BRITISH/ EU/ NATO COMPLICITY

BRUCE LERRO—ith the recent kidnapping of President Maduro by Yankee imperialists, I wonder about how BRICS nations and other countries sympathetic to them such as North Korea and Iran will respond. Venezuela has made an attempt to join BRICS and clearly they are in the socialist camp so I would expect it would be especially important to China. Were BRICS countries and their allies aware of the build-up for the kidnapping and what kind of help did they offer?

DIMITRI LASCARIS—On January 20, in a “special address” to the World Economic Forum, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney delivered a speech that was widely hailed as courageous, transformational and historic. Dimitri Lascaris speaks with Professor Radhika Desai about the true meaning and intention behind Carney’s words. They also discuss Mark Carney’s recent trip to China and the “strategic partnership” that emerged from Carney’s meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

PAUL EDWARDS—The American Empire, long in the tooth, sclerotic, unconsciously moribund, is bound and determined to force a showdown war on reluctant and prudent Russia and China.  As erstwhile hegemon, it can’t abide the idea of not being, as in days of yore, Number 1.

With that intent, it has directed vast sums to its owners, the giant War Machine mafias, to build what our Presidents always swear is the most powerful military in the history of the world.

JULIAN MACFARLANE—He is a polymath and autodidact with a wide range of competencies in history, literature, law, even engineering. He is clearly a bottom-up “rhizomatic” thinker, with few preconceptions — enhanced by high intelligence and logic although qualified by emotional sensitivity, humanistic and spiritual values.

He makes connections others might miss, and he sees patterns. Proof of what I am saying? Look at those 5-hour press conferences. What other world leader would be capable of that? Look also at interviews.

Socially, he is reported to be rather shy. You can see this very clearly in his interviews with Oliver Stone. He is modest, personal, and honest.

JEFFREY KAYE—Like many people, I have been shocked and shaken by the vehemence of Donald Trump and Kristi Noem’s anti-immigrant campaign, the latest example of which is the carnage unleashed by ICE and other government forces in and around the city of Minneapolis. The worst example was the shooting of 37-year-old mother, Renee Nicole Macklin Good, on January 7 by ICE officer Jonathan Ross. The non-profit newsroom, ProPublica, recently documented “over 40 cases of [ICE] agents using chokeholds and other moves that can block breathing.” There are tons of videos of vicious ICE and other federal agent attacks on unarmed civilians.