Ukraine won’t pursue NATO membership – Zelensky adviser
Samizdat | June 25, 2022
Ukraine has accepted that NATO membership is off the table, and will not take any further steps toward joining the US-led military alliance, Igor Zhovkva, an adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, told the Financial Times on Saturday. Nevertheless, Kiev wants a say in NATO’s policies.
NATO leaders are set to meet in the Spanish capital of Madrid next week, and during two days of meetings and consultations, the alliance will unveil its Strategic Concept – a document that outlines the alliance’s mission and stance toward non-members, including China and Russia.
Zhovkva told the Financial Times that Zelensky’s government wants the alliance to acknowledge that Ukraine is “a cornerstone of European security,” and to reaffirm its partnership with Kiev, first established in 1997.
However, he said that Ukraine will not push to become a member of NATO.
“Nato members have declined our aspirations. We will not do anything else in this regard,” he said.
Ukraine’s prospective membership in the alliance was a key factor behind the current conflict with Russia. Ukraine wrote its goal of becoming a NATO member into its constitution in 2019, despite Moscow’s warnings that having the alliance’s forces and weapons on its border would constitute an unacceptable security threat.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has insisted that the alliance’s membership books remain open for interested nations, but has not promised or ruled out membership for Ukraine in the near term. Under the 2008 Bucharest Declaration, NATO’s official position is that Georgia and Ukraine “will become members of NATO” at an unspecified future date.
NATO’s Strategic Concept has not been updated since 2010, with that version of the document stating that the alliance seeks “a true strategic partnership” with Russia.
Zhovkva wants NATO to purge any mention of Russia as a “partner” from the coming update.
“We expect in the Nato strategic concept . . . there will be more strict and severe warnings to the Russian aggressor,” he said, urging the alliance “Don’t be shy” in inserting anti-Russian text.
Furthermore, Zhovkva said that he wants the Ukrainian conflict to be described in the strategy document, arguing “it’s not enough just to cross out the word ‘partner.’”
Strategic city in Donbass ‘freed’ – Russia, France 24
Samizdat – June 25, 2022
The major city of Severodonetsk has come under the full control of the Lugansk People’s Republic, Russian military spokesman, Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov, said in a statement on Saturday.
He said the LPR cities of Severodonetsk and Borovskoye, along with the settlements of Voronovo and Sirotino, had been “completely liberated” following “successful offensive operations” by republic’s forces, which were supported by Russian troops.
Today’s announcement means “the entire left-bank territory of the Seversky Donets river within the borders of the Lugansk People’s Republic has come under its full control,” the spokesperson added.
Earlier this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called Severodonetsk “an epicenter of the confrontation in the Donbass.”
“In many ways, the fate of our Donbass is being decided there,” he claimed.
On Friday, Sergey Gaidai, whom Ukraine considers to be the head of Lugansk Region, announced that the country’s troops had been ordered to leave Severodonetsk. Earlier, he said that 90% of the city had been destroyed.
With the war in Ukraine passing the four-month mark on Friday, Russian forces continue to seize territory in Donbass.
Is “Roe v. Wade” REALLY about abortion?
By Kit Knightly | OffGuardian | June 24, 2022
A few hours ago the Supreme Court of United States (SCOTUS) confirmed their ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, the case which set the precedent for abortion as a human right in the US back in the 1970s.
As soon as this decision was first “leaked” a few months ago it became the trending topic all across the US and to a certain extent the rest of the anglosphere. Since it was confirmed this afternoon, the already supercharged dialogue has reached new heights.
Pro-choice pundits, politicians and celebrities have been flooding the cyber public square with comparisons to the Handmaid’s Tale and other forced memes. They argue abortion-on-demand is a fundamental right, and take up the rather unsettling position that having an abortion is a point of pride.
On the other side of the divide Christians, traditionalists and republican politicians argue for the sanctity of all life, regardless of context or complication.
Both sides are entrenched to the point of hysteria, and not really looking like budging.
As with most things, the reasonable ground is somewhere in the middle.
Regardless of the law, women will sometimes seek out abortions, and it’s probably best they have access to safe, clean places to do so. That said, the use of abortions as a form of contraception is both obscene and impractical, and aborting viable mid or late term babies is revolting – both in concept, and in practice.
None of that really matters though, because the Roe v Wade finding isn’t even about abortion, it’s about Federal overreach. The Justices made that clear.
Though it has gotten lost in 250 years of ever-expanding centralization, the USA originated as a loose federation of quasi-independent states, with the central federal government having strictly limited powers to overrule local legislation.
Simply put, the Constitution lays out all the powers of the federal government, and anything not specifically mentioned therein is de facto a matter for states on an individual basis.
For decades federal governments used SCOTUS decisions to get around these limitations, relying on precedents rather than actual legislation in order to control state laws from Washington DC.
Roe v Wade is a classic example of this, and reversing it changes only one thing: abortion law will revert to a state-level matter, not a federal one.
… but is it even really just about that?
On a deeper level, there seems to be a prolonged campaign in place to violently divide the United States, perhaps to the point of outright civil war.
From Black Lives Matter to January 6th, the 2nd amendment to Roe v Wade, there is an increasing supply of hot-button issues accompanied by a deluge of divisive rhetoric.
Both sides are being encouraged to take to the streets, protest, mock, yell and scream without any search for common ground.
The office of the Presidency is degraded more every term, with a crass blowhard followed by a jittering dementia patient.
Some states are even openly talking about seceding.
At the end of the Cold War, Russia was economically raped and globally humiliated. It came within inches of shattering into a dozen or more failed states. As the big money players head East, and the hegemonic powers turn from the US Empire to a new globalist powerbase, you have to wonder if the US is destined for the same fate.
Just as the USSR had to fail, and be seen to fail pour encourager les autres, perhaps the US – with its history of individualism and personal liberty – is considered surplus to requirements in the new age of faux collectivism.
Whatever America became at its Imperial zenith, its constitutional foundation has always arguably been the most egalitarian on Earth. Could it be that those ideas enshrined in the Bill of Rights are considered an impediment to the “progressive” New World Order?
The US falling into failed statehood could even act as a moral lesson to the rest of the world, and be held up as a warning about what can happen when “liberty is taken too far”, or when people are allowed to “selfishly put their own rights ahead of the public good”.
Perhaps the US being torn apart – or encouraged to tear itself apart – is key to bringing about the next stage of the great reset.
One thing is for sure, no matter the endgame, US politics are dry tinder piled high, waiting for a spark.
French Politician Slams Ukraine for Abandoning Howitzers to Russian Forces
Samizdat – 25.06.2022
French politician and far-right National Rally candidate for the 2022 general election, Jean-Michel Cadenas, has criticized the Ukrainian military for abandoning two Paris-originated Caesar self-propelled howitzers on the battlefield. Cadenas also blasted French President Emmanuel Macron for sending them in the first place.
“Russia has recovered, among other things, two of the first six Caesar howitzers sent by France [to Ukraine]! They were in perfect working order. The Ukrainians withdrew [from their positions] so quickly that they did not have time to either destroy or booby-trap them!” Cadenas wrote on his Twitter account.
The politician went on to recall that following their capture, the howitzers were sent to a Russian defense lab. Cadenas, who is a former army officer himself, alleged that the weapons will be “dissected, studied, copied and improved” by Russia, adding sarcastically, “Thank you, Macron!”
The Uralvagonzavod Russian defense lab which is studying the Caesars also sent its regards to the French president.
“[We] send out gratitude to President Macron for [the] gifted howitzers. We can’t say that they are good howitzers, nothing like our MSTA-S [NATO codename: M1990 “Farm”]. Nonetheless, we will find a good use for them. Please send more for disassembly!” Uralvagonzavod wrote.
Moscow has repeatedly advised western countries against sending weapons to Ukraine, warning that Kiev might not exercise control over where they end up, possibly including in the hands of third-party terrorists looking to compromise European security. The Kremlin also stressed that these shipments unnecessarily prolong the conflict in Ukraine and added that it shows how the West wants to fight “until the last Ukrainian standing” to oppose the Russian special military operation.
These words of caution were hardly heeded by western countries, which continue to send new weapons and ammunition.
US pushes military pact with Nepal, puts Himalayan peace at stake for geopolitical ambition
By Hu Yuwei | Global Times | June 20, 2022
After pushing Nepal to approve the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) economic pact, the US may have also urged the Himalayan country to join its military alliance, the State Partnership Program (SPP), widely believed to be another component of the US’ Indo-Pacific Strategy.
Observers from both Nepal and China warned against the program’s heavy military focus on the containment of China in the region.
Nepalese media reported that the US renewed a push last week on Nepal to participate in the SPP during the visit of Commanding General of the US Army Pacific, Charles Flynn, to Nepal. Flynn called for the signing of the SPP when he met with Nepalese Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba and Chief of Staff of the Nepal Army General Prabhu Ram Sharma.
The disclosed six-page draft US proposal triggered a debate and faced backlash in Nepal for the possible US military presence in Nepal, which, many warned, contradicts Nepal’s non-aligned foreign policy.
The SPP, once approved, would draw Nepal one step closer to the US’ military alliance, despite Washington’s denial and calling it a development assistance, said experts.
Under huge pressure from the public and lawmakers, during his meeting with coalition partners on Wednesday, Deuba said that he will not sign any agreement with any country, including the SPP, that could bring harm to Nepal, the Kathmandu Post reported.
The American embassy called the SPP draft circulating online “fake.”
Inspite of this, many suspect the disclosure of the SPP in Nepal could be intended as a tactic to test the waters, as the ambition and intention of the US to strengthen its military presence in Nepal have long been clear under the core purpose of the US’ Indo-Pacific Strategy to contain China.
Concluding his four-day trip to Nepal, Flynn said on Twitter that “we cherish our decades-long defense partnership and look forward to opportunities for collaboration.”
Observers told the Global Times that the US has increased its penetration and interference in Nepalese politics in recent years, and the approval of the US-pushed MCC program in Nepal in February is an example.
If the MCC has supported US control and influence in Nepal economically, the SPP could be used to strengthen the US’ military ties in the Asian country, Qian Feng, director of the Research Department of the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University, said.
“The US has always valued the geographical importance of Nepal which borders Southwest China’s Xizang Autonomous Region. Since the Trump administration, the US has been trying to include Nepal in its Indo-Pacific Strategy to achieve its multiple political and security goals toward China,” Zhang Yongpan, a research fellow of the Institute of Chinese Borderland Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, suggested. “In recent years, the political situation in Nepal has been turbulent, and the divided parties are vulnerable to pressures of external forces. The US takes the opportunity to increase influence and infiltrations in Nepal via multiple ways, trying to make it a tool to promote the US’ Indo-Pacific Strategy,” Zhang told the Global Times.
But such US tactics to contain China are bound to be futile, and Nepal will not easily become the frontline of the US’ attempts to suppress China, experts concluded.
Dangerous move with risky clauses
Widespread debate and criticism surged in the public opinion against both the US and Nepalese governments, after the draft of a proposed agreement by the US Department of Defense on the State Partnership Program between the US National Guard and the Nepal Army was disclosed on June 13.
The six-page draft agreement has 10 clauses, in which the US promises to provide Nepal $500 million for five years in addition to non-lethal equipment to the Nepal Army, the Kathmandu Post reported, citing officials privy to the draft.
The leaked document says it is for strengthening the “partnership, in the areas of defense and security,” between the US and Nepal. One of the clauses in the leaked document mentions that the “US National Guard and US contractors, related vehicles and light aircrafts operated by or for the United States, may use such agreed facilities and areas for training, transit, support and related activities, refueling, temporary maintenance of vehicles and aircrafts, accommodation of personnel, their dependents, communications, staging, deploying of forces and material.”
The proposed agreed areas of cooperation also include joint training exercises “in high-altitude terrains in Nepal,” with experts alerting the risk to the security and stability of China’s Xizang, in the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau that borders Nepal, as well as potential infiltration of American forces into the border area.
This clause will make the security situation in western China more complicated with higher risks, considering that Nepal has long been at the forefront of preventing Tibetan separatist forces from destroying stability in Xizang, said Qian.
Demonstrators protest against the proposed grant agreement from America under the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), in Kathmandu on February 24, 2022. Photo: VCG
Unanimous disapproval in Nepal
Public anger pumped up across social media over the last week with criticism against the Nepalese government and questions over the US’ intention in pushing the program. Netizens flocked to social media to urge the government to stop turning Nepal into a battlefield of geopolitical rivalry. Others shared their fear that the Deuba government is tilting toward the US and may submit to their pressure to advance in the SPP while ignoring the risks of harming the friendship with China.
Deuba is scheduled to visit the US in mid-July. Meanwhile, the Chief of the Army Staff, General Prabhu Ram Sharma, will be visiting the Pentagon before the Prime Minister’s trip, from June 27 to July 1, upon the invitation of the Pentagon, local media reported.
“This time, unlike the MCC, there is almost unanimous public opinion in Nepal that the SPP should not be approved by Nepal,” Ritu Raj Subedi, deputy executive editor of the Nepalese newspaper The Rising Nepal, told the Global Times.
“It can harm China-Nepal friendship and mutual understanding if the SPP gets approved. It can lead the nation toward long internal conflict and unrest. This type of activities will enhance distrust toward leaders because it is not transparent and was kept secret until the issue came to surface. Conflict mongers will try to reap benefits out of the situation. Internal conflicts can invite the involvement of foreigners and permanent corruption. There are so many byproducts of such issues,” Yogeshwar Romkhami, a former senior superintendent of the Nepal Police Service, told the Global Times.
Local people are not in the favor of MCC or SPP. Those who have even a little knowledge about it are worried. The West has penetrated every political party and the public believe these conspirators are pulling the country into internal conflict or uncertainties, said Romkhami.
Washington’s promotion of the SPP in Nepal comes at a time when the US’ Indo-Pacific Strategy is accelerating. The Biden administration’s essential competition with China through working with neighboring countries has never changed, Qian suggested.
US Under Secretary of State Uzra Zeya concluded her three-day trip to Nepal on May 22, the highest-level visit by a US official since 2012. Additionally, US Assistant Secretary of State Donald Lu visited Kathmandu in November last year. Before that, Vice President of MCC Compact Operations Fatema Sumar was in Kathmandu in September, local media reported.
The US is ramping up efforts in allying with Asian countries to suppress China both economically and militarily, Zhang said.
US foreign security tool
The US first came up with the concept of the SPP in 1993 as a humanitarian and disaster response training program.
Now the program has been established for over 25 years and includes more than 80 partnerships with over 90 countries. According to the SPP fact sheet of the National Guard, the program “supports the security cooperation objectives of the United States and the Geographic Combatant Commands (GCC) by developing enduring relationships with partner countries and carrying out activities to build partner capacity, improve interoperability, and enhance US access and influence while increasing the readiness of US and partner forces to meet emerging challenges. The SPP helps the United States react effectively to anticipated or unanticipated global scenarios as they emerge.”
Notably, Ukraine has been partnered with the California National Guard under the SPP since 1993. Over the past 29 years, the California National Guard conducted regular military-to-military exchanges with Ukrainian forces contributing to Ukraine’s continued defense modernization.
Since its inception, the SPP has been managed by the chief of the US Defense Department’s National Guard Bureau, a four-star general and also a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the Department of Defense, equal to the heads of the army, navy and air force. This highlights the SPP’s military importance, according to Qian.
Although the SPP purportedly emphasizes disaster relief and anti-terrorism efforts, and intentionally downplays the military intentions of the US, its military essence has been clear in its implementation. It has served as an important foreign security cooperation tool for the US to achieve its foreign policy goals, said Qian.
Due to the unstable leadership in Nepal and possible reshuffled political landscape in the national elections at the end of the year, the operations and outcomes of the programs like SPP are still in doubt.
Kaliningrad Provocation & Ukraine’s EU Candidacy… Desperate Diversions From NATO Propaganda Lies
Strategic Culture Foundation | June 24, 2022
The Western propaganda narrative on the conflict in Ukraine is in big trouble. Months of lying by governments and dutiful news media are falling apart as Russia makes major advances to safeguard the Russian-speaking populations in Crimea and Donbass, the formerly eastern Ukrainian region, and to neutralize Nazi military forces under the control of the Kiev regime and backed to the hilt by NATO.
Recall how only a few weeks ago Russia was being pilloried in Western media for making a “strategic blunder” from its military intervention in Ukraine that began on February 24. Western leaders were gung-ho in predicting military defeat for Moscow. After four months of conflict not only are Russian forces decimating NATO-backed Ukrainian flanks, the wider repercussions that the Western powers could have avoided if they had engaged diplomatically with Russia to resolve long-held security concerns are rebounding with devastating economic impact. The U.S.-led NATO and European Union axis is digging a giant hole for itself. If not a grave.
To divert from the NATO-fuelled disaster, the U.S.-led military alliance is recklessly provoking Russia with a blockade on the Russian exclave territory of Kaliningrad. The Russian territory is sandwiched between NATO members Poland and the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. This week Lithuania moved to block rail and road transport to Kaliningrad. It is clear that the Baltic state is not acting alone. It is enforcing a policy ordained by the NATO and EU leadership. The EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell made the absurd excuse that Lithuania was merely applying sanctions against Russian goods. He denied the blatant reality that the move was a hostile economic blockade on sovereign Russian territory and its internal affairs. Laughably, Borrell has the brass neck to accuse Russia of blockading Ukrainian ports.
Moscow has warned that if the blockade of its territory is not lifted it would be seen as aggression to which it will respond. In other words, the NATO and EU axis has decided to gratuitously escalate tensions with Russia to the point of provoking acts of war which a blockade certainly deems.
The insane move by the Western powers has to be seen as nothing other than desperate diversionary tactics to distract from their fiasco of failing propaganda lies over Ukraine. Rather than admitting (even tacitly) that its policies have created a monumental mess in Europe and indeed the wider world, the Western powers are digging an even deeper hole by ratcheting up even more tensions with Russia.
This would also explain the farcical move this week by the European Council to grant official candidate status to Ukraine for joining the 27-member bloc. In practice, it may take decades for Ukraine to gain membership. Turkey has had the same status for 22 years without moving into the European fold. Serbia and other Balkan states have been waiting up to 10 years as candidates for joining the EU club. So, the fanfare of the EU leadership granting Ukraine application is largely empty theater. All the declarations about “solidarity” with Ukraine are typical Brussels bombast.
No wonder other candidate states are exasperated by what they rightly see as the EU playing politics without an iota of principle. The Kiev regime is hailed as “sharing European values” as it bans opposition political parties and outlaws the Russian language, literature, and music. The European Union is impaling itself with its own unscrupulous contradictions by granting candidate status to Ukraine.
But in the futile short term, what it is designed to do is, again, distract from the public embarrassment of the EU and NATO overseeing a total debacle in Ukraine. Billions of dollars and euros bilked from European and American citizens to fuel a Nazi regime have achieved nothing militarily except to prolong the war in Ukraine and escalate the danger of an all-out confrontation with Russia. A war that would in all likelihood lead to a nuclear catastrophe for the planet.
The U.S. and European political establishments have lost all moral authority to govern. At a time of historic collapse in Western capitalist economies, they have decided to make hardship and misery all the more acute for their societies by provoking global energy and inflation crises. Their insane irresponsibility is driven by Western ideological interests, kowtowing to the transatlantic elite and the military-industrial complex as well as by an inveterate mentality of Russophobia. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov pointed out this week that the current climate and dynamics of the EU and NATO are forming a war bloc against Russia, one that has a vile echo of how Nazi Germany and European fascists armed up against the Soviet Union in the 1930s.
The morally bankrupt Western ruling class has always found war to be an expedient escape route from internal calamity. Their lies and misrule can be covered up with the blood of millions, so it is heinously calculated. They did this in the First and Second World Wars. They are willing to do it again with a Third World War.
It is truly shocking that the NATO and EU axis is moving week-by-week towards open war against Russia. The scenario has already moved from a proxy war to a direct one.
The provocation of blockading Kaliningrad is a direct assault on the territory of the Russian Federation.
Likewise, the scandalous flirting with Ukraine over EU membership as well as the delivery of missile systems to the Kiev regime by the United States, Germany, Britain, and others, are all madcap maneuvers to evade accountability and condemnation for their own inherent failure.
It is highly notable that this week saw massive protests on the streets of Brussels in which public anger was explicitly directed at deteriorating economic conditions for citizens in concert with denunciations of NATO warmongering in Ukraine against Russia.
The cat is out of the bag. The warmongering policies of Western misrulers are being connected and comprehended by the general populace. The effete elites know they are being exposed. The emperor has no clothes. And the Western public is getting angrier with millions of workers going on strike and demanding their rights from a callous establishment.
In a wide-ranging speech last week to the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the Western misrulers are facing increasing populist revolt and eventual downfall from their own egregious incompetence and mismanagement.
Such democratic uprisings in the West can’t come soon enough because the grave danger is that its corrupt elite is rushing to provoke war as a diversion. Again.
African leaders shun Zelensky
Samizdat | June 25, 2022
Just a handful of African heads of state tuned in to personally listen to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as he accused Russia of holding their continent “hostage,” amid ongoing Western attempts to pin the blame for the global food crisis solely on Moscow.
Few details emerged from Zelensky’s virtual meeting with the African Union, held behind closed doors on Monday, more than two months after the Ukrainian leader first tried to arrange a conference with the continent’s leaders. Out of 55 nations only four were represented by heads of state, while the rest sent subordinates, according to the BBC. However, Le Journal de l’Afrique claimed only a handful of ambassadors and ministers were actually present.
“They are trying to use you and the suffering of the people to put pressure on the democracies that have imposed sanctions on Russia,” Zelensky told the African Union representatives, adding that “Africa is actually a hostage… of those who unleashed war against our state.”
Following the conference call, the President of Senegal and AU Chairperson, Macky Sall, indicated that Africa’s position of neutrality over the conflict remains unchanged. Roughly half of African states refused to support the UN General Assembly’s resolution to condemn Russia’s actions in Ukraine, and no country on the continent has so far joined the sanctions.
“Africa remains committed to respect for the rules of international law, the peaceful resolution of conflicts and freedom of trade,” he said in a tweet, thanking Zelensky “for his friendly address to the virtual meeting of the AU Extended Bureau.”
During his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi earlier this month, President Sall said Western sanctions against Russia threaten Africa with a food security crisis. Last week he noted that the exclusion of Russian banks from international payment systems makes it harder for African states to pay for grain, while Europeans made exceptions for gas and oil that they need. This Friday, he joined a BRICS+ video conference, where Putin also criticized the West for its “cynical attitude” towards the food supply of the developing nations.
The EU has repeatedly expressed concerns over the prospect of a food crisis if Ukrainian grain cannot reach its traditional markets.
On Friday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock echoed Zelensky’s “hostage” claims, accusing Moscow of “deliberately” using global hunger as “a weapon.” Simultaneously, foreign ministers of the G7 denied that anti-Russia sanctions have any impact on the global food crisis.
Ukraine, a major grain producer, has been unable to export its grain by sea due to the ongoing conflict, with an estimated 22 to 25 million tons of grain currently stuck at the country’s ports. Western nations have accused Russia of blocking the ports, while Moscow has repeatedly stated it will guarantee safe passage for grain shipments if Kiev clears its ports of its own mines. It also suggested exporting the grain through the Russian-controlled ports of Berdyansk and Mariupol.
Ottawa announces police checkpoints for Canada Day
TCS WIRE | June 24, 2022
The City of Ottawa has announced several restrictions for Canada Day, including a motor vehicle control zone with police checkpoints to ban protesters’ vehicles.
“Getting around downtown on Canada Day will be more complicated than usual this year,” a City of Ottawa news release reads.
Unsurprisingly, the motor vehicle control zone only applies to roads leading to or surrounding Parliament Hill — an apparent attempt by City officials to prevent another Freedom Convoy incident, even if they don’t state so outright.
As per the news release, the motor vehicle control zone will be in place from June 29 to July 4 and will affect travel within the city in several ways.
Firstly, all vehicles belonging to people taking part in any form of demonstration, event, protest, or rally are outright banned from going near Parliament Hill, while local and business traffic, pedestrians, cyclists, and public transit will be permitted to move through the control zone freely.
Moreover, those who do not comply with the protester vehicle ban will face ticketing, and “barricades, heavy equipment, or police officers and vehicles will be at various access points surrounding the control zone, to filter lawful traffic onto those streets.”
It isn’t clear how a demonstrator’s vehicle will be distinguished from someone just looking to go to a shop, other than obvious freedom signs.
Signage will also be posted in the motor vehicle control zone that prohibits street parking and stopping.
Additionally, while authorities plan to lift the control zone on July 4, they say they have no problem extending the control zone “should conditions warrant it.”
As for July 1, the City says there will be additional restrictions:
“Some roads within the control zone will be closed to all traffic from 12:01 am on July 1 until 2 am on July 2. There are also some pedestrian and bicycle restrictions.”
Before this latest announcement, the Canadian Press reported, “An Ottawa police officer says this Canada Day will be “unprecedented and unique” with a never-before-seen security posture as the main events take place off Parliament Hill, and protests are planned throughout the day.”
“Police are aware of the demonstrations and are “planning accordingly,” said the officer.”
We now know what those plans entail.
Canada Heritage also announced that they would not allow Canadians to participate in the annual Canada Day celebration at Parliament Hill due to construction after two years of cancelling it due to COVID.
They added that the Canada Day party, which usually sees thousands flock to Ottawa, is being moved to the LeBreton Flats approximately 1.5km Westwards.
As for the planned demonstrations, there are several protests against the remaining COVID mandates planned for Canada Day, which are expected to be attended by many Freedom Convoy protesters from February.
Additionally, this is the same day CAF veteran James Topp will complete his cross-country march to the capital city.
Journalist Andy Lee has also stated she plans to host a campout on Parliament Hill despite the ban and has given police a heads up.
French Elections, Round 2: What Actually Happened?
Resisting the Intellectual Illiteratti | June 24, 2022
As has been reported abundantly by the French and international media, Sunday’s results — with Macron’s party and coalition losing its absolute majority — were indeed momentous and have the potential to restore a balance of power between the executive and legislative branches of government. (The French courts, as I’ve mentioned before, are almost a lost cause when it comes to performing the duties of judicial review, and in my view there is no point in including the judiciary in the French checks and balances model anymore).
But I think caution is still called for too. There is no reason to assume that immediate reversals or changes to the worst laws of the recent past will be forthcoming or are guaranteed at any point. Just as we have seen in the US in recent congressional votes of generational-defining importance, ideological or partisan differences don’t usually make much, if any, difference when the result is ordained in advance by the executive and consent is manufactured dutifully by the media.
I think it’s also important to recall that while it is true that it has the last word in the lawmaking process, the lower house in France, L’Assemblée Nationale, needs only a relative majority for a bill to become law. Except for amendments to the constitution, where an absolute majority of members is required to be present, there is no minimum number of deputés that have to be in attendance for a bill to be voted on. If only 5 members happen to be in the lower chamber when a vote is held and 3 vote in favor, the proposed legislation passes.
I mention these facts not to be a killjoy but rather to draw attention to the fact that throughout the coronavirus delirium (which continues, albeit in muted fashion, in France), the French Parliament first voted, in early 2020, with an overwhelming majority and across partisan lines, to declare a state of emergency and confer dictatorial powers to the president. For the following two years, every time the parliament had an opportunity to revoke or limit those powers by, for instance, ending the state of emergency, it not only didn’t do so, but actually went on to codify the worst of the totalitarian covid restrictions, for example, ushering in legalized discrimination with health passes and later, vax passes.
And while it is true that the entirety of the far-left and far-right minorities in the lower house proclaimed themselves opposed to the post-lockdown measures such as health and vax passes, when it was time to put their money where their mouths were, most did not even bother to show up to vote. On two of the most important votes held over the last year, concerning a law that would require the use of health and vax passes for access to transport and places of leisure and culture, as well as to hospitals and retirement homes, Macron’s ruling party’s presence was so weak in the lower house that had every member of the far-left and right oppositions actually made the trip to vote (or voted by proxy), the bills would not have passed. One wonders if the exemptions they enjoyed, as members of Parliament, from the coercive, live-ruining measures that are health and vax passes had anything to do with their being largely absent from the votes.
Either way, the fact that these totalitarian policies didn’t have to become law, that they could have been torpedoed last year, even while the president’s party held an absolute majority in the lower house, doesn’t inspire confidence that they will be done away with now that the balance of power has shifted.
That said, the composition of the recently elected lower house will create many opportunities for the now much larger opposition parties to stop Macron in his tracks. I won’t get into the numbers too much except to say that Macron’s coalition party (which is made up of four centrist parties) is 44 seats shy of the absolute majority necessary to govern unfettered and, having only a relative minority, will need to wheel and deal and seriously compromise in order to get anything it puts foward passed.
At the same time, both Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National (National Rally) and Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s far-left La France Insoumise (France Unbowed) won enough seats to significantly expand their power and influence. However, of the two, Marine Le Pen’s National Rally emerged as the clear winner and most powerful single party opposition group. Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s France Unbowed chose to form a coalition with three other left-leaning parties in the hopes of acquiring an absolute or relative majority, and while their Nupes coalition won the most seats after the president’s own coalition, it was not enough to secure any majority positions or allow Mélenchon’s France Unbowed party to surpass Marine Le Pen’s National Rally in seats.
On the upside, both far right and far left, having surged in numbers, are now able to call for a motion of censure of Macron’s government, which can lead to a no-confidence vote — a measure Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s France Unbowed promptly resorted to yesterday.
In the case of Marine Le Pen’s far right Rassemblement National, however, having surpassed the critical threshold of 80 seats, her group can now request positions on various important committees, as well as have bills sent to the constitutional court for judicial review. This is a milestone and historic achievement for her much maligned party.
In the case of Mélenchon, as mentioned above, his France Unbowed successfully formed an all-left and left-leaning coalition, which includes the socialist, environmentalist and communist parties. While this coalition won the most seats after Macron’s own coalition, it is believed to be a tenuous alliance in which the individual groups will not see eye to eye on a range of issues. The hope is, however, they will remain united on the most important ones.
The funny thing in all this is that Mélenchon, elected to the lower house in 2017, did not stand for re-election this year in his Marseille district, a seat he would have won handily. It seemed that he bet the house on his coalition pulling off a landslide victory, in which case their numerical superiority in the lower house would force the president to appoint him as Prime Minister. Sadly for Mélenchon (and us), he lost his wager and will now have to direct the operations of his party and coalition from outside the halls of the Assemblé Nationale.
The upshot of all this is that Macron is looking at a Parliament that may not pass any of his upcoming reforms into laws — and he has a pack of the vile things he’d like to ram through. In the short term, the future will not be easy for the impatient monarch. His government is already facing a motion of censure on the 5th of July (introduced Monday by Jean Luc Melenchon’s France Unbowed party), and three of his cabinet ministers who were in the running for parliamentary seats lost their bids. According to convention, their unsuccessful attempt to get elected to the lower house while working in the president’s cabinet as ministers will require them to resign from their positions, leaving Macron scrambling to appoint replacements. He will have to do this while also meeting with the leaders of the opposition parties, whom he hopes to begin negotiating with, ahead of the upcoming parliamentary session.
Macron is also under great pressure from the EU in Brussels to continue the EU-wide project of neoliberal reforms. Until now, the French president has had a free hand in pushing through some of the most politically, socially and economically destructive and divisive policies ever seen in modern France, the last two years of totalitarian public health policies and the continued dismantling of France’s public health service being the prime examples. Will he be able to continue? It seems the answer is: yes, but perhaps not so easily.
Macron does have one card left he can play, however; though it’s a risky one: he can dissolve the Assemblée Nationale. Yes, you read that correctly. The constitution of the 5th Republic gives the French president the power to dissolve the lower house and call new elections (which have to be organized within 60 days) if he deems the parliamentary configuration to be an impediment to effective lawmaking. (Can you imagine Biden — or better, Trump — announcing to the house of representatives, after one-too-many government shutdowns, “That’s it — You’re all fired. Everyone out of the capital! We’re gonna have new elections, and we’re gonna get it right this time!”)
Not surprisingly, though, such an un-democratic move is not popular and the last time it was used, by Jacques Chirac in 1997, it blew up in the president’s face when the new vote results were worse than the first time around and forced him to appoint a socialist (and formidable political rival) as Prime Minister. That said, the chattering classes are predicting Macron will indeed resort to this measure at some point in the future. But when?
For us, the main concern remains that of the state of emergency (under which we have been living for two and a half years), which allows Macron to act like a dictator and close businesses, confine people to their homes, impose curfews, force the population to wear facemasks, and make the restitution of these once unconditional rights (to work, to assemble, move and breath freely, etc.) contingent on the injection of experimental drugs that no one needs and only a fraction of the population actually wants.
Though many of its most oppressive measures have been (temporarily) lifted, the state of emergency is still in effect and will remain in effect until July 31 of this year. One of the biggest casualties of the president’s irrational, totalitarian covid policies has been the healthcare workers, 15 thousand of whom (doctors, nurses, orderlies) as well as hundreds of gendarmes, remain suspended from their jobs, without pay, having been deprived of their right to work last September 15th because they refused to take an experimental medicine that, by the government’s own admission, does not prevent transmission of a disease deemed to be a major threat to public health.
Despite the bleak situation, there may be cause for some hope. As mentioned earlier, Macron’s ability to govern by decree is set to end at the end of next month, with the lapsing of the state of emergency. In order to extend it and make possible the return in the fall of vax passes, lockdowns, curfews, travel restrictions, business closures, mask mandates and all the other totalitarian horrors that serve no public health benefit in relation to upper respiratory viruses that spread like the common cold (and therefore can’t be stopped from spreading), but which the leaders of Europe desperately want to retain and make permanent, Macron will need to get a new covid law passed by the parliament before the end of July.
The French president was in fact supposed to present said covid bill at a ministerial meeting today (the first step in the legislative process before the bill reaches parliamentary committees and debates), but had to cancel the meeting because of the aforementioned resignations of three of his ministers. This delay will presumably push the start of the legislative process for this bill back another week. But next week Macron will be out of France on a NATO-related trip, so perhaps it will get pushed back an additional week. When it is eventually presented to the parliament, the bill will need to be debated and put to a vote by the newly elected lower house — and that’s where the rubber should meet the road.
It will indeed be the first and most important test of the new assembly, and one which will no doubt come with an unprecedented amount of pressure and propaganda from Macron and the media. Will the opposition parties finally say no to the president dictator and all his lies and send this disgraceful piece of legislation into the garbage where it belongs? Or will the new Assemblée play ball as the last useless lot did? L’espoir fait vivre, as they say over here.
Postscript:
Europe is slowly transitioning into a bio-security and surveillance state. Tomorrow, the EU parliament is expected to rubber stamp the EU commission’s decision to extend the use of the EU Digital Covid Pass for another year for all travel to and within Europe.
This will mean that, until the end of June 2023, in order to board a plane, train or boat into or within Europe, you will need to show either a negative PCR or antigen tests 24 hours before traveling, a certificate of proof of recovery from covid (which may be valid for 3 months), or proof of experimental injection.
The law reads like a Pfizer press release, and is just as fraudulent and circular in its reasoning. This digital covid certificate measure, we are told, is necessary to ensure the free and safe movement of Europeans within Europe, a right that is guaranteed by the European Union’s various treaties and conventions…but which was illegally taken away two years ago by the European Union.
There are protection rackets that are more sophisticated than this…I don’t understand how Europeans will submit to this for another year. It’s an ominous sign.
“Polio Outbreak” – The WHO, Bill Gates, emergency vaccines & more of the same
By Kit Knightly | OffGuardian | June 24, 2022
Polio is on the front pages of British newspapers again for the first time in decades. What a time to be alive.
For those who missed it, two days ago the UK government declared a “national incident” after traces of the polio virus were detected in sewage from North London.
Yes, a “national incident”… for traces… found in sewage.
This is a massive escalation, even compared to the pandemic. Covid and Monkeypox at least had the good taste to wait for a single person to actually have the disease (allegedly) before hitting the big red panic button.
In a somewhat startling coincidence, just two days before the “polio in London” news broke, Forbes published an article headlined…
There May Be A New Polio Epidemic On Its Way- If So, What We Can Do
It’s totally unrelated, talking about a “polio-like” enterovirus that hasn’t yet had a vaccine approved in the US, and never mentions London once.
The same (or similar) news hitting headlines around the world for (supposedly) totally different reasons makes my inner-cynic twitch.
So, what’s going on here?
While it may look like polio is suddenly back in the news, it’s actually been there longer than you’d think and has been building to this point.
The truth is it all fits into a very predictable pattern.
In November of 2020, a new “genetically engineered” and “triple-locked” polio vaccine was the first vaccine to be granted “emergency use listing” by the World Health Organization, despite there being only around five thousand cases of polio in the world over the last decade.
In October 2021, the government of Ukraine declared a “biological emergency” due to the “re-emergence” of polio, which was blamed on low vaccine uptake.
This was steadily reported in back pages of the news for months. Culminating in headlines like “Polio Makes a Comeback in Ukraine as War Halts Vaccination Campaign”, following Russia beginning its “special operation”.
Later, in March of this year, Israel reported they too had a “re-emergence” of polio after allegedly detecting “vaccine-derived” polio in the stool of a young girl suffering from paralysis.
At this point, the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) started speaking out. GPEI is a project co-funded by the WHO, the US CDC, GAVI the vaccine alliance and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
… in other words, exactly who you’d expect.
Following the reported case in Israel, GPEI released a statement calling for “enhanced surveillance”…
The GPEI partnership urges all health authorities to enhance surveillance for poliovirus and implement enhanced vaccination response to prevent further transmission, so that no child is at risk of lifelong paralysis from a disease that can so easily be prevented. GPEI is committed to assisting the health authorities in their efforts to stop the cVDPV3 outbreak.
A month later, in April of this year, using alleged “re-emergence” as a springboard, GPEI called for “renewed efforts” to combat polio, launching their new “Strategy” and claiming to need a further 4.8 billion dollars in funding.
Then in late May, at the WHO’s 75th World Health Assembly, “global health leaders” called for “urgent action to end polio once and for all before a unique window of opportunity closes for good.”
The same week, the WHO’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus addressed the assembly regarding polio [emphasis added]:
“Worrying developments in recent months highlight how fragile this progress [of eradicating polio] is […] This year, we have the real opportunity to halt wild poliovirus transmission. At the same time, we must respond faster and better to cVDPV outbreaks, to interrupt all transmission by end-2023.”
… which brings us to June, and scare-stories on both sides of the Atlantic warning of “low vaccination rates”
Note that the WHO report claims the virus entered the UK on someone who received a “live vaccination” overseas, and the alleged outbreak in Israel is “vaccine-derived”.
Do you see how this works yet?
- The WHO approves “emergency use vaccine”, bypassing need for trials and safety data
- A handful of cases of polio are reported (as they are every year)
- Gates/WHO funded thinktank calls for “increased surveillance”, meaning more testing (using PCR tests)
- More testing inevitably finds more “cases”
- Cases are blamed on the old vaccines
- New “modern” and “safer” vaccines are rolled out.
- Everyone makes a LOT of money.
In October, at the World Health Summit in Germany, GPEI is launching a “pledging moment” to try and raise around 5 billion dollars to “achieve a polio-free world”.
Given the headlines, they should pass that mark pretty easily, wouldn’t you think?
It’s interesting to note that market researchers found the polio vaccine market had “stagnated” through 2020 and 2021, due to the Covid19 “pandemic”.
No more stagnation now.
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China names world’s ‘hacking empire’
RT | March 15, 2022
Calling the US a “hacking empire” of the world, the Chinese Foreign Ministry urged Washington to stop “malicious” cyber activities following reports that American hackers subverted a network in China to launch attacks on Russia and Belarus.
“China is gravely concerned about cyberattacks against other countries that originate from the US and use China as a springboard,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian told reporters at a press briefing on Monday.
Zhao was commenting on recent Chinese media reports that hackers, mainly from the US but also from NATO allies Germany and the Netherlands, recently hijacked a Chinese computer network for cyberattacks, 87% of which targeted Russia.
“Against the background of the Ukraine situation, such a move may produce the negative effect of misleading the international community and spreading disinformation,” Zhao said, pointing out that “a former US senior official called publicly for launching cyberattacks on Russia not long ago.”
This appeared to be a reference to Hillary Clinton, former US secretary of state and presidential candidate, who made the calls in an MSNBC interview at the end of February. … continue
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- No Tricks Zone
- Zonal Asymmetry of Temperature Change in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current
- New Study: The Net Fossil Fuel Contribution To Rising Atmospheric CO2 Has Been Zero For 500 Years
- Germany’s Green Energy Transition Becoming Increasingly Expensive…Another 6 Trillion Euros!
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- New Study: 50 Years Of The Most Aggressive ‘Net Zero’ Policies Can Only Affect The Global Climate By 0.03°C
