The Taiwan Tipping Point: Full-Fledged War Between China and US Less Remote Than Imagined

Top US admiral warns war with China over Taiwan “much closer than most think”

by Peter Symonds - WSWS

 

March 26, 2021

The US Pacific Fleet commander, Adm. John Aquilino, testified this week that he regarded a Chinese attack on Taiwan as the most threatening flashpoint for war in the Indo-Pacific region and advocated a further build-up of US military force in the western Pacific to counter China. His remarks underscore the mounting bipartisan clamour in Washington against Beijing and the accelerating danger of the Biden administration, not China, provoking a war.

 

Adm. Philip Davidson, commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command 

[Credit: AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool]

 

Aquilino was testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee at his confirmation hearing to replace Admiral Phil Davidson as head of the US Indo-Pacific Command—the largest US military command. He told the committee that “the dangerous concern is that of a military force against Taiwan.” He referred to the previous testimony of Davidson, who last week warned of a supposed Chinese takeover within six years, then added, “[M]y opinion is this problem is much closer to us than most think.”

 

WHO Covid Origin Scientists "participants in disinformation" Charges Leading Molecular Biologist

An Interview with Richard Ebright: The WHO Investigation Members Were “participants in disinformation”

by Jorge Casesmeiro Roger - Independent Science News

March 24, 2021

Molecular biologist Dr. Richard H. Ebright, PhD is one of the twenty six world scientists who signed the Open Letter: “Call for a Full and Unrestricted International Forensic Investigation into the Origins of COVID-19”. A document released last March 4 by the Wall Street Journal and Le Monde that reignited the debate over the pandemic’s origin after the WHO-convened mission to Wuhan.

 

Board of Governors Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Rutgers University, Dr. Richard H. Ebright, PhD, is also Laboratory Director at the Waksman Institute of Microbiology and serves as project leader on two National Institutes of Health research grants. 

Dr. Ebright, you are one of the 26 scientific signers of the Open Letter that stopped the release of the WHO-convened mission Interim Report and has reopened the CoV-2 origin debate. Do you think the final report of this WHO/China joint team is going to shut down COVID origin controversy?

No.

 

Droning for a Surveillance Society

Will Drones Really Protect Us? Drugs, Surveillance & The War on Terror

by Maya Evans - VCVN.org.UK

24 March, 2021

I’m seated in the police Zoom briefing with other council representatives for my small seaside town in England. Our Chief Inspector is telling us about the crisis we have with soaring heroin addiction in the town. The recent surge is contributing to a general increase in crime.  

 

 

The next section of the briefing is about the future use of police surveillance drones, and how they could become useful in combating crime.

 

Ruminations on Ruined Nations: Iraq War at 18

On the 18th Anniversary of the Invasion of Iraq 

by Chris Floyd - Empire Burlesque

 

20 March 2021 

 

For months before the Iraq War began, I and many others wrote, in print and on-line, about the outrageous lies that were being told by the US government and its media sycophants to bring about this mass-murdering act of aggression. 

How did we know they were lies? Not from any secret knowledge or insider info, but simply by reading the mainstream media stories of previous years, especially the ones from the mid-1990s that detailed how Saddam's regime had destroyed its WMD program, and how the US and UK governments always had the evidence for this, and knew there were no Iraqi WMDs throughout the propaganda build-up to the war.

 

The Trouble with Pickering: Aging Nuclear Power Plants and Safety

Stunning Revelations about Pickering Nuclear Station's Safety

by Ontario Clean Air Alliance 

 

March 23, 2021 

The Globe and Mail has published stunning revelations about the safety of the Pickering Nuclear Station and how the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) signed off on a 10-year licence extension despite knowing that Ontario Power Generation (OPG) was working with deeply flawed data about one of the plant’s most important safety concerns.

 

Pickering Nuclear Station, 8 reactors in the GTA, 50 years old.

CANDU reactors are filled with literally miles of pressure tubing that carries heavy water to and from the reactor core. These tubes are a real Achilles heel for these plants because they become brittle over time, leading to the possibility of ruptures and leaks. That can mean anything from a heavy water spill to a full meltdown if the core cannot be properly cooled.

 

Áñez in Chains: Bolivia's Face of the Coup Facing Justice

To Western Media, Prosecuting Bolivian Coup Leaders Is Worse Than Leading a Coup

by Joe Emersberger - FAIR

 

March 23, 2021

 

One can imagine an editor of the London-based Guardian (3/17/21) shaking her head sadly as she typed the headline: “Cycle of Retribution Takes Bolivia’s Ex-President From Palace to Prison Cell.”  

 

The subhead told readers, “Jeanine Áñez’s government once sought to jail the country’s former leader Evo Morales for terrorism and sedition—now she faces the same charges.”

 

The Boys Are Back in Langley (They Never Left)

Dirty Business As Usual: New CIA Director Burns Confirmed by Unanimous Vote in Senate

by Jeremy Kuzmarov - CovertAction Magazine

 

March 22, 2021

 

William J. Burns’ appointment offers little more than an image makeover for the agency. As a diplomat, Burns supported U.S. military interventions in Iraq, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria and is now stoking the coals against Russia and China.

 

William J. Burns was confirmed by a unanimous vote in the Senate on Thursday, 

March 18th, becoming the first former diplomat to become CIA director.

 

At his confirmation hearing on February 26th, Burns continued a long agency tradition of playing up the threat from Russia and China along with North Korea, and said that Iran should not be allowed to get a nuclear weapon.

 

Gorilla Radio with Chris Cook, Finian Cunningham, Steve Poikonen March 25, 2021

This Week on GR

by C. L. Cook - Gorilla-Radio.com

 

March 25, 2021 

In November of last year, Ethiopia’s federal government attacked the country’s northern Tigray state. Acting prime minister, Abiy Ahmed claimed it was in response to a raid by separatists on a federal army base. Four months later, the “police action” Abiy promised would be over in a matter of days has become a full-fledged conflict putting at risk millions of lives. 

 

Earlier this month, the United States announced it would mobilize a USAID DART, or Disaster Assistance Response Team to be sent into the Tigray region to forestall the widespread starvation of Tigrayan refugees.

The problem is, USAID has not been invited into the country, a point made by both China and Russia in the UN Security Council.

 

Listen. Hear.

Finian Cunningham is a prolific journalist and two-time Serena Shim Award for Uncompromising Integrity in Journalism recipient. His articles on international affairs appear at numerous online outlets, including Strategic Culture, where I found his recent article, ‘U.S. Paves Way for Intervention in Ethiopia, Horn of Africa’.

Finian Cunningham in the first half.

And; approaching the second anniversary of the sanctioned kidnapping of journalist and publisher Julian Assange from Ecuador’s London embassy, the founder of WikiLeaks seems no closer to freedom. A “victim of legal procedure”, Assange has been left to rot in solitary confinement in Britain’s notorious Belmarsh Prison while American courts decide his fate. The outrage against the principles of journalism and due process have been protested in Britain and globally, while in the U.S. a dedicated campaign of Americans from all over the country has manifested in the streets of the Capitol during the pivotal moments in the British hearings on extradition.

Steve Poikonen is a columnist, broadcaster, and host of the ‘Slow News Day‘ podcast. Steve’s also an organizer with Action4Assange, and co-host of the #FreeAssange Vigil. He and a retinue of activist have returned yet again to Washington, D.C., this time as part of the Clovers4Assange Actions coinciding with St. Patrick’s Day.

Steve Poikonen from Washington in the second half.

But first, Finian Cunningham and USAID wading in to Ethiopia’s civil war.

Chris Cook hosts Gorilla Radio, airing live every Thursday between 11-Noon Pacific Time. In Victoria at 101.9FM, and on the internet at: https://cfuv.ca. He also serves as a contributing editor to the web news site, http://www.pacificfreepress.com. Check out the GR blog at: http://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com

Endless World Dominion: China and the U.S. Struggle over Eurasia

Washington’s Delusion of Endless World Dominion: China and the U.S. Struggle over Eurasia, the Epicenter of World Power

by Alfred McCoy - TomDispatch

 

March 21, 2021

Empires live and die by their illusions. Visions of empowerment can inspire nations to scale the heights of global hegemony. Similarly, however, illusions of omnipotence can send fading empires crashing into oblivion. So it was with Great Britain in the 1950s and so it may be with the United States today.

By 1956, Britain had exploited its global empire shamelessly for a decade in an effort to lift its domestic economy out of the rubble of World War II. It was looking forward to doing so for many decades to come. Then an obscure Egyptian army colonel named Gamal Abdel Nasser seized the Suez Canal and Britain’s establishment erupted in a paroxysm of racist outrage.