.  The most recent push on Capitol Hill surrounds the testimony of former Facebook product manager Frances Haugen who alleges that Facebook has been knowingly harming children through promotion and access to certain sites. For some, the testimony follows a type of Trojan Horse pattern where anti-free speech measures are packaged as public safety measures.  Before embracing the proposals of these senators, the public needs to think long and hard over what is being lost in these “reforms.”

Here is the column:

“Caution: Free Speech May Be Hazardous to Your Health.” Such a rewording of the original 1965 warning on tobacco products could soon appear on social media platforms, if a Senate hearing this week is any indicator. Listening to former Facebook product manager Frances Haugen, senators decried how Facebook is literally killing people by not censoring content, and Haugen proposed a regulatory board to protect the public.

But before we embrace a new “ministry of information” model to protect us from dangerous viewpoints, we may want to consider what we would lose in this Faustian free-speech bargain.

Warnings over the “addiction” and “unhealthy” content of the internet have been building into a movement for years. In July, President Biden slammed Big Tech companies for “killing people” by failing to engage in even greater censorship of free speech on issues related to the pandemic. On Tuesday, many senators were enthralled by Haugen’s testimony because they, too, have long called for greater regulation or censorship. It all began reasonably enough over concerns about violent speech, and then expanded to exploitative speech. However, it continued to expand even further as the regulation of speech became an insatiable appetite for silencing opposing views.

In recent hearings with social media giants, members like Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) were critical of limiting censorship to areas like election fraud and instead demanded censorship of disinformation on climate change and other subjects. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) has repeatedly called for “robust content modification” to remove untrue or misleading information.

Haugen lashed out at what she said was the knowing harm committed against people, particularly children, by exposing them to disinformation or unhealthy views. Haugen wants the company to remove “toxic” content and change algorithms to make such sites less visible. She complained that sites with a high engagement rate are more likely to be favored in searches. However, the problem is that sites deemed false or harmful are too popular. Haugen said that artificially removing “likes” is not enough because the popularity or interest in some sites will still push them to the top of searches.

It was a familiar objection. Just the week before, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) called for Amazon to steer readers to “true” books on climate change. Her objection was that the popularity of “misleading” books was pushing them to the top of searches, and she wants the algorithms changed to help readers pick what she considers to be healthier choices — meaning, more in line with her views.

Similarly, Haugen’s solution seems to be … well, her: “Right now, the only people in the world who are trained to analyze these experiments, to understand what is happening inside … there needs to be a regulatory home where someone like me could do a tour of duty after working at a place like [Facebook], and have a place to work on things like regulation.” Censorship programs always begin with politicians and bureaucrats who — in their own minds — have the benefit of knowing what is true and the ability to protect the rest of us from our harmful thoughts.

Ironically, I have long been a critic of social media companies for their rapid expansion of censorship, including the silencing of political criticspublic health experts and pro-democracy movements at the behest of foreign governments like China and Russia. I am unabashedly an internet originalist who favors an open, free forum for people to exchange ideas and viewpoints — allowing free speech to be its own disinfectant of bad speech.

Facebook has been running a slick campaign to persuade people to embrace corporate censorship. Yet, now, even the Facebook censors are being denounced as too passive in the face of runaway free speech. The focus is on the algorithms used to remove content or, as with Haugen and Warren, used to flag or promote popular sites.

Haugen describes her approach as a “non-content-based solution” but it is clearly not that. She objects to algorithms like “downstream MSI” which tracks traffic and pushes postings based on past likes or comments. As explained by one site, it is “based on their ability to engage users, not necessarily its usefulness or truthfulness.” Of course, the objection to those “un-useful” sites is their content and claimed harm.

Like Warren, Haugen is calling for what I have criticized as “enlightened algorithms” to protect us from our own bad choices. Our digital sentinels are “non-content-based” but will magically remove bad content to prevent unhealthy choices.

There is no question that the internet is fueling an epidemic of eating disorders and other great social problems. The solution, however, is not to create regulatory boards or to reduce free speech. Europe has long deployed such oversight boards in removing what it considers harmful stereotypes from advertising and barring images of honey or chips — but the results have been underwhelming at best.

It is no accident that authoritarian countries have long wanted such regulation, since free speech is a threat to their power. Now, we also have U.S. academics writing that “China was right” all along about censorship, and public officials demanding more power to censor further. We have lost faith in free speech, and we are being told to put our faith into algorithmic guardians.

Free speech is not some six-post-a-day addiction that should be cured with algorithmic patches. There is no such thing as a content-neutral algorithm that removes only harmful disinformation — because behind each of those enlightened algorithms are people who are throttling speech according to what they deem to be harmful thoughts or viewpoints.

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Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University. You can find his updates on Twitter @JonathanTurley.

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Thousands of Police Killings Are Unreported

October 12th, 2021 by Margaret Kimberley

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The New York Times and other outlets report that most police killings in this country are “mislabelled .” The sanitized language is worse than an understatement because it implies that these murders are categorized improperly due to ordinary human error. In fact, there is a long and sordid history of covering up these crimes. The initial coroner’s report for George Floyd, whose murder was witnessed by millions of people, reported drug use and underlying health conditions as the causes of death.

According to a report in the Lancet , between 1980 and 2018 police in the U.S. killed an estimated 30,800 people. This number is 17,000 more than reported by the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS), which is a misclassification rate of 55%. The deaths of Black people are the most likely to be undercounted, with 5,670 deaths missing out of an estimated 9,540.

It isn’t hard to see how this happens. Coroners are part of the law enforcement system and work closely with the police and prosecutors. Even if they are dedicated to telling the truth they are often pressured to do otherwise when police, their colleagues, are the perpetrators.

Not only have half of all these deaths gone unreported, but this new data once again comes from groups dedicated to keeping track of these crimes, and not from any governmental source. The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement’s 2012 Operation Ghetto Storm report was the first to inform the public about the toll of police violence. It was through Operation Ghetto Storm that we learned a Black person is killed by police, private security, or vigilantes every 28 hours. Yet even this groundbreaking effort didn’t capture the full toll.

Thanks to Fatal Encounters , Mapping Police Violence , and the Guardian’s project The Counted, we have a fuller idea of the scope of police violence and how it is routinely swept under the rug. There is still no centralized government database of police killings. While their contributions are valuable, private citizens and the media should not be doing the job of the Justice Department. No one should have to guess how often the police kill when there is a federal agency charged with enforcing the law.

Then again, the law is the problem. All talk of reform and corrections and rehabilitation are farcical in a country dedicated to the use of brute force against Black people. The issue of under-reported police killings demonstrates the systemic injustice of law enforcement, which is dedicated to keeping Black people under physical control.

So great is the imperative to justify the killings that medical examiners often collude with the cops in their cover up schemes. In 47 documented cases, medical examiners falsely claimed that sickle cell trait (SCT) was the cause of death for Black men killed during police encounters. SCT is not a disease. It is a benign genetic condition that is not associated with decreased life expectancy. The President of the American Society of Hematology publicly stated, “The use of sickle cell trait to cover up the deaths of Black people while in police custody is abhorrent and has no scientific or medical merit.” Black lives don’t matter to the state or even to the medical community if telling the truth becomes inconvenient.

Discussions about policing must not skirt around what is undeniable. Anti-Black racism permeates every sector of society and guarantees everything from job discrimination to police killings and extensive efforts to cover up the crimes.

As a result of this corruption, medical examiners, prosecutors, and politicians never pay a price for their role in hiding the criminality. Former Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel and that city’s lawyers forced Laquan McDonald’s family to hide the video which showed how he was killed as a condition of being compensated $5 million for his wrongful death. The deal was done the day after Emanuel won a close primary race in 2016. He has faced no repercussions for his actions and was recently confirmed as the U.S. ambassador to Japan.

Systemic racism, official collusion, and the lack of a consistent and strong movement ensure that the death toll will be high and the likelihood of justice will remain low. These new reports of hidden killings are important and are to be commended. But they must be the basis for forcing radical changes in policing and to punishing all those who aid and abet. If that is not the case, there will be endless exhortations to “say their names” without any hope of seeing justice done.

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Margaret Kimberley’s Freedom Rider column appears weekly in BAR, and is widely reprinted elsewhere. She is the author of Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents. Her work can also be found at patreon.com/margaretkimberley    and on Twitter @freedomrideblog. Ms. Kimberley can be reached via e-Mail at Margaret.Kimberley(at)BlackAgendaReport.com.

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With an annual salary of $172,000 ($223,000 when she’s speaker of the House), Pelosi is worth an estimated $120-$315 million. The perfect person to preach against corruption.

Regarding the “peace” award from NATO – the equivalent of receiving a child protection award from Jeffrey Epstein – Pelosi has enthusiastically supported every war since she entered Congress in 1987.

NATO: Nancy Pelosi in Lisbon defending women fighting corruption – Portugal

The President [speaker] of the United States House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, is in Lisbon today to speak at the plenary meeting of the 67th annual session of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Parliamentary Assembly, where she received the “Women for Peace and Security Award” bestowed for the first time by the Assembly.

The award was within the scope of the adoption of Resolution 1325 of the United Nations Security Council on “Women, Peace and Security.”

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In her remarks, Nancy Pelosi considered that “women are champions in the fight against corruption,” which is equivalent to “strengthening democracy.”

Stressing that “NATO is not just a security alliance, but “an alliance of values” ​​she warned of the danger of autocratic regimes that “challenge democracy“ as well as corruption that often accompanies these regimens.

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Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the US House of Representatives, met Pope Francis in Rome on Saturday. A Catholic, Pelosi has come under criticism from some bishops in the US for her support for abortion rights.

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The 67th NATO Parliamentary Assembly, taking place in Lisbon, is an annual four-day event which was attended by Portuguese Government representatives, official NATO representatives, experts in defense matters, legislators from the 30 NATO Member States, representatives of third countries of the alliance, and parliamentary body representatives from the NATO alliance countries.

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Rick Rozoff, renowned author and geopolitical analyst, actively involved in opposing war, militarism and interventionism for over fifty years. He manages the Anti-Bellum and For peace, against war website

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

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Indigenous and human-rights groups, conservationists, scientists, doctors and public-health experts petitioned the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights today to hold a formal hearing on human-rights abuses caused by factory farms, also known as industrial animal feeding operations, across North America and South America.

The groups are requesting that the commission, which monitors human rights within the Organization of American States, hold a “thematic” hearing to compile information about human-rights abuses resulting from the unchecked expansion of industrial animal feeding operations and issue a report with recommendations to address those abuses. A thematic hearing could increase public awareness of, and draw additional attention to, the grave human-rights abuses caused by these operations.

The 19 petitioning groups include representatives from Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Ecuador and the United States. The request is additionally supported by 127 organizations and 151 academics, experts and individuals.

Many of the parties joining today’s request represent Indigenous tribes, such as Mayan tribes in the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico, whose rights of self-determination, autonomy and self-governance have consistently been ignored as industrial animal feeding operations have expanded in the region. Those rights include the rights to free, prior and informed consent and consultation before the approval of any activity that affects Indigenous territory.

“The government has authorized a 49,000-pig farm in our Mayan territory that is located in two natural protected areas,” said Doroteo Hau of Guardianes de los Cenotes, México. “We organized ourselves to resist the operation, we held a consultation process, and the people said no to the farm. Water is the most important thing, and we know the farm will damage the water. Scientists say our soil is karstic, we say it is porous, and everything seeps into the groundwater. We are defending what is ours and what will be for our children.”

The expansion of industrial animal feeding operations has caused a range of human rights abuses across the American continents, according to the petition. Those abuses include direct harm to human health and drinking-water contamination, both of which constitute violations of the right to a healthy environment.

“In Chile we can no longer sustain megafarms,” said Andrea Cisneros, of Movimiento Socioambiental Valle del Huasco, Chile. “We live in a country where all the water is privately owned and the little that is left is contaminated. In addition, these operations produce nauseating odors that do not allow us to live or enjoy our daily lives.”

“In Ecuador, intensive animal husbandry megafarms cause pollution around rivers that communities use for their food sovereignty,” said Xavier León Vega, of Acción Ecológica, Ecuador. “Despite this, these megafarms continue to expand thanks to financing from international organizations such as the World Bank.”

Many of the abuses detailed in today’s request occur alongside threats and other intimidation by agribusiness interests looking to continue with business as usual to the detriment of neighboring communities. Reports indicate that 2020 was the deadliest year to date for environmental activists and Indigenous defenders. Agribusiness, logging and mining interests are considered key drivers of the violence.

“In the province of Chaco, Argentina, in 2020, the executive branch signed an agreement with the company Feng Tian Food as part of a Strategic Partnership Agreement with China for the installation of integrated pig production complexes,” said Nora Gimenez, of Conciencia Solidaria, part of Colectivo Somos Monte Argentina. “This generated a lot of resistance among the population that mobilized and protested the agreement despite facing intimidation from the provincial police that included following people, power cuts and threats to impose fines. The lack of official information on the agreement and the repression has extended the conflict from the city to the municipalities where we have never been able to obtain official information.”

Today’s request details the grave harms to human health and the environment associated with the expansion of the factory farming industry across the Americas. These harms include contamination of water, including naturally occurring freshwater wells known as cenotes, emission of noxious air pollution, the spread of dangerous pathogens and contributions to climate change.

“Living with clean air and water is a fundamental human right that the factory farming industry tramples with impunity,” said Hannah Connor, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “On behalf of the people across the Americas suffering at the hands of this destructive industry, we hope the commission will hear our call and investigate these human rights abuses.”

Today’s request is being filed on behalf of 19 groups: ARTICLE 19 México y Centroamérica, Acción Ecológica, Asociación Interamericana para la Defensa del Ambiente (AIDA), Cátedra Libre de Soberanía Alimentaria de la Escuela de Nutrición de la Universidad de Buenos Aires, Center for Biological Diversity, Centro de Información sobre Empresas y Derechos Humanos (CIEDH), Colectivo de Derechos Humanos Yopoi, Conciencia Solidaria, Earthjustice, Indignación, Promoción y Defensa de los Derechos Humanos (Indignación), Kanan Derechos Humanos, Guardianes de los cenotes “Kanan Ts’ono’ot”, Greenpeace México, Movimiento Socioambiental Valle del Huasco, Museo del Hambre, Red de Abogadas y Abogados por la Soberanía Alimentaria (REDASA), Representantes de la Infancia de Homún, Seminario sobre el Derecho Humano a la Alimentación Adecuada de la Facultad de Derecho de la UBA and Waterkeeper Alliance. The request is additionally supported by 127 organizations and 151 academics, experts and individuals.

View the request in English.

View the request in Spanish.

Background

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights is a quasi‐judicial body that promotes and protects human rights as part of the Inter‐American Human Rights System. The regional system was created to monitor and ensure the protection of human rights within the 35 member states of the Organization of American States, including Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Ecuador and the United States.

Nongovernmental organizations in member states have the right to request that the commission hold a thematic hearing on human-rights abuses. Thematic hearings are used to compile up‐to‐date information about a particular human-rights issue in one or more member states. Hearings take place at the commission’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. and virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic. The commission has the discretion to accept or reject thematic hearing requests based on its assessment of the need to monitor a particular issue.

Thematic hearings can address a wide range of human-rights concerns. Recent hearings have, for example, dealt with the human rights effects of environmental issues such as fracking, large dams and the right to water. Hearings have also dealt with solitary confinement, juvenile justice, national security, Indigenous rights, racial discrimination, human trafficking, rights of migrants and farmworkers, excessive use of force, detention at the U.S.‐Mexico border and stand-your-ground laws.

For additional information on thematic hearings at the Inter-American Human Rights Commission, please see this report.

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Azerbaijan, with the backing of Turkey and Syrian mercenaries, were the undisputed victors of the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War after reclaiming most of the territory from Armenian control. It was expected that with most of Nagorno-Karabakh under Baku’s control, new trade and transportation corridors would open and ensure that Azerbaijan became an indispensable connectivity hub in the Caucasus. Although there is a possibility for a trade corridor with Turkey to open and extend into the Turkic heartland of Central Asia, Azerbaijan’s hostile and aggressive posture has also meant that India and Iran are looking elsewhere to engage with Europe economically.

On Monday, a BBC journalist quoted the chairman of Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization, Alireza Peymanpak, as saying:

“Two alternative Iran-Eurasia transit routes will replace Azerbaijan’s route. First opens in a month via Armenia after [the] end of repair work, and the second via sea by purchasing and renting vessels.”

Peymanpak was referencing the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), a major economic project that is 7,200-km long and comprises of rail, road and water routes aimed at reducing travel time and costs. It will also boost trade between Russia, Iran, Central Asia, the Caucasus, India and Europe. Not only is this route 30% cheaper and 40% shorter than the current route, but it also serves as a geopolitical tool to further isolate Azerbaijan as its relationship with Iran and India deteriorates.

The original INSTC route runs through India, Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia. Baku made massive investments to improve their own local infrastructure to accommodate for the necessities of the INSTC, completing roads, railways, bridges and tunnels. However, despite their economic commitment to be a key player in the INSTC, Azerbaijan’s ideological guide has led to a cooling of relations with Iran and India.

Azerbaijan in recent times has become increasingly vocal in condemning India’s policies towards Kashmir in support of Pakistan. It is recalled that in January, the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan, Turkey and Pakistan issued a joint declaration to support each country’s respective ambitions in Nagorno-Karabakh, Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean, and Kashmir. Although their trilateral relations have always been strong, they have been conducting joint military exercises more regularly since the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War, including directly on the Iranian border. It could suggest that the alliance was emboldened by victory in Nagorno-Karabakh and could now be more willing to use war to achieve its goals.

Due to Baku’s overconfidence after last year’s victory, it has not hidden away from demanding more territory. Territorial demands are not just over the bulk of Armenia, but also Iran’s northwest Azeri-majority region. Although Tehran and Baku traditionally have cordial relations, the calling of greater territorial conquests and the blatant display of Israeli military equipment in Azerbaijani possession has broken trust, with war between the two countries seemingly not far away.

The Indian reaction to the Turkey-Azerbaijan-Pakistan trilateral nexus has been swift. As India is also an emerging economy with a huge market and potential, even ultra-conservative monarchist states like Saudi Arabia have significantly cut their funding to radical Islamist organizations in Pakistan to successfully find a balance with India. With the exception of Qatar, traditional jihadist financiers across the Arab States in the Persian Gulf have stopped money flows as they now prioritize developing their economies and modernizing infrastructure.

In this way, Pakistan is increasingly seen as more of nuisance because of its chronic insistence on exporting jihadists, an image that Arab states like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are trying to break away from. With the Arab states less focussed on perceived global Islamic issues like Kashmir, it is unsurprising that trade with India has skyrocketed – trade between India and Saudi Arabia amounted to $33.09 billion in 2019-2020, whilst between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia it was only $1.7 billion in 2019.

Due to the increasing hostilities by the Turkey-Azerbaijan-Pakistan nexus, India and Iran announced that the INTSC from next month will begin running through Armenia instead of Azerbaijan to reach Russia. Baku believed that it could balance an aggressive foreign policy whilst being an indispensable state in connectivity projects. Instead, it finds itself increasingly isolated with no friends besides Turkey and Pakistan, and only cordial ties with Georgia and Russia.

With the Turkish lira once again breaking its record against the U.S. dollar on Monday, Turkey has extremely limited capacity to once again deal with another military front in the Caucasus, especially as it is seemingly preparing for a new operation against the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria. This effectively means that if Azerbaijan was to provoke another war in the region, it is unlikely that Turkey can offer the same support it did against the Armenians, especially if fighting against Iran.

None-the-less, due to the increasing instability instigated by Azerbaijan in the region, it is becoming an unreliable partner for countries to put trust in it to be a transportation-trade hub. In this way, Iran and India are now hinging on Armenia for regional connectivity as they aim to isolate Azerbaijan from such corridors. If the pan-Turkic corridor fails to materialize, Azerbaijan through its own actions turned its potential of being an indispensable transportation-trade hub to being isolated from ambitious regional projects aimed at improving connectivity – and this is to Armenia’s advantage as the two massive regional powers of Iran and India will more closely build relations with it.

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Paul Antonopoulos is an independent geopolitical analyst.

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Will Vaccine-Linked Deaths Rise Sharply this Winter?

By Mike Whitney, October 11, 2021

Naturally, the media is going to blame the surge in illness on the pandemic or “delayed treatments”, but people can draw their own conclusions. What the Telegraph refers to as a “non-Covid” emergency is just as likely to be vaccine-linked injury as not.

CDC: 16,310 Dead 778,685 Injured Following COVID-19 Shots – 2.5X More Deaths than Following All Vaccines for Past 30 Years – 2,102 Fetal Deaths

By Brian Shilhavy, October 11, 2021

By way of contrast, prior to December, 2020, the date when the first COVID-19 shots were given emergency use authorization, 6,214 people reportedly died following ALL FDA-approved vaccines for the past 30 years.

Florida Nightmare — Federal Air Traffic Controllers Conduct ‘Mass Sickout’ to Protest Vaccine Mandate…

By Citizen Free Press, October 11, 2021

Southwest Airlines canceled close to 2,000 flights over the weekend, blaming the woes on air traffic control issues and weather.  The airline canceled more than 1,000 flights or 29% of its Sunday schedule, as of 7 p.m. ET, according to flight tracker FlightAware.

The US Cannot Defend Taiwan, and China Knows It

By Scott Ritter, October 11, 2021

Following a recent escalation of tensions between Beijing and Taipei, Chinese President Xi Jinping vowed on Saturday to pursue “reunification” with Taiwan by peaceful means and warned foreign nations about meddling in the issue.

The United Nations Endorses “The Great Reset”: Has Global Capitalism Become a Time Bomb?

By Matthew Ehret-Kump, October 11, 2021

In Guterres’ mind, the existential crises which demands a total overhaul of all human collective behavior, thinking and traditions is shaped by the boiling of the earth caused by man-made global warming (which has less to do with anthropogenic CO2 than you might image) and a pandemic which has a 99.8% survival rate.

The Vaccine Mandate Is a Hoax

By Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, October 11, 2021

Biden’s “mandate” was nothing but a press release statement encouraging private employers to do what the President of the US cannot do and issue vaccine mandates to employees. But, of course, private employers have no legislative power. They certainly have no legal authority to violate the Nuremberg laws.

What Is Missing from the Media? Responsible Critical Thinking

By Richard Gale and Dr. Gary Null, October 11, 2021

No doubt, none of us can recall a time when the world at large has faced so many problems and crisis that impinge upon the well-being and mortality of billions of people.

Pfizer CEO—Biden’s ‘Good Friend’—Is Privately Working to Tank Drug Price Reforms

By Jake Johnson, October 11, 2021

Hours after President Joe Biden called Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla a “good friend,” Politico revealed that the pharmaceutical executive has been urging his employees to fight Democrats’ plan to let Medicare directly negotiate prescription drug prices—a popular proposal that Biden has endorsed.

The Newest Big Pharma Scam Exposed

By Thom Hartmann, October 11, 2021

Molnupiravir is the new pill that’s been all over the news recently because it can cut hospitalizations and deaths of unvaccinated Covid-infected people by as much as half and doesn’t require folks to go to the hospital or an infusion center, like the monoclonal antibody treatment.

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Since March 2000 the economic situation in the United States has taken a sharp turn for the worst with an estimated 20 million losing jobs in various sectors of the economy.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic which is still very much in evidence during the final quarter of 2021, many industries including manufacturing, education, healthcare, construction, entertainment, agriculture, etc. have not returned to their same levels of production and operations prior to the spring of last year.

With the collapse of an estimated 200,000 small and medium-sized businesses where the bulk of job growth has occurred since the previous recession beginning in 2007-2008, workers have been scrambling to meet their monthly expenses. Enhanced unemployment benefits authorized under the previous administration of President Donald Trump and continued under his predecessor, Joe Biden, have now been suspended placing millions in an even more unstable social situation.

The COVID Emergency Rental Assistance (CERA) program was enacted in 2021 to provide direct payments to landlords and utilities firms for tenants unable to meet their obligations under lease and usage agreements since the advent of the pandemic. CERA monies can be granted to cover delinquent rent payments up to 18 months in arrears. The U.S. Treasury says that $46 billion has been allocated for the program under two separate bills. (See this)

Despite these stated objectives by the federal government, state and local agencies in many municipalities have failed to implement the program in a timely fashion. Many renters and landlords complain that they do not have access to information on how to apply for funding.

Moreover, for those who have managed to apply, delays in being notified about their eligibility could take many months. Local authorities and agencies in some cases have attached additional requirements for eligibility over and above those mandated by the federal government.

The urgency of the situation was magnified when the U.S. Supreme Court issued a judgment in late September claiming that the House of Representatives and the Senate would need to pass additional legislation to extend a moratorium on eviction due to a public health crisis, the most severe in more than a century. Dominated by conservative jurists, three of whom were appointed by Trump, the highest court has consistently turned its back on the working class and oppressed.

In many urban areas the rising costs associated with housing, utilities, water services, food and transportation has continued at a rapid rate. Even mainstream economists are warning of escalating inflation which can further complicate any purported economic recovery in the U.S.

When the Supreme Court struck down the previous moratorium extension and the Democratic majority in both legislative branches failed to act, these decisions will inevitably have a disproportionate impact on African Americans and other people of color communities. Many are already being priced out of apartments and homes in major cities due to the phenomenon of rising rents and the inherent racism within the mortgage industry.

An article published by the Brookings Institution during September emphasized: “In the Supreme Court’s latest decision that will disproportionately hurt Black Americans, the justices heard arguments from Alabama landlords who had previously petitioned to lift the CDC’s eviction moratorium and were denied. They returned to federal court in early August, requesting an order that would allow evictions to resume. Led by the Alabama Association of Realtors, they argued that the CDC exceeded its authority when it instituted an eviction moratorium to assist renters during the pandemic. This time, the court agreed—deciding against tenants’ rights to protection from the COVID-19 pandemic, and in favor of landlords’ profit.” (See this)

Therefore, Alabama landlords were able to overturn a moratorium which has proven to be a life-saving measure for millions. Such decisions follow a pattern of the Court since 2013, when the Shelby v. Holder decision, also emanating from Alabama, essentially nullified the enforcement provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Supreme Court in recent months has also upheld voting restrictions passed into law in Arizona which are clearly aimed at restricting access to the franchise.

Moratorium NOW! Coalition Wages Campaign to Ensure CERA Funds Are Distributed

In Detroit since September 1, the Moratorium NOW! Coalition working in conjunction with other housing advocacy organizations, such as Detroit Eviction Defense, Detroit Action and the Detroit Will Breathe youth-led movement, have intensified mass pressure on the city administration officials to ensure that the CERA funding is distributed and that no one is evicted due to the current public health and consequent economic crises. Two press conferences and rallies held on September 1 and 8 drew considerable attention from the corporate media which covered the events.

Points which have been articulated include the fact that many people in the area are not even aware of the CERA funding and how to access the assistance. Secondly, the administration of corporate-imposed Mayor Mike Duggan has not waged a public relations and marketing campaign to raise awareness about the potential for people to remain in their homes.

Despite the press conference held by Duggan on September 17 saying that the City of Detroit has money, over $100 million of course provided by the federal government, to assist people in avoiding evictions and homelessness, nothing beyond what Moratorium NOW! Coalition and other groups have repeatedly stated as it relates to what must be done to avert an even deeper social calamity in the city has been realized. Moratorium NOW! Coalition and its allies have assertively engaged the relevant authorities in control of the pandemic relief funding to demand that the resources get to the people who need them.

In a draft of a letter sent to the Mayor’s Office and each member of the eight-person City Council, Moratorium NOW! Coalition noted for the record that:

“IN THE WAKE OF THE SUPREME COURT OVERTURNING THE MORATORIUM ON EVICTIONS, PEOPLE NOW FACE EVICTIONS WHILE STRUGGLING TO SURVIVE A GLOBAL PANDEMIC. OUR LOCAL OFFICIALS DID NOT EFFECTIVELY COMMUNICATE THE INFORMATION ABOUT CERA FUNDS OR DISTRIBUTE THEM TO THE PEOPLE WHO NEED HELP NOW. WE DEMAND THAT DETROIT’S MAYOR AND CITY COUNCIL MEMBERS: PLACES A MORATORIUM ON RENTAL EVICTIONS DUE TO NON-PAYMENT OF RENT DURING THIS ACTIVE PANDEMIC; IMMEDIATELY MOUNT A MASS MEDIA CAMPAIGN TO INFORM DETROIT RESIDENTS ABOUT THE CERA PROGRAM; PROVIDE RESIDENTS THEIR APPLICATION STATUS WITHIN 3 BUSINESS DAYS OF RECEIPT BY A CERA PARTNER. IF THIS IS NOT POSSIBLE WITH THE LEVEL OF PARTNERS/STAFF THE CITY OFFICIALS WILL ENGAGE MORE PARTNERS AND/OR STAFF TO ENSURE DETROITERS IN NEED OF RENTAL ASSISTANCE RECEIVE HELP IN A TIMELY MANNER.”

Although there has not been any direct response to the letter from the City’s administration’s bank-compliant political leadership, there has been some positive developments in the struggle to halt evictions in Detroit. The 36th District Court has adjourned eviction hearings pending the outcome of approval for CERA funds. The Right to Counsel coalition has worked to provide legal assistance to those working through the complicated maze of the local legal system.

Moratorium NOW! Coalition attached to the letter sent to the Mayor and City Council provisions within the existing municipal charter providing for the authorities to exercise emergency measures amid a public health crisis or otherwise. These are politically charged demands which penetrate the dilemma facing the majority African American population of Detroit. The city’s residents have no say in the actual governance of the municipality while billions in their tax dollars are routinely funneled to the multinational corporations and banks who in effect dictate the operations of local government.

Residents Stage Civil Disobedience Demanding an End to the Status Quo

Detroit grassroots community organizations staged a rally and street blockage on Friday October 8 at Grand Circus, the main entrance into downtown Detroit from the north. The action was called by Charlevoix Village Association (CVA) based on the east side. Other groups heeded the call including Detroit Will Breathe, Moratorium NOW! Coalition, among others.

These activists marched into the center of Woodward Avenue impeding traffic for two hours while over 25 police cars stood nearby. The organizations demanded the repayment of in excess of $600 million in property taxes overpayments which extend back to the Great Recession.

Other demands included an end to evictions and property tax foreclosures calling for federal COVID assistance funding to be utilized to strengthen legacy residents, which included senior citizen, some of whom living with disabilities were present in the direct action on October 11. Later in the month, more demonstrations are planned to protest the opening of an office by the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Detroit, which they are touting as a “model” for urban revitalization.

Detroit demonstration closes entrance to downtown on Oct. 8, 2021 (Source: Abayomi Azikiwe)

On October 29, there will be an action to demonstrate against a $500-a-plate breakfast at the Detroit Athletic Club as a fundraiser for the mayor in his campaign for re-election on November 2. The corporate-controlled media in the city has in obvious collaboration with the administration and its billionaire backers such as Dan Gilbert and Illitch Holdings, totally ignored that there is even a municipal election coming up in a matter of weeks.

The situation in Detroit mirrors other urban areas throughout the U.S. All of the major cities require political interventions from the representatives of the working class and nationally oppressed to organize for fundamental social transformation of their areas as well as the country as a whole.

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Abayomi Azikiwe is the editor of Pan-African News Wire. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

Featured image: Detroit demonstration engaged in civil disobedience along Woodward Ave. on Oct. 8, 2021 (Source: Abayomi Azikiwe)

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The People Are Unaware of the War Being Conducted Against Them

October 12th, 2021 by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts

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As my long-time readers know, I have experienced much in my life at high levels of government, journalism, academia, and business. Yet I am stunned by the depth and breadth of the organized conspiracy working in behalf of the orchestrated “Covid pandemic.” Washington, shielded by a whore media, has long lied to us about everything -— 9/11, weapons of mass destruction, Assad’s use of chemical weapons, Iranian nukes, Russian invasions, Osama bin Laden, Muammar Gaddafi, Russiagate, Trump insurrection. Currently lies are being used to damage Americans with a “vaccine” that is more dangerous than the virus.

The extent of the propaganda in behalf of a “vaccine” that is known not to protect but to cause death and serious health impairments, and against known proven cures increasingly used world wide, is astounding. Even in the red state of Georgia, the Georgia Department of Public Health has pharmacies delivering prescriptions in bags with a smiling young woman saying in 2 inch high letters: COVID VACCINE. I SAID YES! SO I CAN STAY IN MY CLASSROOM.

Before we proceed, think about the message. In order to go to school she had to take the mRNA “vaccine” known to be especially dangerous to young people. In “free democratic America” school children are being coerced into accepting what has in our previous history been unacceptable risks. Never in history has a “vaccine” associated with even a tiny fraction of deaths as the mRNA vaccine been permitted to remain in use. Despite the known and proven danger of the mRNA vaccine to the young, the criminal organization known as Pfizer is putting pressure on its servants at FDA to approve the injection of 5-year olds with the deadly substance. The chances are high that every five-year old injected will be infertile. See this.

What is the agenda that can reach down so far as to plant and control the message on prescription bags from pharmacies?

Obviously profit for Big Pharma. Obviously control over people and ability to dictate their decisions by government. Obviously from what we are learning about the impact of the mRNA vaccine on human fertility, population control. To succeed in reducing the population, you have to kill off the young or make them infertile. Thus the drive to vaccinate 5-year old children.

There are no other explanations for the determined censoring of renowned experts and Nobel laureates who keep blowing the whistle and issuing warnings. There are no other explanations for hospitals refusing to report adverse reactions to the vaccine and refusing to save Covid patients lives by treating them with HCQ or Ivermectin. There are no other explanations for the medical establishment to pretend that variants are not the products of the vaccine itself.

Considering the fact that the mRNA “vaccine” was rushed into use without the necessary trials under an “emergency use authorization,” where is the credibility of the medical establishments’ claim that although HCQ and Ivermectin have a perfect safety record after 60 years of human use, no doctor should prescribe them because there are no trials determining their effectiveness on Covid?

In other words the position of the American Medical Establishment is that we can give you a life-threatening injection on an emergency basis without trials, but not a known cure increasingly used world wide safely and effectively to prevent and to cure Covid. See this.

Over the course of my lifetime in the United States I have watched all moral values be replaced by the greed for, and pursuit of, money. Nevertheless, it is difficult to believe that Big Pharma, media, Biden, the American Medical Association, hospitals, pharmacists, school boards, governors, private employers would so willingly coerce Americans into accepting dangerous injections in order to keep their jobs, go to school, go out for an evening, and travel only for the purpose of enriching Pfizer, Moderna, and the rest.

There are now tens of thousands of doctors, nurses, medical professionals, and scientists who dissent from the Covid protocol being imposed on Western countries. Their voices are suppressed. Their jobs and medical licenses are threatened. Despite having all the facts on their side, they are denounced for “Covid disinformation.”

On October 8, 2021, I heard on NPR in behalf of vaccination, which the pharmaceutical companies themselves admit does not protect beyond 6 months (the protection declines daily), propaganda so blatant that it would have astonished Stalin, Mao, and Hitler. NPR intentionally withheld from the listening audience the proven established facts that the mRNA “vaccine” (1) is associated with a historic high rate of health injuries and deaths, (2) produces variants immune to the vaccine, thereby requiring endless boosters, and (3) shuts down and destroys your natural immunity leaving you dependent for life on Big Pharma.

Why did National Public radio withhold this known information and engage in purposefully deceiving its gullible audience? Possibly the weak minded NPR crowd are afraid to offend those who control the Covid narrative by being real journalists. NPR is accustomed to being mouthpieces for donors, and I suspect you can safely bet your life that Big Pharma, indirectly if not directly, has bought NPR’s reporting. Unfortunately, America has no investigative media to look into this question.

America is a place where lies are verified as truth by CNN, MSNBC, NPR, New York Times, Washington Post, Associated Press, and multitudes of Internet sites financed by the Establishment that controls our opinions and renders us impotent by programming us with lies.

Many books, articles, and movies over the years predicted the triumph of secret agendas over gullible insouciant peoples to be humanity’s fate.

I watch this happen every day. Are people, especially those in the West, too stupid and trusting to survive?

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Dr. Paul Craig Roberts writes on his blog site, PCR Institute for Political Economy, where this article was originally published. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

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Hours after President Joe Biden called Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla a “good friend,” Politico revealed that the pharmaceutical executive has been urging his employees to fight Democrats’ plan to let Medicare directly negotiate prescription drug prices—a popular proposal that Biden has endorsed.

Politico obtained a copy of a three-minute video message in which Bourla echoes common—and misleading—pharmaceutical industry talking points against the Medicare negotiation plan, which top Democrats are working to include in a budget reconciliation package despite the objections of several Big Pharma-backed lawmakers.

“When we asked the Pfizer colleagues to develop a Covid-19 vaccine in less than a year, you did,” Bourla says in the video. “When we asked you to rapidly expand manufacturing so we can produce 3, 4 billion doses per year, you did it. Now, we are asking you to do something equally important to educate yourself regarding policies that will help our breakthroughs get into the hands of those who need them, while protecting our sector’s ability to develop those breakthroughs in the first place.”

According to Politico, the emailed video message “included a link labeled ‘CLICK HERE To email your Member of Congress today.’ A disclaimer at the bottom read: ‘Participation in any Pfizer Grassroots mobilization is completely voluntary and is not a requirement of your employment at Pfizer.'”

Politico‘s reporting Wednesday came shortly after Biden, during a speech at a White House-hosted coronavirus summit, praised Bourla and Pfizer for being “partners and a leader” in the fight against the global coronavirus pandemic.

“I want to thank Pfizer and its CEO and chairman, Albert,” the president said. “Albert has been a good friend and has been helpful.”

Pfizer and its vaccine partner BioNTech have sold most of their vaccine supply to the U.S. and other wealthy nations as billions of people in low-income countries remain without access to a single dose. An analysis released last week by the People’s Vaccine Alliance estimated that Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna have “sold more than 90% of their vaccines to rich countries, charging up to 24 times the potential cost of production.”

“The Covid vaccine now accounts for more than a third of Pfizer’s overall revenue base,” the analysis found. “Pfizer has sold more than $11 billion in vaccines in the first half of this year. Pfizer is now projecting $33.5 billion in total vaccine sales for 2021, making the vaccine one of the top selling pharma products this year and potentially in the history of the pharmaceutical industry.”

In recent weeks, major pharmaceutical industry players have mobilized aggressively against Democrats’ drug pricing reforms, pouring millions of dollars into ads against proposals that are favored by an overwhelming majority of U.S. voters.

Big Pharma’s lobbying blitz appears to be paying off. A Washington Post tally indicates that at least nine Democrats in the House and Senate could be willing to vote against their own party’s drug-price reforms, which—if enacted—would endanger pharmaceutical companies’ unchecked ability to set sky-high prices for lifesaving prescription medicines. A recent study by Gallup and West Health found that 18 million U.S. adults were unable to afford a prescribed medication this year.

Last week, a trio of Democrats—Reps. Scott Peters of California, Kurt Schrader of Oregon, and Kathleen Rice of New York—blocked the Medicare proposal from passing out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, drawing the ire of patient advocacy groups and progressive lawmakers. Pfizer employees and PACs are the top contributors to Peters’ campaign committee this election cycle, according to OpenSecrets.

“For far too long, it has not been Congress that has been regulating the pharmaceutical industry. It has been the pharmaceutical industry that has been regulating Congress,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the chair of the Senate Budget Committee, said during a Tuesday rally outside the headquarters of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the largest drug industry lobbying group in the U.S.

“Right now, they are spending many millions of dollars on campaign contributions, on TV ads, and on lobbying in order to defeat the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill that will finally lower the price of prescription drugs by giving Medicare the ability to negotiate with the pharmaceutical industry,” Sanders continued. “Well, today, we tell Big Pharma clearly: Your days of calling the shots in Washington, D.C. are over.”

From Common Dreams: Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

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An AI-powered Dept. of Defense program named “Project Salus,” run in cooperation with the JAIC (Joint Artificial Intelligence Center), has analyzed data on 5.6 million Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 or older. Data were aggregated from Humetrix, a real-time data and analytics platform that tracks health care outcomes. Legal analysis from Thomas Renz of Renz-Law.com is included in a breaking video interview, below.

The alarming findings show that the vast majority of covid hospitalizations are occurring among fully-vaccinated individuals and that outcomes among the fully vaccinated are growing worse with each passing week. This appears to fit the pattern of so-called Antibody Dependent Enhancement, where the treatment intervention (mRNA vaccines) is worsening health outcomes and leading to excess hospitalizations and deaths.

These data, presented here, shatter the official Biden / Fauci narrative that falsely claims America is experiencing, “a pandemic of the unvaccinated.” The data show that the pandemic actually appears to be accelerated by covid-19 vaccines, while unvaccinated individuals are having far better outcomes than the vaccinated.

Furthermore, according to these data (shown below), the single best strategy for avoid post-vaccine infections and hospitalizations is natural immunity derived from a previous covid infection.

The full analysis is entitled, “Effectiveness of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines against the Delta variant among 5.6M Medicare beneficiaries 65 years and older” and is dated Sep. 28, 2021. The presentation of these data consists of 17 slides, which are available at the Humetric website in slide form, also posted on Natural News servers in this PDF versionwhich is more convenient for viewing and printing.

From the JAIC Project Salus document:

In this 80% vaccinated 65+ population, an estimated 60% of COVID-19 hospitalizations occurred in fully vaccinated individuals in the week ending August 7th.

By August 21st, 71% of covid-19 “cases” were occurring among fully vaccinated individuals:

In this 80% vaccinated 65+ population, an estimated 71% of COVID-19 cases occurred in fully vaccinated individuals.

These data reveal that as the Delta variant approached a 97% infection rate, “cases” and hospitalizations among fully vaccinated individuals showed striking increases with each passing week.

Key findings of the DoD / JAIC / Project Salus / Humetrix analysis

Throughout the slides, “VE” refers to vaccine effectiveness. “Breakthrough” means a failed vaccine, where a fully vaccinated person is diagnosed with covid. Many of those people require hospitalization and ICU treatments (see the slides below).

Some of the key findings of the Project Salus analysis include:

  • The effectiveness of mRNA vaccines is confirmed to wane over time.
  • With each passing week, those vaccinated with mRNA vaccines show an increasedrisk of vaccine failure / covid infections requiring hospitalization. From the analysis: “Odds ratio increasing to 2.5 at 6 months post vaccination.”
  • Natural immunity works: A prior covid infection greatly reduces the odds of a vaccinated person needing hospitalization from a subsequent infection.

Vaccine failure dramatically worsens within 5-6 months after being vaccinated

One slide from the analysis reveals that so-called “breakthrough” infections — vaccine failures — increase with time, showing a near doubling of breakthrough infections among those vaccinated 5-6 months ago vs. those vaccinated only 3-4 months ago.

These data end at August 21st, 2021 but the trend does not appear to be flattening. As more data are added to this analysis each week, it seems almost certain that breakthrough infections rates will continue to rise over time in vaccinated individuals. We do not yet know what will happen in 9 months after vaccination, but these data show cause for serious concern.

The following chart reveals that both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are showing the same pattern of worsening “breakthrough” infection rates over time. Notice the upward trend of all the bars in this chart, meaning both mRNA vaccines are producing the same increase in infections among the fully vaccinated:

Once the Delta variant took hold, 71% of COVID-19 “breakthrough” cases occurred among the fully vaccinated

As the following chart shows, 71% of COVID-19 “cases” were breakthrough cases (vaccine failures) once the Delta variant reached 90% spread across those infected.

Understand that the authors of this document state that those who are jabbed are not considered “vaccinated” until two weeks after they received the injections, which means that infections, hospitalizations and deaths which occurred from 0 – 14 days are ignored in this data set.

In reality, that means the percentage of “fully vaccinated” people responsible for breakthrough infections, hospitalizations and deaths is substantially higher than what is shown in these data. If they are claiming a 71% rate, it may in reality be more like 80% or even 90%, but we don’t know for sure because they are hiding all negative health outcomes for the first two weeks after the vaccines are administered (by claiming those people are “unvaccinated,” which is a deliberate deception being used to try to hide the harmful effects of vaccines).

Ethnic groups hit hardest: Native Americans, Hispanics and Blacks

Finally, a horrifying slide in the data set reveals that one of the highest risk factors for being hospitalized after being vaccinated is simply being of Native American descent. According to the data in this slide, Native Americans face around 50% higher odds of being hospitalized after being vaccinated, compared to other ethnic groups such as Whites.

Hispanics face a slightly lower risk which appears to be around 40% higher odds. Blacks face around 25% higher odds.

Why is this the case? The gain-of-function properties which were engineered into the SARS-CoV-2 biological weapon — via Fauci, Daszak and the NIH — target ACE2 receptors which exist in higher densities in targeted organ systems of many minority groups such as Native Americans, Hispanics and Blacks. This has led many observers to conclude that the covid spike protein — which is generated in the bodies of those who take mRNA vaccines — is a race-specific bioweapon designed to achieve depopulation of minority groups. Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam, has engaged in many efforts to bring this to the attention of his followers, for example. These data provided by the DoD / JAIC / Project Salus document shown here appear to support the plausibility of such theories.

Other factors that greatly increase a person’s odds of being hospitalized after receiving vaccinations include kidney failure (ESRD), morbid obesity, chronic liver disease or receiving chemotherapy.

Natural immunity offers documented protect against future hospitalization

Finally, the data presented in this document shows that natural immunity — listed as “prior covid-19” substantially decreases the risk of hospitalization after receiving covid-19 vaccines. (See slide above.)

What this means is that the best way to ensure the safest outcome of a covid vaccine is to experience a covid infection before getting vaccinated. This dramatically reduces your risk of negative health outcomes.

Then again, if someone has already had covid, why would they need a vaccine in the first place? If anything, these data show that anyone choosing to receive covid-19 vaccines is making the wrong choice if they desire to avoid infections, hospitalizations or deaths.

Natural immunity, once again, is revealed as the most effective status that reduces negative outcomes.

Conclusion

In conclusion, these data from the DoD / JAIC absolutely shatter the false narrative of Biden, Fauci, Walensky and other “authorities” who are still attempting to gaslight the American people into thinking that hospitals are filled with unvaccinated people. In reality, the vast majority of hospitalizations and deaths are occurring among those who were fully vaccinated, according to the 5.6 million people studied in this particular data set (Medicare).

Importantly, post-vaccine health outcomes are worsening over time, meaning that the vaccines appear to be gradually damaging the immune system over subsequent months, making vaccinated individuals far more vulnerable to subsequent infections.

This is the very definition of ADE (Antibody Dependent Enhancement), about which many analysts such as Dr. Sherri Tenpenny have warned. Now, it appears that ADE is no longer merely a theory but rather a confirmed phenomenon reflected in official Medicare data.

Attorney Thomas Renz told Natural News today that these data should immediately result in not just the FDA’s revocation of mRNA vaccine EUA and approval status, but that the FDA, Fauci and Big Pharma’s top executives should be sued under RICO Act violations for racketeering and organized crime.

The full interview with Thomas Renz is available here:

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Nazi concentration camp survivors have sent a letter to the International Criminal Court in support of a joint ‘Request for Investigation’ by lawyers who have submitted evidence, alongside sworn affidavits fro

Attorney Melinda C. Mayne, and Kaira S. McCallum submitted a 27-page ‘Request for Investigation’ to the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague back in April 2021 alleging the UK Government and its advisors were complicit in crimes against humanity in the name of Covid-19.

On the 28th of April 2021, the pair received a formal acknowledgement from the ICC and were assigned a case number – ‘141/21’. Since then the pair have been gathering new evidence to use in their ICC claim and have established connections with lawyers and research scientists from around the world.

A new press release published on the 17th August, which can be viewed here, confirms that the pair have received sworn affidavits from leading experts including research scientist and nuclear cardiologist Dr Richard M. Fleming, the Nobel Laureate virologist Professor Luc  A. Montagnier, and Dr Kevin W. McCairn, a neuroscientist and expert on neurological disease.

A new claim has since been submitted to the ICC due to the vast amount of new evidence and information that has come to light in the past few months, and the lawyers say they now have compelling evidence that “the SARS-CoV-2 virus and the Covid-19 ‘vaccines’ are deliberately engineered bioweapons that have been released in two phases on unsuspecting peoples of the world”.

Attorney Melinda C. Mayne, and Kaira S. McCallum have also confirmed that they have now been joined by lawyers who have filed similar Requests for Investigation to the International Criminal Court, in France, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Now the team of lawyers and experts have received support from survivors of the holocaust, who have sent a letter to the ICC outlining their grave concerns about the worldwide response to Covid-19 and the dangers of the experimental Covid-19 injections being used to allegedly combat the virus.

The letter sent was signed by three of the very few remaining survivors of Nazi concentration camps, who experienced first-hand  the horrors of the Holocaust and who are shocked and appalled by the evil they see unfolding once more, this time all over the world  – and in particular, the apparent total disregard for the Nuremberg Code.

These same survivors have previously delivered a letter to the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the UK’s Medicine Regulator (MHRA) demanding a halt to the Covid-19 vaccine roll-out following the FDA’s decision to grant full approval of new batches of Pfizer Covid-19 vaccines.

The survivors charged the authorities with failing to adequately inform populations of vaccine risks, and violating the right to free informed consent under the Nuremberg Code.

Footage of the Holocaust survivors delivering the letter to the EMA can be viewed in the following video:

Click here to watch the video.

In their letter to the ICC the Holocaust survivors, Vera Sharov, Moshe Brown and Hillel Handler reiterated the calls made by Attorney Melinda C. Mayne, and Kaira S. McCallum for the COVID-19 ‘vaccine’ programme to be halted with immediate effect, so that the very great number of deaths and serious adverse events that are occurring on a daily basis can be put to an end.

The Holocaust survivors concluded their letter (which can be read in full here) to the ICC as follows –

‘We as survivors of the concentration camps, witnessed many atrocities being committed in the Second World War and we were told this would never happen again , but yet it is happening again.

What a damning realisation: How many elderly people were coerced by fear to take the ‘vaccine’ and have not survived? How many survived the Holocaust but didn’t survive the COVID-19 injection? How many survived the medical experiments in Auschwitz and Birkenau but didn’t survive this contemporary medical experiment?

We therefore implore you to accept the joint ‘Request for Investigation’ from the United Kingdom, Slovakia, France and the Czech Republic and immediately and without further delay, open an urgent investigation into the crimes against humanity, the genocide and the breaches of the Nuremberg Code by numerous Perpetrators, which has resulted in so many needless deaths and serious injuries and continues to do so on a daily basis. The International Criminal Court as the court of last resort, has a duty to investigate these, the most heinous of crimes and to bring the Perpetrators to justice.

It is in your power to save lives. We are aware that several criminal charges have been dismissed by you on formal grounds. Regardless of technicalities, you have read them. We know that you are aware because of these claims, that millions of people are being hurt and dying by the so-called vaccination . For example, the Israeli lawyers have provided casualty figures in Israel and access to the EMA database of side effects. That was more than three months ago. Since that time, more people have died, become terminally ill, or been injured (see above). And you have not intervened. You further condone the fact that children are now increasingly among the victims of ‘vaccination’. It is up to you to punish the deliberate acts against life and limb, not to carry yourself with intent by an approving acceptance of attack on human life.

Every day that you waste idly, human lives are destroyed, children’s lives. We demand an immediate end to the vaccination campaign and an immediate investigation of the evidence available to you. People will forgive a mistake. A deliberate murder of their children – not. Do the right thing.

History will not look kindly upon you if you fail in your duty to do this. Know that our eyes and those of the peoples of the world are upon you – the responsibility is yours. You know what is happening, you have the evidence and now you must act.

Attorney Melinda C. Mayne, and Kaira S. McCallum both said that they are “very grateful to have their support, for which we thank them most sincerely”.

We will keep you updated on the outcome of the request for investigation once a decision has been made by the International Criminal Court.

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An anesthesiologist at UCLA Health in California who has not shied away from airing his suspicions about COVID-19 vaccines was escorted out of his workplace this week for refusing to get vaccinated in defiance of a statewide and employer mandate.

Dr. Christopher Rake is seen in a video appearing to record himself as another man escorts him out of the UCLA Medical Plaza in Westwood on Monday.

“This is what happens when you stand up for freedom and when you show up to work, willing to work, despite being unvaccinated, and this is the price you have to pay sometimes,” Rake is heard saying in the video posted Tuesday by The Beverly Hills Courier staff writer Samuel Braslow. “But what they don’t realize is that I’m willing to go lose everything — job, paycheck, freedom, even my life for this cause.”

Rake concludes his video with a message for viewers: “Be well. United we stand, divided we fall.”

UCLA Health, which includes several hospitals in the Los Angeles region, requires all active employees working in-person to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or receive an exemption in accordance with University of California policy and a state public health order issued on Aug. 5.

The order states all health care workers in California are required to have received their second shot of the two-dose Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, by Sept. 30.

“Those out of compliance are subject to progressive discipline, including restricting access to work sites and being placed on leave,” a UCLA spokesperson said in a statement to McClatchy News.

All UCLA Health employees are also required to show records of vaccination or “laboratory evidence of immunity” for measles, mumps, rubella, varicella, hepatitis B and Tdap.

Public health officials have repeatedly urged Americans to get vaccinated against COVID-19, saying the shots are safe and greatly reduce the risk of spreading the virus, hospitalization and death.

As of Oct. 7, Rake’s profile remains active on the health system’s website.

On Aug. 29, Rake attended an anti-vaccination rally in Santa Monica, according to the Los Angeles Times, and told an excited crowd that “they want to force a vaccination or medication or treatment into my body that I don’t want. So they’re telling me, ‘Take the jab or we take your job.’ And I’m here to say ‘no. That’s not OK.’”

UCLA took to Twitter two days later to respond:

“These comments do not represent the views of UCLA Health. Unvaccinated people are more likely to contract COVID-19 & we encourage employees to be vaccinated. We adhere to the state public health order requiring health care workers to be vaccinated or undergo regular testing.”

Other UCLA faculty and staff have expressed their frustrations over Rake’s comments.

“I think it’s mind boggling that a physician at a world-class institution would go to such a rally and use their name as a physician to directly contradict public health,” Dr. Anna Yap, an emergency medicine resident physician at UCLA, told the Daily Bruin, the university’s student newspaper.

Dr. Nina Shapiro, a professor of head and neck surgery at UCLA’s School of Medicine, also shared her concerns with the paper.

“We as a health care community … were some of the earliest in the country to have access to [the vaccine],” Shapiro told the Daily Bruin. “To twist that into a negative – especially when you know one of the main reasons why we are in this disastrous delta [variant-driven surge] is due to slow vaccine acceptance in the community – and spewing this misinformation is frankly deadly.”

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Katie Camero is a McClatchy National Real-Time Science reporter. She’s an alumna of Boston University and has reported for the Wall Street Journal, Science, and The Boston Globe.

Featured image: Dr. Christopher Rake, an anesthesiologist at UCLA Health, took a video of himself as he was being escorted out of his workplace for refusing to get a COVID-19 vaccine despite a state mandate for health care workers. A VIDEO POSTED BY THE BEVERLY HILLS COURIER STAFF WRITER SAMUEL BRASLOW

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Sunday Update — Southwest cancels 1,000 flights.

Southwest Airlines canceled close to 2,000 flights over the weekend, blaming the woes on air traffic control issues and weather.  The airline canceled more than 1,000 flights or 29% of its Sunday schedule, as of 7 p.m. ET, according to flight tracker FlightAware.  That was the highest rate by far of the major U.S. airlines.  Next in line was Allegiant, which canceled 6% of its flights. American Airlines canceled 5% of its flights, while Spirit canceled 4% on Sunday, according to the flight tracker.

On Saturday, Southwest Airlines canceled more than 800 flights.

Harteveldt says the most troubling reason is the likelihood that some pilots who oppose Southwest’s decision to mandate COVID vaccinations are participating in a “work slowdown.”

Southwest Internal Memo

List of cancelled flights on FlightAware

Southwest cancels all flights into Florida

The moment Orlando Airport travelers were informed of the cancellations.

Hundreds of flights today and yesterday have been postponed or canceled into and out of Florida. Legacy media is claiming the outages are due to bad weather, but word has leaked of a mass sickout at the FAA air traffic control center in Jacksonville in protest of federal Vaccine mandates.

Southwest Airlines blamed the mass cancellations on “ATC issues and disruptive weather”

Travelers noted that the weather was just fine…

Walkout over Vaccine mandates…

Confirmation ATC was short staffed…

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During the 76 session of the United Nations General Assembly on September 20, 2021, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres lunged into a dire warning saying:

“I am here to sound the alarm.  The world must wake up.  We are on the edge of an abyss—and moving in the wrong direction.  Our world has never been more threatened or more divided.  We face the greatest cascade of crises in our lifetimes… A surplus in some countries.  Empty shelves in others.  This is a moral indictment of the state of our world.”

While these words appear very truthful on the surface, sitting as we are upon a systemic meltdown of the world economy and potential collapse of population levels unseen since the days of the 14th century dark age, it is worth asking: What are the primary causes for the collapse into an abyss which Guterres is so concerned about?

Is it neocolonialism managed by a financier oligarchy which has kept the majority of the global south poor, indebted, starved, divided and at war?

Is he concerned about the drive for full spectrum first strike nuclear hegemony by Anglo-American unipolarists?

Or is it the immanent collapse of the $1.2 quadrillion financial bubble masquerading as the western economy?

It is in fact none of those things.

In Guterres’ mind, the existential crises which demands a total overhaul of all human collective behavior, thinking and traditions is shaped by the boiling of the earth caused by man-made global warming (which has less to do with anthropogenic CO2 than you might image) and a pandemic which has a 99.8% survival rate.

What sort of solution does Guterres envision?

The Great Reset Magic Wand

In June 2020, just months after the World Economic Forum signed a strategic partnership to merge its functions with the United Nations, Guterres laid out his vision stating:

“The Great Reset is a welcome recognition that this human tragedy must be a wake-up call. We must build more equal, inclusive and sustainable economies and societies that are more resilient in the face of pandemics, climate change and the many other global changes we face.”

This was merely a rehashing of the words of World Economic Forum President Klaus Schwab who just days earlier said:

“The world must act jointly and swiftly to revamp all aspects of our societies and economies, from education to social contracts and working conditions… Every country, from the United States to China, must participate, and every industry, from oil and gas to tech, must be transformed. In short, we need a ‘Great Reset’ of capitalism.”

Upon reading this, one might interject “but isn’t it true that capitalism has proven itself too corrupt to salvage and that a new system is needed that is driven by moral values?

Certainly, worshipping money is as bad as Guterres and Schwab frequently attest and additionally a new system driven by moral values is needed to bring us out of the abyss… but is the system now imploding referred to by Klaus actually “capitalism” or has a slight of hand occurred?

It is my contention that the thing labelled “capitalism” outlined by Schwab in his Great Reset speech above was never capitalism at all.

Self-Cannibalism by Another Name

Capitalism requires the creation of capital to merit the name.

Under nationalist statesmen like John Quincy Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses Grant, William McKinley, Franklin Roosevelt and JFK in America (and many like minded figures internationally) the past 250 years has seen amazing leaps of progress under the form of capitalism. Large scale, government directed credit, protective tariffs and social programs merged the needs of the nation with the liberty of the individual and free enterprise.

On the other hand, the consumer society cult created during the 1970s was never about creating anything at all… but only consuming what previous generations had created and leaving nothing durable for the future but unpayable debt, never-ending wars, addiction to cheap labor and atrophied infrastructure.

The global transformation unleashed with the 1971 destruction of the gold reserve standard was always driven by an intention to replace national systems of economic planning with a new anti-nation state system driven by myopic speculation.

In this new liberalized system, being a good citizen meant only being a good consumer where the worship of short-term gains blinded corrupt fools to the reality that a hive of oligarchs were taking control of all media, science, academia, corporate governance and the civil service of governments across the Trans Atlantic. What they called “capitalism” was merely a looting operation that emerged over the dead bodies of patriots such as Franklin Roosevelt, John F Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Enrico Mattei and many others.

The network which ran this systemic transformation within the USA was a powerful group called “the Trilateral Commission”.

Co-founded by Chase Manhattan bank president David Rockefeller, Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski, the manifesto for this group was outlined by Brzezinski in his 1970 book ‘Between Two Ages: America’s Role in the Technetronic Era’.

In this manifesto, Brezinski wrote:

“The technetronic era involves the gradual appearance of a more controlled society. Such a society would be dominated by an elite, unrestrained by traditional values. Soon it will be possible to assert almost continuous surveillance over every citizen and maintain up-to-date complete files containing even the most personal information about the citizen. These files will be subject to instantaneous retrieval by the authorities.”

The Bomb is Set

In order to get from one obsolete age of nationalism and the belief in scientific progress to a new age of post-nationalist world government, an intermediary period had to be created “in between two ages”. That intermediate age would call itself capitalism on the surface and America would be a Leviathan-like enforcer of this system of looting on a global stage.

During this time, supranational consortiums of international finance, corporate power and intelligence agencies beholden to no nation state would increasingly use the deregulation of the system under globalization to re-colonize western nations stripping them of all actual economic sovereignty and leaving them sovereign in name only.

The system that emerged under this new order was less capitalism and more an elaborate time bomb.

By virtue of its emphasis on the increased rates of fictitious capital accumulation, this new system of self-cannibalism would kill long term investments required to sustain society, and create a speculative bubble premised on ever increasing mountains of unpayable debt. This bomb would blow up like the early bubbles that had been set to pop in 1929 New York and even earlier in 1923 Germany with “scientifically managed” forms of fascist governance offered as solutions.

As the Trilateral Commission was taking control within the USA, a former student of Kissinger named Klaus Schwab was co-founding a new organization in Switzerland called the World Economic Forum (originally named the European Management Fund).

This new organization would serve in tandem to the Bilderberger Group established in 1956 by Dutch Prince (and World Wildlife Fund co-founder) Bernhardt and serve as an influential platform for the world’s elite to plan and coordinate a supranational game plan designed to nudge the world into a new utopia.

World Economic Forum co-founder (and later chairman) was a Canadian Rockefeller protégé named Maurice Strong who had leapt from mining executive to leading controller of Canada’s Liberal Party during the 1960s to become an international leader of the neo-Malthusian revival heading the United Nations’ first environmental conference in Stockholm in 1972. Described lovingly by Schwab as “my mentor”, it was at Davos that Maurice Strong began openly advocating world government and population control which became a loud theme throughout his life. It was in reference to the Davos group that Strong had mused in 1991:

”What if a small group of world leaders were to conclude that the principal risk to the Earth comes from the actions of the rich countries? And if the world is to survive, those rich countries would have to sign an agreement reducing their impact on the environment. Will they do it? The group’s conclusion is ‘no’. The rich countries won’t do it. They won’t change. So, in order to save the planet, the group decides: Isn’t the only hope for the planet that the industrialized civilizations collapse? Isn’t it our responsibility to bring that about?”

One frequent WEF guest was another Trilateral Commission member who had first coined the term “Davos man” in 2004. His name was Samuel P. Huntington, and in 1975, he took part in a Trilateral Commission study called “Crisis in Democracy” where he wrote:

 “We have come to recognize that there are potential desirable limits to economic growth. There are also potentially desirable limits to the indefinite extension of democracy… a government which lack authority will have little ability to impose on its people the sacrifices that will be necessary”.

Here a theme is raised which is characteristic of all techno-feudal thought: The nation state’s only purpose is to serve as an appendage for a supranational elite in order to enforce: 1) limits to growth onto civilization, and 2) draconian sacrifices that no democratic people would willfully permit being imposed onto themselves or their children.

On the Verge of a New Age

Today, the new age which golden collar elites of the Davos clique have made their religious mission to bring online as part of an anti-Christian scientific paganism, has been called “the fourth industrial revolution”.

To recap: The period of chaos launched in 1971 with the floating of the dollar was never capitalism.

It was always just a temporary social Darwinist age of pillage and hedonism masquerading as capitalism which could do nothing but collapse by its very nature.

Over fifty years into this age of chaos, nation states of the trans Atlantic community have been systematically stripped down of anything which rendered them economically sovereign.

Yes, there are still certain confused sparks of life from republican forces in piecemeal form within parts of the USA, and Europe which still value freedom, but the sort of political or economic sovereignty once enjoyed during the times of Kennedy and de Gaulle are long gone. Privatizations, outsourcing of industry and atrophy of infrastructure has resulted in a transfer of power to the hands of an immensely wealthy oligarchical class.

The defenders of humanity today are found among the Multipolar Alliance led by Russia, China and a growing array of nations who want to have a future.

These are nations which are being led by statesmen who recognize the existential value of real economic growth, nationalism, long term planning, and scientific progress which are needed to bring humanity out of the fire sweeping across the world and into a future worth living in.

It is this emerging new paradigm which a frightened Guterres referred to when he said:

“I fear our world is creeping towards two different sets of economic, trade, financial, and technology rules, two divergent approaches in the development of artificial intelligence—and ultimately two different military and geo-political strategies.  This is a recipe for trouble.  It would be far less predictable and far more dangerous than the Cold War.”

In a future report we will dig more deeply into the question of “HOW did this oligarchical clique embed itself within the United States during the Cold War and induce an emerging baby boomer generation to democratically de-construct Judeo Christian civilization?”

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Matthew Ehret is 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. In 2019 he co-founded the Montreal-based Rising Tide FoundationThe author can be reached at matthewehret.substack.com.

He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

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In his latest video, John Campbell, Ph.D., compared ivermectin, whose use as a COVID treatment has been widely criticized by mainstream media, with Merck’s new COVID drug, Molnupiravir, which is garnering positive media coverage.

In his latest video, John Campbell, Ph.D., compared ivermectin, whose use as a COVID treatment has been widely criticized by mainstream media, with Merck’s new COVID drug, Molnupiravir, which has been the subject of glowing media attention.

Campbell, a UK-based nurse teacher, cited several studies as he compared the two treatments on the basis of effectiveness, safety and cost. He first turned to a paper in the Austin Journal of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, “Drugs Shown to Inhibit SARS-Cov-2 in COVID-19 Disease: Comparative Basic and Clinical Pharmacology of Molnupiravir and Ivermectin.”

The peer-reviewed paper refers to ivermectin as the most studied “repurposed” medication globally, and notes that it is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and “classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as an ‘essential’ broad spectrum antiparasitic, antibiotic, and has demonstrated broad antiviral activity against RNA viruses, including HIV, Zika, MERS and coronavirus.”

“And of course, ivermectin also won the Nobel Prize in 2015,” Campbell said.

According to the paper, Campbell said, Molnupiravir — though still going through trials and safety testing — is believed to “work against seasonal and pandemic flu, MERS, coronavirus and SARS-CoV-2.” The paper’s author noted that Molnupiravir does not inhibit inflammation, whereas ivermectin does.

How do the two drugs compare on cost? Ivermectin is exponentially cheaper than Merck’s new Molnupiraravir.

The cost of a complete five-day course of Molnupiravir is $700 — or $70 per pill. That amounts to a 4,000% markup over what it costs Merck to make the drug.

Citing 2013 prices provided by the WHO, Campbell said a five-day course of ivermectin — 10 3mg pills — costs $0.53. (However, at today’s U.S. prices, 10 3mg pills cost about $39).

On effectiveness, Molnupiravir is lacking data. The only publicly available clinical data on Molnupiravir comes from a Merck press statement claiming the new drug is 50% effective against hospitalizations and deaths, when used as an early treatment.

For ivermectin, using publicly available data, Campbell referred to one peer-reviewed study that pegs ivermectin’s effectiveness in early treatment at 62%, and an ongoing meta-analysis which shows ivermectin is 66% effective in early treatment and 86% effective as a prophylactic.

Using VigiBase, a WHO database on pharmaceutical safety data, Campbell showed that out of  3.7 billion doses given of ivermectin there have been only 5,693 reports of adverse events — far fewer, according to Campbell, than the number of adverse event reports associated with amoxicillin and ibuprofen, both widely used and considered safe.

Comparable safety information for Merck’s Molnupiravir is not yet available, as trials and studies are still ongoing. But Campbell did raise concern about  Molnupiravir’s mutagenic properties. He cited the Austin Journal of Pharmacology and Therapeutics paper which states, “there is some concern about the safety of [Molnupiravir’s] NHC-nucleoside triphosphate, which is mutagenic to mammalian cells.”

According to Campbell, Merck denies this is a problem. But the paper suggests, at the very least,” it needs looking into,” Campbell said.

Watch the video here:

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Jeremy Loffredo is a reporter for The Defender.

Featured image is from CHD

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No doubt, none of us can recall a time when the world at large has faced so many problems and crisis that impinge upon the well-being and mortality of billions of people. For over a year and a half, we have been overwhelmed with anxiety, dread, depression and anger, desperately seeking solutions to ameliorate an all-pervading angst as society is completely being reconfigured in the image of those who hold power, influence and wealth.  There was a time in the past when we believed our elected officials would enact laws to protect the citizenry and provide a climate for sustaining a normal, productive life. The Covid-19 pandemic and those who would capitalize on the opportunities it provides for non-democratic agendas as changed all of that.  In its place the masters of government and industry have assured us that existential angst is our new fate.  Faith in any institutional security has collapsed into a tragic theater as the younger generations face an uncertain future and life loses its purpose and meaning. 

The majority of people’s beliefs are grounded and conditioned upon the input and information they receive. And today that information has been completely corporatized through a media that spoon-feed the consuming public a heavy dose of fear and confusion. Those who make efforts to pull back the curtain to expose the global Oz’s wicked wizard are marginalized, officially canceled by Silicon Valley and an army of faux fact checkers.  Consequently, it should come as no surprise that the culture of non-transparency draping the halls of Washington, the international health institutions, professional medical associations, and the pharmaceutical complex would spark public suspicions about conspiratorial attentions to shred democracy and individual rights and freedoms.

Objective skepticism, the ability to turn towards the mind’s faculty for critical thought, has rapidly declined in American society for several decades. Yet a healthy skepticism is necessary for questioning both the rhetoric and misinformation of “official” views and propaganda, including hints of what is commonly ridiculed as conspiracy.  The word “conspiracy” has lost its meaning and credibility in the American lexicon. Rarely does mainstream media, professional associations and think tanks, and official federal public relations and propaganda contextualize the term to simply implicate wrongdoing and corruption. When used by authorities, “conspiracy” is almost always pejorative, a means to slander, accuse and marginalize people as loons and quacks.  As a result we are led to believe the gospel word of officialdom: the Warren report, the 911 Commission, and more recently everything spouted from Anthony Fauci and the mouths of the White House and federal health agencies regarding the Covid pandemic and the wave of pro-vaccine mania.

Very often conspiracies are ridiculous, bordering on the absurd. However, past examples of politically motivated black flag operations and secretive agendas created in corporate boardrooms and government halls cannot rule out that conspiracies don’t exist or never have.  When there is sound reason to question the integrity of a politician, health official, media pundit, or a corporate executive, it is natural for the inquisitive mind to explore more deeply the hidden motivations and goals underlying the thoughts and actions of conspiracies’ physical footprints.  In most cases it is the evidence of contradictions, hypocrisies and confirmed blatant lies by individuals in authority that give birth to the conspiratorial mind.

Conspiracies conducted by the government, which resulted in unnecessary violence and death, are proven to have occurred and others were been planned:  the Gulf of Tonkin, the Tuskegee syphilis experiments, the CIA staged coup to oust Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, and the failed Operation Northwood scheme by the CIA and Pentagon to launch acts of terror against Miami residents. Before the 2001 anthrax scare identified any individual or group behind the toxic letters, according to an FBI whistleblower, the Bush White House instructed the FBI to blame the attacks on al-Qaeda; later it was revealed that the threats were carried out by one or more US government employed scientists.

In addition, the US government frequently launches conspiratorial misinformation campaigns through the major corporate media and Silicon Valley complex in order to support its clandestine and long term agendas.  Before the 2001 anthrax scare identified any individual or group behind the letters, according to an FBI whistleblower, the Bush White House instructed the FBI to blame the attacks on al-Qaeda. Later we learned that the threats were carried out by one or more US government scientists associated with Fort Detrick.  Furthermore, the mainstream media makes every effort to seduce us into believing that we don’t have conspiracies in the banking system, the pharmaceutical industry, and the government intelligence apparatus.

NSA Director Gen. Keith Alexander claimed publicly that intelligence surveillance of the American public “foiled” 54 terrorist attacks by extremists. Independent research confirmed that in fact only one, and a possible second, attack, could be directly associated with the war on terrorism.  The media never questioned the accuracy of Alexander’s claim nor provided evidence to the contrary. Repeatedly Obama lied to the American people about the largess of the national security state and its infiltration into the lives of average citizens, including massive data collection of private phone calls, emails and internet activity.

The federal government is a vast sea of conspiracies operative at every moment. The NSA revelations of Edward Snowden documented proof that intelligence surveillance is far more extensive than officially reported. But others can be cited throughout the recent activities of the FBI, CIA, Pentagon, FISA courts, USDA and FDA and CDC, and the Justice Department. Additional confirmed conspiracies planned by our executive branch, the CIA, military and other federal agencies include:

  • A US Congressional committee acknowledged that the CointelPro campaign included the FBI employing provocateurs from the 1950s to 1970s to carry out terrorist acts in order to blame civil political activists.
  • Bush’s justice department Attorney General John Yoo recommended that the US create a false terrorist organization for the purpose of conducting terrorist attacks that could be blamed on al-Qaeda.
  • Overwhelming scientific evidence now can debunk the official report that the three World Trade buildings could not have collapsed in free fall from jet-fuel fires alone.
  • Government has covered up conspiracies waged against Americans by other nations. The Israeli bombing of the USS Liberty and the planting of bombs in US diplomatic facilities in Egypt by Israeli terrorist cells are two examples.
  • State Department documents show the Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs of Staff planned to bomb the US consulate in the Dominican Republic in order to win popular support for an invasion of the country.
  • During the US occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq, American soldiers were instructed to leave weapons near bodies of innocent civilians they killed in order to make the claim they were terrorists.
  • The Tuskegee Syphilis Study conducted by the US Public Health Service between 1932 to 1972, which experimented with unknowing poor African American men in violation of the Nuremberg Code.
  • The 2000 Simpsonwood meeting convened by the CDC with major health agencies and executives of vaccine makers to cover-up scientific evidence that mercury in vaccines were contributing to the increase in autism.
  • The whistleblower document dump by a senior CDC epidemiologist, Dr. William Thompson, revealing that the health agency under Julie Gerberding’s directorship destroyed internal research proving the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine contributed to a 250 percent higher rate of autism in African American boys. Gerberding went on to become president of Merck’s vaccine division with a $2.5 million salary and $38 million in stock options.
  • The thirty-year asbestos covered up of prior knowledge about asbestos’ association with respiratory illness and cancer in order to avoid lawsuits
  • The CIA’s mind control operations known as MK Ultra from the 1950s into the 1970s before being exposed by the Church Committee.
  • The Iran-Contra Affair in 1985 to secretly sell arms to Iran in order to fund Nicaraguan Contras.
  • The October Surprise during the Carter-Reagan presidential election when Reagan insiders met with Iranian revolution leaders in Europe to prevent the release of American hostages until after Reagan’s inauguration if he won the election.

These are only examples indicting factions within the federal government with treason to conduct conspiratorial acts.  When the brilliant journalist I.F. Stone wrote, “Every government is run by liars, and nothing they say should be believed,” he may have just as well been speaking about the entire gambit of federal agencies. Examples of legalized terror are aplenty and reveal actions solely for the pursuit of profit at the cost of Americans’ health. This has become particularly epidemic in private industry

  • Merck’s withholding evidence from the FDA that its blockbuster drug Vioxx had serious health risks, including heart attack, stroke and death. The drug was responsible for at least a very conservative toll of 60,000 deaths.
  • In 2009, Pfizer was fined $2.3 billion for what was then the largest healthcare felony settlement in US pharmaceutical history for illegally promoting its drugs, including its painkiller Bextra. $1.2 billion was for the criminal fine then the largest imposed in the US.
  • The US Justice Department charged Johnson and Johnson $2.2 billion in criminal fines for marketing its autism and anti-psychotic drug Risperdal for unapproved uses. Forty-five states filed civil lawsuits against J&J in the scandal
  • Lawsuits continue to pile up against Merck for punitive damages, negligence, strict liability with failure to warn, manufacturing defects and common law fraud due to injuries associated with its HPV vaccine Gardasil.
  • A group of CDC scientists who called themselves SPIDER (Scientists Preserving the Integrity, Diligence and Ethics in Research) turned anonymous whistleblowers after releasing a written complaint criticizing the agency for operating as a tax-funded subsidiary of the drug industry in partnership with the FDA.
  • The legal suits against the agricultural giant Monsanto hid years of research and evidence of its active Round Up chemical glyphosate being responsible for DNA damage, birth defects, and a variety of cancers
  • Federally funded researchers forcefully administered highly toxic AIDS drugs in experiments on foster care children in a New York children’s center;

Besides withholding truthful claims, individuals, groups, companies or governments targeted in conspiracy theories share an atmosphere perceived as clandestine and secret.  In the private sector, conspiracies are voluminous and are permitted to continue behind the backs of federal crime authorities.

For decades independent voices have suggested that Wall Street has undue influence over government economic policies and the nation. On the contrary, tens of thousands of articles, books and opinion essays, reinforced with solid scholarship, reveal we do in fact have an epidemic of conspiracies in our midst.  Yet there is barely a legislator or journalist in corporate media with the courage to independently investigate the trail of leads behind current events. The major corporate media is also complicit in our nationwide conspiracy of corruption and criminal behavior.

The media wonks of public opinion, at the behest of federal and corporate pressure, control the issues that the public should or should not hear. Consequently our media engages in campaigns of psychological terror against society at large by keeping the public in doubt and fear.  Something is terribly wrong when there is such disparity between official rhetoric and the destruction of civil freedoms, justice, sovereignty and constitutional guarantees now decimating human rights and the quality of life across the US.  For example, recently the Biden White House instructed the justice department on the behalf of local school boards nationwide to consider any and all parents who challenge school board’s polices and rules. Instead parents should be identified as and pursed as domestic terrorists, thereby stifling all free speech that challenges government policies.

America is awash in conspiracy. Every firm on Wall Street and in the large private industrial complexes—oil and fossil fuels, nuclear energy, military and national security contractors, the pharmaceutical industry, agro-chemical firms, insurance firms—regularly and repeatedly engage in conspiracies against the American public. Private corporations and their employees have settled many thousands of lawsuits. On occasion accused individuals, usually propped as patsies and fall guys, have gone to jail. But in the vast majority of cases companies negotiate settlements and walk away without remorse and are able to retain their ill-gotten gains.

JP Morgan settled on $13 billion for mortgage fraud, which left thousands of families homeless.  Wachovia was slapped for a mere $800 million for money laundering hundreds of billions of dollars including dark money associated with the illegal drug trade. In every private industry we discover numerous resolved class action suits with underlying conspiratorial intentions to deceive the public and federal regulators.  Corruption is systemic throughout corporate America and increases with every bill to further deregulate.

A seductive characteristic of many reasonable conspiracy theories is that they  cannot be ruled out entirely. This is why they become so popular.  Research conducted by psychologists Michael Wood and Karen Douglas at the University of Kent in the UK, and findings by political scientist Lance DeHaven in his book Conspiracy Theory in America, indicate that conspiracy theorists are more sane and intellectually mature than our naïve leaders in government and the major two political parties who more fanatically attach themselves to anti-conspiracy beliefs.[i]  For example, the Kent studies showed that two of three viewers of mainstream media reporting on the events of 911 disbelieved the networks.

Now with full throttle efforts to impose anti-scientific policies to lessen the Covid pandemic entering dystopian territory, a flurry of conspiratorial charges are being leveled against the vaccine makers, Antony Fauci, the NIAID, the CDC and the Biden administration. Since conspiracies arise due to observable inconsistencies, contradictions and obvious misstatements, there is every reason for a critical thinking person to realize that the official narrative is contrary to the growing number of first person accounts of deception at every level.  Numerous medical professionals and physicians have now spoken out against:

  • The accuracy of PCR testing to track the pandemic and determine case counts;
  • The manner in which Covid-19 deaths were recorded, which included deaths caused by other medical conditions including pneumonia and other infectious diseases;
  • Unwarranted changes in the World Health Organization’s definition of a pandemic and herd immunity;
  • The violation of international laws by enforcing an experimental vaccine on the public;
  • Suppression of accurate data and reports of Covid vaccine injuries and deaths;
  • The suppression of effective and inexpensive lifesaving drugs such as Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine;
  • Years of scientific evidence against the effectiveness of masks and social distancing and lockdowns;

The widespread censorship of scientific voices within the orthodox medical community is only the tip of the iceberg; however, it provides certainty that the policies and strategies being endorsed are by no means science-based.  Similar to the worst kinds of religious fundamentalism that represses and engages in violence against non-believers, the commercial based medicine advocated by Fauci, the federal health agencies and the government’s network of medical institutions, drug companies and philanthropists like Bill Gates are determined to kick out of the scientific community and excommunicate those who criticize their dogma.  In every worse possible way the medical establishment is emulating religious institutions that have been totally intolerant of dissenters.

We can and should have enormous respect for science when conducted in an objective methodological manner aligned with ethical intent, but we should show no respect whatsoever for science that is dogmatic, fundamentalist and intolerant. The official propaganda about Covid-19, the SARS-2 virus, the vaccines, and the demonization of safe, cheap and effective treatments is no friend to real science anymore than religious militants are to authentic ethical-based religion.  The federal medical complex’s handling of the crisis has been an utter failure from the start. And now we are witnessing the larger cost of this incompetence appearing in unexpected harm such as enormous spikes in mental health disorders, suicides and violence.

The latest example, with disastrous consequences, is the recent discovery of the Covid vaccines are being incorrectly administered.  Medical personnel administering the vaccines in clinics and pharmacies across the nation are failing to first aspirate the syringe to assure that no vein was punctured, which could cause a potentially lethal injury to the heart. This gross negligence is now being observed in people afflicted with blood clotting, myocardia and other heart problems following vaccination.

However, the more disconcerning problem is that the CDC and WHO are giving false information by stating that aspiration is unnecessary.  Again, our health officials are completely wrong despite millions of vaccines doses having administered. We can only imagine how many injuries and deaths were caused by this gross medical negligence.

Fortunately the pandemic is being exposed as a scam more quickly every day as federal inconsistencies and new information further implodes their narrative. The public will then need to rise up, along with the dissenting medical community, and demand legal accountability for the perpetuators of this pandemic terrorism.

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Richard Gale is the Executive Producer of the Progressive Radio Network and a former Senior Research Analyst in the biotechnology and genomic industries.

Dr. Gary Null is host of the nation’s longest running public radio program on alternative and nutritional health and a multi-award-winning documentary film director, including his recent Last Call to Tomorrow

They are frequent contributors to Global Research.

Notes

[i] Kevin Barrett, “New Studies: Conspiracy Theorists Sane; Government Dupes Crazy, Hostile,”  Press TV, July 12, 2013. http://www.presstv.com/detail/2013/07/12/313399/conspiracy-theorists-vs-govt-dupes/

Featured image is from OneWorld

The US Cannot Defend Taiwan, and China Knows It

October 11th, 2021 by Scott Ritter

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The US is playing a dangerous game of putting a public face on a policy of defending Taiwan from China, for which it has zero capability to implement.

Following a recent escalation of tensions between Beijing and Taipei, Chinese President Xi Jinping vowed on Saturday to pursue “reunification” with Taiwan by peaceful means and warned foreign nations about meddling in the issue.

For the past several years, the air force of the People’s Republic of China has been flying sorties into Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone, or ADIZ, as a means of sending a signal to Taipei that China does not recognize its claims of independence and, as such, any notion of an ADIZ is null and void. These incidents, which have been escalating over the years, recently reached a crescendo: China, according to Taipei, flew 38 aircraft in two waves into Taiwan’s ADIZ on October 1, 39 more on October 2 (also in two waves), and 16 the following day.

In response, the US State Department spokesman Ned Price issued a statement.

“The United States is very concerned by the People’s Republic of China’s provocative military activity near Taiwan, which is destabilizing, risks miscalculations, and undermines regional peace and stability. We urge Beijing to cease its military, diplomatic, and economic pressure and coercion against Taiwan.”

China’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying replied

“Taiwan belongs to China and the US is in no position to make irresponsible remarks. The relevant remarks by the US side seriously violate the one-China principle and the stipulations of the three China-US joint communiqués and send an extremely wrong and irresponsible signal.”

On October 4, Taipei said that China sent its largest wave of aircraft yet into Taiwan’s ADIZ, some 56 in total, including 36 J-16 and Su-30 fighter jets, 12 nuclear-capable H-6 bombers, 2 Y-8 anti-submarine warfare (ASW) aircraft and two KJ-500 airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft.

Alarmed by these developments, Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen declared that

“Taiwan does not seek military confrontation. It hopes for a peaceful, stable, predictable, and mutually beneficial coexistence with its neighbors. But Taiwan will also do whatever it takes to defend its freedom and democratic way of life.”

‘Whatever it takes’, however, is an infinite concept backed up by the finite reality that Taiwan has a military of about 165,000 active-duty troops and about 1.6 million reserve soldiers which has been equipped with billions of dollars of advanced American-made military equipment.

While Taiwan’s military may look good on paper, it is ill-prepared for the realities of the kind of full-scale combat that will be directed at them if China ever decides to go through with an invasion. As the world learned in Afghanistan, impressive numbers on paper do not automatically translate into an impressive fighting force on the ground. And China would be delivering violence on a scale several orders of magnitude above what the Taliban could ever contemplate.

If China ever decided to invade Taiwan, the working assumption would be that it had conducted an extensive intelligence-based assessment of its chances of victory, which would have to be near-certain in order for China to undertake an action that would bring with it the condemnation of much of the world. China would have located with pin-point precision the garrisons and deployment locations of every major Taiwanese ground combat unit. It would have done the same with every combat-capable aircraft in the Taiwanese inventory. And it would have identified the logistics bases used by Taiwan to sustain its frontline combat forces. All of these would be subjected to extensive pre-assault bombardment by the Chinese air and ballistic missile forces.

Any surviving Taiwanese units would then be faced with the daunting task of repelling a massive invasion which would likely comprise a combination of amphibious and air assault forces. Assuming enough units survived the pre-assault bombardment to put up a competent defense, they would rapidly run through their on-hand stocks of ammunition, fuel, and food. Units that were cut off from resupply would begin to surrender, and the notion of surrender would become contagious. Pockets of die-hard defenders could survive to fight on for a period, but the reality is that Taiwan would fall in less than a week.

Much has been made about the US ability to come to Taiwan’s defense. While the US may have made great waves sailing its navy through the Taiwan Strait, such a maneuver would be suicidal in a time of conflict. The US Navy would be relegated to standing by far to the east of Taiwan, out of the range of China’s deadly ballistic missile capability, launching aircraft which would have limited combat capability given fuel and weight limitations. The same holds true for the US Air Force. The fact is, any aircraft the US dispatched to defend Taiwan from a Chinese invasion would be rapidly attritted, with no replacements available in a time frame that could change the course of the battle on the ground in Taiwan.

Much has been made about media reports concerning the presence of US forces in Taiwan for the purpose of training the Taiwan military. These forces are not part of any formal alliance or defense pact, but rather part of what is known as “foreign internal defense” training missions, in this case involving a few dozen US Special Forces and US Marines doing small-unit training. This is not the kind of large-scale operational training undertaken by formal alliances such as NATO, where interoperability is essential for any joint combat operations.

The best the US could hope to do when it comes to defending Taiwan would be to modify existing warplanes for the reinforcement of South Korea. This war plan, known as OPLAN-5027, has a subsection known as a Time-Phased Deployment List, or TPFDL, which has identified the forces and equipment necessary to reinforce South Korea in time of war. At one time, the TPFDL had earmarked 690,000 troops, 160 Navy ships, and 1,600 aircraft for deployment from the US to South Korea within 90 days of a war breaking out on the Korean peninsula.

Two things come to mind—by the time the US cavalry was ready to arrive in Taiwan, they would be about 83 days too late. And, more importantly, China would have consolidated its hold on Taiwan making any US effort to retake it suicidal. OPLAN-5027 envisions US forces flowing into South Korean ports that are controlled by the South Korean government. It is not an amphibious assault plan, and any effort to transform it into one would fail.

This is the reality-based state of play today when it comes to the defense of Taiwan by the US. The only alteration that could be made would be for the US to use nuclear weapons in defense of Taiwan. This, of course, would trigger a general nuclear war with China, and the US is not prepared to commit national suicide for a nation it doesn’t even have a formal defensive pact with.

Ned Price might want to keep all of this in mind the next time he approaches the microphone to speak about defending Taiwan. He and the rest of the US government are writing checks with their mouths neither Taiwan nor the US military can cash. A better course of action would be to work with China and Taiwan toward the goal of peaceful unification which preserves intact the democratic system of government that exists in Taiwan.

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Scott Ritter is a former US Marine Corps intelligence officer and author of ‘SCORPION KING: America’s Suicidal Embrace of Nuclear Weapons from FDR to Trump.’ He served in the Soviet Union as an inspector implementing the INF Treaty, in General Schwarzkopf’s staff during the Gulf War, and from 1991-1998 as a UN weapons inspector. Follow him on Twitter @RealScottRitter

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This important article was frost published by Children’s Health Defense in July 2021

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Immunologist and former NIH scientist J. Bart Classen analyzed data on COVID vaccine adverse events reported to the UK’s Yellow Card system and found thousands of reports of multiple symptoms that are “clear signals” of neurodegenerative disorders.

As cases pile up (445 as of July 9) of the reportedly “rare” neurological disorder Guillain-Barré syndrome in people who received a COVID vaccine — forcing the sluggish U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to add a warning label to the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) shot — scientists are issuing urgent warnings about a possible tsunami of other types of neurological injuries.

Immunologist J. Bart Classen, one-time National Institutes of Health (NIH) contract scientist and proprietor of Classen Immunotherapies, a Maryland biotechnology firm, published a paper in February outlining the potential for messenger RNA (mRNA) COVID vaccines to trigger development of prion diseases as well as other chronic diseases.

Prion or “prion-like” diseases include Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), multiple system atrophy (MSA) and others. A hallmark of these neurodegenerative diseases is the formation and clustering of misfolded proteins within the nervous system.

Classen’s February conclusions were based on analysis of RNA from the Pfizer injection.

Now, Classen has published a second paper on prion disease risks that draws on actual adverse event data from the United Kingdom following vaccination with the AstraZeneca or Pfizer COVID vaccines.

These data show the risk of neurodegenerative adverse events is far from theoretical. In fact, the AstraZeneca vaccine is already producing a safety signal for Parkinson’s disease, and the Pfizer vaccine may not be far behind.

Clear signal

Classen’s analysis focuses on roughly six months’ worth of data (through mid-June 2021) for two of the experimental COVID injections currently authorized in the UK — the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine that deploys genetically engineered adenoviruses and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine reliant on lipid-encapsulated synthetic mRNA. (Due to insufficient data, Classen was not able to include the Moderna shot.)

The UK government’s Yellow Card adverse event reporting system organizes the data by organ system and symptom or disease.

Though both vaccines aim to spur production of coronavirus spike protein and related antibodies within the recipient, the two injections are “quite different in their composition,” according to Classen.

This might explain the first startling finding generated by Classen’s scrutiny of adverse reaction data: Thus far, the UK has seen 3.55 times more adverse reactions reported for the AstraZeneca injection compared to the Pfizer injection (745,965 vs. 210,168). Each AstraZeneca report describes an average of 3.63 adverse reactions versus 2.84 reactions, on average, for each Pfizer report.

This general pattern also holds true for “Nervous Disorders,” with 4.14 times as many such reactions reported for the AstraZeneca shot as for the Pfizer shot (statistically significant at the p=0.00001 level).

Within the “Nervous Disorders” category, Parkinson’s disease reactions display a “highly significant and specific increase … in the AstraZeneca reports compared to the Pfizer vaccine reports.”

The statistically significant findings include:

  • 185 reported Parkinson’s reactions following AstraZeneca vaccination versus 20 for the Pfizer injections (primarily identified through a specific symptom called “Freezing Phenomenon”)
  • 9,288 versus 937 reports of tremor (another potential Parkinson’s symptom) for AstraZeneca and Pfizer, respectively
  • 58 versus 4 reports of sleep disturbances (a hallmark symptom of a prion disease called “fatal familial insomnia”)

Describing these findings as a “clear signal of a specific prion disease, Parkinson’s disease,” Classen notes the findings are biologically plausible because they are consistent with what is known about the pathogenic coronavirus spike protein.

In addition, the stand-out symptoms of freezing, tremor and sleep disturbances match up to the “well accepted pathophysiology of prion disease.”

Accelerated disease process?

Ordinarily, scientists believe it takes years (or even decades) for the abnormal folding of certain proteins to produce prion disease. How, then, could Classen detect a “clear signal” for Parkinson’s disease just months after the vaccines’ rollout?

Classen offers several explanations which are not necessarily mutually exclusive. First, he suggests COVID vaccines could be accelerating disease progression in individuals who either already have subclinical prion disease or have mild prion disease that has not been properly diagnosed.

In addition, there is evidence indicating the vaccine spike protein can prompt misfolding of essential RNA/DNA binding proteins called TDP-43 and FUS and catalyze a toxic “chain reaction.”

The vaccine spike protein may also cause proteins “including [normal] prions already in cells” to form abnormal clumps (called Lewy bodies) that can result in “relatively rapid cell death.” Research has shown development of Lewy bodies in monkeys exposed to SARS-CoV-2. Notably, Lewy bodies “cause some or all of the motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.”

Precisely because the spike protein can so quickly set abnormal protein clumping into motion, Classen speculates this “could allow fairly rapid detection of prion disease after immunization.”

At the same time, Classen cautions that flawed adverse event reporting systems will likely fail to capture neurodegenerative diseases that take more time to develop. Most vaccine adverse event reports are for acute events, he says, whereas few of the adverse events that occur “years or decades after administration of a pharmaceutical are ever reported.”

Moreover, prion disease symptoms are often non-specific or overlap with other conditions, making diagnosis difficult and underreporting probable.

For these and other reasons, Classen suggests that the clinical relevance of his findings “could be logs in magnitude higher” than the Parkinson’s signal he was able to detect in the Yellow Card data.

Pfizer reactions waiting in the wings?

Classen makes a point of stating his analysis “is not intended to indicate that one COVID vaccine is safer than another in regards to prion disease.”

Classen stated:

“Imbalances in rates of reactions detected … can be explained by the striking differences in composition of the two vaccines allowing one vaccine to induce some prion diseases quicker. The AstraZeneca … vaccine may concentrate in the gastrointestinal system to a greater extent leading to faster transport of the spike protein via the vagus nerve to the brain. By contrast over the long run, the Pfizer mRNA vaccine may induce more TDP-43 and FUS to form prions and lead to more prion disease.”

Another  explanation for why there may have been more adverse reactions and reports for the AstraZeneca injection versus Pfizer’s could have to do with the number of vaccine doses of each type administered in the UK. Classen was unable to ascertain the proportion of total doses attributable to each company. As of mid-July, however, the UK had ordered equal numbers of doses (100 million) from both vaccine makers.

Prion disease, Guillain-Barré and what else?

COVID shots are far from the only vaccines adversely affecting the nervous system. Among the nearly 400 adverse reactions profiled in the package inserts for U.S. childhood vaccines, symptoms considered red flags for neurological problems abound. These symptoms include dizziness, headaches, numbness, balance disorders, muscle weakness, paralysis, seizures, visual changes, disturbed sleep and tremors.

And well before COVID-19, the inserts for at least 20 other vaccines listed Guillain-Barré syndrome (a disorder in which the immune system attacks the nerves) as an adverse event reported either in clinical trials or post-marketing.

Some individuals recover from the weakness, tingling and paralysis characteristic of Guillain-Barré — but in 4% to 7% of cases, the syndrome leads to death. Thus, when the FDA added its Guillain-Barré warning for the J&J COVID-19 vaccine in mid-July, the agency was grudgingly letting the world know some COVID vaccine recipients can expect serious or fatal neurological outcomes.

Nearly one-fourth (23%) of COVID vaccine recipients responding to a July Economist/YouGov survey (Table 13) reported experiencing “negative reactions to the vaccine,” adding to the cascade of evidence showing COVID injections are an unprecedented train wreck.

Was this why White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, who recently urged young people to get COVID shots, slipped up and stated “these vaccines … can still kill you even if you are under the age of 27?”

As Pfizer gears up to ask for authorization to roll out its experimental injection to 5-11 year-olds, while getting a priority review from FDA for full U.S. licensure, it would behoove us to pay attention to Classen’s urgent warning about short-term and longer-term adverse neurological impacts.

As Classen states, the politicians and public health officials who are heavy-handedly pushing COVID vaccines have “a dismal record of protecting the health of the public.”

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Dozens of Chinese military flights through parts of Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) over the past month have caused an unwarranted panic that hawks in the U.S. have stoked and exploited for their own purposes.

Media hysteria and misinformation about these events have served to ratchet up tensions unnecessarily and to create an impression with the public that China is behaving far more aggressively than it is. The eagerness with which some national security analysts and reporters have mischaracterized what these flights represent has been alarming, because it shows how quickly any Chinese actions can be used to create a crisis atmosphere when there is no reason for it.

As U.S.-Chinese tensions increase due to mutual suspicion and distrust, these false alarms will likely become more frequent and potentially much more dangerous. If the United States is to keep these tensions from spiraling out of control, it should not take any provocative actions that could trigger a real crisis.

Contrary to many sensationalist reports and social media posts, Chinese forces have not violated Taiwanese airspace, nor have they flown “over” Taiwan. In fact, these Chinese flights have mostly taken place in one corner in the southwest of Taiwan’s ADIZ hundreds of miles from the island, and they have all been operating in international airspace. Whether through sloppiness or a desire for clicks, media outlets and analysts that should know better have effectively misled their audiences into thinking that China has been routinely committing acts of aggression against Taiwan when it has not done that. Kevin Baron, the executive editor of Defense One magazine, claimed that the flights had gone “over” Taiwan, compared the flights to Russian military intervention in Ukraine, and then suggested that the Chinese government was “testing” the United States and preparing to do something similar here.

An ADIZ is defined as an area well beyond a country’s airspace, and that airspace extends only 12 miles out from the coasts. Several countries, including the United States and China, have established ADIZs to provide them with advance warning of approaching aircraft, and other governments send their own planes into these zones without notifying the other side on a semi-regular basis. The U.S. has repeatedly sent bombers through the ADIZ that China established over the East China Sea in 2013, and Russia sometimes sends its planes into the American ADIZ around Alaska. Part of Taiwan’s ADIZ even overlaps with a portion of the Chinese mainland itself. As Michael Swaine observed earlier this week, the unprecedented number of flights is genuine cause for concern, but it is not cause for the alarmist reaction that we have seen.

So why is China sending so many planes through part of Taiwan’s ADIZ? As Bonnie Glaser told The Guardian this week,

“The Chinese are using these flights increasingly for training purposes and this is actually the end of the typical annual training cycle. The other purposes they serve is to signal to the United States and Taiwan not to cross Chinese red lines. And to stress Taiwan’s air force, to force them to scramble, to stress the aircraft, the pilots, force them to do more maintenance and test the responses of Taiwan’s air defence system.”

These flights are annoying, and they do place some strain on Taiwan’s air force, but we should not exaggerate the danger they pose to the island. The worst thing that Washington could do is to overreact and take its own provocative actions in response.

Threat inflation is a given in U.S. foreign policy debates, but it has been remarkable to see once again how easily media coverage can turn into full-blown fearmongering at the drop of a hat. Much of the coverage of this story in the last week has been very poor and inflammatory, and in some cases the commentary has been completely inappropriate. It is disturbing to think how a real crisis in the Taiwan Strait would be covered. It is worth asking whether our media outlets are even capable of responsibly reporting on such an important issue.

The Biden administration accurately criticized the flights for being provocative, but it has not blown them out of proportion. President Biden said earlier this week that he had spoken with Xi Jinping, and he stated that both had agreed to abide by what the president vaguely referred to as “the Taiwan agreement.” However, this affirmation of the status quo may no longer be enough to calm things down.

As Swaine noted: “Formulaic repetition by Washington of its continued adherence to the One China policy, and Beijing’s continued verbal support for a peaceful solution to the problem will not put a halt to this dangerous dynamic either.” The constant agitation in Washington for a more aggressively anti-Chinese posture in the region undermines Biden’s affirmations of the status quo. Recent arguments for giving Taiwan an explicit security guarantee have only contributed to the problem further.

Nothing could turn an imaginary crisis into a real one faster than an explicit U.S. pledge to defend Taiwan. Not only would this be an abrupt break with the status quo that has kept the peace for four decades, but a policy of “strategic clarity” would represent a direct challenge to China over a matter of vital importance that the Chinese government could not ignore. An American pledge to defend Taiwan would likely be tested early on, and it is doubtful that anyone in our government has fully thought through the implications of what such a commitment would require. The public is wholly unprepared for what a conflict over Taiwan would involve and what it might end up costing the United States.

Decades of waging war against much weaker states and terrorist groups have helped Americans forget how dangerous it is to court unnecessary conflict. As Daniel Davis recently pointed out, “the very best outcome we can hope for is a U.S. military that is left severely damaged, thousands of service members killed and wounded, and a massive security and financial burden of defending Taiwan indefinitely,” and that best-case scenario is not the most likely outcome. An explicit security guarantee to Taiwan would put the U.S. on a path for war with China sooner or later, and there is a good chance that this is a war that we would lose.

The United States can and should continue assisting Taiwan to prepare its own defense to discourage China from ever making an attempt to seize the island by force, but it should not make an explicit guarantee to go to war on Taiwan’s behalf. Making such a guarantee is more likely to trigger a crisis and a war than it is to prevent one. The best thing to be done under the circumstances is to seek to reduce tensions with China and to back away from the militarized rivalry with them that our government has been pursuing. Unfortunately, the irresponsible hawkish fearmongering over this week’s events threatens to move the U.S. in the opposite direction.

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Those of us who starting twenty-two years ago warned that the U.S. and NATO were abetting plans to carve a Greater Albania out of no less than six nations in Southeastern Europe were marginalized or ridiculed.

Dismissed when we pointed out that the Kosovo Liberation Army, with whom and on behalf of whom NATO waged a 78-day war against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1999, were no sooner given control of the Serbian province of Kosovo in June of that year but – with the full connivance of the U.S. and NATO – it invaded neighboring territories under assorted aliases: the National Liberation Army in Macedonia and the Liberation Army of Preševo, Medveđa and Bujanovac in south Serbia, with spillover in Montenegro and similar designs on Greece (the Liberation Army of Chameria).

During the Italian occupation of Albania in World War II, the government of Benito Mussolini encouraged Albanian irredentist designs on Kosovo and Chameria (Epirus).

I received an email in 2000 from someone who is now a prominent American journalist detailing his first-hand experience in watching an American military helicopter providing cover for fighters of the Liberation Army of Preševo, Medveđa and Bujanovac in Serbia.

We were also criticized when we remarked that the six stars on the Kosovo flag might represent the component parts of a Greater Albania: all or part of Albania, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and south Serbia.

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Albanian PM’s statement on unification with Kosovo unacceptable – Russian Foreign Ministry

Moscow views the statement made by Prime Minister of Albania Edi Rama on unification of the country with Kosovo as absolutely unacceptable, official spokeswoman of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova said in a comment.

“We consider the statement of Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama on the unification of Albania and Kosovo as absolutely unacceptable. Promotion of ‘Greater Albania’ creation plans grossly contradicts provisions of UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and undermines stability in the region,” Zakharova said.

It is particularly strange to here that violation of the document that is fundamental for Kosovo settlement “is declared as the key goal in the political career of the leader in one of countries in the Balkan Region,” the spokeswoman noted….

“We look forward to an appropriate response of Western tutors of the Kosovo ‘nation-building’ project to this brazen provocation. We are highly surprised they miss such undermining calls, while they direct criticism against Belgrade in connection of its ‘Serbian world’ humanitarian concept, justified and consistent with the international law,” Zakharova noted.

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Rick Rozoff, renowned author and geopolitical analyst, actively involved in opposing war, militarism and interventionism for over fifty years. He manages the Anti-Bellum and For peace, against war website

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

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Yahoo! News (9/26/21) published a bombshell report detailing the US Central Intelligence Agency’s “secret war plans against WikiLeaks,” including clandestine plots to kill or kidnap publisher Julian Assange while he took refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

Yahoo! News: Kidnapping, assassination and a London shoot-out: Inside the CIA's secret war plans against WikiLeaks

Yahoo! News (9/26/21) reported that “discussions over kidnapping or killing Assange occurred ‘at the highest levels’ of the Trump administration.”

Following WikiLeaks‘ publication of the Vault 7 files in 2017—the largest leak in CIA history, which exposed how US and UK intelligence agencies could hack into household devices—the US government designated WikiLeaks as a “non-state hostile intelligence service” (The Hill, 4/13/17), providing legal cover to target the organization as if it were an adversarial spy agency.

Within this context, the Donald Trump administration reportedly requested “sketches” or “options” for how to kill Assange, according to the Yahoo! expose (written by Zach Dorfman, Sean D. Naylor and Michael Isikoff), while the CIA drew up plans to kidnap him. (Assange was expelled from the embassy in 2019 and has since then been in British prison, fighting a demand that he be extradited to the US to face charges of espionage—FAIR.org, 11/13/20.)

Shortly after publication, former CIA director Mike Pompeo (Yahoo! News, 9/29/21) seemed to confirm the report’s findings, declaring that the former US intelligence officials who spoke with Yahoo! “should all be prosecuted for speaking about classified activity inside the CIA.”

Ghoulish indifference

It would seem that covert plans for the state-sanctioned murder on British soil of an award-winning journalist should attract sustained, wall-to-wall media coverage.

Independent: The CIA plot to kidnap or kill Julian Assange in London is a story that is being mistakenly ignored

Patrick Cockburn (Independent, 10/1/21): “The scoop about the CIA’s plot to kidnap or kill Assange has been largely ignored or downplayed.”

The news, however, has been met by Western establishment media with ghoulish indifference—a damning indictment of an industry that feverishly condemns attacks on press freedom in Official Enemy states.

BBC News, one of the most-read news outlets in the world, appears to have covered the story just once—in the Somali-language section of the BBC website (Media Lens on Twitter, 9/30/21).

Neither the New York Times or Washington Post, two of the world’s leading corporate news organizations, have published any articles about Assange since July 2021.

To its credit, since the story first broke on September 26, the Guardian has reported twice on the CIA-led conspiracy to kill or kidnap Assange. But to offer perspective, during the week after Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny was reported to have been poisoned by the Russian government, the Guardian published 16 separate pieces on the issue, including video reports and opinion pieces.

Similarly, a Nexis search of British newspapers for the word “Navalny” brings up 288 results from August 20–25, 2020. The same search for “Assange” between September 26–October 1, 2021, brings up a meager 29 results—one of which, a notable exception, was a Patrick Cockburn piece in the Independent (10/1/21).

Crucial relief

As is typical of stories that embarrass the Western intelligence services, independent media provided crucial relief to the backdrop of chilling indifference, with the Grayzone’s Aaron Maté (YouTube, 9/30/21) conducting a rigorous interview with one of the report’s authors, Michael Isikoff.

Image on the right: Aaron Maté (PushBack, 9/30/21) interviews Yahoo!‘s Michael Isikoff about the CIA’s plans to assassinate Assange.

PushBack: Inside the CIA plot to kidnap, kill Julian Assange

Indeed, the Grayzone (5/14/20) was the first outlet to provide evidence of a CIA-linked proposal to “kidnap or poison Assange” in May 2020. The story, however, was almost universally ignored, suggesting that, as Joe Lauria wrote in Consortium News (10/2/21), “until something appears in the mainstream media, it didn’t happen.”

One thing the corporate media cannot be accused of with regards to Assange, however, is inconsistency. After a key witness in the Department of Justice’s case against the publisher admitted to providing the US prosecution with false testimony, a detail that should ordinarily turn a case to dust, the corporate media responded by ignoring the story almost entirely. As Alan MacLeod wrote for FAIR.org (7/2/21):

The complete uniformity with which corporate media have treated this latest bombshell news raises even more concerns about how fundamentally intertwined and aligned they are with the interests of the US government.

Even after it was revealed that the UC Global security firm that targeted Assange had also spied on journalists at the Washington Post and New York Times, neither outlet mounted any protest (Grayzone, 9/18/20).

Perhaps most remarkably, UK judge Vanessa Baraitser relied on a falsified CNN report (7/15/19)  to justify the CIA’s spying operation against Assange (Grayzone, 5/1/21). Now, CNN’s website contains no reports on the agency’s plans to kill or kidnap Assange.

The prevailing silence has extended into the NGO industry. Amnesty International, which refused in 2019 to consider Assange a prisoner of conscience, has said nothing about the latest revelations. Likewise, Index on Censorship, which describes itself as “The Global Voice of Free Expression,” hasn’t responded to the story.

The establishment media’s dismissal of Assange supports Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky’s framework of “worthy” and “unworthy” political dissidents, with Assange situated firmly in the latter camp.

‘Only barrier is pride’

The present circumstances become even more deplorable upon consideration of the corporate journalists who arrogantly diminished, or even delighted in, Assange’s concerns for his own safety.

Guardian: The only barrier to Julian Assange leaving Ecuador’s embassy is pride

This James Ball column (Guardian, 1/10/18) has not aged well.

The Guardian’s James Ball (1/10/18) published a now infamous article headlined, “The Only Barrier to Julian Assange Leaving Ecuador’s Embassy Is Pride.” “The WikiLeaks founder is unlikely to face prosecution in the US,” the subhead confidently asserted. The column concluded:

Assange does not want to be trapped in Ecuador’s embassy, and his hosts do not want him there. Their problem is that what’s keeping him trapped there is not so much the iniquitous actions of world powers, but pride.

In a later article (3/29/18), Ball insisted that Assange “should hold his hands up and leave the embassy.”

Ball, at least, has written something on the latest revelations, but his article in the London Times (10/03/21) remains typically scornful of Assange’s persona.

The Guardian’s Marina Hyde (5/19/17) took a similar angle. Under the headline “The Moral of the Assange Story? Wait Long Enough, and Bad Stuff Goes Away,” Hyde wrote that “Captain WikiLeaks will get out of pretend-jail eventually.” More than four years later, Assange is in Belmarsh prison, “the closest comparison in the United Kingdom to Guantánamo,” accordingto the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee. Hyde has said nothing of the very real plans to murder or kidnap him.

In the same vein, journalist Suzanne Moore—who had previously publicly mocked Assange on a number of occasions—wrote in the New Statesman (4/12/19) after Assange’s arrest:

We are all bored out of our minds with Brexit when a demented-looking gnome is pulled out of the Ecuadorian embassy by the secret police of the deep state. Or “the met,” as normal people call them.

Moore, winner of the Orwell Prize for journalism in 2019, was not the first of her colleagues to ridicule WikiLeaks and its supporters as paranoid about an increasingly powerful state security apparatus. A column by the Guardian‘s Nick Cohen (6/23/12)  offered “supporters of Julian Assange” as a “definition of paranoia”:

Assange’s supporters do not tell us how the Americans could prosecute the incontinent leaker. American democracy is guilty of many crimes and corruptions. But the First Amendment to the US constitution is the finest defense of freedom of speech yet written. The American Civil Liberties Union thinks it would be unconstitutional for a judge to punish Assange.

And, in any case, “Britain has a notoriously lax extradition treaty with the United States.”

Blinded by propaganda

Medium: Demasking the Torture of Julian Assange

Nils Melzer (Medium, 6/26/19): “Once telling the truth has become a crime, while the powerful enjoy impunity, it will be too late to correct the course.”

It is of little surprise, then, that the Guardian, among other news outlets, refused to publish the words of UN special rapporteur on torture Nils Melzer, who wrote in June 2019:

In the end, it finally dawned on me that I had been blinded by propaganda, and that Assange had been systematically slandered to divert attention from the crimes he exposed. Once he had been dehumanized through isolation, ridicule and shame, just like the witches we used to burn at the stake, it was easy to deprive him of his most fundamental rights without provoking public outrage worldwide.

The Assange case once again demonstrates that when erroneous reporting falls on the right side of the US and UK foreign policy establishment, editorial standards are set aside, and journalistic failures are met with zero accountability.

As such, it’s important to remember those journalists who watched on, pointing, laughing, comfortable in the knowledge that their work would never produce the impact nor risk of WikiLeaks—and then said nothing as the right to a free press was removed in broad daylight.

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UK government funding for land mine clearance in Lebanon, Iraq and South Sudan, as well as three other countries, has been scrapped in what humanitarian organisations called a “catastrophic collapse in support”.

The Mines Advisory Group (MAG) released a statement earlier this week estimating that UK funding for mine action removal will be reduced by 80 percent following the British government’s decision to slash overseas development aid. 

Six countries – South Sudan, Lebanon, Iraq, Zimbabwe Myanmar and Vietnam – will no longer receive any support from the British government as a result of the cuts, leaving vulnerable communities at risk of unexploded weapons and with restricted access to arable land.

CEO of MAG Darren Cormack spoke to The New Arab from Senegal and said the UK government’s decision was “shortsighted”.

“It shows naivety from a development, trade and security perspective,” he added.

In South Sudan, said Cormack, land mine clearance helps maintain “political stability”.

However, following a 100 percent cut in UK funding, vital work removing unexploded weapons and freeing up more land for farming is under threat, said Cormack.

Around 8.3 million people in South Sudan need humanitarian assistance, and over 60 percent of the population is acutely food insecure.

“Lebanon is a country on its knees,” said MAG’s CEO.

The country will also be hard hit by a 100 percent funding cut to mine action removal. Over a hundred staff were already made redundant as a result of cuts.

Cormack said that the economic instability could urge more people to take risks and use arable land that has not been cleared of weapons – resulting in more injuries and deaths.

New UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss will review these spending cuts following the ousting of her predecessor Dominic Raab. MAG hopes this will lead to funding being restored.

“We welcome the new leadership,” said Cormack and are “encouraged by Liz Truss’ plans to review the cuts.”

However, there is no certainty that the decision will be reversed.

Landmines and unexploded bombs affect 60 million people in the world, with 15 people killed or injured by these weapons every day.

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Selected Articles: Elite’s Depopulation Agenda Is Now Irrefutable

October 11th, 2021 by Global Research News

Elite’s Depopulation Agenda Is Now Irrefutable

By Joachim Hagopian, October 10, 2021

By now – October 2021 – it’s more than evident that the Big Pharma-Great Reset globalist elite are currently committing human genocide, carrying out their eugenics depopulation agenda.

The Lord of “Vaccines” and the “Health Terrorist Ideology”. Where Do you Think this is Going? Get Off That Crazy Train

By Dr. Pascal Sacré, October 10, 2021

If they wanted to save you, they would have told you a long time ago to move more, to eat better (really, not diet products that poison you as much as “heavy” products, Reassessing the risks of aspartame. New experimental and epidemiological data), to manage your stress on a daily basis, to take care of your microbiota, to take food supplements, some of them all year round in a country like Belgium (vitamin D).

The Incidence of Cancer, Triggered by the Covid 19 “Vaccine”

By Dr. Nicole Delépine, October 08, 2021

Several months ago, we expressed at least “theoretical reservations” about vaccinating cancer patients or former patients who had been cured, because of the underlying mechanism of the gene injection on immunity.

The Dangers of Human Gene Editing

By Ulson Gunnar, October 10, 2021

While the process of synthesizing and arranging genetic code has many processes, perhaps none has been as promising as the CRISPR-Cas system. From laboratory experiments to emerging software used to create code genetically almost as easily as code for a computer, gene editing has never been easier, opening the door to never-before-possible applications.

Monsanto/Bayer Giant Moving to “Genome Edit” Fruits and More

By F. William Engdahl, October 10, 2021

Not surprising, Monsanto, today hidden behind the Bayer logo, as the world leader in patented GMO seeds and the probable carcinogenic Roundup herbicide with glyphosate, is attempting to quietly patent genetically modified or GMO varieties of fruits using controversial gene-editing.

Billions in Offshore Bank Accounts. Saving for a Very Rainy Day.

By Eric Margolis, October 10, 202

An investigation by an international consortium of journalists just examined a massive leak of 11.9 million records of offshore financial firms that have been evading taxes and financial disclosure for their many clients. The result of what is known as The Pandora Papers has been a cascade of scandals.

Video: Censorship and the “Smoking Guns” of a Manufactured Pandemic

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky and Kristina Borjesson, October 10, 2021

Economics professor Michel Chossudovsky describes the “smoking guns” indicating that the Covid-19 pandemic is a fraud and details the devastation that already has occurred as well as what is to come with the so-called “second wave,” which he says is also based on flawed statistics and testing.

Global Totalitarianism: “You are Being Colonized”. Analysis by Patrick Henningsen

By Patrick Henningsen, October 10, 2021

We will be posting the full presentation by renowned author and geopolitical analyst Patrick Henningsen when it becomes available.

‘We’re in the Middle of a Major Biological Catastrophe’: COVID Expert Dr. Peter McCullough

By Dr. Peter McCullough and Patrick Delaney, October 08, 2021

In a recent lecture, Dr. Peter McCullough presented alarming data related to COVID vaccines, the fraud of national health authorities, the ‘Therapeutic Nihilism’ being exercised in hospitals, and the urgent necessity of active resistance.

Pfizer Lobbying Hits Decade High as Dozens of High-Profile Political Appointees Become Big Pharma Reps

By Natalie Winters and Raheem Kassam, October 08, 2021

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent vaccine rollout, pharmaceutical giants including Pfizer and Moderna have substantially increased their lobbying efforts, a National Pulse investigation has revealed.

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The Vaccine Mandate Is a Hoax

October 11th, 2021 by Dr. Paul Craig Roberts

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Dear Readers, below is a collection of articles that will help you to understand: (1) the danger of the vaccine compared to the danger of Covid and (2) the power Big Pharma has to bypass safety standards in order to maximize profits.

As for Biden’s “vaccine mandate,” no such mandate exists. The US president is not a dictator and cannot issue laws or edicts. Any such laws or edicts originating in the White House would be struck down by federal courts. Congress is the source of law. Even if Congress passed a vaccine mandate and Biden signed it, if the courts follow the Constitution the law would be struck down.

Even more importantly, any mandate or law that violates informed consent is a violation of the Nuremberg Laws used to execute German National Socialists after World War II for violating informed consent in their medical experiments.

Biden’s “mandate” was nothing but a press release statement encouraging private employers to do what the President of the US cannot do and issue vaccine mandates to employees. But, of course, private employers have no legislative power. They certainly have no legal authority to violate the Nuremberg laws.

The Biden “mandate” is just another hoax relying on the whore media to make it a fact.

When your employer tells you, whether you are a nurse or a software engineer or Walmart cashier, that you must accept what is without doubt a dangerous injection or be fired, sue him when he fires you.

All fired employees can join a master civil lawsuit that has the possibility of bankrupting the corrupt employers who collaborate in breaking US and international laws.

Here is the chance for a real revolution. The establishment is on the wrong side of the law. Once the morons fire massive numbers of people, the morons will be in the dock. If the federal courts also abandon the Constitution, US law, international law, and the people, the only recourse is violent revolution. As the people vastly outnumber the criminal establishment, the employers could end up hanging off of lamp posts where the people increasingly think they belong.

Virus Dangers vs. Vaccine Dangers – Fact Sheet

Why Vaccine Injuries Are Rarely Reported

“We’re in the Middle of a Major Biological Catastrophe” — Dr Peter McCullough

The Political & Medical Establishments Intend to Kill Us Off. Do Not Take the Jab. Your health and your life are worth more than your job.

The Incidence of Cancer, Triggered by the Covid 19 “Vaccine”

The FDA Protects Big Pharma, Not Us

Big Pharma Owns the US Government

Examining the Methods and Means of COVID Propaganda Dissemination

The Vaccine Campaign Is a Mass Murder Campaign

The “Killer Vaccine” Worldwide. 7.9 Billion People

Emergency Physician Dr. Rochagné Kilian Exposes Health Care Corruption

COVID Vaccine Contents, What’s Inside the Vial? Scientific Findings Reveal Microscopy Images

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A group of airline professionals have banded together to fight back against mandatory COVID-19 vaccination mandates. They call themselves the “U.S. Freedom Flyers.”

From their website:

US Freedom Flyers currently encompasses all travel and transportation-affiliated industries, including all employees, unionized or not, who are affected by the Federal Government’s Covid-19 Vaccine Mandates. Whether you’re a pilot, flight attendant, mechanic, dispatcher, gate agent, or ramper, we have room for you!

In addition, we seek to be an inclusive organization contributing to the support of other industries. If you are in other transportation industries, such as shipping, trucking, bussing, etc. please join our organization! If you are in an industry other than transportation and travel, we welcome you also, and want to collaborate with you to help preserve our medical freedoms!

They have teamed up with Leslie Manookian of Health Freedom Defense Fund, George Wentz of Davillier Law Group, and Airline Professionals For Justice (AP4J) to fight back against mandatory COVID-19 shots for the airline industry.

US Freedom Flyers is a group of transportation industry employees who have come together to fight federal and state mandates which aim to strip Citizens of their right to medical freedom. Together, in partnership with Health Freedom Defense Fund and The Davillier Law Group, we lead to preserve Informed Consent and defend Constitutional rights.

In addition to our federal mandate fight, we have teamed up with Airline Professionals For Justice (AP4J). AP4J was founded to support our diverse work groups in the airline industry and we believe in individual and religious liberty and bodily autonomy. We will put our very livelihoods on the line to resist being coerced into taking a vaccine to which we object, by requesting genuine religious and/or medical exemptions as guaranteed under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. We understand that we have the right to request “reasonable accommodations” in lieu of the vaccine AND that these accommodations, by law, cannot place an undue hardship upon the company.

US Freedom Flyers is all of us:  anyone who cherishes the freedom to move about the country and the world.  From passengers to crewmembers, and everyone in between, this movement is for you, your neighbors, your family and your friends!

Whether your travel is by plane, ship, train, taxi or your own car, our mission is the same:  to protect your inalienable freedom to move freely without government hindrance based on your vaccination status.  Now is the time for all of us to remind policy makers of their duty to uphold the Constitution.

TOGETHER US FREEDOM FLYERS WILL DO JUST THAT.

We are a group of transportation professionals representing the air, rail, and trucking industries who are spearheading efforts to protect medical health freedom.  Our goal is to push back against the US government’s threats of vaccine mandates for private businesses. We know this effort is not simply a matter of employees versus companies, but citizens opposing illegal and tyranical mandates by the US government. (Source.)

These Freedom Flyers have just published a video with written messages from more than 60 of them, ranging from ramp agents, to flight attendants, to pilots and captains, to even a “senior vice president.”

The pictures fly by fast in the video, as there are over 60 of them, so you will need to hit “pause” often to read them all. Here are a few of them we screen captured.

Watch the full video. This is on our Bitchute and Rumble channels.

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The Newest Big Pharma Scam Exposed

October 11th, 2021 by Thom Hartmann

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Big Pharma’s obscenely-priced drugs developed w/tax dollars will continue to drain working people of income, savings, and – ultimately – their health until America recognizes healthcare as a right

Molnupiravir is the new pill that’s been all over the news recently because it can cut hospitalizations and deaths of unvaccinated Covid-infected people by as much as half and doesn’t require folks to go to the hospital or an infusion center, like the monoclonal antibody treatment.  Just take four pills every day for five days and you’re good.

It was originally developed by Emory University to treat horses infected with Venezuelan equine encephalitis with a $10 million grant from the Department of Defense and $19 million from the National Institutes of Health.  In other words, its invention was paid for with your tax dollars.

Emory University passed along the patent on molnupiravir to a small company, Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, which in turn passed it along to the pharmaceutical giant Merck.

Manufacturing cost for molnupiravir, according to a report from researchers with the Harvard School of Public Health, is around $17.74 for a 5-day course of treatment.

Merck just signed a contract with the federal government to sell 1.7 million treatment courses for the government to distribute to infected people for … wait for it … $712.00 each.

This price-gouging hustle was both made possible — and, ironically, perhaps made illegal — by a piece of legislation passed back in 1980 that gave universities the ability to sell patents to inventions funded with federal money to non-profit organizations and small businesses…but not to major corporations.  Since then, small businesses like Ridgeback have served as middlemen handing off profitable pharmaceuticals developed with our tax dollars to giant corporations like Merck.

Back in 1980, Senators Birch Bayh and Bob Dole got passed, over then-President Jimmy Carter’s objections (it was first shot down and only passed during the lame duck session by being attached to must-pass legislation) the Patent and Trademark Law Amendments Act, now usually referred to as Bayh-Dole.  Industry and trade groups loudly sing its praises, although they’re worried about a provision of the law(that’s apparently never been used) called “March-in Authority.”

“March-in” allows the federal government to say, essentially, “We paid to develop this drug so you have to sell it to us at a reasonable price; we think you’re ripping us off right now so we’re going to claw back that patent from you and assign it to somebody else.”

As professors Peter Arno and Michael Davis wrote in The Washington Post:

“Bayh-Dole is a provision of U.S. patent law that states that practically any new drug invented wholly or in part with federal funds will be made available to the public at a reasonable price. If it is not, then the government can insist that the drug be licensed to more reasonable manufacturers, and, if refused, license it to third parties that will make the drug available at a reasonable cost.”

So Big Pharma called up their lobbyists and Trump’s billionaire Secretary of Commerce, Wilbur Ross (who Forbes magazine said “could rank among the biggest grifters in American history”), jumped into the act.

In the last year of the Trump administration, Ross’s Commerce Department began the process of stripping “March-in” out of Bayh-Dole so Big Pharma could rip off the US government as much as it wanted, whenever it wanted.  In the Federal Register it was phrased this way:

“(7) Clarify § 401.6 to include a provision that march-in rights shall not be exercised by an agency exclusively on the basis of business decisions of a contractor regarding the pricing of commercial goods and services arising from the practical application of the invention.”

The issue is still live before the Biden Commerce Department, so watch this space.

Meanwhile, big Pharma is buying off members of Congress to encourage an end to “March-in” and block any efforts to regulate the cost of drugs or let Medicare negotiate prices.

That little provision draining billions every month from the Medicare fund, along with the privatization of Medicare through the Medicare Advantage Scam, came to us courtesy of the George W. Bush administration, after Bush tried and failed to entirely privatize both Social Security and Medicare.

Most recently, when legislation was before the House of Representatives to allow Medicare to radically cut their expenses by negotiating drug prices (just like the VA and major insurers do), it was shot down in committee by every single Republican joined by three paid-off “Problem Solver” Democrats: Scott Peters of California, Kathleen Rice of New York and Oregon’s Kurt Schrader.

Drugs have become a huge rip-off of the American people, making Big Pharma’s executives and shareholders fabulously rich and generating a huge pot of money that 5 conservatives on the Supreme Court ruled, in Citizens United, drug companies are welcome to use to corrupt politicians.  A recent study found:

  • “For 17 of the 20 top-selling drugs worldwide, drugmakers made more money from U.S. sales than from sales to all other countries in the rest of the world combined.
  • “For 11 of the 20 top-selling drugs worldwide, U.S. sales revenue was double or more the revenue for sales in the rest of the world.”

We are, uniquely in the world, being robbed.

As Congressman Ro Khanna told The Daily Poster, “The pharmaceutical lobby is very savvy. They pick the one or two people they need to block things, on the relevant committees or at the relevant time.” And this time, they’ve “picked” Senator Kyrsten Sinema, pouring a flood of cash into her pockets so she will block any efforts to control drug prices in Biden’s reconciliation Build Back Better legislation.

As I lay out in my new book, The Hidden History of American Healthcare: Why Sickness Bankrupts You and Makes Others Insanely Rich, until America joins the rest of the developed world in considering healthcare a right rather than a privilege, these giant, multi-billion-dollar-a-year scams like Medicare Advantage and obscenely-priced drugs developed with our own tax dollars will continue to drain working people of their income, savings, and — ultimately — their health.

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Video: Censorship and the “Smoking Guns” of a Manufactured Pandemic

October 10th, 2021 by Prof Michel Chossudovsky

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Awarding winning journalist  and author Kristina Borjesson interviews Michel Chossudovky on the Covid 19.

Author’s Note

This is what was discussed a year ago in an interview with Kristina Borjesson, Whistleblower Newsroom (October 10, 2020). 

The interview was immediately taken down by Youtube. We subsequently posted it on Vimeo. 

Censorship was applied to a discussion of the PCR test and the interpretation of so-called Covid positive cases.  

The interview also focussed on the March 11, 2020 Lockdown, which was conducive to the closure of the national economies of 190 member states on the UN. 

We were put on a blacklist for telling the truth. 

Minor edits of original text which follow the video.

Michel Chossudovsky, October 10, 2021

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VIMEO (click screen) Michel Chossudovsky and Kristina Borjesson

Economics professor Michel Chossudovsky describes the “smoking guns” indicating that the Covid-19 pandemic is a fraud and details the devastation that already has occurred as well as what is to come with the so-called “second wave,” which he says is also based on flawed statistics and testing.  

“Closing down the Global Economy as a means to combating the Killer Virus. That’s what they want us to believe. If the public had been informed that Covid-19 is “similar to Influenza”, the fear campaign would have fallen flat…”

Confirmed by prominent scientists as well as by official public health bodies including the World Health Organization (WHO) and the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Covid-19 is a public health concern but it is NOT a dangerous virus.

click image to access on vimeo

Video Youtube. The Youtube version was taken down almost immediately.


For the Audio Click here to listen  Progressive Radio Network  

or Download the audio file

Corrections:  On January 30th, 83 cases Worldwide.

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On January 29, 2020, the day preceding the launching of the PHEI (recorded by the WHO), there were 5  cases in the US, 3 in Canada, 4 in France, 4 in Germany.

There was no “scientific basis” to justify the launching of a Worldwide public health emergency. 

Screenshot of WHO table, January 29, 2200,

One day prior to the WHO decision to declare a global public health emergency

***

For the Audio Click the image below to listen  Progressive Radio Network   

or Download the audio file

Download the audio file

The data and concepts have been manipulated with a view to sustaining the fear campaign.

The estimates are meaningless. The figures have been hyped to justify the lockdown and the closure of the national economy, with devastating economic and social consequences.

  • Covid-19 is Similar to Influenza 
  • The whole exercise of PCR testing and establishing data of Covid-19 infection is flawed.  
  • The figures are fabricated and so are the death certificates.
  • Confirmed Cases” are not confirmed.
  • The RT-PCR Test Does not isolate the Covid-19 virus. 

These inflated Covid positive “estimates” (from the PCR test) are then used to sustain the fear campaign. The hype in Covid-19 deaths is based on flawed and biased criteria.

Governments are currently involved in increasing the number of PCR tests with a view to inflating the number of so-called Covid-19 positive cases.

The RT- PCR tests do not prove anything:

“Today, as authorities test more people, there are bound to be more positive RT-PCR tests. This does not mean that COVID-19 is coming back, or that the epidemic is moving in waves. There are more people being tested, that’s all.”

This procedure of massive data collection is there to provide supportive (fake) “estimates” to justify the so-called Second Wave.

The Endgame is to maintain the economic lockdown, enforce the compulsory wearing of the face mask, social distancing including the closure of schools, colleges and universities.

The tendency is towards a police state. It is all based on a Big Lie.

We need a mass movement, nationally and internationally to reverse the tide.

Mass demonstrations barely reported by the corporate media have taken place in major European capitals including London, Dublin and Berlin.

Corrupt politicians in high office must be (peacefully) removed.

Revealing the lies and deceptions is the first priority. Dismantling the fear campaign. Reveal the media disinformation campaign.

National economies must be reopened… 

See:

The 2020-21 Worldwide Corona Crisis: Destroying Civil Society, Engineered Economic Depression, Global Coup d’État and the “Great Reset”

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky

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About the Author

Michel Chossudovsky is an award-winning author, Professor of Economics (emeritus) at the University of Ottawa, Founder and Director of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG), Montreal, Editor of Global Research.

He has undertaken field research in Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa and the Pacific and has written extensively on the economies of developing countries with a focus on poverty and social inequality. He has also undertaken research in Health Economics (UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC),  UNFPA, CIDA, WHO, Government of Venezuela, John Hopkins International Journal of Health Services (1979, 1983)

He is the author of twelve books including The Globalization of Poverty and The New World Order (2003), America’s “War on Terrorism” (2005),  The Globalization of War, America’s Long War against Humanity (2015).

He is a contributor to the Encyclopaedia Britannica.  His writings have been published in more than twenty languages. In 2014, he was awarded the Gold Medal for Merit of the Republic of Serbia for his writings on NATO’s war of aggression against Yugoslavia. He can be reached at [email protected]

See Michel Chossudovsky, Biographical Note

Michel Chossudovsky’s Articles on Global Research

 

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We will be posting the full presentation by renowned author and geopolitical analyst Patrick Henningsen when it become available

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Before the Taliban took control of Kabul in August, the U.S.-backed Afghan commandos known as Zero units were the ghosts of the Afghan battlefield. Along with their CIA advisers, they were feared and, in recent years, virtually invisible.

But in the hectic, violent weeks between the Taliban victory and the U.S. military withdrawal, fighters belonging to a Zero unit known as 01 — and other linked militias known collectively as National Strike Units, or NSUs — helped the Americans secure Hamid Karzai International Airport. Firing warning shots day and night, 01 fighters sought to corral and search crowds of Afghans and foreigners trying to enter the airport to board evacuation flights, much as Taliban fighters struggled to maintain control at other airport entrances around the same time.

One evening in late August, an Afghan 01 commander whose fighters were guarding the airport’s northwestern gate asked an Intercept journalist taking photographs to identify himself to the fighter’s American handler. The handler, who was wearing a baseball cap and had a pistol strapped to his waist, suggested that if the journalist wanted to leave on an evacuation flight, he should do so immediately. Soon, the man said, he’d be evacuating “my guys,” referring to the 01 fighters. After that, the gate would be closed for good. The American then turned to the 01 commander and explained the value placed on a free press by citizens of the country to which he and his fighters would soon be flown.

The CIA prioritized the evacuation of Zero unit members from Afghanistan, flying out as many as 7,000 of the former commandos and their relatives even as thousands of vulnerable former U.S. government and military employees, human rights activists, and aid workers were left behind. NSU commandos refused to allow a former U.S. government interpreter through the airport gates unless she gave them $5,000 each for herself, her husband, and their three children, Al Jazeera reported. The woman, who said she and her relatives were beaten by NSU members at the airport, could not afford the bribe. Two former members of a different U.S.-trained military unit, the Afghan National Army’s KKA, or Afghan Special Unit, told The Intercept from a safe house in Kabul that no formal effort was made to evacuate them and that unit members who were able to board flights did so through personal connections. The two former members themselves had been turned away by 01 militiamen after approaching the airport’s northwestern gate. Since then, they said, at least four KKA members have been tracked down by Taliban fighters and killed.

The CIA’s ability to evacuate its allies appears to have far outstripped that of other U.S. government entities and signals its pivotal role in the war. The agency evacuated as many as 20,000 Afghan “partners” and their relatives, the Washington Post reported, nearly one-third of the 60,000 Afghans the U.S. has taken in overall. The CIA did not respond to a request for comment.

Most coverage of the CIA’s efforts has been laudatory. But the Zero units were known for deadly night raids that killed an untold number of civilians across Afghanistan. The Intercept documented 10 raids conducted by 01 in Wardak Province, southwest of Kabul, in which at least 51 civilians, including children, were killed — many at close range, in execution-style assaults. Most 01 missions were led by a small number of CIA “advisers,” as their Afghan fighters knew them, or U.S. special forces borrowed from the Pentagon’s Joint Special Operations Command.

“The U.S. should not be offering safe haven to those who committed war crimes or serious human rights abuses,” said Patricia Gossman, associate director for the Asia division at Human Rights Watch, who wrote a reporton the units’ abuses. “In Afghanistan, these forces were never held accountable for their actions, which included summary executions and other abuses. The U.S. and any other countries resettling members of these units should screen arrivals and investigate any for their possible involvement in human rights violations.”

Most of the Zero unit members were flown to Qatar, where CIA paramilitary officers worked to get their former Afghan colleagues sent to the U.S., according to a former senior U.S. intelligence official with direct knowledge of the operation. The former Afghan commandos are being housed on U.S. military bases, including two in Virginia and New Jersey, and at Ramstein Air Base in Germany while they await resettlement, according to the former senior U.S. official, two former senior Afghan intelligence officials, and a former commando from a different Afghan unit who was evacuated to the same U.S. base as some Zero unit members. Another small group of Zero unit members is in the United Arab Emirates, but they are expected to come to the U.S. within weeks, one of the former Afghan officials told The Intercept. Both former Afghan officials said they have spoken with relatives who previously belonged to the Zero units and are now in the United States.

Once known within the U.S. government as the Mohawks, Zero units started as an irregular commando force controlled by the CIA. The intelligence agency trained the teams to serve as guerrilla fighters out of small U.S. outposts, mainly in the north and east of the country, near the Pakistan border. Much of the original purpose of the program was to enable the CIA to conduct cross-border raids into Pakistan, a politically fraught and rarely approved activity for U.S. personnel.

The Zero units allowed the U.S. to conduct deniable operations and avoid accountability and were similar in some respects to the CIA’s Phoenix program during the Vietnam War. For that program, the agency created Provincial Reconnaissance Units comprised mostly of South Vietnamese guerrillas led by American commanders. Like the Afghan Zero units, the PRUs gathered intelligence and assassinated suspected Viet Cong.

In 2010, the Afghan government signed an agreement with the CIA to turn the NSUs into a joint program with Afghanistan’s former intelligence service, the National Directorate of Security, or NDS, according to the two former senior Afghan officials, who were involved in the arrangement. While the missions would be jointly run, the units continued to be funded exclusively by the U.S. government, the two former Afghan officials told The Intercept. The change allowed the CIA to claim plausible deniability against accusations of human rights abuses or war crimes.

But in 2019, Afghanistan’s most senior defense official, then-Afghan national security adviser Hamdullah Mohib, told The Intercept that 01 was controlled by the CIA. “Quite frankly, I’m not fully aware … of how they work,” he said at the time. “We’ve asked for clarification on how these operations happen, who are involved, what are the structures of this. When they were set up, why are they not in Afghan control?”

Just after President Joe Biden took office in January, the CIA gave the NDS one year’s budget and said the agency would no longer support Zero units or continue funding them, one of the former Afghan intelligence officials told The Intercept.

20210906_AJQ_Kabul_Afg_0124

A spray-painted reference to the American-backed 01 unit is seen on Sept. 6, 2021, inside Eagle Base, a few miles northeast of downtown Kabul, where the CIA and 01 were based before the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Photo: Andrew Quilty

Eagle Base, the sprawling CIA and 01 compound on a hillside northeast of Kabul, used to be off-limits to all but America’s closest allies.

From the highway, passersby could see a shooting range cut into the side of the hill and a narrow road snaking up to a cluster of beige structures. Less visible was the complex of helicopter hangars, ammunition depots, and barracks as well as the former CIA black site known as the Salt Pit, where interrogations and torture were carried out in the earliest years of the war.

Perimeter security was extreme, even by Afghanistan’s standards. A ditch ringed an earthen wall 6 feet high. Next came concertina wire, faded red bollards linked by steel cables, and a 10-foot mud and concrete wall topped with more concertina wire, with elevated guard posts every 300 feet. Floodlights illuminated the entire circumference at night.

Before 2019, 01 fighters left Eagle Base in vehicle convoys for nighttime missions. That changed when convoys on two Wardak missions were ambushed, according to a former NDS counterterrorism officer who used to accompany 01 on raids in the province. Thereafter, almost all 01 missions were flown into Wardak aboard American Chinook helicopters. Residents living near Eagle Base told The Intercept in 2019 that they heard the distinct thwap of the dual-rotor helicopters several times a week, departing early in the evening and returning before dawn. Otherwise, 01 fighters were rarely seen.

But the Taliban knew who occupied Eagle Base. On July 25, 2019, a suicide car bomb targeted CIA officers traveling in unmarked Toyota Land Cruisers arriving at the gate, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said in an interview that year. Local residents confirmed that a bombing took place against white Land Cruisers at the compound gate that day. The incident attracted little media attention. A spokesperson from Resolute Support, the now-defunct U.S. military mission in Afghanistan, told The Intercept that he was unaware of any foreign military casualties in Kabul that day. The CIA declined to comment.

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Scores of burned-out civilian and military vehicles are seen within the CIA’s Eagle Base on Sept. 6, 2021. An ammunition depot, an armory, and several other structures were also destroyed by explosives and fire before the U.S. departure. Photo: Andrew Quilty

Taliban fighters have occupied the expansive facility since parts of it were destroyed by fire and explosives in the final days of the American military withdrawal from Afghanistan at the end of August. In early September, a week after the last U.S. military aircraft had departed Kabul, Taliban fighters clad in a darker version of fatigues with the same tiger-stripe pattern worn by 01 escorted journalists through the ruins of Eagle Base, leading them through areas they said had been cleared of land mines and booby traps left by the Americans and their Afghan partners.

The fighters were from the Taliban’s “Badr” 313 Brigade, an elite commando unit named for the Battle of Badr 1,400 years ago, when the Prophet Mohammad is said to have overcome enemy forces with just 313 men. They were led by an English-speaking Taliban member in his 40s wearing traditional clothes, sunglasses, and a surgical mask.

Nearly two weeks earlier, at dusk on August 26, a suicide attack at the airport and subsequent gunfire had killed about 170, including 13 U.S. service members. Kabul residents were on edge. When another huge explosion was heard across the city before midnight, many feared that there had been a second deadly attack. But that explosion was a controlled detonation, one of several that destroyed ammunition depots, armories, and vehicles as well as various facilities inside Eagle Base that the CIA didn’t want to leave for the Taliban once the agency finally abandoned it. Brian Castner, Amnesty International’s senior crisis adviser for arms and military operations and a former U.S. Air Force explosive ordnance disposal officer, said The Intercept’s photos from the site suggested “a very hasty and messy withdrawal.”

Constellations of bullets, mortars, and grenades littered the charred foundations of ammunition depots destroyed by fire. In the burned-out shell of what appeared to be an armory, the barrels of Kalashnikovs, belt-fed PKM and DShK machine guns, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, and mortar tubes lay in piles like pick-up sticks.

Inside a dormitory building, the Zero units’ trademark tiger-stripe uniforms hung from hooks and littered the floor. In a steel locker, amid the discarded packaging of tactical gadgets and passport photos of a young family, a military patch in the shape of a pentagon read “The Shield & Swords of Afg, NSU (01).”

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Featured image: Afghans hoping to gain entry to the Hamid Karzai International Airport are contained by fighters from the notorious CIA-backed paramilitary unit known as 01, in Kabul on Aug. 24, 2021. Photo: Andrew Quilty

Meet COVID-19 Early Outpatient Treatment Expert Dr. Harvey Risch

October 10th, 2021 by Dr. James Lyons-Weiler

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Harvey Risch is a brilliant contributor to the knowledge base of biomedical research. Dr. Risch was the first to publish on hydroxychloroquine, very early in the pandemic, summarizing in the American Journal of Epidemiology evidence that hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) was associated with lowered mortality risk in a dose-dependent manner. He advocated very strongly that the world should not wait for the outcome of long-term randomized clinical trials, showing a correct understanding of the level of evidence required for off-label prescription during emergencies. This publication has had more than 140,000 views. You can read his, and the world’s first review of the clinical evidence of hydroxychloroquine here.

Dr. Risch also served as the principal scientist in the large Brazil hydroxychloroquine trial, published in Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease. That study found day 6 use of HCQ, prednisone or both significantly reduced hospitalization risk by 50–60%. It is inconceivable that in the review of the evidence Dr. Risch presented that individuals like Anthony Fauci could not have known about what the studies were truly indicating. You can read the large Brazil HCQ study here.

Dr. Risch has also worked tirelessly to educate the public on hydroxychloroquine and other aspects of COVID-19, such as this piece in Newsweek in July, 2020 “Tireless” does not truly capture his efforts; he has appeared in interviews on television at least 76 times to date, and had provided testimony for important proceedings, giving decision makers no reason not to see and understand the value of HCQ for outpatient care for COVID-19.

It is a near universal truth that academic training, especially in the medical and biological sciences, attempts to force specialization. When individuals in academia continue to gather new skills via formal training, they break the mold. In addition to his medical training, Dr. Risch obtained a PhD in mathematical modeling of infectious epidemics and has actively published on that challenging topic.  He is Professor of Epidemiology at Yale School of Public Health, widely recognized as one of the premier public health institutions in this country, and has published over 350 peer-reviewed scientific research papers. His publications have generated over 41,000 citations of those papers in the medical and scientific literature.

One of the distinctions that Dr. Risch carries is that he has no financial conflicts of interest in HCQ or any early treatment for COVID-19. Dr. Risch’s early vision has been supported by the clinical experience of many physicians – and he is co-author on the landmark “Pathophysiological Basis and Rationale for Early Outpatient Treatment of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) Infection” with world-renown COVID-19 authority Dr. Peter McCollough.

Critics of Dr. Risch accuse him of weakening the standards for clinical adoption of treatment for COVID-19. These critics are hazards to public health in part because they fail to respect that off-label use is allowed when no standard of care exists (such as with COVID-19), and that Emergency Use Authorization (EUAs) do not require the same high level of evidence that clinical options require for success in translational efforts for medical options during non-emergencies. They apparently are unaware that the rules have changed for COVID-19 related studies: Real World Data and Real World Evidence can now be given full consideration by regulatory agencies (See FDA Guidance, 9/30/2021).

One of Dr. Risch’s interviews was with Dr. Naomi Wolf on The Daily Clout. Co-guests included Dr. Howard Tenenbaum, and Dr. Paul Alexander.

And here is a highly informative academic presentation (aired June 25, 2021) that tells the story of hydroxychloroquine and its abuse by false accusations and fake studies. He also highlights the Bradford-Hill Criteria for causality, a topic we’ll be reviewing in courses at IPAK-EDU.

NIAID Director Anthony Fauci has rejected hydroxychloroquine using language like “all the credible studies”. There are limitations to the available science on hydroxychloroquine, not the least of which have included faked studies conducted and published to cast dispersion on the inexpensive drug. Other limitations include small sample sizes of some studies; however, if Fauci and Francis Collins had prioritized large, well-conducted studies of hydroxychloroquine, this would not be a limiting issue. The massive number of studies to date that find an effect place hydroxychloroquine high among the candidates for likely to succeed in a thorough, objective analysis.

The fact that people are still dying without any ambulatory in-home care is the crime of the century.

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Storable food mega-supplier Augason Farms has ceased operations for 90 days, citing, “global raw-material shortages” and “substantial delays” in procurement and production.

“Regrettably, BCG [the parent company owner of Augason Farms] cannot fulfill your orders on time; therefore, this letter communicates our decision to suspend business for the next 90 days, effective immediately,” says an October 7th, 2021 letter issued by Mark Augason, President of Augason Farms, to Augason Farms distributors and retailers (see letter below).

“During these 90 days, we will secure and stockpile raw materials and take measures to accelerate our round-the-clock production output,” the letter continues. “We are confident that this reset period will help us better serve you with on-time, complete shipments in the future,” the letter adds.

Augason Farms has been a large-scale retailer on Amazon.com, Walmart and many other retail outlets, typically offering non-organic dried fruits, vegetables and meal mixes to the preparedness and survival community.

The full letter is shown here:

In addition to this letter to its distributors and retailers, the Augason Farms website has announced it is no longer processing online orders from customers. “Due to an extremely high order volume through all sales channels we are currently not able to receive any orders through our web site,” said an on-site message on Oct. 8th.

“We expect to turn this site back on just as soon as possible.”

For the record, we were disturbed to learn about this development. It is yet further evidence of the accelerating collapse of food supply lines. As we have repeatedly warned, the world is about to be plunged into a “Dark Winter” of extreme food scarcity, power grid / energy scarcity and accelerating spike protein fatalities occurring among the vaccinated.

The shuttering of Augason Farms for 90 days is only going to worsen the food scarcity at retail, causing people to scramble even more aggressively to try to locate dwindling food supplies.

In my opinion, the brain dead Democrats only seek to throw more stimulus money at this problem, creating yet more fake fiat currency chasing an ever-shrinking supply of goods. And since you can’t eat stimulus money, all the stimulus in the world is pointless if the supply lines are collapsing. The problem in today’s economy isn’t a lack of stimulus money, it’s a lack of labor due to all the COVID lockdowns (which are completely nonsensical and based on irrational junk science). This lack of labor is getting translated into food supply chain disruptions and transportation / logistics nightmares that mean fewer goods are available to end customers.

If this continues, the mass starvation and power grid failures will probably kill far more people than COVID ever could.

Our own storable foods operations at HealthRangerStore.com have been heavily impacted by the collapsing food supply chain. As we reported weeks ago, commercial food purchase contracts that we traditionally signed with food providers for 12 months of food deliveries have all but vanished. Commercial food suppliers told us in July that they, “could not guarantee any food deliveries beyond 90 days out.” Suppliers that used to offer credit terms are now demanding payment up front, or full payment upon delivery. And many commercial food orders are resulting in only partial deliveries, typically representing half of what was originally ordered.

The last time we put storable food buckets into our online inventory, they sold out in 90 minutes. We have remained out of stock ever since. (Our current production run will put items back into inventory on Nov. 11th, assuming the power grid stays up.)

There is no question whatsoever that the food supply chain in North America is rapidly collapsing. This is because elections have consequences, and the Democrats would seemingly rather see America locked down than working in productive jobs. If you pay people to stay home and not work, people will stay home and not work. Before long, the shelves are empty. It’s a page ripped right out of communist-style centrally-planned economies… which history has proven are horribly inefficient and lead to exactly the kind of supply chain failures we are witnessing at this very moment.

Those who remain in denial about this reality won’t be able to deny it for much longer, as the retail shelves are starting to run dry as well. Every nation, they say, is but nine meals away from a revolution. Those nine missed meals are arriving this winter, it seems.

We wish Augason Farms the best in resuming operations in 2022, should supply lines improve. However, we are extremely concerned that the picture is going to be far worse 90 days out. And those who fail to stockpile food in the next 30-60 days may find themselves literally starving to death in January / February (or begging FEMA for emergency food handouts).

The US power grid won’t even be reliably functioning by then, according to energy industry insiders. Hear the full details of the coming USA power grid blackouts in my most recent podcast:

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Taliban Back in the American Swing Chair

October 10th, 2021 by M. K. Bhadrakumar

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The US state department admitted belatedly late last night that the first face-to-face meeting between American officials and the Taliban since the regime change in Kabul would take place in the weekend at Doha. 

Much planning has gone into this development. The poignancy is at once obvious. The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken had threatened that Washington would make the Taliban a ‘pariah’ and exactly the opposite is happening.

The US’ capacity to make U-turns in policies is a legion but the alacrity with which this is unfolding is simply breathtaking.

Former US special representative on Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad stands excluded from the US delegation for the talks. Instead, his deputy, Tom West, is leading the team. West is profoundly experienced in South Asian politics (including India) and has served in the National Security Council and had a stint as advisor to then Vice President Joseph Biden too.

Importantly, the West is also an old Carnegie hand when CIA Director William Burns was heading the think tank. Thus, the CIA is de facto taking over the negotiations with the Taliban. That is a signpost for the Biden Administration’s road map.

The entire Doha process, retrospect, was primarily geared to achieve one objective — namely, Taliban’s acquiescence to an open-ended US intelligence presence in Afghanistan. As quid pro quo, the Trump administration offered to replace Ashraf Ghani with an interim government under Taliban leadership. But in a deal so secretive and delicate, there is always the slip between the cup and the lip.

And that was what happened. Ghani balked (with robust support India) and dug in; US couldn’t deliver on commitments over the release of thousands of Taliban prisoners; Taliban retaliated by refusing ceasefire; and, eventually, Biden lost patience, withdrew troops and announced the end of the ‘forever war.’ The rest is history.

The US is now picking up the threads. Fortuitously, the deck has been cleared — Ghani’s regime simply imploded; Taliban took over in Kabul without a shot being fired; foreign occupation of Afghanistan has ended; and, an interim government has indeed come into being.

Doomsday predictions of ‘resistance’, ‘civil war’, et al, have dissipated. The Taliban regime is a reality.

But there is a catch — in fact, two. One, Taliban lacks the skill and cadres to run a government; two, there is no money in the Treasury. Washington has sized up the seamless potentials of the emergent situation to plot its return to the centrestage by exploiting the impasse — Taliban being in ‘control’ of the country but cannot govern and lacks legitimacy.

Now, the demonising of the Taliban all along has been so through and systematic that the best-kept secret is still that it is actually a rather pragmatic interlocutor. An emblematic photo last week showed the Talibs protecting the site of the Bamiyan statues from further vandalism, awaiting resumption of work by the French archaeologists restoring the cultural heritage!

The American security establishment has a very good assessment of the Taliban leadership’s strengths and weaknesses — including or especially, the Haqqani Network’s. Burns’ unpublicised visit to Kabul in August to meet Mullah Baradar in the backdrop of the chaotic situation at Kabul Airport testifies to the quiet confidence in Langley that a deal with the Taliban is always possible.

Thus, after a minimal ‘cooling-off’ period — six weeks exactly —  the US is back in business. This time around, the CIA will assume a ‘hands-on’ role, given the misgivings about the role of Khalilzad (a Trump appointee.)

Through recent weeks, the Biden Administration has been finessing a massive financial package aimed at injecting money into the Afghan economy and shoring it up from collapse. In reality, Washington is offering a vital lifeline to the Taliban.

The point is, Russia and China are tight-fisted — and Iran is broke — and none of them has the political will or capacity to bankroll the Afghan economy, which only the US can. The Taliban is well aware that the return of the international funding institutions and the UN is the imperative need of the hour and that Washington holds the key to it. Therefore, the prospects are that the revamped US strategy will work.

A big plus factor is that Pakistan is passionately advocating the US’ re-engagement with the Taliban. Conceivably, the recent reshuffle in Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) will significantly strengthen the ‘moderate’ faction within the Taliban.

The special meeting of the National Security Council that Prime Minister Imran Khan convened on Friday in Islamabad took stock of the forthcoming US-Taliban re-engagement and has set up a special body for coordinating Afghanistan-related matters in the period ahead.

The statement on the NSC meeting said that Imran Khan “directed the establishment of a dedicated cell to synergise various streams of efforts on Afghanistan across the government, including international coordination for humanitarian assistance and effective border management to prevent any negative spillover into Pakistan.”

For the first time, perhaps, in the past 40 years, an ‘all-of-government’ approach is being introduced. This will strengthen Imran Khan’s leadership role.

Imran Khan has been lobbying hard personally in the recent weeks with the international community — Washington, in particular — to persuade it to engage with the Taliban regime, grant it recognition, and resume development assistance so that the prospects of viability of the new set-up could improve.

His tenacity has met with success. While the recognition issue depends on Taliban meeting the broader US demands, it is a quintessentially matter of optics, while Washington is indeed gearing up to provide assistance to avert a humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. (Read my blog Taliban receives overtures from near and far, Indian Punchline, October 8, 2021.)

To be sure, Imran Khan will be supportive of the talks at Doha in the weekend. The NSC meeting has commended that “The importance of international coordination on constructive political and economic engagement with the interim government in Afghanistan was also highlighted.”

Significantly, Sarah Charles, a veteran hand at the USAID (formerly a member of the National Security Council from 2013 through 2017) with a range of experience in refugee issues, poverty alleviation, Sustainable Development Goals, role of Multilateral Development Banks, etc. is part of the team negotiating with the Taliban ministers in Doha in the weekend.

The Taliban delegation is led by acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi and includes top Shura Council member and Minister of Information and Culture Khairullah Khairkhwa, the director-general of intelligence Mullah Abdulhaq Wasiq, deputy interior minister (deputy to Sirajuddin Haqqani) Malwlawi Noor Jalal, senior leader in the negotiating team based in Doha Shabuddin Delawar and the acting Governor of the Afghanistan Central Bank Haji Mohammad Idris.

From the composition of the two delegations, substantive talks can be expected to set the ball rolling for a comprehensive US engagement with the Taliban authorities in Kabul. A strategic inflection point has been reached, for sure.

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Iceland Suspends Moderna for All Age Groups

October 10th, 2021 by Free West Media

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The Chief Epidemiologist of Iceland has decided that the Moderna vaccine against Covid-19 will not be used in Iceland. More information is needed on the safety of the vaccine for booster vaccinations and therefore not only people younger than 30 will be excluded, but everyone.

An announcement by the state concluded that in recent days there has been data from other Nordic countries on the increased incidence of myocarditis and pericarditis after vaccination with the Moderna vaccine in addition to the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

According to the epidemiologist, the Moderna vaccine had for the past two months been used almost exclusively in Iceland for booster vaccinations after the Janssen vaccine and after two-dose vaccinations for the elderly and immunocompromised. Very few individuals are said to have received the second dose of Moderna.

In Sweden, the use of Moderna has been restricted to individuals born before 1991. In Norway and Denmark, it has been emphasized that the Pfizer vaccine is recommended rather than Moderna for 12 to 17 year olds.

In Iceland, only the Pfizer vaccine has been recommended for primary vaccination at 12 to 17 years of age since the vaccination of this particular age group began.

According to the Chief Epidemiologist, the decision was made to suspend the use of Moderna as there is a sufficient supply of the Pfizer vaccine for defined priority groups and basic vaccinations of those who have not yet been vaccinated.

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The Corruption of Britain

October 10th, 2021 by Ian Birrell

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Last week, a man called Malcolm Offord joined the Government as a minister in the Scottish Office. This was a surprising appointment. His electoral experience seems limited, although he did fail to win a Lothian region seat in the Holyrood vote earlier this year. He was also backer of a pro-Union group in the 2014 referendum.

But the financier’s real qualification for office seems to be the accruement of a fortune so great that it enabled him to donate £147,500 to the Tories. So now he has been given a lovely lifetime place in parliament to rule over us with a peerage, plus the added bonus of a ministerial job with all those nice perks of office and status.

Offord will find himself in good company in the House of Lords. The Financial Times last year worked out that the elevation of billionaire Tory benefactor Michael Spicer made him the 22nd former donor to be given a peerage in 13 years. Between them, they had given more than £50m to the three main parties.

Boris Johnson displays a special fondness for placing pals and party donors in the upper chamber; such folk comprise about one quarter of the people he has ennobled. The prime minister even overruled the appointments’ commission to force disgraced former party treasurer Peter Cruddas into the Lords. Lo and behold, the grateful new peer bunged another half a million into Tory coffers a few days after taking up his seat.

Yet Britons like to believe their country is not corrupt, preferring to lecture others on good governance. The harsh truth is the House of Lords, an archaic institution stuffed with people who bought seats or inherited titles, serves as a grotesque symbol of the blatant corruption that stains our nation. Instead of hiding the fact that well-connected people can buy power and influence, we hand them fancy titles, silly crests and scarlet robes.

Perhaps this is part of the same deluded exceptionalism that makes many Britons believe their empire was less brutal, damaging and greedy than others. Yet once again, we see how Britain is being built on foundations of stolen loot, led by the City of London as its accountants, bankers, estate agents, financiers and lawyers wash mountains of dirty cash for the planet’s dodgiest people. Another scandal has broken with the Pandora Papers, the latest massive cache of leaked papers, giving a glimpse into the hidden wealth, tax dodging and money laundering of some of the world’s richest and most powerful people. And with sickening inevitably, we see once again how our nation sits at the epicentre of these tawdry activities.

Take the revelations about the Aliyevs, the ruling family of oil-rich Azerbaijan which is led by a friend of Prince Andrew and has been home to huge British investment. When I visited Baku in 2012, I met an astonishingly brave woman called Khadija Ismayilova, who has endured blackmail, been filmed on hidden cameras having sex in her home and been imprisoned on trumped-up charges to stop her exposing corruption.

Another activist told me why he always locked his car: “Not just to stop people taking things but to stop the police planting drugs or a weapon.” Now we learn that a network of offshore companies tied to this gruesome family and its close associates has traded almost £400m of UK property over the past 15 years — including flogging a £67m property to the Queen’s crown estate.

Yet this is an autocratic regime frequently condemned for its nefarious activities that include rigged elections. Ismayilova and other journalists risked their liberty to fight for the democratic values we claim to espouse, revealing how their first family benefitted from state contracts awarded through hidden shell companies — including the £177m showpiece Crystal Hall used for the Eurovision Song Contest, which gave me cover to enter the country as a journalist. The European Union and human rights groups have condemned the “widespread and pervasive” corruption that scars Azerbaijan. Yet the Aliyevs were not stopped from buying and selling many lucrative properties in Kensington, Knightsbridge and Mayfair. One purchase was even made through an offshore company owned by the ruler’s son when he was 11.

Again, these sleazy disclosures cut deep into the heart of the UK establishment. They include one Russian businessman whose companies have backed 34 Tory MPs and made millions from an allegedly corrupt Russian pipeline deal, while another prominent Tory donor who backed Johnson’s leadership campaign was reportedly involved in one of Europe’s biggest corruption scandals. Only last month it emerged that George Osborne won business from a firm run by Oleg Deripaska, an oligarch close to Vladimir Putin and banned from the United States. It came through his friendship with the firm’s chairman Lord Barker, a former Tory minister in the coalition given a life peerage.

Similarly, half of Russian money-laundering involves Britain while our lawyers earn fortunes from their oligarchs fighting legal battles in London’s courts. No wonder Putin sees the West as so weak. The Pandora Papers show how even Raffaele Amato — the mobster tied to a dozen murders who inspired the gangster TV show Gomorrah — was able to use a shell company registered in the UK to buy property.

Five years ago, David Cameron hosted a landmark anti-corruption summit in London that underlined the self-deception — just a few weeks before losing the Brexit ballot and going off to lobby for Lex Greensill. We pour vast sums in aid into combating corruption around the world, then ignore how much of it is stolen by repulsive regimes.

The current chancellor Rishi Sunak seems complacent, claiming Britain’s track record on tackling money laundering is “very strong” while promoting freeports, So is it any wonder the Government does so little to stem the flow of dirty money, let alone shut down the tax havens under our jurisdiction that do so much harm to the world? Looters and thieves need help to stash their stolen cash. And according to the Tax Justice Network, the three places that do most to support such practices are the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands and Bermuda — all of which come under our flag. An analysis of these latest documents by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists found 956 companies in offshore havens tied to 336 leaders, politicians and senior officials — with more than two-thirds set up in the British Virgin Islands.

Westminster could stop providing cover for crooks, despots and dodgy oligarchs with ease, if it were not so complicit. The Government has repeatedly pledged to bring in a register of the owners of the 100,000 offshore-owned properties; instead, we discover former Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife Cherie saved themselves £312,000 in stamp duty using such tactics. The National Crime Agency’s international corruption unit has an annual budget of about £4m — which one quarter of the sum spent by its target, Zamira Hajiyeva, wife of a fraudulent Azerbaijani banker, in Harrods on jewellery and designer clothes. Needless to say, her £15m Knightsbridge home was owned by a company based in the British Virgin Islands.

Meanwhile, governments encourage City advisory firms to spread like knotweed in the undergrowth of Whitehall, where they rake off big sums from taxpayers even as they advise plutocrats and multinationals how to avoid paying fair dues to the exchequer. The “Big Four” accountancy firms have been accused by parliament of using expertise from staff seconded to the Treasury to help clients avoid tax. But as the civil service was cut back, ministers increased use of these consultancies. The pandemic boosted their earnings again as normal rules on tendering were ditched. So we see a firm such as Mckinsey pay out fines over links to a destructive South African corruption scandal and its lethal role in the US opioid addiction crisis, yet its advisers are still hired on hefty daily rates by Whitehall.

Britain needs to wake up. The mother of democracy has given birth to a system that aids kleptocrats and thieves. And as the famous saying goes, a fish rots from the head down. When appointing his latest minister, Johnson claimed he scoured the country for the best talent and gave Offord the job and peerage because he had “a huge amount to offer”. Few will be fooled.

The Prime Minister’s words drip with contempt for all those artists, carers, doctors, factory workers, retailers, teachers, scientists and soldiers who might contribute far more to the benefit of our nation in return for the £323 attendance allowance in the Lords — a tax-free daily sum roughly the same as the weekly minimum wage. Behind our facade of democracy, led by such a selfish and soiled elite, lies a country hideously stained with corruption.

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Ian Birrell is an award-winning foreign reporter and columnist. He is also the founder, with Damon Albarn, of Africa Express.