THE SAKER—The Belarussian authorities have declared that “hundreds” of men (supposedly Russians) have been sent to Belarus with nefarious intentions.  Lukashenko has since officially confirmed that he got this info from the Ukrainian SBU. The men themselves were described as terrorists, insurgents, members of the “Wagner” PMC, subversives, etc. and their goals were described as killing Lukashenko, triggering a new “maidan” in Belarus, create chaos, etc. Frankly, the Belarusian authorities never got their story straight and, frankly again, this really makes no difference at all. 

UNLESS STATED OTHERWISE, ALL IMAGES, CAPTIONS AND PULL QUOTES BY THE EDITORS…

EKATERINA BLINOVA—The current administration has been exerting pressure on Beijing since day one of Donald Trump’s presidency. However, previously, US-Chinese frictions were mostly about trade deficit, apparent currency manipulations, and the Chinese telecom sector. Following the COVID-19 outbreak, US-Chinese ties have hit a new low. Both Democrats and Republicans are calling for tightening the screws on the People’s Republic.

One could ask whether it was really the coronavirus pandemic, blamed by the White House on Beijing, that became the watershed in Sino-American relations. Not really, observers say. What matters is the November election.

THE CONVO COUCH—So, as usual, with a horrid boondoggle cum tragedy like the Beirut blast, the empire’s disinformation machine is trying to capitalize, so the usual “assets” are providing the necessary incriminating headlines: it’s Russia! Russia! Russia!, folks, while the presstitutes oblige. Is anyone surprised? 

The narrow postwar political framework, however, within which these individuals would subsequently be obliged to operate was established early on. In 1947, Shirer, perhaps the most talented of the crowd, was forced out at CBS, without Murrow’s coming to his assistance, for criticizing the Truman Doctrine (that the US, as leader of the “free world,” must lead a worldwide crusade against communism) and the network’s kowtowing to corporate sponsors. Shirer was named in Red Channels, the anti-communist tract published in 1950, and blacklisted for all intents and purposes.

Cronkite was not of that stature. He apparently found no great difficulty in accepting the limits set by the American establishment during the Cold War. He was known to be critical, as was Murrow, of Senator Joseph McCarthy and the anti-communist witch-hunting, but he made a career for himself nonetheless.

DAVE LINDORFF—Instead of sharing the bomb with the USSR, which, remember, was America’s ally in World War II, and then working for its being banned, the US began producing dozens and eventually hundreds of Nagasaki-sized atom bombs, moving quickly from hand-made devices to mass produced ones. The US also quickly started pursuing the development of a vastly more powerful bomb — the thermonuclear Hydrogen bomb — a weapon that theoretically has no limits to how great its destructive power could be.

JOHN PILGER —During the 75 years since Hiroshima, the most enduring lie is that the atomic bomb was dropped to end the war in the Pacific and to save lives. “Even without the atomic bombing attacks,” concluded the United States Strategic Bombing Survey of 1946, “air supremacy over Japan could have exerted sufficient pressure to bring about unconditional surrender and obviate the need for invasion. “Based on a detailed investigation of all the facts, and supported by the testimony of the surviving Japanese leaders involved, it is the Survey’s opinion that … Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war [against Japan] and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated.”

GODFREE ROBERTS—CNBC reports that China is testing electronic warfare assets at fortified outposts in the South China Sea. The move allows Beijing to further project its power in the hotly disputed waters. [MORE]. China News reports that several US Growler electronic warplanes went out of control for a few second over the South China Sea then withdrew. According to the pilots, their instruments  became chaotic and the planes could not communicate with the outside world. The United States demanded that China dismantle the electronic equipment immediately, but was ignored

CAITLIN JOHNSTONE—If you choose to make the end of perception management your foremost priority, that means you push for government transparency at every opportunity and support any movement to take away secret hiding places from the powerful.

It means opposing the way the powerful bolt shut all the doors on public scrutiny of their behavior, smear anyone who speculates about what they might be up to as a crazy conspiracy theorist, and imprisons anyone who leaks information about what they’re really doing to the people.

It means you support whistleblowers like Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden who help shine light on the things power tries to keep hidden in the dark.

It means you support WikiLeaks and Julian Assange and any journalist who helps expose the secrets of the powerful.

It means you fight the empire’s propaganda machine at every opportunity to break public trust in its manipulations.

DANNY HAIPHONG—The farcical myths of American exceptionalism such as “free speech” facilitate a mass ignorance of the deadly censorship that Assange’s case represents. Any real leftist movement in the United States would do well to reexamine the material conditions that create the need for censorship and let go of anti-communist and racist stereotypes which only serve to cloud political judgement. While China is certainly a leading economic power, the Communist Party-led state is by no means a military hegemon. That position rests with the United States. The United States possesses the biggest military apparatus in the world by several proportions, one that is used to destroy and plunder the planet with impunity.

iorella Isabel is eloquent and as usual passionate and super lucid in her dissection of the fraud represented by the duopoly and the choice of neoliberal imperialist Kamala Harris for Biden’s VP, her enthronement a heartbeat from the presidency proof of the appalling corruption and hypocrisy permeating the Democratic party and their hanger-ons across the media and other key institutions. 

ERIC ZUESSE–All of these countries have the most-libertarian policies regarding coronavirus-19, policies such as the smallest percentage of people who are wearing face-masks in public, and such as the freest activity in crowds, and, generally, the least concerns about spreading the virus to others (such as to teachers, healthcare providers, and the general public). These countries — libertarian countries — have the most-relaxed policies regarding protection of the public from the spread of the virus. All of them are U.S.-allied countries. The first of the three lists — the list that’s unadjusted — includes two countries that are not U.S.-allied: Iran and Russia. However, Iran and Russia aren’t among the actual 12 worst, according to either of the two bottom-line measures: “Tot Cases/1M pop”, and “Deaths/1M pop”. Generally speaking (which means that there are some exceptions to this), being a U.S.-allied country usually reflects being a country that pursues libertarian responses to the coronavirus-19 problem.

MATT EHRET—As investigative journalist Paul Sperry rigorously lays out in his report, a major piece of the Russiagate puzzle was revealed when it became known that the primary source used by Christopher Steele in shaping his dodgy dossier was not the high level Kremlin insider which the world was told, but rather a former Brookings Institute employee named Igor Danchenko.

PEPE ESCOBAR—Yet Macron, the IMF and their “partners” are only interested in keeping monetary “stability”; seduce speculative foreign capital; make sure that the rapacious, Western-connected Lebanese oligarchy will get away with murder; and on top of it buy scores of Lebanese assets for peanuts.

ANDRE VLTCHEK—Whether elections were to be held or not, attacks against Ms. Lam and Beijing were planned to continue. They were clearly ordered by the Western establishment, “no matter what happens.” We will return later to ‘criticism of postponement of the elections,’ but first, let us see what was written just a few hours earlier when all major Western media outlets still thought that the elections would take place as scheduled.