10 December 2020 — Manifesto Club
A Manifesto Club report exposed the ongoing use of ‘busybody’ powers, with more people than ever punished for petty offences by council officers and private security guards.
5 December 2020
By Don Fitz
“And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray thee, with that same red pottage; for I am faint;
And Jacob said, Sell me this day thy birthright.
And Esau said, Behold, I am at the point to die: and what profits shall this birthright do me?
And Jacob said, Swear to me this day; and he sware unto him: and he sold his birthright unto Jacob.” – Genesis 25: 30-33
Despite the bizarre fantasy by Trump supporters that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, there was, in fact, genuine electoral fraud in the US. This fraud was more intense and blatant than any unproven claims of election meddling by Russians, Chinese, Syrians or Iranians. It was an all-out attack on political rights not seen since Joseph McCarthy era. Yet, this time, it was inspired not by Republicans but by Democrats and their liberal allies.
10 December 2020 — True Publica
By TruePublica:
“New laws to curb protests which threaten democracy” is quite the phrase. We have a five-yearly democratic event which hands absolute power to the Government. In the years that follow, the right to protest is all there is of democracy. Be very afraid.”
These are the words of Joe Maugham QC – director of the Good Law Project, barrister and Honourary Professor at Durham Law School.
10 December 2020 — Tricontinental
Madhuri Shukla (USA), Wring, 2020
Dear friends,
Greetings from the desk of the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.
The night before the National Assembly elections in Venezuela, President Nicolás Maduro spoke to a group of visitors at Miraflores Palace in Caracas. He recounted how he had been a member of the Constituent Assembly, which was formed in 1999 and set up the legal framework for Venezuela’s political system. Maduro told the visitors that he had been a member of the National Assembly during its first and second terms (2000-2005 and 2005-2010 respectively), and he was the president of the National Assembly during its second term before being asked to take on the post of foreign minister. During the election of the National Assembly’s fourth term (2015-2020), the Socialist Unity Party of Venezuela (PSUV), which he leads, lost the majority in the National Assembly ‘because we made mistakes’, he told me. ‘Let’s be clear’.
10 December 2020 — Black Agenda Report
Margaret Kimberley, BAR senior columnist
The Black Misleaders give the impression of exercising black empowerment when they are in fact only promoting themselves.
9 December 2020 — Internationalist 360°
Revered as the Father of Socialism, in popular conception Karl Marx (1818–1883) is the originator of socialist theory, the creator of a plan implemented thereafter by the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and other socialist nations. He remains one of the most cited authors of all time, and his writings are endlessly scrutinized and analyzed. Was he standing on the shoulders of giants?
10 December 2020 — Asia Times
By Pepe Escobar
Seven years after being launched by President Xi Jinping, first in Astana and then in Jakarta, the New Silk Roads, or Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) increasingly drive the American plutocratic oligarchy completely nuts.
The relentless paranoia about the Chinese “threat” has much to do with the exit ramp offered by Beijing to a Global South permanently indebted to IMF/World Bank exploitation.
9 December, 2020 — Mint Press News
“America will soon have a government that treats the climate crisis as the urgent national security threat it is.” — John Kerry
Recently-appointed Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry has announced his intention of dealing with the pressing issue of global warming as a national security concern. “America will soon have a government that treats the climate crisis as the urgent national security threat it is,” the 76-year-old former Secretary of State wrote. “I am proud to partner with the President-elect, our allies, and the young leaders of the climate movement to take on this crisis.”
8 December 2020 — US Right to Know
Did you know Monsanto had “fusion center” to monitor and discredit journalists and public health groups? And U.S. Right to Know was a prime target.
8 December 2020 — Consortium News
By Tony Kevin
The destruction over the past five years of Australia’s mutually beneficial diplomatic and trade relationship with China was probably a successful “Five Eyes” information warfare operation, writes Tony Kevin.
6 December, 2020 — Global Research
Left Voice 4 December 2020
The general strike occurred in the context of the devastation brought about by the coronavirus pandemic in India. Added to this are the millions of people who have lost income and who now face increased poverty and hunger, in a country where even before the pandemic 50 percent of all children suffered malnourishment.
by Maria Aurelio (Left Voice)
7 December, 2020 — Grayzone
7 December 2020 — Off Guardian
Michael Lesher
As the year 2020 expires in an embattled welter of politicized suffering, I feel I need to address my fellow advocates for Palestinian rights, too many of whom seem not to notice – or actively deny – that, under cover of coronavirus hysteria, the unhealed wounds of Palestine are steadily infecting us all.
4 December 2020 — In Gaza and beyond
The BBC has released a new radio podcast titled Mayday: Investigating The Life And Death Of James LeMesurier. It attempts to tell the story behind former British army and intelligence officer James LeMesurier, co-founder of the “White Helmets” in Syria. While the BBC claims that its new Radio 4 series seeks to “explore the true story” behind the so called “Syria Civil Defence”, its correspondence with journalists critical of the group shows this wasn’t the case.
7 December 2020 — Drone Wars
Documents obtained by Drone Wars using the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) reveal how British military officials view the UK’s next generation armed drone, known as Protector, and the types of advanced capabilities the aircraft will have. Protector, which is set to replace the UK’s current fleet of armed Reaper drones in the mid-2020s, is essentially SkyGuardian—the latest version of the Predator drone being produced by General Atomics—plus UK modifications. The modifications revealed in the FOI documents (comprising presentations given by UK military personnel at a drone technology conference held last September) are significant because they provide an insight into how the Ministry of Defence (MOD) plan to utilise Protector. Looking more widely, Protector epitomises the second drone age, characterised by a global expansion in both the type of drones being used by states and the scale of operations, including in the domestic sphere.
3 December 2020 — Of two minds
Charles Hugh Smith
An idea that’s simple as an abstraction–vaccine ID cards–turns out to be extremely difficult once real-world operational realities must be dealt with.
Authorities around the world have made it clear that they will do “whatever it takes” to vaccinate their citizenry with one of the first available vaccines. Authoritarian states may mandate universal vaccinations while less authoritarian states will favor a “carrot and stick” approach of offering benefits to the vaccinated and exclusions from employment, education, travel and most of everyday life for those who refuse to be vaccinated.
1 December 2020 — The Highwire
By Jefferey Jaxen
UPDATE (12/1): The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has voted 13 to 1 in an emergency meeting to make the recommendation that residents and employees of nursing homes health care workers be the first to receive coronavirus vaccines.
It’s the final countdown! Moderna, Pfizer and AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine candidates are on their way to emergency use authorization (EUA) consideration. Experimental messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine technology, rushed through trials, with public-facing scientific transparency and disclosures coming via public relations press releases. What’s to fear?
5 December 2020 — Michael Roberts
The top 1% of households globally own 43% of all personal wealth while the bottom 50% have only 1%. The 1% are all millionaires in net wealth (after debt) and there are 52m of them. Within this 1%, there are 175,000 ultra-wealthy people with over $50m in net wealth – that’s a miniscule number of people (less than 0.1%) owning 25% of the world’s wealth!
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