Iran responds to US military moves with more firepower
RT | August 6, 2023
Iran has beefed up the weaponry of its naval forces, arming them with such tools as additional drones and precision missiles with ranges up to 1,000 kilometers (620 miles), amid rising tensions with the US over shipping traffic through the world oil market’s most crucial bottleneck.
The Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy officially took possession of the new gear at a ceremony on Saturday, state-run media outlets reported. The systems include reconnaissance and combat drones, as well as electronic warfare equipment, truck-mounted missile launchers, and hundreds of cruise and ballistic missiles.
The announcement came after reports earlier this week that US military officials had drawn up unprecedented plans to place armed troops on commercial trips in the Strait of Hormuz. Just last month, the Pentagon announced deployments of additional fighter jets and naval assets to the Persian Gulf region in response to “alarming events,” such as Iranian seizures of commercial vessels.
Brigadier General Abolfazi Shekarchi, a spokesman for the Iranian military, denounced Washington’s proposed deployment of troops on private ships. “What do the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman and the Indian Ocean have to do with America?” he told Iran’s Tasnim news agency. “What is your business here?”
About 20% of the world’s oil supplies, or one-third of all seaborne crude shipments, go through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow passage that connects the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. Tehran typically accuses the operators of detained ships of shipping violations, such as oil smuggling. Some of the vessels have only been released after other countries free detained Iranian tankers.
The new missiles give the IRGC Navy better accuracy and longer range than it previously had available, commander Alireza Tangsiri said. “The cruise missiles can attack several targets simultaneously, and the commands can be altered after takeoff,” he added.
US-Iran tensions have risen since Washington pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal in 2018. Efforts to revive the agreement, known officially as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), have failed, despite the change in US leadership when Joe Biden succeeded Donald Trump as president in January 2021.
Failed Climate Predictions
We should all be dead by now
The Naked Emperor’s Newsletter | August 5, 2023
In 2013 The Guardian wrote an article saying that the Arctic would be ice-free in two years. Does anybody remember the ice-free Arctic in 2015?
Professor Peter Wadhams was heralding a methane catastrophe. I guess after such a terrible prediction, Wadhams retired? Of course not, he is still a professor at Cambridge University and he’s still writing books and recording videos in which he tries to terrify everyone about the impending ice free Arctic (in another two years of course).
In 2018, Jeff McMahon wrote an article in Forbes claiming that “We have five years to save ourselves from climate change, Harvard Scientist Says”.
The Harvard scientist was a chap called James G. Anderson. He said “the chance that there will be any permanent ice left in the Arctic after 2022 is essentially zero”. Don’t tell Anderson but it’s 2023 and there is plenty of ice left in the Arctic.
When the article was written, Anderson prosecuted a moral argument that implicates university administrators who refuse to divest from fossil fuels, journalists who fail to fact-check false statements made by political candidates and executives of fossil fuel companies who continue to pursue activities that are exacerbating climate change. “I don’t understand how these people sit down to dinner with their kids because they’re not stupid people”, he said.
I don’t understand how end-of-the-world doomsters such as Anderson sleep at night. Climate anxiety is a major mental illness in the young, all because of failed predictions such as his. I know lecturers at my local university who have to give climate counselling before and after each lecture, just in case something they talk about triggers an anxiety attack in their students – bonkers.
Furthermore, young adults are deciding not to have children because of climate change and instead gluing themselves to runways, begging their governments to impoverish them further. The only global catastrophe there will be is when there aren’t enough humans being born.
I guess Anderson must have retired now, after so many failed predictions. Once again, of course not, he is still a professor at Harvard. And the Forbes reporter, Jeff McMahon, is still at Forbes, still telling us the world is going to end.
These people expect us to take them seriously and listen to their dire warnings. ‘But but this time I am 100% definitely right, my models were not adjusted correctly last time, you need to listen to me now’. It seems that if you are part of the climate death cult, you can make as many false predictions as you like and you still keep your job. Just as long as you keep making scary predictions to control the masses.
FCC Defies Court Mandate, Delays Review of Cellphone Radiation Guidelines
By Suzanne Burdick, Ph.D. | The Defender | August 2, 2023
Despite the Children Health Defense’s (CHD) “historic win” against the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) nearly two years ago, the FCC has yet to comply with the court mandate to explain how its radiofrequency (RF) radiation exposure guidelines adequately protect humans from harm.
The agency last week published its regulatory agenda for the next six months. The agenda made no mention of the Aug. 13, 2021, U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit court decision.
Commenting on the omission, W. Scott McCollough — CHD’s chief litigator for the organization’s electromagnetic radiation (EMR) cases and the lead attorney for its 2021 victory — told The Defender, “The Federal Communications Commission has just formally admitted that it intends to continue disobeying the D.C. Circuit’s August 2021 order requiring it to reassess its RF exposure guidelines.”
“This wanton and irresponsible defiance of the court’s order is deplorable,” McCollough said. “Hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of people are getting sick from RF radiation exposure from devices the FCC is knowingly putting in commerce.”
This is taking place “even though all the most current science tells us the [FCC] guidelines are woefully inadequate to protect sensitive adults and defenseless children, and all the increasing non-natural radiation is contributing to species decline,” McCollough said. “We will not stand for this, and neither should the public.”
CHD sued the FCC in 2019 after the agency determined there was “no appropriate basis” for updating or amending its RF radiation exposure guidelines, which the agency initially set in 1996.
The FCC sought to justify its 2019 decision by saying, “We take to heart the findings of the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), an expert agency regarding the health impacts of consumer products, that ‘[t]he weight of scientific evidence has not linked cell phones with any health problems.’”
However, the D.C. Circuit panel majority — after reviewing 11,000 pages of evidence refuting the FCC’s position — told the FCC it must do a better job of explaining how its 1996 guidelines regarding wireless-based technologies adequately protected public health.
The panel remanded the case back to the FCC, meaning the agency was required to reopen its investigation of its RF radiation exposure guidelines.
The panel majority said the agency must also:
“(ii) address the impacts of RF radiation on children, the health implications of long-term exposure to RF radiation, the ubiquity of wireless devices, and other technological developments that have occurred since the Commission last updated its guidelines, and (iii) address the impacts of RF radiation on the environment.”
The FCC has since refused to take action, despite an April 2023 petition from CHD urging them to “quit stalling” and comply with the court-ordered mandate.
According to McCollough, “The FCC intends to keep stalling until it is too late to do anything because any reductions to the exposure limits would require a massive recall and overhaul of the entire wireless infrastructure they want to get deployed now.”
“They and the wireless industry are obviously planning to make the court remand meaningless through this fait accompli maneuver,” he added.
FCC report ‘a joke’
Under the Regulatory Flexibility Act, Congress requires agencies such as the FCC to produce a public report twice a year that outlines the agency’s anticipated or ongoing regulatory undertakings.
McCollough called the FCC’s July 27 public report submitted to comply with this law “a joke.”
“This report lists 75 ongoing regulatory ‘actions,’” McCollough said. “For all but one, the ‘Next Action’’ is stated to be ‘undetermined.’ In other words, for the listed actions the FCC tells us it does not know what action, if any, it plans to take next or when it will do so.”
He added:
“This is clearly not true; the commission certainly has plans for the what and when but it prefers to keep only insiders in the know.
“The FCC would much prefer to do its dirty work in a dark back room so only its industry cohorts and masters know what the true ‘agenda’ is.”
McCollough said the remanded docket — meaning the case number for the court-ordered investigation into the science on RF radiation — is not on the list “and there is no other ‘action’ that would suit the FCC’s court-ordered duties.”
Miriam Eckenfels-Garcia — who directs CHD’s EMR program — said:
“We are very disappointed to see that the FCC continues to fail to comply with the court order and continues to ignore the ever-growing scientific evidence of human and environmental harm from RF radiation levels well below the current FCC exposure guidelines.”
According to Eckenfels-Garcia, CHD’s EMR team has identified several available legal options given the FCC’s continued refusal to obey the 2021 court mandate and will be initiating action on them soon.
“The agency’s lack of prioritizing the protection of humans and the environment makes clear how deeply captured the agency is,” Eckenfels-Garcia added.
The Defender reached out to the FCC to ask when the public might expect the agency to comply with the 2021 mandate, but the agency did not respond by our publication deadline.
Suzanne Burdick, Ph.D., is a reporter and researcher for The Defender based in Fairfield, Iowa. She holds a Ph.D. in Communication Studies from the University of Texas at Austin (2021), and a master’s degree in communication and leadership from Gonzaga University (2015). Her scholarship has been published in Health Communication. She has taught at various academic institutions in the United States and is fluent in Spanish.
This article was originally published by The Defender — Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Please consider subscribing to The Defender or donating to Children’s Health Defense.
African neighbors finalize Niger war plans
RT | August 4, 2023
The militaries of several ECOWAS members have agreed on a plan for military intervention in Niger and are waiting for a final political decision, a senior official of the bloc said on Friday.
The Economic Community of West African States has already sanctioned the junta in Niamey over last week’s military coup and demanded the restoration of ousted president Mohamed Bazoum before Sunday.
Even as Nigeria sent diplomats to its northern neighbor, its capital Abuja was hosting a planning meeting of ECOWAS chiefs of staff. Notably absent were Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, and Guinea.
“All the elements that will go into any eventual intervention have been worked out here, including the resources needed, the how and when we are going [to] deploy the force,” said Abdel-Fatau Musah, ECOWAS commissioner for political affairs, peace and security.
Musah added that the final decision will be made at the political level, but that ECOWAS will not telegraph when and where it will strike.
“ECOWAS will not be used for coups. Democracy is what we stand for and democracy is what we will sustain,” General Christopher Gwabin Musa, chief of Nigeria’s defense staff, told AP.
On Thursday, Bazoum appealed directly to the US to intervene. Washington has some 1,000 troops in Niger, engaged in counter-terrorism operations against Islamist groups that arose after NATO’s 2011 regime change intervention in Libya. Niger’s former colonial master France has another 1,500 troops on the same mission.
The Nigerien junta repudiated all military treaties with France on Thursday, and sacked the country’s ambassadors to the US, France, Togo and Nigeria. Paris and Washington have said they do not intend to remove their troops from the country, and only recognized Bazoum as the legitimate leader.
Niamey has warned both the West and ECOWAS that any military intervention will be met with deadly force. “All aggression or attempt at aggression against the state of Niger will see an immediate response,” junta spokesman Colonel Amadou Abdramane, said on Friday.
In a joint statement earlier this week, Burkina Faso and Mali said that an ECOWAS incursion into Niger will be taken as a declaration of war against them as well.
EU state will order Russians to leave
RT | August 4, 2023
The government in Riga will send official notices next month to almost 6,000 Russian nationals, informing them they have 90 days to leave the country, a Latvian parliamentarian confirmed on Friday.
“There are 5,000 to 6,000 of them. These are people who have not shown any desire, either to take the exam or to obtain a temporary residence permit. They are silent,” Ingmars Lidaka, head of the parliamentary committee on citizenship and migration, told the Lithuanian state broadcaster LRT.
The Latvian Interior Ministry confirmed that the notices are currently being prepared, and will be sent out in September to “around 6,000” recipients, according to the news agency Elta.
Last year, after the hostilities in Ukraine escalated, Riga imposed a requirement for Russian nationals who wish to reside in Latvia to take and pass a Latvian language test. Ethnic Russians make up about a quarter of the Baltic state’s 1.8 million residents, and have been denied Latvian citizenship since Riga declared independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Then-president Egils Levits argued last August that ethnic Russians suspected of disloyalty to Latvia should be “isolated from society,” citing the Ukraine conflict. However, back in 2021, Levits openly spoke of a plan to promote “Latvianism” in language and culture in order to make it dominant by 2030.
Last September, around 100 activists in Riga protested the upcoming education law – which would eliminate Russian from all schools – as a “language genocide.”
In January, Latvian authorities arrested Marat Kasem, editor-in-chief of Sputnik Lithuania, who had returned to visit his dying grandmother. Though a Latvian national, Kasem had been deported to Russia in 2019 because of his association with Sputnik.
Riga charged Kasem with espionage and held him imprisoned for four months, eventually agreeing to reduce the charges and impose a fine of €15,500 ($17,000). After the new Latvian president, Edgars Rinkevics, complained about the prosecutors’ leniency, the journalist left the country once again.
August 6: Humanity for Peace International Demonstration
August 6 from 1 – 4 pm EDT Humanity for Peace (HumanityforPeace.net) will be holding a demonstration on the 78th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima — along with the subsequent bombing of Nagasaki probably the most heinous crimes committed in human history.
Location: Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza, E 47th St, New York, NY 10017
Current list of speakers include:
Gerald Celente – Founder/Director of the Trends Research Institute and Publisher of the weekly Trends Journal magazine.
Mike ter Matt – Candidate for the Libertarian Party presidential nomination.
Scott Ritter – Former U.S. Marine Corps intelligence officer.
Garland Nixon – Veteran progressive radio and talk show host.
Diane Sare – Independent candidate for U.S. Senate in New York 2024.
Muhammad Salim Akhtar – National Director of the American Muslim Alliance and the American Muslim Task Force on Civil Rights and Elections.
Jose Vega – Sare for Senate staffer and LaRouche activist/interventionist since 2014.
Ahmadou Diallo – President and founder of the Guinean American League of Friends for Freedom.
Rev. Dr. Terri L. Strong – Chairwoman of the Action and Global Concerns Committee for the National Church Women United Organization.
Aaron Day – Former Chairman of the Free State Project; author of the book The Final Countdown: Crypto, Gold, Silver and the People’s Last Stand Against Tyranny by Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs).
Jude Elie – leader of the Haitian diaspora in the United States; President of the Haitian Salesians of Don Bosco Past Pupils Worldwide.
Malcolm Burn – Grammy Award-winning record producer; host of the weekly “The Long Way Around” radio program heard on Radio Kingston, WKNY in Kingston, NY.
Demands are as follows:
1) The immediate ending of all funding and weapons to Ukraine.
2) Convene immediate unconditional peace talks.
3) The Dissolution of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
4) A new international security architecture must be created to end the division of the world into blocs, eliminating geopolitics. This new architecture must take into account the security concerns of every sovereign nation, large or small.
The demonstration will be livestreamed by the Schiller Institute at this link and by Humanity for Peace at this link.
Contact us at contact@humanityforpeace.net, follow us on X @4peacehumanity.
Below is the Mission Statement of the demonstration:
The danger of nuclear war has escalated to a point that no thoughtful person on the planet can ignore it any longer. Yet, in this atmosphere, there are still some who think there should be more weapons, more sanctions, and who think that a nuclear war can be won against Russia. It is very clear that those who have provoked the war, and continue to escalate it, do not care about the lives of the people of Ukraine or any other nation on the planet for that matter. This is NOT acceptable to those of us who care about the well-being of ALL of humanity — those who do not wish to see the human race wiped off the face of the earth.
We, therefore, call on the citizens of the world to come together and raise our voices against this madness. Humanity For Peace is building a unified coalition, above ideologies, to stop this unfolding escalation towards nuclear war. We refuse to let humanity perish at the hands of insanity.
August 6 will be the 78th anniversary of the unnecessary and genocidal nuclear bombing of Hiroshima by the United States, which was followed days later by the same crime against Nagasaki. Humanity For Peace is proud to announce that on this occasion, August 6, 2023, an international rally will be held to remind the world that nuclear war should never be fought and can never be won. Humanity is better than that, and we must reject the destiny of inevitable war as a morally repugnant and horribly cynical view.
The main rally will be held at the United Nations in New York City, NY, from 1-4pm, which will be live streamed over the internet. In solidarity with this, sister rallies will be held in other cities around the world. Please get in contact with us if you are interested in organizing another sister rally.
There are currently over 20 organizations sponsoring the event. If your organization would also like to sponsor the event, please contact us. More information, including the current speakers list, can be found at HumanityForPeace.net.
As President Kennedy said in his famous address to American University in 1963, war is not inevitable — but only if we work instead to create peace. The leadership in the United States and NATO is currently not working towards this goal, but rather are further escalating and inflaming the situation in Ukraine. For this reason, an international chorus of voices must be raised against this policy, and sound the call for peace!
Join us August 6 — we must make this sentiment the dominant voice in the world!
Humanity for Peace – Requiem Concert:
Sunday, August 6, 2023, 6:00 pm – 8:00 PM
Location: The Unitarian Church of All Souls at 1157 Lexington Avenue at East 80th Street, New York, NY
The concert will be free and open to the public.
Ex-Pakistani PM Imran Khan jailed for three years
RT | August 5, 2023
Former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan was issued with a three-year jail sentence by an Islamabad court on Saturday after he was found guilty on corruption charges. The verdict means that Khan, who claims the prosecution was politically motivated, will not be able to contest elections later this year.
In a pre-recorded statement released on X (formerly Twitter), Khan told his supporters: “I have only one appeal, don’t sit at home silently.”
Judge Humayun Dilawar declared in court that Khan, 70, had “deliberately submitted fake details” after he was accused of illegally profiting from the sale of gifts he received while serving as Pakistan’s head of state between 2018 and 2022. After issuing the three-year custodial term, the judge also ordered Khan to be banned from politics for a period of five years.
Following the verdict, Khan, who was not in court, was arrested at his home in Lahore and taken into police custody. The claims against the former prime minister are a case of “political victimization,” according to his lawyer Intezar Hussain Panjutha.
“Khan was not given an opportunity to defend himself and say his side of the story,” he said after the verdict. “We wanted to provide witnesses in his favor but he was not allowed this opportunity. Khan was not given a fair trial.”
Khan’s barrister, Gohar Khan, added in comments to The Dawn newspaper that the court’s verdict had been a “murder of justice.”
However, opponents of the former politician appeared to celebrate the court’s judgment outside the building, with some chanting: “Imran Khan is a thief.”
More than 150 cases have been brought against Khan, the former sports star turned populist political figure, since he was ousted from office last April following a no-confidence vote. He has denied all wrongdoing.
Barring a successful appeal, Khan’s conviction means he will be prohibited from standing in Pakistan’s general elections, which are expected to take place in October or November. Khan, who had unsuccessfully called for early elections to take place, has previously stated his belief that Pakistan’s military authorities have attempted to obstruct his Tehreek-e-Insaf party from regaining political power.
It’s the second time in recent months that Khan has been arrested. Around 100 paramilitary troops were involved in his detention last May in connection with one of the numerous cases against him. Khan has alleged that Pakistan’s military is responsible for attempts to subdue his political influence. He has also claimed that the United States has conspired with Pakistan’s government to prevent him from returning to political power.
RFK Jr. Sues YouTube and Google, Alleges ‘Misinformation Policies’ Violated His First Amendment Rights
By Brenda Baletti, Ph.D. | The Defender | August 4, 2023
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Children’s Health Defense founder and chairman on leave, this week filed a lawsuit against YouTube and its parent company, Google, alleging the social media giant violated his First Amendment rights.
According to Kennedy, who is running for the Democratic nomination for president of the U.S., YouTube engaged in a “censorship campaign” that included removing videos of his speech at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire and interviews he did with clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson and podcaster Joe Rogan.
The complaint, filed Aug. 2 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges the U.S. government has taken “extraordinary steps” under Joe Biden’s leadership “to silence people it does not want Americans to hear,” including himself and many others.
That censorship makes it difficult for Kennedy to reach millions of voters and also for his supporters to amplify his message, the complaint says.
The lawsuit predicts the censorship will continue throughout Kennedy’s campaign, intensifying as the primaries approach.
“Mr. Kennedy often speaks at length about topics people would like to ignore, including the negative health effects of toxic chemicals and potential safety concerns about the COVID-19 shots,” the complaint reads. Then YouTube uses its “medical misinformation” policies — developed in partnership with federal government agencies and the Biden administration — to justify removing his videos.
In doing so, the platform censored not only Kennedy’s comments on medical issues, but the entire content of his speeches and interviews, according to the suit.
Although YouTube is a private company, it is not simply a publisher, the complaint alleges — it has become “an important platform for political discourse in America, a digital town square that voters trust as a place to get news and opinions about the issues of the day.”
According to the complaint:
“YouTube operates as a public forum, the digital equivalent of a town square. As such, it cannot remove protected speech, especially political speech, based on its viewpoint. …
“There is a sufficiently close nexus between YouTube and the federal government such that YouTube’s actions may be fairly treated as that of the government itself.”
Although YouTube cited its own COVID-19 vaccine misinformation policies to censor Kennedy, those policies “rely entirely on government officials to decide what information gets censored,” according to the lawsuit.
For example, the suit says YouTube doesn’t allow content that “contradicts local health authorities’ (LHA) or the World Health Organization’s (WHO) medical information about COVID-19,” and the guidance on those policies only changes based on government decisions.
Kennedy also called YouTube’s medical misinformation policies “unconstitutional” because they are “vague” and “overbroad” and “because they give unnamed government officials, who the policies depend entirely on, the unfettered discretion to decide what information gets removed from YouTube.”
Kennedy is seeking injunctive relief to prohibit YouTube from further censoring his speech, and the restoration of any videos of his political speech removed during the campaign.
Kennedy also seeks a declaration that Google and YouTube violated his First Amendment rights and that its medical disinformation policies are unconstitutional.
Brenda Baletti Ph.D. is a reporter for The Defender. She wrote and taught about capitalism and politics for 10 years in the writing program at Duke University. She holds a Ph.D. in human geography from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master’s from the University of Texas at Austin.
This article was originally published by The Defender — Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Please consider subscribing to The Defender or donating to Children’s Health Defense.
Jim Jordan Demands Answers From Pro-Censorship Activist Group
By Christina Maas | Reclaim The Net | August 4, 2023
On an unanticipated front of the fight to uphold free speech, US Representative Jim Jordan recently entered the ring. Jordan, a staunch proponent of free speech and transparency, has launched a probe questioning the authority and influence of a certain digital entity, namely, the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH).
Operating from the perspective that censorship stifles conversation and growth, Jordan aims to expose how the CCDH could have been instrumental in directing the Biden administration’s censorship policies.
At the epicenter of this is a damning report titled “The Disinformation Dozen.” The tract, according to Jordan’s probing letter, has been instrumental in encouraging the Biden administration’s campaign to apply pressure on social media platforms. This is in order to suppress and control content, a move that in the broader picture, clashes with the standard tenets of freedom of speech and open discourse.
We obtained a copy of the letter for you here.
Representative Jordan’s stance, while controversial to some, nonetheless positions him as a bulwark against what many consider an encroachment on constitutionally enshrined freedoms. Whilst dragging the CCDH into the spotlight, Jordan has made clear his commitment to ensuring that checks and balances are preserved in the increasingly murky waters of the digital age.
The decision to question the CCDH has served to underscore the often obscured mechanics of the Biden administration’s strategy, revealing the extent to which outlying groups could potentially be influencing federal policy decisions.
As this probe unfolds, it becomes increasingly evident that the crux of this matter extends beyond the CCDH, or even the Biden administration’s alleged censorship practices. This exploration by Jordan and his associates has made apparent the need for a deeper investigation into the structures that regulate digital discourse in order to safeguard the freedoms that lie at the heart of our democracy. The pivot point here is not just about who gets to decide what can and cannot be said, but also about the incalculable value of a society’s right to open and unrestricted dialogue, as well as for transparency.
This unexpected turn of events demonstrates the ongoing measures and countermeasures by political figures such as Jim Jordan, to ensure that the ideals of free speech and anti-censorship that the nation was built on, sustain in the rapidly evolving internet landscape.
The CCDH is also currently facing a lawsuit from X owner Elon Musk, who alleges that the work of the activist group has been a vindictive move to turn advertisers away from the platform.
“Darkness At Noon”
Eerie shades of Arthur Koestler’s classic 1941 novel
By John Leake | Courageous Discourse | August 5, 2023
This evening at dinner, Dr. McCullough talked about the troubling signs that the noose is tightening on the Medical Freedom movement, with Drs. Paul Marik and Pierre Kory recently receiving ‘Notice of Potential Disciplinary Sanction’ from the American Board of Internal Medicine. The once intellectually sound institution now resembles a Maoist Tribunal. Equally alarming was Chase Bank’s recent decision to shut down the bank account of Dr. Joseph Mercola, apparently for no reason apart from his unorthodox views of health and medicine.
Then there was RFK, Jr.’s abominable treatment at the hands of Democratic members of Congress at a hearing about the federal government’s flagrant violation of the First Amendment. As I watched the shocking rudeness, arrogance, and brutality of the Representatives, I was reminded of accounts I’ve read about so-called People’s Courts and Tribunals—i.e., Kangaroo Courts—that have been erected by various totalitarian regimes. Last but not least is the constant legal harassment of former President Donald Trump, who is accused of being “a threat to democracy,” even though he is apparently the preferred candidate of roughly half the electorate.
All of the above remind’s me of Arthur Koestler’s classic 1941 novel, Darkness at Noon, which he wrote in 1940 while living in France. A Hungarian Jew, Koestler studied at the University of Vienna, and then embarked on an adventurous life, residing in various European countries and in Palestine, working as a reporter and author. A socialist in his youth, he was discerning enough to recognize that for all of its idealistic promises, the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia quickly became a corrupt and tyrannical regime.
Darkness at Noon is set between 1938-1940, after Stalin’s Great Purge of dissidents (real, perceived, and fabricated) and the Moscow Show Trials. The action takes place in an unnamed prison in which the protagonist — an old guard Bolshevik named Nikolai Salmanovich Rubashov — has been arrested as part of Stalin’s campaign to eliminate all potential rivals. Rubashov undergoes a series of interrogations, which initially have a strange air of affability, but then turn progressively more severe and doctrinal.
At no point is it clear what law Rubashov has allegedly broken, or why those who have arrested him perceive him to be a threat. For some mysterious and frightening reason, it seems that he simply cannot be tolerated.
When I first read Darkness at Noon as a junior in high school, I found it fascinating and terrifying, and it left an indelible impression on me. At the same time, I assumed (in the year 1988) that such a scenario could never happen in the United States.
Now I’m not so sure. The English title comes from Job 5:14: “They meet with darkness in the daytime, and grope in the noonday as in the night.” As Koestler recognized, evil may, at any moment, become ascendent and prevail. Unfortunately, most people fail to perceive the gathering darkness until it’s too late to stop it.
Is it too late to stop it now? I’m not sure, but Dr. McCullough and I are bracing for further reprisals against heterodox doctors like Pierre Kory, Paul Marik, and Joseph Mercola, and heterodox political candidates like RFK, Jr.
Dr. McCullough has already been stripped of his entire academic medical career, but he continues to communicate with the citizenry through Substack, Twitter, and independent media outlets. I continue to express my thoughts on Substack.
Will our few remaining free speech platforms be shut down? Will our bank accounts be frozen? Will we ultimately — like Rubashov — be arrested and imprisoned for reasons that aren’t really clear to us, apart from the fact that we express heterodox views?
At this moment it is difficult if not impossible to predict if the disturbing trend we are observing will abate, or if it is the early expression of a regime that will eventually obtain full dictatorial power. If history is any guide, we are justified in feeling very alarmed by what is going on.
Sept. 1, 2022: President Biden gives speech characterizing Donald Trump and his Republican supporters as a dangerous threat to American democracy.
Disinformation War
Tales of the American Empire | August 3, 2023
Americans hear about a new “information war” strategy, formally known as wartime propaganda. Most don’t realize that it is a disinformation war, and they are the target. Most Americans don’t understand that the corporate media does not exist to inform them, but to mislead them. The US military has formed huge propaganda units, with each service training thousands of military personnel and paying contractors to influence social media. They post information on-line and make comments as regular anonymous folks to support the official government narrative. They demean truth tellers, target them with complaints that they violate comment guidelines, and pressure websites to censor comments.
________________________________
“The War You Don’t See; Why Propaganda Hides the True Face of War”; John Pilger; 2010; 
• The War You Don’t See: Why Propaganda…
Related Tales: Vietnam War playlist; • The Vietnam War
“This is Devastating for western war propagandists”; Redacted; June 8, 2023; • This is DEVASTATING for the western w…
“Glenn Greenwald’s Ukraine War Warning: Propaganda Repeats Itself”; Katie Halper; July 15, 2023; • Glenn Greenwald’s Ukraine Warning: Pr…
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Interview with Jennifer Bilek
On The Transgender Agenda
Lies are Unbekoming | May 12, 2016
I’ve been following Jennifer Bilek’s reporting on the Transgender Agenda for the last year.
In my opinion, she is doing the best investigative journalism, in the world, on the top-down nature of this society deforming “input” and “normalization”.
What we don’t understand is the scale of money behind this push, and the individuals controlling this weaponized capital. These are questions that go to the heart of Jennifer’s work. … continue
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- Israelis use Palestinian kids as human shields: Rights group
- Unremarkable peer recruited by Zionist lobby to stop Palestine Action
- 360,000 flee Rafah due to Israel strikes: UNRWA
- Iran, India move forward with port deal in face of US sanctions
- If Americans Knew
- Who’s Funding AIPAC’s Political Spending Barrage?
- For Columbia and a Powerful Donor, Months of Talks and Millions at Risk
- Columbia crackdown led by university prof doubling as NYPD spook
- Disaster unfolds all over Gaza, West Bank – Day 219
- Israeli airstrikes in southern Gaza, invasion in central Gaza, carpet bombing in north – Day 218
- Strapped down, blindfolded, held in diapers: Israeli whistleblowers detail abuse of Palestinians in shadowy detention center
- Fighter jets, attack drones hammer Rafah; catastrophe looms – Day 217
- What it’s like to be used as a human shield by the Israeli army
- Detailed study finds 99% of pro-Palestine protests at US universities are peaceful
- VIDEO: Armenian Christians under siege by Israel
- International Solidarity Movement
- Dispatches from Palestine
- The Right to Resist Genocide by Land and By Sea
- Women Support Center in Nablus empowers women and girls, resists gendered violence and the Occupation
- Palestinian Family at Um Darit Harassed and Isolated
- Occupation Forces Targeted Series of Strikes Kills 7 Aid Workers in Gaza
- Israeli army and police escalate repression of human rights volunteers following Knesset hearing.
- Illegal Israeli Settlers Continue Attacks on Shepherds in Masafer Yatta
- Second Friday of Ramadan at Qalandia Checkpoint
- Deceptively “quiet” first week of Ramadan in Jerusalem: a result of restrictions at Qalandia checkpoint
- Masafer Yatta: Israeli Settlers Burn a Family Car in Um Dhorit
- Richie Allen
- The Richie Allen Show Returns Tomorrow Wednesday April 24th
- Call Richie Today Monday March 11th From 4.30pm
- Connect To The Richie Allen Show WhatsApp Today
- NHS Asks Patients To Choose From 12 Genders, 10 sexual Preferences & 159 Religions
- The Richie Allen Show Moves To A New Time Slot From Monday Nov 20th
- Starmer Will Sack Shadow Ministers Who Vote For Gaza Ceasefire
- AI Tool Can Predict Heart Attacks Years In Advance
- Nepal Bans TikTok To Preserve Social Harmony
- Bloke Appointed Boss Of Womb Health Charity
- WHO – “Gaza’s Biggest Hospital Becoming A Cemetery”
- No Tricks Zone
- Using Nets On The Seafloor To Retrieve Seafood ‘Roughly The Same As Running 100 Coal-Fired Plants’
- New Paper: Global Warming Leading To HIMALAYAN COOLING, Preventing Glacial Melt!
- DNA Evidence Reveals Domestic Cats, Dogs, African Wildcats, Frogs Lived In The Arctic 9000 Years Ago
- -80°C: Antarctic Vostok Station Records “Extreme Winter Cold”…Not Even Winter Yet!
- The German E-Vehicle Nightmare, 2024 Q1 Sales Plummet 14%… “Graveyard” For Unsold Cars
- Newly Discovered 90,000-Year-Old Human Footprints Reveal How Much Higher Sea Levels Used To Be
- Germany’s Economic Bloodbath Worsens As Green Revolution Causes Economy To Bleed To Death
- Water Vapor Absorbs 84 Times More Radiation Than CO2 … Clouds Drove 89% Of 1982-2018 Warming
- The 97% Consensus Claim Is In Fact 97% Bogus
- Post-1980s Increases In Shortwave Radiation Explains Europe’s Warming Trends Far Better Than CO2
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