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Clintons & Obamas headline DNC Convention speaker list, showing Democrats gazing backward not forward

Joe Biden
© REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden (July 28, 2020 file photo).
The announced roster of speakers at the Democratic National Convention is in line with the party's choice of Joe Biden as the 2020 nominee: doubling down on the establishment past while pretending to embrace a progressive future.

Released on Tuesday, the schedule of speakers for next week's convention is a veritable who's who of the Democrats - with more than a few strange choices and a few notable omissions.

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York), representing the democratic socialist faction, are both scheduled to speak. They will be vastly outnumbered by the establishment figures, however.

The presence of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) is a no-brainer. Likewise the appearance by former President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle, both there to support - however half-heartedly - their former VP.

Having the Clintons speak as well is more problematic. Hillary's arrogance and disdain in 2016 is how Donald Trump crushed the Democrats' expectation that they will rule forever, after all.

Comment: But last we heard Biden himself will not attend 'cause Covid. Imagine that, all these doofuses show up as a lead in to the big entrance of Biden as the Democratic nominee for president - and he won't even be there! What a joke.

Gaffe-smothered Biden laughs off the idea he should take a cognitive test, backs out of attending Democratic convention on Covid-19 fears


Bad Guys

The US-China war is well underway - What kind of escalation is likely?

US China trade war
If we step back from the details of daily headlines around the world and try to make sense of larger patterns, the dominant dynamic defining world geopolitics in the past three years or more is the appearance of a genuine irregular conflict between the two most formidable powers on the planet — The Peoples' Republic of China and the United States of America. Increasingly it's beginning to look as if some very dark global networks are orchestrating what looks to be an updated rerun of their 1939-1945 World War. Only this time the stakes are total, and aim at creation of a universal global totalitarian system, what David Rockefeller once called a "one world government." The powers that be periodically use war to gain major policy shifts.

On behalf of the Powers That Be (PTB), World War II was orchestrated by the circles of the City of London and of Wall Street to maneuver two great obstacles — Russia and Germany — to wage a war to the death against each other, in order that those Anglo-Saxon PTB could reorganize the world geopolitical chess board to their advantage. It largely succeeded, but for the small detail that after 1945, Wall Street and the Rockefeller brothers were determined that England play the junior partner to Washington. London and Washington then entered the period of their global domination known as the Cold War.

That Anglo-American global condominium ended, by design, in 1989 with the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the disintegration of the Soviet Union by 1991.

Around this time, with the onset of the Bill Clinton presidency in 1992, the next phase - financial and industrial globalization - was inaugurated. With that, began the hollowing out of the industrial base of not only the United States, but also of Germany and the EU. The cheap labor outsourcing enabled by the new WTO drove wages down and destroyed one industry after the next in the industrial West after the 1990s. It was a necessary step on the path to what G.H.W. Bush in 1990 called the New World Order. The next step would be destruction of national sovereignty everywhere. Here the USA was the major obstacle.

Comment: See also:


Bad Guys

Kamala Harris: A distinguished career serving injustice

Kamala Harris
© REUTERS/Elijah Nouvelage
Kamala Harris
Kamala Harris is rising in the polls after dramatically confronting Joe Biden during the Democratic primary debate about his opposition to federally mandated busing for desegregation. The following week, however, Harris backed away from saying that busing should always be federally mandated, calling it just one "tool that is in the toolbox" for school districts to use. When asked to clarify whether she would support federal mandates for busing, she said: "I believe that any tool that is in the toolbox should be considered by a school district." But Biden's poll numbers are falling as a result of Harris's theatrical attack.

Harris, who served as San Francisco District Attorney from 2004 to 2011 and California Attorney General from 2011 to 2017, describes herself as a "progressive prosecutor­­­­." Harris's prosecutorial record, however, is far from progressive. Through her apologia for egregious prosecutorial misconduct, her refusal to allow DNA testing for a probably innocent death row inmate, her opposition to legislation requiring the attorney general's office to independently investigate police shootings and more, she has made a significant contribution to the sordid history of injustice she decries.

Comment: More on Ms. Harris' distinguished career:


Black Magic

Professor of Bioethics: 'Induce compliance from Covid-19 defectors by subjecting them to moral enhancement via water supply'

protest covid-19 usa
COVID-19 is a collective risk. It threatens everyone, and we all must cooperate to lower the chance that the coronavirus harms any one individual. Among other things, that means keeping safe social distances and wearing masks. But many people choose not to do these things, making spread of infection more likely.


Comment: Social distancing and wearing facemasks have no proven impact on the reduction of viral transmission, particularly for coronaviruses and other highly contagious viruses that cause the common cold and influenza-like illnesses.


When someone chooses not to follow public health guidelines around the coronavirus, they're defecting from the public good. It's the moral equivalent of the tragedy of the commons: If everyone shares the same pasture for their individual flocks, some people are going to graze their animals longer, or let them eat more than their fair share, ruining the commons in the process. Selfish and self-defeating behavior undermines the pursuit of something from which everyone can benefit.


Comment: Indeed, and what could be more selfish and self-defeating than trashing people's lives to pursue an aim that is impossible to achieve?


Democratically enacted enforceable rules - mandating things like mask wearing and social distancing - might work, if defectors could be coerced into adhering to them. But not all states have opted to pass them or to enforce the rules that are in place.


Comment: Not a single 'rule', 'law' or 'recommendation' on Covid-19 was democratically enacted. All of it is constitutionally illegal.


My research in bioethics focuses on questions like how to induce those who are noncooperative to get on board with doing what's best for the public good. To me, it seems the problem of coronavirus defectors could be solved by moral enhancement: like receiving a vaccine to beef up your immune system, people could take a substance to boost their cooperative, pro-social behavior. Could a psychoactive pill be the solution to the pandemic?


Comment: Ironically, that's most likely what the 'gain-of-function' SARS-Cov-2 virus was meant to be; a virus that would 'improve' the population's DNA by making people more compliant. But it apparently backfired, causing the system managers to freak out and irrationally 'lock it all down'.


It's a far-out proposal that's bound to be controversial, but one I believe is worth at least considering, given the importance of social cooperation in the struggle to get COVID-19 under control.

Comment: And there you have it. This 'top thinker' from among their 'side' or 'type' just articulated exactly what is going on here. His genius plan may not literally be in effect ('morality pills'), but elements of it certainly are, and, in toto, it is metaphorically or energetically in effect - and has been for some time, i.e. since pre-Covid-19. One thing that comes to mind is the fluoridation of the water supply, something that has been implemented globally, to varying degrees, since WW2.

How does someone in his position - someone who we have no reason to doubt ostensibly lives 'a normal life' and who 'means well' - come up with such a psychopathic, anti-human scheme?

Our best guess is that, like the scientists working for the secret consortium who took a coronavirus and genetically tweaked it to 'improve human DNA' then introduced it to the general population by using US soldiers as guinea pigs, his own DNA is 'antenna-aligned' to the same or similar 'sources of inspiration' in the Information Field. He's able to conceive 'solutions' like he proposes above because that's the sort of thing 'like-minded' people are actively conceiving and doing all the time.

At each stage, when things backfire, they double-down and intensify their efforts to 'make better people, for a better world', completely oblivious to their role in producing increasing numbers of brain-disordered and character-disturbed people.


Fire

'Slap in the face': Democrats score a self-own after leaving Asian-Americans off DNC speaker list while pushing identity politics

kamala harris andrew yang
© REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
The Democratic Party's reliance on identity politics led to controversy on Tuesday as the lineup of speakers for next week's Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee seemingly failed to include any politicians of Asian descent.

"The gross underrepresentation of Asian American speakers in the four days of the DNC Convention is tone deaf and a slap in the face," Representative Ted Lieu said on Twitter. Lieu, a California Democrat with Taiwanese ancestry, also noted that Asian-Americans are the fastest-growing ethnic group in multiple swing states.

Comment: If you're going to play the identity politics game, you darn well better play it right! The democrats can't afford to leave any group unrepresented or they risk tarnishing their uber-diversity image.

See also:


NPC

The DREAM TEAM! Biden picks Harris for VP (thus prez)


Comment: Their slogan should be:
'Vote for Her because she's an African-American Woman! Well, Jamaican-American. Actually, she introduced herself at the outset of her political career as Indian-American, but who cares! She has a vagina and looks a bit chocolate-colored!'

kamala harris
Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden named Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) as his running mate on Tuesday, ending months of speculation over one of the most consequential decisions of his 2020 presidential bid.

Biden called Harris, a former rival in the Democratic primary, the best equipped to help him defeat President Trump and lead the nation through the coronavirus pandemic, economic downturn and racial divide.

Harris, who is of Jamaican and Indian descent, would be the first woman to be vice president if Biden is elected.

Comment: Some big name Twitter reactions:







See also:


Camcorder

Viral fake footage of "Chinese" atrocities shows the power of narrative spin

chinese video fact check
The odious right-wing influencer Ian Miles Cheong recently posted a video of a man being brutalized by an unseen tormenter which he captioned "Chinese communism", adding "I don't know who needs to hear this but this is what real oppression looks like, not cops in Portland pepper spraying rioters for throwing molotovs at them."


There's nothing in the video footage that shows that this is happening in China, nor that the person performing the abuse is a government authority figure. But many people credulously shared the video around, because anti-China sentiment has exploded over the last two years with the help of careful narrative management by the western political/media class.

Comment: See also: China detaining millions of Uyghurs? US-backed NGO and far-right researcher 'led by God' make flimsy claims against Beijing


Sherlock

Hong Kong tycoon Jimmy Lai arrested, accused of 'collusion with foreign forces' under new security law

jimmy lai

Apple Daily live feed.
Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai became the highest-profile person arrested under a new national security law on Monday, detained over suspected collusion with foreign forces as around 200 police searched the offices of his Apple Daily newspaper.

Mainland-born Lai, who was smuggled into the British colony of Hong Kong on a fishing boat when he was a penniless 12-year-old, has been one of the most prominent democracy activists in the now Chinese-ruled city and an ardent critic of Beijing.

His arrest comes amid Beijing's crackdown against pro-democracy opposition in the city and further stokes concerns about media and other promised freedoms when it returned to China in 1997. China imposed the sweeping new security law on Hong Kong on June 30, drawing condemnation from Western countries.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he was "deeply troubled" by reports of the arrest, calling it further proof that the Chinese Communist Party had "eviscerated" Hong Kong's freedoms and eroded the rights of its people.

Comment: Hong Kong Free Press reports:
Live streams showed officers lining up staff members to check their identities after entering at around 9:45am, whilst other officers went desk-to-desk.


The raid comes hours after Jimmy Lai - the founder of Next Digital, which owns the tabloid - was arrested in his home on Monday morning. He was detained for allegedly "colluding" with foreign forces - a crime under the new national security law.

Senior superintendent of the national security department Steve Li told reporters outside the building that officers had conducted an initial review to see which departments or units of the newspaper firm they were entitled to search under the warrant.

He said the force would refrain from searching departments that handle news and journalistic materials.

However, footage showed police flipping through items on staff members' desks.

Li did not present the warrant to reporters but said it was placed inside the company's building for legal representatives to check: "I can say our search process has been smooth so far. We hope to complete it as soon as possible and not disturb the operation of this media company."

'Attack on press freedom'

The Democratic Party criticised the raid, saying the government is tightening freedom of the press on a large scale: "It is the first time the government arrested members of the press under the national security law. They raided offices of a news outlet and created a deterrent effect among the industry. Press freedom and freedom of speech promised in the Basic Law is precarious."

The head of the University of Hong Kong's journalism department also said the raid was an "outrageous, shameful attack on press freedom."

"With police raiding a newsroom and a handcuffed editor doing a perp walk, I would say HK as we knew it is already unrecognizable. These scenes are shocking. And shameful," he tweeted.

Jimmy Lai
© Apple Daily.
Officers outside Jimmy Lai's house on Monday.
In June, Beijing enacted laws to prevent, stop and punish behaviours in Hong Kong that it deemed a threat to national security. The legislation was inserted into the city's mini-constitution, bypassing the local legislature, in order to criminalise subversion, secession, foreign interference and terrorism. The move - which gives police sweeping new powers - alarmed democrats, civil society groups and trade partners, as such laws have been used broadly to silence and punish dissidents in China.

See also:


Attention

Putin and Russia face a very serious crisis in Belarus

belarus flag  Lukashenko
© 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.



Handcuffs

Kamala Harris is an oligarch's wet dream

kamala harris
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.

Comment: See also: