Daily Archives: December 27, 2020

2020-12-27: Social Media Postees

Please be social by posting these ‘POSTEES’ on social media! (Copy the text of the postee below, then paste it on social media and the story images will also appear.)

Trump’s Intervention Puts Flawed But Necessary COVID Relief Bill at Risk
Staff | truthout.org | 2020-12-27
More than seven months after the House first passed the HEROES Act, last week both chambers of Congress finally got around to actually legislating a new COVID-19 relief bill. For a New York minute, it looked as if the millions of Americans whose unemployment benefits stand to run out this weekend would see at least a temporary reprieve. | And then, seemingly out of nowhere, just before Christmas,
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‘Our Government Needs to Protect Workers, Not Corporations’
Jessica Martinez | zcomm.org | 2020-12-27
Interview on worker safety and Covid relief…
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After Trump Blocked UN Inquiry on Racist Violence, NGOs Are Conducting Their Own
Prof. Marjorie Cohn | globalresearch.ca | 2020-12-27
Shortly after the public lynching of George Floyd, the U.S. Human Rights Network and the ACLU organized an international coalition of more than 600 organizations and individuals to urge the United Nations Human Rights Council to convene a commission of …
globalresearch.ca/after-trump-blocked-un…

Democracies Don’t Start Wars. But U.S. Democrats Do
Philip Giraldi | globalresearch.ca | 2020-12-27
It may have been President Bill Clinton who once justified his wrecking of the Balkans by observing that liberal interventionism to bring about regime change is a good thing because “Democracies don’t start wars with other democracies.” Or it might …
globalresearch.ca/democracies-dont-start…

Hundreds of Thousands of Birds fell out of the Sky in Southwest and now we Know Why
Juan Cole | zcomm.org | 2020-12-27
The Megadrought is clearly not over, 21 years in. In fact, we stand at the beginning of lots of Megadroughts…
zcomm.org/znetarticle/hundreds-of-thousa…

Europe’s Lack of Confidence Hampers Signing of Trade Agreement with China
Paul Antonopoulos | globalresearch.ca | 2020-12-27
After seven years of tough negotiations, the European Union and China were close to signing an investment agreement. However, at the last moment, it hit a road block as it faced pressure from those wanting Washington’s involvement, or those wanting …
globalresearch.ca/europe-lack-confidence…

Two injured in Israeli airstrikes in Gaza
Peoples Dispatch | peoplesdispatch.org | 2020-12-27
The airstrikes on Saturday also caused damage to a hospital, a mosque and a several residential buildings. Electricity and water supply of the citizens of Gaza was also affected…
peoplesdispatch.org/2020/12/27/two-injur…

Colonialist injustice: The pardoning of the Blackwater killers
Richard Becker | liberationnews.org | 2020-12-27
Along with a motley collection of wealthy swindlers and fraudsters, President Donald Trump on Dec. 22 pardoned four former Blackwater private contractors (mercenaries) convicted in the infamous Sept. 16, 2007, Nisour Square massacre in Baghdad. Seventeen Iraqis were killed and 14 seriously wounded in an unprovoked attack by the four, who indiscriminately fired machine guns, …
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Veteran Diplomat: U.S. Confronts China to Protect Supremacy, Not Security
_____ | strategic-culture.org | 2020-12-27
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. | By Aaron MATÉ | 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 of US-China relations and flashpoints of conflict such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Xinjiang. | “Since around 1870, we have been the…
strategic-culture.org/news/2020/12/27/ve…

Brother of Biden’s top aide takes Amazon lobbying job, as president-elect packs government with tech industry players
rt.com | 2020-12-27
Joe Biden has staffed his transition team with a host of former Silicon Valley players, and now a brother of his top White House aide has landed a lobbying gig with Amazon. Can Biden be trusted to rein in big tech? | …
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Washington’s favorite Venezuelan opposition leader exposes links to Colombian paramilitary and narco networks
Ben Norton | thegrayzone.com | 2020-12-27
While the US government and media glorify Leopoldo López as a new MLK, the Venezuelan opposition leader collaborates with Colombia’s narco-affiliated, death squad-sponsoring former President àÅlvaro Uribe and his protegé Iván Duque. According to Western corporate media outlets and human rights groups, Venezuela’s far-right opposition leader Leopoldo López is a hallowed saint. The New York Times glorified López as the would-be “savior” of Venezuela, akin to none other than Martin Luther King Jr., while Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International …
thegrayzone.com/2020/12/26/leopoldo-lope…

Mass Media Propaganda Is Enemy #1
_____ | strategic-culture.org | 2020-12-27
By Caitlin JOHNSTONE | The most Orwellian tool of our rulers which does the most damage and affects the most lives is not surveillance, nor police militarization, nor government secrecy, but domestic mass media propaganda. It’s also the most overlooked. It’s good to protest the other mechanisms of authoritarian control, but propaganda is enemy number one. | You don’t need the ability to spy on dissident groups if you can control public thought enough to prevent those groups from forming in the first place. You don’t need the ability to quash public uprisings if you can propagandize people away from rising up at a…
strategic-culture.org/news/2020/12/27/ma…

What prisons are like during COVID lockdown: interview with a Pennsylvania incarcerated worker
Joe Piette | workers.org | 2020-12-27
Philadelphia Since the start of November 2020, more than 3,000 incarcerated workers and at least 1,200 guards and staff have tested positive for COVID-19 in the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (PA DOC). Since last March, at least 58 people behind DOC bars have died from the pandemic, the majority of . . . | Continue reading What prisons are like during COVID lockdown: interview with a Pennsylvania incarcerated worker at Workers.org
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Covid-19: How Likely Is a Second Wave?
Prof. Paul Kirkham | globalresearch.ca | 2020-12-27
Important text first published on September 25, 2020 | Executive Summary | Evidence presented in this paper indicates that the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 pandemic as an event in the UK is essentially complete, with ongoing and anticipated challenges well …
globalresearch.ca/how-likely-second-wave…

Covid-19: Dubai cuts 2021 budget as pandemic impacts economy
MEE and agencies | middleeasteye.net | 2020-12-27
Covid-19: Dubai cuts 2021 budget as pandemic impacts economy | Emirate expects to reduce its budget by $2.6bn after tourism and other sectors are devastated by the virus | MEE and agencies | Sun, 12/27/2020 – 14: 11 | Tourism has long been an economic mainstay of Dubai, which welcomed more than 16 million visitors last year (AFP) | Dubai said Sunday it expects to cut its budget to $15.5bn in 2021 after its e…
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New Organizing Model Helps Build Worker Power Among the Unorganized During COVID
Staff | truthout.org | 2020-12-27
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and lockdowns started in March, a new class of “essential workers” continued to go to work across the United States under new dangerous conditions. As stories came out about workers lacking personal protective equipment, or PPE, and working in crowded workplaces, union workers began to take action. They stopped work, organized sick-outs, won hazard pay, protested employer COVID-19 p…
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US Economic Sanctions On Cuba In The context Of The COVID-19 Pandemic
_____ | popularresistance.org | 2020-12-27
On March 12, 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic.1 Shortly after that, on Friday, March 26, during his participation in a virtual summit of leaders from the G20 countries, UN Secretary-General António Guterres appealed for the waiving of sanctions that could undermine countries’ capacities to respond to the pandemic.2 A few days later,the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Hilal Elver, made a similar call for the immediate lifting of international sanctions to prevent hunger crises in countries hit by the pandemic: “The continued imposition of crippling economic sanctions on S…
popularresistance.org/us-economic-sancti…

Covid expert Fauci says pandemic’s ‘WORST YET TO COME’ (yet again)
rt.com | 2020-12-27
Infectious diseases expert Dr. Anthony Fauci has warned Americans that the worst ravages of the coronavirus pandemic are yet to come. But the government physician’s proclamation is not his first doom-laden prediction. | Speaking on CNN’s ‘State of the Union’ on Sunday, Fauci was asked whether he believes the “worst is still yet to come” in the ongoing pandemic. | “I do,” Fauci replied, predicting a “post-seasonal — in the sense of Christmas, New Years — surge.” | Dr. Anthony Fauci says he believes the worst is still yet to come in the coronavirus pandemic following the holiday season. “I share the co…
rt.com/usa/510863-fauci-covid-worst-pred…

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World must be ready for the next pandemic, UN says on first International Day of Epidemic Preparedness
news.un.org | 2020-12-27
The United Nations is commemorating the first International Day of Epidemic Preparedness on Sunday, underscoring the need to learn lessons from the coronavirus pandemic, and urging greater solidarity within and among countries, to deal with future health emergencies.
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2020: ‘Biggest international challenge’ ever taken on by UN humanitarians
news.un.org | 2020-12-27
The COVID-19 pandemic has been the “biggest international challenge” since the Second World War, according to the United Nations and has been the focus of the work of the UN’s humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, throughout 2020.
news.un.org/feed/view/en/story/2020/12/1…

Czech Republic starts coronavirus vaccine rollout
yenisafak.com | 2020-12-27
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis became the first person in the country to be given a vaccine against the new coronavirus on Sunday, as European Union member states begin a pushback against the pandemic which is surging across the continent.Hungary and Slovakia stole a march on their fellow EU nations as they began vaccinating people against COVID-19 on Saturday. Germany officially launches its inoculation campaign on Sunday, along with coutries such as France and Italy.Babis received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at the Central Military Hospital in Prague, just before other hospitals in the capital and second-lar…
yenisafak.com/en/world/czech-republic-st…

Selected Articles: Warning: COVID Vaccines! Huge Risks, Huge Injuries — Huge Compensations?
Global Research News | globalresearch.ca | 2020-12-27
Samos Dreaming: Reflecting on the Life, History and Social Injustice on Greece’s Samos Island | By Chris Jones, December 27, 2020 | The Covid cases here are thankfully small but the lock-downs apply all the same with the closure of busin…
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Tuesday 12/29: COVID-19 Vaccine & the Black Community: Safety, Efficacy & Dispelling Fear
FB Post Feed: NAACP Silicon Valley | indybay.org | 2020-12-27
Online via Zoom…
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Sanders Condemns Trump for Allowing Millions to Lose Unemployment Benefits
Staff | truthout.org | 2020-12-27
Sen. Bernie Sanders on Sunday led progressive lawmakers in condemning President Donald Trump’s refusal to approve a $900 billion Covid-19 relief and spending bill as unemployment coverage expired for millions of Americans on Saturday night as a result of his intransigence. | “What the president is doing right now is unbelievably cruel,” Sanders (I-Vt.) said during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday morning. “Many millions of people are losing their extended unemployment benefits. They’re…
truthout.org/articles/sanders-condemns-t…

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Housing Activists Are Fighting Evictions In The Streets
_____ | popularresistance.org | 2020-12-27
Philadelphia is facing a housing crisis with little help from the Democratic city council, mayor, or governor. In the city, 5,700 people are currently unhoused. Almost a thousand sleep on the streets on a given night. But more than that, this year has already seen 4,400 evictions filed in Philly courts. Another 2,000 renters are facing the very real threat of eviction and becoming part of the unhoused. This multifaceted crisis of housing is taking place as the numbers of those infected with Covid-19 are skyrocketing in the city (reaching 100,000 cases and 2,500 deaths), as winter descends, and in the wake of a ma…
popularresistance.org/housing-activists-…

Politicians Failed Us In 2020
_____ | popularresistance.org | 2020-12-27
Even as 2020 took turns for the worst, the seeds of justice and liberation extended their roots. | For decades to come, 2020 will be remembered for the failures of politicians and capitalism. In a selfish bid to “save the economy” and rally his base ahead of the election, President Trump and his allies spread disinformation about COVID-19 and threw common-sense public health measures into the meatgrinder of partisan politics. Predictably, the United States became one of the world’s worst hot spots for COVID-19, exposing every crack and fault line in society. As of this writing, the death toll is nearing 300,000.
popularresistance.org/politicians-failed…

New York healthcare provider probed for ‘fraudulently’ obtaining & distributing Covid-19 vaccine
rt.com | 2020-12-27
New York police are investigating Parcare Community Health Network on suspicion that it fraudulently obtained Covid-19 vaccine doses and broke rules reserving the first round of shots for medical workers and care-home residents. | Parcare may have transferred wrongfully obtained doses from the Hudson Valley to facilities in other parts of state and diverted them to members of the public, rather than to those currently eligible to be inoculated, State Health Commissioner Howard Zucker said on Saturday. “We take this very seriously,” he said, and the state Health Department will assist State Police in the crimin…
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New York health care provider probed for ‘fraudulently’ obtaining & distributing Covid-19 vaccine
rt.com | 2020-12-27
New York police are investigating Parcare Community Health Network on suspicion that it fraudulently obtained Covid-19 vaccine doses and broke rules reserving the first round of shots to medical workers and nursing home residents. | Parcare may have transferred wrongfully obtained doses from the Hudson Valley to facilities in other parts of state and diverted them to members of the public, rather than those currently eligible to be inoculated, State Health Commissioner Howard Zucker said on Saturday. “We take this very seriously,” he said, and the state Health Department will assist State Police in the crimina…
rt.com/usa/510820-parcare-moderna-vaccin…

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German pilot makes point with syringe in the sky
yenisafak.com | 2020-12-27
German pilot Samy Kramer has traced a giant syringe in the sky, flying 200 kilometers to remind people about the start of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Europe.The 20-year-old pilot mapped out the route he would need to take on a GPS device before taking to the skies near Lake Constance in southern Germany. The syringe-shaped route showed up on internet site flightradar24.”There are still relatively many people opposing the vaccination and my action may be a reminder for them to think about the topic, to get things moving”, Kramer told Reuters TV on Sunday, adding that his flight should not be understood as…
yenisafak.com/en/world/german-pilot-make…

Iran producing 5 million COVID-19 test kits monthly
Mehr News Agency | en.mehrnews.com | 2020-12-27
TEHRAN, Dec. 27 (MNA) — Five Iranian knowledge-based companies are making their best efforts to produce 5 million COVID-19 test kits monthly.
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Older people and health staff first in line as EU rolls out Covid-19 vaccine
Online News Editor | laprensalatina.com | 2020-12-27
Madrid Desk, Dec 27 (efe-epa).- The European Union on Sunday began its coordinated rollout of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine against Covid-19 with nations giving priority to older people and healthcare staff. Araceli, a 96-year-old resident of Los Olmos care home in Guadalajara, became the first person in Spain to receive the jab at 9 am, followed …
laprensalatina.com/older-people-and-heal…

96-year-old woman gets Spain’s 1st COVID-19 vaccine
yenisafak.com | 2020-12-27
Araceli, a 96-year-old woman, laughed after receiving Spain’s first COVID-19 vaccine in a nursing home in Guadalajara on Sunday morning.She said she hardly felt the shot.”Let’s see if everyone behaves well and we can make this virus go away,” said Araceli, who wore a blue pantsuit and a white silk scarf to the first of her two vaccine appointments.She is the oldest resident of Los Olmos nursing home.Minutes after, Monica, an assistant nurse at the center, got the same Pfizer/BioNTech shot.She said she was nervous, but her tension appeared to be more due to sending an important message to the media than about the…
yenisafak.com/en/world/96-year-old-woman…

China’s Walvax to make COVID-19 vaccine candidate similar to AstraZeneca’s
yenisafak.com | 2020-12-27
China’s Walvax Biotechnology Co has started work on a plant to manufacture an early-stage coronavirus vaccine candidate similar to AstraZeneca PLC’s product, state-backed media said on Sunday.Mass production for the proposed vaccine could begin in mid-2021, with an estimated capacity of 200 million doses a year, said Health Times, a paper run by the People’s Daily.The treatment is based on a chimpanzee adenovirus to deliver materials that can trigger an immune response against the virus that causes COVID-19, a technique adopted in the candidate from AstraZeneca and Oxford University.The Chinese candidate, jointly…
yenisafak.com/en/world/chinas-walvax-to-…

Big Pharma Propaganda and the COVID-19 Vaccine: The U.S. Government’s Legacy of Human Experimentations
Timothy Alexander Guzman | globalresearch.ca | 2020-12-27
It is important to focus on the history of experimental vaccines. | This article reviews the Tuskegee Syphilis Study in Macon County, Alabama that began in 1932 as well as other US government experiments that infected sick and vulnerable people with …
globalresearch.ca/big-pharma-propaganda-…

Covid Death by Ventilator — A Personal Story — for the World to Know
Peter Koenig | globalresearch.ca | 2020-12-27
This is a personal story. Actually, a story told to me by a very close friend, so close that I asked him whether he would allow me to personalize his story and publish it — because it was important for | …
globalresearch.ca/covid-death-by-ventila…

Death by Ventilator — A Personal Story — for the World to Know
Peter Koenig | globalresearch.ca | 2020-12-27
This is a personal story. Actually, a story told to me by a very close friend, so close that I asked him whether he would allow me to personalize his story and publish it — because it was important for | …
globalresearch.ca/covid-death-by-ventila…

China’s industrial profit grows 2.4 percent in first 11 months
Online News Editor | laprensalatina.com | 2020-12-27
Beijing, Dec 27 (efe-epa).-The industrial profit of China increased 2.4 percent year-on-year in the first 11 months of 2020, according to data published on Sunday, indicating continued recoveries from the Covid-19 slowdown amid fast improving production and sales. The National Bureau of Statistics said earnings in November alone at Chinese industrial firms rose 15.5 percent …
laprensalatina.com/chinas-industrial-pro…

China records highest locally transmitted Covid-19 cases in 2 months
Online News Editor | laprensalatina.com | 2020-12-27
Beijing, Dec 27 (efe-epa).- China on Saturday detected 12 cases of Covid-19 that were transmitted locally, seven of them in the northeastern province of Liaoning and five in the capital Beijing, the National Health Commission reported, marking the largest transmission within its borders in two months. The last time the country detected a similar number …
laprensalatina.com/china-records-highest…

Thailand reinforces measures against Covid-19 to check fresh outbreak
Online News Editor | laprensalatina.com | 2020-12-27
Bangkok, Dec 27 (efe-epa).- Several regional governments in Thailand announced measures such as temporarily closing businesses and imposing travel restrictions in order to try to control an uptick of Covid-19 cases in the country since last week. The health authorities on Sunday announced having detected 121 new confirmed cases of the coronavirus, 94 of them …
laprensalatina.com/thailand-reinforces-m…

Israel hopes third lockdown will be last
Online News Editor | laprensalatina.com | 2020-12-27
By Pablo Duer Jerusalem, Dec 27 (efe-epa).- Israel on Sunday began a third lockdown and drastically reduced social activity while authorities continue to roll out a mass vaccination campaign. Third time lucky — at least this is what the Israeli government is hoping for. The Israeli response to Covid-19 has gone from exemplary in the …
laprensalatina.com/israel-hopes-third-lo…

Japan bans foreign travelers to stop outbreak of new Covid-19 variant
Online News Editor | laprensalatina.com | 2020-12-27
Tokyo, Dec 27 (efe-epa).- Japan has banned the entry of all foreign travelers into the country to prevent the outbreak of the new and rapidly-spreading strain of the coronavirus. The ban, announced by the government late Saturday, will be effective from Monday until the January end. However, the government has exempted Japanese citizens and residents …
laprensalatina.com/japan-bans-foreign-tr…

US nears 19 million Covid-19 cases with over 331,700 deaths
Online News Editor | laprensalatina.com | 2020-12-27
Washington, Dec 26 (efe-epa).- The number of coronavirus infections neared the 19-million mark in the United States with 331,740 deaths Saturday, according to Johns Hopkins University tracker. The tracker put the total number of confirmed cases in the US at 18,943,541, including 331,754 The latest figures published at 8 pm (01.00 GMT on Sunday) are …
laprensalatina.com/us-nears-19-million-c…

Over 5,500 new COVID-19 cases reported in Iran
yenisafak.com | 2020-12-27
Iran’s Health Ministry on Sunday reported new cases of COVID-19 and virus-related deaths as efforts continue to contain the disease.Health Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said in a statement that 119 more people died in the last 24 hours and 5,502 new cases had been identified.Lari said the death toll increased to 54,693, and the number of cases to a total of over 1.2 million.She said as many as 5,212 patients were in critical condition, while recoveries numbered 951,860.In the country with a population of 83 million, more than 7.4 million tests have been administered to date.Lari also indicated that 108 dis…
yenisafak.com/en/world/over-5500-new-cov…

A new chance to challenge murder conviction: court rejects ‘evidence-free’ effort to block Mumia appeal
| workers.org | 2020-12-27
By Dave Lindorff The following slightly edited article first appeared in ThisCantBEHappening.net on Dec. 22. Mumia Abu-Jamal, the prison journalist long known as the “voice of the voiceless” for his compelling writings and short audio tapes, moved a step closer to getting a chance for a reconsideration of his earliest . . . | Continue reading A new chance to challenge murder conviction: court rejects ‘evidence-free’ effort to block Mumia appeal at Workers.org
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Singapore to begin Pfizer/BioNTech program this week
Online News Editor | laprensalatina.com | 2020-12-27
Bangkok, Dec 27 (efe-epa).- The government of Singapore on Sunday said it would begin to roll out the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine on 30 December and would first prioritize healthcare workers. Staff members at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases are set to be the first to receive the first of two doses of the vaccine on …
laprensalatina.com/singapore-to-begin-pf…

American Psychosis — Chris Hedges — the United States of Narcissism
CP Editor | counterpunch.org | 2020-12-27
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Donald Trump’s Unpardonable Pardons. Can Presidents Pardon Themselves?
Stephen Lendman | globalresearch.ca | 2020-12-27
The US Constitution lets presidents grant pardons or clemency under Article II, Section 2, Clause 1 — stating the following: | The president “shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of …
globalresearch.ca/trump-unpardonable-par…