General

British Judge Vanessa Baraitser today rejected the extradition request of the U.S. government for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, and ruled that it would be oppressive to extradite him to the United States where he might commit suicide in prison, Kevin Gosztola, managing editor of Shadowproof website, reported on Twitter and Jaclyn Diaz on NPR today. Judge Baraitser set a bail hearing for Wednesday, and Assange’s supporters welcomed a victory; but the judge otherwise accepted the U.S. Justice Departments indictment charges against Assange lock, stock and barrel, and even implied he could be charged under the British Official Secrets Act as well. All involved understand that a pardon by President Donald Trump is the only way to end the physical and mental depression of Assange’s health under indefinite imprisonment, which caused Baraitser’s surprise denial of extradition.

Baraitser said that she believed  that Julian Assange would likely be imprisoned at a U.S. supermax prison, with Special Administrative Measures. According to Gosztola’s article, Baraitser stated, “I am satisfied that, in these harsh conditions, Mr. Assange’s mental health would deteriorate, causing him to commit suicide with the ‘single-minded determination’ of his autism spectrum disorder”  (only recently  diagnosed in prison). Baraitser then declared, “I find that the mental condition of Mr. Assange is such that it would be oppressive to extradite him to the United States of America.” She  pointed to a suicide attempt by Chelsea Manning in the Alexandria, Virginia Detention Center where Assange would be held before and during trial.

The Newcastle Herald reported that Kristinn Hrafnsson, editor-in-chief of Wikileaks, said, “It is a day with a win for Julian Assange but we have to be cautious, it’s not necessarily a win for journalism. I am concerned that instantly upon giving her decision, the US lawyers indicated they would appeal but they should not.” Assange’s partner Stella Moris, at an impromptu rally, called to Trump: “Mr president, tear down these prison walls. Let our little boys have their father. Free Julian, free the press, free us all.” 

   The U.S. government, Gosztola reported, will submit an appeal with the High Court of Justice, and Assange will have an opportunity to apply for bail from Belmarsh, where he has been imprisoned since April 2019. Assange was charged there with 17 counts of violating the Espionage Act, and one count of conspiracy to commit a computer intrusion that contains elements of an Espionage Act offense. Then a superseding indictment in 2020 contained new general allegations that targeted Assange’s speeches at conferences and the role he allegedly played helping whistleblower Edward Snowden leave Hong Kong. While press organizations worldwide condemned the charges against Assange as simply common newspaper practices, Baraitser accepted all U.S. government charges.

 Many prominent supporters, members of Congress from Matt Gaetz and Rand Paul to Tulsi Gabbard, many organizations including The LaRouche Organization have called for Assange’s pardon by President Trump. One of those supporters, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, said today, “I’m going to ask the foreign minister to ask the UK government about the possibility that Mr. Assange go free and that Mexico offer him political asylum.” He called the denial of extradition “a triumph of justice,” but said “Assange is a journalist” and deserves his freedom.

On January 3 India gave emergency authorization for two COVID-19 vaccines, those of AstraZeneca of England and Bharat Biotech of India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted: “It would make every Indian proud that the two vaccines that have been given emergency use approval are made in India!” He called it a “decisive turning point to strengthen a spirited fight.” India’s Serum Institute is producing one billion doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine, which they call Covishield.  The Pune-based facility, the world’s largest vaccine production facility, has already produced 50 – 75 million doses for immediate distribution, and plans to reach 500 million doses by July.

India’s plan is to first vaccinate healthcare workers, front-line staff such as police, and those who are vulnerable, due to age or pre-existing conditions. This involves 300 million people and is to be completed by August.

Both vaccines are given in two doses and both can be stored in normal refrigerators. AstraZeneca’s vaccine has shown an efficacy of around 70%. Bharat Biotech’s vaccine, called COVAXIN, has been shown to be safe, but it is not known whether enough data exists to estimate its efficacy level.  The Health Ministry’s statement emphasized that COVAXIN’s permission was granted in the “public interest as an abundant precaution in clinical trial mode, especially in the context of infection by mutant strains.”

The traditional Africa visit as “first trip” of the New Year by a senior Chinese official, began today as Foreign Minister Wang Yi was welcomed in the embattled country of Nigeria. This year marks the 30th year (starting in 1991) that China has chosen Africa for this “most-favored nation” honor. In addition to Nigeria, Wang will also visit the Democratic Republic of Congo, Botswana, Tanzania and Seychelles between now and January 9.

Wang’s visit comes as many nations on the continent are struggling with the re-emerging Covid-19 virus, which has already contributed to an emergence of famine conditions in places, and brought even the sturdier countries to the brink of collapse. In response, Nigerian head of Parliament Femi Gbajabiamila convened a Conference of Speakers and Heads of African Parliaments (CoSAP, so-far involving seven nations) this summer, in an effort to set the groundwork for {debt forgiveness} on the entire continent, a movement which, if China got behind it, could take on major significance. On December 10, Gbajabiamila presented his proposals for a Debt Cancellation Campaign Initiative to a virtual conference which reportedly included representatives from the United Nations, World Bank and European Union, among others, explaining to them that, “if all your money is going toward servicing debt, then how are we serious about this [recovery] agenda?”

For possibly the first time, Wang’s upcoming visits made headlines in an American publication, {Newsweek}, who took notice of the 30-year history of good Africa-China relations, and — although they felt duty-bound to mention that China is where Covid-19 “was first detected” — otherwise noted that China has made a “speedy recovery” which puts them ahead of western nations in regard to helping Africa.

It is no exaggeration to say that the COVID situation in California, especially Southern California, is horrific. Overwhelmed by rapidly accelerating numbers of cases, and lacking the space or resources to properly treat patients, doctors and hospital administrators are now discussing  triage and rationing care. The Schiller Institute’s call for building a global healthcare system–training a youth medical corps and implementing a crash program to build hospitals in record time, as China did–is urgently needed. Otherwise, the murderous policies of Joe Biden’s medical adviser Ezekiel Emmanuel–“EZ Kill”–will become the norm.

Yesterday, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that stay-at-home orders for the southern part of the state have been extended for another 2-3 weeks. Detailed reports in the {Los Angeles Times} and {New York Times} document the level of crisis in all LA County hospitals that are so inundated with patients that they’re putting them in conference rooms, gift shops, hallways, lobbies or in quickly-constructed tents in parking lots. Even so, they are running out of space.  The LA County-USC Medical Center, as of the evening of Dec. 27, didn’t have one available bed for at least 30 patients who needed either intensive or immediate levels of care, and the hospital had to close its doors for all ambulance traffic for 12 hours. The situation is the same in the Community Hospital of Huntington Park, and Memorial Hospital of Gardena.

Over the Christmas holiday weekend, all LA County hospitals struggled to deal with increasing numbers of patients and are now bracing for a new wave of COVID cases as a result of Christmas travel and family gatherings. As of the morning of Dec. 28, there were 54 available ICU beds across all of LA County–and half were for pediatric patients.

Under these extreme conditions, the {Los Angeles Times} notes that doctors “are no longer pulling out all the stops to save a life, and instead [are] strategizing about where to most effectively use resources and equipment.” Dr. Elaine Batchlor, CEO of Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital in Willowbrook, warns “we’re at a turning point. If it continues to get worse, many hospitals will begin rationing care.” Huntington Hospital in Pasadena issued an information sheet for patients and their families on Dec. 28, warning that should the situation “reach a point where our hospital faces a shortage that will affect our ability to care for all patients,” then a clinical committee consisting of doctors, a community member, a bioethicist, a spiritual care provider and other experts “will review the cases of all patients who are critically ill…and make necessary decisions about allocating limited medical resources based on the best medical information possible.” The hospital added that this “unburdens bedside staff from making any decisions about triaging care when resources are scarce.”  Dr. Brad Spellberg, the Chief Medical Officer of Huntington Hospital explains, “We were just completely overwhelmed,” trying to “daily, hourly, cobble together solutions to get us through this crisis.” This hospital has one of the largest trauma centers in the western U.S., but conditions here have been steadily worsening since Thanksgiving.

In an interview yesterday with Margaret Atwood on BBC radio, Prince Charles waxed eloquent on the paradigm shift being wrought by the global central banks and aligned governments, to force businesses into line on the Green New Deal “carbon reduction” scam – i.e. global Malthusian deindustrialization and genocide masquerading as concern for the environment. 

“Suddenly I noticed in the last 18 months or so, there has been a complete change of approach,” he stated, emphasizing the new role that companies and investors are playing in promoting the green agenda. The private sector has contributed to ravaging the environment for decades, he noted, but it “is now a necessary and critical part of the solution.”

Prince Charles quickly went creepy: “It is high time we paid more attention to … the wisdom of indigenous communities and First Nations people all around the world. We can learn so much from them as to how we can re-right the balance, and start to rediscover a sense of the sacred, because … Mother Nature is our sustainer.”

Human beings are “a microcosm of the macrocosm,” he pronounced. “But we have forgotten that, or somehow been brainwashed into thinking that we have nothing to do with nature and nature can just be exploited but if we go on exploiting the way we are, whatever we do to nature — however much we pollute her – we do to ourselves. It is insanity,” Charles said.

On the same BBC program, Atwood also spoke with the Swedish teenage wind-up green activist Greta Thunberg, and they both agreed that they hoped Joe Biden would bring about a “positive shift” in climate policy, especially since he has vowed to rejoin the Paris Accord. “It could be a good start of something new,” said Thunberg. “Let’s hope that it is like that and let’s push for it to become like that.”

As President Trump continues to fight to overturn the biggest election fraud in U.S. history, he has an opportunity to turn the tables on those who have attempted to destroy him and wreck his presidency over the last four years. While the enemies of the U.S. in the City of London and Wall Street are moving to turn the U.S. into a banana republic, and are trying to divert attention away from their treachery by blaming Russia and China, and calling banker’s puppet Joe Biden a Communist (!), their system is collapsing.

Helga Zepp LaRouche urged President Trump to outflank them, break out of the rigged game, by accepting Putin’s offer for an emergency summit, to change the dynamic from war and collapse to cooperation against today’s corporatist fascists. With the Davos billionaires desperately scheming to use a would-be Biden administration to impose Green fascism and push for new war provocations, there is an alternative solution: work with Russia and China, and adopt Lyndon LaRouche’s Four Economic Laws. She again reiterated her conviction that immersing oneself in great classical culture, especially the works of Beethoven, one can find the inner strength and beauty needed to win this world historic battle.

The budget agreement joined to the “COVID relief” legislation President Trump refused to sign until Sunday night, in no way will provide any stimulus to the real economy; but it does include a first-ever commitment by the United States Congress to ruin the economy, by adopting British Malthusian central banker Mark Carney’s goal of “zero carbon”. A President who states an intention to veto a piece of legislation does not have to list all the reasons for doing so. Presidents will often emphasize what they think is the most broadly unpopular flaw in legislation they want to veto; and President Trump has emphasized the inadequacy of $600/capita payments to bring lower-income households back from severe economic distress. But he remains, lamentably, the only really strong opponent of the economy-killing and nation-killing austerity of the Paris Climate Accord and the central bankers’ “Great Reset” to green economy worldwide.

  This $900 billion fourth COVID relief package does not set a “zero carbon” deadline date, but does say that it is “the sense of Congress” that the Energy Department must prioritize funding for research to give the United States “100 percent clean, renewable, zero-emission energy sources”. This would attempt to ban clean coal, fossil-fuel hydrogen and natural gas-related research and – under the bizarre definitions of “renewable energy source” likely used by a Biden-named DoE chief, would cut down the research on advanced nuclear and fusion reactors which has been the Trump DoE’s focus.

  And then this legislation extends tax credits and funds (with $35 billion, a huge increase in DoE funding) new R&D programs for wind and solar power, electricity storage batteries, upgrades to “smart” electric grids, energy-efficiency projects like insulation, etc., and research on “removing carbon from the atmosphere” where it merely forms the indispensable basis for plant life. It empowers the EPA to cut production and use of hydrofluorocarbons by 85% over 15 years. So, the whole “Build Bunk Better” program is foreshadowed in this legislation.

Worse – finding the Green New Deal virtually promised in “relief” legislation which eventually was passed with large majorities, shows the degree to which labor-oriented Democrats and business-oriented Republicans have either taken the toxic kool-aid of low-energy, low-productivity, low-population economy, or have become convinced they must go along with it.