Hamas wants Israel wiped from the map
MIDDLE EAST - “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” So goes the catch-cry chanted by anti-Israel demonstrators around the globe over the past 10 days. Let there be no doubt about what these words mean to the people who coined them. They do not represent a call by everyday Palestinians against what they view as unjust policies of Israel. Nor is it an appeal for a Palestinian homeland to be established as part of a two-state settlement.
The slogan is an aspirational bid for the state of Israel to be wiped off the map of the world. To quote from the original Hamas charter: “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it just as it obliterated others before it… The day of judgment will not come until Muslims fight the Jews and kill them.”
Yet this and other dangerously loaded language is not being voiced solely by radicals or extremists. It has become a regular feature of mainstream political debate in Western societies. From journalists in major media organisations, trade unions, acclaimed intellectuals in universities, in the halls of the United Nations and, more disturbing still, from elected members of parliaments across the Western world.
Major US Cities Devolve Into Lawless Wastelands
USA - Our cities are filled with extreme violence, and the blood of the innocent flows in our streets, and yet most Americans still seem to be in denial about what is happening. This isn’t just a momentary spike in violent crime that we are witnessing. The increase in violent crime that we experienced in 2020 was unprecedented, and things have been even worse in 2021. If you are not familiar with those numbers, here is a reminder…
Police and public reported data details that from January through March of 2021, the homicide rate rose by 28% from the same period last year in 20 major cities across the country. Homicides had already previously risen by 30% in 2020. Everyone should be able to agree that we are very rapidly going in the wrong direction.
On the west coast, authorities are facing other sorts of problems. The number of people that died from drug overdoses in San Francisco was twice as high as the number of people that died from COVID last year, and addicts continue to litter the streets with thousands upon thousands of used drug needles. Street crime is completely out of control as addicts endlessly search for money for their next hits, but city politicians keep insisting that they can handle this crisis.
Crime is on the rise from coast to coast, but before I end this article I would like to discuss one more type of violence that we have seen in recent days that is especially chilling. Israel’s conflict with Hamas sparked a huge wave of anti-Jewish attacks, and many of these incidents made international news… There is so much hatred for Jewish people out there right now, and the recent military conflict in the Middle East brought much of it to the surface. Sadly, the level of hatred is likely to go even higher as our society comes apart at the seams in the months and years ahead.
Debt Is A “Financial Weapon”
USA - A close look at the reasons for lending in specific cases highlights the unfairness of the system. It has been estimated that from 1960-1987, developing countries borrowed $400 billion to spend on weapons. Much of Iraq’s debt was due to money lent to finance Saddam Hussein’s war with Iran in the 1980s. We saw in earlier posts that most money spent on weapons by the poorest countries comes straight back to much richer countries, lining the pockets of shareholders and executives of weapons companies.
The Indonesian dictator, Suharto, received loans for tanks and warplanes that were used to slaughter hundreds of thousands of people. The Indonesian people are expected to repay those loans. The same is true of many countries that used to be run by dictators. Britain and the US helped to keep these dictators in power, against the wishes of their people, yet the people are still expected to repay their dictators’ debts.
Most people think of loans as having two parts, the capital and the interest. In the international world there is a third part – the conditions that come with the loan. This is arguably the most important part. Countries that want to borrow can be more easily persuaded to follow the guidance of advisors from rich countries, to privatise their industries, and to open up their markets for further exploitation by big corporations.
In order to qualify to have the debts written off, countries have to implement these same policies. The manipulation of these debts is a means of helping rich countries and their corporations take control of resources and trade in poor countries. Many of these countries have effectively been conquered economically. The interests of banks and investors are considered more important than the lives and health of billions of people.
Microsoft president: Orwell’s 1984 could happen in 2024
USA - Life as depicted in George Orwell’s 1984 “could come to pass in 2024” if lawmakers don’t protect the public against artificial intelligence, Microsoft’s president has warned. Speaking to BBC's Panorama, Brad Smith said it will be "difficult to catch up” with the rapidly advancing technology. The programme explores China’s increasing use of AI to monitor its citizens. Critics fear the state's dominance in the area could threaten democracy. “I’m constantly reminded of George Orwell’s lessons in his book 1984. You know the fundamental story …was about a government who could see everything that everyone did and hear everything that everyone said all the time. Well, that didn’t come to pass in 1984, but if we’re not careful that could come to pass in 2024.” In certain parts of the world, reality is increasingly catching up with that view of science fiction, he added.
US Congressman Seeks Full Audit of America’s Gold Reserves
USA - America’s gold reserves would be audited for the first time in more than 60 years if a measure introduced yesterday by US Representative Alex Mooney (Republican for West Virginia) becomes law. The Gold Reserve Transparency Act of 2021 – HR 3526 – backed by the Sound Money Defense League, Money Metals Exchange, and free-market activists – calls for the first true audit of United States gold reserves since the Eisenhower administration.
“Given the dramatic levels of debt-financed spending by the federal government and the potential this could trigger an inflationary nightmare, ensuring America’s gold reserves are both secure and fully accounted for has never been more important,” wrote Representative Mooney in a recent letter to his congressional colleagues about HR 3526. “At the same time, Russia and China are presently accumulating physical gold at a rate that experts believe could soon threaten the financial dominance of the United States and, by extension, our national security,” Mooney continued.
Meanwhile, there is evidence the US Treasury may have sold, swapped, leased, or otherwise placed encumbrances upon some of America’s gold over time. However, federal government officials have strongly resisted disclosure of these activities for decades. “People are rightly concerned about the state of America’s gold holdings,” said JP Cortez, policy director at the Sound Money Defense League. “The lack of transparency by the Federal Government has hobbled public confidence. The Gold Reserve Transparency Act will ensure our gold reserves are accounted for.”
America can successfully defend Taiwan – but only in its dreams
USA - The US military has deteriorated to the point that the only way it could win a simulated war game in which it was called on to defend Taiwan from a ‘Chinese invasion’ force was by inventing capabilities it does not yet possess. In 2018 and 2019, the US Air Force conducted detailed simulated war games that had its forces square off against those of China. On both occasions, the US was decisively defeated, the first time challenging the Chinese in the South China Sea, and the second time defending Taiwan – which China sees as an integral part of its territory – against a Chinese invasion. In 2020, the US repeated the Taiwan scenario, and won – but only barely. The difference? In both 2018 and 2019, it played with the resources it had on hand. Last year, it gave itself a host of new technologies and capabilities that are either not in production or aren’t even planned for development. In short, the exercise was as far removed from reality as it could get. The fact is the US can only successfully defend Taiwan from a full-scale Chinese invasion in its dreams.
Warnings Of A Dramatic Inflationary Collapse Just Keep Getting Louder
USA - Signs of impending economic doom continue to grow all around us. For years, highly respected experts have been warning about the steady destruction of our standard of living and the death of the US dollar. Perhaps you didn’t listen to those voices at first, and that is understandable. Most Americans have their hands full making a living and taking care of their families. But then housing prices started to go absolutely nuts, health costs continued to spiral out of control and a trip to the grocery store just kept getting more painful. At this point, nobody can honestly deny that inflation has become a major problem.
But even though the chorus of voices that is warning of a dramatic inflationary collapse is growing by the day, the Federal Reserve just keeps pumping more giant piles of money into the financial system, and the federal government continues to engage in the most reckless spending binge in the entirety of US history. They had hoped to create an “economic boom”, but instead they are setting the stage for an implosion of epic proportions. In fact, John Williams of shadowstats.com insists that we are “eventually headed into a hyperinflationary economic collapse”…
Despite the utterly insane policies of our “leaders”, the US economy continues to languish in economic purgatory. Trillions upon trillions of dollars have been poured into the economy, and yet the US still has 8.2 million fewer jobs than it did last February. If you wish to reject what these experts are telling us, can you point to another time in history when officials have wildly created new money and everything has turned out just great?
New Nazi documentary ‘Final Account’
GERMANY - Luke Holland’s film, which chronicles the complicity of ordinary Germans in the crimes of the Third Reich, is a reminder that it’s easy to label our enemies as Nazis…but the true search for evil should begin in the mirror. ‘Final Account’ is a collection of interviews with elderly, ordinary Germans recounting their experiences of life under the collective madness of the Nazi regime and their connection to, or complicity with, the Holocaust. The film opens with a quote from Primo Levi. “Monsters exist, but they are too few in number to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are the common men, the functionaries ready to believe and to act without asking questions.”
The most compelling subject in the film is Hans Werk, a former member of the Waffen SS. Werk is at times elusive and at times defensive, but he evolves over a series of interviews. The most electrifying moment in the entire film is when Werk goes to the site of the Wannsee Conference, where Nazi leadership made official the Final Solution policy, to speak to a group of college students about his guilt.
After saying he is ashamed of what he did as a member of the SS, these students push back. At first it seems they’re resistant because they think he’s lying about his contrition, then it becomes clear they’re actually angry with him for his shame. They call him a traitor for being ashamed of being German, and having fought for Germany.
This scene is compelling because it’s the only time the veneer of control recedes and the beast comes to the surface baring its teeth. Werk is shaken by the young men confronting him, and his horror at the realization that the disease of Nazism has passed to a new generation is readily apparent on his face as he pleads with them to “don’t let yourself be blinded.” Werk’s warning fell on deaf ears in that room, and across the globe as well. The Nazi disease, or as my Jungian therapist friend describes it – the “not-see” disease – is back in our collective psyche with a vengeance.
Rise of Islamophobia in the West
TURKEY - Fueled by Washington’s anti-Muslim attitude after 9/11, Islamophobia is “spreading like cancer” in the West, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has claimed, adding that those who used to target Jews have now turned on Muslims. “The US administration’s strategy to demonize Muslims post-9/11 has served as a means to further trigger anti-Muslim sentiment that already existed in the cultural structure of many Western societies,” Erdogan said in a speech at the International Symposium on Media and Islamophobia in Ankara on Tuesday. The rise of anti-Muslim sentiment has become a serious problem due to the inaction of governments in the EU and the US to challenge it, Erdogan added. Now, right-wing groups which were long considered marginal, have instead become mainstream political forces in many European countries, and those who used to target the Jewish community have turned against Muslims.
Australia's unrelenting mouse plague
AUSTRALIA - Australia's out-of-control mouse plague could last for up to two years if urgent action is not taken to kill millions of the rodents, a farmer's association has warned. Xavier Martin, the vice president of NSW Farmers, said growers are now abandoning paddocks to the mouse hoard, fearing that crops sown there over the winter will be devoured before they can be harvested. 'Without a concerted baiting effort in the next few weeks, this could easily turn into a two-year plague event,' Mr Martin warned as the government revealed it is ready to hand out one of the world's deadliest poisons for free, as soon as states approve it. The chemical - bromadiolone, an anti-coagulant which causes animals to bleed to death - is controversial because of effects it could have on the wider environment.
Kellogg’s Makes Gay Cereal For Children
USA - Turning childhood favorite toys gay is all the rage, so why not make a gay cereal for children? The answer is because it’s gay cereal for children but in this woke environment it’s never too early to indoctrinate kids in the ways of sodomy and homosexuality. Kellogg’s has taken a leadership roll in this plan to swishify the nation’s children by releasing a gay-themed breakfast cereal.
PR Newswire reports:“Limited-edition Together With Pride cereal hits shelves across the country today, marking the latest collaboration between Kellogg Company and GLAAD. LGBTQ+ icons and friends of GLAAD will start their day with the new cereal to celebrate that no matter who you are or who you love, you are too awesome to fit into a (cereal) box. Fans can get involved by joining the #BoxesAreForCerealChallenge via TikTok and for every box purchased and by uploading your receipt, Kellogg will donate $3* (up to $140,000) to support GLAAD’s efforts in accelerating acceptance and advancing equality for the LGBTQ+ community.”
Not everything has to be gay, woke, or socially conscious, in fact most things shouldn’t be. What exactly is the point of making a gay children’s cereal other than to force indoctrination into the gay lifestyle? I think I just answered my own question.
Alaska’s Great Sitkin volcano erupts
USA - The Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) and the US Geological Survey (USGS) have issued a ‘red warning’ to aviation as the Great Sitkin volcano erupts, spewing an ash plume to 15,000ft (4,600m). In a statement on Wednesday morning, the USGS said volcanic activity on Great Sitkin Island had been confirmed by geophysical data. It had issued a joint ‘red warning’ to aviation with the AVO after observations suggested the ash plume was as high as 15,000ft (4,600m). Great Sitkin is one of the Aleutian Islands, most of which belong to the US state of Alaska, while some belong to the Russian federal subject of Kamchatka Krai.
DR Congo activates evacuation plan for Goma
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO - The Democratic Republic of Congo has initiated evacuation measures in the eastern city of Goma, which sits dangerously close to the erupting Mount Nyiragongo. The flowing lava has been destroying roads and houses on its path. “The evacuation plan for the city of Goma has been activated,” Communications Minister Patrick Muyaya announced on Saturday as red-hot lava was making its way towards the eastern city of 670,000. The volcano, which is located around 10km (6 miles) north of Goma, started to erupt at around 7pm local time on Saturday.
Could America defend Taiwan from China?
USA - In a debate over Taiwan, experts differed over whether the US should pursue a policy built around defending the island nation from China. What was not debated was the current viability of that option, which is zero. What emerged from the debate, once the smoke of the hyperbole cleared, was that the world was entering a new phase of history, where the once-uncontested domination of the Pacific by the US was no longer a reality.
The emergence of China (not Taiwan) as a peer-level competitor-cum-adversary of the US, not only in the Pacific but globally (at least economically), brings with it certain inevitabilities, among which is that Taiwan will eventually fall under the political sway of mainland China. Reading between the lines of the debate, it became clear that for the precise reason that Taiwan was so militarily indefensible, the likelihood of a military solution to the issue of Chinese reunification declined over time.
Simply being prepared to militarily occupy Taiwan allows China to leverage this probability into a non-violent outcome, where a naturally receding US gives way to an increasingly assertive China, forcing Taiwan to succumb to the inevitability of its political subordination to Beijing.
State Department Agreed to Contentious Bomb Sale to Israel
USA - Today, the Biden administration committed more than $5 million to rebuilding Gaza after Israeli bombing left swathes of the territory in ruins, with medical facilities, homes, and roads destroyed or damaged by the aerial attack that killed at least 248 people this month. But even as the administration takes steps to aid Gaza, its State Department has approved a $735-million sale of bombs to Israel, bypassing congressional opposition.
On May 21st, according to a congressional staffer, the department granted Boeing an export license for the sale of Joint Direct Attack Munitions and Small Diameter Bombs — two kinds of laser-guided munitions that were reportedly used by Israel in the 11-day attack on the Gaza Strip that ended on Friday with a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Together, these two developments — the commitment of humanitarian aid and the ongoing sale of weapons — suggest that the Biden administration’s policy on Israel/Palestine will depart little from that of previous Democratic administrations.
“Support or oppose the sale, everyone should be concerned about the complete lack of congressional oversight involved here,” Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib told Jewish Currents. “The State Department should immediately revoke approval for this arms sale to, at minimum, allow for proper debate in Congress. Remember that these are weapons of war and destruction that will be used to kill children, bomb hospitals, homes, and schools — lives literally hang in the balance.”
Disclaimer:
The views expressed in this section are not our own, unless specifically stated, but are provided to highlight what may prove to be prophetically relevant material appearing in the media.
