Some Finland news:

Incidents involving unauthorised access and damage at water towers in Finland received a lot of publicity last summer. According to Hakala, it is now quite certain that Russia was not behind these.

“Some of them are under preliminary investigation by the police, but our view is clear that there were no sabotage attempts by Russian proxies,” Hakala says.

It is likely that the water tower incidents were cases of ordinary vandalism, says USU.-

There has been frantic consent manufacturing going on to fuel the fires of war and when a garden chair gets blown over by the wind, there is wide news coverage on how Russia did it. Far smaller are these follow up stories a year later where they have to admit that Russia definitely did not do it.

In February 4, 1992, Commander Hugo Chávez led a civic-military rebellion against the neoliberal government of President Carlos Andrés Pérez in Venezuela. The rebellion, despite its failure, marked the beginning of a new era of profound socio-political changes in the Latin American country- the Bolivarian Revolution. Chávez was allowed to speak on national TV on the night of February 4, during which he accepted responsibility for the rebellion and addressed his fellow rebels to assure them that they had only failed “for now".

Dude can’t think of one thing by himself. Now he again copied Trump:

Echoing Trump, Milei pulls Argentina out of World Health Organization

***Argentina will pull out of the World Health Organization, Presidential spokesperson Manuel Adorni confirms, following in the footsteps of the United States. ***

President Javier Milei has decided to formally withdraw Argentina from the World Health Organization, the government confirmed Wednesday. Presidential Spokesperson Manmuel Adorni confirmed the decision, which echoes last month’s announcement by US President Donald Trump that the United States would pull out from the UN agency.

“President [Javier] Milei instructed Foreign Minister Gerardo Werthein to withdraw Argentina’s participation in the World Health Organisation. This is based on the profound differences with regard to health management, especially during the [Covid-19] pandemic,” said the spokesman. “We Argentines are not going to allow an international organisation to intervene in our sovereignty, much less in our health,” he stressed at a press conference.

Gotta love that fake ass nationalism. I wish they had the same attitude towards the US, the EU and the IMF but no, these institutions can come in and take whatever the fuck they want.

Adorni claimed that the WHO, along with Milei’s successor in office Alberto Fernández, led Argentina into “the longest lockdown in the history of humanity,” referencing the nation’s strict Covid-19 lockdown between 2020 and 2021. The WHO had “failed its greatest litmus test” by promoting “eternal quarantines without scientific support” during the pandemic, he alleged.

Was the COVID pandemic mishandled in Argentina? Yeah, probably. The government’s role wasn’t as terrible they claim it was, it’s not like people were being executed for going out or something. The lockdowns were indeed long (but not the “longest in history” omg) but at the same time COVID killed a lot of people. What destroyed the government’s legitimacy and every effort was a number of photos and videos leaked of the President and his family hosting a party in the middle of the lockdown and the government handing out vaccines to VIP subjects for free before everyone else (something that happens everywhere but never goes public).

‘Nefarious’

Milei issued a statement a few hours after the announcement, denouncing the WHO as “nefarious” and claiming it had played the role of the “executive arm” of the “biggest experiment of social control in history.” Denouncing its authorities as “ideologues,” Argentina’s leader said its “quarantine” policies during the Covid-19 pandemic led it to be part of “one of the most outlandish crimes against humanity in history.”

Literal Alex Jones moment.

Milei’s top spokesperson claimed the withdrawal would “give the country greater flexibility to implement policies adapted to the context of interests that Argentina requires, as well as greater availability of resources and reaffirms our path towards a country with sovereignty in health matters.” Adorni added: “It should be clarified that Argentina does not receive funding from the WHO for health management, therefore this measure – unlike some have said at least on social networks – does not represent a loss of funds for the country nor does it affect the quality of services.”

Unnamed government officials, cited by the La Nación daily said that the decision would save around US$10 million a year. According to WHO documents hosted on its website, an assessment of Argentina’s funding capabilities for 2024-2025 proposed the nation contribute 0.71 percent of the organisation’s overall budget, an estimated US$50 million. It is unclear how much of that is returned to Argentina via programmes and policies.

A lot of it returns to Argentina actually. Argentina has access to the OMS’ common fund to purchase medicine and vaccines to combat diseases like HIV/AIDS, Chagas, Dengue and so many others, we need that shit. Now they’re out of reach…

Following in Trump’s footsteps

Milei’s decision is in line with the recent executive order signed by Trump ordering the United States to depart the WHO. The United States is by far the WHO’s biggest donor and its withdrawal will leave a major hole in the organisation’s budget and its ability to respond to global public health threats.

In its last complete budget cycle, for 2022-23, the United States pitched in US$1.3 billion, representing 16.3 percent of the WHO’s US$7.89 billion budget. Most of the US funding was via voluntary contributions.

The World Health Organization last week urged the United States to reconsider a decision to suspend funding for HIV treatment programmes in developing countries, after Trump ordered an almost-complete freeze on foreign aid.

“We call on the government of the United States of America to enable additional exemptions to ensure the delivery of lifesaving HIV treatment and care,” the UN health body said on X, adding that it had “deep concern” over the funding pause. With regards to HIV, the agency said that its programmes provided access to "life-saving HIV therapy to more than 30 million people worldwide.”

We are being governed by people who want to kill, murder and exploit to no end and by washed up versions of the former.

Death to “america” and death to “israel”.

VOX asked Hungarian NED-beneficiaries journalists what can they teach Americans about authoritarian regimes:

Apparently Orban is just a power hungry evil dude who loves money and power and took his chance. It’s not like a historical process or something, shifts in societies just happen, because of a few bad actors.
Hungary was a “vibrant democracy” then the bad dudes came into power with a giant mandate. They used the unfortunate circumstances of the 2008 global economic crisis (what was that about anyway?)

ctrl+F “neoliberal” = Phrase not found.

The Hungarian economy was in shambles after the 2008 financial crisis — so bad, in fact, that it required an emergency $25 billion from the International Monetary Fund and others to avoid fiscal ruin — and the current prime minister was embroiled in scandal.

Wow so the evil right wingers came into power even after the glorious IMF saved the Hungarian economy? Huh? Why is that? Strange!

Is capital falling back to the ethnic nation, nationalism and colonial acquisition (greenland, canada, panama) because pinkwashing and moral authority failed as a means of doing imperialism?

For decades they used, successfully I might add, moral authority of spreading “western values” as the tool of justifying their wars on the middle east while elsewhere they used anti-communism. These collapsed, as we’ve seen with support for Palestine, opposition to Israel, and even support for Iran.

If the “western values” and pinkwashing and superior moral authority are no longer effective tools of waging conflict. Falling back to the previous tools makes sense, the ethnic “nation”, my land my people, and religion, which all worked for far far longer than the changed attempt to wage western superiority over everyone else on the basis that it was uniquely better.

I’ve been thinking about why “the west has fallen” is so prevalent and the reverse course towards religious, patriarchal and ethnic “values” happened. It was a conscious decision made by people that want the population in their society thinking in a certain way in order to use it for specific purposes but the exact reasons for it are rarely discussed in terms of this set of thought being a means to an end. Even in marxists circles it’s only vaguely referred to as “threatening capital” and “pillars holding up capital” without specificity of what it materially gives them. This also has to be painted and analysed in the sense that the small group of billionaires that are pushing it all understand climate change and climate migration as an incoming threat.

According to Ken Klippenstein, Mitch McConnell just fell down the stairs.

jfc https://old.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/1iiee56/ea_uses_real_explosions_from_israeli_airstrikes/

https://apnews.com/article/trump-netanyahu-washington-ceasefire-1c8deec4dd46177e08e07d669d595ed3

Note the number of Gazans proposed to be ethnically cleansed - 1.8 M. The 2023 population of Gaza was 2.3 M give or take. That is a lot of death. Thanks Biden.

Argentina announces withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO). President Javier Milei imitated United States President Donald Trump, who had already anticipated the same decision, placing the organization in a financial crisis

• Telesur

Removed by mod

Gustavo Petro, president of Colombia, said that cocaine is no worse than whiskey, “it’s just illegal”. Petro also said that the illegality of Cocaine only exists because it is “a product of Latin America” and that US drugs, such as fentanyl, are not subject to the same ban.

• Telegram

The US Postal Service has announced that it will no longer receive packages from China and Hong Kong, amid the trade war intensified by President Donald Trump. The measure accompanies a 10% increase in tariffs on Chinese imports.

One of the most impactful changes was the elimination of the tariff exemption for low-value packages, known as “de minimis”, which allowed tariff-free entry for items valued at up to US$800. This could affect platforms such as Shein and Temu, which are responsible for 30% of the packages sent. According to a congressional report, almost half of de minimis shipments come from China, and the volume of these imports has increased by 600% since 2015, reaching 1.36 billion packages by 2024.

• Telegram

“Stop Playing Nice,’ Says AOC as Senate Dems Help Approve Yet Another Trump Nominee”

“There has to be a political price to pay” for Elon Musk’s takeover of federal agencies, said the congresswoman.

A political price.

Zelenskyy told Trump Ukraine would consider sharing rare earth minerals in exchange for military support https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/zelenskyy-told-trump-ukraine-would-consider-sharing-rare-earth-minerals-in-exchange-for-military-support/ar-AA1yqayA

CW:SA absolute horror in the DRC https://tinyurl.com/4m4sevna