19 Jun 2022

The Guardian Churns Out Embarrassingly Awful Empire Propaganda

'The Guardian is just Fox News for people who eat organic produce.'

By Caitlin Johnstone: The Guardian has put out a smear piece on critics of the imperial Syria narrative that reads like propaganda made by seven year-olds without adult supervision.

The article was initially released under the headline “Russia-backed network of Syria conspiracy theorists identified,” which was then hastily edited to “Network of Syria conspiracy theorists identified,” because the article does not even make an attempt to argue that all of the so-called “conspiracy theorists” it smears are backed by the Russian government. It claims only that the Russian government has at times cited and amplified information about Syria which is inconvenient for the US empire, which, you know, duh. Obviously it’s going to do that.

Your first clue that you are reading brazen empire smut is the feature image The Guardian uses for the article: a cinematic shot of a member of the “White Helmets” heroically carrying a child in front of a destroyed building. The photo is credited to Sameer Al-Doumy, whose own website describes him as an anti-Assad activist since childhood. Even if you knew nothing about the Syrian conflict or the White Helmets narrative control operation, if you knew anything at all about propaganda and how it’s used you would still instantly recognize that photo for what it is.

Has Covid Changed The World Or Has It Been Forgotten?

'If we wanted to sum up the two-year pandemic, here in Italy but also in the rest of the world, especially in the "free” collective West, we would have to say that Covid did not put the mask on people but took it off.'

By Costantino Ceoldo: Under the guise of a pandemic caused by a virus being sold as the bearer of an apocalypse, some of the worst traits of the human soul have emerged: the willingness to delude, the uncritical conforming to the compact and obtuse herd, the disregard for freedom precisely when freedom is in danger and not pretended to be guaranteed by a more or less apparent condition of peace.

It was well seen the ease with which Italian progressives lashed out at those protesting the imposition of the Green Pass, the Nazi laissez-passer that was supposed to guarantee public health but instead proved to be the opposite because the vaccinated became infected and spread the contagion in turn.

Will Washington’s Sanctions Destroy The German Automobile Industry?

'It was Washingtons sanctions, not Russia, that raised prices and disrupted energy and other markets. The ill-considered attempt to blackmail Russia has backfired on the West. The silver lining in the looming economic hardship is globalisms demise.'

By Dr. Paul Craig Roberts: The last independent government Germany had was Hitler’s. Every succeeding German government has been a Washington puppet. As Mike Whitney writes, “Berlin will always march in lockstep with Washington rather than fulfill its business agreements or act in the interests of its own people.” https://www.unz.com/mwhitney/meet-the-new-boss-putin-reroutes-critical-hydrocarbons-eastward-leaving-europe-high-and-dry/

Germany is paying a high price and soon American owners of BMWs, Mercedes, Porsches, and Volkswagens will be too. The absurd sanctions against Russia are disorganizing the German economy. This week the sanctions caused a 40% reduction in natural gas to Germany via the Nord Stream pipeline, giving a further boost to natural gas prices that have trippled in the last three months.

Assange Is Doing His Most Important Work Yet

'Washington, London and Canberra are colluding to imprison a journalist for telling the truth. ...We all owe this man a tremendous debt.'

By Caitlin Johnstone: British Home Secretary Priti Patel has authorized the extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to the United States to be tried under the Espionage Act in a case which seeks to set a legal precedent for the prosecution of any publisher or journalist, anywhere in the world, who reports inconvenient truths about the US empire.

Assange’s legal team will appeal the decision, reportedly with arguments that will include the fact that the CIA spied on him and plotted his assassination.

“It will likely be a few days before the (14-day appeal) deadline and the appeal will include new information that we weren’t able to bring before the courts previously. Information on how Julian lawyers were spied on, and how there were plots to kidnap and kill Julian from within the CIA,” Assange’s brother Gabriel Shipton told Reuters on Friday.

And thank goodness. Assange’s willingness to resist Washington’s extradition attempts benefit us all, from his taking political asylum in the Ecuadorian embassy in 2012 until British police forcibly dragged him out in 2019, to his fighting US prosecutors in the courtroom tooth and claw during his incarceration in Belmarsh Prison.

German Official Warns Gas Shortages, Bankruptcies, Massive Price Hikes Sending "Shockwaves Throughout The Country"

... and 'winter is coming'.

By John Cody: A gas shortage and high prices will send “shockwaves through the country,” leading to landlords cutting the heat for tenants and widespread company bankruptcies, warned Klaus Müller, the head of Germany’s Federal Network Agency, which is the regulatory office for electricity, gas, telecommunications, postal services, and railway markets.

Müller paints a bleak picture about the crisis in an interview with German newspaper Rheinische Post, saying it will “send shockwaves throughout the country. Banks will ramp up their business with installment loans, and ailing companies will fall into insolvency.”

Müller’s office, which is a federal agency within the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, has a bird’s eye view of the economic situation in Germany and also special insight into how economic conditions will develop into the future.

Müller says he expects gas prices to continue to climb, resulting in increased inflation that goes far beyond energy. He also warns that there will be a dramatic lack of gas in the winter, which could lead to landlords turning down the heat to save on energy. In turn, Germans may have to grapple with colder apartments.

Putin: Unipolar Order Has Ended, West Headed For "Change Of Elites" As Russia Emerges Stronger

'Their goal was to crush the Russian economy, but that they have failed to achieve this. Instead, EU politicians delivered a serious blow to their own economies. The costs of the "sanctions fever" are around $400 billion this year alone and the measures will become a burden on regular people's shoulders.

Update(11:00am ET) Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed in further remarks given before the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum that anti-Russian sanctions have only come back to hurt the people of the EU and the West broadly, amid soaring gas and food prices, inflation fears, and severe supply chain shortages. He declared the end of the unipolar world as we know it, saying, "Over the past decades, new powerful centers have been formed on the planet […] each of them develops their own political system and public institutions, implements their own models of economic growth, and, of course, has the right to protect themselves, to ensure national sovereignty. We are talking about real processes, about truly revolutionary, tectonic changes in geopolitics, global economy, the technological sphere, in the entire system of international relations". And more, according to a state-backed media translation:

The Russian president criticized the European Union over the decision to impose anti-Russia sanctions, calling it "crazy" and "not well thought out".

40,000 UK Rail Workers To Strike Next Week, Will Paralyze Transportation Network

"Make no mistake, the level of service we will be able to offer will be significantly compromised and passengers need to take that into account and to plan ahead and only travel if it's really necessary to do so,"

By Tyler Durden: Tens of thousands of railway workers are preparing to strike across Britain and may cause transportation chaos next week as they demand higher wages amid the worst inflation in four decades. 

Financial Times reports that 40,000 workers across Network Rail Limited, the owner and infrastructure manager of most of the railway networks in the UK, and 13 train operating companies, will strike next week for higher pay and against job cuts in one of the most significant strikes to hit UK railways in three decades.

Transportation turmoil begins next week as Network Rail warned only 4,500 of the regular 20,000 daily trains would be operational -- hours of operation will be reduced to 11 hours per day, between 0730 to 1830. Large parts of the railway network will be closed.