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About stuartbramhall

Retired child and adolescent psychiatrist and American expatriate in New Zealand. In 2002, I made the difficult decision to close my 25-year Seattle practice after 15 years of covert FBI harassment. I describe the unrelenting phone harassment, illegal break-ins and six attempts on my life in my 2010 book The Most Revolutionary Act: Memoir of an American Refugee.

Houthis Set Oil Tanker Ablaze While Biden Tries to Woo China

Mike Whitney

On Friday, Houthi militants fired an anti-ship ballistic missile from mainland Yemen striking a British oil tanker and setting it ablaze. “US Central Command said the Marlin Luanda had issued a distress call and reported damage” but no casualties were reported. The attack represents a significant escalation in the deepening conflict between the US-led coalition and the Yemen-based Houthis.

Here’s the question that every American should be asking himself: Is Israel’s war in Gaza strengthening or weakening America’s position in the world?

If there is some material benefit for the United States, then there might be a reasonable argument for continuing to support the policy. But if there is no benefit whatsoever, then the policy should changed.

So, the real question is whether the US gains something from flouting international law and being an active participant in acts of barbarity against a civilian population?

How does America benefit from that?

It doesn’t, in fact, the present arrangement only benefits America’s rivals, like China and Russia, who have steadily grown stronger due to Washington’s erratic and violent behavior. The administration’s blanket support for Israel, has merely accelerated the pace at which nations in the global south and around the world are realigning with Moscow and Beijing. This isn’t a choice that foreign leaders want to make, it’s a choice they are compelled to make in order to guarantee their own security. That’s the bottom line. The idea that a population of 2 million people can be impulsively erased because of the offenses of a small group of militants, terrifies people. And what terrifies them even more is the fact that international law provides no enforceable protection for the people that are getting clobbered.

This is particularly extraordinary in the current case because—as we all know—the population that is being bombed to smithereens is all of a particular ethnicity and religion, (Arab, Muslim) which means they are being targeted for things over which they have no control. Of the two million people that are presently being herded to the Egyptian border, none of them are Jews. That is not a coincidence. That’s discrimination on a scale that should horrify everyone. Imagine if Biden got tired of the daily shootings in Chicago’s South Side and decided to gather all the black people in the country and drive them to the Mexican border where they would rot in tent cities without food, water or medicine. Would that be an acceptable solution?

And, yet, that’s what’s taking place right now in Gaza. Netanyahu says he won’t let up until “Hamas is defeated”. but what does that mean?

It means he is going to continue doing what he’s been doing for the last 110 days.

But, on what basis does he justify these actions. Let me explain what I mean by using a hypothetical:

Let’s say a terrorist organization bombs the Capital building in Washington DC. And, immediately following the bombing, the FBI discovers ironclad proof that the group has been operating out of terrorist cells located in downtown New York City. Now, normally, the FBI would follow certain protocols and methods for apprehending as many of the terrorists as possible while trying to minimize the “collateral damage.” But, this time, the FBI decides to invoke the Israeli method of fighting terrorism by carpet-bombing lower Manhattan with Tomahawk missiles and Daisy Cutters forcing millions of terrified New Yorkers to flee across the border into New Jersey.

Is that a reasonable way of dealing with terrorism? More importantly, can the existence of terrorist cells ever be used as a justification for reducing an entire city to smoldering rubble?

Of course, not. It’s ridiculous, and yet, that’s what Israel is doing. They are flattening all of Gaza in the name of “defeating Hamas.” Who could have imagined that the extermination of an entire civilization could rest on such a flimsy pretext?

One last thing:

It’s not enough that the Biden administration is providing lethal weapons and logistical support to Israel. Now, Biden has decided to wage war against on Houthis, as well. The President objects to the fact that the Houthis have imposed a blockade on Israeli-linked commercial ships in the Red Sea (in order to pressure Israel to end its blockade of food and medicine to the Palestinians.) So, the US and UK have been launching multiple missile strikes on cities and infrastructure in Yemen. The US attacks are intended to persuade the Houthis to abandon their blockade but, so far, there are no signs that they are degrading the Houthis offensive capability at all. In contrast, The Houthi blockade is having significant impact on Israel’s economy while their attacks on commercial ships have steadily intensified. In short, the Houthis appear to be winning.

On Wednesday, the Houthis fired three anti-ship ballistic missiles from the mainland at two container ships transiting the Gulf of Aden. According to a report from CENTCOM two of the missiles were intercepted by a US warship while one landed in the water. According to antiwar.com:

“Later in the day, the Houthis said their forces engaged in a two-hour battle with several US warships. Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea claimed the confrontation resulted in a Houthi missile “directly hitting an American warship, but so far, the US has not confirmed the account.”

Bottom line: The Houthi attacks forced the two commercial ships (the Maersk Detroit and the Maersk Chesapeake) to turn-around and beat a hasty retreat. In other words, the Houthi blockade held-up despite the presence of a state-of-the-art AEGIS destroyer (the USS Gravely) that was escorting the ships through the waterway. This is a clear victory for the Houthis and further proof that US naval convoys will not be able to protect commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

But will that nudge Biden towards the bargaining table?

Of course, not. Biden’s not going to throw in the towel. He’s going to up-the-ante like US presidents always do. So, things are going to get progressively worse. Bet on it.

Here’s more from Sal Mercogliano, host of You Tube’s “What’s going On With Shipping”. Mercogliano is a former merchant mariner and teaches courses in maritime history. This is a blurb from Thursday’s show:

The Houthis have done something unheard of…. They have interdicted 11% of world trade and they are forcing it to go around Africa. You’ve got to go back to the world wars to find a naval power to emerge that makes trade lanes bend and interdict supplies. That’s what the Houthis have done. And they are doing it with Iranian hand-me-down missiles duct-taped together and being launched and hitting (their targets) The only savings grace, is that the missiles are so crappy, that they don’t blow up like they’re supposed to.

Understand, this won’t last long, because once there is the realization that the Houthis are not damaging the ships enough, then you’ll see a resumption of trade and the Houthi will ramp it up again. and they will try to sink and kill crew members. Understand, I don’t think they are doing this consciously right now, it’s just that the missiles just aren’t that great. If, they see the potential here, then they will do it. Understand, this is a targeted attack against the United States of America. This is what led to our entry into World War 1.
Houthi Attack 2 US Containerships – Maersk Detroit and Maersk Chesapeake, You Tube; Minute 15:30

Once again, is this going to escalate?

Of course, it’s going to escalate. Because now it’s a matter of national pride. The US cannot allow itself to seen as caving in to a ragtag militia that has essentially seized control of one of the world’s most critical transit corridors. That cannot stand! Which is why the US launched its ninth massive missile attack on Yemen on Friday afternoon. Unfortunately, the Houthis responded tit-for-tat by firing on British oil tanker in the Gulf of Aden. Here’s a recap from CNN:

An oil tanker in the Gulf of Aden is on fire after a missile attack by Yemen’s Houthi militants, in the latest incident linked to the Iran-backed group in the key shipping route.

The operator of the British oil tanker Marlin Luanda said Friday the vessel had been “struck by a missile in the Gulf of Aden after transiting the Red Sea,” and that “firefighting equipment on board is being deployed to suppress and control the fire caused in one cargo tank on the starboard side.”

The Iran-backed militants claimed responsibility for the attack, saying in a statement that they had fired on the tanker in response to the “American-British aggression against our country [Yemen]” and in support of the Palestinian people. Oil tanker on fire in Gulf of Aden after Houthi missile attack, CNN

So, now an oil tanker has been hit which means the stakes keep getting higher all the time. Is this what Biden had in mind when he deployed his flotilla to the Red Sea? Did he really want another war 8 thousand miles away from America’s shores?

And who is winning this war: The United States or the Houthis?

If you are in doubt about that question, just take a look at this clip from the Wall Street Journal:

“Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser of the USA, is on his way to Thailand – where he will meet with Wang Yi, the foreign minister of China, in an attempt to pressure him to influence the Houthis to stop the attacks in the Red Sea”

WTF? So, Biden wants China to pressure the Houthis to ease the blockade? Is that what’s going on?

No, not exactly. It’s actually much worse than that. Here’s the story from Reuters:

The United States has asked China to urge Tehran to rein in the Iranian-aligned Houthi rebels attacking commercial ships in the Red Sea but has seen little sign of help from Beijing, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing U.S. officials.

The U.S. has repeatedly raised the matter with top Chinese officials in the past three months, the report said. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan and his deputy, Jon Finer, discussed the issue in meetings this month in Washington with Liu Jianchao, head of the International Liaison Department of China’s Communist Party, the newspaper said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also raised the issue with his Chinese counterpart, the report said, adding U.S. officials believe there was little evidence that China had put any pressure on Iran to restrain the Houthis beyond a mild statement Beijing issued last week… US asks China to urge Iran to curb Red Sea attacks by Houthis -FT, Reuters

Let me get this straight: The United States wants China to urge Tehran to rein in the Iranian-aligned Houthis?

Really? But didn’t Biden designate China as America’s Enemy Number 1 in his 2022 National Security Strategy? And hasn’t Biden been trying to enlist more and more nations into his anti-China coalition? And hasn’t Biden deployed the Navy multiple times to hector and harass China in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait? But now he’s sent his envoys to beg for a favor?

What gall!

But—despite what you read in the western media—China isn’t ‘falling for it’, mainly because China has had the right policy from the very beginning. So, there’s no reason to change a thing. China opposed Houthi attacks on commercial vessels from the onset. That hasn’t changed. By the same token, they oppose US military intervention and think that the US deliberately misled the Security Council to get a resolution that they used as a pretext for attacking Yemen. China opposes that, too, and they always have.

[…]

Via https://www.unz.com/mwhitney/houthis-set-oil-tanker-ablaze-while-biden-tries-to-woo-china/

Farmers To Block Paris Until Macron Agrees to Their Requests

 

Farmers block an access road to Paris, Jan. 29, 2024.

Farmers block an access road to Paris, Jan. 29, 2024. | Photo: X/ @NicoleTeno51364

teleSUR Newsletter

Among other things, they reject imports of agricultural products from European Union countries.

On Monday, the National Federation of French Agricultural Unions (FNSEA) and the French Young Farmers (JA) block the main access roads to Paris to demand that President Emmanuel Macron accede to the demands of French farmers.

“I call for calm and determination in a week where we will face all kinds of risks,” the FNSEA Secretary Arnaud Rousseau said, adding that the farmers’ goal “is neither violence nor provocation,” but rather to pressure the government to improve their living conditions.

On Sunday, Macron convened a crisis cabinet to analyze measures that would allow the French government to prevent chaos and a potential blockade of Paris.

The government’s priority is to protect the highway access to the Roissy and Orly international airports from closures and to prevent the closure of the Rungis market, which is considered the world’s largest wholesale fresh produce market.

The text reads, “The farmers from Oise and Val d’Oise are patiently and methodically installing the Paris blockade on the A1 highway. Meanwhile, six other blocking points probably just as large are distributed throughout Paris. Angry farmers.”

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin ordered the mobilization of 15,000 police officers and gendarmes to prevent the blockades on eight highways from isolating Paris.

He clarified that his directive is not to intervene in the blockades, with the exception being if trucks carrying foreign products are confiscated.

“That is unacceptable, and therefore, we have given instructions for intervention and detention if such incidents occur, which are sporadic but have already happened,” said Darmanin.

So far, the Macron administration has been cautious about deploying police forces to disperse these protests, which it has deemed peaceful despite the blocking of infrastructure and the burning of some public buildings.

The French government has supported the farmers’ argument about the ongoing unfair competition from European Union partners such as Spain and Italy.

“Our farmers are subject to phytosanitary rules that are not imposed on other countries,” Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said on Sunday.

Currently, France imports at least 40 percent of the fruits and vegetables it consumes. This is due to certain European environmental rules that hinder French food sovereignty.

[…]

Via https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Farmers-To-Block-Paris-Until-Macron-Agrees-to-Their-Requests-20240129-0008.html

The French Revolution: The King’s Flight

The French people “escort” Louis XVI back to Paris

Episode 16: The King’s Flight

Living the French Revolution and Age of Napoleon

Dr Suzanne M Desan

Film Review

On June 21 1791, the king, queen, children, his sister and some servants went missing. Lafayette, who was president of the National Assembly, put out an announcement they had been kidnapped by foreign agents. In reality, Louis had been planning his escape for weeks with the help of the Swedish aristocrat Count Axel von Ferson. Disguising themselves as peasants, the family hoped to escape to the Austrian Netherlands (modern day Belgium).

According to Desan, Louis XVI was playing a double game, pretending to go along with the revolution while secretly plotting to take back power. The French royalist Francois Claude Amour had agreed to meet the royal family at the border with troops provided by Marie Antoinette’s brother Leopold II.

Believing the peasants of rural France supported him, the king stepped out of his coach 30 miles from the frontier. When a local judge recognized him, Louis falsely claimed that Jacobin fanatics had seized power in Paris, forcing him to flee for his own safety. He also claimed he planned to establish a rural outpost in a border citadel he could use to restore order. Initially agreeing to help him, local officials were dissuaded by the arrival of a National Assembly courier with an order to detain the royal family .

An entourage including 6,000 national guardsmen and 24,000 civilians escorted the coach back to Paris. Many in the crowd carried pitchforks, pikes and firearms – with the dual objective of protecting the king and preventing him from running away.

The majority of the National Assembly remained loyal to the constitutional monarchy, declaring on July 15th that Louis XVI had been kidnapped (a deliberate lie). However once the king’s double game was exposed, ordinary working people began tearing down royal statues and other symbols of royal authority. When radical Parisians introduced a proposal for France to become a Republic, rejected by 75% of the delegates. The immediate response was 6,000 signature petition launched by the Cordelier Club calling for the election of a new National Assembly.

Lafayette, who was also mayor of Paris, declared martial law and the national guard fired a crowd on the Champs de  Mars that pelted them with rocks. After a total of 50 protestors were killed in the massacre, the National Assembly reestablished the king’s police spies to hound republican sympathizers and radical journalists.

On September 14, the king formally accepted the constitution. Giving the National Assembly full authority over law making and financial matters, it granted the king a suspensive veto and the power to declare war and appoint minister and diplomats.

Film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/149323/149353

Only Democrats Allowed to Question Validity of 2020 Presidential Election

By Drago Bosnic

Ever since Joe Biden took the presidency in the United States, the mainstream propaganda machine has been absolutely merciless toward anyone who’d dare to question the validity of the 2020 presidential election. The DNC-dominated federal institutions, particularly the highly politicized Department of Justice (DoJ), offered full support in this regard, looking to suppress any attempts of “undermining American democracy”, which is just another lifeless euphemism used against anyone daring to expose lies and outright voter fraud. However, this sort of behavior uncovers another form of hypocrisy and double standards in American politics (not that those were ever in deficit). Namely, the Democratic Party never had any qualms about questioning the validity of the 2016 presidential election, as well as countless other instances when elections on state and other levels weren’t beneficial to them.

In fact, it could easily be argued that the so-called “Russiagate” conspiracy theory that has been recycled over and over in the last well over half a decade is a prime example of questioning the validity of elections by the Democrats. What’s more, this laughable claim was even used as a pretext to change the geopolitical landscape by bringing the relations between Russia and the US to (First) Cold War levels, perhaps even worse, pushing the world to the edge of an abyss. Of course, no such concern was shown during the much more controversial 2020 election that saw actual mass voter fraud committed, as evidenced by recent findings. However, that’s a forbidden topic for the DNC, the so-called “Big Tech” and the mainstream propaganda machine. God forbid anyone would ask any questions about it, as they’d get nothing but open hostility or even get prosecuted.

Steve Watson of the Modernity News recently covered this topic, showing the case of the Fox News reporter Peter Doocy who confronted the troubled Biden administration’s Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre over this practice. Namely, on January 24, he pointed out the recent footage of Joe Biden calling Democrat Terry McAuliffe “the real governor of Virginia”. Doocy asked whether questioning election validity is a joke now, resulting in an awkward exchange with Jean-Pierre, who was clearly agitated by the question. Her rather clumsy attempt to play ignorance didn’t last long and she soon found herself having to defend Joe Biden’s statement as a supposed “joke”. When Doocy asked for further clarification, Jean-Pierre failed to provide one, trying to go around the question. However, the Fox News reporter refused to back down and stood his ground, asking the following:

“How are you going to convince people, though, that this idea of denying election results is very bad if President Biden is going out and making jokes like this?”

Jean-Pierre kept insisting that this was “merely a joke”. However, as Watson pointed out, this wasn’t the first time Joe Biden questioned election validity. He previously called former president Donald Trump “an illegitimate president”. Biden’s practice of denying election results goes back decades, as evidenced by his claim that “Al Gore really won the 2000 election”. There are numerous other examples of the DNC’s top people questioning election validity, perhaps best illustrated by this video showing 24 minutes of footage proving it. And yet, the mainstream propaganda machine is “worried about our democracy” whenever the Republicans question election results. Apparently, claiming that Trump is supposedly “illegitimate” and even “Vlad’s pal” is perfectly fine and doesn’t constitute any sort of “danger for American democracy“. However, similar criticism of the DNC is “deplorable“.

Worse yet, these same people are demanding Trump be prosecuted and even jailed for “undermining our democracy” by refusing to acknowledge that the 2020 election was valid. What’s more, on December 19, the Colorado Supreme Court banned Trump from running for presidency under the pretext that he led the so-called “January 6 insurrection”. Although he was never formally charged (let alone convicted) for that highly controversial event, the Court made its decision based precisely on that premise. On the other hand, the DNC-aligned judges probably didn’t expect this obviously partisan decision would open up a political “Pandora’s box” in the US. Namely, in response to the ruling, high-ranking officials from Texas, Arizona and Pennsylvania suggested taking Biden off the ballot. Such developments could even lead to America’s collapse along state lines.

As for election validity, recent findings show that the public’s trust in the impartiality of federal institutions has been severely undermined. The latest poll, conducted jointly by Heartland Institute and Rasmussen Reports, found that 20% of voters who cast mail-in ballots during the 2020 presidential election admitted to participating in voter fraud. However, such findings aren’t limited to polls, as evidenced by a recent court ruling in Connecticut. Namely, according to the Epoch Times, Superior Court Judge William Clark overturned the results of a Democrat mayoral primary in November 2023 and ordered a new election. The ruling was based on hours of video evidence showing hundreds of illegally harvested absentee ballots being stuffed into drop boxes in the city of Bridgeport. Clark called the videos shocking and warned they “should be shocking to all the parties”.

The report further points out other instances when election results were nullified by lower court decisions across the US, including the 2021 Compton City Council run-off race that was initially decided by a single vote. The judge tossed four fraudulent ballots cast by people not legally registered in the jurisdiction, while five people pleaded either guilty or no contest to conspiring to commit election fraud. The report cites an even worse case in Mississippi, where both state and federal institutions were deeply involved in election fraud and attempted cover-up. There are dozens of such cases across the country, many still pending for court proceedings. The Epoch Times also pointed out the thousands of court convictions for election fraud in the last two decades. This is yet another proof that the “rule of law” in the US is nothing but a myth that not even Americans themselves believe.

[…]

Via https://www.globalresearch.ca/only-democrats-allowed-question-validity-2020-presidential-election/5847642

The ‘Re-Education’ of New Zealand Medical Doctors

The 'Re-Education' of New Zealand Medical Doctors

By J R Bruning

During 2020-2023, professional regulatory associations became de-facto wardens of the more authoritarian Covid-19 nation-states, which included New Zealand. The Medical Council of New Zealand (MCNZ) was one such body which, like a duck to water, moved firmly and swiftly to ensure that doctors complied with Covid-19 and vaccine policies, or face disciplinary proceedings and gag orders.

In an era when institutional trust is declining, the MCNZ didn’t apparently recognise the cognitive dissonance created by two contradictory 2021 guidance papers. They certainly didn’t consider that their ideological suppression of medical doctors when it came to Covid-19 matters might imply that doctors might not be trusted on other matters, either. The Medical Council also appeared blithe to the impact of ‘lost’ doctors in an already stressed and under-resourced medical system.

The Ministry of Health provided the carrot, incentivising compliance by funding doctors to both diagnose SARS-CoV-2 infection and to inject Pfizer’s BNT162b2 gene therapy into their arms, and the MCNZ provided the stick, by roundup.

Covid-19 was the exception. The MCNZ’s April 2021 guidance statement (revoked in September 2023) stated that there was:

no place for anti-vaccination messages in professional health practice, nor any promotion of anti- vaccination claims including on social media and advertising by health practitioners.

From 2021 onwards dozens of doctors were investigated, many were put in front of an MCNZ tribunals and many doctors were harassed.

MCNZ’s June 2021 statutory statement on Informed Consent (the ‘rule’) – set ‘out the standards of good medical practice when discussing options for treatment and obtaining consent from patients.’ The process of obtaining the permission, called informed consent, was in place to:

help the patient decide whether they want a treatment, they first need to be given information, such as the risks and benefits of their treatment options.

As the MCNZ stated, a key principle of informed consent ‘is trust.’

Trust is essential in the doctor-patient relationship. One way to build trust is to provide information openly and honestly to your patient.

For properly informed consent, doctors ‘must give your patient the information they need to help them make a fully-informed decision;’ and ‘[s]hare information that is relevant to them, in a way they understand, and allow reasonable time for the patient to make their decision.’

Without a hint of irony, doctors were urged to question ‘whether there is anything else you can do to make it easier for your patient to consider the different options and make a fully informed decision.’ They were advised to ‘[b]e open and honest with your patient, and answer their questions accurately’ and take ‘into account your patient’s cultural, religious, and social needs, and their values and beliefs.’ Doctors should consider whether they had ‘explained the different treatment options including the risks and benefits of each option, and the option of not treating (adopting a see what happens with time approach)?’

Of course, doctors had ‘a special duty of care when enrolling patients into immunisation or screening programmes. This includes making the person aware of any limitations of a screening programme and the uncertainties, in particular the chance of false positive and false negative results.’

The informed consent information process was designed to foster trust between doctor and patient and encouraged free and frank information flows to nurture that trust. MCNZ’s actions in rounding up and disciplining doctors over that same period, from mid-June 2021- January 2022, spectacularly collided with their own guidance instructions for informed consent.

The informed consent process guidance paper was released as Covid-19 mandate crackdowns tumbled out through Cabinet’s secretive, delegated legislation process.

Contradictorily and hypocritically, openness and honesty were quashed where Pfizer’s BNT162b2 gene therapy was concerned. Pfizer’s new technology was ‘command medicine.’ Uncomfortable, uncertain and contradictory discussion was interdit.

New Zealand doctors whose behaviour was inconsistent with the New Zealand government’s Covid-19 policy and found to be ‘guilty’ by the MCNZ were required to sign a ‘voluntary undertaking and undertake an ‘Educational Programme.’

The programme included ‘educational activities’ and compulsory supervision. The ‘supervisor’ was required to undertake pharmacological reviews and oversee the doctors prescribing practices. They were given the powers, much to the horror of many doctors, to randomly check the ‘quality of the notes.’ Cite confidential patient records. The supervisor would then report back to the MCNZ on a monthly basis.

The ‘Voluntary Undertaking’ that recalcitrant doctors were required to sign carried with it all the power of a gag order. The ‘undertaking’ prevented doctors from providing ‘their view, or the views of others with similar views’ about vaccination or immunisation against Covid-19.

Nothing could be spoken or published that was:

contrary to Ministry of Health guidance or that undermines the national pandemic response.

The MCNZ were instructing doctors to deliberately suppress scientific information. We can presume that the ‘views of others’ includes that of expert scientists who publish in the scientific literature.

And no matter the evidence or safety profile of Ivermectin, it must not be prescribed for Covid-19.

The actions of the MCNZ effectively inserted the New Zealand government inside the doctors’ practice room, between the patient and the doctor.

This was enabled, most powerfully, by threatening the suspension of the medical licenses of dissenting doctors. The MCNZ exploited their powers to take the ability to practice medicine away from New Zealand doctors.

Doctors had to acquiesce to the ‘Educational Programme’ if they were to retain their ability to practice medicine:

Doctors were required to pay for the costs of the supervisor, another medical doctor. The ‘Educational Programme’ was presumed to fit around the administrative burden of their medical clinics and the extraordinary patient demands in a pandemic emergency.

If the demands of the MCNZ were to be satisfied.

This included a requirement that doctors review prescribed reading material once a month, taking notes as proof the papers had been read. Most of the literature was published during Covid-19:

Reifying a static concept of ‘consensus’ that presents all scientists who disagree with ‘consensus’ as outsiders appears quite popular. These behavioural and psychological scientists seem reluctant to wrangle with eminently sociological issues. This includes Mertonian concepts such as ‘organised skepticism’ and the incentivised reward systems that inevitably impose norms and values upon the scientists who inhabit them. From which ‘peers’ are included, to the terms of reference for what ‘evidence’ would be considered legitimate, and the resourcing for research and review. What is excluded as ‘specified ignorance’ affects the trajectory of knowledge, just as much as what is included.

For anyone who has read Orwell and Huxley, the Educational Programme papers; the inferential basis of what ‘scientific facts’ were; and the ‘voluntary’ coercion imposed on doctors – was all mind-bogglingly eye-popping.

Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.

George Orwell, 1984

The MCNZ’s enforcement actions appear, from the time they were imposed in 2021, until 2023 when they quietly withdrew the ‘Guidance,’ demeaning, unethical, totalitarian, and short-sighted.

I say totalitarian, because the bulk of information the government relied on came either directly from Pfizer, or from other regulatory agencies who also relied on information directly from Pfizer. These arrangements were never transparent or accountable. They were never democratic.

Doctors were caught up in the maelstrom. If doctors rejected the commands, they would lose their medical licenses. In a country where securing doctors with a long history of service with expertise in remote and low-income regions was difficult – these doctors knew that in many ways, their patients would suffer. It was not only the prescribing history. Long-term relationships take time to develop, but these are the basis of trust-based decision-making. They are the heart of medical practice.

It’s necessary to turn our minds back and revisit the fear campaign around SARS-CoV-2 infection that drenched legacy media over this period. New Zealand media absented itself from even-handedly discussing information that contradicted central governments’ political position.

The MCNZ is not a scientific organisation. Their position on risk was informed by the New Zealand governments’ position on risk.

The campaign against dissenting doctors was deliberate and political. The period from when complaints against doctors and suspensions of medical licenses peaked occurred when a significant body of growing scientific information contradicted the persistent claim, by the Prime Minister, the Minister for Covid-19 and the Ministry of Health, that Pfizer’s BNT162b2 gene therapy was safe and effective.

The predetermined vaccine rollout programme, established prior to March 2021, could not be disrupted.

Doctors who contradicted the New Zealand government’s political position were accused of ‘peddling misinformation.’ The New Zealand media dutifully amplified the MCNZ’s zero tolerance message and called cautious doctors ‘anti-vax GPs.’ Media vilification extended to doctors who advised that pregnant women and young people approach Covid-19 vaccination cautiously.

Notwithstanding that by April 2020, a large body of information, held by both military and public health scientists, had largely confirmed that the elderly and infirm and those with multiple debilitating health comorbidities were most at risk.

But the New Zealand public did not know this. Nor did, evidently, the New Zealand government. New Zealand’s Covid-19 information strategies excluded and short-circuited good process. There was no independent public research institution with either the capacity or the obligation to routinely and methodologically evaluate the ever-changing evidence.

Neither the TAG’s, the expert advisory groups; nor the so-called risk modellers who dominated the ‘evidential reasoning’ space, were doing this research. No one looked at age-stratified risk. Sero-prevalence studies were never publicly disclosed, and the Coroner had no processes to determine whether a death was caused by Covid-19 or by the medical intervention.

An epidemiologist who had spent time analysing the scientific literature to analyse how scientists and researchers – globally – were depicting safety and efficacy of this novel genetic technology was warned by lawyers not to speak publicly.

The broad public and institutional ignorance effectively, as Wynne put it, ‘exogenised’ the uncertainties. The vaccine was only ever safe and effective. Indeed, plausibility, not science dominated public discussions on Covid-19.

When doctors stepped in to address the informational gap, they were pilloried for it. These doctors were, almost daily, reviewing literature and discussing global findings with their colleagues. I got to speak with them and confirm this at the NZDSOS conference, held last year in Auckland.

None of the doctors in the naughty corner had ever been reported prior to the MCNZ landing on them, like the veritable tonne of bricks. All had busy clinical practices up until their suspension, and had practiced for between 20 and 40 years. Their records were exemplary.

Ethically, if New Zealand doctors were to appropriately follow the informed consent guidelines, they should have had the autonomy to judge the already known risk profile of BNT162b2, and balance it against a patient’s risk profile.

However, this was not permitted by the legally and administratively focussed MCNZ.

These doctors were not vulnerable early or mid-career medics with large debts. Because they were no longer mid-career with young families, many of these doctors spent evenings trawling the scientific literature and speaking with colleagues locally and globally.

Perhaps they saw the silences in government and media in 2020 when Imperial College London overpredicted death rates, while high-calibre epidemiologists took a milder view. Perhaps their doubt was seeded by entrenched financial conflicts of interest, from the influential billionaires, to the politicians and regulators in the US and the United Kingdom.

These doctors understood the triple jeopardy faced by their immunosuppressed patients. They were most at risk of serious Covid-19 and most at risk of any vaccine not working and at risk of harm from an adverse event.organic/biological material. It has only been revealed in 2023 that the batches rolled out globally were made using different processes and that other (not-declared) DNA fragments were present in the vaccine vials.

Whatever was known in 2021, these doctors definitely understood the vast uncertainty accompanying the prescribing of a brand-new drug that hadn’t undertaken long-term safety trials. That greater drug risk lay with healthy young people and pregnant women – for if the drug was harmful (unlike someone in end-of-life care), the suffering could roll on for decades.

[…]

Via https://brownstone.org/articles/the-re-education-of-new-zealand-medical-doctors/

Are You Ready for a Constitutional Crisis?

Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus

I’m sure that by now, we’re all aware of what is continuing to take place down in Texas. Far from backing down in his standoff with FedGov over the seizure of Shelby Park in Eagle Pass and subsequent expulsion of federal agents, Gov. Abbott has directed the state’s National Guard to continue interdicting illegal immigrants. Indeed, in response to the recent SCOTUS decision allowing the Feds to dismantle the razor wire Texas installed, they’ve simply installed more, in direct defiance of the wishes of the Regime. The Regime has now responded by giving Abbott and Texas an ultimatum – restore control of the park to the Federal government by the afternoon of January 26, or…well…something. Whether the governour ultimately continues to tell the Feds to get bent remains to be seen, but so far the trend is looking pretty good.

Of course, it helps that – for once – Republicans across the country have actually found a little courage to support doing what’s right. As of writing this, the Republican governours of 25 other states have all issued statements of support for Texas’ position. Hence, there are now an outright majority of states whose executives (who control their various National and State Guards) are publicly backing Texan efforts to secure our border. Many of these governours have explicitly cited the Biden administration’s continued abandonment of the federal government’s constitutional duty to protect the several states from invasion and the constitutional right of the states to act in their own defence as sovereign entities in their own right.

Needless to say, this is a constitutional crisis that would not have been conceivable even twenty years ago (well, except for this one movie that seems to have been amazingly prescient). Since 1865, the doctrine of absolute federal supremacy has been in force and the balance of power between the state and national governments has inexorably trended in Washington, DC’s favour. Occasional spurts of opposition to the contrary, most of the previous incipient talk by states about “reining in the federal government” generally proved to be all words and no action. On a few things (e.g. marijuana legalisation), the Regime allowed states to “oppose” federal policy if these were policies that the Regime wanted to change anywise but couldn’t “officially” at the federal level. But on anything that was a true Regime priority, FedGov brooked no dissent. So it is now, but the calculus has changed. What would have been impossible in 2003 is now on the verge of happening in 2023.

This all highlights the fundamental illegitimacy of our current federal government. There is no moral or legal case to be made to justify the actions of the Biden administration. The federal Constitution both enjoins the federal government to protect the states from foreign invasion (which being overrun with millions of foreigners breaking our laws most certainly counts as) and also grants the states the right to protect their own borders and sovereignty. Instead of doing this, the Biden administration has been purposefully inviting hordes of migrants to enter this country. Indeed, this is being encouraged in contravention to statutory federal law as well. Further, if Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is correct (and he almost assuredly is), the administration has even been partnering with criminal cartels to smuggle illegals into this country. All in all, there is absolutely no justification to be credibly made for the Regime’s actions and anyone who supports them are in opposition to the Constitution, the laws, and the people of this land.

Despite the fevered ravings of various progressive “Christians” on social media, the moral argument for allowing the Regime to throw the gates open is nonsense. Indeed, the whole attempt to craft a “biblical” argument for open borders is simple-minded and ignorant of the relevant scriptural and historical context. Simply put, the Bible’s approach to “the stranger” falls into line with common ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean modes of hospitality that were meant to “tame” the foreigner and integrate him into a society, thus preventing him from causing disruption to that society. If that couldn’t be accomplished, then the “inhospitable foreigner” was either to be expelled or eliminated. Needless to say, this applied only to individuals or small family groups – large masses of foreigners attempting to enter an ancient country would have been rightly recognised as an invasion and dealt with accordingly.

However, the illegitimacy of the current Regime and its actions alone can’t explain why the Republicans have closed ranks so precipitously. After all, Republican politicians are not exactly known for their intestinal fortitude when faced with opposition of any kind. Yet, even Northeastern moderate squishes like New Hampshire’s Chris Sununu have signed onto supporting Texas in this. Something changed that has caused the GOP, almost as a whole, to support this, either openly or tacitly.

Obviously, for the most part we are not privy to what goes on behind the scenes in the various centres of power across this country. Still, I’m convinced that what drives this sudden willingness to risk their political power and reputation (and even a possible civil war, if FedGov wants to push it that far) is that there’s a factional conflict taking place among our elites. Republicans have to know that the current demographic trends in this country – driven largely by unrestricted legal and illegal immigration – will sooner rather than later render them irrelevant politically (which is what is intended). Now, they’ve had to pretend that this wasn’t the case and even played along with the “we need immigrants to do the jobs Americans won’t do” line. But they have to know it. I suspect that they’ve been looking for an opportunity to extricate themselves from this, but only now have been handed the means to do so by the widespread, growing resentment against the Regime’s border policies.

But why take the plunge now? My guess is that, at some point pretty recently, it was communicated to Republicans that under no circumstances will they be allowed to share in any of the collateral benefits accrued from controlling the coming, transformed cosmopolitan America. Once the Bolsheviks secured control of Russia after the Revolution, they eliminated all opposing parties, even their previous partners. In the same way, progressive Leftists imagine that they’ve secured control here in the USA and are planning the same process here but jumped the gun. I wonder if the Republicans have finally figured out how to start using the type of patron/client politics that the Democrats have used for decades? And if so, is one or more of them ready to try to pick up the crown that’s just laying there in the gutter waiting to be claimed?

This whole matter illustrates the continuing collapse of the current system, following precisely along Turchinian lines toward decentralisation and decomplexification (which states deciding to leave, or even just start ignoring federal diktat, would represent in our situation). What we may be seeing now is an opening example of intraelite competition, where different elite factions enter into conflict for dwindling resources and power, generally accompanying secular collapse phases. As such, it would actually be to the Republican governours’ advantage to encourage acceleration that destabilises Blue Regime.

Bringing us to this point shows the wisdom of the earlier policy pursued by Texas and Florida of bussing migrants into Blue cities so as to overwhelm them. This move was panned by some critics on the Right who said that it just spreads the migrant problem further into the country (which was already happening, however, except they were being moved by FedGov and NGO “charities” all over into Red areas everywhere, not just a few cities). Yet, we now see that doing this forced the issue out into the open and has made even many Blue voters have to deal with the consequences of their retrograde voting behaviour. The Overton Window on this issue has been pushed way to Right in a relatively short amount of time.

This “governours revolt” is something the Regime needs to figure out how to quash real quick before it gets out of hand, if the Regime wants to stay in power and retain any semblance of legitimacy. A lot of people, both foreign and domestically, are already smelling the blood in the water. How to squash this, of course, is the trillion dollar question.

There are, of course, a bunch of idiot redditards on social media who are just champing at the bit for Biden to federalise the National Guards and initiate airstrikes on Texas and other Red states. This, obviously, isn’t going to happen and if it did would unite pretty much everybody who is not a grossly indoctrinated left-wing whackadoodle against them. At the same time, simply doing nothing would telegraph weakness in the face of opposition and probably be the stone that initiates an avalanche of state disobedience to the Feds on pretty much everything.

[…]

Via https://neociceroniantimes.wordpress.com/2024/01/26/are-you-ready-for-a-constitutional-crisis/

WEF: Farming, Industry Must Be Destroyed for ‘Net Zero’

https://prepareforchange.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/klaus-schwab-wef-water-crisis-rationing-california-farmer.jpeg

By Hunter Fielding,

Globalist elites at the World Economic Forum (WEF) have decided that farming and fishing industries must be completely eliminated in order to meet the organization’s “Net Zero” goals.

During the group’s annual summit, WEF member Jojo Mehta – founder of “Stop Ecocide Now” – informed world leaders and corporate elites that farming the land, fishing for food, and “making money” is now a “serious crime.”

Mehta asserted that farming and fishing are “crimes” that will be considered equal to mass murder or genocide.

During the event, globalists have been discussing the rollout of a “global police force” to deal with such “crimes.”

Mehta told her ultra-rich peers in Davos:

“We have this cultural, very ingrained habit of not taking damage to nature as seriously as we take damage to people or property.”

Her goal is to have “mass damage and destruction of nature” legally recognized as “a serious crime.”

“With human rights, mass murder and genocide are serious crimes, but there is no equivalent in the environmental space,” she said.

“Unlike an international crime like genocide that involves a specific intent, with ecocide, what we see is that people are trying to do is make money, is farm, is fish… and what’s missing is an awareness of the side effects and collateral damage that happens…”

The comments have triggered a firestormon social media.

Many argue that meeting “Net Zero” means mass depopulation.

“That’s right, NetZero is net population growth of zero,” one X user said.

“That’s what they were after all along, no more euphemisms about carbon emissions, they’re moving on.”

“Ecocide is actually Eliteocide—which is allowing unelected elites, to tell farmers to stop farming, fisher to stop fishing, miners to stop mining—when you allow those things to happen, that is when you starve, unrests happens and society collapses,” another X user noted.

“Because you listen to the stupidity of the unelected elite class, who never intend to stop eating or owning everything—that’s what they convinced you to do.”

[…]

Via https://prepareforchange.net/2024/01/27/wef-farming-industry-must-be-destroyed-for-net-zero/

Why The Immigration Crisis Is Being Deliberately Engineered

By Brandon Smith

There is absolutely no doubt – Elements of our own government are deliberately encouraging the acceleration of illegal immigration across the southern border and they are actively sabotaging any attempts to stop the madness. There are two questions we need to ask: Why are they doing this? And, what can be done to stop them?’

In a move that I think debunks any claims that the Biden Administration wants a secure border, the federal government recently challenged Texas efforts to install border fencing and barbed wire to prevent the massive influx of foreigners raiding the US. This is after several incidents in which convicted criminals and terrorists have been identified among migrant groups. The measures were working, so obviously, Biden felt the need to intervene.

A majority of the Supreme Court has also taken Biden’s side, forcing Texas Governor Greg Abbott to declare the situation an invasion that threatens the security of his state and America at large. The conflict is leading to a showdown between federal agencies and Texas. I would argue that it is a showdown that NEEDS to happen, the sooner the better.

The expulsion of unwanted or destructive groups of people has been an emergency measure used by civilizations for thousands of years. The cultures that don’t protect their own gates end up being erased or absorbed into a completely different population that may not hold the same values and principles. The majority of nations on the planet today have strict immigration rules, yet, America and the EU are the only regions attacked for wanting to limit the flow of illegals.

Why is that?

The open borders propaganda common to the corporate media and Hollywood movies is part of a larger establishment agenda that has been active for many years in the US, but it has been accelerating since 2021. The Biden Administration in particular has overseen the largest spike in illegal migration in US history, with over 300,000 border violations in December alone (that we know of). To put this in perspective, that’s the equivalent of a city the size of Pittsburgh moving across the US border and demanding welfare, subsidies, housing, jobs, free food, etc., every single month.

This is unsustainable and the establishment knows it. In fact, Biden has actively tried to hide the crisis from the view of the American people for years, denying that there is any threat and claiming that the border is more rigid today than ever before. Anyone who questions the validity of this claim is immediately accused of racism, white supremacy and conspiracy theory.

Border states have become so angered over leftist denials that they’ve started busing thousands of migrants into blue “sanctuary cities” like New York, Washington DC and Chicago. The result has been a calamity for their welfare programs and local economy. Even progressive voters in these areas are enraged by the flood of migrants into their neighborhoods.

Schools in New York are being emptied and shut down to make room for migrant housing. Homeless shelters in DC have been inundated with migrants begging for handouts and the citizen homeless had far less food over the holidays because the illegals ate it all. The Chicago O’Hare Airport is being turned into a migrant shelter and the city is trying to prevent the media from documenting the situation.

Democrat mayors are finally calling the event a national emergency; funny how they refused to admit to the problem until they were directly affected by it. Of course, they blame conservative governors instead of their own sanctuary city policies. In other words, Democrats are indignant because they are being forced by red states to suffer the consequences of their warped ideals. Leftists have a rule: Never admit when they are wrong, even if it means self destruction.

And though low level progressive politicians are made to look foolish in their continued defense of sanctuary status, there is the greater issue of engineered crisis. Why have establishment elites and the Biden Administration been lying despite the clear and present danger? And why is it considered particularly wrong for western countries to defend their borders?

Perhaps because certain groups of people within the centers of power benefit greatly from the continued migrant invasion.

We’ve all heard of the Cloward-Piven Strategy by now, and it’s not all that difficult to understand – Create social destabilization by using migrants as a weapon. But there’s a lot more going on here than meets the eye. Cloward-Piven is almost too simplistic an explanation; it doesn’t really define the bigger picture. There are a few ways that this strategy could open the door to authoritarianism in the US. Lets examine these scenarios to better comprehend why…

Operation Garden Plot And Martial Law

In 1968 the US Department of Defense at the request of the government drafted a civil disturbance plan called ‘Operation Garden Plot’ which outlined what was essentially a martial law response to large scale social breakdown. One of the main factors listed in the plan as a trigger for martial law was the uncontrolled mass migration of minorities into the US, as well as riots by minorities in light of economic uncertainty.

Garden Plot has provisions designed to install a long lasting domestic military presence in the US if deemed necessary, and was even tied to programs like REX 84 which planned out the installation of “FEMA camps” or detention facilities meant to hold large numbers refugees during a mass migration crisis. These programs were accidentally exposed during the Iran/Contra hearings of 1987 and were kept secret from a majority of representatives in Congress.

In other words, political elites designed a set of operations to swiftly impose martial law if a migrant disaster occurred. But were these measures meant to solve the crisis? Or were they meant to use the crisis as an excuse to put boots on the ground in the US and permanently end whatever constitutional protections we have left? That is to say, it may very well be the plan of the establishment to keep the borders open until illegals overwhelm the system and the public is willing to accept martial law.

Amnesty And Creating An Illegal Immigrant Military

Democrats have fielded multiple bills including legislation in 2022 to give illegal immigrants the option to serve in the US military and gain citizenship as a reward. Representatives mention the growing shortfall in military recruitment as a rationale for the policy (a shortfall which they created after allowing woke cultism into armed forces curriculum).

I have mentioned this in previous articles and I continue to believe that one of the main purposes for the establishment to leave borders open and entice illegals to enter is to create a migrant army; a situation in which millions of illegals will be offered easy citizenship in exchange for service. I also believe that this migrant army will be used against the American public (the real citizenry) to impose martial law measures in the wake of a national disaster.

Look at it this way: With the current military around 70% conservative and independent it is far less likely that the armed forces will follow orders to subjugate the populace, especially in the name of an increasingly unpopular leftist/globalist president like Joe Biden. It is much easier for the elites to use foreigners with no inherent regard for American culture or the American people as a suppressive force.

Cultural Replacement Theory

“Replacement Theory” is often denigrated by the media as a racist conspiracy held by white people who are “afraid to lose power.” This is nonsensical for a number of reasons, including the fact that if “white people” were a monolith and we had all the power, then we would simply snuff out any threats to that power and lock down our borders. There would be nothing anyone could do to stop us.

The truth is, there is no white monolith, there is no patriarchy and there is no such thing as systemic racism. Do some leftist activists clamor for mass migration to replace white people in the US and Europe? Absolutely. They call it “decolonization.” Is this the real purpose of mass migration? Probably not.

The replacement going on is not so much about replacing white people as it is about replacing western culture. The goal, I believe, is to open the floodgates to foreign elements because most of them come from more socialist systems that have no understanding of individual freedom. In this way, the establishment can dilute the American culture of independence and use the tyranny of the majority (democracy) to erase our values and principles forever.

This is why you will hear Biden and his ilk constantly pontificate on “democracy” and the “defense of democracy’ and the conservative “threat to democracy.” This is very deliberate terminology. When they say “democracy”, they are talking about the rule of the mob; the tyranny of the majority. They are talking about collectivism, socialism and ultimately authoritarianism for the “sake of the greater good.”

Migrants are being used to phase out the pillars of western civilization. This is why the borders must be secured now and illegals must be kicked out of the country with haste. No martial law, no FEMA detention facilities, no amnesty, no asylum, no welfare and no subsidies. They just need to be removed and sent back to where they came from and if they return illegally they should be severely punished.

In order for this to happen it would appear that southern states will have to enforce their own border security. But how to do this without federal interference? The American public will have to step in and step up to help states like Texas. The movement will have to be so overwhelming that the federal government is afraid to intervene.

[…]

Via https://alt-market.us/cultural-replacement-why-the-immigration-crisis-is-being-deliberately-engineered/

Iranian Axis Grinds Down US’ Will as Israel Suffers Stunning Setbacks

There are some very strange happenings in the Middle East which underscore the historic shifts grumbling just beneath the surface, ready to break through.

Firstly, to set the stage we turn to Israel, which appears to be concealing an operation that has gone off the rails, and is not yielding any of the expected results—and in fact has done little more than turn the world against them, creating a shockwave of anti-Israeli fervor that will steer sentiment for generations.

As we now know, Israel has withdrawn many of its brigades from the north, citing ‘rest and rotation’ when in reality it appears to be ‘reconstitution’, as the brigades took major attritional losses. Now in the wake of that, the latest bombshell reports state that resistance fighters have re-infiltrated the entire north, leaving the map looking like that of below:

I myself was skeptical—could Israel really have abandoned the entire north after “claiming” to have captured it?

But here’s the double bombshell: even ISW admitted it:

For the Kagan-run institute to admit this is huge. Their report below:

What does this mean? Has Israel suffered a total defeat in the north? Or have they “cleansed” it of ‘Hamas’ and are now taking a victory lap? To be completely fair and unbiased, we can’t say for certain as there is a deliberate informational blackout, particularly given all the reports we’ve seen from CNN and co. which openly state nothing is allowed to be aired without the full editorial oversight and approval of the IDF.

All we can do is infer from a variety of objective observations, such as the distinct lack of any mass eliminations or captures of resistance fighters, which is very telling.

During the entire time, there have been increasingly urgent secret talks between the US and Israel, with the Biden administration pleading with Netanyahu to curb his assaults.

[…]

In the meantime, Israel has continued to press into Khan Younis in the south. But yesterday they suffered what was unanimously called the biggest ‘tragedy’ of the entire conflict thus far. During one of the IDF’s routine mining operations, consisting of rigging explosives on civilian buildings, resistance fighters were able to trigger a detonation with dozens of IDF still inside the building:

This led to ~24 IDF killed in a single blast:

[…]

This is only a symbolic culmination of what appears to be turning into a fiasco. If I didn’t know any better, I would surmise that Israel’s operation is mirroring Ukraine’s doomed Khrynki assault: where an inability to admit grave miscalculation has led to a sunk cost fallacy induced comedy of errors. Israel obviously can’t pull out now to save face, so it almost leaves one with the impression they’re floundering around, secretly panicking internally as to what to do because they’ve reached the conclusion that ‘Hamas’ is an intractable shadow they cannot brute-force their way through.

Recall that just last month Kirby admitted that Hamas had not been attrited at all, and an Israeli reserve colonel gave a tearful account of piled up IDF bodies which seemed to imply that they are taking far heavier losses than they’re admitting to.

[…]

Now, on top of the releases of soldiers and withdrawals of brigades, Israel has reportedly offered an unprecedented two-month pause in the fighting:

[…]

There is more and more commotion within society, disagreement and in-fighting in the government over what direction to take. Earlier in the week the Knesset erupted with angry parents of hostages who are outraged at the government’s inability to get them back or negotiate their release:

[…]

Now, at the worst possible time, Iran has decided to turn the screws on Israel, creating extremely unfavorable conditions by locking down the maritime chokepoints, as well as putting unprecedented pressure on Israel’s top ally of the US, militarily, all across the region.

Even as of this writing, a new US-flagged ship, the Maersk Detroit, was said to be attacked by the Houthis in the Red Sea, though US CENTCOM claims the three missiles were all repulsed. The US Navy has been relegated to a glorified escort, but since the al-Mandab strait has effectively become a warzone, it has nonetheless crippled commerce.

Even the top pro-American analysts and commentators are appalled at the prestige loss the US is incurring as consequence:

[…]

US officials are looking for any possible vector that can buy them a breath or two of relief.

Recently I had reported how new strikes by Iranian-backed groups had again caused major damage at US’ second largest base, as well as wounding many troops. It was the latest in a slew of strikes over the past few months.

[…]

With everything quickly going south, and the US finding itself increasingly drawn into a quicksand-like mire, there are now some shocking reports about what it could all entail.

First, two days ago came a rumor that the US was considering talking its Kurdish allies in Syria into ‘working with Assad forces’ to combat ISIS.’

[…]

This immediately set off speculation that the US was getting ready to abandon Syria once and for all, and was looking for a way to securely fill the vacuum. Naturally, many scoffed at this, and refused to believe US would possibly withdraw from the region.

[…]

The shockwaves the article sent are still doing their laps through the world. As usual, it cites unnamed sources in the DOD and White House:

While no definitive decision has been made to leave, four sources within the Defense and State departments said the White House is no longer invested in sustaining a mission that it perceives as unnecessary. Active internal discussions are now underway to determine how and when a withdrawal may take place.

[…]

Via https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/iranian-axis-grinds-down-us-will

Slovak Prime Minister Breaks Silence on COVID-19 Vaccine Deaths and Pfizer Deal

Karen Kingston

“You can twist and turn it as you wish because you know nothing except disrespecting other people’s opinions. This is the third week we’ve been talking about criminal law.” Prime Minister Robert Fico

January 26, 2024: Slovakia Prime Minister Robert Fico recently made a brutally honest and powerful speech in front of parliament, stating;

We have had 21,000 deaths, which we attribute to the incompetence of our governments since 2020. To rule and focus only on economic benefits and of course to bow before the pharmaceutical companies from whom they have purchased huge quantities of unnecessary medical supplies and vaccines.

I don’t even want to talk about the European level. You know, I was very open and told the President of the European Commission that it was clear that he was suspected of being linked to the largest purchase of vaccines in the history of the European Commission. That he had secret text messages from the director of Pfizer that were exchanged mocking the report that was completely redacted for Members of the European Parliament when it was released.

[…]

Via https://karenkingston.substack.com/p/slovak-prime-minister-is-breaking