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Authored by Michael Snyder via The End of The American Dream blog,

A world without forests would be an apocalyptic wasteland, and right now we are losing our forests at an astounding rate.  As you read this article, more than 10,000 wildfires are ripping through forested areas of South America and Africa, and global leaders seem powerless to do anything about it.  Most of the media attention has been on the horrific wildfires in the Amazon rainforest, and we are being told that the number of fires in Brazil is up 85 percent compared to last year.  But the number of fires is actually much higher in Africa.  In fact, it is being reported that there are “approximately five times as many wildfires burning in Africa than in the Amazon” at this point.  Our planet is literally being destroyed right in front of our eyes, and a lot of people don’t seem to care.

Let’s talk about what is going on in the Amazon first.  In a previous article, I discussed the fact that there have been more than 72,000 wildfires in Brazil so far this year, and at least 640 million acres have been affected by those fires.  CNN arranged for a plane to fly over some of the most heavily damaged areas, and what those on the plane witnessed was almost too horrifying for words…

Flying above the Amazon’s worst afflicted state (during last week), Rondonia, is exhausting mostly because of the endless scale of the devastation. At first, smoke disguised the constant stream of torched fields, and copses; of winding roads that weaved into nothing but ash. Below, the orange specks of a tiny fire might still rage, but much of the land appeared a mausoleum of the forest that once graced it.

“This is not just a forest that is burning,” said Rosana Villar of Greenpeace, who helped CNN arrange its flight over the damaged and burning areas. “This is almost a cemetery. Because all you can see is death.”

The Amazon rainforest has been described as “the lungs of the Earth” because it produces so much of our oxygen, but many people don’t realize that the second largest tropical rainforest in the world is actually in the Congo Basin, and there are even more fires happening there right now.

In fact, according to official data released by NASA, the number of fires in central Africa is more than five times higher than the number of fires currently raging in Brazil…

Data from Nasa’s Fire Information for Resource Management System, showed at least 6,902 fires in Angola and 3,395 burning in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The same data put Brazil’s fires at 2,127.

These fires in central Africa have become so widespread that they have even gotten the attention of French President Emmanuel Macron…

If you look at the data from NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management Map (FIRMS), which show a large swatch of fire across Angola, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The alarming area of these fires has left some people wondering why so much attention is being paid to the Amazon, while on the surface it appears Africa is alight with even more blazes. Even French President Emmanuel Macron, who has led the charge for international relief and solutions for the Amazon wildfire and has pledged aid from France, said on Twitter that he would consider starting a similar initiative for sub-Saharan Africa.

Fortunately, the good news is that the fires in the Congo Basin are not as out of control as the fires in the Amazon rainforest, but we are also being told that this could soon change…

Organizations like Greenpeace Africa, which focuses primarily on calling attention to issues of deforestation, are monitoring the situation while acknowledging that as of right now, the fires are relatively “small-scale” compared to the flames the in the Amazon or even previous African wildfires.

But that doesn’t mean the flames are under control. “This is something we could experience again tomorrow if preventative measures are not taken today,” Irène Wabiwa Betoko, Greenpeace Africa Senior Forest Campaign Manager, told Newsweek on Tuesday.

Many of the fires in Africa are being set purposely by farmers in order to clear land, but they are still eroding critical ecosystems.  And we cannot afford to continue to treat our planet like this, because we are losing species at an astounding pace.

According to new research that was just released, “some plants have been going extinct up to 350 times faster than the historical average”…

Earth is seeing an unprecedented loss of species, which some ecologists are calling a sixth mass extinction. In May, a United Nations report warned that 1 million species are threatened by extinction. More recently, 571 plant species were declared extinct.

But extinctions have occurred for as long as life has existed on Earth. The important question is, has the rate of extinction increased? Our research, published today in Current Biology, found some plants have been going extinct up to 350 times faster than the historical average – with devastating consequences for unique species.

How many species do we have to lose before we finally become concerned?

If you follow my work on a regular basis, then you already know that I am deeply concerned about our “culture of death”.  Our endless wars have killed thousands, millions of children have been killed in our “clinics”, and we are wiping out countless species of plants and animals without even thinking twice about it.

What kind of monsters have we become?  We are so cold and so heartless, and all we seem to care about is ourselves.

Meanwhile, the long-term consequences that so many have warned about are starting to arrive.  In fact, a CNN article about the Amazon wildfires that was just published boldly declared that “the apocalyptic future is here, and it is impatient”…

It is hard to see any claims of future doom as alarmist, when you see skylines rendered invisible by smoke, flames march across the plains like lava, and hear disinterested taxi drivers tell you they have never seen it so bad. The apocalyptic future is here, and it is impatient.

For once, I actually agree with CNN.

Given enough time, nothing would survive.  We are systematically destroying ourselves and everything around us, and for a while it didn’t seem like we needed to fear the long-term consequences.

But now the dark times are upon us, and the stench of our evil ways has become undeniable.

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2zowpZl Tyler Durden

President Trump’s Venezuela Envoy, Elliott Abrams, has an offer for Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro; leave power voluntarily and the United States will grant amnesty. While Abrams says he sees no indication that Maduro will step down, his offer was designed to send a message according to the New York Times. 

“We’re not after him. We want him to have a dignified exit and go,” said Abrams. “This is not a persecution.” 

“We don’t want to prosecute you; we don’t want to persecute you. We want you to leave power.” 

(Whoever sent two failed C-4 laden drone-bombs at Maduro last year was after him, we would note.) 

Last year, the US Treasury Department claimed that Maduro was profiting from illegal drug trafficking – however charges were not recommended at the time. 

As the Times notes, “The softer, if pragmatic, appeal sharply contrasted with the eight months of sanctions, international isolation and threats by the Trump administration of military intervention against Mr. Maduro and his loyalists, who are accused of hoarding power and manipulating elections last year.” 

Meanwhile, opposition leader Juan Guaido admitted that talks with Maduro’s government to resolve the ongoing political turmoil – mediated by Norway – “aren’t working,” according to France 24. 

Talks mediated by Norway first took place in May in Oslo with several subsequent rounds in Barbados.

But Maduro called off the discussions three weeks ago in response to new US sanctions against his government.

The two sides are deadlocked with Guaido, who sparked the crisis by declaring himself acting president in January, demanding Maduro’s resignation and the government insisting the United States lift sanctions that it blames for the country’s crippled economy.

“At the moment there’s no date to restart the mechanism mediated by the kingdom of Norway until we achieve something concrete to approach a solution,” said Guaido. –France 24

Last week, President Trump said that talks between the White House and Maduro’s government are ongoing “at a very high level.” Hours later, Maduro confirmed that he had authorized his officials to engage in secret negotiations with the United States. 

“Sure, there’s been contact and we’ll continue having contact,” said Maduro.

Abrams – going against both Trump and Maduro’s statements on Tuesday, said that’s untrue. 

“The notion that we are negotiating is just flat-out wrong,” said Abrams, adding “And the notion that there is a pattern of communication is wrong. There are intermittent messages and I think people would find the very occasional message sent from Washington to be completely predictable: ‘You need to return to democracy. Maduro needs to leave power.’

The comments are likely to soothe Venezuela’s opposition leaders, who have privately said Mr. Trump’s statement risked sidelining their own negotiations. A delegation headed by the opposition’s chief political negotiator, Stalin González, traveled to Washington last week to press American officials on the Trump administration’s policy in Venezuela.

Mr. Abrams said he did not currently see any value in talking directly to Mr. Maduro’s government.

He said messages to Washington from intermediaries in Venezuela have been “pretty rare” since last winter, and the information they carried was dubious. Some may have been sent with Mr. Maduro’s knowledge while others were probably not. –New York Times

Is the Trump admininstration going around the very ‘establishment’ Abrams’ back?

As the Times suggests – “any direct contact between Washington and Mr. Maduro would risk sidelining parallel negotiations — that are mediated by Norway and held in the Caribbean island of Barbados — between the Venezuelan government and opposition officials led by Juan Guaidó, whom the United States views as Venezuela’s rightful president.”

Read the rest of the report here. 

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/345LHQO Tyler Durden

An FBI crime lab is examining two cameras from the area outside Jeffrey Epstein’s cell which reportedly malfunctioned the night he died, according to Reuters, citing a law enforcement source. 

The two cameras would have had a view into the Manhattan jail cell where, on August 10, Epstein was found hanging by his bedsheet in what has been ruled a suicide. 

The cameras were sent to Quantico, Virginia, site of a major FBI crime lab where agents and forensic scientists analyze evidence.

The Washington Post reported on Monday that at least one camera in the hallway outside Epstein’s cell had footage that was unusable. The newspaper said there was other usable footage captured in the area. –Reuters

During a Tuesday court hearing, Epstein’s lawyers Reid Weingarten and Martin Weinberrg told told US District Judge Richard Berman that they doubted Epstein committed suicide, and that the pedophile’s injuries were “far more consistent with assault” than hanging, according to Weingarten. 

Weingarten cited the defense’s own medical sources. Broken bones were found in Epstein’s neck during an autopsy after he died Aug. 10.

Such fractures are somewhat more common in cases of strangulation than in hanging.

Weingarten told the judge that when he and other defense attorneys spoke to Epstein shortly before his death “we did not see a despairing, despondent, suicidal person.”

Weingarten’s comments came during a proceeding where prosecutors were seeking the dismissal of child sex trafficking charges against the Epstein as a result of his death. –CNBC

“We’re skeptical of the certitude,” added the lawyers. 

Mike Krieger shared his uncredulity on the matter also:

“They must be joking. Apparently TWO cameras malfunctioned outside of Epstein’s cell? This would be almost comical if it wasn’t so infuriating”

The 66-year-old financier was arrested on July 6 on charges of sex-trafficking minors and pleaded not guilty. He was denied a request for pretrial release, after which he was found with injuries he says were inflicted by his cellmate, according to his attorneys. 

During Tuesday’s hearing, 16 women testified that Epstein had sexually abused them. Prosecutors say that while charges have been dropped against the dead pedophile, his potential co-conspirators are not out of hot water. 

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2zqBAb6 Tyler Durden

Apple has formally apologized after they were busted using human contractors listen to customers using the Siri digital assistant – including during sexual encounters.

“We realize we haven’t been fully living up to our high ideals, and for that we apologize,” reads a statement from the company. Several new changes to the privacy policy were also announced. 

First, by default, we will no longer retain audio recordings of Siri interactions. We will continue to use computer-generated transcripts to help Siri improve.

Second, users will be able to opt in to help Siri improve by learning from the audio samples of their requests. We hope that many people will choose to help Siri get better, knowing that Apple respects their data and has strong privacy controls in place. Those who choose to participate will be able to opt out at any time.

Third, when customers opt in, only Apple employees will be allowed to listen to audio samples of the Siri interactions. Our team will work to delete any recording which is determined to be an inadvertent trigger of Siri.

The Silicon Valley behemoth was one of several tech companies eavesdropping on customers,  including Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft according to The Verge. 

According to a report by The Guardian, Apple contractors were listening to up to 1,000 recordings per day – many of which were triggered accidentally. 

Following the report, Apple told The Verge that they would suspend the ‘grading program’ which governs the manual reviews, vs. the company’s policy of retaining random audio clips from Siri for six months, after which they would be stripped of identifying information and kept for another two years. 

Wednesday’s announcement, however, is the suspension of both non-optional recordings as well as the entire grading program. The company will no longer keep Siri recordings unless a user opts in. When customers don’t give Apple contractors permission to access their data, only Apple employees will have the ability to do so. 

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2NDCtWf Tyler Durden

Less than a week after we suggested The IMF is in for humiliation over the collapse of Argentina – just months after its unprecedented $56 billion liquidity crisis bailout – it appears the South American nation is set to default for the ninth time since its independence in 1816.

Amid a 20% crash in the peso and a collapse in government bonds, which pushed the implied risk of default above 80%, IMF delegates arrived in Argentina on Saturday and, as Bloomberg reports, immediately began meetings with policy makers, facing a deja vu choice from two decades ago: risk making the turmoil even worse by withholding a $5.3 billion installment due next month – or cough it up, and risk even more losses with the IMF bailout program on the verge of collapse.

“The IMF has put a lot in – not just money, but prestige,” said Hector Torres, a former executive director at the Fund who represented South American countries. 

“The fact that the arrangement is not performing well right now is an embarrassment,” he said. And the September installment is “going to be a difficult call.”

Then earlier today, things got worse as Argentina bond spreads widened to the most in 14 years after opposition leader Alberto Fernandez ripped the debt-laden country’s accord with the International Monetary Fund. Fernandez said much of the IMF loan had been wasted on financing capital flight out of the country.

In a statement following a meeting with IMF officials, Fernandez said he agreed with the objectives of the IMF deal, but added that the IMF and the current government generated the current crisis and are now responsible for reversing the “social catastrophe.”

Argentina has struggled to rollover the debt in the wake of a stunning loss in a primary for the market-friendly government coalition, and now tonight, according to a statement from the finance ministry, Argentina seeks to re-profile $57 billion debt owned to private holders and the International Monetary Fund. Re-profile is a public-relations-friendly way of saying soft-default, but the ministry was quick to explain that there’s no haircut nor change to interest paid.

“It’s important to highlight that this is only an adjustment of maturities.”

The proposal is that Argentina will delay payments on $7 billion of short-term debt

• Argentina will pay 15% of its debt at maturity

• It will pay 25% of its debt three months after maturity

• Final 60% of debt will be paid six months after maturity

• Government will continue to pay interest on short-term debt

And will seek Congress authorization to launch a voluntary reprofiling of debt maturing between 2020 and 2023 under local legislation.

“The government is aiming to clear the outlook for the financial program in the short, medium and long-term horizon,” Economy Minister Hernan Lacunzasaid.

“This is due to short-term liquidity stresses and not due to problems with the solvency of the debt.”

Call it what you want, but foreign-currency reserves have plummeted more than $10 billion in the past month as policy makers sought to shore up the peso after the primary on Aug. 11.

Tens of thousands of people marched through the streets today to demand the government do more to mitigate the impact of the economic crisis in a country that has defaulted on its debt eight times since independence from Spain.

But, as we noted last week, while creditors will be hit, it will be the ordinary Argentina citizens that will be crushed: Ordinary Argentines also have traumatic memories of failed IMF programs. Many blame the Fund for the epic collapse of two decades ago, one reason why Macri’s decision to go to the IMF last year was so risky.

“I think it’s neutral to positive,” said Ezequiel Zambaglione, head of strategy at Balanz Capital Valores in Buenos Aires.

“In the worst case scenario, nobody accepts the offer and you are in the same situation as yesterday. And if they reach an agreement and are successful in the swap, you’ll have less funding needs for the next years.”

Finally, after all this, IMF staff are left to do the walk of shame back to Washington to analyze the debt operation announced by Argentine authorities today. According to a statement from IMF spokesperson Gerry Rice:

“Staff understands that the authorities have taken these important steps to address liquidity needs and safeguard reserves.”

“Staff will remain in close contact with the authorities in the period ahead and the Fund will continue to stand with Argentina during these challenging times.”

As we noted previously, Patrick Esteruelas, head of research at EMSO Asset Management in New York, warned “The IMF is in a serious pickle.”

“It reminds me of the saying: If you owe the bank $100, it’s your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, it’s the bank’s problem.”

We wonder how the Europeans feel now about their new hire as head of The ECB?

But then again, we all know who is on the hook for these losses…

The good ol’ US taxpayer!

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/34bD0of Tyler Durden

Authored by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com,

Economists are stating that the next economic crisis will be fueled by Americans’ obsession with and overburdening of themselves with debt. While a staggering number of Americans live paycheck to paycheck with little savings, they also owe massive amounts of money that many will never be able to pay back.

The only saving grace for many American households is that artificially low interest rates have reduced the average debt service levels, according to a report by Seeking Alpha. Americans have been tapped out for a while now, and with many increasing their debt load as opposed to reducing it, a debt crisis could be on the horizon.

While the American consumer won’t be solely to blame when the entire economy comes crashing down, many are doing their part to make it overly difficult when it does. The next collapse will be much worse than the Great Recession of a decade ago, as it will be caused by a combination of household and corporate debt combined with underfunded pensions, according to Real Investment Advice.

Americans have come to believe that they are entitled to “the American dream” and many go deeply into debt to accomplish their version of that utopian ideal. The idea of “maintaining a certain standard of living“ has become a foundation in our society today.

Americans, in general, have come to believe they are “entitled“ to a certain type of house, car, and general lifestyle which includes NOT just the basic necessities of living such as food, running water, and electricity, but also the latest mobile phone, computer, and high-speed internet connection –Seeking Alpha

This entitlement is there whether the income to provide it is there or not. American consumers are not funding their lifestyles with their income, rather with debt. Americans hola a record amount of debt, which totals roughly $1 trillion more than it did in 2008. While Americans are piling on debt, the cost of living has gone up while the purchasing power of the dollar is continuing downward thanks to money printing schemes and the national debt.

“In fact, despite some ups and downs over the past several decades, today’s real average wage (that is, the wage after accounting for inflation) has about the same purchasing power it did 40 years ago. And what wage gains there have been have mostly flowed to the highest-paid tier of workers.” –Pew Research

The data shows that debt is a huge problem in this economy, which is already a debt-based economy and built to fail. The other point far too many don’t want to admit is that Americans would have a lot more money to fuel the economy if the government stopped stealing a substantial amount of their income before they are even paid.

The next “crisis,” will be the “great reset” which will also make it the “last crisis.”

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2HwHc85 Tyler Durden

Former government officials have been receiving strange messages over LinkedIn from Chinese operatives offering “well paid” opportunities to help out Beijing and gain “great access to the Chinese system” for research. 

According to the New York Times, it’s all part of a sophisticated network to recruit foreign spies. 

A former Danish Foreign Ministry official got LinkedIn messages from someone appearing to be a woman at a Chinese headhunting firm wanting to meet in Beijing. Three middle-aged men showed up instead and said they could help the former official gain “great access to the Chinese system” for research.

A former Obama White House official and career diplomat was befriended on LinkedIn by a person who claimed to be a research fellow at the California Institute of Technology, with a profile page showing connections to White House aides and ambassadors. No such fellow exists. –New York Times

According to Western counterintelligence officials – perhaps even the same ones who conducted espionage on the 2016 Trump campaign – foreign agents are exploiting social media – using LinkedIn as “prime hunting ground.” Warnings have been issued by Britain, German, France and the United States abut foreign agents reaching out to users on the site.

One former government official reported that someone called Robinson Zhang contacted him over LinkedIn. Zhang identified as a “PR Manager” for a company called R&C Capital, while his profile shows the Hong Kong skyline. R&C is listed as “an international consulting company based in Hong Kong,” specializing in “global investment, geopolitical issues, public policy, etc.” 

“I’m quite impressed by your CV and think you may be right for some opportunities, which are all well paid,” Zhang wrote the former official – which seemed odd to him. 

The words struck him as strange, the former official said, so he asked Mr. Zhang for a website. Mr. Zhang directed him to a home page with an image of the Eiffel Tower but little information about R&C Capital. It appeared to be “something he made up on the fly,” the former official said. (The New York Times viewed the site, which was deleted sometime after The Times emailed the company for an interview request.)

Mr. Zhang repeatedly indicated that his company could pay for a trip to China. The former official asked multiple times for more detail on the company but did not get any substantive responses. –New York Times

“We’ve seen China’s intelligence services doing this on a mass scale,” said National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC) director William R. Evanina. NCSC tracks foreign spying and alerts companies to possible infiltration, according to the Times. “Instead of dispatching spies to the U.S. to recruit a single target, it’s more efficient to sit behind a computer in China and send out friend requests to thousands of targets using fake profiles.” 

The use of social media by Chinese government operatives for what American officials and executives call nefarious purposes has drawn heightened scrutiny in recent weeks. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube said they deleted accounts that had spread disinformation about the Hong Kong pro-democracy protests. Twitter alone said it removed nearly 1,000 accounts.

It was the first time Facebook and Twitter had taken down accounts linked to disinformation from China. Many governments have employed similar playbooks to sow disinformation since Russia used the tactic to great effect in 2015 and 2016.

LinkedIn, owned by Microsoft, is both another vehicle for potential disinformation and, more important, an ideal one for espionage recruitment, American officials say. –New York Times

Former government officials, meanwhile, are making it really easy for China to identify who to go after – as many ex-feds will list their security clearances on LinkedIn in order to boost their job prospects. 

Interestingly, LinkedIn is the only major American social media platform not blocked by Beijing due to the fact that they have agreed to censor posts. 

“The Chinese want to build these options with political, academic and business elites,” said former Danish Foreign Ministry official Jonas Parello-Plesner, who reported an apparent Chinese recruiting attempt which began over LinkedIn. “A lot of this thrives in the gray zone or the spectrum between influence-seeking and interference or classical espionage.” Parello-Plesner noted that people who have just parted ways with the government are ‘especially vulnerable’ because they are actively searching for jobs. 

According to LinkedIn spokeswoman Nicole Leverich, the company has been proactive in identifying and removing fake and dubious accounts – acting on information from a variety of sources, including government agencies according to the Times. 

“We enforce our policies, which are very clear: The creation of a fake account or fraudulent activity with an intent to mislead or lie to our members is a violation of our terms of service,” said Leverich. 

In multiple recent cases, LinkedIn proved to be an effective recruiting tool. A former employee of the C.I.A. and Defense Intelligence Agency, Kevin Patrick Mallory, was sentenced in May to 20 years in prison for spying for China. The relationship began after he replied in February 2017 to a LinkedIn message from a Chinese intelligence agent posing as a think tank representative,the F.B.I. said.

The Justice Department last October charged a Chinese intelligence agent, Yanjun Xu, with economic espionage after he recruited a GE Aviation engineer in a relationship that began on LinkedIn, according to the indictment.

Mr. Evanina, the counterintelligence chief, told Reuters last yearthat Chinese agents were contacting thousands of people at a time on LinkedIn. “It’s the ultimate playground for collection,” he said. –New York Times

“Foreign intelligence services are looking for anyone with access to the information they want, whether classified or unclassified, including corporate trade secrets, intellectual property and other research,” said Evanina. 

Parello-Plesner, the Danish official, was contacted in 2011 by someone using the name Grace Woo. Woo said she worked for a headhunting company in Hangzhou, China called DRHR. When she discovered that Parello-Plesner would be in Beijing in 2012, she suggested a meeting in Hangzhou – asking for an image of his passport in order to make travel arrangements which he declined. 

He did, however, agree to meet at the St. Regis Hotel in Beijing. While Woo never showed up, a young man claiming to be from DRHR led the former official to a conference room where ‘three middle-aged men welcomed him,’ and explained they were from a government research organization. They had no business cards. 

“I thought, ‘This meeting is very dodgy,” said Parello-Plesner, who added that the men said they could fund his research if he worked with them. 

Instead, Parello-Plesner reported the contact to British officials after he returned to his home in London. 

“If I were LinkedIn, I would proactively do my homework now,” adding “This is just the tip of the iceberg.” 

DRHR was one of three companies German domestic intelligence officials singled out in December 2017 as front organizations for Chinese agents. Those officials concluded that Chinese agents had used LinkedIn to try to contact 10,000 Germans, and LinkedIn shut down some accounts, including those of DRHR and Ms. Woo.

Last October, French intelligence agencies told the government that Chinese agents had used social networks — LinkedIn in particular — to try to contact 4,000 French individuals. Targets included government employees, scientists and company executives, according to Le Figaro, the French newspaper. –New York Times

So remember former Western officials, beware Chinese LinkedIn users bearing gifts. 

via ZeroHedge News https://ift.tt/2MH2gNm Tyler Durden

Authored by Caitlin Johnstone via Medium.com,

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, our government-funded media outlet, has published an article titled “Australian expat living in Hong Kong throws off business suit to join protest movement”. The entire story is in the headline: some random guy, who ABC keeps anonymous but for the name “Daniel”, has joined the protests in Hong Kong. That’s it. That’s the whole entire bombshell newsworthy news story.

“In Australia we have proper democracy but in Hong Kong, democracy is being slowly eroded away and I’ll try to do whatever I can to try and help the cause,” the anonymous guy told ABC.

This sort of enthusiastic empty non-story cheerleading is typical for western media coverage of the Hong Kong protests so far, while these same media outlets consistently ignore or downplay protests against the government of France, Israel, Honduras, India, Indonesia and any other region that happens to fall within the US-centralized power alliance. It’s an amazingly reliable pattern: the entire western political/media class finds protests and uprisings endlessly fascinating when they are in opposition to governments which haven’t yet been absorbed into the imperial blob like China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, Syria, pre-collapse Libya, or then-Moscow-aligned Ukraine, but any protests or uprisings within that empire are ignored at best or demonized at worst.

If dissidents in the United States began donning yellow vests and holding aggressive demonstrations in the current media environment, you could safely bet your bottom dollar that they would be ignored for as long as possible and then smeared as fascists, antisemites and/or Russian pawns thereafter. This would happen with absolute certainty.

Corporate media’s interest in foreign protests dovetails perfectly with State Department & Corporate America’s agenda. Protests against rival regimes get amplified; protests against US-friendly regimes get blackout. https://t.co/m2iouAjS8G

— Mark Ames (@MarkAmesExiled) August 26, 2019

This very reliable trend in the western media is very interesting, because it also happens to be the known position of the US State Department.

In 2017 a memo was leaked to Politico in which the sniveling John Bolton lackey Brian Hook explained to DC neophyte Rex Tillerson how to perform his job as Secretary of State with regard to human rights violations. Hook explained that the US government must downplay and ignore the human rights violations of US allies like Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the Philippines while aggressively targeting unabsorbed governments like China, Russia, Iran and North Korea for any allegations of human rights violations on their part.

“In the case of US allies such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the Philippines, the Administration is fully justified in emphasizing good relations for a variety of important reasons, including counter-terrorism, and in honestly facing up to the difficult tradeoffs with regard to human rights,” Hook explained in the memo.

“One useful guideline for a realistic and successful foreign policy is that allies should be treated differently — and better — than adversaries,” Hook wrote. “Otherwise, we end up with more adversaries, and fewer allies. The classic dilemma of balancing ideals and interests is with regard to America’s allies. In relation to our competitors, there is far less of a dilemma. We do not look to bolster America’s adversaries overseas; we look to pressure, compete with, and outmaneuver them. For this reason, we should consider human rights as an important issue in regard to US relations with China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran.”

This State Department memo is really all you need to understand what’s going on whenever there’s any kind of uprising or conflict in a foreign nation. Hell, it’s almost all you need to understand the dynamics of empire in general. And, combined with the consistent pattern we’ve seen in coverage of protests and uprisings against empire-absorbed governments versus unabsorbed ones, it certainly tells you all you need to know about the state of the western media.

In theory the US Department of State was meant to serve as a counterpart to what was then called the Department of War (later falsely re-titled the “Department of Defense”). In theory the State Department was meant to specialize in peace and diplomacy in the same way the War Department specialized in war. In practice the warmongers just got two war departments.

Today: Hong Kong publisher and democracy advocate Jimmy Lai met National Security Adviser John Bolton in DC. After meetings with @SecPompeo and @VP, this is meant to send a signal to Beijing. Very unusual for a nongovt visitor to get that kind of access. pic.twitter.com/6rvqsGJzru

— Nicholas Wadhams (@nwadhams) July 10, 2019

Understand this one basic concept and you can understand all the hot topic foreign policy issues of any given day: there is an alliance of nations, centralized around US military and economic power, which effectively functions as a single empire. This empire works tirelessly to either absorb unabsorbed governments into its blob, or at least to undermine and marginalize them so they can’t impede the empire’s growth. The goal of the empire is total global domination without causing a nuclear war and without the public noticing that they’re living in an empire. In this sense it’s essentially a silent, slow motion third world war.

I see some of my readers voicing confusion about the protests in Hong Kong, but if you understand the basic dynamic I just described you’ll see that this is really no different from the protests and uprisings we’ve seen in Venezuela, Iran, Syria, Libya and Ukraine: the western political/media class are backing an uprising which benefits the imperial blob and undermines an unabsorbed government. This doesn’t mean that the protesters don’t have grievances or that none of those grievances are legitimate, it just means that you’re being told to cheerlead for an agenda by empire narrative managers solely because your doing so benefits that empire.

So don’t. Refuse to be a pro bono CIA propagandist. This doesn’t mean you need to oppose the protesters in Hong Kong, Venezuela or anywhere else, it just means that the only people who benefit from westerners cheerleading a CIA-approved uprising against an unabsorbed government are your rulers, who work endlessly to manufacture support for pro-empire agendas.

The Great Propaganda War on China now turns on the “uprising” in Hong Kong. Forget that China is surrounded by 400 US bases, described in Washington as “the perfect noose”. This report from the excellent Grayzone investigates the illusions of Hong Kong.https://t.co/CPWIju42Li

— John Pilger (@johnpilger) August 22, 2019

People who don’t get this sometimes tell me that we should “support” the protesters in a given unabsorbed region, but they’re always very reluctant to say what they mean by “support”. Do they mean simply joining the western mass media in uncritically cheerleading for an uprising which benefits western power structures? Do they mean send them money? Weapons? An emotional thumbs-up? Prayers? Getting someone to say what they mean when they say we should “support” the Hong Kong protesters or whomever is like pulling teeth, because it would bring up a lot of cognitive dissonance to actually turn and examine what’s behind the impulse they’re following: narrative management. They’re promoting pro-empire narrative management, and nothing more. And they’re doing this because the empire narrative managers trained them to.

“Centrist” empire loyalists tend to ignore the protests in places like France while amplifying and cheerleading the protests in places like Hong Kong. Right-wing empire loyalists sometimes do it a little differently, actively conflating the Yellow Vests protests with protests in places like Hong Kong despite the very different forces that are at play in those two situations. But in both cases they’re effectively mirroring the same State Department posture that Brian Hook tried to educate into Rex Tillerson in 2017.

Don’t subject yourself to such indignities. If the political/media class is going to propagandize the masses into supporting the advancement of the agendas of the empire, at least make them do it without your help.

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