The Atlas Network’s main goal has been to spot and train global talent in the ultra free-market libertarian field and connect it to the free-flowing money that the alliance functions to assist. They now have at least 515 partner organisations in over 100 nations. Secrecy is key for the corporations and plutocrats funding this model, structuring replicating “think” tanks and funding academics and spin doctors to sell what the backers can’t say. Atlas and partners hate attention. We must not let them hide.

 

Secrecy and the climate disinformation industry   By Lucy Hamilton

 

The BBC and others keep revisiting Hamas crimes that day, but fail to report on growing evidence that Israel killed its own citizens, often in grotesque fashion

Middle East Eye – 15 December 2023

 

BY Jonathan Cook

 

Barely a day has passed since the 7 October attack by Hamas when the western media has not revisited those events, often to reveal what it claims are new details of astonishing atrocities carried out by the Palestinian group.

These disclosures have served to sustain public indignation in the West, and kept Palestinian solidarity activists on the back foot. 

We live on a small planet, a special environment that gave us life. The relationship between the environment, the evolution of this environment and our resultant comfort is undeniable. meanwhile we — superior monkeys that can read and write — have invented systems of dealing with each others, some based on nature, some based on delusions and comfort, in order to control what we do. 

 

We fight, we love, we disagree, we punish and we make friends.

We sometimes try to understand the world we live in as well as the systems we have devised in our wisdoms, but — apart from specialist geniuses — we are quite poor at grasping reality beyond a few basic tenets. We develop and maintain prejudices from the history of our place and of our people.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74Lyrdkhu-U

Bill Maher Should Have To Shut About Ukraine After Saying This!

 

It’s the eternal question when it comes to Bill Maher and foreign policy: is he really this dumb or just pretending? The latest discussion of the Ukraine War on his show did nothing to solve the debate as Bill brought on two uber-establishment shills from the mainstream media to regurgitate long-ago exhausted talking points about having to deter Russian aggression and not appeasing power-mad dictators.

Jimmy and Americans’ Comedian Kurt Metzger talk to Due Dissidence host Russell Dobular about Bill Maher’s thickness and why he’ll never bring on guests like Glenn Greenwald and Thomas Frank again...

 

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz convinced Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to leave the room where the bloc’s leaders were voting on whether to open negotiations with Ukraine about joining the EU, he confirmed to reporters on Saturday, admitting the controversial tactic could not serve as a “universal solution.” 

Scholz had told Orban “he should consider leaving the room briefly,” perhaps to “go grab a coffee outside” as negotiations over Ukraine’s accession to the EU dragged into a third hour in Brussels on Thursday, according to Politico. The absence of the Hungarian prime minister, a staunch opponent of EU membership for the nation he has described as “one of the most corrupt countries in the world,” allowed the bloc’s remaining members to approve the motion with the appearance of unanimity. 

I really didn’t want to write this article; I’d rather be saying something about the theological meaning of Christmas. Much safer.

But John Menadue wrote to me last week with a challenge: “It may look too dramatic, but it would be highly symbolic if the Pope went to Gaza to celebrate Mass on Christmas day … Perhaps he could be accompanied by leading Jewish and Muslim clerics. It would shock the world. Could you write it?”

 

Could Pope Francis provide some hope for peace in the Middle East?    By Paul Collins

 

Too easily seduced, I foolishly agreed to venture with my very limited knowledge into what is a highly complex geopolitical-religious situation!

Stretching for mile upon mile through desert, grasslands and even nature reserves, the US-Mexico border wall built over the years by successive governments does little to stop illegal immigration, claim its critics. However, it is cutting off wildlife, including endangered and threatened species, from vast expanses of their natural habitat, say wildlife experts, decreasing their chances of survival.

US-Mexico border wall: ‘Easily defeated’ by humans, disastrous for wildlife

https://www.france24.com/en/video/20231215-us-mexico-border-wall-easily-defeated-by-humans-disastrous-for-wildlife

 

REALLY??????

 

French President Emmanuel Macron has said he is open to renewed dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin if it leads to “lasting peace” in Ukraine, responding after Putin blamed Paris for deteriorating relations.

Addressing reporters after a meeting in Brussels on Friday, Macron claimed that Russia’s military operation in Ukraine had made discussions “virtually impossible,” but said he would again be willing to hold talks to bring an end to the conflict.

Antisemitism is an ancient European pastime. But post-World War II we have seen the birth of the Antisemitism Industry – people who have made it their job to call out antisemitism, even where it might not exist.

Last week, Israel’s ambassador to Australia Amir Maimon told The Guardian that he was ‘very sad’ about the rise in antisemitic incidents in Australia and urged the Federal Government to “take all necessary measures” to ensure people of different faiths and backgrounds feel safe.

Mr Maimon’s position was humane, unequivocal and broad ranging, covering Islamophobia and antisemitism.

Vivek Ramaswamy, a candidate for Republican nominee for US president in 2024, inspired accusations of taking the rightwing talking point about “draining the swamp” too literally when his microphone appeared to broadcast himself urinating during an X Space conversation with Elon Musk, Alex Jones, Andrew Tate, Matt Gaetz and others.

On the same day that Musk welcomed Jones – the notorious conspiracy theorist – back to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter that banned Jones in 2018 for abusive behavior, Musk invited him to speak with a constellation of far-right media figures and politicians.

The US House and Senate have passed a sweeping military spending bill worth more than $886 billion; it includes $300 million in additional aid for Ukraine. President Joe Biden is expected to sign the measure into law.

Congress voted 310 to 118 to approve the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) on Thursday, which also passed through the Senate in a 87-13 vote. The bill authorizes a wide range of military spending, from pay raises for troops to funds for new weapons, and represents a 3% increase in the US defense budget compared to last year.

US Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira was arrested in April for allegedly leaking classified documents in a Discord chat room. The docs included internal US evaluations of Ukraine’s military capabilities, besides other national security matters. The military intel disclosure is deemed one of the largest since the WikiLeaks release in 2010.

Volodymyr Zelensky’s top advisers warned the Ukrainian president against divulging war plans to US counterpart Joe Biden in September, The Washington Post reported.

US President Joe Biden’s son Hunter has refused to comply with a subpoena ordering him to testify before a Republican-led committee investigating his father’s involvement in his business dealings. House Republicans are expected to formalize impeachment proceedings against President Biden later on Wednesday.

The House Oversight Committee issued a subpoena to Hunter Biden last month, ordering the president’s son to testify at a closed-door hearing on Wednesday. Along with the House Judiciary Committee, the Oversight Committee is leading an impeachment probe against President Biden and has released evidence suggesting that Hunter took tens of millions of dollars from foreign clients in exchange for access to his father while the latter was vice president of the US.

I do not believe that anything I say about what is happening in Gaza will affect Israeli or American policy in that conflict. But I want to be on record so that when historians look back on this moral calamity, they will see that some Americans were on the right side of history.

 

Death and destruction in Gaza    By John J. Mearsheimer

 

With Ukraine's counteroffensive obviously failing, the United States has taken up a new rallying cry, which is to prevent Russian President Vladimir Putin from winning in Ukraine so that "NATO is not conquered," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

“After the collapse of the so-called counteroffensive, [people] in Washington stopped talking about Russia’s strategic defeat on the battlefield and, during Zelensky’s latest visit, activated a new mantra: 'don't let Putin win in Ukraine', otherwise all of NATO will be conquered and then America won't sit through it," Lavrov said during the “government hour” in the Federation Council, upper house of the Russian parliament.