US Encirclement of China

US Encirclement of China: A Progress Report

By Brian Berletic, May 09, 2021

Tensions between Washington and Beijing are not merely the recent results of former US President Donald Trump’s time in office – but rather just the latest chapter in US efforts to contain China that stretch back decades.

No Vaccine Passports in Texas! Medical Doctors Testify Before State Senate to Oppose Mandatory COVID Shots By Brian Shilhavy, May 09, 2021 This past week the Texas Senate Committee on State Affairs took testimony from Texas physicians regarding SB 1669: Stop Forced Vaccination and Vaccine Passports in Texas. SB 1669 was sponsored by Senator Bob Hall.

Let Mumia Out! Exploring Racial Justice as the Sun Sets over George Floyd By Michael Welch, Suzanne Ross, and Johanna Fernandez, May 08, 2021 Even in the midst of an apparent pandemic keeping all Americans and many around the world in the grip of heightened fear, that did not stop people from rising up in centres globally to massively dispute and condemn the death of a black man – George Floyd – under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer. Anywhere from 15 to 26 million people are estimated to have shown up at protests in the USA in the month of June alone condemning the actions against Floyd and evidence of racism conducted by police generally.

Beware of Covid PCR Testing and the Relentless “Vaccinate Vaccinate Vaccinate” Campaign By Peter Koenig, May 08, 2021 The validity of the PCR test has been questioned for months, if not from the very beginning of the declared covid-19 plandemic, including lately also by WHO. However, this test is still and ever more so being forced upon us. This despite the fact that ever more scientific evidence comes to the fore that the test is absolutely unsuited to determine whether a person is “infected” with the covid-19 virus.

Walking with Fr. Daniel Berrigan, S.J., a Criminal for Peace  By Edward Curtin, May 08, 2021 Today is a day to celebrate the prophetic voice and witness of Fr. Daniel Berrigan, the non-violent anti-war activist and poet, whose life and witness has touched so many lives.  He was born on May 9, 1921 and would have been 100 years old today.  He died five years ago, but his spirit continues to animate and inspire so many others.

The Spoils of War: Afghanistan’s Multibillion Dollar Heroin Trade By Prof Michel Chossudovsky, May 08, 2021 The US opioid crisis broadly defined bears a relationship to the export of heroin out of Afghanistan. There were 189,000 heroin users in the US in 2001, before the US-NATO invasion of Afghanistan. By 2016 that number went up to 4,500,000 (2.5 million heroin addicts and 2 million casual users). In 2020, deaths from opioids and drug addiction increased threefold. It’s Big Money for Big Pharma.

The COVID-19 Crisis Has Already Left Too Many Children Hungry in America By Lauren Bauer, May 09, 2021 I document new evidence from two nationally representative surveys that were initiated to provide up-to-date estimates of the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the incidence of food insecurity. Food insecurity occurs when a household has difficulty providing enough food due to a lack of resources.

Children Are Far More Likely to Die from Diarrhea than COVID-19 By Simon Black, May 07, 2021 In the winter of 1837, Charles Dickens published the first two chapters of what would become one of his most popular works– the story of an orphan called Oliver Twist. If you’ve never read it, the book is one of Dickens’ most damning condemnations of the poverty, crime, and child labor that dominated 19th century Britain.

NATO’s Southeastern Spearhead: Turkey’s Military Aggression in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Caucasus Signals Proxy Conflict with Iran By Rick Rozoff, May 07, 2021 The past week has witnessed reports of increased Turkish military activity in Iraq and Syria as well as its intruding itself deeper into the war in Yemen. In all three cases Ankara has pitted itself against forces that are or can be seen to be pro-Iranian: Shiite parties in northern Iraq, the government of Syria and the Houthi-led government in Yemen.

The True Meaning of the Afghan “Withdrawal” By Prof Alfred McCoy, May 07, 2021 The Taliban’s fighters have already captured much of the countryside, reducing control of the American-backed Afghan government in Kabul, the capital, to less than a third of all rural districts. Since February, those guerrillas have threatened the country’s major provincial capitals — Kandahar, Kunduz, Helmand, and Baghlan — drawing the noose ever tighter around those key government bastions.

Global Casinos: Financial Markets Are a Fraudsters Paradise By Rod Driver, May 07, 2021 Many of the biggest banks, and many other financial companies, devote most of their resources to activities that provide no benefit to the real world, but which can have negative consequences for everyone else. This post summarises some of the most problematic activities, such as speculation, private equity, hedge funds, vulture funds, and high frequency trading.

COVID Vaccines: The Tip of the Iceberg

By Swiss Policy Research, May 07, 2021

SPR carefully distinguishes between short-term and long-term safety, short-term and long-term effectiveness, age- and sex-specific aspects, and medical and political questions. Some people might prefer a simpler, more black-and-white assessment, but this would not reflect complex reality.