Mask Madness

Brit in Madrid/Elx

[Interactive Brokers @IBKR]

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[Thomas Fazi @battleforeurope]

The sudden panic over France’s deficit is a crystal clear example of how the euro is used to subvert democracy. Elect the wrong government (or even just consider doing so) — and the supposedly “apolitical” and “independent” ECB won’t think twice about resorting to monetary blackmail and engineering a financial/fiscal crisis in order to bring the government, or the voters, back in line.

As I write in my latest article (https://t.co/zJzkmaW6XZ), as soon as Macron called a snap election in response to Le Pen’s crushing victory last week, the “spread” between French and German government borrowing costs immediately rose to the highest level in years. Now, this could be seen as a “natural” reaction of financial markets to the prospect of a “populist” majority coming to power in France — and this is certainly how much of the media is framing it. But this ignores the fact that, ultimately, the spread is determined by the central bank — in the EU’s case, the ECB — which always has the power to bring down interest rates by intervening in sovereign bond markets. Markets only have power over states insofar as the central bank refuses to act.

Regrettably, the ECB has a long history of selectively refusing to intervene in support of sovereign bond markets, and engineering financial and fiscal panics. It did this, for example, with Italy’s Giorgia Meloni — allowing interest rates to rise as soon as her government came to power, until she pledged to submit to the EU’s economic agenda. It would now appear to be pre-emptively applying the same strategy against Le Pen in France.

This does, of course, run contrary to what should be the ECB’s principal job: keeping the spread down, or at least mitigating its rise, and thus allowing the democratic process in France to proceed as smoothly as possible. But unfortunately, the ECB isn’t a normal central bank; it’s a full-blooded political actor that has no qualms with coercing governments to comply with the overall political-economic agenda of the EU. It seems inevitable, for instance, that if Le Pen were to win the next election, the central bank’s pressure on France would only increase: expect hysterical takes on France’s ballooning fiscal deficit, despite the fact that France has had a higher-than-average deficit for years, though this was never a problem so long as pro-EU governments were in power.

For a deep dive on what is happening in France — and in Europe more in general — check out my latest piece: https://t.co/zJzkmaW6XZ.

Ultimately, this is a reminder that the euro is incompatible with any notion of democracy or popular sovereignty. A system where where democratically unaccountable institutions, such as the European Commission and ECB, are able to arbitrarily decide the policies of elected governments — or even forcibly remove them from office — cannot qualify as democratic.

As the British economist Wynne Godley famously wrote, “the power to issue [one’s] own money, to make drafts on [one’s] own central bank, is the main thing which defines national independence. If a country gives up or loses this power, it acquires the status of a local authority or colony”.

In fact, I would argue that we are in the presence of an extreme form of capitalist authoritarianism that is structurally post-democratic to its very core. Furthermore, this was not an unintended consequence of the “mistakes” committed along the road — in good faith, it is often claimed — by the architects of the euro; on the contrary, constraining national democracies was one of the euro’s principal aims all along .

For this reason, any belief that the EU can be “democratised” and reformed in a progressive direction is a pious illusion. A system that was created with the specific aim of constraining democracy cannot be democratised. It can only be rejected.

[Mask Madness @NoahSol77269707]

@EmilyHalf91 Which park is this? Was this recent footage?

[Lowkey @Lowkey0nline]

"He's one of the best on the inside..."

Shai Masot of the Israeli Embassy sings the praises of new Labour candidate Luke Akehurst and his lobby group in the Al Jazeera documentary The Lobby.

[Mask Madness @NoahSol77269707]

@M4r4r1A2202 @LarisaPhoto Land of bad food, weather and teeth as the Americans say. But humour, of all types, is unbeatable in blighty.

[Tony Montana @9mm_Scropion]

This a letter from 12 US Senators to the ICC. Read my highlighted text, it’s clear threats to the members of the ICC and their families. As an American, we’re too far gone for repair.
Tag the senators below.

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

Incredible mask-off moment: Romney and Blinken say that the ban of TikTok was directly because "the emotion, the impact of images has a very challenging effect on the narrative", the narrative being "Israel's PR".

[Jonathan Cook @Jonathan_K_Cook]

One doesn't need to be a fortune-teller to understand that the Israel-US game plan for Gaza runs something like this:

1. In public, Biden appears “tough” on Netanyahu, urging him not to “invade” Rafah and pressuring him to allow more “humanitarian aid” into Gaza.

2. But already the White House is preparing the ground to subvert its own messaging. It insists that Israel has offered an “extraordinarily generous” deal to Hamas – one that, Washington suggests, amounts to a ceasefire. It doesn’t. According to reports, the best Israel has offered is an undefined “period of sustained calm”. Even that promise can’t be trusted.

3. If Hamas accepts the “deal” and agrees to return some of the hostages, the bombing eases for a short while but the famine intensifies, justified by Israel’s determination for “total victory” against Hamas – something that is impossible to achieve. This will simply delay, for a matter of days or weeks, Israel’s move to step 5 below.

4. If, as seems more likely, Hamas rejects the “deal”, it will be painted as the intransigent party and blamed for seeking to continue the “war”. (Note: This was never a war. Only the West pretends either that you can be at war with a territory you’ve been occupying for decades, or that Hamas “started the war” with its October 7 attack when Israel has been blockading the enclave, creating despair and incremental malnutrition there, for 17 years.)

Last night US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken moved this script on by stating Hamas was “the only thing standing between the people of Gaza and a ceasefire… They have to decide and they have to decide quickly”.

5. The US will announce that Israel has devised a humanitarian plan that satisfies the conditions Biden laid down for an attack on Rafah to begin.

6. This will give the US, Europe and the region the pretext to stand back as Israel launches the long-awaited assault – an attack Biden has previously asserted would be a “red line”, leading to mass civilian casualties. All that will be forgotten.

7. As Middle East Eye reports, Israel is building a ring of checkpoints around Rafah. Netanyahu will suggest, falsely, that these guarantee its attack meets the conditions laid down in international humanitarian law. Women and children will be allowed out – if they can reach a checkpoint before Israel’s carpet bombing kills them along the way.

8. All men in Rafah, and any women and children who remain, will be treated as armed combatants. If they are not killed by the bombing or falling rubble, they will be either summarily executed or dragged off to Israel’s torture chambers. No one will mention that any Hamas fighters who were in Rafah were able to leave through the tunnels.

9. Rafah will be destroyed, leaving the entire strip in ruins, and the Israeli-induced famine will worsen. The West will throw up its hands, say Hamas brought this on Gaza, agonise over what to do, and press third countries – especially Arab countries – for a “humanitarian plan” that relocates the survivors out of Gaza.

10. The western media will continue describing Israel’s genocide in Gaza in purely humanitarian terms, as though this “disaster” was an act of God.

11. Under US pressure, the International Court of Justice, or World Court, will be in no hurry to issue a definitive ruling on whether South Africa’s case that Israel is committing a genocide – which it has already found “plausible” – is proved.

12. Whatever the World Court eventually decides, and it is almost impossible to imagine it won’t determine that Israel carried out a genocide, it will be too late. The western political and media class will have moved on, leaving it to the historians to decide what it all meant.

13. Meanwhile, Israel is already using the precedents it has created in Gaza, and its erosion of the long-established principles of international law, as the blueprint for the West Bank. Saying Hamas has not been completely routed in Gaza but is using this other Palestinian enclave as its base, Israel will gradually intensify the pressures on the West Bank with another blockade. Rinse and repeat.

That’s the likely plan. Our job is to do everything in our power to stop them making it a reality.

The article version of this post, The Israel-US game plan for Gaza is staring us in the face, can be shared here: https://t.co/kURvTIBNGy

[Bassem Youssef @Byoussef]

Yo @elonmusk I know you are busy reposting Bibi’s tweets giving orders to US officials to go in and arrest American students. I know you lost your balls awhile back when you bent the knee and visited Israel without even acknowledging what’s happening a few hundred meters away in Gaza . But here is an easy task for you . Instead of reposting the lies of a mass murderer why don’t you go to the universities yourself and see Jewish students standing in solidarity against the killing of humans . Or send an AI operated bot or something . Maybe it will have more humanity than you .

[Lee Fang @lhfang]

Elon constantly kneeling before anything pro-Israel, including a foreign country smearing our youth and encouraging censorship, is absolutely pathetic.

[Warfare Analysis @warfareanalysis]

⚡️Sources: China has invited representatives from Fatah and Hamas to visit the country in the coming days.

[Muhammad Shehada @muhammadshehad2]

🚨Hostages are having their legs amputated from being zip-tied by all 4 limbs for months; they're being forced to defecate in diapers & fed through straws.

Those are Gazan hostages at Israel's Sde Teiman "concentration camp", so you won't see one word about it in Western media🧵

[Owen Jones @owenjonesjourno]

The IDF shoots at Palestinians gathering to collect food aid.

One is repeatedly shot, tries to crawl away while injured, is left to bleed to death, and then is left to starving dogs.

Don't look away

[Talha Ahmad @talhaahmad967]

Important context
World Central Kitchen coordinated with Israel regarding transfer of humanitarian aid from boats to warehouses. IDF knew exactly what's in convoy. It's no 'human error'. Israel deliberately killed them.

[Talha Ahmad @talhaahmad967]

BREAKING
According to Politico US has been providing Israel with GPS coordinates of several medical facilities and info on the movements of aid groups in Gaza for over a month to prevent Israeli strikes against these facilities. But Israel has continued to bomb such facilities.

[Mondoweiss @Mondoweiss]

In an interview on Israeli television, former Mossad official Rami Igra said all Palestinians in Gaza over the age of 4 are “involved” and deserve to face Israel’s collective punishment policy of withholding food and humanitarian aid.

https://t.co/NLxoUSljke

[Mask Madness @NoahSol77269707]

@DanielLMcAdams @21WIRE Indeed, Bannon would love a war with China or with "the mullahs in Iran" as he loves to call them. And complete carte blanche for Israel as they are part of his 'judeo-christian" worldview.

[John McEvoy @jmcevoy_2]

John Woodcock, the UK government's adviser on political violence, has proposed that MPs should be banned from engaging in pro-Palestine protests.

Woodcock has accepted funding from the Israel lobby - even amid the Gaza genocide.

Me in @declassifiedUK:
https://t.co/in2GsfGNyl

[Mark Seddon @MarkSeddon1962]

Lord Walney was on an expenses paid trip to Israel as the IDF were killing & bombing in Gaza. 'Visit to Israel, 2-7 January 2024, part of Parliamentary Delegation organised by European Leadership Network (Elnet UK); flights and accommodation costs met by Elnet UK'.

[Lowkey @Lowkey0nline]

"I think he did a very professional job..."

Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland reveals that he is a longtime friend of Netanyahu senior adviser and former Israeli military spokesman Mark Regev.