offguardian--2020-05-02--Pandemic Delays: Postponing the Assange Extradition Hearing

Julian Assange must have had time amidst cramped and hostile surrounds , paper work , pleas and applications , to ponder what circle of Dante ’ s Hell he finds himself in .
Ailing but still battling , the WikiLeaks publisher , through his lawyers , made another vicarious appearance at the Westminster Magistrates ’ Court on Monday to delay the next stage of extradition proceedings slated for May 18 .
He would have appeared via video link , but medical advice suggested it would be unsafe for him to do so at Belmarsh prison .
Assange , one of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ authorities for fancifully broad claims of espionage and computer intrusion , had a range of eminently sensible reasons for seeking the delay .
The defence continued in relentless fashion , making arguments they have done throughout .
The feeling for the observer is that , at some point , the District Judge Vanessa Baraitser might bite , or at least shift ever so slightly .
Assange ’ s legal team , spearheaded by Edward Fitzgerald QC , noted that adequate case preparations were , in the current circumstances , impossible .
There had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their client ; the defence team had been unable to speak to Assange for over a month .
The case , claimed Fitzgerald , had gone “ from difficult to impossible ” .
There were “ no person-to-person meetings .
The alternative of video conferences is medically dangerous.
” A meeting that was due to take place last week in the holding cells of Woolwich Crown Court never transpired , as prison authorities refused to permit it .
According to the written submission , “ It is not possible to take Mr Assange @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the recently served declarations of Mr Kromberg , the US Attorney representing the case for the US.
” Those representing the publisher were “ unable to fulfil their professional obligations to him in the circumstances and he is deprived of equality of arms with the prosecution ” .
The second ground followed from the first : no full extradition could take place in May that would enable Assange to “ participate effectively in the hearing ” .
Abiding by principles of open justice would also be improbable given the ongoing pandemic restrictions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ to attend and follow proceedings ” .
The fourth ground focused on Assange ’ s own vulnerable constitution , already ravaged by stress and pressure occasioned by his confinement at HMP Belmarsh .
The sum of this was that “ he could not fairly be expected to participate in a full evidentiary hearing in May.
” The ever unsympathetic Baraitser , usually unmoved by any defence application that might suggest favour to Assange , accepted the argument that the May 18 date be vacated , and an administrative hearing scheduled for May @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to consider a new date for the full hearing .
The measure was granted , in no small part because of lack of protest from the prosecution .
As James Lewis QC , putting the case for the United States , submitted , “ In this extraordinary time , we would support the application.
” Given the circumstances ( the judge finally acknowledged the obvious : that Britain was in a coronavirus lockdown ) , it was unlikely that Assange and his lawyers would be able to physically attend the scheduled May 18 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ parties in this case will not be appropriate .
It is now appropriate to vacate that hearing and fix it to a later date.
” At the earliest , a three-week block from November 2 can be made available .
On other points , Baraitser remained cold and tenaciously blind .
She could not see how the lockdown itself had any evident impact on case preparation , nor affect the proper attendance of witnesses .
“ I have been given no reason to believe that pre-hearing discussion with expert witnesses can ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Assange ’ s safety in being transported to a video conference room was a matter for the prison to make .
Nor would press reporting be impaired , despite witnessing , in her own court , the distinctly shonky coverage for media offered by the teleconference facility .
As the UK Bureau Director of Reporters Without Borders Rebecca Vincent would comment , reflecting upon the day ’ s technical challenges : Assange supporters and case watchers were relieved by the change of heart shown from the bench .
Kevin Gosztola of Shadowproof opined @ @ @ @ @ @ @ COVID-19 pandemic “ would ’ ve significantly undermined due process rights of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange ” .
Then came the next question , a spectre over the stuttered court proceedings : Would Assange be able to obtain bail ?
His father , John Shipton , certainly thought so , as obtaining such relief would alleviate the danger of contracting COVID-19 in a “ prison where two people have died of the disease ” .
According to Renata Avila , a key human rights lawyer and board member for Creative Commons , such @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the measure .
“ Under current conditions , he can not prepare his legal defence and he is risking his life.
” The hope for legal , and compassionate sense to prevail , remains admirably optimistic .
Assange is bound in a cruel legal purgatory , a shackled David facing the Goliath of the US imperium .
But even with his hands tied , Assange is still putting up a most resolute fight .
Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College , Cambridge .
He lectures at RMIT University , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ]

Binoy Kampmark
“Mr Assange will be facing a David and Goliath battle with his hands tied behind his back.”
Edward Fitzgerald QC, lawyer for Julian Assange, April 27, 2020
Julian Assange must have had time amidst cramped and hostile surrounds, paper work, pleas and applications, to ponder what circle of Dante’s Hell he finds himself in.
Ailing but still battling, the WikiLeaks publisher, through his lawyers, made another vicarious appearance at the Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Monday to delay the next stage of extradition proceedings slated for May 18.
He would have appeared via video link, but medical advice suggested it would be unsafe for him to do so at Belmarsh prison.
Assange, one of the most conspicuously wanted individuals by US authorities for fancifully broad claims of espionage and computer intrusion, had a range of eminently sensible reasons for seeking the delay. The defence continued in relentless fashion, making arguments they have done throughout. The feeling for the observer is that, at some point, the District Judge Vanessa Baraitser might bite, or at least shift ever so slightly.
Assange’s legal team, spearheaded by Edward Fitzgerald QC, noted that adequate case preparations were, in the current circumstances, impossible. There had been the briefest of phone calls with their client; the defence team had been unable to speak to Assange for over a month.
The case, claimed Fitzgerald, had gone “from difficult to impossible”. There were “no person-to-person meetings. The alternative of video conferences is medically dangerous.” A meeting that was due to take place last week in the holding cells of Woolwich Crown Court never transpired, as prison authorities refused to permit it.
According to the written submission, “It is not possible to take Mr Assange’s instructions in order to respond to the recently served declarations of Mr Kromberg, the US Attorney representing the case for the US.”
Those representing the publisher were “unable to fulfil their professional obligations to him in the circumstances and he is deprived of equality of arms with the prosecution”.
The second ground followed from the first: no full extradition could take place in May that would enable Assange to “participate effectively in the hearing”.
Abiding by principles of open justice would also be improbable given the ongoing pandemic restrictions that would prevent the press and public “to attend and follow proceedings”.
The fourth ground focused on Assange’s own vulnerable constitution, already ravaged by stress and pressure occasioned by his confinement at HMP Belmarsh. The sum of this was that “he could not fairly be expected to participate in a full evidentiary hearing in May.”
The ever unsympathetic Baraitser, usually unmoved by any defence application that might suggest favour to Assange, accepted the argument that the May 18 date be vacated, and an administrative hearing scheduled for May 4, enabling lawyers on all sides to consider a new date for the full hearing.
The measure was granted, in no small part because of lack of protest from the prosecution. As James Lewis QC, putting the case for the United States, submitted, “In this extraordinary time, we would support the application.”
Given the circumstances (the judge finally acknowledged the obvious: that Britain was in a coronavirus lockdown), it was unlikely that Assange and his lawyers would be able to physically attend the scheduled May 18 hearing. “Remote attendance by the parties in this case will not be appropriate. It is now appropriate to vacate that hearing and fix it to a later date.”
At the earliest, a three-week block from November 2 can be made available.
On other points, Baraitser remained cold and tenaciously blind. She could not see how the lockdown itself had any evident impact on case preparation, nor affect the proper attendance of witnesses. “I have been given no reason to believe that pre-hearing discussion with expert witnesses can’t take place remotely.”
The issue of Assange’s safety in being transported to a video conference room was a matter for the prison to make. Nor would press reporting be impaired, despite witnessing, in her own court, the distinctly shonky coverage for media offered by the teleconference facility.
As the UK Bureau Director of Reporters Without Borders Rebecca Vincent would comment, reflecting upon the day’s technical challenges:
resuming the full extradition hearing in such conditions would not allow for open justice. This case is of tremendous public interest, and the press and NGO observers must be able to scrutinise proceedings.”
Assange supporters and case watchers were relieved by the change of heart shown from the bench. Kevin Gosztola of Shadowproof opined that a May 18 hearing during the COVID-19 pandemic “would’ve significantly undermined due process rights of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange”.
Then came the next question, a spectre over the stuttered court proceedings: Would Assange be able to obtain bail?
His father, John Shipton, certainly thought so, as obtaining such relief would alleviate the danger of contracting COVID-19 in a “prison where two people have died of the disease”.
According to Renata Avila, a key human rights lawyer and board member for Creative Commons, such a delay would surely entitle Assange to the measure. “Under current conditions, he cannot prepare his legal defence and he is risking his life.”
The hope for legal, and compassionate sense to prevail, remains admirably optimistic. Assange is bound in a cruel legal purgatory, a shackled David facing the Goliath of the US imperium. But even with his hands tied, Assange is still putting up a most resolute fight.
Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. Email: [email protected]


offguardian--2020-05-02--How the UK’s testing policy makes their Covid19 numbers meaningless

Yesterday was May 1st , the deadline that UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock set for the NHS to be testing 100,000 people every 24 hours .
Seeing as the 100,000 was just an arbitrary number , set up for PR purposes to make the government look dynamic and pro-active , whether or not they actually hit this target is moot .
Nevertheless , steadfast in their duty to discuss only that which does not matter , the mainstream media are locked in a fierce debate over the statistics .
One which not only buries the lead but burns off its @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Some people claim the 122,000 tests is MORE than his promised 100,000 daily tests .
Others point out that since those 122,000 tests were only on 73,000 people he actually missed the target .
Both are missing the point : The testing policy as a whole is producing potentially meaningless data .
For example – UK apparently just admitted to testing 50,000 people twice in one day .
This is potentially significant because it ’ s evidence to support the numerous anecdotal reports of patients being repeat-tested for Covid19 without ever getting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ displaying any symptoms ) .
But it ’ s also itself a symptom .
A natural side-effect of some very poor NHS advice .
The latest version NHS guidance for managing Covid19 says this about PCR tests : Clinicians are being advised that if they have a patient with “ typical ” symptoms of Covid19 , that any negative test could be a “ false negative ” and potentially disregarded .
This might explain why doctors would want to redo some tests , but selectively ignoring negative results is a highly irresponsible policy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on a “ typical clinical picture ” for a disease with a very common pattern of symptoms .
The “ typical ” clinical presentation of Covid19 is a fever , cough and shortness of breath .
This is far too vague to be used to clinically diagnose anything , and could obviously lead to thousands of patients with flu , colds or other minor respiratory infections being listed as Covid19 cases .
Either because they were tested for Covid19 repeatedly until they got a positive result , or because they had their negative @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” and were clinically diagnosed .
Clearly this approach could artificially inflate the number of Covid19 cases .
This would be true even if your test was a reliable diagnostic tool .
The PCR test they use to “ diagnose ” Coronavirus infection is not reliable .
In fact , the evidence calling these tests into question is pretty extensive ( you can read Kevin Ryan ’ s detailed write-up here ) : • An early study , done in China , found two PCR tests from the same patient at the same @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Another Chinese study ( since retracted for unexplained reasons ) found the PCR tests returned huge numbers of false positives .
• In the UK a batch of tests was discovered to be contaminated with Coronavirus .
• In the US , the tests were found to react to the negative control sample when they should not ( potentially leading to false positives ) .
• In Germany , an 84-year-old man tested positive , leading to his entire nursing home being quarantined .
It was later found he actually only had a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ outbreak of 2003 , PCR tests in Canada were found to respond to all coronaviruses , not just SARS-Cov .
• In a report dismissing the idea of “ re-infection ” , South Korea ’ s CDC claimed PCR tests produce false positives because they can not tell the difference between a live virus and a dead one , adding that patients could continue to test positive for months after their immune system has killed the virus .
PCR tests can not be relied upon to produce good data .
When you combine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ disregard negative results , rely on clinical diagnosis for an incredibly common symptomatic presentation , and re-test thousands of people every day , you have created a perfect storm for misdiagnosis .
Whether through contrivance , panic or incompetence , Matt Hancock ’ s much-hyped mass testing plan is potentially little more than a waste of time and resources .

Kit Knightly
Yesterday was May 1st, the deadline that UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock set for the NHS to be testing 100,000 people every 24 hours.
Seeing as the 100,000 was just an arbitrary number, set up for PR purposes to make the government look dynamic and pro-active, whether or not they actually hit this target is moot.
Nevertheless, steadfast in their duty to discuss only that which does not matter, the mainstream media are locked in a fierce debate over the statistics. One which not only buries the lead but burns off its fingerprints and pulls out its teeth first.
Some people claim the 122,000 tests is MORE than his promised 100,000 daily tests. Others point out that since those 122,000 tests were only on 73,000 people he actually missed the target.
Both are missing the point: The testing policy as a whole is producing potentially meaningless data.
For example – UK apparently just admitted to testing 50,000 people twice in one day.
This is potentially significant because it’s evidence to support the numerous anecdotal reports of patients being repeat-tested for Covid19 without ever getting a positive result (and sometimes without displaying any symptoms). But it’s also itself a symptom. A natural side-effect of some very poor NHS advice.
The latest version NHS guidance for managing Covid19 says this about PCR tests:
Beware false-negative upper airway sample if clinical picture is typical
Clinicians are being advised that if they have a patient with “typical” symptoms of Covid19, that any negative test could be a “false negative” and potentially disregarded.
This might explain why doctors would want to redo some tests, but selectively ignoring negative results is a highly irresponsible policy, especially if you base those decisions on a “typical clinical picture” for a disease with a very common pattern of symptoms.
The “typical” clinical presentation of Covid19 is a fever, cough and shortness of breath. This is far too vague to be used to clinically diagnose anything, and could obviously lead to thousands of patients with flu, colds or other minor respiratory infections being listed as Covid19 cases. Either because they were tested for Covid19 repeatedly until they got a positive result, or because they had their negative result dismissed as a “false negative” and were clinically diagnosed.
Clearly this approach could artificially inflate the number of Covid19 cases. This would be true even if your test was a reliable diagnostic tool. The PCR test they use to “diagnose” Coronavirus infection is not reliable.
In fact, the evidence calling these tests into question is pretty extensive (you can read Kevin Ryan’s detailed write-up here):
PCR tests cannot be relied upon to produce good data. When you combine their use with guidelines instructing doctors to disregard negative results, rely on clinical diagnosis for an incredibly common symptomatic presentation, and re-test thousands of people every day, you have created a perfect storm for misdiagnosis.
Whether through contrivance, panic or incompetence, Matt Hancock’s much-hyped mass testing plan is potentially little more than a waste of time and resources.


offguardian--2020-05-03--REVIEW: Planet of the Humans

REVIEW: Planet of the Humans

Michael Moore is estimated to be worth 50 million dollars .
He is a wealthy man .
His political support is for the Democratic Party .
He has stumped for Alexandria Ocasio Cortez in New York and for Rashida Tlaib in Michigan ( does one need to say more ? )
.
Moore is essentially a brand .
Moore came to prominence with Roger and Me , but became a part of the cultural zeitgeist with Bowling for Columbine .
Moore was satirized in TV cartoons like South Park ( a sort of cultural marker for brand success ) , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in subsequent films a gradual yet inexorable expression of the law of diminishing ( box office ) returns .
He has now granted his imprimatur as producer ( a bit like Nike is now branding medical face masks .
Well…ok…not exactly like that , but still… ) on a new documentary by Jeff Gibbs : Planet of the Humans .
Now , the essential and overriding two problems with this film can be generalized as absence of class analysis , and an absent analysis of western Imperialism .
More succinctly , the military @ @ @ @ @ @ @ And the open Malthusian meme ‘ we are the problem ’ , or what is often called ‘ the overpopulation argument ’ ( or Pogo argument ) is a profoundly reactionary and racist idea based on classic eugenics , and the one glaring omission and the other rather disturbing ideology , eclipse the genuine ( though limited ) truths of the film .
And I say limited because while , yes , Al Gore is a ruling class vulture and Bill McKibben an opportunistic self-promoting liar , and pointing this out is correct @ @ @ @ @ @ @ subsumed by Gibbs greater political mystifications .
The curious result of these missing ideas and the criticism of them and by extension the film , means that finds oneself aligned , however fleetingly , with people who hate the film for exactly the wrong reasons — the pro capitalist DNC linked pro climate justice .
Green energy supporters , among whom one can count Alexandria Ocasio Cortez who producer Michael Moore supports and campaigns for ( cognitive dissonance exhibit A ) and all the myriad other corporate interests that Cory Morningstar painstakingly catalogues @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
There have been hysterical attacks on Gibbs from these people , and they are wrong .
And their egregious *wrongness* here still doesn ’ t mean its not a flawed film .
But herein lies the real issues that need to be carefully tweezed apart .
Even Cory Morningstar linked to the film on the above-mentioned blog .
On an importantly positive note , the stuff that Gibbs gets right is important and one wishes dearly he were a more sophisticated political thinker .
And that he wasn ’ t working with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , palm oil , all the massive destruction caused by solar and wind power .
That the hype for renewable energy is dishonest and manipulative .
Gibbs is exactly right ( though a bit late to the party one has to say ) .
The attacks on him from the proto-capitalist green energy people are cynical and dishonest .
The film is not without poignancy .
The image of an 800-year-old Joshua Tree being ground up will not soon leave you , nor the image of the Orangutan – that Orangutan – this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is no escape from it .
I want to return to the nature of the acute ambivalence this film elicits , but first , another factor needs to be noted .
Timing .
That this film ( which was rejected , apparently , by major distributors , although I have no direct evidence of this ) is released during the Corona panic ( for free ) , during the global house arrest ( and this , in turn , means a necessary sidebar on Bill Gates ) is troubling .
One of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in media is one that depicts the suddenly clean waters of the Venice canals , the return of wildlife to the suburbs of America and northern Europe , and the generally breathable air of previously polluted big cities .
And the message is , like the Gibbs film , “ we are the problem ” .
Get rid of people , or keep them inside , and voila…an Edenic Gaia .
The film then becomes tantamount to a marketing campaign for depopulation simply by virtue of its release date .
This , in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Planet of the Humans , and that is that it is very white .
And I find a surprising number of ( surprise ) white people who either will object to this description , or simply tell you it has no meaning .
But it does have meaning and it has history .
A history where twelve presidents owned and worked slaves .
A history in which the U.S. Army gave out blankets , infected with smallpox , to native american tribes .
Ponder that .
The U.S. history is so interwoven with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Manifest Destiny , and the Monroe doctrine , and sixty years of intense anticommunism and covert CIA coups – many of which targeted post-independence Africa – that history is inseparable from any cultural or political product .
THAT history colours all cultural discussion , it can not be escaped .
And there is an unsettling sense of privilege ( even if not literally true ) in listening to a white guy intone for a hundred minutes .
So , when white men narrate films where nearly all humans are white , it is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ apparently no politics beyond ‘ trees are nice ’ .
Now , having said this , the subject Gibbs is tackling is important .
Many of his conclusions are correct , but only up to a point because looming over everything is the spectre of de-population .
And this Malthusianism is so threadbare at this point , so utterly at odds with the facts , that for Gibbs to promote it means he loses credibility for everything .
And it ’ s sinister .
There are not too many people ; thats simply @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the planet birth rates are cratering ( why is IVF such big business ? )
But again , if one reads the reviews in corporate-owned media ( Vox , or Salon et al . )
it ’ s enough to make one root for and defend Gibbs…almost .
In fact , reading the mainstream press on the topic of this film is an object lesson in how propaganda is disseminated .
It is a perfect illustration of the internalizing of the meta-narrative for climate , as it is for Covid 19 .
They @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as drone assassination and US/NATO Imperialist wars can not be separated from SWAT teams kicking in doors in south-central .
The fact that the U.S. has over two million people in prison , which is the most per capita and real in the world , and that two million with a disproportionate number of black prisoners , is also suggestive of a deep intractable terror of a planet with dwindling white power .
But cutting across this , as I say , is the frightening erosion of democracy in the Covid 19 emergency @ @ @ @ @ @ @ year , or that even the slimy frontman for Gates and his friends , Dr Fauci , admits the case mortality rate will be very low .
It doesn ’ t matter because this stopped being about the virus long ago .
Here is essential reading regarding Gates….two pieces .
One from Jake Levich and the next from Alison McDowell .
I read in social media how people are so inspired about ‘ frontline medical workers ’ ( you see there is always a new vocabulary , much like with climate and carrying @ @ @ @ @ @ @ extinction etc ) and yet , in fact , huge numbers of hospitals are closing ( likely to never reopen ) and those doctors and nurses and now among the growing mass of unemployed in the US .
It seems the American bourgeoisie want to believe this is a dire threat .
They want to self isolate .
Perhaps this massive quarantine is a time of leisure that they don ’ t often get .
I have no idea , honestly .
But I do know for certain the quarantines will kill far @ @ @ @ @ @ @ long term , and that the new mass upticks in surveillance and invasions of privacy won ’ t ever be rolled back .
But the bigger question is in terms of global travel and the Gates agenda ( see Fourth Industrial Revolution , smart cities , etc ) .
What Gates wants is everyone to carry a certificate ( or microchip ) that indicates if they have had this or that vaccination .
This is exactly what your dog has to have when you fly them out of the country .
I am @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or maybe actively joined , the agenda of the eugenicists .
And as to the lack of mention of the military , well , I honestly don ’ t know how that is even possible if you claim to be making a documentary about destruction of the planet .
The US war machine cuts across ever aspect of human existence today .
That is not hyperbole .
And yet Gibbs ignored it .
I want to defend Gibbs against the corporate attacks against him , but I find it hard .
And a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ white liberal educated class so hate Trump that all rational perspective is lost .
Anything that throws shade on Trump is a good thing .
And this hatred is being enjoyed far too much ; it is as if Trump came along and answered their unconscious prayers for active exercise of a deep soul-crushing hate .
It bonds people , a negative bonding to be sure , but that is better than nothing .
The pimps for lockdown seem impervious to the loss of millions of jobs ( just today in Norway SAS @ @ @ @ @ @ @ expects them back .
Or in Hollywood , as shooting resumes , crews are decimated .
Thousands of jobs that likely won ’ t return ) .
The importance of specific facts in Planet of the Humans are undeniable .
I sincerely hope people will watch it , but watch it with an educated critical eye .
For Gibbs is in bed with this man .
Two multi-millionaires performing the role of concerned citizens , and confused , confused I tell you , why people don ’ t want to lose their jobs @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Cory Morningstar wrote just the other day : There seems an almost class divide actually , for both climate discourse and corona discourse .
The working-class fear loss of food and shelter far more than an only moderately lethal virus .
They fear the excesses of federal bureaucracies , and the boot-heel of domestic US city police departments , not to mention custodial supervision .
The white educated bourgeoisie fear but are also exhilarated by this contagion .
As the lockdown began the top viewing film on Netflix that week was Contagion ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ exciting they think , and it allows yet another new vocabulary .
So in social media where once one was confronted with endless white guys who were getting to play being scientists and climatologists , now one is running into a constant stream of Epidemiologists , infectious disease specialists and biologists .
I ’ m going to quote myself here , with apologies , from a recent blog post : And I want to quote Paul Haeder , who is a social worker and writer in Oregon .
This is a comment he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ should all read ) here : The for Evidence-Based Medicine ( Oxford University ) has the infection fatality rate at between 0.1 % and 0.36 % .
That is pretty much what seasonal flu comes in at .
Something many of us said a month ago .
The comparisons between the climate discourse and the Covid discourse are striking .
One might even think there was an agenda here .
But such topics are nowhere to be seen in the Gibbs film .
Which is fine , I suppose , if he only @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the boosters for New green capitalism in something like a political frame .
His obvious personal disappointment ends up feeling like , again , privilege .
The Fourth Industrial Revolution is one meant to permanently eliminate humans from their work and livelihoods .
This is the dream of the 1 % .
The fact that western capital continues to promote the “ we are the enemy ” meme should make us suspicious .
It does not seem to have made Gibbs suspicious at all .

John Steppling
Michael Moore is estimated to be worth 50 million dollars. He is a wealthy man. His political support is for the Democratic Party. He has stumped for Alexandria Ocasio Cortez in New York and for Rashida Tlaib in Michigan (does one need to say more?). Moore is essentially a brand.
Moore came to prominence with Roger and Me, but became a part of the cultural zeitgeist with Bowling for Columbine. Moore was satirized in TV cartoons like South Park (a sort of cultural marker for brand success), but despite his celebrity there has been in subsequent films a gradual yet inexorable expression of the law of diminishing (box office) returns.
He has now granted his imprimatur as producer (a bit like Nike is now branding medical face masks. Well…ok…not exactly like that, but still…) on a new documentary by Jeff Gibbs: Planet of the Humans.
Now, the essential and overriding two problems with this film can be generalized as absence of class analysis, and an absent analysis of western Imperialism.
More succinctly, the military is never mentioned, not ever. And the open Malthusian meme ‘we are the problem’, or what is often called ‘the overpopulation argument’ (or Pogo argument) is a profoundly reactionary and racist idea based on classic eugenics, and the one glaring omission and the other rather disturbing ideology, eclipse the genuine (though limited) truths of the film.
And I say limited because while, yes, Al Gore is a ruling class vulture and Bill McKibben an opportunistic self-promoting liar, and pointing this out is correct and even satisfying, these points are subsumed by Gibbs greater political mystifications.
The curious result of these missing ideas and the criticism of them and by extension the film, means that finds oneself aligned, however fleetingly, with people who hate the film for exactly the wrong reasons — the pro capitalist DNC linked pro climate justice. Green energy supporters, among whom one can count Alexandria Ocasio Cortez who producer Michael Moore supports and campaigns for (cognitive dissonance exhibit A) and all the myriad other corporate interests that Cory Morningstar painstakingly catalogues in her Wrong Kind of Green blog.
There have been hysterical attacks on Gibbs from these people, and they are wrong. And their egregious *wrongness* here still doesn’t mean its not a flawed film.
But herein lies the real issues that need to be carefully tweezed apart. Even Cory Morningstar linked to the film on the above-mentioned blog.
On an importantly positive note, the stuff that Gibbs gets right is important and one wishes dearly he were a more sophisticated political thinker. And that he wasn’t working with Moore. But details on industrial energy, palm oil, all the massive destruction caused by solar and wind power. That the hype for renewable energy is dishonest and manipulative. Gibbs is exactly right (though a bit late to the party one has to say).
The attacks on him from the proto-capitalist green energy people are cynical and dishonest.
The film is not without poignancy. The image of an 800-year-old Joshua Tree being ground up will not soon leave you, nor the image of the Orangutan – that Orangutan – this is the future under capitalism. There is no escape from it.
I want to return to the nature of the acute ambivalence this film elicits, but first, another factor needs to be noted. Timing.
That this film (which was rejected, apparently, by major distributors, although I have no direct evidence of this) is released during the Corona panic (for free), during the global house arrest (and this, in turn, means a necessary sidebar on Bill Gates) is troubling.
One of the most prevalent themes being repeated ad nauseam in media is one that depicts the suddenly clean waters of the Venice canals, the return of wildlife to the suburbs of America and northern Europe, and the generally breathable air of previously polluted big cities. And the message is, like the Gibbs film, “we are the problem”. Get rid of people, or keep them inside, and voila…an Edenic Gaia. The film then becomes tantamount to a marketing campaign for depopulation simply by virtue of its release date.
This, in turn, links to another problem with Planet of the Humans, and that is that it is very white. And I find a surprising number of (surprise) white people who either will object to this description, or simply tell you it has no meaning. But it does have meaning and it has history.
A history where twelve presidents owned and worked slaves. A history in which the U.S. Army gave out blankets, infected with smallpox, to native american tribes. Ponder that. The U.S. history is so interwoven with its slave-owning and genocidal past; add Manifest Destiny, and the Monroe doctrine, and sixty years of intense anticommunism and covert CIA coups – many of which targeted post-independence Africa – that history is inseparable from any cultural or political product.
THAT history colours all cultural discussion, it cannot be escaped. And there is an unsettling sense of privilege (even if not literally true) in listening to a white guy intone for a hundred minutes.
So, when white men narrate films where nearly all humans are white, it is ipso facto problematic. White men with apparently no politics beyond ‘trees are nice’.
Now, having said this, the subject Gibbs is tackling is important. Many of his conclusions are correct, but only up to a point because looming over everything is the spectre of de-population. And this Malthusianism is so threadbare at this point, so utterly at odds with the facts, that for Gibbs to promote it means he loses credibility for everything. And it’s sinister.
There are not too many people; thats simply not true, and in fact across the planet birth rates are cratering (why is IVF such big business?) But again, if one reads the reviews in corporate-owned media (Vox, or Salon et al.) it’s enough to make one root for and defend Gibbs…almost.
In fact, reading the mainstream press on the topic of this film is an object lesson in how propaganda is disseminated. It is a perfect illustration of the internalizing of the meta-narrative for climate, as it is for Covid 19. They can’t be separated, just as drone assassination and US/NATO Imperialist wars cannot be separated from SWAT teams kicking in doors in south-central.
The fact that the U.S. has over two million people in prison, which is the most per capita and real in the world, and that two million with a disproportionate number of black prisoners, is also suggestive of a deep intractable terror of a planet with dwindling white power.
But cutting across this, as I say, is the frightening erosion of democracy in the Covid 19 emergency. Never mind Malaria killed 400,000 last year, or that even the slimy frontman for Gates and his friends, Dr Fauci, admits the case mortality rate will be very low. It doesn’t matter because this stopped being about the virus long ago.
Here is essential reading regarding Gates….two pieces. One from Jake Levich and the next from Alison McDowell.
I read in social media how people are so inspired about ‘frontline medical workers’ (you see there is always a new vocabulary, much like with climate and carrying capacity and wet bulbs and 6th mass extinction etc) and yet, in fact, huge numbers of hospitals are closing (likely to never reopen) and those doctors and nurses and now among the growing mass of unemployed in the US.
It seems the American bourgeoisie want to believe this is a dire threat. They want to self isolate. Perhaps this massive quarantine is a time of leisure that they don’t often get. I have no idea, honestly. But I do know for certain the quarantines will kill far more than the virus, in the long term, and that the new mass upticks in surveillance and invasions of privacy won’t ever be rolled back. But the bigger question is in terms of global travel and the Gates agenda (see Fourth Industrial Revolution, smart cities, etc).
What Gates wants is everyone to carry a certificate (or microchip) that indicates if they have had this or that vaccination. This is exactly what your dog has to have when you fly them out of the country.
I am deeply sorry Gibbs did not resist, or maybe actively joined, the agenda of the eugenicists. And as to the lack of mention of the military, well, I honestly don’t know how that is even possible if you claim to be making a documentary about destruction of the planet. The US war machine cuts across ever aspect of human existence today. That is not hyperbole. And yet Gibbs ignored it. I want to defend Gibbs against the corporate attacks against him, but I find it hard. And a final thought on all this.
The white liberal educated class so hate Trump that all rational perspective is lost. Anything that throws shade on Trump is a good thing. And this hatred is being enjoyed far too much; it is as if Trump came along and answered their unconscious prayers for active exercise of a deep soul-crushing hate. It bonds people, a negative bonding to be sure, but that is better than nothing.
The pimps for lockdown seem impervious to the loss of millions of jobs (just today in Norway SAS airlines cut 5000 jobs, and nobody expects them back. Or in Hollywood, as shooting resumes, crews are decimated. Thousands of jobs that likely won’t return). The importance of specific facts in Planet of the Humans are undeniable. I sincerely hope people will watch it, but watch it with an educated critical eye. For Gibbs is in bed with this man.
Two multi-millionaires performing the role of concerned citizens, and confused, confused I tell you, why people don’t want to lose their jobs and ability to feed their families.
Cory Morningstar wrote just the other day:
A new report from the Institute for Policy Studies found that, while tens of millions of Americans have lost their jobs during the #coronavirus pandemic, America’s ultra-wealthy elite have seen their net worth surge by $282 billion in just 23 days.”
There seems an almost class divide actually, for both climate discourse and corona discourse. The working-class fear loss of food and shelter far more than an only moderately lethal virus. They fear the excesses of federal bureaucracies, and the boot-heel of domestic US city police departments, not to mention custodial supervision. The white educated bourgeoisie fear but are also exhilarated by this contagion. As the lockdown began the top viewing film on Netflix that week was Contagion (Soderbergh, 2011).
This is exciting they think, and it allows yet another new vocabulary. So in social media where once one was confronted with endless white guys who were getting to play being scientists and climatologists, now one is running into a constant stream of Epidemiologists, infectious disease specialists and biologists.
I’m going to quote myself here, with apologies, from a recent blog post:
The pandemic is fetishized and much like the climate alarmism associated with Greta and The Guardian paper, there is a curious fetishized and cultic response in much of the population. And it is the latent masochism of the already terrorized. It also feels like a faint cry of Puritan angst, a call to piety. This is a very American sensibility, this punitive moralism.
And I want to quote Paul Haeder, who is a social worker and writer in Oregon. This is a comment he made on his blog (which you should all read) here:
And the underlying message is population control. They great white hope of Michael Moore and I guess Jeff Gibbs is really the underpinning of the flick – and no credence is given to the millions upon millions of people fighting this bastardization of humanity, of life, called Western Capitalism. There are literally hundreds upon hundreds of groups that Gibbs could have put front and center who are local, indigenous, part of the peasant movement, others, who are real forest protectors and water protectors and life protectors.
The for Evidence-Based Medicine (Oxford University) has the infection fatality rate at between 0.1% and 0.36%. That is pretty much what seasonal flu comes in at. Something many of us said a month ago. The comparisons between the climate discourse and the Covid discourse are striking. One might even think there was an agenda here. But such topics are nowhere to be seen in the Gibbs film.
Which is fine, I suppose, if he only had viewed the lies and venality of the boosters for New green capitalism in something like a political frame. His obvious personal disappointment ends up feeling like, again, privilege.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution is one meant to permanently eliminate humans from their work and livelihoods. This is the dream of the 1%. The fact that western capital continues to promote the “we are the enemy” meme should make us suspicious. It does not seem to have made Gibbs suspicious at all.


offguardian--2020-05-03--Death: A Simple Idea with a Powerful Punch

Since death is one idea that has no history except as an idea and not a reality any of us have experienced , it is the most frightening idea there is and also quite simple .
It is the ultimate unknown .
It has always haunted human beings , whether consciously or unconsciously .
It lies at the root of war , violence , religion , art , love , and civilization .
The good and the bad , the beautiful and the ugly , why we like to win and not lose , pass and not fail , “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It is so funny and so sad .
We would be lost without it , even when we feel lost when thinking about it .
And it is fundamental for understanding the action and reaction to Covid-19 .
Societies have always been people banded together in the face of death .
And since people are not just physical beings but symbolic creatures who can think and imagine the past and the future , societies are necessarily mythic symbol systems whose job is not only to protect people physically , but symbolically as well @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is a protection racket with racketeers holding people hostage to fabricated fears that keep them locked in a living-death .
Thus death , this most potent imaginative idea and reality that doesn ’ t exist except as a mystery about which anything we say is speculation , can be used for good and evil , depending on who controls society .
Death is the great fear , the human haunting that hangs by a thread over life like the sword of Damocles .
In 1944 in a newspaper column , George Orwell made @ @ @ @ @ @ @ course , like “ personal immortality ” and all others , such as the recent rise in the belief in atheism , which is as much a belief as belief in God , are , partially at least , relative to time and place , and develop out of social storytelling .
The “ hard facts ” on which many feel their lives and security rest are themselves dependent upon the symbols which give them legitimacy .
Reality is indeed precarious with society suspended by a web of myths and symbols .
It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that society ’ s meaning is transmitted to individuals , and it is within the symbol systems that the control and release of action resides .
In today ’ s electronic mass media world , those who control the mass media that control the narrative flow – the storytelling – control the majority ’ s beliefs and actions .
Since society is held together by this myth system – the beliefs and values people live for and live by – that sustains it , societies have always had to offer symbolic “ answers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ meaningful symbolic for coming to terms with death , human action would be stymied and people would be reduced to what the psychiatrist Allan Wheelis termed “ intense , preoccupying yearning.
” Today we can hear such yearning everywhere .
Shortly after Orwell made his prescient comment in The Tribune , nuclear weapons were developed and used by the United States to kill hundreds of thousands of innocent Japanese civilians .
With those weapons and their use , the ages-old symbolic narrative of life and death was transformed in a flash .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ death is that it radically affects the meaning of death , of immortality , of life itself , ” wrote Hans Morgenthau .
The traditional symbolic sources that once served to allow humans to transcend death were fundamentally undercut , and the search for new modes of death transcendence was carried on beneath the portentous covering of the nuclear umbrella .
A qualitative transformation in the meaning of human existence was thus brought about as humans , who had the weapons , replaced the belief in God as the holder of the power @ @ @ @ @ @ @ war could result in the extinction of human life , leaving no one left to die .
This is our world today , and it is where the Covid-19 story takes place .
A world not just of nuclear fear , but a host of other fears constantly inflamed by the mass media that hypnotize people through the conjuring of death-fear .
In his great work on group psychology , Freud showed us how it was not just mental contagion and the herd instinct that got people to join in group behavior .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ children and obey their leaders because they have “ an extreme passion for authority.
” When leaders speak , the children hear the inner voices of their parents telling them to be careful , be very careful , the bogeyman is everywhere , so listen and obey .
Freud , the Jewish atheist , and Dostoevsky , the Russian Orthodox Christian , were in agreement about people ’ s desire to give up their freedom to authority figures who would allegedly shelter them within their warm embrace .
The easiest way to do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is stalking them , for the bogeyman is always death in one form or another .
It works to get people to support the terrifying sadism of wars against fabricated “ others , ” who are always portrayed as aliens who are out to kill the good people .
It works to get people to give up their freedoms out of fear of “ terrorists , ” who are said to slide and hide in the interstices of everyday life , ready to pounce and kill at any moment .
And it works @ @ @ @ @ @ @ protect themselves from terrifying viruses that are lying in wait everywhere to strike them dead .
In his novel The Brothers Karamazov , Dostoevsky said that people want miracles , mystery , and authority , not freedom .
His Grand Inquisitor , while a fictional creation , lives on in reality .
For the Grand Inquisitor represents those power elites across the world who wish to cower people into accepting their dicta on Covid-19 as truth without questioning its logic or rationale .
To question has become an act of insubordination deserving death @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s name via the term “ conspiracy theorist , ” a name used by the CIA to dismiss anyone questioning its murder of President Kennedy .
Death comes in many forms , and the fear of it has always been used by the powerful to render the common people speechless and obedient .
How can any thinking person , anyone not totally crippled by fear , not question what is going on with the coronavirus disaster when reading what Peter Koenig , a thirty-year veteran economist of the World Bank and World @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The Farce and Diabolical Agenda of a ‘ Universal Lockdown ’ : I ask the question but I am afraid I know the answer : miracle , mystery , and authority usually defeat evidence and simple logic .
Fear of death and free thought scare children .
The Grand Inquisitor lives on :

Edward Curtin
Since death is one idea that has no history except as an idea and not a reality any of us have experienced, it is the most frightening idea there is and also quite simple. It is the ultimate unknown. It has always haunted human beings, whether consciously or unconsciously.
It lies at the root of war, violence, religion, art, love, and civilization. The good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly, why we like to win and not lose, pass and not fail, “pass on” and not die. It is so funny and so sad. We would be lost without it, even when we feel lost when thinking about it. And it is fundamental for understanding the action and reaction to Covid-19.
Societies have always been people banded together in the face of death. And since people are not just physical beings but symbolic creatures who can think and imagine the past and the future, societies are necessarily mythic symbol systems whose job is not only to protect people physically, but symbolically as well.
Sometimes, however, the protection is a protection racket with racketeers holding people hostage to fabricated fears that keep them locked in a living-death.
Thus death, this most potent imaginative idea and reality that doesn’t exist except as a mystery about which anything we say is speculation, can be used for good and evil, depending on who controls society.
Death is the great fear, the human haunting that hangs by a thread over life like the sword of Damocles.
In 1944 in a newspaper column, George Orwell made an astute remark:
There is little doubt that the modern cult of power worship is bound up with the modern man’s feeling that life here and now is the only life there is. If death ends everything, it becomes much harder to believe that you can be in the right even if you are defeated…. I would say that the decay in the belief in personal immortality has been as important as the rise of machine civilization.
Beliefs, of course, like “personal immortality” and all others, such as the recent rise in the belief in atheism, which is as much a belief as belief in God, are, partially at least, relative to time and place, and develop out of social storytelling. The “hard facts” on which many feel their lives and security rest are themselves dependent upon the symbols which give them legitimacy.
Reality is indeed precarious with society suspended by a web of myths and symbols. It is through cultural and social symbol systems that society’s meaning is transmitted to individuals, and it is within the symbol systems that the control and release of action resides.
In today’s electronic mass media world, those who control the mass media that control the narrative flow – the storytelling – control the majority’s beliefs and actions.
Since society is held together by this myth system – the beliefs and values people live for and live by – that sustains it, societies have always had to offer symbolic “answers” to death. For without a meaningful symbolic for coming to terms with death, human action would be stymied and people would be reduced to what the psychiatrist Allan Wheelis termed “intense, preoccupying yearning.”
Today we can hear such yearning everywhere.
Shortly after Orwell made his prescient comment in The Tribune, nuclear weapons were developed and used by the United States to kill hundreds of thousands of innocent Japanese civilians. With those weapons and their use, the ages-old symbolic narrative of life and death was transformed in a flash.
“The significance of the possibility of nuclear death is that it radically affects the meaning of death, of immortality, of life itself,” wrote Hans Morgenthau.
The traditional symbolic sources that once served to allow humans to transcend death were fundamentally undercut, and the search for new modes of death transcendence was carried on beneath the portentous covering of the nuclear umbrella.
A qualitative transformation in the meaning of human existence was thus brought about as humans, who had the weapons, replaced the belief in God as the holder of the power over life and death, since nuclear war could result in the extinction of human life, leaving no one left to die.
This is our world today, and it is where the Covid-19 story takes place. A world not just of nuclear fear, but a host of other fears constantly inflamed by the mass media that hypnotize people through the conjuring of death-fear.
In his great work on group psychology, Freud showed us how it was not just mental contagion and the herd instinct that got people to join in group behavior. People could be induced to become little children and obey their leaders because they have “an extreme passion for authority.”
When leaders speak, the children hear the inner voices of their parents telling them to be careful, be very careful, the bogeyman is everywhere, so listen and obey. Freud, the Jewish atheist, and Dostoevsky, the Russian Orthodox Christian, were in agreement about people’s desire to give up their freedom to authority figures who would allegedly shelter them within their warm embrace.
The easiest way to do this is to convince people that death is stalking them, for the bogeyman is always death in one form or another.
It works to get people to support the terrifying sadism of wars against fabricated “others,” who are always portrayed as aliens who are out to kill the good people.
It works to get people to give up their freedoms out of fear of “terrorists,” who are said to slide and hide in the interstices of everyday life, ready to pounce and kill at any moment.
And it works to get people to obey orders to protect themselves from terrifying viruses that are lying in wait everywhere to strike them dead.
In his novel The Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky said that people want miracles, mystery, and authority, not freedom. His Grand Inquisitor, while a fictional creation, lives on in reality.
For the Grand Inquisitor represents those power elites across the world who wish to cower people into accepting their dicta on Covid-19 as truth without questioning its logic or rationale.
To question has become an act of insubordination deserving death by censorship or the defiling of one’s name via the term “conspiracy theorist,” a name used by the CIA to dismiss anyone questioning its murder of President Kennedy. Death comes in many forms, and the fear of it has always been used by the powerful to render the common people speechless and obedient.
How can any thinking person, anyone not totally crippled by fear, not question what is going on with the coronavirus disaster when reading what Peter Koenig, a thirty-year veteran economist of the World Bank and World Health Organization, writes in his article The Farce and Diabolical Agenda of a ‘Universal Lockdown’:
The pandemic was needed as a pretext to halt and collapse the world economy and the underlying social fabric. There is no coincidence. There were a number of preparatory events, all pointing into the direction of a worldwide monumental historic disaster. It started at least 10 years ago – probably considerably earlier – with the infamous 2010 Rockefeller Report, which painted the first phase of a monstrous Plan, called the “Lock Step” scenario. Among the last preparatory moves for the “pandemic” was Event 201, held in NYC on 18 October 2019. The event was sponsored by the Johns Hopkins Center for Public Health, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) and the World Economic Forum (WEF), the club of the rich and powerful that meets every January in Davos, Switzerland. Participating were a number of pharmaceuticals (vaccine interest groups), as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s of the US and – of China. One of the objectives of Event 201 was a computer simulation of a corona virus pandemic. The simulated virus was called SARS-2-nCoV, or later 2019-nCoV. The simulation results were disastrous, killing 65 million people in 18 months and plunging the stock market by more than 30% — causing untold unemployment and bankruptcies. Precisely the scenario of which we are now living the beginning. The Lock Step scenario foresees a number of ghastly and disturbing events or components of The Plan to be implemented by the so called Agenda ID2020, a Bill Gates creation, fully integrated into the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) – target date for completion – 2030 (also called Agenda 2030, the hidden agenda unknown to most of the UN members), the same target date for completion of the Agenda ID02020.
I ask the question but I am afraid I know the answer: miracle, mystery, and authority usually defeat evidence and simple logic. Fear of death and free thought scare children. The Grand Inquisitor lives on:
But man seeks to bow before that only which is recognized by the greater majority, if not by all his fellow-men, as having a right to be worshipped; whose rights are so unquestionable that men agree unanimously to bow down to it.
Death: A simple idea with such a powerful punch.


offguardian--2020-05-04--This Week in the Guardian #6

This Week in the Guardian #6

This week sees more boosting of censorship , a collection of cognitive dissonance and the return of our old Russian friends .
Every week , on a Sunday , we like to highlight three or four stories that go full-Guardian , but don ’ t require an entire article of refutation .
We encourage reader-participation here , so if you come across something you feel should be included in the next edition either post a link below , or send us an e-mail .
The Guardian has a story covering the campaign from two NGOs to have David Icke thrown @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the article is very long on the various claims made by Icke and the D-list celebrities who agree with censoring the man , it goes into decidedly less detail on who funds the NGOs involved .
It also disregards entirely the potential ethical problems posed by large well-funded institutions campaigning for the censorship of an individual .
And avoids any questioning of the idea of giant tech companies cooperating with the government to decide which opinions are allowed .
This isn ’ t about David Icke , it ’ s about setting a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The Center for Countering Digital Hate and Hope Note Hate are the terrifying face of modern authoritarianism .
Fascism in the name of friendliness and safety .
“ First they came for the conspiracy theorists… ” This is just a nice display of how modern journalism requires an editorial line that totally disregards internal logic .
In this article , Simon Tisdall documents all the ways in which the lockdown-generated economic crash could destroy the lives of people in the third world .
And in this one Polly Toynbee goes into great @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we ’ re about to create…because of the lockdown .
Neither of them argues the lockdown should be ended .
Whilst here , Robert Reich says that Trump ending the lockdown would be terrible and dangerous and kill people , and Lloyd Green blames Trump for surging unemployment in the US , without mentioning the lockdown at all .
You see , ending the Lockdown is bad , because Trump wants to do it .
But also , the lockdown is causing massive unemployment – both here and abroad – which could kill @ @ @ @ @ @ @ famine , and non-Covid diseases .
Keeping the meat-packing plants open is dangerous and irresponsible , but there are fears of panic buying or food shortages if they ’ re closed .
There ’ s no word on the potential deaths caused by starvation and food shortages , which are discussed at length in other articles .
In summary , we ’ re told he lockdown ’ s effect will kill literally 10x more people than the disease has done so far , but if you want to end it you ’ re @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sign that the Covid19 narrative is waning is The Guardian ’ s abandonment of it ’ s happy-clappy Coke-advert approach to globalism , and return to what it does best – vilify Russia based on flimsy evidence and to very little purpose .
Firstly , by repeating the totally unsubstantiated claims that Putin is planning to assassinate the mayor of Prague .
Apparently the motive is the removal of a statue of a Soviet war hero .
At least , according to the “ anonymous sources in Czech intelligence ” , whose assertions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the article .
Secondly , by claiming that the aid Russia delivered Coronavirus aid to Italy was donae partly for “ political purposes ” – to which the response “ No shit Sherlock ” comes to mind .
Maybe The Guardian genuinely thinks that when NATO countries deliver aid they do it out of the kindness of their hearts , anonymously , without even a thought to geo-politics or public relations .
Or maybe they ’ ll say any rubbish they ’ re told to say .
It is interesting that this story @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not a month ago when the aid was delivered .
A sign that narrative cohesion is collapsing ?
Or that some people ( namely Russia ) won ’ t be welcome at the globalist party ?
Or maybe that they plan to abandon the “ we ’ re all in this together ” aspect of the Coronavirus panic ?
Who knows .
It ’ s reassuring to see Russophobic nonsense back on the Guardian ’ s front page though .
The Guardian ’ s opinion section is always a wonderful source of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ coverage totally neglects the arguments against the lockdown and experts dissenting from the “ consensus ” , they DO have plenty of space for one novelist struggling in the lockdown…even though they wrote a book about self-isolation and for a lady to ramble on about she doesn ’ t mind staying inside anymore .
These are real , heartfelt thoughts…and not at all attempts to boost novel sales ( the book is linked to three times ) , or just ego-maniacal pat themselves on the back .
All told , a busy week @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t even cover the murder hornets , or the terrible impact the coronavirus is having on social media influencers .
Did we miss anything ?
Tell us about it in the comments below , and keep an eye out for articles that should go in the next issue .

This week sees more boosting of censorship, a collection of cognitive dissonance and the return of our old Russian friends.
Every week, on a Sunday, we like to highlight three or four stories that go full-Guardian, but don’t require an entire article of refutation.
We encourage reader-participation here, so if you come across something you feel should be included in the next edition either post a link below, or send us an e-mail.
The Guardian has a story covering the campaign from two NGOs to have David Icke thrown off all social media platforms. While the article is very long on the various claims made by Icke and the D-list celebrities who agree with censoring the man, it goes into decidedly less detail on who funds the NGOs involved.
It also disregards entirely the potential ethical problems posed by large well-funded institutions campaigning for the censorship of an individual. And avoids any questioning of the idea of giant tech companies cooperating with the government to decide which opinions are allowed.
This isn’t about David Icke, it’s about setting a precedent – censorship for the public good. The Center for Countering Digital Hate and Hope Note Hate are the terrifying face of modern authoritarianism. Fascism in the name of friendliness and safety.
“First they came for the conspiracy theorists…”
The Lockdown and Doublethink
This is just a nice display of how modern journalism requires an editorial line that totally disregards internal logic.
In this article, Simon Tisdall documents all the ways in which the lockdown-generated economic crash could destroy the lives of people in the third world. And in this one Polly Toynbee goes into great detail about all the unemployed young people we’re about to create…because of the lockdown. Neither of them argues the lockdown should be ended.
Whilst here, Robert Reich says that Trump ending the lockdown would be terrible and dangerous and kill people, and Lloyd Green blames Trump for surging unemployment in the US, without mentioning the lockdown at all.
You see, ending the Lockdown is bad, because Trump wants to do it. But also, the lockdown is causing massive unemployment – both here and abroad – which could kill millions of people thanks to poverty, famine, and non-Covid diseases.
Keeping the meat-packing plants open is dangerous and irresponsible, but there are fears of panic buying or food shortages if they’re closed. There’s no word on the potential deaths caused by starvation and food shortages, which are discussed at length in other articles.
In summary, we’re told he lockdown’s effect will kill literally 10x more people than the disease has done so far, but if you want to end it you’re a pro-Trump anti-science virus-denier.
Mind-boggling.
Russia, Russia, Russia!
Perhaps a sign that the Covid19 narrative is waning is The Guardian’s abandonment of it’s happy-clappy Coke-advert approach to globalism, and return to what it does best – vilify Russia based on flimsy evidence and to very little purpose.
Firstly, by repeating the totally unsubstantiated claims that Putin is planning to assassinate the mayor of Prague. Apparently the motive is the removal of a statue of a Soviet war hero. At least, according to the “anonymous sources in Czech intelligence”, whose assertions (and existence) remain unquestioned throughout the article.
Secondly, by claiming that the coronavirus aidRussia delivered to Italy was done partly for “political purposes” – to which the response “No shit Sherlock” comes to mind.
Maybe The Guardian genuinely thinks that when NATO countries deliver aid they do it out of the kindness of their hearts, anonymously, without even a thought to geo-politics or public relations. Or maybe they’ll say any rubbish they’re told to say.
It is interesting that this story appears this week, though, and not a month ago when the aid was delivered. A sign that narrative cohesion is collapsing? Or that some people (namely Russia) won’t be welcome at the globalist party? Or maybe that they plan to abandon the “we’re all in this together” aspect of the Coronavirus panic?
Who knows. It’s reassuring to see Russophobic nonsense back on the Guardian’s front page though.
BONUS – Navel Gazing World Championships
The Guardian’s opinion section is always a wonderful source of the truly absurdly shallow. While their coronavirus coverage totally neglects the arguments against the lockdown and experts dissenting from the “consensus”, they DO have plenty of space for one novelist struggling in the lockdown…even though they wrote a book about self-isolation and for a lady to ramble on about she doesn’t mind staying inside anymore.
These are real, heartfelt thoughts…and not at all attempts to boost novel sales (the book is linked to three times), or just ego-maniacally pat themselves on the back.
Good for a chuckle.
* * *
All told, a busy week for The Guardian. And we didn’t even cover the murder hornets, or the terrible impact the coronavirus is having on social media influencers.
Did we miss anything? Tell us about it in the comments below, and keep an eye out for articles that should go in the next issue.


offguardian--2020-05-04--WATCH: Perspectives on the Pandemic #6

WATCH: Perspectives on the Pandemic #6

“ The big issue is people suffering…the collateral damage appears more significant than the damage being caused by the actual @ @ @ @ @ Erickson and Dr. Antin Massihi held a press conference on April 22nd about the results @ @ @ @ @ their urgent care facilities around Bakersfield , California , the video , uploaded by a @ @ @ @ @ went viral .
After reaching five million views , YouTube took it down on the @ @ @ @ @ community standards.
” [ You can view it on our BitChute channel here – ed @ @ @ @ @ up with the doctors to determine what was so dangerous about their message .
The @ @ @ @ @ the director of FOUR DIED TRYING , a feature documentary and series on the major @ @ @ @ @ s and their calamitous impact on the country .
To join the struggle for justice @ @ @ @ @ X , and John and Robert Kennedy .
Follow Journeyman Pictures on youtube or visit @ @ @ @ @ their award-winning factual content .

“The big issue is people suffering…the collateral damage appears more significant than the damage being caused by the actual disease.”
When Dr. Dan Erickson and Dr. Antin Massihi held a press conference on April 22nd about the results of testing they conducted at their urgent care facilities around Bakersfield, California, the video, uploaded by a local ABC news affiliate, went viral.
After reaching five million views, YouTube took it down on the grounds that it “violated community standards.” [You can view it on our BitChute channel here – ed.]
Journey Pictures followed up with the doctors to determine what was so dangerous about their message.
The Interviewer: John Kirby is the director of FOUR DIED TRYING, a feature documentary and series on the major assassinations of the 1960’s and their calamitous impact on the country. To join the struggle for justice for Dr. King, Malcolm X, and John and Robert Kennedy.
Follow Journeyman Pictures on youtube or visit their website for more of their award-winning factual content.


offguardian--2020-05-05--Virus of Mass Destruction

Virus of Mass Destruction

There comes a point in the introduction of every new official narrative when people no longer remember how it started .
Or , rather , they remember how it started , but not the propaganda that started it .
Or , rather , they remember all that ( or are able to , if you press them on it ) , but it doesn ’ t make any difference anymore , because the official narrative has supplanted reality .
You ’ ll remember this point from the War on Terror , and specifically the occupation of Iraq .
By the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had completely forgotten the propaganda that launched the invasion , and thus regarded the Iraqi resistance as “ terrorists , ” despite the fact that the United States had invaded and was occupying their country for no legitimate reason whatsoever .
By that time , it was abundantly clear that there were no “ weapons of mass destruction , ” and that the U.S.A. had invaded a nation that had not attacked it , and posed no threat to it , and so was perpetrating a textbook war of aggression .
These facts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ slightest .
By that time , Westerners were totally immersed in the official War on Terror narrative , which had superseded objective reality .
Herd mentality had taken over .
It ’ s difficult to describe how this works ; it ’ s a state of functional dissociation .
It wasn ’ t that people didn ’ t know the facts , or that they didn ’ t understand the facts .
They knew the Iraqis weren ’ t “ terrorists.
” At the same time , they knew they were definitely “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they knew that they weren ’ t .
They knew there were no WMDs , that there had never been any WMDs , and still they were certain there were WMDs , which would be found , although they clearly did not exist .
The same thing happened in Nazi Germany .
The majority of the German people were never fanatical anti-Semites like the hardcore N.S.D.A.P .
members .
If they had been , there would have been no need for Goebbels and his monstrous propaganda machine .
No , the Germans during @ @ @ @ @ @ @ during the War on Terror , knew that their victims posed no threat to them , and at the same time they believed exactly the opposite , and thus did not protest as their neighbors were hauled out of their homes and sent off to death camps , camps which , in their dissociative state , simultaneously did and did not exist .
What I ’ m describing probably sounds like psychosis , but , technically speaking , it isn ’ t … not quite .
It is not an absolute break from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ know that what they believe is not real .
Nonetheless , they are forced to believe it ( and do , actually , literally , believe it , as impossible as I know that sounds ) , because the consequences of not believing it are even more frightening than the cognitive dissonance of believing a narrative they know is a fiction .
Disbelieving the official narrative means excommunication from “ normality , ” the loss of friends , income , status , and in many cases far worse punishments .
Herd animals , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ run towards the center of the herd .
Separation from the herd makes them easy prey for pursuing predators .
It is the same primal instinct operating here .
It is the goal of every official narrative to generate this type of herd mentality , not in order to deceive or dupe the public , but , rather , to confuse and terrorize them to the point where they revert to their primal instincts , and are being driven purely by existential fear , and facts and truth no longer matter .
Once @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it is unassailable by facts and reason .
It no longer needs facts to justify it .
It justifies itself with its own existence .
Reason can not penetrate it .
Arguing with its adherents is pointless .
They know it is irrational .
They simply do not care .
We are reaching this point with the coronavirus narrative .
It is possible that we have already reached it .
Despite the fact that what we are dealing with is a virus that , yes , is clearly deadly to the old and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is just as clearly not a deadly threat to the majority of the human species , people are cowering inside their homes as if the Zombie Apocalpyse had finally begun .
Many appear to believe that this virus is some sort of Alien-Terrorist Death Flu ( or weaponized Virus of Mass Destruction ) that will kill you the second you breathe it in .
This is not surprising at all , because , according to the official narrative , its destructive powers are nearly unlimited .
Not only will it obliterate your lungs @ @ @ @ @ @ @ organs , and kill you with blood clots , and intestinal damage , now it causes “ sudden strokes in young adults , ” and possibly spontaneous prostate cancer , and God knows what other medical horrors !
According to all the “ scientists ” and “ medical experts ” ( i.e.
, those that conform to the official narrative , not all the other scientists and medical experts ) , it is unlike any other virus that has ever existed in the history of viruses .
It certainly doesn ’ t follow @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a limited period , and then rapidly dying down on its own , regardless of what measures are taken to thwart it , as this Israeli study would seem to indicate .
Also , “ we have no immunity against it , ” which is why we all have to remain “ locked down ” like unruly inmates in a penitentiary until a vaccine can be concocted and forced onto every living person on earth .
Apparently , this mandatory wonder vaccine will magically render us immune to this virus against which we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unable to develop immunity ) , which immunity will be certified on our mandatory “ immunity papers , ” which we will need to travel , get a job , send our kids to school , and , you know , to show the police when they stop us on the street because we look like maybe we might be “ infected.
” Germany ( where I live ) is way out in front of this .
According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung , the federal government plans to introduce a coronavirus “ immunity @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Infection Protection Law , ” which will grant the authorities the power to round up anyone “ suspected to be contagious ” and force them into … uh … “ quarantine , ” and “ forbid them from entering certain public places.
” The Malaysian authorities have dispensed with such niceties , and are arresting migrant workers and refugees in so-called “ Covid-19 red zones ” and marching them off to God knows where .
Oh , yeah , and I almost forgot … the germ and chemical warfare researchers at DARPA ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency ) have developed some new type of fancy blood test that will identify “ asymptomatic carriers ” ( i.e.
, people who display no symptoms whatsoever ) .
So that will probably come in handy … especially if the “ white supremacists , ” “ Red-Brown extremists , ” and “ conspiracy theorists ” keep protesting the lockdown with their wives and kids !
And these are just the latest additions to a list of rather dystopian examples of the “ brave new normal ” official narrative that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ our very eyes ( which the OffGuardian editors have streamlined here and here , and which continues on Twitter ) .
It ’ s all right there in black and white .
They aren ’ t hiding the totalitarianism … they don ’ t have to .
Because people are begging for it .
They are demanding to be “ locked down ” inside their homes , forced to wear masks , and stand two meters apart , for reasons that most of them no longer remember .
Plastic barriers are going up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you which way to walk .
Boxes show you where to stand .
Paranoid Blockwarts are putting up signs threatening anyone not wearing a mask .
Hysterical little fascist creeps are reporting their neighbors to the police for letting their children play with other children .
Millions of people are voluntarily downloading “ contact tracing applications ” so that governments and global corporations can monitor their every movement .
In Spain , they bleached an entire beach , killing everything , down to the insects , in order to protect the public from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an Orwellian chorus of shrieking , sanctimonious voices bullying everyone into conformity with charts , graphs , and desperate guilt-trips , few of which have much connection to reality .
Corporations and governments are censoring dissent .
We ’ re approaching a level of manufactured mass hysteria and herd mentality that not even Goebbels could have imagined .
Meanwhile , they ’ re striking the mostly empty “ field hospitals , ” and the theatrical “ hospital ship ” is now gone , and despite their attempts to inflate the Covid-19 death count @ @ @ @ @ @ @ projected hundreds of millions of deaths have not materialized ( not even close ) , and Sweden is fine , as is most of humanity , and … just like there were no WMDs , there is no Virus of Mass Destruction .
What there is , is a new official narrative , the brave new , paranoid , pathologized “ normal.
” Like the War on Terror , it ’ s a global narrative .
A global , post-ideological narrative .
It ’ s just getting started , so it isn ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will get , but , given the nature of the pilot episode , I am kind of dreading the rest of the series .
CJ Hopkins is an award-winning American playwright , novelist and political satirist based in Berlin .
His plays are published by Bloomsbury Publishing and Broadway Play Publishing , Inc. His dystopian novel , Zone 23 , is published by Snoggsworthy , Swaine & Cormorant .
Volume I of his Consent Factory Essays is published by Consent Factory Publishing , a wholly-owned subsidiary of Amalgamated Content , Inc .
He @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .

CJ Hopkins
There comes a point in the introduction of every new official narrative when people no longer remember how it started.
Or, rather, they remember how it started, but not the propaganda that started it.
Or, rather, they remember all that (or are able to, if you press them on it), but it doesn’t make any difference anymore, because the official narrative has supplanted reality.
You’ll remember this point from the War on Terror, and specifically the occupation of Iraq. By the latter half of 2004, most Westerners had completely forgotten the propaganda that launched the invasion, and thus regarded the Iraqi resistance as “terrorists,” despite the fact that the United States had invaded and was occupying their country for no legitimate reason whatsoever.
By that time, it was abundantly clear that there were no “weapons of mass destruction,” and that the U.S.A. had invaded a nation that had not attacked it, and posed no threat to it, and so was perpetrating a textbook war of aggression.
These facts did not matter, not in the slightest. By that time, Westerners were totally immersed in the official War on Terror narrative, which had superseded objective reality. Herd mentality had taken over. It’s difficult to describe how this works; it’s a state of functional dissociation. It wasn’t that people didn’t know the facts, or that they didn’t understand the facts.
They knew the Iraqis weren’t “terrorists.” At the same time, they knew they were definitely “terrorists,” despite the fact that they knew that they weren’t.
They knew there were no WMDs, that there had never been any WMDs, and still they were certain there were WMDs, which would be found, although they clearly did not exist.
The same thing happened in Nazi Germany.
The majority of the German people were never fanatical anti-Semites like the hardcore N.S.D.A.P. members. If they had been, there would have been no need for Goebbels and his monstrous propaganda machine.
No, the Germans during the Nazi period, like the Americans during the War on Terror, knew that their victims posed no threat to them, and at the same time they believed exactly the opposite, and thus did not protest as their neighbors were hauled out of their homes and sent off to death camps, camps which, in their dissociative state, simultaneously did and did not exist.
What I’m describing probably sounds like psychosis, but, technically speaking, it isn’t … not quite. It is not an absolute break from reality. People functioning in this state know that what they believe is not real.
Nonetheless, they are forced to believe it (and do, actually, literally, believe it, as impossible as I know that sounds), because the consequences of not believing it are even more frightening than the cognitive dissonance of believing a narrative they know is a fiction.
Disbelieving the official narrative means excommunication from “normality,” the loss of friends, income, status, and in many cases far worse punishments.
Herd animals, in a state of panic, instinctively run towards the center of the herd. Separation from the herd makes them easy prey for pursuing predators. It is the same primal instinct operating here.
It is the goal of every official narrative to generate this type of herd mentality, not in order to deceive or dupe the public, but, rather, to confuse and terrorize them to the point where they revert to their primal instincts, and are being driven purely by existential fear, and facts and truth no longer matter.
Once an official narrative reaches this point, it is unassailable by facts and reason. It no longer needs facts to justify it. It justifies itself with its own existence. Reason cannot penetrate it. Arguing with its adherents is pointless. They know it is irrational. They simply do not care.
We are reaching this point with the coronavirus narrative. It is possible that we have already reached it. Despite the fact that what we are dealing with is a virus that, yes, is clearly deadly to the old and those with medical conditions, but that is just as clearly not a deadly threat to the majority of the human species, people are cowering inside their homes as if the Zombie Apocalpyse had finally begun.
Many appear to believe that this virus is some sort of Alien-Terrorist Death Flu (or weaponized Virus of Mass Destruction) that will kill you the second you breathe it in.
This is not surprising at all, because, according to the official narrative, its destructive powers are nearly unlimited. Not only will it obliterate your lungs, and liquidate all your other major organs, and kill you with blood clots, and intestinal damage, now it causes “sudden strokes in young adults,” and possibly spontaneous prostate cancer, and God knows what other medical horrors!
According to all the “scientists” and “medical experts” (i.e., those that conform to the official narrative, not all the other scientists and medical experts), it is unlike any other virus that has ever existed in the history of viruses.
It certainly doesn’t follow the typical pattern of spreading extensively for a limited period, and then rapidly dying down on its own, regardless of what measures are taken to thwart it, as this Israeli study would seem to indicate.
Also, “we have no immunity against it,” which is why we all have to remain “locked down” like unruly inmates in a penitentiary until a vaccine can be concocted and forced onto every living person on earth.
Apparently, this mandatory wonder vaccine will magically render us immune to this virus against which we have no immunity (and are totally unable to develop immunity), which immunity will be certified on our mandatory “immunity papers,” which we will need to travel, get a job, send our kids to school, and, you know, to show the police when they stop us on the street because we look like maybe we might be “infected.”
Germany (where I live) is way out in front of this. According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the federal government plans to introduce a coronavirus “immunity card” as part of its “Infection Protection Law,” which will grant the authorities the power to round up anyone “suspected to be contagious” and force them into … uh … “quarantine,” and “forbid them from entering certain public places.”
The Malaysian authorities have dispensed with such niceties, and are arresting migrant workers and refugees in so-called “Covid-19 red zones” and marching them off to God knows where.
Oh, yeah, and I almost forgot … the germ and chemical warfare researchers at DARPA (i.e., the U.S. military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) have developed some new type of fancy blood test that will identify “asymptomatic carriers” (i.e., people who display no symptoms whatsoever).
So that will probably come in handy … especially if the “white supremacists,” “Red-Brown extremists,” and “conspiracy theorists” keep protesting the lockdown with their wives and kids!
And these are just the latest additions to a list of rather dystopian examples of the “brave new normal” official narrative that GloboCap is rolling out, right before our very eyes (which the OffGuardian editors have streamlined here and here, and which continues on Twitter). It’s all right there in black and white.
They aren’t hiding the totalitarianism … they don’t have to. Because people are begging for it. They are demanding to be “locked down” inside their homes, forced to wear masks, and stand two meters apart, for reasons that most of them no longer remember.
Plastic barriers are going up everywhere. Arrows on the floor show you which way to walk. Boxes show you where to stand. Paranoid Blockwarts are putting up signs threatening anyone not wearing a mask.
Hysterical little fascist creeps are reporting their neighbors to the police for letting their children play with other children. Millions of people are voluntarily downloading “contact tracing applications” so that governments and global corporations can monitor their every movement.
In Spain, they bleached an entire beach, killing everything, down to the insects, in order to protect the public from “infection.”
The Internet has become an Orwellian chorus of shrieking, sanctimonious voices bullying everyone into conformity with charts, graphs, and desperate guilt-trips, few of which have much connection to reality. Corporations and governments are censoring dissent. We’re approaching a level of manufactured mass hysteria and herd mentality that not even Goebbels could have imagined.
Meanwhile, they’re striking the mostly empty “field hospitals,” and the theatrical “hospital ship” is now gone, and despite their attempts to inflate the Covid-19 death count as much as humanly possible, the projected hundreds of millions of deaths have not materialized (not even close), and Sweden is fine, as is most of humanity, and … just like there were no WMDs, there is no Virus of Mass Destruction.
What there is, is a new official narrative, the brave new, paranoid, pathologized “normal.” Like the War on Terror, it’s a global narrative. A global, post-ideological narrative.
It’s just getting started, so it isn’t yet clear how totalitarian this show will get, but, given the nature of the pilot episode, I am kind of dreading the rest of the series.
CJ Hopkins is an award-winning American playwright, novelist and political satirist based in Berlin. His plays are published by Bloomsbury Publishing and Broadway Play Publishing, Inc. His dystopian novel, Zone 23, is published by Snoggsworthy, Swaine & Cormorant. Volume I of his Consent Factory Essays is published by Consent Factory Publishing, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Amalgamated Content, Inc. He can be reached at cjhopkins.com or consentfactory.org.