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Chinese report decries US hegemony

RT | February 20, 2023

The US has been abusing its hegemonic position in the world for decades to reap benefits for itself and sow rivalry and instability in other nations, a report published on Monday on the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s official website claims.

The document seeks to draw international attention “to the perils of the US practices to world peace and stability and the well-being of all peoples.” It offers examples of Washington’s purported selfishness in the areas of politics, the military, the economy, technology and culture.

For a century, the US has treated Latin America as its backyard, where those who resist the US face “political interference, military intervention and regime subversion,” the text claims. Elsewhere, it creates divisive blocs under its influence, and fosters “color revolutions” against opponents. Lately Washington has posited the false dichotomy of “democracies vs. autocracies” and arbitrarily labels nations as members of one of the camps.

The use of force has been a feature of US expansionism since its independence, the document says. Since 2001 alone, wars launched by Washington “in the name of fighting terrorism have claimed over 900,000 lives with some 335,000 of them civilians.”

The Pentagon has used an array of “appalling methods” of war, from biological weapons in Korea to depleted uranium munitions in more recent times, “causing… countless civilian casualties and lasting environmental pollution,” the piece notes.

The US government has used the dollar’s status as the global reserve currency, and its influence on the international financial system, to quash competition and slap unilateral sanctions against opponents. Washington “is basically collecting ‘seigniorage’ from around the world,” and during the Covid-19 pandemic, disrupted the global economy by injecting trillions of dollars into it, the report says.

The report accuses the US of using its status as a leading technological power to conduct electronic surveillance and espionage, including against its closest allies, as well as cyberwarfare, noting that having the leverage of big tech companies allows the US government to censor speech online and push its narratives on a global scale, while silencing critics.

The document concludes that the US should do some “soul-searching” and change its approach, as “the historical trends of peace, development, cooperation, and mutual benefit are unstoppable.”

February 20, 2023 Posted by | Economics, Militarism | , | 4 Comments

Munich Conference signals Western isolation, advent of multipolarity

By Drago Bosnic | February 20, 2023

Although it has been only 16 years since President Putin’s historical speech at the 2007 Munich Conference, that event now seems like a distant past of a long-lost world. Back then, Russia was warning the political West that further NATO aggression would inevitably lead to the revival of the Cold War.

However, Washington DC and Brussels seem to have wanted exactly that. The political West has tried to present the 2023 Munich Security Conference as some sort of a groundbreaking global event that “sent a strong signal” and showed “just how isolated” Russia is. However, nothing could be further from the truth, given the comments of some of the most prominent participants, including NATO and EU member states.

For instance, during a Saturday meeting with US State Secretary Anthony Blinken, China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi stated that Beijing finds Washington DC’s attempts to threaten Sino-Russian relations completely unacceptable, emphasizing that the relationship between the two superpowers is their sovereign right and that it is not aimed against any third party.

“We will never accept the instructions of the United States and even threats to put pressure on Russian-Chinese relations,” Wang was quoted as saying in a statement published on Sunday by the Chinese Foreign Ministry. “The Sino-Russian relations of comprehensive partnership and strategic cooperation are based on non-alignment, non-confrontation and non-targeting against third parties. They are within the framework of the sovereignty of two independent states,” he added.

The comments were made in response to US accusations that China will “increase its support for Russia”. Wang also warned his American counterpart against the continued melodramatic reaction to the “balloon controversy”, which the US has been (ab)using lately to ensure detente between the two countries is virtually impossible. Beijing said that American high-altitude balloons have illegally entered China’s airspace many times over the last several decades, but the government chose not to cause panic and simply used existing diplomatic channels to communicate with their US counterparts.

“If the US continues to use this as an excuse, to promote further escalation and aggravate the situation, then China will definitely go to the very end. All the consequences of this will be borne by the American side,” Wang said.

China also called on the US to stop escalating the Ukrainian crisis and start promoting a peaceful settlement. Wang said that “Washington DC should stop adding fuel to the fire”. He noted that China’s position is constructive and called for the negotiation process to continue.

“Being a great power, the United States should contribute to the political settlement of the crisis, and not add fuel to the fire and look for opportunities to extract its own benefits,” Wang was quoted as saying.

Hungary also called for the de-escalation of the crisis and insisted on maintaining economic relations with Russia. During the traditional annual address to his fellow citizens, Prime Minister Viktor Orban stated that “the only way for Hungary to live peacefully is to stay out of the conflict, as it is not our war”.

“We will maintain our economic relations with Russia, and we advise the entire Western world to do the same, because without relations there will be no ceasefire or peace talks,” Orban said.

On the other hand, the European Union is doing exactly the opposite. The bloc’s top diplomat Josep Borrel called Russia “an existential threat” and urged all member states not to continue supporting the Kiev regime, but “help more”. He also insisted that “the EU should start an industrial techno-blitzkrieg to produce more weapons“, effectively nullifying the claim that the bloc was an economic union. Borrel added that member states will spend an additional €70 billion on defense by 2025.

“In the next two years, the EU countries intend to spend an additional €70 billion on defense. France will increase defense spending by 40%, while Poland will double it,” he stated.

Interestingly, India was also targeted. George Soros, a controversial oligarch infamous for providing financial backing for various groups responsible for destabilization and undermining of countries the political West sees as “uncooperative”, stated the following:

“India is an interesting case. It’s a democracy, but its leader Narendra Modi is no democrat. Inciting violence against Muslims was an important factor in his meteoric rise. Modi maintains close relations with both open and closed societies. India is a member of the Quad (which also includes Australia, the US, and Japan), but it buys a lot of Russian oil at a steep discount and makes a lot of money on it. […]

Modi and business tycoon Adani are close allies; their fate is intertwined. Adani Enterprises tried to raise funds in the stock market, but he failed. Adani is accused of stock manipulation and his stock collapsed like a house of cards. Modi is silent on the subject, but he will have to answer questions from foreign investors and in parliament. This will significantly weaken Modi’s stranglehold on India’s federal government and open the door to push for much-needed institutional reforms. I may be naive, but I expect a democratic revival in India.”

In response to the accusations, India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar brushed Soros off and (quite accurately) described him as “old, rich, opinionated and dangerous”. Considering Soros has a history of Nazi collaboration, it can be argued that his attack could even be considered a compliment of sorts for Prime Minister Modi and India as a whole.

In essence, the Munich Conference not only failed to produce the desired results (Russia supposedly isolated), but it even strengthened the multipolar world, as neither India nor China proved malleable in any way, showing their sovereignty is untouched by the political West’s pressure. On the other hand, many Europeans are extremely unhappy by the EU’s militarization. According to varying estimates, the huge crowd of protesters in Munich numbered up to 50,000 people. In conclusion, while there are massive differences between Munich 2007 and Munich 2023, the latest conference is somewhat similar to the 1938 Munich Agreement between Nazi Germany and Western allies. Considering how that ended (along with any other invasion of Russia), the political West’s prospects against Moscow look rather grim, to say the least.

Drago Bosnic is an independent geopolitical and military analyst.

February 20, 2023 Posted by | Militarism, Progressive Hypocrite, Russophobia | , , , | 1 Comment

Vitamin D and diabetes

Dr. John Campbell • February 7, 2023

Vitamin D and Risk for Type 2 Diabetes in People With Prediabetes, (7th Feb 2023) https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.73… HTTPS://WWW.ACPJOURNALS.ORG/DOI/10.73…

Vitamin D has many functions in the body, including a role in insulin secretion and glucose metabolism.

Observational studies, association between low level of vitamin D in the blood, and high risk for developing diabetes.

So, does giving vitamin D to people who were at high risk for diabetes reduce the risk?

Authors searched 3 databases, through 9 December 2022

Compare the use of vitamin D versus placebo for diabetes prevention, in adults with prediabetes.

Meta analysis and reanalysis of pooled data Trials were at low risk for bias

Results Over 3 years of follow-up Vitamin D group New-onset diabetes occurred in 22.7%

Placebo group New-onset diabetes occurred in 25%

Translates to being 15% reduction

Number needed to treat to prevent one case of diabetes 30 adults with prediabetes to prevent 1 person from developing diabetes.

Risk reduction by blood levels

At least 125 nmol/L (≥50 ng/mL) group 50 to 74 nmol/L (20 to 29 ng/mL) group

Cholecalciferol reduced risk for diabetes by 76% (hazard ratio, 0.24)

3-year absolute risk reduction of 18.1% Vitamin D increased the likelihood of regression to normal glucose regulation by 30%

Doses used 20,000 units of cholecalciferol (vitamin D3) weekly

4000 units of cholecalciferol daily 0.75 micrograms of eldecalcitol, (synthetic analogue of vitamin D)

Adverse events

Rare, study could not draw any definite conclusions about safety kidney stones hypercalcemia hypercalciuria

Implications In adults with prediabetes, vitamin D was effective in lowering the risk for developing diabetes.

By the Numbers:

Diabetes in America https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/health-e…

Total Diabetes From 2001 to 2020, diabetes prevalence significantly increased among over 18s 37.3 million people have diabetes (11.3% of the US population).

28.7 million people have been diagnosed with diabetes.

8.5 million people who have diabetes have not been diagnosed (do not know they have it)

Total Prediabetes 96 million US adults have prediabetes.

Cost of Diabetes (2017) $327 billion, $237 billion direct medical costs $90 billion in lost productivity

Excess medical costs, $9,601 per person https://www.diabetes.org.uk/professio…

UK prevalence 4.8 million (7%)

3.9 million diagnosed

1 million undiagnosed

5.3 million by 2025 People with type 2 diabetes

50% more likely to die prematurely

Two-and-a-half times more likely to develop heart failure

Twice more likely to have a heart attack 

February 20, 2023 Posted by | Economics, Science and Pseudo-Science, Timeless or most popular, Video | , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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