Default Editor Patrice de Bergeracpas

ABDEL BARI ATWAN—In recent days, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan tried to adopt the intermediary role – that Israel is now seeking – to extract himself from a similar dilemma. He tried to cloak his bias towards Ukraine by presenting himself as a mediator in this crisis, but was also ignored.

Erdogan is already too neck-deep in his Ukraine faux pas for Putin to forgive. In recent months, Turkey and Ukraine have been discussing the joint production of ships, turbine engines and military aircraft. The Turkish president has sent around 500 Turkish Bayraktar drones worth $69 million to Ukraine, condemned the Russian annexation of Crimea, and dropped into Kiev for a photo op at the height of the crisis.

In a move that many are labeling “dictatorial” if not downright fascistic, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced that he is invoking emergency powers to bring an end to the trucker protests that have crippled the capital for weeks. This extraordinary step allows Trudeau to freeze protesters’ financial assets, an expression of tyrannical behavior that would have had liberals heads exploding if Donald Trump had done anything similar.

MICHAEL HUDSON—Somebody from the State Department joined Chase Manhattan, and asked Chase to set up enclave affiliates in the Caribbean to essentially attract the criminal capital of the world. As they explained it to me: “We want to be the new Switzerland.” They said the most liquid people in the world are the criminal class, the drug dealers. “We want the drug dealer money; we want the criminal money because it’s liquid. They have nowhere to go. Let’s make America safe for the flight capitalists, for the kleptocrats, for the crooked heads of states of the world for putting their money. Don’t have them put them in Switzerland to push up the Swiss currency. Have them put it in the branches of Wall Street banks that then would take this money in the Caribbean tax evasion and offshore banking center enclaves and then send the money to the head offices.”

The Biden administration has been steadily beating the drums for war with Russia, and the corporate media has been playing along right in tune. Most recently NBC News’ Richard Engel aired a segment where he, wittingly or otherwise, aired propaganda from the Ukrainian Azov Battalion, which is made up of dedicated neo-Nazis. Jimmy and The Grayzone’s Aaron Maté (https://mate.substack.com/) discuss the Biden team’s bumbling toward a possible World War III and the media that’s cheerleading it all the way there.

CAITLIN JOHNSTONE—The Ukraine invasion that never arrives is showing us once again that when it comes to Russia you really can just completely ignore all the so-called “experts” in the mainstream media. Just dismiss 100 percent of everything they say, because any random schmoe’s best guess would be better than theirs. Looking to the mainstream media for truth is like looking to a prostitute for love. That’s not what they’re there for. That’s not their job.