The Twitter Files
By Dr. Joseph Mercola | January 2, 2023
If you’re still under the naively mistaken belief that there is no Deep State, the Twitter file dumps1 from Elon Musk detailing how Twitter, before his acquisition of the company, was coerced into doing the FBI’s bidding, with actual FBI agents on its staff to control the online narrative, ought to set the record straight.
In fact, the lawlessness of our intelligence agencies and the psychological warfare against the American public is far worse than most people ever expected.
FBI paid Twitter huge sums of money — your tax dollars, might I add — to censor certain views and stories, such as the damning Hunter Biden laptop story, which likely would have sunk Joe Biden’s bid for the presidency had it received the attention it legitimately deserved.
The FBI even ran a tabletop exercise about “hacked” information relating to Hunter Biden ONE MONTH before the real story broke. During that exercise, they practiced the narrative (i.e., lies) that weeks later became “official truth.”
There is a Deep State running the show, and they’re doing whatever they damn well please, without regard for the law or the U.S. Constitution. They’re acting completely outside the rules of our Constitutional Republic and the laws of the land, and they’ve weaponized the very agencies that are supposed to protect us and act in the public’s best interest and turned them against us.
The Twitter files saga is expanding by the day, so I won’t be able to cover every last detail here. Books will be needed to cover this scandal in depth. In the meantime, I suggest you review the references cited and keep your eyes peeled for later updates.
FBI Used Twitter to Track and Spy on Americans
In a recent video, investigative journalist Glenn Greenwald reviews how Washington has expanded the war state and the Democrat’s censorship regime. About 39 minutes in, he begins reviewing evidence showing the FBI was not only censoring social media content, but the agency was also, on a regular basis, asking Twitter to reveal the location of specific Twitter users — for what purpose, no one knows. As noted by independent journalist Matt Taibbi in a December 17, 2022, Twitter post:
“What ‘law enforcement’ objective is served by asking for Billy Baldwin’s location information? Why is the FBI/DHS [Department of Homeland Security] in the business of analyzing and flagging social media content at all? When were these programs created and who approved them?”
These are all good questions. Historically, the FBI’s job has been to monitor and address criminal activity, not “misinformation.” Somewhere along the way, and it’s unclear exactly when the mandate changed and by whom, the DHS/FBI (the FBI supports the DHS by investigating threats) and other agencies tasked themselves with illegally suppressing free speech and shaping public narratives through public-private partnerships with Big Tech.
The Biden administration’s Orwellian “Ministry of Truth,” revealed in the summer of 2022, was one of the first indicators we had that something was horribly amiss. And even though that agency was quickly disbanded after public outcry (and no small amount of mockery), the policing of mis- and disinformation was simply shifted elsewhere within the federal government.
Moreover, as reviewed by Greenwald, internal DHS memos, emails and documents show the DHS has worked on expanding its influence over tech platforms for YEARS. So, government censorship is not something that “just happened” in response to the COVID crisis.
Nor is the censorship limited to COVID or public health information in general. We now have evidence showing the FBI has actively interfered in multiple elections, for example — activity that Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) accurately warns is “the biggest threat to our constitutional democracy today.”2
FBI Invented ‘Foreign Interference’ Narrative
Not surprisingly, the FBI invented the narrative that foreign nations were interfering in U.S. elections, which is precisely what they were doing. As reported by Taibbi and attorney Jeff Childers,3 the FBI asked Twitter to investigate “malicious actors” spreading election disinformation on Twitter. Twitter looked into the matter and reported there was no evidence of foreign interference.
The FBI was none too pleased with that answer and made it clear that Twitter better find some. As “evidence” that Twitter’s investigation was flawed, the FBI cited mainstream media articles and think-tank reports that claimed foreign interference was indeed taking place.4
In response, Twitter’s former censorship head Yoel Roth did an about-face and informed the team that “official state propaganda is DEFINITELY A THING ON TWITTER.”
How Media Have Been Weaponized to Provide False Evidence
The FBI’s tactic appears to be a variation of what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calls the “wrap-up smear,” where they leak a lie to the media, and then they use that media report as “evidence” that the lie is true, and it just goes in circles from there.
Here, the FBI used reports — which were based on leaked information from anonymous intelligence agents5 — to pressure Twitter into making something up to further support the fiction the FBI itself invented and leaked to the sources they cited.
As noted by Childers, this variant on the political wrap-up smear is also being used by U.S. health agencies:6
“It’s a nifty trick … The NIH or CDC needs evidence to support some guidance they want to issue, like masking. So they fund some studies intended to show masks work. The pay-for-play scientists publish cartoonish, anti-scientific clown studies ‘proving’ cotton masks can somehow magically filter nanoscale virus particles.
Then the NIH and CDC cite those same studies — the same ones they procured — to ‘recommend’ unconstitutional mask mandates, or even outright order mandates, like for air travel and on cruise ships. Ditto vaccines … It’s a closed loop.”
Twitter-FBI Exercise: Managing the Hunter Biden Laptop Story
We now also have evidence showing it was the FBI that quenched the Hunter Biden laptop story. They, in collaboration with Twitter, Facebook and the Aspen Institute, even held a tabletop exercise in October 2020 to practice the shaping of the media’s coverage of a potential “hack and dump” operation involving Hunter Biden material.7,8 National security reporters from The New York Times and The Washington Post were also in attendance.9 As reported by the New York Post :10
“The exercise by the ‘Aspen Digital Hack-and-Dump Working Group’ involved an 11-day scenario in October 2020 that began with the imaginary release of falsified records related to Hunter Biden’s controversial employment by the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, which paid him as much as $1 million a year to serve on its board when his father was vice president.
‘The goal was to shape how the media covered it — and how social media carried it,’ Shellenberger wrote. But the drill was put into practical use weeks later, when The Post broke the news about Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop — which was either ignored or downplayed by most mainstream news outlets and suppressed by both Twitter and Facebook.”
In the video below, independent journalist Matt Taibbi speaks with Russell Brand about the Twitter files and the kinds of censorship tactics Twitter secretly engaged in on the government’s behalf.
However, it turns out the FBI didn’t just attempt to sideline the Hunter Biden story a month in advance. No. They’ve been shielding it and working with social media to shield it for them, since 2018. As reported by Childers:11
“In December 2020, Twitter’s former censorship head Yoel Roth explained in a sworn statement that for almost two years leading up to the leak, the FBI told him, over and over, to expect a Russian leak about Hunter Biden in October 2020:
‘During these weekly meetings [since 2018], the federal law enforcement agencies communicated that they expected ‘hack-and-leak operations’ by state actors might occur in the period shortly before the 2020 presidential election, likely in October.
I was told in these meetings that … those hacking attacks would likely be disseminated over social media platforms, including Twitter … [and] that there were rumors that a hack-and-leak operation would involve Hunter Biden.’ Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, made comments on a podcast suggesting he’d had similar conversations with the FBI.”
FBI Agents Assigned to Twitter Censorship Duty
As reported by attorney Jeff Childers,12 FBI field agent Elvis Chan was one of the agents assigned to work with Twitter. He was recently deposed in the Missouri v. Biden case about his role in Twitter’s censoring of Americans. Below is just one of Chan’s emails to Twitter in which he directs them to ban specific accounts for imagined “crimes.”
As noted by Childers:13
“Note that Chan only provided a list of accounts. He didn’t bother to say WHICH terms of service were violated. He didn’t say anybody broke the law. He didn’t even say WHICH tweets were problematic.”
Still, within 48 hours, Twitter had obliged, and the accounts listed by Chan had either been suspended or banned. Below is Twitter censorship employee Patrick Conlon’s reply to Chan. As you can see, a long list of other FBI employees were also carbon copied.
Another FBI “plant” is Jim Baker.14 Before becoming Twitter’s head lawyer, he spent three decades with the FBI, most recently as its Deputy General Counsel. He too used his authority at Twitter to censor the Hunter Biden story. While his comment (see email below) may seem innocuous enough — just a polite suggestion — it’s clear, with facts in hand, that Baker was trying to influence the situation.
Intelligence Agencies Have Weaponized Social Media
For the record, Facebook also employs no less than 115 “former” employees of the FBI, CIA, NSA and other intelligence agencies.15 Most of them now work in Facebook’s content moderation department, which seems like a massive career slide, if you ask me, but what do I know? As noted by Childers:16
“The inescapable conclusion of what we’re seeing from the Twitter Files is that our country’s intelligence agencies, by and through the FBI, now control all the large social media outlets … and are using them to manipulate American public opinion and change the outcome of domestic elections. But for whom?”
My answer would be they’re doing it on behalf of the Deep State, the same unelected globalists that so doggedly push for a Great Reset and Fourth Industrial Revolution (i.e., eugenics rebranded as transhumanism). Childers continues:17
“If Elon Musk hadn’t spent $44 BILLION DOLLARS to buy Twitter, nobody would have ever believed the extent to which the intelligence community has absorbed private social media platforms in this country and turned them against the people. It’s literally unbelievable.
Exposure will probably be fatal. The Constitution does not provide for any internal security service in the United States. The agencies are WAY off the reservation, well into criminal territory, no matter how clever their lawyers are …
Of course, we still have the teensy-weensy little problem of ‘who’ will charge and arrest these people, since they’re in control of the entire federal law enforcement apparatus. Don’t worry, there ARE answers. But let’s wait a little bit and see how things play out.”
FBI Paid Twitter Millions
As mentioned, the FBI was also using taxpayer dollars to pay Twitter for their censorship services — $3,415,323 to be exact, between October 2019 and February 2021 alone.18
FBI and other intelligence agencies were also trying to gain even greater and more direct influence over Twitter. In a January 2020 email, Carlos Monje wrote to Roth, warning that a “sustained effort by the IC [intelligence community] to push us to share more information and change our API policies.” Apparently, the FBI wanted direct access into Twitter’s database.19
Lies and More Damn Lies
Investigative journalist Lee Fang with The Intercept 20 has also provided us with some real bombshells. While Twitter has publicly insisted that it was cracking down on ALL covert government propaganda accounts, that was only partially true.
In reality, Twitter worked with the U.S. Department of Defense to promote and protect American propaganda accounts, and aided U.S. intelligence agencies in their efforts to influence foreign governments using fake news, computerized deepfake videos and bots.21 They only hunted down the foreign government-affiliated propaganda accounts. As reported by Fang:22
“Behind the scenes, Twitter gave approval and special protection to the U.S. military’s online psychological ops. Despite knowledge that Pentagon propaganda accounts used overt identities, Twitter did not suspend many for around two years or more. Some remain active …
In 2017 a U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) official sent Twitter a list of 52 Arab language accounts ‘we use to amplify certain messages.’ The official asked for priority service for six accounts, verification for one and ‘whitelist’ abilities for the others.”
Whitelisted accounts have a “validated” status similar to that of the blue check mark, which ensures they are promoted in searches. These accounts also don’t get shadow-banned or limited by other means. In closing, I think Childers makes an excellent and accurate observation:23
“Combine all this Twitter censorship, influence peddling, and pure propaganda with the vast budget for pushing vaccines by buying scientists and influencers during the pandemic, and we can begin to see the outlines of a vast private market for censorship and fake news created by the deep state, which then became its biggest customer.”
As for the FBI, it released a single-sentence “rebuttal” on December 21, 2022 — on Twitter — to the mountain of scandalous evidence presented against it.24
Sources and References
- 1, 7 Twitter Michael Shellenberger December 19, 2022
- 2 Rumble Glenn Greenwald December 19, 2022 Timestamp: 44:23
- 3, 4, 5, 6, 12, 13 Coffee & Covid 2022 December 19, 2022
- 8, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 19 Coffee & Covid December 20, 2022
- 9, 10 New York Post December 19, 2022
- 18 Meryl Nass Substack December 20, 2022
- 20, 22 The Intercept December 20, 2022
- 21, 23 Coffee & Covid December 21, 2022
- 24 Coffee & Covid December 22, 2022
I understand ‘The Most Important Thing’ for our rulers …
But, going forward, what’s the most important thing for ‘We the People?’
By Bill Rice, Jr. | January 1, 2023
Author’s note: The start of a new year is perhaps a good time to reflect on lessons gleaned from almost three years of observing our surreal Covid New Normal. In this meditation, I try to identify the bigger themes and the many scandals still concealed. I think I now understand how vast conspiracies and cover-ups could occur … and what thinking will have to change if a country that is listing seriously is going to right itself.
***
In my writings on Covid topics, I’ve begun to filter my thoughts and theories through one question: What was “the most important thing” to officials?
The answer to this question seems almost undeniable: Officials and key allies in the Establishment wanted as many people as possible to receive the Covid “vaccines” (and now “boosters”).
While mass vaccination was the paramount goal, rolling out “vaccine passports” and, perhaps even more important, digital control of the population are also key components of the unfinished agendas of society’s real rulers in my opinion.
That is, everything that’s occurred in the last three years was done to promote these overriding goals/objectives. Promoting (non-sensical) mass fear was of course a prerequisite for achieving the goal of mass compliance.
Any evidence that might debunk any of the false Covid narratives – and reduce the level of public fear – had to be concealed to advance the vaccination objective, but also to keep the conspirators from one day being tried for perpetrating “crimes against humanity.”
Thus, I also believe “self-protection” quickly became another overriding goal of those most responsible for producing the tragic outcomes of the last three years.
Another way to express my hypothesis is that certain officials engaged in on-going disinformation campaigns, all of which sought to achieve these two goals.
If most Americans ever realized all of the important “disinformation” was spread by officials, transformational change might be possible.
If more Americans belatedly realized it was the skeptics who were right all along, the future might be a better place. More Americans might realize that holding officials with great power accountable, and challenging false narratives, are actually vital civic duties.
It’s possible that one day the public will learn the scores of mechanisms officials used to conceal their crimes and lies.
For the last few years, I’ve tried to produce journalism that might be of use to future historians. For example, I’m currently finishing an article that will list approximately 20 ways that evidence of “early spread” has been concealed.
I’m sure many independent journalists could write articles listing at least 20 ways that vaccine injuries have been concealed. Still another journalist could compile a list just as long that shows how iatrogenic deaths have been concealed, or lockdowns and masks were unnecessary, or how Covid statistics were manipulated.
The fact so many Covid topics could provide so many examples of cover-ups and shocking scandals should be telling the American public something significant, lessons that should disturb any person who still cares about the truth.
Nothing that happened would have been possible
if the Fourth Estate had not been captured
It’s also significant that the views of skeptics have been ignored by the mainstream press and public health officials. This suggests censorship and “cancellation” are vital tools to protect false narratives.
As almost all “journalists” at mainstream press organizations refuse to seriously investigate evidence that might debunk any false narrative, this suggests the Fourth Estate has been captured or recruited by the organizations seeking to advance nefarious agendas.
Indeed, I’d argue this represents perhaps the most sinister development in the history of our nation. If “science,” every agency and branch of government and “watchdog journalism” are now all captured, no important truths (or scandals) are likely to ever be exposed.
Some critics might argue I am positing a massive (and thus implausible) conspiracy or cover-up.
In one sense, I guess I am. My future article will argue that officials pursued at least 20 different “projects” just to conceal evidence of early spread. This does suggest a wide-spread conspiracy.
However, I think most officials or employees who played a part in concealing evidence of early spread probably had no idea they were engaging in a wider conspiracy.
The same belief would apply to all the Covid conspiracies and cover-ups. Most of the people involved were simply following orders.
I’ve also come to believe that the “most important thing” for people in bureaucratic organizations is to NOT create waves, to not be considered mavericks or contrarians, to not challenge any politically-correct or “authorized” narratives.
In layman’s terms, people working below the apex of the organizational pyramids intuitively pick up on the authorized narrative and are able to quickly identify which way the proverbial wind is blowing.
My theory posits that a relatively few “masterminds” of any conspiracy – the few people really “in the know” – exploited this knowledge to procure the support of subordinate workers “in the field.”
This, I believe, explains how widespread conspiracies or cover-ups are easier to achieve than one might imagine was possible.
The people who could blow the whistle are not likely to do so. Also, those who might refuse to “go along” are quickly removed from positions of influence.
In other words, while I believe numerous tactics were employed to cover-up evidence of early spread, it probably wasn’t that difficult for the key “conspirators” to make sure their objectives were achieved.
If the effort to conceal evidence of vaccine injuries necessarily entails the participation of vast numbers of people (which it obviously has), achieving this level of participation was also far easier to achieve than one might have thought possible … for the same reasons.
The cover-up is always bigger than the original crime
I also believe cover-ups almost always require the participation of far more actors than the original crimes.
In this conspiracy, the overriding goal was to get everyone vaccinated. However, it must have quickly become apparent to numerous officials inside the U.S. government that “rogue actors” in the government played at least some role in creating this virus.
If this was proven and then revealed, U.S. “national security” might be jeopardized. At best, the international image and reputation of the U.S. government would suffer immense harm.
The liability issues and reparation movements that might emerge infer economic damages mind-blowing to fathom.
Domestically, citizen trust in our trusted public officials might be irreparably damaged.
Given the above possibilities, it does not seem farfetched to suggest that every important official of every important agency in the U.S. government might now possess a strong motive to cover-up Covid facts that, if revealed, could produce seismic repercussions.
In short, the truth – ever revealed – would jeopardize the standing, reputation, influence (and government funding) of practically every important organization in the world.
As it’s almost impossible to identify an important organization that did not enthusiastically support lockdowns, draconian “mitigation” mandates and vaccination agendas, the number of organizations with a strong incentive to conceal the truth is virtually all-encompassing.
This observation also explains how a conspiracy originally involving only a small number of people could expand to include legions of officials, both inside and outside of government.
Which is why society’s true patriots and truth-seekers are so important
The same observation also highlights the vital role being performed by the few organizations staffed with contrarian voices who posses the courage and intellectual integrity to challenge false or dubious narratives.
Whether citizens realize it or not, we now live in a world where much of the accepted conventional wisdom is either false or dubious. As erroneous conventional wisdom ultimately creates flawed public policy, false narratives that are never challenged or exposed can and do inflict great harm on society.
In such a world, the few groups pointing this out are performing a vital public service. The fact the Powers that Be want these voices silenced is perhaps the greatest and most-ominous “tell” of them all.
It’s painful for someone to admit he was duped …
For most people, the belated realization that staples of conventional wisdom might have been false all along would cause psychological pain, an uncomfortable result most people seek to avoid.
The same people might intuitively sense that exposing and correcting these false narratives could produce more-tangible negative effects in their own lives and throughout society.
But any short or mid-term pain must be endured if the world’s long-term prospects are going to be brighter.
The bottom-line is our children’s future …
The reason the population should support such a “cure” is not necessarily to benefit the remainder of our own lives, but because we want the lives of our children and grandchildren to be better than our own lives.
However, the future of our own generation’s children and grandchildren will be bleaker unless the frauds and lies of today are belatedly exposed.
Refusing to perform this painful but necessary task ensures that the same “leaders” who are dismantling the founding principles of our nation (people who created and mandated policies that are literally killing and injuring large swaths of the population) will be in charge next year … and 10 and 20 years from now.
Exposing narratives that were false would expose and purge many of society’s worst leaders. A better class of leaders could guide us into the future.
Also, more people might realize it’s dangerous to put so much blind faith in government officials and the giant corporations that are now so closely aligned with government. Instead of being cancelled and maligned, skeptics might be more appreciated.
It might make people uncomfortable to admit to themselves that they trusted the wrong leaders on Covid topics. However, if more people are beginning to consider this possibility such a development would be very significant.
If more people realize how important it is to keep these same policy makers from ruining the lives of their children and grandchildren, this potential “silver lining” of Covid might end up saving the world.
Circling back to where I started … When something is “the most important thing” to a cadre of highly-motivated, committed and powerful individuals, such people usually find a way to make sure this thing happens.
For almost three years, too many decent people accepted the pronouncements of officials, alleged experts, CEOs of Big Pharma and Big Media as the gospel truth when these words were really evil lies. In short, we let ourselves be led by the wrong people.
Today, the most important thing decent people can do is to expose and purge such dangerous charlatans before they make it impossible that our children live in a better world in the future.
New year and new Congress won’t silence the same old war drums in Washington
By Tony Cox | RT | December 30, 2022
Every now and then, American voters get a reminder that they have no real voice in how their country is run. Mitch McConnell, the top-ranking Republican in the US Senate, made that abundantly clear a few days before Christmas, when he revealed that those constituents who wanted their real needs addressed would again be getting only coal in their stockings.
“Providing assistance for the Ukrainians to defeat the Russians, that’s the No. 1 priority for the United States right now, according to most Republicans,” the 80-year-old Kentuckian told reporters on Capitol Hill while praising the $1.7 trillion spending bill that was then sailing through Congress. “That’s sort of how we see the challenges confronting the country at the moment.”
It wasn’t entirely clear which Republicans McConnell was talking about, those folks he sees wanting — more than anything else — for our government to help kill Russians. He couldn’t have meant the Republicans who are asked to vote for Team GOP every time an election rolls around. Heading into November’s US midterm elections, the Ukraine crisis wasn’t among the top dozen issues that voters cited as major concerns, according to polling by Rasmussen Reports.
Rather, Americans were highly concerned about soaring inflation, the economy, violent crime, illegal immigration and energy policy. Only one in five respondents considered the Ukraine conflict “very important,” the lowest level among all 16 issues that Rasmussen listed. More recently, a Gallup poll conducted in December found that less than 1% of Americans see Russia as the top problem facing the US. Respondents were most troubled by their own government, inflation and the nation’s sputtering economy.
The public’s growing indifference about the Eastern European crisis shows, yet again, that the legacy media has lost its ability to set the agenda. Republicans, in fact, are beyond being merely fed up with the Ukraine hype. Many have turned against continuing to fund what some of their representatives have promoted as a “proxy war.”
A Morning Consult poll conducted just before the midterms showed that most Republicans wanted less US involvement in foreign military conflicts, fewer troop deployments overseas and reduced involvement in the affairs of other countries. Around the same time, a Wall Street Journal poll revealed that nearly half of Republican voters oppose US aid to Ukraine, up from only 6% when the same question was asked shortly after Russia’s military offensive began in February.
That message clearly didn’t get through to McConnell’s Senate Republicans, and the party failed to win control of the chamber as its candidates fared worse than expected in the midterms. In the House of Representatives, Republicans swung from a seven-seat minority to a nine-seat majority, regaining control for the first time since Democrat Nancy Pelosi (California) took the speaker’s gavel in January 2019.
The GOP’s gains came after McConnell’s counterpart in the House, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, suggested three weeks before the midterms that Republicans might halt or slow the aid gravy train to Kiev when they regained control. “I think people are gonna be sitting in a recession, and they’re not going to write a blank check to Ukraine.” Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, went so far as to say that “not another penny will go to Ukraine” after the GOP wins back the House.
However, the tune began to change when the politicians no longer needed to beg for votes. After the midterms, senior Republican congressmen Michael McCaul (Texas) and Mike Turner (Ohio) assured an ABC News interviewer that “majorities on both sides of the aisle” will still support infinite military aid to Ukraine. McCaul even suggested that it would be perfectly fine for Ukrainian forces to attack targets in Crimea, since the US and its allies didn’t recognize the region as Russian territory.
When the $1.7 trillion spending bill, including $45 billion in additional aid for Ukraine, came up for a vote in the House on December 23, nine Republicans joined Democrats in voting for its passage. In the Senate, 18 of 50 Republicans voted in favor, giving Democrats the help they needed to pass the bill.
Republicans haven’t even been able to impose basic oversight measures on Ukraine aid, much less shrink or suspend the effort. A bill to audit the $100 billion program was defeated in the House on December 8. When GOP Senator Rand Paul (Kentucky) demanded that an oversight provision be added to a $40 billion Ukraine aid bill in May, Democrats and Republicans alike steamrolled him and pushed through their legislation.
Auditing measures might stand a better chance of passing the House with Republicans taking control of the chamber in January, but the Senate would likely block any such bill from becoming law. The Dems will get plenty of help, too, from McConnell and other neoconservative Republicans in the Senate.
Republicans and Democrats can put on a good show when it comes to transgender restroom policies and other farcical issues. But when it comes to the most non-negotiable issue in Washington, war, political polarization evaporates. The establishment uniparty can always agree to send more rocket launchers, drop more bombs and overthrow more governments.
That’s what former presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard discovered when she spoke out against US regime-change wars. Then a Hawaii Democrat branded by CNN as the “next superstar” in her party, the Iraq War veteran suddenly became persona non grata when she criticized America’s military interventions around the globe. Party leaders and media propagandists condemned her as a Russian agent. She quit the party in October.
McConnell’s mocking of Republican voters – announcing that party leaders will prioritize the exact opposite of what constituents want and gaslighting them about what they’ve asked for – marks the latest window into Washington’s broken political system. America’s supposedly representative form of government has devolved into a ruling class that governs with no regard for the best interests of the people while playing divide-and-conquer games to keep the tribes distracted and warring with each other.
Donald Trump threatened to shatter the status quo when he was elected president in 2016. Remember his pledge to “drain the swamp?” Well, the swamp won. Trump lacked the political courage to push through the “America First” agenda that he sold to voters, partly because of the Russia collusion hoax.
Although he campaigned on a pledge to “get along with Russia,” collaborating on such common interests as fighting ISIS – and voters supported him, expressing their democratic will – Trump instead played tough with Moscow. With political opponents and media outlets accusing him of being a Russian agent, Trump foolishly backed away from what he promised to voters. He bragged in 2018 that “there’s never been a president as tough on Russia as I have been,” as if that was a measure of success.
Russia policy was among several areas where Trump and his party declined or failed to represent voter desires and interests. Even while controlling the executive branch and both houses of Congress, the Republicans didn’t deliver on promises to build a border wall and repeal Obamacare. And less than a week after winning the 2016 election, Trump quashed any suggestion that he would actually seek to bring Hillary Clinton to justice, as his supporters wanted. The “lock her up” chants and his debate quip to the Democrat nominee that she’d be in jail if he were president were all just theatrics.
When Trump ordered an end to the US military intervention in Syria, the Pentagon essentially thumbed its nose at the commander-in-chief. To this day, hundreds of US troops remain in Syria, without legal justification and in violation of that nation’s sovereignty.
Trump’s signature legislative achievement was a $1.5 trillion tax cut. The federal budget deficit continued to rise, and the nation’s southern border remained porous. Deportations of illegal aliens were lower during Trump’s term, on average, than during Barack Obama’s eight years as president.
It wasn’t the first time. For decades, Republicans have campaigned on promises to secure the border, but even when the GOP controlled the Congress and the White House, the illegal immigration crisis only got worse. Just as the ruling establishment demands that the war machine be kept humming, it insists on a steady inflow of cheap, illegal labor, suppressing the wages of US citizens.
These policies clearly aren’t in the interests of rank-and-file Americans. Nor does it help US taxpayers – or the Ukrainian people – to prolong the fighting in Eastern Europe by sanctioning Moscow and continuing to funnel billions of dollars’ worth of weapons to Kiev. Nor was it in our interests to help overthrow Ukraine’s elected government in 2014 and undermine Russia’s national security by pushing for Kiev to join NATO.
Voters can plainly see that the results of these tactics are ruinous. Consumers in the West, especially Western Europe, face a dark, cold and hungry winter amid energy shortages and the highest inflation rates in 40 years. Not to worry, though, because McConnell, President Joe Biden and other members of the pro-war uniparty insist that this struggle more than justifies the sacrifices they’re imposing on everyone.
You see, they say, we have a “moral obligation” to defend freedom and democracy in Ukraine. Never mind that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s corrupt regime has banned political opposition, shut down all independent media outlets and persecuted the country’s largest church. In the eyes of Washington’s uniparty, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion and freedom to politically oppose the ruling party aren’t necessary components of a free and democratic country.
So we enter a new year with a new Congress and the same old sacred cows in Washington. The bigger problem this time is that escalating US involvement in Ukraine is pushing us all closer to a planet-ending war with Russia, holder of the world’s largest nuclear weapons arsenal. The stakes are higher than when Washington launches an illegal invasion in the Middle East or imports a few million additional illegal aliens.
With such politicians as Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, calling for regime change in Moscow, the uniparty’s latest gambit in defiance of voter interests could cost us all a lot more than higher inflation and lower wages.
Tony Cox is a US journalist who has written or edited for Bloomberg and several major daily newspapers.
House Republicans plan committee on “weaponization of the federal government” after FBI censorship revelations
By Didi Rankovic | Reclaim The Net | December 30, 2022
Republicans in the US Congress are preparing to establish a new subcommittee, as part of the House Judiciary Committee, that will investigate suspected abuse of power by several federal agencies and departments.
Recent revelations about the FBI’s involvement in censorship on social media platforms, which have become public knowledge thanks to the publishing of Twitter’s internal documents, is not the only instance of those abuses, nor is the FBI the only entity that what is currently referred to as the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government will look into.
The subcommittee is very likely to be formed because several Republican members of the House have made it one of the conditions to support the election of Kevin McCarthy as Speaker, the Wall Street Journal is reporting.
The fact that the planned new subcommittee would function within the Judiciary Committee means it will be able to legislate in case its members establish that there is a need to make some changes – and there has been talk among Republicans lately about making structural changes at the FBI.
When it comes to the FBI, “working” with social platforms to censor speech – not least around the Hunter Biden laptop scandal – on its own, and on the behalf of other government bodies is only one of the issues that could make it to the subcommittee’s agenda; others include what the paper calls the agency’s “sordid Russia-collusion hoax.”
But the new panel reportedly intends to look at the broader picture of both past and present governmental abuses facilitated by technology, collusion with private companies in order to harvest personal data, and establish if agencies are acting in line with the Constitution and laws, but also ethical standards.
While the Twitter Files are extremely important on their own, the subcommittee would be able to use its authority – and powers such as issuing subpoenas and organizing hearings; allowing it to bring the various revelations together into a coherent story that would show the full scope of the abuses detailed in the Twitter documents.
Ukraine adopts restrictive media law
RT | December 29, 2022
Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky signed into law a restrictive media bill on Thursday. The long-debated legislation introduces heavy state regulations, as well as officially forbids covering Russia in a positive way.
The legislation greatly empowers Ukraine’s media regulator, the National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting. Half of the Council’s members are directly appointed by the Ukrainian president, with another half selected by the country’s parliament, Verkhovna Rada.
Under the new rules, the regulator is able to impose fines on all types of media, as well as hand them mandatory notices. The Council will be able to revoke licenses from printed media, as well as block online outlets for publishing restricted materials and refusing to take them down.
The new legislation also delves into the online media field, which has remained effectively unregulated in Ukraine. The final version of the bill has not imposed a mandatory registration for online media outlets, introducing a “voluntary” one instead. Those that opt to secure said registration will be shielded from extrajudicial blockage, while outlets without it can be subjected to 14-day bans after a number of “serious” violations.
Online media outlets with opaque structure, those not having easily distinguishable owners or reporters, can be easily banned by the regulator as well.
A sizable part of the legislation is devoted to tackling purported “Russian propaganda” and effectively outlaws any positive coverage of Moscow’s actions that challenge the official stance of Kiev. The bill also reinforces a ban on all Russian media outlets, which have been already de-facto outlawed in the country. Moreover, the legislation prohibits the media from publishing information somehow “discrediting” the Ukrainian language and denying or whitewashing the “criminal nature” of the Soviet-era “totalitarian regime.”
The media bill was first introduced back in 2020, but passing it was put into motion only after the ongoing conflict between Kiev and Moscow broke out in late February. The bill passed its first reading in late August, with the final version adopted early this month. The legislation has been repeatedly criticized by Ukrainian opposition figures, journalists, and international rights groups alike over the assertive role of the government and potential damage to freedom of speech in the country.
US government funds research on correcting “false beliefs”
By Cindy Harper | Reclaim The Net | December 29, 2022
The US government is funding research on how to fight online “misinformation” by correcting “false beliefs.” The funding is in partnership with fact-checkers.
On July 7, 2021, the National Science Foundation (NSF) funded a project titled, “How False Beliefs Form and How to Correct Them.”
The NSF allocated $444,345 to Lisa Fazio, an Associate Professor of Psychology and Human Development at Vanderbilt University. Since then, the total amount granted to the researcher has reached $506,478, as was first surfaced by a War Room report.
Published on NSF’s website is the grant’s purpose, which states:
“There is currently an urgent need to understand the real-world effects of misinformation on people’s beliefs and how to best correct false beliefs.
“Through a series of laboratory and naturalistic experiments, the project team is examining the effects of repetition on belief in real-world settings and how to more effectively counteract misinformation.
“By examining these basic psychological processes in the primary domain within which they affect daily life – misinformation on social media – this work will have implications for real-world practices aimed at reducing the impact of misinformation.”
The idea is for the research to “inform real-world practices aimed at reducing the impact of misinformation.” The NSF claims that “fact-checking practitioners are consulted to help guide the research, and results will be discussed with them.” However, it does not name the fact-checkers, many of which have already built up notoriety for the often biased way they apply fact-checks.
Moscow ‘outraged’ by crackdown on Russian media abroad
Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. © Sputnik
RT | December 29, 2022
France’s push to ban Russian news outlets both on the nation’s territory and in the EU is unacceptable, Moscow’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday. Earlier this month, the nation’s TV regulator Arcom ordered satellite operator Eutelsat to stop broadcasting Channel One Russia, Rossiya 1, and NTV channels.
In a statement, Zakharova said the French watchdog had imposed those restrictions “under apparent pressure from the authorities,” adding that the move preceded relevant sanctions on the EU level. “Moscow is outraged by the new steps taken by Paris aimed at introducing more and more broadcasting bans on Russian media, both on its territory and in the EU as a whole,” she stated.
Such actions suggest that France, given its political clout in the bloc, “is the main lobbyist” supporting the ban on Russian TV channels in Europe, Zakharova claimed. “Such a display of Russophobia, which, unfortunately, has already become mundane, [points to] the aspiration to silence any voices that provide an alternative to the EU propaganda at all cost.”
According to Zakharova, Europeans “are being deprived of the right to free access to information.” She suggested that Paris and Brussels might be “afraid that the audience, after seeing a different point of view and picture of the world that does not correspond to that shown by the mainstream of the Western media, will draw their own conclusions” about global politics and the Ukraine conflict.
The spokeswoman described the crackdown on Russian media as “a flagrant violation” of freedom of speech, which is “discriminatory in nature.” The ban is “another testament that the Western ideal democratization model is in fact no more than a tool for achieving foreign policy goals,” Zakharova claimed.
In recent years, Western countries unleashed a massive campaign against Russian media, which only intensified after Moscow started its military operation against Ukraine. In March, the EU suspended the broadcasting activities of Sputnik and RT, with the number of blacklisted channels only growing as the bloc introduced new sanctions packages.
Zelensky to meet Klaus Schwab at the WEF in Davos
Free West Media | December 29, 2022
When the World Economic Forum (WEF) starts again in Davos next January, Vladimir Zelensky will be present too. He hopes to secure funding for the reconstruction of Ukraine.
Zelensky has already confirmed his participation. His government is currently preparing for the illustrious meeting in Davos, the President reported.
Among other things, another meeting is planned with the CEO of BlackRock, Larry Fink, with whom Zelensky has already exchanged views on post-war reconstruction in Ukraine.
“Specialists of this company are already helping Ukraine to structure the fund for the reconstruction of our country,” said Zelensky, who had a video call with Fink in September.
Zelensky did not reveal whether he would take part in person or virtually at the WEF from January 16 to 20.
Since May 2022, the forum has been all about the Ukraine war. In his welcome speech at the time, WEF founder and chairman Klaus Schwab described it as a “turning point in history” that “will reshape our political and economic landscape in the years to come”.
The (Covid) Law is an Ass – No Jab, No Job
The Naked Emperor’s Newsletter | December 28, 2022
As I suggested in my article yesterday, 2023 will be the year of the excuse. One of those excuses will be that the vaccine may have caused some harm but it saved many more people.
A similar excuse of “we had to do these things to save lives” can be seen in a recent and terrible employment tribunal decision concerning care home staff.
Barchester Healthcare is one of the largest care home providers in the UK with over 250 care homes. In January 2021 it created a new vaccine policy whereby new staff would need to be vaccinated against Covid-19. Furthermore, existing staff wouldn’t be promoted or paid bonuses if they refused vaccination.
Shortly afterwards, in February of that year, it made vaccination a condition of employment for all of its 17,000 employees. Workers who weren’t exempt were told that by the end of April 2021 they could be dismissed if not jabbed. They were told it was part of their ‘moral and ethical duty to do the right thing’ and it was to be considered as a privilege to be vaccinated before the rest of the general population.
Between 11 November 2021 and 15 March 2022 it became mandatory for care home workers in the UK to be vaccinated. As a result up to 60,000 workers lost their jobs. However, vaccination was not mandatory when Barchester started firing it’s staff.
Five of the dismissed employees brought a claim of unfair dismissal against their former employer. One of their arguments was that the dismissal breached Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights which concerns the right to respect for private and family life. Two of the claimants also argued that their right to freedom of religion or belief (Article 9) had also been breached.
The decision, which was published on 8 December 2022, found in favour of Barchester Healthcare. The tribunal decided that the reason for the claimants’ dismissal was genuine and undertaken fairly. Furthermore, firing the unvaccinated workers was done in order to protect the clinically vulnerable and was therefore fine.
Barchester said it needed to protect people because 10% of its residents and six staff members died “with Covid” in 2020.
When dealing with the issue of freedom of religion, this was dismissed due to the number of Christians and Muslims that had been vaccinated.
The Judge, who clearly sounded biased in his views, said “[Barchester] of course never proposed, for instance, vaccination by force.” Well that’s ok then, no one was tied down and vaccinated, case closed!
“Whilst they would not have judged it as free choice given the obvious implications of a loss of employment, it was a choice they had.”
He went on: “It was at pains, throughout the introduction of the policy, to reaffirm that it recognised vaccines could not be mandated, that vaccination was the choice of the individual, that consent had to be given freely and consent to future vaccination could be withdrawn at any stage.” It sounds like the Judge is actually Barchester’s representation!
Naturally, Barchester was thrilled:
“We welcome the ruling of the employment tribunal who found our vaccine policy to be reasonable, and accepted the introduction of our policy to reduce the risk of spread of Covid infection in our homes and hospitals. However we do respect personal choice and the decision of those who didn’t want the vaccine and we wish those staff well.”
The caring-times, who also reported on this case, quoted Sejal Raja a Partner at Weightmans law firm.
“This is a significant and welcome ruling, that will have direct implications for those employers in the care industry, who may face similar claims in the future.
The tribunal recognised the principle, enshrined in law, that people must be allowed to hold, and act, in line with their personal beliefs. But the ruling highlighted that the law also permits difficult but essential decisions to be taken where these rights interfere in order to protect others’ inviolable rights – specifically the right to life.
This judgement will give care home management teams that acted responsibly, with due process and with the safety of their residents front of mind, confidence in their decisions.”
The legal system has kicked off 2023 – the year of the excuse, with an extension of the excuse I reported on yesterday – “these things are necessary (and now legal) to save lives”.
Whilst Sejal Raja welcomes the decision, in reality it is a worrying and dangerous one. It sets the precedent that you can be sacked from your job if you don’t get vaccinated from the latest thing. No matter if there is no legal basis for the vaccination (which would also be wrong but anyway). And no need to show any data that supports your opinion that it protects people. If I read a headline on the BBC that says that the Science has found that the latest thing protects others from the latest thing then your human rights can be trampled on. And this latest judgement has just made you being trampled on in the future, legal and far more likely.
Top White House Covid Advisor Admits: ‘No Study in the World Shows Masks Work’
Infowars | December 28, 2022
A viral video features top White House Covid adviser Dr. Ashish Jha admitting there are no studies that show face masks work.
“There’s no study in the world that shows that masks work that well,” Jha told The Philadelphia Inquirer earlier this month.
“So you’re never going to get the kind of benefit from mandatory year-round masking as you would from making substantial improvements in indoor air quality, plus it’s a lot easier to implement as well,” he continued. “So this is an area where we’re doing a lot and trying to really encourage people to use the resources they have to make those investments and start really improving ventilation filtration in buildings.”
Despite his admission, Dr. Jha and other top Covid advisers have previously advocated for masking.
Jha’s vacillation on whether masks work parallels with NIAID Director Anthony Fauci’s own back-and-forth remarks on masks, which he initially claimed do not work.
Jha has previously been criticized for giving Americans shady medical advice encouraging them to take both flu and Covid-19 jabs at the same time, saying, “That’s why God gave you two arms.”
Despite their questionable efficacy, many places around the country are once again considering implementing mandatory face mask policies.
Twitter lawyer Jim Baker wanted to know why Trump wasn’t censored for tweet saying “don’t fear Covid”
Twitter execs had to explain why optimism isn’t a violation of the rules
By Didi Rankovic | Reclaim The Net | December 27, 2022
Lawyer James Baker, formerly of the FBI and working for Twitter until recently – and an excellent example of the “revolving door” policy happening between Big Tech and “Big Government” – shows up in several censorship controversies that have come to light thanks to the release of the “Twitter Files.”
In the fall of 2020, Baker was Twitter’s deputy general counsel with an eye on President Donald Trump’s account and apparently looking for just about any way to silence him, even when Trump’s tweets sought to lift people’s spirits at the peak of the pandemic and lockdowns.
On October 4, 2020, Trump was about to leave the hospital where he was treated for Covid for several days, and tweeted about this, telling 86 million followers that he was feeling well, and advising them not to be afraid of Covid, or allow it to dominate their lives.
“Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don’t let it dominate your life. We have developed, under the Trump Administration, some really great drugs & knowledge. I feel better than I did 20 years ago!,” the president’s optimistic tweet read.
However, the content of the published internal communications suggest that Baker – whom one of the journalists now releasing Twitter Files says was “one of the most powerful people” in the US intelligence community – wanted you to be afraid.
Soon after Trump posted his message, Baker emailed Yoel Roth, who was at the time head of Twitter’s Trust & Safety, asking why the tweet was not considered a violation of the social site’s Covid policies.
“Why isn’t this POTUS tweet a violation of our COVID-19 policy (especially the ‘Don’t be afraid of COVID’ statement)?,” Baker quizzed the Twitter exec.
Roth’s response was that Trump had made “a broad, optimistic statement” which could not be interpreted as a violation since it didn’t encourage his followers to do anything harmful or even not to wear masks.
That tweet eventually stayed up, but Baker had better luck in convincing those at Twitter responsible for suppressing the New York Post story about Hunter Biden’s laptop, by misleading them to believe the laptop’s contents were “likely” inauthentic.
For this, Baker might be investigated by Republican congressmen, who suggested this earlier in December.
And the former FBI and DoJ man even tried to “review” the documents that are now being released as “Twitter Files” – before he was let go by Elon Musk.
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From the Archives
Politicians lie
By Mazin Qumsiyeh | Popular Resistance | August 18, 2013
There is no way to say this truth nicely: Politicians lie. That includes Japanese, American, Egyptian, Israeli, and Palestinian politicians! Is there something more common sense than that? Yet, so many citizens around the world believe their own politicians or wistfully acknowledge lies but think it is part of the job needed to run things. They believe even when politicians contradict themselves blatantly. This phenomenon is rather remarkable. It is a dissonance and disconnect from reality that many seem oblivious to. It is very dangerous because it can lead to accepting rationales for going to war. These can be deadly wars that lead to millions of lives lost as happened in what was called World War 1 and WW2. Even when incredible and declassified evidence abound, politicians continue to lie and old mythologies refuse to die. Here are just a few of the countless lies told to us over the past few decades… continue
Blog Roll
Aletho News- From Unipolar Universalism to Multipolar Civilizational Distinctiveness
- RSF military group defects, joins Sudanese army: State media
- Ireland goalkeeper refuses to play ‘Israel’ as squad weighs boycott
- China pushes back against US on Cuba, Iran
- Ukrainian Soldiers, Potential Mercenaries: Have Gun, Will Travel!
- Burnham’s UN debut… A masterclass in British disinformation
- Iran flights continue despite US aviation sanctions
- Global Tipping Points Lead the World Into a State of Entropy
- The day-after at the White House: USA and Xi Jinping
- The Geopolitical Balance in the Red Sea: The UAE Being Displaced by New Players
- If Americans Knew
- Deconstructing Netanyahu’s pants-on-fire UN rant – Daily Update
- Trump betrayed voters with his campaign lies and prioritized a foreign country once he took office
- Netanyahu calls Israel’s war in Gaza ‘opposite of genocide’ in UN speech to near-empty hall
- Settler Kidnappings: Torture, Sexual Abuse and Terrorisation of Palestinian Abductees as Israel Deepens Annexation of West Bank
- Gaza winter nears as 162,000 tents become unusable, raising fears of humanitarian crisis
- Netanyahu says, “It’s the opposite of genocide”; UN says Gaza economy is world’s ‘most severe crisis on record’ – Daily Update
- Israel’s US-Backed Assault on Gaza Has Created the ‘World’s Most Severe Economic Crisis on Record’: UN
- ‘Protecting U.S. Citizens’… From Israel
- ‘This is where I live now, the back of a truck’: a day in the life of a grandmother in Gaza
- In UN Speech, Iran’s President Displays Pictures of Children Killed by US, Brings Attention to Israel’s Nuclear Arsenal
- No Tricks Zone
- New Study: Earth And Venus Surface Warmth Largely Explained By Convection And Lapse Rate, Not CO2 Or Radiation
- 2025 Nature Paper Claiming Worsening Global Drought Gets RETRACTED …Heavily Flawed
- New Study: ‘Global Drought Shows No Detectable Recent Acceleration Under Climate Warming’
- Economic Masterminds: German Socialists Suggest Taxing Productivity Gains Stemming From Using AI
- The South China Sea Has Not Been Cooperating With The Climate Change Narrative
- Energy Crisis: Germany Enters Heating Season With Historically Low Gas Reserve Fill Levels
- New Study: The Antarctic Ice Sheet Gained Mass From 2020-2024 Due To Staggering Snow And Ice Accumulation
- Study: Ocean Heating Rates From Thousands Of Years Ago ‘Dwarf’ Modern Ocean Heating Rates
- Climate Extremists Target, Attack Large-Scale Power Grid Infrastructure In Germany!
- New Study: Antarctic Ice Melt Has Contributed Less Than 1 Centimeter To Sea Level Rise In The Last 30 Years
