Global Research

Make no mistake. Legislation that should be called the GOP/Dem-Don’t-Care/CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act is a corporate bailout bill with crumbs for ordinary Americans.

It’s a bandaid approach to a public health emergency/economic crisis, the latter mostly harming the vast majority of ordinary Americans.

Well-managed companies will survive. Mismanaged ones like Boeing, the airlines, and others should be allowed to go bankrupt — their operations considered essential nationalized and run by the government, free from market considerations, focusing solely on the public interest.

Republicans and Dems failed to prioritize what’s most important in the current environment.

All the money in the world thrown at corporate America won’t help a bit if spreading/highly infectious COVID-19 outbreaks aren’t contained.

Public and personal health alone should be prioritized. The economy can wait. Without healthy employees and customers, businesses can’t operate.

If infections keep spreading and most people remain fearful of resuming normal activities, stores and restaurants will stay empty if reopened.

The same goes for airports, train stations, bus terminals, and other public spaces, including sports venues, if most people remain hunkered down to stay safe.

The July Tokyo Olympics was cancelled. So is the remainder of the current NBA and NHL seasons, most likely, that have yet to be formally announced. Suspending games was likely prelude to cancelling remaining ones.

MLB and NFL games may be affected the same way. As things now stand, few people want to be around others in public, except for family members because of the risk of spreading infections.

Fixing the economy requires safeguarding public health, welfare and safety.

That’s not how Congress and the Trump regime are addressing the COVID-19 crisis.

It’s growing more serious daily. On Thursday, the US surpassed China with the most infections — rising to 86,000, up around 17,000 in the last 24 hours.

The US death toll exceeds 1,000, around 300 in New York state, the hardest hit of the 50 states.

The duration and severity of the public health and economic crisis are unknown.

It’s unlikely to disappear quickly. There are already over half a million confirmed cases globally.

Compared to 38 million US flu cases this season, that runs from October to May, 390,000 hospitalizations, and 23,000 deaths, numbers of COVID-19 cases are minor by comparison except as follows:

The disease is a highly contagious new flu/influenza strain, no one with immunity, and severe cases can cause painful death by suffocation — the elderly and others with weak immune systems most vulnerable, why it’s better to be safe than sorry.

On Wednesday, the US Senate voted unanimously for the CARES Act business giveaway — Bernie Sanders supporting what his rhetoric opposed.

In a message to constituents he said the following disingenuously:

“(B)e assured that I am doing everything in my power in the US Senate to correct the completely unacceptable federal response to this crisis (sic).”

“(W)e must prioritize the health and economic wellbeing of Vermont’s working families—particularly our most vulnerable community members—instead of handing over another welfare check or no-strings-attached bailout to corporate CEOs and bankers on Wall Street (sic).”

“Working people must have the income, healthy food, safe shelter and child care, workplace leave, and cost-free medical testing and treatment that they need right now (sic).”

Let the record show he lied. He could have held up passage of the corporate giveaway but supported it instead — the latest example of his rhetoric going one way, his vote on the Senate floor another.

The measure includes delaying payment of individual payroll taxes until 2021 or 2022. The same holds for eligible businesses as follows:

They can delay paying payroll taxes through December 2020, pay 50% of them in 2021, another 50% in 2022.

Dems, including self-styled progressive Bernie Sanders, agreed to suspend payment of worker and business payroll taxes that’s all about weakening Social Security and Medicare trust funds — part of a longterm plan to erode and eliminate them.

In fairness, he has lots of company in both houses with nary a true blue profile in courage in Washington on all issues mattering most.

A handful of House representatives partly uphold this standard — none in either house fully across the board since Cynthia McKinney served for a six terms until 2007.

Then, earlier, and now she defined and continues to define what progressive politics is all about.

No one in Congress approaches her stature — why corporate giveaways like the CARES Act easily become the law the land.

The same or similar outcome to the Senate’s unanimous adoption is certain when House members vote Friday — Trump to sign into law what no responsible leader would tolerate.

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Award-winning author Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at [email protected]. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG)

His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

An editorial piece in The Lancet – the world’s most prestigious, and best known general medical journal warned two months ago of the oncoming conflict between an ill-prepared, under-funded national health service and an indiscriminate invisible killer in the form of the 2019 coronavirus. More recently The Lancet warned again of the problems that health workers would be facing and yet the government took no notice – until it was too late:

“As the pandemic accelerates, access to personal protective equipment (PPE) for health workers is a key concern. Medical staff are prioritised in many countries, but PPE shortages have been described in the most affected facilities. Some medical staff are waiting for equipment while already seeing patients who may be infected or are supplied with equipment that might not meet requirements. Alongside concerns for their personal safety, health-care workers are anxious about passing the infection to their families. Health-care workers who care for elderly parents or young children will be drastically affected by school closures, social distancing policies, and disruption in the availability of food and other essentials.

Health-care systems globally could be operating at more than maximum capacity for many months. But health-care workers, unlike ventilators or wards, cannot be urgently manufactured or run at 100% occupancy for long periods. It is vital that governments see workers not simply as pawns to be deployed, but as human individuals. In the global response, the safety of health-care workers must be ensured. Adequate provision of PPE is just the first step; other practical measures must be considered, including cancelling non-essential events to prioritise resources; provision of food, rest, and family support; and psychological support. Presently, health-care workers are every country’s most valuable resource.”

The Lancet takes aim at governments around the world, including the British government, that these front-line healthcare workers are being deployed in a way that will inevitably cause them to be infected and die needlessly.

Richard Horton – editor-in-chief of The Lancet – is clearly angry at the British response and wrote a scathing and highly critical article in The Guardian last week. He asked – “After all the warnings why did it take the UK government eight weeks to recognise the seriousness of what we now call Covid-19?”

The Lancet published the first report submitted by Chinese scientists in mid-February. Horton goes on – “Under immense pressure, as the epidemic exploded around them (the Chinese Scientists), they took time to write up their findings in a foreign language and seek publication in a medical journal thousands of miles away. Their rapid and rigorous work was an urgent warning to the world. We owe those scientists enormous thanks.”

And as Horton says – “But medical and scientific advisers to the UK government ignored their warnings. For unknown reasons they waited. And watched.” Horton is clearly still stunned by Britain’s response. He bemoans the controlled epidemic strategy of the ‘herd immunity’ as promoted by the two government experts who are regularly wheeled out to explain what is supposed to be going on. Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser, suggestedthat the target was to infect 60% of the UK’s population.

There is a reason why this strategy was the preferred one. The government had been warned of the pandemic four years earlier. It was such a foregone conclusion that the NHS went through a three-day exercise to model the outcome of a flu-like pandemic. The Chief Medical Officer at the time warned that the health service would not cope under such circumstances, specifically focusing on the lack of equipment, intensive care beds and most especially – “the real threat of totally inadequate ventilation.” Three previous tests and reports said the same and an updated report in 2018 meant that the Conservative government, in their quest for austerity and deliberately under-funding the NHS, knew all along that a pandemic was certain – and did the opposite of what was required to defend the country against such a threat.

Horton looks at the moment when the government realised their ‘herd immunity’ strategy had imploded. “Many journalists, led by the BBC, reported that the science had changed and so the government had responded accordingly. But this interpretation of events is wrong. The science has been the same since January. What changed is that government advisers, at last, understood what had really taken place in China. The UK’s best scientists have known since that first report from China that Covid-19 was a lethal illness. Yet they did too little, too late.”

Even as the catastrophe in Italy unfolded, the British government sat on its hands confident that what they were seeing live in southern Europe would somehow not happen in Britain. And as Horton says – “We had the opportunity and the time to learn from the experience of other countries. For reasons that are not entirely clear, the UK missed those signals. We missed those opportunities. There will be deaths that were preventable. The system failed. I don’t know why. But, when we have suppressed this epidemic when life returns to some semblance of normality, difficult questions will have to be asked and answered.”

In the meantime, our frontline health workers are inadequately protected, the country unprepared and people will needlessly die. This episode is a lesson that needs to be learned because next time, the virus could be more infectious and more deadly and as Horton says – “we can’t afford to fail again. We may not have a second chance.“

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In American politics, it is not often that one sees an assassination carried out in public, but that is exactly what the Democratic Party establishment did to peace candidate Tulsi Gabbard. She was sidelined right from the beginning of her campaign and the fact that she was a woman of color and a veteran earned her no points with the Democratic National Committee (DNC), and, more to the point, with the Clintons, who continue to have a disproportionate say in what goes on in the party.The chameleonlike Clintons have long been known for their ability to punish anyone who stands in the way of their ambition and Hillary’s dislike for Gabbard dates back to the 2016 election when Gabbard, then vice-chair of the DNC, endorsed Bernie Sanders.

Gabbard is admittedly a somewhat controversial figure, but many individuals involved in the antiwar movement who have taken time to speak with her have come away impressed by her sincerity and willingness to talk up an issue that all the other candidates, save Bernie Sanders, have ignored. She is a serious non-interventionist and a critic of her party’s embrace of the national security state that has emerged since 9/11. In the several debates where she was allowed to participate and actually given some time to speak, she has been a harsh critic of the endless “regime change wars.”

Tulsi has stayed in the race in spite of the fact that the Democratic Party establishment, most particularly to include the Clintons, have been out to destroy her since she first appeared. Gabbard, generally definable as a conventional moderate Democrat, believes that the United States should end nearly all its wars overseas, which are a symptom of a fractured foreign and national security policy. She also advocates auditing the Federal Reserve and is a supporter of Julian Assange as well as whistleblowers Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning. Tulsi has stuck by her guns and had stayed in the race to promote those and other anti-establishment views.

Unfortunately for the many Americans who had hoped to see Tulsi somehow surfacing either as a candidate or as a major voice in shaping the party platform, her candidacy has finally ended. Her announcement came after she was blocked from participating in the candidates’ debate on March 15th by an abrupt and unexpected change in the guidelines for being included. The new qualifying criteria require a candidate to have earned at least 20 percent of the delegates awarded thus far, which meant that only Biden and Sanders could participate.

On March 18th, Gabbard announced her decision to wrap up her campaign and throw her support to Joe Biden as follows:

“I know that he [Biden] has a good heart and he’s motivated by his love for our country and the American people… So today I’m suspending my presidential campaign, and offering my full support to Vice President Joe Biden in his quest to bring our country together.”

The endorsement of Biden came as somewhat of a surprise as Bernie Sanders is closer to her philosophically, but sources close to Tulsi suggest that she did so in the belief that Biden was more likely to unite the party and also better suited to defeating Donald Trump. In any event, speculation that she will have some influence over where the Democratic Party is heading seems to be misplaced as she is not running again for Congress and seems content to return to what passes as a normal life in Hawaii. She retains her commission as a major in the Hawaii National Guard.

If one sought to make a case for who was most active in the undoing of Tulsi Gabbard, the finger would point directly at Hillary Clinton. When Tulsi endorsed Sanders in 2016 she did so knowing that “Clinton had a stranglehold over the Democratic party and that crossing Clinton (who considered herself the ‘inevitable nominee’) could mean the end of her own political career.” Clinton was reportedly made “extremely angry — to put it mildly” by the endorsement and had her aides send Tulsi a wave of threatening emails. 

Hillary Clinton’s first major attack against candidate Gabbard in 2019 was featured in a podcast hosted by former President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign manager, David Plouffe that was recorded last fall. The comments on Gabbard came during a discussion of the upcoming election. Clinton speculated that President Donald Trump and the GOP would likely be “grooming” a potential spoiler candidate for a third-party bid to take away votes from the Democrats. She said “I’m not making any predictions, but I think they’ve got their eye on somebody who’s currently in the Democratic primary and they’re grooming her to be the third-party candidate. She’s the favorite of the Russians. They have a bunch of sites and bots and other ways of supporting her so far and that’s assuming Jill Stein will give it up because she’s also a Russian asset.”

Clinton did not name Gabbard but one of her spokespersons later confirmed the “Russian asset” comment referred to her. The reference to the completely respectable Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, was based on the oft-repeated claim by Clinton and others that Stein was being supported by Russian agents and that she took votes away from the Democratic candidate. Clinton has also suggested that Moscow is “grooming” Gabbard to run third party and steal votes from the Democrats.

Gabbard courageously responded to the Clinton attack with: “Thank you @HillaryClinton. You, the queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption, and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party for so long, have finally come out from behind the curtain. From the day I announced my candidacy, there has been a concerted campaign to destroy my reputation. We wondered who was behind it and why. Now we know — it was always you, through your proxies and powerful allies in the corporate media and war machine, afraid of the threat I pose.”

Great! Thank you @HillaryClinton. You, the queen of warmongers, embodiment of corruption, and personification of the rot that has sickened the Democratic Party for so long, have finally come out from behind the curtain. From the day I announced my candidacy, there has been a …

— Tulsi Gabbard 🌺 (@TulsiGabbard) October 18, 2019

Shortly before dropping out of the race, while Tulsi was the only remaining woman contender for the nomination, Hillary Clinton opted to get in the proverbial last shot in an interview with Fareed Zakaria, saying “We no longer have a woman in the presidential race. There are a lot of reasons for that. We started off with I think six, and now have none.” 

That Tulsi Gabbard, a genuine peace candidate, was deliberately marginalized in the Democratic Party nomination process in spite of having considerable grassroots support does not speak well either for the party or for the system of government by the corruption that prevails in the United States. Tulsi has sued Hillary Clinton for $50 million for defamation due to her being labeled a Russian asset. In the suit, she describes Hillary as “a cutthroat politician by any account” and claims that the former Secretary of State has been working to destroy Gabbard’s presidential campaign as payback for 2016. May Tulsi prevail. And one has to hope that we all have heard the last of the Clintons.

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This article was originally published on American Herald Tribune.

Philip M. Giraldi is a former CIA counter-terrorism specialist and military intelligence officer who served nineteen years overseas in Turkey, Italy, Germany, and Spain. He was the CIA Chief of Base for the Barcelona Olympics in 1992 and was one of the first Americans to enter Afghanistan in December 2001. Phil is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a Washington-based advocacy group that seeks to encourage and promote a U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East that is consistent with American values and interests. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

Featured image: U.S. Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard speaking with attendees at the 2019 California Democratic Party State Convention at the George R. Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco, California. Credit: Gage Skidmore/ Flickr) 

Government watchdog Public Citizen celebrated Wednesday afternoon as pharmaceutical giant Gilead Sciences backed off a monopoly claim for its drug that may treat the coronavirus which has sickened more than 487,000 people worldwide. Gilead, Public Citizen said, must now commit to ensuring the drug is accessible to all who need it.

Public Citizen applauded the news as a “big win” for those who spoke out against Gilead Sciences, whose former lobbyist, Joe Grogan, now serves on President Donald Trump‘s so-called “coronavirus task force.”

BIG WIN: Gilead just backed down.

The company caved under enormous public pressure and withdrew its appalling request for rare disease status on remdesivir.https://t.co/JmGGGouP3u

— Public Citizen (@Public_Citizen) March 25, 2020

“It was outrageous that Gilead ever sought an ‘orphan drug’ designation for remdesivir, which aims to treat a patient population that easily may number in the tens of millions in the U.S. alone,” Peter Maybarduk, director of Public Citizen’s Access to Medicines program, said in a statement. “Thankfully, under pressure, the company has backed down. There’s no doubt that the prospect of an enormous public backlash is what made the difference.”

Gilead’s claim to “orphan” drug status for remdesivir, one of several drugs being tested to treat the coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19, drew outrage this week from Public Citizen, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and dozens of other public interest advocates. 

Trump’s Food and Drug Administration granted the orphan status—which would allow a seven-year monopoly on the drug and could keep it out of reach of many Americans by preventing other companies from developing generic versions—even though Gilead developed remdesivir with at least $79 million in government funds. Orphan status is generally reserved for companies that may not recoup their research costs and for drugs which treat conditions affecting fewer than 200,000 people.

“Gilead must have been feeling the heat,” James Love, director of public interest non-profit Knowledge Ecology International, told NPR after Gilead reliquished its claim. “I think it’s embarrassing to take something that’s potentially the most widespread disease in the history of the pharmaceutical industry and claim it’s a rare disease.”

Soon after Public Citizen was joined by 50 other groups in demanding Gilead end its “unconscionable abuse of a program designed to incentivize research and development of treatments for rare diseases,” the company announced on Wednesday it would proceed without orphan drug status.

Public Citizen said that Gilead Sciences must go further than simply withdrawing its claim of orphan drug status, and actively work to ensure that remdesivir is widely produced and available for all who need it.

“Gilead must do more than make vague promises of reasonable pricing,” Maybarduk said. “It should commit right now to license the right and needed know-how to manufacture remdesivir to all qualified producers, in exchange for a modest royalty.”

“If the drug proves viable as a COVID-19 treatment,” he added, “the U.S. and the world will need the product available at a low price that reflects both the public health need and the potentially enormous market—with production at an unprecedented scale.”

From Common Dreams: Our work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License. Feel free to republish and share widely.

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Featured image: The Gilead Sciences logo is seen on the company website. (Photo: Ivan Radic/Flickr/cc)

Italians furious at the lack of help and solidarity from the European Union began removing flags of the Union throughout the country and replaced them with Chinese and Russian ones. As this is happening in a long-time member of the European Union, the small Balkan country Montenegro went in the opposite direction and began praising the bloc. Refusing to assist Italy, the credibility of the European Union was dealt a huge blow, and Brussels decided to set aside a significant amount of assistance for Montenegro to mitigate the effects of the spread of coronaviruses. There is no doubt that the promised European Union assistance for Montenegro is certainly welcomed and valuable in the aftermath of delaying all assistance to the European Union’s worst hit countries, Italy and Spain. But this is merely a reaction to the increased popularity of China and Russia in these countries who have all provided assistance in a timely and unbureaucratic manner.

As part of a face saving exercise when many European Union members are questioning the necessity of such a bloc, Brussels has prioritized Western Balkan countries to legitimize itself again by fast tracking the memberships of not only Albania and North Macedonia, but also Montenegro. The European Union Ambassador to Montenegro, Aivo Orav, announced on Twitter that Brussels is allocating €3 million in emergency assistance to the Montenegrin health sector and €50 million for the health sector, the economy and business. This assistance to Montenegro, an aspiring European Union member, is an attempt to salvage the shaky reputation of the European Union. Attempting to regain credibility is understandable, but the big question is to what extent this move by the European Union can change the overall impression that the current crisis has shown a complete collapse of European solidarity.

EU solidarity with 🇲🇪 against #COVID19: we are providing €3million for immediate help to the health sector+designing a €50million long-term response together with @VladaCG to support mostly the health sector, the economy and businesses #CoronaInfoCG #EUzaCG pic.twitter.com/f2y8kXPnxQ

— Aivo Orav 🇪🇺 (@EUAmbME) March 25, 2020

Montenegrin Prime Minister Duško Marković described the European Union assistance to Montenegro as “European values ​​and solidarity in action.” Montenegro will continue to work diligently with the European Commission and the delegation to jointly address the effects of the crisis, Marković said.

Montenegrin President Milo Đukanović then said on Twitter:

“A great decision for our neighbours North Macedonia and Albania. Today – support to Montenegro in fighting COVID-19! EU keeps standing with Western Balkans in the hard times!”

Yesterday – a great decision for our neighbours #NorthMacedonia🇲🇰 and #Albania🇦🇱
Today – support to #Montenegro🇲🇪 in fighting #COVIDー19!#EU🇪🇺 keeps standing with #WesternBalkans in the hard times!

— Milo Đukanović (@predsjednik_cg) March 25, 2020

The official Twitter account of the Montenegrin Government went to Twitter to say:

“The EU, in the difficult moments of fighting against coronavirus, stands by Montenegro and provides urgent help for procurement of equipment and protective supplies worth €3 mil through the UN system while working on defining the model for an additional €50 million to help overcome the socio-economic effects of the crisis. We have also agreed to accelerate a € 18million collaborative programme to help small businesses, the most vulnerable categories of society and the unemployed.”

The #EU, in the difficult moments of fighting against coronavirus, stands by #Montenegro and provides urgent help for procurement of equipment and protective supplies worth €3 mil through the UN system… (1/2) #CoronaInfoCG https://t.co/fpczy5n062

— Govt. of Montenegro (@MeGovernment) March 25, 2020

The pro-Western Đukanović helped steer Montenegro into full NATO membership in 2017 and is on track to make his country soon join the European Union. The European Union gives the illusion that it is an alliance of liberal democracy, efficient and free of corruption. However Đukanović is alleged to have strong links to the mafia, as well as involved in smuggling, organized crime and unnecessary privatizations like the Prva Banka, which went to his family.

It is precisely the Western liberal aspect of European Union membership which supposedly united Europe that has been cited as crucial in media close to Montenegrin authorities. Today however, we see that there is nothing of such in the European Union as it quickly turned realist with the coronavirus pandemic. The member states of this organization have been left to fend for themselves in the most difficult and critical situations. From these different treatments of allies, by the EU and NATO on the one hand, and China and Russia on the other, a different composition of the global order will emerge at the end of the coronavirus pandemic.

Although Serbia has blasted so-called European Union solidarity, it remains a lonely voice of the non-member countries of the Balkans. North Macedonia, Albania and Montenegro on Serbia’s southern flank are serving the Western agenda and acting as willing agents to inhibit Russian influence in a region that is overwhelmingly Slavic and Christian Orthodox. Despite the clear corruption of Đukanović, who should be the antipathy of so-called European values, Montenegro was not only fast-tracked into NATO, but is now being accelerated to the European Union in a face-saving regime. It is therefore unsurprising that anti-Serbian sentiment is being pushed by the ruling class in Podgorica to demonstrate to the West that Montenegro will be a partner to pressurize Serbia. Therefore, the accession of Montenegro, Albania and North Macedonia to the European Union and NATO is being used by the West as a mechanism to contain Serbia and halt Russian influence into the Balkans, and also to save their own legitimacy.

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This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

Paul Antonopoulos is a Research Fellow at the Center for Syncretic Studies.

Featured image is from InfoBrics

Mainland China is closing down the hospitals in Wuhan, releasing patients who are already cured. Doctors are celebrating, and with them, the ordinary people; in China and all over the world.

It is not the end of the medical emergency, yet, but it is the beginning of the end; a victory of reason, of determination and discipline; a victory of the system that is serving its citizens.

People are returning home. Families are being reunited. Cities are slowly beginning to open up, again. With the victory comes spring; real and metaphorical.

Now, the biggest threat to China is that which comes from outside, from abroad.

But instead of shooting fireworks into night skies, China is sending wide-body airplanes. They are taking off, towards places such as Italy, bringing medical supplies and medical staff. China knows how to share and how to help those who are in need. It is part of its culture, as it is part of its political system.

For several weeks now, the Hong Kong rioters have been relatively quiet. Frankly, they have been humiliated.

Lately, they and their handlers have been re-grouping, changing tactics, thinking how to harm the People’s Republic of China, without making fools of themselves again.

Months ago, they tried to break China into pieces, using politics. And they failed. Then, they attempted to use the COVID-19, and nothing good came of it, either; the PRC flexed its muscles, used some of its best brains, and managed to perform the impossible: to save the nation with minimal casualties, in as short a period of time as possible.

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But what now, really is the worst news for the Hong Kong rioters and their decreasing base of supporters? Clearly, the fact that the Chinese and also Cuban socialism have presented themselves as much kinder, much more humane systems than those which are governing the Western countries.

The rioters are paid to hate and smear socialism. It is their job, their business to promote “Western values”.

China is now helping others, and so is Cuba, a country which is itself under a malicious U.S. embargo. Cuba has some of the best doctors on earth, always ready to send their “medical brigades” to all corners of the world, wherever people are facing medical emergencies and calamities. It is said that Cuba may already be extremely close to having a vaccine for the COVID-19.

In the meantime, the favorite man of the Hong Kong rioters, the U.S. President Donald Trump, is trying to turn medicine into a weapon, or as they say, to “weaponize the coronavirus”. He doesn’t seem to have much shame doing it.

Various publications, including the Mirror, recently printed stories of analogous headlines:

“Coronavirus: Donald Trump offers German lab cash to ‘make vaccine exclusive to the US.’”

“Donald Trump’s White House offered a German science lab cash to develop a coronavirus vaccine exclusively for the United States, it has been claimed.”

Is this the system that the rioters want for Hong Kong, for China and the entire world?

But this time the world is watching. This time, the world is not willing to forgive.

Italian people have been singing China’s national anthem, from the balconies of Rome, as a thank youfor China’s help with the coronavirus outbreak.

Then, on 16 March, 2020, RT reported that the Serbian President doesn’t believe in European solidarity, anymore, asking China for help, instead:

“As President Aleksandar Vucic declared a national emergency on Sunday, he had some scalding remarks for the EU.”

“The crisis has proven that European solidarity, only exists “on paper,” Vucic said, citing the ban on the export of medical equipment and supplies imposed by EU members to non-EU countries in response to the outbreak.

“Only China can help us in this situation,” the Serbian leader added, saying he recently wrote a letter to China’s Xi Jinping “asking him for help and calling him a brother.””

One heavy-lift Russian plane after another is taking off, heading for Italy, medical staff and equipment on board.

Now, what do the rioters feel? Are some of them at least finally realizing that they are finding themselves on the wrong side of history?

It is not Communism and socialism that are outdated and belonging to a depressing pile of historic scrap. It is gloomy imperialist nihilism and fundamentalist capitalism that have, a long time ago lost all luster and appeal.

It took an epic ideological battle over Hong Kong, as well as the global battle against a new form of the coronavirus, to demonstrate where the future of humanity really lies.

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This article was originally published on China Daily, Hong Kong.

Andre Vltchek is a philosopher, novelist, filmmaker and investigative journalist. He has covered wars and conflicts in dozens of countries. Five of his latest books are “China Belt and Road Initiative”,“China and Ecological Civilization”with John B. Cobb, Jr., “Revolutionary Optimism, Western Nihilism”, a revolutionary novel “Aurora” and a bestselling work of political non-fiction: “Exposing Lies Of The Empire”. View his other books here. Watch Rwanda Gambit, his groundbreaking documentary about Rwanda and DRCongo and his film/dialogue with Noam Chomsky “On Western Terrorism”. Vltchek presently resides in East Asia and Latin America, and continues to work around the world. He can be reached through his website, his Twitter and his Patreon. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

In February, Friends of the Association of Peasant Workers (ATC) and the Alliance for Global Justice (AFGJ) organized an agroecology and Sandinismo solidarity delegation to Nicaragua. Led by Friends of the ATC’s Coordinator and co-International Relations Secretariat, Erika Takeo, the delegation witnessed the current conditions in Nicaragua nearly two years after an attempted coup and the on-going work of the ATC in cooperative communities and unions around the country. Delegates included folks from Nicaragua, Honduras, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Ecuador, Canada and the United States.

Other than the economy still recuperating from the attempted coup of 2018, the Nicaraguan people continue their struggle to remain independent and out of the grips of the neoliberal orbit of US imperialism. Despite the crippling effects of US sanctions, the Sandinista government of Daniel Ortega has made significant social advances since it came to power in 2007, including expanding electricity to 97% of the population. The government is building new water and sewer systems, as well as funding tuition-free public schools through university. All Nicaraguans have access to the country’s universal health care system, regardless of income or employment, although the rural areas experience fewer services than the more urban areas.

It was apparent everywhere we traveled that the Ortega government is spending money on improving infrastructure and roads so that the country can easily and safely transport people and goods. And the country feels safe to be traveling around, with Nicaragua’s crime rate being the lowest in all of the Central American countries.

Gender equality is evident by some of their current laws. Fifty percent of government representatives must be women. For example, if there’s a male governor then there must be a female vice-governor. This progressive law makes Nicaragua unique in the Americas. Also, there is a Domestic Violence law that is actually enforced and, in some areas of the country, there is a police force made up of only women who respond to these cases, supporting women and children in homes and communities.

The Sandinista revolution remains strong, with the majority of Nicaraguans supporting the current Ortega government. Every Saturday, supporters march through the streets in Managua and other cities around Nicaragua. Graffiti and stencils of FSLN (Sandinista National Liberation Front) and other artwork adorn walls, and statues of Sandino stand proudly in central parks reminding everyone of the revolution and the struggle it takes for it to continue.

Our delegation focused on the agricultural cooperatives and unions working in the country, such as the ATC and La Vía Campesina (LVC). Agriculture makes up a large part of Nicaragua’s economy for internal markets, exports and subsistence farming relied on by campesino families. An enduring part of the revolution is land reform, which has been supported by the Ortega government by continuing to grant smaller growers land title regardless of gender.

The delegation visited several unions and cooperatives, which, in the spirit of the Sandinista Revolution, reject the corporate food regime that demands peasants produce cheap exports for commodity markets paying them very little, while selling them expensive seeds, fertilizers and toxic pesticides. The cooperatives and unions save and share their own, creole, non-GMO seeds and many maintain seed reservoirs. Nicaragua prohibits the import of GMO (genetically modified organism) seeds. Farmer-to-farmer education through the ATC and the LVC supports the horizontal sharing and experimentation of sustainable agricultural practices, rejecting the top-down education of more “developed” agribusiness-dominated nations.

Santa Julia, a women’s cooperative growing coffee for market, as well as for their own sustenance, has embraced the agroecological method. This includes the social, economic and environmental well-being of meeting their needs individually as well as communally. With an anti-capitalist, anti-neoliberal and anti-patriarchal methodology, they are improving their community by becoming food sovereign, composting, saving and sharing seeds, and finding ways to protect their crops from the effects of climate change. With the help of the ATC, the community was able to purchase equipment for processing coffee and, since March of this year, they now have running water from their well.

Other cooperatives, such as La Unión coffee cooperative in Jinotega municipality, and the community of Marlin Alvarado in Santa Teresa, Carazo, use agroecological methods of meeting their community’s needs. La Unión de Cooperativas Agropecuarias del Nueva Segovia (UCANS), a growers cooperative union in Somoto, has been organizing groups of cooperatives since 1998 to strengthen the social and economic well-being of growers. Their program includes: planning and coaching; exchange with other growers; technical assistance; seed banks; home gardens; crop management; and health nutritionists to the communities.

The radical practices of agroecology and food sovereignty are a figurative middle finger to US agricultural corporations. Nicaragua is about 90% food sovereign, meaning that they produce and consume 90% of the country’s food needs. This intentional and popular part of the revolution is one of the major reasons why Nicaragua can hold these powerful agricultural corporations at bay.

As I write this, the US House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill without debate to impose more sanctions on Nicaragua. Why is the US government so obsessed with destroying Nicaragua? Like the examples of Cuba and Venezuela, Nicaragua is in the crosshairs of imperialism for standing up and saying no to the neoliberal model of dependence. The assaults and attacks from the US continue, but the Sandinista Revolution will endure. We can help them by contacting our Representatives and educating them about the realities of Nicaragua and their struggle to protect their country and their right to participatory democracy.

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Carissa Brands was a delegate in the recent Friends of the ATC delegation; she is an agroecological worker and a board member of the Task Force on the Americas.

The West Bank situation is becoming increasingly complicated amid the coronavirus pandemic and territorial disputes between Palestinians and Israelis. At first, the Palestinian Authority and Israel showed signs of cooperation in combating the pandemic. A few weeks ago, joint measures were announced between both sides to contain the epidemic of the new coronavirus in the region. The measures include distribution of cleaning and personal hygiene materials, in addition to virus testing kits and medical equipment.

On the part of Tel Aviv, the total closure of the West Bank was promoted, allowing, however, access for Palestinian workers involved in the construction and agriculture sectors to the Jewish state, which is why the proposal was well accepted by Ramallah. On the part of the Palestinians, the West Bank has also been blocked, but only partially and for two weeks, since last Sunday (March 22), in addition to the implementation of a series of control and quarantine measures.

However, efforts to contain the pandemic have not prevented Israeli incursions into the region, which have increased recently. Ibrahim Melhim, a spokesman for the Palestinian Authority, acknowledged Israeli efforts to contain the coronavirus in the country and in Palestine, but criticized the unstoppable incursions against the Palestinians.

“We have very strong round-the-clock coordination with the Israeli side to prevent the coronavirus from spreading (…) At the same time, Israel continues to operate in the Palestinian Territories as if there is no coronavirus crisis (…) They [Israeli forces] continue their raids across the West Bank, arresting people and confiscating lands, and that harms the existing coordination between the PA and Israel putting an additional burden on the Palestinian Authority,” said the spokesman.

Apparently, Israel pretends to collaborate with Palestine to stop the pandemic, when, in fact, it freely promotes its military maneuvers in the region, which go unnoticed by the mainstream media, strongly focused on covering the viral tragedy. In addition, Tel Aviv’s own collaboration to control COVID-19 in the region seems extremely limited. The blocking measures made it impossible, for example, for doctors from the “Physicians for Human Rights” (an Israeli NGO that serves Palestinians free of charge) to move alongside the West Bank, clearly hampering medical care in the region.

Mention should also be made of the fact that Israel, not Palestine, is the major focus of infections by the new coronavirus in the region. Israel has already more than 1.000 officially reported cases of the disease, in addition to one death, and several suspicions. In contrast, Palestine has around 60 infected people. It is clear from these data that the most stringent containment measures should come exclusively from Ramallah, since the Israeli military presence in the region itself poses a serious risk to Palestinian public health.

According to a survey by the Truman Institute for Peace at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 63% of Israelis say Israel must help Palestinians during the coronavirus crisis. Vered Vinitsky-Serousse, president of the Institute, said that

“the majority of Israelis believe that, when necessary, the government should devise preventive measures to help Palestinians during the Covid-19 epidemic.”

The big problem, however, is how these joint maneuvers are conducted. Perhaps the first step to be taken in establishing joint measures is the definitive and immediate end to military incursions in the region, which constantly bring insecurity and terror to the Palestinian people.

The situation of tensions in the region must still be read in the context of the so-called “Deal of the Century”, the “peace” proposal for the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians announced by American President Donald Trump. The “agreement” was celebrated unilaterally by the Washigton-Tel Aviv axis, with no participation of Palestinians, which is why it was rejected by the Palestinian Authority and the Arab League. The document foresaw the annexation of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, leaving around 70% of the region under Palestinian rule – a figure much lower than that proposed by all previous attempts to resolve the conflict. Everything indicates that Israel will not stop its attempts to occupy that territory as much as possible.

It is in this context that the “joint” actions between Israelis and Palestinians must be analyzed with skepticism and suspicion. Are these pandemic containment measures really good, even when behind them the Israeli army expands its occupation in the region with increasingly aggressive incursions? Also, to what extent does Palestine benefit from the help of these joint actions when Israel has an absurdly greater number of infected people? Would Israel be able to help the Palestinians? Or would that aid be a mask for such military incursions? All of these are valid questions.

It is also worth remembering that a few weeks ago, at the end of February, Israel announced the construction of more than 2.000 new settlements in Palestinian territories – and on the same occasion, Netanyahu authorized the construction of other 7.000 units in the East Jerusalem region. These data mean that Israel’s aggressiveness against the Palestinians was increasing recently. Did this aggression really disappear from Tel Aviv’s plans in the face of a “commotion” with public health in Palestine (which is much better than the situation in Israel)? Perhaps, the mainstream media and Human Rights observers should divide their attention between the coronavirus and the conflict in Palestine, before more serious clashes erupt.

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This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

Lucas Leiroz is a research fellow in international law at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

Featured image is from InfoBrics

It was NATO’s first out-of-area operation, against its own Treaty and without a UN mandate. On March 24, 1999.

Independent Kosovo was established – against UN SC resolution 1244. Thanks to the Clinton administration and Madeleine Albright. CNN’s Amanpour endorsed it generously on TV with her State Department husband, James Rubin, a chief operator in the non-negotiations at Rambouillet. And TIME of course knew the truth too.

Serbia suffered tremendously from the 78 days of indiscriminate, hard bombing. I know because I was there.

Finally, Serbia and its president Milosevic was threatened with total destruction of Belgrade. And gave in.

Western hubris after the Cold War was won? Of course!

Russia was on its knees. International law and the UN Charter sidelined. Militarism embraced. Full spectrum dominance. The winner takes it all! Right – but with the risk of losing it all later. It’s called hubris.

Boomerangs do exist.

Oh, what ignorance. Hardly 5 foreign ministry people in Europe knew a thing about the complexities of Yugoslavia.

And today, 21 years later?

Kosovo – the 2nd Albanian state in Europe – still doesn’t function. Hardliners in that war are still leaders, protected by the Americans who back then called Kosovo “ours” – I know because I interviewed them in Prishtina.

Serbia – moving ahead with no more illusions about a decent treatment by the EU or the US. It’s now Europe’s main friend of China (whose embassy NATO bombed by so-called accident). Huge Chinese air bridge of aid to Serbia these very corona days.

China – well you know what has happened there the last 20 years. And how it is the main builder of a new world order.

NATO – outdated and sharing little but inner conflicts because it should have been closed down when the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact dissolved.

The EU – unable to handle Yugoslavia, 2015 refugees, Iran/JCPOA or helping its Spanish and Italian brothers and sisters with the corona.. China is able.

The US – moving towards (more) authoritarianism and inner dissolution, rioting and revolver violence: Wait and see how the corona virus’ political dynamics will play out there…

For all the West – A world order loser in deep inner structural crisis.

Yugoslavia was a game changer – TFF said it then and warned about all the Western actions in the most comprehensive ever peace and conflict study of Yugoslavia – a good 2000 A4 pages equivalent.

No, not written years after but while it happened. Predictions more precise than any government’s.

And with lots of alternatives and peace plans lined up too. Because there were alternatives to the destruction of that country and to the bombing for Kosovo. But everything done was – peace-prevention:

Sadly, the West is destroying itself because of militarist hubris. There is no one it can blame for its manifest destiny downwards – except, of course, the Serbs, Russians, Chinese and Iranians and …

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A new survey has discovered that every single American is convinced they will get the coronavirus, highlighting just how entrenched the message about the crisis has become in the US.

The poll by Survey USA finds that 100 percent of respondents said yes to the question “Based on what you know at this hour, what would you say that the chances are that you, yourself, will get sick from the Coronavirus?”

The survey was conducted last week, just as the peak of the panic was hitting. It also found that 21 percent of Americans say their daily life has “been turned upside down” by the virus, which originated in China.

A further 42 percent say it has “changed noticeably”, while 31 percent say it has “been impacted only slightly”.

Six percent say life has “not been impacted at all,” although that has probably changed by now.

Interestingly, only five percent of respondents said that they personally know someone who has been officially diagnosed with the virus, while an overwhelming 92 percent say they don’t.

When asked how concerned they are about the virus, and whether they will be able to get adequate medical care if they catch it, sixty-six percent of respondents over the age of 50 said that they are “extremely concerned” or “concerned”.

Seventy-one percent responded that think the worst is “still ahead,” while just 8 percent believe it is “behind us.”

Asked when they think thinks will return to “normal”, 17 percent pointed to June 2020, while ten percent said they expect the entire year to be lost to coronavirus, and are looking to 2021 for normal life to return.

This is in stark contrast to President Trump’s comments yesterday when he said he’d like to see things get back on track by Easter.

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When is a terrorist group not a terrorist group? Apparently when US foreign policy requires it not to be. This is precisely the case regarding Al Qaeda’s Syrian branch – Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) – the most recent rebrand of Jabhat Al Nusra – which currently occupies the northern Syrian governorate of Idlib.

The US corporate media has recently attempted to generate public sympathy for HTS – as well as animosity toward Syrian, Russian, and Iranian forces seeking to liberate the supposedly one million people trapped under the terrorist organization’s rule.

Another factor behind US media support for HTS is the necessity to explain why NATO member Turkey is providing direct military and material support for a US-designated terrorist organization, and why the US itself is in turn providing Turkey support to do so.

Articles have appeared in Newsweek – for example – framing Russian opposition to negotiations with HTS as negative – and echoing US State Department efforts to support the terrorist organization despite it appearing on Washington’s official Foreign Terrorist Organization designation list.

The article titled, “Russia Warns Against Any U.S. Talks with Militant Group It’s Bombing in Syria,” is actually referring to Al Qaeda’s HTS front when it refers to the “militant group” Russia is bombing in Syria.

Newsweek places Russian statements regarding the US designation of HTS as a terrorist organization in quotes as if to question the veracity of the claim.

However, a visit to the US State Department’s own website reveals a 2018 statement titled, “Amendments to the Terrorist Designations of al-Nusrah Front,” which openly admits:

The Department of State has amended the designation of al-Nusrah Front – an al-Qa’ida affiliate in Syria – to include Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and other aliases. These aliases have been added to al-Nusrah Front’s designations as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act, and as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) under Executive Order 13224.

In January 2017, al-Nusrah Front launched the creation of HTS as a vehicle to advance its position in the Syrian uprising and to further its own goals as an al-Qa’ida affiliate. Since January 2017, the group has continued to operate through HTS in pursuit of these objectives.

Thus – according to all sides of the Syrian conflict including Washington – HTS is without doubt – unequivocally a terrorist organization.

And eventually – 5 paragraphs in – Newsweek also admits HTS is a US-designated terrorist organization – and even includes quotes from US military leaders admitting that Idlib is overrun by extremists. Yet the US-based publication still attempts to frame Syrian and Russian efforts to liberate Idlib from these extremists negatively.

Newsweek is just one example of the US corporate media obliquely defending terrorism. The New York Times would provide a much more robust defense.

New York Times Does PR for Al Qaeda in Idlib 

To illustrate just how far the US corporate media is willing to go to bolster Al Qaeda’s HTS and its Turkish and US backers, the New York Times claims its staff actually accompanied HTS terrorists in Idlib in order to write their emotionally manipulative article, “‘The Only Choice Is to Wait for Death’.”

The article’s author – Carlotta Gall – claims:

I made a rare visit into Idlib with a photographer and interpreter on Wednesday, crossing the border from Turkey. We were accompanied by relief workers of a Syrian charity and members of a jihadist rebel group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which controls the province.

While the identity or organization these “relief workers” are affiliated with is never mentioned in the article – they are almost certainly from the so-called “White Helmets” and their presence alongside Al Qaeda HTS militants would only further confirm that they themselves are nothing more than Al Qaeda auxiliaries.

The article contains weepy anecdotes devoid of any actual evidence, playing on the familiar “humanitarian” concerns the US and its media often use to demonize its adversaries and justify its own – very real – aggression and abuse globally.

In this case – the aggression and abuse the US and its media are attempting to justify is the continued existence of Al Qaeda’s HTS in northern Syria and its rule over an alleged population of “one million” civilians.

The article describes Syrian and Russian security operations to liberate Idlib from Al Qaeda with paragraphs like:

There has been no letup for the people of Idlib Province as the forces of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, backed by Russian air power, have smashed their way forward, demolishing towns and villages in the south and east of the province with punishing airstrikes.

Only until twenty-five paragraphs into the New York Times’ article, does author Carlotta Gall finally admit HTS is a US-designated terrorist organization, claiming:

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, has been designated a terrorist group by the United Nations but recently allowed Western journalists into Idlib in cooperation with Turkey, which has wanted to build international pressure against Russia and Syria.

In other words – Al Qaeda and its Turkish backers want to build pressure against Russia and Syria who are attempting to liquidate the terrorist organization and restore order to Idlib – and the New York Times is willingly – even eagerly – aiding Al Qaeda and Turkey in doing so.

The US Has Flattened Cities and Nations in Pursuit of “Terrorists” 

Cities held by terrorist organizations – or even entire nations for that matter – have served as a pretext for the United States and its allies to carry out brutal military operations. For example – the alleged presence of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan served as the pretext for the now 19 year war the US has waged there since 2001.

In 2004 – citing the presence of extremists in the Iraqi city of Fallujah – the US military would flatten the urban center not once – but twice.

One might imagine that the US military and its allies would be eager to move against the northern governorate of Idlib in Syria – admittedly held by the terrorist HTS front.

Yet here the truth about America’s so-called “War on Terrorism” is revealed.

While extremists may have been based in Afghanistan in 2001 or active in the Iraqi city of Fallujah in 2004 – that is not why the United States moved against them. The US had overarching geopolitical plans that required the long-term occupation of Afghanistan – with the presence of extremists serving merely as a pretext to pursue these plans.

In Fallujah it was not the militants or their extremism that bothered the United States – as Washington had previously armed and backed many of the groups there in proxy conflicts for decades beforehand and for nearly two decades since – it was their resistance to the US occupation that triggered the two battles for the city.

Al Qaeda in northern Syria serves US interests – the fact that it appears on the US State Department’s own terrorist designation list is merely a political inconvenience at the moment – one the above-mentioned Newsweek article even admits US diplomats are trying to work around.

Newsweek claimed:

James Jeffrey, the U.S. special representative on Syria and special envoy to the U.S.-led coalition against the Islamic State militant group (ISIS), told a press briefing earlier this month he had not seen Hayat Tahrir al-Sham “planning or carrying out international terrorism attacks.” He made similar comments days earlier.

The obvious implications of Jeffery’s comment is that – at the moment and despite HTS’ status as a US-designated terrorist organization – the US does not see it as one. And not because HTS isn’t a terrorist organization – but simply because at the moment – such a designation is not politically convenient for US objectives in northern Syria.

So while the US has flattened entire cities in pursuit of “terrorists,” it currently seeks to complicate and draw out the Syrian conflict – placing the lives of “one million” civilians in the balance – in defense of terrorists.

The malignant nature of US foreign policy is fully illustrated by Washington and the US media’s stance regarding Al Qaeda’s HTS in northern Syria – amid circumstances where unequivocal terrorists threatening the lives of what the US itself claims are “one million” civilians have attracted the attention and support of American journalists and diplomats.

The coordinated nature of this support – spanning the corporate media and the US government itself – indicate just how deep the rot  is within US foreign policymaking and helps explain why – no matter who sits in the White House – this agenda continues forward, unabated and unfazed no matter how much the light of truth is shone upon it.

The fact that large amounts of resources are still being invested by Washington and the US corporate media indicates that US efforts to destabilize and destroy Syria are still very much in play – and now more than ever those seeking to restore order in Syria must guard against complacency.

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Tony Cartalucci is a Bangkok-based geopolitical researcher and writer, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook” where this article was originally published. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from NEO   

The planet’s second-most populous region will struggle to survive World War C due to its largely dilapidated health infrastructure and widespread abject poverty, but its chances of success would greatly increase if the South Asian security dilemma temporarily disappeared in order for everyone to focus more closely on the common goal of making it through this crisis with the least amount of damage possible, though that’s only possible if India puts its hegemonic aspirations aside for the time being by undertaking unilateral military steps that contribute to de-escalation and would prospectively be followed up by reciprocal ones by Pakistan.

On Wednesday, the CARES (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) Act was unanimously passed by the Senate.

It’s scheduled to be voted on and adopted by House members on Friday, Trump to sign it into law. Its provisions are largely what was discussed in a previous day article.

There’s plenty in it for monied interests, along with the Wall Street owned and operated Fed supplying trillions of dollars in virtually free money to banks, other corporate interests, hedge funds, and large investors —  more to come as needed.

By comparison, ordinary Americans get peanuts. Households will get one-time direct deposits of $1,200, married couples to get $2,400, plus an additional $500 per child.

This applies to households earning up to $75,000, $150,000 for married couples, scaled down amounts going to households earning up to $99,000/$198,000 for married couples.

Unemployed workers will get $600 weekly for four months — through July 31.

So-called Pandemic Unemployment Assistance will provide up to 39 weeks of unemployment insurance payments to individuals not otherwise eligible to receive benefits — including the self-employed and others who exhausted their regular and extended benefits.

The bill provides 13 weeks of emergency unemployment insurance for individuals who remain unemployed after they exhausted their benefits and aren’t otherwise eligible for them.

A four-member household, including two children, will get a one-time payment of $3,400, a single individual $1,200 + $600 weekly if unemployed through July 31 in both examples.

Federal unemployment benefits are in addition what individual states provide.

According to US Census Bureau data, median US rent in 2017was $1,012, median mortgage costs $1,513.

An average one-person household spends around $370 a month for food, double this amount for a three-person household.

In 2017, average per capita spending for healthcare annually was $10,224.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, average pre-tax household income in 2017 was $73,573, average annual expenses around $60,000.

The average federal income tax rate is around 20%, after-tax income less than $59,000 — minus state, property, and other local taxes, meaning most households spend borrowed money on top of income to cover expenses.

A family of four getting $3,400 + $600 a week if get federal unemployment benefits for around 17.5 weeks from April 1 through July 31 would receive $13,900 —far below what households need to cover expenses, supplemented by state unemployment benefits if get them.

Individuals are permitted to delay payment of payroll taxes until 2021 or 2022. The same holds for eligible businesses as follows:

They can delay paying payroll taxes through December 2020, pay 50% of them in 2021, another 50% in 2022.

Hundreds of billions of dollars in government loans to business and trillions of dollars in zero-interest Fed money may end up partially or entirely forgiven.

Will unpaid business payroll taxes be treated the same way? Looking ahead, what hasn’t been paid may not be when companies begin emerging from ongoing economic and financial duress.

Dems, including  progressive Bernie Sanders, agreed to suspend business payroll taxes that’s all about weakening Social Security and Medicare trust funds — part of a longterm plan to erode and eliminate them.

He and other Dems agreed to provide business with the lion’s share of benefits, instead of demanding more for American households, including government provided healthcare for hospitalized COVID-19 patients, excluding what covered by insurers.

Taking this step would advance the ball incrementally for universal healthcare, what’s vitally needed, Sanders its most vocal congressional supporter rhetorically.

His voting record shows otherwise, including on Wednesday by supporting the so-called CARES Act.

On Tuesday, Politico reported that the Trump regime temporarily “stopped seizing the wages, tax refunds and Social Security benefits of people who are in default on their federal student loans,” citing an unnamed Education Department source.

Through federally controlled Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, as well as perhaps the entire mortgage industry, unemployed homeowners may also get temporary payment relief if qualify, permitting reduced or suspended payments for a fixed period.

According to Federal Housing Finance Agency director Mark Calabria, “(t)hat forbearance is up to 12 months, depending on their particular situation,” adding:

Homeowners “need to contact their servicer…the lender that they send the check to every month.”

“That lender will work with them to be able to work out a payment plan. Obviously, we hope to get them back on their feet as soon as possible.”

The above is not debt forgiveness. Loan obligations will be extended for the period of reduced or suspended payments.

A plan for renters is needed. While many municipalities halted evictions of individuals unable to pay landlords, there’s no federal program that authorizes reduced or suspended payments during the current economic and public health crisis.

Companies receiving bailout help are prohibited from making stock buybacks for the term of the amount provided plus an additional year.

Dividends, capital distributions, and executive bonuses are to be suspended for the same period.

How closely this will be monitored and whether actions will be taken against violators is another matter entirely.

Health insurers are required to cover the cost of COVID-19 tests. The same goes for vaccines when available.

Testing is supposed to be available for everyone in need. Americans are on their own for treatment of all health issues, including COVID-19.

Even federally mandated free healthcare for seniors that began in the mid-1960s when Medicare was established is longer free, especially because supplementary insurance is needed for what Medicare doesn’t cover.

Separately, COVID-19 infections keep spreading. Through Wednesday, around 472,000 were reported worldwide.

In the US, the total exceeds 69,000, New York state its epicenter with around 33,000 cases through Wednesday, New York City hardest hit with over 20,000 cases.

According to NBC News New York, the “NYC death toll spike(ed) 110% in the (last) 36 hours.”

The city has 11,000 ventilators to help severely affected patients breathe. Around 30,000 are needed, likely many more in the days and weeks ahead.

NY Gov. Cuomo slammed the CARES Act, calling $3.8 billion in NY aid a “drop in the bucket” with around $15 billion needed at this time.

Economically and health-wise nationwide, things are likely to get much worse before improving.

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Award-winning author Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at [email protected]. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG)

His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

Accelerating Albania and North Macedonia Membership EU Tries to Save Face Amidst Coronavirus Debacle

By Paul Antonopoulos, March 26, 2020

The European Union’s decision to open negotiations with Northern Macedonia and Albania is a propaganda act from Brussels that attempts to reassure members of the Union that countries, even in the midst of the epidemic, want to become members of the organization. This is a cheap propaganda trick that attempts to restore confidence in the European Union at a time when it has completely failed to deal with the coronavirus pandemic that has shown weakness in the alliance.

A Brady Bond Solution for America’s Economic Crisis and Unpayable Corporate Debt

By Dr. Paul Craig Roberts and Prof Michael Hudson, March 26, 2020

The Fed’s Quantitative Easing since 2008 plus large companies using their earnings for stock buybacks drove the prices of financial assets into a realm of unreality. The result was that markets already were teetering on the brink of fragility. Any rise of normal interest to more normal conditions, or any external shock, was bound to crash the artificial values at which financial markets were priced. The Fed’s policy was to perpetuate this situation for as long as possible by pumping in yet more credit. But at near-zero interest rates, there was little that could be done.

Our Leaders Are Terrified. Not of the Virus – of Us.

By Jonathan Cook, March 26, 2020

It emerged at the weekend that Dominic Cummings, the ideological powerhouse behind Britain’s buffoonish prime minister Boris Johnson, was pivotal in delaying the UK government’s response to the coronavirus – effectively driving Britain on to the Italian (bad) path of contagion rather than the South Korean (good) one.

US Senate’s Final Stimulus Bill – Why It Won’t be Enough

By Dr. Jack Rasmus, March 25, 2020

Middle class and worker households would get $500 billion in the form of direct checks ($250B) and increased unemployment insurance benefits for the next four months ($250B).

Corporations and businesses would thus get $867B–$367B of which would go to small businesses, and another $500B to large corporations like airlines, defense companies, cruise lines, hotels and other companies.

21 Years Since the Beginning of NATO Aggression against Yugoslavia

By Živadin Jovanović, March 25, 2020

During NATO aggression lasting from 24 March through 10 June 1999, NATO missiles killed 1100 soldiers and police officers and more than 2500 civilians, including 89 children. With the exception of the military and police personnel, the accurate list of casualties has not been established as yet, despite a recent statement announcing that relevant efforts would be stepped up. There is even less certainty about how many citizens lost their lives in the meantime, either due to injuries sustained by wounding, or due to malignant diseases caused by the use of weaponry filled with depleted uranium and other banned weapons and ordnances, or during the course of demining of unexploded ordnances, especially the cluster bombs.

Venezuela’s Coronavirus Response Might Surprise You

By Leonardo Flores, March 25, 2020

Within a few hours of being launched, over 800 Venezuelans in the U.S. registered for an emergency flight from Miami to Caracas through a website run by the Venezuelan government. This flight, offered at no cost, was proposed by President Nicolás Maduro when he learned that 200 Venezuelans were stuck in the United States following his government’s decision to stop commercial flights as a preventative coronavirus measure. The promise of one flight expanded to two or more flights, as it became clear that many Venezuelans in the U.S. wanted to go back to Venezuela, yet the situation remains unresolved due to the U.S. ban on flights to and from the country.

How ‘Defense’ Contractors Lobbied for War in Yemen and Reaped the Profits from Death and Destruction

By Ben Barbour, March 25, 2020

Lobbying firms like the McKeon Group, headed by lobbyist Buck McKeon (who was the former chairman of the House Armed Services Committee in the US Congress), represent both US defense contractors and countries such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE, who are ruthlessly bombing Yemen with US made weapons. Through lobbying firms like the McKeon Group and American Defense International, defense contractors such as Raytheon and Lockheed Martin spent millions to effectively pressure Congress members. Lobbying efforts focus on key members of committees, such as the aforementioned Armed Services Committee. This incentivizes Congress to approve legislation to sell arms to countries like Saudi Arabia and block any legislation that challenges the unethical arms sales.

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US stock markets lifted today on a tide of investor enthusiasm following the announcement that the Federal Reserve was poised to give the US economy a limitless cash injection.

And in the closed mind of Donald Trump, this is simply the beginning and the end of the matter.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared 1,400 points putting on 7 per cent and the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite nearly matched this.

But even the impregnable ignorance of Trump will be tested to destruction by the analysis coming from the World Health Organisation that the US is due to become the new global epicentre of the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the Panglossian world of the US president, the material world can be dismissed through an act of will or the utterance of magic words.

Trump thinks that he can simply jump-start the US economy and prevent the pandemic becoming rooted as “a long-lasting financial problem.”

Assuming his new persona as an epidemiologist, public health expert and all-round economics guru, he said that the pandemic and its associated disruptions would not last as long as three or four months.

“Our country was not built to be shut down,” he said. “This is not a country that was built for this.”

And his top officials dismissed the government restrictions just promulgated as a “15-day challenge.”

Meanwhile on the North Atlantic division of planet Earth, upwards of 50,000 people are infected with the coronavirus, with 125 deaths recorded in New York alone out of a provisional national total of 593. This is but the beginning of the curve.

If we bear in mind that the accurate recording of infection rates and associated deaths in the US is hobbled by a pattern of vastly inadequate and unequal health provision — with one in 10 of the population without health insurance — we can be sure that the actual infection rate is higher and the death rate will grow.

It is an unsavoury thought, but President Trump is truly an emperor without clothes.

And the voice telling the US public that nothing covers their president’s metaphorical nakedness is Anthony Fauci, a member of the nation’s coronavirus task force and head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, whose rational voice is a vital counter-narrative to Trump’s meandering mind.

But the only metric which conditions the president’s thinking is the stock market indices — and in very short order there will be a point in which the illusory trajectory described by Trump’s imaginings with be intersected by the guided missile that is reality.

Trump’s notion, tweeted at 3.50am: “WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF” is the clearest expression that the gap between rational and scientific thought and the unstructured ramblings of an ignoramus with untrammelled power is a serious threat to the US people.

On our side of the Atlantic we still have a very small window of opportunity to take what measures are necessary to mitigate the worst of this epidemic.

The conclusions we can draw from present-day events is that social distancing is the basic building block of our collective attempts to contain this virus, and decisive state action is the essential precondition for ensuring the best possible result.

The political lesson must be that maintaining a clear distance from the US in significant policy matters is an essential precondition of our national interest.

The two pillars of the economic and foreign policy orthodoxy favoured by our ruling class is the closest possible alignment to both the European Union and the US.

The toxicity of these alignments is manifest.

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The European Union’s decision to open negotiations with Northern Macedonia and Albania is a propaganda act from Brussels that attempts to reassure members of the Union that countries, even in the midst of the epidemic, want to become members of the organization. This is a cheap propaganda trick that attempts to restore confidence in the European Union at a time when it has completely failed to deal with the coronavirus pandemic that has shown weakness in the alliance.

Maurizio Massari, Italy’s ambassador to the EU, said earlier this month that “the coronavirus crisis is a test of the EU’s cohesiveness and credibility — one that can only be passed through genuine, concrete solidarity. Europe must act according to the principle of mutual defense and help those members whose security is under threat.” With nearly 60,000 people confirmed infected and over 7,500 deaths, the European Union has failed in this test as no member states came to the aid of Italy and instead looked inwardly towards their own borders.  The European Union’s cohesiveness was exposed as a fantasy when days ago member state Poland closed its airspace to a Russian plane delivering aid to fellow European Union member Italy, forcing the aircraft to take an alternate route that is 1,000 kilometers longer.

Essentially the European Union that is currently the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic has exposed why the Union is dysfunctional and without any solidarity. It has shown a huge gap between words and action. The European Union as an example of the liberal world order endlessly spoke of humanity but have proven they are inhumane. They promoted the idea of efficiency but proven they are actually ineffective. In short, the announcement to progress the European Union membership of Albania and North Macedonia is a cheap propaganda gimmick for Brussels at a time when it is under heavy scrutiny for showing a lack of solidarity and assistance to Italy, raising questions to the credibility of the organization. It is negotiating in a way that has never existed, utterly undefined, with a big question mark as to what will be.

According to a draft decision signed by the bloc’s 27 members, which Reuters had access to, the hope of membership for the two Western Balkans countries has often been shattered in recent years due to the scepticism expressed, primarily by the Netherlands and France, as they correctly highlight that both countries are highly corrupt. However, the start date of the negotiations is not specified and will be subsequently determined when the European Commission prepares the framework for the negotiations.

Michael Roth, Germany’s state secretary for European affairs, wrote on Twitter on March 24, “Congrats to Tirana+Skopje, it’s well deserved,” after the agreement was reached during a videoconference. This was followed by European Union Enlargement Commissioner Oliver Varhelyi also going to Twitter, saying that he is “very pleased that EU member states today reached political agreement on opening of accession talks with Albania and North Macedonia. I wholeheartedly congratulate both countries. This also sends a loud and clear message to Western Balkans: your future is in EU.”

North Macedonia is unlikely to face resistance in joining the European Union, and is already being rapidly ascended into NATO after it resolved its name issue with Greece. However, the accession is not yet a guaranteed for Albania as Greece raises concerns on the rights and treatment of the Greek minority in occupied Northern Epirus in southern Albania. Approximately 200,000 Greeks of Northern Epirus face daily discrimination with Albanian authorities removing bilingual road signs that display Greek, the confiscation of property belonging to Greeks, and Albanian police even murdering a Greek in a shootout as they removed a Greek flag from a cemetery, among many other forms of discrimination. On these grounds, Greece may veto Albania’s accession, but this is likely to be a temporary measure as the Greek political establishment always eventually capitulate to the demands of Brussels and Germany. Once this issue is resolved, it is likely that Albania with North Macedonia will be accelerated into the European Union, and this will prove necessary as the bloc wants to maintain the illusion that it is not in disarray in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

This begs the questions though on why Albania and North Macedonia would want to ascend into the European Union after seeing the alliance’s treatment of its own long-time member states like Italy. Albania has always been a pro-Western state, owing to the Western world its existence, its occupation of Northern Epirus, and its indirect occupation of Kosovo. It is therefore unsurprising that it wants to be further integrated into the Western world. North Macedonia since the very beginning of its foundations with the dissolution of Yugoslavia in the early 1990’s wanted to join the European Union and NATO, but was prevented to do so because of the name dispute with Greece. With this issue resolved, it now has a clear path towards the bloc. None-the-less, both states are not even remotely close in an economic or so-called democratic sense to be candidates, but will be fast-tracked to help save face after the European Union’s debacle with the coronavirus pandemic.

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This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

Paul Antonopoulos is a Research Fellow at the Center for Syncretic Studies.

Featured image is from InfoBrics

Congressional Republicans and Dems, together with the White House, agreed on a reported $2 trillion stimulus plan late Tuesday night — the text of the bill not finalized.

The devil is in the fine print and how what’s agreed on is implemented.

The plan will inject less than the reported $2 trillion into the US economy (see below), aimed mainly at helping monied interests.

It’s notably on top of over $6 trillion in virtually free Fed helicopter money for Wall Street, other corporate interests, hedge funds, and large investors.

Around $500 billion is earmarked for large corporations, $367 billion for undefined small business, $130 billion for hospitals, $150 billion for state and local governments, enhanced unemployment insurance, and one-time payments of $1,200 to US households with annual income of $75,000 or less, $2,400 for married couples, as well as $500 per child up to a maximum of two.

Households with incomes from $75,000 to $99,000 will get incrementally less, nothing for incomes above the top threshold.

Enhanced unemployment benefits are only for four months, total benefits for business and households around $1.65 trillion, not $2 trillion — when sustained government help is needed as long as dire economic and public health conditions persist.

Households with little or no tax liabilities will receive the same amount.

Given the high cost of living in the US, especially for urban dwellers, this amount with only help low-income or unemployed Americans short-term at a time of economic crisis and a national health emergency likely to continue for months or longer.

Trump’s aim for US business as usual to resume around mid-April ignores the reality of mounting COVID-19 infections and deaths — around 55,000 and nearly 800 respectively in the US, numbers steadily rising.

The larger these numbers, the more greatly they can expand exponentially — why it’s vital to shelter in place as much as possible and social distance when outside for essential activities until the threat of COVID-19 is eliminated.

By mid-April, the numbers of infected individuals and deaths will likely be much higher than now.

Most retail stores are closed indefinitely, public events cancelled or suspended, normal activities halted.

US states, cities, and towns recommended or mandated lockdowns, shelter-in-place orders, and/or social distancing when in public — cordon sanitaire protections against spreading disease.

If current policies in place don’t work, tougher measures will be needed, including a possible national lockdown by presidential executive order or congressional legislation — even though no constitutional provision permits this action.

Earlier federal legislation overrode state rights by mandating civil and voting rights — though way short of what provisions of both measures called for.

These are unprecedented times so unprecedented actions are needed post haste.

On Monday, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) called for the following economic relief package:

• “Maximization of the income that can be delivered through existing social insurance and safety net programs during the lockdown and its aftermath.
• Substantial aid to state and local governments.
• Bailouts of industries’ workers, not shareholders, creditors, or senior management.
• Direct cash payments to households.
• Conditions-based triggers that keep aid flowing.”

EPI expanded on the above actions as follows:

Unemployment insurance should be expanded in “vast amounts” for laid off workers.

An array of social benefits should be instituted for US households in need, stressing:

“(T)here’s no reason why…benefits should be…less than” a steady flow of funds to US households needing help.

Mass layoffs and economic contraction are increasing, to what extent and for how long unknown.

EPI: “Economic activity will fall more sharply than in perhaps any other period in modern history, and tens of millions of US employees will be forced to stop working.”

At a time of economic shutdown, it’s the responsibility of government to fill the void — largely at the federal level, at state and local levels as well to the extent they’re able.

There’s no excuse for the world’s richest country not going all out for all its people — its unemployed, underemployed, and low-income households most of all, including hundreds of thousands of homeless and millions of food insecure households.

Key economically is enhancing social safety net programs, mostly to ensure everyone needing healthcare, food, and other essentials have access to it — no one in need left out.

Fundamental reforms of US economic policy should be implemented and “sustained beyond this crisis,” said EPI.

State and local governments are “on the front lines” of securing public health — why they “must be empowered to spend as freely as public health demands.”

Industry bailouts should be directed toward protecting jobs and wages for workers, not “shareholders’ wealth, creditors’ debt, or senior management salaries.”

Firms getting government handouts “must not be permitted to lay off workers, outsource or offshore work, cut workers’ pay or benefits, or reopen union contracts.”

What’s going on is unprecedented in US history, the same true in other countries.

EPI called for “a wraparound insurance policy to make sure that all households get at least some relief and that low-wage workers receive enough to live on during the enforced economic shutdown” — through “substantial cash payments to households.”

Economic stimulus/recovery measures must be sustained “as long as conditions warrant.”

“Cash payments should not be one-time” — what Congress and the White House agreed on, what will only help millions of Americans in need very short-term, way short of what’s needed.

Economists Paul Craig Roberts and Michael Hudson called for a “debt jubilee.”

Roberts explained that debt forgiveness works as intended.

Piling on more debt will make an untenable situation worse.

Wipe the slate clean on “mortgage, student, car, (and) credit card” debt. They’re too “overwhelming” to be repaid — impossible during protracted economic duress.

Hudson stressed that “if the US government can finance $4.5 trillion in quantitative easing for the banks, it can absorb the cost of forgoing student and other debt,” adding:

“And for private lenders, only bad loans need be wiped out. Much of what would be written off are accruals, late charges and penalties on loans gone bad.”

Mismanaged companies like airlines, Boeing, and others should be nationalized or permitted to go bankrupt, not bailed out.

Instead of using their cash flow constructively, they directed billions of dollars for stock buybacks to inflate their valuations to bubble levels, their executives profiting hugely.

How bad will things get and for how long ahead? While only the fullness of time will tell, economist Nouriel Roubini’s outlook is bleak, saying:

“(E)very component of aggregate demand – consumption, capital spending, exports – is in unprecedented free fall.”

Contraction isn’t “V- nor U – nor L-shaped…(I)t looks like a I: a vertical line representing financial markets and the real economy plummeting.”

What’s happening since mid-February exceeds earlier economic downturns — much of the US and other world economies shutting down in a few weeks.

Combatting things economically, financially, and for public health requires “throw(ing) the kitchen sink of unconventional measures at the crisis” — including helicopter money for US households.

The risk of another Great Depression “worse than the original…is rising by the day,” Roubini warned.

Top priority is curtailing the spread of COVID-19 infections and halting them altogether.

As long as the virus forces most people to shelter in place, economic recovery won’t be possible.

At this time, there are about 425,000 cases worldwide, over 55,000 in the US.

If all-out public health measures aren’t prioritized, no matter the cost, there’s risk of exponential increases that could crater economies of the US and other countries catastrophically.

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Award-winning author Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at [email protected]. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG)

His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

Featured image is from MICHAEL NAGLE/XINHUA NEWS AGENCY/GETTY IMAGES

Even before the Covid-19 crisis had slashed stock prices nearly in half since it erupted in January, financial markets were in an inherently unstable condition. Years of quantitative easing had loaded so much money into stock and bond prices that stock price/earnings multiples and bond prices were far too high by any normal and reasonable historical standards. Risk premiums have disappeared, with only a few basis points separating U.S. Treasury bills and corporate bonds.

The Fed’s Quantitative Easing since 2008 plus large companies using their earnings for stock buybacks drove the prices of financial assets into a realm of unreality. The result was that markets already were teetering on the brink of fragility. Any rise of normal interest to more normal conditions, or any external shock, was bound to crash the artificial values at which financial markets were priced. The Fed’s policy was to perpetuate this situation for as long as possible by pumping in yet more credit. But at near-zero interest rates, there was little that could be done.

A close parallel to this situation was the state of Third World debt in the mid-1980s. Mexico’s announcement that it could not meet its foreign debt service was the shock that brought ugly financial reality into conflict with the assumption that somehow any government debt could be paid – even debts denominated in a foreign currency. (Mexico and other countries had denominated their bonds in dollars in order to obtain lower interest rates than bonds denominated in their own currencies would have to pay. The assumption was that export earnings would provide hard currencies with which to redeem the bonds.)

The international financial system was rescued by the issue of Brady bonds – “good” new bonds for old “bad” ones. The capital value of these bonds was still far below the original debt, but they had the virtue of setting realistic levels by bringing the debt balance more in line with the actual ability of debtor countries to earn the dollars or other hard currencies needed to service bonds denominated in foreign currencies, mainly the US dollar.

The current crisis requires a similar write-down and recognition that fictitious price levels must give way to reality at some point. In fact, we have reached the end of an illusion – the illusion that bond (and stock) prices could be sustained indefinitely simply by financial engineering, without an economic base capable of producing enough surplus revenue to justify existing bond and stock prices.

So attractive were the former unrealistic bond and stock levels that the markets are still in the “denial phase” hoping that the Coronavirus bailout may be used as an opportunity for yet further infusion of money into the financial markets. But that merely postpones the inevitable adjustment to bring financial asset prices back in line with real economic capabilities.

There certainly is a financial panic, and prices are not necessarily more realistic in a panic than they were in the bubble leading up to it. The question is, what is a sustainable asset-price level? What needs to be supported is a realistic value of stocks and bonds. Bad debts should be taken off the books, not supported in an attempt to recover the unrealistic pre-virus levels.

A successful way of coping with overpriced bonds and other debts:

Our situation is similar to Third World debt in the early 1980s after Mexico triggered the Latin American debt bomb by explaining that it did not have the money to service its foreign bonds. Prices for Third World bonds plummeted as investors calculated the dollar-earning power of countries that had to export goods and services (or sell off their assets) to pay their foreign-currency debts. But their export proceeds simply could not cover the debt service that was owed.

The Sovereign Debt market was trading at such low prices that these foreign government bonds had become illiquid. Unable to obtain further credit, countries confronted by this financial state of affairs were threatened with political instability.

The Federal Reserve’s long Quantitative Easing and support of the financial markets has provided the appearance of stability. This artificial life support has been viewed as saving banks and large companies, pension funds and state and local finance from insolvency. But in doing this the Fed has been fighting what looks like a losing battle against reality. The Fed has been supporting illusory values that cannot be sustained.

The reality is that large swaths of the post 2008 corporate bond market boom have seen a proliferation of corporate bonds that cannot be paid. The fracking industry is only the most visible example. Airlines, entertainment, hotels and retail companies are facing losses that threaten their solvency.

The Fed fears a free market when it comes to asset prices. Or at least, it fears the political and economic consequences of withdrawing artificial support. Reality forced the Fed into the mid-March support and already a larger intervention has been announced. According to the New York Times, for the first time in history, the Federal reserve announced that it would buy cororate bonds, including the riskiest investment-grade debt. [1]  It seems the Fed also intends to purchase stocks (see this).

This is the “Denial stage” of the illusion that has resulted in crisis– the illusion that the stock and bond run-up could be turned from government manipulation into an actual market reality.

Where is this supposed to end? The Fed could buy up all the bonds – from corporate junk to state and municipal bonds as a way to prevent their prices from falling. At an extreme, this business-as-usual scenario would lead to the Fed owning the junk bond market, municipals, and a large swath of the stock market.

This could have a silver lining: having concentrated the debt in its own hands, the Fed would then have a free hand to write off the debt, privatize the companies and start all over again with a lower debt overhead. That is what China’s central bank has been doing: simply forgiving debt that is owed to itself. The Fed would swap “good” public debt (good in the sense that the government can print the money to pay) for bad (meaning unpayable) debt.

Bringing financial markets in line with reality would mean writing off a large swath of corporate debt and realizing that much corporate equity “wealth” has been created by decapitalizing corporations in stock by-backs instead of investing in the country’s productive capacity, including decent wages for workers. The American airline industry over the last decade has spent as much as 96% of its cash on stock buybacks – giving financial wealth to their CEOs and share holders rather than investing in their business. Such financial wealth, if not underpinned by real wealth, is built on quicksand, and it is now disappearing as asset markets plummet. So stock buybacks and other artificial ways to “create wealth” were “investments” that have had drastically negative returns.

To implement a rationalization of bond and stock prices bringing them in line with reality, it has to be in the interest of holders of these securities. Acknowledging that bonds are not worth as much as the price at which the Fed is supporting them will not appeal to bondholders as long as prices are artificially supported. A bond-swap (new good bonds for old bad bonds) can only be achieved in a situation where it is more realistic and less risky to have a sound good bond than a low-priced (or fictitiously high-priced) bad bond.

Therefore, the Fed should let prices sink to their “market” level without interference. The Fed is trying to support the unsupportable. By doing this, it has blocked a reasonable solution bringing financial asset prices in line with the realistic ability to carry debt.

Without the Fed’s support, bonds would need to be written down and stock prices would continue to plunge. That would prepare the ground for something like the Brady Bond solution for Third World debts in the 1980s. Latin American and other Third World bonds were selling around 25 cents on the dollar in the wake of Mexico’s announcement that it could not pay its scheduled debt in 1982. There was widespread recognition that Latin American governments couldn’t pay their bonds. That was because these bonds were denominated in US dollars, and foreign governments can only print their own currency. When they did this to throw domestic money onto foreign exchange markets to trade for hard currencies with which to pay their debts, their exchange rates plunged. [2]

Brady bonds addressed the problem by a swap of “good bonds for old.” The new bonds received IMF and other support, and were based on what foreign countries actually could pay in foreign exchange (mainly U.S. dollars). Bondholders could swap their old bonds, which were selling from 15 to 25 cents on the dollar, for new bonds priced higher than the market price but less than the original issue, but which at least were secure and less risky. They were “reality bonds.”

The government can organize something similar for corporate bonds after the market takes the artificial QE-added values out. However, to create a market environment for such an alternative, the Fed must let bonds and stocks fall to their natural “realistic” level recognizing that the existing debt overhead can’t be paid. Then, new “reality bonds” can be issued and the economy can start again with a non-crippling debt level. As panic will take the market price below the reality price, the new debt instruments will have higher values than the market panic prices. Alternatively, a good estimate of the real value of the bonds could be made with the debt written down to that level. If that can be done, it would avoid a panic fall to a lower level.

Banks and major creditors would have to absorb much of the loss resulting from the runup of stock and bond prices to overvalued levels. But something similar was a feature of the Brady reforms, which called for burden sharing by banks (the London club) and also governments (the Paris club) who had to provide debt relief. If the debt-writedown makes banks insolvent, they can be nationalized. When more normal conditions return, the banks can be privatized. This would also provide an opportunity to increase competition by breaking up “banks too big to fail” and to again separate commercial from investment banking. In other words, nationalization would be a way to increase competition and restore Glass-Steagall stability to the financial system.

The alternative is that we will face reality without a solution.

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

Notes

Dirk Bezemer provided much help in this article.

[1] Jeanna Smialek, “The Fed Goes All In With Unlimited Bond-Buying Plan,” The New York Times, March 23, 2020. This report adds: “Because the Fed cannot take on substantial credit risk itself, the Treasury Department backs its emergency lending, using money from a fund that contains just $95 billion. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Sunday suggested that the new money in the Republican bill could be leveraged by the Fed to back some $4 trillion in financing.”

[2] The situation was much like German reparations in the 1920s. (See Michael Hudson, Trade, Development and Foreign Debt).

Two Turkish soldiers were injured and two vehicles damaged in Syria’s southern Idlib on March 24. Their military convoy was targeted by a roadside bomb explosion near the village of Sfuhun. Turkish troops based at the al-Barah observation post were conducting a patrol along the contact line between the Syrian Army and Idlib armed groups.

This became the second attack on Turkish forces in Greater Idlib in less than 7 days. On March 19, two Turkish soldiers were killed and several others injured, when an IED exploded near their convoy near the village of Muhamabal.

Pro-militant propaganda claims that the attacks were carried out by the ‘criminal Assad regime’ in an attempt to destabilize the situation. Turkish media outlets pay scant attention to the situation reporting about some unidentified radicals. The open secret is that Turkish forces have become the target of attacks by groups that Ankara has been supporting with its  opposition of the anti-terrorist operations of the Syrian Army. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, Houras al-Din, the Turkistan Islamic Party and similar organizations see the creation of a buffer zone along the M4 as a grave threat to their interests and survival. Therefore they are sabotaging the deal by blocking the highway and fuelling military tensions in the region. In the near future, they may even stage a large false-flag attack on Turkish forces near the contact line planning to blame the ‘Assad regime’ for it and thus  relaunch military hostilities between the Turkish Army and the Syrian Armed Forces.

Violations of the ceasefire regime by Idlib radicals are also increasing. Recently, ATGM, mortar attacks and artillery shelling were reported near Kafr Nubl, Saraqib, Kansafra and Kabinah. Turkish-backed groups claim that this week they destroyed a Syrian Army battle tank and  bulldozer north of Saraqib.

Members of Turkish-backed Faylaq al-Madj raided the village of Sukariya, near the town of Tell Abyad, in northeastern Syria. They attacked locals wounding dozens of them and looting their property. Earlier in March, members of Turkish-backed militant groups protested in the area of Operation Peace Spring because there had been a significant delay of salaries from Ankara. Turkish sources claim that Turkey is actively working to put an end to looting and attacks on locals. Nonetheless, such incidents continue to erupt on a regular basis.

Several explosions were reported near positions of the Syrian Army and Iranian-backed forces at al-Bukamal. Local sources claim that they were a result of actions by ISIS cells. Over the past months, al-Bukamal became a target of dozens of Israeli and US strikes. ISIS terrorists are likely trying to exploit this.

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Although it was nearly twenty years ago, I can remember 9/11 like it was yesterday. I remember the shock of hearing about the planes crashing into towers, at first believing it was a tragic accident and quickly learning it to be otherwise. I remember being told that 19 hijackers, part of a fundamentalist plot to destroy America, were behind the attacks and that the mastermind was a man in a cave in Afghanistan named Osama bin Laden.

As all of America was glued to their television screens, many rushed out to give blood in an effort to at least do something to help one another. George W. Bush’s answer for Americans was to go to work and then go out and shop. Americans dutifully complied. But the government’s answer, in tandem with mainstream media, was also to be afraid. Very afraid. Americans also complied with this request, perhaps more than any other.

In the days and weeks after the initial shock, a college professor informed me about a bill called the PATRIOT ACT that would essentially eviscerate much of the Constitution and Bill of Rights. After class, I questioned him further about the bill, which he explained, and suggested that if I really wanted to understand what was happening, I should read 1984 by George Orwell. I went home and did just that and was surprised to learn that not only was he right, but that I was watching what I was reading happen in front of me in real life.

I watched as the fear of speaking your mind and saying certain words became known as freedom. I watched as Americans came to assume that their communications were listened to, frightened of what they said, but justifying it as they praised their country for being unlike the totalitarian governments of the past. Peace became war. Any suggestion that invading Afghanistan was wrong was unpatriotic. In fact, any criticism of the government was considered unpatriotic and anyone who valued freedom over temporary security was borderline a traitor.

I watched as the United States became The Homeland and I watched as my friends had their window busted out of their car because they did not have one of those ridiculous window flags.

Still, shortly after the event itself, I began speaking out against the erosion of our Constitution and the Bill of Rights. I questioned the official story of 9/11 and fought against the passage of the PATRIOT ACT. In those days, anyone who did either of these things was considered either woefully ignorant and naive or a traitor who was giving moral support to the enemy.

I spoke out after 9/11 and was largely alone with a few notable exceptions. I was forced to watch the majority of my fellow Americans give away the most precious thing they had, the things which no other country could lay claim to, and the thing that they claimed they were supporting war to protect. America gave away a huge chunk of its rights in the wake of 9/11 and, though they were promised the measures were only temporary, twenty years on we have never received them back.

Instead, police officers are now often indistinguishable from military soldiers, the United States is still in Afghanistan as well as Iraq, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Ukraine, and a host of theatres across the world where its undefinable “interests” apparently lie. It is now a foregone conclusion that cellphone, internet, and all other communications are monitored. It is well understood that the iron fist of the state can come down with lack of due process and the Second Amendment is under daily attack. Torture is now general practice for foreign and domestic arrestees.

Now, here we are close to twenty years later. Americans once again have a shadowy nemesis for which our government has once again failed to provide adequate information. Once again, the governmental response is not a robust rethinking of how we got to be where we are, (in this case how medical care is provided, who has access to it, or the overarching philosophy behind it), but a massive police state, quasi martial law, and the evisceration of what is left of the liberties and rights they didn’t give away twenty years ago or give away gradually in the time between.

This time, it is not so much the President leading the charge to burn the Constitution, but Governors all across the country, acting in concert with one another. But they aren’t acting alone. Because of the massive propaganda mouthpiece of the mainstream media blasting hysteria and panic as well as the desired conclusions they intend for their audiences to reach, many Americans are demanding that their rights be taken away and that they and their fellow citizens be forced off the streets and into their homes at gunpoint.

My opposition to the potential Lockdown is twofold but principally it is based on the fact that over two hundred and thirty years of rights and liberties should not be shredded on the basis of any threat, real or imagined. Americans either have rights or we don’t. There is no asterisk in the Constitution that states the Bill of Rights is null and void in the event of a terrorist attack or a virus outbreak. If we do not maintain our rights in a time of crisis, then, simply put, we do not truly have rights at all.

If we do not maintain these rights, our country, such as it is, ceases to exist.

As Peter Hitchens, one of the few critics of this Lockdown mentality (happening all over the world and, in his case, Britain) wrote in his recent article for the Mail Online,

All the crudest weapons of despotism, the curfew, the presumption of guilt and the power of arbitrary arrest, are taking shape in the midst of what used to be a free country. And we, who like to boast of how calm we are in a crisis, seem to despise our ancient hard-bought freedom and actually want to rush into the warm, firm arms of Big Brother.

Hitchens’ article is well worth reading, not only for his views but for his critique of the scale of the pandemic, which is highly questionable.

Secondly, we are quickly driving this country to a second Great Depression where unemployment is at levels never before seen and where only the 1% and the major banks have anything resembling wealth. This Depression will be so devastating that it will make the first look weak in comparison, not just because of employment but because of the real human toll after decades of globalism, Free Trade, and urbanization have gutted this country of its workforce, manufacturing, healthcare, education, production capabilities, and general living standards. With more Americans living urban lives and fewer and fewer farms by the day, the Second Great Depression will kill many more people than the virus and leave those left alive scrounging for crumbs at the bottom. Already, since the beginning of this virus emergency, we have witnessed a huge transfer of wealth from the lower classes to the higher and we will no doubt witness more as this insane Lockdown attempt continues.

After the Lockdown passes, Americans will complain about low wages and lack of work. They will wait in lines for benefits that may or may not exist and that will be lower than their current living standards require. Unlike the loss of their rights, the benefits will be temporary. But Americans won’t be able to fully blame Wall Street this time around since it was the media and the people who listen to it who were howling in the streets for Lockdowns and shutdowns. They will have gotten what they wanted as well as the opportunity to live to regret it.

So here I am, twenty years after a writing career began as a result of generally good people who were frightened into giving away their rights, writing about exactly the same thing yet again. Of course, there may be time to reverse the direction in which we are heading. The next few weeks will most likely determine that matter. One thing is for certain, however, if Americans give up their rights now, they will never get them back.

I don’t have any illusions about the effect this article will have on the direction we are heading as a nation. Instead, I expect it to bring about more criticism, more insults, and more claims that I am no longer “credible” as the propaganda repeaters seen on the major cable networks are credible. But it will be worth it, for no other reason than to register my voice so that, for the record, there was at least a few people who retained their sanity through this worldwide era of panic and did not willingly sacrifice his rights on the altar of fear.

If we are able to step back from the abyss, perhaps the “credibility” and respect that I lose from peers as a result of this article will someday be returned. But if we are not able to step back, I can’t imagine anyone will be able to remember anything I’ve said here and, if that is the case, it probably wouldn’t matter if they did.

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Brandon Turbeville writes for Activist Post – article archive here – He is the author of seven books, Codex Alimentarius — The End of Health Freedom, 7 Real Conspiracies, Five Sense Solutions and Dispatches From a Dissident, volume 1 and volume 2, The Road to Damascus: The Anglo-American Assault on Syria, The Difference it Makes: 36 Reasons Why Hillary Clinton Should Never Be President, and Resisting The Empire: The Plan To Destroy Syria And How The Future Of The World Depends On The Outcome. Turbeville has published over 1500 articles on a wide variety of subjects including health, economics, government corruption, civil liberties and, most notably, geopolitics and the Syrian crisis. His most recent release is a book of poetry, Dance, Amputee. Brandon Turbeville’s radio show Truth on The Tracks can be found at UCYTV. His website is BrandonTurbeville.com. He is available for radio and TV interviews. Please contact activistpost (at) gmail.com. He is from Columbia, SC. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from Activist Post

You can almost smell the fear-laden sweat oozing from the pores of television broadcasts and social media posts as it finally dawns on our political and media establishments what the coronavirus actually means. And I am not talking about the threat posed to our health. 

A worldview that has crowded out all other thinking for nearly two generations is coming crashing down. It has no answers to our current predicament. There is a kind of tragic karma to the fact that so many major countries – meaning major economies – are today run by the very men least equipped ideologically, emotionally and spiritually to deal with the virus.

That is being starkly exposed everywhere in the west, but the UK is a particularly revealing case study.

Dragging their heels

It emerged at the weekend that Dominic Cummings, the ideological powerhouse behind Britain’s buffoonish prime minister Boris Johnson, was pivotal in delaying the UK government’s response to the coronavirus – effectively driving Britain on to the Italian (bad) path of contagion rather than the South Korean (good) one.

According to media reports at the weekend, Cummings initially stalled government action, arguing of the coming plague that “if that means some pensioners die, too bad”. That approach explains the dragging of heels for many days, and then days more of dither that is only now coming to a resolution.

This was 2 weeks ago. 1000s had already died all around the world, the WHO was already begging government's to enforce distancing & to "test test test." This gross negligence by the Johnson's gov should never be forgotten nor forgiven. #UKlockdown pic.twitter.com/islqkivW8l

— Jack Duncan🌹 (@JackDunc1) March 23, 2020

Cummings, of course, denies ever making the statement, calling the claim “defamatory”. But let’s dispense with the formalities. Does anybody really – really – believe that that wasn’t the first thought of Cummings and half the cabinet when confronted with an imminent contagion they understood was about to unravel a social and economic theory they have dedicated their entire political careers to turning into a mass cult? An economic theory from which – by happy coincidence – they derive their political power and class privilege.

And sure enough, these hardcore monetarists are already quietly becoming pretend socialists to weather the very first weeks of the crisis. And there are many months more to run. 

Austerity thrown out 

As I predicted in my last post, the UK government last week threw out the austerity policies that have been the benchmark of Conservative party orthodoxy for more than a decade and announced a splurge of spending to save businesses with no business as well as members of the public no longer in a position to earn a living.

Since the 2008 financial crash, the Tories have cut social and welfare spending to the bone, creating a massive underclass in Britain, and have left local authorities penniless and incapable of covering the shortfall. For the past decade, the Conservative government excused its brutalist approach with the mantra that there was no “magic money tree” to help in times of trouble.

The free market, they argued, was the only fiscally responsible path. And in its infinite wisdom, the market had decided that the 1 per cent – the millionaires and billionaires who had tanked the economy in that 2008 crash – would get even filthier rich than they were already.

Meanwhile, the rest of us would see the siphoning off of our wages and prospects so that the 1 per cent could horde yet more wealth on offshore islands where we and the government could never get our hands on it.

“Neoliberalism” became a mystifying term used to reimagine unsustainable late-stage, corporate capitalism not only as a rational and just system but as the only system that did not involve gulags or bread queues.

Not only did British politicians (including most of the Labour parliamentary party) subscribe to it, but so did the entire corporate media, even if the “liberal” Guardian would very occasionally and very ineffectually wring its hands about whether it was time to make this turbo-charged capitalism a little more caring.

Only deluded, dangerous Corbyn “cultists” thought different.

Self-serving fairytale 

But suddenly, it seems, the Tories have found that magic money tree after all. It was there all along and apparently has plenty of low-hanging fruit the rest of us may be allowed to partake from.

One doesn’t need to be a genius like Dominic Cummings to see how politically terrifying this moment is for the establishment. The story they have been telling us for 40 years or more about harsh economic realities is about to be exposed as a self-serving fairytale. We have been lied to – and soon we are going to grasp that very clearly.

That is why this week the Tory politician Zac Goldsmith, a billionaire’s son who was recently elevated to the House of Lords, described as a “twat” anyone who had the temerity to become a “backseat critic” of Boris Johnson. And it is why the feted “political journalist” Isabel Oakeshott – formerly of the Sunday Times and a regular on BBC Question Time – took to twitter to applaud Matt Hancock and Johnson for their self-sacrifice and dedication to public service in dealing with the virus:

Spare a thought today for high-paid corporate journalists like this one who are now being forced to work overtime to find creative ways to make the government look good – and cover up their failure to hold the Tories to account for years of austerity that ravaged health services https://t.co/uYyREKEhqK

— Jonathan Cook (@Jonathan_K_Cook) March 23, 2020

Spare a thought this morning for health secretary @MattHancock who has such enormous responsibility right now and is working crazy hours trying to help the nation beat this. The hourly judgements he and @BorisJohnson have to make are so difficult.

Be ready. Over the coming weeks, more and more journalists are going to sound like North Korea’s press corps, with paeans to “the dear leader” and demands that we trust that he knows best what must be done in our hour of need.

Saved by the bail-outs 

The political and media class’s current desperation has a substantive cause – and one that should worry us as much as the virus itself.

Twelve years ago capitalism teetered on the brink of the abyss, its structural flaws exposed for anyone who cared to look. The 2008 crash almost broke the global financial system. It was saved by us, the public. The government delved deep into our pockets and transferred our money to the banks. Or rather the bankers.

We saved the bankers – and the politicians – from their economic incompetence through bail-outs that were again mystified by being named “quantitative easing”.

But we weren’t the ones rewarded. We did not own the banks or get a meaningful stake in them. We did not even get oversight in return for our huge public investment. Once we had saved them, the bankers went right back to enriching themselves and their friends in precisely the same manner that stalled the economy in 2008.

The bail-outs did not fix capitalism, they simply delayed for a while longer its inevitable collapse.

Capitalism is still structurally flawed. Its dependence on ever-expanding consumption cannot answer the environmental crises necessarily entailed by such consumption. And economies that are being artificially “grown”, at the same time as resources deplete, ultimately create inflated bubbles of nothingness – bubbles that will soon burst again.

Survival mode 

Indeed, the virus is illustrative of one of those structural flaws – an early warning of the wider environmental emergency, and a reminder that capitalism, by intertwining economic greed with environmental greed, has ensured the two spheres collapse in tandem.

Pandemics like this one are the outcome of our destruction of natural habitats – to grow cattle for burgers, to plant palm trees for cakes and biscuits, to log forests for flat-pack furniture. Animals are being driven into ever closer proximity, forcing diseases to cross the species barrier. And then in a world of low-cost flights, disease finds an easy and rapid transit to every corner of the planet.

The truth is that in a time of collapse, like this decade-long one, capitalism has only “magic money trees” left. The first one, in the late 2000s, was reserved for the banks and the large corporations – the wealth elite that now run our governments as plutocracies.

The second “magic money tree”, needed to deal with what will become the even more disastrous economic toll wrought by the virus, has had to be widened to include us. But make no mistake. The circle of beneficence has been expanded not because capitalism suddenly cares about the homeless and those reliant on food banks. Capitalism is an amoral economic system driven by the accumulation of profit for the owners of capital. And that’s not you or me.

So homelessness can be ended just like that. 🤷‍♂️
https://t.co/yehwW3OuQH

— JJG (@joejglenton) March 22, 2020

No, capitalism is now in survival mode. That is why western governments will, for a time, try to “bail out” sections of their publics too, giving back to them some of the communal wealth that has been extracted over many decades. These governments will try to conceal for a little longer the fact that capitalism is entirely incapable of solving the very crises it has created. They will try to buy our continuing deference to a system that has destroyed our planet and our children’s future. 

It won’t work indefinitely, as Dominic Cummings knows only too well. Which is why the Johnson government, as well as the Trump administration and their cut-outs in Brazil, Hungary, Israel, India and elsewhere, are in the process of drafting draconian emergency legislation that will have a longer term goal than the immediate one of preventing contagion.

Western governments will conclude that it is time to shore up capitalism’s immune system against their own publics. The risk is that, given the chance, they will begin treating us, not the virus, as the real plague.

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This essay first appeared on the author’s blog site, Jonathan Cook’s blog.

Jonathan Cook won the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize for Journalism. His books include “Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East” (Pluto Press) and “Disappearing Palestine: Israel’s Experiments in Human Despair” (Zed Books). His website is www.jonathan-cook.net. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

The Democratic establishment is deriving some delusionary cheer from it.  The line of candidates for the presidential nomination has thinned, many falling out and proceeding, suicidally, to endorse former Vice President Joe Biden. 

The case of Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard is particularly telling.  At points, she has spoken with sober detachment on the US imperium.  Herself an Iraq War veteran, she preferred to eschew military intervention and regime change tools of foreign policy.  The US record on that matter is lengthy, ignominious and bloody.  Peter Harris, writing in The National Interest, suggested the ideas of a realist at play, at least in a fashion; “that the United States must sometimes tolerate the existence of brutal foreign governments, especially if they share a common interest in fighting the same terrorist groups as America.” 

Such mild and calculating cynicism did not go down well in certain Democratic quarters.  Gabbard was accused of being a Russian asset by the perennially loathing Hillary Clinton.  Her politics on the US imperium, questioning of its international engagements, notably in Syria, struck Clinton as odd, even to the point of being mildly treasonous.  The remarks from Clinton on the “Campaign HQ” podcast are worth quoting in full: “She’s the favourite of the Russians, they have a bunch of sites and bots and other ways of supporting her so far, and that’s assuming Jill Stein will give it up, which she might not, because she’s also a Russian asset.  Yeah, she’s a Russian asset, I mean totally.  They know they can’t win without a third-party candidate.”

This posturing libel by Clinton had a disruptive effect.  Gabbard might have laughed them off as the mad bile of the defeated, but she took it seriously enough to take to the courts.  In January, Gabbard initiated defamation proceedings, claiming that Clinton lied “publicly, unambiguously, and with obvious malicious intent.”  The complaint makes accurate reading, at least when it comes to portrayals of Clinton, she with “a stranglehold over the Democratic party”.

Gabbard, like Bernie Sanders, has also had her issues with the dark machinery of the Democratic National Committee.  In September 2019, she made her sentiments clear.  “There’s just been a lack of transparency … lack of transparency means lack of trust in the process and that they’re trying to take the power away from votes to actually be the ones to decide who continues to move forward in this campaign.” 

One point at issue was the restrictions placed by the DNC on who should qualify for candidate debates, using individual donors and polling averages as criteria.  It was a decision taken without explanation and, as tends to be the nature of DNC machinations, behind closed doors.  The DNC also preferred to adopt polls – again, without explanation – that tended to disfavour Gabbard, despite her meeting the donation threshold.  Despite the muck levelled at her, she managed two delegates on Super Tuesday.  True to form, the DNC again showed its colours by tinkering with the donor prerequisite to give former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg a chance.  The establishment cheer squad was clear flexing some muscle.

Gabbard’s remarks on that particular bit of manipulation were hard to impeach.

“The fact that a billionaire can come in and have that kind of influence to change rules of the DNC – all of a sudden, not coincidentally, to be able to benefit Michael Bloomberg … They are picking winners and losers before voters have the opportunity to do so.”

With the party machinery marshalled against her, Gabbard’s chances were always small.  She also proved a bit too individual for her party colleagues, preferring to vote “present” when it came to the two articles of impeachment drafted against President Donald Trump.  It was a heresy that brought out the pitchforks. 

“Look, I did not take the easy vote,” Gabbard reflected.  “I took the vote that I felt was in the best interest of our country and standing in the centre to be able to bring the country together, to be able to begin this reconciliation that I think is so necessary in this terribly divided moment in our country.” 

Last week, Gabbard’s will had crumbled.  Rather than being proudly defiant, she showed that she was a lady for turning.  Hatchets would be buried and differences set aside.  “After Tuesday’s election, it is clear that Democratic Primary voters have chosen Vice President Joe Biden to be the person who will take on President Trump in the general election.”   

The statement is rich with presumption, though might sadly prove to be the case, given the Democratic tendency to self-immolation.  “Although I may not agree with the vice president on every issue, I now that he has a good heart, and he’s motivated by his love for our country and the American people.”  Her skills on spotting that heart must be other-worldly in nature. “I’m confident that he will lead our country, guided by the spirit of aloha respect and compassion, and thus help heal the divisiveness that has been tearing our country apart.”  A misplaced confidence, if ever there was one.    

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Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge.  He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research and Asia-Pacific Research. Email: [email protected]

Here in Washington state, a spokesman for the nursing home that is the epicenter of a coronavirus outbreak said on Sunday that he and his colleagues “had seen some residents go from no symptoms to death in just a matter of hours.” COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, does not necessarily progress little by little toward a critical stage.

The spokesman’s comments about the unpredictability and volatility of COVID-19 reminded me of how our planet is responding to climate change. While scientists measure climate change in fractions of degrees Celsius, its symptoms stubbornly refuse to emerge slowly and incrementally. We can no longer expect that weather patterns and glaciers and ecosystems will continue to change bit by bit. They may reach a tipping point and then collapse suddenly and perhaps even irreversibly—like a patient in a nursing home who seems fine one day but is dead the next.

As with climate change, the impacts of the coronavirus are unevenly distributed. Some places are harder hit than others, and some people are more vulnerable than others. Moreover, the Trump administration’s response to COVID-19 has been remarkably similar to how it has handled climate change: with a combination of denial and delaying tactics that will ultimately cost the public far more than taking quick action. And not just in dollars: Coronavirus denial could get people killed, by discouraging them from taking precautionary measures.

Here are some key strategies from the climate-denial playbook that are now showing up in the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus:

Downplay the danger. While public health officials caution people to wash their hands, maintain social distance, and avoid large public gatherings, President Trump and some of the conservative media personalities who support him have been spreading a very different message, asserting that COVID-19 is no worse than the common cold or the flu. (Trump even called the disease “coronaflu.”) Trump has speculated that the World Health Organization’s estimated mortality rate of 3.4 percent “is really a false number” and claimed that thousands or even hundreds of thousands of people recover from the disease “just by sitting around and even going to work.”

It has become difficult to believe anything the president says about the coronavirus, considering that it was less than three weeks ago when he posted this tweet:

The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 24, 2020

Even now, with the disease spreading exponentially and public health agencies issuing warnings, the president, a self-described germaphobe, continues to shake hands with person after person and to make statements minimizing the risk to the American public. This is similar to how Trump has attacked climate assessments from his own government, saying he doesn’t believe human activities are causing economically damaging climate change. However, the president’s attempts to downplay the risks of coronavirus may be less effective than his dismissal of climate risks, say experts interviewed by E&E News, “given the virus’s immediate effect on human lives and the financial sector.”

Reject, restrict, or misrepresent the experts. The Trump administration has worked overtime to rid government reports and policies of references to the scientific consensus that human activities are destabilizing the planet’s climate. Trump has proposed a 26 percent budget cut for the Environmental Protection Agency, which is tasked with climate regulation.

Similarly, the administration has dramatically downsized epidemic-prevention activities at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), shut down the entire global health security unit of the National Security Council, eliminated the government’s $30 million Complex Crises Fund, and postponed an annual intelligence report warning that the United States is unprepared for a global pandemic. The president’s latest budget proposal would cut the CDC budget by almost 16 percent, and the Department of Health and Human Services budget by almost 10 percent. Trump claims he can bring in public-health experts on demand, as if they are gig workers who sit at home waiting for the government to call with an assignment.

Although the president has been briefed about the coronavirus outbreak by experts at the CDC and other government agencies—and brags about his “natural ability” to understand COVID-19—he routinely commandeers the microphone to make inaccurate statements about the number of Americans infected, the likelihood that the disease will spread, and the speed at which a vaccine can be introduced. After a meeting with GOP senators yesterday, for example, Trump said the virus “will go away” and made one of many misleading comparisons with seasonal flu: “So you have 8,000 [flu deaths] versus 26 [coronavirus] deaths at this time—with all of that being said, we’re taking this unbelievably seriously, and I think we’re doing a very good job.”

"Stay calm. It will go away."

Pres. Trump downplayed the coronavirus threat after meeting with GOP leaders, telling @marykbruce that "everybody has to be vigilant and has to be careful," but "a lot of good things are going to happen." https://t.co/LGAuScwblO pic.twitter.com/8yeSaJnnWn

— ABC News (@ABC) March 10, 2020

Delay action. When it doesn’t work to simply deny that a problem like climate change or COVID-19 exists, the administration has been slow to take action and direct resources to the problem. For example, Trump asked for only $2.5 billion to respond to the coronavirus outbreak, with half of that money to be diverted from other programs. Congress instead authorized $8.3 billion in emergency funding.

Now that it has become clear that the virus will become widespread and may have a severe economic toll, Trump is proposing to cut payroll taxes, provide assistance to hourly workers who have to stay home from their jobs, and give bailouts to the travel and hospitality industries. Economists generally agree that it is far more costly to deal with problems like the coronavirus and climate change later rather than sooner. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of adaptation.

The coronavirus response in the United States is now shifting from containment and precautionary measures to a pandemic-style response, but that shift is still happening community by community, rather than as a society-wide program to mobilize resources. The same is true of climate change, with some cities and states taking climate action but the federal government on permanent pause.

Make it political. When the president makes himself the messenger on a public health issue such as climate change or coronavirus, the message automatically becomes political. It also becomes less credible, because only one-third of American voters view Trump as an honest person, according to the latest Quinnipiac University poll. Trump is a lousy coronavirus response spokesperson for the same reason that Al Gore was problematic as a climate campaigner: Having a politician as the spokesperson for a public health issue virtually guarantees that a lot of Americans will not take the issue seriously—and makes it easier for conspiracy theories and disinformation to thrive.

Some of the GOP senators who met with Trump yesterday reportedly asked him to make Anthony Fauci the face of the coronavirus response. That’s a great suggestion. Fauci, a prominent medical expert who heads the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, would focus on the science, not the political spin. And you’d never see him on television spreading germs from person to person along a rope line.

Blame someone else. When things aren’t going well, Trump’s first impulse is to blame anyone but himself. He points the finger at China and India for their climate-altering emissions and claims the Paris climate agreement gives those countries an unfair advantage over the United States.

In the case of the coronavirus, Trump initially accused China of not being transparent about the outbreak but more recently has focused his attention on the media and the Democratic Party, claiming that “fake news” about COVID-19 is causing markets to tank, and that the coronavirus situation has been exaggerated “far beyond what the facts would warrant.” The president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., even told Fox News that Democrats hope the coronavirus “kills millions of people so they can end Donald Trump’s streak of winning,” a comment he later justified by saying he is “entitled to speak, with hyperbole.” Meanwhile, both Trump and Vice President Mike Pence tried to blame former president Barack Obama for the slow rollout of coronavirus test kits, even though the delay was caused by a policy adopted during the Trump administration.

Ignore the physical reality. Although the president’s thinking on both the coronavirus and climate change seems to be evolving from “hoax” to “serious,” he and his administration are still treating these public health issues as if they can be fixed with a well-placed tweet or budget appropriation, rather than through long-term investment in preparation and mitigation. This is a profound failure to acknowledge that even the most powerful humans on the planet cannot rewrite the laws of physics.

As author and climate activist Bill McKibben wrote in his newly launched climate newsletter at The New Yorker, “a physical shock like COVID-19 is a reminder that the world is a physical place. That’s easy to forget when we apprehend it mostly through screens, or through the cozy, contained environments that make up most of our lives. We seem to have a great deal of control, right until the moment that we don’t have any. Things can go very, very wrong, and very, very quickly. That’s precisely what scientists have been telling us for decades now about the climate crisis, and it’s what people have learned, from Australia to California, Puerto Rico, and everywhere that flood and fire has broken out.”

President Trump may eventually learn this lesson, too. But for the elderly residents of that nursing home near Seattle, and the hundreds of thousands of people around the globe who are dying annually from climate impacts, things have already gone very, very wrong.

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Dawn Stover is a contributing editor at the Bulletin. A science writer based in the Pacific Northwest, her work has appeared in Scientific American, Conservation, Popular Science, New Scientist, The New York Times, and other publications. One of her articles is included in the 2010 Best American Science and Nature Writing, and another article was awarded a special citation by the Knight-Risser Prize for Western Environmental Journalism.

Featured image: President Trump visited the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on March 6, 2020. From the left: Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar, CDC director Robert R. Redfield, and CDC associate director Stephan Monroe. Credit: White House photo by Shealah Craighead

The coronavirus pandemic has impacted the United States unlike any other event in recent history, proving to be far more disruptive to American society, and far most damaging to the U.S. economy, than even the events of 9/11. 

The U.S. response is something President Trump has likened to a “war,” going so far as to label himself a “wartime President,” leading the U.S. against “the toughest enemy” in a struggle in which he vows “total victory.” If the fight against the coronavirus is a war, then the virus clearly took the U.S. government by surprise. “Certainly we didn’t get an early run on it, Trump noted in a press conference on March 17. “It would’ve been helpful if we knew about it earlier.”

It is the job of the U.S. intelligence community to provide senior U.S. government policy makers, including the president, with advance warning about potential crises. The U.S. taxpayer pays a premium for this service; in 2020, the budget for the National Intelligence Program, which includes all programs, projects and activities of the U.S. intelligence community, was $62.8 billion.

Included in this budget is a small, specialized intelligence unit known as the National Center for Medical Intelligence (NCMI), which operates as part of the Defense Intelligence Agency. The mission of the NCMI is to serve as the lead activity within the Department of Defense (DoD) “for the production of medical intelligence,” and to prepare and coordinate “integrated, all-source intelligence for the DoD and other government and international organizations on foreign health threats and other medical issues to protect U.S. interests worldwide.”

For a small agency, the NCMI packs a large punch in terms of the overall impact of its product. For example, in April 2009—two months prior to when the WHO and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officially declared the global outbreak of H1N1 influenza a pandemic, NCMI published an intelligence product, known as an “Infectious Disease Risk Assessment,” which predicted that a recent outbreak of the Swine Flu (H1N1) would become a pandemic.

The positive work done by the NCMI in relation to the H1N1 outbreak contributed to the creation of the 2012 “National Strategy for Biosurveillance,” designed to help facilitate a full-time institutionalized process for obtaining timely and accurate insight on current and emerging biological risks. President Obama himself noted the critical role played by “accurate and timely information” during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic that enabled decision makers, including himself, to “develop the effective responses that save lives.

“The sooner we can detect and understand a threat,” Obama wrote in the introduction to the first National Strategy for Biosurveillance, “the faster we can take action to protect the American people.”

Providing this early detection of a threat is the mission of the NCMI. When it comes to diseases like H1N1 and the coronavirus, this task falls under the remit of the NCMI’s Infectious Disease Division, whose baseline requirement, according to a former commanding officer, Air Force Col. (Dr.) Anthony M. Rizzo, “is to understand the risk of every type of [endemic] infectious disease in every country.”

“When we think of the word biosurveillance, we think of the kinds of things that the public health community does—collecting cases, taking cultures, deciding which disease is which,” Rizzo said. “But we in the intelligence community are looking way before that to determine [if there are] threats on the horizon.”

The NCMI’s job, Rizzo noted, is predictive in nature—not to explain what is happening, but rather “what we believe is going to happen.” To do this, NCMI has access to the resources of the totality of the intelligence community, including intercepted communications, satellite imagery, and sensitive human intelligence, including covert sample collection.

The coronavirus was clearly part of the NCMI’s remit. And yet its first Infectious Disease Risk Assessment for COVID-19 was issued on January 5, 2020, reporting that 59 people had been taken ill in Wuhan, China. This report was derived not from any sensitive intelligence collection effort or independent biosurveillance activity, but rather from a report issued to the WHO by the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission, dated January 5, 2020.

The next day the CDC warned American citizens to take precautions if traveling to China, followed a day later with the activation of a COVID-19 incident management team within the CDC Emergency Management System. This, however, is not the kind of predictive analysis that U.S. policymakers needed if they were going to get ahead of the coronavirus pandemic. Unlike 2009, when the NCMI provided a full two months heads up about the threat of a Swine Flu pandemic, in 2020 the Trump administration was taking its cues from the WHO, which waited until January 30, 2020 to declare a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). The NCMI had been relegated to a mere observer, having failed in its mission to provide timely, predictive analysis of pending epidemiological threats.

Almost everything the NCMI knew about the current situation in Wuhan came from the WHO, which had been working very closely with Chinese authorities from the Chinese Center of Disease Control (CCDC) to determine the origin and nature of the coronavirus outbreak. While a great deal of attention has been paid to the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in the city of Wuhan, which sells live poultry, fish, and several kinds of wild animals to the public, a detailed investigation by the Joint Field Epidemiology Investigation Team, a specialized task force working under the auspices of the Chinese Center for Disease Control (CCDC), found that the COVID-19 epidemic did not originate by animal-to-human transmission in the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, as originally believed, but rather human-to-human transmission totally unrelated to the operation of the market.

Moreover, by analyzing the characteristic of some 27 genomes of the COVID-19 virus provided by the Chinese and published by the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GSAID), research scientists were able to determine that the “most recent common ancestor” for the coronavirus could be dated back to as early as October 1, 2019.

The importance of this date as it relates to the NCMI is that in mid-October 2019 a delegation of 300 U.S. military athletes arrived in Wuhan to participate in the 2019 Military World games. China has suggested that these personnel might have introduced the coronavirus infection to Wuhan, citing their own research thatsuggests that the virus was introduced into China from elsewhere, and Japanese and Taiwanese studies that point to the U.S. as the likely source of the virus. There is, however, no independent evidence to support these allegations.

The importance of the U.S. military athletes rests in the fact that the NCMI is responsible for conducting threat briefs for all deployments of military personnel world-wide, which meant that a Wuhan-specific Infectious Disease Risk Assessment would have necessarily been prepared in support of this deployment. Infectious Disease Risk Assessments are the bread-and-butter intelligence product produced by the NCMI’s Infectious Disease Division, one in which the totality of the medical intelligence collection and analytical capabilities would be utilized.

The production of a Wuhan-specific Infectious Disease Risk Assessment would have created a window of opportunity for the NCMI to have collected the kind of medical intelligence that could have provided early warning about the existence of the coronavirus. Moreover, these athletes should have been subjected to screening upon return as part of the national biosurveillance program, providing yet another opportunity for early detection of the coronavirus if anyone had been exposed to it during their travel.

The CDC has recently acknowledged, during a hearing of the House Oversight Committee on March 11, that its biosurveillance program has uncovered evidence that Americans who had previously died to what had been originally diagnosed as influenza have, through post-mortem testing, been found to have actually have perished from the coronavirus. Normally, the details obtained from this kind of biosurveillance would be widely shared to better understand the scope and potential spread of the infection, as well as to better pin down the source and timing of the infections.

However, the initial meetings regarding a national-level coronavirus response conducted under the auspices of the Department of Health and Human Services, where intelligence gathered as a result of any such biosurveillance activity would logically be discussed, were all treated as classified events, under orders from the National Security Council. As a result, many people who otherwise would have been present were excluded, and those who did attend these meetings were precluded from discussing what occurred. This lack of transparency on the part of the Trump administration only fuels speculation about the reasons for meetings normally conducted in the open suddenly being classified, as well as precisely what information is being hidden from the public.

The sufficiency and efficacy of the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic remains to be seen. As President Trump noted on March 17, however, it would have been helpful to have had advance warning. That was the job of the NCMI, and they failed. This failure may have been a result of complacency, incompetence, or just a byproduct of circumstance. Regardless of the reason, the NCMI needs to learn from this experience, and reexamine the totality of the intelligence cycle—the direction, collection, analysis and feedback loop—associated with its failure to adequately predict the coronavirus pandemic. This reexamination should ensure that the U.S. will not be caught flat-footed the next time around, because there will be a next time around.

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Scott Ritter is a former Marine Corps intelligence officer who served in the former Soviet Union implementing arms control treaties, in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm, and in Iraq overseeing the disarmament of WMD. He is the author of several books, including his forthcoming, Scorpion King: America’s Embrace of Nuclear Weapons From FDR to Trump (2020).

Featured image: A researcher works in a lab that is developing testing for the COVID-19 coronavirus at Hackensack Meridian Health Center for Discovery and Innovation on February 28, 2020 in Nutley, New Jersey. The facility develops novel therapies for some of the world’s most difficult diseases. At least 53 countries have reported cases of infection. (Photo by Kena Betancur/Getty Images)

The recent explosion of COVID-19 cases in the South East Asian region has contributed to the globally growing pandemic that has impacted our global social order and may have many dramatic unforeseen consequences to come.

It has exposed the fragility of our dynamic inter-connected systems, the lack of adequate response from world leaders in an aggressively deteriorating situation, and perhaps worst of all, the apathy and ignorance of a significant segment of the global population to the severity of the pandemic.

It is not necessary to re-cap here on the origins of the COVID-19 virus. Beginning in China, the virus ultimately found its’ way to West Asia, South East Asia, Australia, Europe (which has been the worst hit to date, even surpassing China is some respects) and ultimately America. The danger it presents is indisputable, especially to the most vulnerable of us.

Governments have issued various controls to help contain the spread of the virus, but has had limited success.  The virus infection rates still continue to rise as medical infrastructures are now being strained, with a frightening prospect that when overburdened, the death tolls will begin to rise, much like the case of Italy.

But why is the spread of the virus still increasing and the situation still deteriorating?

A lot has to do with the continuous movement of people who are spreading the virus around and abroad, despite movement control orders that have been issued to curb and control such movements.

France and the United States of America still see mass gatherings occurring.  Italy before the pandemic crippled the country had a lax attitude towards the severity of the disease and disregarded the government’s advice to maintain social distancing. This is also happening in South East Asia with the recent Muslim Tabligh gathering in Malaysia, with an estimated 12, to 16 thousand people attending. This particular incident was one of the catalysts for the recent spike in Covid-19 cases in Malaysia and South East Asia.

Is this incident the fault of an apathetic populace or a group that is inanely selfish as to put the lives of others at risk for their own pursuits?

Not entirely.

While it is true that there were many who were more adamant about attending such gatherings, rather than obeying the movement control orders out of some misplaced notion of religiosity, individualism or human rights, the truth is many were also not aware of the severity of the virus’s impact upon the larger community, because of ignorance, or having been taken in by half-truths and fiction from various sources that had spread false information and “fake news”.

Information, that emphasizes the allegedly low death rates associated with of the virus; that the virus only survives in certain climates; that it is no worse than the common cold; and even the latest on how the virus can be treated with simply drinking warm water to flush out the virus from one’s system, have all contributed towards prevailing misunderstandings and misconceptions about Covid-19.

This illustrates one of the greatest ironies of our times, in that social media, while it has enabled us to become more connected and informed, has also allowed for such fallacies to spread and pollute discourse and thus  affect policy and decision-making.

And the bureaucracy of the larger governments, slow-moving as is their nature, were not quick enough in many instances, to address the rumors and misinformation in an effective manner. By the time they acted, the virus had spread to such a degree, that lockdown and containments were the only drastic options left.

Many of the falsities are still being propagated to this day with some members of the elite classes and “well-learned” members of the public still defying movement controls and arguing technicalities over the directive.

Governments need to play a more dynamic role in the face of this crisis, but they  also need to draw a lesson from this crisis as well, that education of the population, clear directions and communications are also important to manage a crisis such as this.

Liberties are important in times of peace, but a clear leadership is needed in times of crisis.

There has been a lot of slow and overly cautious response from the governments and not enough pro-active decision making. People have been stricken by the disease because of all the misinformation, lack of education on the situation, and poor forms of governance in managing it.

Should there be a much larger threat looming on the horizon, far worse than COVID-19, given our current handling of the crisis, it is truly doubtful we could manage the next one at all.

However, with all the gloom that has been addressed, the ray of hope that can be gleaned is the willingness of so many people to stand vigilant against wrongdoings and misinformation.

The dedication and proactiveness of the medical community who argue against such misinformation, while serving on the frontlines to battle the disease is commendable.

The police and law enforcement personnel who are out there enforcing the movement control order putting themselves at risk to help the community retain a semblance of order also deserve our accolades.

The people who continuously reach out to educate others of the disease and of the important steps to take in managing it, while calling out those who continue to disregard the severity of the situation, are also doing a commendable job.

All these groups and others I have not highlighted could play a constructive role, once the crisis is over. They could help Malaysia and the world to be better, stronger and wiser.

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Hassanal Noor Rashid is Programme Coordinator at the International Movement for a Just World (JUST).

Though often discussed in relation to nuclear war or a similarly chaotic scenario, “continuity of government” plans can be triggered even by popular, nonviolent opposition to an unpopular war abroad. It exists solely to keep the current system in place, regardless of the cost.

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 Last week, Newsweek published a report entitled “Inside The Military’s Top Secret Plans If Coronavirus Cripples the Government,” which offers vague descriptions of different military plans that could be put into effect if the civilian government were to be largely incapacitated, with a focus on the potential of the current novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic to result in such a scenario.

The article’s author, William Arkin, largely frames these plans as new, though — buried deep within the article — he eventually mentions that such contingency plans can be traced back to the Eisenhower administration (though they were in place before) and have since been developed and updated by most subsequent administrations, largely through the issuance of executive orders. Arkin also points out that some of these “Continuity of Government”, or COG, plans include the “devolution” of leadership and Constitutional authority, which he notes “could circumvent the normal Constitutional provisions for government succession, and military commanders could be placed in control around America.”

Screenshot from Newsweek

 

 

Yet, there are key aspects of COG and its development that Arkin leaves out. For instance, in his timeline on how such plans have developed in the post-World War II era, he conveniently fails to mention any of the Reagan administration’s major changes to COG, including the Reagan-era Executive Order on which all current COG programs are based. Indeed, many of the “extra-Constitutional” aspects of COG that Arkin mentions began during the Reagan administration, when these plans were redrafted to largely exclude members of Congress, including the Speaker of the House, from succession plans and even moved to essentially eliminate Congress in the event of COG being implemented, with near total power instead being given to the executive branch and the military. It was also during this time that the “devolution” aspect of COG was hammered out, as it created three president-cabinet “teams” to be stationed in different parts of the country outside of the nation’s capital. Arkin’s decision to not mention how COG was a major focus of the Reagan administration is striking given that that administration poured hundreds of millions of dollars annually into COG planning and development and also conducted COG drills on a regular basis.

Furthermore, the Miami Herald revealed in 1987, that the COG programs of that era were deeply connected to what the Herald termed “a virtual parallel government outside the traditional cabinet departments and agencies” that began operating “almost from the day Reagan took office” and included military and intelligence operatives as well as many of Reagan’s closest advisers, including then-CIA Director William Casey. The Herald further claimed that this “parallel government” had been responsible for the Iran-Contra scandal (i.e. “involved in arming the Nicaraguan rebels”) as well as “the drafting of martial law plans for national emergencies,” i.e. COG, as well as “the monitoring of U.S. citizens considered potential security risks.” This “parallel government” planned to use COG to install itself as the ruling power of the country and to detain potential opponents of a U.S. war with Nicaragua in the event that the Reagan administration moved to invade the country.

Other key players in those Reagan-era COG developments, such as former Vice President Dick Cheney, former CIA Director James Woosley and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, are also left unmentioned in Arkin’s article. Not mentioning Cheney and Rumsfeld are particularly glaring omissions given that they were involved in the implementation of aspects of those COG plans that went live in the wake of the September 11 attacks, when both men were serving in key posts in the George W. Bush administration.

While Arkin’s omission of the role of the Reagan administration and leading neoconservatives in the development and use of COG is significant, arguably more significant is his failure to mention one of COG’s major components, one that has gone essentially unmentioned by well-known media outlets for well over a decade – Main Core.

The government’s database of “potential troublemakers”

When Reagan issued Executive Order 12656, he created COG plans that could be implemented during “any national security emergency,” which the E.O. loosely defines as “any occurrence, including natural disaster, military attack, technological emergency, or other emergency, that seriously degrades or seriously threatens the national security of the United States.” E.O. 12656 also put the National Security Council (NSC) in charge of developing and administering COG policies.

The NSC official placed in charge of this “secret” COG program was Oliver North, whose name would later become infamous for the key role he played in the Iran-Contra Scandal. During the Iran-Contra hearings in the late 1980s, then-Representative Jack Brooks (D-TX) attempted to ask the following question to North: “Colonel North, in your work at the NSC, were you not assigned at one time to work on plans for the continuity of government in the event of a major disaster?” Brooks, however was immediately cut off by Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI), who stated ” I believe that question touches upon a highly sensitive and classified area, so may I request that you not touch upon that, sir.” Brooks protested, but North was ultimately not required to give an answer.

As the de facto leader of COG development and planning during the Reagan administration, North oversaw the creation of a controversial database that later became known simply as “Main Core.” The Main Core database, first built using the stolen PROMIS software (more information on PROMIS here and here), was essentially a list of American dissidents and “potential troublemakers.” A senior government official with a high-ranking security clearance and service in five presidential administrations described the database to journalist Chris Ketcham in 2008 as follows:

A database of Americans, who, often for the slightest and most trivial reason, are considered unfriendly, and who, in a time of panic might be incarcerated. The database can identify and locate perceived ‘enemies of the state’ almost instantaneously.”

In 1993, Wired magazine stated that:

Using PROMIS, sources point out, North could have drawn up lists of anyone ever arrested for a political protest, for example, or anyone who had ever refused to pay their taxes. Compared to PROMIS, Richard Nixon’s enemies list or Sen. Joe McCarthy’s blacklist look downright crude.”

Main Core is the aspect of COG that is most often ignored in reporting on these types of plans, with Arkin’s article being just a more recent example. While most of the rare mentions of COG in the mainstream touch on how those plans would result in the implementation of martial law and the suspension of the Constitution, they even more rarely — if ever — mention Main Core. Indeed, the last “mainstream” reports on Main Core were written over a decade ago — all in 2008 — by Chris Ketcham in Radar, by Scott Horton in Harper’s and by Tim Shorrock in Salon.

Given that COG is now creeping back into mainstream reporting, revisiting Main Core is essential as the database still exists and has grown considerably since Oliver North first oversaw its creation in the early 1980s. In Ketcham’s 2008 article on the subject, he quotes then-senior government officials who said that, at the time, the number of “unfriendly” Americans on that database was approximately 8 million. Ketcham further notes that, in the event COG is implemented, these individuals could be subject to anything ranging from “heightened surveillance and tracking to direct questioning and possibly even detention.”

Tim Shorrock, in his coverage of Main Core, noted that the database was seen in use at the White House following the September 11 attacks and there is strong evidence pointing to it having been used by the George W. Bush administration to guide its domestic surveillance activities in the post-9/11 era. A government official who had told a reporter about having seen the database operational at the White House following September 11th “turned white as a sheet” when the reporter mentioned the name “Main Core” specifically. Shorrock’s reporting also details how Main Core includes vast amounts of information on those “unfriendly” Americans, including the fruits of the vast domestic surveillance programs of the NSA and other U.S. federal agencies that continue today and are now set to be expanded due to the current coronavirus crisis.

In a report written last year on the involvement of U.S. and Israeli intelligence and their private sector allies in pushing for new, troubling pre-crime programs, I noted that Main Core is not only available to U.S. intelligence but also Israel’s intelligence apparatus and that Israeli intelligence was involved in the creation and expansion of Main Core. That report also detailed how Main Core was used by members of Reagan’s NSC to blackmail members of Congress, a practice that is likely to have continued under subsequent administrations. It also noted how Main Core today likely involves the same software now used by every U.S. intelligence agency and numerous other federal agencies that is marketed by Palantir, a company created and owned by Trump ally Peter Thiel. Palantir’s software boasts “predictive policing” capabilities and tracks a category of person using the label “subversive,” very much in keeping with the spirit of Main Core.

Main Core and Bill Barr’s Power Grab

Though Main Core was reportedly in use after September 11 to target “unfriendly” individuals for increased domestic surveillance, concern that COG plans in the age of coronavirus could take a more drastic turn and involve the detention of Americans included in that database now seems more plausible than ever. On Saturday, Politico reported that the Department of Justice has demanded new “emergency powers” during the current pandemic and these powers include being able to indefinitely detain Americans without trial. Politico also noted that the DOJ’s controversial new requests “span several stages of the legal process, from initial arrest to how cases are processed and investigated.” Per the DOJ’s requests, indefinite detention would emerge through a new ability whereby the Attorney General or a judge could pause court proceedings whenever courts are “fully or partially closed by virtue of any natural disaster, civil disobedience, or other emergency situation.”

What Politico did not include in its report is that current Attorney General William Barr has spent the past several months fine-tuning and implementing a “pre-crime” program. Officially known as the “National Disruption and Early Engagement Program” (DEEP), it aims to “identify, assess and engage” potentially violent individuals “before they strike.” Barr first announced this program last October in an official memorandum and therein stated that the program was to be implemented sometime over the course of 2020 and would involve “an efficient, effective and programmatic strategy to disrupt individuals who are mobilizing towards violence, by all lawful means.”

A training conference for that program took place this past December and involved members of the Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation and “private sector partners.” One recent DOJ statement regarding an arrest made last year in Nevada, claimed that that specific case was part of the DOJ’s “National Disruption and Early Engagement Program,” suggesting that this program is already in use — at least in some parts of the country.

In his memorandum, Barr further notes that the program’s “early engagement tactics” were “born of the posture we adopted with respect to terrorist threats” following the September 11 attacks, essentially stating that this pre-crime program will utilize methods from the “War on Terror” domestically and on a massive scale.

Given the context of the current coronavirus crisis, the DOJ’s recent request for sweeping new powers and the role of Main Core in COG plans, one part of Barr’s pre-crime memorandum stands out. In the part of the document where Barr outlines what actions will be taken once an individual is deemed potentially violent or threatening, he writes that those individuals will be subject to detention, court-ordered mental health treatment and electronic monitoring, among other measures.

The possibility of pre-crime detention was also present in the DOJ’s recent request for new “emergency powers” in light of the coronavirus crisis, as it specifically asks that those new powers apply to “any statutes or rules of procedure otherwise affecting pre-arrest, post-arrest, pre-trial, trial, and post-trial procedures in criminal and juvenile proceedings and all civil process and proceedings.” Norman L. Reimer, executive director of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, told Politico that the inclusion of the term “pre-arrest” likely means that “you could be arrested and never brought before a judge until they decide that the emergency or the civil disobedience is over. I find it absolutely terrifying.”

Thus, if DOJ is granted these new powers it has requested, the William Barr-led Department of Justice will not only be authorized to indefinitely detain Americans without trial, it will be able to detain them without any proof of those detainees having committed a crime or even having plans or the intent to commit a crime. Instead, the DOJ only needs to argue that the individual was “mobilizing towards violence,” an extremely vague phrase that could potentially be used against anyone who expresses discontent with the government or government policy.

Furthermore, with the FBI having recently flagged “conspiracy theorists” (and by extension those who distrust or question government narratives of both past and present) as a “domestic terror threat,” the DOJ could even make the case that failure to blindly trust government narratives presents a threat to the public order. Given that the Main Core database in its current form contains bulk surveillance gathered from social media, phone conversations/messaging apps and even financial information (i.e. purchasing history, etc.) on Americans deemed unfriendly “often for the slightest and most trivial reason,” this unprecedented power grab by the DOJ has an authoritarian and Orwellian potential to target legitimate dissent like never before.

With the specter of COG now snaking its way into mainstream discourse during the coronavirus crisis, it is essential that Americans stay vigilant, as these Orwellian and dystopian “solutions” to allegedly protect us from the current pandemic have been in place long before COVID-19 made its appearance on the world stage or landed on U.S. shores.

It is also essential to remember that COG, Main Core and the DOJ’s pre-crime program were all created and are currently controlled by extremely corrupt and fundamentally untrustworthy individuals who have not only been involved in innumerable scandals over the years, but have also installed and supported some of the most authoritarian, savage and horrific dictators the world has ever seen. To trust them with such unprecedented and dangerous powers in a period of national confusion and panic is tantamount to beckoning the horrors of those dictatorships — past and present — to come home to roost.

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Whitney Webb is a MintPress News contributing journalist based in Chile. She has contributed to several independent media outlets including Global Research, EcoWatch, the Ron Paul Institute and 21st Century Wire, among others. She has made several radio and television appearances and is the 2019 winner of the Serena Shim Award for Uncompromised Integrity in Journalism.

Last Monday, a bipartisan group of Senators and a coalition including libertarian and progressive activists thwarted a scheme to ram through the Senate legislation renewing three provisions of the USA FREEDOM Act (previously known as the USA PATRIOT Act). The bill had already been rushed through the House of Representatives, and most expected it to sail through the Senate. But, instead, Senate leadership had to settle for a 77-day extension.

Senate leadership was also forced to allow consideration of several amendments at a later date. Included is Sen. Rand Paul’s amendment that would forbid the FISA court from issuing warrants targeting American citizens.

Deep state supporters claim the expiring business records provision (which authorizes the collection of our communications and was at the center of Edward Snowden’s 2013 revelations), lone wolf provision (which allows government to subject an individual with no known ties to terrorists to warrantless surveillance), and roving wiretaps provision (which allows government to monitor communications on any device that may be used by a targeted individual) are necessary to keep Americans safe. But, since Congress first passed the PATRIOT Act almost 20 years ago, mass surveillance, warrantless wiretapping, and bulk data collection have not stopped a single terrorist attack.

The legislation does have “reforms” aimed at protecting civil liberties, but these new protections contain loopholes that render the protections meaningless. For example, the bill requires those targeted for surveillance to be notified that the government spied on them. However, this requirement can be waived if the government simply claims — not proves but just clams — that notifying the target would harm “national security.”

The notice provision also only applies to the target of an investigations. So, if you were caught up in a federal investigation because a coworker is being targeted and you shared an office computer, or if a store clerk reported to the government you and others bought pressure cookers, the government could collect your phone records, texts, and social media posts without giving you the chance to challenge the government’s actions.

The bill also makes some reforms to the special FISA court, which serves as a rubber stamp for the intelligence community. These reforms are mainly aimed at protecting political campaigns and candidates. They would not stop the FISA court from rubber-stamping surveillance on organizations that oppose the welfare-warfare-surveillance-fiat money status quo.

Anything limiting warrantless wiretapping and mass surveillance should be supported. However, nothing short of repeal of the USA FREEDOM Act will restore respect for our right to live our lives free of the fear that Big Brother is watching. The path to liberty, peace, and prosperity starts with eliminating all unconstitutional laws and returning to a system of limited government, free markets, individual liberty, sound money, and a foreign policy that seeks peaceful commerce and friendship with all instead of seeking new monsters to destroy.

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Just after midnight March 25, 2020 eastern time the US Senate passed a compromise bill of fiscal spending to address the accelerating economic decline. Both Democrat and Republican Senate leaders agreed on the terms. US House of Representatives Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, indicated she would rush approval of the package seeking a unanimous voice vote of the House.

Here’s what the terms of the stimulus package looks like, according to initial summaries by the Washington Post and CNN released within minutes of the bill passage:

Middle class and worker households would get $500 billion in the form of direct checks ($250B) and increased unemployment insurance benefits for the next four months ($250B)

Corporations and businesses would thus get $867B–$367B of which would go to small businesses, and another $500B to large corporations like airlines, defense companies, cruise lines, hotels and other companies.

Additional funding of $130B would go to hospitals to purchase needed medical supplies. State and Local governments get $150B. Other funds would be provided by the government’s Small Business Administration ($10B) to help pay their debt. Reference is made in the package as well for another $20 in farm bailout, raising that total from the $30B spent to date during the US-China trade war to $50B. While it appears the $130B for hospitals and $150B for local governments is in addition to the $867B to business and $500B to households, it’s not clear if the $20B farm bailout and $10B additional SBA are included in the $867B or not.

Here’s a further detail in breakdown of these amounts:

1. $500B to Business

The Airlines get their $58B they’ve been lobbying for. And if past breakdowns still apply, it means roughly half the $58B will take the form of outright grants, not loans, to the airlines and the remainder as loans. It is also unclear if the loans will be ‘forgiven’ after six months, as had been proposed before in past versions of the Senate bill.

Another $17B of the $500B is earmarked for defense companies considered important to national security. No details are released who these are and why such companies, not affected by consumer demand, should receive such an increase. (Possibly to back fill money that has been transferred from them by Trump to help pay for his wall).

Trump has also indicated he intends to have some of the $500B go to cruise lines and hotels which, along with airlines, are critical to his own company’s business.

The remainder of the $500 is designated for spending to support other industries. Whether in the form of loans, grants, or other forms of assistance is still unclear.

2. $367B to Small Business

The Senate bill always included $350B in loans for small business, and the provision that the loans would change to outright grants if used to pay wages and payroll costs. It won’t take clever accounting to use the $350 to cover wages and compensation (and payroll taxes, etc.), as companies move the money that would have been used for such purposes to other areas of their income statements. So consider the $350B as money without repayment—i.e. not a loan.

In addition to the $350B, another $17B is added now for small business to cover interest on their existing loans for six months. Finally, there’s the $10B from the Small Business Administration to help pay debts, which may or may not be part of the other totals.

Add in the $20B for farm support, the $10B from SBA, and the $130B to hospitals, it means Business Large & Small thus get $1,027B in direct assistance by the government in the new agreed on Senate-House stimulus package.

Another item that the Democrats demanded and received in part was to have an Oversight Board to review how corporations and businesses actually spent the government money. In the previous emergency economic recovery legislation in 2009, much of the direct assistance was ‘gamed’ by businesses that received it. Some even used it to buyback their stock and award bonuses to managers. The Oversight Board is supposed to prevent that. It remains to be seen, however. Who will by chosen to manage the Board will make all the difference. It can assumed the Senate or Trump will. As Trump has said publicly when asked who will ‘oversee’ the distribution of the funds to business, he replied “I’ll be the oversight”.

Middle class families and workers get a total of $500B under the agreement, which is what it was before. It appears that the money was just ‘moved around’.

3. Direct Household Cash Assistance

Talk of $3,000 per household is now changed to a check of $1,200 for a single household member, or $2,400 for married couple, plus $500 per child. (It’s unclear if that’s for all children in a family or just up to two).

To qualify for the full $1,200/$2,400 an individual must make no more than $75,000 income annually. Income above $75,000 phases out until $99,000 after which no payment is made. For couples, the phase out is at $199,000 per household.

4. Increased Unemployment Insurance Benefits

The package includes an increase of $600 to the state’s defined level of unemployment benefits paid (that vary by state quite a bit). But it’s unclear if the $600 applies to the highest paid state benefit payment or to all levels of state benefit payments. For example, in California the top payment is $450/week. The new payment would be $1,050/week. But will those below the top payment level also get $600?

A plus to the unemployment insurance provision is that it will also apply to contingent work: that is, to part time, temp, contract labor not just to full time employed who are laid off due to the effect of the virus on company shutdowns.

On the negative side, all the improvements in unemployment insurance will take effect for only 4 months, then will expire.

It is clear, therefore, that middle class families will receive only the $500 billion that had been allocated before—in the form of cash assistance one time worth $250 billion and improved unemployment benefits for four months costing another $250 billion. It appears some of the cash assistance was redirected toward improvement in unemployment insurance benefits, but no net increase in the total $500B on the negotiating table before.

In other words, in the final stimulus bill businesses get more than twice as much as do households and the working class!

5. State & Local Governments

An additional $150 billion is allocated in the bill to assistance to state & local governments.

THE TOTALS:

The totals in spending thus appear to be approximately $1,650 billion! It is being reported as a $2T stimulus effect and increase in US GDP overall. AS Trump’s advisor, Larry Kudlow, has said on a previous occasion, the $2T represents the spending plus the ‘multiplier effect’. $2T is not therefore the actual spending. That is less, around the $1,650T estimated here. The difference is a multiplier effect of about $400B.

But that’s a generous estimate of the multiplier. It’s based on normal economic conditions. And the current collapse of the real and financial US economy is anything but normal. The multiplier will be much less. That is because much of the spending by the government, to business and households alike, will be used to pay down debt, hoard the money due to expectations of future profits and employment insecurity, or to cover price gouging by businesses selling necessities.

The US economy spends monthly the equivalent of $1.7 trillion. The Senate’s stimulus package is thus a one month stop-gap at best! As this writer has been arguing in recent days, the stimulus needed to get through the summer will have to be $4 trillion, not $1.65 trillion.

The $2 trillion (spending + multiplier) is estimated at around 9% of US Gross Domestic Product, GDP, at present. A 20% increase of GDP is necessary, raising total government spending in GDP terms from the roughly current 21% of GDP to 40%.

40% of GDP is what the US government raised spending to in 1942, when we went to war at that time. It was an increase from around 15% pre-war. If the fight against the new enemy, the virus, is a kind of ‘economic war’, then the US will have to mobilize its economy again on a war footing. Trump’s activation of the War Production Act, and then doing nothing about it further, is not a war mobilization. Trump is not a ‘war president’, as he claims. Indeed, he allowed the enemy to actually penetrate our shores and spread amongst us with his delayed action to stop airline travel and cruise travel. It’s not an accident that the largest concentrations of the virus infections are in our coastal ports and airports—Washington state, California, New York, and now increasingly New Orleans, Philadelphia, Chicago and Miami.

Trump as ‘War President’ & Other Fictions

Unlike our prior war presidents, Roosevelt and Truman, Trump is not mobilizing production and distribution of key resources and supplies to fight the enemy. He simply asks the private sector to do it and then gives his daily ‘sales pitches’ to the nation press conferences to say what he’s doing when he’s not actually doing it. War supplies (masks, ventilators, PPE) are promised and promised but are slow to appear, if they ever do.

The question follows then whether the current Senate-House stimulus bill represents a sufficient stimulus to protect the US economy. The answer is no. It’s not even half way there for Main St.

In contrast, however, the Federal Reserve US central bank has quickly allocated no less than $6.2 Trillion so far to bail out the banks and investors, even before they fail this time. And promises to do more if needed and for as long as necessary. It is writing a blank check for the bankers and investors.

Meanwhile Congress provides one-fourth that, and only one third of that one fourth, for the Main St., workers, and middle class families.

Finally, it is clear from Trump’s statements in recent days that he knows this stimulus is only a one month hit to the economy. That’s why he—and the capitalist investors who have been lobbying him hard the past week—are turning up the message we should all start going back to work by mid-April.

As Trump put it, the timing is ‘beautiful’, at Easter. But it won’t be so beautiful when a surge in infections and death occur on top of the current surge underway occur by early summer.

But profits and money are more important to this wheeler-dealer, commercial property speculator capitalist in the White House. With the US budget deficit this fiscal year almost certainly to exceed $3 trillion, and his election looming on the horizon, Trump and friends see Wall St. and US business interests as more important than the rising death rate that is inevitable should we return to work prematurely by mid-April. Such action will all but ensure the eventual overwhelming of the US hospital system three months from now, an even higher death rate, and an even greater collapse of the US economy and financial system in the aftermath.

Trump may think he’s at war with the coronavirus, but it is the virus that is winning! And his poor generalship is aiding and abetting that enemy. Unfortunately, the American public—and especially the old and infirm—are becoming the ‘cannon fodder’ in Trump’s phony war.

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This article was originally published on the author’s blog site, Jack Rasmus.

Dr. Rasmus is author of the just published book, ‘The Scourge of Neoliberalism: US Economic Policy from Reagan to Trump’, January 2020; ‘Central Bankers at the End of Their Ropes’ (2017), and ‘Systemic Fragility in the Global Economy’, 2016. He blogs at jackrasmus.com and tweets at @drjackrasmus. His website is http://kyklosproductions.com.

Read this article very carefully. Forward it around the World. Our US foreign policy experts are contemplating NUCLEAR WAR ON A FIRST STRIKE BASIS AGAINST RUSSIA. And the media is telling us folks who are under lockdown that coronavirus is far more deadly than nukes. And yes, of course, we believe you…

“When the Lie becomes the Truth, there is no Turning Backwards” (Michel Chossudovsky)

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Faced with Coronavirus “our first concern is to protect the health of our forces and our Allies”- the US European Command declared. It therefore announced it had reduced Defender Europe 20 exercise in number of soldiers. But it will go on anyway.

“Since January the US Army has deployed 6,000 soldiers from the United States to Europe,” with 12,000 pieces of equipment (from personal armaments to tanks), and “soldiers and equipment movement ” from different ports to training areas in Germany and Poland has been completed,” the Command stated on March 16. In addition, 9,000 US service members based in Europe will also be participating in the exercise. Since January, the Army deployed approximately 6,000 soldiers from United States to Europe. It moved approximately 9,000 vehicles and pieces of equipment from Army Prepositioned Stocks and approximately 3,000 pieces of equipment via sea from United States. It also completed movement of soldiers and equipment from multiple ports to training areas in Germany and Poland.

The purpose prospected by the US is “to deploy a credible combat force in Europe in support of NATO”, evidently against “Russian aggression.” The real purpose – we wrote two and a half months ago in Il Manifesto (the only daily newspaper that gave news of Defender Europe 20 at the time) – is to sow tension and feed the idea of the enemy.

The exercise prospected scenario could never occur, because an armed clash between NATO and Russia would also be inevitably nuclear. This is the real scenario which US forces are training in Europe for. It was confirmed by General Tod D. Wolters, head of the United States European Command and, as such, he is Commander of U.S. European Command and Supreme Allied Commander in Europe.

On February 25, 2020, during a hearing in the United States Senate Committee on Armed Services, U S Air Force Commander – US European Command, General Tod D. Wolters, declared: “Nuclear forces are the supreme guarantee of the security of the Allies,  and underwrite every US military operation in Europe.” This means that Defender Europe 20 is not only an exercise of conventional (non-nuclear) forces, but of nuclear forces.

On March 18, it was reported that two US nuclear attack bombers B-2 Spirit, part of the task force that arrived from the US on March 9, flew over Iceland and the North Atlantic this week. They were escorted by three Norwegian F-35 fighter jets.

These two types of aircraft are designed for using the new B61-12 nuclear bombs, which the USA will soon deploy in Italy and other European countries replacing the current B-61s.

In the Senate hearing General Wolters made clear what role US Nuclear Forces play in Europe. When Senator Fischer asked him what he thought of the non-first-use of nuclear weapons, the General replied: “Senator, I am a Fan of Flexible First-use Policy”. He, who is responsible of US / NATO nuclear weapons in Europe, officially declared that he is a supporter of their first use for the first strike, the nuclear surprise attack on a “flexible” basis.  

Faced with a declaration of such gravity, which pushes Russian Generals to put their finger on the nuclear trigger, there is complete silence by Governments, Parliaments and major European media.

In the same hearing, General Wolters said:

“Since 2015 the Alliance placed increased emphasis on the role of nuclear capabilities” and “the European Command of the United States fully supports the recommendations contained in the Nuclear Posture Review 2018 to deploy the W76-2 low-power ballistic missile.”

The low-power nuclear warhead W76-2, already installed on submarine-launched missiles (announced by the Pentagon on February 4), can also be installed on ground-based ballistic missiles near the enemy territory. The U.S. Navy has fielded the W76-2 low-yield nuclear warhead, which is used on the submarine-launched Trident II ballistic missile

It is particularly dangerous. “Less powerful nuclear weapons – even authoritative US experts warn – increase the temptation to use them first, they can lead commanders to push because in an attack the nuclear bomb is used knowing that the radioactive fallout would be limited. Instead, it would seem like throwing a lit match in a powder keg”.

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This article was originally published in Italian on Il Manifesto. Translated by Jean Toschi Marazzani Visconti 

Award winning author and geopolitical analyst Manlio Dinucci is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization. (CRG)

While everyone was worried of what they believed would inevitably be World War III, mankind suddenly found itself fighting World War C against COVID-19 instead, which has since become the single most globally disruptive event in human history.

On the occasion of the 21^st anniversary of the beginning of NATO’s armed aggression against Serbia (the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia), representatives of the Belgrade Forum for a World of Equals and the Club of Generals and Admirals of Serbia today laid the flowers at the Memorial to Children Victims of NATO Aggression in the Tašmajdan Park and at the Memorial to All Victims of NATO Aggression “Eternal Flame” in the Friendship Park, Beograd. 

During NATO aggression lasting from 24 March through 10 June 1999, NATO missiles killed 1100 soldiers and police officers and more than 2500 civilians, including 89 children. With the exception of the military and police personnel, the accurate list of casualties has not been established as yet, despite a recent statement announcing that relevant efforts would be stepped up. There is even less certainty about how many citizens lost their lives in the meantime, either due to injuries sustained by wounding, or due to malignant diseases caused by the use of weaponry filled with depleted uranium and other banned weapons and ordnances, or during the course of demining of unexploded ordnances, especially the cluster bombs.

A series of formerly scheduled conferences, exhibitions and other manifestations of citizens’ associations in the country and abroad, marking this anniversary had to be cancelled due to the COVID-19 virus pandemic. Also cancelled were scheduled international conferences in Belgrade, Moscow and Paris, where the latest, in addition to the conference, should have been comprising a movie premiere of “Balkans Borders”, dedicated to the landing of the Russian Army units at the ‘Slatina’ Airport near Priština, June 10-11^th, 1999.

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First the Fed. Key is understanding that it’s not federal. 

It’s owned and operated by major Wall Street banks, their interests its top priority.

Its dual mandate is supposed to be maximum employment and price stability. How it operates is another matter entirely.

Years of money printing madness (quantitative easing – QE) at near-zero interest rates had nothing to do with stimulating economic growth and jobs creation.

It was all about handing business and large investors free money to elevate stock prices to an unsustainable level at the expense of the economy and main street.

It’s now all about reviving risk-on animal spirits to turn around crashing markets.

Former Dallas Fed president Richard Fisher earlier said “QE can’t go on forever because (it’ll) kill the patient.”

It’s back with an unprecedented vengeance. Pulling out all the stops to help Wall Street, other corporate favorites, large hedge funds, and other wealthy investors, the Fed opened its money spigot full throttle.

A policy unrelated to helping ordinary people, it’s latest free money scam is all about letting large holders of toxic debt dump it into what Mike Whitney called the Fed’s toxic waste “landfill for distressed assets” — what the Wall Street Journal called “cash-for-trash.”

Now to Congress. Dems and Republicans are dickering over a stimulus package. Disagreement on what should be in it continues.

Members of both right wings of the one-party state have one objective in mind over all others — reelection in November for all House members and one-third of the Senate.

Virtually all their legislative actions and public pronouncements are politically motivated.

That said, Senate Republicans want over one trillion dollars in free money going mainly to business interests.

They also proposed a one-time payment of $1,200 to adults earning $75,000 or less based on IRS tax returns + $500 per child for eligible households.

The amount might help for a few weeks at most, no longer if large-scale unemployment is protracted  because of continued shelter in place policies and movement restrictions.

We’re in uncharted territory so there’s no way to know for sure what will play out ahead.

As of now, economic shutdown and lockdowns are unprecedented in the US, Europe and elsewhere.

The GOP plan also includes $350 billion in virtually free money (called loans) to so-called small business enterprises. Republicans and Dems disagree on which ones should get it.

Another provision calls for $500 billion in virtual free money to large businesses with virtually no oversight.

The GOP-controlled Senate and Dem-controlled House bills are works in progress, provisions in both likely to change.

Republicans one-sidedly want the lion’s share of government handouts going to business favorites.

Seeking political advantage in November, Dems want more for main street.

During Obama’s tenure, they force-fed eight years of austerity on ordinary people while favoring privileged ones.

Obama fraudulently called it “shared sacrifice.”

Since the neoliberal 90s under the Clinton co-presidency, throughout the new millennium, especially since the 2008-09 financial crisis, most of all under Trump, ordinary people “sacrifice(d)” so privileged ones could “share.”

The current work-in-progress $2.5 trillion Dem plan calls for $1,500 in aid per individual — up to $7,500 for a family of five.

It includes what’s called temporary “Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation of $600 for workers affected by COVID-19 who are eligible for unemployment benefits.

It expands paid leave, family medical leave, and helps loan-entrapped students.

It calls for $500 billion in virtual free money for small businesses.

It provides $200 billion to states, another $15 billion to cities and municipalities through a so-called Community Development Block Grant program.

It offers $4 billion to help states carry out November elections.

A provision has no cost-sharing for COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, including for the uninsured.

It offers $150 billion in funding for hospitals, community health centers, and government health programs, another $60 billion in funding for colleges, universities, and debt relief for students.

There’s funding for food stamps and other food assistance programs.

There’s also funding for cancelling postal service debt, community newspapers, free Internet service, and a so-called NASA environmental restoration group.

The plan includes $50 billion for US airlines, calls for them to be carbon-neutral for domestic flights by 2025, and offers to buy older planes so carriers can upgrade to new ones.

US airlines and others worldwide are operating at minimum capacity or temporarily shut down.

Instead of offering carriers free money, now is the time for Congress to nationalize the industry and eliminate profit-making as an incentive to operate.

The same applies to troubled Boeing. The company and most others used cash flow for stock buybacks to elevate their valuations to bubble levels so company executives could profit hugely, along with getting increased pay and bonuses.

Now they want large-scale taxpayer-funded congressional bailouts they don’t deserve.

Dems and Republicans will likely resolve differences, pass legislation, and send it to Trump for signing this week.

If COVID-19 outbreaks continue and states remain partially or more greatly locked down, economic duress continuing, another stimulus package may follow what’s now under consideration.

It’s uncertain what lies ahead and for how long.

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Award-winning author Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at [email protected]. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG)

His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

The Covid-19 pandemic has thrown up an array of questions, yet one question that has been given little attention pertains to how much state power and suspension of civil liberties is justified in the face of a global pandemic? This is by no means a simple question to answer, but it is clear that state power in many countries has grown considerably in recent times, as governments and local authorities have declared national emergencies to fight the virus. 

Martial Law Rollout? 

Already, we have seen extreme measures taken and unnerving laws passed in the name of combating Covid-19, with these actions considered unthinkable only a few months ago. Just last week, the Italian region of Lombardy has called in the army to help enforce the lockdown against Covid-19. Italy has now reported the most deaths from the Coronavirus pandemic, and has imposed a strict lockdown on its citizens, with only essential travel permitted, such as going to work or going food shopping.

Approximately 40,000 people have now been charged with violating the lockdown in Italy. One notable case was when a man disobeyed the order to self-isolate after testing positive for Covid-19, potentially facing up to 12 years in prison if he is convicted of facilitating the spread of the virus. Italy serves as an example of a potential situation that could unfold in many other countries in the near future.

To be clear, I am not arguing that people should ignore the advice of governments and authorities that have imposed restrictions to contain the virus. For a limited period of time, these measures may well be justified in some sense, although each viewer and reader will have their own take on this issue. Yet there is a balance, and it does not take a rocket scientist to work out that there is so much space in this emergency, wartime period, for governments to abuse the power that they have given themselves. Fighting this virus on one hand, whilst keeping state power in check on the other, is going to be like walking a tightrope.

Mandatory Vaccination Laws? 

Denmark has also reportedly passed emergency legislation that could give authorities the power to forcibly test, treat and quarantine citizens, including potentially being able to forcibly vaccinate people, even though no vaccine has been developed yet for Covid-19. The new law will be in force until March 2021, and will suspend certain rights stipulated in the Danish constitution, including the right to assemble. An earlier draft of the law would have allowed police to enter private homes without a court order, yet this section was scrapped from the legislation.

More broadly, without a vaccine for Covid-19 even being available, the calls for stricter vaccination laws are growing louder by the day. The point here is not to take a position either way on the merits of vaccination programs, it is simply to state that the principle of consent is one of the most fundamental principles in free societies. In this time of fear and panic caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, it is crucial to remind ourselves of the history of medical consent.

The Nuremberg Code

The principle of consent was affirmed in the documents that came out after the prosecution of Nazi officials at the Nuremberg trials that took place after World War II. More specifically, the trial of the United States v. Karl Brandt, also known as the Nazi Doctors Trial, where Nazi doctors were tried for war crimes before US military courts, including for conducting sterilization experiments and euthanasia programs. It led to the conviction of 15 out of the 23 defendants, seven of which were given the death sentence (Pelias 2006: 74). Karl Brandt was one of Hitler’s personal physicians and the lead defendant in the trial, who served as co-director of the Nazi euthanasia program amongst holding other positions, and was hung in 1948 after being convicted and sentenced to death at Nuremberg (Ben-Amos 2009).

The Nuremberg Code was one document that came out of the Doctors Trial, and set principles regarding medical ethics and standards that should be followed by doctors and researchers when conducting experiments on human subjects (Pelias 2006: 74). Consisting of 10 principles, the first principle of the Nuremberg Code is perhaps the most important. It states that “the voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential,” and goes on to state that the consent has to be competent, informed and be the product of the “free power of choice, without the intervention of any element of force, fraud, deceit, duress, over-reaching, or other ulterior form of constraint or coercion.”

Today, governments may well be justified in taking draconian steps to fight this deadly virus for a limited period of time, but in this process, we cannot lose all our basic human and civil rights permanently. Striking this balance is going to be no easy task, yet starting a reasonable conversation around this issue is at least one step forward.

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Sources

Annas, G. J., & Grodin, M. A. (2018). Reflections on the 70th Anniversary of the Nuremberg Doctors’ Trial. American journal of public health, 108(1), 10–12

Ben-Amos, B. (2009). [Review of the book Karl Brandt: The Nazi Doctor. Medicine and Power in the Third Reich]. Holocaust and Genocide Studies 23(2), 313-316.

Harvard Law School Library Nuremberg Trials Project, NMT Case 1 – U.S.A. v. Karl Brandt et al.: The Doctors’ Trial 

Kirk, L (13 March, 2020) Danish public employees sent home for two weeks, EU Observer

Pelias, M. (2006). Human Subjects, Third Parties, and Informed Consent: A Brief Historical Perspective of Developments in the United States. Community Genetics, 9(2), 73-77.

Reuters (20 March, 2020) Italy to use army to enforce coronavirus lockdown in worst-hit region

The Boston Globe (5 March, 2020) Coronavirus and Maine vote make case for Mass. vaccine law

The Local (13 March, 2020) Denmark rushes through emergency coronavirus law

Tondo, L. (18 March, 2020) Italy charges more than 40,000 people with violating lockdown, The Guardian

Russia has encountered problems in delivering humanitarian aid to Italy, with assistance struggling to be reached quickly due to the hostilities of many European Union/NATO countries towards Russia. Yesterday it was revealed that Poland did not let Russian planes pass through its airspace to arrive in Italy, the hardest hit coronavirus country in the world with over 6,200 dead and still climbing. As seen on flightradar24.com, you can follow the trajectory of aircraft that departed from Moscow to Rome. The Russian Il-76 was forced to take an alternate course south over the Black Sea and over the airspace of Turkey, Greece and Albania before finally landing in Rome. This alternate route took 3,000 kilometers while flying over Belarus, Poland, Czechia and Austria would have been 1,000 kilometers shorter.

Russian Senator Alexei Pushkov described this as “meanness,” saying on Twitter

“Poland did not miss Russian aircraft with help for Italy through its airspace. This is meanness at the level of public policy.”

The revelation of Poland’s behaviour was met with intense scrutiny on social media, some even comparing the situation to 1938 when Poland prevented the Soviet Union from helping Czechoslovakia from Nazi aggression. The meanness that Pushkov described is not because Poland acted against Russia, but rather because it completely showed no solidarity to a fellow European Union member and so-called NATO ally. Every hour Italians are dying because of the coronavirus. This means that the 1,000-kilometer extra travel distance that the Russian plane had to make because of Poland’s action meant many Italians could have died before the delayed Russian aid arrived.

On Saturday, Russian President Vladimir Putin in a telephone conversation with the head of the Italian government Giuseppe Conte confirmed his readiness to immediately support Italy in the fight against the coronavirus. The Russian Ministry of Defense announced that it will send eight mobile teams consisting of military virologists and doctors, vehicles for disinfection and medical equipment. Russia’s support for Italy in the fight against coronavirus is an act of Russian contribution in improving the situation in the hard-hit country and creating the conditions for friendlier relations with Europe Union states. Poland meanwhile was not able to withhold its issues with Russia to assist a fellow European Union and NATO ally.

Rome for weeks has been calling for assistance from the European Union, who have all but done nothing to help the struggling country. As Matteo Salvini, leader of an Italian nationalist League party, said: “Italy needed help and it has been given a slap in the face,” in reference to the economic policies of the European Union. Every European Union country has been left to fend for itself and rather it has been China and Russia who have mobilized their doctors, manufacturing and medical equipment to assist Italy. It is for this reason that across Italy, people have been begun removing the European Union flag from public display and replacing them with Russian and Chinese flags. Public sentiment towards Russia and China is significantly changing in Italy despite being a European Union and NATO member, organizations that are traditionally hostile towards these two countries.

This is becoming a common theme in Europe. The European Union’s Lack of coronavirus solidarity has only pushed Serbia further towards China and even silenced pro-European Union liberal Serbians. Serbian President Aleksandar Vučic proclaimed that European solidarity is just a “fairy tale on paper” in the face of President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announcing in a Twitter video message that the European Union is restricting the export of medical devices and stressed that the ban on exports of these goods applies throughout the entire Union. However, Serbia is not a European Union member state, which makes Poland’s actions against Russia all the more shocking as it directly affects Italy. There is also a massive difference in showing a lack of solidarity as the European Union has done with Serbia and Italy, and blatantly sabotaging relief efforts for Italy when people are dying by the hour, as Poland has done.

In an article last week, I argued that the liberal globalized order, epitomized especially by the European Union, is collapsing under pressure from the coronavirus. What has emerged from this pandemic is China taking a global leadership role for the first time in its history by sending aid and doctors across Asia, Europe, Africa and even the United States. As we live in an interconnected world, this is the first time in the 21st century that the globe is facing a common issue. The United States, as the world’s other superpower to China, has increased sanctions against Iran and hoarded medical supplies for its own use. China however has expanded its aid and relief efforts across the globe. Although Russia has not done this across the globe, it has certainly assisted European states, who will remember that Russia assisted them when the European Union abandoned them.

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This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

Paul Antonopoulos is a Research Fellow at the Center for Syncretic Studies.

On March 23, Russian and Turkish forces carried out a second limited joint patrol in southern Idlib. The patrol involved six armoured vehicles and took place along a short chunk of the M4 highway west of the government-controlled town of Saraqib. This part of the highway remains the only safe place within the entire security zone, which was set to be established in the framework of the Russian-Turkish de-escalation agreement.

After the March 23 patrol, the Turkish side got additional time to neutralize terrorists and radicals entrenched in the agreed to buffer zone. This was the second time when Moscow provided Ankara with such an opportunity. However, Ankara seems to be taking very little or no efforts to do so.

Over the past days, the Turkish Army established observation points near Khattab and Msheirfeh and made a formal attempt to de-block the highway removing earthen mounds made by terrorists. Despite these heroic efforts of the Turkish military, the M4 remains in the hands of al-Qaeda-linked groups and the security zone there exists only on paper. Such a situation on the ground is slowly but inevitably leading to the resumption of hostilities in the region.

Humanitarian conditions are deteriorating in the Rukban refugee camp within the US-controlled zone of al-Tanf. According to media reports, people in the camp have to pay money for tents and the bare necessities, and are forcefully recruited into the ranks of US-backed militant groups. Additionally, militants sabotage the evacuation of refugees from the camp.

A series of IED attacks rocked the town of Tabqah, controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), on March 21. IED explosions targeted positions, vehicles and personnel of the SDF next to the Andalusia pool and the Maysalun roundabout. 6 SDF members were reportedly killed. Pro-opposition sources immediately blamed ‘Assad agents’ for the attack. Kurdish sources blame ISIS and Turkey.

On March 22, the SDF released 80 ISIS members that had been captured during the combat operations along the eastern bank of the Euphrates. All the released individuals are reportedly Syrian citizens, from the governorates of Raqqa, al-Hasakah and Deir Ezzor. During the last few years, the SDF has released hundreds of ex-ISIS fighters.

The group often does this for money or upon request from influential figures, like tribal leaders, businessmen and local commanders. This SDF behavior likely contributed to the reemergence of ISIS cells in eastern Syria. Last week, ISIS announced that its fighters had assassinated 40 people in the province of Deir Ezzor during the last 3 months alone.

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Lobbying firms like the McKeon Group, headed by lobbyist Buck McKeon (who was the former chairman of the House Armed Services Committee in the US Congress), represent both US defense contractors and countries such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE, who are ruthlessly bombing Yemen with US made weapons. Through lobbying firms like the McKeon Group and American Defense International, defense contractors such as Raytheon and Lockheed Martin spent millions to effectively pressure Congress members. Lobbying efforts focus on key members of committees, such as the aforementioned Armed Services Committee. This incentivizes Congress to approve legislation to sell arms to countries like Saudi Arabia and block any legislation that challenges the unethical arms sales.

The legacy of the coronavirus pandemic, at least in so far as responses are concerned, is thickening by the day.  Behavioural changes are being urged, language is rapidly evolving (spot the “covidiot” amongst you) and the policy of health surveillance is being pushed.  Another field where the virus has triggered interest is the very idea of incarceration.  Prison may be a school for crime, but it is also the concentrated incubator for disease and infection.  

Social distancing, one of those oxymoronic terms uttered with little care to what it suggests, would tend to be a misnomer when it comes to controlling detained populations.  It has sparked calls for releases and pardons across the globe.

In beleaguered Iran, where COVID-19 is exacting an ever increasing toll, tens of thousands have been released as a result.  Latest figures suggest that 85,000 have been temporarily released; 10,000 more are due to receive pardons.  Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili stated that,

“Those who will be pardoned will not return to jail … almost half of those security-related prisoners will be pardoned as well.”

One of Britain’s more prominent prison officials, Andrea Albutt, has been warning about the threat posed by COVID-19 for weeks.  On BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, the president of the Prison Governors Association was not optimistic.  Prison populations “don’t completely mirror society with our demographic of prisoners so we do have a higher number of people in the vulnerable groups, so they will be ill and there will be deaths.”  With 85,000 people in Britain’s prisons, overcrowding was endemic, making transmission easy. “Coupled with that, we have a significant ageing population – the vulnerable groups, the people the Government keeps telling us will be more susceptible and more ill with this virus.”

While the temptation to release prisoners has yet to be succumbed to (the UK government’s advice remains a feeble one: “protective isolation” for inmates showing symptoms), the warnings of not doing so are loud.  This is more so after cases of coronavirus were detected at Strangeways in Manchester and HMP High Down, Surrey.  Over the weekend, former justice secretary David Gauke insisted on the suspension of short sentences and early release.  “The advantage of not sending people inside for short sentences is that it reduces the churn.”  Reducing the movement of people in and out of the system would reduce the risk of spread. 

Eric Allison, who spend some 16 years in prison for theft offences, furnishes a view from The Guardian.  The penal system in England and Wales, he proposes, is grim on the health front, packed with “horror stories of medical neglect”.  Prisoners dying in hospital, still in chains, ignored by medical staff, is a not infrequent occurrence.  With coronavirus, another killing agent awaits.  “The local jails,” he warns, “may well transform into charnel houses if nothing is done to release those who represent at worst a nuisance, rather than a danger to society.”

Australia has also become a site for discussions on early release.  “Release prisoners or see deaths,” tweeted sombre legal advocate Greg Barnes.  “If it happens it will be industrial manslaughter.”  The state government of New South Wales has shown a willingness to come to the party.  On Tuesday, legislation was speedily passed giving the Corrective Services Commissioner Peter Severin powers to permit the early release of prisoners on parole and pass measures to assist in “social distancing”.  This would require Severin to be satisfied that COVID-19 posed a sufficient risk to public health or the good order and security of prisons. 

Such “extraordinary measures,” explained NSW Attorney-General Mark Speakman, “are only to be used to respond to the threat of COVID-19, and would allow the Commissioner … to prioritise vulnerable offenders and others who pose a low risk to the community for consideration for conditional release.”

In the United States, which boasts, with dubious distinction, the largest prison population on the planet, states are taking their own measures to initiate releases.  “Jails can be incubators for disease so we need to take bold and drastic steps,” stated New Jersey’s Attorney General Gurbir Singh Grewal.  To avert a coronavirus crisis within the prison system, the pained former prosecutor insisted on something against his pro-incarceration nature.  On Sunday night, the Chief Justice of the state’s Supreme Court, Stuart Rabner, signed an order to suspend or commute sentences served by inmates for probation violations and municipal court convictions.  The measure is set to free up to 1,000 inmates, though they would still be subject to stay-at-home orders.

Across the country, albeit in piecemeal fashion, releases and reductions are taking place.  New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has promised the release of 40 inmates from Rikers Island jail, with another 23 to follow.  The situation there is particular dire, with 35 confirmed COVID-19 cases and an absence of hand sanitiser and bleach.  Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villaneuva has also mucked in with the release of inmates with less than 30 days left on their sentences. 

A bar to any significant releases lies in the fact that court orders are generally required for state and federal prisoners, though President Donald Trump is considering an executive order that may permit the release of “totally nonviolent prisoners”.

The risk posed by COVID-19 is not helped by the deplorable state of sanitation many face in empire’s prison land.  As Maria Morris, staff attorney at the ACLU’s National Prison Project describes it,

“They are also living in filthy conditions and often without adequate access to soap, other hygiene products, other cleaning supplies, and that exacerbates the likelihood of the spread of a contagious illness.”

Shane Fausey, President of the American Federation of Government Employees Council of Prison Local 33, has had an eye on both the policed and the policing agents in prison, issuing a plea in a phone interview to Attorney General William Barr to intervene. 

“I am imploring the attorney general of the United States to stop all inmate movement, shelter in place at least for 14 to 21 days, following the guidance of the White House press briefings.” 

Not exactly a heartening measure, given that such briefings on the matter have been sketchy, at best.

As the United States takes to the stage as a confused combatant against a pandemic that continues its march, its institutional foundations are being challenged.  A way of holding them is to consider penal conditions and their reform.  The same might well be said of other countries who take pride in the prison industrial complex.  Whether a vaccine is found or otherwise, the urgency of dealing with the spread is immediate and commanding.  The narrow mind, traditional in penal matters, risks winning out.

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Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge.  He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research and Asia-Pacific Research. Email: [email protected]

“That was when they suspended the Constitution. They said it would be temporary. There wasn’t even any rioting in the streets. People stayed home at night, watching television, looking for some direction. There wasn’t even an enemy you could put your finger on.”― Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale

You can always count on the government to take advantage of a crisis, legitimate or manufactured.

This coronavirus pandemic is no exception.

Not only are the federal and state governments unraveling the constitutional fabric of the nation with lockdown mandates that are sending the economy into a tailspin and wreaking havoc with our liberties, but they are also rendering the citizenry fully dependent on the government for financial handouts, medical intervention, protection and sustenance.

Unless we find some way to rein in the government’s power grabs, the fall-out will be epic.

Everything I have warned about for years—government overreach, invasive surveillance, martial law, abuse of powers, militarized police, weaponized technology used to track and control the citizenry, and so on—has coalesced into this present moment.

The government’s shameless exploitation of past national emergencies for its own nefarious purposes pales in comparison to what is presently unfolding.

It’s downright Machiavellian.

Deploying the same strategy it used with 9/11 to acquire greater powers under the USA Patriot Act, the police state—a.k.a. the shadow government, a.k.a. the Deep State—has been anticipating this moment for years, quietly assembling a wish list of lockdown powers that could be trotted out and approved at a moment’s notice.

It should surprise no one, then, that the Trump Administration has asked Congress to allow it to suspend parts of the Constitution whenever it deems it necessary during this coronavirus pandemic and “other” emergencies.

It’s that “other” emergencies part that should particularly give you pause, if not spur you to immediate action (by action, I mean a loud and vocal, apolitical, nonpartisan outcry and sustained, apolitical, nonpartisan resistance).

In fact, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has been quietly trotting out and testing a long laundry list of terrifying powers that override the Constitution.

We’re talking about lockdown powers (at both the federal and state level): the ability to suspend the Constitution, indefinitely detain American citizens, bypass the courts, quarantine whole communities or segments of the population, override the First Amendment by outlawing religious gatherings and assemblies of more than a few people, shut down entire industries and manipulate the economy, muzzle dissidents, “stop and seize any plane, train or automobile to stymie the spread of contagious disease,” reshape financial markets, create a digital currency (and thus further restrict the use of cash), determine who should live or die…

You’re getting the picture now, right?

These are powers the police state would desperately like to make permanent.

Specifically, the DOJ wants to be able to indefinitely detain American citizens without trial. The DOJ also wants to be able to pause court proceedings and suspend the statute of limitations on criminal and civil cases.

Both signify a clear violation of every right espoused in the Constitution, including habeas corpus.

Habeas corpus, a fundamental tenet of English common law that guards against arbitrary and lawless state action, does not appear anywhere in the Bill of Rights. Its importance was such that it was enshrined in the Constitution itself. And it is of such magnitude that all other rights, including those in the Bill of Rights, are dependent upon it. Without habeas corpus, the significance of all other rights crumbles.

The right of habeas corpus was important to the Framers of the Constitution because they knew from personal experience what it was like to be labeled enemy combatants, imprisoned indefinitely and not given the opportunity to appear before a neutral judge. Believing that such arbitrary imprisonment is “in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instrument of tyranny,” the Founders were all the more determined to protect Americans from such government abuses.

Translated as “you should have the body,” habeas corpus is a legal action, or writ, by which those imprisoned unlawfully can seek relief from their imprisonment. Derived from English common law, habeas corpus first appeared in the Magna Carta of 1215 and is the oldest human right in the history of English-speaking civilization. The doctrine of habeas corpus stems from the requirement that a government must either charge a person or let him go free.

While serving as President, Thomas Jefferson addressed the essential necessity of habeas corpus. In his first inaugural address on March 4, 1801, Jefferson said, “I know, indeed, that some honest men fear that a republican government cannot be strong; that this government is not strong enough.” But, said Jefferson, our nation was “the world’s best hope” and, because of our strong commitment to democracy, “the strongest government on earth.” Jefferson said that the sum of this basic belief was found in the “freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus; and trial by juries impartially selected. These principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us, and guided our steps through an age of revolution and reformation.”

Throughout the twentieth century, the importance of the right of habeas corpus has repeatedly been confirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court. Yet 200-plus years after America’s founders risked their lives to secure their freedoms, we find ourselves right back where we started, with a government determined to strip us of every vestige of our freedoms.

The DOJ’s latest request to Congress is merely a signal that the police state is ready to step out of the shadows, with the current national emergency being a convenient cover for their dastardly deeds.

Bear in mind, however, that these powers the Trump Administration, acting on orders from the police state, are officially asking Congress to recognize and authorize barely scratch the surface of the far-reaching powers the government has already unilaterally claimed for itself.

Unofficially, the police state has been riding roughshod over the rule of law for years now without any pretense of being reined in or restricted in its power grabs by Congress, the courts or the citizenry.

As David C. Unger, observes in The Emergency State: America’s Pursuit of Absolute Security at All Costs:

“For seven decades we have been yielding our most basic liberties to a secretive, unaccountable emergency state – a vast but increasingly misdirected complex of national security institutions, reflexes, and beliefs that so define our present world that we forget that there was ever a different America. … Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness have given way to permanent crisis management: to policing the planet and fighting preventative wars of ideological containment, usually on terrain chosen by, and favorable to, our enemies. Limited government and constitutional accountability have been shouldered aside by the kind of imperial presidency our constitutional system was explicitly designed to prevent.”

This rise of an “emergency state” that justifies all manner of government tyranny in the so-called name of national security is all happening according to schedule.

The civil unrest, the national emergencies, “unforeseen economic collapse, loss of functioning political and legal order, purposeful domestic resistance or insurgency, pervasive public health emergencies, and catastrophic natural and human disasters,” the government’s reliance on the armed forces to solve domestic political and social problems, the implicit declaration of martial law packaged as a well-meaning and overriding concern for the nation’s security: the powers-that-be have been planning and preparing for such a crisis for years now, not just with active shooter drills and lockdowns and checkpoints and heightened danger alerts, but with a sensory overload of militarized, battlefield images—in video games, in movies, on the news—that acclimate us to life in a police state.

Whether or not this particular crisis is of the government’s own making is not the point: to those for whom power and profit are everything, the end always justifies the means.

The seeds of this present madness were sown several decades ago when George W. Bush stealthily issued two presidential directives that granted the president the power to unilaterally declare a national emergency, which is loosely defined as “any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions.“

Comprising the country’s Continuity of Government (COG) plan, these directives (National Security Presidential Directive 51 and Homeland Security Presidential Directive 20), which do not need congressional approval, provide a skeletal outline of the actions the president will take in the event of a “national emergency.”

Mind you, that national emergency can take any form, can be manipulated for any purpose and can be used to justify any end goal—all on the say so of the president.

Just what sort of actions the president will take once he declares a national emergency can barely be discerned from the barebones directives. However, one thing is clear: in the event of a national emergency, the president will become a dictator because while the COG directives ensure the continuity of executive branch functions, they do not provide for repopulating or reconvening Congress or the Supreme Court.

Thus, a debilitating attack would give unchecked executive, legislative and judicial power to the executive branch and its unelected minions. The country would then be subjected to martial law by default, and the Constitution and the Bill of Rights would be suspended.

Originally devised as a plan for quickly restoring constitutional government, the COG concept arose during the Cold War. The fear was that a nuclear strike would paralyze the federal government.

These concerns continued into the 1980s.

Under President Ronald Reagan, an elaborate plan was created in which three teams consisting of a cabinet member, an executive chief of staff and military and intelligence officials would practice evacuating and directing a counter nuclear strike against the Soviet Union from a variety of high-tech, mobile command vehicles. If the president and vice president were both killed, one of these teams would take control, with the ranking cabinet official serving as president.

Among those Reagan handpicked to advise an inexperienced and potentially incompetent successor in a time of crisis were Congressman Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, then a business executive with G. D. Searle & Co. At least once a year during the 1980s, Cheney and Rumsfeld vanished on top-secret training missions, where each of the teams practiced evacuating and directing a counter nuclear strike against Russia.

This all changed after the attacks of September 11, 2001, when it became clear that the assumptions that drove COG planning during the Cold War no longer applied: there would be no warning against a so-called “terrorist” attack. Thus, instead of relying on part-time bureaucrats and evacuation schematics, the Bush administration permanently appointed executive officials, stationed outside the capital, to run a shadow government.

The U.S. military has reportedly already been given standby orders under COG for this present coronavirus pandemic.

The plans for the shadow government administered by those who run the Deep State are more elaborate than many realize. Massive underground bunkers the size of small cities are sprinkled throughout the country for the government elite to escape to in the event of a national emergency. Mount Weather, near Bluemont, Va., is one of a number of such facilities. Built into the side of a mountain, this bunker contains, among other things, a hospital, crematorium, dining and recreation areas, sleeping quarters, reservoirs of drinking and cooling water, an emergency power plant and a radio/television studio.

There is also an Office of the Presidency at Mount Weather, which regularly receives top-secret national security information from all the federal departments and agencies. This facility was largely unknown to everyone, including Congress, until it came to light in the mid-1970s. Military personnel connected to the bunker have refused to reveal any information about it, even before congressional committees. In fact, Congress has no oversight, budgetary or otherwise, on Mount Weather, and the specifics of the facility remain top-secret.

What is the bottom line here?

We are, for all intents and purposes, one crisis away from having a full-fledged authoritarian state emerge from the shadows, at which time democratic government will be dissolved and the country will be ruled by an unelected bureaucracy.

This is exactly the kind of mischief that Thomas Jefferson warned against when he cautioned, “In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.”

Power corrupts.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Thus far, we have at least pretended that the government abides by the Constitution.

Those who wrote our Constitution sought to ensure our freedoms by creating a document that protects our God-given rights at all times, even when we are engaged in war, whether that is a so-called war on terrorism, a so-called war on drugs, a so-called war on illegal immigration, or a so-called war on disease.

The attempts by each successive presidential administration to rule by fiat merely plays into the hands of those who would distort the government’s system of checks and balances and its constitutional separation of powers beyond all recognition.

Remember, these powers do not expire at the end of a president’s term. They remain on the books, just waiting to be used or abused by the next political demagogue.

So, too, every action taken by Trump and his predecessors to weaken the system of checks and balances, sidestep the rule of law, and expand the power of the executive branch of government has made us that much more vulnerable to those who would abuse those powers in the future.

Although the Constitution invests the President with very specific, limited powers, in recent years, American presidents (Trump, Obama, Bush, Clinton, etc.) have claimed the power to completely and almost unilaterally alter the landscape of this country for good or for ill.

The Trump Administration’s willingness to circumvent the Constitution by leaning heavily on the president’s so-called emergency powers constitutes a gross perversion of what limited power the Constitution affords the executive branch.

The powers amassed by each successive president through the negligence of Congress and the courts—powers which add up to a toolbox of terror for an imperial ruler—empower whomever occupies the Oval Office to act as a dictator, above the law and beyond any real accountability.

As law professor William P. Marshall explains, “every extraordinary use of power by one President expands the availability of executive branch power for use by future Presidents.” Moreover, it doesn’t even matter whether other presidents have chosen not to take advantage of any particular power, because “it is a President’s action in using power, rather than forsaking its use, that has the precedential significance.”

In other words, each successive president continues to add to his office’s list of extraordinary orders and directives, expanding the reach and power of the presidency and granting him- or herself near dictatorial powers.

This abuse of presidential powers has been going on for so long that it has become the norm, the Constitution be damned.

We no longer have a system of checks and balances.

“The system of checks and balances that the Framers envisioned now lacks effective checks and is no longer in balance,” concludes Marshall. “The implications of this are serious. The Framers designed a system of separation of powers to combat government excess and abuse and to curb incompetence. They also believed that, in the absence of an effective separation-of-powers structure, such ills would inevitably follow. Unfortunately, however, power once taken is not easily surrendered.”

All of the imperial powers amassed by Barack Obama and George W. Bush and now Trump—to kill American citizens without due process, to detain suspects (including American citizens) indefinitely, to strip Americans of their citizenship rights, to carry out mass surveillance on Americans without probable cause, to wage wars without congressional authorization, to suspend laws during wartime, to disregard laws with which he might disagree, to conduct secret wars and convene secret courts, to sanction torture, to sidestep the legislatures and courts with executive orders and signing statements, to direct the military to operate beyond the reach of the law, to establish a standing army on American soil, to operate a shadow government, to declare national emergencies for any manipulated reason, and to act as a dictator and a tyrant, above the law and beyond any real accountability—have become a permanent part of the president’s toolbox of terror.

These presidential powers—acquired through the use of executive orders, decrees, memorandums, proclamations, national security directives and legislative signing statements and which can be activated by any sitting president—enable past, president and future presidents to operate above the law and beyond the reach of the Constitution.

Think on this: the presidential election is right around the corner.

Suddenly, the improbable possibility of any incumbent president attempting to extend the police state’s stranglehold on power by using current events to justify postponing or doing away with an election—forfeiting the people’s rights to govern altogether—and establishing a totalitarian regime seems less far-fetched than it did even a few years ago.

The emergency state is now out in the open for all to see. Unfortunately, “we the people” refuse to see what’s before us. Most Americans, fearful and easily controlled, would sooner rouse themselves to fight for that last roll of toilet paper than they would their own freedoms.

This is how freedom dies.

We erect our own prison walls, and as our rights dwindle away, we forge our own chains of servitude to the police state.

Be warned, however: once you surrender your freedoms to the government—no matter how compelling the reason might be for doing so—you can never get them back.

As I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, no government willingly relinquishes power.

If we continue down this road, there can be no surprise about what awaits us at the end.

The America metamorphosing before our eyes is almost unrecognizable from the country I grew up in, and that’s not just tragic—it’s downright terrifying.

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This article was originally published on The Rutherford Institute.

Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His new book Battlefield America: The War on the American People  is available at www.amazon.com. Whitehead can be contacted at [email protected].

Some book covers are better than others, and that of Yves Engler’s House of Mirrors is beautifully expressive of the contents of his latest work.  It shows a very friendly faced and happy smiling Justin Trudeau in an iconic pose that says it all:  America first.

This is Engler’s eleventh book exposing the down side of Canadian politics.  It covers two main themes, the obvious first one is that of Canada’s involvement in the U.S. imperial-hegemonic demands around the world.  The second, more domestic, is that the Liberal’s and Conservatives, Canada’s two main parties, are essentially the same thing when it comes to foreign policy.  Whereas the Conservatives are much more aggressive with their terminology while the Trudeau Liberals couch their words in fancier more humanistic sounding language, the end results are the same: following the U.S. corporate-industrial-military complex and in certain cases being ahead of that curve.

With that as its underlying theme, Engler covers many topics concerning the Trudeau Liberals.  The first long section deals with “The Canadian Monroe Policy” discussing how Canada fits into U.S. initiatives throughout Latin America with the overthrow, attempted overthrows, and manipulations of various organizations (OAS) in order to control the western hemisphere.  While paralleling U.S. interests, in terms of Venezuela, Canada, under Chrystia Freeland’ tutelage, has taken a leading interest with its support of the Lima group (all sycophantic governments to U.S. corporate interests) against Venezuela.

A long essay on the Middle East, “Loving Monarchies, Hating Palestinians” discusses how Canada relates to the Arab countries, Israel, and the Palestinians.  An earlier chapter, “The Sun Never Sets on the Canadian Military”, ties in with this chapter in exploring the numerous military sales and security contacts with Middle Eastern countries.  Large orders of military materials are sent to the likes of Saudi Arabia in support of its war on Yemen.  Much information and technological information for security is exchanged between Canada and Israel (fun fact: Canada developed apartheid long before South Africa and Israel).  The official position for Palestine is the still born two state peace process while the actual position is more one of asking why the Palestinians do not acquiesce to Israeli demands.

Many other important topics are presented:  around the world from China and North Korea through to Freeland’s favorite bogeyman, Russia, and on into Africa (military and mining interests);  around the world from its domestic carbon dioxide/environmental policies; another hit on Canada’s mining interests in particular with South America; and the language of “Judge What I Say, Not What I Do”.

It is interesting how often Chrystia Freeland’s name rises in connection with Trudeau’s foreign policy.  She is foremost in using the platitude about “international order based on rules” and the “rule of laws”. Whatever the foreign policy, as Foreign Affairs Minister and now as Deputy Prime Minister (a conveniently invented position), she carries considerable sway concerning Russia, Ukraine, Venezuela, Syria and other global hotspots (coronavirus notwithstanding).  She inverts the colonial role, making Canada a victim rather than a colonizer and exploiter, “Canada has never been an imperialist power…we’ve been the colony.”

In his conclusion, Engler reprises comments about Canadian banks, the mining  industry, Russia, Israel, Iran, the military, and business in general.  He summarizes, “corporate Canada is highly international” with “segments…tied to extreme capitalism.”  Extreme capitalism being capitalism dominated by and supported by the military-industrial complex with assistance from the financial community and the mainstream media.

As with all of Yves Engler’s books, House of Mirrors is tightly written, with little philosophizing, allowing the information to speak for itself, information that is highly notated and well referenced.  The smiling man on the cover, Justin Trudeau, is essentially another true believer in an oligarchic world order (along with Ms Freeland) supported by an international array of corporate and military liaisons.

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Jim Miles is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

Within a few hours of being launched, over 800 Venezuelans in the U.S. registered for an emergency flight from Miami to Caracas through a website run by the Venezuelan government. This flight, offered at no cost, was proposed by President Nicolás Maduro when he learned that 200 Venezuelans were stuck in the United States following his government’s decision to stop commercial flights as a preventative coronavirus measure. The promise of one flight expanded to two or more flights, as it became clear that many Venezuelans in the U.S. wanted to go back to Venezuela, yet the situation remains unresolved due to the U.S. ban on flights to and from the country.

Those who rely solely on the mainstream media might wonder who in their right mind would want to leave the United States for Venezuela. Time, The Washington Post, The Hill and the Miami Herald, among others, published opinions in the past week describing Venezuela as a chaotic nightmare. These media outlets painted a picture of a coronavirus disaster, of government incompetence and of a nation teetering on the brink of collapse. The reality of Venezuela’s coronavirus response is not covered by the mainstream media at all.

Furthermore, what each of these articles shortchanges is the damage caused by the Trump administration’s sanctions, which devastated the economy and healthcare system long before the coronavirus pandemic. These sanctions have impoverished millions of Venezuelans and negatively impact vital infrastructure, such as electricity generation. Venezuela is impeded from importing spare parts for its power plants and the resulting blackouts interrupt water services that rely on electric pumps. These, along with dozens of other implications from the hybrid war on Venezuela, have caused a decline in health indicators across the board, leading to 100,000 deaths as a consequence of the sanctions.

Regarding coronavirus specifically, the sanctions raise the costs of testing kits and medical supplies, and ban Venezuela’s government from purchasing medical equipment from the U.S. (and from many European countries). These obstacles would seemingly place Venezuela on the path to a worst-case scenario, similar to Iran (also battered by sanctions) or Italy (battered by austerity and neoliberalism). In contrast to those two countries, Venezuela took decisive steps early on to face the pandemic.

As a result of these steps and other factors, Venezuela is currently in its best-case scenario. As of this writing, 11 days after the first confirmed case of coronavirus, the country has 86 infected people, with 0 deaths. Its neighbors have not fared as well: Brazil has 1,924 cases with 34 deaths; Ecuador 981 and 18; Chile 746 and 2; Peru 395 and 5; Mexico 367 and 4; Colombia 306 and 3. (With the exception of Mexico, those governments have all actively participated and contributed to the U.S.-led regime change efforts in Venezuela.) Why is Venezuela doing so much better than others in the region?

Skeptics will claim that the Maduro government is hiding figures and deaths, that there’s not enough testing, not enough medicine, not enough talent to adequately deal with a pandemic. But here are the facts:

First, international solidarity has played a priceless role in enabling the government to rise to the challenge. China sent coronavirus diagnostic kits that will allow 320,000 Venezuelans to be tested, in addition to a team of experts and tons of supplies. Cuba sent 130 doctors and 10,000 doses of interferon alfa-2b, a drug with an established record of helping COVID-19 patients recover. Russia has sent the first of several shipments of medical equipment and kits. These three countries, routinely characterized by the U.S. foreign policy establishment as evil, offer solidarity and material support. The United States offers more sanctions and the IMF, widely known to be under U.S. control, denied a Venezuelan request for $5 billion in emergency funding that even the European Union supports.

Second, the government quickly carried out a plan to contain the spread of the disease. On March 12, a day before the first confirmed cases, President Maduro decreed a health emergency, prohibited crowds from gathering, and cancelled flights from Europe and Colombia. On March 13, Day 1, two Venezuelans tested positive; the government cancelled classes, began requiring facemasks on subways and on the border, closed theaters, bars and nightclubs, and limited restaurants to take-out or delivery. It bears repeating that this was on Day 1 of having a confirmed case; many U.S. states have yet to take these steps. By Day 4, a national quarantine was put into effect (equivalent to shelter-in-place orders) and an online portal called the Homeland System (Sistema Patria) was repurposed to survey potential COVID-19 cases. By Day 8, 42 people were infected and approximately 90% of the population was heeding the quarantine. By Day 11, over 12.2 million people had filled out the survey, over 20,000 people who reported being sick were visited in their homes by medical professionals and 145 people were referred for coronavirus testing. The government estimates that without these measures, Venezuela would have 3,000 infected people and a high number of deaths.

Third, the Venezuelan people were positioned to handle a crisis. Over the past 7 years, Venezuela has lived through the death of wildly popular leader, violent right-wing protests, an economic war characterized by shortages and hyperinflation, sanctions that have destroyed the economy, an ongoing coup, attempted military insurrections, attacks on public utilities, blackouts, mass migration and threats of U.S. military action. The coronavirus is a different sort of challenge, but previous crises have instilled a resiliency among the Venezuelan people and strengthened solidarity within communities. There is no panic on the streets; instead, people are calm and are following health protocols.

Fourth, mass organizing and prioritizing people above all else. Communes and organized communities have taken the lead, producing facemasks, keeping the CLAP food supply system running (this monthly food package reaches 7 million families), facilitating house-by-house visits of doctors and encouraging the use of facemasks in public. Over 12,000 medical school students in their last or second-to-last year of study applied to be trained for house visits. For its part, the Maduro administration suspended rent payments, instituted a nationwide firing freeze, gave bonuses to workers, prohibited telecoms from cutting off people’s phones or internet, reached an agreement with hotel chains to provide 4,000 beds in case the crisis escalates, and pledged to pay the salaries of employees of small and medium businesses. Amid a public health crisis – compounded by an economic crisis and sanctions – Venezuela’s response has been to guarantee food, provide free healthcare and widespread testing, and alleviate further economic pressure on the working class.

The U.S. government has not responded to the Maduro administration’s request to make an exception for Conviasa Airlines, the national airline under sanctions, to fly the Venezuelans stranded in the United States back to Caracas. Given everything happening in the United States, where COVID-19 treatment can cost nearly $35,000 and the government is weighing the option of prioritizing the economy over the lives of people, perhaps these Venezuelans waiting to go home understand that their chances of surviving the coronavirus – both physically and economically – are much better in a country that values health over profits.

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Leonardo Flores is Latin American policy expert and campaigner with CODEPINK.

Featured image: Venezuelan doctors conducting a COVID-19 house visit. Photo courtesy of @OrlenysOV

Despite strong rebukes from the WHO, President Trump and his Administration officials have made an emphatic point of calling the COVID-19 virus the “Chinese Virus” or “China Virus” over the last few weeks.  When pushed on the racist overtone of his rhetoric, Trump retorted, “Cause [the virus] comes from China. It’s not racist at all, no, not at all. It comes from China, that’s why. I want to be accurate.”

Sadly, most Americans, even if uncomfortable, appear to agree on the facts, if not the tenor, of Trump’s choice of words.[1]

Here are some facts about the COVID-19 virus that will helpfully set the American public straight.

The True Origin of COVID-19

First, according to the most recent science research, the origin of the COVID-19 is actually unknown. While officials in China initially believed the virus to have originated in a seafood market in Wuhan, subsequent studies by researchers from Japan, Taiwan, and Mainland China itself have cast strong doubts on that theory.[2]  China’s official position now is that the origin of the virus should be determined through sound scientific deliberation, without political interference.[3]

Those Bat-Eating Chinese People!

Second, many in the U.S. appear to believe bat-eating Chinese people caused the current COVID-19 pandemic.  Since the epidemic first started in Wuhan, Western social media have been lit up by links to several videos of Chinese citizens eating bat soup, with not so subtle racial insinuations that it is the Chinese people and their culture that have caused the COVID-19 epidemic.

But Chinese people do not have a tradition of eating bats. Journalists from France 24 TV recently tracked down the makers of five of the six most-shared videos.  They found that none of these videos were filmed near Wuhan, or in China, as many had claimed.  Instead, all videos were filmed in Palau or Indonesia, in locales where bats have traditionally been consumed as food,[4] and where adventurous visitors from around the world would be welcomed to sample local, traditional cuisine.

The WHO has warned against naming viruses based on region or ethnicity precisely because of the stigma and racism that these names inevitably provoke.[5]

According to current research, it is not likely that bat consumption alone caused COVID-19.  Most scientists believe that the COVID-19 virus did not enter the human population directly,[6] but through an intermediate host such as pangolins, civets, ferrets, or even turtles, pigs, or cats.[7] The much studied 2003 SARS virus – a cousin of the COVID-19 virus – for example, is thought to have leaped from bats to civet cats, mutating there before making a final jump to humans.

Demonizing Chinese or bat-eating people in general is ultimately just a sign of racism.  If zoonotic virus transfer is a true overriding overarching concern, then the consumption of beef, pork and chicken should all be categorically condemned as well since viruses can and do periodically jump from cattle, pigs and chicken to humans.  Similarly, the keeping of dogs and cats as pets should also be categorically condemned since viruses can and do periodically jump from those animals to humans.

The Wuhan Virus?

Third, the fact that the COVID-19 epidemic first arose in Wuhan does not necessarily mean that the virus must have arisen there.  Take the AIDS epidemic as an example.  While the AIDS epidemic arose in Los Angeles in the 1970’s, the HIV virus actually arose in the human population much earlier – around 1908, in the southeastern corner of what is present day Cameroon.[8] Having made the jump to a human population from a monkey or chimpanzee, the virus then mutated and spread within the human population for more than half a century – below everyone’s radar – before exploding onto the global scene in the 1970’s.

In a 2012 interview, science writer David Quammen astutely observed how a virus would have hit “jackpot” if it successfully entered the human population because no species had achieved the numbers and mass that we humans have.[9] To viruses and bacteria, we are all one.  We form one large globally-spanning host system.

A recent study has shown that some 30% of human protein adaptions since our divergence from chimpanzees have been driven by our viruses!  Thus, when a viral epidemic strikes, we need to band together to collectively fight against it lest it spreads to engulf us all.

A Chinese Cover-up?

Fourth, there is no evidence that the Chinese government attempted to cover up the COVID-19 as many in the U.S. claim. Here is a short timeline what China did do in the initial days of the epidemic.

On December 31, 2019, the Chinese informed WHO of mysterious pneumonia cases in Wuhan city.  Soon afterwards, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission ruled out influenza, avian influenza, adenovirus infection, SARS, MERS and other commonly known respiratory diseases as the cause.[10] On January 7, the Chinese had identified a new coronavirus as the cause.  Five days later, China completed and published the genetic sequence of the new virus.  On January 21, WHO confirmed the first case of human-to-human transmission of the coronavirus.  On January 23, China shut down most of the nation and enacted a city-wide quarantine of Wuhan when nation reported some 500 confirmed cases and 17 deaths.

Compare this with the response that would subsequently take place in Europe or America. Italy – despite having a population around 4% of that of China – did not instate a national lockdown until after it reached some 12,462 confirmed cases and 827 deaths. The U.K. talked openly about ignoring the virus to build a “herd mentality” until it abruptly change policy a week after Italy’s decision to lock down.  The U.S. did nothing domestically to prepare for the virus until mid-March when hospitals began to be saturated with patients, doctors ran out of basic medical supplies, and cities and states across the nation began shutting down.

Yet many Americans continue to point a finger at China.  Last week, Secretary Pompeo tweeted that “Beijing must acknowledge its role [in the current global pandemic] and be part of the solution.” Bolton, Trump’s former National Security Adviser, tweeted that “[i]t’s fact there was a massive coverup. China is responsible. The world must act to hold them accountable.” Urged on by supporters, Trump is said to be considering how to “punish China” for starting and spreading the COVID-19 virus.

Dr. Li Wenliang is a Chinese “national hero,” not “whistleblower.”

Fifth, Dr. Li Wenliang is a Chinese “national hero,” not “whistleblower.”

In the West, Dr. Li Wenliang – an ophthalmologist – is often portrayed as a “whistleblower” that forced the Chinese government to relent on an alleged cover up.  Reviewing records retrospectively, some critics have alleged that the first case of COVID-19 in China may have arisen as early as November 17,[11] but even they acknowledge that frontline doctors in China did not suspect of a new disease until late December.

The story of Dr. Li is a story of both heroism and tragedy – a story replicated many times over in China during this pandemic.  On December 30, Dr. Li posted information the string of mysterious pneumonia cases in Wuhan in a private WeChat group and speculated to his friends about a return of the 2003 SARS virus.  He cited details from a then unpublished “government report” and asked his friends to keep silence.  But details of what he disclosed nevertheless got out.  On January 3, local officials cited him for spreading rumors and suspended his license to practice.  On January 7, after the content of the report – i.e. the existence of a new virus – was verified and the report published, Dr. Li was told to go back to work.  Dr. Li unfortunately soon contracted the COVID-19 virus and would die one month later.

Dr. Li’s ordeal – while tragic – was however not part of a systemic cover up.  Dr. Li was an ophthalmologist whose work does not usually touch on infectious diseases.  Dr. Li’s hunch about a new disease happened to be right, but he also got important details wrong. In China, Dr. Li is considered a hero.  While people acknowledge the government’s right to hold up the report until its contents can be verified, many people also believe the government should have published the report sooner.

America should take responsibility for America’s actions.

Sixth, the U.S. should take responsibility for its COVID-19 epidemic and not blindly scapegoat others for its problems.

The U.S. had a first confirmed case of COVID-19 on January 20,[12] some two weeks after China had alerted the world of a new virus.  On February 5, Trump tweeted “Only 5 people in U.S., all in good recovery.”  On February 10, Trump said in a rally, “I think it’s going to work out good. We only have 11 cases and they’re all getting better.”  On February 24, Trump tweeted “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA.”  On February 26, Trump said, “We’re very, very ready for this. … we’re at that very low level.” His main gripe then was how media like MSNBC and CNN was “doing everything possible to make the Coronavirus look as bad as possible, including panicking markets….”  On February 28, in a political rally attended by over ten thousand supporters,[13] he called concerns about the coronavirus a “hoax.”

On March 2 when US confirmed cases of COVID-19 reached 90, Trump pronounced that a vaccine could be available for the public in as little as a few months.  On March 9, Trump compared the coronavirus to the “common flu” and said that life and economy will “go on” as usual.

On March 11, however, in a major policy reversal after U.S. confirmed cases reached 1,000, Trump blamed Europe and China on his first major nationally televised speech about the pandemic.  “The European Union failed to take the same precautions and restrict travel from China and other hot spots. As a result, a large number of new clusters in the United States were seeded by travelers from Europe.”

But the U.S. was on full alert about the new disease since early January.  In the three months since, Trump chose to rely on his border-control ideology[14] instead of science as the nation’s primary means of defense.

While the U.S. put up a travel ban targeting Chinese nationals travelling from China, the U.S. put up no restrictions at all on other nationalities traveling to and from China, put up no restrictions on travelers travelling to and from any other region of world, and failed to screen many non-Chinese travelers coming into the nation even when they showed overt signs of being sick.[15]

Even more critically, the U.S. failed to conduct any systematic test on the American population, a necessary first step to conducting any public health campaign.  It failed to produce the test kits for doctor’s offices.  It refused available tests from the WHO and got mired in a disastrous rollout of its own test kits. It failed to ensure the availability of critical of personal protective equipment should an epidemic hit.

Questioning an unchallenged assumption?

Finally, American citizens should question the unchallenged assumption in the U.S. that the coronavirus arose and spread from China.  Over this past weekend, the New York Times put up a beautiful “infographics” showing “how the virus got out” from Wuhan and China despite the “most extensive travel restrictions to stop an outbreak in human history.”[16] The Times overlaid graphics of general movement of people moving by cars, public transportation, and flights to give readers a visual sense of how the virus might have spread out from China.  But is this visual based on scientific fact?  The graphics proves nothing.  The truth is that anyone can choose any city in the world and overlay general traffic and flight patterns to show how a putative virus got out and infect the rest of the world.

A simple ‘back-of-the-envelop’ calculation shows how big a problem the current presumption about a “China virus” is.  Based on current research, the coronavirus virus has a mean infection rate (R₀) of 2.2,[17] and a mean incubation rate of 6.4 days.[18] One can calculate the fastest growth rate of this virus by assuming that the mean infection period is equal to the mean incubation period (realistically, the mean infection period will probably be much larger, because virally comprised patients such as flu patients typically infect others not just during the incubation period, but after the onset of symptoms and perhaps even during recovery). If the coronavirus had really arrived in the U.S. only around mid-January, then it could have grown at most to around 3,844 cases by March 22.  According the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Website however, the U.S. already had 33,276 confirmed cases by March 22.  That is a 10x discrepancy!

According to Trevor Bedford of the COVID Tracking Project, the actual number of people infected in the U.S. is much larger than confirmed cases, at probably around 120,000 by March 22.[19] 120,000 against 3,844 is now a 32x discrepancy!

Due to a lack of systematic testing in the U.S.,no one knows how many are really infected in the U.S. today. But whatever the number, using basic calculations taking into account basic facts about the virus like the one above, one can easily show how unlikely it is that the virus spread from China to the U.S. in late January or February.  More likely, the virus was already established in the U.S. by early January and perhaps December or even November.

These statistics become all the more sobering when viewed in light of other contemporaneous public health developments in the U.S.  Last year, mysterious pneumonia cases relating to e-cigarette vaping occurred started popping up around summer in the U.S.  X-ray images of lung damage show “ground glass” opacity that now look surprisingly similar to those caused by the coronavirus.[20] According to the CDC,[21] the vaping cases peaked around September, right before the CDC started reporting abnormally early cases of flu in October.  Could the mysterious vaping pneumonia cases have been coronavirus cases that are later inadvertently lumped into the flu cases?

On March 11, CDC director Robert Redfield admitted during a House Oversight Committee hearing that the CDC had mis-categorized an unknown number of coronavirus cases under flu cases during this past season.[22] Could the coronavirus have been established in the U.S. much earlier than the government is currently admitting?

The New York Times recently featured an amazing story about how Dr. Helen Chu – an infectious disease expert – tried but was blocked from getting answers to such questions.[23] The earliest cases of coronavirus in the U.S. struck in the Seattle area.  Throughout February and until mid-March, Washington would lead the nation in coronavirus count.  As luck would have it, for several months as part of a research project into the flu, Dr. Chu happened to have been collecting nasal swabs from residents experiencing symptoms in the area.  When the coronavirus outbreak arose, Dr. Chu wanted repurpose her tests to monitor for the coronavirus instead of the flu.  Various authorities blocked her.  When Dr. Chu went to the C.D.C. and F.D.A., officials there told her to “cease and desist.”

The Trump Virus?

Throughout this pandemic, the WHO and many health professionals have lauded China for its response to the outbreak.[24]  China has been able to control its epidemic through actions that many thought were too draconian, but that many now think is necessary to controlling the outbreak.

Will the U.S. join China in a common global fight, or will it continue to politicize and smear, bumbling along the way and putting millions of additional lives in danger?

If Trump decides to fight China instead of the virus, would the term “the Trump Virus” be a better moniker than “the Chinese Virus”?

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Notes

[1] See, e.g., https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/20/politics/donald-trump-china-virus-coronavirus/index.html

[2] See, e.g., https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/01/wuhan-seafood-market-may-not-be-source-novel-virus-spreading-globally;https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3051981/coronavirus-did-not-originate-wuhan-seafood-market-chinese;https://www.globalresearch.ca/china-coronavirus-shocking-update/5705196

[3] https://m.guancha.cn/internation/2020_03_12_541339.shtml

[4] See, e.g., https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-indonesia-bats/bat-meat-still-popular-in-parts-of-indonesia-despite-coronavirus-fears-idUSKBN20511R,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJEp-LNcWHs,https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4724787/,https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/eating-bat-in-the-seychelles

[5] http://english.cctv.com/2020/03/19/ARTIFtUTmzPdrichXQlfiuBK200319.shtml;https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/488479-who-official-warns-against-calling-it-chinese-virus-says-there-is-no;http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202003/20/WS5e739d6ea3101282172808f1.html

[6] https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/03/200317175442.htm;https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-0820-9;https://mmrjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40779-020-00240-0,https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/03/18/coronavirus-fact-check-covid-19-caused-eating-animals/5073094002/,

[7] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/jmv.25726,https://jvi.asm.org/content/94/7/e00127-20

[8] https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2008/06/revising-hivs-history;https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5450391

[9] See Science Talk, March 18, 2020.

[10] See, e.g., https://www.livescience.com/mysterious-virus-in-china-sars.html

[11] https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3074991/coronavirus-chinas-first-confirmed-covid-19-case-traced-back

[12] https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2001191

[13] https://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/TheBattery/archives/2020/02/28/what-you-need-to-know-about-trumps-campaign-rally-in-north-charleston

[14] On March 12, the day after the President’s first nationally televised speech on the pandemic, the White House sent out an email with the following quote: “Some 150,000 illegal immigrants from 72 nations with cases of the coronavirus have been apprehended or deemed inadmissible from entering the United States since November,” according to officials. These apprehensions underscore the need for border security and proper vetting.

[15] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/13/us/politics/coronavirus-travelers-screening.html

[16] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/03/22/world/coronavirus-spread.html

[17] https://www.livescience.com/coronavirus-myths.html; see also https://labblog.uofmhealth.org/rounds/how-scientists-quantify-intensity-of-an-outbreak-like-covid-19

[18] https://annals.org/aim/fullarticle/2762808/incubation-period-coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19-from-publicly-reported

[19] https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/03/how-many-americans-are-sick-lost-february/608521/

[20] See, e.g.,. https://pubs.rsna.org/doi/10.1148/radiol.2020200463and https://radiopaedia.org/articles/vaping-associated-lung-disease?lang=us.

[21] https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/basic_information/e-cigarettes/severe-lung-disease.html#overview

[22] https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-outbreak-03-11-20-intl-hnk/h_1319f66f92245a2fe4ec63fe91ab66c9

[23] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/10/us/coronavirus-testing-delays.html

[24] See, e.g., https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-health-who/who-lauds-chinese-response-to-virus-says-world-at-important-juncture-idUSKBN1ZS2EE;https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/who-lauds-china-s-efforts-to-tackle-covid-19-says-global-community-unprepared-to-face-coronavirus-threat/story-zzOQaBAEKo9MI0Na2p5HbM.html;https://www.stanforddaily.com/2020/03/18/coronavirus-has-vindicated-china-exposed-the-west/?fbclid=IwAR28VFE2s4TE1Rc9jsOK3576MdCDOXvrvhJ6uHMVWYHo4J15iOroFRpc8uo.

Featured image is from Asia Times

While humans stand on the brink of precipitating our own extinction, with the prospects of now averting this remote – see ‘Human Extinction Now Imminent and Inevitable? A Report on the State of Planet Earth’– virtually everyone remains unaware of the critical nature of our plight. Moreover, the ongoing human death toll from the activities that are generating this crisis numbers in the many millions each year while the number of species driven to extinction is estimated at 200 per day.

In contrast, a virus that is killing a very small proportion of the minuscule number it has infected is causing panic in many countries around the world, devastating the travel and tourism industries while emptying supermarket shelves of food and that apparently most vital of commodities: toilet paper.

According to the Johns Hopkins University Coronvirus Resource Center (which is presumably separate from the JHU bioweapons research facility), the last time I checked it before this article was sent for publication, official reports indicate that the COVID-19 virus has so far infected 372,563 people in a world population of 7,800,000,000 (that is, about .0048% of the human population), killing 16,380 (4.3% of those infected) with 100,885 (27%) recovered already (and many more highly likely to do so). Of course, there is an unknown number of people who have contracted the virus but not reported it (through ignorance or intention) thus indicating that the death rate from the disease is (probably significantly) lower than the official rate.

Moreover, as one doctor has reported after researching the data on Italy, where the greatest rate of COVID-19 infection has occurred: ‘80% of the deceased had suffered from two or more chronic diseases’ and ‘90% of the deceased are over 70 years old’. In addition, ‘Less than 1% of the deceased were healthy persons’ defined, very simply, as ‘persons without pre-existing chronic diseases’. Given that northern Italy has one of the oldest populations and the worst air quality in Europe, which has already led to an increased number of respiratory diseases and deaths in the past, these are undoubtedly factors that help to account for the current local health crisis. See ‘A Swiss Doctor on Covid-19’.

Obviously the utterly inadequate response to the genuine crisis in which humans now find themselves and the panic-stricken response to a simple virus tells us a great deal about how human fear is working in these two contexts and the way in which elite agents, such as the World Health Organization (WHO), governments, medical personnel and the corporate media, have no trouble manipulating this fear to serve elite interests.

A few minutes listening to or reading government and medical personnel commenting on COVID-19, as reported in the corporate media, is enough to reveal the extent of the fear they are peddling, although to those who are terrified, this is not obvious at all. It is just frightening.

While the multifaceted existential crisis clearly requires a concerted response ranging from nonviolent strategies to compel key corporations in various industries to desist from their biosphere-destroying behaviours to convincing ‘ordinary’ people to systematically reduce their consumption to relieve pressure on the biosphere as well, the virus problem requires either zero precautions for those individuals who make a point of maintaining their health (preferably by eating healthily-prepared biodynamic/organically grown vegetarian whole food etc which sustains their immune system), or the simplest of precautions (perhaps including taking some nutritional supplements such as vitamins A and C, for example), commensurate with precautions one might take to avoid catching the flu.

Of course, it should be noted, like many other threats to human health – including ‘doctor error’ (see, for example, ‘Table Of Iatrogenic Deaths In The United States’ and ‘Johns Hopkins study suggests medical errors are third-leading cause of death in U.S.’), heart disease, cancer and tuberculosis – the flu kills vastly more people, every day, than COVID-19 is doing. For example, according to the WHO, which ignores deaths from other diseases such as cardiovascular disease that can be influenza-related, seasonal influenza may result in as many as 650,000 deaths each year (an average of 1,781 each day) due to respiratory illnesses alone. See ‘Influenza: Burden of disease’. That is, the global death toll from COVID-19 in the months since it originated is equal to the global death toll from flu every 6.5 days.

Moreover, if we were seriously concerned about our world, the gravest and longest-standing health crisis on the planet is the one that starves to death 100,000 people each day. No panic about that, of course. And no action either.

So, leaving aside this last point, the key question is this: Why aren’t people scared of the prospect of human extinction and behaving powerfully in response, while vast numbers of people are terrified of catching one particular virus (but, apparently, not scared of being killed by their doctor or catching other viruses, contracting heart disease, cancer or TB) and acting insanely as a result?

And the short answer to this question is this: The elite is using its international organizations (particularly the United Nations and its agencies), governments, education systems, corporate media and other agents to suppress people’s awareness (and hence fear) of the threat of extinction so that business-as-usual (that is, profit-maximization) can continue for as long as possible unhindered by efforts to contain this existential crisis while deliberately triggering people’s fear in relation to COVID-19 so that a greater degree of elite control can be achieved and greater profits can be secured by exploiting certain opportunities (such as ‘short-selling’ on the stock market and profit-making by pharmaceutical corporations) that the panic arising from the virus generates.

Let me elaborate.

If one investigates the state of Earth’s biosphere, it quickly becomes evident that the biosphere is under siege on many fronts: There is the ongoing threat of nuclear war (perhaps started regionally) as the Cold War infrastructure containing this threat has been progressively dismantled. There is the ongoing threat posed by the progressive collapse of biodiversity as habitat is destroyed at an accelerating rate while animals, birds, insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles and plants are killed in vast numbers by a multitude of concurrent assaults. There is the ongoing threat posed by the climate catastrophe. There is the ongoing threat posed by the deployment of 5G (and electromagnetic radiation generally). And these threats are complemented by the imminent collapse of the Amazon, the widespread radioactive contamination of the Earth, the use of geoengineering and the ongoing ecological destruction caused by the many ongoing wars and other military activity. Among a wide variety of other threats.

The nature and details of these threats are readily available – again, for example, see ‘Human Extinction Now Imminent and Inevitable? A Report on the State of Planet Earth’– and can be accessed by virtually anyone on Earth interested. Moreover, there is a great deal of evidence to support the argument that human extinction is now imminent given the synergistic impact of these (and so many other) threats. In essence, if one chooses, one can consider the evidence oneself and use this knowledge to behave sensibly and powerfully in response.

However, only a rare individual is seeking out and considering this wide range of evidence so that they can consider modifying their behaviour in light of this multifaceted crisis. Why?

Because our fear allows our life circumstances (‘I am busy with work/my family’ etc.) and elite agents, such as the corporate media, education systems and the entertainment industry, to distract us from paying close attentionto these interrelated crises. This means that, if we do pay attention, it is usually to the corporate media’s version of the ‘evidence’, as presented by corporate scientists, and we are directed how to interpret this information; only the rarest individual seeks out the science for themselves or reads the scientists who courageously tell the truth. See, for example, ‘Arctic News’. In this way, strategically-focused action based on an analysis of the driving forces, even by those who self-label as ‘activists’, can be prevented and business-as-usual continues.

In contrast, because events such as the COVID-19 virus – like the long list of such threats (including AIDS, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome [SARS], Mad Cow disease and Ebola) that preceeded it – are created to expand elite political, economic, social and geopolitical control as well as to generate greater profits in some sectors of the economy (including through stock market windfalls by ‘short-selling’), our fear is deliberately played upon by the propaganda distributed through various elite agents. The resulting panic ensures that the bulk of the human population – willing to surrender control on the promise of greater material security – serves elite interests precisely.

For a sample of the literature and videos that thoughtfully discuss points such as these, as well as others consistent with them (such as the push for compulsory vaccination and marginalization of the elderly), see:

‘COVID-19 Coronavirus: A Fake Pandemic? Who’s Behind It? Global Economic, Social and Geopolitical Destabilization’,

‘This Is a Test: How Will the Constitution Fare During a Nationwide Lockdown?’,

‘China – Western China Bashing – vs. Western Biowarfare?’,

‘CoVid-19 – What the government is really covering up’,‘Plunging stocks, pandemic fears, quarantines – what’s the real operation?’,

‘How Many People Have Coronavirus?’,

‘The Coronavirus Phenomenon is a Political Pandemic, not a Medical Emergency’,

‘The Coronavirus COVID-19 Pandemic: The Real Danger is “Agenda ID2020”’,

‘The Coronavirus Hoax’,

‘Pandemic: The Invention of a Disease Called Fear. People are being “Herded”.

Disrupting the World Economy’, ‘Coronavirus scare – the hoax of the century?’,

‘Corona Panic – erstaunliche Einblicke / stunning insights’,‘

The Coronavirus: Crown Jewel of the New World Order or Crippling Blow to Globalization?’,

‘Coronavirus and the Gates Foundation’and

‘In a Europe Closed Down by the Coronavirus the EU Opens its Doors to the US Army. Could the Defender become the Invader of Europe?’

In essence then, knowledge – whether of those actually possessing it but even of one’s own – is marginalized because once people are scared, their fear overwhelms their capacity to think, assess, evaluate and critique, as well as to feel the other emotional responses that tell them what is actually taking place. Only the occasional individual pauses to consider – and research – what is happening in order to respond powerfully.

Of course, knowledge might not be easy to acquire given that, in this instance, there are various theories, apart from those mentioned above, about what is happening. These include the hypotheses that the virus is a (deliberately or even accidentally) released bioweapon – see

‘Author of US Biowarfare Law: Studies Confirm Coronavirus Weaponized’,

‘Who Made Coronavirus? Was It the U.S., Israel or China Itself?’,

‘China is Confronting the COVID-19 Epidemic. Was It Man-Made? An Act of of Bio-warfare?’and

‘Bioweapons Expert Speaks Out About Novel Coronavirus’– and that the virus is being used to obscure the death toll from the deployment of 5G (already done extensively in Wuhan, for example).

See ‘Wuhan China, One Big 5G FEMA style Camp & Not because of Coronavirus’ and ‘China, 5G, And The Wuhan Coronavirus: The Emperor’s New Virus’.

However, just because knowledge requires effort, it does not mean that it is not available if we conscientiously apply our intelligence to identify and investigate credible sources, such as those mentioned above. Moreover, if knowledge is genuinely sought, we might also need to spend time endeavouring to comprehend the complexity of some issues, starting by asking key questions. In this case, for example, there are many people benefiting from this crisis but doing so even though they work at different points in relation to it. How does this help us to understand what is going on?

The fundamental problem, of course, is that applying intelligence to a challenge is effectively impossible if, as is the case with the bulk of the human population, the individual is (unconsciously) terrified and hence easily stampeded into panic, especially if the stampede is precipitated deliberately to serve specific elite ends.

So why is virtually everyone so (unconsciously) terrified? Unfortunately, it is the standard state of virtually all human beings after being terrorized into submission by parents, teachers, religious figures and other adults during childhood. But also denied the opportunity to feel and release this fear, the individual suppresses their awareness of the fear which simply remains in the unconscious endlessly shaping behaviour without the individual even realising. For a full explanation of this, including the roles that ‘visible’, ‘invisible’ and ‘utterly invisible’ violence play in generating this outcome, see ‘Why Violence?’ and ‘Fearless Psychology and Fearful Psychology: Principles and Practice’.

One way in which this works is as follows. Children start learning at a very young age to identify, often unconsciously, when a parent or other adult is delusional about something. This is particularly the case when this involves the parent projecting their fear onto the child (or something the child is doing), when there is actually no danger. See ‘The Psychology of Projection in Conflict’. The child can perceive the parental projection because the child’s perceptions are not yet as damaged as those of the adults around them. However, because the adult is always fearfully attached to their delusions and projections as a key outcome of their own childhood terrorization experience, the child also quickly learns that if they seriously contradict a delusion or projection held by the parent/adult, they are highly likely to be punished. And so the child acts to avoid punishment by not challenging the delusion/projection.

As Anita McKone further explained her understanding of this process during a recent discussion, she noted the way it feels for the parent in this context: ‘If you don’t help me to keep safe from my projected fear/delusion (which, of course, for me is absolutely real), then I consider you to be dangerous to me and I will attack you!’ The problem for the child in this circumstance is that the parental fear and the threat it poses are overwhelming and so, after a time, the child copies the fear and ceases to remember how things actually were. But without a subsequent opportunity to feel the fear holding this delusion/projection in place, the child will retain this delusion/projection for life, just as the parent has done.

However, the problem is that once a childhood fear is suppressed, it spends the remainder of the individual’s life seeking ways of being felt and expressed. This can occur in ways that are easily not noticed, such as feeling scared while watching a horror movie. However, the most usual ways in which this suppressed fear manifests in later life is by projecting it at activities undertaken by one’s children that trigger this fear. And because it is not actually frightening to control the child’s behaviour, the parent will seek this control so that they can feel the relief of (temporarily) getting their own fear back under control.

But another way in which this fear can be given a safe outlet on something that is not actually frightening, is by participating in ‘socially-approved’ activities that allow the fear to be expressed. For example, the people who are participating in the panic-stricken purchase of foods and goods from supermarkets are simply responding to their unconscious fear which has been deliberately triggered to enable elite-desired outcomes for greater social control to be achieved by making political use of this panic. Again see articles cited above such as ‘This Is a Test: How Will the Constitution Fare During a Nationwide Lockdown?’

In essence then, the COVID-19 pandemic was created as just another step in the endless effort to fully establish elite political, economic and social control. With the WHO, governments, medical personnel and the corporate media warning the population (with their superficially suppressed terror readily accessible) of the dangers of the virus and directing them to respond in particular ways under threat of punishment, governments implementing measures to restrict freedom and movement (including ‘lockdowns’, border closings, bans on gatherings in a variety of public contexts and a range of other drastic measures), the corporate media endlessly referring to and discussing possible ‘horror’ scenarios, people’s fear is readily triggered to ensure there is little resistance to the ongoing curtailment of their rights (and many even end up asking for these curtailments if it will make them feel safer).

The fundamental problem is this: once we fearfully surrender a right, it is rarely won back. And we are one step closer to living in a dystopian (technologically-monitored and controlled) police state. If you think this won’t/can’t happen, I gently encourage you to read the relevant references cited above, each of which was carefully chosen because it illustrates this point in one way or another.

Whether COVID-19 is intended to be the final step or just another in what remains of the series, we will soon know. In any case, if we are not resisting strategically, the elite will ultimately succeed.

So here is the summary:

Our existing parenting and education models are designed to produce submissively obedient children, students, workers, soldiers and citizens. After all, we want children, students, employees, military personnel and even citizens who obey orders, not think for themselves. But this outcome can only be achieved by terrorizing children throughout childhood until they suppress their awareness of their own self-will so completely that they submit to the will of adults virtually without protest. Now devoid of their own unique and powerful self-will, they become sheep herded from one supermarket to the next by their own fear. No need for a shepherd.

Then, when the global elite plans and implements its next move, using COVID-19 as ‘cover’ on this occasion, to consolidate its ever-tightening grip on the human population (more militarized policing, new and improved police/military weapons systems, privacy-abusing law, surveillance technology, facial recognition system, vaccination regime, genetically-mutilated organism, monetary or banking convenience….), it simply instructs its agents in the UN, government, education systems, the corporate and social media, and elsewhere to carefully explain why this particular response is so beneficial to everyone with genuine critiques confined to those few outlets with modest audiences, such as this one, that tell the truth.

Terrorized into accepting adult dogma as a child, the typical adult now participates in many delusions, such as the one that the choice offered at elections constitutes having a say in how a country is governed. Devoid of the capacity to critique society beyond the most superficial level, elite propaganda is devoured as ‘knowledge’. And once their deeply-suppressed terror is triggered, these ‘adults’ will be readily panicked into doing as the elite directs. People in a terrified state are in no condition to defend themselves and their rights and so they readily give these up on the promise of not having to feel afraid.

What can we do?

Well, because the foundation of this entire elite-controlled world is the submissively obedient individual, the world can only be rebuilt as we might like it if we stop terrorizing children into being submissive. So I would start by parenting and educating children so that they become powerful. See ‘My Promise to Children’ and ‘Do We Want School or Education?’

If you need help to parent in this manner, try ‘Putting Feelings First’ and learning how to nistel to your child(ren). See ‘Nisteling: The Art of Deep Listening’.

If you know someone who is frightened, or even panicking, about COVID-19, and you feel capable of doing so, it will help them enormously if you are able to listen to them talk about, and feel, their fear. Again, see ‘Nisteling: The Art of Deep Listening’.

If you want to better understand the origin, identity and behaviour of the global elite and why it is insane, see the section headed ‘How the World Works’ in ‘Why Activists Fail’ and the articles ‘Exposing the Giants: The Global Power Elite’ and ‘The Global Elite is Insane Revisited’.

If you want to better understand the link between suppressed fear and panic-buying in supermarkets, see ‘Love Denied: The Psychology of Materialism, Violence and War’.

If you wish to campaign to defend our rights and the integrity of our biosphere, then consider doing it strategically. See Nonviolent Campaign Strategy. The global elite is not about to give way unless we compel it to do so. We have plenty of power if we deploy it strategically.

If you wish to remove a corrupt or electorally unresponsive government, see Nonviolent Defense/Liberation Strategy.

If you wish to fight powerfully to save Earth’s biosphere against those governments and corporations so intent on destroying it, but you prefer local engagement, consider joining those participating in ‘The Flame Tree Project to Save Life on Earth’ which outlines a simple program to systematically reduce your consumption and increase your self-reliance over a period of years.

You might also consider joining the global network of people resisting violence in all contexts, particularly that inflicted by the global elite, by signing the online pledge of ‘The People’s Charter to Create a Nonviolent World’.

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Or, if none of the above options appeal or they seem too complicated, consider committing to:

The Earth Pledge

Out of love for the Earth and all of its creatures, and my respect for their needs, from this day onwards I pledge that:

1. I will listen deeply to children (see explanation above)
2. I will not travel by plane
3. I will not travel by car
4. I will not eat meat and fish
5. I will only eat organically/biodynamically grown food
6. I will minimize the amount of fresh water I use, including by minimizing my ownership and use of electronic devices
7. I will not buy rainforest timber
8. I will not buy or use single-use plastic, such as bags, bottles, containers, cups and straws
9. I will not use banks, superannuation (pension) funds or insurance companies that provide any service to corporations involved in fossil fuels, nuclear power and/or weapons
10. I will not accept employment from, or invest in, any organization that supports or participates in the exploitation of fellow human beings or profits from killing and/or destruction of the biosphere
11. I will not get news from the corporate media (mainstream newspapers, television, radio, Google, Facebook, Twitter…)
12. I will make the effort to learn a skill, such as food gardening or sewing, that makes me more self-reliant
13. I will gently encourage my family and friends to consider signing this pledge.

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Conclusion

Each of the measures nominated in the section above identifies ways in which we can restore our power to resist elite insanity and/or take strategic action to resist elite violence once we have the power to do so.

If we do not take measures such as these, the insane global elite will continue to manipulate us into doing its bidding, usually using more insidious techniques than COVID-19, until human beings cease to exist. As touched on above, the evidence strongly suggests we do not have much time.

What you decide is therefore critical.

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Robert J. Burrowes has a lifetime commitment to understanding and ending human violence. He has done extensive research since 1966 in an effort to understand why human beings are violent and has been a nonviolent activist since 1981. He is the author of ‘Why Violence?’ His email address is [email protected] and his website is here.

The Washington Post – an inveterate keystone of US foreign policy propaganda – made a surprising admission recently. The people of Crimea – allegedly “annexed” by the Russian Federation – are vastly satisfied under Moscow’s governance.

The Washington Post article titled, “Six years and $20 billion in Russian investment later, Crimeans are happy with Russian annexation,” attempts in every way to misrepresent, and deny the cause and obvious implications of the polling data presented – but still admits:

…the annexation was popular, especially among Crimea’s large population of older ethnic Russians. More than five years later, and billions of rubles of investment later, it remains popular.

The polling data was collected by the Levada Center – which the Washington Post calls, “Russia’s most reliable polling company.” The Washington Post conveniently omits that the Levada Center has been funded by the US State Department via the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and regularly works with the Western media to generate data to support Washington and London’s various anti-Russian narratives – which is likely why the Washington Post determines it is so “reliable.”

Yet even this US-funded front had to admit that from 2014 when Crimea rejoined Russia, up to and including today, the peninsula’s Russian administration was and remains highly popular.

The Washington Post even had to admit that among Crimea’s Tatar minority support for Crimea’s rejoining of Russia actually rose since 2014.

The Washington Post would have to admit (emphasis added):

Support for joining Russia remains very high (86 percent in 2014 and 82 percent in 2019) — and is especially high among ethnic Russians and Ukrainians. A key change since 2014 has been a significant increase in support by Tatars, a Turkic Muslim population that makes up about 12 percent of the Crimean population. In 2014, only 39 percent of this group viewed joining Russia as a positive move, but this figure rose to 58 percent in 2019.

Crimea’s Tatars have been the focus of immense efforts both by Washington and its partners in Kiev to create a viable opposition to destabilize the peninsula and undermine Russia’s presence there.

Apparently this ploy has mostly failed.

Russophobic Foreign Policy Out of Sync With Reality

The Washington Post finally admits that despite overwhelming support both in 2014 and up to and including today for Crimea’s return to Russia – the West is still outraged over the development.

The Post notes:

Crimea’s annexation remains an outrage to most Euro-Atlantic states, though sentiments are clearly different on the political far right. But even Russia’s fiercest critics recognize, though they rarely express it publicly, that Crimea is not going to return to Ukraine any time soon.

But if the people of Crimea wanted to return the peninsula to Russian administration and were overwhelmingly happy then and now having done so – what is the source of outrage among most “Euro-Atlantic states” – states that allege their foreign policy is underpinned by concern for democracy and human rights?

Here one sees another shingle come loose and blow away from the roof of propaganda that shelters and hides the West’s true agenda and motivations. These “Euro-Atlantic states” never cared what the people of Crimea thought, or cared about the fate and future of Ukraine or Russia in terms of what was best for the people actually living there – and instead cared only about how developments in both states would benefit themselves.

This includes their highly determined attempts to maintain their unipolar “international order” – an order they created and one that benefits they and they alone – and an order maintained at the cost of the rest of the world subjected to it.

The fact that the West still protests Crimea’s rejoining Russia despite the actual people of Crimea choosing to do so and – 6 years on – still being vastly satisfied with their decision – says much about the West’s actual commitment to the principles of democracy and self-determination versus its use of such principles to hide its self-serving agenda.

The people of Crimea have escaped the destabilized, chaotic nightmare the US and its NATO allies turned neighboring Ukraine into – a nightmare predicated on bringing Ukraine “democracy” and “human rights” and putting it on course to join the disintegrating European Union and drawing it in closer to the increasingly antiquated and impotent NATO military alliance.

The tale of post-Euromaidan Ukraine and Crimea which escaped it – is a cautionary one – warning nations of what actually becomes of those who fall into the orbit of Washington, London, and Brussels, and the true benefits of genuine self-determination beyond that orbit.

Ukraine will continue to be a warning of bending to the West and investing in its tired “international order” – while neighboring Crimea will continue to be showcase for the merits of emerging multipolarism – and increasingly so to the point where even prominent sources of Western propaganda like the Washington Post must admit as much – however obliquely.

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Tony Cartalucci is a Bangkok-based geopolitical researcher and writer, especially for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook” where this article was originally published. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

Featured image is from NEO

The US will lose 2 million jobs just in March (Bloomberg News). US GDP will fall by -24% to -30% in second quarter (Goldman-Sachs & Morgan-Stanley Banks). Jobless rate could rise to 30% (Fed St. Louis Governor, Bullard). Federal Reserve promises $4T more to pre-bailout banks (Marketwatch). Financial markets imploding and credit system on verge of freeze up. Trump and US politicians considering sending people back to work despite higher cost in infections and deaths from the virus!

A month ago, in late February 2019, I was convinced the recession I have been predicting since January 2019 had arrived. Two weeks ago I began writing this would be another ‘Great Recession 2.0’, as in 2008-09. Now I’m not so convinced of even that. It may be worse, much worse. A bona fide Depression on the scale of the 1930s may be approaching.

US Real Economy Falling Faster Than 2008 or 1932

Just last week Goldman Sachs investment bank was predicting a -14% contraction of the US real economy in the second quarter, April-June 2020. Morgan Stanley followed with its prediction of a -30% drop in US GDP. Goldman has since modified its initial forecast to -24%.

This compares with the worst quarterly decline in 1932, in the depths of the Great Depression of the 1930s, of -13%. The current contraction, in other words, is coming faster and deeper than any on record previously—whether compared to the 2008-09 Great Recession or the 1930s Depression.

As of the close of March 2020, about a third of the US economy is now shutdown. More is about to follow. The US regions most directly and heavily impacted by the coronavirus—Washington State, California and New York—are where business activity has virtually shut down except for emergency services. Other areas, like Illinois, Texas, and Florida are catching up fast.

Given the spreading shutdowns, focused in states of high concentration of economic production, According to current Federal Reserve central bank governors, the unemployment rate will rise as high as 30%, and quickly, according to St. Louis district Federal Reserve governor, Bullard. Predictions are at least 2 million will be unemployed in March alone, just the first month of the crisis. That monthly unemployment rise also exceeds the worst months of the 2008-09 prior Great Recession.

In short, the real economy in the US has fallen into an economic ‘coma’, as some have accurately called it.

But that economy was already weak and fragile when the virus effect pushed it off a cliff. Already in late 2019, business investment had been contracting for nine months, the manufacturing sector was in a recession, trade was negatively affected by Trump’s 2018-19 trade wars, and household consumption was showing serious signs of weakening. For example, with regard to household consumption, the default rate on credit cards for median families had risen to nearly 9% by late 2019, more than 7 million auto loans had defaulted, and student loan defaults were rising as well (although covered up by clever government re-categorizing of loan defaults). The consumer was not in good shape, in other words, keeping spending afloat largely by credit based spending by the middle classes and by the high end income households’ spending based on inflating stock and financial gains (the wealth effect) and Trump’s massive tax cuts of 2018-19 flowing to their bottom lines.

Then the virus hit the economy like a baseball bat to the back of the head!

Financial Markets Price Implosion

Financial asset markets began to plummet. Artificially boosted for three years under Trump, US financial markets were fueled by Trump’s multi-trillion dollar tax cuts and low interest rates in prior years. That tax and cheap money windfall to business, senior managers and shareholders in turn was redistributed to managers and shareholders in the form of a flood of stock buybacks and dividend payouts. More than $3.4 trillion, in fact, in just the last three years!

The buybacks & dividends were then diverted once again in large part back into stocks and other financial markets once more. The artificial financial asset bubbles grew. But it was all artificial, driven by cheap money and massive tax cut income redistribution to investors, corporations, and the wealthiest 1%.

Under Trump, from 2017 through 2019, stock buybacks totaled more than $2 trillion. It went mostly to professional investors and CEOs and senior managers of companies (In tech companies, the amount of the buybacks going to CEOs and senior managers was as high as 70%, as for example occurred in Apple).

Another $1.4 trillion was distributed to shareholders in the form of dividend payouts. That’s a total of more than $3.5 trillion in tax cut and low interest driven income redistributed to the wealthiest households. Most of this massive income windfall was reinvested in financial markets. US stock markets alone under Trump rose by 25%-35% in just three years. And that’s just about the amount the same markets have now crashed in just one month under the virus’s economic impact!

Crashing stock prices are one key indicator of the onset of a Great Recession, nor a normal one. The same applies to the spread of financial asset collapse to other financial markets.

Already US stocks have contracted by 35%-40%. Oil and commodity futures prices by 40% or more, as the price per barrel of crude has fallen from $70 to the mid-$20s per barrel range. Other industrial commodity prices by 20%-30%. Currencies (aka foreign exchange) worldwide devaluing everywhere, with greatest pressure in India, Asia, and Latin America. Bond markets—corporate and government—have now begun to feel the pressure as well and are beginning to fracture. And bond markets are far more important to the stability of the capitalist economy than are even the stock markets.

As financial asset prices deflate rapidly holders of those assets try to dump them to contain losses. Everyone wants to sell; no one wants to buy. Prices deflate further. Often purchased on margin, by borrowing money to buy more assets during the boom period, ‘margin calls’ require even more selling—and even more financial asset price collapse. Investors become desperate to raise cash to cover their losses. A ‘dash for cash’ overwhelms investor, business, and consumer psychology. As losses exceed the ability to raise cash, financial markets begin to implode. And they are now falling line ‘ten pins’, one after the other.

Pre-Emptive Bank & Investor Bailouts

First stock markets, but in the past month, repo markets where banks loan to each other; then commercial paper markets and money market funds; then municipal bond markets; and residential mortgages; and leverage loans (junk loans); and, behind the scenes and intensifying, high yield (junk) corporate bonds and so-called BBB investment grade corporate bonds.

The latter junk corporate bond + BBB market in the US alone is valued at $6 trillion. Leveraged loans another $1.2 trillion. Muni bonds $4 trillion. Residential mortgages $11 trillion. All in trouble now. Plus Repos, Commercial Paper-money funds, and so on as well.

And let’s not forget oil-commodity futures global price deflation, collapsing emerging market economy currencies, and even growing troubles in national government bonds like US Treasuries, Gilts (UK), Bunds (Germany) and others, many of which were already trading in negative rate territory.

In short, the generalized financial markets collapse was a defining characteristic of the 2008-09 financial crisis. And it’s returned now with vengeance.

Also returning is the desperate effort by the Federal Reserve (and other central banks worldwide) to stuff the growing black holes in banks, shadow banks, and corporate balance sheets with new liquidity (money injections) in order to try to prevent defaults and bankruptcies. A bank-corporate bailout has already begun—even before the banks fail. It is pre-emptive in 2020, unlike ‘after the fact’ as in 2008. Banks have not yet crashed and are being bailed out!

The Federal Reserve in one week in mid-March injected $2.2 trillion in the form of $1.5T for the repo market and another $700 billion in Fed direct purchases of mortgage bonds and investor held Treasuries. It followed with unlimited further money to stave off collapse of the commercial paper-money market funds, the muni bonds, mortgage bonds, and reportedly to back up credit card and auto finance companies from their anticipated losses. The Fed also announced it would ‘swap’ US dollars for foreign currencies of other central banks in order to help their economies. The Fed has committed to $4T more in money injections to banks. And that’s in addition to the $2.2T already committed.

In other words, bankers will be bailed out $6.2T, and that’s probably just a start. That amount compares, by the way, to approximately $4.5T used to bailout the banks in 2008-09.

What about non-bank companies? They received a ten year Trump tax cut in January 2018 of no less than $4.5 trillion! They were then awarded with more tax loopholes in 2019 equal to $427 billion more. Now the Republican Senate in the US Congress is proposing another $500 billion with virtually no strings attached.

Yet Another Windfall for Non-Bank Corporate America

In contrast, the fiscal spending stimulus for Main St. and middle-working class families totals about $500B in the pending 2020 crisis recovery bill. It includes a one time cash rebate to households of $3,000 but no increase in unemployment benefits thereafter. It’s clearly a 30 day emergency package, even though the impact on the US economy from the virus will be for months to come.

The US economy generates $1.7 trillion in spending every month. The $1 trillion fiscal stimulus package coming from Congress will thus replace barely half of the lost spending by the US economy.

Big corporate interests and politicians in Washington DC know the depth of the current economic crisis—financial and real. They’re providing for the bankers and investors to the tune of $6.2 trillion, with an open ended checkbook for more if necessary. But they’re only providing for a one month bailout of Main St.

Already Trump is tweeting this package will be reviewed in 15 days. He’s thinking short term. So too are other politicians. Their media is pushing the theme that ‘maybe the economic costs are too high for the cost of the death rate from the virus’ that will occur. Politicians like New York governor, Cuomo, are raising the question, signaling the debate now rising within the economic and political elite; they are preparing the public. They are getting ready to trade off human lives for their economy. They are preparing to send people back to work after a month, regardless the health consequences. They fear economic collapse and their loss of incomes more than the virus and its destruction of American lives.

Trump may soon decide to announce “let them go back to work”. An echo perhaps of Marie Antoinette’s infamous line as her citizens were dying too: “let them eat cake”.

In short, we are now about to see that people’s lives are expendable, for their profits, income and wealth that are not.

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This article was originally published on the author’s blog site, Jack Rasmus.

Check out Dr. Rasmus’s predictions since Sept. 2018 on recession and current events on this blog. And concluding chapters from his books, ‘Systemic Fragility in the Global Economy’ 2016; ‘Central Bankers at the End of Their Ropes: Monetary Policy and the Coming Depression’ 2017; ‘Epic Recession: Prelude to Global Depression’ 2010; and the most recent ‘The Scourge of Neoliberalism’ 2020.. For day by day and hourly commentary, join Dr. Rasmus on twitter at @drjackrasmus, and listen to his weekly radio show commentaries in depth as the crisis unfolds, at http://alternativevisions.podbean.com. Dr. Jack Rasmus is a frequent contributor to Global Research. 

The conflict in Yemen has escalated amid the crisis on the oil market caused by aggressive actions of Saudi Arabia.

On March 8, Riyadh launched its oil gamble flooding the market and offering unprecedented discounts in an attempt to defeat other oil producers, mainly Russia and Iran, and capture their share. In the next several weeks, Saudi Arabia was increasing its pressure on Russia on Iran slashing oil prices, but the Kingdom forgot about its own soft underbelly.

By March 17, forces of Ansar Allah (the Houthis) have captured most of the province of al-Jawf, including the provincial capital – al-Hazm, from the Saudi-led coalition and its Yemeni proxies. In this battle only, Saudi-led forces lost hundreds pieces of military equipment, including dozens of battle tanks and artillery guns. The Saudi Air Force carried out airstrikes on positions, HQs and weapon depots of its allies. However, the number of abandoned equipment and the speed of fleeing of Saudi-backed troops were so high that 10-20 airstrikes were just not enough to compensate them.

Following the swift advance in al-Jawf, Asnar Allah turned its attention to the neighboring province of Marib. They captured a number of Saudi positions east of Sirwah, including the Kufil military base, a key stronghold of Saudi-backed forces on the route to Marib city. After this, the defense of Saudi proxies started collapsing in the entire eastern part of the province. If the situation develops in the same direction and further, Yemeni forces will likely be able to reach and besiege Marib city in early April and capture it by the middle of the month.

Meanwhile, Ansar Allah units forces pro-Saudi forces from the key district of Nihm near the country’s capital Sanaa. The district had been contested since early 2020. Nonetheless, now, it’s

Pro-Saudi sources regularly claim that Ansar Allah suffers large-scale casualties, but often fail to provide any visual evidence to confirm these claims. In own turn, most of the recent successes of Ansar Allah were carefully documented by their media branch.

The Saudi-led coalition also faced a never-before-seen resistance to its air power. In January and February, Ansar Allah shot down several unmanned aerial vehicles of the coalition. In March, its forces moved to direct attacks on coalition warplanes. On March 14, Yemeni air defense forces launched missiles at a group of F-15 and F-16 jets over the province of al-Jawf. On March 19, several missiles were launched at coalition warplanes over the district of Sirwah in the province. In both cases, Ansar Allah employed the so-called Fatir-1 air defense system. This is a locally-modernized variant of the Soviet-era 2K12 Kub system. The Fatir-1 was revealed in August of 2019. The claimed effective range of the system is 22 km.

Fatir-1 launched did not result in downing of any coalition jets, but the existence of the new threat itself limited operations of the Saudi air power.

In March, the main area of clashes between Ansar Allah and Saudi forces was northeastern and central Yemen. However, if the oil price will remain under the level of 35 USD per a barrel, a new round of Ansar Allah offensive will take place inside Saudi Arabia.

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The US has no shortage of missiles, bombs, bullets, or chemical, biological, radiological, and other banned weapons to use against targeted adversaries at home and abroad.

That’s not the case when it comes to providing vital healthcare for its citizens, including ventilators and protective gear for healthcare providers on the front lines of treating growing numbers of COVID-19 patients.

The disease attacks the lungs, ventilators needed to save lives by helping people unable to breathe do it for them by delivering air into their windpipes to the lungs.

A growing shortage isn’t likely to ease any time soon. If COVID-19 outbreaks continue increasing, a ventilator shortage will force doctors to decide who lives or dies.

Reportedly, there are about 170,000 ventilators in the US. It’s unknown how many may be needed. The American Hospital Association estimates nearly a million. At this stage, its pure guesswork.

By invoking the 1950 Defense Production Act, the president can require businesses to produce what’s needed for national defense.

Hoarding or price-gouging of designed goods and materials can be prohibited.

Ventilators can only be produced by companies technically competent to do it.

Current producers may have limited capacity to increase output. GE Healthcare makes them, a company statement saying:

It’s exploring “all options to support this increased need.”

“GE has robust business continuity plans, and we are increasing our manufacturing capacity and output of equipment that is important in the diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19 patients, all while ensuring safe operations.”

Government funding could expedite the process, what governance serving the public welfare is all about.

Because ventilators are used to save lives, technological expertise to produce them and quality control are essential.

According to MIT Technology Review, “(m)edical device manufacturing is highly regulated, depends on proprietary global supply chains, and requires significant expertise to ramp up and run.”

“It’s absolutely critical, of course, that the machines function safely. (It’s) over-optimistic” to believe auto or other non-medical equipment manufacturers can produce them quickly.

Even current ventilator producers face constraints on ramping up production — including “size of (their) manufacturing plants and the availability of critical components, many of which (are produced) in China.”

Increasing production capacity requires significant capital expenditures with no idea how many ventilators may be needed over what time period.

According to Boston University’s College of Engineering dean Kenneth Lutchen:

“Who will pay for all the extra ventilators even if (producers)  ramp up?”

“Presumably at some point this crisis will play itself out, and the hospitals will have far more ventilators than they need until the next crisis.”

“There needs to be an incentivized business model to hit the go button for ramping up manufacturing, and government likely needs to figure out how to successfully engage.”

Ventilator producer Ventec Life Systems’ CEO Chris Kiple said his firm can increase production up to five-fold if have contracts for numbers to produce.

When leadership in Washington is sorely needed, it’s absent in the White House and Congress.

Critical shortages of ventilators protective gear, sanitizers, and other supplies needed to deal with potentially large numbers of COVID-19 patients in parts of the US or nationwide haven’t been addressed by America’s ruling class.

As of Monday, there are 381,000 COVID-19 cases worldwide, around 46,000 in the US, manageable numbers to handle in developed countries.

That’s not the case if numbers spike exponentially higher. Doctors, nurses, and other medical staff are healthcare providers, not magicians.

They’re also not involved in making political decisions, and they’re aren’t enough ventilators in the US and other countries if numbers of infected people increase dramatically higher.

Washington is responsible for dealing with public heath. So are states and local governments to a lesser extent.

When ruling authorities serve privileged interests over the public welfare, ordinary people suffer.

That’s the disturbing state of today’s America. Simmering below the surface in normal times, it can become a national crisis like now.

A Final Comment

According to the Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles County’s Department of Public Health instructed medical professionals only to test patients for COVID-19 “if a positive result could change how they would be treated,” adding:

“(G)uidance sent…to doctors (last week) was prompted by a crush of patients and shortage of tests, and could make it difficult to ever know precisely how many people in LA County contracted the virus.”

Besides a shortage of tests, there aren’t enough public health staff in the US to track sources of new infections nor enough hospital capacity and ventilators to deal with epidemic levels of patients if things get this bad.

Will other cities and counties in America operate like Los Angeles?

In the weeks and months ahead, with the true number of COVID-19 cases in the US be much higher but unknown?

Some people are asymptomatic so as carriers can unwittingly affect others.

Healthcare, a fundamental human right, is a national issue.

Not in America where warmaking and corporate handouts take precedence, ordinary people increasingly left on their own — even when national leadership is needed at times like now.

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Award-winning author Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at [email protected]. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG)

His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

With the days moving on, global coronavirus cases are significantly increasing in rate, as the neoliberal world grinds to a halt with dire implications for the international economy. Altogether, the number of official coronavirus detections is now fast approaching 400,000, with over 16,000 people succumbing to the disease so far. Around 100,000 patients have recovered, most of them Chinese citizens, with active cases globally topping a quarter of a million.

Over the past few days, worldwide reports of the illness have been accelerating. On 22 March 2020, the United States reported one of the world’s largest daily increases of coronavirus cases – when almost 10,000 Americans contracted it on that day, the vast majority of them New York residents (1). Statistics for the 23rd of March are revealing a similar number of cases again in the US, a country which now has one of the planet’s highest rate of coronavirus infections.

In total, more than 40,000 Americans have to date been diagnosed with the disease, and over 500 have died. The real figures in America could be considerably higher, due to the exclusionary nature of its health service and inadequate testing. These problems are not restricted to the US. Meanwhile, less than a month ago president Donald Trump had unwisely called the coronavirus “a hoax”.

It is important to note that, at present, case numbers in the US are still very low, as they remain globally. Media headlines have been flashing in recent days warning that the coronavirus “could kill millions of Americans”, with the flames being fanned by World Health Organisation officials who should know better (2). This speculation is based on no evidence and ranks as flagrant scaremongering. The probability is that the US death toll will be in the thousands, before the illness is eventually suppressed.

Advice put forth by the WHO should be treated with caution for other reasons, as this world body has received extensive funding from pharmaceutical corporations since 2005, along with other private sources. During the 2009-2010 swine flu pandemic, the WHO negotiated the price of drugs with governments on behalf of big pharma (3). Pharmaceutical companies, most of them headquartered in the US, will also hugely benefit from the coronavirus crisis, while swathes of the public are losing their jobs and face uncertain futures.

Over the past generation, there has been a large increase of contagious diseases – from SARS and avian flu to ebola, MERS and coronavirus. The multiplication of infectious illnesses is surely an indication that something has gone terribly awry with the condition of our planet. The reality is of course stark. We are presently living in the sixth mass extinction, driven by human actions, as species and ecosystems disappear at a level not seen since the “dinosaur asteroid” struck earth 66 million years ago.

Another cause behind the rise in infectious diseases, is likely due to the workings of industrial-scale meat production (4). Meat processing, including poultry and dairy manufacturing, is heavily reliant on antibiotic usage, and many corporations are dependent upon this sector as a means of profit-making. In the neoliberal era, this ensures that it is embedded in the world economy.

The meat industry is eroding the effectiveness of antibiotics, which over time are creating mutant bacteria that are resistant to all antibiotics. It is a disturbing phenomenon. According to the experienced American microbiologist, Dr. Glenn Morris, if a person consumes antibiotic-resistant bacteria from under-cooked meat and then becomes ill, he or she may not respond to antibiotic treatment to cure the ailment. (5)

In America, one of the world’s biggest meat consuming countries, it is unknown how much antibiotics are actually administered. The drug companies have been covering up, and are refusing to publish data pertaining to antibiotic levels in meat production.

Dr. Morris warned that,

“There’s no federal regulation that really allows us to know how much antibiotic is being used in agriculture. And the drug companies are not going out of their way to make that data readily available. So we really don’t know how much antibiotic is being used in agriculture in this country [America]. And that’s kind of scary”. (6)

Meat processing is also inhumane and a heavy contributor to global warming. It accounts for 16.5% of global carbon emissions (7). With the human population exploding, meat consumption has doubled over the past half a century.

Moreover, livestock is being flown back and forth across the world in growing quantities, further increasing the risk of disease spread. It is impossible to assess each animal to see if it is carrying an illness. Any ailment could be transferable to people, especially between pigs and humans whose biological composition is quite similar.

Because of antibiotic usage over many years, mutant bacteria could be spreading forth and having a decisive role in the spawning of potentially deadly illnesses, such as the coronavirus. Philip Salvatore, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, said that some drug-resistant bacteria “may cause more severe disease, may be more contagious, and are certainly more difficult to kill” (8). The coronavirus is highly infectious and proving tough to eradicate.

Multinational fast food retailers like McDonald’s, Burger King, and others, have vested interests in the meat industry persisting with business-as-usual strategies, which helps to maintain their high profit levels. McDonald’s directors have even informed farmers they should be “incentivised to produce beef, otherwise we don’t have a future for some of our key products” (9). Such policies are unsustainable, not to mention incompatible within government commitments to tackle climate change.

To blame the recent arrival of contagious illnesses on biological warfare is lacking in hard evidence. This form of waging conflict has been in existence for generations. The British Army attempted to spread smallpox among Native Americans in the summer of 1763, during the Siege of Fort Pitt in what is today Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Scores of indigenous people succumbed to smallpox in the region, but it was never discovered how much of this was due to London’s dissemination of smallpox.

Imperial Japan, as widely reported in the West, implemented chemical and biological warfare against the Chinese during the 1930s and 1940s, killing untold thousands.

More recently, at separate times since the 1960s bio and chemical warfare was widely used by the Pentagon against revolutionary Cuba (10). These acts are not well known today, and are routinely avoided in the Western mass media whenever US-Cuban relations are discussed. Also glossed over are the large-scale terrorist attacks perpetrated on Cuba, which stretch to the early 1960s (“Operation Mongoose”), and were authorised in November 1961 by president John F. Kennedy, thereafter organised on the ground by his brother Robert Kennedy. (11)

Washington’s bio and chemical warfare campaigns against Cuba included the implanting of sinister maladies into the Caribbean island, like type II dengue virus and African swine fever, along with the introduction of other diseases, some of them fungal or parasitic.

Since 1962, Pentagon specialists were developing biological agents in sealed laboratories, with the specific aim to be used against Cuba. The Cuban leadership itself was aware from the beginning that their country was being plagued by harmful bacterium and chemicals. They also knew where it could most likely be traced to.

The country’s president, Fidel Castro, was usually situated at his headquarters in the capital Havana, whereby he was informed immediately that Cuba’s agricultural centres were under attack by suspicious infections. With Cuba already under the weight of an embargo enacted by the world’s strongest country, Castro’s reaction on hearing this news did not betray anger or dismay; but rather he received it in an austere, controlled manner.

Castro thereupon drove out to the affected area, be it a coffee plantation or sugar cane field, so that he could witness at first-hand the destruction and judge how to respond. On such occasions, which were increasing in frequency after the 1960s, Castro was often among the first to be present at the scene of the crime. It sometimes took the farm labourers, working a little distance off in the field, a few minutes before realising that it was in fact he, Castro, who had arrived in the vehicle in standing position – before he disembarked, looking about at his surroundings.

Some of the farm workers, approaching nearer to get a better view, then identified and pointed in amazement towards the tall, bearded man in full military attire, who was walking along the edge of the field. They then advanced, surrounding the Cuban leader, and their worries soon drifted away. Such was the effect on the masses that these major figures in world history produced, whenever they appeared on the scene unexpectedly, particularly in times of crisis.

Castro later said of Washington’s biological and chemical assaults on Cuba,

“Well I’ve talked about the thousands of terrorist actions, the assassination attempts… I mentioned the attacks with viruses – swine fever, hemorrhagic dengue – that made thousands of people sick and killed over 100 children. In the 1980s there were also biological attacks on our agriculture. For example, a parasite called blue mould attacked our tobacco crops; later, an unknown mould destroyed our best strain of sugar cane, the Barbados 4362, and 90 per cent of the crop was lost. Such a thing had never happened before”.

The Cuban president remarked further that,

“The same thing happened with coffee; other crops were infested with a parasite… which then attacked our potato crops. And there were other very destructive infestations like that, which caused many problems for our agriculture. It’s very hard to prove, but everything indicates that these disasters were not just coincidental; there was really malicious intent”. (12)

Indeed, it is virtually certain that these systematic attacks were directed from Washington. There were simply too many examples of it to be mere coincidence, with some diseases springing up in Cuba, like African swine fever in 1971, which had never before been recorded in the Western hemisphere.

Of the coronavirus, it is very hard to definitively prove the crucial circumstances behind its emergence. It can almost certainly be linked to human activity on some level. As the coronavirus spreads, on per capita terms Italy is to date comfortably the world’s worst affected country. With a population of 60 million, more than 60,000 Italians have so far contracted the coronavirus; with over 6,000 people in Italy having died. Even in this instance, though it is an unfolding tragedy, we are talking about a small percentage of 1% of the Italian people.

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Shane Quinn obtained an honors journalism degree. He is interested in writing primarily on foreign affairs, having been inspired by authors like Noam Chomsky. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

Notes

1 Worldometers, World/Countries/United States, 23 March 2020, https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

2 William Feuer, “The coronavirus could kill millions of Americans: ‘Do the math,’ immunization specialist says”, CNBC, 19 March 2020, https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:qhtoXJyfJEQJ:https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/19/the-coronavirus-could-kill-millions-of-americans-cdc-advisor-says.html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ie

3 Soren Ventegodt, Reviewed & Approved by Dr. Harold H. Fain, January 2015, https://www.avensonline.org/wp-content/uploads/JIMT-2378-1343-02-0004.pdf

4 Mattha Busby, “‘Live animals are the largest source of infection’: dangers of the export trade”, The Guardian, 21 January 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jan/21/live-animals-are-the-largest-source-of-infection-dangers-of-the-export-trade

5 Frontline, “Antibiotic Debate Overview”, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/meat/safe/overview.html

6 Frontline, “Interview with Dr. Glenn Morris”, https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/meat/interviews/morris.html

7 Kevin O’Sullivan, “The trouble with meat: Why climate scientists are targeting beef”, Irish Times, 15 January 2019, https://www.irishtimes.com/news/environment/the-trouble-with-meat-why-climate-scientists-are-targeting-beef-1.3759264

8 Arielle Dulhaime-Ross, “Mutations that make bacteria resistant to antibiotics might also make them deadlier”, The Verge, 22 July 2015, https://www.theverge.com/2015/7/22/9015505/antibiotic-resistant-bacteria-study-infection-deadliness

9 Ellie Donnelly, “Fast food giant McDonald’s warns of long-term threat to beef sector”, Irish Independent, 26 November 2019, https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:-q889sAk6ZgJ:https://www.independent.ie/business/irish/fast-food-giant-mcdonalds-warns-of-long-term-threat-to-beef-sector-38726611.html+&cd=20&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ie

10 William Blum, “CIA Motto: ‘Proudly Overthrowing the Cuban Government Since 1959′”, CounterPunch, 15 March 2016, https://www.counterpunch.org/2016/03/15/cia-motto-proudly-overthrowing-the-cuban-government-since-1959/

11 Stuart McMillan, “Biowarfare over Cuban skies – Biological weapons are strictly off-limits… unless you’re the American government”, The Manitoban, 25 February 1998, http://www.uky.edu/~rmfarl2/cubabio2.htm

12 Fidel Castro, My Life: A Spoken Autobiography (Simon & Schuster Ome; Reprint edition, 9 June 2009), p. 267

Just as the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic starts to slow down in China, where no new domestic cases have been reported in the past three days, other parts of the world are seeing their numbers spike. With over 328,000 COVID-19 cases worldwide and at least 14,380 coronavirus-related deaths, Italy and Spain are announcing significant increases in their daily death totals. Italy has surpassed China in the number of fatalities. The United States which currently has the third largest number of COVID-19 cases 33,276 is seeing a sharp increase in its cases as well, mostly due to community spread and increased testing. As tests become more accessible across the nation, numbers will continue to increase over the next few months. The only way to accurately determine how many American’s have COVID-19 would be to test everyone, but that isn’t even a consideration at this point.

During Sunday’s White House Coronavirus Task Force news conference, the Trump administration stated that out of those who were tested only 10% were positive for COVID-19.  He urged that people only test if they are exhibiting symptoms and that patients currently in the hospital should have priority for testing. President Donald Trump referred to COVID-19 as the “hidden enemy” and said that we are currently at war with it. He also said that he’s considering letting non-violent and elderly federal prisoners out to stem the spread of the virus.

In a race against time to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus in the United States, Medical professionals have been speaking out about the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE), respirators and other medical equipment as well as lack of accessibility to testing for those who have symptoms but still do not meet the qualifications for whatever reason.

The National Guard will be activated in New York, California, and Washington State, as this affords these states with maximum flexibility to use the guard without worrying about cost or liability. President Trump also spoke about the Federal Government deploying medical supplies to the hardest hit areas, including face shields, surgical gowns, face masks, gloves, overalls and medical equipment including much-needed respirators, as well as medical stations and naval ships within the next 48 hours.

Many are questioning how is it possible that the most powerful nation on earth has been so incredibly reactive during the past three months rather than being proactive and how can we be so unprepared for a pandemic, knowing that simulations such as Crimson Contagion and talks of this exact scenario playing out have been discussed by scientists and health professionals for years.

The most frustrating part is that there are more questions than answers, and many predict that things will be getting much worse (at least in the United States) in the upcoming months before they start to get better. With everything canceled/shut down people are starting to get impatient.

COVID-19 has spread to at least 167 countries and territories and although each one is battling their own war within their borders to contain it some nations such as Russia, China, and Cuba have been helping nations including Italy and Iran. Chinese President Xi Jinping made a diplomatic gesture towards European countries by calling the leaders of France, Germany, Spain, and Serbia to offer China’s support in their fight against COVID-19.

Beyond the medical challenges associated with COVID-19 are the economic hardships that a massive country-wide shutdown has produced, leading some including The Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity to question whether the consequences of this government-imposed shutdown are actually worse than the virus itself.  Unemployment claims are expected to spike to 2 million this week, and a trillion-dollar Coronavirus stimulus bill has failed to move forward as of Sunday night and negotiations are expected to continue.

If we have learned anything it’s that this fear-driven pandemic is a world-wide issue and every effort should be made to mitigate its spread for purely humanitarian reasons, putting politics aside, while not creating an overwhelming sense of panic, as I stated in my previous article, we have reason for concern but not for panic.

This is the perfect time for the United States to end its wars and lift sanctions on nations including Iran and Syria, but seeing as these nations are seen as geopolitical rivals and threaten Washington’s capitalist hegemony, this is entirely unrealistic.

On Sunday the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan tweeted,

“I want to appeal to President Trump on humanitarian grounds to lift the sanctions against Iran till the COVID-19 pandemic is over. The people of Iran are facing untold suffering as sanctions are crippling Iran’s efforts to fight COVID-19. Humanity must unite to fight this pandemic.”

This is most likely in response to the Trump Administration’s announcement on Friday during the Coronavirus Task Force news conference that they will not be offering Iran sanctions relief as the coronavirus ravages the country. Iran’s health minister said that every hour fifty people are infected and every ten minutes another person dies from COVID-19. Iran wants sanction relief from the US not humanitarian assistance.

Tehran has been urging countries to back its call for lifting US sanctions, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif tweeted on Tuesday that unlawful US sanctions drained Iran’s economic resources, impairing its ability to fight COVID-19. He asked other countries to join the growing global campaign to disregard US sanctions on Iran. NIAC Action and 25 Organizations have urged Trump to ease Iran sanctions to combat coronavirus.

Just like US State Department officials promised in December 2019, the maximum pressure campaign on Iran has intensified in 2020 with fresh sanctions imposed just a few days ago.

Putting the very real humanitarian concerns aside for a moment, the widespread apocalyptic fear of an invisible enemy by the media is causing mass hysteria and doesn’t help anyone.

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This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

Sarah Abed is an independent journalist and analyst.

Featured image is from InfoBrics

Perante o Coronavírus – declara o US European Command (Comando Europeu dos Estados Unidos) – “a nossa primeira preocupação é proteger a saúde das nossas forças e a das  forças dos nossos Aliados. Portanto, anuncia que reduziu o número de soldados do exercícioDefender Europe 20 (Defensor da Europa 20). Mas esse mesmo exercício continua.

Em 16 de Março, o Comando afirma que “desde Janeiro o US Army enviou 6.000 soldados dos Estados Unidos para a Europa”, com 12.000 peças de equipamento (desde armamentos pessoais a tanques) e que foi “completado o movimento de soldados e equipamentos, de vários portos para áreas de treino na Alemanha e na Polónia.” Além de que, “9.000 soldados dos EUA estacionados na Europa”, também participam no exercício.

O objectivo declarado pelos USA é “instalar uma força de combate credível na Europa, de apoio à NATO”, evidentemente, contra a “agressão russa”.

O objectivo verdadeiro – escrevemos há dois meses e meio, no il manifesto (o único jornal que então dava notícias do Defender Europe 20 ) – é semear tensão e alimentar a ideia do inimigo.

O cenário declarado do exercício nunca poderia verificar-se, também porque um confronto armado entre a NATO e a Rússia seria, inevitavelmente, nuclear. Esse é o cenário real para o qual se treinam as forças americanas, na Europa. Confirma-o o General Tod D. Wolters, Chefe do Comando Europeu dos Estados Unidos e, como tal, Comandante Supremo Aliado na Europa.

Numa audiência no Senado dos Estados Unidos, em 25 de Fevereiro de 2020, declara que “as forças nucleares, garantia suprema da segurança dos Aliados, apoiam todas as operações militares dos EUA na Europa”.(1) O que significa que o Defender Europe 20 é um exercício não só de forças convencionais (não nucleares), mas também de forças nucleares.

Em 18 de Março, foi comunicado que dois bombardeiros nucleares B-2 Spirit, que fazem parte da task-force que chegou dos USA em 9 de Março, decolaram de Fairford, em Inglaterra, para treinar na Islândia e no Atlântico Norte, juntamente com três caças noruegueses F-35. Esses dois tipos de aviões foram projectados para o uso das novas bombas nucleares B61-12, que os EUA instalarão, em breve, em Itália e noutros países europeus, substituindo as actuais B-61.

Wolters eslarece na audiência do Senado, qual é a função das forças nucleares USA na Europa. Quando a Senadora Fischer lhe pergunta o que pensa do não primeiro uso das armas nucleares, o General responde: “Senadora, sou defensor de uma política flexível de primeiro uso”.  Aquele que, na Europa, detém nas suas mãos as armas nucleares USA/NATO, declara oficialmente, baseado num critério “flexível”, ser partidário do primeiro uso para o first strike – para o ataque nuclear de surpresa.

Perante uma declaração desta gravidade, que obriga os generais russos a colocar o dedo no gatilho nuclear, silêncio absoluto dos governos, dos parlamentos e dos grandes meios de comunicação mediática da Europa.

Na mesma audiência, o General Wolters afirma que “Desde 2015, a Aliança deu mais importância à aplicação das capacidades nucleares” e que “O Comando Europeu dos Estados Unidos apoia plenamente as recomendações, contidas na Nuclear Posture Review 2018, para instalar o míssil balístico de baixa potência W76-2”. 

A ogiva nuclear de baixa potência W76-2, já instalada em mísseis lançados de submarinos (anunciou o Pentágono, em 4 de Fevereiro), pode também ser instalada em mísseis balísticos com base no solo, perto do território inimigo. É particularmente perigosa. As armas nucleares de menor potência – alertam, também, especialistas americanos competentes – aumentam a tentação de usá-las primeiro, podem levar os comandantes a pressionar porque, num ataque, usa-se a bomba nuclear, sabendo que a “chuva de partículas radioactivas/fall out” seria limitada”. Seria como lançar um fósforo aceso num barril de pólvora.

Manlio Dinucci

Artigo original em italiano :

Foto : The War Room with the Big Board do filme de Stanley Kubrick de 1964, Dr. Strangelove.

Di fronte al Coronavirus – dichiara lo US European Command (Comando Europeo degli Stati Uniti) – «nostra prima preoccupazione è proteggere la salute delle nostre forze e dei nostri Alleati». Annuncia quindi di aver ridimensionato come numero di soldati l’esercitazioneDefender Europe 20 (Difensore dell’Europa 20). Essa però continua.

Il 16 marzo, il Comando precisa che «da gennaio lo US Army ha dispiegato dagli Stati uniti in Europa 6.000 soldati», con 12.000 pezzi di equipaggiamento (dagli armamenti personali ai carrarmati), e che è stato «completato il movimento di soldati ed equipaggiamenti da diversi porti alle aree di addestramento in Germania e Polonia». Oltre a questi, anche «9.000 soldati Usa con base in Europa» partecipano all’esercitazione.

• Scopo dichiarato dagli Usa è «dispiegare una forza credibile di combattimento in Europa in appoggio alla Nato, evidentemente contro la «aggressione russa».
• Scopo reale – scrivevamo due mesi e mezzo fa sul il manifesto (l’unico giornale che allora dava notizia della Defender Europe 20)  –  è seminare tensione e alimentare l’idea del nemico.

Lo scenario dichiarato dell’esercitazione mai potrebbe verificarsi, anche perché uno scontro armato tra Nato e Russia sarebbe inevitabilmente nucleare. Questo è il vero scenario a cui si addestrano le forze Usa in Europa. Lo conferma il generale Tod D. Wolters,  capo del Comando Europeo degli Stati uniti e, in quanto tale, Comandante Supremo Alleato in Europa.

In una audizione al Senato degli Stati uniti,  il 25 febbraio 2020, dichiara che «le forze nucleari, suprema garanzia della sicurezza degli Alleati, sostengono ogni operazione militare Usa in Europa». (1) Ciò significa che la Defender Europe 20 è una esercitazione non solo di forze convenzionali (non-nucleari), ma di forze nucleari.

Il 18 marzo è stato comunicato che due bombardieri B-2 Spirit da attacco nucleare, facenti parte della task force arrivata dagli Usa il 9 marzo, sono decollati da Fairford in Inghilterra per addestrarsi sull’Islanda e il Nord Atlantico insieme a tre caccia F-35 norvegesi. Questi due tipi di aereo sono predisposti per l’uso delle nuove bombe nucleari B61-12, che gli Usa schiereranno tra non molto in Italia e altri paesi europei al posto delle attuali B-61.

Che ruolo abbiano le forze nucleari Usa in Europa lo chiarisce Wolters nell’audizione al Senato. Quando la senatrice Fischer gli chiede che cosa pensi del non-primo-uso delle armi nucleari, il  generale risponde: «Senatrice, io sono sostenitore di una flessibile politica del primo uso».  Colui che ha in mano le armi nucleari Usa/Nato in Europa  dichiara in tal modo ufficialmente di essere sostenitore, in base a un criterio «flessibile», del loro primo uso per il first strike, l’attacco nucleare di sorpresa.

Di fronte a una dichiarazione di tale gravità, che spinge i generali russi a mettere il dito sul grilletto nucleare, completo silenzio da parte dei governi, dei parlamenti e dei grandi media europei.

Nella stessa audizione il generale Wolters afferma che «dal 2015 l’Alleanza ha posto maggiormente l’accento sul ruolo delle capacità nucleari» e che «il Comando Europeo degli Stati Uniti  sostiene pienamente le raccomandazioni, contenute nella Nuclear Posture Review 2018, di schierare il missile balistico a bassa potenza W76-2».

La testata nucleare a bassa potenza W76-2, già installata su missili lanciati da sottomarino (lo annuncia il Pentagono il 4 febbraio), può essere installata anche su missili balistici con base a terra a ridosso del territorio nemico. Essa è particolarmente pericolosa. «Armi nucleari di minore potenza – avvertono anche autorevoli esperti Usa  –  aumentano la tentazione di usarle per primi, possono portare i comandanti a premere perché, in un attacco, si usi la bomba nucleare, sapendo che la ricaduta radioattiva sarebbe limitata». Sarebbe invece come gettare un cerino acceso in unapolveriera.

Manlio Dinucci

 

Foto : The War Room with the Big Board dal film di Stanley Kubrick del 1964, Dr. Stranamore.

 

The question is how long can working stiffs, who make up perhaps most of the 99+% of us, tolerate the other, almost as potent virus called ‘The Super Rich’? Does anyone realize that these ‘less than 1/4 of one percent of us are mega millionaires?

It used to be, like when JFK took office, that the super rich were being taxed at 90%. Then, with their accountants sharpening pencils, the super rich probably forked over maybe 40% to 50 % of their income each year to Uncle. Well, little by little, from a top rate of 81% and then 71% under Reagan, it now settles in at 37%…as a TOP rate. As Senator Mitt Romney acknowledged a few years back, he, a super mega millionaire (billionaire?) paid out 15% in federal taxes. So, all those super rich among us (or rather secluded away from us) have got some sweet deal. Yes?

On one hand, to hear that some sports figures and sports owners are actually giving back to help pay the folks who work for their teams, arenas and stadiums, is always well received. Yet, when a guy or gal who is earning or worth $ 20 million or $ 50 million each year, and then gives $ 100k to help out folks…. well… the homeless guy who with two bucks to his name gives his totally broke fellow homeless pal one of those dollars is doing a hell of a lot more. Do the math: The super rich sports figure or sports owner who earns let us say $ 50 million, and, hypothetically speaking, pays out the Full Monty of 37% in taxes, still keeps $ 31.5 million TAX FREE! Can you imagine how long a family of four could live on that? How about two families of four… or even a hundred?

A long time folks, with NO worries about anything… but of course this virus. Yes, with businesses about to shut down with tens of millions, maybe even hundreds of millions soon out of work with no income at all…. we will have CHAOS!  Who knows how far a person will go when there are mouths to feed and no end in sight to this darkness of what I call Economic Pandemic.

The voice of the people needs to be heard. Not through violence but consistent demand en mass.  Both the federal government and the uber rich need to pay out to save us all! As pubic banking advocate Ellen Brown elaborates, and even recent presidential candidate Andrew Wang agreed, Uncle Sam must initiate a monthly stipend of no less than $ 1000 for every American (at least until this pandemic runs its course). Since we don’t have a maximum income, which we need drastically (like say a ceiling of $ 5 million per year in earnings) then a 50% Flat Surtax on all income over $ one million dollars per year per person will begin to do the trick.

In the meantime these mega  millionaires need to follow the precepts of all the major religions and fork out a bulk of their riches to save their fellow citizens. If those two major sources of our national wealth do not act NOW… sooner or later the Dam may be tested and all hell will break loose. Of course, the main concern for we who study history is that, when and IF national financial disaster and mass unrest does occur here in Amerika, what transpired in Germany after WW1 will happen here. And that is not a nice scenario. To see good and usually decent working stiffs marching with those armbands, as Sinclair Lewis aptly portrayed it, ‘Wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross’, is scaring the ****out of this writer. Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders only initiated this focus on, as I refer to it, A New Awareness for more socialistic ideas. More working stiffs need to carry the ball.. and soon!

In Mathew, a rich young man asks Jesus what actions bring eternal life. First, Jesus advises the young man to obey the Commandments. When the man responds that he already observes them, and asks what else he can do, Jesus adds:

“If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

When he heard this the man became very sad, as he was very wealthy. Jesus looked at him and said:

“How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven! Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.”

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Philip A Farruggio is a contributing editor for The Greanville Post. He is also frequently posted on Global Research, Nation of Change, World News Trust and Off Guardian sites. He is the son and grandson of Brooklyn NYC longshoremen and a graduate of Brooklyn College, class of 1974. Since the 2000 election debacle Philip has written over 300 columns on the Military Industrial Empire and other facets of life in an upside down America. He is also host of the ‘It’s the Empire… Stupid‘ radio show, co produced by Chuck Gregory. Philip can be reached at [email protected].

21 years ago, acting on its own and without the UN Security Council approval, NATO carried out an armed aggression against Serbia, in gross violation of the UN Charter, the OSCE Helsinki Final Act, a series of other international conventions as well as of its own Founding Act of 1949.

The death toll of this aggression committed in collaboration with the terrorist KLA was between 3500 – 4000 people (the final list has not been concluded) including 89 children, with more than 12,500 additional people wounded. It inflicted an enormous economic damage, whereas the use of missiles filled with depleted uranium and other forbidden weaponry has permanently affected human health and caused environmental devastation. From a defensive alliance, NATO transformed into an offensive and interventionist one, in pursuing a clear expansionist policy especially targeting the East.

This was, and remains, a crime against peace and humanity.

The aggression and the subsequent occupation of Kosovo and Metohija, illegal establishment of Camp Bondsteel as one of largest US military bases in the world, unilateral declaration of independence of a territory under United Nations mandate, grave violation of UN SC Resolution 1244, individually and collectively, make dangerous precedents and severe blows to the European and the global security systems, and encourage the spreading od separatism and terrorism, thus triggering unforeseeable consequences.

In a response to information that a number of Members of the Norwegian Parliament and some other persons from the West raised initiative to award the Nobel Peace Prize to NATO, the Belgrade Forum for a World of Equals, the Club of Generals and Admirals of Serbia, and the Foundation United for the Youth sent a letter to the Norwegian Nobel Committee ( www.beoforum.rs).

The letter of these Serbian organizations, offering facts and principled evaluation of illegal aggression and NATO’s offensive nature has garnered wide support and publicity in Serbia, the Serbian Diaspora, and abroad. Its integral version was published in Serbia by respectable dailies, several news agencies and many electronic media and social networks. It was translated into Russian, German, Italian and published by numerous media in Italy, Switzerland, Russia, Greece, the USA, and some other countries. The letter was endorsed by many organizations and prominent persons throughout the world including, most notably, the World Peace Council as an Associate Member of ECOSOC (a key UN organ), which is based in Athens and acts as umbrella that brings together thousands of peace organisations and peace movements from all continents.

Among the most esteemed international personalities and intellectuals, the positions stated in this letter were endorsed by former French politician Yves Bonnet, Russian politician and scientist Sergey Baburin, Finnish politician and writer Pirkko Turpeinen-Saari, Italian writer Jean Toschi Marazzani Visconti, American author and peace fighter Sharon Tennison, renowned Canadian diplomat Ambassador James Bissett, and many more.

The Belgrade Forum for a World of Equals, the Club of Generals and Admirals of Serbia, and the Foundation United for the Youth re-launch their initiatives asking the state authorities to request compensation for war damage from NATO countries; to complete the list of all victims of NATO aggression in order to prevent their fading into oblivion and put an end to public bickering concerning their number; to launch the functioning of an inter-sectoral and expert Governmental body tasked with determining the consequences of missiles with depleted uranium which had been established a year ago; to activate the flames of the memorial to victims of aggression in the Friendship Park in Novi Beograd; to establish and build the Serbian Memorial for Victims of Genocide in 20 th century, resembling the ‘Yad Vashem’ Memorial in Israel and the ‘Ararat’ Memorial in Armenia.

The signatories hold the time has come for the governments of NATO and EU member states to review their role in the aggression of 1999 and their policy towards Serbia and the Serbian people, to apologise publicly for the victims and the illegal devastation of Serbia (the FRY) and to revert to the implementation of UNSC Resolution 1244 as the only acceptable and principled basis for a just and sustainable peaceful solution for the future status of Kosovo and Metohija as a Province exercising broad autonomy within Serbia. The new trends in global relations, a new paradigm of reaffirming equality, partnership, and the rule of the fundamental principles enshrined in the UN Charter disapprove continuation of outdated policy of hegemonism pursued by the Clintons, Albright, Blair and Schroeder.

*

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Much remains to be learned about the coronavirus, though it is quite possible that it will not be possible to determine how it developed if the various governments that might be involved prove to be uncooperative. The Chinese carefully controlled the information on the virus in its early stages, though they eventually adopted a complete lockdown to prevent its spread that seems to have been successful and might serve as a model for other nations to follow if they can overcome concerns about threats to civil liberties that evolve from placing too much power in the hands of corrupt and ignorant government officials.

Over two weeks ago, I suggested that the current form of corona might have possibly escaped from someone’s lab where a weaponized virus was being developed, most likely in China itself, though nations like the United States and Israel which are believed to have significant capabilities in biowarfare as well as a geopolitical motive to unleash the disease on certain countries should not be excluded. I still believe that assessment should be considered as viable particularly as the politicization process involving the virus is now fully in play.

China is now claiming that U.S. soldiers involved in the World Military Games held in Wuhan back in October might have deliberately planted the virus, while President Donald Trump and other Republicans in the U.S. are calling the disease the Wuhan or China virus, implying willful or careless behavior by the Chinese and a clear effort to demonize the Beijing government by exploiting the appearance of the virus as a wedge issue. And one might take note of the fact that the virus has particularly hit both China and Iran, countries that are on Washington’s enemy list, which generates additional conspiracy theories.

Donald Trump is not exactly a person overflowing with compassion. When corona virus began to emerge in the U.S. he called it a “hoax” and urged everyone to keep going to work even if ill, precisely the opposite of what was being recommended by most responsible medical authorities. He is now planning to throw $1200 dollars at each American resident whether they need it or not to undo the political damage, a proposal that will cost as much as $500 billion of money that the United States does not have and which it will have to either print or borrow. The money should be going to those who are now unemployed as a result of the virus, a point that surprisingly enough is being made by several Republican Senators.

Hundreds of billions more will go to the usual “victims,” banks and large corporations that will use the cash to pay off long terms loans and also to buyback their own stock and raise the value of their shares for investors. That is precisely what happened in 2008, with little to show for the average American.

One of the most truly despicable aspects of the coronavirus is how it is being exploited by Washington to punish countries like Iran and Venezuela, currently the enemy-designates of the inside the Beltway crowd. It would be possible to describe the Trump Administration policy towards both nations as sadistic apart from the fact that the behavior of the president and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo might actually shock the Marquis de Sade.

Venezuela has been denied a $5 billion International Monetary Fund loan to combat the virus based on the seemingly irrelevant and politically motivated argument that it is not clear who represents the legitimate government in the country, whether it is Nicola Maduro, the president, or Juan Guaido, the aspirant to the position of head of state being promoted by Washington. The White House has also declared a “maximum pressure March” directed against the Venezuelan economy, with the health care sector particularly targeted. So, Venezuelans will die and Maduro will undoubtedly continue to run the government, making the position of the Trump Administration demanding regime change both toxic and pointless.

Iran is also seeking a $5 billion IMF emergency loan to cope with the crisis, a request that will almost certainly also be torpedoed by the Trump Administration. Last Thursday Pompeo doubled down on Iran, initiating new sanctions based on the evidence-free allegation that Tehran is behind the recent attacks on U.S. military bases in Iraq. He also confirmed that, as part of the “maximum pressure” policy, all existing sanctions will remain in place, saying “Our sanctions will deprive the regime of critical income from its petrochemical industry and further Iran’s economic and diplomatic isolation. The United States will continue to fully enforce our sanctions.”

The fact that the Iraqi government and parliament have asked the Americans to close their bases in the country while the U.S. is highly unpopular due to its killing of Iraqi militiamen and soldiers seems to have escaped Pompeo as possible causes of the series of missile strikes. Pompeo also seems oblivious to the fact that remnants of ISIS are active in the areas where the bases are located and have proven quite capable of firing missiles from improvised pick-up truck launchers.

Last week Iran confirmed that it had experienced 988 deaths from the coronavirus and the infected number in the tens of thousands, but many believe that testing has been inadequate and the government may be understating the number of cases for political reasons. Pompeo has repeatedly insisted that Iran will be allowed to buy necessary medicines from abroad, but the U.S-imposed currency exchange restrictions on the activity of the national bank as well as of the country’s remaining commercial banks means that there is no mechanism to pay for the drugs and medical supplies so the country is combating the epidemic without many badly needed pharmaceuticals.

Even some congressmen have noticed that there is something fundamentally evil about the U.S. policy. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren sent a letter to Pompeo and Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin that included

“I am concerned about the vulnerability of the Iranian people to the coronavirus and the potential for Iran’s coronavirus cases to worsen the spread of the disease to neighboring countries, including regional allies, and to the rest of the world. Therefore, I seek an assurance that every reasonable effort is being made by the United States to ensure the availability of medicine and other non-sanctionable humanitarian items to the Iranian people to help prevent the further spread of the coronavirus.”

Senator Bernie Sanders tweeted

“Iran is facing a catastrophic toll from the coronavirus pandemic. U.S. sanctions should not be contributing to this humanitarian disaster. As a caring nation, we must lift any sanctions hurting Iran’s ability to address this crisis, including financial sanctions.”

Iran’s government is admittedly unpopular due to the mishandling of the shoot-down of the Ukrainian airliner and the inability to cope with a deepening economic crisis caused largely by the U.S. imposed sanctions. Given the current signs of weakness and instability in Tehran, there was recently a meeting in the White House discussing whether the U.S. should take the opportunity to attack Iran. It was, fortunately, rejected by a narrow margin when the Secretary of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff strongly opposed the proposal.

Meanwhile the usual Iranophobes in Washington at the Israeli-linked Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD) have seen an opportunity to tighten the screws a bit more and hopefully bring down the Iranian leadership through economic warfare. Their support for increasing sanctions on Iran is a policy designed to inflict the maximum pain on the Iranian people so they will rise up seeking to destroy their government. If that were to occur it would mean a civil war, but the folks at FDD would be hard pressed to even acknowledge the blood on their hands.

Ironically, if the United States were to make a serious effort to actually help the Iranian people by suspending sanctions and helping to expedite medical assistance it might actually produce a genuine thaw in a relationship that has been unnecessarily locked into 1979 and the embassy hostage crisis. Waging war on innocent people should not in any event be what the United States of America is all about. A shift in policies that actually demonstrates that Washington might be interested in saving lives rather than destroying them would be welcomed by most of the world and also by many Americans.

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This article was originally published on The Unz Review.

Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a 501(c)3 tax deductible educational foundation (Federal ID Number #52-1739023) that seeks a more interests-based U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Website is councilforthenationalinterest.org, address is P.O. Box 2157, Purcellville VA 20134 and its email is [email protected].

Imagine that you are in Hong Kong, in a city where “you are actually not supposed to be”, in the first place. You are ready to go home, to South America. But just two days before your departure, via Seoul and Amsterdam, your first Sky Teamcarrier, Korean Air, unceremoniously decides to cancel all flights from the territory.

Several Korean religious freaks, apparently, are to blame.

On 22 February, 2020, Mail Online, reported.

“More than half of all South Korea’s coronavirus cases are linked to a secretive ultra-religious cult whose leader believes he is immortal.”

Just reading that, I knew I may get royally screwed. Nothing good comes from ultra-religious fanatics, and South Koreans are notorious for their political and religious extremism.

But that was not all. The report continued:

“There are further reports of outbreaks in the psychiatric unit of a hospital in Cheongdo county, infections in Busan, and on the island of Jeju.”

Korean Air, which was supposed to fly its glorious new Boeing 747-8 from Hong Kong to Incheon (Seoul international airport), has been carving its service, first reducing it to Boeing 777s, then to Airbus 330s, and in the end, cancelling all of its flights 3 days before my departure.

To secure my monstrously long commute, I spent most of my Sky Team miles, to secure a business class set of tickets.

There was a reason for it: I could not see. Well, I could hardly see, at all.

Before Hong Kong, I had worked in Kalimantan, in the Indonesian part of Borneo, on an island which has been totally plundered by greed, corruption and the ineptness of the Javanese neo-colonialists. An island where the present administration of president Joko Widodo (known as “Jokowi”), is planning to build and move the new capital city, abandoning the enormous, more than 20 million population sized urban area of Jakarta which is “sinking”, ridden with countless urban slums, lack of sanitation and safe drinking water.

Writing a book about this monumental insanity, I continued investigating. And In a process I got attacked, as almost anyone who visits Borneo does, by various and vicious parasites. My guts got infected by something terrible, and then my eyes. I flew between Balikpapan and Pontianak on Lion Air’s Boeing 737 (yes, that Lion Air, which keeps cramming and periodically crashing planes, ever since the beginning of its operation). I have no idea whether my eyes got attacked there, on board, or in some filthy ditch near the palm oil plantations, where they are cutting down what is left of the tropical forest.

Wherever it was, it did get infected. First the left eye. It was like a white foam. I could only see extremely abstract contours, as if between me and the world, there was a thick, white blanket. It was scary, very scary. I am not only a writer and a philosopher, but I am also a filmmaker and photographer. Doing what I do and not seeing almost anything is, you know, quite terrifying.

Before flying to Hong Kong, where I have been covering the riots ignited and financed by the West, I stopped over in Bangkok and went to an eye clinic, but the doctors there only cared about the payment. They had no clue what was happening to my eye.

Then, in Hong Kong, as Korean Air cancelled my flight, my right eye also got attacked.

At night, as I lay awake in my hotel room, I suddenly recalled how on board the Garuda Indonesia, between Pontianak and Jakarta, at least four people were coughing, loudly and desperately. Nobody was checking them. The Indonesian government had suggested that people pray, to avoid the outbreak of the coronavirus.

“What else,” I thought. “Am I also going to get the coronavirus?”

*

I refused to succumb to this horrible situation.

By then I knew that Korean Air was determined to ruin me. While Air France (my Sky Team carrier) and KLM were offering re-routing and compensation to their passengers stranded in Asia, Korean Air showed a clear and vulgar indifference. It did nothing to help. It never even replied to my queries.

I was also aware of the fact that I may have to travel, at least for 7 days, through various detours, and without seeing almost anything. Also, with twisted guts and a diabetic attack which had kicked my backside because of the tremendous stress.

Was it worse than being in Syrian Idlib, in Afghanistan, or near Mosul after it had been taken over by ISIS?

In a way, it was. Being blind, chased by the new coronavirus type, with airports closing one after another, and with the prices of airline tickets going sky-high, everything seemed to be demeaning, depressing and unsettling.

Strangely enough, I felt no fear of the COVID-19. I kept discussing the new type of coronavirus with my medical colleagues, through WhatsApp, until my eyes totally let go and collapsed.

I had to make it through, to Santiago de Chile, which happened to be on the total opposite side of the world.

Western doctors that I knew, were sending long and useless advice which mainly repeated “go see a doctor” idiocy. I told them I was in Hong Kong, which had been experiencing a near total lockdown. I told them that I had already been to a Thai eye doctor who had absolutely no clue about my condition.

Then, I realized that I could not rely on those that I am fighting against! I needed comrades to help me.

My family contacted a Syrian lady doctor, an expert in infectious diseases, and a sister of my friend in Damascus. I sent photo-images of my eyes. She saw, asked for symptoms and prescribed some powerful oral antibiotics and drops. I managed to convince a Hong Kong pharmacist to sell the medicine over the counter: I said it was a matter of life and death. She understood.

Syria and China saved me. People were guided by intuition, not by rigid rules.

I was going home.

*

My nearest and dearest began helping me to re-route. It took days. It was horrible.

Airlines, from Korean Air to Cathay Pacific, began to cover their backs; trying to squeeze every penny from those who were still able and willing to fly. Some one-way economy tickets for 2 hours flights shot up to 1,600 US dollars. Business class on certain routes became miraculously cheaper. As long as one could search, and as long as one could look at a screen.

To avoid quarantining, and to get out of Hong Kong, the easiest way was to fly in the totally opposite direction than where I was heading: to Bangkok, on Emirates. A few business class tickets were still available, but at $600, on a route where they used to cost under $400. It was one of the last available ways out of the almost locked out city.

I grabbed a seat on the Airbus 380-800. I somehow pulled through the totally empty Hong Kong Airport. I could hardly see anything. There were hardly any seats to rest on in the departure hall. My backpack was almost 20kg heavy, with a professional camera, computer and mobile phones.

I have no idea how I managed to get to my plane. With my damaged eyes, I could still see those huge numbers indicating gates. I collapsed into my seat. The super-jumbo took off, Southeast; away from where I was trying to fly. I was some 20 thousand kilometers away from Santiago de Chile.

Santiago was bleeding, too! Its eyes were damaged. People were fighting against the fascist regime imposed on them by Washington, and by the multinational corporations, in 1973. Like my own, their eyes were inflamed; some, over 300 individuals, even lost their eyes, as they were shot at by the police.

On board my flight to Bangkok, I was not sure whether I was going to be able to return home, alive.

But I was going, through the night, towards Bangkok. Would they even let me in? The first step.

*

They did. Miraculously. I must have looked like shit, but an unfriendly, insulting border police officer slammed a stamp into my passport, fingerprinted me, photographed me, and in the end, let me go.

That was it. Hong Kong does not stamp passports. Officially, my journey would begin in Thailand.

I had only 9 hours on the ground. The airport was eerily empty. People looked like streetwalkers, wearing masks, some even things resembling ski-glasses. I went home to my place by the river, without even opening my luggage, I collapsed into my bed, but could not sleep the entire night. Tugboats were pulling ghost-like barges, 31 floors below. I could not see the barges, only contours. This was my first day into the journey.

In the morning, very early, I somehow managed to return to the airport, and rechecked my luggage all the way to Suriname, as that was the only airport in South America, which I was able to get to free (using my air miles) business class tickets, at least from Seoul. Instead of re-routing or compensating me, Korean Air which had brutally cancelled my tickets from Hong Kong, was now charging me something absolutely ridiculous, to get from Bangkok to Seoul, where I was to catch a KLM flight to Amsterdam and many hours later, to Paramaribo.

Thai fingerprinting and photographing again. The taking the shoes off, precisely as the U.S. masters have ordered. The saturated spite of the Thai officials suffering from superiority complexes, followed by an old, dirty, 777-300 Korean Air aircraft. I crashed into its unmaintained seat. Just glanced at the food (inedible-looking, cheap version of bibimba), and slept all the way to Seoul.

*

Coronavirus, greed, extreme capitalism, rudeness: everything accumulated into this monstrous journey.

Taking off from Hong Kong and later Bangkok, I experienced almost absolute blindness. Then, the Damascus-prescribed antibiotics began to kick in. They were terrible, but I was warned. Either or. Either blindness and white fog, or total exhaustion, a collapsed body, but clearer sight. I opted for sight.

I landed in Seoul, like a zombie, heavy rucksack on my back, wobbly, almost desperate.

My luggage was automatically transferred all the way to Paramaribo, using the Sky Team system.

But this was South Korea. At the transfer desk I was refused boarding passes: “Go through security, then go to Sky Team Lounge and wait 8 hours for your flight. They will give you boarding passes at the gate,” I was told.

At the security check, they could not read English, or understand what was written on my E-tickets. 3 times I was humiliated, going back and forth between the transfer desk and security checkpoint. The staff were clearly enjoying the game, perhaps waiting for when I would finally collapse. The transfer desk person refused to walk with me to the security check. Security people were stubbornly refusing to read English.

This was precisely one of those moments when one loses all hope in humanity. You think: “Your body will let go! You will collapse, at any moment. Collapse and die.” All this, just because you have been putting your life on the line, for some poor, devastated, enormous tropical island. Just because some South Korean religious freaks went bananas. Just because of human indifference and racism. Just because, just because… The brave new world. The creepiness of a capitalist, right-wing trash universe.

I made it to the lounge, eventually, moving through the empty airport. Everything was shut down. The lounge was empty; almost nothing to eat there. The coronavirus scare.

At this point, all I wanted to do was to sleep. I found a transit hotel and paid an exorbitant price for only a few hours of rest. I collapsed. I cursed capitalism, greed, and humanity’s collapse.

I knew that as I was entering the disturbing world of dreams, or should I say nightmares, the People’s Republic of China, as well as Cuba, were fighting for our human race, against all the odds, against the monstrous propaganda originating from the West.

I had no right to kick the bucket in some bloody transit hotel room at the Incheon Airport. China, Cuba, Russia, Venezuela needed me. I saluted my comrades, the old fashioned way, and fell asleep.

Incheon, South Korea. Usually one of the busiest airports

*

The Korean Air clerk at the gate had no idea where Paramaribo was, or where Suriname is located. He was moonlighting for KLM, but was wearing a Korean Air uniform.

I told him what I thought about Korean Air. Before that, he had not liked me for flying to “some Paramaribo”, but after that he started to hate me, openly. The fact that I am a platinum member of his alliance meant nothing.

He began treating me as if I was the coronavirus incarnated.

By then, I could hardly see him. My legs were about to collapse, at any moment. But I was not going to show weakness.

He began: “Where is your visa to Suriname”?

“Here,” I replied.

“What is that?”

“My visa.”

“So, where is your visa?”

“My visa is here.”

“You have to show it to me.”

“It is in front of you.”

Korean Air had stolen my money by cancelling flights and by refusing to re-route me. Now, it was ruining my health. But, there was zero remorse coming from the staff.

Eventually, a supervisor came, and began abusing me, too.

I told directly to her face: “You should learn from North Korean people how to treat visitors!”

Her apparatchik essence kicked in. She began threatening me.

I pulled out five press cards: “Do you want to arrest me for expressing my opinion?”

She started to look hesitant. I demanded her name card. She said she does not have one. Bullshit: in north Asia everybody has one.

“Are you a security agent or an airline staff?” I asked her, point-blank. I knew that in South Korea, it was the same thing.

Finally, she gave me my boarding passes, together with a look, which was full of hate.

This legendary racist horror, South Korean-style then disappeared. I saw, the way she humiliated herself, bowing and kissing the asses of her fellow, South Korean, citizens.

I was welcomed on board by an outraged flight hostess who was originally from Suriname: “She did not even know that my country exists, did she?” She patted me on the shoulder.

*

While Seoul was terrified of the coronavirus, the Europeans looked totally indifferent to the possible danger.

That was on March 3^rd, 2020.

After the more than 11 hours flight from Seoul to Amsterdam, Schiphol airport appeared to be totally relaxed.

Amsterdam Airport

Even passengers from Seoul to Amsterdam looked undisturbed. No masks, no panic. Snoring contently, into the air.

777-200ER landed very early, at around 5 am.

I went through security, and located the Sky Team Lounge. It was stuffed with excellent food, but it happened to be totally empty. I found a comfortable chair and fell asleep, almost immediately. When I woke up, the lounge was full; literally packed.

After being used to masks being worn all over North and Southeast Asia, what hit me was the absolute lack of any face protectors at the major Dutch airport.

People were drinking, eating tons, talking. There was no sense of any emergency.

European and North American daily newspapers, in all languages, were full of the coronavirus headlines. Those freely distributed in the lounge, were only attacking China, totally and bizarrely avoiding the absolute lack of preparedness in the West.

Even the Italian daily papers, at that time at least, showed no signs of concern.

Not far from me, a group of Italian travelers, was chatting, embracing, kissing, drinking prosecco and coffee for breakfast, and calling home on their mobile phones.

There was only one lax coronavirus checkpoint, upon arrival from South Korea, at the time one of the hardest hit countries in the world.

In retrospect, this was all totally bizarre and irresponsible.

Was the Western medical system so unprepared? Or was it told, even ordered, to behave in such a manner?

Waiting for my flight to Paramaribo, I called my 84-year old mom, who has been living in Germany, where she is married.

“They feed us with such crap,” she told me, in Russian. “I mean, that stuff that they tell us through the mass media. I don’t believe anything they say or write,” she concluded. “All this is not going to end well.”

And she was absolutely right.

*

The Queen of the Sky, a majestic old Boeing 747-400 took off on time, towards Suriname. Both KLM and British Airways were still flying these beautiful planes, although there were rumors that KLM will retire most of them in 2021.

This was the last flight of the captain. He was leaving KLM. The flight hostesses were urging all the passengers to write something short, something personal. There was supposed to be a great celebration, a great party, in Paramaribo.

By then, I was almost losing my consciousness. My eyes cleared, almost totally. But the monstrous antibiotics and chronic exhaustion, doubled my body down. Chile appeared to be far, far away.

Again, no masks, no precautions. The 747 was going southwest, full of passengers, with zero medical safeguards.

The plane landed, and it was sprayed with water by a fire engine, to celebrate the last flight of the captain.

No jetways: passengers had to climb down off the enormous aircraft. Those who couldn’t were met by special vehicle, functioning as a lift, and by a bus.

But the lift and other vehicles were quickly engaged by the celebrations of the captain’s retirement. Countless Surinamese passengers who were returning from Holland, after being treated in European hospitals, were waiting in the lift and the bus, abandoned by the ground staff. No one to measure their temperature. Nobody to even ask what kind of medical conditions they were suffering from.

By then, I had turned into a zombie. I somehow managed to sail through the immigration of a shack defined as an airport.

I almost collapsed. I asked for help, but was told by a local staff member: “If you feel sick, go get medical help”. Later, the hotel manager told me that this is the “usual treatment people get here”.

I somehow got stabilized, by getting my hands on a luggage trolley. The universe was spinning around me.

My pre-paid taxi did not wait for me. The hotel was some 50 kilometers from the airport.

In the end, I went to the airport police. Instead of helping me, they began a rude scrutiny, clearly trying to extract some bribe.

“I feel very sick,” I said. They couldn’t care less.

No questions asked about what had made me sick. Was it the coronavirus? By then it was already called COVID-19, and it was on my tail, chasing me as I was circling the globe.

*

I filmed the Suriname River and the rainforest of Suriname, to show the contrast with Borneo.

Empty crossing of Suriname River

Suriname has been terribly damaged, but Borneo has been ruined, endlessly and some say, irreversibly.

I only had one full day. I had to work fast. My Indian driver had to hold me up while I was working, otherwise I’d collapse.

On the 5^th March, I returned to the airport, ready to fly to Belem, Brazil.

Further humiliation, overcharging, insults. I wanted to get out. And never return. One day I will write about those repulsive 48 hours in Suriname, but not now.

A 90 minutes flight, and everything fully changed. Even under the fascist government of Bolsonaro, Brazilians were kind and caring.

Shortly after the plane door opened in Belem, I was put into a wheelchair and zipped through immigration and other formalities. There was no overcharging, no humiliation and no dramas.

Brazil was what it always has been: a great country with dire problems. But a great country, nevertheless.

The next day I flew from Belem to Rio de Janeiro, via Brasilia.

Still, almost no masks. Once or twice my temperature was checked. That is all.

In Belem, all the Amazon riverfront cafes were kept open.

In Rio, while waiting for my flight to Chile, I went to the legendary and packed Vinicius bosanova club, and to the totally packed Caso de Chuva cultural center, where Tom Veloso was singing the songs of Gilberto Gil. Absolutely no precautions, no masks, people squeezed like sardines. The evening of March 8^th.

Rio

A day later, on March 9^th, the airlines in South America began catching up with turbo-capitalist games. Chilean LATAM, when I asked for an extra legroom seat, suggested that I pay $1,500, for 4 hours on board a small Airbus 320 plane. Naturally, I refused.

Santiago airport took the coronavirus seriously. There were several checkups. End of the games.

Coronavirus check at Santiago Airport, Chile

This is when strange things began to happen.

Two days after I landed in Santiago de Chile, South America moved from inactivity to hyperactivity.

One country after another began lock-ups; from Argentina to Peru, to Chile.

Santiago began resembling a ghost town. Entire regions of Chile began to close down.

I needed to recover, quickly, and to travel to Venezuela and Cuba, but it was becoming thoroughly impossible.

I arrived, I survived, but right away, I was grounded.

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From one extreme, to another. In South America and the West.

When confronted with the terrible medical emergency, China reacted like a Communist country, which it is. It mobilized in the name of the people, and began fighting the battle. It acted rationally and responsibly. It never performed a total lockdown.

It demonstrated tremendous enthusiasm and discipline.

Without thinking twice, it sacrificed its economic interests, putting the people first.

It has won the battle; beating the virus back. Almost no new cases now. The hospitals constructed to treat the coronavirus are closing down. Doctors and other medical staff are celebrating.

Cuba is near to developing a vaccine for the new coronavirus.

China and Cuba are cooperating. China is sending airplanes with help to Italy, Spain and Serbia.

In the meantime, people in certain Western countries are being told that over 80% of their citizens will get infected, and that hundreds of thousands, even millions, will die!

Why?

Why the hell, really?

Some nations, from Italy to Chile (where I am right now), are locking up everything: entire countries, entire regions, everything.

At the height of the crises, Beijing was open, and so was Shanghai and almost all other major cities. Flights were arriving and departing. What confidence! What a success!

A clear victory of socialism over capitalism.

Just look at the Western nations, at Southeast Asia, or at South America; people are petrified. Control of the population is much more brutal than anything that has ever been implemented in China.

And what do they tell the Italians, French, Brits and North Americans? That they will be dying like flies! Even now, when this essay is being written, more Italian people have died, than the Chinese. That is, on a per capita basis, about 22 times more. And in the West, things are getting worse and worse.

And, until now, it is not yet clear, who brought the epidemy to Wuhan, to begin with. Many believe that it was the U.S. military. Still, China never stopped behaving like an internationalist country!

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During my more than 20,000 kilometers long journey, I have seen a frightened, divided planet.

And then, I saw a great Chinese victory, and a Cuban victory.

I read how Cuba has rescued 600 people stuck on a cruise ship, the MS Braemar, belonging to one of its tormentors.

I witnessed panic in extreme right-wing countries like Chile. I was ready to drive south, to Araucaria, to speak to the discriminated against Mapuche indigenous people (according to Word they do not exist, as I am given red error sign), but precisely that area got hermetically sealed, closed down, one day before my planned 900-kilometer journey, and a month before the planned constitutional referendum.

In the West, and allied countries, the coronavirus has been used for political ends.

I am almost certain the Bolivian elections will be ‘postponed’, “because of the coronavirus”, to prevent socialist MAS from regaining power.

I am back home, but home is not a real home, anymore.

Home is now China, Cuba, Russia. Countries which are fighting against the Western tyranny that is sacrificing millions of human lives.

The coronavirus is a barometer of the state of the world.

It shows which countries bring shame to the word “humanity”, and which bring pride.

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This article was originally published on 21st Century Wire.

Andre Vltchek is a philosopher, novelist, filmmaker and investigative journalist. He has covered wars and conflicts in dozens of countries. Five of his latest books are “China Belt and Road Initiative”,“China and Ecological Civilization”with John B. Cobb, Jr., “Revolutionary Optimism, Western Nihilism”, the revolutionary novel “Aurora” and bestselling work of political non-fiction: “Exposing Lies Of The Empire”. View his other books here. Watch Rwanda Gambit, his ground-breaking documentary about Rwanda and DR Congo and his film/dialogue with Noam Chomsky “On Western Terrorism”. Vltchek presently resides in East Asia and Latin America, and continues to work around the world. He can be reached through his website, his Twitter and his Patreon. He is a frequent contributor to Global Research.

All images in this article are from the author

Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg is the first specialist we met to understand the current crisis about the coronavirus. Please support us so that we can investigate further in making a 90min cinema documentary.

We will meet multiple personalities with different points of view and we will do extensive fact-based research. During our path to the truth, we think it’s important to open the discussion an analyze all sides. We intend to gather a maximum of information and then help to understand what is happening, and why it is happening.

GR Editor’s Note 

In 2009-2010, Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg was chairman of The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Committee (PACE), which investigated the WHO’s motives in declaring the H1N1 2009 a Worldwide pandemic. 

Wolfgang Wodarg, declared that the “false” H1N1 swine flu pandemic  was “one of the greatest medicine scandals of the century.” (Forbes, February 10, 2010) Scroll down below video for January 2010 statement by the European Parliament. 

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Watch the video below for Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg’s opinion on the coronavirus.

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While we are in the middle of a serious health crisis with Covid-19, the way is being paved for another one.

While we are home from work and school, out of work, self-isolating, cocooning, worrying about our health and the health of our family, our livelihoods and futures, telecom engineers are busy on the streets upgrading and installing thousands of 4G, 5G and wireless antennae outside our homes, schools, hospitals etc.  Once turned on, these transmitters will exponentially increase our exposure to microwave radiation that has been proven harmful to health.

This will make people sick.

The Irish Government Are Allowing this to Happen

Our government have ignored decades of warnings from scientists, doctors and experts, from thousands of peer-reviewed scientific studies showing harmful to humans, animals, wildlife and our environment from wireless microwave radiation.

Our government have ignored the plight of people suffering with microwave sickness/EHS for decades, refusing to acknowledge their basic human rights.

They have ignored the International Agency for Research on Cancer’s 2011 classification of Wireless Radiation as a Group 2B Carcinogen.

They are ignoring recent studies from USA and Italy showing clear evidence of cancer from 2G and 3G radiation and that courts in Italy have ruled that mobile phones cause brain tumours.

They are ignoring the fact that children absorb more radiation and are most at risk of long-term health problems from exposure to wireless radiation, and that older and sick people are also more vulnerable to health effects.

They are ignoring recent calls from scientists and doctors to halt the roll-out of 5G who have warned that there will be a serious health crisis.

They are ignoring pleas and protests from concerned groups, parents, medical and technology professionals and individuals from all over Ireland to halt the roll-out of more 4G and 5G networks, smart meters and wifi in schools.

The Government are not protecting our health.

While we are at home, streaming conference calls and movies using wifi, whatsapping, instagramming, using smart speakers, and making calls from smart devices and smart phones to keep in contact with our friends and family, we are exposing ourselves and our children to extremely high levels of harmful microwave radiation.

This will make people sick.

In the last week, mobile networks have become congested and slow and the telecom companies are solving this issue by boosting their network capacities – this means that the power has been turned up at base stations and the radiation emitted from masts, antennae and transmitters is considerably stronger in our environment.

This will make people sick.

People suffering with microwave sickness/EHS are already feeling the effects of this.

Much of the mobile service congestion can be reduced by using a landline instead of a mobile.

Slow internet speeds can be helped by hardwiring computers and smart devices.  Using wifi can actually slow down data transmission. 

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Federal deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, has started a serious diplomatic crisis between Brazil and China. On March 18, the congressman published on a social network:

“Whoever watched Chernobyl will understand what happened. Replace the nuclear plant with the coronavirus and the Soviet dictatorship with the Chinese. Once again a dictatorship preferred to hide something serious rather than exposing it with wear and tear, but that would save countless lives. China is to blame and freedom would be the solution”.

Then Eduardo published several accusations to the Chinese government of being responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Chinese response was immediate. China’s ambassador to Brazil, Yang Wanming, said that

“the Chinese side vehemently repudiates the deputy’s words, and demands that he withdraw them immediately and apologize to the Chinese people.”

He also said that he would express his repudiation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Chamber of Deputies. The reaction of the Chinese Embassy website itself was even more incisive:

“His words are extremely irresponsible and sound familiar. They are still an imitation of your dear friends. Upon returning from Miami, he unfortunately contracted a mental virus, which is infecting friendships among our peoples”.

The mention to Miami made in the publication refers to the last official trip by President Jair Bolsonaro and his entourage, to the USA, two weeks ago, in which 22 Brazilian state officials contracted the new coronavirus. The president of the Chamber of Deputies, Rodrigo Maia, responded quickly to the Chinese’s demand, posting on his social network profile:

“On behalf of the Chamber of Deputies, I apologize to China and Ambassador @wanmingyang for the thoughtless words of the deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro”.

However, the attitude of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ernesto Araújo, was not the same as that of Rodrigo Maia. The head of Brazilian diplomacy spoke out in defense of the Bolsonaro family and sharply criticized the Chinese response:

“It is unacceptable for the Chinese ambassador to endorse or share an offensive post to the head of state of Brazil and its voters. (…) We expect a retraction for his offense to the head of state. Brazil wants to maintain the best relations with the government and the Chinese people, promoting business and cooperation for mutual benefit, without ever leaving aside mutual respect”.

Clearly, Ernesto Araújo tries in his speech to reverse the logic of the discussion between Eduardo and the Chinese ambassador. Instead of appeasing the situation by acknowledging the parliamentarian’s mistake and advising him to retract, the Minister demands an apology from the ambassador of the country which Eduardo Bolsonaro publicly offended. Due to the nature of his position, as head of Brazilian diplomacy, Ernesto Araújo should seek to reestablish good relations between countries, without prejudice to either side. However, in the opposite direction, the minister intensified the discussions and deepened a crisis between Brazil and its biggest trading partner, proving its complete inability for the diplomatic exercise.

The Brazilian vice-president himself, General Hamilton Mourão, expressed himself more appropriately, claiming that the views of Eduardo Bolsonaro do not represent the official views of the government. Subsequently, Eduardo spoke again:

“I’ve never intended to speak for the Brazilian government, but, due to all this repercussion, I leave here crystal clear that my intention, once again, was never to offend the Chinese people or to hurt the good relationship between our countries (…) I have never offended the Chinese people, such an interpretation is totally unreasonable. I clarify that I shared a post that criticizes the Chinese government’s action in preventing the pandemic mainly in sharing information that would have been useful on a global scale”.

We can see here a good example of the political praxis of the current Brazilian government. A parliamentarian offends China; China responds to offenses; the head of Brazilian diplomacy starts to demand excuses from China and; the parliamentarian returns to say that he did not offend China, distorting his own speech instead of acknowledging his mistake and asking for forgiveness. The case reveals the total unpreparedness and the most complete malpractice with which the Brazilian government deals with its main relations. The result is simple: now, not only the strategic relations between Brazil and China are shaken, but also their own diplomatic ties.

Making the situation even worse, the crisis comes amid a global pandemic scenario. Unlike Brazil, where the number of cases grows every day and the State remains silent in the face of social chaos, China knew how to deal with the situation very well and already has COVID-19 under control. Stable, Beijing seeks to help other countries affected by the virus, stimulating international cooperation. One of those countries that China had committed to helping was Brazil. In response to a desperate request from the Brazilian Ministry of Health, China was sending medical equipment to Brazil to help fighting the coronavirus. This relationship now does not give any certainty about the future, which, in the event of a cancellation, will represent a great loss for Brazil.

Finally, the Brazilian president himself, Jair Bolsonaro, tried to contact personally with Chinese President Xi Jinping in order to resolve the situation and justify his son’s irresponsible attitude. Xi, however, ignored him and refused to answer, making it clear that China is not willing to “forget” Eduardo’s offense. A new note from the Chinese Embassy was published, this time criticizing and rejecting the administration carried out by Ernesto Araújo.

The attitude of Brazilian politicians is only a reflection of the neoliberal and pro-US ideology behind Jair Bolsonaro. Other similar testimonies have already been made by Brazilian public figures, even stating that COVID-19 may be a biological weapon produced by China itself – the biggest country affected by the pandemic. In addition, sinophobia is growing in the country, with an insurgent hatred against Asians, who are being seen as “propagators of COVID-19”. The collective madness implanted by the Bolsonaro phenomenon is already causing Brazilians to refer to the coronavirus as “Chinese flu” or “Asian virus”. The fact is that the biggest loser in all this is Brazil itself, which is in serious danger of breaking ties with its biggest economic partner.

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This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

Lucas Leiroz de Almeida is a research fellow in international law at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.

At the moment large parts of the population are confused and paralyzed by the declared coronavirus pandemic and its serious social and economic consequences. Are they quickly prepared to accept the very drastic, sometimes questionable restrictions of basic rights guaranteed by the state without contradiction as necessary and without alternative? These include the fundamental right of personal freedom and the right to physical integrity.

What is the cause of this unrestrained reflex of obedience?

And how are citizens supposed to arrange their lives after this break – this current haunting?

Where are the “free thinkers”, the philosophers and other intellectuals who are in nobody’s service, who strive on their own to know the truth and who are ready and able to think for all of us alone?

Their task would be to teach “us others” what the task of our time is – and what should be in the future. On the facade of the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Belgrade hangs a large banner with the inscription “NIJE FILOZOFSKI CUTATI” – “To be silent is not philosophical”.

Naomi Klein’s “shock strategy”

If you look at the current horror scenario worldwide, the daily bad news of the mass media, the identical announcements and restrictive activities of governments and the immense damage to the global economy while enriching “global players” as well as the panic and shock-induced paralysis of the affected citizens, you are involuntarily reminded of the socially critical bestseller “The Shock Strategy” by the Canadian scientist Naomi Klein.

In it she tries to prove that neoliberal governments have single-mindedly exploited the confusion and paralysis of people after political or economic crises or natural disasters. In these phases of crisis, the capitalist economic system is quickly crammed through in its purest form. It is a “shock treatment” before the population has the strength again to resist.

To what extent the current global crisis is a natural disaster or a man-made catastrophe, that remains to be seen.

Education to Obedience

A psychologically interesting question is why most people subordinate themselves reflexively and without contradiction to the will of authority – in this case the governments – and accept serious sometimes highly controversial and questionable restrictions of their fundamental rights. Freedom of movement is massively restricted, even to the point of isolation despite unforeseeable health risks and negative social concomitants. Supposedly threatened sections of the population, such as older citizens, may even be forced to take part in protective vaccinations or other specific prophylactic measures, which constitutes a restriction of the right to physical integrity.

Now it is a finding of scientific psychology that we adults, by and large, have at our disposal only what we have been taught by the educators during our childhood. This deep psychological insight has made it clear to us what a tremendous impact education has.

So if the highest principle of education at home and at school is still the education to obedience, it is not surprising that we as adults obey politicians and self-proclaimed experts – so-called authorities – reflexively and nip in the bud any doubts that may arise about the measures ordered, or even prevent them from arising in the first place.

The autobiographical notes of Rudolf Höß “Commander in Auschwitz” – written down during his remand in Krakow in 1946 – are a psychological document of exemplary historical significance. They show us the connection between Höß’ authoritarian upbringing according to strictly military principles and his later absolute obedience to the murderous orders of his “Führer”. The seemingly incomprehensible is thus made comprehensible. (See “NRhZ” No. 507 of 22.04.2015 “Psyche of Commander Rudolf Höß”)

If we do not want people to show this reflex of obedience in the future, then pedagogy in the home and school must renounce the authoritarian principle – which for centuries was considered the unquestionably valid basis of educational behaviour – and the use of violence. Educators must adapt themselves to the child’s spiritual life with true understanding, respect the child’s personality and turn to him or her in a friendly manner. Such an education will produce a type of person who has no “subject mentality” and will therefore no longer be a docile tool for those in power in our world.

The task of the philosopher and other intellectuals

We are all called upon to make our contribution to solving the great task of the future. Philosophers and other intellectuals have a special responsibility in this respect. They should be those people who (thinking) take responsibility for themselves and all other people, “if need be, stands alone within all, think alone for all” (Romain Rolland). This requires a fighting spirit that does not get lost, even if it contradicts the prevailing opinion. Intellectuals should also be honest, because a lack of honesty has already led to many errors, of which the theories are full of. Such independent, courageous and honourable thinkers would be an example for our youth, just as countless thinkers and humanists have been in the past centuries.

Philosophers and other intellectuals as representatives of various disciplines have the noble task of passing on to their fellow citizens what they have acquired in their studies, what their science has worked out to solve the problems of humanity. When they use their intellectual abilities, their research and their struggle for truth for the benefit of those through whom they became what they are, they make a valuable contribution to the common good. The future of our culture will depend largely on whether there are enough “enlighteners”. More than ever, we need “free spirits” to teach us what is truth and what is a lie. The purpose of the Enlightenment effort is above all to purify human consciousness of individual and collective prejudices. The enlightened mind is capable of considering healthy goals in life. (See “NRhZ” No. 424 of 18.09.2013 “Tasks of intellectuals in uncertain times”)

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Dr. Rudolf Hänsel is a graduate psychologist and educationalist.

‘Unprecedented’ was the word repeated over and over by UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak on Friday as he delivered a package of economic measures to save the British economy from the repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Boris Johnson has effectively shut down the United Kingdom, as he announced last week the immediate closure of pubs, bars, restaurants gyms, leisure centres, cinemas and other public places in a bid to prevent the spread of the disease.  He said stronger measures were now required as ‘There is no guarantee that you will get mild symptoms and you can still be a carrier, have no symptoms and pass it on to others’.  It had been clear that not everyone had been following the government’s advice earlier in the week to maintain social distancing, and Johnson had hinted at his press conference on Thursday that if necessary, stronger measures would be required. He urged people not to go out as nobody was ‘invincible’.

The UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak unveiled plans to assist UK businesses which would effectively mean nationalising huge sectors of the economy – an extraordinary move for a Conservative government. He said that government grants will cover 80% of the salary of retained workers up to a total of £2,500 a month and employers could top up salaries if they wish.  Announcing the ‘Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme’ he said that the cost of wages would be backdated to 1st March, and that the program would be extended if necessary. There is the possibility, according to experts, that the current crisis could last for a year or more.

Friday’s spending plan marks an upscale from the Chancellor’s original Coronavirus business strategy revealed earlier in the week. The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme which he said originally would be for six months, has now been extended by another six months.  In addition he has now promised to defer the next quarter of VAT payments, the equivalent of £30bn or 1.5% in GDP. He also said that small businesses would benefit from £25,000 in cash grants. The government had faced criticism earlier for not having done enough to help individuals, particularly the self-employed, but now it was announced that even the self-employed would be able to access full Universal Credit at a rate equivalent to Statutory Sick Pay. Rishi Sunak said that the rates of Universal Credit and Working Tax Credit would also be increased. In total the welfare package offered amounts to around £7bn.

So why has the government upped the stakes so dramatically? Well the warnings from both Italian and British medics are coming thick and fast. The death rate to Covid-19 in Italy is now 8.6% – astonishingly high. Medics invited the media into hospitals in Bergamo to stress the extent to which doctors are being stretched. Staff is working 18 hours shifts and the average age of doctors and nurses is dropping as they also succumb to the virus. Speaking to the Sky news, doctors stressed that Covid-19 should not be compared to the flu: it is a serious respiratory illness with a 50/50 chance of recovery. The statistics coming from Italy are frightening: to date there have been 5476 deaths and only 7024 recoveries. Doctors in the UK are warning that Britain could face an even worse epidemic – one consultant has said that in many ways the Italian healthcare system is better resourced and has many more intensive care beds. On Thursday one hospital in London declared a ‘critical incident’ as it ran out of beds to treat coronavirus patients. Elsewhere in the capital a mortuary was being built to cope with expected future casualties.

Comparisons with ‘war-time’ are being made more and more often. But the situation surpasses any war to date: this enemy is invisible and it’s everywhere – in 191 countries.  Never has the Bank of England lowered its interest rates as low as 0.1% – not since its foundation in 1694. Never before has the government offered to effectively pay people’s salaries. Never before have we seen school exams cancelled. And this is just the beginning…

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This article was originally published on InfoBrics.

Johanna Ross is a journalist based in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Featured image is from Shropshire Star