Day: February 25, 2021

IRR News 25 February 2021: Free speech champion for whom?

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25 February 2021 — Institute of Race Relations

Not just in the UK, but in Spain, Portugal and France, as our regular digest of developments across Europe shows, governments and quangos are warning universities and institutions that the re-evaluation of colonial history will bring dire consequences – at the same time presenting themselves as champions of free speech and academic freedom. The Department of Education’s proposal for ‘free speech champions’ suggests that ‘unacceptable silencing and censorship’ is now widespread on campuses. It builds on the government’s attacks on critical race theory, the ‘dreadful’ Black Lives Matter protests (Priti Patel’s word) as well as the nebulous concept of a ‘woke agenda’.

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The only thing worse than predicting the future is being trapped by the past

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25 February 2021 — theplanningmotivedotcom

This article was provoked by a comment Michael Roberts made in his most recent posting Titled Mission Impossible. The comment is presented in full below as is the link to the post. His comment is not exceptional, it is part and parcel of the 20th Century tradition loosely described as Marxist-Leninist- Trotskyist. By workers government, this article understands such a category to represent the dictatorship of the proletariat, that is after workers have successfully conquered state power and subdued the capitalist class and their agents. It is not interpreted as a government where workers are in office while the parties of the capitalist class are in opposition, in other words “parliamentary cretinism”. The proposals outlined below therefore takes place after the revolution, not before it. Finally, instead of using terms such as nationalizing the top 100, or 500 or 2000 transnational corporations, the term used is, “nationalizing of the commanding heights of the economy”.

the-past-obstructs-the-future.pdf

Black Agenda Report 25 February 2021

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25 February 2021 — Black Agenda Report

Freedom Rider: No Human Rights in Texas

Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
The people of Texas suffer unnecessarily from bad weather because their state puts oligarchs first and does not recognize the human right to health and safety.

BLACK CITIZENSHIP FORUM: The Roots of Xenophobic Violence in South Africa—A Pan African Response

Black Agenda Review Editors
South Africa must dismantle and transcend the colonial nation-state through creation of a Pan-African federation that stretches across the Southern African sub-continent.
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Your Privileges Are Not Universal: The Eighth Newsletter (2021)

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25 February 2021 — Tricontinental

José Balmes Chile Lota el Silencio 2007José Balmes (Chile), Lota el Silencio, 2007.

Dear friends,

Greetings from the desk of the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.

Stencilled in red on the walls of Santiago, Chile is a statement of fact: ‘your privileges are not universal’ (tus privilegios no son universales). This is a factual declaration because the privileges of power and property are not shared across the gaping class divide. Consider the fact that before the pandemic struck last year, over 3 billion people – or half the world’s population – had no access to health care. This data appears in a 2017 World Health Organisation (WHO) report that tracks important matters such as access to basic household sanitation (lacked by 2.3 billion people) and medical care for uncontrolled hypertension (suffered by 1 billion people).

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Censorship Gone Mad – ‘Be A Good Citizen!’

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25 February 2021 — Moon of Alabama

Yesterday the censorship department at Twitter went mad.

Twitter Safety blogged:

Disclosing networks of state-linked information operations

Today we are disclosing four networks of accounts to our archive of state-linked information operations; the only archive of its kind in the industry. The networks we are disclosing relate to independent, state-affiliated information operations that we have attributed to Armenia, Russia and a previously disclosed network from Iran.

…

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The Pine-eyed Boy Escapes from the Belly of the Dark Night in the Fish’s Tale

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24 February, 2021 — Edward Curtin

It’s hard to say where things begin, but they do, as do we, and we are somehow in them and they in us, and a story begins.

Then the story gets silently disclosed as we live it, even though most of us don’t tell it until later, if we can find our tongues.  But when we tell it we are in another story, often nostalgic for the future but finding the creative past pulling us back down and deep to illuminate the present.

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The Insanity of the PCR Testing Saga

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19 February 2021 — Mercola

Analysis by Dr. Joseph Mercola Fact Checked

Story at-a-glance

  • Curative offers a PCR test using spit rather than swabs from the back of your nasal cavity. Initially only authorized for use on symptomatic patients, the company has requested the U.S. Food and Drug Administration expand its authorization for use on asymptomatic individuals
  • According to company data, the spit test accurately identifies about 90% of positive cases when compared against a nasopharyngeal PCR test set to 35 CT
  • According to the FDA, that comparative CT is too low, and will produce too many false negatives. This, despite the scientific consensus, which states anything over 35 CTs is scientifically unjustifiable as it produces enormous amounts of false positives
  • According to an April 2020 study, a CT of 17 must be used to obtain 100% confirmed real positives. Above 17 cycles, accuracy drops dramatically. At 33 cycles, the false positive rate is 80%. Beyond 34 cycles, the false positive rate reaches 100%
  • Because the PCR test cannot discern between live virus and dead, noninfectious viral debris, the timing of the test is important. Recent research shows the median time from symptom onset to viral clearance confirmed by viral culture is seven days, whereas the PCR test continues to detect nonviable (noninfectious) SARS-CoV-2 for a median of 34 days

COVID 19: the Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Profitable)

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24 February 2021 — theplanningmotivedotcom

We have passed through the epicentre of the pandemic and the trailing winds are subsiding. Time to take stock. This article compares the contrasting impact of the pandemic in the USA to India. It is the follow up to an article first presented in May last year titled “Reversing the Lockdown”. https://theplanningmotivedotcom.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/reversing-lockdown-pdf.pdf 

virus-good-bad-ugly.pdf

Biden resumes adult conversations with Beijing, Moscow

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17 February 2021 — Indian Punchline

US envoy to Iran Robert Malley (third from left) at a 2015 meeting with Iranian officials, including Foreign Minister Javad Zarif (far R), Geneva

Like a bolt from the blue, the news has appeared belatedly that the US special envoy to Iran Rob Malley initiated a call with Chinese vice minister Ma Zhaoxu on February 10. Interestingly, the disclosure has come from the Chinese Foreign Ministry, which said, “the two sides had an in-depth exchange of views on the Iranian nuclear issue.”

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