13 May 2020 — Black Agenda Report
13 May 2020 — theplanningmotivedotcom
[I think this is a MUST-READ essay that gets to the heart of how and why capitalism is killing us in the so-called developed world. WB]
Capitalism has and is making us sick. For three generations we have been besieged by pesticides, fungicides, preservatives and pollution. Our defences have been undermined by food that has been denatured, deodorized, processed, cheapened, and served in plastic film or containers. Supermarkets have essentially become mausoleums to dead food (there are exceptions). This poor diet has led to the biggest and most silent holocaust in history, countless hundreds of millions, mainly poor, who have eaten themselves into an early grave, but not before being trapped in their bodies and suffering for many years. Such unrecognised cruelty.
On Sunday, Boris Johnson ordered workers in manufacturing and construction back to work. Everyone commented on how muddle headed he came across. That was a deliberate smokescreen to obscure the threat he and his class pose to workers. No doubt, behind the scenes, government assistance to these categories of workers will be withdrawn despite the extension of furlough. In time honoured tradition, the bosses will drive workers back to work, if not with batons, then through financial coercion. The unwritten agenda is to build immunity in society before winter, even if this means spikes in fatalities, so the production of profits can continue.
10 May 2020 — Peoples Dispatch
For capital, profits come from disease, not peoples’ health. COVID-19 shows the consequence of disease capitalism in a globalized world, the rich—countries or individuals—will not be spared either
Soldiers from Fort Riley, Kansas, ill with Spanish flu at a hospital ward at Camp Funston Soldiers from Fort Riley, Kansas, ill with Spanish flu at a hospital ward at Camp Funston.
We frequently hear that COVID-19 is the worst pandemic since the 1918 Spanish flu. It is forgotten that the third plague pandemic killed millions in South, South East and East Asia from the 1890s, and continued well after the Spanish flu, to the 1950s. That pandemic killed an estimated 10 million in India alone. I remember my family talking about it, as also numerous stories I read which had plague as their backdrop, and a recent book on the Bombay plague.
10 May 2020 — Caitlin Johnson
By Caitlin Johnson
It’s been over 72 hours since The Grayzone published new leaks further exposing how the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has been lying about its investigation into an alleged chemical attack in Douma, Syria two years ago.
10 May 2020 — Internationalist 360°
Constitutional President Nicolas Maduro shows the passports of the two U.S. Silvercorp mercenaries captured in Venezuela after the failed raid on Macuto. Photo: AFP
Finally, the complete content of the contract signed by Juan Guaidó, Sergio Vergara and J.J. Rendón with the American mercenary firm Silvercorp, led by former military officer Jordan Goudreau, has been released.
13 May 2020 — OffGuardian
The numerous and disproportionately frequent deaths of Covid19 patients with dark skin colour and from southern countries are apparently also the result of a drug-related mistreatment. Those affected are people with a specific enzyme deficiency, which occurs mainly in men whose families come from regions where malaria was or still is endemic.
12 May 2020 — Tim Hayward
The following is an edited reproduction of an extended thread of tweets recently posted by Piers Robinson, founding member and spokesperson for the Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media.
New leaks published today by The Grayzone News and Aaron Maté confirm that the OPCW deceived in order to smear two of its most experienced scientists:- https://thegrayzone.com/2020/05/06/opcw-douma-whistleblower/
13 May 2020 — Grayzone
The leaked contract between Juan Guaidó and the Silvercorp USA mercenary firm closely resembles a DEA bounty placed on the head of President Nicolas Maduro and members of his inner circle this March. The deal tacitly authorizes the elimination of working class Venezuelans in proposed death squad activities.
13 May 2020 — Grayzone
10 May 2020 — Matt Ridley
Professor Neil Ferguson of Imperial College “stepped back” from the Sage group advising ministers when his lockdown-busting romantic trysts were exposed. Perhaps he should have been dropped for a more consequential misstep. Details of the model his team built to predict the epidemic are emerging and they are not pretty. In the respective words of four experienced modellers, the code is “deeply riddled” with bugs, “a fairly arbitrary Heath Robinson machine”, has “huge blocks of code – bad practice” and is “quite possibly the worst production code I have ever seen”.
The New Dark Age 