We Are On the Verge of Nuclear Annihilation

By Paul Craig Roberts

We are on the verge of nuclear annihilation. Every agreement made during the 20th century to reduce the risk of nuclear war has been abandoned by Washington. Why worry, some ask, mutual assured destruction means neither the US nor Russia would initiate a nuclear attack. Perhaps not, but the greatest danger of nuclear armageddon comes from false alarms from warning systems. During the Cold War there were many such alarms. The false alarms did not result in mutual destruction because both governments were working to defuse, not exacerbate, the situation, and there was time for the validity of the alarm to be verified before a fatal pushing of the button.

Today the situation is entirely different. Washington and the NATO puppets have a policy of provoking Russia, with the 2014 coup in Ukraine and its consequences being the worst to date. Moreover, the hypersonic speeds of the Russian missiles and the closeness of US missiles to Russia’s border cuts time before impact to 5 or 10 minutes, which means no time to verify or confer.

The extraordinary insulting hostility shown toward Russia by the US, NATO and the Western media has convinced the Kremlin that the West intends Russia’s destruction. Russia’s President Putin has stated many times that the West has led him to this conclusion. A couple of days ago at the Valdai Discussion Club Putin expressed concern that the West’s belligerence toward Russia could end in nuclear war. If President Biden were a responsible leader, he would have said that the Russian president is right, and we must stop the escalation of threats. Instead, Biden sent B-2 stealth bombers, aircraft specifically designed for a nuclear first-strike, to European bases, thus escalating the threat, a mindless and irresponsible response to President Putin.

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Angelo Codevila: The Covid Coup

Panicked by fears manufactured by the ruling class, the American people assented to being put essentially under house arrest until further notice, effectively suspending the habits, preferences, and liberties that had defined our way of life. Most Americans have suffered economic damage. Many who do not enjoy protected status have had careers ended and been reduced to penury. Social strains and suicides multiplied. Forcibly deferring all manner of medical care is sure to impose needless suffering and death. In sum, the lockdowns’ medical and economic dysfunctions make for multiples of the deaths and miseries of the COVID-19 virus itself.

Are there any categories of people who benefited from the shutdowns? Government gained. We know of no employee of federal, state or local government who was furloughed or had his or her pay reduced. On the contrary, all got additional power. The federal government created trillions of dollars, the distribution of which is enriching the usual suspects involved in administration. The teachers’ unions gained the power to extort concessions as a price for reopening schools.

Bad judgments and usurpations—the scam, not the germs—define this disaster’s dimensions. The COVID-19’s devastating effect on the U.S. body politic is analogous to what diseases do to persons whom age (senectus ipsa est morbus) and various debilities and corruptions had already placed on death’s slippery slope.

And as independent businesses were throttled, big ones grew. The biggest, Amazon, was the biggest winner.

Outside of the few who have gained (and are still gaining) power and wealth from the panic, Americans are asking what it will take to end this outrage—not to modify it with any “new normal” decided by who knows whom, on who knows what authority. Since no one in authority is leading those who want to end it, Americans also wonder who may lead that cause. What follows suggests answers.

Prohibitions such as of playing in the park or swimming in the sea are mere devices to train the public to accept unlimited bureaucratic discretion. You may congregate at Costco, but not at church. Failure to obey regulations will land ordinary citizens in jail, while the jails release robbers and child molesters. You may not exceed limits on occupancy or fail to wear a mask. You may not even sing in church. But if you and friends loot and burn the neighborhood store, the police will just stand by. Yet all Democrat governors celebrated and some joined masses of “protests”—forget about masks and social distancing. They did this not for anybody’s health but to to secure another few percentage points of the black vote for their party and to leverage their seizure of power over police forces.

What history will record as the great COVID scam of 2020 is based on 1) a set of untruths and baseless assertions—often outright lies—about the novel coronavirus and its effects; 2) the production and maintenance of physical fear through a near-monopoly of communications to forestall challenges to the U.S.. ruling class, led by the Democratic Party, 3) defaulted opposition on the part of most Republicans, thus confirming their status as the ruling class’s junior partner. No default has been greater than that of America’s Christian churches—supposedly society’s guardians of truth.

We are supposed to believe that all this is dictated by “Science.” In June, 1,200 “health experts” signed a letter approving the BLM protests because, it said, “white supremacy is a lethal public health issue.” But it cautioned that “this should not be confused with a permissive stance on…protests against stay-home orders.” In short, Coronavirus restrictions, like the rest of political correctness’s commandments, are pure political weaponry—nothing short of an inversion of the American people’s priorities, accomplished by nobody’s vote. Ruling class presumption. In short, we are living through a coup d’état.

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Related:

Real Clear Politics: The Myth That Lockdowns Stop Pandemics

Station Gossip: Sweden’s Top Epidemiologist: ‘We See No Point In Wearing Masks’

Hide Out Now: CDC Director Reveals 'Substantial' Cost of Closed Schools as Suicides Eclipse COVID Deaths

Mises Institute: From Lockdowns to "The Great Reset"

Zero Hedge: The Great COVID-Con: Exposing Journalistic Malpractice

Zero Hedge: Protesting Germans Revolt Against 'Muzzle' Facemasks And Pandemic Restrictions

"Our demand is to go back to democracy. Away with these laws that have been imposed on us, away with the masks that make us slave," said one woman, according to the BBC.

Daily Mail: Police condemn Boris's order to enforce mask and social distancing rules and call it an' impossible' task

Off Guardian: 
Crossing the Rubicon: The UK Slips into a Repressive State

Real Clear Politics:
Politics, Not Science, Keeping Schools Closed

Off Guardian: “Honey, I Shrunk the People’s Constitutional Rights!”How Public-Health Officials and Other Administrators Got So Much Power

Barry Norris:
The Biggest Fraud Ever, Part 1: The Hocus "Science" Behind Lockdowns

Breitbart:
Dutch Government Won’t Use Mask Mandate; ‘No Proven Effectiveness’

How Venezuela's Maduro Duped Trump

According to this report, Trump's people were conned by Venezuelan Defense minister Paduro, who entered into a conspiracy with them to overthrow the Maduro regime, but stepped aside when the coup was attempted, resulting in a humiliating fiasco for Trump.

FRN, May 5, 2019: According to confidential information obtained by the Spanish edition of ABC, the regime change plan arose from an agreement between US National Security Advisor John Bolton and Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino , which was concluded during several telephone conversations held in recent months. Padrino, and along with him, some other ministers and generals had to sign onto the agreement with the U.S president-appointed President Juan Guaido of the plan drawn up by opponents of Nicolas Maduro. These documents contained a “road map”, according to which a coup would end with the election of the head of Venezuela “30 days after the Chavista regime surrendered and recognized Guaido as the person legally acting as head of the Republic.” In parallel, the Supreme Court of Venezuela represented by its chairman, Michel Moreno , was to declare illegal the Constituent Assembly (National Constitutional Assembly), the branch of the legislative power created and controlled by Nicolas Maduro. And “with the observance of the necessary legal procedures and formalities to the head of the National Guard, General Ivan Rafael Hernandez Dala was charged with the duty to inform Maduro that he had only two options in the current situation: either he would leave the country, fleeing to Cuba, or be arrested at the request of the court. After that, a “top secret document from the depths of American intelligence” was supposed to appear on the scene, that in Venezuela there are between 20 and 25 thousand armed Cuban mercenaries supporting Maduro and keeping the whole Bolivarian Republic in fear ” (the armed forces of which have 235 thousand active military and 200 thousand more – reservists – author’s note.) Thus, by joint efforts of the USA and the Venezuelan military “the country would have been spared by the U.S appointed president of the dictator Maduro and from his support by battalions of soldiers of fortune from Cuba” . But something went wrong. Maduro did not flee to Cuba, Padrino suddenly changed his mind about becoming the “godfather of the Venezuelan revolution” (by the way, Padrino translated from Spanish means “godfather”), and the vast majority of Venezuelan generals did not get in touch at the time appointed by the Americans. (There is an interesting moment during Guaido’s call to arms, with the 14 soldiers behind him, when a cell-phone goes off and distracts him – maybe that was the call, ‘it’s not happening’ – J. Flores) Read more

Time for Trump to change his foreign policy advisers and abandon the attempt to rule Latin America by covert operations. Instead is required a new approach to relations with the other half of the Western hemisphere. The objective should be to stop the flood of Latinos to the North, not with a wall, but by helping make Latin America a better place for Latinos to live.