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https://www.informationclearinghouse.info/57750.htm

You Can’t Project Power When the World Knows You Are Weak

Every empire falls and the fantasy of American exceptionalism doesn't exempt the U.S. from inevitable decline. Yet the failing hegemon behaves as though it still controls events, and in so doing creates dangers for the whole world.

"We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors ... and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."

Karl Rove, advisor to George W. Bush – 2004

By most accounts, Karl Rove was correct about the United States empire.  Nineteen years ago, the U.S. had the strongest military in the world, but the economy was showing signs of weakness. Back in March of 2000, the stock market bubble burst, resulting in the NASDAQ or “dot com bubble” crash. Still at that time, most of the country believed Reagan as he referred to the country as, “…the shining city upon a hill…”  Due to its military might the U.S. was able to project its power and impose its will upon the world.

Rove’s arrogant assertion that “…when we act, we create our own reality…” is a major part of the problem that the U.S. empire is facing today. What gets lost in this assessment is the historic reality that all empires run their course.  An examination of the European, Greek, Roman and British empires tell the stories of tragic endings. A common and significant factor in their demise was arrogance.  Instead of recognizing the changing of global dynamics, the geopolitical landscape and making the requisite adjustments, they believed they could manage the world by sheer force, power projection and will.

The United States is blinded by its arrogance and cannot properly assess the realities before it, still believing it is the unitary hegemon and many of its recent actions are exacerbating its demise. In 1991, President George H. W. Bush announced a "new world order" that he believed would replace the bipolar politics of the Cold War era with a US driven unipolar order.  While still Governor of Texas but running for president, George W. Bush outlined the foreign policy principles that would guide his presidency, promising a "distinctly American internationalism", again, not so subtle code language for a unipolar order.  Recently, Secretary of State Blinken and other Biden administration officials continue to discuss a “rules-based order.”  They seem to be the only ones who know what the rules are.

This country continues to assert itself as a unitary power in what is emerging as a multipolar world. In The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway’s Bill Gorton asks Mike Campbell, “How did you go bankrupt?” Mike replies, “Two ways…Gradually and then suddenly.” The unipolar hegemonic dominance of the U.S. is bankrupt and coming to an end. 

In October of 2020 I published a piece entitled “The Non-Aligned Nations Realign ” wherein I wrote, “As the US has emerged from the post-Cold War era as the unitary global hegemon, it became increasingly more difficult for countries to maintain their sovereignty and battle the inequities of the “new world” economic order imposed upon them by the United States. The U.S. “maximum pressure” campaign of sanctions and regime change has been applied as a weapon of economic warfare against US “enemies” such as China, Cuba, Iran and Venezuela. Except for China, these tactics have crippled economies and wreaked havoc on societies.”

We can see the demise of the U.S. Empire happening in real time.  According to Alexander Mercouris, host of The Duran , “the great period of danger in any international system is when the overarching empire declines, when it starts to lose control. Whether they (the leaders of the empire) understand that their empire is in decline and try to manage that decline in a way that preserves the international system or whether alternatively they try to go for broke and they try to preserve their position by managing conflicts that they believe that they can win.”

Even though the empire is in decline, it is far from over. It is important to understand that America is a nuclear power and still maintains military dominance over most of the world. According to The Soldiers Project , the U.S. has roughly 750 US foreign military bases spread across 80 nations. Russia (a nuclear power) has about 3 dozen bases, and China (a nuclear threat) has just five. This implies that the U.S has three times as many bases as all other countries combined.  One of the major challenges facing the US is nuclear deterrence and the concept of mutually assured destruction. A nuclear attack by one superpower would be met with an overwhelming nuclear counterattack such that both the attacker and the defender would be annihilated. 

With that reality being understood the issue shifts to one of economics. Until recently, the US has been able to assert its will via its economic leverage and a sanctions regime combined with the threat of military action. That’s not working any more.  The non-aligned nations have realigned.

In response to the US sanctions regime, China and Russia were forced to reassess their interests and differences. They came to understand that US hegemony and imperialism was a common threat. The US proxy war in Ukraine has proven to be a major threat to Russia and the US involvement in Taiwan threatens to start a war with China. Russia and China now enjoy the best relations they have had since the late 1950s. There is a “new world order” on the horizon but it's not the same order Bush 41 spoke about.

There are other examples of global realignment. On March 10, 2023 Saudi Arabia and Iran announced a normalization of ties which was brokered by China. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has invited 67 country leaders and 20 representatives of international organizations to the upcoming BRICS summit . Even though it’s not on the immediate agenda, BRICS is moving towards a new currency that will be based on a basket of the currencies of the initial five-nation bloc. Kenyan President, William Ruto, has called on African nations to shift away from using the US dollar for intra-continental trade and opt for the use of local currencies. In response to US sanctions, the non-aligned nations are realigning, making it increasingly more difficult for the US to project its power as nations seek to assert more control over their country’s resources and governance. 

It is important to realize that in spite of US sanctions, well-stocked Iranian supermarkets have opened in Venezuela and Iran is exporting oil to Venezuela. China and Iran have entered a 25-year strategic partnership in trade, politics, culture, and security. In spite of US pressure, a British Court of Appeal set aside a decision by the High Court giving President Maduro of Venezuela access to $2 billion of gold stored at the Bank of England.

Remember when President Biden told the world that US sanctions against Russia would cripple its economy? “As a result of these unprecedented sanctions, the ruble almost is immediately reduced to rubble…”, Biden infamously said. According to World Bank data , Russia was among the world’s five largest economies and the largest in Europe in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP) as of the end of 2022, despite Western sanctions.  China topped the list as the world’s biggest economy ($31 trillion), followed by the US, India, and Japan.  So much for US sanctions.

Even as the US is trying to protect its drone base and France’s access to uranium by attempting to exert its power in Niger, the current leaders of that government would not take a meeting with America’s coup plotter extraordinaire, Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland.  They would also not allow her to meet with deposed President Mohamed Bazoum. They are ignoring the “rules-based order.” As Algeria, Mali and Burkina Faso continue to back the junta in Niger, the US’ ability to control the dynamics is in question.  It becomes increasingly more difficult to project power when the world sees that you are weak and alternative alliances become available.

Americans see their country in the romantic context of Reagan’s “Shining City on a Hill” while the Global South sees the US as a monster, in which the taints, the sickness, colonialism/neo-colonialism and the inhumanity of Europe have grown to appalling dimensions. The “non-aligned” nations are in realignment. The US should be as Killens says, about “free people” not “free enterprise.”

It is said that a dying mule can manage to engage in some kicks. These kicks may be dangerous, but they don't last long. Progressively, they become weaker and weaker until the mule finally gives up. We know the US empire won’t go quietly into the night. That’s when it is proving to be its most dangerous.  As Antonio Gramsci wrote, “The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.”

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https://www.informationclearinghouse.info/57752.htm

Anti-China Brainwashing Is the Fast-Track to War

The United States has to have an enemy. For the last seven years, the enemy has been Russia. Now the focus has shifted to China. Take a look at these headlines on Google News and you’ll see what I mean:

 

• Has America been too slow to wake up to the China threat? Washington Examiner
• Why is China a threat to the United States? Quora
• Is the US ready to address China’s threats in time to make a difference? The Hill
• China and Russia are waging another Cold War — is the West up to the challenge? The Hill
• China secretly sends enough gear to Russia to equip an army, Politico
• Xi Jinping is Preparing China for War, Newsweek

Get the picture? China is a bigtime threat to the United States. Forget that the US regularly sends its warships into the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait. Forget that the US has encircled China with military bases and missile systems. Forget that the US has sent multiple delegations to Taipei in violation of the “one-China” policy. Forget that the US arms and trains military personnel in the Taiwanese Army. Forget that the US imposes unilateral tariffs on Chinese goods and sanctions Chinese businessmen. Forget that the US has implemented the most draconian blockade on advanced semiconductors in history. Forget that the US is building anti-China coalitions across the region. Forget all of these things because—according to the geniuses in the mainstream media—China is the problem, China is the threat, and China is the country that is pushing the world towards war.

Does anyone believe this nonsense? Here’s how columnist Bradley Blankenship summed it up in an article at RT:

The US national security state has exploited deep ideological biases in the media and is bankrolling countless think tanks, non-governmental organizations, and academic programs to churn out constant anti-China propaganda. Self-Reinforcing Propaganda, RT

In other words, the USG is working with its allies in the media to saturate the airwaves with anti-China blather in order to convince Americans that China is the source of the problem. That’s how the government shapes public perception and lays the groundwork for war. Check out this excerpt from an article at The Diplomat:

A key feature of mainstream Western media today is the relentless China-bashing. It is off the charts and tiring, often involving regurgitated trivia or fabricated stories with no evidence to support callous statements about the country, demonstrating a deep lack of understanding. But such stories continue to be churned out with no end in sight.

Countering this in international media by offering more balanced views for a global audience is near impossible as censorship is rife. There almost seems to be a global compact to control the narrative, a propaganda war powered by today’s digital technology….

Typically, the negative stories adhere to three core ideas, which inform the unspoken guidelines within these press rooms when it comes to reporting on China.

First is the belief that China is a threat to the world and that this belief must be relentlessly reinforced at every available opportunity. How and why China is a threat is never explored; such is the deep-rooted and almost religious nature of the belief. Sound arguments do not matter. The basic tenets of good journalism are ignored when it comes to a China story. There is no need to explain or give evidence of why China is a global threat. Anti-China Rhetoric Is Off the Charts in Western Media, The Diplomat

China poses no threat to the West, in fact, China has never invaded another country in its 70 year-long history. Compare that to Washington’s unbroken record of violence around the world. Here’s a brief recap

The United States launched at least 251 military interventions between 1991 and 2022. This is according to a report by the Congressional Research Service, a US government institution that compiles information on behalf of Congress. The report documented another 218 US military interventions from 1798 to 1990.

That makes for a total of 469 US military interventions since 1798 that have been acknowledged by the Congress…. The list of countries targeted by the US military includes the vast majority of the nations on Earth, including almost every single country in Latin America and the Caribbean and most of the African continent.

The Military Intervention Project at Tufts University’s Center for Strategic Studies has documented even more foreign meddling.

“The US has undertaken over 500 international military interventions since 1776, with nearly 60% undertaken between 1950 and 2017,” the project wrote. “What’s more, over one-third of these missions occurred after 1999.”

The Military Intervention Project added: “With the end of the Cold War era, we would expect the US to decrease its military interventions abroad, assuming lower threats and interests at stake. But these patterns reveal the opposite – the US has increased its military involvements abroad.”
US launched 251 military interventions since 1991, and 469 since 1798, Geopolitical Economy

And which country is the “greatest threat to world peace”? China?

Not even close. Take a look:

The U.S. emerged as the greatest threat to world peace, followed by Pakistan and China, in the End of Year global survey conducted by WIN/Gallup International across 65 countries in the world.

Of more than 66,000 people surveyed the world over, 24% of respondents believed that the U.S. was the greatest threat to world peace. Pakistan and China got eight and six percent of the votes respectively while Iran, Israel, North Korea and Afghanistan tied for fourth place with four percent of the votes.
The U.S. Is The Biggest Threat To World Peace, Buzzfeed

So, maybe, China is not the biggest threat, after all? Is that what we’re saying?

Indeed, China is not a threat to the United States, in fact, China’s highest ideal is “peaceful development.” Think about that for a minute: Development without war. Is it even possible?

It is possible, and the US and China should work together to make it happen. There’s no reason why the world’s two biggest economies cannot work together on the shared goals of economic integration, state-of-the-art infrastructure and poverty reduction. We need leaders who will embrace collaboration and cooperation not exacerbate divisions and confrontation. We need to strengthen relations with China not look for ways vilify, coerce or bully them.

Unfortunately—as we all know—the western “rules-based order” is controlled by billionaire oligarchs who bitterly oppose nationalistic leaders who cherish their own sovereign independence and act in the interests of their own people. They won’t allow that. Western elites believe that all material wealth and power should be in private hands (not public hands) which is why they are determined to provoke a war with China, so the matter can be resolved militarily. In short, the conflict with China is shaping-up to be a nuclear cage-match between “the globalists and the nationalists”.

The West’s greatest asset in this struggle is the media whose propaganda helps to garner the public support the elites need to drive the country to war. Regrettably, the plan appears to be working. For example, in 2018 a mere 4 in 10 Americans saw China’s rise as a threat to US vital interests. (The Chicago Council on Global Affairs) Compare those results to the recent survey at Gallup which showed that “66% of U.S. adults consider (China) to be a critical threat to the vital interests of the U.S”.

In just 4 years the media has persuaded a majority of Americans that China poses a clear threat to the United States. How can one explain these results other than pointing to the pernicious impact of state propaganda used to poison the minds of Americans against Washington’s biggest economic rival?

Here’s more from Gallup:

In addition to holding a largely unfavorable opinion of China, more Americans name China as the United States’ greatest enemy than any other nation by a wide margin. This view is closely linked to two other measures in the poll, which find that Americans broadly believe China’s military and economic powers represent a “critical threat” to the United States’ vital interests in the next decade. “Record-Low 15% of Americans View China Favorably, Gallup

“China’s military is a critical threat” to the US? Is that really what Americans think?

And where exactly has China’s military been deployed in the last 30 years: Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Iraq?

No, for the last 7 decades China’s military has remained in China. China has invaded no one and certainly has no intention to do so in the future. Americans have no reason to fear China. What they need to fear is the deranged neocons who send US warships into the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea, 8,000 miles from the United States. That’s who they should fear, because that is a deliberate provocation aimed at triggering a war.

A recent survey by the Pew Research Center appeared to show that public opinion of China has dropped dramatically in 24 countries. But a closer look at the survey shows just the opposite, in fact, Pew helps to prove the point we have been trying to make here, which is, that the countries most dominated by the western media are more likely to have “unfavorable” views of China. It’s not a coincidence. Here’s how Blankenship summed it up:

The agency polled adults in 24 countries; there are 193 United Nations member states, which indicates that it does not show any serious global trend purely based on its methodology. There is also a strong selection bias for high-income countries and American allies. However, some middle-income and poorer countries were polled and the data reveals what many know to be true – the Global South largely has favorable views of China.

For example, the Pew survey found that countries such as Kenya (72%), Nigeria (80%) and Mexico (57%) hold favorable views of China... Since poorer countries are the beneficiaries of bilateral cooperation with China, including on the Beijing-led Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), it is natural that they would have a higher opinion of Beijing. Pew, however, mostly did not select countries with high-level strategic cooperation with Beijing….

there has been a steady downward trend fully in line with American foreign policy, e.g., after 2012 with former President Barack Obama’s ‘Pivot to Asia’, the Trump trade war, and whatever it is that the current administration of President Joe Biden is doing. The US national security state has exploited deep ideological biases in the media and is bankrolling countless think tanks, non-governmental organizations, and academic programs to churn out constant anti-China propaganda….

There is a definitive and ongoing battle for hearts and minds between China and the US, and so-called ‘China experts’ are the Americans’ foot soldiers whether they realize it or not. And there are only bound to be more systemic incentives for China hawks in the future considering members of the US Congress keep introducing legislation, like the Senate ‘Countering Chinese Propaganda Act’ or the House ‘Countering the PRC Malign Influence Fund Authorization Act’, which would see hundreds of millions spent on negative news coverage against China. Both of these bills have been absorbed into the House and Senate’s versions of the America COMPETES Act, which have passed in both chambers but are awaiting minor changes before becoming law. Self-reinforcing propaganda: A new poll shows people dislike China, but there’s a catch, Bradley Blankenship, RT

So—even though a majority of Americans already believe that China is their enemy—Congress wants to spend “hundreds of millions more” to intensify the media’s indoctrination campaign to ensure that any critical thinking person who believes the US should pursue a policy of peaceful engagement with China will be denounced as a coward, a traitor and a puppet of Xi Jinping.

This is the scenario we’ll be facing if we don’t find a candidate who will break with the war-mongering concensus and craft a policy that focuses on a long-term accomodation with China that circumvents a catstrophic confrontation. Avoiding World War 3 should be our top priority.

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https://www.informationclearinghouse.info/57788.htm

Always Opposing Past Wars But Never The Present One

A lot of empire sycophancy hides behind the fact that it’s always permissible to retrospectively oppose US wars that already happened, but not the current one. It’s permitted now to say the destruction of Vietnam and Iraq and Libya were mistakes, for example, but if you said it at the time people would treat you like a monster and call you all kinds of names.

And it’s important to understand that this is still happening today. One day it will be permissible to say in mainstream circles that it was wrong for the US empire to deliberately provoke the war in Ukraine and keep it going as long as possible to bleed Russia, but it’s taboo to say that now, because the empire hasn’t yet accomplished all its goals in Ukraine.

They always act like the most recent interventionist disaster was the final one. They always act like the hawks may have been wrong all those other times but they’re not wrong now. And then when they’ve killed everyone they wanted to kill and grabbed everything they wanted to grab and there’s no possibility of losing anything they gained, it will suddenly become permissible to make the present disaster the final one while they assure us the next one is completely righteous.

....By far the most dangerous disinformation published on online platforms is the mainstream war propaganda that’s paved the way to mountains of human corpses throughout the global south, and now in Ukraine. But rather than being censored, it’s being loudly algorithmically amplified.

....US empire managers keep saying they need to move more and more war machinery to “challenge” China in the South China Sea, because CHINA is behaving aggressively. Only a complete moron would believe this narrative.

....Imagine how shitty and soul-sucking it would feel to have to be a mainstream news pundit. Having to treat presidential races like they’re real things that actually matter. Talking about partisan feuds between Democrats and Republicans like they’re consequential and relevant. Talking about the United States like it’s just a normal country in a world full of similar normal countries, participating in world events just like any other country, passively witnessing terrible things happening in other countries like it didn’t actively cause those terrible things to happen.

Your whole life would be dedicated to co-authoring a fiction — but a really boring, vapid, stupid fiction that everyone around you is pretending is real life. But you’d know it’s not real. On some level you’d know. There are only so many years you can closely observe the kayfabe performance of electoral politics where nothing ever changes without noticing that that seems to be a feature not a bug in the system. There’s only so long you can closely observe geopolitics before you notice that the US and its client states play a role in every major international conflict, and notice who benefits from this dynamic. The awareness that you’re giving your life to a lie would creep in and sit in the periphery of your awareness like a terrible memory of something that definitely happened but you don’t want to think about.

And on some level you’d be aware that you don’t have to do this anymore. On some level you’d be aware that you could turn around and start talking about how America’s real government works, about how the empire works, about how power actually moves on the world stage. Real things that actually matter. And you’d be aware on some level of how right this would feel, how freeing it would feel, how expansive it would feel.

But you’d also be aware that it would cost you everything. Your job. Your friends. Your social standing. Your carefully cultivated relationships with all the right kind of people. Your expensive house. Your fancy car. Your spouse. Your kids’ Ivy League educations. The respect of everyone you know.

And you look at the two options, and you weigh them out, and every day you pick the easy way. Every day you choose your own cowardice over truth. Every day you choose fear and fraudulence over courage and authenticity.

And you have to live like that every day of the rest of your life. Imagine how awful that would be. How gross and unfulfilling life would feel, every waking minute of every day, year after year, until you die.

It’s not a fate I would wish on anybody.

....You wanna know how fucking stupid Australians are? Australians are so fucking stupid they think the US empire is filling their country up with war machinery because it loves them and wants to protect them from the Chinese, that’s how fucking stupid Australians are.

....So much empire apologia today is just people pretending not to understand what the word “provoked” means.

“Oh, so you’re saying the west’s actions JUSTIFY Putin’s invasion?? You’re saying we MADE Russia invade? You’re saying we used Jedi mind control to FORCE Putin to invade??”

Shut up, wanker. You know what provoked means.

....The age of western domination has been defined by imperialism, colonialism, exploitation, narrative control, and dogshit mainstream culture manufactured in New York and Hollywood. Hopefully these things can be flushed out of human civilization along with western domination.

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https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2023/08/31/mitch-mcconnells-brief-flash-of-humanity/

Mitch McConnell’s Brief Flash Of Humanity

Mitch McConnell froze up in public again, the second such incident in the last few weeks.

He just stood there silently —  a gentle, childlike smile flickering across his face, probably for the first time since the Truman administration.

In that moment, while Mitch McConnell’s dying brain struggled and failed to make sense of its present reality, all the dourness was gone from his face. All the downward gravitational pull from a lifetime in the DC swamp. All the seriousness. All the scheming. All the warmongering, tyranny and abusiveness.

In that moment of amnesiac innocence, you’d never be able to tell from looking at Mitch McConnell how many people he’s helped kill. How much suffering he’s helped cause. How much health and thriving he’s frozen out of humanity in his joyless facilitation of corporate dystopia.

All you’d see is a man. A cute, harmless, befuddled old man. All the dark, dense, contracted energy gone from his form in a sweet tender moment of intimate indivisibility.

Capitol Hill is where warmongers and principles go to die. It’s an assisted living facility for psychopaths  —  a nursing home where people who receive sexual gratification from dropping military explosives on foreigners go to wait for their decomposition. The whole place smells like night terrors and urine.

Capitol Hill is a gerontocratic command center where miserable octogenarians in wheelchairs and adult diapers keep pulling the levers of ecocide and nuclear brinkmanship like retirees at a Vegas slot machine as a final fuck you to younger generations who are still capable of enjoying life on this planet. It’s where they warehouse souls too atrophied and mummified to take a stand against the empire in order to give Americans the illusion of living in a democracy.

Joe Biden called McConnell his good friend, and of course they are good friends; they are the same kind of monster. The same variety of spent, half-dead Beltway flotsam made of corporate logos and plastic donor class dinner parties held together by nothing but Aricept and wood glue who’ve been pushing war, militarism, austerity and authoritarianism since the instant they were able to claw their way into elected office.

This is the hub of the global empire. This is what it looks like. Corrupt. Decrepit. Blood-spattered. Shitting itself. And then Hollywood perception managers come in and dress it up as something pretty.

But it all faded away in that one moment of neurological misfire. Not even a distant memory as colors, sounds and feelings swirled ineffably in McConnell’s bewildered mind.

Perhaps one day this will happen to the entire empire. The whole thing suddenly vanishing for the lie it always was, all its managers left blinking stupidly in the sunlight, reaching for tools that aren’t there anymore and word magic that no longer has any power.

Perhaps one day all the illusions will disappear like the network of conceptual constructs in Mitch McConnell’s head. Perhaps one day the empire will call upon its servants and no one will answer, and it will be left there anxiously repeating the call, like an actor trapped onstage repeating a line from the script, awaiting a fellow cast member who missed their cue.

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https://www.globalresearch.ca/covid-reemerges-should-not-panic/5830504

COVID Reemerges: Why You Shouldn’t Panic

According to news reports, new COVID-19 variants are on the rise and are being closely monitored for pandemic spread. In the U.S., EG.5, nicknamed Eris, has been declared a “variant of interest” (VOI), which means it is being monitored for mutations that might make it more hazardous.¹

Australian news are highlighting the BA.2.86 variant, nicknamed Pirola,² while Irish news are warning about an Omicron offshoot dubbed “the real deal” by World Health Organization officials^3,4— just in case you decided that COVID was no big deal anymore.

Seven other COVID variants are also being monitored by the WHO, and an additional three variants have been declared VOI, which calls for more extensive monitoring.⁵

Considering the many variants that have come and gone since 2020, isn’t it curious that media are now all of a sudden focusing on particular COVID strains again, just as we’re moving into fall and influenza season?

As previously predicted, we were given a short respite over the summer, and in the fall, the fearmongering will ramp up again to drive people into the vaccination clinics where they will be pressured to get not just one but three different shots — a booster for COVID, a flu vaccine and a brand-new fast-tracked vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

And, despite proof that masking is useless and lockdowns were a devastating mistake that should never be repeated, these failed strategies will likely be reimplemented as well. Our only hope, really, is mass disobedience, because those in charge are ignoring both science and the law.

Pirola Detected in Four Countries

Pirola has currently only been detected in Denmark, Israel, the U.S. and the U.K. As a “variant under monitoring” (VUM), the epidemiology of Pirola is being investigated and its characteristics and spread are being tracked.⁶

The WHO declared Pirola a VUM due to the number of mutations it carries, but according to some experts, it’s not expected to behave any differently than other Omicron substrains. Francois Balloux, Ph.D., a professor of computational systems biology at University College London, told ABC Australia:⁷

“BA.2.86 is the most striking SARS-CoV-2 strain the world has witnessed since the emergence of Omicron. Over the coming weeks we will see how well BA.2.86 will be faring relative to other Omicron subvariants.

Even in the worst case scenario where BA.2.86 caused a major new wave of cases, we are not expecting to witness comparable levels of severe disease and death than we did earlier in the pandemic when the Alpha, Delta or Omicron variants spread.

Most people on Earth have now been vaccinated and/or infected by the virus. Even if people get reinfected by BA.2.86, immune memory will still allow their immune system to kick in and control the infection far more effectively.”

No Reason to Worry About the ‘Real Deal’ Subvariant

Despite its ominous nickname, the “real deal” variant has only infected three people worldwide as of August 18, 2023, and according to a state medical lab in Denmark, there are no indications to suggest the new strain can cause severe illness.⁸

However, like Pirola, this strain is being monitored due to its collection of mutations, and some scientists are already calling for a return to lockdowns and mask-wearing to “slow down the spread.” Meanwhile, more logically-inclined experts have pointed out that most communities will have high immunity from exposure to previous Omicron strains.⁹

A Coordinated Fear Campaign

A quick look at the latest top mainstream media stories clearly reveal that we’re again facing a coordinated fear campaign orchestrated by government and media:¹⁰

Media are also pushing the idea of a “tripledemic” this fall, and they’re all reading from the same cue cards.

TSA Whistleblower Warns Mask Requirements Will Soon Return

August 18, 2023, Alex Jones of InfoWars reported he’d been contacted by a high-level Transportation Security Administration (TSA) manager who warned that “by the middle of September,” TSA managers and airport employees will have to wear masks again.

By mid-October, all airline passengers will be required to mask up as well, and sometime in December, the TSA expects a full return to the 2021 COVID protocols.¹¹ When managers asked why this would be occurring, they were told it was “because of the new variant in Canada.” Another federal contact that Jones spoke with said the same thing.

Likewise, the U.S. government is again stocking up on COVID-19 equipment and is hiring consultants to enforce COVID-19 “safety protocols.” Some of these contracts have start dates in September and October 2023, and will run into 2024 or 2025.¹²

Supposedly, the variant referred to is Eris (EG.5) — which currently accounts for an estimated 17.3% of new COVID cases in the U.S.¹³ — but how can they know, in mid-August, that this particular variant will suddenly become problematic in mid-September? Obviously they can’t, which means the coming “safety protocols” will again be based on fiction and fabrications.

Are They Gearing Up for Election Interference?

As noted by Jones, the coming COVID restrictions are likely part of “a deliberate attempt by the Biden administration to influence the outcome of the 2024 presidential election” by insisting it’s too dangerous to vote in person so we need mail-in ballots and absentee ballot harvesting¹⁴ — two strategies that make it easier to rig the election results.

The first COVID scare was pushed for two years, and the elections are only a little over a year away. More than likely, they will try to keep the second round of COVID fear porn going for longer than the first round, considering the intention is to make rolling lockdowns and restrictions a permanent state of affairs.

If we give in and go along with this charade, the globalist cabal will get their One World Government and the rest of the global population will be reduced to slaves and serfs.

There’s no question that that is the plan, and all they need to succeed is for people to go along with their false narratives. My recommendation remains the same as it was before: Peaceful civil disobedience. Do not comply. Remember, you cannot comply your way out of tyranny.

Common Risk Factors for Hospitalization and Death

As reported by the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC),¹⁵ Eris appears no more dangerous than previous Omicron variants, all of which have been far milder than the original COVID strain. There are lots of “cases,” yes, but few cases of severe illness and hospitalization. Risk factors for hospitalization and death include:¹⁶

• Being older than 60
• Comorbidities, especially obesity, metabolic syndrome and frailty
• Delayed treatment
• High D-dimer level
• Recent COVID booster

“The good news is that the advice we’ve been sharing from the FLCCC all along still stands — do what you can to prevent getting ill and if you do get it, treat immediately. Early treatment is critical,” the FLCCC writes.¹⁷

Signs and Symptoms to Watch Out For

Common symptoms experienced by those infected in the latest COVID-19 wave (in which BA.4, BA.5, BQ.1.1 and XBB1 variants have predominated) include:¹⁸

If any of these symptoms arise, begin treatment immediately. You can download the FLCCC’s latest treatment recommendations here. As noted by the FLCCC, there is NO need to wait for a confirmed PCR test, as the tests were developed for older variants and have always been unreliable at best anyway.

Another simple and inexpensive yet highly effective treatment strategy that I’ve promoted throughout the COVID pandemic is nebulized hydrogen peroxide. You can find more information about that here, here and here, and in the video below.

Prevention Strategies

As for prevention of COVID-19, influenza and RSV, the FLCCC suggests:¹⁹

• Following their prevention protocol, which includes antimicrobial mouthwash, a nasal spray with 1% povidone-iodine, and immune-boosting supplements like quercetin and zinc, vitamins C and D, melatonin and elderberry syrup.
• Intermittent fasting and balancing your gut microbiome.
• Reduce stress.
• Get good sleep. On average, adults need between seven and nine hours of sleep each night.
• Spend more time outside in the sun and fresh air.

Regarding the use of ivermectin, the FLCCC comments:²⁰

“… if you have significant comorbidities, lack natural immunity, or have a suppressed immune system you may want to try a twice-weekly dose of ivermectin at 0.2 mg/kg.

Likewise, consider it if you are currently suffering from long COVID or post-vaccine syndrome and are not currently being treated with ivermectin.

If you have an upcoming situation where you may have high possible exposure — such as travel, weddings, or conferences — taking daily ivermectin starting two days before departure and either daily or every other day during the period of high exposure is a reasonable approach.

Remember to immediately initiate daily ivermectin at treatment doses (0.4 mg/kg) at the first signs of any kind of viral syndrome. It bears repeating: Early treatment is essential! Most of all, pay no mind to the ongoing drumbeat of fear-mongering that the mainstream media is providing. We know the routine. We’ve been here before.”

Fearmongering Is a Tool to Foster Obedience

Indeed, it’s important to realize that the alleged “threats” posed by COVID, flu and RSV are being magnified for a reason. The biosecurity crisis needs to continue indefinitely because it’s the primary justification behind The Great Reset. At regular intervals, there must be another Chicken Little warning that the sky is still falling.

At some stage, you must realize that the more you give in and obey, the more you must give in and obey. There really is no end to what they can and will take from you, and holding on to the belief that your government would never [fill in the blank] is becoming more dangerous by the day.

It’s also important to realize that your government isn’t the ultimate power. Our government officials take orders too, from what is often referred to as the deep state. It’s not a government at all, but a global, hidden power structure that is accountable to no one, while influencing and manipulating everyone to bring about a new world order.

In years past, this shadowy cabal of power brokers were referred to under the term the New World Order. In 2020, the World Economic Forum came out on the public stage and announced The Great Reset, which is nothing but the NWO rebranded.

Don’t Get Fooled Twice

We can no longer afford to disbelieve the lengths to which this globalist cabal can and will go to seize control. They’ve already told us what the ultimate plan is — to use bioterrorism to take control of the world’s resources, wealth and people.

All we need to do is to believe it, and realize that the only thing giving them the power to impose their will is our fear. As long as we choose fear and demand our government keep us safe, they have every chance of winning.

Hopefully, a clear majority of people will have learned this lesson by now, and won’t fall for the same tricks again, even though they’ve upped the ante with a triple threat, rather than just one. Fear is a tool used to control you, but that only works if you buy into it.

....

 https://corbettreport.substack.com/p/the-looting-conspiracy

The Looting Conspiracy

If you've been following the news, you'll know that shoplifting and looting have been on the rise across the US in recent months, with retailers from San Francisco to Portland to Washington, D.C., forced to close up shop in the face of mounting losses from the spate of increasingly brazen burglaries.

And you'll probably also be aware that the phenomenon is not confined to the US, with businesses in Canada and the UK and France and Australia and elsewhere similarly reporting an increase in robberies and theft since the scamdemic.

And you'll doubtless have heard the various explanations for this phenomenon doled out by the faithful media mouthpieces of the controlled two-party paradigm:

It's soaring inflation and the cost of living crisis that's causing desperate people to turn to crime!

No, it's the godless Commifornia politicians and the "woke" defund-the-police mob who are to blame!

No, it's the scamdemic lockdowns that caused people to forget basic civility!

No, it's the illegal immigrants!

No, it's an organized conspiracy of retail workers!

etc.

Of course, there are grains of truth in all of these explanations, but none of them get to the real heart of the matter. So, what's really behind this explosion in retail theft? And, more to the point, what do the powers-that-shouldn't-be have in store as their "solution" to this (generated) problem? The answers may surprise you.

THE PROBLEM

Although the reality of a surge in shoplifting is disputed by some, it's getting harder to deny that dramatic acts of retail theft are becoming more commonplace in this era of the Brave New Normal.

Just ask retailers in California, where increasingly audacious acts of looting and pillaging are being committed by groups of thieves—and, in some cases, even organized flash mobs—on a daily basis.

And the robbers aren't just targeting luxury retailers (though they certainly are targeting them), they're also going after mom-and-pop stores and local, family-owned businesses, too.

And it's not just soft-on-crime California where burglary is out of control. Similar surges in retail theft are being seen in Seattle and New York and Portland and Chicago and Washington, D.C.

And it's not just a problem in the US. Shoplifting is up in Canada and Ireland and the UK and even the Netherlands.

Heck, shoplifting has gotten so bad in jolly ol' England that upscale supermarket chain Waitrose is now offering free coffee to police officers in a ploy to boost law enforcement's presence at their stores.

So, what on earth is going on here? There are as many explanations for this seemingly global crime spree as there are talking heads and op ed writers.

Broadly speaking, commentators on the left blame the problem on systemic issues, from corporate greed and surging inflation to systemic poverty and oppressive capitalism.

Commentators on the right, meanwhile, pin the blame on progressive legislators' decision to essentially decriminalize shoplifting and on law enforcement's inability to establish law and order in the face of increasingly hostile anti-police sentiment.

As usual, there is an element of truth to all of these claims. But none of these factors are so fundamentally different than they were a few years ago as to account for such a surge in retail theft. Surely there must be something bigger going on here, right?

Of course there is.

One interesting part of this shoplifting pandemonium that is only beginning to get attention is that retailers themselves seem to be adding to the problem. You see, not only is California's Senate looking to pass legislation to stop employees from confronting shoplifters, but more and more companies are now adopting an official policy expressly forbidding their employees from intervening in the event of retail theft, no matter how blatant. Indeed, this past summer, Lowe's and Lululemon both made headlines for firing employees who tried to confront shoplifters. And just last month a Colorado supermarket employee was fired for merely filming a shoplifter in the act (an action for which he was commended by local police).

At the surface level, it's no surprise that big corporations and box store retailers would implement a no-confrontation policy. They're worried about the legal liability they may have if an employee/shoplifter confrontation ends in injury or death. But there's an even more fundamental question we have to ask if we want to know why corporations are firing their own employees even as they're losing billions of dollars or why legislators are working to decriminalize shoplifting even as retail theft explodes or why the establishment media are effectively advertising to would-be thieves that they will not be prosecuted or even confronted no matter how blatant their criminality. And that question is: cui bono?

THE REACTION

If you're a regular person, you might wonder how corporations or politicians or law enforcement could possibly benefit from increased shoplifting. If nothing else, it's a drain on the economy, isn't it? And, if unchecked, it could embolden criminals to escalate their actions into the realm of aggravated robbery and violent crime, couldn't it?

How could anyone possibly benefit from this criminality?

But let's imagine for a moment that you're not a regular, psychologically stable, law-abiding citizen. Let's imagine instead that you're a psychopathic eugenicist hell-bent on bringing in a technocratic police state, one in which you have total control of the economy and every transaction taking place within it. In that case, your agenda might be very different from that of the average person.

You may, for example, be an online business owner who wants to put regular, brick-and-mortar retailers out of business altogether.

Or you may be a technocrat looking for ways to get the public to accept increased biometric surveillance of their activities and to condition them into presenting their digital ID during every transaction.

Or you may be a central bankster hoping to get Joe Sixpack and Jane Soccermom to embrace the new cashless economy that you're planning to foist on them.

And if that's the case, then, boy, is a surge in shoplifting (or even the perception of such a surge) just the solution for you!

After all, what "anti-theft" measures are being implemented on the back of this retail crime wave?

Well, retailers are increasingly deciding to lock up their products, effectively treating shoppers as criminals-until-proven-otherwise and putting a further inconvenience in their shopping experience.

And, as a result, frustrated shoppers are turning their backs on brick-and-mortar businesses and vowing to buy everything on Amazon. (Or, more cynically, characters that may or may not be completely fictional are posting TikTok videos saying that they're turning their backs on brick-and-mortar business and vowing to buy everything on Amazon and getting plenty of tabloid press coverage for doing so.)

Other stores are using the shoplifting scare as cover for putting up biometric scanners (for the purpose of identifying repeat shoplifters, you understand).

And yet others are using the threat of thieves as an excuse to expedite their cashless payment agenda, preparing the public for the future (or is that the present?) in which you'll have to download an app or scan your palm print in order to enter a store and all the items you leave with will be automatically charged to your account.

Yes, as usual, the real action in this unfolding drama is in the reaction. Whether the problem of retail theft is authentic or completely synthetic, whether it's a natural phenomenon or part of a grand conspiracy, whether it's actually happening or just made-up media hype is beside the point. The point is that once you feel the problem to be real, the would-be social engineers know that they can present their pre-arranged "solution" to this problem to a terrified public and the majority will go along with it.

"Of course we need to fingerprint and iris scan to shop in the real world these days. And of course we can't use cash to make our purchases anymore. How else could we possibly solve the shoplifting crisis?!"

THE REAL SOLUTION

So, assuming we don't want to go down the technocrats' pre-determined route of increasing surveillance and cashless technology to "solve" the shoplifting crisis, what can we actually do?

One of the simplest things to note about the most brazen acts of organized shoplifting is that there is a common denominator to these events: they all take place in large urban areas. You don't see flash mobs of dozens of people looting the local luxury retailer in Smalltown, Nowheresville, if only because such rural communities don't tend to have luxury retailers. So, on the personal level, taking a cue from Jason Aldean's recent surprise number one hit song, perhaps one way to insulate yourself from this problem is to relocate out of the big cities.

But on a broader level, we can (as usual) take our cue about which direction we should be heading in by simply doing the exact opposite of what the Powers That Shouldn't Be want us to do.

So, if they want us to shun brick-and-mortar retail in favour of online shopping, we should be supporting the brick-and-mortar stores!

If they want us to submit to giving up our palm prints or downloading an app in order to enter their stores, we should boycott the stores that implement such systems.

If they want to reduce the shopping experience down to the most depersonalized, computerized, soulless interaction possible—complete with locked-down products and cashless payments and workerless stores—then we should be striving to create and support the vibrant, human, face-to-face interactions of the agora.

My readers will already know what this peer-to-peer economy entails: people transacting in cash or survival currencies in the free market, supporting local growers in REKO rings and farm shares, getting to know local businesses and choosing to support sellers who have shown that they will stand up against the authoritarians.

And you will already know how to do this: by meeting like-minded people, building community with them and engaging in buycotts to direct your resources (be that in the form of cash or complementary or alternative currency or precious metals or decentralized currency) toward those businesses you wish to support.

This is what the technocrats fear the most: that, rather than panicking and looking to governments and technocrats to "protect us" from the bad guys by treating us all as prisoners and locking down society with their technology of enslavement, we will take matters into our own hands, eschew the big corporations and government, and create (and police) our own marketplace of free human beings.

We know what we need to be doing, so what are we waiting for? Let's go out there and do it.