15 January 2021 — Moon of Alabama
On August 4 2020 2.750 tons of ammonium nitrate, stored in a warehouse of Beirut’s harbour, exploded. The blast destroyed large parts of the city.
The dangerous load had come on a defect[ive] ship which was impounded by the Lebanese authorities. It had been stored since 2013. Despite urgent warnings, the complicate[d] Lebanese bureaucracy had never found a way to get rid of the dangerous load.
15 January 2021 — Statewatch
Also available as a pdf)
—————————————-
Support the fight for democracy and civil liberties in Europe
2021 is set to be a year of significant struggle across Europe against intrusive new surveillance and policing measures, damaging migration and border control policies, and ongoing attacks against individual rights and liberties.
With your support, we can continue to document, analyse and challenge key policies, proposals and powers.
—————————————-
(more…)
13 January 2021 — Global Research
Contingent on World Bank aid to be given to poorer countries in the wake of coronavirus lockdowns, agrifood conglomerates will aim to further expand their influence. These firms have been integral to the consolidation of a global food regime that has emerged in recent decades based on chemical- and proprietary-input-dependent agriculture which incurs massive externalised social, environmental and health costs.
3 November 2020 — Preprints
Version 1 : Received: 14 October 2020 / Approved: 15 October 2020 / Online: 15 October 2020 (16:02:58 CEST)
Version 2 : Received: 3 November 2020 / Approved: 4 November 2020 / Online: 4 November 2020 (10:14:33 CET)
How to cite: Joffe, A. COVID-19: Rethinking the Lockdown Groupthink. Preprints 2020, 2020100330 (doi: 10.20944/preprints202010.0330.v2). Joffe, A. COVID-19: Rethinking the Lockdown Groupthink. Preprints 2020, 2020100330 (doi: 10.20944/preprints202010.0330.v2).
The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) worldwide pandemic in 2020. In response, most countries in the world implemented lockdowns, restricting their population’s movements, work, education, gatherings, and general activities in attempt to ‘flatten the curve’ of COVID-19 cases. The public health goal of lockdowns was to save the population from COVID-19 cases and deaths, and to prevent overwhelming health care systems with COVID-19 patients. In this narrative review I explain why I changed my mind about supporting lockdowns.
14 January 2021 — Institute of Race Relations
At a time when the Metropolitan police has had to concede more oversight of pre-arrest handcuffing, we publish the first ever investigation of the new Violence Suppression Units (VSUs), introduced without fanfare at the start of the pandemic in London. In the past, criticism has been levelled at the use of similar specialist squads like the SPG and the TSG in multicultural working-class neighbourhoods. Now, Jessica Pandian questions whether the introduction of VSUs heralds the Americanisation of gang policing, pointing out that suspicion of gang affiliation could be used more systematically, as it is in the US, to justify deportation decisions.
14 January 2021 — The Electronic Intifada
Ken Livingstone is going to court in the UK to challenge anti-Semitism allegations.
The former mayor of London is contesting the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s controversial report that in October claimed he was guilty of “unlawful harassment” against Jews.
12 January 2021 — Edward Curtin
by Edward Curtin
Something is happening here,
But you don’t know what it is,
Do you, Mr. Jones?
— Bob Dylan, Ballad of a Thin Man, 1965
It’s hard.
Life today seems like a dream, doesn’t it? Surreal to the point where everything seems haunted and betwixt and between, or this against that, or that and this against us.
Something.
14 January 2021 — True Publica
By TruePublica: No country has willingly left a postwar trading bloc, especially one of the three global super-powers of today. And because there is no precedent, it is true to say that not only does Brexit represent a very large threat to Britain’s economic future prospects – it does so because it’s just a gamble. And the so-called trade deal Boris Johnson has signed with the EU is very weak. Much of that weakness will develop over the coming months, especially as 80 per cent of Britain’s economy has yet to be negotiated within that agreement.
I hear the sons of the city and dispossessed
Get down, get undressed
Get pretty but you and me
We got the kingdom, we got the key
We got the empire, now as then
We don’t doubt, we don’t take direction
Lucretia, my reflection, dance the ghost with meSisters of Mercy, Lucretia my Reflection
9/11 was the prelude. 1/6 is the Holy Grail.
13 January 2021 — The Defender
By Peter Doshi
In the United States, all eyes are on Pfizer and Moderna. The topline efficacy results from their experimental covid-19 vaccine trials are astounding at first glance. Pfizer says it recorded 170 covid-19 cases (in 44,000 volunteers), with a remarkable split: 162 in the placebo group versus 8 in the vaccine group. Meanwhile Moderna says 95 of 30,000 volunteers in its ongoing trial got covid-19: 90 on placebo versus 5 receiving the vaccine, leading both companies to claim around 95% efficacy.
13 January 2021 — Black Agenda Report
Glen Ford, BAR Executive Editor
Last week’s assault on the Capitol was essentially a race riot, the product of white racial grievance.
(more…)
10 January, 2021 — TomDispatch
Sometimes things only make sense when seen through a magnifying lens. As it happens, I’m thinking about reality, the very American and global reality clearly repeating itself as 2021 begins.
We all know, of course, that we’re living through a once-in-a-century-style pandemic; that millions of people have lost their jobs, a portion of which will never return; that the poorest among us, who can withstand such acute economic hardship the least, have been slammed the hardest; and that the global economy has been kneecapped, thanks to a battery of lockdowns, shutdowns, restrictions of various sorts, and health-related concerns. More sobering than all of this: more than 360,000 Americans (and counting) have already lost their lives as a result of Covid-19 with, according to public health experts, far more to come.
11 January 2021 — RT
8 January 2021 — Drone Wars
Our new report, ‘On the Edge: Security, protracted conflicts and the role of drones in Eurasia’ examines the proliferation of drones and loitering munitions (often descried as suicide drones) across Eurasia. It charts their increasing use along the borders of separatist areas, aims to shed some light on the acquisition of large Medium-Altitude Long-Endurance (MALE) Chinese drones in Central Asia, and asks why this has happened and what the likely consequences might be.
11 January 2021 — Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
Cops Colluded with Trump Mob at Capitol / Black Anarchists Prefer “Non-Hierarchical” Activism / Black Feminism Informed by “Sensuous Knowledge”
Black Agenda Radio with Margaret Kimberley and Glen Ford
“If this had been a Black-led effort, it would have been a massacre,” said Mara Vanderheyden, co-founder of the Partnership for Civil Justice, which is demanding a “fully public” investigation into United States Capitol Police collusion with the mob that assaulted Congress, last week. “We can only conclude that this could not have happened if the Capitol Police had not allowed it to happen.”
(more…)
10 January 2021 — — New Eastern Outlook
The spread of coronavirus infection in the world has inadvertently forced the leading powers and the UN to open their eyes to many issues and, above all, to comply with the provisions of the international Biological Weapons Convention.
9 January 2021 — Counter Currents
By Colin Todhunter
The UK government has launched its public consultation on the deregulation of gene editing in England. To kick things off, somewhat predictably Environment Secretary George Eustice recently spun a staunch pro-industry line at the Oxford Farming Conference by stating:
8 January 2021 — Michael Roberts Blog
At the annual conference of the American Economics Association (ASSA), there are sessions hosted by the Union for Radical Political Economics (URPE) for Marxist and other heterodox economists to present papers.
At this year’s ASSA 2021, many of the URPE sessions were concerned with the economic impact of COVID-19 and climate change, as did the mainstream sessions, but, of course, from a different perspective. But before I look at those sessions, let me start with the annual David Gordon lecture presented by a different radical economist each year.
Ari Joffe
The New Dark Age 