CORPORATE FASCISM

As the U.S./NATO proxy war in Ukraine against Russia rages, the imperialist establishment is increasingly united behind a strategy of escalation. Brian and Eugene Puryear trace the development of this increasingly hostile approach over the years and decades; and review the most important recent military, economic and political developments in the conflict. Eugene Puryear is the host of the BreakThrough News podcast The Punch Out, and co-host of the BT live video show The Freedom Side.

Flying under the radar and unbeknownst to most, the World Health Organization is quietly pursuing an international treaty that would hand national sovereignty over healthcare decisions to the unaccountable global body, allowing the WHO to unilaterally declare pandemics and impose responses on individual nations. Not surprisingly, major WHO funder Bill Gates is fully supportive of the idea. Jimmy and American comedian Kurt Metzger discuss the possible consequences of this treaty and how the Microsoft founder would benefit from its signing.

Cautious optimism in connection with some relaxation of the current tight censorship regime may be in order, but exuberant hopes that Musk will singlehandedly rescue the First Amendment and restore freedom of speech to the American polity may be simply delusional. We agree with Caitlin Johnstone: “I’ll start paying attention to Musk’s talk about free speech if and when Twitter stops censoring Russian media and unbans people like Scott Ritter who were removed from the platform for questioning official empire narratives about what’s happening in Ukraine. Until then I’m going to assume he’s at most only interested in protecting speech that doesn’t threaten the powerful like Republican partisan bullshit and hate speech against marginalized groups.”

Texas Bentley on a mission to rescue a pregnant girl behind the lines and an old granny as well. Report from Donetsk. Regis and Texas Bentley discuss the headlines, how the Russian special operation is going, and the lies being disseminated by the West to a public already conditioned to a fake reality.

CAITLIN JOHNSTONE—“I’m concerned about Russian disinformation spreading online, so today I wrote to the CEOs of major tech companies to ask them to restrict the spread of Russian propaganda,” US Senator Mark Warner tweeted on Friday.

Since then YouTube has announced that it has suppressed videos by Russian state media channels so that they’ll be seen by fewer people in accordance with its openly acknowledged policy of algorithmically censoring unauthorized content, as well as de-monetizing all such videos on the platform. Google and Facebook/Instagram parent company Meta both banned Russian state media from running ads and monetizing on their platforms in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Twitter announced a pause on ads in both Russia and Ukraine.

“Glad to see action from tech companies to reign in Russian propaganda and disinformation after my letter to their CEOs yesterday,” Warner tweeted on Saturday. “These are important first steps, but I’ll keep pushing for more.”