BY KEVIN GOSZTOLA
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange | Photo by Cancillería EcuadorAttorneys for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange plan to appeal to the Supreme Court in the United Kingdom after the country’s appeals court overturned a decision that blocked the extradition of Assange to the United States.
Mwamba Chikwemba (Zambia), Power, 2019.Dear friends,
Greetings from the desk of the Tricontinental: Institute of Social Research.
United States President Joe Biden has suborned 111 countries to attend his Summit for Democracy on December 9–10, ending on Human Rights Day. ‘We welcome all countries, organisations, and individuals to support the goals of the Summit’, the US State Department wrote. However, there are 82 countries that have not been invited, including two large countries that are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (the People’s Republic of China and Russia) and two small countries from the Caribbean (Cuba and Haiti). In the name of democracy, the US government is pushing its own agenda to consolidate power and further its national interests. This is not a summit for democracy as much as it is a summit for bringing together a grouping to refurbish the tarnished image of the United States.
US President Joe Biden (R) and aides talking with Russian president Vladimir Putin, December 7, 2021This must be a rare occasion when Russian President Vladimir Putin during his 18 years in the Kremlin came out second best in an encounter with an American president. And it had to be at the hands of President Joe Biden who has not yet completed one year in office. Yet, Putin has met with every sitting American president since Bill Clinton, in dire circumstances filled with awkward silences, icy stares and even professions of trust.
Forget any notions of juicy carrots; the stick approach of savage punishment is in vogue with the Greek government in pushing vaccination rates. It is far from the only one. Across a number of countries in Europe, governments wishing to drive up levels of COVID-19 vaccination have decided to abandon suasion and the generous supply of medical information in favour of penalties and punishments.
Story at-a-glance:
“The enemy is fear. We think it is hate, but it is really fear”.
Gandhi (1)
We live in the age of anxiety. We who see, see clearly this is a pandemic of fear. One of the central emotional responses during a pandemic is fear. Fear comprises both an emotional and physical response to stress. Functional fear helps people develop coping strategies, and the ‘right’ amount of anxiety can help us perform better and stimulate action. However, the fear created during this pandemic is completely disproportionate and irrational (2). The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemonium is associated with highly significant levels of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and psychological distress (3). The ruling class say functional fear predicts our compliance in the COVID-19 pandemic (4). The more anxious we are, the more we comply. Eastern religion philosopher Alan Watts wrote, “If we look deeply into such ways of life as Buddhism, we do not find either philosophy or religion as these are understood in the West. We find something more nearly resembling psychotherapy” (3) . Psychotherapy, or talk therapy, helps eliminate or alleviate disturbing symptoms to enable one to encourage personal well-being and encourage healing. Our controllers know this hence they apply behavioural science techniques on us that discourage well-being and healing; the intention to increase compliance (5).
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Once a month, we put together a list of stories we’ve been reading: news you might’ve missed or crucial conversations going on around the web. We focus on environmental justice, radical municipalism, new politics, political theory, and resources for action and education.
This, from Israel, is somewhat weird:
Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Mossad chief David Barnea will push during their meetings this week in Washington with senior Biden administration officials for the United States to carry out a military strike on Iranian targets, Israel’s three main TV news broadcasts reported Sunday night.
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Along with calling for tougher sanctions, the Israelis will reportedly ask the US to take military action against Iran.Channel 12 news said the target of a US potential attack would be not a nuclear facility in Iran, but rather a site like an Iranian base in Yemen. The aim of such a strike would be to convince the Iranians to soften their positions at the negotiating table.
Much like Julian Assange, Glenn Greenwald began to be condemned by liberals only post-Trump. The liberal visceral hatred of Donald Trump has trumped rational discourse.
By Riva Enteen
Street’s CounterPunch article, “Glenn Greenwald is Not Your Misunderstood Left Comrade,” obstructs political dialogue and struggle. He gives no substantive rebuttal to a Greenwald article that declares “grotesque” the sight of “masked servants and unmasked elite at the New York Met Gala.” In a classic ad hominem attack, since Street couldn’t summon up an intelligent response, he just hurled insults. Sadly, this is what currently passes for political debate.
A few years back:
In his State of the Union message in January, President Bush approvingly cited the report. “
The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa,” said Bush.
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On Thursday, standing beside British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Bush said of Britain, “Not only our intelligence, but the intelligence of this great country made a clear and compelling case that Saddam Hussein was a threat to security and peace.”
Stick to the script: owe that duty of care to your population, so the legal experts in government tell you. Self-interest pays, if in small amounts. These rigid, formulaic assumptions have done wonders to harm and deter any spirit of cooperation regarding dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.
US President Biden dismisses Russia’s red lines on UkraineWhat has unfolded in the past 24 hours in the US-Russia diplomatic tango can be seen as a foreplay of the meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Joe Biden, which is slated for Tuesday evening.
Russia has got what it has been keenly seeking — a meeting between Putin and Biden. Beyond that lies the “unknown unknown”.
Craig Murray
Well, it is nice to be free again, though as I said on release, I shall never really feel free while Julian is still imprisoned and while Scotland is still part of an imperialist United Kingdom. I expect most of you have seen my release, but for those who have not:
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Headquarters of NHS England. (Lad, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons)By Stewart Player and Bob Gill
Special to Consortium News
One of the recent roles of the Parliamentary Healthcare Committee has been to reassure the British public that any claims regarding the ‘Americanization’ of the National Health Service (NHS) were wildly overstated, “creating a climate that risks blocking the joining up of services in the interests of patients.”
In fact, the penetration of the healthcare system by the giant U.S. insurer UnitedHealth reveals the opposite to be true, with the full extent of its influence capable of surprising even seasoned NHS watchers.
By Pepe Escobar
American hysteria over the “imminent” Russian invasion of Ukraine has exploded every geopolitical Stupid-o-Meter in sight – and that’s quite an accomplishment.
What a mess. Sections of the U.S. Deep State are in open revolt against the combo that remote controls Crash Test Dummy, who impersonates POTUS. The neocon-neoliberal axis is itching for a war – but has no idea how to sell it to an immensely fractured public opinion.
This year, Good Law Project has exposed cronyism right at the heart of Government. It’s perhaps not surprising that those who benefit from these cozy arrangements are trying to derail us.
The Government has told blatant lies, threatened to refer me to my professional regulator, briefed the media against us and shoved enormous bills for legal costs our way. And they’re not the only ones trying to stop us.
Iran’s Dy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani (C) with diplomatic adviser to UAE President Anwar Gargash (L) and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Khalifa Almara, Abu Dhabi, Nov. 16, 2021The terrible secret about Faustian deals is that they need a Mephistopheles to nurture them. That said, Goethe’s Mephisto is very different from the crude devil of medieval legend. Goethe sketches him as a cultivated, witty, and cynical exponent of materialism and nihilism who preaches a sophisticated doctrine of philosophical negation.
Weddings. Hospitals. Refugee camps. Aid workers. All have become the target of lethal strikes this year due to the spreading use of drones by a growing number of states. Here we detail six particular strikes and, below, reflect on what they show about the reality of drone warfare today.
The New Dark Age 