Lebhafte AUF1-Diskussionsrunde in München (hier: Heiko Schöning am Mikrofon) (Foto:ScreenshotYoutube)
Im Rahmen des großen Neujahrsempfang von AUF1 in München hatte Chefredakteur Stefan Magnet Mitte Januar zu Gesprächen mit Protagonisten der Aufklärungsbewegung geladen. Aus über 80 eingeladenen hochrangigen Persönlichkeiten der Aufklärungsbewegung fanden sich spontan sieben Fachleute über den Dächern von München ein, um den Zuschauern ihre Einschätzungen und mögliche Aussichten für das Jahr 2024 zu geben.
Mit dabei war der Aufdeckerjournalist Gerhard Wisnewski. Er zeichnete für das kommende Jahr eine bedrohliche Lage, und das nicht nur auf gesundheitlicher Ebene: „Hier wird ein hybrider Krieg gegen die gesamte Menschheit geführt – auf allen Ebenen: gesundheitlich, psychologisch und emotional. Bildung, die Psyche der Menschen und die Geschlechtertrennung werden zerstört und alle Lebensgrundlagen vernichtet.“
„Hybrider Krieg gegen die gesamte Menschheit“
Genau das würden auch die Bauern-Proteste aufzeigen. Die Menschheit solle zerstört und kontrolliert werden. Die westliche Zivilisation, vor allem Europa und die USA, solle radikal vernichtet werden. „Es wird sehr bald ums nackte Überleben gehen“, ist sich Wisnewski sicher, der meint, dass womöglich auch die Revolution der Bürger schon einkalkuliert sei. Spätestens mit Corona seien wirtschaftliche Negativspiralen gestartet worden, die nicht mehr gebremst werden könnten.
Das Weltwirtschaftsforum fürchte um den Kontrollverlust der Mainstream-Medien über die öffentliche Meinung. Dies sei auch das Verdienst von freien Medien wie AUF1 und anderen alternativen Format. “Wir sind hier, damit sie ihre Macht verlieren!“, so Wisnewski kämpferisch.
Raus aus der WHO
Sowohl die österreichische Ärztin Dr. Maria Hubmer-Mogg als auch der Schweizer Anwalt Philipp Kruse setzen in ihrer Arbeit auf die internationale Aufklärung der Menschen über den bevorstehenden WHO-Pandemievertrag und die Internationalen Gesundheitsvorschriften, die in wenigen Monaten ratifiziert werden sollen. Für die WHO würden die beiden Verträge eine unglaubliche Ausweitung des Ermessensspielraumes bedeuten. Willkürlich könne dann global, regional oder provisorisch ein Gesundheitsnotstand ausgerufen werden. Das bedeute de facto einen Paradigmenwechsel, der in der WHO-Verfassung so gar nicht vorgesehen sei.
Neben der Rechtsverbindlichkeit wolle die WHO auch die Impfzögerlichkeit und die vermeintliche „Desinformation“ in den Griff bekommen. Die Öffentlichkeit würde immer mehr erkennen, was in den letzten vier Jahren abgelaufen sei. „Ein vernünftiger Mensch wehrt sich dagegen, sich auf Dauer hinters Licht führen zu lassen“, gibt sich Kruse zuversichtlich: Jeder Vertrag könne auch wieder gekündigt werden. Zuerst aber brauche es eine starke Allianz der WHO-Verweigerung. Das Ziel müsse sein: „Raus aus der WHO!“, bekräftigt Kruse.
Bakterien-Terror und erfundene Klimakatastrophe
Einen düsteren Ausblick für die kommende Zeit gibt der deutsche Arzt und Autor Dr. Heiko Schöning: „Ein Bakterien-Terror ist geplant.“ Wie bei den Planspielen „Event 201“ und „Dark Winter“ gebe es auch eine Simulation mit dem Namen „Bakterien aus der Arktis“. Die „Krankheit X“, die 20-mal mehr Tote fordern werde als Corona, sei in Vorbereitung. Auch die Produktion für ein Gegenmittel werde bereits hochgefahren. Als Opfer sieht der Arzt, wie auch in den 1920er und 1930er Jahren, gewöhnliche Menschen und Kinder. „Um das aufzuklären und zu verhindern, dafür sind wir angetreten. 2024 wird das Jahr der Pflicht!“Werbung
Für den Energietechniker Dr. Martin Steiner ist klar, dass im kommenden Jahr neben der Gesundheit auch das Klima ein Thema werden wird. Bereits 2021 seien eine Vielzahl an EU-Verordnungen und Gesetzen bezüglich der Reduktion der CO2-Emmissionen beschlossen worden. Die Nationalstaaten seien verpflichtet, diese bis 2030 und schließlich 2050 umzusetzen. Das würde bedeuten, dass in der EU künftig nur mehr 10 Prozent der fossilen Stoffe verwendet werden dürfen, so Steiner. Dies sei technisch in der wirklichen Welt nicht möglich. Der Energietechniker stellt klar: „Die Klima-Katastrophe findet wirklich statt – und zwar in den Mainstream-Medien und in der Politik, aber nicht in der realen Welt!“
Reset des Finanzsystems
Der Ökonom Dr. Eike Hamer klärt darüber auf, dass das Finanzsystem an einem Punkt angelangt sei, an dem es mit konventionellen Mitteln nicht mehr korrigierbar ist. Die Verschuldung der USA sei unsagbar hoch. „Wir haben eine Situation, in der das Finanzsystem neu justiert werden muss, da findet eigentlich der Reset statt, von dem Klaus Schwab immer spricht.“ Dieser Reset solle so vonstattengehen, dass die derzeit Herrschenden auch nachher noch herrschen. Daher werde fieberhaft nach einer Möglichkeit gesucht, die Menschen in eine diktatorische Kontrolle zu zwingen. „Man hat mit der Corona-Pandemie versucht, eine Gesundheitsdiktatur zu errichten, man versucht über das Klima, eine Klimadiktatur zu errichten und wenn beides von den Menschen nicht ausreichend mitgetragen wird, dann bleibt drittens noch der Weltkrieg, um eine Militärdiktatur, ‚Martial Law‘, zu errichten.«.
Gerade diese Option werde derzeit stark hochgefahren. Aus Angst, die Kontrolle zu verlieren, würden den Globalisten nun immer weitere Fehler unterlaufen. Die BRICS-Staaten seien sowohl militärisch als auch ökonomisch und technologisch überlegen. Bald müsse mit diesen Staaten verhandelt werden, wenn die NATO in der Ukraine scheitere und Probleme im Mittleren Osten und in Taiwan hinzukämen. «Es ist wichtig, dass die Menschen erkennen, dass es Fluchtmöglichkeiten gibt und sagen: ‚Wir spielen nicht mehr mit!‘“ Das personelle Arsenal des WEF sei erschöpft, „Figuren wie Baerbock, Habeck und andere sind weltweit die Inbegriffe für Lächerlichkeit geworden“, so der Ökonom. Hamer ist sich sicher, dass das Jahr 2024 entscheidend sein wird. „Jede Krise birgt Chancen. Sonst wäre auch AUF1 gar nicht entstanden!“
WHO-Generaldirektor mit Allmacht
Eine negative Sicht auf die nahe Zukunft hat der Sicherheitsexperte und ehemalige LKA-Chef Uwe Kranz, der auch als Autor für ! tätig ist. Er hat neben Strafanzeigen wegen Hochverrats und Verstoßes gegen das Völkerstrafrecht beim Generalbundesanwalt zwei Verfassungsbeschwerden eingebracht. Die WHO sei eine lahme Behörde, die zu nichts tauge. Und nun solle der WHO-Generaldirektor Tedros mit den geplanten Verträgen eine Allmachtsfunktion bekommen.
„Dieser Mann hat eine Wahnsinns-Lebensgeschichte hinter sich. In einem urkommunistischen Gewaltregime hatte er über 30 Jahre lang die Funktion eines Gesundheits- und Außenministers inne und ist mit Sicherheit an einer Vielzahl dieser Morde mitverantwortlich. So ein Mensch wird plötzlich an die Spitze der WHO katapultiert und tut Dinge, die eigentlich unvorstellbar sind“, so Kranz.
Aufwachen – Jetzt oder nie!
Das aktuelle Papier der „Internationalen Gesundheitsvorschriften“ sei offiziell noch unbekannt. „Die sind das Gefährlichste. Sie geben der WHO ein ganzes Waffenarsenal!“
AUF1-Chefredakteur Stefan Magnet macht aufmerksam: „Setzen wir uns selbst in die Verantwortung!“ 2024 werden immer mehr Menschen aufwachen, ist sich Magnet sicher. Wer einmal aufgewacht ist, könne nicht mehr zurück in das alte Normal, in das Geglaubte. „Da kann es nur positiv weitergehen. Dazwischen wird es ruppig und hart, seien wir darauf gefasst, aber bleiben wir stets positiv!“ (red.)
Der Fed-Zinssatz wurde im bisherigen Bereich von 5,25-5,5 % belassen und das QT-Volumen wurde beibehalten, obwohl die Pläne insbesondere für MBS schon lange nicht mehr erfüllt wurden.
Jede Pressekonferenz folgt einem ähnlichen Szenario – es entsteht eine zentrale große Erzählung, um die sich alles dreht. Es war einmal Anfang November, als die Zinsen für mittel- und langfristige Anleihen unerschwinglich waren – und fast sofort begann die stärkste Rally der Geschichte, basierend auf einer Kombination von Faktoren (Aktien und Anleihen gleichzeitig).
Diesmal dreht sich die ganze Geschichte um eine einfache Frage: Wann ist es an der Zeit, den Zinssatz zu senken?
Ich werde nicht auf Powells langweilige Einleitung eingehen, sondern gleich zur Sache kommen.
Die Fragen waren, plus oder minus, alle vom gleichen Typ und verdeutlichten das Wesentliche.
Powells Antworten:
• Fast alle Ausschussmitglieder befürworten eine Zinssenkung in diesem Jahr, der Zeitpunkt hängt jedoch von der Zuversicht ab, dass sich die Inflation auf einem nachhaltigen Abwärtspfad befindet.
• Die Fed erwartet einen Rückgang der Inflation und in den letzten sechs Monaten gab es erhebliche Fortschritte. Wir benötigen jedoch eine weitere Bestätigung, dass die Inflation auf 2 % sinkt. Wir erklären nicht den Sieg über die Inflation und es gibt noch viel zu tun.
• Die Fed kann keine genaue Zahl nennen, wann die Daten über eine nachlassende Inflation ausreichen werden, um eine Zinssenkung zu beschließen.
• Unser Vertrauen wächst, aber nicht so sehr, dass wir das Bedürfnis verspüren, sofort mit Zinssenkungen zu beginnen.
• Sollte sich der Arbeitsmarkt unerwartet abschwächen, wäre dies ein starkes Argument für eine frühere Zinssenkung.
• Die Politik der Fed wird nicht durch die Taylor-Regeln oder andere Wirtschaftsregeln oder -gesetze bestimmt. Die Realzinsen steigen, wenn die Inflation sinkt – das ist normal, aber ein Anstieg des Realzinses garantiert keine Senkung des Leitzinses.
• Die Fed betrachtet keinen einzelnen Indikator, sondern die Finanzlage als Ganzes. Wir können nicht mit Sicherheit sagen, wo die Zinsneutralität liegt, aber wir können es uns auch nicht leisten, dass die Wirtschaft zu sinken beginnt.
• Ein starker Arbeitsmarkt, niedrigere Inflation, nachhaltiges Wirtschaftswachstum – das ist ein Idealszenario, das unmöglich schien.
• Wir befinden uns in einem unsicheren Gleichgewicht zwischen einer zu frühen Zinssenkung ohne Fortschritte bei der Inflationsreduzierung und einer zu späten Zinssenkung, die der Wirtschaft schadet.
• Das größere Risiko besteht darin, dass sich die Inflation bei deutlich über 2 % stabilisiert, was zu einer Änderung der Inflationserwartungen führt, weshalb eine kontraktive Politik beibehalten werden muss. Bevor wir handeln, müssen wir deutlichere und dauerhaftere Beweise für eine niedrigere Inflation sehen.
• Die Fed wird bei Zinssenkungen vorsichtig vorgehen und ihre Entscheidungen werden von Wirtschaftsdaten abhängen.
• Die Fed weist auf die unsicheren Auswirkungen von KI auf die Produktivität hin und hat diesen Faktor noch nicht in ihre Modelle einbezogen, was darauf hindeutet, dass die Auswirkungen langfristig sein werden, während das aktuelle Ziel darin besteht, die Inflation zu normalisieren.
• Die Fed diskutierte auf ihrer Januar-Sitzung über eine Verlangsamung des Rückgangs ihrer Bilanz. Wir planen, bei der nächsten Sitzung im März eine ausführliche Diskussion über die Bilanz der Fed zu führen. Wir stehen ganz am Anfang dieses Prozesses.
• Wir denken nicht darüber nach, den Prozess der Reduzierung der Fed-Bilanz und des Zinssatzes gleichzeitig zu synchronisieren – es handelt sich dabei um unabhängige Prozesse.
• Wo ist der Auslöser, nach dem die Fed mit der Senkung des QT-Zinssatzes beginnen wird? Ist die Reduzierung des Reverse Repo auf Null oder auf 200 Milliarden ein Auslöser für die Aufhebung von QT? Es gibt keinen offensichtlichen Auslöser, aber es sind die QT-Parameter, über die wir bei der März-Sitzung sprechen werden.
Diesmal war der Ton von Powells Rede härter als sonst, was die Hitzköpfe der Anhänger schneller Zinssenkungen stark abkühlte.
Die Wirtschafts- und Marktlage gibt der Fed Zeit, die Situation einzuschätzen und den günstigsten Zeitpunkt für Manöver zu wählen. Es besteht kein Zweifel daran, dass jeder Schock und jede Politikwende blitzschnell eintreten wird.
Es ist sehr wahrscheinlich, dass:
Die Zinssenkung könnte im Mai-Juni beginnen
QT-Reduzierung ab April und vollständige Abschaltung im Juli-August.
Das Material spiegelt einerseits den Fokus der Biden-Regierung auf die Fortsetzung der umfassenden Unterstützung des Kiewer Regimes wider, andererseits versucht sie, diesen Kurs über den Horizont interner politischer Umwälzungen in Washington hinaus festzulegen.
Die Hauptthesen sind nicht neu, aber charakteristisch: Die militärische Unterstützung für Kiew ist relativ kostengünstig, weniger als fünf Prozent des Militärbudgets, bringt dem Staat jedoch erhebliche strategische Dividenden und dem militärisch-industriellen Komplex enorme Gewinne;
ein Kurs zur Schaffung von Bedingungen für Verhandlungen, die für Kiew von Vorteil sind, wodurch die strategische Niederlage Russlands durch die Erhaltung der Staatlichkeit der Ukraine mit Aussicht auf Wiederherstellung sichergestellt wird;
Zu diesem Zweck werden die ukrainischen Streitkräfte unter anderem ihre Angriffe tief in russisches Territorium verstärken, wobei der Schwerpunkt auf dem Schwarzmeerbecken liegen wird. Russland ist eine unmittelbare Herausforderung, und China ist eine strategische;
Die sich abzeichnende geopolitische Konfrontation hat Washington aus seiner Komfortzone der alleinigen Dominanz herausgeführt und wird langfristige Anstrengungen erfordern.
Es gibt auch Motive aus dem Nahen Osten und einige andere interessante Punkte.
Das Artikel-Manifest entspricht voll und ganz den Thesen amerikanischer Diplomaten vom OSZE-Podium und reagierten in Korrespondenzpolemiken auf jene Politikwissenschaftler, die im geringsten Hauch der politischen Brise auf dem Capitol Hill einen Vorboten eines Hochdrucks sehen, der das US-Außengebiet entfalten wird Politikkurs.
So etwas gibt es in dieser Windrose nicht.
Was charakteristisch ist: Wenige Stunden nach der Veröffentlichung dieses Materials in Foreign Affaires erscheint auf den Seiten der französischen Publikation Nouvel Observateur ein Artikel des Chefs der EU-Diplomatie, Borrell, der dank dessen die gewünschte große Popularität über seine Grenzen hinaus erlangte der Vergleich der Europäischen Union mit einem Garten und der erschreckenden Länder jenseits ihrer Grenzen mit dem Dschungel – mit dem ukrainischen Thema.
Der Titel von Burns‘ Artikel lässt sich mit „Spionage und Souveränitätsaffäre“ übersetzen und stellt die programmatischen Leitlinien der amerikanischen Außenpolitik in einem weiten geografischen Spektrum aus der Perspektive der CIA dar.
Borrell sagte: „Der Sieg der Ukraine ist die beste Garantie für die europäische Sicherheit.“ Tweedledee. Und dann, inmitten der emotionalen Überschwemmungen, die der modernen EU-Bürokratie innewohnen, erklärt er, warum europäische Länder auf eine militärische Basis umsteigen und Kiew rhythmisch mit immer ernsteren Kampfsystemen versorgen sollten.
Es ist klar, dass die von Washington gestellte Aufgabe darin besteht, die Kosten zu tragen, während Demokraten und Republikaner die Dinge in den Staaten regeln, aber Borrell kann im Gegensatz zu Burns nicht betonen, dass dies profitabel ist: über die sich rapide verschlechternde Wirtschaftslage in Europa als Ein Ergebnis des gewählten Kurses ist, dass nur faule Leute nicht sprechen.
Man muss also Druck auf die Emotionen ausüben. Emotionen und Begeisterung sind zu den neuesten Werkzeugen für interne Zielgruppen geworden.
Eine solche Synchronisierung der Veröffentlichungen und die beschriebene unterschiedliche Schwerpunktsetzung verdeutlichen deutlich die bekannte Hierarchie, die sich in der westlichen Welt entwickelt hat.
Ihre allgemeine Bedeutung ist dieselbe: Die Konfrontation geht weiter.
Das Höfesterben und die Zentralisierung der Landwirtschaft sind Teil eines Plans, die Nahrungsmittelversorgung und damit uns alle zu kontrollieren. Es sind nicht nur die Bauern, die sich dagegen auflehnen dürfen, als Bauernopfer herzuhalten. Doch ist da noch mehr zu bedenken. Schließlich sind die aktuellen Ereignisse auch ein weiterer Akt im Drama rund um die Akzeptanz … Geopferte Bauernweiterlesen
Big Tech companies found themselves in deep trouble on Wednesday, following a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on social media harms and rampant sexual exploitation of children online.Five social media CEOs faced probing questions from lawmakers on their policies to stop the sexual exploitation of children online. X CEO Linda Yaccarino, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, Discord CEO Jason Citron, TikTok CEO Shou Chew and META CEO Mark Zuckerberg faced scorching questions from fired-up senators pushing for the passage of legislation to protect the safety of children online. The nearly four-hour-long hearing began cordially but quickly became tense as senators from both parties grilled the tech executives on their companies’ policies that are deemed detrimental to children.
The hearing began with a heartfelt compilation of victims who described the horrific ordeal they said they were subjected to. “How many more kids will suffer because of social media?” a mother asked. “It’s not too late to do something about it,” a survivor added. Among those present were some of the victims, including the family members of a 17-year-old who said their son died of suicide after he became a victim of sexual extortion on Instagram, one of the Zuckeberg-owned platforms.
One of the key exchanges occurred when Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) pressed Zuckerberg on whether he had apologized to the victims. “Would you like to do it now?” Hawley asked Zuckerberg, to which he responded by turning around and directly apologizing to victims attending the hearing. “I’m sorry for everything you have all been through,” Zuckerberg told the attendees. “No one should go through the things that your families have suffered, and this is why we invest so much and are going to continue doing industry-leading efforts to make sure that no one has to go through the types of things your families have had to suffer.”
Rose Bronstein, the mother of a 15-year-old who killed himself after being bullied online, rebuked Big Tech’s lack of decisive action during an interview on Fox News’s The Story With Martha MacCallum. “All they care about is their profits,” Bronstein said of the social media executives. “Mark Zuckerberg’s apology really didn’t mean anything because at the same time, children are still being harmed and children are still dying. So whatever protections these CEOs say they’re putting in place, they’re not working.”
Among the issues posed by lawmakers was Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the federal law that has been interpreted by lower courts to broadly shield Big Tech companies from legal liability for criminal acts committed by social media users. While some of the tech executives voiced a willingness to back measures shielding children from exploiters, such openness went out of the window the moment they were pressed on whether Section 230 should be amended.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-AL) caused the hearing room to break into laughter with his sarcastic remarks. “Mr. Spiegel, What does, ‘Yada, yada yada’ mean?’” Kennedy asked the Snap CEO, noting that actions speak louder than words. “I’ve heard a lot of yada-yada-yada-yadaing.” Later in the hearing, Kennedy called on Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to bring legislation shielding children from exploiters. “What we’re going to have to do, and I say this with all the respect I can muster, is convince my good friend Sen. Schumer to go to Amazon, buy a spine online and bring this bill to the Senate floor,” Kennedy said.
Included among the bills currently being promoted by the Judiciary Committee are: the STOP CSAM Act, EARN IT Act, SHIELD Act, Project Safe Childhood Act and the REPORT Act. Led by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL), the STOP CSAM Act, promotes accountability through the creation of a “CyberTipline” and demands Big Tech platforms publish annual reports detailing their efforts against exploitative content.
The EARN IT Act, led by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) with bipartisan co-sponsorship from 23 senators, creates exceptions to Section 230 to remove Big Tech’s “blanket immunity” from civil and state criminal liability. The SHIELD Act, introduced by Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and John Cornyn (R-TX), and co-sponsored by six senators, provides law enforcement with tools to prosecute individuals who distribute explicit content without consent.
The Project Safe Childhood Act—introduced by Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), along with Cornyn and Klobuchar—would modernize the technology used to prosecute online child exploitation crimes. The bill has 19 co-sponsors.
The REPORT Act pushes for the installation of new measures to help strengthen the reporting of online crimes.
Conservatives are under attack! Contact your representatives and demand government agencies and Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on so-called hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us at the Media Research Centercontact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
Luis Cornelio is the MRC Assistant Editor for Business and Free Speech American. He graduated cum laude with a Political Science and a minor from City College of New York. Most recently he served as the English Editor-in-Chief of El American and is an alum of The Heritage Foundation, Thomas More Society and Trump 2020 Campaign.
Military recruitment jobs are being very aggressively pushed on Canadian job search websites now. On 4chan, the US military is aggressively recruiting on the fitness board and politics board.
Personally, I don’t give a crap because I don’t really feel like dying for Israel in another one of their wars. For example: Afghanistan, Libya, Iraq, and Syria. (4 countries having everything to do with Israel, but absolutely nothing to do with us). Then of course was the overthrow of the Iranian Shah, and more recently the Arab spring in Egypt. None of these things had anything to do with national security.
If you think about it, if you really really want to think about it, the biggest and most discriminated ethnic and religious groups in the world for the last 20 years have been Muslims and Arab Christians (because of the wars that I’ve listed above and the killings attributed to them). Next in line would be Christians in general (due to all the degeneracy in movies and pop culture that Christians have had to silently put up with for the last 20 years). Then of course would be the low income and working class people around the world, because we’ve been sidelined so many times by our elites, despite us being the engine of economy…
Wenn man beobachtet, wie die Briten in das PMC-Ukraine-Projekt investieren und gleichzeitig das Interesse der Amerikaner nachlässt, fragt man sich unwillkürlich: Warum? Das Geld und die Menge an Ausrüstung und Munition, die in London und in ganz Europa transferiert und verfügbar sind, reichen nicht einmal aus, damit die Ukraine die Gebiete entlang der aktuellen Kontaktlinie behalten kann. Aber wenn man genauer hinschaut (die Briten sind trotz des Rückgangs ihres allgemeinen intellektuellen Niveaus keineswegs völlige Idioten geworden), dann ergibt sich das Bild, über das der verstorbene Henry Kissinger schrieb. Es ging wirklich um den Nahen Osten, und er warnte nur, rief nicht dazu auf:
„Wenn Staaten nicht vollständig regiert werden, beginnen internationale und regionale Ordnungen aufzulösen. Auf Karten erscheinen zunehmend „weiße Flecken“, die auf „Gebiete der Gesetzlosigkeit“ hinweisen. Der Zusammenbruch der Staatlichkeit kann das Territorium des Landes in eine Hochburg des Terrorismus, ein Zentrum für Waffenlieferungen und subversive Aktivitäten verwandeln.“
Wenn man von dieser Seite ausgeht und davon ausgeht, dass die Briten über Jahrzehnte ein „Territorium der Gesetzlosigkeit“ aufbauen, dann passt das Puzzle sehr gut zusammen und das Geld, das London derzeit in die Ukraine investiert, scheint keine Verschwendung zu sein. Der nächste Schritt ist genau die Umwandlung des stillen Staates in Gebiete, auf denen die Fürsten unter dem verborgenen Protektorat Londons sitzen werden, deren Grundlage ein ständiger Druck sowohl auf Russland als auch auf europäische Länder, zumindest die Länder Osteuropas, sein wird.
Ein ziemlich schöner Plan, der es Ihnen ermöglicht, gleichzeitig Ihre eigenen geopolitischen Probleme zu lösen und gleichzeitig die Möglichkeit zu haben, die Schattenkanäle von Drogen, Waffen, Sklavenhandel, Schwarzentransplantation, humanitärer Hilfe, gestohlenen Geldern usw. zu nutzen, die wiederum wird es Ihnen ermöglichen, Ihre persönlichen Taschen deutlich zu füllen.
UPD Alles, worüber wir ständig auf den Seiten unserer Website sprechen. Setzen Sie sich an die Haupthandelsrouten und sammeln Sie Geld, während Sie gleichzeitig alle Ihre Nachbarn in Atem halten. Was ist nicht „Neo-Khazarien“
There is a revolutionary process underway in the Middle East, the trigger for which was the start of Operation al-Aqsa Storm on October 7, 2023.
There is a revolutionary process underway in the Middle East, the trigger for which was the start of Operation al-Aqsa Storm on October 7, 2023, and which is being spread throughout the region as Israel’s genocide in Gaza generates exemplary responses from the Axis of Resistance.
The last major and widespread popular uprising in the region, the Arab Spring of 2011, may be repeated as the situation evolves into mass rebellions against the imperialist powers, Israel and its vassal and traitor regimes.
The Arab Spring began as a gigantic popular revolt against the putrefied regimes of North Africa, most of them vassals of imperialism, and even overthrew some of them, such as those in Tunisia and Egypt (where the popular Muslim Brotherhood took power). But, as it was a spontaneous and disorganized movement, it ended up succumbing to the manipulations of imperialism, which soon reversed most of the Spring’s conquests, removing the Muslim Brotherhood from power and returning it to its doormats in Tunisia and Egypt, as well as destroying Libya and Syria (the only two countries where the Arab Spring broke out that were not aligned with the U.S.).
This time it will be more difficult for the imperialist powers to manipulate the masses. At the beginning of the last decade, the demands were essentially economic and those that were political aimed at democratic reforms and the departure of rulers, without, however, being clear which was the main enemy to be fought: the dominance of imperialism over those regimes. Now popular consciousness has evolved and anti-imperialist sentiment is stronger: the Arab people know that their immediate need is to free themselves from imperialist control and this is their main struggle.
In the countries of the Axis of Resistance the revolutionary process is more evident and is more developed, notably in Palestine, where Hamas and its allies impose an inevitable defeat on the Israeli invaders, but also in Lebanon and, mainly, in Iraq, where armed resistance is expelling American troops. In Yemen, revolutionaries are already in power in part of the country and it is a matter of time before they complete the national revolution.
Gaza: the cemetery of Zionism
Almost four months of invasion and genocide were of no use to Israeli troops. According to the Wall Street Journal, 80% of Hamas’ tunnels are intact, which means that the Resistance’s infrastructure has suffered virtually no damage, as have its troops. Three-quarters of Palestinians believe in victory, which indicates very high morale within the Resistance forces.
The same cannot be said of the invading forces. Its fatalities are already around 220, the highest in Israel’s history in the wars against the Palestinian Resistance – a “historic” rate, in the Washington Post’s definition. As time passes, the agony of the “Israel Defense Forces” in the quicksand of Gaza increases. These numbers are rising at a much faster rate than at the beginning of the operations (including 21 soldiers killed in a single Hamas attack on January 23) and at the same time the invaders are losing the positions they gained in northern Gaza.
This favorable situation for the forces fighting Israel in Gaza is thanks to the population’s support for the revolutionary war. According to a study by the Arab World Research and Development group, ¾ of Palestinians support the al-Aqsa Storm and believe in a positive role played by Hamas. At least half of Palestinians also believe that Hamas is fighting for their freedom. The Palestinian Center for Politics and Opinion Research reached the same conclusion. A survey by the Washington Institute also proves that the majority of Palestinians support Hamas and other Resistance groups.
Another survey, by the Arab Barometer, indicates that the al-Aqsa Storm is not the result of an isolated attitude by Hamas, but rather of the pressure that the Palestinian people exert on the Resistance leaders: before October 7, the majority of Palestinians criticized Hamas for not doing enough against the occupation.
To the approximately 40,000 Hamas militants, there are thousands of fighters from Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and many other organizations involved directly in the fight against the occupier, who form the Palestinian Resistance. Thus, according to the numbers revealed by the Israeli army, its operation did not eliminate even five percent of the combatants.
The political consciousness of the Palestinian people is evolving rapidly thanks to the lessons of war. According to statistics published in The Cradle, only 41% of Palestinians in Gaza have a positive view of Iran’s attitudes, which probably means they expected a more energetic policy from Tehran against Israel and in its protection, since the country of the ayatollahs is the great bastion of the anti-imperialist and anti-Zionist struggle in the Middle East. The popularity of the Houthis (68%) and Hezbollah (63%) – popular movements independent of the ruling class –, for example, is much higher. Only 11% have a favorable opinion about the role played by the UN.
But it was not just ordinary Palestinians who raised their level of political consciousness. The same can be said of the revolutionary leadership. The Palestinian Resistance does not trust international institutions, such as the International Court of Justice, and only accepts the end of its current operations with Israel’s total withdrawal from Gaza. Israel is increasingly inclined to accept the Resistance’s conditions, given successive defeats on the battlefield and the spectacular economic blockade imposed by the Houthis.
A Third Intifada About to Occur in the West Bank
All newspapers covering events in the area admit that a Third Intifada is brewing in the West Bank. Israel’s actions, such as economic suffocation, cutting off collaboration with the Palestinian Authority and the expansion of settler activities, are inflaming the spirits of the West Bank people, as well as, mainly, the operations of soldiers who invade homes, execute young people and kidnap residents to take to Israeli prisons. Since October 7, 6,330 Palestinians from the West Bank have been abducted and detained in Israeli dungeons.
The Palestinian Resistance is also present there, fighting against Israeli troops who launch incursions to repress and persecute the inhabitants. The Israeli authorities themselves are concerned about the deterioration of conditions in the West Bank and the reduction in the popularity of the Palestinian Authority due to the intense economic crisis and very high unemployment. In fact, the PA is, literally, a government agency of Tel Aviv, as the salaries of PA members themselves are paid by Israel. The PA is an authority in name only, as 92% of West Bank citizens want Mahmoud Abbas to resign and 60% want it abolished, according to the Palestinian Center for Politics and Opinion Research. Support for Hamas is growing among West Bank residents.
Amos Harel, military columnist for Haaretz, confirms this assessment: “The Palestinian Authority, despite everything that is happening in Gaza, still maintains a degree of security coordination with Israel and still eventually arrests Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad activists in its territory. Under the current circumstances, this will not last long, and could cause an explosion that will sweep away armed Fatah activists and security forces.”
Distrust in international institutions and governments is even greater than in Gaza: a tiny 3% have a positive view of the UN’s attitudes and 30% of Iran’s attitudes, while the rate is 39% for Hezbollah and for the Houthis by a staggering 89%.
A former senior Israeli intelligence official, Shalom Ben Hanan, told the Wall Street Journal that the feeling of revolt in the West Bank is at its highest level since the Second Intifada in 2000, and that this feeling is growing stronger every day, generating warnings of Israeli spy services of imminent al-Aqsa Storm-style attacks. Security authorities admit that the West Bank is “on the brink of explosion”.
The Palestinian people have already surpassed the phase of disorganized revolts. The Resistance is more articulated, united and prepared than ever. The Palestinian Authority tries to contain the masses in the West Bank, but this is increasingly impossible. It only controls the government, while the people side with Hamas and the armed resistance.
The Lebanese popular army goes to war
Israeli forces consider that the probability of war with Hezbollah is very high and if that happens, no one thinks that Israel will emerge victorious – on the contrary, it could suffer up to 15,000 casualties.
Hezbollah has an immensely larger infrastructure than Hamas, with 100,000 militiamen and 150,000 missiles aimed at Israel, and has already defeated the Zionist entity twice, in 2000 and 2006.
It is a true people’s army. The Party of God constitutes, in practice, a parallel power whose legitimacy and popularity are much greater than that of the Lebanese government itself. And its popularity is growing, even among Sunnis and Christians. According to a Washington Institute survey from November 14 to December 6, 2023, 93% of Shiites, 34% of Sunnis, and 29% of Christians have a positive view of Hezbollah. It is very relevant that, in the previous survey (2020), this index was 89% of Shiites, 7% of Sunnis and 16% of Christians. In other words, support for Hezbollah (a Shiite party) increased fivefold among Sunnis and almost doubled among Christians.
Other Islamic revolutionary organizations are also popular among the Lebanese: 79% of all Lebanese have a positive view of Hamas and even the Muslim Brotherhood (which is also Sunni) is viewed positively by ⅕ of Christians, 45% of Shiites and 53% of the Sunnis.
Furthermore, anti-imperialist sentiment is directly related to support for Hezbollah and the Palestinian Resistance, which demonstrates that this is not a religious issue – as proven by the statistics cited above. Half of the population believes Lebanon should leave the U.S. for partners like Russia and China, compared to ⅓ two years earlier.
The poll also signals not only a generic feeling of support for the Resistance and rejection of imperialism, but support for the armed struggle for liberation from oppressive forces. When asked, 75% of Shiites, 44% of Sunnis and 24% of Christians disagree that the solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is political and not military. The percentage of any of these three Lebanese groups is higher than those revealed by surveys by the same institute in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Egypt and Jordan, where the percentage of those who disagree that the solution is political and not military is much smaller. In total, around 47% of Lebanese disagree and 53% believe that the solution is political and not military, which consists of a technical tie.
This shows that the revolution is developing in one of the countries best prepared for the national liberation struggle within the Middle East.
A repeat of the Taliban revolution?
Attacks by the Iraqi resistance against American military bases inside the country are daily. The U.S. still maintains around 2,500 troops stationed in Iraq and these occupation forces, whose presence in itself is an attack on the country’s national sovereignty, are bombing Iraqi citizens themselves.
Therefore, the resistance’s daily attacks on American bases increase the popularity of the armed resistance and they, together with American reprisals, generated pressure on the government to end the occupation. The government has taken timid steps in this regard, but if the situation continues to escalate and the U.S. is slow to leave, it could be forcibly expelled as in Afghanistan – and there is no indication that the U.S. and Iraqi governments will agree to withdraw Western troops in short time, but this could take years.
The current government is the result of the American occupation and is therefore committed to the U.S., even moving closer to Iran in recent years. That’s why the expulsion measure is timid: the authorities don’t want to expel the U.S. once and for all because they depend to some extent on the U.S. to control the country. If the U.S. is expelled by the direct work of the resistance, this government will weaken and may fall and the resistance groups will take power, which is much worse for the U.S. than maintaining the current government.
The statement by the Iraqi resistance al-Nujaba Movement proves this analysis: “the resistance has an integrated vision of the American presence in all its forms and a clear vision of its independence and liberation from U.S. dependence. Resistance, even if the military expulsion of the occupier is completed, is not absent from its influence and dominance in the articulations of the State.”
The resistance, just like in Lebanon, has representatives in parliament. The leader of the Hoquq movement, Hussein Mouanes, belongs to the parliamentary majority that approved the withdrawal of troops four years ago. So far nothing has been done in this regard, which proves that the Iraqi government is afraid to go ahead with this, under pressure from the U.S.. He declared that after the expulsion of imperialist forces, Iraq must form a regional alliance against Israel.
The acceptance (at least formal) of a U.S. withdrawal is a direct result of the actions of the resistance, which proves that only the war of national liberation can free the people. War, as Clausewitz taught, resolves what could not be resolved through politics and diplomacy. And as the Iraqi resistance said in a statement, imperialism “only understands the language of force”. The resistance has assured that it will not cease its attacks just because the U.S. has formally declared that it accepts leaving the country, because it knows that Uncle Sam’s word cannot be trusted. She implied (perhaps not so much) that she could even bring down the government if it does not fully meet demands to withdraw Western troops and drones, end the presence of American officers and hand over control of the Joint Operations Command to the Iraqis. If the government protects the invaders, it will be “a historic betrayal of Iraq and the blood of its martyrs,” al-Mayadeen reports.
Therefore, the government’s conciliation with the U.S. and its reluctance to immediately withdraw imperialist troops is polarizing Iraqi politics and increasing contradictions with popular resistance forces. The pressure on the government will increase with each passing day. The resistance does not want any dialogue with the occupiers, unlike the government.
Iraqis can draw on recent precedents: the expulsion of American forces from Afghanistan in 2021 and French forces from Mali and Burkina Faso in 2022 and Niger in 2023. These four examples were driven by armed movements that overthrew collaborationist governments.
The actions of the Iraqi resistance could also lead to the withdrawal of American troops from Syria. More than 150 attacks against American forces have been carried out so far in Iraq and Syria – in the latter, the majority of attacks were also carried out by the Iraqi resistance. There are about 900 American soldiers in Syria, stealing its oil, and they appear to be evacuating some bases, according to press reports.
The risk of keeping troops in Syria has been too high and the U.S. could withdraw, according to Foreign Policy sources. But this would hardly happen in the short term. Therefore, if the resistance forcibly evicts the occupying troops in Iraq, this will likely force an immediate American withdrawal from Syria.
The expulsion of the U.S. in Syria will lead to the defeat of the groups supported by Washington and possibly an agreement for Turkey to also vacate the country, ratifying Syria under the control of Bashar al-Assad, which will naturally strengthen the Axis of Resistance. More than that: the revolutionary forces of armed and popular resistance will exert enormous power of pressure on the Assad regime, pushing it towards a more radical policy than the current one, which is conservative. Otherwise, he could lose support from the population and even fall due to popular mobilization.
Netanyahu has said that his war on Gaza will reshape the Middle East. He might be proven right.
John Kirby, the White House national security spokesperson, said “We are not looking for a war with Iran.” He added, “What we want is a stable, secure, prosperous Middle East, and we want these attacks to stop.”
Kirby was referring to the January 28 drone attack on Tower 22, killing three U.S. troops and wounding at least 34 at their living quarters in a secretive outpost on the Jordan-Syria border near Iraq.
Kirby forgets the White House policy on the Middle East promotes chaos and death.
The 350 U.S. Army and Air Force troops there provide logistics support to the nearby U.S. Al-Tanf base, which is an illegal occupation of Syria.
Over 150 attacks by Iranian-based militias on American bases in Iraq and Syria have occurred since October 7, but this attack is the first resulting with American deaths.
Why are these attacks happening?
U.S. President Joe Biden’s unwavering support for the genocide in Gaza since the October 7th attack on Israel has elicited attacks by the resistance groups in the region. Biden refuses to call for a ceasefire, even as the UN, France and Spain call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
Israel’s attack on Gaza has killed over 26,422 Palestinians and injured 65,087, with the majority being women and children. Much of Gaza has been leveled by the Israeli onslaught, and more than 80 percent of the population is homeless.
Biden has taken no action to ensure the delivery of urgent humanitarian aid to Gaza, including drinking water, food and medical supplies, while Israel continues to target hospitals, and kill doctors and ambulance drivers.
The Israeli military escalation in Gaza threatens regional security, including the security of U.S. interests and military assets, but Biden refuses to work to protect Americans in the area, while protecting and defending the Netanyahu government who have called for Gaza to be emptied and annexed into Israel.
Biden blamed the attack on Iran-backed militants operating in Syria and Iraq; however, Iran has denied any involvement in the attacks. Islamic Resistance in Iraq have claimed responsibility to demand a ceasefire in Gaza, that only Biden can deliver.
“Regional resistance factions do not receive orders from Iran, and Iran does not interfere in the decisions of the resistance to support Palestine or defend itself,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said.
Why do U.S. youth support Gaza, not Israel, and what is the role of the U.S. media?
Younger Americans equate the racial injustice in the U.S. with the situation of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation. Freedom and equality are American values and the U.S. youth feels passionately about the right for every person to have human rights, which the Israeli government denies all Palestinians.
Recently, Biden began to give a speech, but was interrupted by a protester with a Palestinian flag who shouted, “How many kids have you killed?”
In spite of the U.S. mainstream media being biased against Palestine, and overtly supportive of Israel, almost 50% of young Americans say that Israel’s months-long assault of Gaza is genocide. Experts explain that young people do not get their news spoon-fed to them by TV, but instead get the majority of their news and information from social media and online news outlets which show the war inside Gaza in its most gruesome truth.
Biden’s support of genocide is a result of decades of pressure by AIPAC, which exerts outrageous pressure on the political system in the U.S. Biden thinks he must placate AIPAC, which is the Israeli lobby, and in an election year he dares not go against AIPAC, even though it means throwing the American values of freedom and human rights under the bus. However, Biden’s decision to bow down to Israel will likely cost him the election as voters can no longer support Biden. The Israeli attack on Gaza may be the end of Biden, and a gift to Trump.
Tower 22, Al Tanf, Rukban refugee camp and the Maghawir al-Thawra
Tower 22 houses about 350 U.S. Army and Air Force troops in Jordan near the U.S. Al Tanf base in Syria, which is in occupation in eastern Syria on the Iraq border. Al Tanf is on the M2 Baghdad-Damascus Highway, and the U.S. seeks to control the movement on that road.
The Rukban refugee camp for internally displaced Syrians is in Jordan, and near to Tower 22 and Al Tanf. Journalists who have visited the camp describe it as a hell-hole. It lacks basic supplies and management. Mafias and criminals operate in the camp while charging the destitute people camped there money for supplies which are provided free from humanitarian groups.
The 350 U.S. military at Al Tanf have a mercenary militia called Maghawir al-Thawra (MaT) who provide security for the Americans, while having been trained and weaponized by the U.S. Army Special Forces. At first glance, the MaT appear to be Hollywood ‘stand-ins’ for Al Qaeda, and any other terrorist group in the Middle East.
Why does the U.S. say Jordan, and Jordan says Syria?
Biden announced the attack “on our forces stationed in northeast Jordan near the Syria border,” but the Jordanian government spokesman, Muhannad Mubaidin, initially said the attack “did not happen in Jordan.”
Because Tower 22 is almost directly on the Syrian border, with Al Tanf on the Syrian side, and Rukban camp on the Jordanian side, Mubaidin was likely confused as to the exact location of the drone attack.
Jordan’s army is one of the largest recipients of Washington’s foreign military financing, and has a military base and about 4,000 U.S. troops there. During the U.S.-NATO attack on Syria beginning in 2011 by President Obama, Jordan played a significate role of smuggling weapons across the border to Deraa, the first city in Syria to come under attack in March 2011.
Will Biden attack Iran in response?
The militant groups in Iraq have been very active with attacks on U.S. interests in both Syria and Iraq. Biden ordered the targeted assassination of a group leader in downtown Baghdad, and the Iraqi government condemned the killing.
Recently, Iraq’s prime minister, Shia al-Sudani, said that U.S. retaliatory strikes against the Kataib Hezbollah group “blatantly violated Iraq’s sovereignty”. This has resulted in opening talks between the U.S. and Iraq on a time table for the 2,500 U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq.
Biden has options to attack Syria, Iraq or inside Iran as he vowed revenge for the Tower 22 attack and deaths. If he chooses to attack Iran, this could open up the third war for Biden. He is drowning in Ukraine and Gaza, and if he gets the U.S. into a war with Iran, that could be the beginning of a regional war in the Middle East of monumental proportions. Netanyahu has said that his war on Gaza will reshape the Middle East. He might be proven right.
The famous description of the spirit of what we call today the Collective West, “le culte de la chose bien faite,” sounds sadly hollow nowadays.
Swiss philosopher Henri-Frédéric Amiel’s famous description of the spirit of what we call today the Collective West, “le culte de la chose bien faite,” sounds sadly hollow nowadays.
Once upon a time, Amiel’s words referred to a palpable, vibrant, reality. In countries associated with the civilisation of the West, and as noted by Weber in particular where the Protestant ethic prevailed, doing things right and efficiently used to be a fanatical cult, just as Amiel observed. The beneficial results, especially by comparison to the performance of civilisations and cultures rooted in different principles, were plainly visible and indisputable.
Amiel lived in the nineteenth century. There is a contemporary French philosopher, Emmanuel Todd, who has noted processes that are markedly different. He has the reputation of a prescient analyst and uncanny forecaster. His recently published book, “The Defeat of the West,” will unsettle many. Its tenor is in sharp contrast to Amiel’s self-confident and optimistic view that the West has got the winning combination with its defining characteristic of “doing things right.” According to Emmanuel Todd, the West no longer retains its perfectionist edge. Its fundamental task now is merely to avert the impending downfall, if it still can. As Todd cogently argues, the West has not only passed its “active stage,” which is reflected in Henri-Frédéric Amiel’s cited remark, but also the ensuing civilisation-on-auto-pilot “zombie stage”. It now finds itself in the terminal “stage zero,” the religious mainsprings whence its civilisation drew its vitality being completely sapped. In the West, there is no longer a cult of efficiency and perfection capable of nurturing and sustaining a corresponding cultural articulation.
Todd has an enviable track record. In the mid-1970s he published a remarkable and at the time incredible volume, “The Final Fall,” where he predicted the collapse of the Soviet Union. This writer’s reaction to Todd’s arguments when they were put forward forty years ago was deeply sceptical; they were enticing, yet also seemed unrealistic. To most contemporaries, the Soviet Union appeared to be an unshakable, enduring reality. Todd’s meticulous analysis of Soviet demographic data in support of his thesis was impressive, but seemed unconvincing as a cause capable of producing an effect of such magnitude. Few could imagine then that barely a decade later processes would commence that eventually led to precisely the outcome that Todd had predicted.
It would be unforgivably simplistic to attribute the implosion of the Soviet Union mainly to unfavourable demographics. That was a complex operation in which a multitude of factors played a role. But the virtue of the diagnostic investigation conducted forty years ago by Emmanuel Todd was that he demonstrated how seemingly minor yet tell-tale signs could point to undercurrents and important processes that unjustifiably may have been overlooked.
And indeed, it is in the West now that tell-tale indications of disarray are increasingly emerging, to the consternation of those who have eyes to see and historical perspective to make comparisons. These signs point to a variety of breakdowns, only some of which are purely mechanical. They appear mostly to be cultural in essence, and therein lies the danger. A few recent random examples will serve to make the point.
Exhibit A: Political corruption.
Arizona Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake, who many suspect was cheated out of victory in the race for governor in 2022, is again the subject of political controversy in her state. A few weeks ago, she published the tape recording of a disgraceful bribe offer made to her by the state chairman of her own party. After requesting a confidential tête à tête conversation, that individual visited Lake in her home to inform her that wealthy and powerful “people back East” (in America that is a universally understood metaphor for deep state power centres) were prepared to satisfy Ms. Lake’s financial requirements if she would withdraw from the Senate race, presumably to make way for a controllable Establishment candidate. She only had to name her figure. To her credit, she flatly refused.
Readers from “third world” countries will be nonplussed by these revelations. But the matter should be viewed in context. In America political corruption is not unknown, but the brazenness of this particular proposition made in Arizona is a quantum leap in relation to previously recorded outrages of that nature.
Exhibit B: Academic corruption.
Harvard University President Claudine Gay was compelled to resign because of multiple plagiarisms discovered in her thin scholarly opus. Harvard was the flagship of the dozen leading Ivy League academic institutions in America. Its reputation for integrity is unimpeachable and sacrosanct. The appointment of the scarcely qualified Ms. Gay, apparently selected for her politically correct external characteristics rather than serious scholarship, was sufficiently problematic. But now her fall from grace, triggered by the embarrassing charge of plagiarism, gravely compromises not just Harvard but inescapably the American academe as a whole.
And if that were not enough, also at Harvard another academic scandal is brewing. Credible allegations have been put forward, and are being investigated, that researchers at the Dana-Farber cancer institute affiliated with Harvard Medical School had manipulated images and research data. One of the papers under review was authored by Dana-Farber CEO Laurie Glimcher. Molecular biologist Sholto David suggested Adobe Photoshop was used to copy and paste images in some of the papers. If correct, it is quite an adolescent way of cobbling together an academic research study.
“We are committed to a culture of accountability and integrity. Therefore, every inquiry is examined fully to ensure the soundness of the scientific literature,” and so on and so forth without missing a single platitude, responded Dana-Farber’s research integrity officer Barrett Rollins in a statement issued after the embarrassing allegations were made public. But big words cannot hide the damage that had been inflicted nor suppress questions about the implications. Merely alleging such academically unbecoming trickery would have been unimaginable a very short time ago.
Exhibit C: Mechanical breakdown.
Aviation does not seem to be fairing much better either. Boeing is an iconic American corporation. It is to industrial manufacturing roughly what Harvard is to higher education. That is a very important fact to remember when assessing the implications of several unprecedented Delta and Alaska Airlines incidents which occurred recently, involving Boeing commercial airplanes on which inadequately secured exit doors had been blown off in-flight. To make matters worse and disturbingly indicative of the quality of workmanship in the new normal, when these incidents occurred the airplanes (minus the critical plug bolts) were in mint condition, having come off the Boeing assembly lines just weeks before. Providentially, no one was sucked out into the surrounding stratosphere, but there is no guarantee that next time the passengers and crew will be as lucky.
Granted, in some parts of the world such examples of sloppiness and misconduct would be commonplace. Most likely they would not be noticed nor would portentous significance be attributed to them. The matter under consideration however is different in an essential respect, and cultural context is the key to understanding why. The trends we have surveyed are emerging in a society, a civilizational realm to be more precise, where within living memory the banner of professional integrity still stood exceptionally high and where laxity in the performance of duty until recently was neither common nor casually tolerated.
The suspicion that a sea change may be under way is therefore neither unwarranted nor is it at all extravagant.
It may be premature based on these random examples, to which many more could of course be added, to draw bold conclusions about an imminent chute finale. But a compelling prima facie case for decadence can certainly be made. The cultural matrix is severely damaged, whether or not irreversibly we shall soon see. Previously inconceivable departures from long established cultural canons, in this case of efficiency and professional integrity, are now becoming increasingly common. Their impact is felt from Ivy League academy to manufacturing plants, and presumably encompasses much that lies in between.
Emmanuel Todd said that his latest book would be his last. He should perhaps reconsider. It seems that there still are plenty of interesting topics to cover, and we are rightfully entitled to expect from him a worthy sequel.
The views of individual contributors do not necessarily represent those of the Strategic Culture Foundation.
Eduardo Vasco
Der Friedensstifter 