EN-AG – Apokalyps Nu!

Imperialist Iran becomes anti-imperialist, by Thierry Meyssan

Posted by EN-AGon 4 augustus 2020in Becomes, Imperialist

04-08-20 08:47:00,

The history of Iran in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries corresponds neither to the image that Westerners have of it, nor to the image that the official discourse of Iranians gives of it. Historically linked to China and for the past two centuries fascinated by the United States, Iran is struggling between the memory of its imperial past and the liberating dream of Rouhollah Khomeiny. Considering that Shiism is not only a religion, but also a political and military weapon, it hesitates between proclaiming itself the protector of the Shiites or the liberator of the oppressed. We publish a two-part study by Thierry Meyssan on modern Iran.

The British overthrew the Kadjar and placed an officer of their army in place of Shah. Worried about his pro-German friendships, they deposed him during the Second World War in favour of his son. The latter, aware that he was not much, summoned in 1971 a third of the world’s sovereigns, heads of state and government to celebrate the 2500 years of his predecessors. Concerned about his megalomania, the United States and the United Kingdom removed him from office in favour of Ayatollah Khomeini.

The Persians built vast empires by uniting neighbouring peoples rather than conquering their territories. Traders rather than warriors, they imposed their language for a millennium throughout Asia, along the Chinese Silk Roads. Farsi, which only they alone speak today, had a status comparable to English today. In the 16th century, their sovereign decided to convert his people to Shi’ism in order to unify them by giving them a distinct identity within the Muslim world. This religious particularism served as a basis for the Safavid Empire.

Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh (right) addressing the UN Security Council.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the country had to contend with the ferocious appetites of the British, Ottoman and Russian empires. In the end, after a terrible famine deliberately provoked by the British, which caused 6 million deaths, Tehran lost its empire while London imposed an operetta dynasty, that of the Pahlevi, in 1925, in order to exploit the oil fields for its sole benefit. In 1951, Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh nationalized the Anglo-Persian Oil Company. Furious, the United Kingdom and the United States succeeded in overthrowing him while maintaining the Pahlavi dynasty.

“No Silver Bullet” – WHO’s Tedros Warns COVID-19 Vaccine May Never Be Found

Posted by EN-AGon 3 augustus 2020in Bullet, silver

03-08-20 08:36:00,

As a growing chorus of seemingly impartial observers (including sell-side analysts at JP Morgan and Goldman) suggests that returning to lockdowns might not be the smartest way to sustainably fight SARS-CoV-2, WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros said Monday during the organization’s latest briefing from its headquarters in Geneva that a cure for the virus might never be found, and that there is “no silver bullet.”

More than 100 vaccine candidates are in various stages of development and study, but only six tracked by the WHO have entered Phase 3 clinical trials, the most comprehensive series of trials yet designed to closely measure safety and efficacy.

But even without a vaccine, falling mortality rates in the US and globally suggest that doctors have made serious progress in treating the disease.

“A number of vaccines are now in phase three clinical trials and we all hope to have a number of effective vaccines that can help prevent people from infection.”

“However, there’s no silver bullet at the moment and there might never be,” Dr. Tedros said.

Still, the world has tools to stop the spread of outbreaks. Lockdowns, masks, social distancing, contact tracing. “Do it all,” Dr. Tedros – who, remember, isn’t a medical doctor, but holds a PhD in philosophy with a focus on community health – advised.

For now, stopping outbreaks comes down to the basics of public health and disease control.

Testing, isolating and treating patients, and tracing and quarantining their contacts. Do it all.

Inform, empower and listen to communities. Do it all.

For individuals, it’s about keeping physical distance, wearing a mask, cleaning hands regularly and coughing safely away from others. Do it all.

The message to people and governments is clear: do it all.

And when it’s under control, keep going!

Leaders must remember: When fighting COVID-19, lifting restrictions too early is the biggest mistake a country can make.

Keep strengthening the health system.

Keep improving surveillance, contact tracing and ensure disrupted health services are restarted as quickly as possible.

Keep safeguards and monitoring in place, because lifting restrictions too quickly can lead to a resurgence.

Regime Change The Media: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

Posted by EN-AGon 3 augustus 2020in Change, Regime

03-08-20 08:18:00,

America this is serious: if you re-elect Trump, you’ll be trapped in a fascist dystopian oligarchy which will keep robbing you of your rights and wellbeing for the benefit of the powerful and the wealthy.

And it gets even worse: these things will also be true if you elect Biden.

~

People often ask me for suggestions on how they can learn to understand the world better. Here is a link to an article full of tips on how to punch through the obfuscations of propaganda and make sense of things, and here is a link to a Twitter list of my favorite news-gatherers and dot-connecters which you can bookmark and scroll through daily. Those should get you started.

~

Mainstream media reporters have a much higher body count than all serial killers and terrorist organizations combined. They do not deserve respect, and their institutions should not exist.

You are infinitely more qualified to report the news than all the scumbags in the mass media who are paid by billionaires to parrot government lies. I mean that 100 percent literally. If you’re not being paid by the wealthy to lie to the public, you are more qualified to report the news than those who are. Doesn’t matter if all you have is a smartphone and a Twitter account; you are set up to be a better news reporter than them.

You know all that space mass media reporters take up in society’s awareness proclaiming what’s true and what’s going on in the world? That’s your space. They usurped it. Take it back from them. The MSM have betrayed humanity to an unforgivable extent. We must become the media.

~

Mainstream media opinion segments are toxic and shouldn’t exist. Not because expression of opinion is wrong but because they only ever platform (at most) two mainstream ideological positions arguing over the specifics of how, not if, the agendas of oligarchs and government agencies should be advanced.

Mass media “news” segments tell you what to think. Mass media “opinion” segments tell you how to think. It’s a complete training program.

Mass media “news” parrots government lies about what’s happening in the world and only gives you information which benefits establishment power structures,

Fires Are Raging in the Amazon—Again – Global Research

Posted by EN-AGon 3 augustus 2020in Fires, raging

03-08-20 07:41:00,

One year has passed since the world was shocked by the images of the fires blazing across the Amazon in Brazil. But since then, the forest hasn’t stopped burning —and 2020 could be even more devastating for the rainforest and the Indigenous Peoples who call it home. Last week, Greenpeace Brazil flew over the state of Mato Grosso to capture images of the Amazon. Even though the government had ordered a ban on forest fires in the state starting at the beginning of July, the photos show smoke, flames, and just how ineffective the ban has been.

Last year, more than 1 million hectares of forest were burned, and the trend shows the destruction is far from over. Last June, more than two thousand fire hotspots were registered in the Amazon, the highest number in the last thirteen years. Since Brazil’s President Bolsonaro took office in January 2019, his government’s agenda has been very clear: dismantle environmental protection law and agencies, so that forest destroyers can burn the forest freely, clearing the land to turn it into pastures, without being held accountable.

The consequences of this destruction are dire. From Siberia to the Amazon, fires are raging across the world. Losing our forests means losing the fight against the climate crisis, putting biodiversity at risk of extinction, and threatening the lives of Indigenous Peoples who depend on the forest standing for their survival. Fighting to protect the forest and Indigenous lands from fires and deforestation become even more difficult—and crucial —during a pandemic.

In 2019, the images of the fires raging in the Amazon went viral and shocked the world. © Victor Moriyama / Greenpeace

With a mortality rate from COVID-19 150% higher than the Brazilian average, Indigenous Peoples are already more vulnerable during the pandemic. The smoke from the fires will put their respiratory system at even higher risk during a time when access to healthcare is limited in remote areas in the Amazon.

But things can be different. After the public’s outcry last year, there is increasing pressure on Brazil’s government. Investors, companies and governments have been signaling their concerns about the destruction of the forest and its impact on the environment,

How The Billionaires Control American Elections

Posted by EN-AGon 3 augustus 2020in Billionaires, Control

03-08-20 09:49:00,

Authored by Eric Zuesse via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

The great investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald gave an hour-long lecture on how America’s billionaires control the U.S. Government, and here is an edited summary of its opening twenty minutes, with key quotations and assertions from its opening — and then its broader context will be discussed briefly:

“How Congress Maintains Endless War – System Update with Glenn Greenwald” – The Intercept, 9 July 2020

2:45: There is “this huge cleavage between how members of Congress present themselves, their imagery and rhetoric and branding, what they present to the voters, on the one hand, and the reality of what they do in the bowels of Congress and the underbelly of Congressional proceedings, on the other. Most of the constituents back in their home districts have no idea what it is that the people they’ve voted for have been doing, and this gap between belief and reality is enormous.”

Four crucial military-budget amendments were debated in the House just now, as follows:

to block Trump from withdrawing troops from Afghanistan.
to block Trump from withdrawing 10,000 troops from Germany
to limit U.S. assistance to the Sauds’ bombing of Yemen
to require Trump to explain why he wants to withdraw from the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty

On all four issues, the pro-imperialist position prevailed in nearly unanimous votes – overwhelming in both Parties. Dick Cheney’s daughter, Republican Liz Cheney, dominated the debates, though the House of Representatives is now led by Democrats, not Republicans.

Greenwald (citing other investigators) documents that the U.S. news-media are in the business of deceiving the voters to believe that there are fundamental differences between the Parties. “The extent to which they clash is wildly exaggerated” by the press (in order to pump up the percentages of Americans who vote, so as to maintain, both domestically and internationally, the lie that America is a democracy — actually represents the interests of the voters).

16:00: The Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee — which writes the nearly $750B annual Pentagon budget — is the veteran (23 years) House Democrat Adam Smith of Boeing’s Washington State.

Cover-Up Continues: Revisiting The Incident At Benghazi

Posted by EN-AGon 3 augustus 2020in Continues, Cover-up

03-08-20 09:48:00,

Authored by Carlton Meyer via AntiWar.com,

Chris Stevens was an ambitious US State Department employee who volunteered to participate in the overthrow of the Libyan government in 2011.

He covertly arrived in Libya in early 2011 aboard a Greek cargo ship with CIA personnel and set up operations in Benghazi to coordinate illegal shipments of weaponry into Libya and organized attacks on the Libyan army.

After Africa’s most prosperous nation was in ruins, Stevens became the US Ambassador to Libya in Tripoli and was given a new mission of shipping tons of arms to Syria to destroy that nation.

He traveled to Benghazi in September 2012 to check on progress and was attacked. Stevens was captured, beaten, and killed.

The Obama administration hid these facts and proclaimed Chris Stevens an American hero who had traveled to Benghazi to mediate peace among warring factions when he was killed by terrorists.

* * *

Watch how the covert op turned disastrous & into a continuing cover-up:

Do Not Let Them Train You

Posted by EN-AGon 3 augustus 2020in Train

03-08-20 09:46:00,

Do not let the news man train you how to see.

Do not let the pundit train you how to feel.

Do not let the teacher train you how to think.

Do not let the preacher train you how to love.

Do not let the banker train you how to value.

Do not let Hollywood train you how to be.

Don’t let them train you.

They were appointed by the powerful to teach you how to live
in a world that is small, too small for wild humans.

Too small for humans who haven’t been house trained,
groomed, spayed and neutered,
and taught parlor tricks
like how to ignore life’s intrinsic breathtaking majesty.

Too small for humans who perceive their own boundlessness,
their own vast unpredictable inner wildernesses,
their own beauty,
their own holiness,
their own worthiness,
their own innate equality
with those holding their leash.

So they train us.

They train us to believe the world fits neatly
into flat, finite conceptual boxes.

That life is predictable, that our nature is well-mapped.

That we live in a 2-D colorless cage
from which there can be no escape
and about which everything is known.

As though narrative could even touch this blazing cacophony,
let alone encapsulate it.

They are lying to you, my beloved.

They are lying each and every time they open their pixelated mouths.

This life is so much more than they will ever allow you to believe.

So very immense.

So very unexplored.

So very unpredictable.

So very juicy.

So very sexy.

So very, very, very beautiful.

The unknown unknowns dwarf the known unknowns,
and the known unknowns dwarf the knowns.

But they will never let you know this.

So don’t ask their permission.

Take off that leash, wild apeling.

Unblinker those eyes and unshackle those legs.

Syria says US ‘stealing’ oil after American energy firm signs deal with Kurdish rebels

Posted by EN-AGon 3 augustus 2020in Stealing, Syria

03-08-20 09:18:00,

The Syrian government has accused the US of “stealing” the country’s oil reserves, which Washington claimed to be protecting from terrorists. American lawmakers admitted that a deal has been signed with Kurdish rebels.

When President Donald Trump pulled US troops out of Syria last October, it was not the full withdrawal promised in his anti-interventionist campaign speeches. Instead, a contingent was left behind in areas of north Syria controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, ostensibly to protect the region’s oilfields from Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) terrorists.

Also on rt.com
Covid-19 gives cover for US-led coalition to keep up pressure on Syria

However, the Syrian government has accused the US of pilfering the oil for itself. In a statement to the state-controlled SANA News Agency on Sunday, the Foreign Ministry condemned a deal signed between an unnamed American oil firm and the SDF, calling the oil extraction “stealing” and the rebels “a cheap puppet in the hands of the American occupation.”

The ministry added that it would consider the deal “null and void.”

The government in Damascus has long accused the US of looting Syria’s oil reserves. While the troops left behind on the oilfields supposedly stopped the black gold from falling into terrorist hands, sanctions on the Syrian government mean that the US hasn’t handed it over to Damascus either. Instead, rumors have circulated that the US quietly sold the oil off to foreign buyers, with Syrian President Bashar Assad accusing America of flogging the oil to Turkey, just as Islamic State and Al-Nusra terrorists did beforehand.

Back stateside, President Trump’s assertion that “I kept the oil” did little to dispel these rumors.

Also on rt.com
US sanctions are part of a multi-front war on Syria, and its long-suffering civilians are the main target

The deal mentioned by the Foreign Ministry, though, is acknowledged by Washington. In a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Thursday, Senator Lindsey Graham said that a deal had been signed to “modernize the oil fields in northeastern Syria.” Graham asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo whether the Trump administration supported the deal,

UK’s Stunning Hypocrisy over Hong Kong – Global Research

Posted by EN-AGon 2 augustus 2020in Hypocrisy, STUNNING

02-08-20 03:19:00,

Further evidence the UK hides behind “human rights” rather than stands for them was demonstrated when London laced sanctions on Hong Kong after the passing of a security law aimed at combating overt foreign interference in the special administrative region of China.

British state media in an article titled, “UK suspends extradition treaty with Hong Kong,” would claim:

The UK government will suspend its extradition treaty with Hong Kong “immediately and indefinitely”.

The article also stated:

[British Foreign Secretary] Mr Raab also confirmed the government would extend its arms embargo – which has been in place with China since 1989 – to Hong Kong, stopping the UK exporting equipment, such as firearms, smoke grenades and shackles, to the region.

The article cited other members of the British government condemning China for alleged human rights abuses, violations of international law and a lack of democratic values. This comes after the UK caved to US pressure and banned Chinese telecom company Huawei from involvement in the UK’s 5G rollout.

Omitted from the BBC article was mention of the UK’s own and very real abuses.

British Human Rights Concerns are Projections of Own, Real Abuses

At a time when the UK condemns China for its “actions in the South China Sea” the UK still finds itself involved in wars of aggression and military occupations around the globe, side-by-side with their US allies.

Worse still is that while the UK pledged to extend an arms embargo on Hong Kong over human rights concerns, the British government continues to arm nations like Saudi Arabia who is still currently waging war on neighbouring Yemen in a conflict the United Nations itself has called “the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.”

The New York Times in its article, “Britain Says It Will Resume Arms Sales to Saudi Arabia,” would admit:

Saudi Arabia is a big market for British arms manufacturers. Between April 2015 and March 2018, Britain’s government licensed the sale of at least 4.7 billion pounds (around $5.89 billion) of military equipment to the Saudis, and a further £860 million to its coalition partners.

“Doctors for the Truth” Speak Out in Madrid, Denounce Covid-19 “False Pandemic” – Global Research

Posted by EN-AGon 2 augustus 2020in Doctors, Truth

02-08-20 03:14:00,

With the participation of hundreds of professionals from all over the world, “Doctors for the truth” denounced that the Covid-19 is a false pandemic created for political purposes. They urged doctors, the media and political authorities to stop the operation, by spreading the truth.

In a context of great excitement and worldwide expectation, the Doctors for Truth Association was presented at a press conference on Saturday, July 25 in Madrid.

The group, led by doctors Natalia Prego Cancelo and Angel Luis Valdepeñas, made a direct connection with the extra-parliamentary commission of doctors from Germany, the Epidemiologists group from Argentina, and doctors from the United States and Argentina.

The event began with the intervention of Heiko Schöning, representative of the German Extra-Parliamentary Commission for the Study of the Coronavirus. There were online interventions by professionals from Argentina and the United States. It concluded with a review of the 4 fundamental points of interpellation to the Government and Spanish authorities by the Association Doctors for Truth.

The presentation, in an event room of the Madrid Press Palace, was attended by more than 400 people, including general and alternative media, doctors, and assistants. Data, figures, analysis and reflections were exposed that show the incoherent and harmful of the measures that are being applied worldwide around the Covid-19.

“A world dictatorship with a sanitary excuse.”

“This is a world dictatorship with a sanitary excuse,” was stressed at the end of the meeting. Doctors agreed that:

Coronavirus victims did not outnumber last year’s seasonal flu deaths.
Figures were exaggerated by altering medical protocols.
The confinement of the healthy and the forced use of masks have no scientific basis.
The disease known as Covid-19 does not have a single infectious pattern, but a combination of them.

“There are crossed toxic patterns,” said Angel Luis Valdepeñas. “On the one hand, the electromagnetic contamination of fi5v-ghee, and on the other, the influence of influenza vaccination. There is an interaction and empowerment, which must be investigated”.

Angel Luis Valdepeñas underlined at the end of the meeting:

“We must tell our governments that they NEVER OCCUR to compel us to vaccinate, or even recommend it,

Meditations On Yemen

Posted by EN-AGon 2 augustus 2020in Meditations, Yemen

02-08-20 09:07:00,

We don’t like to talk about Yemen. We don’t like to think about Yemen.

Yemen is the elephant in the room.

Yemen is the black eye on a child that everyone at church pretends to believe is from falling down the stairs again to avoid an uncomfortable confrontation.

Yemen is the incestuous molestation everyone knows has been happening but they just keep eating their Thanksgiving dinner and making small talk.

The mass atrocity that is happening in Yemen is the worst thing that is happening in our world, and it isn’t even close.

It is worse than anything the mass media ever talk about.

It is worse than Donald Trump’s rude tweets.

It is worse than immigrant kids in cages.

It is worse than racism and police brutality.

It is worse than anything that is being done by governments that Washington doesn’t like.

It is probably worse than even your most paranoid and far-fetched theory about the evil things powerful elites might be doing behind veils of government secrecy.

And they’re doing it right out in the open.

Untold hundreds of thousands already dead since 2015, with millions displaced and suffering due to blockades, disease, and military violence.

All this death and suffering is entirely man-made, and it is entirely the fault of the US-centralized power alliance.

The horrors in Yemen, which are being spearheaded by a Saudi-led coalition, would not be happening without the express approval and support of the US and its tight empire-like network of allies. A consensus in Washington could force a Saudi withdrawal and an end to the war and the blockades immediately.

This isn’t a mass atrocity that requires an intervention. All that’s required is the cessation of intervention, from the US-centralized power alliance.

But it does not cease. And I’ve been tripping harder and harder the last few days on how insane and immoral it is that we’re not talking about that constantly.

It’s hard to get a subject trending when it isn’t happening in New York City and doesn’t directly involve a Clinton or a Kardashian. But there’s really no more urgent injustice in the world right now.

ACLU gets to decide who’s a journalist? Judge suggests having group vet reporters to protect press covering Portland protests

Posted by EN-AGon 2 augustus 2020in journalist, judge

02-08-20 08:54:00,

A federal judge in Portland has proposed making the American Civil Liberties Union an arbiter to distinguish between legitimate journalists and protesters-in-disguise – a move with important implications for press protections.

The issue stems from an order by US District Judge Michael Simon last week banning federal officers from arresting or assaulting journalists covering the ongoing protests in Portland. Federal agencies said the ruling was untenable because some protesters are falsely labeling themselves as press in nightly clashes outside the federal courthouse.

Also on rt.com
Oregon judge bans feds from arresting or using force against ‘journalists & legal observers’ at Portland protests

Simon said Friday that requiring journalists to be vetted by the ACLU and giving blue vests to those who are legitimate could be a solution to properly identifying reporters. He cited a video submitted by the government showing a protester with the word “press” on his helmet bursting through a barrier outside the courthouse and trying to coordinate an attack.

“Simply having ‘press’ on your helmet might not be the best way to preserve first amendment rights,” Simon said.

Matt Borden, a lawyer who represented the ACLU and journalists in seeking the restraining order, said he doesn’t think the ACLU or any other organization should be put in the position of deciding who’s a journalist.

The question of journalist legitimacy has become murkier in an era where anyone with a phone and an internet connection can do reporting and call themselves a reporter. Choosing the decision-maker is all the more tricky.

Also on rt.com
American Civil Liberties Union has abandoned civil liberties for crowd-pleasing gestures, former director warns

Conservative journalists might have justified trepidation about the ACLU being an arbiter for their profession. Liberal law professor Alan Dershowitz wrote in 2018 that the ACLU had become a “hyper-partisan, hard-left political advocacy group” rather than a neutral defender of civil liberties.

Heaven help us.“We could redefine ‘journalist’ to someone who is authorized by the ACLU,” U.S. District Judge Michael Simon said. “The ACLU could maintain a list of who they are giving vests to and give them appropriate guidance and instructions.”!!!!

The Dark Side Of The Cashless Society

Posted by EN-AGon 1 augustus 2020in Cashless, Society

01-08-20 09:28:00,

Authored by Addison Wiggin via The Daily Reckoning,

Real quick, grab a $100 bill from your wallet.

OK, humor me, any bill will do. What do you see?

I’d tell you what I see, but when I grab my Book Book, which serves as both a phone case and a wallet, there’s no cash in it. There rarely ever is. Please, keep that in mind for today’s foray into inductive reasoning.

I saw this makeshift sign over the weekend:

Seen at the Walgreens three miles from my house.

“At the airport. Very sparse here, ghost town,” reads an email from a colleague’s mom, “No coins.”

One of Agora Financial’s publishers, Doug Hill, had a similar experience flying to San Francisco last week for a meeting with a private equity fund. He couldn’t get accurate change for a pop rag he wanted to read. No coins.

“With the partial closure of the economy,” Federal Reserve Chairman, Jerome Powell says, “the flow of funds through the economy has stopped.”

Economically-speaking, the national coin shortage is a physical reminder of how slowly the nation’s economy has been; ‘velocity of money’ hit roughly zero.

“We are working with the Mint and the Reserve Banks,” Mr. Powell contends. ”As the economy re-opens, we are starting to see money move around again.”

Fair enough. What else is he going to say?

Back to the Benjamin burning a hole in your wallet. On it, you’ll see digits… a serial number for each bill.

As those bills are returned to the Federal Reserve from their journey around the country, the bills that have gotten too wrinkled, torn or worn thin get their serial numbers retired. The paper gets shredded.

Here’s what I was thinking while watching the film on Netflix the other day:

Wouldn’t it just be easier, and less expensive, if the Fed didn’t have to go through all the trouble of reclaiming and decommissioning the paper? Why not just track the serial numbers electronically?

Anyway, while fact checking the coin shortage story,

A “Brazen Giveaway” GOP HEALS Act Is a $30 Billion Bonanza for the Pentagon – Global Research

Posted by EN-AGon 31 juli 2020in Brazen, Giveaway

31-07-20 01:20:00,

On Monday the Senate GOP released their outline for a new $1 trillion coronavirus stimulus package. A successor to March’s CARES Act, the 177-page document, named the HEALS Act, includes no funding for hazard pay, the Postal Service, state and local governments, nutrition assistance, or help for uninsured or underinsured Americans, but incorporates a $29.4 billion bonanza for the Pentagon.

The package is presented as a necessary measure to help the country fight the COVID-19 pandemic, which has so far caused the deaths of nearly 153,000 Americans. But it appears that the GOP had a very different enemy in mind when writing some parts of it. “To prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, domestically and internationally,” the bill (pp. 35-38) allocates $686 million for the purchase of extra Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets, $650 million for A-10 Warthog fighter-bombers, $720 million for C-130J transport planes, $283 million for AH-64 Apache attack helicopters and $1.068 billion for P-8A Poseidon anti-submarine aircraft.

It is not just the Air Force that will benefit from the new bill; it also includes $41.4 million for Raytheon missiles, $260 million for a new Navy fast transport ship, $250 million for amphibious shipbuilding programs and $375 million for armored combat vehicles. Most of these military spending requests are ones that had previously been subject to cuts in February as the Trump administration moved Pentagon money around to fund construction of the border wall. The plan also allocates (p. 11) $1.75 billion to the FBI for the design and construction of a huge new facility in Washington, D.C.

“Amphibious ships don’t feed hungry children”

The new HEALS Act, which differs both in scope and its recipients from the $3 trillion Democrat-backed Heroes Act, which President Trump has promised will be “dead on arrival.” Unsurprisingly, Democrats have condemned the new plan. “The bill contains billions of dollars for programs unrelated to the coronavirus, including over $8 billion for what appears to be a wish-list from the Department of Defense for manufacturing of planes, ships, and other weapons systems,” said Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy. “The bill provides nothing to address the long lines at food banks and shortchanges education and childcare,

A Post-Brexit Agrochemical Apocalypse For The UK?

Posted by EN-AGon 31 juli 2020in Agrochemical, Post-Brexit

31-07-20 08:03:00,

Authored by Colin Todhunter via Off-Guardian.org,

The British government, regulators and global agrochemical corporations are colluding with each other and are thus engaging in criminal behaviour. That’s the message put forward in a new report written by environmentalist Dr Rosemary Mason and sent to the UK Environment Agency. It follows her January 2019 open letter to Werner Baumann, CEO of Bayer CropScience, where she made it clear to him that she considers Bayer CropScience and Monsanto criminal corporations.

Her letter to Baumann outlined a cocktail of corporate duplicity, cover-ups and criminality which the public and the environment are paying the price for, not least in terms of the effects of glyphosate. Later in 2019, Mason wrote to Bayer Crop Science shareholders, appealing to them to put human health and nature ahead of profit and to stop funding Bayer.

Mason outlined with supporting evidence how the gradual onset of the global extinction of many species is largely the result of chemical-intensive industrial agriculture. She argued that Monsanto’s (now Bayer) glyphosate-based Roundup herbicide and Bayer’s clothianidin are largely responsible for the destruction of the Great Barrier Reef and that the use of glyphosate and neonicotinoid insecticides are wiping out wildlife species across the globe.

In February 2020, Mason wrote the report ‘Bayer Crop Science rules Britain after Brexit – the public and the press are being poisoned by pesticides’. She noted that PM Boris Johnson plans to do a trade deal with the US that could see the gutting of food and environment standards. In a speech setting out his goals for trade after Brexit, Johnson talked up the prospect of an agreement with Washington and downplayed the need for one with Brussels – if the EU insists the UK must stick to its regulatory regime. In other words, he wants to ditch EU regulations.

Mason pondered just who could be pulling Johnson’s strings. A big clue came in February 2019 at a Brexit meeting on the UK chemicals sector where UK regulators and senior officials from government departments listened to the priorities of Bayer Crop Science. During the meeting (Westminster Energy, Environment & Transport Forum Keynote Seminar: Priorities for UK chemicals sector – challenges,

Pentagon Admits Risk Of ‘Mistakenly’ Firing Land-Based Nuclear Missiles In Rare Memo

Posted by EN-AGon 31 juli 2020in admits, Pentagon

31-07-20 07:56:00,

The Pentagon has made a not-so-comforting admission that its nuclear arsenal is subject to errors and ‘mistakes’ — namely the potential for land-based missiles carrying nukes to be fired by mistake.

The almost unheard of public acknowledgement of such a danger, which it should be noted (if not already obvious) could trigger global nuclear apocalypse, actually came as part of an argument for why the DoD nuclear weapons program needs much more funding and a ‘restart’:

The Trump administration, in a closely held memo to lawmakers this spring, justified developing the first new U.S. atomic weapon since the Cold War by citing vulnerabilities and risks in the current nuclear arsenal that are rarely or never acknowledged in public.

In an unclassified five-page white paper sent to Congress in May, the Pentagon and the Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration, or NNSA, affirm a point they have long minimized: the dangers of land-based missiles ready to launch minutes after a warning of enemy attack.

August 5, 2019 explosion near Achinsk, Russia. Via AP

Recall that in late May of this year it was revealed that the White House is actually mulling conducting the first US nuclear test since the end of the Cold War. The last was conducted 28 years ago.

Administration officials suggested it would send a strong “message” to Russia and China at a moment landmark Cold War era nuclear arms reduction treaties are unraveling, and at a moment the US hopes to revise New START to account for China’s high tech arsenal.

“The document, which was obtained by CQ Roll Call and has not previously been disclosed, makes the fullest case yet for the $14 billion W93 submarine-launched atomic warhead program and its MK7 reentry vehicle, which would cost several hundred million more dollars,” Roll Call reports.

Citing a “variety of risks” in the current nuclear arsenal and launch processes, officials described that “the W93 warhead must be funded, starting in fiscal 2021, because of what it described as perils and vulnerabilities in the Navy’s inventory of sub-launched weapons, as well as in the Air Force’s land-based missiles and bombers.”

One Nation Under House Arrest: How Do COVID-19 Mandates Impact Our Freedoms?

Posted by EN-AGon 31 juli 2020in NATION, Under

31-07-20 07:54:00,

Authored by John Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

“It is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties. We hold this prudent jealousy to be the first duty of citizens, and one of the noblest characteristics of the late Revolution. The freeman of America did not wait till usurped power had strengthened itself by exercise, and entangled the question in precedents. They saw all the consequences in the principle, and they avoided the consequences by denying the principle.”

– James Madison

We have become one nation under house arrest.

You think we’re any different from the Kentucky couple fitted out with ankle monitoring bracelets and forced to quarantine at home?

We’re not

Consider what happened to Elizabeth and Isaiah Linscott.

Elizabeth took a precautionary diagnostic COVID-19 test before traveling to visit her parents and grandparents in Michigan. It came back positive: Elizabeth was asymptomatic for the novel coronavirus but had no symptoms. Her husband and infant daughter tested negative for the virus.

Now in a country where freedom actually means something, the Linscotts would have the right to determine for themselves how to proceed responsibly, but in the American Police State, we’ve only got as much freedom as the government allows.

That’s not saying much.

Indeed, it’s a dangerous time for anyone who still clings to the idea that freedom means the right to think for yourself and act responsibly according to your best judgment.

In that regard, the Linscotts are a little old-school in their thinking. When Elizabeth was asked to sign a self-quarantine order agreeing to check in daily with the health department and not to travel anywhere without prior approval, she refused.

“I shouldn’t have to ask for consent because I’m an adult who can make that decision. And as a citizen of the United States of America, that is my right to make that decision without having to disclose that to somebody else,” said Elizabeth. “So, no, I wouldn’t wear a mask. I would do everything that I could to make sure that I wouldn’t come in contact with other people because of the fear that’s spreading with this.

Amazon posts record profits as Apple thanks stimulus aid for forecast-beating earnings, despite worst US quarter on record

Posted by EN-AGon 31 juli 2020in Amazon, Record

31-07-20 07:38:00,

Amazon and Apple have reported major quarterly gains, with Jeff Bezos’ brainchild posting its biggest-ever profit and Apple seeing strong earnings, even as Covid-19 drives the US economy into its worst contraction on record.

The two tech giants announced their second quarter results on Thursday, both topping expectations on Wall Street as online sales and virtual products see a surge amid the ongoing health crisis.

Amazon revenue jumped to $88.9 billion, up 40 percent from 2019, and the company brought on some 175,000 new employees in recent months. Though it had predicted it would lose money after dropping billions on coronavirus-related measures, Amazon’s net income nonetheless doubled compared to the year prior, from $2.6 billion to $5.2 billion, in what CEO Jeff Bezos deemed “another highly unusual quarter.”

“I couldn’t be more proud of and grateful to our employees around the globe. As expected, we spent over $4 billion on incremental Covid-19-related costs in the quarter to help keep employees safe and deliver products to customers in this time of high demand,” Bezos said in a press release.

Despite the big spending, Amazon has come under fire for its handling of the pandemic, with employees repeatedly complaining of major shortages of protective gear and unsafe working conditions, some even saying they were fired after speaking out about the lack of equipment. The e-commerce king also took heat after slashing a meager $2 hazard pay boost for workers, even as Bezos and other company executives see their fortunes swell.

Also on rt.com
WORST DROP EVER for US economy as GDP crashes 33% due to Covid pandemic lockdowns

Despite a massive US economic contraction due to lingering business closures driven by the pandemic – declining nearly 33 percent between April and June alone, the worst drop on record, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis – Apple also reported blowout earnings for the second quarter, noting revenue gains in every category.

The pandemic has been something of a boon for Apple, as consumers are forced to work and learn from home and increasingly look to its devices and apps. CEO Tim Cook also credited emergency relief spending in the US and elsewhere for the company’s performance.

Almost 30 Million Americans Went Hungry Last Week As Recovery Stalls

Posted by EN-AGon 30 juli 2020in Almost, Million

30-07-20 05:00:00,

A depressionary perfect storm continues to crush households as tens of millions of Americans are reporting they didn’t have enough to eat last week (the seven days through July 21).

Bloomberg cites the Census Bureau’s latest weekly Household Pulse Survey, revealing almost 30 million Americans went hungry last week. About 23.9 million of 249 million respondents said they had “sometimes not enough to eat.” Around 5.42 million indicated they had “often not enough to eat.” This is the highest total of hungry Americans in the survey since early May, which was around the time when food bank lines across the country were swamped with jobless and hungry folks.

h/t Bloomberg

Last Sunday, we noted food bank lines reemerged in Baltimore as the crisis in households persists.

behind the scenes: food bank line in Baltimore just getting started – a lot of hungry and broke families as fiscal cliff begins pic.twitter.com/30C1OBJDSP

— Alastair Williamson (@StockBoardAsset) July 26, 2020

Tens of millions of folks are going hungry in mid-July as the recovery stalled in late June. At the same time, a fiscal cliff is hitting where $600-a-week federal unemployment benefits are now expiring. Another stimulus bill is set to be rolled out in the near term, but Republicans and Democrats are at odds over how large the next round should be.

White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said both parties are “nowhere close to a deal,” one day before the fiscal cliff hits. This would undoubtedly lead to a decline in overall consumption.

“This follows a deep recession resulting from the pandemic, which put millions of Americans out of work. Unemployed Americans have been receiving an extra $600 per week benefit, which is set to expire at the end of July as Congress debates a new relief package,” Bloomberg said.

To make matters worse, millions of Americans behind on rent payments, now face imminent eviction as an eviction moratorium expired last Friday. The disagreement on Capitol Hill about another round of stimulus means no imminent moratorium extension which could lead to an eviction wave,

The Real Deep State Power Grab: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

Posted by EN-AGon 30 juli 2020in Power, State

30-07-20 01:54:00,

The real deep state power grab underway isn’t about Covid, it’s about the new cold war agendas against China and Russia. All analysts who’ve been staring transfixed by Covid anxiety waiting for Bill Gates to usher in the New World Order have completely missed this story due to a misguided collective decision to fixate on this virus.

The virus will certainly play a part in many ways, but the real large-scale power agendas at work revolve around the US-centralized empire’s increasingly urgent campaign to sabotage the China alliance before it upends the current world order completely.

These escalations are accelerating and will probably get a lot worse if/when Biden wins. They put the entire world at risk of nuclear armageddon via a nuclear detonation due to misfire or miscommunication, and will saturate the information ecosystem with mountains of propaganda. That’s to say nothing of all the death and suffering that will be caused by all the new sanctions, proxy conflicts, coups and probably some hot warfare against less powerful nations in order to undermine the China alliance. This is looking to get ugly and too many are missing it.

All year it’s been nonstop, half-formed, contradictory theories about what the unelected power establishment is up to, when their real game has been unfolding right in front of us this whole time. It’s got all the usual war pigs and secretive government agencies, it’s about power, and it’s about lies. Look at it.

~

Super excited to find out who the demented candidate’s handlers will choose for a figurehead role in his fake presidency.

~

Mainstream Democrats and Republicans are violent extremists whose murderous ideology has caused orders of magnitude more death and destruction than any government-designated “terrorist” group.

~

It is September 2020. Trump has decided to remove 500 troops from the middle of the Sahara Desert, a military presence nobody knew existed until one hour ago. All pundits and politicians in America are writing op-eds explaining why this is the worst thing that has ever happened.

~

US military expansionism is like the barb on a fish hook: no resistance from anyone sending the troops in,

Anti-Zionist Writer Alain Soral Jailed, Jewish Lobby Overjoyed

Posted by EN-AGon 30 juli 2020in Anti-Zionist, Writer

30-07-20 01:28:00,

The French anti-Zionist and civic nationalist writer Alain Soral has finally been arrested. This has been a long time coming. Apparently he was simply taken in the street by three police officers in plainclothes.

According to his website ÃgalitÃ© & RÃ©conciliation:

Alain Soral was taken into custody on Tuesday July 28, 2020 at the end of the afternoon.

The three individuals who arrested him were police officers.

His 24-hour police custody has been extended.

According to his lawyers, he was arrested as part of a preliminary investigation for a press offense: âincitement to commit a crime or offense violating the interests of the nationâ (article 24 paragraph 4 of the law of July 29, 1881 ). The offenses in question include, for example, providing false information, conspiracy, insurrectionary movement, raising of armed forces, etc.

A sampling of Jewish reactions:

Â«Â La justice, câest comme la Sainte Vierge. Si elle nâapparaÃ®t pas de temps en temps, le doute sâinstalleÂ Â» #soralenprison pic.twitter.com/fijih48dKQ

— Licra (@_LICRA_) July 29, 2020

The International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism (effectively the French SPLC) quoting an old French film: âJustice is like the Virgin Mary. If she does not appear from time to time, doubt sets in.â

LâantiquitÃ© Alain Soral ne se baladera pas ce soir librement dans les rues parisiennes. Case prison pour Alain Soral.
Fin du match pour les antisÃ©mites qui pensent agir librement. https://t.co/Ol0uG6usc0

— UEJF (@uejf) July 29, 2020

The Union of Jewish Student of France: âThe old relic Alain Soral will not freely walk the streets of Paris this evening. Alain Soral goes to jail. This is end of the game for anti-Semites who think they can act freely.â

Meyer Habib, a rather dimwitted MP representing French citizens in Israel, suggested that the French justice system should follow the lead of California-based tech giants: âThe anti-Semitic and holocaust-denying low-life Alain Soral once again arrested! Condemned by the courts 3 times in 2 years, it is high time that he rot in jail! With DieudonnÃ© as his cell partner.

Are the COVID Tests a Way to Surreptitiously Infect or Implant People?

Posted by EN-AGon 30 juli 2020in COVID-, Tests

30-07-20 10:32:00,

Masks aren’t enough! Fauci says eye protection ‘MIGHT’ BE REQUIRED for ‘perfect’ Covid-proof set

Posted by EN-AGon 30 juli 2020in Fauci, masks

29-07-20 10:20:00,

Top US immunologist Dr Anthony Fauci is now saying citizens are not “complete” in protecting themselves from the Covid-19 pandemic unless they go beyond wearing a mask and add in eye protection like goggles, too.

In an interview with Dr Jennifer Ashton, ABC News’ chief medical correspondent, Fauci was asked if we might reach a point where masks are not only mandated, but eye protection as well.

“It might,” he replied, going on to explain that the only way to have “perfect protection” from the virus is by protecting the eyes, as well as the mouth and nose.

“If you have goggles or an eye shield, you should use it,” he said. “It’s not universally recommended, but if you really want to be complete, you should probably use it.”

Masks have already become a highly contentious topic in the US, with numerous viral videos showing citizens across the country getting into shouting matches over people refusing to wear face coverings. Those arguments have even bled into politics as both the Bill Barr and Big Tech congressional hearings this week included moments where colleagues shamed one another for daring to remove their masks when it wasn’t their turn to speak.

Fauci’s recommendation for going beyond mere masks already has critics rolling their collective eyes on social media.

While many businesses and various states have mask mandates, there has been no federal requirement on the issue, something many Democrats have called on the president to do.

READ MORE: Project Fear’s success: If face coverings are so effective, why weren’t maskists advocating them during 2018 killer flu epidemic?

Donald Trump himself has endorsed wearing masks to impede the transmission of Covid-19, but the recommendation came only this month, and critics have blasted his timing as too late. Despite tweeting an image of himself wearing face protection and calling the act “patriotic,” Trump also retweeted a video of a group of doctors claiming masks do not protect from the virus and instead it needs to be treated with hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug Trump has spoken positively about in the past, but one which has yet to produce concrete results in research.

33 Russian citizens detained in Belarus as part of ‘foreign private military company’ – state media

Posted by EN-AGon 29 juli 2020in Citizens, Russian

29-07-20 01:14:00,

Authorities in Belarus have detained 33 people suspected of being members of Russian private military company ‘Wagner,’ state media reports. The fighters allegedly had come to destabilize the country during its upcoming election.

Belarus government officials would not immediately confirm the report, saying details of what had happened would be made public “through official channels” in due course.

Belta, the state news agency, said all the detainees belong to ‘Wagner,’ a Russian company accused of providing mercenary services throughout the world. The agency’s law enforcement sources said that they received the information about the arrival of more than 200 militants on Belarus’ territory to allegedly destabilize the situation during the election campaign.

The group of 32 suspects were arrested overnight at a country resort near Minsk. Another one was arrested in the country’s South, Belta reported, adding that Belarus state security agency KGB and the Interior Ministry special forces had been involved in the operation.

Footage shown by Belarus 1 television channel showed various items purportedly seized during the arrest. The suspects had Russian passports, cash in US dollars, a user manual for tactical gear, military-style patches, condoms and what appeared to be a text in Arabic.

The story comes amid a tense election campaign in Belarus, where President Alexander Lukashenko is seeking reelection for a fifth term. The campaign has given rise to a scandal, after one of his leading opponents, banker Viktor Babariko was accused of money laundering and other crimes, disrupting his bid for presidency.

Also on rt.com
Lukashenko opponent Valery Tsepkalo flees to Russia fearing arrest in Belarus

Another of his opponents, Valery Tsepkalo, fled from Belarus to Russia last week, saying his arrest was imminent. Like Babariko, he was previously barred from running for the presidency by the Central Election Commission. Lukashenko repeatedly warned that foreign forces and Belarus’ opposition groups were plotting to undermine his votes on August 9, by launching a mass protest campaign against him.

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SEE

Posted by EN-AGon 29 juli 2020in

29-07-20 01:11:00,

‘They never tell you there WERE people there’: Seth Rogen stirs hornet’s nest after saying Israel ‘makes no sense’

Posted by EN-AGon 29 juli 2020in People, Rogen

29-07-20 07:27:00,

Jewish actor Seth Rogen has courted controversy after saying that Israel’s existence “doesn’t make sense,” and that young Jews are misled to believe the state was created peacefully, without displacing thousands of Palestinians.

“If it is truly for the preservation of Jewish people, it makes no sense, because again, you don’t keep something you’re trying to preserve all in one place especially when that place has proven to be… pretty volatile,” Rogen told comedian Mark Maron on his ‘WTF’ podcast on Monday.

Rogen – who has been promoting his upcoming movie, ‘An American Pickle,’ a comedy-drama which tells the story of a Jewish immigrant who comes to the US in 1920 – told Maron that the idea of the Israeli state had been spoon-fed to him and many fellow Jews since childhood.

Also on rt.com
‘If they annex the Jordan Valley, it’s World War III’: Hundreds march in New York to protest Israel’s West Bank annexation scheme

“And I also think that as a Jewish person… I was fed a huge amount of lies about Israel my entire life,” he said. “You know, they never tell you, that oh by the way, there were people there.”

They make it seem like it was just sitting there, oh the f**king door’s open!

Rogen then said that he is prepared to be torched by Zionists for his remarks, which are very much at odds with the prevailing narrative promoted by the Israeli government.

While half-jokingly observing that it was “scary” to challenge the status quo and that he was “100 percent afraid of Jews,” the comedian said that he would not backpedal.

It’s scary. But we’re Jews – we can say whatever we want. If anyone can say whatever they f**king want about this shit, it should be two famous Jewish people

Rogen’s progressive views have drawn mixed reactions on Twitter. Some have hailed the actor for refusing to toe the mainstream line while being part and parcel of mainstream culture himself.

“Genuinely incredible to see prominent mainstream Jews speaking out like this,

Poland says it will QUIT European treaty on violence against women as it requires teaching children ‘ideological’ gender theory

Posted by EN-AGon 29 juli 2020in European, Poland

29-07-20 07:06:00,

The Polish government is pulling out of a European treaty said to focus on violence against women. Warsaw says it contains a provision for schools to teach children about gender theory, which calls biological sexes “archaic.”

The Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Policy has been directed to take the steps necessary to withdraw from the Council of Europe’s so-called Istanbul Convention, Poland’s Ministry of Justice said on Monday. Poland ratified the treaty, which was signed in haste in 2012, back in 2015, but countries such as neighboring Hungary, Lithuania and the Czech Republic have yet to do so.

“It contains elements of an ideological nature, which we consider harmful,” Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro said, explaining the move.

Also on rt.com
Poland is villain in EU drama as bungling Brussels bean counters award it €16bn in aid despite least economic damage in Europe

In particular, Warsaw takes issue with “the false assumption that biological sex is archaic, and in fact everything comes down to the socio-cultural gender,” Ziobro said.

Forcing nations to promote the theory to children not only violates parental rights, he added, but “we believe this to be false, and we completely reject it.”

The Council of Europe reacted to the move by calling it “highly regrettable.” Secretary General Marija Pejcinovic Buric said the Istanbul Convention was an “international treaty to combat violence against women and domestic violence, and that is its sole objective,” adding that Poland’s departure would be “a major step backwards” for their efforts. She added they were ready to clarify “any misconceptions or misunderstandings about the convention.”

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COVID-19 Shows America Is Vulnerable To Biological Terror, And Weaponized Viruses Are Surprisingly Easy To Make

Posted by EN-AGon 29 juli 2020in COVID-, Shows

29-07-20 06:59:00,

Authored by Michael Snyder via The End of The American Dream blog,

In this article, I want to talk about something that has been on my heart for quite a while. Over the last several months, we have all seen the chaos that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused all over the globe. Overall, more than 16 million confirmed cases have been reported worldwide, and more than 650,000 people have died. But of course those raw numbers do not tell the entire story. This virus has struck fear into the hearts of billions of people all over the world and has thrown the entire global economy into a devastating economic depression. After watching what COVID-19 has done to us, it is inevitable that many of those that wish to do us harm will be inspired to look into the feasibility of purposely releasing viruses that are even deadlier than COVID-19 inside the United States. Thanks to dramatic leaps in technology over the last couple of decades, it has become very easy to create and weaponize viruses, and once such a biological weapon is released we may never even know who attacked us.

I wanted to know who else was talking about this, and so I did a search for articles on biological terror, and I found an NBC News piece that was published back in May…

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed a structural vulnerability to biological attacks in the U.S. and Europe that requires urgent government action, multiple current and former national security and public health officials told NBC News.

Former officials in the U.S. and the U.K. warn that the devastating impact of the coronavirus on health care infrastructures and economies may act as a “neon light” for terrorist groups looking to unleash pathogens on Western nations.

In this instance, NBC News is right on the money.

I can just imagine a bunch of terrorists sitting around watching a news report about how COVID-19 is crippling the United States and seeing their eyes light up when they suddenly realize the possibilities.

And when I use the term “terrorists” in this article, I am using it in a very broad sense.

Frightened, Confused, and Tense, Israeli IDF Bombs itself and Accuses Hezb Allah!

Posted by EN-AGon 28 juli 2020in Confused, Frightened

28-07-20 04:58:00,

Fires and smoke from the Israeli IDF bombing south of Lebanon

After one full week of remaining on high alert, the Israeli IDF carried out a bombing against one of its own fortifications in a village it occupies south of Lebanon, it accuses Hezb Allah of aggression and celebrates victory over its own bombing!

What happened yesterday evening at the southern Lebanese borders will be recorded in history as one of Israel’s defeats, this time it defeated itself in psychological warfare with the Lebanese resistance group Hezb Allah.

On Tuesday, last week, July 21st, Israel bombed a Syrian army facility south of Damascus, near the Damascus International Airport. Its usual justification is targeting Iranian posts in Syria to keep Iranian forces away. A new war crime added to the endless list committed by the US’s advanced post aka Israel. There were no Iranian troops at the Syrian site and 7 Syrian soldiers were injured. Syria usually retains the right to retaliate at its calculated time and when it’s more comfortable after eliminating the herds of thousands of terrorists all over the country.

However, on the next day, the Lebanese Hezb Allah issued a statement mourning one of its soldiers ‘killed while fulfilling his obligations in Syria’, which raised the first alert in Israel. The statement was followed by another short statement a few hours later to confirm that Hezb Allah’s soldier was killed in the Israeli bombing south of Damascus. Hezb Allah soldiers are embedded with the Syrian army and fighting side by side against the US-sponsored ISIS and other Al-Qaeda terrorists in the country.

Israel on High Alert after Hezb Allah mourned their martyr Ali Kamil Jawad who killed near Damascus by Israel bombing

Instantly, all of Israel went on the highest alert and its army started unusual movements across the borders with Lebanon anticipating a retaliation by Hezb Allah. The rule of engagement was set in the last week of August last year when Israel carried out a twin aggression against both Syria and Lebanon, bombing a residence used by Hezb Allah fighters in the town of Aqraba south of the Syrian capital Damascus for resting during shifts.

Jean Castex’s first three errors, by Thierry Meyssan

Posted by EN-AGon 28 juli 2020in Castex's, First

28-07-20 08:23:00,

Without a doubt, Jean Castex is a brilliant senior civil servant. But that does not make him the right man to become Prime Minister of France. He has not thought about how to restore the social pact in the face of financial globalisation and is satisfied with measures to buy social peace in the short term. As soon as he was appointed, he showed that he did not want to reform the political class, that he was content to fight the pandemic by doing as others did, and that he supported the Maastrichian project conceived during the Cold War.

Jean Castex is a long-toothed Gascon who reminds us of the character of Eugène de Rastignac created by Honoré de Balzac. Putting his social ascension before any ideology, he resigned from his opposition political party on the morning of 3 July in order to be appointed Prime Minister to Emmanuel Macron in the afternoon. He is a member of the Siècle, the club of the business establishment.

The French administration works very well on its own. In this sense, it is one of the best in the world. The role of ministers is not to take the place of the directors of central administration who keep the machine running. On the contrary, it is to adapt the administration to the changes in the world; to steer it in the direction imagined by the President of the Republic and approved by the citizens at the time of his election.

The President of the Republic cannot have an opinion on everything. But he must think about Foreign Affairs and Defence, Police and Justice, Money and Taxes. These are the so-called regalian functions. At the moment, they must rethink this whole system in order to re-establish the social contract in the face of a profound change in the structures of society.

Inequalities in wealth have increased considerably. In recent years, the middle classes have melted like snow in the sun and a new social class has emerged, which has appeared in full view of everyone at the Yellow Vests demonstrations. The richest man in the country has a fortune equal to what a minimum wage earner cannot earn grossly in a million and a half years. This astronomical gap returns the country to a medieval organization and makes it impossible for democracy to function.

Iraq’s particular global warming phenomenon

Posted by EN-AGon 28 juli 2020in Iraq's, Particular

28-07-20 08:19:00,

The temperature in some Iraqi cities, usually around 45° C in the shade during the summer, has hit a dramatic new high this year. Several cities have recorded averages above 50° C in the shade for more than 30 days, with the temperature failing to drop below 30° C at night.

Parts of Iran and Kuwait are also affected, but to a lesser extent.

According to the Iraqi meteorological services, this rise in temperatures is not attributable to the global warming of the planet. It is a phenomenon particular to the region because of the war that has raged there for years. This disturbance could worsen, driving temperatures up to 70° C in the course of the next ten years.

As scientists will recall, a “meteorological war” had devastated the Indochinese peninsula during the Vietnam war leading, in 1976, to the signing of the “Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques” by the USA and the USSR.

It is not fortuitous that, in 2013, the US air force illegally dispersed chemicals over the Syrian-Iraqi border in order to sterilize large swathes of land. The idea was to deprive the Syrian and Iraqi peasants of their livelihood and get them to join Daesh in 2014, when it entered the scene (Wright Plan). Many areas are still unsuitable for agriculture, bringing about a change in the regional climate. A massive sandstorm from Israel to Iraq was recorded in September 2015, with the fallow land no longer holding the sand.

“It Reeks Of Orwell” – The COVID Coup (& How To Unlock Ourselves)

Posted by EN-AGon 28 juli 2020in Orwell, Reeks

28-07-20 08:11:00,

Authored by Angelo Codevilla via AmericanMind.org,

Panicked by fears manufactured by the ruling class, the American people assented to being put essentially under house arrest until further notice, effectively suspending the habits, preferences, and liberties that had defined our way of life. Most Americans have suffered economic damage. Many who do not enjoy protected status have had careers ended and been reduced to penury. Social strains and suicides multiplied. Forcibly deferring all manner of medical care is sure to impose needless suffering and death. In sum, the lockdowns’ medical and economic dysfunctions make for multiples of the deaths and miseries of the COVID-19 virus itself.

Bad judgments and usurpations—the scam, not the germs—define this disaster’s dimensions. The COVID-19’s devastating effect on the U.S. body politic is analogous to what diseases do to persons whom age (senectus ipsa est morbus) and various debilities and corruptions had already placed on death’s slippery slope.

Outside of the few who have gained (and are still gaining) power and wealth from the panic, Americans are asking what it will take to end this outrage—not to modify it with any “new normal” decided by who knows whom, on who knows what authority. Since no one in authority is leading those who want to end it, Americans also wonder who may lead that cause. What follows suggests answers.

What history will record as the great COVID scam of 2020 is based on 1) a set of untruths and baseless assertions—often outright lies—about the novel coronavirus and its effects; 2) the production and maintenance of physical fear through a near-monopoly of communications to forestall challenges to the U.S.. ruling class, led by the Democratic Party, 3) defaulted opposition on the part of most Republicans, thus confirming their status as the ruling class’s junior partner. No default has been greater than that of America’s Christian churches—supposedly society’s guardians of truth.

Truth

Since obfuscation, pretense, and lies concerning the COVID-19 are the effective agents of the panic and of the seizure of arbitrary power, truth and clarity about it are the foundational requirements for escaping its effects. Here is a dose.

From early March 2020 on, the best-known authorities on epidemics—the World Health Organization and the U.S.

The United States Will Not Recover By Raising Taxes Or Printing Money

Posted by EN-AGon 28 juli 2020in States, United

28-07-20 07:43:00,

Authored by Daniel Lacalle,

The dramatic economic decline due to the Covid-19 crisis and the unprecedented recovery spending plans approved by President Trump will drive the fiscal 2020 United States budget deficit to a record $3.8 trillion, or 18.7% of U.S. gross domestic product, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB). According to the same estimates, the fiscal 2021 deficit would reach $2.1 trillion in 2021, and average $1.3 trillion through 2025 as the economy recovers from the impact of the forced shutdowns.

To finance this staggering fiscal effort, the Democratic Party leader, Joe Biden, is announcing a massive tax hike that will neither help the economy nor reduce the deficit.

The solution to the United States budget deficit is not more taxes. Even in the most optimistic receipt scenario, there is no tax hike program that would even start to address the structural deficit, estimated at one trillion dollars a year, even less with the above-mentioned estimates.

More taxes will hurt the recovery, damage the job improvement potential, and reduce investment in the economy. More taxes mean less growth and no deficit improvement.

The Obama administration learnt this lesson quickly, and extended the Bush tax cuts in 2020, adding a new tax cut in 2013. Other United States misguided tax hikes in 2013 did nothing to reduce the debt and kept the economic and job growth below potential.

A wealth tax, often repeated by the most extreme politicians in America, would not only provide exceedingly small revenues for the Treasury, it would generate more negatives than any improvement in tax receipts. There is a reason why almost every European nation has abandoned the wealth tax. The receipts are negligible and the negative impact on investment, attraction of capital and job creation outweigh any revenue increase. The wealth tax revenue relative to GDP in the countries where it exists range between 0.07% in Finland to 0.22% in France. There is no way that a wealth tax would collect 1.4% of GDP as Senator Warren estimated. A wealth tax in the United States would make no visible reduction in the existing deficit, let alone finance the trillions in entitlement spending that Biden has announced.