COVID-19 in China

Chinese President Xi Jinping has given no indication that the upcoming 20th party congress will herald a shift in pandemic strategy and eradicating COVID is still the paramount goal. This despite the fact, that politicians and experts all around the world warn of the risks to economic growth and social cohesion. 

Such warnings may not be well meant advise but the attempt to divert from the failings of health policies in other countries based on herd immunity, on vaccination and nothing else, and on the hypothesis of “living with COVID.”

Cases in China unfortunately are rising again, new Omicron variants have entered the country, and Shanghai is seeing more targeted lockdowns. Official media nevertheless are making clear that dynamic zero-Covid is the correct policy and is not going away.

On October 9 Chinese authorities reported 373 locally transmitted confirmed COVID-19 cases, including 119 in Inner Mongolia and 70 in Xinjiang. In addition to that a total of 1,566 local asymptomatic carriers were identified.

In Shanghai a rise of cases has seen neighborhoods locked down and buildings barricaded with the green fences that were a feature of the financial hub’s extended shutdown earlier this year. The districts of Putuo and Changning have shut entertainment venues, while some places in Minhang have been designated as “medium risk”, meaning residents are restricted from leaving their compounds.

Anyone traveling to Shanghai will need a negative Covid result within 24 hours of arriving in the city and will have to do three tests in three days, officials said at a briefing on Monday.

The northern city of Hohhot is battling the country’s first outbreak of the new Omicron subvariant BF.7, while the new Omicron subvariant BA.5.1.7 has been identified in  Guangdong Province. Both variants ares thought to be more transmissible and better able to evade the immune system.

Commentators in other countries and also inside China insist that insistence on dynamic zero-COVID is too costly and a more passive approached should be pursued to achieve coexistence with the virus. But the Omicron virus variant is by no means just a “severe flu,” and its spread is fast. For vulnerable groups, especially the elderly with underlying diseases, the severity and fatality rates are still high. 

A massive new UK NHS study found that after a COVID infection there are huge increases in blood clots that cause heart attacks, strokes, and other severe clotting events.

There is also the danger of long-time sequela like chronic fatigue, irregular heart rhythms, and mental health problems (like brain fog). In nations where nearly everyone has been infected with COVID, the aggregate impact of these nearly ubiquitous longtime ailments will reduce productivity, impede innovation and technological progress, and jeopardize the harmonious functioning of society.

The economic costs of COVID

From June to August, business activities were recovering at an accelerating pace from the last round of COVID outbreaks, so production and demand expanded quickly. But in September, COVID outbreaks emerged in many areas and containment measures were tightened, impacting both services supply and demand.

Travelers in China made 422 million trips during the National Day holiday between Oct. 1 and 7, down 18 percent from a year earlier and 39 percent lower than in 2019.

Tourism revenues diminished by an even larger margin, dropping 26 percent from last year to the equivalent of about 40 billion US$ during the holiday, which is typically one of the busiest travel seasons of the year. Tourism spending was less than half of the level in 2019.

Handwringing economic experts may warn about reduced GDP growth or maybe even an economic contraction, but while profits of big companies will be reduced, nobody, even the ones at the very bottom of society, will starve. Furthermore: Diminished consumer spending and tourism will certainly reduce industrial emissions and other negative ecological impacts. 

China is different

After two and a half years of zero-tolerance policies, Beijing has created a situation in which a very high percentage of its population has never been exposed to the virus. According to official figures, China thus far has accumulated 996,000 infections. Even taking into account the potential problem of underreporting — which is not a major concern in view of China’s centralized PCR testing system — this figure shows that only a very small fraction of its population has been infected and therefore carries some natural immunity. In fact, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) itself has acknowledged what it calls, “China’s nearly unique situation of having only vaccine-induced immunity.”

If China holds firm on its zero-COVID strategy, it will have a population of 1.4 billion people, mostly not impeded by long-COVID and in average healthier than the populations of all rival nations.

This will have a decisive geopolitical impact.

Comments and analyses October 2022

The Crimean (Kerch) Bridge, an important logistic line between Crimea and the Russian mainland, was just damaged as a result of a suicide truck bomb terrorist attack, causing the temporary suspension of traffic and railway services. 

The truck was blown up on the motorway section of the Crimean Bridge from the Taman Peninsula, which caused seven fuel tanks of a train traveling to the Crimean peninsula to go up in flames. Two motorway sections of the bridge have partially collapsed, but the arch over the land part of the bridge has not been damaged.

A ferry crossing in Crimea is always ready for launch and will immediately start working. As far as it is known, three people, passengers of a car, which was near the exploded truck, died.

The movement of vehicles over the Crimean Bridge has in the meantime resumed and it is open for cars and buses with full inspection procedure.

The Russian criminal investigation has already determined the identity of the driver of the exploded truck; they don’t tell names yet, but are studying his documents. They say he was a resident of the Krasnodar Krai of the Russian Federation. The big question on everybody’s mind: did he know there was a bomb in his truck, and that it was going to explode?

As for the mechanism, what we know so far seems to indicate it was similar to the Darya Dugina assassination. In the sense that the bomb was triggered by somebody following very closely and watching for the right moment. They were hoping to destroy the railroad part of the bridge, that which carries fuel trains into Crimea. Seems like they didn’t entirely succeed in that, but did do a lot of damage to the automobile side of the bridge.

The fanaticism and zealotry of Ukrainian NAZI extremists should not be underestimated, and now, as a (possible) suicide bombing has been so spectacularly successful, we will see for sure more actions of this kind.

From an ecological point of view, all artillery shells should be upgraded to high accuracy ammunition like M982 Excalibur GPS guided or Krasnopol laser guided ammunition. This would greatly reduce the number of shots necessary to kill the enemy, would reduce energy and material use in ammunition factories, and would reduce the chemical contaminations caused by the explosions of misses.

https://rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/return-industrial-warfare 

From an ecological point of view, nations with a huge industrial base (like Russia and China) will have a competitive advantage and therefor will win “industrial wars,” but their own land and the conquered territories will end up being urban deserts, landfills, and wasteland.

From an ecological point of view, the deindustrialization of Europe, caused by the economic war against Russia, by US trickery, and by US backstabbing, is positive, will preserve precious natural habitats, and will be an important step to reach a sustainable and ecological economy.

Larry Johnson writes in his blog about the economic difficulties Germany is facing:

“ArcelorMittal already has closed two plants in Germany. That means unemployed, skilled workers. And that unemployment reverberates to other parts of the German economy. Those workers no longer have extra cash to spend in restaurants and bars. They don’t have the dough to buy new homes or remodel their kitchens or bathrooms. All of this a result of “soaring energy prices” that is a direct consequence of idiotic green policies and German hostility towards Russia manifested via sanctions.”

You see: “idiotic green policies,” that prevent further destruction of natural habitats, prevent more contamination of air, water, and soil, prevent unsustainable economic growth, and prevent consumers unnecessary spending.

https://thesaker.is/why-is-germany-committing-suicide-the-same-reasons-why-the-eu-uk-is-being-deindustrialized/

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Caitlin Johnstone’s latest Treazine is out:

https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/10/07/sedition-3-of-treazine-is-here/ 

Plus a short but substantial rant:

https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/09/10/having-a-queen-was-stupid-having-a-king-is-too-stupid-%E2%80%8A-%E2%80%8A-notes-from-the-edge-of-the-narrative-matrix/ 

Feline news:

http://hatchingcatnyc.com/2022/09/12/boxing-cats-headlined-nycs-hubers-museum/

http://hatchingcatnyc.com/2022/10/06/fanny-mike-black-cat-mascots-harbor-police/

Against the odds:

https://reasonstobecheerful.world/blind-farmer-people-disabilities-inclusive-farm/ 

https://civileats.com/2021/09/02/op-ed-the-ban-on-chlorpyrifos-and-the-power-of-community-organizing/

https://www.localfutures.org/localization-and-buen-vivir/

https://scheerpost.com/2022/09/15/patagonias-founder-found-the-only-way-to-be-a-good-billionaire/ 

https://civileats.com/2022/09/12/how-one-rust-belt-college-is-transforming-its-local-food-system 

https://civileats.com/2022/09/19/co-op-grocery-stores-expand-their-mission-to-equity-and-food-justice/ 

https://reasonstobecheerful.world/kamikatsu-japan-zero-waste-recycling-town/ 

https://agrowingculture.substack.com/p/what-if-food-were-treated-as-a-human 

https://cindysheehan.substack.com/p/economics-of-happiness 

Localization will be a key element of a future sustainable economy. But it has to be accompanied by deindustrialization (also called “degrowth”) and crucial paradigm shifts in values and ethics, resulting in a lifestyle of harmonious existence within nature that is very different from todays consumerism.

Deindustrialization is happening in Europe, as Russian energy is switched off either by Western nations themselves or by the helping hand of Uncle Sam, who just blew up the Nord Stream pipelines. Stainless steel mills already shut down in August, Aluminum smelters are next, then come the big chemical plants of Bayer, BASF, and others.

Europeans will have to learn how to live without the latest iPhone, without cheap apparel from China Xinjiang, and without all the other trendy consumer goods shipped across the globe.

There will be much handwringing by the economists as consumers spend less and companies close, there will be high unemployment, but people will have more time to repair machines, appliances, and gadgets instead of just throwing them away and replacing them. People will have more time to grow their own food, they will learn to replace household essentials by ingenious solutions which use natural materials from the forests, gardens, and meadows. 

Tourism and air travel will be a luxury again, hiking the local forests will become the norm.

Localization and deindustrialization will happen, and change will be imposed on the adamant and unteachable by environmental catastrophes, scarcity of crucial supplies, and bloody resource wars (of which the NATO-Russia conflict is a first harbinger). It will be painful, even deadly for some, but the writing is on the wall and the sensible ones will acculturate, accommodate, adjust, and get used to the new life. 

Environmental news:

A reminder that there are still people who fight against the destruction of nature:

https://deepgreenresistance.org 

https://civileats.com/2022/09/07/why-arent-federal-agencies-enforcing-pesticide-rules-that-protect-farmworkers/

https://civileats.com/2022/07/06/ddt-elena-conis-pesticides-health-farmworkers-chemicals-safety-regulation/

https://e360.yale.edu/features/europe-rivers-drought

https://www.ehn.org/the-titans-of-plastic-2657986993/titan-of-plastic-video

https://dgrnewsservice.org/civilization/climate-endgame-new-peer-reviewed-paper-explores-catastrophic-climate-change-scenarios/

https://e360.yale.edu/features/lithium-mining-water-andes-argentina 

https://news.mongabay.com/2022/09/humans-are-dosing-earths-waterways-with-medicines-it-isnt-healthy/ 

https://dgrnewsservice.org/civilization/ecocide/habitat-loss/top-scientists-we-face-a-ghastly-future 

https://apnews.com/article/science-business-baltic-sea-oil-and-gas-industry-climate-environment-6ed67266b0a6caa59fc1afceac89dd82 

https://www.dr-rath-foundation.org/2022/09/fracking-the-scientific-evidence-of-adverse-health-effects-that-governments-arent-telling-you-about/ 

https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/09/30/fukushima-novel-fixes-fail-waste-dumping-threatens-pacific-ocean/ 

Economic news:

Caitlin Jonstone writes:

People defend capitalism on the grounds that it creates abundance, and in a sense they're right: capitalism is an effective way to drive up production and consumption. The problem is there's no wisdom guiding it, so the world is being choked with garbage while people go hungry.

Haves exploiting the labor of have-nots will indeed get the gears of industry creating lots of stuff. But now we're creating too much stuff, so much that it's killing our biosphere, even as vast inequalities remain and far too many go without the basic necessities in life. The "invisible hand" of the free market is worshipped as a sentient deity who always knows what's best, but in reality it's completely bereft of wisdom and intelligence and cannot move in harmony with the real needs of the real world.

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According to the charity Oxfam, the ten wealthiest people in the world have seen their combined assets double in the last two years, from 700 billion US$ to 1.5 trillion.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/09/12/the-widening-gap-between-rich-and-poor-is-hastening-the-transition-to-a-multipolar-world/ 

Mirroring a turbulent 2022, the main theme of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok is titled: “On the Path to a Multipolar World.”

https://thecradle.co/Article/Columns/15396

https://thetricontinental.org/newsletterissue/us-new-cold-war/

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Europe-Is-Buying-All-The-Russian-Oil-It-Can-Before-Banning-It.html

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/US-Oil-And-Gas-Producers-Cant-Save-Europe-This-Winter.html 

https://rmx.news/article/without-energy-no-economy-can-run-german-companies-warning-they-have-no-electricity-contract-could-signal-disaster/

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/9/16/germany-seizes-russian-oil-firm-rosnefts-refineries 

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/09/19/burning-all-fossil-fuel-reserves-would-exceed-global-carbon-budget-7-times-over-new

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2022/09/16/turkey-to-pay-for-quarter-of-russian-gas-in-rubles-putin-a78818 

https://progressive.international/wire/2022-09-01-funding-behind-brazils-agribusiness-lobby-exposed/en 

An agribusiness greenwashing glossary:

https://grain.org/e/6877 

https://counterinformation.wordpress.com/2022/09/19/the-money-economy-is-not-the-real-economy-the-global-banking-and-financial-system-is-fatally-flawed/

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/09/20/number-ultrarich-hits-all-time-high-someone-dies-hunger-every-4-seconds

https://www.spiegel.de/international/business/growing-energy-crisis-a-grave-threat-to-industry-in-germany-a-9152547c-a31d-483e-a70c-242c280cab23 

Pandemic news:

More than 90 percent of testing and sequencing has been stopped across the globe, which means that there could be surprises ahead, as the Sars-CoV-2 virus evolves and is getting around immunity from vaccination and past infection. New research suggests, that BA.4.6, the latest omicron variant gaining ground in the USA, appears to be even better at evading the immune system than the dominant BA.5. Omicron BA.2.75.2 may be another variant of concern.

Experts say that COVID will keep causing serious illness in some people. Eric Topol, head of Scripps Research Translational Institute, said the world is likely to keep seeing repetitive surges until “we do the things we have to do,” such as developing next generation vaccines and rolling them out equitably.

Topol said the virus “just has too many ways to work around our current strategies, and it’ll just keep finding people, finding them again, and self-perpetuating.”

https://fortune.com/well/2022/09/24/new-covid-omicron-variants-subvariants-evade-monoclonal-antibodies-bebtelovimab-recombinants-convergent-evolution-sars-immune-evasion/ 

Vaccines inhaled through the mouth or nose might stop the coronavirus.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-02824-3 

https://www.theepochtimes.com/italian-study-blood-patients-after-mrna-shot_4708049.html

https://www.chicagomag.com/chicago-magazine/october-2022/the-long-haul/

https://www.pekingnology.com/p/in-shanghai-chinese-vaccines-show

A quarter of a century ago physician and scientist Dr. Matthias Rath called in a speech given in the city hall of Chemnitz in Germany for the pharma business to be outlawed.

Explaining how its profits depend upon the maintaining and expanding of health problems on a global scale, Dr. Rath accused the “business with disease” of being incompatible with the fundamental principles of human rights.

Back in 1997, this type of open criticism of the drug industry and its unscrupulous business model was almost unheard of. Today, however, with the passage of time, the publication of the NRC article illustrates that it is becoming mainstream.

Authored by Dutch political scientist Joost Smiers, the NRC article describes how society is now at the mercy of the pharma business and its shareholders. “As far as I am concerned,” Smiers writes, “it is high time to break the societal feeling of powerless towards Big Pharma.”

https://www.globalresearch.ca/criticism-pharma-cartel-its-business-disease-becoming-mainstream/5794393  

https://news.sky.com/story/pfizers-chief-executive-tests-positive-for-covid-19-for-second-time-in-two-months-12704884 

The risks of mRNA-vaccines may outweigh the benefits.

https://insulinresistance.org/index.php/jir/article/view/71

https://insulinresistance.org/index.php/jir/article/view/72 

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/10/01/wvzy-o01.html

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-09-reveals-main-sars-cov-brain-effects.html 

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2022/10/eu-commission-president-and-pfizer-ceo-have-crossed-the-line-in-brussels.html 

Media, technology, and propaganda news:

https://scheerpost.com/2022/09/07/patrick-lawrence-unmaking-history/

https://kitklarenberg.substack.com/p/how-british-intelligence-globalized

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2022/09/the-us-army-special-operations-command-weaponizes-twitter-facebook-instagram-whatsapp-telegram.html

https://mattstoller.substack.com/p/should-we-save-newspapers-from-google

https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/lessons-from-bidens-disinformation-board-debacle/

https://www.mintpressnews.com/john-pilger-silencing-lambs-how-propaganda-works/281884/ 

https://www.donbass-insider.com/2022/09/09/journalists-demand-that-the-mirotvorets-website-be-classified-as-a-terrorist-organisation-and-closed-down/

https://sputniknews.com/20220919/mirotvorets-kill-list-west-left-its-own-people-to-mercy-of-ukraines-gestapo-website-journo-says-1100976609.html 

https://www.medialens.org/2022/imposed-insanity-royalty-propaganda-and-the-coming-catastrophe/ 

https://www.blackagendareport.com/decolonizing-mind

https://korybko.substack.com/p/fact-checking-cnns-hit-piece-on-chinese

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/09/21/nnzq-s21.html 

https://fair.org/home/pbs-and-bbc-team-up-to-misinform-about-brazils-bolsonaro/ 

https://www.medialens.org/2022/over-the-rainbow-disneyfied-news-and-the-unprovoked-invasion-of-ukraine/ 

https://www.medialens.org/2022/mass-media-omerta-burying-al-jazeeras-the-labour-files/ 

https://fair.org/home/us-medias-intellectual-no-fly-zone-on-us-culpability-in-nord-stream-attack/ 

Imperial news:

https://blackagendareport.com/jackson-water-crisis-legacy-environmental-racism-and-justice-jackson-help-us-fix-jacksons-water 

https://asiatimes.com/2022/09/us-becoming-developing-country-on-global-rankings/

https://counterinformation.wordpress.com/2022/09/22/citizens-brain-is-the-battlefield-in-21st-century-warfare 

https://apnews.com/article/monkeypox-science-health-covid-epidemics-aaac64591251293f45c225d3fe963d0c 

https://counterinformation.wordpress.com/2022/09/24/us-sets-a-bad-example-on-this-crucial-un-agenda/ 

https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/manchin-pushes-most-significant-environmental-rollback-in-decades-2022-09-21/ 

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/09/27/people-power-has-won-day-manchin-dirty-deal-defeated 

https://www.globalresearch.ca/aretha-franklin-counterintelligence-program-cointelpro/5794795 

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/10/06/bxwz-o06.html 

Imperial conquest news:

A reminder: The USA has at least 750 foreign military bases all over the world and the UK has 145 bases, compared to 35 Russian bases and 5 Chinese bases.

On October 1st, the US military started spending the more than 800 billion US$ Congress provided it with in fiscal year 2023. And that sum will just be the beginning. According to  calculations of Pentagon expert William Hartung, funding for various intelligence agencies, the Department of Homeland Security, and work on nuclear weaponry at the Energy Department will add another 600 US$ billion to the spending on national security.

That 1.4 trillion US$ for a single year dwarfs Congress’s one-time provision of approximately 300 billion US$under the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) for what’s called “climate mitigation and adaptation.”

The US military is this globe’s largest institutional consumer of petroleum fuels. As a result, it produces greenhouse gas emissions equal to about 60 million metric tons of carbon dioxide annually. The biggest source of emissions from actual military operations is undoubtedly the burning of jet fuel. A B-2 bomber, for instance, emits almost two tons of carbon dioxide when flying a mere 50 miles,

https://covertactionmagazine.com/2022/09/07/covertaction-bulletin-the-truth-behind-the-africa-china-debt-trap-myth-2/

https://resumen-english.org/2022/09/the-us-keeps-betting-on-cuba-surrendering-out-of-hunger-and-desperation/

Cubans life expectancy is almost 3 years higher than in the USA:

https://resumen-english.org/2022/09/life-expectancy-the-us-and-cuba-in-the-time-of-covid/ 

https://www.plenglish.com/news/2022/08/18/former-colombian-govt-and-us-agents-spied-on-cuba/ 

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Tightened-US-Sanctions-Make-Life-Harder-for-Cubans-20220907-0003.html

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2022/09/sanctions-are-destructive-illegitimate-and-totally-bipartisan 

https://scheerpost.com/2022/09/07/biden-like-trump-breaks-international-law-violating-un-neutrality-by-blocking-countries/

https://www.blackagendareport.com/rwanda-and-ugandas-m23-militia-reappears-slaughter-and-plunder-drc-us-backs-rwanda-and-uganda  

https://www.blackagendareport.com/sanctioning-horn-africa 

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/09/08/the-haitian-people-need-a-socialist-state-says-journalist-jean-waltes-bien-aime/

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2022/08/our-invasions

https://www.mintpressnews.com/john-pilger-silencing-lambs-how-propaganda-works/281884/ 

https://thegrayzone.com/2022/09/09/syrian-white-helmets-opcw/ 

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/09/13/okinawa-governor-poll-results-hamper-plans-to-expand-us-military-presence-in-japan/ 

https://multipolarista.com/2022/09/13/us-251-military-interventions-1991/

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/09/14/un-special-rapporteur-calls-for-the-end-of-all-unilateral-sanctions-against-iran/

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/09/22/western-threats-to-the-peoples-of-abya-yala-in-times-of-multipolarity/

https://dezayasalfred.wordpress.com/2022/09/23/counterpunch-responsibility-to-protect-as-a-prelude-to-undemocratic-regime-change-and-foreign-imposition-of-transitional-justice/

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-urges-top-un-court-dismiss-irans-frozen-assets-claim 

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/09/22/the-us-response-to-the-worlds-worst-humanitarian-crisis-seize-and-privatize/

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/09/26/tgxm-s26.html 

https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2022/09/24/putins-address-to-the-russian-people-september-21-2022/ 

African energy projects face Western pressure whilst Russia, China offer cooperation.

https://infobrics.org/post/36769/ 

Ukraine news:

Why did the Ukrainian people in 2014 tolerate a fascist Neo-Nazi coup d'état?

1) They were not asked. 

2) They were brainwashed and misinformed (the “heavenly hundred” killed by snipers based in the Hotel Ukraina).

3) They were told, that they belong to the European “Master Race” (Herrenrasse), and therefor are entitled to the same prosperity and lavish lifestyle than Western Europe nations.

4) They were told, that only the Russians (orcs, moskals) stand in their way to a glorious future.

==========

The success of Ukraine’s Kharkov offensive has discredited the prevailing interpretation of the Ukrainian conflict that has been pushed by Russia-friendly parts of the Alternative-Media Community. 

There’s no doubt that Kiev’s forces are kept going solely by Western military support, but the fact that foreign aid has already resulted in them restoring enough of their capabilities to launch the latest counteroffensive with undeniable on-the-ground success suggests that this proxy war will continue.

Unless Kiev’s counteroffensive ends in its crushing defeat or Russia successfully does something asymmetrical to reshape the conflict’s dynamics, it’s expected that the West will feel emboldened even by a stalemate of some offensives to pump more and better arms into Ukraine.

Russia will find it difficult to regain lost ground considering the practical military parity between itself and Kiev due to the latter’s robust support from all NATO states, which means that the present setback probably won’t be reversed anytime soon absent a major and possibly prolonged battle.

Kiev will likely carry out a vicious anti-Russian witch hunt in full coordination with its NATO patrons against all those locals that have not been able to flee from the recaptured territories, which could lead to wide scale human rights abuses and warcrimes that the West predictably will deny despite clear evidence.

There are though other possible interpretations of current events which see the successive Russian retreats as an elaborate implementation of “maskirovka,” the special Russian way of military deception.

https://imetatronink.substack.com/p/fall-like-a-thunderbolt 

Russia is certainly struggling to stop Kiev’s on-the-ground NATO-backed momentum. But Western military pundits, who regard the Russians as finished, should consider the following facts:

A denuded Kharkiv front, with the benefit of real-time NATO intelligence and virtually all Western weapons, was rolled up by well-trained Ukrainian forces enjoying up to 5:1 troop superiority. The Russians were taken by surprise and paid for it dearly with loss of territory. The Ukrainians paid with thousands of casualties.

When the 300,000 reservists, which have now been mobilized, and an additional 70,000 newly accepted volunteers, have been integrated in the frontline forces, Russia should have enough manpower to role back all Ukrainian gains. 

==========

The destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines is an act of war. Perpetrated by whom?

https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/10/01/how-to-defeat-putin/ 

Wile there is ample evidence (for instance the sighting of US Blackhawk helicopters circling over the explosion sites for hours in the night of September 22 and 25), that US commandos destroyed the Nord Stream pipelines, the New York Times writes about this terrorist attack: “Sabotaged Pipelines and a Mystery: Who Did It? (Was It Russia?),” and further: “An attack on gas lines under the Baltic Sea exposes the vulnerability of an already jittery Europe. Some officials suggested Moscow was to blame, but with little evidence, others urge caution.”

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Elon Musk's Starlink satellite system suddenly stopped working for the Ukrainian military. This system has given the Ukrainian side an advantage in being able to share real-time information regarding Russian troop movements with US advisers and command centers.

Yesterday Ukrainian officials received "panicky phone calls" from front-line commanders, who suddenly stared at blank screens when they tried to tap into the system. Starlink outages were widespread along all the fronts: Kherson, Zaporozhie, Kharkov, Donetsk, and Luhansk. Without this system, so graciously provided to them for free by Mr. Musk, Ukrainian soldiers are fighting blind and dumb — in essence, they lost their internet.

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The USA and NATO allies keep pushing the boundaries between what constitutes a proxy war, and direct conflict. 

Sanctions are an act of war. The confiscation of between 350 and 600 billion US$ in Russian bank accounts is not only plain theft, it is an act of war. In total, nearly 1 trillion US$ worth of Russian assets have now been frozen by sanctions. Confiscating the private property of a citizen solely upon which nation that person is a citizen of, is an act of war. Fixing the price which a country can charge for their own natural resources — like Russian natural gas, coal, oil, minerals and rare earths — is an act of war.

https://news.antiwar.com/2022/10/06/report-us-special-operations-forces-are-on-the-ground-in-ukraine/ 

https://www.theamericanconservative.com/holding-ground-losing-war/ 

https://korybko.substack.com/p/20-strategic-observations-about-kievs/ 

https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F253f4c20-11e2-4550-89dd-b2722ef05b61_800x600.jpeg 

Paul Craig Roberts warns, that Russia’s measured response to Western provocations only encourage more and worst provocations until the conflict spirals out of control and into World War III:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/57242.htm 

https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2022/09/12/russia-takes-off-the-gloves 

https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/09/07/its-not-okay-for-grown-adults-to-say-the-ukraine-invasion-was-unprovoked/

Scott Ritter in top form:

https://rumble.com/v1mv5i2-scott-ritter-its-a-whole-new-ballgame.html 

https://rumble.com/v1lmcwn-with-scott-ritter-new-stakes-of-the-war-on-russian-mobilization-and-referen.html 

https://rumble.com/v1k0hqh-rt-crosstalk-catalyst-14-sep-2022.html 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_FY87Se1d8

https://rumble.com/v1lwzfu-scott-ritter-what-does-russia-mean-by-protect-the-motherland.html 

https://www.forumarmstrade.org/ukrainearms.html 

https://sputniknews.com/20220906/iaeas-report-on-zaporozhye-npp-mission-released-1100449583.html

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/09/08/ukraine-planned-to-use-un-appointed-international-nuclear-experts-as-a-tool-for-blackmail/

https://www.imetatronink.com/2022/08/a-former-us-marine-corps-officers.html

https://www.imetatronink.com/2022/07/destroying-mother-of-all-proxy-armies.html

https://news.antiwar.com/2022/09/08/us-announces-2-8-billion-in-military-aid-for-ukraine-allies-in-the-region/

https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2022/09/11/western-media-continues-to-ignore-ukraines-public-kill-list-aimed-at-those-who-question-the-kiev-regime/

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/09/12/urgent-witch-hunt-by-neo-nazis-in-kharkov-ukraine/

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/57242.htm 

https://dezayasalfred.wordpress.com/2022/09/14/counterpunch-natos-death-wish-will-destroy-not-only-europe-but-the-rest-of-the-world-as-well/

https://www.thedefensepost.com/2022/09/16/germany-military-best-equipped/

https://www.defenseone.com/policy/2022/09/army-wants-double-or-triple-some-arms-production-ukraine-war-continues/377225/

https://news.antiwar.com/2022/09/15/us-pledges-new-600-million-weapons-package-for-ukraine/

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/09/16/washington-throws-kiev-under-the-turkish-bus/

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/09/16/leaked-documents-expose-ukrainian-attempts-to-destabilize-russia-and-draw-nato-into-a-full-scale-war-with-moscow/

https://korybko.substack.com/p/whys-kiev-so-insistent-on-germany

https://awfulavalanche.wordpress.com/2022/09/19/ukraine-war-day-208-desperate-situation-in-nikolaev/

https://covertactionmagazine.com/2022/09/15/eyewitness-human-toll-of-eight-year-ukrainian-army-onslaught-in-eastern-ukraine-is-shocking/ 

https://korybko.substack.com/p/kievs-foiled-attack-against-a-russian 

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/09/21/terrorist-mirotvorets-website-based-in-langley-usa-not-ukraine/

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/57255.htm

https://original.antiwar.com/mcgovern/2022/09/21/brainwashed-for-war-with-russia/

https://awfulavalanche.wordpress.com/2022/09/24/ukraine-war-day-213-are-iranian-drones-all-they-are-cracked-up-to-be/

https://awfulavalanche.wordpress.com/2022/09/25/ukraine-war-day-214-cossacks-to-the-voting-booth/ 

https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2022/09/26/western-media-continues-to-ignore-how-ukraine-is-using-nato-weapons-to-kill-innocent-civilians-in-the-donbass/ 

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2022/09/the-war-on-germany-just-entered-its-hot-phase.html#more

https://thegrayzone.com/2022/09/29/eu-parliamentarian-sanction-vanessa-beeley-donbass-referendums/ 

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/28/the-us-and-europe-are-running-out-of-weapons-to-send-to-ukraine.html 

https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2022/09/30/vladimir-putin-speaks-at-the-accession-ceremony/ 

https://gilbertdoctorow.com/2022/10/01/has-vladimir-putin-put-the-fear-of-god-into-the-satanic-west 

https://awfulavalanche.wordpress.com/2022/10/02/ukraine-war-day-221-liman-falls-who-is-to-blame/ 

Sergei Glaziev in 2014, when he was one of Vladimir Putin’s economic advisers, writes in an article:

To maintain their world dominance, the US is provoking another war in Europe. A war is always good for America. They even call the Second World War which killed 50 million people in Europe and Russia, a good war. It was good for America because the US emerged from this war as the world’s leading power. The Cold War which ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union was also good for them. Now the US again wants to maintain its leadership at the expense of Europe.

US leadership is being threatened by a rapidly rising China. The world today is shifting to yet another cycle, this time political. This cycle lasts centuries and is associated with the global institutions of regulatory economics. We are now moving from the American cycle of capital accumulation to an Asian cycle. This is another crisis that is challenging US hegemony.

To maintain their leading position in the face of competition with a rising China and other Asian countries Americans are starting a war in Europe. They want to weaken Europe, break up Russia, and subjugate the entire Eurasian continent. That is, instead of a development zone from Lisbon to Vladivostok, which is proposed by President Putin, the US wants to start a chaotic war on this territory, embroil all Europe in a war, devalue to European capital, write off its public debt, under the burden of which the US is already falling apart, write off what they owe to Europe and Russia, subjugate our economic space and establish control over resources of the giant Eurasian continent.

They believe that this is the only way they can maintain their hegemony and beat China …. Russia and Ukraine are the victims of this war which is being fomented by the Americans. But Europe is also a victim because the war aims to target European welfare and to destabilize Europe. Americans expect the European capital and brain drain to America will continue. That’s why they are setting all of Europe on fire. It’s very strange that European leaders are going along with them.

https://vineyardsaker.blogspot.com/2014/08/interview-with-sergei-glaziev-must-see.html 

https://b-ok.xyz/book/21367065/1845ab

China news:

Nine provincial-level regions in China have each reported more than 100 coronavirus cases since August, with over 2,000 infections in Hainan.

Businesses in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region are starting to reopen and activity is starting to return to Lhasa. Supermarkets, pharmacies, and restaurants have been allowed to reopen.

Under pressure to fight COVID, stimulate growth, and reduce debt all at the same time, China’s local governments are in an impossible situation. Ultimately, at least one of the three targets will have to be jettisoned and the repercussions for the country — a surge in infections and mortality, a continually slowing economy, or alternately, a renewed jump in destabilizing debt — won’t be easy to manage.

China’s coal imports rose in August to their highest this year, as power generators sought additional supply from abroad to meet surging electricity demand amid the baking temperatures of a heatwave.

The world’s biggest coal consumer brought in 29.46 million tons of the fossil fuel last month, up from 23.52 million in July. In the first eight months of this year, China imported 167.98 million tons of coal, down 14.9 percent on a year before.

The droughts in Yunnan and Hunan are not getting better, and are having impacts on aluminum production in Yunnan and the rice harvests in Hunan.

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China is making preparations for a deterioration in relations with the United States. These preparations include:

a. Accelerated development of high-end semiconductors to replace imports subject to restriction due to US sanctions.

b. Enhanced relations with trading partners in Asia and alternative monetary arrangements to supplement and if necessary replace US dollar financing.

c. Reduction of leverage in China’s financial system, especially in the property sector but also including state-owned industrial enterprises.

https://asiatimes.com/2022/10/china-on-course-to-elude-us-chip-making-equipment-bans/ 

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/09/23/chin-s23.html 

https://trackingpeoplesdaily.substack.com/p/chinese-style-modernisation-foreign

https://fair.org/home/nyt-scolds-china-for-not-learning-to-live-or-die-with-covid/

https://korybko.substack.com/p/the-chinese-indian-disengagement

https://asiatimes.com/2022/09/china-hopes-whole-nation-scheme-can-close-tech-gap/

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/9/19/china-lifts-weeks-long-lockdown-on-southwest-chengdu 

https://www.businessinsider.com/typical-chinese-adult-now-richer-than-europeans-wealth-report-finds-2022-9

Uncategorized news:

https://scheerpost.com/2022/09/17/luring-doctors-from-poorer-countries-is-the-uks-quiet-scandal/

https://dezayasalfred.wordpress.com/2022/09/19/cgtn-op-ed-epistemological-warfare-at-the-un-human-rights-council/

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Swiss-Referendum-Rejects-Ban-on-Intensive-Livestock-Farming-20220925-0006.html

Alfred de Zayas about the use of coercive measures by the USA:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTW6iQG9gFo 

Alfred de Zayas is always worth listening. Only one addition: Sanctions by the collective West and the economic war against Russia and China will reduce resource exploitation and industrial production. Oil and gas wells will be sealed, factories will be closed. “Leave it in the ground,” what became of this ecological catchphrase?

Human industrial activities destroy nature, therefore, from an ecological point of view, reduction of such activities are helpful and desperately needed!

Yes, people will lose their jobs, they will not be able to buy the new iPhone 14, they will not be able to make vacations in tropical islands, they will not be able to buy “fast fashion” apparel and other trendy consumer goods.

But the unemployed will have time to grow their own food (by organizing or joining a rural co-op), they will have time to repair things instead of throwing them away and replacing them with new ones, they will have time for social activities that are not able now because everybody is busy with shopping and fiddling with new gadgets.

They will maybe even have time to think about where this all is going, maybe they even will dare to miss the regular obligatory brainwashing session on TV, smartphone, or computer.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2022/09/29/nybm-s29.html 

Armageddon news:

We are at a moment more dangerous than the Cuban Missile Crisis. Russia sees itself existentially threatened and is determined to survive and win, while the of US leadership is not willing to compromise and will do everything possible to weaken and subdue Russia.

https://www.globalresearch.ca/video-fidel-s-message-against-nuclear-war-in-a-nuclear-war-the-collateral-damage-would-be-the-life-of-all-humanity/21541

https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/09/24/as-we-move-closer-to-ww3-its-a-good-time-to-reassess-our-priorities-in-life/

https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/09/25/future-generations-if-there-are-future-generations/

https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2022/10/03/nothings-more-important-than-avoiding-nuclear-war-notes-from-the-edge-of-the-narrative-matrix/