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A Domestic Terrorism Law? War on Dissent Will Proceed Full Speed Ahead

By Philip Giraldi | Strategic Culture Foundation | January 28, 2021

President Joe Biden has already made it clear that legislation that will be used to combat what he refers to as “domestic terrorism” will be a top priority. That means that his inaugural speech pledge to be the president for “all Americans” appears to apply except for those who don’t agree with him. Former Barack Obama CIA Chief John Brennan, who is clearly in the loop on developments, puts it this way in a tweet where he describes how the new Administration’s spooks “are moving in laser-like fashion to try to uncover as much as they can about [the] insurgency” [that includes] “religious extremists, authoritarians, fascists, bigots, racists, nativists, even libertarians.”

The United States Constitution’s Bill of Rights, which includes freedom of speech and association, has been under siege for some time now. Government has always used its assumed powers conferred by a claimed state of emergency to deprive citizens of their rights. During the American Civil War Abraham Lincoln imprisoned critics of the conflict. Woodrow Wilson’s First World War administration brought in the Espionage Act, which has since been used to convict whistleblowers without having to present the level of evidence that would be required in a normal civil trial. During the Second World War, Franklin D. Roosevelt erected concentration camps that imprisoned Japanese Americans whose only crime consisted of being Japanese.

But perhaps the greatest attack on the Bill of Rights is more recent, the Patriot and Military Commissions Acts that were passed into law as a consequence of the “Global War on Terror” launched by President George W. Bush in the wake of 9/11. Together with the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which includes a court designed to speed up the warrant approval process, ordinary citizens found themselves on the receiving end of surveillance for which there was little or no justification in terms of probable cause. The FISA process was even notoriously abused in the national security apparatus attempt to derail the campaign of Donald Trump. The tools are in place for ever more government mischief and no one should doubt that the Democrats are just as capable of ignoring constitutional safeguards as the Republicans have been.

What makes the current state of war against “terrorism” so dangerous is that the national security apparatus has been politicized while the government has learned that labeling someone or some entity terrorist or even a “material supporter of terrorism” is infinitely elastic. That is precisely why Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has frequently called out opponents and attached to them the terrorist label, since it then permits other steps that might otherwise be challenged.

And there is also the fact that the playing field has changed since the First and Second World Wars. The government has technical capabilities that were never dreamed of in most of the twentieth century. Edward Snowden and other whistleblowers have demonstrated how the government routinely ignores constitutional limits on its ability to interfere in the lives of ordinary citizens. Not only that, it can monitor the lives of millions of Americans simultaneously, giving the police and intelligence agencies the power to mount “fishing expeditions” that literally invade the phones, computers and conversations of people who have not been guilty of any crime.

The authorizations that already exist will be further weaponized to go after dissidents as identified by the new regime. A bill introduced by House intelligence committee chair Adam Schiff “would take existing War on Terror legislation and simply amend it to say we can now do that within the U.S.” It would be combined with previous legislation, including former president Barack Obama’s infamous 2012 National Defense Authorization Act, which allows the military to indefinitely detain American citizens suspected of terrorism without a trial. Obama and Brennan also assumed an illegal and unconstitutional right to act as judge, jury and executioner-by-drone of American citizens overseas. Given those precedents, a bill like Schiff’s would free the national security community’s hands even more.

The new body of legislation would mean increased secret legal surveillance, suppression of free speech, indefinite incarceration without charges, torture, and perhaps even assassination. If it sounds like totalitarianism it should. There ought to be particular concern that the plan of the Biden Administration to go after so-called domestic terrorists will be this generation’s version of either Pearl Harbor or 9/11. The incident that took place at the Capitol Building on January 6th (already being referred to as 1/6 in some circles) has been exaggerated beyond all recognition and is now being regularly referred to as an “insurrection,” which it was not, by both politicians and the mainstream media. The language used to vilify what are alleged to be “right wing” and “white supremacist” enemies of the state is astonishing and the technology is keeping pace to turn the United States and other countries into police states to ensure that citizens will do the bidding of government.

To cite only one example of how technology can drive the process, Biden has several times threatened to initiate and enforce something like a nationwide lockdown to defeat the coronavirus. Can he do it? Yes, the tools are already in place. Facial recognition technology is highly developed and deployable in the numerous surveillance cameras that are being installed. Wrist bands are being developed overseas that are designed to compel compliance with government dictates on pandemic measures enforcement. If you have been told to stay home and are instead walking the dog your wrist band will tell the police and they will find and arrest you.

And, as the old saying goes, the Revolution is already beginning to devour its own children. Universities and schools are insisting that teachers actively support both publicly and privately the new “equity and diversity” order while police departments are purging themselves of officers suspected of being associated with conservative groups, meaning that something like a loyalty test might soon become common. Recently the Defense Department has begun intensive monitoring of the social media of military personnel to identify dissenters, as is already done in some large companies with their employees. The new Director of National Intelligence hardliner Avril Haines has already confirmed that her agency will participate in a public threat assessment of QAnon, which she has described as America’s Greatest Threat.

Haines has also suggested that intelligence agencies will “look at connections between folks in the U.S. and externally and foreign” while Biden on his first full day in office has pledged to thoroughly investigate claims about Russian hacking of U.S. infrastructure and government sites, the poisoning of Putin critic Alexei Navalny, and the story that Russia offered the Taliban bounties to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan. It could be Russiagate all over again, with a claimed foreign threat being used to conceal civil rights violations being committed by the federal government at home.

And, of course, the new policies will reflect the biases of the new rulers. Right wing “terror” will be targeted even though the list of actual right-wing driven outrages is embarassingly short. Groups like Black Lives Matter will be untouchable in spite of their major role in last year’s rioting, arson, looting and violence that caused $2 billion damage and killed as many as thirty because they are in all but name part of the Democratic Party. Antifa, which rioted in Portland last week, will also get a pass – the media routinely describes leftist violence as “mainly peaceful” and only sometimes concedes that some “property damage” occurred.

It is Trump supporters and conservatives in general who are being shown the exit door, to include calls for “deprogramming them”. The Washington Post’s Zionist harpy Jennifer Rubin recently declared that “We have to collectively, in essence, burn down the Republican Party. We have to level them because if there are survivors, if there are people who weather this storm, they will do it again.” She also echoed calls for making them unemployable, “I think it’s absolutely abhorrent that any institution of higher learning, any news organization, or any entertainment organization that has a news outlet would hire these people.”

As the notably clueless Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in 2006 while Lebanon was getting bombed and shelled by Israel, “We are seeing the birth pangs of a new Middle East…” so too are we Americans seeing something new and strange emerging from the ruins of Trumpdom. It will not be pretty and after it is over Americans will enjoy a lot fewer liberties, that is for sure.

January 28, 2021 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Mainstream Media, Warmongering | , , | Leave a comment

Revving Up US War on a Free and Open Society

By Stephen Lendman | January 28, 2021

It’s disappearing in plain sight with Big Media support.

The NYT supports what demands exposure and denunciation.

Sticking with the official narrative, it perpetuates the myth of a January 6 Capitol Hill insurrection — ignoring the orchestrated anti-Trump false flag, its disturbing aftermath playing out in real time.

It backs the phony DHS claim about a growing US threat posed by “violent domestic extremists” emboldened by what happened on Capitol Hill.

The only internal threat to the nation and its people is state-sponsored.

What the Times should explain, it suppresses. Instead it reported the following rubbish:

Homeland Security’s “terrorism alert did not name specific groups that might be behind any future attacks, but it made clear that their motivation would include anger over ‘the presidential transition, as well as other perceived grievances fueled by false narratives.’ ”

No “presidential transition” threat occurred, no evidence of violence against the state coming ahead.

The DHS falsely expressed concern about so-called “drivers to violence… remain(ing)” active (sic).

Yet the department admitted having no evidence that indicates a “specific, credible plot.”

Instead it dubiously warned of unexplained terrorism trends, nothing that indicates an imminent attack.

An unnamed DHS official was quoted claiming the department is concerned that Biden’s peaceful inauguration could create a false sense of security because “the intent (sic) to engage in violence has not gone away (sic).”

In the run-up to, during, and after January 20 inauguration ceremonies, there was no violence or known threat of it occurring in the nation’s capital.

The city resembles a war zone with no ongoing hostilities.

It remains militarized and occupied by thousands of National Guard troops and other security forces over nothing.

A DHS “terrorism advisory” is fear-mongering mass deception about nonexistent domestic terrorists — except for dark forces in the halls of power.

Americans are repeatedly lied to by government officials and press agent media like the Times.

The 9/11 state-sponsored mother of all false flags to that time was and remains all about waging endless war on humanity at home and abroad.

Since seasonal flu was renamed covid last year and all that followed, what remains of a free and open society is being eliminated entirely for our own good.

Police state enforced totalitarian rule is in place and being hardened.

The undemocratic Dem controlled White House and Congress are heading the nation toward full-blown tyranny — to arrive wrapped in the American flag for mass deception.

What’s coming may include mandatory mass-vaxxing with hazardous vaccines for access to public places, for work and education, for an illusory return to normalcy ahead that’s long gone without mass resistance against diabolical harshness.

The scheme includes elimination of remaining freedoms as once existed on the phony pretext of protecting public health, welfare and national security.

Instead of sounding the alarm against what no one should tolerate, the Times and other Big Media support the transformation of America to a brave new world dystopia unfit to live in — except for its ruling class at the expense of most others.

The choice is clear.

Resist or endure dark forces “stamping on a human face — forever,” with attribution to Orwell.

Life as once experienced will no longer exist if dark forces get their way.

I’m in the twilight of my life. I’m concerned about younger generations that’ll have none of the advantages I had growing up long ago.

That’s the disturbing state of things today — what I won’t be silent about, what I’m committed to resist against through my activist writing.

I urge mass activism from others to save what otherwise will be lost with no turning back.

January 28, 2021 Posted by | Fake News, Mainstream Media, Warmongering | , , | 2 Comments

6 Warning Signs from Biden’s First Week in Office

By Kit Knightly | OffGuardian | January 27, 2021

It’s been a busy first week for the 46th President [sic] of the United States, there are the 20,000 troops occupying the capitol city to organise, as well as the totally unprecedented show-trial of his immediate predecessor.

You know, usual democracy type stuff.

On top of that, Biden has now signed at least 37 executive orders in his first week. The record for any President, and more than the previous four presidents combined.

What do these orders, or any of his other moves, tell us about the future plans of the recently “elected” administration? Nothing good, unfortunately.

1. VACCINATION PASSPORTS

I still remember people claiming the introduction of vaccination passports (or immunity passes or the like) was just a “conspiracy theory”, the paranoid fantasy of fringe “covidiots”. All the way back in December, when they were getting fact-checked by tabloid journalists who can’t do basic maths.

These days they are rebranded as “freedom certificates” which are “divisive, politically tricky and probably inevitable”.

Many countries are already preparing to roll it out, including Iceland the UK and South Africa. Biden’s “Executive Order on Promoting COVID-19 Safety in Domestic and International Travel” adds the US to this list:

International Certificates of Vaccination or Prophylaxis. Consistent with applicable law, the Secretary of State, the Secretary of HHS, and the Secretary of Homeland Security (including through the Administrator of the TSA), in coordination with any relevant international organizations, shall assess the feasibility of linking COVID-19 vaccination to International Certificates of Vaccination or Prophylaxis (ICVP) and producing electronic versions of ICVPs.

2. CABINET APPOINTMENTS

Biden’s cabinet is praised as the “most diverse” in history, but will hiring a few non-white people really change the decades-old policies of US Imperialism? It certainly doesn’t look like it.

His pick for Under Secretary of State is Victoria Nuland, a neocon warmonger and one of the masterminds of the Maidan coup in Ukraine in 2014. She is married to Robert Kagan, another neocon warmonger, co-founder of the Project for a New American Century and senior fellow at the Brookings Institute and one of the masterminds behind the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The incoming Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, is also an inveterate US Imperialist, arguing for every US military intervention since the 1990s, and criticised Trump’s decision to withdraw from Syria.

Biden’s pick for Defence Secretary is the first African-American ever appointed to this role, but former General Lloyd Austin is hardly going be some kind of “progressive” voice in his cabinet. He’s a career soldier who retired from the military in 2016 to join the board of Raytheon Technologies, an arms manufacturer and military contractor.

As “diverse” as this cabinet may be in skin colour or gender… there is most certainly no “diversity” of opinion or policy. There are very few new faces and no new thoughts.

So, it looks like we can expect more of the same in terms of foreign policy. A fact that’s already been displayed in…

3. IRAQ…

Despite heavy resistance from the military and Deep State, Donald Trump wanted to end the war in Iraq and pledged to pull American troops out of the country. This was one of Trump’s more popular policies, and during the campaign Biden made no mention of intending to reverse that decision.

Then, on the very day of Biden’s inauguration, ISIS conducted their deadliest suicide bombing for over three years, and suddenly the situation was too unstable for the US to leave, and Biden is being forced to “review” Trump’s planned withdrawal.

The Iraqi parliament has made it clear it wants the US to take its military off their soil, so any American forces on Iraqi land are technically there illegally in contravention of international law. But that never bothered them before.

4. … AFGHANISTAN…

Turns out the US can’t withdraw from Afghanistan either. Last February Trump signed a deal with the Taliban that all US personnel would leave Afghanistan by May 2021.

Joe Biden has already committed to “reviewing” this deal. Sec. Blinken was quoted as saying that Biden’s admin wanted:

“to end this so-called forever war [but also] retain some capacity to deal with any resurgence of terrorism, which is what brought us there in the first place”.

As a great man once said, nothing someone says before the word “but” really counts. The US will not be withdrawing from Afghanistan, and if there is any public pressure to do so, the government will simply claim the Taliban broke their side of the deal first, or stage a few terrorist attacks.

5. … AND SYRIA

Far from simply continuing the on-going wars, there are already signs Biden’s “diverse” team will look to escalate, or even start, other conflicts.

Syria was another theatre of war from which Donald Trump wanted to extricate the United States, unilaterally ordering all US troops from the country in late 2019.

We now know the Pentagon ignored those orders. They lied to the President, telling Trump they had followed his orders… but not withdrawing a single man. This organized mutiny against the Commander-in-Chief of the US Armed Forces was played for a joke in the media when it was finally revealed.

There will be no need for any such duplicity now that Biden is in the Oval Office, he was a vocal critic of the decision to withdraw, claiming it gave ISIS a “new lease of life”. Indeed, within two days of his being sworn in a column of American military vehicles was seen entering Syria from Iraq.

6. DOMESTIC TERRORISM

We called this before the inauguration. They made it just too obvious. Before the dirty footprints had been cleaned from Nancy Pelosi’s desk it was clear where it was all going.

Within 24 hours of being sworn in as president, Biden had ordered a “review of the threat posed by domestic terrorism”.

As usual, the press are laying down the covering fire for this. Talking heads have been busily comparing MAGA voters to al Qaida in television interviews. The Washington Post and New Yorker journal have cut-and-paste pieces about this supposed threat. Politico published an article titled “Biden vowed to defeat domestic terrorism. The how is the hard part”, which outlines what Biden could do:

Direct the Justice Department, FBI and National Security Council to execute a top-down approach prioritizing domestic terrorism; pass new domestic terrorism legislation; or do a bit of both as Democrats propose a crack down on social media giants like Facebook for algorithms that promote conspiracy laden posts.

That last part is key. The “crack down on social media” part, because the anti-Domestic Terrorism legislation will likely be very focused on communication and so-called “misinformation”.

Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez has publicly called for a congressional panel to “rein in” the media:

We’re going to have to figure out how we rein in our media environment so you can’t just spew disinformation and misinformation,”

And who will be the target of these crack downs and new legislations? Well, according John Brennan (ex-head of the CIA and accomplished war criminal), practically anybody:

They’re casting a wide net. Expect “extremist”, “bigot” and “racist” to be just a few of the words which have their meanings totally revised in the next few months. “Conspiracy theorist” will be used a lot, too.

Further, they are moving closer and closer toward the “anyone who disagrees with us is literally insane” model. With many articles actually talking about “de-programming” Trump voters. The Atlantic suggests “mental hygiene” would cure the MAGA problem.

Again AOC is on point here, clearly auditioning for the role of High Inquisitor, claiming that the new Biden government needs to fund programs that “de-radicalise” “conspiracy theorists” who are on the “spectrum of radicalisation”.

*

As I said at the beginning, it’s been a busy week for Joe Biden, but you can sum up his biggest policy plans in one short sentence: More violence overseas, less tolerance of dissent and strict clampdowns on “misinformation”.

How progressive.

January 27, 2021 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Illegal Occupation, Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Progressive Hypocrite | , , , , | 1 Comment

Reflecting the Authoritarian Climate, Washington Will Remain Militarized Until At Least March

The idea of troops in US streets for an extended period of time – an extreme measure even when temporary – has now become close to a sacred consensus

By Glenn Greenwald | January 26, 2021

Washington, DC has been continuously militarized beginning the week leading up to Joe Biden’s inauguration, when 20,000 National Guard troops were deployed onto the streets of the nation’s capital. The original justification was that this show of massive force was necessary to secure the inauguration in light of the January 6 riot at the Capitol.

But with the inauguration over and done, those troops remain and are not going anywhere any time soon. Working with federal law enforcement agencies, the National Guard Bureau announced on Monday that between 5,000 and 7,000 troops will remain in Washington until at least mid-March.

The rationale for this extraordinary, sustained domestic military presence has shifted several times, typically from anonymous U.S. law enforcement officials. The original justification — the need to secure the inaugural festivities — is obviously no longer operative.

So the new claim became that the impeachment trial of former President Trump that will take place in the Senate in February necessitated military reinforcements. On Sunday, Politico quoted “four people familiar with the matter” to claim that “Trump’s upcoming Senate impeachment trial poses a security concern that federal law enforcement officials told lawmakers last week requires as many as 5,000 National Guard troops to remain in Washington through mid-March.”

The next day, AP, citing “a U.S. official,” said the ongoing troop deployment was needed due to “ominous chatter about killing legislators or attacking them outside of the U.S. Capitol.” But the anonymous official acknowledged that “the threats that law enforcement agents are tracking vary in specificity and credibility.” Even National Guard troops complained that they “have so far been given no official justifications, threat reports or any explanation for the extended mission — nor have they seen any violence thus far.”

It is hard to overstate what an extreme state of affairs it is to have a sustained military presence in American streets. Prior deployments have been rare, and usually were approved for a limited period and/or in order to quell a very specific, ongoing uprising — to ensure the peaceful [de-]segregation of public schools in the South, to respond to the unrest in Detroit and Chicago in the 1960s, or to quell the 1991 Los Angeles riots that erupted after the Rodney King trial.

Deploying National Guard or military troops for domestic law enforcement purposes is so dangerous that laws in place from the country’s founding strictly limit its use. It is meant only as a last resort, when concrete, specific threats are so overwhelming that they cannot be quelled by regular law enforcement absent military reinforcements. Deploying active military troops is an even graver step than putting National Guard soldiers on the streets, but they both present dangers. As Trump’s Defense Secretary said in response to calls from some over the summer to deploy troops in response to the Black Lives Matter and Antifa protests: “The option to use active duty forces in a law enforcement role should only be used as a matter of last resort, and only in the most urgent and dire of situations.”

Are we even remotely at such an extreme state where ordinary law enforcement is insufficient? The January 6 riot at the Capitol would have been easily repelled with just a couple hundred more police officers. The U.S. is the most militarized country in the world, and has the most para-militarized police force on the planet. Earlier today, the Acting Chief of the Capitol Police acknowledged that they had advanced knowledge of what was planned but failed to take necessary steps to police it.

Future violent acts in the name of right-wing extremism, as well as other causes, is highly likely if not inevitable. But the idea that the country faces some sort of existential armed insurrection that only the military can suppress is laughable on its face.

Recall that ABC News, on January 11, citing “an internal FBI bulletin obtained by ABC News,” claimed that “starting this week and running through at least Inauguration Day, armed protests are being planned at all 50 state capitols and at the U.S. Capitol.” The news outlet added in highly dramatic and alarming tones:

The FBI has also received information in recent days on a group calling for “storming” state, local and federal government courthouses and administrative buildings in the event President Donald Trump is removed from office prior to Inauguration Day. The group is also planning to “storm” government offices in every state the day President-elect Joe Biden will be inaugurated, regardless of whether the states certified electoral votes for Biden or Trump.

None of that happened. There was virtually no unrest or violence during inauguration week — except for some anti-Biden protests held by leftist and anarchist protesters that resulted in a few smashed windows at the Oregon Democratic Party and some vandalism at a Starbucks in Seattle. “Trump supporters threatened state Capitols but failed to show on Inauguration Day,” was the headline NBC News chose to try to justify this gap between media claims and reality.

This threat seems wildly overblown by the combination of media outlets looking for ratings, law enforcement agencies searching for power, and Democratic Party operatives eager to exploit the climate of fear for a new War on Terror.

But now is not a moment when there is much space for questioning anything, especially not measures ostensibly undertaken in the name of combatting white-supremacist right-wing extremism — just as no questioning of supposed security measures was tolerated in the wake of the 9/11 attack. And so the scenes of soldiers on the streets of the nation’s capital, there in the thousands and for an indefinite period of time, is provoking little to no concern.

What makes this all the more remarkable is that a mere seven months ago, a major controversy erupted when The New York Times published an op-ed by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) which, at its core, advocated the deployment of military troops to quell the social unrest, protests and riots that erupted over the summer after the killing in Minneapolis of George Floyd. To justify the deployment of National Guard and active duty military forces, Cotton emphasized how many people, including police officers, had been seriously maimed or even killed as part of that unrest:

Outnumbered police officers, encumbered by feckless politicians, bore the brunt of the violence. In New York State, rioters ran over officers with cars on at least three occasions. In Las Vegas, an officer is in “grave” condition after being shot in the head by a rioter. In St. Louis, four police officers were shot as they attempted to disperse a mob throwing bricks and dumping gasoline; in a separate incident, a 77-year-old retired police captain was shot to death as he tried to stop looters from ransacking a pawnshop. This is “somebody’s granddaddy,” a bystander screamed at the scene.

(Cotton’s claim that police officers “bore the brunt of the violence” was questionable, given how many protesters were also killed or maimed, but it is true that numerous police officers were attacked, including fatally).

Cotton acknowledged that the central cause of the protests was a just one, noting they were provoked by “the wrongful death of George Floyd.” He also strongly affirmed the right of people to peacefully protest in support of that cause, accusing those justifying the violence of “a revolting moral equivalence of rioters and looters to peaceful, law-abiding protesters,” adding: “A majority who seek to protest peacefully shouldn’t be confused with bands of miscreants.”

But he insisted that, absent military reinforcements, innocent people, principally ones in poor communities, will suffer. “These rioters, if not subdued, not only will destroy the livelihoods of law-abiding citizens but will also take more innocent lives,” Cotton wrote, adding: “Many poor communities that still bear scars from past upheavals will be set back still further.”

The backlash to the publication of this op-ed was immediate, intense, and, at least in my memory, unprecedented. Very few people were interested in engaging the merits of Cotton’s call for a deployment of troops in order to prove the argument was misguided.

Their view was not that Cotton’s plea for soldiers in the streets was misguided, but that advocacy for it was so obscene, so extremist, so dangerous and repugnant, that the mere publication of the op-ed by The Paper of Record was an act of grave immorality.

“I’ll probably get in trouble for this, but to not say something would be immoral. As a black woman, as a journalist, I am deeply ashamed that we ran this,” pronounced the paper’s Nikole Hannah-Jones in a now-deleted tweet. The New York Times Magazine writer Taffy Brodesser-Akner posted a multi-tweet denunciation that compared Cotton to an anti-Semite who “says, ‘The Jew is a pig,’” argued that “hatred dressed up as opinion is not something I have to withstand,” and concluded with this flourish: “I love working at the Times and most days of the week I’m very proud to be part of its mission. But tonight, I understand the people who treat me like I work at a tobacco company.”

Former NYT editor and Huffington Post editor-in-chief Lydia Polgreen announced, also in a now-deleted tweet: “I spent some of the happiest and most productive years of my life working for the New York Times. So it is with love and sadness that I say: running this puts Black @nytimes staff – and many, many others – in danger.” That publication of the Cotton op-ed “puts Black New York Times staff in danger” became a mantra recited by more journalists than one can list.

Two editors — including the paper’s Editorial Page editor James Benett and a young assistant editor Adam Rubenstein — were forced out of their jobs, in the middle of a pandemic, for the crime not of endorsing Cotton’s argument but merely airing it. Media reports attributed their departure to a “staff revolt.” The paper itself appended a major editor’s note: “We have concluded that the essay fell short of our standards and should not have been published.” In addition to alleged flaws in the editorial process, the paper also said “the tone of the essay in places is needlessly harsh and falls short of the thoughtful approach that advances useful debate.”

There is a meaningful difference between deploying National Guard troops and active duty soldiers on American streets. But both measures are extraordinary, create a climate of militarization, have a history of resulting in excessive force against citizens engaged in peaceful protest and constitutionally protected dissent, and present threats and dangers to civil liberties far beyond ordinary use of law enforcement.

Why was the idea of troops in American streets so grotesque and offensive in June, 2020 but so normalized now? Why were these troops likely to indiscriminately arrest and murder black reporters and other journalists over the summer but are now trusted to protect them? And what does it say about the current climate, and the serious dangers it poses, that the public is being trained so easily to acquiesce to extreme measures in the name of domestic security?

We are witnessing the media and their public treat what ought to be regarded with great suspicion as not only normal but desirable, all through the manipulation of fears and inflation of threats. That does not bode well for those who seek to impede the imminent attempt to begin a new domestic War on Terror.

January 26, 2021 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Fake News, Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Progressive Hypocrite | | Leave a comment

Coverup of What May Have Caused Hank Aaron’s Death?

By Stephen Lendman | January 26, 2021

Iconic baseball legend Hank Aaron had no reported signs of ill health when vaccinated for seasonal flu-renamed covid on January 5.

On January 22, he died, no cause of death indicated at the time.

No information released on if he was dealing with health issues suggests that there were no serious ones.

According to a dubious USdaynews.com report, “unofficial reports claim (Aaron) was in a bad health condition because of heart disease,” no source cited.

Separately, the publication cited another “report of (an unnamed) person with (alleged) knowledge, (claiming Aaron) suffer(ed) a massive stroke.”

“(T)he person asked for anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter (sic).”

If Aaron was ill from heart disease and suffered a “massive stroke” as claimed, why was this not explained for days.

Why does an alleged source remain anonymous? For what purpose?

The publication called claims about Aaron’s death related to having been vaxxed for covid “just a rumor,” adding:

He “died in his sleep” last week. If a “massive stroke” preceded his death, his passing wasn’t as simple as this one-liner.

On January 5, AP News reported the following:

“Baseball Hall of Famer Hank Aaron, former UN Ambassador and civil rights leader Andrew Young, and former US Health and Human Services Secretary Louis Sullivan got vaccinated against (covid) in Georgia on Tuesday, hoping to send a message to Black Americans that the shots are safe (sic).”

Aaron was quoted saying that getting vaxxed “ma(de) (him) feel wonderful.”

“I don’t have any qualms about it at all, you know.” 

“I feel quite proud of myself for doing something like this.”

“It’s just a small thing that can help zillions of people in this country.”

Following his death, Newsweek slammed what it called “conspiracy theorists and anti-vaxxers” who believe his passing was from covid inoculation — what it called “anti-vax propaganda.”

Big Government has been pushing all-out for mass-vaxxing with experimental, fast-tracked, unapproved, hazardous to health covid vaccines.

According to Newsweek, US officials hope Aaron’s death “doesn’t discourage people from getting vaccinated.”

It’s a view shared by Pharma, hoping to cash in big with a bonanza of profits from mass-vaxxing billions of people worldwide — Big Media like Newsweek providing press agent services.

They include coverup of the high-risk associated with experimental covid vaccines that includes potential serious harm to health or worse.

Aaron received Moderna’s experimental covid vaccine.

Infectious disease experts expressed concern about unique high risks associated with this experimental mRNA technology used by Moderna and Pfizer that’s been inadequately tested.

Their covid vaccines also contain polyethylene glycol (PEG) that risks possible severe adverse reactions.

Moderna publicly admitted that use of PEG in its covid vaccine “could lead to significant adverse events in one or more of our clinical trials.”

Rushed development of their covid vaccines circumvented longstanding protocol by skipping animal testing.

Months earlier, Children’s Health Defense warned followers of its reports to “beware the Moderna vaccine.”

The same warning applies to Pfizer’s entry into the covid vaccine sweepstakes.

Aaron was likely unaware of the above information and much more citing great concerns about mRNA covid vaccines that may pose serious dangers to health and well-being — especially for the elderly with weakened immune systems.

Aaron was aged-86 when passed away last week.

Since US mass-vaxxing for covid began in mid-December, thousands of adverse events and hundreds of deaths occurred — information ignored by Big Media.

For each known casualty, the vast majority of others go unreported.

An HHS study found that “fewer than 1% of vaccine injuries” are reported to VAERS (the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System).

Five days after US mass-vaxxing began on December 14, over 5,000 “health impact events” were reported.

At 1% of the total, hundreds of thousands more were unreported.

Over a month later, the true number of mild to more severe adverse events could be in the millions.

These are what happened short-term. Of much greater concern are numerous serious diseases known to be caused by vaxxing, including ones they’re supposed to protect against.

Most likely, thousands of individuals in the US and abroad died or risk death from being vaxxed for covid.

Longer-term, much more will be known about numbers of people harmed from seeking protection never gotten — just grief.

Time and again after the fact it’s learned that highly touted vaccines to the rescue don’t work as promoted.

Despite many years of research, no safe and effective coronavirus vaccines were ever developed to this day.

No credible evidence suggests that Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and others are exceptions to the rule.

They’re extremely high risk and unsafe, why avoiding them is essential to protect health.

A Final Comment

Citing the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s office, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution claimed that “Hank Aaron died of natural causes,” adding:

“According to the Braves, he died peacefully in his sleep.”

A memorial service will be held Tuesday, Aaron’s funeral the following day.

Without an independent autopsy by trusted individuals, the cause of Aaron’s death will be buried with him.

His passing around two weeks after being vaxxed with Moderna’s hazardous to health covid vaccine raises obvious red flags about the true cause of his death.

January 26, 2021 Posted by | Fake News, Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Science and Pseudo-Science | | Leave a comment

The Question of Masks

By Jenin Younes | AIER | January 26, 2021

I envy the reader who can reach the end of Alex Berenson’s Unreported Truths About Covid-19 and Lockdowns: Masks, without tearing her hair out in frustration at the absurdity of the world today, which apparently is not so different from the one that Galileo inhabited four centuries ago.

Berenson makes an airtight case (no pun intended) that there is no evidence whatsoever that surgical and cloth masks work to control coronavirus spread, and a substantial amount that they do not. Nevertheless, as anyone who has tried to discuss the topic in a blue state knows, the subject has been so politicized that to make this contention amounts to heresy.

This is the third booklet in a series, Unreported Truths About Covid-19 and Lockdowns. The first two focus upon the deleterious effects of lockdowns and overestimation of the virus’s dangerousness. Berenson, who used to work as a reporter at the New York Times before he became a full-time novelist, has been known from the very beginning as a coronavirus “contrarian,” and has since attained unofficial status as king of the lockdown skeptics. As his Twitter profile famously depicts him smiling sardonically with a mask under his chin, it is about time he addressed the subject.

Initially, Berenson documents the so-called experts’ notorious about-face on masks this past March. Having said for weeks that face coverings do not stop transmission of the virus, Anthony Fauci, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the Surgeon General, and others, did a 180 virtually overnight. The common explanation for this sudden change is that the first message was disingenuous, and given only to prevent a mask shortage among health care professionals. Berenson eschews this interpretation, arguing that the initial message was correct, but these people and institutions succumbed to political pressure.

What is the proof that this was political? Although Berenson does not explicitly state as much, it is worth noting that former President Trump immediately defied the idea of mask-wearing, as did many of his supporters, which I believe led to the extreme reaction in the opposite direction among Democrats and liberals.

Berenson points out that immediately, when mere weeks and months before Americans had been told not to wear masks, newspapers and magazines began publishing “insufferably arrogant” pieces portraying those who resisted mask-wearing as cretins, narcissists, and even sociopaths. This plays into the idea, held by many in this country, that those who are not on their side politically are fundamentally different, morally inferior, or perhaps even evil. Thus, to suggest that people who resist masks are narcissists or sociopaths fits squarely into the narrative that the political other is less-than.

But the real evidence lies in the fact that, contrary to the dogma that has taken root in American society, especially in Democratic circles, there is simply no scientific substantiation for the claim that masks, as they are worn in everyday life, protect either the wearer or those who encounter her. In Berenson’s words, “The evidence that face coverings do any good turns out to be even more porous than the masks themselves.” In my opinion, were the subject not so politically fraught, it is unlikely that the scientific evidence would be ignored.

Berenson describes the studies that evaluate whether surgical and cloth masks protect the wearer, and his verdict will, at this point, be unsurprising. Theoretical evidence establishes that surgical and cloth masks “offer next to no protection” because the virus typically travels on particles so small that in order to provide protection, the material must be fine enough to catch nearly all aerosols and droplets.

Apart from N95 respirators, which also are more effective because they are fitted to the individual’s face, masks are not made from such material. Not only are N95s expensive, but worn properly, they are “suffocating, uncomfortable, and difficult to tolerate for long durations.” Thus, as a practical matter, if non-medical professionals are going to wear face-coverings for an extended time period, they will be standard cloth or surgical masks.

The yet stronger proof, from randomized controlled studies (RCTs) — the “gold standard” in science – is overwhelming that these masks are not effective. As Berenson explains, research from Hong Kong and Vietnam found no evidence that surgical masks reduce influenza transmission, and evidence that cloth masks increase rates of infection, respectively.

The first large RCT, conducted in Denmark specifically to assess the utility of masks against SARS-CoV-2, found no difference in rates of infection between those who wore and those who did not wear masks (I have previously analyzed the distortion of the study’s results, especially by the New York Times and other center-left publications).

As for the proposition that masks may not protect the wearer but do protect those around her, again, “masks have almost no chance of catching most of the particles we exhale” because of the particles’ size, as explicated in a paper published in the Lancet. (From a logical standpoint, I have never found the concept that masks can protect those around the wearer though they do not protect her to be persuasive: either the mask functions as a barrier or it does not, although I am not a scientist and perhaps am missing something).

Berenson notes that the author “did not go so far as to call masks useless – a near impossibility in the current environment – but he was lukewarm at best on their value to protect other people even in the most obvious case, when they are worn by symptomatic cases in hospitals.”

Similarly, on June 5, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a paper stating that “widespread use of masks by health people in the community setting is not yet supported by high quality or direct scientific evidence and there are other potential benefits and harms to consider.”

Again, given the political climate, the WHO “chok[ed] out” a tepid endorsement of mask usage: “Governments should encourage the general public to wear masks in specific situations and settings.”

Berenson compellingly dispels the myth that observational studies prove masks’ efficacy, such as the much cited salon in Missouri where two hairdressers who had coronavirus symptoms wore masks and did not infect 139 clients. As Berenson notes, there are countless other explanations for this result. For example, maybe the salon had good ventilation, or maybe the hairdressers were not very infectious. Despite the lack of scientific and intellectual rigor underlying it, this anecdote served as the rationale for many jurisdictions’ mask mandates.  Moreover, the remaining observational data points staunchly in the opposite direction: worldwide, rising cases are not correlated with mask usage.

As anyone who has become embroiled in the mask debate knows well, the next question is always, why not wear one, since we don’t know for sure and there’s a chance they help? As Berenson argues, government directives should be supported by some evidence.

It has not been disproven that five-minute headstands prevent coronavirus spread, but most of us would see a problem with government requiring us to stand on our heads for five minutes a day just in case. Put otherwise, allowing the government to make rules without adequate evidence they are effective creates substantial danger that it will issue arbitrary directives to give the appearance of doing something.

Furthermore, as Berenson explains, masks are not harmless. He details two 2013 decisions from Canadian arbiters, addressing a challenge to hospital rules requiring nurses to wear masks if they had not been vaccinated against influenza. Both arbiters found in the nurses’ favor, and determined there was limited or no evidence that demonstrated the “utility of masks in reducing transmission” and substantial harms, including discomfort and skin irritation.

Although Berenson does not discuss this, widespread, long-term mask usage may cause significant psychological damage, especially to children and babies and even more so to those with disabilities such as autism. Even the New York Times acknowledged that masks likely impede children’s cognitive development, despite reaching the irrational conclusion that such harm is inevitable.

One of Berenson’s most critical points is that there is now substantial evidence that the coronavirus is very rarely, if ever, spread by asymptomatic individuals. The belief that asymptomatic transmission was one of the primary forces driving coronavirus spread propelled lockdowns and universal mask requirements in the spring.

If only symptomatic people spread the virus, then there is no justification whatsoever for quarantining and masking healthy populations: all that societies must do is ask people exhibiting symptoms to stay home.

Several large, recent studies have established that asymptomatic transmission of the coronavirus is exceedingly uncommon, if it occurs at all; the WHO has also recognized this fact. Of course, these studies have been entirely ignored by the media. Those who have staked their personal and professional reputations on the efficacy and necessity of lockdowns and mask mandates cannot now acknowledge having made such a grave, crucial error.

Berenson ends by theorizing that mask mandates appear to reflect “an effort by governments to find out what restrictions on their civil liberties people will accept on the thinnest possible evidence . . . Today, we must wear masks. Tomorrow we’ll need negative Covid tests to travel between countries. Or vaccines to go to work.”

As I have written in the past, I agree resoundingly with Berenson’s conclusion, although I tend to blame governmental incompetence and refusal to concede error as well as more nefarious motives.

Of course, the media is at fault too, with publications and television channels such as the New York Times, Washington Post, CNN and MSNBC promoting a blindly pro-lockdown, pro-mask ideology, at the same time discounting the evidence pouring in from all corners of the earth that lockdowns do not work as long- or medium-term solutions while they are destroying millions of lives, and masks are ineffective. Even now, with a vaccine available, the New York Times is publishing articles arguing that the supposedly deadlier new strain of the virus means that countries must lock down harder and longer; Australia expects to keep its borders closed through the end of 2021, if not longer; and the United Kingdom has indicated it will remain in lockdown until at least July.

Berenson sees the writing on the wall. Until a substantial portion of us stand up and make clear that we will not tolerate being stripped of life, liberty, property, and dignity, our governments will continue to inflict these repressive measures.

Jenin Younes is a graduate of Cornell University and New York University School of Law. Jenin currently works as an appellate public defender in New York City.

January 26, 2021 Posted by | Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Science and Pseudo-Science | , , | 2 Comments

New York Times touts ‘How to Blow Up A Pipeline’ as a ‘new way to think’

Book argues ‘strategic acceptance of property destruction & violence has been the only route for revolutionary change’

Climate Depot | January 25, 2021

NYT’s Tatiana Schlossberg (the daughter of Caroline Kennedy): How to Blow Up a Pipeline author Andreas Malm “argues that there should be room for tactics other than strict nonviolence and peaceful demonstrations — indeed, he is a bit contemptuous of those who offer strategic pacifism as a solution — and notes that fetishizing nonviolence in past protest movements sanitizes history, removing agency from the people who fought, sometimes violently, for justice, freedom and equality. Sure. But the problem with violence, even if it’s meant only to destroy “fossil capital,” is that ultimately it’s impossible to control.”

Climate Depot note: The website of the publisher of the book, Verso books, asks, “why haven’t we moved beyond peaceful protest?” The publisher website explains: “[How to Blow Up a Pipeline author Andreas] Malm argues that the strategic acceptance of property destruction and violence has been the only route for revolutionary change.”

“Andreas Malm makes an impassioned call for the climate movement to escalate its tactics in the face of ecological collapse. We need, he argues, to force fossil fuel extraction to stop—with our actions, with our bodies, and by defusing and destroying its tools. We need, in short, to start blowing up some oil pipelines.”

New York Magazine climate reporter David Wallace-Wells, also provided a featured review of Malm’s book: “If a livable world requires an all-over transformation, where and when and how do we start? Perhaps with this book, a provocative manifesto from the pioneering theorist of the climate age.” – David Wallace-Wells, author of The Uninhabitable Earth

In 2010, NASA’s former lead climate scientist also endorsed a similar sounding book. See: James Hansen declared author ‘has it right…the system is the problem’ — Book proposes ‘razing cities to the ground, blowing up dams and switching off the greenhouse gas emissions machine’

2013: Video: Eco-Terror Threats Issued at Rally: Climate Depot attended: ‘We will dismantle the Pipeline’ sign prominently displayed at rally — ‘By any means necessary’

January 25, 2021 Posted by | Book Review, Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Progressive Hypocrite | | Leave a comment

Vaccine Critics Considered National Security Threats

By Stephen Lendman | January 25, 2021

Along with tens of millions of Trump supporters, are critics of hazardous seasonal flu-renamed covid vaccines the new red menace?

Truth-telling about vaccine dangers — especially experimental/unapproved covid ones — is falsely called anti-vaccine propaganda.

Last month, a disinformation piece by The Hill said the following:

“As public health officials seek to reassure Americans on the safety and efficacy of (covid) vaccine(s) (sic), anti-vaccine efforts could prevent the country from reaching herd immunity (sic).”

A similar UK report from The Times said the Boris Johnson regime “regards tackling (truth-telling called) false information about (covid) vaccin(es) as a rising priority.”

There’s nothing remotely untrue about explaining indisputable hazards of all vaccines.

They all risk harm to human health and well-being because of toxins in their formulas.

Inadequately tested covid vaccines are especially hazardous — why they’re unapproved, yet allowed to be used under emergency conditions that don’t exist.

Big Government, Big Pharma, and their Big Media press agents continue to spread misinformation and disinformation about covid vaccines.

They’re essential to avoid or risk serious potential harm to human health.

At a time of growing tyranny in the US and West, truth-telling on vital issues is increasingly considered threatening to national security — a phony charge that’s part of a campaign to suppress what’s vital for everyone to know.

For months through most of last year, Americans, others in the West and elsewhere have been lied to about vaccines.

Information about hazards of covid ones are suppressed, notably by Big Media.

On Monday, CNN — the most distrusted name in television fake news — lied to viewers as follows, saying:

“Anti-vaccine groups are exploiting (sic) the suffering and death of people who happen to fall ill after receiving a covid shot, threatening to undermine the largest vaccination campaign in US history,” adding:

“In some cases, anti-vaccine activists are fabricating stories of deaths that never occurred (sic).”

Like other Big Media, CNN suppresses virtually everything essential for everyone to know about issues that affect their lives, welfare and safety.

The fake news operation is part of a mass deception campaign to suppress information about the hazards of covid vaccines.

When used as directed, they risk harm to human health that for too many includes death.

At best, the toll won’t be known until long after widespread damage is done.

It’s well-known that vaccines don’t protect as falsely claimed. They often cause diseases they pretend to protect against.

They produce customers for other drugs to treat diseases they cause that includes cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and many other serious ones.

They’re a major cause of autism in children.

A WaPo disinformation piece last December falsely claimed face masks prevent spread of covid.

Besides providing no protection, when used longterm, they risk harm to health instead of the other way around — information WaPo and other Big Media suppress.

They lied claiming no cures for seasonal flu/renamed covid exist, ignoring safe and effective HCQ when taken within 10 days of falling ill — combined with one of 2 antibiotics and zinc.

Big Media are pushing toxic vaccines because of a bonanza of profits from mass-vaxxing.

WaPo also falsely called covid “more deadly than influenza” when the former is the renamed latter illness.

Ignored as well by WaPo is that experimental mRNA vaccines alter human DNA, turning vaxxed individuals into genetically modified organisms.

WaPo falsely claimed it’s not so, suppressing what it should have highlighted as a threat to health.

Since made-in-the-USA covid propaganda began last year, Big Media have been its main transmission vehicle for spreading fake news.

Its aim is terrifying Americans into being vaxxed with what no one should touch.

Preserving and protecting health requires avoiding these hugely dangerous vaccines.

Also essential are good health habits that provide the most effective way to avoid serious illnesses.

Instead of explaining the above and all else important to report, government, Pharma, and Big Media suppress it — pushing what’s harmful, not beneficial to health and well-being.

They’re enemies of the people, not the other way around.

January 25, 2021 Posted by | Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Science and Pseudo-Science | | Leave a comment

Russia rejects any closed-door discussion of Syrian chemical case at UN Security Council

Press TV – January 25, 2021

Russia’s permanent ambassador to the United Nations says Moscow will oppose any attempt to return to closed-door discussions on the purported use of chemical arms in Syria at the UN Security Council.

Vassily Nebenzia, the permanent representative of the Russian Federation to the UN, said on Monday that the United Kingdom, which will become the head of the Council for the month of February, has proposed to return to discussing Syria’s chemical case behind closed doors.

He added, in an interview with TASS news agency, that such discussions would be held “without video conference and also without the participation of the representative of Syria, but we’ll oppose that.”

“With our initiative, these sessions have become open, and we do not see why they should hide from the public community,” Nebenzia further said, as cited by Syria’s official SANA news agency.

The Russian envoy said the international community must be aware of what is going on about the chemical file in Syria, “so we would insist that the meeting be open.”

The Syrian government surrendered its stockpiles of chemical weapons in 2013 to a joint mission led by the UN and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which oversaw the destruction of the weaponry.

However, Western governments and their allies have never stopped pointing the finger at Damascus whenever an apparent chemical attack has taken place.

Damascus has time and again strongly denied any use of chemical weapons, saying it is not in possession of such weapons and remains committed to cooperating with OPCW.

On January 5, Syria lambasted Western pressure aimed at forcing the OPCW and its member states to adopt a French-Western draft resolution that falsely claimed its “Syria’s non-abidance” by the obligations according to the Chemical Weapons Convention.

Damascus further stressed that any resolution that would be released by the Executive Council based on the fabrications of the OPCW Investigation and Identification Team (IIT) was a politicized resolution with the aim of accusing the Syrian government of using chemical weapons and acquitting the terrorists and their sponsors.

Back in December, Syria also emphasized the necessity of closing its chemical file for good after it fulfilled all the obligations entailed by its accession to the Chemical Weapons Convention 2013.

January 25, 2021 Posted by | Deception, Mainstream Media, Warmongering | , , | 2 Comments

Sen. Rand Paul Challenges Big Money Media’s Defining People with Differing Opinions as Liars

By Adam Dick | Ron Paul Institute | January 24, 2021

One of the most disturbing developments over the last few years in big money media in America is the blanket characterization of people who disagree with the big money media’s narrative on important matters as liars.

We have seen this approach in action with the repeated dismissal of people challenging any of “the science” proclaimed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or prominent government bureaucrats such as Anthony Fauci in regard to coronavirus. So bad has been this tendency that the media even followed right along to reverse its absolutist declarations regarding mask wearing when the CDC, Fauci, and others in the US government’s coronavirus message team turned on a dime regarding the matter.

Another of many areas we have seen the phenomenon is in big money media interpretation of the 2016 and 2020 presidential election results. The 2016 election results that brought Donald Trump into the presidency were repeatedly declared by big money media as undeniably tainted by Russian interference. Yet, it turned out after much investigation there was no “there” there in this accusation. Plus, a major effort within the US government to do whatever it took to peg Trump with “Russian collusion” was uncovered.

Skip forward to the 2020 presidential election and the big money media suddenly says questioning the declared results is beyond the pale, repeatedly dismisses any allegations of election wrongdoing leading to Joe Biden’s victory. That is the line host George Stephanopoulos pushed at the beginning of his Sunday This Week interview with United States Senate member Rand Paul (R-KY) at ABC. Stephanopoulos started off the interview with the following:

Senator Paul, let me begin with a threshold question for you. This election was not stolen. Do you accept that fact?

In response, Paul mentioned several apparent election problems that ‘we should get to the bottom of.’ What proceeds from there was relentless badgering by Stephanopoulos in an effort to make Paul declare the media mantra about the election. Stephanopoulos even declares to Paul, “Can’t you just say the words ‘this election was not stolen’?”

Commendably, Paul stood his ground against the berating throughout the seven-minutes interview and even discussed more reasons to suspect there were significant problems in the 2020 presidential election. Paul also, in the interview, stood up to and exposed the disturbing transition in big money media over the last few years that Stephanopoulos was demonstrating. Paul stated:

Hey, George, George, George, where you make a mistake is that people coming from the liberal side like you, you immediately say everything is a lie instead of saying there are two sides to everything. Historically, what would happen is, if I said that I thought there was fraud, you would interview someone else who said there wasn’t. But, now you insert yourself in the middle and say, ‘The absolute fact is that everything I am saying is a lie.’

“Let’s have an open debate,” said Paul later in the interview. Yes, let’s.

Watch the complete interview here.

January 24, 2021 Posted by | Fake News, Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Science and Pseudo-Science | | 3 Comments

Cheerleading Trump’s Upcoming Sham Senate Trial

By Stephen Lendman | January 23, 2021

There’s plenty of domestic and geopolitical wrongdoing to hold Trump accountable for.

Instead, Senate trial proceedings against him — to begin on February 9 — focus on the phony charge of inciting insurrection.

Innocence isn’t a permitted defense under US law of the jungle rules.

Nor do establishment media like the NYT recognize the rule of law over the other way around.

The self-styled newspaper of record is in the vanguard of wanting Trump crucified for the wrong reasons, ignoring justifiable ones.

New Senate Majority Leader Schumer long ago showed his contempt for the rule of law he disdains, the same true for most elected and appointed US officials.

Schumer’s notion of “healing… unity… truth and (justifiable) accountability” is none of the above.

Like many others from both right wings of the one-party state, he’s unfit for any public office.

Yet he’s playing a key role in Trump’s upcoming show trial— what only tyrannical ruling authorities could love.

Hanging trials move quickly. If begins on Wednesday, February 9, as scheduled, it could wrap up by Friday.

Former Trump supporter/now turncoat antagonist Minority Leader McConnell defied reality saying:

“(W)e need a full and fair process where the former president can mount a defense and the Senate can properly consider the factual, legal and constitutional questions at stake (sic).”

What’s upcoming is polar opposite what the rule of law is supposed to be all about.

Instead of being charged with legitimate wrongdoing, Trump faces a phony politicized accusation.

It remains to be seen how many Republicans side with undemocratic Dem unity against him — whether a super-majority can be cobbled together for crucifixion.

If so, it’ll be for the wrong reason, not justifiable ones.

The Times has been screaming for his head since defeating media darling Hillary in 2016.

Since election 2016, its editorial board, correspondents and columnists waged all-out war against him — largely for invented reasons, ignoring most important legitimate ones.

Times editors called him “the greatest threat to American democracy” — ignoring that it exists in fantasy version alone, the real thing tolerated nowhere by its ruling class.

Above all else in its daily editions, Trump bashing was prioritized, making up stuff against him while ignoring the criminality of undemocratic Dems who comprise a far greater menace.

Now empowered, everyone should be terrified about how they’ll grievously abuse the rule of law ahead — a process already begun.

Biden/Harris and their undemocratic Dem co-conspirators want everyone mass-vaxxed with hazardous to health vaccines for seasonal flu-renamed covid.

The newly empowered regime may mandate mask wearing that’s harmful to health when worn longterm.

They may mandate vaccine passports for access to employment, education, air travel, and other public places.

They’ll likely wage preemptive war against one or more invented enemies — along with waging it by other means against nations unwilling to sell their souls to a higher power in Washington.

They already sold their own to Wall Street, the military, industrial, security, Big Media complex, and other favored corporate predators.

Together with Dem controlled congressional members, they’re virtually certain to enact legislation that benefits privileged interests at the expense of most others.

There’s nothing remotely democratic about both right wings of the one-party state.

The next four years may cause more harm to more people at home and abroad than any previous regime in US history.

Mind manipulated Americans who believe that Biden/Harris will deliver for them don’t know that whenever a change of power occurs in Washington, dirty business as usual doesn’t miss a beat.

This time will not be different than before.

It’s just a matter of how bad things will get ahead.

Notably what’s coming is at a time of the Greatest Main Street Depression in US history that will likely worsen and be protracted, perhaps for years.

Times rubbish about the “end of Trump (being) the beginning of America” is defied by the worst of times for ordinary Americans with scant relief in prospect for help when most needed.

January 23, 2021 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Deception, Fake News, Mainstream Media, Warmongering | , | 1 Comment

Biden Instructs Intelligence Agencies to Study Reports of ‘Russian Hackers’, US Soldier Bounties

By Asya Geydarova – Sputnik – 21.01.2021

The inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden took place on January 20 and marks the start of the four-year term of Biden as the 46th president of the United States and Kamala Harris as vice president. Since being inaugurated, Biden has already signed a series of executive orders to undo US President Donald Trump’s legacy.

White House spokesperson Jen Psaki told reporters that President Joe Biden has tasked the US intelligence agencies with preparing a thorough review of alleged activities undertaken by Russia.

According to Psaki, these include reports of “Russian hackers” concerning the recent cyber attack against IT company SolarWinds, the alleged poisoning of opposition figure and blogger Alexey Navalny, and allegations of bounties on the US soldiers in Afghanistan.

“Even as we work with Russia to advance US interests, so we work to hold Russia to account for its reckless and adversarial actions. And to this end, the president is also issuing a tasking to the intelligence community for its full assessment of the SolarWinds cyber beach, Russian interference in the 2020 election, its use of chemical weapons against opposition leader Alexey Navalny and the alleged bounties on the US soldiers in Afghanistan,” Psaki said.

The cyberattack against  SolarWinds exposed private data from companies and government agencies, including thousands of emails from the US Department of Justice (DoJ).

Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov told Sputnik the United States is using the media to spread different versions of what caused the SolarWinds cyberattack, but it never showed any proof that Russia was complicit in it.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has also denied the allegations: “This talk [of cyberattacks] has nothing to do with us, because Russia is not involved in such attacks generally, including this one specifically. We state this officially and decisively. Any accusations of Russia’s involvement are absolutely unfounded and are a continuation of the kind of blind Russophobia that is resorted to following any incident,” Peskov said in a briefing last month, Sputnik reported.

Bounties Allegations

In June, the New York Times reported that US intelligence officials had informed President Donald Trump about suspected Russia effort to place bounties on US soldiers in Afghanistan. Trump dismissed the claims as a “hoax” and several senior US military officials said that the intelligence was unconvincing. Russian officials, in turn, have issued multiple denials of the claims, calling them “blatant lies” designed to keep US forces in Afghanistan forever.

US media outlets reported in late December that the president was also briefed of alleged findings that China offered bounties to non-state actors in Afghanistan.

A senior US official told the Politico portal that the allegations lacked “hard evidence,” and Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said that the claims were “nothing but fake news” published with the aim of smearing China. The Taliban has called the bounty allegations “propaganda,” suggesting they may have been put forward for political reasons.

“Of course, countries are competing among themselves. It is possible that accusations against Russia of such cooperation are also for political purposes and so China has been accused of doing the same thing,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said last week.Navalny Case

Navalny returned to Russia on Sunday after receiving treatment in Germany following suspected poisoning. He was detained at a Moscow airport over multiple violations of probation.

On 20 August, Navalny fell ill while aboard a domestic flight. He was initially treated in the Siberian city of Omsk, where the plane had to urgently land. Local doctors suggested metabolic malfunctions as main diagnosis and said there were no traces of poison in his system. Two days later, he was flown to the Charite hospital in Berlin for further treatment.

Berlin claims that German doctors found evidence of poisoning with a nerve agent from the Novichok group in Navalny’s body, which is refuted by Moscow. Navalny returned to Russia on Sunday after receiving treatment in Germany following a suspected poisoning in Siberia. Navalny was detained at a Moscow airport upon arrival over multiple violations of probation.

Moscow insists that Berlin present the biological materials to corroborate the chemical poisoning, so that it could open a criminal case. According to Russian authorities, they have already sent several requests for legal assistance to Berlin, but to no avail.

January 22, 2021 Posted by | Deception, Fake News, Mainstream Media, Warmongering, Russophobia | , , | 1 Comment

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