The collapsing US military & economic empire is making Washington & NATO even more dangerous. US could not beat the Taliban but thinks it can take on China-Russia-Iran...a sign of psychopathology for sure. @BruceKGagnon
Merck is planning to charge Americans 40 times its cost for a covid drug whose development was subsidized by the American taxpayers.
Big Pharma spends twice as much money on lobbying as Big Oil does.
John D. Rockefeller (Standard Oil) in the early 1900's took control of virtually every newspaper and news editor of his era. He was the world's first billionaire.
Rockefeller decided that native healing plants had to be diminished in order for the development of oil-based drugs. Rockefeller had his agents dramatically change the medical school curriculum to one that promoted oil-based-tech drugs.
Anyone who objected to the dismissal of native plant treatments was labeled as naive believers in 'alternative medicine' and were made to appear to be enemies of 'modern medicine'. In today's parlance - they were cancelled.
That is what happens when you question 'progress'.
I've just watched the documentary film called Plandemic which I heard has been seen more than 1 billion times. I was impressed with the film and learned so much about the driving forces behind the current nightmare we are all experiencing.
Most people I know (even well educated activists) are falling for the Big Pharma line. I've had friendly arguments with some of them.
I ask myself why certain people deny things like the take-down of the Twin Towers in NYC on 9/11? Or they don't want to talk about the obvious controversies surrounding the covid jab and now the increasingly restrictive GreenPass mandates.
So I'd urge you to watch Plandemic and share it with others. It's been banned on Fazebook as far as I can tell.
Here is how they describe the film:
Guided by the meticulous work of Dr. David E. Martin, Plandemic II:
Indoctornation, tracks a three decade-long money trail that leads
directly to the key players behind the COVID 19 pandemic. David Martin
is the creator of the world’s first quantitative public equity index –
the CNBC IQ100. He served as Chair of Economic Innovation for the
UN-affiliated Intergovernmental Renewable Energy Organization and has
served as an advisor to numerous Central Banks, global economic forums,
the World Bank and International Finance Corporation, and national
governments. Dr. Martin has pioneered global programs to bring corporate
and stock market transparency to multi-national extractive industries
and has been instrumental in bringing the world’s largest white-collar
criminals to justice.
The Russian story
There is much upheaval going on in Russia right now around the pandemic. Covid has spiked and plans are being made by the government requiring GreenPass-like mandates which will mean massive surveillance and loss of civil liberties.
A respected member of the Duma (Russian Parliament) has spoken out against these unpopular mandates and public pressure has forced a 30-day delay in the program. The stated purpose is to allow the local level governments to have input.
Duma deputy: "Protect yourself and Russia from a coup d'état!"
I have a journalist friend in Russia that writes under a pseudonym. His story about this growing controversy is interesting and informative. Everyone wonders what Putin's role in this might be?
Alex Christoforou offers an independent voice on global events. I watch him on The Duran regularly.
He's one of those people that supports national sovereignty as we watch the battle for the soul of Europe at this moment. Mr. Big is working hard to bring all of Europe under corporate domination. It's actually fascism with a 'neo-liberal' facade.
He says that Austria is the current model for EU control.
Latvia has banned MPs who refuse the jab. How is that for democracy?
EU targets Poland then Hungary.
Once all of Europe (up to the Russian borders) is under corporate control then the real squeeze can be made on Moscow, Beijing and Tehran.
The public is distracted with covid fear - money is being accumulated by Mr. Big - civil liberties under severe attack everywhere - media spewing the corporate line - environmental chaos and resulting conflicts - all fodder for the fascist takeover plan.
We are living in the clampdown.
Time to be bold and stand up for love and true justice.
Following the launch of South Korea’s first homegrown space rocket Nuri, another challenge for space will be made on Jeju Island.
Jeju’s provincial government said Tuesday that the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) will test the launch of a science observation rocket in Hangyeong-myeon township on the island to commemorate its 50th anniversary by the end of this year.
The test is aimed at tracing the trajectory flight of a small liquid-propelled rocket with a length of 3 meters and a diameter of 20 centimeters.
Hankyeong-myeon is an ideal site for rocket launches since it is located outside the airspace of private airports and military bases.
If the test ends in a success, the provincial government expects the foundation for the private space development industry to be established in Jeju.
In addition, the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute are jointly establishing a national satellite operation center in Gujwa-eup on the island.
The center, slated to open in September 2022, will serve as a special facility for the integrated management and operation of domestic satellites.
Question: How long before military payloads would be launched from Jeju Island?
People in Gangjeong village continue to organize against the Navy base where the US continually deploys warships. Jeju would be a prime target if the US starts a war with China.
Lisa Savage is a retired teacher and organizer, a member of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, and a founding member of the Maine Natural Guard.
She recently represented the Global Network on a People's Summit webinar during the COP26 Glasgow climate summit.
She talks with Bruce Gagnon about the deadly connections between space tech and climate crisis.
In 1952 the US-Japan signed a Security Treaty that allows Washington to use any part of Japan it wishes for military operations.
Combined Arms Training Center Camp Fuji is the 'premier' US military training area in the Pacific region. The Pentagon has 'exclusive jurisdiction' over this training base. The US operation at Camp Fuji was moved from Okinawa sometime after 1953.
Some of the activities performed at Camp Fuji include:
Aircraft bombing range
Paratrooper training from C-130 aircraft
Helicopter training
Osprey training
Live fire range (artillery, mortar, white phosphorus, missiles etc)
The US Navy transports heavy military hardware into their Yokosuka Navy base and it is then moved to Camp Fuji. Japanese peace groups often protest at the seaport.
As a result of the Obama-Hillary Clinton strategic 'pivot' of US forces into the Asia-Pacific, the need is growing for more barracks for troops, airfields for war planes, and ports for US naval warships. Thus the expansion of bases in Australia, Okinawa, South Korea, Guam and throughout the region's island chains gives the Pentagon quick access for war with China (and Russia).
Japanese Self-Defense Forces (SDF) also train with the US at Camp Fuji. Increasingly Japan's SDF are being drawn into US military operations around the world - clearly violating the peaceful 'Article 9' of their constitution.
As with any US military base around the globe (more than 800 of them) there are problems. In 1995 three US Marines raped a young girl. Others include:
GI auto accidents
Non-stop war preparation noise
Pollution of air, water and lands
The people of Japan become a target in any war the US initiates
Troops from the United Kingdom (and likely other NATO nations) are brought to Camp Fuji for training. Doing this also violates the Japanese constitution and international law.
I only knew about this Camp Fuji base because I was lucky enough to join a recent webinar led by Japanese activists who are trying hard to wake up Americans and others to the frightening dangers the people in the Asia-Pacific face as Washington goes 'all-out' on China.
US troops in the region have a slogan that goes like this - 'Ready to fight - tonight!'
Imagine if you lived on Okinawa, Guam or Jeju Island and had to face that rhetoric every day. Would make you half-crazy.
The peace movement in Japan is asking us to help expose this cancerous war machine and help stop these military exercises at Camp Fuji. For us in the US we are paying for it in more ways than one.
I felt a great need to share this and appreciate you reading it and hope in some way you pass it on.
Virtually every generation faces a 'period of capital accumulation' by Mr. Big
Any gains workers have made for higher pay and benefits, social and political freedoms, civil liberties and such are pulled back by the ruling oligarchs in order to insure that the poor and the middle class don't get 'high and mighty' and become a real challenge to corporate power.
So Mr. Big must continually devise a cynical and dishonest strategy to overturn the mobilizing energies coming from the bottom-half of the pyramid.
Over the centuries the divide and conquer strategy has proven to be highly effective as a key cudgel to beat down the public will.
In our present time in America we have this disastrous and infuriating corporate-dominated system in Washington.
I wasn't actually surprised to watch Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi drop a big turd when questioned at the Glasgow COP26 fiasco about military impacts to climate. The only value of the ridiculous statements in the video above is that they reveal the level of arrogance and incompetence of Pelosi and her side-kicks.
One way the oligarchs keep us boxed-in is they get us shouting at one another with each believing the 'other' is stupid and inhumane. It makes it easier to isolate and kill your neighbor when we think that way. Recall the ethnic breakup of Yugoslavia that was brilliantly orchestrated by the US-NATO machine.
We're not supposed to talk to one another any more about some very important subjects. Mr. Big cannot accept that the bottom-half of the pyramid would see that their future lies in unity rather than division.
Whether it is sexual identities, color of skin, 9/11, Greenpass mandates,
political party or TV news preferences - real dialogue about these
issues has essentially been made verboten and has become rare at the very moment when we need earnest political and economic discussion.
That division is by design. It helps keep the pressure off those at the
top. It's a bad strategy for those of us on the downhill slide.
We must get our act together to challenge the top echelon.
If we hope to survive, and protect the future generations, then we must wise-up to how the political/media/Wall St/academic/military institutions continually manipulate us so they remain in power.
We're not being very smart these days. Fear causes us to freeze up and hand over our personal power.
Make Trade, Not War: that would be the motto of a Pax Sinica under Xi. The crucial aspect is that Beijing does not aim to replace Pax Americana, which always relied on the Pentagon’s variant of gunboat diplomacy.
The declaration subtly reinforced that Beijing is not interested in becoming a new hegemon. What matters above all is to remove any possible constraints that the outside world may impose over its own internal decisions, and especially over its unique political setup.
The West may embark on hysteria fits over anything – from Tibet and Hong Kong to Xinjiang and Taiwan. It won’t change a thing.
Concisely, this is how “socialism with Chinese characteristics” – a unique, always mutant economic system – arrived at the Covid-linked techno-feudalist era. But no one knows how long the system will last, and in which mutant form.
Corruption, debt – which tripled in ten years – political infighting – none of that has disappeared in China. To reach 5% annual growth, China would have to recover the growth in productivity comparable to those breakneck times in the 80s and 90s, but that will not happen because a decrease in growth is accompanied by a parallel decrease in productivity.
A final note on terminology. The CCP is always extremely precise. Xi’s two predecessors espoused “perspectives” or “visions.” Deng wrote “theory.” But only Mao was accredited with “thought.” The “new era” has now seen Xi, for all practical purposes, elevated to the status of “thought” – and part of the civilization-state’s constitution.
That’s why the party resolution last week in Beijing could be interpreted as the New Communist Manifesto. And its main author is, without a shadow of a doubt, Xi Jinping. Whether the manifesto will be the ideal road map for a wealthier, more educated and infinitely more complex society than in the times of Deng, all bets are off. See this entire article here
There can be little doubt that, had the US, China and Russia been on the same page, an advanced agreement was likely to be reached at COP26, but since it is not, the collapse can be laid at the feet of human tribalism and eternal conflict since the dawn of civilization, ultimately leading to a mass extinction of species.
Climate scientists have practically been excluded from COP meetings, dominated as they are by economists, lawyers and politicians. To date no address has been made by leading climate scientists, including authorities such as James Hansen, Michael Mann, Joachim Schellnhuber, Will Steffen and other, leaving delegates and populations unaware of the ultimate consequences of global climate devastation.
With the exception of David Attenborough and references to “one minute to mid-night”, the science-based projections of global heating have only received faint echoes among the assembly of warring tribes at COP-26, dominated by nationalism, vested interests and sheer ignorance of the current trend, which can only culminate in the end of civilization.
The futility of making political decisions regarding future carbon emissions while continuing to grow fossil fuel industries is manifest.
Organizing to stop US-NATO military base in Montenegro
Regis Tremblay interviews Pablo Dominguez, PhD about the local protest in Montenegro over a proposed US-NATO military
training area in the middle of a peasant community and pristine
environment.
The protest in Montenegro is similar to the protests at Gangjeong Village on Jeju Island, South Korea against a Navy base which has been happening for more than 10 years.
They need the support of the world!
Militarism and the preparation of
war must be defeated.