© Unz Review
Some of my longtime readers might have noticed that I rarely (if ever!) wrote about Belarus or President Lukashenko. As always with the blog, there is a reason for why I do mention something and no less a reason why I do not mention something. In the case of Belarus or Lukashenko, my reason for not writing about them was the exactly why I never wrote about the Ukraine before 2013: I was both uninspired and mostly disgusted with what I saw taking place there. And I did not feel strongly enough to write about it. That changed for the Ukraine with the Euromaidan.
Now the events in Belarus force me to address this very unpleasant topic:
Belarus is facing a complex and dangerous situation which might well result in a major crisis inside Belarus and even a loss of sovereignty. But first, before we look into what just happened, let me begin with a quick "mini-primer" about Belarus. Here is what I think everybody ought to know about this country:
Comment:
And yet, for all his failings, Lukashenko refused to sell his country down the Covid-hoax river:
Alexandr Lukashenko, a president with scruples
While Russian deaths started rising to US, UK elevations, its near neighbour Belarus was containing COVID-19 in the way I was expecting Russia to have done, the way South Korea was still doing. The most likely reason for the Russian policy change has only come to light within the last week or two. Tyler Durden posted an article in GreatGameIndia.com which showed that the Belarus president, Alexandr Lukashenko, had been offered a bribe to adopt the same measures Italy had adopted - that is lockdown, curfews, masks and other severe restrictions.
In an act of integrity rarely found in world leaders Lukashenko refused the bribe.
Africa, which has had a very low infection and death-rate from COVID-19, has likewise had several of its countries targeted by multi-billion cash-cows - WHO and Bill Gates - which pretty well amounts to Bill Gates since he is one of the biggest donors to WHO. African countries which have been offered bribes include Tanzania, Burundi and Madagascar. It can hardly be assumed they are alone.
Meanwhile in Belarus life has gone on as normal. Football spectators have continued to go to matches and the season is in full swing with cup matches currently being played. According to the United Nations Human Rights Council a few companies have encouraged employees to work from home.
Caitlin Johnstone
MediumFri, 28 Jun 2019 12:09 UTC
California Senator Kamala Harris won the Democratic presidential debate last night. It was not a close contest. She will win every debate she enters during this election cycle. If she becomes the nominee, she will win every debate with Trump.
Night two of the debates was just as vapid and ridiculous as
night one.
Candidates interrupted and talked over each other a lot, questions about foreign policy were avoided like the plague to prevent NBC viewers from thinking critically about the mechanics of empire, and Eric Swalwell kept talking despite everyone in the universe desperately wanting him not to. Buttigieg and Gillibrand did alright, Bernie played the same note he's been playing for decades, and everyone was reminded how bad Joe Biden is at talking and thinking.
Biden has been treated kindly by polls and regarded as a "frontrunner" in this race exclusively because for the last decade he hasn't had to do anything other than be associated with Barack Obama. Now that he's had to step out of that insulated role and interact with reality again, everyone's seeing the same old garbage right-wing Democrat who sucks at making himself look appealing just as badly as he did in his last two presidential campaigns. By the end of the night,
even Michael Bennet was slapping him around.
Freddie Sayers
UnHerdMon, 10 Aug 2020 20:54 UTC
© Getty ImagesThe summer houses of the Stockholm archipelago offer a vision of the Good Life, Swedish style
I am writing this from the water's edge on one of the 24,000 islands of the Stockholm archipelago. It's a lovely summers day, boats are coming in and out of the little harbour and the restaurant is doing a busy trade. Across the sound, the rocks slope straight into the sea and are dotted with summer houses.
The homes are not divided by fences, but sit at a respectful distance from each other, never in a row but each positioned in a particular spot of the owner's choosing; there's a harmony of style which still leaves room for individuation — some houses are yellow, some red, some slightly more modern, some slightly more traditional, but each adorned with a well-kept garden, a boat-house and pier, and of course a Swedish flag. It's a vision of the Good Life, Swedish-style.
Since its lockdown-free response to Covid-19, Sweden has suddenly found itself the pin-up nation for libertarians worldwide, who see in its more laissez-faire response a defence of individual freedom and self-governance above all else. But Sweden is not a libertarian society — far from it; in reality, they are sticklers for the rules. Try putting decking on the seaside edge of your garden, or buying alcohol from anywhere other than the state monopoly — you will be met with restrictions that would be unthinkable in either Britain or the United States.
Comment: Interesting essay, and a good effort by the author to explain why Sweden didn't 'go Nazi' over Covid-19.
It falls short, in our view, because the usual categories of language and philosophy cannot account for it.
Sweden is culturally similar to the other Nordic countries, yet those underwent lockdowns. So the answer is more likely to be found by assessing the degree to which a country's elite class is 'ponerized' (overcome with pathological ideological material and/or actual psychopaths and other character-disturbed people). It's known why Denmark, for example, went into lockdown. The
prime minister there received 'advice' (probably understood by her as 'orders') from an unknown consortium or group
not connected to her own national government, and she followed this 'advice' to the letter -
against the recommendations of her own health department.
For whatever reasons, and assuming it received a similar or the same 'memo-from-the-top', the Swedish government rejected most of that same 'advice'.
Sweden, despite
sounding like it was 'libtard left' all these years, turns out to be one of the few western countries still - for the most part - 'ruled by normal people and common sense'. That's fundamentally why there is harmony between the rulers and the ruled in Sweden, with respect to Covid-19 anyway.
That the author had to resort to citing a mix of both 'true liberal-left spirit'
and Christian socio-cultural underpinnings to account for Sweden's freedom only underpins the fact that that country is apparently not (yet) 'as psychopathic as' other western countries, where the 'true liberal-left spirit' is implacably opposed to anything smacking of 'traditional Christian values'...
© Scott Olson/Getty ImagesA Police officer inspects a damaged Best Buy store after parts of the city had widespread looting and vandalism, on August 10, 2020 in Chicago, Illinois. Police made several arrests during the night of unrest and recovered at least one firearm.
Many rioters and looters took to the streets of Chicago early Monday, according to multiple reports,
breaking into upscale stores after a man was reportedly hit during a shootout with Chicago police.
The police remain on the scene Monday morning after
rioters smashed windows and burned vehicles,
according to Newsweek.
Many on social media captured imagery of the mayhem as violence again exploded in Chicago following an incident with police and an assailant.
Reporter Ian Miles Cheong shared video of the apparent looting.
Comment: That's the
mayor of Chicago saying that! No wonder 'her people' are completely out-of-control.
Lightfoot dragged her feet when it came to addressing one of if not the most pressing issue facing her city over the weekend, but
she was Johnny-on-the-spot to call out beach-goers for daring to do something as harmless as going to the beach and not 'social distance' themselves:
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has been excoriated for the city's belated response to an outbreak of looting, shooting and chaos that followed a police-involved shooting. The city was quick to shut down beach access, however.
Lightfoot belatedly condemned the looters during a press conference on Monday, urging prosecutors to "put their best people" on the task of rounding up those behind the violence that left 13 police officers injured over the course of a single night.
"There is no justification for criminal behavior ever," Lightfoot said, adding, "You have no right to take and destroy the property of others."
However, she made a point of distinguishing between "the righteous uprising in the wake of the murder of George Floyd" in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Memorial Day - an event that also triggered outbreaks of violence and looting in cities across the US, including Chicago - and the weekend's violence, which she called "abject criminal behavior."
Lightfoot also lambasted judges and prosecutors who allow criminals to "cycle through the system," a longstanding problem she seems to have only now discovered.
We can't allow...people to believe there is no accountability in our criminal justice system.
Some 100 people were arrested for looting, which reportedly began in the downtown Loop area before spreading to neighborhoods from Lincoln Park to the Gold Coast. There were a total of 31 shootings and three murders over the course of the weekend, according to Chicago Police Superintendent David Brown, who also spoke at the presser.
"Criminals took to the streets with the confidence that there would be no consequence for their actions," Brown lamented, pledging that a special team of detectives had been assigned the task of implementing a "multi-layered plan" to crack down on the violence "which will be based on lessons we've learned from earlier this summer."
Chicago residents were quick to point out that Lightfoot and the city government had wasted no time shutting down access to beaches and lakes earlier that weekend and condemning the "reckless behavior" of locals trying to enjoy the water peacefully.
© ReutersFormer Israeli DM Moshe Yaalon
Haaretz
, Israel's influential liberal daily, published a blood-curdling article. It openly argued for war crimes on a massive scale against the civilian population of a neighbouring Arab state."Should Israel Flatten Beirut to Destroy Hezbollah's Missiles?" the article's headline mused. It was written by Amitai Etzioni, a professor of international relations at George Washington University. He was also a member of the Palmach, a unit in one pre-state Zionist terrorist group, a forerunner of the Israeli military. He participated in the Nakba (or Catastrophe), Israel's 1948 ethnic cleansing of some 750,000 Palestinians.
After criticism
by the journalist Belén Fernández, Etzioni later got
Haaretz to edit the online version of the story, so that it now has a slightly less aggressive headline (but not before
copies of the original were
made).
But the
substance of the article is still the same:
this esteemed professor advocates the use of a weapon that "flattens all buildings within a considerable range" on Beirut, a city of some 2 million people. "There are going to be civilian casualties," he threatens;
Comment: Yaalon was brash enough to spread his venom, but at the end of the day, Israel is prepared to do all he said...and more.
© picture-alliance/dpa/BelTA/N. PetrovBelarus President Alexandr Lukashenko
One day at the beginning of April this year I had an awakening. It dawned on me that Russia had been leaned upon to change its policy regarding COVID-19. By that time the virus had spread through the UK like wildfire and was reaching its peak whereas in Russia there had been few infections and very few deaths.
It disturbed me that Russia Today (RT), a favoured TV channel, had changed course. It had always been a safe harbour in which to dock alternative viewpoints and seek solace from the lies and dogma of our own major news broadcasters. With the exception of events of 9/11 Russia Today seemed to offer a refreshing and often incisively critical insight into world affairs, throwing new light on the Skripal affair and the alleged chemical attacks in Syria, among other worthy reporting.
When the viral spread of SARS-COV-2 hit the west, forcing lockdowns and facial masks,
RT was praising Russia's efforts in controlling the spread and keeping deaths to a minimum. By all measures it looked like Russia had bucked the trend and everything was under control.
Suddenly all that changed. News readers, regular anchors and reporters were pushing a totally different message. In essence the coronavirus rhetoric had gone east. Accompanying footage suddenly contained repetitive images of people wearing masks and RT's UK viewers were being advised to follow the guidelines on lockdown for our own safety and the safety of others.
I might just as well have been watching the BBC.
Comment: It did appear that Russia changed Covid horses in mid-stream and questions arose regarding its abrupt turn. With its a-typical response to Covid-19 indoctrination and protocols, Belarus increased our understanding of the 'pandemic' along with the nature and agenda of the forces behind it.
See also:
Sam Jacobs
Ammo.comMon, 10 Aug 2020 03:29 UTC
The NJ National Guard, with bayonets fixed on guns sent to quell riots in Newark
The
Book of Ecclesiastes says that there is nothing new under the sun. And while many have spoken of the "unprecedented" nature of the rioting in the early summer of 2020, it is actually quite precedented.
The
Long, Hot Summer of 1967 was the peak of urban unrest and rioting in the United States in the lead up to the 1968 election. While there are certainly a number of key differences, there are also a number of striking parallels that make the topic worthy of discussion and examination.
The long-term impact of the urban unrest of the summer of 2020 is unclear, but the long-term impact of the Long, Hot Summer of 1967 and related urban rioting was a victory for
Richard Nixon in 1968, and a landslide re-election in 1972. One must resist the temptation to make mechanistic comparisons between the two, and we will refrain from doing so here. But the reader is encouraged to look for connections between these events and more recent ones.
Aleksandr Lukashenko
Huge foreign loans are given to sovereign nations by the World Bank, IMF and the likes. But the conditions that come attached to these loans are seldom told by governments to their citizens. A recent case in Belarus has exposed the conditions laid by these agencies for loans being provided for COVID-19. The President of
Belarus has exposed that the World Bank coronavirus aid comes with conditions for imposing extreme lockdown measures, to model their coronavirus response on that of Italy and even changes in the economic policies which he refused as being "unacceptable".
Additional conditions which do not apply to the financial part are unacceptable for Belarus, Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko said when speaking about external lending during a meeting to discuss support measures for the real economic sector on the part of the banking system, reported Belarusian Telegraph Agency, BelTA.
OK, I want to preface this article by stating that it is entirely anecdotal and based on my experience working as a doctor in the emergency room of one of the big hospitals in Stockholm, Sweden, and of living as a citizen in Sweden. As many people know, Sweden is perhaps the country that has taken the most relaxed attitude of any towards the covid pandemic.
Unlike other countries, Sweden never went in to complete lockdown. Non-essential businesses have remained open, people have continued to go to cafés and restaurants, children have remained in school, and very few people have bothered with face masks in public.Covid hit Stockholm like a storm in mid-March. One day I was seeing people with appendicitis and kidney stones, the usual things you see in the emergency room. The next day all those patients were gone and the only thing coming in to the hospital was covid. Practically everyone who was tested had covid, regardless of what the presenting symptom was.
People came in with a nose bleed and they had covid. They came in with stomach pain and they had covid.
© TwitterExplosion in Beirut's port, August 4, 2020
Hezbollah apparently planned to use the ammonium nitrate stockpile that caused a massive blast at Beirut's port this week
against Israel in a "Third Lebanon War," according to an unsourced assessment publicized on Israel's Channel 13 Friday night.The report was broadcast hours after Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah,
gave a speech "categorically" denying that his group had stored any weapons or explosives at Beirut's port, following the massive explosion there Tuesday that has claimed over 157 lives and wounded thousands. He said:
"I would like to absolutely, categorically rule out anything belonging to us at the port. No weapons, no missiles, or bombs or rifles or even a bullet or ammonium nitrate. No cache, no nothing. Not now, not ever."
Israel has not formally alleged that Hezbollah was connected to the Tuesday blast.
Comment: IF this was an Israeli operation, then you really have to hand it to them; they have quite possibly won the 'Third Lebanon War' in one (vicious) strike.
But, maybe that's ascribing too much cunning to them. Maybe they're just cleverly taking advantage of a scenario ('kick Hezbollah while they're down') they wish to overlay on an otherwise tragic accident.
See also:
Comment:
- Another mercenary battalion deployed in Belarus to destabilize country claims President Lukashenko
- Belarus on the brink? Unloved in Moscow, a pariah again in the West & facing protests at home, Lukashenko is running out of road
- Is Belarus the West's next target for illegal regime change?
And yet, for all his failings, Lukashenko refused to sell his country down the Covid-hoax river:Alexandr Lukashenko, a president with scruples