In our third year of the pandemic while the government sends out bland statements, Covid-19 has not gone away.

What if the Prime Minister acquired debilitating Long Covid lasting six months and more!

On LinkedIn I have posted the difference between 121 Australians dying from Covid-19 last week and the same number dying in a plane crash.

By Stephen Alomes

Ukrainians are now psychologically ready to retake the Crimean Peninsula from Russia by force, President Vladimir Zelensky told French broadcaster TF1 in an interview on Sunday. "The Reconquest" of Crimea has supposedly already started in Ukrainians’ heads, the president claimed, hinting that he could visit the "de-occupied" peninsula as early as 2023.

"The operation itself has not started yet," Zelensky said, when asked about Kiev’s plans for Crimea. "When it starts, you will definitely hear about it," he told TF1, adding that he personally believes "the reconquest of Crimea has started in people’s heads, and that’s very important."

It would be so tempting to qualify Chinese President Xi Jinping landing in Riyadh a week ago, welcomed with royal pomp and circumstance, as Xi of Arabia proclaiming the dawn of the petroyuan era.

But it’s more complicated than that. As much as the seismic shift implied by the petroyuan move applies, Chinese diplomacy is way too sophisticated to engage in direct confrontation, especially with a wounded, ferocious Empire. So there’s way more going here than meets the (Eurasian) eye.

BY PEPE ESCOBAR

ONE COULD BE TEMPTED TO BELIEVE THAT PUTIN HAS BEEN TOO SUCCESSFUL AT DEFENDING RUSSIA AGAINST THE WEST AND THE WEST RESENTS THIS, THUS ALL THE “POSTURES” OF THE WEST ARE BASED ON THIS PREMISE.

THIS WOULD BE IGNORING THE FACT THAT THE AMERICAN EMPIRE HAS BEEN PREPARING TO DESTROY RUSSIA AND TAKE OVER THE HEARTLAND THAT INCLUDES CHINA (WE HATE CHINA, DON’T WE?), SINCE 1919.

SOME PEOPLE WOULD BE INCLINED TO DISMISS THIS MACKINDER 1905 ORIGINATED GEOPOLITICAL THEORY AS A CONSPIRACY THEORY. IT’S NOT. IT IS AN ANGLO/SAXON/ZIONIST CONSPIRACY, PURE AND SIMPLE, THAT HAS BEEN TAKEN OVER BY THE AMERICAN EMPIRE, ESPECIALLY WHEN THE MARX BROTHERS, MARX AND ENGELS, DEVELOPED AN ALTERNATIVE TO THE AMERICAN CAPITALIST SYSTEM OF “DOING BUSINESS” THAT LED TO THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION IN 1917.

The New York Times reported Friday that European regulators are considering sanctions against Twitter because it suspended the accounts of three establishment journalists.  

[Early Saturday morning Musk tweeted that he was lifting the ban after the results of a poll he ran.]

President Biden received much credit this week for signing the bipartisan ”Respect for Marriage Act,” granting new federal protections for same-sex and interracial couples. But, as USC professor and LGBTQ rights activist Larry Gross suggests in this week’s Scheer Intelligence interview with host Robert Scheer, was Biden just jumping in front of the brave activists who changed the consciousness of the nation?

“There’s a way in which political figures like to step to the front of a parade,” Gross said. “Once the parade is already underway and the changes happen, they would like to step in front and take credit. This happened with Biden.” The new law voids the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996, which then Sen. Biden signed, and which defined marriage exclusively as a union between a man and a woman.

At least four major suppliers of Hyundai and sister company Kia have employed child labour at factories in the US state of Alabama in recent years, a Reuters investigation found.

The Belgian police has conducted a sweeping operation to probe into allegations of corruption in the European Parliament implicating Qatar. On Friday, 7 December, 16 police searches were carried out in Brussels and Italy.

Greek Socialist MEP and European Parliament vice-president Eva Kaili (photo) was arrested in flagrant offence for corruption and money laundering, Her father was caught red-handed with bags of cash. The overall amount seized adds up to 600,000 euros. Her partner and former Italian MEP Antonio Panzeri, plus her parliamentary assistant, Belgian national Marie Arena, were also placed in police custody.

The Socialists and Democrats group in the European Parliament immediately announced they had suspended their membership.

Last Tuesday, I was released on bail pending appeal in March. While my sentence is outrageous – as are the anti-democratic laws that allowed it to happen – I urge you not to lose sight of the reason I was jailed. Our way of life is under threat from the greatest, most dangerous crisis humanity has ever seen. Each of you must act now.

Dear wonderful supporters, It’s Violet here! In case you didn’t hear, I made it out on bail last Tuesday pending my appeal in March. The fight against this oppressive sentence is not yet over, but I am thankful to be able to spend Christmas with my family, and I’m so excited to have the opportunity to speak with you all at some upcoming events that I’d like to tell you about.

By Guest author Violet Coco

Germany, Italy, Austria and Japan were among the 50 members of the UN General Assembly who voted against the Russian resolution to condemn glorification of Nazism, joining the annual opposition by the US and Ukraine. 

The final vote on Thursday afternoon was 120 in favor, 50 opposed and ten abstaining. In addition to the former Axis powers, other notable “no” votes included Canada, the UK, France, Spain, Poland, Czechia, Poland, Hungary, and the three Baltic states. Switzerland, South Korea, and Türkiye were among the notable abstentions.

Moscow proposes the resolution every year, urging the UN to combat the “glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to the escalation of contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.”

The United States does not need it. No air force does. But the lesson of the dazzle from the B-21 Raider Stealth Bomber is that what the US develops and acquires Australia must have. Such a lesson ought to be unlearned as quickly as possible, but there is little chance of it with individuals such as Richard Marles in the defence portfolio.

The fantasy of having a deterrent effect to be projected over thousands of miles is found in a few documents that deserve to gather dust, most notably the 2020 defence strategic update which proved alarmist about Australia having a ten-year threat “window”.

IF YOU’RE LIKE ME AND DON’T MIND GETTING 10 YEARS OF BAD LUCK FOR NOT SUBSCRIBING TO THE MILLION VIDEOS OF THE 42.5 MOST EMBARRASSING MOMENTS OF STUPID PEOPLE DOING SOME STUPID THINGS, YOU WOULD KNOW THERE ARE STUPID PEOPLE IN RUSSIA. WE KNOW. 

AND THERE ARE STUPID PEOPLE IN THE USA, AND IN EUROPE, AND IN CHINA AND IN AUSTRALIA AS WELL… BUT THERE ARE FEW (NONE SO FAR TO BE SEEN) STUPID PEOPLE VIDEO IN UKRAINE…

CONCLUSION: EITHER THE UKRAINIANS ARE SMARTER THAN THE AVERAGE BEAR — OR SECUNDO, THEY DIE BEFORE THEY CAN UPLOAD THEIR STUPID VIDEOS. IT’S ALSO THOUGHT THAT PUTIN IS BOMBING THE SHIT OUT OF THE UKRAINIAN ELECTRICITY GRID TO PREVENT UKRAINIANS MAKE ASSES OF THEMSELVES ON YOUTUBE.

Rail passengers have felt the brunt of transport disruption so far this week - but today they'll be joined by travellers on roads and buses. 

‘This is not how you treat allies’ was, as various media reports in the US and Europe show, the message that the French leader gave to the US President Joe Biden during the former’s recent visit to the US.

THINK-TANKS ARE PESTS — TOO OFTEN LIKE COCKROACHES, FLIES, LEECHES AND/OR MOSQUITOES. THEY SWARM OR SLIME WITH THE INTENT OF DISRUPTING THE NICE STATUS QUO. THE MAIN INTENT OF A MODERN THINK-TANK IS TO SUCK THE BLOOD OUT OF DEMOCRACY TO PROFIT ONE PARTICULAR GROUP (NOTHING NEW SINCE THE FRENCH REVOLUTION).

A THINK-TANK CAN TOO OFTEN BE A WARMONGERING ORGANISATION DISGUISED AS A PEACEFUL WOLF.

WE’VE SEEN THE PNAC AND SUCH…

ALAIN DE BOTTON GETS IT WRONG ONCE MORE, AS ALWAYS, EVERY TIME, AGAIN, AS USUAL: