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White House Steamrolls Over Poll Showing Americans Don’t Want to Fund Ukraine

By Ilya Tsukanov – Sputnik – 10.08.2023

The US has sent over $113 billion in military and economic support to Ukraine over the past 18 months, with NATO allies sending tens of billions more. The assistance, which includes nearly $100 billion in military aid, did not endow Kiev with the firepower necessary to mount a successful counteroffensive against Russia.

The White House has dismissed polling showing that a majority of Americans don’t want to send any more money to Ukraine to fund NATO’s proxy war against Russia, ruling out that assistance would stop in spite of public wishes.

“We have seen throughout this war solid support from the American people, solid support from the Congress in a bipartisan and bicameral way for continuing to support Ukraine and we’re going to stay focused on that,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said.

“It’s not just important to people of Ukraine, but it’s important to our European allies and partners, particularly our NATO allies, given that this fighting is on the doorstep of many of those NATO allies,” and to the “national security of the American people,” Kirby added.

The White House spokesman inserted the traditional ‘Vladimir Putin the bogeyman’ scare tactic, telling the Americans who don’t want to continue funding the proxy war that “if we just sit back and we let Putin win, we let him take Ukraine, where does it stop next?”

The White House is seeking Congressional approval to sneak tens of billions of dollars more in additional “supplemental funding” into next year’s defense budget, with the Pentagon coming up with new creative ways to scrounge additional cash from already approved outlays by using accounting tricks.

While most US media and most of the US political class in Washington continue to support funding Ukraine (apart from a handful of MAGA-leaning Republicans), a bombshell poll published last week revealed that 55 percent of Americans don’t want Congress to authorize any more funds for Ukraine. 51 percent said the US has already done enough to help. Nearly 8 in ten expressed concerns about the conflict dragging on, with 59 percent fearing that the Ukrainian crisis could unleash a wider war in Europe. 56 percent of respondents said they continue to see the Ukrainian conflict as a national security threat – down from 72 percent in February of 2022.

Ordinary Americans’ shifting attitudes toward the Ukrainian crisis have been picked up on by presidential candidates from both major parties, as well as independents, with major candidates calling for an end to the conflict, and pointing to the West’s role in starting it.

Former President Donald Trump, the leading candidate among Republicans by a long shot, has promised to end the Ukraine conflict within 24 hours of winning the 2024 election. Democratic Party hopeful Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promises to talk to Russia and has emphasized that the West has “no business putting NATO in Ukraine.” Leading independent candidate Cornel West has also called for a negotiated settlement to the crisis.

August 10, 2023 Posted by | Militarism | , , | Leave a comment

The Sino-Russo Naval Patrol Near Alaska’s Aleutian Islands Flipped The Tables On The US

BY ANDREW KORYBKO | AUGUST 10, 2023

Alaskan Senators were apoplectic after Russia and China just carried out a previously unreported joint naval patrol near their state’s Aleutian Islands last week. Those officials condemned what they claimed was an “incursion”, though the US Northern Command confirmed that the patrol “remained in international waters and was not considered a threat.” In any case, this was an interesting turn of events since it’s usually the US that conducts such exercises near those two’s borders.

The Sino-Russo Entente isn’t an alliance, but rather an unprecedentedly close strategic partnership focused on coordinating efforts to accelerate the global systemic transition to multipolarity. To that end and in the context of last week’s joint naval patrols, these Great Powers decided to signal to the world that they’ll reciprocally respond to similar such exercises by the US. Up until now, each reacted separately and largely restricted this to rhetoric, but now they’re reacting jointly in a tangible way.

Several of their interests were served in this way. First, the US now knows that the Sino-Russo Entente isn’t reluctant to sail flotillas as close to American shores as is legally possible. Second, they voluntarily complied with the terms laid out in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) regarding where foreign warships are allowed to sail despite the US not recognizing that framework. Third, this example demonstrated the sharp contrast between them and the US on the issue of international maritime law.

The fourth interest that was advanced through their joint naval patrol near the Aleutian Islands is that it made locals in that state, and likely also Americans elsewhere, experience how it feels when their geopolitical rivals conduct such exercises near their borders. Those drills won’t influence the formulation of US policy, but they can help shape some voters’ opinions about the wisdom of their leaders’ policies towards Russia and China considering that those two are merely responding to the US’ own such moves.

And finally, these drills importantly remained below the threshold of triggering an escalation, thus proving that it’s indeed possible to reciprocally respond to American provocations after both Great Powers were hitherto reluctant to do so. About that last-mentioned observation, they previously reacted separately and largely restricted this to rhetoric except on those rare occasions that they were accused by the US of flying or sailing their respective units too close to the latter’s.

Even so, those incidents took place near their own borders and not the US’, but this time they jointly sailed their warships near the Aleutian Islands in order to give America a taste of its own medicine. These plans were likely agreed to long ago but weren’t implemented until now since they each wanted to give the US the opportunity to stop making them feel uncomfortable by operating so closely to their shores. Russia and China’s patience has clearly run out, however, hence why they’re now jointly reacting.

This wasn’t their first joint naval exercise, but it’s the largest one near American shores thus far, which makes it a milestone. The Mainstream Media will predictably try to spin it as so-called “unprovoked illegal aggression” despite those two strictly abiding by international law per UNCLOS and carrying out their drills in response to the US’ earlier countless ones near their borders. By finally turning the tables on the US, the Sino-Russo Entente wants to show the world that the era of military unipolarity is over.

August 10, 2023 Posted by | Aletho News | , , | Leave a comment

Is America behind the massive surge in Kiev regime’s child trafficking?

By Drago Bosnic | August 10, 2023

Human trafficking is certainly one of the most monstrous mass criminal activities ever undertaken by other humans (although calling them “humans” is a bit of a stretch). And yet, there’s a special kind of this deeply repulsive crime that pushes it to diabolical proportions – child trafficking. Underage kids, particularly those who were abandoned, sold or have very poor/abusive family backgrounds, are by far the most vulnerable group. The depraved criminals who engage in such illicit activities specifically target unfortunate children and given there are millions of them all around the globe, particularly in war-torn areas, the “recruitment pool” is effectively endless. Unfortunately, the demand on the black market also seems to be constant and growing, making it a very lucrative and appealing prospect for criminals.

Children are usually forced into literal slavery that includes forced labor, sexual exploitation or prostitution, drug smuggling, forced begging, organ harvesting, etc. Many terrorist groups and narco-traffickers even use them as child soldiers, forcing them into dangerous firefights with rival groups or even official security forces such as the police and/or military. Although estimates vary significantly, as the exact data is incomplete at best, expectedly, the world’s most populous countries have the highest number of child trafficking victims. And yet, it seems the United States is the most profitable market for such criminal activities. Back in 2018, Tim Swarens of USA Today calculated that adults purchase children for sex at least 2.5 million times a year in the US alone. Worse yet, this is only based on available data.

In reality, this truly appalling number might be several times higher. It is estimated that up to half a million children are trafficked in the US every year, with another 300,000 at risk. Some are abducted, others are runaways, while some are sold by relatives, acquaintances and even closest family members. This is a massive business in America and it’s not only present in big cities and core urban areas, but virtually everywhere, around the entire country. Everyone from regular people to those in the highest positions of power take part in it. As recounted by authors John and Nisha Whitehead in a report published by the Rutherford Institute in late January this year, “sex trafficking (and the sexualization of young people) is a cultural disease that is rooted in the American police state’s heart of darkness”.

“It speaks to a sordid, far-reaching corruption that stretches from the highest seats of power (governmental and corporate) down to the most hidden corners and relies on our silence and our complicity to turn a blind eye to wrongdoing,” authors posit, further describing several deeply disturbing instances where American police were involved in horrendous sex crimes against underage children (including 4-year-olds) and teenagers.

In 2016, the US State of California, infamous for its extremist ultra-liberal policies, passed SB1322 which decriminalized prostitution for “sex workers under the age of 18” (i.e. children). This law, coupled with SB203 (passed in 2020), makes it virtually impossible for police officers to approach, arrest or engage in any way with “underage sex workers” (i.e. children forced into prostitution), meaning there’s nothing even law enforcement can do to prevent clearly evident child trafficking and sexual exploitation. Worse yet, in 2021, California passed SB357 that “repealed the law that makes it a crime to loiter with intent to commit prostitution and applicable evidence is no longer enforceable, including dress and geographical location as a reason to investigate acts of prostitution”.

In other words, police officers are effectively banned from investigating underage prostitution taking place in plain sight, as their expertise and experience in positively identifying children forced into sex slavery simply by observing their behavior is rendered obsolete. This strongly implies that the US political establishment is directly involved in soliciting child trafficking. In late April, whistleblower Tara Lee Rodas testified to the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement, revealing shocking details about this and warning that “the US government has become the middleman in a large-scale multibillion dollar child trafficking operation… … run by bad actors who are seeking to profit on the lives of children”.

In 2022, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) received 31.9 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation — up from 29.3 million reports in 2021 and 21.7 million in 2020. This further implies that the black market has grown exponentially in recent years, meaning that more and more children are being trafficked into the country. And while kids from all over the world enter the US this way, recent reports indicate there’s a massive surge of Ukrainian child trafficking victims. However, what’s happening in Ukraine is even more astonishingly evil, as the traffickers are now trying to smuggle even infants to sell them for organ harvesting. Namely, in late June, the Daily Mail reported that an employee of a charity organization was detained for trying to take an 11-month-old baby out of Ukraine.

According to the British daily, the 43-year-old perpetrator was planning to sell the child for organ harvesting after paying $1,000 to the infant’s mother, a woman from Zhytomyr, while falsely claiming that the little boy would be adopted. In total, the mother was promised $5,000 for the baby, who the trafficker then intended to resell for $25,000. He is also suspected of trafficking at least three other infants under the same pretext. And yet, in late July, South Front reported that the same child trafficker, identified as Denis Varodi, a former teacher from the city of Uzhgorod in the Transcarpathian region of western Ukraine, was released only several weeks later. The decision was made by the judge of the Uzhgorod interdistrict court Natalya Shumilo after Varodi posted a 1,000,000 hryvnia (₴) bail.

The court could’ve easily denied this possibility to Varodi, but decided otherwise. Worse yet, Shumilo even reduced bail from ₴3,000,000 to ₴1,000,000 or approximately $27,000, which is just a bit more than the amount Varodi would’ve made had he succeeded in his diabolical intentions. Still, this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to organized child trafficking from NATO-occupied Ukraine. Another group of perpetrators was recently detained while trying to smuggle newborns. According to reports by local media, the criminal group consisted of 12 child traffickers and included the heads of several medical institutions. They were looking for women who agreed to become surrogate mothers and sell their babies for €12,000, who would then be resold for up to €70,000.

Although the child traffickers are reportedly facing up to 15 years in prison, given how easily Varodi got away with his criminal activities, they have nothing to worry about. The complicity of the Neo-Nazi junta in this truly Mephistophelian scheme is implicit (no pun intended). And yet, as if the Kiev regime’s involvement wasn’t bad enough, the US Department of Justice (although its relation to actual justice is purely lexical) recently removed child sex trafficking information from its website. According to the Epoch Times, the updated version of the webpage completely erased all three sections that previously showed the data which was added during Donald Trump’s presidency. This was done quietly and without any explanation as to why such important information would be hidden from the public.

It’s worth noting that the crackdown on child trafficking awareness in the US is not only limited to corrupt officials and government institutions (as evidenced by numerous “unresolved mysteries”, both in the cases of Jeffrey Epstein and the Biden crime family’s illicit activities). Namely, the mainstream propaganda machine is now also looking to suppress any information about mass crimes against children, including through a witch-hunt aimed against movies and other media dealing with this issue. The case of “The Sound of Freedom” illustrates this perfectly, as even some formerly reputable media have joined the chorus of those trying to push a sort of crawling smear campaign against the movie. Luckily, there’s significant pushback against this, as proven by the film’s remarkable box-office success.

On the other hand, those attacking “The Sound of Freedom” should definitely have their hard drives investigated, albeit not by the people who were supposed to inspect the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop, but “somehow” managed to “lose” it, obviously, in a similar manner to how the Neo-Nazi junta judge Shumilo “lost” her moral compass and credibility by releasing a child trafficker and murderer.

Drago Bosnic is an independent geopolitical and military analyst.

August 10, 2023 Posted by | Corruption, War Crimes | , | Leave a comment

Judith Curry: How Climate “Science” Got Hijacked by Alarmists

John Stossel | August 8, 2023

Climate alarmists insist there’s a “scientific consensus” that says climate change is a crisis, and man causes it! Researcher Judith Curry tells me, “it’s a manufactured consensus.”

Curry was a department chair at Georgia Tech when she spread alarm about climate change.

The media loved her then. She claimed there was an increase in hurricane intensity.

But then some researchers pointed out gaps in her research: years with low levels of hurricanes.

“Like a good scientist, I went in and investigated.”

When she acknowledged a lack of evidence that hurricane intensity had increased, she was ruthlessly attacked by climate alarmists. Her career suffered.

Now Curry reveals nefarious ways “the science” about climate change has been corrupted.

John Stossel:

We are told climate change is a crisis, and that there is an “overwhelming scientific consensus”.

“It’s a manufactured consensus,” says climate scientist Judith Curry in my new video. She says scientists have an incentive to exaggerate risk to pursue “fame and fortune”.

She knows about that because she once spread alarm about climate change.

Media loved her when she published a study that seemed to show a dramatic increase in hurricane intensity.

“We found that the percent of Category Four and Five hurricanes had doubled,” says Curry. “This was picked up by the media,” and then climate alarmists realised, “Oh, here is the way to do it. Tie extreme weather events to global warming!” …

“I was adopted by the environmental advocacy groups and the alarmists and I was treated like a rock star,” Curry recounts. “Flown all over the place to meet with politicians.”

But then some researchers pointed out gaps in her research – years with low levels of hurricanes.

“Like a good scientist, I investigated,” says Curry. She realised that the critics were right. “Part of it was bad data. Part of it is natural climate variability.”

Curry was the unusual researcher who looked at criticism of her work and actually concluded “they had a point”.

Then the Climategate scandal taught her that other climate researchers weren’t so open-minded. Alarmist scientists’ aggressive attempts to hide data suggesting climate change is not a crisis were revealed in leaked emails.

“Ugly things,” says Curry. “Avoiding Freedom of Information Act requests. Trying to get journal editors fired.”

It made Curry realise that there is a “climate change industry” set up to reward alarmism.

“The origins go back to the… U.N. environmental programme,” says Curry. Some U.N. officials were motivated by “anti-capitalism. They hated the oil companies and seized on the climate change issue to move their policies along.”

The U.N. created the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

“The IPCC wasn’t supposed to focus on any benefits of warming. The IPCC’s mandate was to look for dangerous human-caused climate change.” …

The researchers quickly figured out that the way to get funded was to make alarmist claims about “man-made climate change”.

August 10, 2023 Posted by | Corruption, Science and Pseudo-Science, Video | | Leave a comment

Last Stop Before Willoughby

By William Schryver – imetatronink – August 9, 2023

“What the West has, and has had for some time now, is a single-shot military. One serious campaign, whether finally won or lost, would disarm the West for a decade.” — “Aurelien“

This, folks, is the simple truth of the matter.

The US simply could not, at this moment — nor at any time in even the medium-term future — mount and sustain a campaign the size, intensity, and duration of what we have seen in Ukraine for the past 18 months.

US logistical chains would have long-since broken down; losses in men and equipment — including LOTS of cargo ships and their warship escorts — would have been calamitous.

Oh, sure, there’s the huge chorus of people who are gung-ho convinced that US air and naval power would overcome all obstacles in a matter of days, bringing the presumptuous Russians to their knees.

That’s not what would happen, you dopes.

What would happen is that, despite a few spectacular successes to stuff the first 24-hour news cycle, the “full-spectrum dominance” everyone believes the US wields would suffer severe immediate losses across the entire military spectrum.

Dozens of US aircraft of all types would be shot down in the first 100 hours of war. Several US ships would be damaged or sunk. US bases in both Europe and around the globe would be struck. US airborne ISR assets would be aggressively targeted; military and communications satellite arrays would be disabled.

Within literally just a few days, the US would start to experience severe stand-off strike munitions shortages, greatly exacerbated by the high interception rate Russian air defenses would achieve.

The Russians have already demonstrated, over the past 18 months, that they can shoot down ANY manner of strike missile the US can field against them — not all of them all the time, but most of them most of the time.

No other military on the planet has previously attested this level of capability. The US does not have it, and is almost certainly at least a decade away from developing it.

And, make no mistake, if the US were to strike at targets on Russian soil, the Russians would strike back at targets on US soil. I do not believe they would launch a nuclear “first-strike” against the US, but I can guarantee they would use their submarine fleet and conventional long-range airstrike capability to hit strategic targets on US soil.

It would be a shocking exhibition of 21st century great power warfare.

Both sides would be hurt badly, but the Russians would not be even severely depleted, let alone defeated, whereas the US would be hurt in a fashion it has never experienced in its history, only to then look around and discover itself in a state of acute logistical crisis after only a fortnight of high-intensity combat operations.

That will be the moment of decision; the last stop before Willoughby, as it were.

And, if the scenario I have sketched were to actually develop, there will come a moment, fairly early on, when saner heads within the halls of empire — those who have, hitherto, acquiesced as this catastrophe unfolded — well, they will have to choose to finally act to stop the madness, or stand idly by as they and all the rest of us are acted upon by events that spiral out of control.

August 9, 2023 Posted by | Militarism, Timeless or most popular | , | Leave a comment

Claims that ‘Global Boiling’ Led to “Shocking” Melting of Greenland Ice Sheet are Nonsense

The Ice Sheet is Currently Bigger Than Normal

BY CHRIS MORRISON | THE DAILY SCEPTIC | AUGUST 8, 2023

The new era of ‘global boiling’ has brought a return of the much loved climate scare story featuring the imminent demise of the Greenland ice sheet. The Daily Mail recently ran a headline noting the ‘Impact of Global Boiling‘, saying it has “shocking” photos showing how much the ice sheet has melted during the “hottest month ever recorded on Earth”. Snow melt is said to be higher than the 1981-2010 average.

But, alas, those who strive for accuracy in these matters are likely to quibble. The Earth is not “boiling” – that is the unhinged raving of the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres – the claim about July comes from a computer model, while “ever” refers to data of varying quality going back barely 150 years. Furthermore, the surface balance of ice on the Greenland ice sheet is higher than the 1981-2010 average, and could improve on last’s year performance, when there was little or no loss of the surface mass after the brief summer melting season.

If the Mail is “shocked” by how much the Greenland ice sheet has melted this year, it probably didn’t consult the polar portal site run by Danish meteorologists, which updates an accurate record on a daily basis. Both graphs above show the effect of a cold June where the ice loss was considerably lower than the previous year. Warmer weather arrived from the south in late June in time for the peak summer melt season.

As the second graph shows, the accumulation of surface ice on Greenland is more than the 1981-2010 average, and a big improvement on a decade ago. But as the Daily Sceptic noted recently, the current improvement can be seen in an even better light. A number of scientific institutions still use a decadal 1981-2010 average for comparison purposes, despite data to 2020 being available. The cynical might note that the ice sheet lost just 51 gigatonnes a year in the 1980s, compared to an annual loss of 244 gts in the 2010s. Updating the average figure would greatly amplify the recent, and continuing, recovery in the surface ice mass.

The ”shocking” before and after photos revealing how snow melts in the summer, even in Greenland, were taken by NASA satellites over the Frederikshab Glacier running down to the warmer south-west coast. The information and photos came from a NASA blog aimed at educators headed ‘Wasting Away (Again) in Greenland‘. More than halfway through the 2023 melting season, reports NASA, “Greenland has seen a substantial transformation of its snow cover”. This line – if it’s summer in Greenland, the snow melts – is readily taken up by the Mail. “According to scientists, snow falls on the Greenland ice sheet every winter… but experts say hotter summer temperatures are reducing the amount of snow cover.” The NASA blog is heavily quoted: “More than halfway through the 2023 melting season, Greenland has seen a substantial transformation of its snow cover. … Changes are the result of the increasing warmth of summer weather that took hold across the region in late June.”

Hold the front page – snow melts during the summer in Greenland, not many dead.

It is not difficult to find areas of rock in Greenland, especially in the south-west where most of the population of 55,000 live. The climate in this area is characterised as ‘low Arctic’ and temperatures are well above freezing in the warmest months. Ice in the Arctic waxes and wanes on a cyclical basis, while the long-term Greenland temperature is fairly stable. At a time when the planet has seen a gentle period of warming over the last 100 years, Greenland even held back slightly on the general trend. The five-year moving average of -18.57°C in 1929 compares with a measurement in 2021 of –17.96°C. The largest boost, as with other areas of the world, occurred in a short period in the 1980s and 90s, as the World Bank graph below shows. Since that time, as elsewhere, the rate of warming has considerably declined.

The Greenland ice sheet is the alarmist scare story that keeps on giving because water flowing off the land can increase sea levels. The Mail notes that scientists have already warned this year that the Greenland ice sheet is the “hottest it has ever been” and will cause global sea levels to rise by 20 inches by 2100 if it keeps warming at the same pace. In fact this information is linked to an earlier article that referenced a science paper quoting temperatures between 2000-2011. The next paragraph of the current story reports a rise of four feet or 1.2 metres by 2300, “even if we meet the 2015 Paris climate goals, scientists have warned”. Scientists might “warn”, but all these opinions of greatly increased sea level rises are produced by climate models, often assuming outlandish future scenarios.

Again, as we have noted in numerous articles, sea level rises are notoriously difficult to calculate since land rises as huge weights are lifted from it. Many areas in the northern hemisphere show falls in coastal sea levels, and this process is ongoing since the Earth is currently in an interglacial phase. In fact, current rises of 2mm a year are tiny compared with the huge boosts between 12,000 to 4,000 years ago.

Again, hold that front page – shock 2mm annual rise will lead to civilisation being inundated in the next century by a catastrophic seven inch increase in sea levels. Not many expected to die.

Chris Morrison is the Daily Sceptic’s Environment Editor.

August 9, 2023 Posted by | Deception, Fake News, Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Science and Pseudo-Science | | Leave a comment

Always Follow the … ‘Incentives.’

Dr. Karen Landers is widely admired in my state and is a hero to journalists and editors at our state’s largest news organization … But I’m not a big fan.
BY BILL RICE, JR. | AUGUST 8, 2023

As my readers know, I write articles and make posts anywhere I can which try to advance my hypothesis that the novel coronavirus was spreading widely in late 2019.

After I made yet another “early spread” post, a colleague made a reply that sums up everything far better than I’ve done to date. Here’s his astute post:

“There is absolutely no incentive for about 99%+ of the scientists in the world (administrative state, academic, private, corporate) to ever want to truly trace down the origin timing (and a case zero may be an impossibility). They would all look like quack minions if they discovered something other than the narrative.  Too many threw all of their chips into the narrative ship and should that ship sink…”

All this fellow skeptic did with this post was frame the debate using incentives as the psychological motivating factor that explains everything that happens. In doing this, he reminded me to always examine every topic from a “risk-reward” perspective.

The incentives – positive or negative – are all that really matter.

Why do many people, especially those in leadership positions, act in nefarious, disingenuous ways? Why are they not interested in exposing untruths?

To answer this question, one has to imagine the repercussions or harm such people would suffer if the truth was exposed. (These would be professional “risks”) […]

… and then compare these negative outcomes (disincentives) to the rewards or benefits that would (and did) accrue to these same individuals if they simply went along with authorized narratives many of these people must have known were either lies or, at least, very possibly, falsehoods.

Two case studies from my own state …

To illustrate my point, I can reference two “public health leaders” in my own state as case studies.

Dr. Fauci’s successor … that’s ‘high cotton’ as we say in Alabama.

The first example is Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, who previously served as director of UAB’s Division of Infectious Diseases, and was recently named as Dr. Anthony Fauci’s successor at the NIAD.

The second example is Dr. Karen Landers, one of the top officials at the Alabama Department of Public Health and the primary media spokesperson for this high-profile public health agency.

In my strong opinion, both public health leaders enthusiastically and daily promoted myriad Covid falsehoods. 

I also do not think either person could have risen to these high-ranking positions without having some intelligence. At some point, it must have occurred to both individuals that the positions they were championing weren’t necessarily supported by certain statistics, data or scientific studies.

Still, they supported all of these false or dubious positions.

Also, significantly, they took absolutely no steps to debunk any of these false or dubious narratives.

Here, I need to cite specific examples …

I’m confident in writing that both Dr. Marrazzo and Dr. Landers …

Supported draconian and civil-liberty-eviscerating lockdowns as a non-pharmaceutical “mitigation” measure, unprecedented measures they assured the public would slow or stop the spread of the coronavirus.

They both supported mask mandates that did nothing to slow virus spread and probably caused harm to the people forced to wear masks 8 to 12 hours a day for months or years.

They supported school closings and, once schools re-opened, student masking and social distancing.

They pushed the bogus narrative that Covid was a serious health risk to every citizen, including children who faced virtually zero mortality risk.

They endorsed the proposition that proven drugs like ivermectin and HCQ should not be used to treat Covid patients.

They either endorsed or didn’t criticize the myriad new “Covid protocols” used in hospitals even though these treatment protocols probably caused numerous unnecessary deaths.

They supported endless testing of asymptomatic citizens with PCR tests, testing which accomplished little if nothing to slow or stop spread or future cases.

They also never mentioned or questioned the fact the 40 to 45-cycle PCR tests were producing millions of bogus or dubious “cases.”

As far as I’m aware, neither Dr. Marrazzo nor Dr. Landers ever questioned the safety of Remdesivir, which many (ignored) scientists and doctors say killed many patients. (Update. Read this. Yes, Dr. Marrazzo “supported” Remdesivir. Big-time).

They never took any interest in investigating the possibility the coronavirus was spreading widely in America by late 2019 (although I myself presented both of them compelling evidence this was almost-certainly a fact).

And, of course, they strongly supported everyone over the age of 6 months getting a “vaccine.”

They both enthusiastically participated in the campaign to vilify the unvaccinated and spread the false narrative this was a “pandemic of the unvaccinated.”

Today, they both still say the vaccine is incredibly safe and poses no real risks for anyone who got the original series of shots or now the extra “boosters,” which they still encourage everyone to get, including pregnant women and children.

Of course, these examples are my opinion, but these are opinions backed up by millions of skeptics, including countless intelligent scientists, doctors and writers/thinkers.

If our opinions are wrong, neither of these two alleged experts and public health authorities have ever agreed to a public debate to engage with these skeptics. This factual observation tells us these are not real scientists, who are happy to engage in scientific debates.

Now let’s look at the consequences from being spectacularly wrong …

So what consequences have these alleged experts suffered from being spectacularly and stunningly wrong about so many important public health subjects?

Answer: There were no negative consequences. In fact, the careers of both ladies flourished.

As noted, Dr. Marrazzo just got the biggest promotion in the world of science, replacing “Science Himself” Dr. Fauci as the head of the agency that basically controls scientific research in America.

As far as I know, Dr. Landers didn’t get a promotion, but she’s still one of the public faces of the Alabama Department of Public Health, an agency which has never had more power or influence.

She certainly never had to worry about losing her cushy and prestigious job.

Career benefits can come from ego-boosting feature stories …

And both are literally celebrated as heroes of public health in my state.

In a recent article about Dr. Marrazzo’s big promotion, I pointed out that al.com (the largest “news organization” in Alabama) wrote a glowing piece on Dr. Marrazzo as a leader who “made a difference” in Alabama. In fact, the headline said Dr. Marrazzo actually made the citizens of our state “smarter.”

The same news organization also celebrated the contributions of Dr. Landers in a series of articles that told readers who Alabamians should exalt as brave and all-knowing public health heroes.

This series – “21 Alabamians who made a difference in 2021 – ” (highlighted) people who … made our state a better place to live this year.”

Excerpt: “Landers … has become a key public figure as the state battles COVID-19. Her calm demeanor and straight-forward answers have been a reassuring voice amid the changing health landscape …”

Regarding those alleged “straight-forward answers,” I’ve interviewed Dr. Landers and sent her office many emails trying to find out why the ADPH didn’t investigate two people who almost certainly had Covid in late 2019; trying to find out how many Alabama children really died “from” Covid and what the cycle threshold was on the PCR tests the agency used to determine Covid “cases.”

I can report I’ve never gotten one “straight forward answer” from this lady and/or this public health agency. 

I also speculate I’m probably the only journalist in my state who doesn’t consider the information disseminated by this agency as infallible.

But my main point is the point my colleague made at the beginning of this article. That is, these two people clearly personally benefitted from spreading false or dubious Covid (dis)information.

Today’s thought exercise considers what would have happened to their careers if they’d acted like me and actually questioned a few of the authorized Covid narratives.

I can make these predictions with high levels of confidence: Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo wouldn’t be getting ready to replace Dr. Fauci … and Dr. Karen Landers would now be retired from the ADPH.

Nor would either person have been the subject of the fawning feature stories al.com published.

Above, I write neither of these ladies is stupid. That is, they figured out all of the above on their own:

“Go along with the authorized narrative” = “Fantastic career accolades and unlimited prospects.”

“Challenge the authorized narrative” = “That’s it for my public health career.”

And one can multiply these two “cost-benefit” case studies by every public health official in the world and by just about every political leader or every person who leads any important organization.

All the operative incentives point to … one authorized narrative being protected and pushed … forever and ever, I guess.

While I would argue the actions and statements of these public health officials contributed to many unnecessary deaths and immeasurable harm to countless Alabamians and made residents of our state dumber not “smarter,” from their perspective or from their (selfish) mental calculations … they definitely “chose wisely.”

My own ‘case study’ is the corollary of this maxim …

I’ll end with a “case study” of someone who did challenge the authorized narratives – me.

Did I suffer any professional or personal “harm” by opposing the authorized narrative?

Well, I lost friends. Some family members are embarrassed by my efforts and rarely talk to me anymore.

My Facebook account was suspended and de-boosted repeatedly, which meant a professional writer couldn’t do any writing that would reach a large audience using that speech platform.

I could find only one news organization (uncoverDC.com) that would pay me to write contrarian Covid articles.

My main job or skill set is as a “journalist,”  but I’m now-un-hirable at 100-percent of corporate news organizations.

However, if I wrote the type articles al.com journalists write, I’d probably have no problem landing a real (paying) job in journalism. If I’d kept my real views private, all my former friends would still think it was okay to interact with me. Family members wouldn’t be nervous about engaging with me.

My professional and financial prospects would probably be much better than they are today.

So about that “road less travelled” … before you take it, you better think long and hard about where it might lead.

This said, this should also be said …

Actually, though, the world and all its roads can lead us to interesting places. God might have a larger plan for all of us, even the contrarians.

As it turns out, I’m as poor as I’ve ever been, but my writing (thanks to starting a Substack newsletter) has reached more people than ever and my words might be influencing more “debates” than ever.

I certainly don’t want this article to come across as whining because I wouldn’t change anything I’ve done.

If a few people like me didn’t criticize people like Dr. Marrazzo and Dr. Landers, who would?

The world does need at least a few contrarians … and I guess this is my lot/purpose in life.

When you write as much as I do, you have to do a little thinking about the topics you’re writing about.

At least I now understand why the world is full of “leaders” like Dr. Marrazzo and Dr. Landers.

In investigative journalism, “follow the money” is supposed to guide our thinking. But I might adjust that maxim to say … follow the incentives. They’re all backwards, but at least this tells us why the world’s like it is.

August 9, 2023 Posted by | Corruption, Science and Pseudo-Science | | Leave a comment

Ukrainian Orthodox Christian Priest Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison by Zelensky Regime

By Chris Menahan | InformationLiberation | August 8, 2023

A Ukrainian Orthodox Christian priest was sentenced to 5 years in prison on Monday after being accused of “justifying” Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

From OrthoChristian, “UKRAINIAN HIERARCH SENTENCED TO 5 YEARS IN PRISON”:

A hierarch of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church has been sentenced to 5 years imprisonment and the confiscation of property for various supposed crimes against the state.

His Eminence Metropolitan Jonathan of Tulchin was sentenced in a Vinnitsa Court today, reports the Tulchin Diocese.

[…] His Eminence has repeatedly denied all charges against him and will file an appeal “against the clearly illegal verdict of the Vinnitsa City Court.”

Met. Jonathan was found guilty of crimes under four articles of the criminal code:

  • justification, recognition as lawful, denial of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, glorification of its participants
  • actions aimed at forcibly changing or overthrowing the constitutional order or seizing state power
  • encroachment on the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine, distribution of materials calling for changing the borders of the territory and state border of Ukraine
  • violation of equal rights of citizens depending on their race, nationality, regional affiliation, religious beliefs, disability, and other grounds

The state persecution of Met. Jonathan has been going on for nearly a year already, beginning with the search of his home last October, during which the Ukrainian Security Service claims to have found “pro-Kremlin” leaflets.

His Eminence even had to undergo open-heart surgery last November, in the midst of the state persecution against him.

Zelensky seized control of the media, rounded up his opposition en masse and is now talking about suspending Ukraine’s elections under martial law.

“If we have martial law, we cannot have elections,” Zelensky told the Washington Post in May. “The constitution prohibits any elections during martial law. If there is no martial law, then there will be.”

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August 9, 2023 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance | | Leave a comment

US Senate Candidate Says NATO ‘Dinosaur of an Institution,’ Should Be Dissolved

Sputnik – 09.08.2023

WASHINGTON – NATO is a relic and should have been abolished after German reunification, independent candidate for the US Senate from New York Diane Sare told Sputnik.

“I think NATO should be dissolved. I think it should have been dissolved when Germany was reunified,” Sare said. “I think frankly, it’s dead already. I mean, you know, there’s so much dissent within NATO already as it is. It is a dinosaur of an institution. So I don’t think it’s really going to be around that much longer.”

The future of the alliance depends on how long some of its members in Europe “who are bearing the brunt of the insanity of the current American and British leadership want to stick around and play that game having their economies destroyed,” she continued.

The candidate declined to speculate on how the alliance would fall apart, but expressed belief that “it’s simply not going to be able to continue” because “it’s really a dead institution.”

NATO has not stopped expanding since the dissolution of the rival Warsaw Pact and collapse of the Soviet Union, drawing the ire of Moscow. The relationship took a nosedive over a 2014 change of power in Ukraine and Crimea’s accession to Russia.

In December 2021, Russia requested guarantees that the alliance would not expand eastward to include Ukraine and Georgia, but was refused. In February 2022, Russia launched a military operation in Ukraine.

NATO responded by deploying even more troops to the eastern flank. At the Vilnius summit in July this year, the alliance reaffirmed that Ukraine will become a NATO member and removed the requirement for a Membership Action Plan to accelerate its accession after the conflict with Russia ends.

August 9, 2023 Posted by | Militarism | , | Leave a comment

Biden family received money from Russia – Congress

RT | August 9, 2023

The House Oversight Committee on Wednesday published receipts showing Hunter Biden, the son of current US President Joe Biden, receiving money from Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan by trading on the family name.

The committee says it has identified $20 million in payments from foreign sources to Hunter Biden’s company, which they describe as a front to sell access to the “Biden network” while his father was Barack Obama’s vice-president (2009-2017).

“During Joe Biden’s vice presidency, Hunter Biden sold him as ‘the brand’ to reap millions from oligarchs in Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine. It appears no real services were provided other than access to the Biden network, including Joe Biden himself. And Hunter Biden seems to have delivered,” said committee chair James Comer, a Kentucky Republican.

The third bank memo Comer has published so far shows a February 14, 2014 wire transfer from “Russian oligarch Yelena Baturina” to Rosemont Seneca Thornton, a shell company run by Hunter Biden and his business partner Devon Archer. Of the $3.5 million wired by Baturina, $1 million was transferred directly to Archer, while the rest was used to start up Rosemont Seneca Bohai, a new account used to receive more funding from abroad, the committee said.

Another memo shows that Biden and Archer were both appointed to the board of directors of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian gas company run by Mykola Zlochevsky, for $1 million each per year. Burisma had previously paid Biden as counsel, but invited him and Archer to the board after a meeting hosted by Zlochevsky and Burisma corporate secretary Vadim Pozharsky in the spring of 2014 at Lake Como in Italy.

“Then-Vice President Joe Biden visited Ukraine soon after their first payments,” the committee noted, and Hunter claimed that the visit showed “value” that he provided to the company.

The third notable transaction took place in April 2014, when “Kazakhstani oligarch” Kenes Rakishev wired $142,300 to Rosemont Seneca Bohai. The very next day, the company paid Hunter Biden the same exact amount for a sports car. Hunter had met Rakishev at a Washington, DC hotel in February.

“Hunter Biden received millions of dollars in payments from Yelena Baturina, Burisma, and Kenes Rakishev. Vice President Biden had dinner with them in the spring of 2014 and 2015 in Washington, DC,” the committee pointed out.

Joe Biden was the Obama administration’s point man for Ukraine policy after the 2014 Maidan coup in Kiev, and famously bragged at a 2018 DC event about getting a prosecutor fired by threatening to withhold loan guarantees. The prosecutor in question had been investigating Burisma. When then-president Donald Trump brought the incident up in 2019 talks with Kiev, the House Democrats impeached him, claiming this somehow violated US laws.

August 9, 2023 Posted by | Corruption, Deception | , , , | Leave a comment

‘Woke’ extremist ideology in US military – danger or blessing for the world?

By Drago Bosnic | August 9, 2023

For decades, when referring to the US military, the mainstream propaganda machine has been parroting about “the most powerful force in human history”. And while that assertion might’ve held in the late 1990s/2000s, at the time when Russia was still suffering the consequences of Soviet dismantlement while China was far from its zenith, the situation is vastly different nowadays. Namely, the US-led political West has been taken over by what many Americans themselves call the “woke mind virus”. And while such terminology may sound harsh or even offensive, it’s exceedingly difficult to disprove it, as demonstrated by the current disastrous state of Western/pro-Western societies.

The forced proliferation of this truly depraved ideology has become virtually omnipresent, despite the fact that it destroys virtually anything it comes into contact with. In terms of economics, it ravaged so many companies that the catchphrase “go woke, go broke” has become an axiom of sorts. And yet, for some inexplicable reason, the “woke mind virus” keeps expanding. Its influence is so far-reaching that it’s even become the dominant ideology in the US military, effectively rebranding the catchphrase to “go woke, go weak”. During the so-called “pride month”, the US Army shared a story about a “transgender Major who now identifies as a woman after previously being suicidally depressed”. If you’re dumbfounded by this word salad, wait until you hear the rest of this bizarre story.

The US Department of Defense (DoD) tweeted that “Major Rachel Jones embraced authenticity” and that “this should inspire us all” after “she” became the head of the US Army Sustainment Command’s Cyber Division. Proponents of such policies usually (over)use the phrase “stunning and brave” to show their support, so much so that those opposing “wokeism” now regularly use it as a sarcastic remark. And this is certainly not an “isolated incident”, as the case of Major Jones is neither a rarity nor is “she” the highest-ranking “transgender” officer. Namely, Rachel Levine (for some reason, the name Rachel seems to be very popular in such circles) holds the rank of admiral in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps.

In addition, Levine is also the Assistant Secretary for Health and is infamous for claiming that “puberty blockers” and “transition surgeries” are supposedly “necessary” to curb suicide rates among children. Apart from Levine, the US government employs other “transgender” people, even ignoring their criminal activities in order to fill its “woke quotas”. Last year, the Department of Energy (DoE) hired Sam Brinton as a “nuclear waste guru”. After months of attempts to conceal his scandalous behavior which also includes a kleptomaniacal tendency to steal women’s purses, the administration was forced to fire him. In May this year, he was even arrested after repeatedly dodging police due to his former high-ranking position.

And while the DoE is officially not part of the military command structure, its cooperation with the DoD is of prime importance for the US military. Namely, DoE’s subdivisions dealing with nuclear technologies are partially responsible for maintaining America’s strategic arsenal and Brinton was employed precisely by one such office. Having deeply mentally unstable individuals in charge of anything (much less nuclear facilities) casts serious doubt on the very mental capacity of those who hire them. And yet, “woke” extremists are adamant that raising such concerns is supposedly “transphobic”. Back in July, during testimony before Congress, Air Force Academy Superintendent Lt. Gen. Richard Clark declared his full support for the ideology.

When Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) asked him about this, Clark admitted that not even he could define many of the gender ideology terms the Air Force Academy officially endorses. This includes something called “demi-gender”, as Clark “doesn’t know what on Earth that even is”. The program includes other terms such as “cisgender, non-binary, a-gender, bi-gender, two-spirit”, etc. Clark also insisted that “inclusivity” and “diversity” are a “war-fighting imperative”. Apparently, having more “two-spirit” lesbians in the military will make it bulletproof. Maybe the US should test that theory on the battlefield and see how it goes. However, in all seriousness, the results of this obsession have been disastrous for the Pentagon. The already low interest to join the US military has now dwindled to almost nothing.

And yet, the political leadership doesn’t want to deal with this. On the contrary, it’s seeking culprits in others, including those who fought in America’s endless wars around the globe. Namely, the Wall Street Journal is now blaming the veterans for abysmal recruitment numbers, as they’re actively discouraging their family members from joining the military precisely because of “woke” extremism. Thus, on one hand, this obsession is certainly dangerous when people with obvious mental illnesses are placed in high-ranking positions (particularly those involving nuclear tech). On the other hand, disincentivizing participation in US aggression against the world is actually a net positive for everyone, including Americans themselves.

Why would anyone want to die in yet another pointless war halfway around the world for the sake of people with highly questionable mental health, only to then have their families be forced to pay for the repatriation of the remains? Worse yet, after it somehow managed to lose a horribly one-sided 20-year war against outnumbered and outgunned AK-wielding insurgents in sandals while wasting trillions of dollars, the US chose a virtually direct confrontation with a military superpower armed with the world’s most powerful thermonuclear arsenal and whose highly motivated and superbly armed/trained soldiers have been able to easily overcome even the best NATO-backed troops, as evidenced by the recent case of a single T-90M neutralizing an entire armored column of Kiev regime forces.

However, it should be noted that, most unfortunately for the Russians, each T-90M crew member reportedly has only one mom, meaning that the Russian military is sorely lacking in “war-fighting imperatives”. It seems Moscow’s generals and strategists are busy with “trivialities” such as postulating new unbeatable military doctrines and modernizing their arsenal with unstoppable missiles. That probably explains why even goats and pickle jar-wielding old ladies are “defeating Russia”.

Drago Bosnic is an independent geopolitical and military analyst.

August 9, 2023 Posted by | Aletho News | | Leave a comment

Dr Jonathan Engler Dismantles The Covid Pandemic & mRNA “Vaccine” Narratives

Doc Malik | July 30, 2023

Dr Jonathan Engler is qualified in both medicine and law. During a varied career he has worked as a doctor, medical adviser within the pharmaceutical industry, entrepreneur and barrister. He has 4 adult children and 2 grandsons, and lives near Manchester in the North of England.

Jonathan co-chairs the Hart Group with Dr Clair Craig and is on the exec of Panda, for both of which he regularly writes and reviews articles.

In this conversation, Jonathan dismantles both the official Covid and mRNA “vaccine” narratives.

Enjoy and as ever love to you all x
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August 9, 2023 Posted by | Deception, Science and Pseudo-Science | Leave a comment

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