Last Week Today Episode 151 Show Notes for Monday, May 20th, 2024
Curious Deaths & Attempted Assassinations of Politicians and Whistleblowers, The US Builds a Pier in Gaza, 15 Minute Cities in AB, China Dumping US Treasury Bonds & Random Acts of Violence in NY
Curious Deaths & Attempted Assassinations of Politicians and Whistleblowers
Our top story tonight is all about the recent deaths and attempted assassinations of a variety of national leaders and corporate whistleblowers.
We begin with the most recent, the May 20th, 2024 5News on YouTube post, “Body of Iran's President found after helicopter crash.” which provides an overview of the death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and six other passengers and crew in a helicopter crash on Sunday.
Raisi was one of the architects of the April 13th, 2024 Iranian drone and missile attacks against Israel and, as outlined in the May 20th, 2024 Washington Post editorial “What killed President Ebrahim Raisi? Iranians have theories,” his death is widely considered to have been an assassination.
But while the story concludes that the assassination was likely an operation undertaken by internal opponents of the Iranian government, no one really knows for sure and the Washington Post has a well known bias favoring “beltway insiders” and the Israeli government.
Speaking of which, suspicion has also fallen on the Israeli government which, as outlined in the April 2nd, 2024 Economist post, “With its latest assassination, Israel is testing Iran,” has done this sort of thing before.
We then move on to the strange case of Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico, who was shot four times earlier this week on camera at a public function.
As outlined in the May 15th, 2024 Global News on YouTube post, “Video captures moment Slovak prime minister shot in assassination attempt,” Fico returned to power last fall promising to stop sending weapons to the Ukraine and halt illegal immigration.
Fico also opposed the World Health Association’s (WHO’s) pandemic treaty which as outlined in the December 8th, 2023 The Slovak Spectator post, “New WHO pandemic treaty is targeted by Slovak disinformation actors,” he called a “fabrication by the pharma companies.”
Fico might have a point about the WHO.
As outlined in the October 10th, 2024 Freedom Forum post, “The WHO is Simply the Medical Marketing Arm of Whoever Happens to Be Funding It,” the WHO “has abandoned traditional healthcare methodologies to centralize around giant for-profit multi-nationals & unelected UN bureaucrats using illegal "opt-in" sales methodologies.”
Have the WHO’s funders or the Ukrainian government advocates or the illegal immigration supporters adapted assassination as a tool of international diplomacy.
Who knows… They certainly wouldn’t be the first to do so.
In Mexico, as outlined in the May 5th, 2024 NPR post, “In the run-up to Mexico's elections, a string of political assassinations raise alarms,” a wave of political assassinations has swept across country during the current election season, expected to culminate in national voting on June 2nd, 2024.
Mysterious deaths are also becoming more and more common in business circles. Boeing aerospace seems especially prone to this.
As outlined in the May 4th, 2024 New York Post article, “Boeing faces 10 more whistleblowers after two die: ‘People’s lives are at stake,’” at least two Boeing whistleblowers have died recently in mysterious circumstance while giving testimony to authorities over recent safety issues with Boeing built planes.
According to the May 18th, 2024 Financial World post, “Washington Examiner Analysis: Why Will Political Assassinations Become More Frequent?,” there are increasing worries in political and business circles that a “chain reaction” of political assassinations is looming on the horizon.
Targeted assassinations, mostly of political leaders opposed to Western interests, are often tactical successes but strategic failures, since they encourage retaliation, according to the January 19th, 2020 Lawfare post, “The Age of Open Assassination.”
Also in the News this Week
The US Builds a Pier in Gaza
Also in the news this week, the Pentagon has released satellite photographs of a giant, recently completed $350Mln US built “temporary” causeway designed to allow large US ships to dock in Gaza to both supply food and remove refugees looking to relocate to the US and the EU.
Not everyone supports this approach.
As outlined in the May 17th, 2024 Zero Hedge post, “First Images Of American Taxpayers' $350 Million Completed Gaza Pier,” the pier was expensive to construct and existing roads remain the most practical and cost effective solution to deliver aid to the Palestinians, if only the Israeli government would allow their use.
Intercept co-founder Jeremy Scahill notes in a May 17th, 2024 post on “X:”
The fact that the US is establishing a pier off the Gaza coast because the genocidal Israeli government, which the US funds, arms, politically bolsters & shields from international & US law, won't allow aid into Gaza by land is a damning statement about the Biden administration.
The pier is also a good place for the US to take off the inevitable refugees who, given the choice to leave Gaza or die at the hands of the Israeli government, will choose to endure relocation.
The May 17th, 2024 InfoWars post, “Israeli Plan To Force All Gazan Survivors Onto US Ships Exposed,” goes into detail about this plan.
Meanwhile back in the fake world of social media and as outlined in the May 20th, 2024 CBC News post, “Social media 'blockout' targets celebrities for not speaking out on Gaza war,” the critics of the Israeli destruction of Gaza are “calling out” online celebrities who refuse to come out against the Israeli activities.
And protestors are still protesting against Israeli actions all across the country.
Fifteen Minute Cities in Alberta
Alberta Premier Daniel Smith is concerned over a bilateral deal signed between Calgary and the Federal government to “blanket rezone” the city to allow higher density construction.
As outlined in the May 15th, 2024 Calgary CityNews post, “Danielle Smith ‘concerned’ after Calgary council approves blanket rezoning,” Smith says her main concern is that the city is only doing it to get housing money from the federal Trudeau government.
The funding has been offered to Canadian communities through a variety of public programs, most notably the Infrastructure Canada Smart Cities Challenge.
According to the post:
Smith’s UCP government tabled legislation last month that would prevent the federal government from entering into funding agreements with municipalities and other provincial entities, unless the province is consulted first.
“We want to be the advocate for all of our municipalities, so they don’t feel like they have to be pressured into passing policies,” Smith said.
Calgary isn’t the first Albertan city to rezone for densification.
Edmonton, also prompted by increased funding from Ottawa went down the same path four years ago when, as outlined in the April 24th, 2024 Energy Mix post, “Public Engagement, ‘Tipping Points’ Drove Edmonton’s Landmark Zoning Overhaul,” the city set an “excellent precedent,” for communities across Canada.
The rezoning is at the centre of Edmonton city council plans to create a “fifteen minute community,” at least according to their 2022 promotional presentation on “Fostering 15-Minute Communities.”
China Dumping US Treasury Bonds
China has dumped a record 74Bln USD of US Treasury bonds on international markets over the last year.
It’s part of a long-term trend which, as outlined in the April 18th, 2024 Global Times post, “China downsizes holdings of US treasury bonds to $775 billion: data,” has been going on since 2009 through the BRICS nations, an intergovernmental organization comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, and the United Arab Emirates.
BRIC’s affiliated nations are slowly building an alternative, commodity based economic system independent of the US dollar in a process called “DE dollarization.”
According to the post:
As the global trend toward de-dollarization has begun, many countries have accelerated diversifying their reserves by increasing holdings of gold and using local currencies for international payment.
China's holding of US government debt has been below the $1 trillion mark since April 2022 and is slowly dropping. China’s gold holdings have been increasing monthly since 2022.
For a second view of what’s going on, check out the May 18th, 2024 EuroDollar University post, “China Dumping Record Amounts of Treasures (Here's Why).
Random Acts of Violence in NY
Random acts of violence are slowly growing in major urban centres in Canada, the US and western Europe and no one really knows why.
For context, here’s the May 18th, 2024 Mongo Minds Productions on Bitchute post, “CBS Aired a Montage of Random Attacks in Manhattan in Recent Weeks.”
“Last Week Today” provides context and connections for the most important news stories of the week.
We’re a part of the fast growing alternative, “new media” ecosystem, which grew up around distributed, low cost technologies developed to enhance two-way communications between authors and audiences.
Please support our sponsors below.