Former US Congressman Ron Paul mocks US neocon ties to Iran riots ‘leader’
Press TV – September 26, 2022
Former US Congressman Ron Paul has mocked the claim that a US-government-hired Iranian opposition figure is “leading” what Washington is projecting as a “freedom” movement in Iran amid deadly riots over the death of a young woman.
In a Twitter post on Monday, Paul pointed to the close ties between Masih Alinejad — a commentator for Washington’s official Persian language propaganda network Voice of America (VOA) – and the ultra-rightwing neoconservative elements (neocons) in US politics and ridiculed the notion as “totally legit.”
“Doesn’t it strike anyone as strange that the “leader” of this “freedom” movement in Iran is a US government employee and bosom buddy of the neocons? But hey, sure, it’s totally legit…,” the ex-lawmaker wrote, posting a photo of Alinejad with former hawkish US Secretary of State and CIA Director, Mike Pompeo.
The deadly riots, backed by the Western regimes, in the past week in many Iranian cities have seen armed rioters beating and killing police officers, public works servants as well as ordinary civilians while vandalizing banks and other public and private properties.
The riots — also sponsored and encourage by terrorist groups, such as the Komola, Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), and the Paris-based MKO, as well as UK-based propaganda media networks like the state-funded BBC and the Saudi-financed Iran International – started after the death of an Iranian woman, Mahsa Amini, during her brief detention in Tehran by law enforcement officers for failing to adequately observe hijab.
Police authorities in Tehran insist that Amini was not mistreated by law-enforcement personnel, and released video footage showing that she suddenly fainted while attending an educational workshop on the proper observance of the country’s dress code regulations.
After initial peaceful protests demanding official explanations surrounding the circumstances of Amini’s death, foreign-based anti-Iran media outlets as well as opposition and terrorist leaders used it as an opportunity to incite violent riots across Iran.
Meanwhile, investigations to ascertain the cause of Amini’s death are underway with results likely to be made public in a couple of weeks.
On Sunday, millions of Iranians took part in countrywide demonstrations condemning recent riots and foreign sponsorship of violence and vandalism.
The demonstrators reaffirmed their support and allegiance to the Islamic Revolution and raised vociferous slogans against West-backed rabble-rousers.
See also:
CT scan says Mahsa was not hit; BBC says she was brutally killed
Europe’s Biggest Enemy Isn’t Russia Nor Islamic Terrorism, but Israel
By Martin Jay | Strategic Culture Foundation | September 25, 2022
When Joe Biden took office, many pundits said that at least relations between the U.S. and EU would be restored. But the Iran deal is the ultimate test of just how much he loves the old continent.
Just how far will Israel go to scupper the so-called Iran deal from being signed by both Iran and the West? And will it play a fair game or use underhand and covert tactics to achieve its goal of the deal never being signed? Recently, we have seen the talks in Vienna progress as even the Americans say that certain key negotiating points have been taken out of the deal from the Iranians which has made the negotiations move closer to an agreement; we have also seen though Israel pulling out all the stops, from a PR and lobbying perspective at least.
And then there is the murky subject of skullduggery to destroy the talks. If you’re one of these people who believes in fairies at the bottom of the garden or that certain toothpastes can make your teeth whiter, then you might not buy into Israel using Mossad to derail the deal. Attacks on U.S. forces for example in Iraq, supposedly carried out by Iran-backed militias would normally have most people pointing the finger at Iran, proclaiming that Tehran is not at all serious about the deal but just playing along for time so that it can roll out a nuclear bomb. Then there is the curious case of the Salman Rushdie attack, which, again, many would point out could be attributed to the Iranians who still have a very much ‘alive’ fatwa against the British writer. Indeed, even the Supreme Leader is reported to have made a comment against Rushdie when he heard of the knife attack.
Given even the Israeli media have speculated that Mossad did it, it would be easy to conclude an open and shut case right?
Yet the author believes, like the 9/11 attacks in New York, which was the dirty work of Mossad, that these previous attacks can also be attributed to the Israelis who may well be plotting a bigger attack in the U.S. which Iran can be framed for; in fact, Americans are so ignorant of Islam or anything to do with the Arab world, that such an attack doesn’t even need to be linked to Iran but simply “Islamic terrorists” which might have tenuous links with Tehran.
There is no limit for Israel in terms of how far it can go to block the deal as the elite there believes that the Iran deal would exponentially boost Tehran’s power given the impact of sanctions relief on the economy. But the emergence of Iran as a regional player, economically, will always be a threat to Israel especially as it throws the spotlight on the once pariah state and many will see the fraud of hatred between Israel and Iran for what it is. Just as for decades the West goaded the Gulf States about Iran, installing fear to such a point that it was America and the UK who cleaned up on weapons sales, Israel needs to keep this yarn alive that Iran is the threat both for internal politics with their own people and also to justify the obscene amount of military aid which is sent to Israel each year. But any hack in Lebanon who has connections with Hezbollah will tell you that this threat is phoney and that both sides have enormous respect for one another; in reality both sides are fooling their own people into buying into the threat of an attack as it’s good for political support. The recent claims by Matthew Levitt in the Israeli media for example that Hezbollah wants to start some skirmishes with Israel can’t be taken seriously from those who are close to the Shiite group in Lebanon who say simply that Hezbollah is too scared to do such a thing off its own bat; being directed by the Supreme Leader in Iran though is another matter.
Hezbollah and Indeed Israel’s game of smoke and mirrors in Lebanon makes some pundits question whether Iran is really serious about reaching out for a deal with the west to lift its sanctions, or just playing us all along to win time? Surely Israel can’t have it both ways as its desperate antics of late tend to contradict themselves.
Hezbollah serves Israel well as the latter can focus more of defence spending and other such border initiatives in preference for being held more accountable for its governance. For Hezbollah it’s exactly the same. The threat of Israel launching an attack, once again, is the very bedrock of Hezbollah support in Lebanon. Without that threat, the Shia group may well lose half of its support overnight. This is one of the reasons why Israel continues to bomb Syria, targeting Iranian and Hezbollah activities: to keep the dream alive. It’s another reason why Hezbollah has a despondent enthusiasm towards Lebanon securing gas drilling rights close to Israel’s maritime border.
Yet in this time of Europe’s economies diving into recessions, we should ask ourselves what is the bigger picture? If Israel fails to derail the Iran talks and once again the Iranians get a deal which appeases the Americans, then certainly their economy in Iran will return to the billion dollars a month trade with the EU. One minor detail though which is overlooked and carefully airbrushed out of mainstream media’s narrative is the impact on Europe if the deal goes ahead. Cheap Iranian oil being sent to most EU countries which are really suffering from the shortages of oil and gas and its present market price could be a godsend and would enrage the Israelis even further. Europeans and even the British would look at Iran through a more favourable prism. Many would argue that Iran should be brought back in from the cold, in preference to the loathing of Putin and the hatred generally towards Russia. At least we can talk to the Iranians, many will argue. This notion cannot have escaped the attention of the EU dogs of war in Brussels who seem to be detached from all realities about the Ukrainian war and their sanctions towards Russia. Is it that they are banking on cheap oil from Iran saving EU economies? Biden too must have been advised of how things will pan out. But cheap oil for EU countries doesn’t favour the U.S. directly whereas letting the Europeans sink in their own demise will actually boost the U.S. economy according to the Washington Post, So much for the special relationship with Europe. For both Israel and Washington.
Industrialist: ‘The Americans control everything in the background’
Free West Media | September 26, 2022
German industrialist Wolfgang Grupp, the CEO of textile giant Trigema, does not understand why Germans suddenly see Vladimir Putin as a mortal enemy. He believes that the US is controlling everything in the background and are the only winners of this war.
The head of the textile manufacturer has taken a stand on the Ukraine war in an interview with BW24.de. Grupp told the portal, “I don’t understand how you can be best friends with Mr Putin for 20 years, be 100 percent dependent on him and within two months you are mortal enemies! That doesn’t make sense.”
Something must have been going on for some time, Grupp suggested. The company patriarch believes that “the Americans are controlling everything in the background so that it remains a world power.” The US, he said, was the only winner in this war.
Grupp: ‘Supplying weapons to Ukraine with great fanfare’
Grupp goes on to say in the interview: “If we deliver weapons to Ukraine with great fanfare for billions and at the same time say: No problem, the citizens and the economy have to pay for it. These are statements that I cannot understand.” He said he had never experienced “ending a dispute by giving one a bigger knife and the other a bigger axe.”
Grupp instead insists on negotiations with Putin. Otherwise, he said, the war could not be ended. His company, said the entrepreneur, has a high financial burden due to the war. Recently he said in an interview with FOCUS online that his costs for gas had increased tenfold in the past two years. He told BW24.de that he was being “punished” for switching to gas.
No slave labour
The textile industry has been mired in controversy because it uses slave labour, overseas sweatshops and a “fast fashion” business model that encourages huge waste and unsustainable consumption. Grupp has avoided these issues through a long-term commitment to manufacturing textiles entirely in Germany – and more specifically, in Burladingen, Schwabia, where its factory is based.
Unlike the vast majority of other textile firms and international clothing brands, Trigema does not outsource any of its production overseas and only imports responsibly sourced cotton. Trigema has been wholly owned by Grupp for more than 50 years.
Grupp is free to voice such an opinion because being the sole owner using 100 percent of his own capital means Grupp is not beholden to any influence from banks or shareholders. It is Germany’s largest manufacturer of t-shirts, sweatshirts and tennis clothing.
‘Old values’
Grupp is considered a man of conservative values such as responsibility, respect and decency. He is personally liable for Trigema – which is somewhat of a rarity these days.
With reference to current corporatist notions, the company patriarch, who turned 80 this year, explained: “Cash in when things are going well and leave losses to the taxpayer in difficult times, that certainly shouldn’t be done!
“Our world is so crazy. I appreciate the old values, I’m traditional. I am responsible for everything, I guarantee jobs.”
Greens bring ‘war and poverty’
The Scholz administration is clinging to its ideological aberrations. In a bill intended to implement an EU directive, the Treasury Department earlier underwrote a 66 billion loan authorization for KfW to provide support to energy companies.
The KfW is a German state-owned investment and development bank, based in Frankfurt. As of 2014, it is the world’s largest national development bank and Germany’s third largest bank in terms of its balance sheet.
Martin Reichardt, AfD state chairman of Saxony-Anhalt and member of the federal executive board, exposed the government’s justification for the additional credit authorization as scandalous: “The credit authorization is necessary so that the confidence of business and the public in the federal government’s packages of measures is not damaged.” The damage to citizens however is huge.
“Those who vote for the Greens choose war and poverty,” according to Reichardt.
The crisis is picking up speed
Fifty percent of trading companies are threatened by the government’s policies. Every second company in Germany is now facing existential hardships. This was the result of a recent survey by the German Retail Association (HDE) among 900 companies in the retail sector.
The main reason for the development is energy costs, which have risen by an average of 150 percent since the beginning of the year. Stefan Genth, General Manager of the HDE, explains: “On the one hand, energy prices are rising enormously, on the other hand, most of them cannot simply pass the costs on to customers due to the tough competition.”
In addition, there are the additional cost increases due to the Russia sanctions – they too are a direct consequence of the policy of the federal government.
Only 14 percent of those surveyed can add some or all of the rising energy costs to consumer prices. Almost a quarter of the survey participants expect to have to close their own business within the next twelve months. The situation is particularly tense among bicycle dealers, dealers in household appliances and consumer electronics.
Meanwhile, the food industry is already warning of the acute danger of food shortages. “There are significant supply gaps in the daily food supply for people in Germany. The situation is more than serious,” an open letter from the industry warned, which was initiated by the German Frozen Food Institute (DTI) and the Association of German Cold Stores and Cold Logistics Companies (VDKL). Five other industry associations signed the letter, which was addressed to Chancellor Scholz, Federal Minister of Economics Habeck and Minister of Agriculture Özdemir.
The companies now fear that production lines will soon come to a standstill and that refrigerated logistics centers for food distribution will be closed. “The food industry is currently experiencing the worst crisis since the end of the Second World War,” it continued. “The situation is tense and the load limit has been reached, so the companies have to reduce their ranges in an emergency.”
Here, too, the dramatic rise in prices for electricity and gas supply due to sanctions is cited as the reason for the catastrophic situation.
US Hard at Work Preparing Taiwan for War with China
By Vladimir Platov – New Eastern Outlook – 26.09.2022
The years leading up to World War I and World War II are often referred to by historians as “diplomatic fever,” because of active mobilization of several powers around the world in both overt and covert alliances. However, such activity was not aimed at preventing conflict, but solely at strengthening their position ahead of the impending war which was their goal all along.
Unfortunately, something similar can be seen in US behavior of late, both in terms of “joining forces” on Washington’s possible European battlefront against Russia, and in the Asia-Pacific region (APAC) in confronting China. US recent policies and actions – on the eve of the Chinese Communist Party Congress – have been characterized by the creation of anti-Chinese blocs, unprecedented large-scale exercises in the APAC and close to Chinese borders, and various provocations.
After a provocative visit to Taiwan by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi in early August, the situation around the island, as well as relations between China and the US in general, escalated. China, which considers the island one of its provinces, condemned the visit, seeing it as support by the United States for Taiwanese separatism.
In the interest of containing China, the White House is provoking tensions around the island of Taiwan, blatantly violating the One China principle, which the Americans once accepted as one of the main conditions for normalizing US-China relations. In pursuing the the anti-China strategy, during August alone four delegations with representatives from the US political establishment at various levels travelled to Taiwan. Apparently in coordination with Washington, a number of European Union political delegations also paid provocative visits to Taiwan and showed support for Beijing’s opponents on the island.
Simultaneously with the political anti-Beijing demarches, immediately after Nancy Pelosi’s visit, Chinese territorial waters in the Taiwan Strait began to be violated more frequently by US naval vessels under the pretext of freedom of navigation. On August 27, for example, two US naval vessels, the missile cruisers USS Antietam and USS Chancellorsville, made a demonstrative and provocative passage through the Taiwan Strait, which the Chinese Foreign Ministry strongly opposed. To thwart any further provocation by the US, China’s Army has been put on high alert, according to Shi Yi, an official of the Eastern Theater Command of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). On August 28, Taiwan’s Armed Forces recorded the sighting of 23 PLA aircraft and eight PLA ships in sea and airspace near Taiwan.
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian commented on Washington’s provocation on August 29. “US naval vessels flying the flag of freedom of navigation are carrying out a show of force. This is not a commitment to freedom of navigation, but a provocation against it and deliberate harm to peace and stability in the region. The Chinese side again calls on the US to stop emasculating, diluting and perverting the One China principle, strictly respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of other countries and basic international norms on non-interference in the internal affairs of states, and effectively implement the provisions of the three Chinese-US joint communiqués.”
Continuing to escalate the situation around Taiwan, US authorities in early September announced their intention to sell $1.1 billion worth of weapons and military equipment to Taiwan.
At the same time, the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations approved a bill on September 14 that would provide for a comprehensive expansion of support to Taiwan, including military support. As well as imposing sanctions on Beijing under the pretext of seeking to preserve stability in the Asia-Pacific region, said the Committee’s senior Republican, Jim Risch, commenting on the vote. In essence, this initiative by US lawmakers seeks to revise US policy towards Taiwan and, by extension, mainland China. The bill would make Taiwan a “major non-NATO ally” of the United States, increasing its military aid (not just defensive but also offensive weapons, including missiles) to $4.5 billion over the next four years, making it the largest recipient after Israel, Egypt and Ukraine. China has already said that, if passed, the new bill would come as a shock to US-China relations. And China’s Ambassador to the US, Qin Gang, told Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman in a meeting on August 23 that Chinese-US relations would be severed if the law went into effect.
Covering up his aggressive policy towards China with the alleged possibility of a Chinese “invasion” of Taiwan, US President Joe Biden assured in an interview with CBS that the US military would stand up to defend Taiwan.
However, by pushing China into military action, the US, Bloomberg estimates, could find itself in a terrible position in the event of a conflict with China within months or even weeks of the outbreak of hostilities. Pentagon arsenals are empty because of significant arms deliveries to Kiev. And China’s Army today is very technically equipped. Defending Taiwan will therefore be very costly, with the United States having to pay a prohibitive price in both personnel and equipment.
The US Navy is now poorly prepared, inferior in numbers to the Chinese, and US naval bases are underprepared, former US Navy Rear Admiral Charles Williams pointed out in an article for The Hill. Furthermore, the US can no longer act on two fronts; against Russia and China at the same time.
The Times also warns that the United States would suffer heavy losses and take years to recover from an open conflict with the PRC, citing analysis by the Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies. In particular, its analysts predict that the US will lose a significant portion of its fleet and some 900 combat aircraft defending Taiwan against China.
In confronting China, regional allies are unlikely to help the US, and even Germany, which intends, according to remarks made in early September by Inspector General of the Bundeswehr General Eberhard Zorn, to “increase its military presence in the Indo-Pacific region to contain China.”
Despite these provocative actions by Washington and Taipei’s push for military action, the PRC government has reaffirmed its determination to pursue national reunification with Taiwan. Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning reiterated the other day that the Taiwan issue is strictly an internal Chinese matter and the US has no right to interfere in it.
Fact-checkers complain they’re constantly hit with lawsuits
By Christina Maas | Reclaim The Net | September 20, 2022
Online fact checkers have great authority over what speech gets suppressed on mainstream social media platforms and a fact-check of a post on Facebook can result in that post being suppressed by as much as 95%.
Yet, despite their great power over what people can say, fact checkers are also increasingly frustrated at calls for more transparency about the way they operate and say they are being bombarded with freedom of information act (FOIA) requests and lawsuits.
The fact checkers say these requests and lawsuits are meant to drain the resources of climate change researchers and to discourage them from doing their work which is, in turn, an attempt to shut down their own speech.
“They make a point of going after the fact-checkers because, in addition to stopping regulation, they also want to prevent or discourage climate scientists from doing things that might educate the public,” said Lauren Kurtz, Climate Science Legal Defense Fund’s executive director to Bloomberg.
Kurtz’s organization provides climate researchers with legal assistance. They assist about 40 researchers annually. But this year has been busier, as they have already assisted 35 people.
One of the beneficiaries of the fund is Doug MacMartin, who was sued by Dane Wigington after he fact-checked his documentary “The Dimming,” which, according to MacMartin, is filled with conspiracy theories.
On the science fact-checking website Climate Feedback, used by social media companies to flag what it sees as science misinformation, MacMartin described Wigington’s documentary as “pure fantasy.” The plaintiff sought $75,000 in damages from MacMartin, arguing that the fact-check reduced the visibility of his documentary on Facebook, hurting its revenue.
“I mostly felt disbelief,” MacMartin recalled to Bloomberg. “A bit of shock combined with, ‘I just don’t have time for this.’”
Earlier this month, a federal court dismissed Wigngton’s lawsuit, but he plans to appeal.
Daniel Swain, a climate researcher at University of California, Los Angeles, had to deal with a FOIA request filed by a group called Energy Policy Advocates. Swain is vocal about droughts and fires in Western US. The requests sought text messages, encrypted messages, and emails related to a fact-check written by Swain and others about the book “Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn’t, and Why It Matters,” by Steven Koonin, who worked in the Department of Energy during Obama’s era.
Swain challenged the requests using a university lawyer, arguing that it had the “presumptive intent of disrupting primary research and outreach activities by inundating climate scientists.” The records department said that the motivations of the requester were irrelevant, but was bound by law to provide the information requested.
“I spend nights and weekends compiling and going through thousands and thousands of emails because these requests are extremely broad,” he said. “In some cases they’re essentially open ended: they’re asking about multiple years, multiple keywords and multiple platforms.”
The group filing most of the requests are Government Accountability and Oversight, and Energy Policy Advocates. The two groups go by the acronyms GAO and EPA, the same acronyms used by federal agencies Government Accountability Office and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Climate Feedback and Meta are facing a $2 million lawsuit filed by Libertarian commentator John Stossel who was censored on Facebook as a direct result of a post by the fact-checker.
Climate Feedback flagged Stossel’s video “Government Fueled Fires” about the wildfires in California in 2020. The fact-check resulted in Facebook limiting the visibility of the video and we have more information on that case here.
From Exodus to Marvel: A brief history of Hollywood’s justification of Israeli war crimes
By Ramzy Baroud | MEMO | September 24, 2022
The introduction of an Israeli Mossad agent as the latest Marvel movie character crosses the line, even by Hollywood’s poor moral standards. However, the Israeli superhero, Sabra, must be understood within the rational progression of the Israelification of Hollywood, a phenomenon that is surprisingly new.
Sabra is a relatively old character, dating back to Marvel comic The Incredible Hulk in 1980. On 10 September, however, it was announced that the Israeli character would be included in an upcoming Marvel film, Captain America: New World Order.
Expectedly, many pro-Palestine activists in the US and around the world fumed. It is one thing to introduce an ordinary Israeli character with the mere aim of normalising Israel, an unrepenting apartheid state, in the eyes of Marvel’s impressionable young audiences. However, it is far more sinister to normalise a state intelligence agency, Mossad, known for its numerous bloody assassinations, sabotage and torture.
By adding Sabra to its cast of superheroes, Marvel Studios has shown its complete disregard for the massive campaign by millions of fans around the world who, in 2017, protested the inclusion of former Israeli soldier Gal Gadot as Marvel’s Wonder Woman. Gadot is a vocal supporter of the Israeli government and military.
In response to the news, many rightly highlighted Hollywood’s inherent bias, starting in the 1960s movie Exodus by Otto Preminger, with Paul Newman as the lead actor. The film provided pseudo-historical justification for the colonisation of Palestine by the Zionists. Ever since, Israel has been elevated, celebrated and included in an ever-positive context by Hollywood, while Muslims, Arabs and Palestinians continue to be vilified.
Although Israel was represented in a positive light by Hollywood filmmakers, the Israelis themselves were quite marginal in the content creation process. Until recently, the Israeli construct was mostly built on behalf of Israel, not by Israel itself. “Things began to change in 1997,” wrote Brian Schaefer in Moment Magazine. It was then that the LA Federation’s Entertainment Division and the Jewish Agency launched the project, the Master Class, which: “For nearly 15 years… brought countless actors, directors, producers, agents, managers and top studio and network executives to Israel, introducing many of them to the country for the first time, and taught Israelis how to pitch their projects.”
The indoctrination of American actors and filmmakers through these visits and the introduction of many Israeli actors and filmmakers to Hollywood paid dividends, leading to a major change in the narrative on Israel. Instead of simply communicating Israel to American and international audiences using references to historical victimisation, positive association or even humour, Israelis began to make their case through Hollywood directly. And, unlike the haphazardness of past messages – good Israel, bad Arabs – the new messages are far more sophisticated, tailored around specific ideas and designed with full awareness of the politics of each era.
Steven Spielberg’s movie Munich (2005) was released within the cultural context of the US invasion of Iraq as part of Washington’s so-called “war on terror“, where human rights were violated on a global scale. Munich was a selective “historical” account of the supposedly difficult choices that Israel, namely Mossad, had to make to fight its own “war on terror”. That was the era when Tel Aviv tirelessly underscored its affinity to Washington, now that both countries are purportedly victims of “Islamic extremists”.
Unlike Munich, the popular TV series Homeland was not just another pro-Israel American argument that justifies Israeli wars and violence. The series itself, one of the most racist, Islamophobic shows on television, was entirely modelled on the Israeli show HaTufim. The writer and director of the Israeli show, Gideon Raff, has been included in the American version, serving as an executive producer.
The change in the ownership of the narrative may seem superficial – as pro-Israel Hollywood propaganda is being replaced by organic Israeli propaganda. However, this is not the case.
The pro-Israel agenda of the past – the romanticisation that followed the creation of Israel in 1948 – did not last long. The Israeli defeat of Arab armies in 1967 – thanks to the massive US military support of Tel Aviv – replaced the image of nascent, vulnerable Israel with that of the brave Israeli army, capable of defeating several militaries at once. It was then that Israeli soldiers toured US colleges and schools, talking about their heroism on the battlefield. The Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the subsequent massacres, like that of Sabra and Shatila, forced a rethink.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Israel largely existed in Hollywood as comic relief, from shows like Friends, Frasier and, more recently, The Big Bang Theory. References to Israel were often followed by laughter – a clever and effective way of linking Israel with positive, happy associations.
The “war on terror”, starting in 2001, coupled with the creation of the Master Class project, allowed Israel to return to the Hollywood universe, not as an occasional reference, but as a staple, with Israeli shows or joint US-Israeli productions, defining a whole new genre: making difficult choices to fight terrorism and ultimately save the world.
The exploitation of Israeli women on magazine covers, for example, Maxim, was an entirely different shady business, catering to a different audience. The half-naked Israeli army girls have succeeded, in the minds of many, in justifying war through sexual imagery. This genre became particularly popular following the bloody Israeli wars on Gaza, which killed thousands.
Israel’s growing influence on Marvel movies is a combination of all of these elements: the sexualisation of the supposedly strong, empowered woman, the normalisation of those who carry out Israeli crimes – Gadot, the soldier, Sabra, the Mossad agent – and the direct injection of Israeli priorities as part of everyday American reality.
Yet, there is a silver lining. For decades, Israel has hidden behind false, romanticised historical notions, making its case to the US and other Western public, often indirectly. The wars on Gaza, the exponential growth of the Palestinian boycott movement and the proliferation of social media have, however, forced Israel out of hiding.
The new Hollywood Israel is now a warrior, often forced to make difficult moral choices, but it is, like its American counterpart, ultimately a force for good. Whether Israel will succeed in maintaining this image will depend on several factors, including the pro-Palestinian communities’ ability to counter such falsehood and hasbara.
CDC Report Blames Pregnancy-Related Deaths on Heart, Mental Health Issues, But No Mention of Vaccines
The Defender | September 23, 2022
The U.S. has long had the dubious distinction of trailing other wealthy nations in infant and child mortality.
Shamefully, it is not just babies and young children who are at a disadvantage compared to their counterparts in peer nations, but also American moms-to-be and new moms, with the U.S. having the highest maternal mortality rate of any developed country.
In countries like New Zealand, Norway and the Netherlands, there are three or fewer maternal deaths for every 100,000 live births, versus about 17 deaths per 100,000 in the U.S.
America also is the only high-income nation where pregnancy-related deaths have, since 2000, been increasing rather than declining.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) tracks moms’ deaths both short-term and longer-term, looking at maternal deaths that occur within six weeks (42 days) of the end of pregnancy, and deaths that occur up to a year after the end of pregnancy, some of which are referred to as “late maternal deaths.”
“Late” deaths are yet another area in which the U.S. is an outlier compared to its sister nations.
For both the short-term and longer-term measures, the cause may be “any cause related to or aggravated by the pregnancy.”
In lower-income nations, hemorrhage, infections and delivery-related complications are some of the leading contributors to maternal mortality.
But according to a new CDC report, in the U.S., the picture is quite different.
The CDC report analyzed about 1,000 deaths from 36 states for the 2017-2019 period — that is, the time frame before restrictive COVID-19 policies and vaccines introduced new risks.
Noting that more than half of pregnancy-related deaths (53%) in America take place well after delivery — anywhere from one week to one year postpartum — the CDC report highlights mental health and cardiovascular conditions as the top two “underlying causes of pregnancy-related death,” albeit with stark differences by race/ethnicity.
For white and Hispanic women, it’s the mind
Among non-Hispanic white and, to a lesser extent, Hispanic women, mental health conditions top the list of apparent underlying causes, with the CDC attributing more than a third of pregnancy-related deaths (35%) in the former group to that category and about 1 in 4 deaths (24%) in the latter group.
The CDC defines mental-health-related deaths among pregnant women and new moms as “deaths of suicide, overdose/poisoning related to substance use disorder, and other deaths determined … to be related to a mental health condition, including substance use disorder.”
It should be noted that some researchers believe published data sources on maternal mortality vastly underestimate deaths from suicide and overdose.
Up to 17% of women, according to some sources, experience postpartum anxiety, a fact that long ago prompted experts to flag suicide risks in postpartum women as a “public health priority.”
In 2018, Stanford authors also linked major depression during pregnancy — reportedly experienced by up to 13% of expectant women — to increased risks of “maternal self-harm or suicide.”
However, the go-to “treatments” for postpartum blues — anti-anxiety drugs and antidepressants — are in and of themselves linked to increased suicidality, not to mention being of unproven efficacy.
WebMD, which blithely encourages women experiencing postpartum depression to consider antidepressants, says nothing about suicidality as a potential side effect, merely telling women the drugs “should help you feel more like yourself” and if they don’t, suggesting “a different dosage” or a “combination of medicines.”
Likewise, a 2018 article in HuffPost connected no dots when it told the story of a two-time mom who committed suicide shortly after initiating anti-anxiety medication.
A 2021 meta-analysis assessing 1.45 million patients produced far more assertive findings, showing that all types of antidepressants — whether commonly prescribed SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) drugs (e.g., Celexa, Lexapro, Paxil, Pexeva, Prozac, Zoloft) or non-SSRI medications (e.g., Effexor, Remeron, Wellbutrin, Zyban) — are associated with a significantly increased risk of suicide.
Commenting on the 2021 study, the organization Mad in America noted, “Studies funded by the pharmaceutical industry were far more likely to find lower suicide rates than studies performed by independent researchers,” with non-industry-beholden researchers reporting a doubling of suicide risk in adults taking antidepressants.
An 11-year analysis of prescription medications found a statistically significant association with increased suicide attempts for the anti-anxiety drugs Xanax and Valium — both widely prescribed to new moms and both in the highly addictive benzodiazepine family — as well as for the opioid Vicodin, which combines the narcotic hydrocodone with acetaminophen.
In fact, both depression and suicidal symptoms are potential “side effects” of more than 200 common drugs used by one-fourth to one-third of all Americans — “an important reminder that the drugs a person takes for one health condition may be making them sick in other ways.”
All of these data are left unmentioned when the CDC and other researchers lament substance use disorders as a risk factor for pregnancy-related death.
At best, they pay lip service to the fact that such disorders may involve legal drugs and medications in addition to illicit substances.
Medical sites are equally selective in the facts they choose to emphasize regarding opioid use disorder in pregnant and postpartum women.
For example, few dwell on the hefty incentives that have encouraged providers to widely prescribe opioids for these and other patient groups.
Describing overprescribing of opioids after childbirth, and particularly after cesarean surgery, a 2019 study noted that “the absolute number of women who are exposed to opioids after childbirth and become chronic opioid users every year is very large.”
The same study also highlighted the association between chronic opioid (mis)use and depression.
For Black women, it’s the heart
Among non-Hispanic Black women — who are two-and-a-half times more likely to die of pregnancy-related causes than white women — the CDC’s latest findings highlight cardiovascular problems rather than mental health issues as the leading mortality contender.
By the CDC’s accounting, problems ranging from “cardiac and coronary conditions” to cardiomyopathy (heart muscle weakness) to hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (forms of high blood pressure predictive of future heart attacks) to strokes and blood clots are responsible for almost 6 in 10 pregnancy-related deaths (58%) in Black women, with a paltry 7% of deaths attributed to mental health challenges.
Recent research indicates Black moms who experience high blood pressure during pregnancy actually face a significantly increased all-cause mortality risk for at least five years after delivery.
Notably, Black women’s heart risks appear to be impervious to socioeconomic status or level of education.
In fact, a Commonwealth Fund report published in late 2020 noted the “startling” fact that education “exacerbates rather than mitigates Black-White differences in maternal deaths,” with college-educated Black mothers being at greater risk of pregnancy-related death than white mothers of any education level.
Many experts profess to be baffled about the root causes or “driving mechanisms” of Black-white cardiovascular disparities.
One factor could be obesity — affecting 57% of Black women versus 40% of white women — but typically, individuals with more education are less likely to be obese, so this can’t completely account for the findings pertaining to college-educated Black women.
Regarding both obesity and related chronic diseases like diabetes, other researchers have speculated that Black Americans “consume significantly more added sugars … than Whites,” noting that diabetes went from being far less to far more common in Blacks versus whites concurrently with the exponential rise in added sugar (and notably, soft drink) intake.
A third factor that has long garnered attention is that of stress and what are referred to as social determinants — “the complexity of factors germane to the environment (that) predisposes people to a burden of cardiovascular disease” — although researchers who vaguely blame “multifactorial” causes ranging from “the individual level to the social environment” have not been particularly helpful in pinpointing meaningful solutions.
Vaccines: an invisible factor affecting both mind and heart
No discussion of threats to the health of pregnant and postpartum women would be complete without noting the alarming loosening of former prohibitions against vaccination during pregnancy.
Vaccine package inserts list nearly 400 possible adverse events — including death and every single “mental health,” cardiac or vascular condition reported by the CDC as an “underlying cause” of pregnancy-related death.
However, the CDC will never investigate the role of this influential variable. On the contrary, the nation’s lead public health agency is the ringleader for vaccination of pregnant women, aggressively recommending inactivated flu shots since around 2006, and Tdap (tetanus-diphtheria-acellular pertussis) vaccines since about 2011, despite an utter lack of data supporting their safety.
By April 2020, three out of five pregnant women (61%) were receiving flu shots and nearly that many (57%) were getting Tdap vaccines, with the CDC celebrating large year-over-year increases in flu shot coverage for non-white women, in particular.
The CDC now also recommends that all pregnant women get COVID-19 shots, and in addition advises five vaccines — hepatitis A and B, meningococcal vaccines (ACWY or B), and polio — either “in some circumstances,” or based on “risk vs. benefit,” or “if otherwise indicated” or “if needed.”
For travel purposes, the CDC gives a thumbs-up to pregnant women for anthrax vaccines (if there is a “high risk of exposure”), rabies (“if otherwise indicated”), typhoid (“if needed”), smallpox (if “post-exposure”) and yellow fever (“if benefit outweighs risk”).
The agency takes an agnostic position (either “no recommendation” or “inadequate data for specific recommendation”) on the PCV13, PPSV23 and zoster vaccines, which leaves only four vaccines — human papillomavirus (HPV), live influenza, measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) and varicella (chickenpox) — that the CDC either does not recommend or considers “contraindicated” for pregnant women.
When the CDC and other public health officials opened the floodgates to vaccination of pregnant women — a group historically considered to require heightened research protections — it was clear they were turning a blind eye to known risks to the developing fetus, including miscarriage, subsequent neurodevelopmental disorders arising from an inflammatory response called “maternal immune activation,” birth defects and preterm delivery.
But it was with the rushed authorization of COVID-19 vaccines for pregnant women — “based on [an] unreviewed study [and] unverifiable data” — that public health and government hypocrisy with regard to pregnant women came under the brightest spotlight.
As thousands, if not millions, of women and their babies suffer serious adverse events from the COVID-19 jabs, the CDC’s crocodile tears about 1,000 or so pregnancy-related deaths over a three-year period are hard to take seriously.
If the agency wants to stop pregnant women and new moms from dying, a good start would be to halt all vaccination during pregnancy and take a cold, hard look at the pharmaceutical pill-pushing and other social-environmental factors that ensnare so many women trying to do right by their babies.
This article was originally published by The Defender — Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Please consider subscribing to The Defender or donating to Children’s Health Defense.
Germany’s “Tenfold Increase In Gas And Electricity Prices” Is Driving Out Industry
Europe’s energy policy is creating jobs – for the USA
By P Gosselin – No Tricks Zone – September 23, 2022
What leaves once, will not come again. While energy prices in Europe are going through the roof, they remain moderate in the USA. This will have serious consequences for energy-intensive industries.
The Wall Street Journal (paid article) is already rubbing its hands together for the US economy. It is twice beneficial: high prices for LNG exports and new jobs in the future. It’s Win/Win – Lose. One of the losers for Germany is Areclor-Mittal. Now they are turning down the first blast furnace. Here, too, the USA is profiting. The FAZ reports:
Arcelor-Mittal, the world’s largest steel producer, is shutting down two production facilities at the end of September due to high energy prices in Germany. “Until further notice,” one of the two blast furnaces at the plate steel site in Bremen will be shut down. And the direct reduction plant at the Hamburg long steel mill is also to be shut down. In addition to the already high costs for gas and electricity, the gas surcharge planned from October will place a further burden on the competitiveness of energy-intensive plants, it says in justification. ‘With a tenfold increase in gas and electricity prices, which we had to accept within a few months, we are no longer competitive in a market that is 25 percent supplied by imports,’ Germany CEO Reiner Blaschek is quoted as saying in a statement from Arcelor-Mittal.
In order to avoid gas consumption in Hamburg, the precursor iron is now being purchased from America in order to be able to continue production – more cheaply, but with a higher CO2 footprint. Reduced work hours is also being introduced at the production sites in Duisburg and Eisenhüttenstadt due to the difficult situation.”
Biden Condemns Nuclear War in Lie-Filled UN Address… But He Is Making Such a War Happen
Strategic Culture Foundation | September 23, 2022
If there were any justice, Biden should have been escorted away from the UN podium to a prison cell awaiting prosecution for crimes against peace.
U.S. President Joe Biden’s address to the 77th annual UN general assembly this week was a spectacle of blatant lies and delusions.
Every year, the world is forced to endure American presidents standing before the assembly of 193-member nations proclaiming the presumed virtues of the United States. However, it’s always an occasion of embarrassing delusion and deception uttered with unctuous self-regard.
This year, the leaders of Russia and China didn’t bother attending the event held at UN headquarters in New York. No doubt they have better things to do. And besides who would want to sit through a speech from an American president that is an absurd insult to common intelligence and historical truth?
Biden condemned nuclear war, saying “it cannot be won and must never be fought”. He went on to accuse Russia and China of undermining world peace with nuclear posturing.
Russia is “making irresponsible nuclear threats” and China is “conducting an unprecedented, concerning nuclear build-up without any transparency”.
Biden said the “United States and I as president champion a vision for our world that is grounded in the values of democracy… I reject the use of violence and war to conquer nations or expand borders through bloodshed.”
The calumny is as contemptible as it is astounding coming from Biden, who during his more than 50 years as a senior Washington politician has advocated dozens of U.S. criminal wars of aggression in every part of the globe.
It is particularly sickening that Biden’s UN speech was presented by U.S. media as a “historic mission” to prevent nuclear war.
It is the United States and this president who are recklessly inciting dangerous tensions with nuclear powers Russia and China. World peace is indeed under imminent threat of a global catastrophic war — from the United States in its relentless aggression toward Russia and China.
The Biden administration and its NATO partners are pumping weapons into Ukraine to prolong the conflict in that country on Russia’s western border. That war is the culmination of eight years of deliberate arming of the anti-Russian Kiev regime to act as a spearhead against Russia.
The Neo-Nazi Kiev regime, which was installed by a CIA-backed coup in 2014, has for weeks been shelling the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant in southeast Ukraine with U.S.-supplied artillery. American and British intelligence is guiding their Kiev proxy forces to strike Russian territory with longer-range missiles.
Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu this week remarked that Russia is at war not merely against Ukraine but against the collective U.S.-led NATO bloc. The implication of this is truly alarming as the Strategic Culture Foundation has stated in previous recent editorials. We are already in a quasi-world war predicament that is on the precipice of escalating into a nuclear confrontation, one that would inevitably destroy the entire planet.
Ukrainian areas under Russian control are due to hold referenda next week which will likely see these separatist areas joining the Russian Federation as Crimea had done in 2014. Thereafter, that will mean NATO forces are directly involved in attacking Russia if they persist in supporting the Kiev regime. There is every indication that Washington and its allies will continue in their madness. Biden has said the U.S. will support Ukraine “for as long as it takes”. As long as what takes? The presumed conquering of Russia, which has been Washington’s strategic objective ever since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.
Russian President Vladimir Putin this week warned NATO that it faces a stark choice. Referring to the forthcoming referenda and the joining of Donbass regions with the Russian Federation, Putin gave notice that Russia reserves the right to defend itself by all means.
Biden and the Western media turn reality on its head. Putin is accused of threatening nuclear strikes. But it is the United States and its European lackey leaders who have created the abysmal impasse from their importunate weaponizing of Ukraine and repeated refusal to engage with Moscow on negotiating a definitive security arrangement concerning the halting of NATO encroachment on its borders.
Turning to China, there is an analogous situation. The Biden administration like his Republican and Democrat predecessors in the White House is arming the breakaway island territory of Taiwan in a brazen assault on China’s sovereignty and national security. The United States and its NATO partners as well as non-NATO clients Australia and Japan are sailing warships through the Taiwan Strait in a cynical attempt to provoke Beijing.
Earlier this week, Biden for the fourth time announced that the United States would militarily “defend” Taiwan if China were to launch a military invasion. Legally under UN law, Taiwan is an integral part of China, so how can China “invade” itself?
Washington is deliberately inciting Beijing and violating its own U.S. domestic laws that recognize Taiwan as being under China’s sovereignty. Yet Biden has the gall to tell the UN assembly that his nation still upholds the One China Policy. The Americans like to call this “strategic ambiguity”. To other observers, it is simply offensive “strategic duplicity”.
The world would seem to be witnessing a deranged American imperialist power at full throttle. The leader of the globe’s biggest aggressor nation who is inexorably pushing provocations toward Russia and China has the audacity to lecture the rest of the world about peace, security, international law, and democracy — and the danger of nuclear war.
If there were any sanity and justice, Biden should have been escorted away from the UN podium to a prison cell awaiting prosecution for crimes against peace.
From Suicide to Dead and Buried… Germany Now Provokes China
By Finian Cunningham | Strategic Culture Foundation | September 23, 2022
Not content with committing its nation to economic suicide from deteriorating Russian relations, the German government now wants to bury the corpse by sabotaging trade relations with China.
Robert Habeck, Germany’s trade minister, has riled Beijing by telling a G7 summit last week that Berlin was aiming to adopt a new China policy to “reduce economic dependency”. Habeck said Germany would strive to take tougher controls over Chinese foreign investment and move away from German reliance on China for key commodities such as semiconductors, batteries and other electronics.
Sounding tough in front of other Western members of the G7 forum (a redundant elite club if ever there was one), Habeck said, “the naivety towards China is over”. He said that trade relations would no longer be viewed in isolation from alleged human rights violations and other international concerns, presumably meaning China’s alleged hostility towards Taiwan.
Beijing slammed Habeck’s remarks and retorted that he was the one who is being “naive” in seeking to damage mutually beneficial bilateral relations.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz doubled down on the provocation at the weekend when he was asked about China’s position on Taiwan. Scholz implied that Beijing was the hostile party in recent tensions over the breakaway island territory. He cautioned China: “It is important that we ban violence from international relations.”
It was another red flag being waved by Berlin in China’s face. Scholz doesn’t seem to realize, or doesn’t want to realize, that Taiwan is a sovereign part of China. That is the legal fact of treaties at the United Nations and the internationally accepted One China Policy. It is the United States, Britain, Australia, France and Germany that are increasingly deploying military forces in China’s territorial waters that are causing dangerous tensions and obliging Beijing to take a tougher position on defending its sovereignty, including its rightful claims over Taiwan.
What are the German leaders playing at? The recklessness of their stance and the damage being inflicted on the nation’s economy make you wonder whose interests are they serving. Certainly, it would seem, not the interests of the German population.
Germany, the economic engine of the European Union, is crashing headfirst from its insane sabotage of energy trade with Russia. It reminds you of those slow-motion car crash tests where dummies are flung into the windscreen. Now it’s heading for a Chinese wall.
The self-imposed cutting off of gas supply from Russia is wrecking German industry and plunging the population into a winter of misery of untold poverty and hardship. Many observers including Russian President Vladimir Putin are baffled by the willful embrace of economic suicide that the German government is rushing into.
For decades, the German export-led economy has been driven by a copious supply of low-priced Russian natural gas and oil. The coalition government in Berlin, which took over from Angela Merkel’s administration at the end of last year, has cut off links with Moscow as part of its support for Washington’s policy to isolate Russia. Germany has gone all in to support the U.S.-backed Kiev regime with heavy weapons supplied to Ukraine in a war with Russia.
So much for Scholz’s admonition to China to “ban the use of violence in international relations”. Berlin is fueling the conflict in Ukraine and along with the U.S. and other NATO powers is preventing any diplomatic process to find a peaceful resolution with Russia.
If the death blow to the German economy was not bad enough from the reckless policy toward Russia, now Berlin wants to kill relations with Beijing.
China is Germany’s top trading partner for the past six years. Bilateral trade has grown steadily. This year’s commerce is heading to surpass the 2021 record high of over $240 billion in Chinese-German trade.
With its 1.4 billion population, China is a vital market for Germany’s exporters, especially the all-important auto industry that drives the German economy. Nearly 40 percent of global sales for Volkswagen, Audi, BMW and Mercedes are in China, spurred by the latter’s phenomenal economic development.
The Berlin government is putting its economic lifeline with China at risk by adopting a policy of wantonly provoking Beijing. In this, the German “leaders” are following Washington’s bidding. They have done this with regard to sabotaging Russian relations. Now they are bent on repeating the folly toward China.
It is notable that Habeck, the German trade minister, is a member of the Greens in the coalition government with Scholz’s Social Democrats. The other senior Green in the coalition is Annalena Baerbock who is the foreign minister. Both of them are pushing an irrational ideological position of damaging Russian and Chinese relations. The Greens want to convert Germany to renewable energy sources like wind and solar power. That’s how they justify doing away with Russian hydrocarbons. But the calculation is woefully misplaced. German industries and the wider population need Russian gas to run their factories and heat their homes. The folly of cutting off Russian energy is backfiring big time. The absurdity is that Germany is now going back to dirty fuel from coal in order to desperately fill the power vacuum that has been self-inflicted by Green ideologues.
More than Green ideology, however, is the real underlying ideology of Russophobia and Sinophobia. Habeck and Baerbock are blinded by their subservience to Washington’s transatlantic agenda of dividing Europe from having normal neighborly relations with Russia and China.
Washington’s agenda is to promote U.S. hegemony and its presumed unipolar dominance in international relations. In short, American imperialism.
An extension of that agenda is to incite antagonism toward China. The encirclement of Russia goes hand in hand with the encirclement of China. It is no coincidence that as Washington escalates tensions with Moscow over Ukraine and NATO encroachment, it is also feverishly inciting tensions with China over Taiwan and dubious allegations of human rights violations by Beijing.
U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration and Congress are pumping weapons into Ukraine and Taiwan in a deliberate and one could say criminal bid to provoke military confrontation. The U.S. capitalist economy needs tensions and conflict to sustain its military-industrial complex, the beating heart of American capitalism.
If Germany’s Chancellor Scholz had any independence of thought, he would be better to remonstrate with Washington over the use of violence in international relations.
But there is no chance of Scholz and his government ever doing that. They are lackeys for Washington and are hopelessly brainwashed with ideological nonsense, Russophobia and Sinophobia.
This winter is already coming with dread for Germany and the wider European population over the policy choice to trash the cornerstone of Russian energy relations. With the further damage to German-Chinese relations, the Berlin political elite are shooting Germany and Europe in the head – twice.
German industries, businesses and workers are incensed by the stupidity of their so-called government which is more accurately described as a Washington-backed regime in Berlin. Angry protests on the streets witnessed in recent weeks in Germany and elsewhere across Europe against self-inflicted economic misery are but a foretaste of the explosive social unrest brewing.
Americans, Overcoming Nonstop Propaganda, are Increasingly Not Worried about Russia Defeating Ukraine
By Adam Dick | Ron Paul Institute | September 23, 2022
The propaganda masters at the big money media and the United States government have pulled out all the stops in their effort to stir up Americans to oppose Russia in its war with Ukraine and to support extreme and expensive efforts of the US government to help the Ukraine government’s side in that war. But, as time has worn on, Americans are increasingly saying it is not a big deal to them whether Russia, led by supposed archvillain Vladimir Putin, wins the war or even takes over Ukraine.
The Pew Research Center conducted a poll from September 13 to 18 in which Americans were asked whether they are concerned about the possibility of “Ukraine being defeated and taken over by Russia” — a question Pew also had asked in April 25 to May 1 polling. Looking at the answers in September compared with in May, a big drop in concern about the possibility of “Ukraine being defeated and taken over by Russia” is evident over the four month period.
While in May 55 percent of polled individuals said they were very or extremely worried about that possibility of Russia defeating and taking over Ukraine, by September only 38 percent were. Meanwhile, the percentage of people saying they are not too concerned or not at all concerned about such a result jumped from 16 percent to 26 percent.
The percentage of polled individuals choosing the middle ground answer that they are somewhat concerned grew from 28 percent to 34 percent.
Notably, the poll question asks about concern regarding Russia taking over all of Ukraine as a result of winning the war — an outcome more extreme than most people think is likely. Consider if the poll instead asked if people are concerned about Russia defeating Ukraine and requiring it to stop exercising control of areas of Ukraine with large Russian population majorities and to maintain neutrality in regard to Russia and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Then, surely, concern levels would have registered yet lower.
These poll results demonstrate a major propaganda fail. Given time, many Americans have seen through the lies. They have stopped being had.
Further, a good number of Americans have bristled at the great amount of US government spending undertaken to support the Ukraine government’s war effort. More and more Americans are also likely increasingly disturbed by the high ongoing cost in lives and destruction that such spending has caused and promises to cause in the future by dragging out a war that Russia and Ukraine would probably otherwise have already settled by agreement.
Indeed, the September poll found an increased percentage of individuals declaring the US government has given too much support to Ukraine. The percentage of polled individuals providing this answer rose from 12 percent in May to 20 percent in September. Among Republican and Republican-leaning polled individuals, the view that the US has provided too much support to Ukraine rose from 17 percent in May to 32 percent in September. Should this trend in views continue to progress, constituents’ pressure on American politicians to turn off the Ukraine money spigot can be expected to continue increasing.
Copyright © 2022 by RonPaul Institute.
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From the Archives
Confronting the Threat of Ethnic Bioweapons
By Tony Cartalucci – New Eastern Outlook – 29.11.2017
The United States Air Force’s 59th Medical Wing’s molecular biology branch recently was revealed to have been collecting specifically Russian RNA and synovial (connective) tissue samples, prompting fears in Russia of a possible US directed ethnic-specific bioweapons program. … continue
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