Define ‘recession’: Biden’s administration refuses to see economic reality

Instead of addressing the most pressing problem of regular Americans, the president and his staff play word games

As anyone with a pulse can attest, times are tough, and every non-millionaire American is struggling with the weight of the economy.

Inflation is now sitting at a 40-year high, and economic conditions are worse than when Jimmy Carter was running the show. And yet, despite all the facts, Joe Biden and his team at the White House insist that everything is fine, like the meme dog in the burning house.

BY Ian Miles Cheong

After leaving The Washington Post in 1977, Carl Bernstein spent six months looking at the relationship of the CIA and the press during the Cold War years. His 25,000-word cover story, published in Rolling Stone on October 20, 1977, is reprinted below.

How Americas Most Powerful News Media Worked Hand in Glove with the Central Intelligence Agency and Why the Church Committee Covered It Up

BY CARL BERNSTEIN

In 1953, Joseph Alsop, then one of America’s leading syndicated columnists, went to the Philippines to cover an election. He did not go because he was asked to do so by his syndicate. He did not go because he was asked to do so by the newspapers that printed his column. He went at the request of the CIA.

Ukraine’s celebrity-in-chief just took time off from his heavy schedule of appearances at major Western gatherings for a photo shoot with his wife in Vogue magazine.  

By Caitlin Johnstone
CaitlinJohnstone.com

Listen to a reading of this article.

The US has one of the most deeply-ingrained nationalistic ideologies of any nation. Accompanying the grand mass hysterias of patriotism and freedom, one of the most pervasive links in the ideological chain that creates the American sense of identity is a belief in “The American Dream”, an imaginary ideal that offers a rags-to-riches path to prosperity.

As Putin is blamed for the war (intervention) in Ukraine, many good people misunderstand the harsh situation. Russia was placed in a bind (a trap). The choice was ratshit. Either accept that Ukraine becomes a NATO member and that the new autonomous territories of Ukraine be taken over Kiev after fierce battles that would have killed hundred of thousands OR defend the Donbass region and imposing a certain will on Kiev as not to join NATO. Putin is smarter than the average bear. Contrary to what is painted in the West, Putin is honest. He made some demands last year (2021) as to the West not to cross certain red lines. The West pissed on him.

Which Australian Defence Minister convinced the Hawke Cabinet to create a submarine production industry at Port Adelaide with no commercial prospects, its product being of only marginal benefit to our defence, with zero local construction expertise, at extraordinary cost to taxpayers yet available economically elsewhere – while obscuring the finding by his Department that submarines suffer critical limitations in defending Australia?

BY MIKE GILLIGAN

Bosses at Western banks such as JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and HSBC are committing war crimes by continuing to indirectly finance the Russian state, an economic adviser to Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, Oleg Ustenko, claimed on Tuesday.

In an interview with CNBC, Ustenko announced that Kiev continues to gather data on banks it believes are financing traders of Russian oil, and plans to forward its complaints to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“There is no doubt that Russia is committing war crimes in Ukraine, against Ukrainians," Ustenko told the outlet. “In our logic, everybody who is financing these war criminals who are doing these terrible things in Ukraine are also committing war crimes,” he added, noting that Kiev will not pursue the banks themselves, but their leaders and managers.

A US aircraft carrier and its retinue of warships departed from Singapore on Tuesday, steaming northward toward Taiwan. US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is slated to visit the island next month despite protests by Beijing, which regards Taiwan as a Chinese province in rebellion. Now, she’s inviting more lawmakers along.

It took just six minutes for the fireworks to start.

Anthony Albanese, the nation’s newly installed Prime Minister, was among the last to arrive in the House of Representatives for his first grilling in Question Time.

Sitting opposite him was his new sparring partner, a stony-faced Peter Dutton, the man tasked with navigating the Coalition through its first stint in opposition in almost a decade. 

“I wish him well as Leader of the Opposition and I hope he stays there for a very, very long time," Albanese said as he took his first question from Dutton at 2pm.

Outgoing British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has presented Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with the Sir Winston Churchill Leadership Award, drawing comparisons between the two leaders in times of crisis.

President Zelensky accepted the award by video link during a ceremony at Johnson’s London office that was attended by members of the Churchill family, the UK’s Ukrainian Ambassador Vadym Prystaiko and Ukrainians who have received training from British soldiers.

Mr Johnson recalled how President Zelensky confirmed on February 24 that Russia had invaded, adding, “In that moment of supreme crisis, you faced a test of leadership that was, in its way, as severe as Churchill’s challenge in 1940.”

Russia’s Gazprom to disable second pipeline turbine

Natural gas supply via Nord Stream 1 will reportedly be reduced to 20% capacity

Russian energy major Gazprom will stop the operation of second Siemens turbine, the company announced on Monday. As a result supply through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline will not exceed 33 million cubic meters per day from July 27, business daily Kommersant has reported, corresponding to 20% of the pipeline's capacity.

Gazprom says the decision to switch off the turbine was made based on its technical condition and the fact that it’s due for an overhaul.

According to the official U.S. government narrative, a “desperate” Russia — suffering significant battlefield reversals in Ukraine including the loss of “large numbers” of reconnaissance drones while its own military industrial capacity lacks the ability to provide adequate replacements due to Russia’s “economic isolation” — has turned to Iran for assistance.

“Our information,” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan declared, “indicates that the Iranian government is preparing to provide Russia with up to several hundred UAV’s [unmanned aerial vehicles], including weapons-capable UAVs on an expedited timeline.” Sullivan said. “It’s unclear whether Iran has delivered any of these UAVs to Russia already.”

Once upon a time — and not so long ago —it was a universal belief that in order to be a good “Bohemian”, one lived in a garret, used a candle (stuck in a bottle) for lighting, drank dry wine and absinthe with, and between, occasional repasts of bread and garlic, et cetera, produced masterpieces of paint and poesy in the intervals, bilked the landlady, subscribed to unmoral — or immoral, whichever way you look at it — ideas concerning social ties, and changed collars, if at all, seldom. (you follow me?)

This conception was in accord with the notion that every retired pugilist had to keep a public-house, and drink himself to death; that all lawyers are thieved; that all little blue-eyed newsboys would sooner be run over getting your change than turn a dishonest halfpenny; that tailors’ bills are always evaded; and that Britannia really rules the waves.

In the immediate aftermath of the Hungarian elections earlier this year, which saw Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party win another two-thirds majority in parliament, I interviewed Balázs Orbán, one of the prime minister’s top advisors and now a member of the National Assembly of Hungary.

“Progressives will eventually make you choose,” Balázs told me. “You cannot have two flags. They force you to choose your national flag or the rainbow flag—and you have to choose the rainbow flag. Because if you choose the national flag, you are a bad person.”

BY Bradley Devlin

GUS: THE ONLY SOLUTION TO THE UKRAINE PROBLEM IS TO DIVIDE IT IN TWO COUNTRIES — AS IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN THE FIRST PLACE: THE GALICIANS IN THE WEST, THE RUSSIANS IN THE EAST. END OF STORY.

By Maksim Artemyev