We’ve been immersed in our COVID world now for nearly two years, with a new “variant,” Omicron, raising its spikey head, fomenting press and panic in the Big Pharma racket, and causing a new wave of pain emblemized for me by seeing another man sleeping on the same sloped lawn outside the university student housing, that I first saw more than a year ago.
Somewhat removed from the American vaxxer vs. anti vaxxer tug of war, I still receive screeds from a few colleagues who pepper my inbox with their cries of outrage, outrage mostly at finding their personal liberty infringed upon. But just yesterday, one whose mind I have found sound and reliable sent a barrage of articles and youtubes, including a transcript of an address Giorgio Agamben gave before an Italian parliamentary body as recently as last month. Giorgio Agamben is a noted Italian philosopher whose name is typical of the Veneto, one of Italy’s northern regions. He first came to my attention through the work of Mau, a Polynesian dance company whose high concept production, Tempest Without a Body, probably the most profound piece of theater I will ever have viewed in a long life-time of theater viewing, was grounded in his work.
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| Giorgio Agamben |
His address is devoid of fluff, a scant few paragraphs really, entirely lazer focused on its two points The first addresses the proposed Italian Parliamentary Decree that all citizens must now be obliged to carry a “green pass” (the Italian equivalent of our vaccination card) which implies that the government accepts no responsibility for any damage brought about by Big Pharma’s un-fully-tested vaccine.
His second point addresses the political problem of the “green pass,” which forces people to get vaccinated if they want to eat, have a social life, work a job, or generally try surviving. The over-all picture he paints is of a society based on control-as-the-accepted norm. He further elaborates his point by drawing parallels with the Soviet and the Italian Fascist models.
Now imagine the U.S. congress inviting a philosopher to address one of its august bodies. What public intellectual might be considered worthy of such a summons let alone listened to? What hoodlum of greed, of financially stratospheric kleptitude would have to fit the bill?
In other pandemic news, one headline reads “Moderna refuses to share vaccine recipe with all of Africa as Omicron rises.” Another reads “First U.S. case confirmed as WHO chief decries failure to share vaccines globally.” Profits for Big Pharma come first over kicking the pandemic habit; greed will guarantee that people of the world continue to suffer until the entire world is immunized—which at the rate we are going will take the next forty years.. The other very significant article reports publication of Robert Kennedy’s new book, The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health. The link worth a read. A brief précis for folks with shorter attention spans can be found here.
Kennedy has chosen to expose the Byzantine machinations undergirding the U.S. approach to immunology. He has this to say: “For five decades Tony Fauci has been essentially a Big Pharma agent, nurturing a complex web of financial entanglements among pharmaceutical companies and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and its employees that have transformed NIAID into a seamless subsidiary of the pharmaceutical industry…. [He] does not do public health; he is a businessman, who has used his office to enrich his pharmaceutical partners and expand the reach of influence that has made him the most powerful – and despotic – doctor in human history.”
Prior to all publication, the book industry in the U.S. makes sure to review all copy with a fine-toothed comb to guard against any liable suit. You can be sure that Kennedy’s book is vermin-free.
Hope from the ground up
In all the dithering and delay by the WTO which postponed their latest scheduled meeting—a meeting which to consider a temporary waiver— owing to the emergence the Omicron variant. Some time ago, Senator Paulo Paim of Brazil proposed a bill that allows Brazil to bypass the barriers originally erected by TRIPS (Agreement of Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) which according to its Article 73 allows each government to take whatever action it considers necessary to address the pandemic, including suspending property rights. Paim‘s bill, which passed both Brazil’s House and Senate, provides a permanent provision for overriding IP monopolies on essential technologies needed to address such health emergencies as the current pandemic.
This development had the potential of providing the entire Third World with a viable alternative model, had not Bolsonaro vetoed many of its provisions, resulting in the Senate charging him with “crimes against humanity.” At present, because the Senate missed is deadlines restoring the bill’s original provisions following Bolsonaro’s mangling, it must now act quickly to eliminate Bolsonaro’s cuts.
Tune in next week.
SCROLL DOWN to sign demanding global access to COVID vaccines and treatment.
DONATE to put human lives over Big Pharma profits.
DEMAND the extra $25 billion Congress wants to allocate to the Pentagon go to producing COVID vaccine to end the pandemic worldwide.
WHO chief urges pandemic treaty to avoid another ‘crisis of sharing and solidarity.’
2.5 million nurses demand UN probe into ‘COVID criminals’ blocking patent waiver.
Xi announces supplying Africa with additional 1 billion COVID vaccine doses.
UNESCO members adopt first global AI ethics agreement ‘to benefit humanity.’
NATO parliamentarians send letter to Biden for no firth-use policies.
Germany to get Green Ministry of Economy, Energy, and Climate in boost for President Biden.
‘Triumph for Democracy as socialist candidate takes commanding lead in Honduran election.
Massive turnout in favor of leftists in Honduras repudiate U.S. backed coup.
Honduras National Party recognizes Xiomara Castro’s win.
Honduras set for first female president as Castro holds wide lead.
Castro’s victory spells end of U.S. backed ‘narco-politics, neoliberalism.”
International community recognizes victory of Xiomara Castro.
Venezuela’s socialists win election in landslide as U.S. tries to discredit them.
Venezuela’s mega-elections: despite U.S. sanctions, COVID, an d economic crisis, Chavismo wins majority of states.
What a concept department: Despite over 60 year old U.S. blockade, Cuba develops its own two highly effective vaccines, immunizes 80% of its population and is on the verge of sharing its vaccines with impoverished nations abandoned by Big Parma and wealthy countries.
In Nicaragua, Sandinistas win landslide victory because they uplifted the poor.
Seven-day march of over a million people in defense of democracy concludes in La Paz, Bolivia.
Mexico increases workers’ minimum wage by 22 percent.
In Argentina Macri indicted and banned from leaving country.
Indonesian unions celebrate critical omnibus law victory regaining rights, entitlements, as well as environmental protections.
Majority of world’s oil and gas workers want to seek employment in renewable energy industry.
Shell slammed for plan to last South African coastline for oil and gas during whale mating season.
For the sake of peace, anti war groups demand Biden return to nuclear deal with Iran.
Informal group of Northwest indigenous tribes announce they’ll join Southern California march to demand release of indigenous children from immigration detention facilities, signaling hemispheric indigenous solidarity.
Biden commits to North Korea peace as U.S. and South Korea talk end-of-war declaration.
Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping agree that nuclear-armed countries should not be able to gain decisive advantage over one another.
Protests demanding affordable housing surge in the Netherlands.
Massive protests in Niger, Burkina Faso demand French military get out.
Putin calls for release of Afghan financial assets.
Amnesty’s General Secretary calls for Assange’s immediate release because is detention is arbitrary.
Norway calls on NATO to stay away from its border with Russia.
In Winnipeg, free bus rides offer environmentally sound transportation model.
Battle over Canada’s Jordan Cove Energy Project is over after developers pull plug.
Nearly 300 artists, celebrities demand Hollywood end ‘disturbing’ support for Big Pharma’s vaccine monopolies.
Extractive Industries everywhere are watching as 9 Democrats urge DOJ to free Steven Donziger.
Biden to create panel to study expanding “Supreme” Court.
Durbin introduces amendment to end ‘legacy of cruelty’ by closing Guantanamo.
‘Congress must act’: Sanders demands end of filibuster to codify abortion rights.
New report urges Biden to stop arms sales fueling Saudi ‘devastation’ of Yemen.
47 groups urge Congress to avert ‘human rights failure’ by blocking Biden’s Saudi arms sale.
Shutdown averted as Congress passes short-term funding bill.
200+ groups to Democrats in Congress: No holiday recess until you pass voting rights.
Amid overdose crisis, public health groups urge Congress to pass live-saving bills.
Activists make last-minute bid to stop blasting in whale breeding grounds.
‘For profit healthcare hurts all of us”: Sacramento, CA approves single-payer resolution.
SCOTUS upholds Oklahoma’s McGirt Decision guaranteeing tribal sovereignty as Governor and big oil lose.
Nevada’s Democratic governor apologizes for state’s abuses of Native Americans.
Stacey Abrams runs for governor of Georgia.
Union and Kellogg reach tentative deal to end strike.
Win for Alabama Amazon workers after NLRB orders new union vote after corporation ‘s misconduct.
Chicago tortilla workers walk out and win day off work.
After Long Island farmworkers unionize, organizers hope to see others follow.
N.Y.C. opens nation’s first overdose prevention centers.
Dozens more N.Y.C. convictions tossed because of three dirty former ‘top’ cops.
Food banks distributed 1.1 billion pounds of food in the first quarter of 2020. By fall, 2020, they were handing out 1/7 billion pounds.
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