Posts that I especially recommend for Friday, April 23, 2021 (abbreviated version)

• American plans something but ends up differently by Zamir Awan for the Saker Blog.
  

It is not the first time which happened with America, where it plans some things and ends up in entirely opposite. I recalled my days in China in the early 1980s, when American and European entrepreneurs were entering China to occupy the vast niche market of China. That was the era of China opening to the outside world and introducing economic reforms. China facilitated market access, and American & European businessmen and investors flooded the Chinese market with foreign products. Those were the days when China was facing a shortage of everything like food, consumer products and etc. A quota system was introduced to buy items of daily life. They made huge profits in the early days, but gradually, they shifted their industry to China to avail themselves of China’s cheap raw material and cheap labor cost. It was in the best interest of foreign companies to manufacture in China to cut down the cost and maximize their profit. But sooner, they became the market of China.

• Tanks and Think Tanks: How Taiwanese Cash is Funding the Push to War with China by Alan Macleod from Mint Press News.

• US Seeks South China Sea Conflict by Brian Berletic (AKA "Tony Cartalucci") from New Eastern Outlook.
  

• Vanessa Beeley Interview – Israel Again Creates Conflict & What’s Really Happening In Syria from The Last American Vagabond. (Note: The first video interview starts at 1:40m and lasts a little over an hour.)

• Resistance Axis on war alert, to ‘openly’ target Israel if Iran attacks continue: Hezbollah insider from Middle East Observer.

• DIVIDE & RULE - The Plan of The 1% to Make You DISPOSABLE - Vandana Shiva. (Note: This video (12:01m) is from After Skool's YouTube channel, and mostly presents a graphic illustration of Vandana Shiva's words of wisdom and some history.)
  

Posts that I especially recommend for Thursday, April 22, 2021

• 💥Dr. Sucharit Bhakdi Interview – COVID Vaccine Blood Clot Risk Was Known, Ignored & Buried in a video interview (52:21m)from The Last American Vagabond. This is a best post. Also, if this interests you, you might also find an interest in this article. Unfortunately the retired doctor does not understand that our American capitalist masters have chosen to work through corporations to enforce their demand to take Covid-19 vaccinations.

• U.S. May Soon Reach Tipping Point on COVID Vaccine Demand + More by Children's Health Defense Team from Children's Health Defense.

• The Covidian Cult (Part II) by political satirist CJ Hopkins from his weblog Consent Factory, Inc. (Note: He occasionally detours from his usual ridicule and becomes serious in exposing what he calls the "covidian cult".)
  

• Forging Vaccine Passports featuring James Corbett from his weblog offering his insights that forging vaccine passports is not the answer even though reporting on this solution is accompanied by propaganda to encourage fake passports. My reaction: What is the solution to this? Unfortunately, this anarchist doesn't have an answer because "the powers that shouldn't be" (read our "ruling capitalist class") are coming with their solution because "it is for your own good". Listen to what their solution is!

• Masters of Puppets and Men of System: Review of Mario Rizzo and Glen Whitman, Escaping Paternalism by Art Carden from American Institute for Economic Research.
  

• The Catastrophes of the Pandemic are the Catastrophes of Capitalism by Stephen Gowans, an independent Canadian blogger from his weblog What's Left. 

• Free Speech Has Legal And Ethical Confines, Propaganda Does Not by Patrick Wood from Technocracy. My reaction: Unfortunately, our ruling class masters have other ideas.
  

• US Postal Service Running 'Covert Operations Program' To Spy On Americans' Social Media Posts, Share With Agencies by Tyler Durden from his weblog ZeroHedge.
  

• We’re All Weird Naked Murder Monkeys by Australian Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog. 

• US Order Against Russia: Italy at Attention by Manlio Dinucci, translated from Italian on Il Manifesto, and reproduced on Global Research. (Note: This report reveals how the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire is currently imposing "such costs as to cause a strategic impact on Russia”.)
  

• Vladimir Putin On Petty Tabaquis And International Issues by Bernhard, an independent German blogger, from his weblog Moon of Alabama. (Note: "Tabaquis" refer to a novel by Rudyard Kipling. Also, this article references the attempted assassination of the government leader of Belarus which is explained in this article from The Saker weblog.)

• Resistance Axis on war alert, to ‘openly’ target Israel if Iran attacks continue: Hezbollah insider from Middle East Observer. 
  

• [Big] Agriculture’s Greatest Myth by Jonathan Latham, PhD from Independent Science News. (Note: My insertion in the title.)
  

• The Impact of Population, Productivity, and Consumption on the Planet featuring Jaia Syvitski, professor at the University of Colorado and Stuart H. Scott, educator and environmentalist discussing the climate crisis. My reaction: I notice that Prof. Syvitski emphasizes population; and whenever Scott introduces that capitalism is a central problem, she always brings back the subject of population as the problem. She is in tune with our transnational ruling class of capitalists as expressed by Karl Schwab and the Great Reset as the solution to our climate crisis--the very thing that capitalism promoted along with its alliance with Christianity and similar religions.
  

Posts that I especially recommend for Wednesday, April 21, 2021

• Covid’s IFR just keeps DROPPING by Kit Knightly from Off-Guardian.
  

• The Lockdown Paradigm Is Collapsing by Jeffrey A. Tucker from American Institute for Economic Research.
  

• Simple Ways to Keep Your Immune System Strong by Dr. Vernon Coleman, a Brit, from his weblog. (Note: This article includes a video of his talk and transcript.)
  

• How Stalin Canceled 'Hamlet' in the Soviet Union—and What It Can Teach Us about Cancel Culture by Jon Miltimore from Foundation for Economic Education. My reaction: Ruling class experts of propaganda has turned so many liberals (dreamy reformist capitalists) into intolerant "virtuous" bigots who obsessively want to divert attention away from the growing inequality among the world's poor. This is based on the religion of absolute god-like authority figures who know what's best for us--American-style capitalism and away from any consideration of socialist ideas. Thus they, or the authoritative talking-heads you see on TV, read scripts that wrap themselves in virtue and censor all ideas that don't fit with the American goose of capitalism, a goose which continues to lay so many golden eggs for billionaires.

• There is No Substitute for the Rank and File: Thoughts on Amazon Unionization by Tatiana Cozzarelli from Left Voice. 

• A Trader’s Federal Lawsuit Against JPMorgan Chase Offers a Window into the Crime Culture at the Five Felony-Count Bank by Pam & Russ Martens from their weblog Wall Street on Parade.

• You reap what you sow by Natalie Bennett from Ecologist (a British weblog).

That we live on a hugely degraded, biologically impoverished planet, in which natural ecosystems are battered, abused, barely clinging on, is now emerging into public consciousness. But the corresponding rise of the superweed, and increasing vulnerability of our crop species, has yet to so register.

• The deafening sound of silence in the West (Open Thread #15) by "The Saker" (Andrei Raevsky) from his weblog.
  

• Russia Increases Its Defense, While U.S. Backs Down From Provoking WWIII by Eric Zuesse from Strategic Culture Foundation.

• Why Cryptocurrency Is A Giant Fraud by Nathan J. Robinson from Current Affairs.

• The US Withdrawal From Afghanistan May Just Lead To Privatized War by Robert Inlakesh from The Last American Vagabond. 

• Gates Unhinged: Dystopian Vision for Agrifood Must Not Succeed by Colin Todhunter from Dissident Voice. 

• The Doomsday Glacier Lives up to its Billing by Robert Hunziker from Dissident Voice.
  

• Rapid Loss of Habitat for Homo sapiens by Prof. (retired) Guy McPherson, an independent scientist who has focused on the climate crisis, from Academia. (Note: You will need to download this brief paper, and I recommend Acrobat Reader. But notice the installer wants you to select a list of additional software. Decide for yourself if you want them.)

• 💥In our hurry to conquer nature and death, we have made a new religion of science by Jonathan Cook from his weblog. This is a best post.
  

Were we not so technology obsessed, were we not so greedy, were we not so terrified of insecurity and death, if we did not see our bodies and minds as separate, and humans as separate from everything else, we might pause to ponder whether our approach is not a little misguided.

Science and technology can be wonderful things. They can advance our knowledge of ourselves and the world we inhabit. But they need to be conducted with a sense of humility we increasingly seem incapable of. We are not conquerors of our bodies, or the planet, or the universe – and if we imagine we are, we will soon find out that the battle we are waging is one we can never hope to win.

Posts that I especially recommend for Tuesday, April 20, 2021

• Perspectives on the Pandemic: “The pharmaceutical industry is manufacturing all these medical journal articles, behind the scenes, for marketing purposes.” from Off-Guardian. (Note: This article consists mostly of a 41:42m video interview with Leemon McHenry, a bioethicist and Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at California State University, Northridge conducted by John Kirby.)

• The Legitimacy of the WHO as a Gold Standard of Health is Dubious. Analysis and Review by Dr. Gary Null and Richard Gale from Global Research (based in Canada). 

• NYU Professor Fights Back Against the Academic Crybullies from Minds and The Corbett Report in a 45:55m video report. (Note: Mark Crispin Miller has been teaching at NY University for a number of years. He explains how and why his academic job is at stake despite his teaching techniques of critical thinking in the context of propaganda.) My reaction: This is another piece of evidence that the concentration of wealth under advanced capitalism can stifle critical thinking even in an academic setting. If you, in any way, challenge ruling class narratives in an advanced capitalist system, you will be punished by losing the means of supporting yourself.

• Think like a doctor, scientist, ecologist and economist – then become a conscientious objector by Rob Verkerk PhD; founder, scientific and executive director, ANH-Intl from Alliance for Natural Health (ANH-Intl).
  

• Lockdowns and the Natural Order by Ethan Yang from American Institute for Economic Research.
  

• MSM Finally Begins Admitting The PCR False Positive Cover Up & The Real World Experiment Exposed featuring Ryan Cristián and his video commentary (about an hour) from The Last American Vagabond. 

• ‘Be Careful Because Some Things That Are Termed A Conspiracy Are True’ – Edward Snowden by Arjun Walia from Collective Evolution. (Note: This includes a 19:23m video in British comedian Russel Brand interviews Snowden.)
  

• Protecting the OPCW against transparency – who is Nathalie Loiseau? by Vanessa Beeley from her weblog The Wall Will Fall. 

• New Green Deal + Old War Deal = Same Rotten Deal by Frank Scott from Dissident Voice.

While this seemingly hopeful program of another new deal for domestic progress is proposed in order to save capitalism once again by muffling if not smothering calls for more radical change, the old deal of the murderous warfare state is even more dangerous than ever, with the amateurs of the Trump regime replaced by more experienced creators of policies of mass murder to preserve the alleged chosen people status of American capital and its servant class of more diverse than ever professionals who arrange minority rule and convince people it‘s democracy.

• Xinjiang Native Speaks Out: “Western Media Jeopardizing Uyghurs Interests” features Dan Cohen from Mint Press News interviewing via long distant video in about an hour. 

• The Unraveling of the American Empire by Chris Hedges from Scheerpost. 

• The Media Lied Repeatedly About Officer Brian Sicknick's Death. And They Just Got Caught. By Glenn Greenwald from his weblog at Substack.

• Xi's Boao Forum Speech And The Messed Up Reporting Around It by Bernhard, a German independent blogger from his weblog Moon of Alabama.
  

• Exploitative Trade Rules: The World Trade Organisation by Rod Driver from his weblog Elephants in the Room.

• The Illusion of US and British Government Aid by Rod Driver from his weblog Elephants in the Room. My reaction: The two posts (this and the above) have been covered in past years by this weblog, but the American people still don't get it. It's probably a case of "better late than never". However if we fully realized such views back in the 1970s, we might still be looking at a future.
  

• The politics of climate change by Mustafa Hyder Sayed from CGTN (a major Chinese media news agency).

• Whale Songs by Caitlin Johnstone, an Australian independent blogger, from her weblog. 

• ‘All Eyes on BlackRock’ — Climate Activists Demand Shareholder Action by Jessica Corbett from Children's Health Defense. 
  

• Farmers Warn That A Megadrought In The Western U.S. Threatens To Cause Devastating Crop Failures In 2021 by Michael Snyder from Activist Post.

• Can Extreme Melt Destabilize Ice Sheets? A Continental-Scale Picture by researchers at Stanford University from SciTechDaily. 

• Self-Reinforcing Feedback Loop #7, Climate-Change Summary by Prof. (retired) Guy McPherson, an independent scientist who has focused on the climate crisis, from his YouTube channel.
  

Posts that I especially recommend for Monday, April 19, 2021

• EU not to renew AstraZeneca, J&J Covid-19 vaccine contracts on expiry from Business Standard. 

• Another day, another dollar | Pfizer defends price for its COVID vaccine from RT's channel on YouTube (3:18m)

• If Johnson & Johnson Coronavirus Vaccine Shots Are Halted Because of Blood Clots, Why Have Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech Shots Not Also Been Halted? by Adam Dick from Ron Paul Institute.
  

• Pathogens in One Lesson, Courtesy of Sunetra Gupta by Jeffrey A. Tucker from American Institute for Economic Research. (Note: This is essentially a book review of Gupta's book entitled Pandemics: Our Fears and the Facts.)

• Gates Unhinged: Dystopian Vision for the Future of Food by Colin Todhunter (a Brit) from Off-Guardian. 

• The truth about doublespeak: Is it lying or just being persuasive? by researchers at the University of Waterloo from Phys Org.
  

• Cold War Liberalism and the Labor Movement: The Epic Fail by Richard Moser from CounterPunch. 

• Wall Street’s Mega Bank CEOs To Be Hauled Before Congress in May; Nobody Will Say Why by Pam & Russ Martens from their weblog Wall Street on Parade. Note: The Martens soon dash hopes that anything substantial will come of the hearings.

If past is prologue, which we pray it is not, the hearings will use such a buckshot approach to questioning the witnesses that there will be no meaningful takeaway to the public from the hearings.

 

Later they go on to argue:

 

While each of these issues are critical to the national debate, dumping them all into one hearing where the Congressional questioner together with the witness get just a combined five minutes does a disservice to the seriousness of each issue. In fact, this approach has served to hold back change on Wall Street as news reporters simply grab the single most titillating detail from each hearing and put that in a headline. 

 

I argue that the purpose of the hearings will be to give the appearance that Congresspeople are protecting the people from the shenanigans of the major financial institutions. The bank CEOs are closer to the ruling capitalist class (if not a part of it) than the Congresspeople who are treated as mere employees of the ruling class. 

• How the US Enforces Exploitative Economic Policies: The IMF and the World Bank by Rod Driver from his weblog Elephants in the Room.

• Biden Approves DAPL! Betrays Native Americans Again featuring Jimmy Dore citing various mainstream reports regarding that the wealthy who contribute far more than the poor and Justin Jackson offering his comments on Dore's YouTube channel (9:08m).
  

• Deliberate Attempts to Downplay the Science: Karl Grossman Interviews Dr. Devra Davis  in a 29 minute YouTube video from Environmental Health Trust.
  

• Western US States Prepare For 1st-Ever Water Shortage Declaration; Hoover Dam Hydroelectric Generation At Risk by Tyler Durden from his weblog ZeroHedge.

• Opium poppy production in Afghanistan from Global Research. (Note: This article is posted on Esri a company that is devoted to "A geographic information system (GIS) is a framework for gathering, managing, and analyzing data." However, because there is no date or an author on this post which originated from Esri, I have decided to post it from Global Research as an exception to my usual policy to post articles from their original websites.
  

Posts that I especially recommend for Sunday, April 18, 2021

• Open Letter to a Friend Who “Tested Positive”…and Should Have Known Better by Jerry Bernini from Off-Guardian. 

• Are Conversations About COVID Vaccines Fracturing Your Family? Here’s What You Need to Know. By Children's Health Defense Team from their website.   

• On Contact: Securing Democracy with Glenn Greenwald featuring Chris Hodges interviewing Greenwald on Hodges' YouTube channel (25:32m). 

• Uganda Dictatorship: Imperialism’s Pearl of Africa featuring Abbie Martin speaking in a 16 minute YouTube video from her weblog Media Roots about the history of Uganda that continues today under the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire.

• A School for Spooks: The London University Department Churning Out NATO Spies by Alan Macleod from Mint Press News.
  

A prestigious university located in the heart of London, King’s College has, in its own words, “a number of contracts and agreements with various departments within government, including the Cabinet Office, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and the Ministry of Defence.” Some of those contracts are up to 10 years long. The university has so far refused to elaborate on the agreements, telling investigative news outlet Declassified UK that doing so could undermine U.K. security services.

• Three China reads: 3, Global reach by Philip Roddis, an independent British blogger, from his personal weblog Steel City Scribblings. 
  

• So Who Wants a Hot War? by Pepe Escobar from Strategic Culture Foundation.

• US President Joe Biden’s Shameful Push for War with China and Russia by John Stanton from Dissident Voice.
  

• Ukraine Plays with Fire as NATO Moves Dangerously Close to Russia’s Border by Denis Lukyanov from Internationalist 360°.

• Why Xinjiang is Emerging as the Epicenter of the U.S. Cold War on China by Vijay Prashad and Jie Xiong from Internationalist 360°.

• How to Keep Poor Countries Poor — The Absurdity of Comparative Advantage by Rod Driver from his weblog Elephants in the Room. My reaction: The article describes how the capitalist system works on an international scale.
  

• How the Rich Keep Workers Poor — Outsourcing and Sweatshops by Rod Driver from his weblog Elephants in the Room. My reaction: Notice that he only makes unidentified references to "a system". He is another author who regards capitalism as another reality like the sun, moon, and stars instead of man-made. Therefore his recommended "solutions" are merely reforms and absolutely ineffective.

• Military Bases Housing Migrant Children Plagued by Serial Sexual Abuse Claims by Whitney Webb from her weblog Unlimited Hangout. 

• Six Months to Prevent a Hostile Takeover of Food Systems, and 25 Years to Transform Them by Nick Jacobs from Common Dreams.

... the keys of the food system are already being handed over to data platforms, e-commerce giants, and private equity firms. This could mean dismantling the diversified food webs that sustain 70% of the world's population and provide environmental resilience. It could mean putting the food security of billions of people at the mercy of high-risk AI-controlled farming systems and opaque supply corridors.

And yet, there is nothing inevitable about this dystopian future. 

 

I think that as long as we tolerate capitalism and its goal to maximize only profits, a dystopian future is guaranteed. I am not only referencing the ultimate extinction that we will inevitably experience, but I am arguing that in the time we have left if we do not reject capitalism and replace it with socialism (a system of governance that publicly owns and controls the economy for the benefit of all people) that a near-term dystopian future is guaranteed.

• Fukushima Daiichi Radioactive Dumping and the Summer Olympics in Japan In Question by Vladimir Odintsov from New Eastern Outlook.
  
   
  ... according to Kyodo, which recently conducted a social survey of residents about the holding of the Olympics in Tokyo, most Japanese residents oppose its holding in 2021. 39% of the Japanese surveyed were in favor of canceling the Games, and about 33% were in favor of postponing the Olympics. Only 24.5% of Japanese residents are positive about the fact that thousands of athletes from all over the world will come to the Japanese capital in the summer of 2021. [I supplied this link.]

  
  

  In these conditions, the new Japanese government, balancing on the mood of the population of its country, has been looking for an opportunity for several months to find an objective reason for canceling the Olympic Games and report it “without losing face.” Finally, as reported by the British The Times, citing responsible sources, the Japanese government is still tacitly inclined to the decision to cancel the Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo “because of the Covid-19 pandemic”, intending, nevertheless, to claim the right to hosting the 2032 Games.

Posts that I especially recommend for Saturday, April 17, 2021 (abbreviated post)

• Pentagon's "COVID Detecting Microchip" For Under Your Skin? featuring Ben Swann in a 10:14m video telling us about a new microchip that the Pentagon designed to indicate only that we are infected by the coronavirus. 

• Journalists, Learning They Spread a CIA Fraud About Russia, Instantly Embrace a New One by Glenn Greenwald from his weblog at Substack. Greenwald concludes with this statement:
  

Let's express this as clearly as it can be expressed. Any journalist who treats unverified stories from the CIA or other government agencies as true, without needing any evidence or applying any skepticism, is worthless. Actually, they are worse than worthless: they are toxic influences who deserve pure contempt. Every journalist knows that governments lie constantly and that it is a betrayal of their profession to serve as mindless mouthpieces for these security agencies: that is why they will vehemently deny they do this if you confront them with this accusation. They know it is a shameful thing to do.

But just look at what they are doing: exactly this. These are not journalists. They are obsequious spokespeople for the CIA and other official authorities. Even when they learn that they deceived millions of people by uncritically repeating a story that the CIA told them was true, they will — on the very same day that they learn they did this — do exactly the same thing, this time with a one-paragraph Treasury Department Press Release. These are agents of disinformation: state media. And when they speak, you should listen to them with the knowledge of what they really are, and treat them accordingly.

 

My reaction: Over my lifetime of 85 years I have seen "state media" evolve exclusively into disinformation and propaganda agents knowing that their reports will be disseminated by career-oriented "journalists".

• Biden’s Claim to be Ending America’s Longest War Misleading by Jeremy Kuzmarov from Internationalist 360°.
  

• One Man Stands in the Way of NATO’s Run Onward to Moscow by Phil Butler from New Eastern Outlook. (Note: I spotted what I believe is an editing error in the 2nd to the last paragraph: "Is heavily involved in helping promote the EU’s Three Seas Initiative (3SI), which is an asymmetrical warfare economic platform to cut Russia off from the EU, and install the U.S. and central European powers in her place in East Europe." Because of Butler's preceding arguments, I think that "The Heritage Foundation" should immediately precede the sentence.)
  

• Three Things Most People Don't Know About Physician-Assisted Death by Rosemary Frei from her weblog. (Note: You can access an article by Kit Knightly from Off-Guardian on the possible abuses of a Right to Die law here.)
  

Posts that I especially recommend for Friday, April 16, 2021

• Vaccine Passports in a Failed State by Margaret Kimberley from Black Agenda Report.
  

• 💥The CIA Used To Infiltrate The Media. Now The CIA Is The Media. By Australian independent blogger Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog. This is a best post.
  

Back in the good old days, when things were more innocent and simple, the psychopathic Central Intelligence Agency had to covertly infiltrate the news media to manipulate the information Americans were consuming about their nation and the world. Nowadays, there is no meaningful separation between the news media and the CIA at all.

 

They not only have taken over media corporations, but they and other agents of the ruling capitalist class have set up fake left media organizations and websites (Spectre is a recent prime example) posing as left-wing organizations critical of US interests but really serving as issue gatekeepers to the ruling class. Amy Goodman and her weblog "Democracy Now!" is a prime example. Goodman does not allow anyone on her show that is critical of the government's narrative on 9/11 or the major assassinations (John or Robert Kennedy or ML King). As I've reported in 2015 Goodman and her show along with others has been generously funded by "philanthropic" organizations. Wikipedia is another example (See this, this, this, this, and this.) Also, The Intercept, owned by billionaire Pierre Omidyar, is another similar project. But probably worst of all, they've revised history books, history as portrayed in films, etc. to reflect their self-serving propaganda.

• The Hawks Who Want War With Iran Are Working Overtime by Medea Benjamin and Ariel Gold from Jacobin. My reaction: The hawks are working overtime to stave off defeat everywhere that threatens their US/Anglo/Zionist Empire--and they are threatened everywhere. Remember "America is back!" As the transnational capitalist directors of the Empire are seeing their empire go into decline, their actions speak of desperation. Because we as families enjoyed some of the stolen wealth because of residing in an empire, we citizens of the Empire are destined to go down to defeat with them.

• Contrary to What Biden Said, U.S. Warfare in Afghanistan is Set to Continue by Norman Solomon from CounterPunch. (Note: You may also be interested in an article entitled "White House Won’t Say If Special Forces Will Leave Afghanistan Under Biden’s Withdrawal Plan"). My brief commentary follows: 

The Empire's appointed leaders cannot ever tell the truth because if they told the truth we would immediately rebel. So, they continue to lie to us and we continue to believe them ... as long as enough of their goodies pour in. Ah, but there is the catch! The Covid-19 pandemic is the perfect excuse that the ruling class has for the deterioration of the economy.

 

💥If you want to hear an important, but longer analysis and related matters by a well-known socialist, Brian Becker, you should listen to his 33 minute interview on Lee Camp's show Redacted Tonight via a YouTube video. This is a best post.

• Biden Re-Hires Trump's Ambassador to RUSSIA! featuring Jimmy Dore and company (Aaron Maté and Ron Placone) using Biden's inconsistent policy to comedic effect, but also Maté offers a serious interpretation.

• Addressing America’s Homelessness and Squalor: What We Could Do If Cared by Eleanor Goldfield from Mint Press News (based in Minneapolis).
  

• Just Like in the US, Policing in Israel is Rooted in Racist Violence by Jessica Buxbaum from Mint Press News.
  

• Australia Buries Afghan War Crimes, Toes U.S. Hostile Line on China by Finian Cunningham from Strategic Culture Foundation. My reaction: Of course, Australia being an integral part of the former British Empire, they are now an integral part of the existing US/Anglo/Zionist Empire and they follow the diktats of the transnational capitalist directors of the Empire.

• The CIA Armed Libyan Terrorists with Carlton Meyer narrating a 10:53m report from a YouTube channel "Tales of the Empire" about Edwin Wilson, a former CIA agent, who was caught supplying Libyan terrorists with explosives.
  

• Free Trade Is Code For Forced Trade by Rod Driver from his weblog Elephants in the Room.
  

• Iran & Russia set to sign comprehensive strategic agreement: TV Report from Middle East Observer.
  

• How a US-led Un-Holly Alliance is Preventing Syria’s Normalisation by Salman Rafi Sheikh from New Eastern Outlook. 

• The Silencing of the Lambs by Andrea Halewood from Off-Guardian.
  

• When We Go Extinct by Prof. (retired) Guy McPherson, an independent scientist who has focused on the climate crisis, from his YouTube channel. 

Posts that I especially recommend for Thursday, April 15, 2021

• From RussiaGate to UkraineGate: Route to Apocalypse by Oliver Boyd-Barrett from Mint Press News. 

Within three months of the ascendancy of Joseph Biden to the presidency of the United States, the world teeters on the edge of nuclear war, whether by design or accident, as Russia reports that the U.S. is placing considerable pressure on Ukraine to attack the independent republics of the Donbass for which Russia provides logistical support. The U.S. European Command has raised its alert status to the highest level and warned of a “potential imminent crisis.” 

• Western Media Eager to See Ukraine Use US-Supplied Weapons Against Russia by Dave DeCamp from Anti-War.
  

• CNN’s Blatant Disinformation About Russia-Ukraine Activity by Michael Averko from Strategic Culture Foundation. 

• The latest US moves against Russia (OPEN THREAD #11) UPDATED!!! by "the Saker" (Andrei Raevsky) from his weblog.
  

• Putin’s Ukrainian Judo by Dmitry Orlov from "The Saker" weblog. (Note: I hesitate to use Wikipedia regarding Orlov anymore since I gradually observed their corruption by other operatives (2nd article and commentary). My reaction: I think Orlov's assessment is quite accurate, and I miss his clear voice and acute judgement since he put his articles behind a paywall. However, I don't always agree with his commentaries that he is always rather too willing to share with the public. He often expresses opinions without supporting documentation. In this article he demonstrates a startling amount information regarding both Ukraine, Europe, and Putin. I thank an activist who sent me this article.

• It’s The Media’s Job To Normalize War: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix by Australian independent blogger Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog.

• China’s Deep Dark Secrets featuring Lee Camp reporting articles on horrendous human rights practices by China's government, but he "discovers" they are all about the USA (for comedic effect) in his (4:08m) YouTube channel. 

• Financial fiction part two: the new ones (SPACs, NFTs, cryptocurrencies) by Michael Roberts, a British Marxist economist from his weblog.
  

• Biden Declares Afghan War To End On 9/11 -- For Reals! featuring Jimmy Dore (from his YouTube channel) doing his comedic commentary regarding our fake democracy and Aaron Maté (The Grayzone) commenting on the announcement by Pres. Biden that the US will withdraw troops from Afghanistan.
  

• Australia’s Self-Inflicted Economic Woes Continue by Joseph Thomas from New Eastern Outlook. My reaction: Of course Australia is very much a part of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire, The same applies to Europe and NATO, but European capitalists are looking at all the profits they are missing from playing along with the Empire, and may decide to no longer go along with Empire directives. Then it's game over for the Empire, and the directors of the Empire know it.

• Indian monsoons becoming more chaotic from Climate & Capitalism.

• Washington could not be happier with Ecuador’s new president by Paul Antonopoulos from Brics.
  

• Self-Reinforcing Feedback Loop #6, Climate-Change Summary featuring Prof. (retired) Guy McPherson reading a summary of scientific reports via his YouTube channel.

• Climate change : The daily consequences we're choosing to ignore. This video features Dave Borlace from his channel, Just Have a Think, in a 13:56m YouTube video, commenting on recent reports from Lancet, the British renowned medical journal.

• Waves of anger | Japan's neighbors decry plan to dump Fukushima water into sea a 3:09m video from RT's channel on YouTube.
  

Posts that I especially recommend for Wednesday, April 14, 2021 (This is all the recommended news articles that I could stomach.)

• Life Insurance Unchanged By COVID? featuring Ben Swann and Bob Burnett, a knowledgeable person regarding statistics of the insurance industry. Burnett has observed no changes in life insurance rates and other death stats in this 10:43m video from ISE.
  

• 💥Big Corporations Now Deploying Woke Ideology the Way Intelligence Agencies Do: As a Disguise by Glenn Greenwald from his weblog at Substack. This is a best post. (Note: You need to substitute the Empire's capitalist ruling class in place of "big corporations" or "corporate class" to make the most sense out of this article.) My reaction: The Empire's transnational capitalist ruling classes are now appearing to know no limits in their deceitful practices to maintain their power along with profits. The Empire's secret services are wrapping themselves in social justice causes like BLM and LGBT. Greenwald starts with the practices of the British secret services, but soon describes such practice among the US's:

The CIA — in between military coups, domestic disinformation campaigns, planting false stories with their journalist-partners, and drone-assassinating U.S. citizens without due process — joyously celebrates Women’s Day, promotes what it calls The Agency Network of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Officers (ANGLE), hosts activities for Pride Month, and organizes events to commemorate Black History Month. The FBI does the same.

 

Even old-fashioned conservatives (The American Conservative) are being turned-off by these practices, and he quotes some of their criticisms. Most of Greenwald's exposé drips with cynicism at this display of current deceptive practices, but later he gets seriously straight by concluding with this statement:

 

The concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the corporate class and the ways they abuse and eliminate labor, control government, and destroy the working and middle classes will be impossible to see, as we are all blinded by the glare of their virtuous Instagram posts about racial justice and their unified campaigns against voter suppression. In an instant of swooning over their benevolent devotion to social justice, we will forget what they actually exist to do. When we work to harness their power to support our own political causes, we forget about how out of control and menacing that power is, and what it is most often used for. And that is exactly the way they want it. 

• The West Resolutely Refuses to Face the Facts in Crimea by James ONeill from New Eastern Outlook.

• Countdown to Destruction by Andrew Anglin from The Unz Review. (Note: This article, as well as recent others, is very disturbing. My reaction: Yes, as Biden proclaimed, "America is back", and is engaged in provocative actions everywhere! If we make it through the next few months, it will be a miracle.)

• Setting the Scene for Global Destruction. Now It’s the Arctic by Brian Cloughley from Strategic Culture Foundation.
  

• Intelligence Sources Say Biggest Threat To U.S. Is Actually U.S. Policy by Caitlin Johnstone from her weblog.

• The Vicious Circle: Policing and the Culture of White Male Violence by Nicholas De Genova from Spectre. My reaction: This is from a supposedly "Marxist" journal, but the author of this piece avoids the argument that the "Culture of White Male Violence" is actually capitalist culture. His reasoning doesn't remove gender from his argument. Apparently most of the article was written before the killing of Daunte Wright by Kim Potter, a female police officer. But in effect De Genov supports the gender bias of the ruling class--it's all about gender, not capitalism, the sacred cow of the capitalist ruling classes!

 

 

• Shock Therapy: How Austerity and Privatisation Destroy Nations by Rod Driver from his weblog Elephants in the Room. My reaction: I got a chuckle out of his statement that "When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1989, US advisors tried to persuade the Russian government that Russia could quickly change from its existing Communist system to an extreme version of capitalism." "Extreme version of capitalism" is now the new normal in the USA and much of the US/Anglo/Zionist Empire and beyond.

• Dollar’s Purchasing Power Drops Sharply to Record Low, But It’s a Lot Worse than CPI Shows by Wolf Richter from his weblog Wolf Street.