Veteran diplomat: US confronts China to protect supremacy, not security
Aaron Maté | thegrayzone.com | 2020-12-26
Veteran US diplomat Chas Freeman says that despite talk of a New Cold War between the US and China, the US in reality is reacting aggressively to a rising Chinese power whose economic gains threaten US global supremacy. “We’ve become accustomed over the past 75 years to be the overlord in East Asia,” Freeman says. Chas Freeman, who served in top State Department positions and as Richard Nixon’s chief interpreter on his historic 1972 visit to China, discusses the state …
thegrayzone.com/2020/12/25/veteran-diplo…
WARNING: Covid Vaccines!
Peter Koenig | dissidentvoice.org | 2020-12-25
Did you know that the US Government since 1988 paid as of 1 December 2020 more than 4.4 billion dollars to vaccine-injury victims? It’s your money,Taxpayers money. This is Health Services and Service Administration Vaccine Injury Compensation Data The National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP), was set up in 1988 to compensate for the National …
dissidentvoice.org/2020/12/warning-covid…
Warning: Covid Vaccines! Huge Risks, Huge Injuries — Huge Compensations?
Peter Koenig | globalresearch.ca | 2020-12-25
Did you know that the US Government since 1988 paid as of 1 December 2020 more than 4.4 billion dollars to vaccine-injury victims? — It’s your money — Taxpayers Money. This is Health Services and Service Administration Vaccine Injury Compensation …
globalresearch.ca/warning-covid-vaccines…
For Mao’s birthday, read what he had to say about the U.S
Fight Back | fightbacknews.org | 2020-12-26
To mark the 127th anniversary of the birth of Chinese revolutionary Mao Zedong, December 26, Fight Back News Service is circulating quotes from some of his writings on the United States and its role in the world. | “Chiang Kai-shek and his supporters, the U.S. reactionaries, are all paper tigers too. Speaking of U.S. imperialism, people seem to feel that it is terrifically strong. Chinese reactionaries are using the ‘strength’ of the United States to frighten the Chinese people. But it will be proved that the U.S. reactionaries, like all the reactionaries in history, do not have much strength. In the United Stat…
www.fightbacknews.org/2020/12/25/mao-s-b…
John le Carré (1931-2020) on the Iraq War, Corporate Power, the Exploitation of Africa & More
Staff | democracynow.org | 2020-12-25
The world-renowned British novelist John le Carré died on December 12 at the age of 89. Le Carré established himself as a master writer of spy novels in a career that spanned more than half a century. He worked in the British Secret Service from the late 1950s until the early ’60s, at the height of the Cold War — which was the topic of his early novels. His later works focused on the inequities of globalization, unchecked multinational corporate power and the role national spy services play in protecting corporate interests. His best-known books include “The Spy Who Came in from the Cold” and “The Constant…
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10 times Imperial made us smile in 2020
imperial.ac.uk | 2020-12-26
This year has been far from typical, but Imperial College London has created some rainbows amongst the clouds.
imperial.ac.uk/news/210613/10-times-imperial-made-smile-2020
US authorities probe “intentional” blast in Nashville
Online News Editor | laprensalatina.com | 2020-12-26
Washington, Dec 25 (efe-epa).- Three people suffered non-critical injuries Friday in an “intentional” explosion in the entertainment district of Nashville, a city of nearly 700,000 people in the south-central United States, authorities said. “We know of no other imminent danger to the city at this point,” Nashville Metropolitan Police Department (NMPD) spokesman Don Aaron told …
laprensalatina.com/us-authorities-probe-…
“The United States of America Has Gone Mad”: John le Carré on Iraq War, Israel & U.S. Militarism
Staff | democracynow.org | 2020-12-25
The legendary British author John le Carré has died at the age of 89. In the lead-up to the Iraq invasion, John le Carré was a fierce critic of President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. In January 2003, he published a widely read essay called “The United States of America Has Gone Mad.” John le Carré read the essay during an appearance on Democracy Now! in 2010.
www.democracynow.org/2020/12/25/the_unit…
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The DC Political Monopoly Just Doesn’t Get It
Richard D. Wolff | counterpunch.org | 2020-12-25
The spectacle of political “leaders” disconnected from basic social realities survived Trump’s defeat. He and his GOP had shown little grasp of the two great crises of 2020: the crash of capitalism and the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump’s resulting political defeat did not reconnect them. The Biden Democrats already show they learned little from Trump’s loss; disconnection governs them too.
counterpunch.org/2020/12/25/the-dc-polit…
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The DC Political Monopoly Just Doesn’t Get It
Richard D. Wolff | counterpunch.org | 2020-12-25
The spectacle of political “leaders” disconnected from basic social realities survived Trump’s defeat. He and his GOP had shown little grasp of the two great crises of 2020: the crash of capitalism and the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump’s resulting political defeat did not reconnect them. The Biden Democrats already show they learned little from Trump’s loss; disconnection governs them too.
counterpunch.org/2020/12/25/the-dc-polit…
Former Chief Science Officer for Pfizer Says “Second Wave” Faked on False-Positive COVID Tests, “Pandemic Is Over”
Ralph Lopez | globalresearch.ca | 2020-12-25
First published by Global Research on September 24, 2020, this analysis of former V-P of Pfizer Michael Yeadon has been the object of censorship | In a stunning development, a former Chief Science Officer for the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer says “there …
globalresearch.ca/chief-science-officer-…
US Airports Are Portals For Disease Spread
_____ | popularresistance.org | 2020-12-25
I recently traveled to Venezuela to be an observer for its National Assembly election and was struck by a stark difference between the ways Venezuela and the United States are handling the COVID-19 pandemic. | My experience at the airport in Caracas, Venezuela, gave me a taste of what a coordinated public health approach looks like in practice, compared to the disjointed politicized approach in the United States. Airports in the United States are currently serving as uncontrolled portals of disease spread. Venezuela demonstrates it doesn’t have to be this way and that mitigating the spread of infection can be don…
popularresistance.org/us-airports-are-po…
2020 Latin America And The Caribbean Tn Review: The Pink Tide May Rise Again
_____ | popularresistance.org | 2020-12-25
The balance between the US drive to dominate Latin America and the Caribbean and its counterpart, the Bolivarian cause of regional independence and integration, tipped portside by year end 2020 with major popular victories, including reversal of the coup in Bolivia and the constitutional referendum in Chile. Central has been the persistence of Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution against the asphyxiating US blockade, along with the defiance by Cuba and Nicaragua of US regime-change measures. | The grand struggle played out against the backdrop of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, impacting countries differently depen…
popularresistance.org/2020-latin-america…
UK Queen’s speech addresses impact of Covid-19 pandemic
Online News Editor | laprensalatina.com | 2020-12-25
London, Dec 25 (efe-epa).- The United Kingdom’s Queen Elizabeth II on Friday sent a message of encouragement to those affected by the Covid-19 pandemic during her traditional Christmas Day speech. In a pre-recorded message broadcast at 3 pm GMT, as is tradition, the queen said: “a year that has necessarily kept people apart has in …
laprensalatina.com/uk-queens-speech-addr…
Pope Francis celebrates Christmas Eve Mass, calls for brotherhood
Online News Editor | laprensalatina.com | 2020-12-25
By Gonzalo Sanchez Vatican City, Dec 24 (efe-epa).- Pope Francis on Thursday officiated at a sparsely attended Christmas Eve Midnight Mass, urging the faithful to observe the government’s pandemic curfew and to aid the poor and those around the world who are being treated unjustly. This year, the Christmas Eve Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica …
laprensalatina.com/pope-francis-celebrat…
Independent Musicians Build Solidarity Amid Pandemic by Forming Nationwide Union
Staff | truthout.org | 2020-12-25
Los Angeles — Musi ≠cian Josephine Shet ≠ty, aka Kohi ≠noor ≠gasm, was prepar ≠ing for her West Coast spring tour in March when the pan ≠dem ≠ic-relat ≠ed can ≠cel ≠la ≠tions start ≠ed rolling in. | Like many musi ≠cians, Shetty’s liveli ≠hood is pieced togeth ≠er from part-time work. She per ≠forms at under ≠ground spaces and small c…
truthout.org/articles/independent-musici…
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Indigenous Nations Handle COVID as Federal and State Governments Fall Short
Staff | truthout.org | 2020-12-25
As the months roll by, the pandemic continues to hit Indigenous nations hard. But this phenomenon is not new. Epidemics have been part of colonialism since settlers arrived. Health inequities tell us that illnesses have different outcomes on different populations; however, leading medical professionals warn the general public of the dangers of oversimplifying health data. They don’t tell the whole story. And, in the c…
truthout.org/articles/indigenous-nations…
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The virus that shut down the world: The yawning gulf between rich and poor
news.un.org | 2020-12-25
Inequality between the rich and poor worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic and poverty increased, for the first time in decades. In part two of our series on how the virus has changed the world, we look at the ways the pandemic has pushed back efforts to create more equitable societies.
news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2020/12/1…
Japan unemployment falls to 2.9 pct in November
Online News Editor | laprensalatina.com | 2020-12-25
Tokyo, Dec 25 (efe-epa).- The unemployment rate in Japan fell in November to 2.9 percent of the workforce, two tenths less than the level registered last October, according to data released Friday by the government. The 3.1 percent unemployment rate registered in October, linked to the ongoing impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, was the highest …
laprensalatina.com/japan-unemployment-fa…
Nissan’s monthly sales fall 9.9 pct in November
Online News Editor | laprensalatina.com | 2020-12-25
Tokyo, Dec 25 (efe-epa).- Japanese automotive firm Nissan announced Friday that in November its global sales fell by 9.9 percent compared to the same month of 2019, to 376,442 vehicles. Like other companies in the sector, Nissan has been impacted this year by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, but, unlike other companies, it has …
laprensalatina.com/nissans-monthly-sales…
What’s Not Being Said About the Pfizer Coronavirus Vaccine. “Human Guinea Pigs”?
F. William Engdahl | globalresearch.ca | 2020-12-25
The Pharma giant Pfizer use an experimental technology known as gene editing, specifically mRNA gene-editing, something never before used in vaccines. Before we rush to get jabbed in hopes of some immunity, we should know more about the radical experimental technology and its lack of precision.
globalresearch.ca/what-not-said-pfizer-c…
PDF of December 24 issue
Workers World Party | workers.org | 2020-12-25
Download the 12-page PDF. Georgia Senate runoff Redbaiting derails people’s needs Youth in vanguard; Russell Maroon Shoatz; The real 2020 heroes; Amazon union drive in Ala.; Five hottest years; Vaccine chaos; Editorial: Too little, too late GLOBAL: Amauta in Peru; ‘Soft coup’ attempt in Cuba; BLM in France. TEAR DOWN . . . | Continue reading PDF of December 24 issue at Workers.org…
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Turkey’s Erdogan indicates better ties with Israel possible
MEE and agencies | middleeasteye.net | 2020-12-25
Turkey’s Erdogan indicates better ties with Israel possible | President says talks at intelligence level continue between the two sides but Israel’s policies on Palestine ‘unacceptable’ | MEE and agencies | Fri, 12/25/2020 – 11: 19 | The two countries have had several fallings out in recent years, despite strong commercial ties, expelling ambassadors in 2018 (AFP) | Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ind…
www.middleeasteye.net/news/turkey-israel…
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COVID-19: A Fabricated Second “Tidal Wave” of Poverty and Injustice
David Skripac | globalresearch.ca | 2020-12-25
Here we are at the end of a year filled with upheaval, facing yet another round of lockdowns, this time ostensibly intended to fight off a supposed “second wave of COVID-19.” | In the foreground, we have the completely co-opted mainstream …
globalresearch.ca/covid-19-fabricated-se…
Demonstrators besiege California prison HQ: ‘Mass releases now!’
Judy Greenspan | workers.org | 2020-12-25
Sacramento, Calif. Dec. 17 — Under the banner “From Balloons to Bullhorns,” an angry group of protesters converged on the steps of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to demand mass releases of incarcerated people due to the COVID-19 epidemic. The vigil and rally organized by Sistas With Voices . . . | Continue reading Demonstrators besiege California prison HQ: ‘Mass releases now!’ at Workers.org…
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COVID-19 Exposed the Urgency for a Right to Housing
Marisa Endicott | progressive.org | 2020-12-25
Without giving renters the option to buy their homes, this crisis could be even worse than the Great Recession.
progressive.org/dispatches/covid-urgency…
Pope Francis: Covid vaccines must be made available for all
Online News Editor | laprensalatina.com | 2020-12-25
Vatican City, Dec 25 (efe-epa).- Pope Francis on Friday used his Christmas Day address to urge leaders to ensure that Covid-19 vaccines are made available to everyone, especially the most vulnerable. Francis delivered his Urbi et Orbi speech amid an absence of the usual crowds given the coronavirus situation in Italy, which has been placed …
laprensalatina.com/pope-francis-covid-va…
1,158 Strikes Since March First
_____ | popularresistance.org | 2020-12-25
Back in 2019, Payday was one of the few national outlets in the country to cover the first-ever statewide teachers strike in South Carolina. Now, teachers in school districts throughout South Carolina are increasingly calling “sickout” strikes to protest unsafe COVID conditions. | A growing sickout strike in the suburbs of the state capitol Columbia is now entering its second week. Our friends at The State have the story: | “Our main thing is to go back to the hybrid model,” said an Airport High School teacher, who asked to remain anonymous. Schools in the district previously operated on a rotating two-day in-per…
popularresistance.org/1158-strikes-since…
COVID-19, The Climate Crisis, And Mutual Aid
_____ | popularresistance.org | 2020-12-25
After COVID-19 struck in spring 2020, the absence of a concerted federal response prompted people across the country to begin self-organizing everything from food distribution to sewing squads to shelter. That work continues today, drawing on a long tradition. | “Mutual aid,” a concept coined by the Russian naturalist and anarchist Peter Kropotkin in his 1902 Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution, refers to the principles of cooperation, and of people joining together to help each other. It ran counter to the then-hegemonic Darwinian theories emphasizing competition and survival of the fittest. Kropotkin did not deny…
popularresistance.org/covid-19-the-clima…
With Winter Comes More Stagnant Air, Intensifying COVID-19 Risks
Staff | truthout.org | 2020-12-25
At around 11 AM on November 4, Germaine Patterson stepped outside of her Clairton, Pennsylvania, home to exercise in the backyard. Dirty air sent her quickly retreating back inside. | “I started having heart palpitations,” she told EHN. “I know it was due to the air quality.” | For seven straight days in early November, air pollution levels in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, exceeded limits set to protect public health. Unusually warm weather had triggered a hazardous temperature inversion: A low layer of…
truthout.org/articles/with-winter-comes-…
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South Korea’s Covid-19 cases hit record daily high
Online News Editor | laprensalatina.com | 2020-12-25
Seoul, Dec 25 (efe-epa).- South Korea recorded a new daily record in the number of Covid-19 cases on Friday with 1,241, as the government called on residents to redouble efforts to stop the spread of the epidemic that has caused 773 deaths. The figure provided by the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) far …
laprensalatina.com/south-koreas-covid-19…
South Africa reports record daily number of Covid-19 cases
Online News Editor | laprensalatina.com | 2020-12-25
Johannesburg, Dec 25 (efe-epa).- South Africa reported a record 14,305 new cases of Covid-19 in 24 hours amid a second wave of the virus, driven by a potent new variant. According to the latest figures, which run up until Thursday, South Africa, the epicenter of the virus in Africa, has logged a total of 968,500 …
laprensalatina.com/south-africa-reports-…
COVID-19 Relief Bill Includes $500 Million to Buy American Dairy
Joseph Parampathu | indybay.org | 2020-12-25
The proposed Bipartisan COVID-19 Emergency Relief Act of 2020 set to be signed into law includes $500 million in government funding allocated towards the “Dairy Donation Program” which provides payments from the government to dairy producers.
indybay.org/newsitems/2020/12/23/1883907…
Stealing Native Children: the Revolting Legacy of Canada’s Residential School System
Stanley L. Cohen | counterpunch.org | 2020-12-25
Tsi Wá: ton tsi Enskarihwahserón: ni — Tsi Niká: ien Rati’terón: tahkwe ne Ronnonkwehón: we Tsi Ionteweiénsta Ronwati’terontáhkhwa “… [I]f anything is to be done with the Indian, we must catch him very young. The children must be kept constantly within the circle of civilized conditions.” -Nicholas Flood Davin, Report on Industrial schools for Indians and Half-Breeds, 1879. Of late,…
counterpunch.org/2020/12/25/stealing-nat…
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JatiIndia Flag of the Week: Atrocities Caste, Present and Future
Priti Gulati Cox | counterpunch.org | 2020-12-25
Sandip, Ramu, Lavkush and Ravi. Those are the names of the upper-caste Thakurs who tortured and gang-raped a 19-year-old girl in Hathras, Utter Pradesh, JatiIndia, on September 14. Folding his palms, [Manisha’s father] pleaded, ‘Our daughters are no longer safe. We are helpless, I request the nation to stand with us, help us get justice…
counterpunch.org/2020/12/25/jatiindia-fl…
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Power Requires Structure, Structure Requires Discipline
Vincent Emanuele | counterpunch.org | 2020-12-25
counterpunch.org/2020/12/25/power-requir…
Power Requires Structure, Structure Requires Discipline
Vincent Emanuele | counterpunch.org | 2020-12-25
counterpunch.org/2020/12/25/power-requir…
Is Society Collapsing?
Kirkpatrick Sale | counterpunch.org | 2020-12-25
Twenty-five years ago, when the high-tech Second Industrial Revolution had just begun, I made a bet with an editor from Wired magazine that global society led by the United States would collapse in the year 2020 from a confluence of causes created by modern technology out of control.
counterpunch.org/2020/12/25/is-society-c…
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Thebes of Myth and History
Evaggelos Vallianatos | counterpunch.org | 2020-12-25
Thebes was one of about 1,000 poleis (city-states) spread all over the mainland of classical Greece, the islands of the Aegean and Ionian seas, the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor, north Africa, southern France, eastern Spain and southern Italy and Sicily. There were so many Greeks and Greek city-states in Italy and Sicily the Romans…
counterpunch.org/2020/12/25/thebes-of-my…
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U.S. attempts ‘soft coup’ in Cuba
| workers.org | 2020-12-25
By Rosa Miriam Elizalde From Resumen English Dec. 10 ‚àí Invasions get bad press — those close-ups of foreign boots marching over a beach or a neighborhood like El Chorrillo in Panama in 1989, where they still don’t know the total number of people who the U.S. troops killed. After . . . | Continue reading U.S. attempts ‘soft coup’ in Cuba at Workers.org…
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Core Module of China’s 1st Space Station to Be Launched in 2021
telesurenglish.net | 2020-12-25
China’s Manned Space Program chief designer Zhou Jianping on Friday informed that his nation will launch the core module of the country’s first space station next spring. | RELATED: | China’s Spacecraft Takes off From Moon With Samples | The central module will be sent by the Long March 5B rocket, a heavy-lift launch vehicle that made its successful maiden flight in May. | “The rocket will be released from the Wenchang Spacecraft Launch Site, in Hainan Province,” Jianping said, adding that…
telesurenglish.net/news/Core-Module-of-C…
Coalition sues Trump administration over ‘outrageous assault’ on Tongass National Forest protections
Jessica Corbett | nationofchange.org | 2020-12-25
“Trump’s reckless plan to clearcut old-growth trees in the Tongass will irreversibly damage our climate, kill wildlife, and devastate Southeast Alaska communities.”
nationofchange.org/2020/12/25/coalition-…
Death Row, Texas: A lonely birthday for innocent Rodney Reed
Gloria Rubac | workers.org | 2020-12-25
Bastrop, Texas Rodney Reed’s family and supporters had a press conference and rallied outside the Bastrop County Courthouse, with its Confederate monuments 25 yards away on the lawn. Reed was railroaded to death row inside the courthouse in 1998 by Bastrop County’s historically racist injustice system. Rodrick Reed, speaking to . . . | Continue reading Death Row, Texas: A lonely birthday for innocent Rodney Reed at Workers.org…
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Ma Don’t Take No Mess
Seth Sandronsky | counterpunch.org | 2020-12-25
The Netflix film of the late August Wilson’s play Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is a knockout. His writing informs and moves us on many levels. One is class. That is who makes and takes black music, the subject of Gerald Horne’s Jazz and Justice: Racism and the Political Economy of the Music (Monthly Review Press,…
counterpunch.org/2020/12/25/ma-dont-take…
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Ma Don’t Take No Mess
Seth Sandronsky | counterpunch.org | 2020-12-25
The Netflix film of the late August Wilson’s play Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is a knockout. His writing informs and moves us on many levels. One is class. That is who makes and takes black music, the subject of Gerald Horne’s Jazz and Justice: Racism and the Political Economy of the Music (Monthly Review Press,…
counterpunch.org/2020/12/25/ma-dont-take…
www.counterpunch.org/wp-content/dropzone…
“I Am the Man They Call Sue Mundy”: Civil War Kentucky’s “Female” Confederate Guerrilla
Terry Bisson | counterpunch.org | 2020-12-25
There was no Sue Mundy. There was an orphan boy. There was a clever, unscrupulous newspaperman. And there was a long, cruel and bitter war. It was a war between slavery and freedom, between secession and union, between North and South. Kentucky was split: Southern in culture and sympathy, a slave state (originally part of Virginia), but Northern in commerce and strategic importance.
counterpunch.org/2020/12/25/i-am-the-man…