It would be safe to assume that most people worldwide, when you ask them how they felt about the year 2020, more than likely will have similar answers. The worldwide pandemic of COVID 19 has touched just about every living soul in one way or another. When I last checked, the total deaths around the globe stands around 1.73 M. The hardest-hit country from the virus is the United States with 18.5 M cases and 326,000 deaths. Due to our stringent lockdowns and governmental financial support for the population (insuring people would actually lockdown), Australia to date, records 28,238 cases and 908 total deaths. This has been no small feat, where most of the population followed the rules including isolating, 1.5-meter distance, and the obligatory mask. We currently have another small outbreak in New South Wales; however, the actual numbers remain low. All that said, this virus is a sneaky bastard, so the best we can feel is a sense of cautious optimism for the future.
The two most written about subjects for me this year has been, of course, COVID 19 and Julian Assange. Aside from my criticisms of the many western countries' unrelenting support for war worldwide, specifically “regime-change” and proxy wars, the leading subject that all of us should be greatly concerned about is the imprisonment and persecution of Julian Assange. Because he has revealed to the planet the corruption and war crimes of our respective governments, we as the population are more aware of governments' machinations. At the moment, he languishes in Belmarsh Prison in the UK, in solitary confinement, for revealing the Iraqi war crimes of the United States.
Publishing and journalism is not a crime but is that necessary Fourth Estate Pillar in our western systems to report and question power and governments. If Julian Assange is persecuted and put in a dark hole in some Super Max prison in the US, this will have a domino effect on the Rights of Free Speech and Freedom of the Press. To be sure, I find it utterly disgusting that more journalists are not speaking out for Assange, considering what is at stake. Even from a cursory glance, the MSM has become an extension of governments and their intelligence agencies, feeding us misleading information or leaving out the news that otherwise would send the population up in arms. A few independent news outlets are fighting the good fight, but they are becoming few and far between. As a great journalist and activist, they said (name escapes me) that if they 'get' Julian Assange, who will be next?
Because I grew up in Denver, Colorado, and lived in Los Angeles California, I have many friends and close family living there. This follows why I care and write about US foreign and domestic policy. To a great extent, I can say that 2020 is the year of the great unmasking. Governments around the world have revealed their neoliberal intentions economically, financially, and socially. In France, for example, the Macron government attempted to pass a law to silence protesters from taking photographs and video of the police. This would put the State at a considerable advantage and pave the way for police corruption.
In the US, under President Trump, the response to COVID 19 was lacking at best, bordering on the criminally negligent, and refusing medicare and survival money for the population during a pandemic. One only needs to look at other countries around the planet and their response to the virus to realize the extent of the US governments corporate corruption.
It was heart-wrenching to watch the videos of the vast numbers of people in lines, as far as the eye can see, to simply attain food for their families. My tears turned to anger when the corrupt US government decided to give other countries millions and billions (mostly for war), throwing the American people under the bus. The US government/politicians are not the friends of their constituents, and if you believe otherwise, you've been brainwashed or duped.
In 2020, the governments unmasked themselves by sanctioning certain countries around the world during a global pandemic. In two countries, in particular, Venezuela and Iran, the US sanctions were doubled down, and the innocent deaths for lack of food and medicine have yet to be accurately calculated – it's in the thousands. All western country's who followed the US economic sanctions are criminally complicit.
The eyes of the world were focused on the US presidential election. It's safe to say that most people outside of the US wanted Trump out of office. The president's deregulation's environmentally; pulling out of the Paris Accords, and the breaking of the Iran nuclear deal cast a long shadow over the Trump administration. We all wondered how far President Trump would move towards WW3? To the clown's credit, he didn't start any new wars (as far as we know) but simply maintained the seven wars that Obama started.
The world understands that Afghanistan is a corporate war to maintain the weapons industry and a strategic position against Russia. This proxy war has gone on for 20 years with no end in sight. The US and the Five-Eyes countries will tell you that Afghanistan is about “terrorism.” It's not. This war is about resources and money.
An Australian whistleblower, David McBride, who is currently being prosecuted, revealed Australian war crimes in Afghanistan. See: https://sychronicity1.blogspot.com/2020/11/australian-war-crimes-in-afghanistan.html In the end, we might see the whistleblower in jail and the actual war criminals go free, but that's where we are in 2020.
Lastly, when it comes to Medicare in the US, the people have been so beaten down with propaganda and faux left-wing pundits that many believe it is Communism and the root of all evil. Although the statistics reveal that at least 80% of the American people want universal health care on both sides of the political spectrum, US politicians continue to make lame excuses. When the US sees AOC as a fighter for the left, the world sees a democratic centrist with too much clout. Again, this is another great unmasking in 2020.
For many years, my focus is anti-war. Over the last 30 years, at least, diplomacy has all but disappeared, and the bully “iron hand” has become the rule. The US War Economy must be dismantled because it destroys the planet environmentally, raping, and pillaging countries around the world for its resources. This is psychopathic behavior and will ultimately lead nowhere but total death and destruction.
Most of us around the planet didn't have a good year. 2020 has revealed many government crimes, their unmasking, and desire for authoritarian control. A worldwide human movement is necessary on a grand scale, and maybe, 2021 might be the year it finally happens.
The planet needs to change because it can't keep going on like this.
Happy New Year.
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