The passing of the first piece of Israel's controversial judicial overhaul legislation has ushered in a cascade of crises for the entire state, economically, militarily, socially and politically. However, at the root of the current tensions are people the US could have stopped if it had adhered to its own policy positions.

On Monday, the Israeli Knesset passed into law the first stage of the government's judicial reform, an amendment canceling the so-called 'Reasonableness Clause' that allowed the country's Supreme Court to block legislation. The amendment was passed 64-0, with the Israeli opposition members boycotting the vote. This came against the backdrop of mass street protests against the legislation and even violent encounters with supporters of the judicial overhaul and the police.

Israeli protesters have gathered in tens, hundreds, and even thousands, every Saturday since January 7, calling on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stop the plan to curtail the powers of the judiciary. Over the past weeks, the protests have picked up on a scale not seen in months. Israel's largest trade union, the Histadrut, held an emergency meeting on declaring a nationwide strike for the first time since March, when a similar strike forced Netanyahu to delay the proposed legislation.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken insisted that the WikiLeaks founder caused "serious harm" to US national security...

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has confirmed that Australia has raised the case of Julian Assange's continued prosecution, but declared that Washington will not cease seeking the extradition of the former WikiLeaks boss and intends to try him for espionage.

Speaking alongside Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong in Brisbane on Saturday, Blinken said:

"I understand the concerns and views of Australians. Assange's [alleged] actions risked very serious harm to our national security, to the benefit of our adversaries, and put named human sources at grave risk - grave risk - of physical harm, and grave risk of detention.

"Assange was charged with very serious criminal conduct" and had allegedly taken part in "one of the largest compromises of classified information in the history of our country."

While the wholesale theft of Syria's natural resources continues under the watch of illegal US troops, the Russian project of resurrecting ISIS-destroyed Palmyra stands as a stark reminder that ruins can rise again - if Syria's friends help pave the way.
The war on Syria has vanished from the collective West ethos. Yet it's far from finished. Multitudes across the Global Majority may feel the deepest empathy towards Syrians while acknowledging not much can be done while the Western Minority refuses to leave the stage.

In parallel, there are slim chances the New Development Bank (NDB) - the BRICS bank - will start showering Damascus with loans for Syria's reconstruction. At least not yet, despite all the pledges by Russians and Chinese to help.

Under the lame excuse of "degrading the position for ISIS," the US State Department de facto admits that the Empire's illegal occupation of a third of Syria - the part rich in oil and minerals currently being stolen/smuggled - will persist, indefinitely.

Cue to virtually non-stop oil looting in northeastern Hasakah province, as in processions of dozens of oil tankers crossing to northern Iraq via the al-Waleed or al-Mahmoudiya border crossing, usually escorted by US-backed Kurdish separatist militias.

As if any reminding was needed, the Global Majority is fully aware ISIS is essentially an American black op, a spin-off of al-Qaeda in Iraq, born in camps at the Iraq-Kuwaiti border. The Syrian "Democratic" Forces (SDF) is hardly a democratic US proxy, predictably assembled as a "coalition" of ethnic militias, mostly run by Kurds but also incorporating a few Arab tribesmen, Turkmen, and Salafi-jihadi Chechens.

As if the non-stop looting of oil was not enough, the Pentagon keeps dispatching truckloads of ammo and logistical equipment to Hasakah.

Convoys run back and forth to illegal US military bases in the Hasakah countryside, with particular relevance to a base at the al-Jibsah oilfields near the town of al-Shaddadi.

Recently, 39 US military tankers crossed the - illegal - al-Mahmoudiya border towards Iraqi Kurdistan loaded with stolen Syrian oil.

Despite these crude facts, Russia remains excessively diplomatic on the issue. Mikhail Bogdanov, Putin's special representative for the Middle East and Africa, recently told al-Arabiya, "Washington uses the pretext of combating terrorism to be present east of the Euphrates in economically important areas, where crude oil and strategic natural reserves are abundant."

He highlighted US troops deployed at al-Tanf in southern Syria and American "support" for the SDF in northern Syria. Yet that's not exactly a ground-breaking reveal that would light a fire under the Americans.

Foreign powers used Ukraine to target Russian statehood, the president claimed...

Western countries have spent years steering Ukraine towards a conflict with Russia, as they planned to use Kiev as a tool to undermine Russia's national security, President Vladimir Putin claimed on Friday. He argued that Russia's retaliation, including its ongoing military operation in the neighboring state, was justified.

During a meeting with the members of the African peace mission in St. Petersburg, following the two-day Russia-Africa Summit, Putin said:

"This problem was not created yesterday. It was instigated by certain forces in the West, which for a long time were preparing a hybrid war against our country, and did everything to transform Ukraine into an instrument of undermining the foundations of the security of the Russian Federation, damage Russia's positions on the world stage, and to undermine our statehood."

The US and its allies in the EU backed the 2014 coup in Kiev that ousted democratically elected President Viktor Yanukovich. Putin reiterated Russia's longstanding position that it was the turning point of the crisis.

"It was indeed a bloody, armed anti-constitutional coup, actively supported by the Western countries, which discarded all norms of international law."

Kiev sought to use the SpaceX satellite network to launch an attack on Russian ships in 2022, the US media outlet has reported...

SpaceX co-founder, billionaire Elon Musk, prevented Ukraine from using his company's Starlink satellite communications system to strike Russia, the New York Times reported on Friday, citing sources familiar with the matter.

SpaceX has donated over 20,000 Starlink satellite terminals to Ukraine since the escalation of the conflict with Russia in late February 2022, providing internet access in chaotic battleground areas that would otherwise be cut off. Kiev, however, sought to weaponize the communications system, according to the NYT.

At some point in 2022, Ukrainian forces wanted to use the satellite system to launch a maritime drone and strike Russian ships docked at Black Sea ports. Musk refused Kiev's request to grant its forces access to Starlink near Crimea to facilitate the attack.

In mid-February the entrepreneur said on Twitter that his company would not "enable escalation of a conflict that may lead to WWIII." He also said that SpaceX would not be "allowing Starlink to be used for long-range drone strikes." He also warned about the risks of a global conflict, adding that most people seem to be "oblivious" to the danger of it.

On March 3, an illegal bio lab was discovered in a believed-to-be vacant building in Reedley, California in Fresno County. City code enforcement stumbled upon the building in December 2022 when they discovered a garden hose running up into the building through a hole in the wall. In March, they obtained a warrant to inspect the property, and in April, the Fresno County Department of Public Health ordered an inspection of the facility.

Investigators inspected the building that contained the lab in July and found a room used to make COVID-19 tests and pregnancy tests. They also found over 35 freezers and refrigeration units that contained "thousands of bodily fluids, serums, tissues, and other medical items."

Soon, "INTERMARIUM" could become a household term.
The default ethos of mainstream commentariat seems to be, we never expect any surprises (except the pandemics, that is). However, we might be up for many surprises in the coming months. One of them could be an accelerated disintegration of the European project.

Rotten to the core

Beyond the glossy facade, the structure of the Union is rotten to the core. It is based on a toxic legal code and managed by a bureaucracy of unaccountable, incompetent and thoroughly corrupt apparatchiks. As such it not only fails to fulfill the aspirations of the peoples of Europe, it is becoming increasingly oppressive in its attempts to command their loyalty and compliance. The result is a rising tide of populism in more and more member nations, some of which are now openly showing that they're fed up with the whole farce and probably readying an exit in the near future.

Western values: migration, LGBT and war?

During the recent "Tusvanyos 2023" festival in Romania, Hungary's President Viktor Orban made a shockingly blunt public statement about this:

"If one is involved in European politics as I am, then today's 'western values' mean three things: migration, LGBT and war. The European Union rejects christian heritage. It is managing population replacement through migration, and it is waging an LGBT offensive against family-friendly European nations.

Just a few days ago we saw the fall of Lithuania which had a really fine, remarkable, great child protection law, which Hungary used as a starting point when constructing ours. And I see that, under great pressure, the Lithuanians have withdrawn and annulled child protection laws that they had adopted in 2012. ...

Our Constitution however, affirms the place where our children will live as being our homeland. It affirms our identities as being men and women because that's what we call family. It also affirms our borders, because that's how we can say who we want to live with. When in 2011 we created the new Constitution, a Hungarian, national, Christian Constitution, different from other European Constitutions, we did not make a bad decision.

Indeed, let us say that we did not make a bad decision, but rather a good one because since then we have been beset by a migration crisis which clearly cannot be dealt with on a liberal basis. And then we have an LGBT, gender offensive which, it turns out, can only be repelled on the basis of community and child protection.

Well, we have to say that Europe today has created its own political class which is no longer accountable and no longer has any Christian or democratic convictions. And we have to say that federalist governance in Europe has led to an unaccountable empire. We have no other choice. For all our love of Europe, for all that is ours, we must fight."

Indeed, things have deteriorated beyond repair when child protection laws must be scrapped under political pressures. This is so beyond the pale that even the most silver-tongued of the apologists won't be able to intellectualize their way out of that tar pit. In the United States, parents who dare question the LGBT offensive and stray to try and protect their children are even labelled as a domestic terrorist threat. The Great Resetters did indeed announce that their social engineering agenda includes changing what it means to be human, except they didn't ask any of the rest of us if we agreed.

So, the quadrennial simulation of democracy in the USA is getting underway, and personally, I couldn't be happier. It's been a challenging few years for unincorporated political satirists like myself. The roll-out of the new global-capitalist totalitarianism hasn't been particularly funny. In fact, it has been extremely not funny. Squeezing a little humor out of it has been like trying to suck a golf ball through a garden hose.

Not that the New Normal Reich is history ... on the contrary, it is just getting started. Yes, the shock-and-awe campaign is over. It's been over for the better part of a year. We are deep into the mistakes-were-made/limited-hangout phase of the changeover. Nothing can stop or reverse it now. The implementation of the new official (i.e., Orwellian) reality is a fait accompli. What actually happened has been memory-holed, forever, supplanted by stories of censorious "bad apples," "overreactions," lab leaks, and so on. Those who are old enough will recall this phase from the aftermath of the US invasion of Iraq. It's going pretty much by the numbers.

Which ... fine. That "reality" stuff was ruining my shtick. No one wants to be told that they're the victim of an elaborate PSYOP, which is what I've been doing for the past three years, with one demographic after another. First, I alienated most of my friends and colleagues, and even family members, by challenging "The Science" (which has now been debunked) and opposing the transformation of the planet into a pathologized-totalitarian police state. Then, when I warned people about Elon Musk and the whitewashing of Twitter, or X, or whatever we are calling his Chinese-style "everything app," which, if Elon has his way, we're all going to "live on" in the visibility-filtered, advert-saturated, dystopian, global-capitalist future ... well, that pretty much did it for the rest of my audience.

Not you, of course ... the other rest of my audience. See, part of the genius of the New Normal Reich is how it has completely polarized society. It has systematically divided the masses into two irreconcilable warring camps, both of which demand absolute conformity to their dogma from their respective members. That isn't to imply that there's parity between them. The one camp, "the New Normals," is backed by state and corporate power. The other camp, "the anti-New Normals," is not. It's no secret where my sympathies lie.

Horrific for cell phones, worse for electric vehicles, calamitous under Net Zero.
Global cobalt demand soared with the advent of cell phones and laptop computers. It exploded with the arrival of electric vehicles and now is skyrocketing in tandem with government EV mandates and subsidies. Cobalt improves battery performance, extends driving range and reduces fire risks.

Demand will reach stratospheric heights if governments remain obsessed with climate change and Net Zero. States and nations would have to switch to electric cars, trucks, buses and tractors; end coal and gas electricity generation; convert gas furnaces, water heaters and stoves to electricity; and provide alternative power for windless, sunless periods. Electricity generation would triple or quadruple.

Weather-dependent wind turbines and solar panels would require billions of battery modules, to stabilize power grids and avoid blackouts every time wind and sunshine don't cooperate.

All that Net Zero transformation equipment - plus transmission lines, substations and transformers - will require billions of tons of cobalt, lithium, copper, nickel, graphite, iron, aluminum, rare earths and other raw materials at scales unprecedented in human history. That will necessitate mining, ore processing, manufacturing, land disruption and pollution at equally unprecedented levels.

Just President Biden's first tranche of US offshore wind turbines (30,000 megawatts by 2030) will require some 110,000 tons of copper, for the turbines alone. Transmission lines, transformers and batteries are extra. Based on average global ore concentrations, getting that copper would require extracting 40,000,000 tons of surface rock (overburden) and 25,000,000 tons of copper ore.

But those 2,500 12-megawatt 800-foot-tall turbines would provide barely enough electricity to power New York state on a hot summer day, if the wind is blowing, and before its Net Zero mandates kick in.

Ammo earmarked to be delivered to Kiev end up in the hands of terrorists in Burkina Faso, the President of the Transition, Ibrahim Traore, explained to Sputnik Africa. Given the danger of the Western arms policy backfiring, Africa can however work for the return of peace in Ukraine, assured the leader.

Western weapons shipped to Ukraine do not all end up on the Eastern Front. Some of that ammo ends up in Africa, where they are bought up by terrorists, as the President of the Transition, Ibrahim Traore, told Sputnik Africa.

These parallel circuits, fed by arms traffickers, further worsen the security dilemma in Africa, the head of state pointed out, and in particular, it aggravates the detrimental situation for Burkina Faso, which is waging its own war against terrorism.

"I saw in the media that the Ukrainian President himself had dismissed some of his relatives for acts of corruption on military equipment delivered. It means that it is not controlled, and it is found on the African continent," he explained. "Terrorists pay for equipment everywhere, especially in conflict zones, because there are arms traffickers. So that only aggravates the extent of our conflicts on the spot as well. We therefore find it very dangerous to dump these weapons in an uncontrolled way, because they end up in the hands of the enemies who kill our peoples,"