Posts that I especially recommend today: Wednesday, March 18, 2020

• The coronavirus pandemic in five powerful charts by Ewen Callaway and others from Nature. 

• Coronavirus: The Plot Thickens from The Duran.

• China locked in hybrid war with US by Pepe Escobar from Asia Times.

Read the article to see how he reaches this conclusion: 

We are still barely starting to understand the consequences of Covid-19 for the future of neoliberal turbo-capitalism. What’s certain is that the whole global economy has been hit by an insidious, literally invisible circuit breaker. This may be just a “coincidence.” Or this may be, as some are boldly arguing, part of a possible, massive psy-op creating the perfect geopolitlcal and social engineering environment for full-spectrum dominance.

• Fed Announces Program for Wall Street Banks to Pledge Plunging Stocks to Get Trillions in Loans at ¼ Percent Interest by Pam Martens and Russ Martens from their weblog Wall Street on Parade. 

• Pandemic Highlights How Horrible Capitalism Is featuring Lee Camp of his show Redacted Tonight (via YouTube) offering his views about the contradictions of public health and capitalism.

• Covid-19 Global Lockdown by C. J. Hopkins, master satirist, from his weblog Consent Factory, Inc. With ironic satire Hopkins writes :
  

I mean, it’s not like the global capitalist empire was right in the middle of a War on Populism (a war that it has been losing up to now) and wanted to take this opportunity to crank up some disaster capitalism, terrorize the global public into a frenzy of selfish and irrational panic, and just flex its muscles to remind everybody what could happen if we all keep screwing around by voting for “populists,” tearing up Paris, leaving the European Union, and otherwise interfering with the forward march of global capitalism.

No, it certainly isn’t like that. It is an actual plague that is probably going to kill you and your entire family if you don’t do exactly what you’re told. So, forget this little thought experiment, and prepare yourself for global lockdown. It probably won’t be so bad … unless they decide they need to run the part of exercise where it goes on too long, and people get squirrelly, and start rebelling, and looting, and otherwise not cooperating, and the military is eventually forced to deploy those Urban Unrest Suppression Vehicles, and those Anti-Domestic-Terror Forces, and …

• Coronavirus: Iran death toll surpasses 1,000 from Middle East Eye.

• ‘US Threatening Countries Seeking to Help Iran in Fight against Corona’ from Iran Front Page. 

• Italy and UK rely on help from Cuba, China, Venezuela to fight coronavirus – as US steps up brutal sanctions by Ben Norton from The Grayzone.

• Podcast: Cocoon Sessions, Episode 1 featuring Australian Caitlin Johnstone (from her weblog) and somebody named "Tim Foley" who probably is her American husband. This is a new series that they have started to apparently help people who are dealing with this health crisis and the additional stress that it has caused in our lives. I haven't listened to much of this long casual discussion (1:11:32) with Foley because I simply don't have the time, but you might be interested.

• Podcast: Vanessa Beeley Unpacks the Idlib Crisis and the Fight for Syria’s Oil, Gas and Water from Mint Press News featuring Beeley, who is in Damascus, demonstrating her excellent journalistic skills by reporting what's currently going on in the Syrian conflict in this 46:11m long-distance interview. (Note: I am especially gratified to learn that Mint Press News has added Beeley, in addition to Whitney Webb, to their list of credible journalists.)