9 February 2021 — The Defender
In new research published in Microbiology & Infectious Diseases, immunologist J. Bart Classen warns the mRNA technology used in the Pfizer and Moderna COVID vaccines could create “new potential mechanisms” of adverse events that may take years to come to light.
2 February 2021 — UKColumn
9 February 2021 — NHS Support Federation
Documents passed to the Lowdown reveal how US company, Centene is expanding its interests in the NHS by buying up a network of GP practices.
And in the same week the BBC report a likely fall in private sector involvement, as after years of public campaigning leaked details emerged of the government’s plan to remove NHS competition rules, so what is going on, is this really the end of NHS outsourcing? And what does the leaked white paper really mean for the NHS? We take a look.
7 February 2021 — A Green Road Daily News
Spain has approved the AstraZeneca vaccine but like some other EU countries, it won’t be offering the jab to the elderly – due to a lack of data. The news comes as officials in Madrid confirm the first ever case of the variant first detected in Brazil.
Spain limits use of AstraZeneca vaccine for those over 55 – YouTube
Spain, Germany, France, Italy and ‘others’ have said that these new vaccines should not be given to anyone over the age of 55. Huh? Wasn’t that the reason for keeping everyone locked up for a year?
9 February2021 — Media Lens
A Cogitation by David Edwards
The name Arnold Ridley will be familiar to many viewers of ‘Dad’s Army’, one of Britain’s best-loved TV comedies, which ran a long time ago (1968-1977) but is still shown on prime time BBC TV.
Ridley played Private Godfrey, the loveable, most doddery member of a Second World War platoon of elderly Home Guard troops tasked with defending a stretch of the British coast ‘from the Novelty Rock Emporium to Stone’s Amusement Arcade’.
3 February, 2021 — Modern Farmer
A wave of consolidation has given a few large companies control of proprietary, multi-level systems of traits, seeds, agrochemicals and digital technology.
9 February 2021 — Good Law Project
You may remember the tale of the jeweller from Florida and the Spanish intermediary who profited to the tune of tens of millions of pounds from vast PPE contracts, paid for with taxpayers’ money. Well, there have been developments.
6 January 2021 — Monsoon Storms
In 2007 – a digital time not spatially long ago – a month before the iPhone was production scheduled, the late Steven Jobs took some of his staff to an office. He had been carrying a prototype of the device in his pocket daily for weeks.
Mr. Jobs angrily held up his iPhone so that everyone could see the dozens of tiny scratches marring its plastic screen. He then pulled his keys from his jeans.
People will carry this phone in their pocket, he was quoted to say.
“I won’t sell a product that gets scratched,” he said tensely.
The only solution was to use unscratchable glass instead.
“I want a glass screen, and I want it perfect in six weeks.”
(Duhigg, C and Bradsher, K. “How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work“, The New York Times, published January 21st., 2012).
8 February 2021 — Michael Roberts Blog
The leftist candidate Andrés Arauz took the lead in the first round of the presidential elections in Ecuador. Arauz won 31.5 per cent of the vote, putting him about 11 percentage points clear of his nearest rivals. It was unclear who Arauz would face in the run-off. Indigenous leader Yaku Pérez and Guillermo Lasso, a wealthy ex-banker, were in a technical tie for second place, with Perez on 20.04 per cent to Lasso’s 19.97 per cent. The second run-off round will be in April but if Arauz runs against the pro-business Lasso, he is likely to win; it’s less sure against Perez.
8 February 2021 — Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
Activists Seed Public Schools With Black Liberation Curriculum / Black Political Party Puts Grassroots Organizing First / Black American Slave Legacy Inherited by Diaspora Immigrants
8 February 2021 — The New Dark Age
Ecuador: Andrés Arauz Has Declared Victory in the Presidential Elections
https://libya360.wordpress.com/2021/02/07/ecuador-andres-arauz-has-declared-victory-in-the-presidential-elections/
Pandemic Capitalism and Resistance
https://londongreenleft.blogspot.com/2021/02/pandemic-capitalism-and-resistance.html
8th February 2021 — True Publica
TruePublica published an article in March last year, excerpts of which are below (HERE) regarding Britain’s preparedness plans in the event of a pandemic, which every responsible government in the world will have. The results showed how the Conservative government tested the NHS for a flu-like pandemic, such as Covid 19, over a three-day period in 2016 and then not only ignored its ominous warnings but buried the final report as investing in the NHS did not fit its privatisation agenda ambitions.
5 February, 2021 — RT
Helen Buyniski
5 February 2021 — Sustainable Pulse
Editors’ picks
4 February 2021 — The Defender
Bill Gates has quietly made himself the largest owner of farmland in the United States. For a man obsessed with monopoly control, the opportunity to also dominate food production must seem irresistible.
“Gates has a Napoleonic concept of himself, an appetite that derives from power and unalloyed success, with no leavening hard experience, no reverses.” — Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson, presiding judge in the Gates/Microsoft antitrust-fraud case
5 February 2021 — Political Concern
Addressing the Oxford Real Farming Conference, Devinder Sharma (below, left) said that the farmers’ movement in India could have global implications (Tribunearticle).
A Telugu translation is available as a pdf.
The kisan agitation at the gates of Fortress Delhi has forced even the corporate media to take note of the corporate drive to capture control of the remaining non-corporate sectors of the country’s economy, including its agriculture; the phrase “Ambani-Adani” is now a popular term for this process.
4 February 2021 — Tricontinental
Oswaldo Terreros (Ecuador), Mural para la Universidad Superior de las Artes (‘Mural for the University of the Arts’), 2012.
Dear friends,
Greetings from the desk of the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.
In 2019, 613 million Indians voted to appoint their representatives to the Indian parliament (Lok Sabha). During the election campaign, the political parties spent Rs. 60,000 crores (around US $8 billion), 45% of which was spent by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the governing party; the BJP won 37% of the vote, which translated into 303 of the 545 seats in the Lok Sabha. A year later, a massive $14 billion was spent on the US presidential and congressional elections, with the winning Democrat Party dominating the spending. These are massive amounts of money, whose grip on the democratic process is quite clear by now. Is it possible to talk about ‘democracy’ without being candid about the erosion of the democratic spirit by this avalanche of money?
2 February 2021 — Good Law Project
Tomorrow [3 February] sees our legal challenge for Government’s failure to disclose details of COVID-19-related contracts. The case is being brought by Good Law Project along with a cross-party group of MPs – Caroline Lucas (Green), Debbie Abrahams (Labour) and Layla Moran (LibDem).
4 February 2021 — Black Agenda Report
Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor
To take on the corporate imperial racial capitalist state, we need a Black-led movement that puts politics in command and names the Democratic perpetrators and collaborators that are culpable in the unfolding, late-stage capitalist disaster.
(more…)
The New Dark Age 