Saturday, March 19, 2022
Power is in Tearing Human Minds to Pieces
One of the most important news stories that broke this week was about Hunter Biden’s laptop. Not because of the contents, as salacious and maybe damaging to the reputation of the President as it may be, but for a more profound and disturbing reason.
ORIGINAL LINK
You Were Born with a Brain Allowing You to Process Information
CTH has encountered criticism for our position on information. Perhaps it is important to step back and explain exactly why we should not be playing by rules established to control us while engaged in the battle of ideas.
ORIGINAL LINK
Friday, March 18, 2022
Strategies to cope with an insane world
On the 26th of August in the year 1346, English and French armies faced each other across the battlefield near the town of Crecy-en-Ponthieu in northern France in what would be among the first major battles of the Hundred Years War.
The English armies were equipped with relatively new technologies, like the longbow and bombard (an early medieval cannon), providing them major tactical advantages.
So, at least for the French, the battle was murderous; Crecy was one of the worst defeats in French military history. But for local French people living in the area, it was only the beginning of dark days ahead.
Only a short time after the Battle of Crecy, France was infested with the Bubonic Plague.
Some cities lost more than 50% of their population to the plague. And for the people who survived, life changed overnight.
France’s authorities deemed the plague to be God’s punishment for humanity’s evil ways. So their solution was to ban anything they deemed sinful, ranging from “human sensuality” to “extremely short garments” to men who “possess shoes with pointed toes. . .”
Fanatical religious cults sprung up all across Europe, including France, known as “flagellants”, who would wander from town to town, viciously whipping their own naked flesh into a bloody mess, in order to atone for their sinful ways.
These ‘mostly peaceful’ flagellants also frequently screamed at other townsfolk, trying to force all the evil sinners into joining their movement.
(It was later found that the flagellants were actually spreading the plague as they traveled the country, and they were officially condemned by Pope Gregory XI in 1349.)
Meanwhile, because of the devastating effects of the plague, economic activity ground to a halt. Agricultural output plummeted as labor was almost nonexistent.
Any able-bodied worker who survived the plague was too terrified to work. Food was scarce, and many farms were abandoned entirely.
Then, in early 1348, a giant earthquake originating in the Alps shook the entire continent, with aftershocks lasting for more than a month.
More lifestyle restrictions and mandates followed, as many governments took the earthquake as a continued sign of God’s wrath.
It’s remarkable that all of this happened in a relatively short period of time; in the early summer of 1346, life still felt pretty normal.
Yet within less than 18 months, a violent war was taking place, the Black Death had killed a third of the population, the economy collapsed, and basic lifestyle choices had been outlawed.
It must have been very difficult to cope with. And in many ways it reminds me of our own time.
You might wake up some mornings, look at the news, and wonder, “What else could possibly go wrong?” Or more appropriately, “What else are these people going to screw up?”
Most likely– quite a bit.
For starters, nearly the entire world is dealing with historically high inflation. Yet the people in charge of controlling inflation seem completely clueless as to why it’s happening.
The President of the United States, for example, blames “greed”, and claims that most of the inflation is due solely to rising automobile prices. As if rising fuel prices, food prices, university tuition, rents, home prices, etc. are all no big deal.
The Federal Reserve, meanwhile, blames inflation exclusively on supply chain dysfunction; they refuse to even consider the idea that they might be at least partially responsible after having expanded the money supply more than any other year in US history except for 1943.
The point is that they don’t understand why inflation even exists. So it’s doubtful they’re going to fix it.
Meanwhile, politicians have squashed protesters and parents whose only desire is freedom. Big Tech companies censor anything they deem wrongthink. Woke Marxists have hijacked control of everything from mainstream media to schools and universities to entire government institutions.
Civil discourse is at a historic low in the modern era, and propaganda at a historic high. Public health fanatics constantly want to control how we should be able to live our lives. Science, mathematics, and even language are being cleansed and rewritten in front of our very eyes.
The US national debt recently reached a record high $30 trillion. Social Security is losing money, and its trust funds will be fully depleted within the next decade.
The US was humiliated in its Afghanistan withdrawal; yet the leadership continues to prioritize diversity and inclusion over strength and security. Unsurprisingly, neither Putin nor China fears the West.
The border is a joke. Murder rates are soaring. Homelessness is appalling in many cities.
And, like Europe in the mid 1300s, this all happened in a very short period of time.
But there are ways to cope.
First, recognize that politicians are not going to save the world. They’re not going to fix any of this.
There are, without doubt, some good people serving in elected office. But the institutions themselves are corrupt, incompetent, and unable to generate any meaningful forward progress.
So it’s paramount to cultivate an independent, self-reliant mentality.
Second, make sure you have a place to go. We all learned from the pandemic that everything can change, overnight. So it’s important to have a Plan B, and make sure there’s another place that you and your family will be welcome.
You can do this by establishing a second residency somewhere— whether it’s another state/province, or applying for legal residency in a foreign country (like Mexico, Panama, Spain, Portugal, UAE, etc.)
It also makes sense to go through your family history, if you can, and identify possible ways you can apply for citizenship through ancestry. If you have grandparents from certain countries (like Ireland, for example), you’ll be eligible for citizenship and another passport, affording you more opportunity to live, work, travel, and invest around the globe.
Also consider taking at least a portion of your money out of the financial system.
One key problem with banks is that the instant you make a deposit, it’s no longer legally your money. It becomes the bank’s money. As a depositor, you are merely an unsecured creditor of your financial institution.
Generally this arrangement works fine. But we’ve seen numerous occasions in which banks have completely violated this trust– most recently with the Freedom Convoy protests in Canada.
For this reason it makes sense to consider holding at least some emergency savings outside of the banks. There are plenty of options, including physical cash, precious metals, and cryptocurrency.
It’s also important to look at your options for retirement planning. Like I said, Social Security’s own Board of Trustees clearly state that the program’s trust funds will soon run out of money.
You cannot plan on the government to provide your retirement. But there are other options available. You could set up, for example, a more robust, flexible retirement plan like a solo 401(k), allowing annual contributions up to $61,000, or $67,500 if you’re over 50.
Tax planning is another area where you can take back control. There’s never any reason to do anything illegal– breaking the law defeats the purpose in trying to have more freedom.
But the tax code is full of perfectly legal deductions, credits, and strategies. You might even find that moving to a different county or state can significantly (and completely legally) reduce your tax bill.
In my case, I live in Puerto Rico, where qualified business and investment income is subject to a tax rate of 4%, and 0%, respectively.
Last, the constantly howling and screaming of the mainstream media, woke corporations, Twitter mob, etc. can be really demoralizing.
They call everyone who disagrees with them terrible names; for example, you’re a “flat earther” or “murderer” if you think for yourself.
And they’ve been really effective at making us believe that WE are the intellectual minority, and that MOST people think like they do.
But that’s a complete lie.
These crazed fanatics are a relatively small minority on the ideological spectrum. They seem bigger than they are because they control so many powerful institutions. And they’re loud.
But if you’re a rational person who has valid concerns about the direction of the world, you should know that you are not alone.
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Former intel chief: FBI 'for sure' committed crimes investigating Trump-Russia collusion
Former acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell, who began the declassification of documents that unraveled the discredited Russia collusion narrative, tells Just the News he is certain from evidence he saw that the FBI committed crimes while investigating former President Donald Trump.
During an interview on the John Solomon Reports podcast, Grenell said FBI officials had every reason to know the evidence of collusion was faulty or false and proceeded to mislead the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and the Congress through lies and omissions.
"Political appointees and the leaders of the FBI and DOJ purposefully manipulated the truth," he said. "The people in the middle management. I've talked to them. I've talked to FBI agents, they knew that this was a phony exercise.
"But they were caught by their bosses, who knew that this was a phony Russian collusion hoax but allowed this information to go to the FISA courts and to the media and to everywhere else, and they saw people manipulating it," he also said.
Check out all the truth bombs Lara Logan dropped today in just ten minutes of TV
https://markcrispinmiller.substack.com/p/check-out-all-the-truth-bombs-lara
Attorney Presents Evidence to Congress that COVID-19 Vaccines Are One of the Greatest Frauds in History
(by Cassie B. | Natural News) – Attorney Thomas Renz, who publicized data from the Department of Defense showing a significant rise in serious illness and injury in military personnel following the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in 2021, has issued a special legal notice with nearly 200 pages of supporting evidence.
Some of the most alarming data included in the evidence comes from a trio of DoD whistleblowers, who shared proof from the Defense Military Epidemiological Database of a nearly 1,000 percent overall rise in injuries and diseases. This database, Renz reports, is “considered the premier epidemiological database in the world, monitored by an entire division of the military, part of the data feeding into the DHHS related to vaccine safety, and frequently cited by public health professionals in peer reviewed publications.”
He presented the data in a public hearing to Senator Ron Johnson, a ranking member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Senator Johnson then wrote a letter to the Secretary of Defense about it, and he received a response stating that there had been a “glitch” in the database impacting data from 2016 to 2020 and that 2021 had not been an anomaly.
According to Renz, if that had truly been the case, the Department of Health and Human Services, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Department of Defense, the White House and public health officials throughout the world were wrong for five years – including 2020, the first year of the pandemic.
Forbes Fires Journalist Who Revealed Fauci's Finances
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/forbes-fires-journalist-who-revealed-faucis-financesAuthored
by Adam Andrzejewski voa 'Open The Books' Substack,
How Fact-Finding Fauci Led To My Cancellation At Forbes - The inside story of how it happened.
Dr. Anthony Fauci is the most highly compensated federal employee and the most visible. So, it’s incumbent upon all of us to give him oversight.
In 2011, I founded a national transparency organization called OpenTheBooks.com. Last year, we filed 47,000 Freedom of Information Act requests, the most in American history. We successfully captured and displayed online $12 trillion of federal, state, and local spending.
Over the past 14 months – since January 2021 – we investigated Dr. Fauci’s financials by filing FOIA requests. When I published our original reporting at Forbes, here is what happened.
The National Institutes of Health, Fauci’s employer, loaded an artillery shell in their big gun and fired it at the C-suite at Forbes. Quickly, Forbes folded and my column was terminated.
Watch this video now before YouTube censors it
https://www.theburningplatform.com/2022/03/16/watch-this-video-now-before-youtube-censors-it/
Guest Post by Steve Kirsch
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis hosts a panel of experts including Joe Ladapo, Robert Malone, Martin Kulldorff, Jay Bhattacharya, and other discussing the pandemic response. Watch it before it is censored.
It’s guaranteed that YouTube will censor this video. Watch it before it just disappears:
Wall Street analyst: COVID vaccines 'greatest fraud in history'
https://www.wnd.com/2022/03/wall-street-analyst-covid-vaccines-greatest-fraud-history
In a video interview Wednesday with WND, a former Wall Street executive whose analysis of CDC data shows an alarming rise in deaths among Millennials over the past year amid the COVID vaccine rollout said he's hoping to start a national conversation that will penetrate an establishment media "blackout" by emboldening people across government and private industry to speak out.
"That's my goal, to just change the conversation, to give people cover," said Edward Dowd, a former portfolio manager for the multinational investment firm BlackRock.
"Once the subject is broached, you don't sound as crazy, if some other guy said it before you," he told WND.
Western Europe Sees Alarming Uptick In COVID Cases
https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/western-europe-sees-alarming-uptick-covid-cases
The other day we noted that the US had encountered signs gleaned from wastewater samples taken across the country that COVID cases might be on the rise after weeks of steady declines that recently prompted authorities to start dialing back pandemic-era requirements.
But China and the US aren't the only places where case numbers have started to rise. A surge in coronavirus infections in western Europe has experts and health authorities on alert for another wave of the pandemic in the US even as most of the country has done away with restrictions after a sharp decline in cases.
Experts in Europe claim that the strain they're seeing is a mutated form of omicron. It's a subvariant known as BA. 2, which appears to be more transmissible than the original strain, BA. 1, and is fueling the outbreak overseas.
Germany, a nation of 83 million people, recorded roughly 250,000 new cases and 249 deaths last Friday, prompting Health Minister Karl Lauterbach to call the nation's situation "critical."
But despite this, Germany is still allowing most coronavirus restrictions to end Sunday.
Turley warns about subjecting children to NewsGuard ratings
Constitutional expert Jonathan Turley, a popular commentator and law professor at George Washington University, is warning that subjecting children in America's schools to the left-leaning bias of "fact-checkers" like NewsGuard "raises the specter of a type of de facto state media."
NewsGuard recently was confirmed to be working with the American Federation of Teachers, under the directorship of Randi Weingarten, "to flag news sources deemed 'misinformation,'" he explained in his online posting.
That union, while "entitled to be political" and favoring Democrats, he explained, long has been "criticized by conservatives for its support of far-left policies."
And NewsGuard was co-founded by Steve Brill, "who has been accused of bias against Republicans and conservatives," he explained.
"The 'misinformation' label has been used extensively by liberal media to kill stories like the Hunter Biden laptop stories as unreliable. Indeed, Brill is under fire for being one of the voices falsely claiming that the Hunter Biden laptop was likely false Russian disinformation. His company will now put 'traffic lights' on information for children on what sources they rely upon," Turley wrote.
Those claiming that the laptop story was Russian disinformation, however, took a huge hit to their credibility this week when the New York Times, which for two years had maintained the position that the laptop wasn't real, caved to the truth and admitted that it was, in fact, genuine.
Explained Turley, "Weingarten has declared using Brill’s NewsGuard will be a 'game changer' in preventing students from being 'misled' by news sources. It may well be. It would allow the AFT and school districts to teach students to distrust certain news sources like Fox News, which is given a lower rating by NewsGuard. (For full disclosure, I appear on Fox as a legal analyst).
"Conservative and independent sites continue to bedevil many on the left. The laptop story shows how advocacy journalism is now the norm in many newsrooms. Viewers and readers were told by most media figures, including Brill, that the story was likely Russian propaganda and untrue," he wrote.
"The unsupported hoax claim (which contradicted readily available authenticating evidence at the time) raises the specter of a type of de facto state media. The problem is that such an echo chamber is only fully successful if there is no alternative source of information. Yet, Fox and New York Post continued to cover the story as did some of us as columnists."
He explained, "The most extreme effort was a letter from Democratic members to pressure companies like AT&T to reconsider whether viewers should be allowed to watch Fox News and other networks. It does not matter that Fox News is the most popular news cable station and even has a greater percentage of Democratic viewers than CNN. The members insisted that 'not all TV news sources are the same' and called on these companies to protect viewers from 'dissemination' of false viewpoints."
One Democrat in Congress, Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, even has proposed legislation that would force people away from "certain stories."
"The AFT is now seeking a much earlier intervention with children by getting Brill’s NewsGuard to rate reliable and unreliable sources of news. Weingarten has declared that, with Brill’s help, children and families will no longer be 'drowning in an ocean of online dishonesty.'
"It is unlikely to be reassuring for many that the children instead will be swimming in a pool carefully maintained by the AFT and NewsGuard," Turley said.
He noted it's been two years that "some of us" have been hammered for alleged "Russian disinformation" for reporting the "raw influence peddling by the Biden family" outlined in the contents of the laptop, which Hunter Biden abandoned at a repair shop. It was taken by the federal government, after copies of the drive were made, in an investigation of Hunter Biden's taxes – and now foreign business dealings.
"Steven Brill was one of those voices flagging the story as likely 'disinformation.' Brill assured viewers on CNBC that this was likely all untrue: 'My personal opinion is there’s a high likelihood this story is a hoax, maybe even a hoax perpetrated by the Russians again,'" Turley reported.
The media campaign to block the story, just before the 2020 election, "worked," he said.
"The Biden family had long been accused of special dealing and influence peddling. The emails were potentially devastating with references to millions from foreign sources, including shady Chinese, Russian, and Ukrainian interests while Joe Biden was vice president. The media actively participated in shielding the Bidens from the scandal," he said.
A study from the Media Research Center later confirmed that that suppression of accurate, and negative, information about the Biden family's international operations allowed Joe Biden to win the 2020 election.
It turns out that Brill, according to Turley, while considering himself qualified to determine "misinformation," "was entirely wrong."
After the Times made its admission of being wrong on the Hunter Biden computer, Breitbart reported that NewsGuard general manager Matt Skibinski "defended" Brill's condemnation of the laptop story as a hoax.
But he ignored the fact "that the New York Times took two years to admit the veracity of a major news story that it ignored…"
Nor did he address "the failure of establishment media organizations to independently verify the material," the report said.
He admitted, "Our ratings do not mean that a site with a poor rating will never get a story right, or that a site with a strong rating will never get a story wrong. We assess the general practices of each site by evaluating how well it adheres to nine journalistic criteria. If any news website falsely claimed that the laptop had been proven not to be Hunter Biden’s, we would take that into account in their assessment."
WND reported just weeks ago that dozens of publications and media organizations had written a letter warning governors across the United States about the left-wing bias of NewsGuard, in light of its agenda to push its ideology to children through the teachers' union.
The letter was signed jointly by Media Research Center founder and President Brent Bozell and dozens of other free speech advocates.
They warned, according to an announcement about the campaign, about "both on NewsGuard’s leftist bias and the ratings firm’s dangerous and growing influence in the educational arena."
MRC found, problematically, that NewsGuard was biased "in favor of leftist news outlets. NewsGuard even rated several Communist Chinese state-run media outlets higher than several American outlets and pro-life U.S. websites. The ratings firm also claims to help identify 'misinformation,' but its biases show it isn’t objective," the report said.
"Fact-checkers" have exploded in popularity even as online news resources have multiplied for a generation that now routinely reads stories or watches newscasts on their phones.
The concept probably is a good idea, but the problem, however, is that those "fact-checkers" often need calling out by real "fact-checkers," as leftists who support fact-check groups financially and then quote them to support their own agenda hardly qualify for the title.
When the issue started developing – long before the claims about stolen elections, COVID mandates and more, the Heritage Foundation blasted the practice because of the obvious slant that was being publicized.
That said the Washington Post's criticism of a statement by Ivanka Trump actually was editorializing, since it found her accurate use of a statistic resulted in "faulty conclusions."
The foundation concluded that's called "news analysis," not "fact-checking."
About the same time the Heritage Foundation was offering criticism of "fact-checkers," Alex Berezow, at the American Council on Science and Health joined.
"Who fact-checks the fact-checkers?" he wrote. "While that might seem like a silly question, the objectivity of fact-checking websites has already been called into doubt, and for good reason."
He pointed out that one of the legacy "fact-checkers," Snopes, now has "bizarrely decided to debunk satire," by aiming "the majority of its wrath toward one satire site in particular, the Babylon Bee, which happens to be published by conservative Christians."
That site immediately turned Snopes' agenda into fodder for its own benefit, headlining a satirical piece: "Snopes rates the devil's lies as 'mostly true.'"
The new letter to governors specifically cites NewsGuard's infiltration into schools:
Leftist, “credibility” arbiter @NewsGuardRating is threatening the quality and integrity of the education system in every state.
We signed a letter with our Free Speech Alliance warning governors of how NewsGuard is threatening free speech.https://t.co/pqNF1FrzEQ
— MediaResearchCenter (@theMRC) March 3, 2022
At the MRC's NewsBusters platform, a report explained governors were warned:
"NewsGuard, a so-called online 'credibility' arbiter, is threatening the quality and integrity of the education system in your state. And in every state. NewsGuard has recently partnered with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) to censor points of view they disagree with in the classroom. Specifically, NewsGuard is actively working with the AFT to bring its agenda-driven rating system to classrooms across the country. Why? To stymie students from partaking in an open exploration of news and views from across the political spectrum."
The letter described NewsGuard as a "one-sided, leftist organization dedicated to silencing conservative voices and other viewpoints it disagrees with."
An MRC study, in fact, found "that outlets rated ‘left’ or ‘lean left’ by AllSides received an average NewsGuard score of 93/100. Sites considered ‘right’ or ‘lean right’ by AllSides had an average NewsGuard rating of 66/100."
The dilemma facing governors is that, "School children depend on the internet for homework help. NewsGuard is now stepping in to ‘filter’ online sources for so-called ‘misinformation.’ The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) union is buying NewsGuard licenses for its 1.7 million member teachers, according to an AFT press release. The partnership will make NewsGuard available to tens of millions of students and their families for free. The NewsGuard partnership will foist the company's ‘real-time 'traffic light' news ratings and detailed 'Nutrition Label' reviews, via a licensed copy of NewsGuard’s browser extension’ on students using news stories for research."
The governors are involved because they need "to stop this ideological assault on education and freedom of speech. There should be no partnership among such ideologically driven outside organizations and state-sponsored educational establishments. Such partnerships are clear conflicts of interest with an open and honest educational system," the letter said.
It said NewsGuard's purpose is clear: "to silence voices with which it disagrees."
The letter listed examples of NewsGuard's work:
- HuffPost, which published an attack piece on then-conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh following his death headlined “Rush Limbaugh, Bigoted King of Talk Radio, Dies at 70,” scored a “87.5” by NewsGuard.
- The Federalist, posted in the “right” AllSides list, was scored the worst with a ridiculous “12.5” on NewsGuard. A predominant reason for the abysmal rating, according to NewsGuard, was that The Federalist questioned the efficacy of mask mandates for COVID-19, even though liberal CNBC (not on the AllSides list, but has a “95” NewsGuard rating) cited a study showing that cloth masks were only 37 percent effective at filtering out virus particles.
- Abortion giant Planned Parenthood, who performed 9 million abortions as of July 2021, received a positive 75/100 rating. Yet, NewsGuard gave pro-life LifeNews and Live Action websites negative red “credibility” ratings of 30/100. NewsGuard specifically downgraded Live Action for reportedly exposing corruption in Planned Parenthood. The rating firm gave LifeSiteNews a 17.5/100.
Such blatant bias now will be used to indoctrinate children in public schools, the letter warns, "through a partnership with a far-left teacher’s union.'
It urges governors to take immediate steps to halt the infiltration of public education.
"As organizations representing millions of Americans all across the country, including your state, we are calling on you to immediately and publicly take a stand and prevent the agenda driven NewsGuard from insinuating itself into the classrooms in your state. "
Signers included Bozell, Saulius "Saul" Anuzis of 60 Plus Association, Ted Baehr of the Christian Film and Television Commission, Gary L. Bauer of American Values, Ryan Bomberger of The Radiance Foundation, Dan Bongino, Merrilee Boyack of Strengthen Utah Families, Floyd Brown of The Western Journal, Susan Carleson Currer of The Carleson Center for Welfare Reform, Sen. Jim DeMint of Conservative Partnership Institute and William A. Donohue of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights.
Also Erick-Woods Erickson of the Erick Erickson Show, Steven Ertelt of LifeNews.com, Mark J. Fitzgibbons of American Target Advertising, Inc., Lady Brigitte Gabriel of Act for America, Gualberto Garcia Jones of LifeSiteNews.com, Paul J. Gessing of Rio Grande Foundation, Kristi Hamrick of Students for Life of America/Students for Life Action, Aaron Harison of Free Beacon, Kristan Hawkins of Students for Life Action/Students for Life of America, Heather R. Higgins of Independent Women’s Voice, Colleen Holcomb of Eagle Forum, Phil Kerpen of American Commitment, Amy Kremer of Women for America First, David Kupelian of WND, Jim Lakely of the Heartland Institute, and George Landrith of Frontirs of Freedom.
And Carrie Lukas of Independent Women’s Forum, Richard Manning of Americans for Limited Government, James L. Martin of 60 Plus Association, Rod D. Martin of The Martin Organization, Cleta Mitchell, Esq. of Conservative Partnership Institute, Phelim McAleer of Ann & Phelim Media, Michael P. McDonald of The Catholic League, Ann McElhinney of Ann & Phelim Media, C. Preston Noell III of Tradition, Family, Property, Inc., Emmanuel Rincon of El American, Austin Ruse of Center for Family and Human Rights. Terry Schilling of American Principles Project, Jon Schweppe of American Principles Project, Craig Shirley of Shirley & McVicker Public Affairs, Sharon Slater of Family Watch International, Sean Spicer, former White House Press Secretary, Mathew D. Staver, Esq., B.C.S. of Liberty Council, Gov. Scott Walker of Young America’s Foundation, Lieutenant Colonel Allen B. West (U.S. Army, Retired), former chairman of the Republican Party of Texas and Aaron With of Freedom Foundation.
Content created by the WND News Center is available for re-publication without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@wndnewscenter.org.
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Facing Unpleasant Facts: What You aren’t Supposed to say about the War in Ukraine
Having been lied into war in Iraq in 2003, the American public swore it had wised up. Sure, it went on to drop the ball by supporting the Libya intervention, itself prefaced by lies, and supported the government’s intervention in the civil war in Syria (or at least didn’t mind it), even though the US sided with the very Sunni extremists it had been fighting a few years before in Iraq. But these were admittedly obscure conflicts, made all the more so by the blatantly biased coverage of events by Western media, which parroted obvious lies about impending massacres and staged chemical weapons attacks.
But in Europe, where the US had extensive military alliance commitments under the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the US population should ostensibly have been more informed and less prone to beguiling, it has been disappointing to see the American public once again so easily led down the path to supporting a war that never had to be—never would have been—but for the policies enacted by our government.
And just as with the baseless rush to war with Iraq, which every outlet of mainstream media loyally supported, those who refuse to repeat slogans of “Ukrainian democracy” or “Russian aggression” are denigrated, either as cowards or as apologists for the heinous actions of others, for which they are obviously not responsible. Besides being inaccurate, the latter accusation is particularly perfidious because it effectively makes reasoned dissent impossible.
But by pretending that history started with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the story is made simple, a clear case of right and wrong. And while it is true that Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine and so is responsible for the present war, such a Manichean telling of the story does little to further informed policy discussion. Indeed, that is precisely the point: to ignore the decades of declared Russian security interests in the orientation of states directly at its border, as well as to obscure a history of US meddling in Ukraine.
So unless you think context is irrelevant, that recent history is unimportant to understanding current crises, here are four things you aren’t supposed to say about Ukraine but that are absolutely true and that all Americans should be aware of before forming a hasty opinion regarding a deadly serious matter that until a few weeks ago most knew nothing about.
The “Revolution of Dignity” Was a US-Backed Coup
The 2014 ouster of slightly Russian-leaning Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych, who drew his support primarily from the ethnic Russian–dominated eastern parts of the country, was spun by Ukrainian nationalist and Western media as a ”revolution of dignity.” It was in fact, in the words of Western security analyst George Friedman, ”the most blatant coup in history.” In case the obvious nature of events on the ground weren’t enough, this was confirmed by the leaked phone call between then assistant secretary of state Victoria Nuland and Geoffrey Pyatt, then the US ambassador to Ukraine, during which they picked their favorites for the new Ukrainian leadership and plotted how to prevent the meddlesome EU from screwing it all up by moving too slowly, potentially allowing Russia a chance to interfere in the obviously illegal ouster of an elected government through a street putsch.
The proximate cause of the coup was Yanukovych’s taking of what was essentially a large Russian bribe to eschew an EU association agreement. In a country ranked 122nd in corruption, literally the most corrupt country in Europe, none of this was a surprise. But what was a surprise was the US move to sweep in and take Kyiv—something US foreign policy insiders publicly bragged about in the immediate aftermath.
There Is a Significant Neo-Nazi Problem in Ukraine
This is something that until a few years ago the mainstream media reported seriously on; of course, that was before they knew they were going to have to try and lie us into another war. Now any mention of what was taken to be an obvious problem just a year ago is decried as “Russian propaganda!”
The empowerment of far right extremists since the 2014 coup, a significant number with openly Neo-Nazi affiliations, is reflected in the dramatic rise in attacks on Jews, feminists, and the LGBTQ and Romany communities. It has further led to the banning of books that question Kyiv’s nationalist propaganda, which itself features the whitewashing of Nazi collaborators.
What are we to think when at the same time that public witch hunts for supposed white nationalists are carried out domestically with something near hysterical zeal, state-of-the-art shoulder-fired antiaircraft and antitank weaponry is shipped in great volumes to extremist white nationalists in Ukraine that would make the top of any of our own domestic terrorist watch lists?
We aren’t supposed to think about it all, at least not critically—just like we aren’t supposed to think critically about anything else.
The Russians Always Objected to NATO Expansion into Ukraine
For example, how about the fact our government always knew the Russians vigorously objected to any NATO involvement in Ukraine but downplayed or dismissed the obvious steps they were taking in that direction—downplayed it to themselves, to the American public, and tried to downplay it to the wider European community. Of course, Germany and France knew better and refused to grant a membership action plan to Ukraine despite Washington’s intense pressure. And though blocked from de jure absorbing Ukraine into the alliance, Washington was taking de facto steps to that effect—conducting joint military exercises in Ukraine at the same time that it was shipping the US-coup-installed government sophisticated heavy weaponry whose only obvious use was against Russia. Since at least 2014, when Putin ordered Russian forces to seize the Crimea to protect the only warm water port of the Russian navy after threats by Kyiv to evict them despite Moscow’s legal lease, Washington has known Putin feels particularly threatened in Ukraine. Even in the years since then, Washington has rejected repeated attempts by Moscow to establish an officially neutral Ukraine, including in the weeks leading up to the invasion.
Biden Could Have Prevented the War
Yes, even at that late date in January 2022—and all it would have taken was agreeing to Putin’s minimum terms: Ukraine could never join NATO, and new missiles could not be deployed in eastern European NATO member states. Outrageous and rightly rejected? Not according to Joe Biden, who claimed NATO membership for Ukraine was not on the table nor a serious priority at any point in the foreseeable future. Taking him at his word, why wouldn’t Biden simply agree to put it on paper and prevent what he himself repeatedly said were imminent Russian plans to invade and destroy Ukraine? What we’re told, and have been told since NATO expansion began, is that “keeping the door open” to alliance membership is a ”sacred principle.”
Perhaps it should be made public exactly how many Ukrainian lives the State Department and the Pentagon reckon this principle to be worth and how such calculations are made.
Conclusion
Really, what this looks like is a tragic combination of the brief 2008 Russo-Georgian War and the decade-long Soviet-Afghan War. In the first instance, US encouragement of actions by Tbilisi directly contrary to Russian interests led directly to a Russian military intervention; in the latter case, the leading US policy maker at the time, Zbigniew Brzezinski, admits precipitating that war on purpose: provoking the USSR into fatally overreaching in an attempt to protect an allied government from being undermined by the US—in this case by funding the proto-Taliban mujahideen in Afghanistan from bases in neighboring Pakistan.
As Poland gets set to potentially play Pakistan to Ukraine’s Afghanistan, serving as a staging area and training ground for rebel fighters slipping back and forth across the border to Ukraine, thereby further threatening war between NATO and Russia, we should recall that this all, in a sense, happened because the local governments in Donetsk and Luhansk could see the obvious: what had happened in Kyiv in 2013–14 was a coup, and they refused to recognize the new government. Further, we should remember that it was only when the Ukrainian military attempted to retake these regions by force that Russia intervened—and that since the Minsk Two peace accords failed to bring about a durable ceasefire, over 80 percent of those killed have been ethnic Russians living in the breakaway regions, and they were killed by the government in Kyiv.
With Democrats and Republicans fighting about who supports intervening in Ukraine more, and with uninformed and misled people increasingly calling for even more disastrous interventionist measures, the American public needs to be reminded that it is entirely possible for us to have a foreign policy that keeps us perfectly safe while not getting large numbers of people killed elsewhere, and further, that most of the various crises around the world that we are told the US needs to play a direct and integral part in solving are themselves the direct result of previous US interventions in those places.
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SpyGate 101: A Primer On The Russia Collusion Hoax’s Years-long Plot To Take Down Trump
For those who care about our country's future but don’t want to be buried in the minutia of the Russia collusion hoax scandal, here is your big-picture primer.
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Top ‘Fact Checker’ Labeled Hunter Biden Laptop Story a “Hoax”
The co-founder of one of the world’s leading ‘fact checker’ organizations, which presents itself as a supreme authority on which sources of information can be trusted, labeled the now completely confirmed genuine Hunter Biden laptop story a “hoax”.
Whoops.
Weeks before the 2020 presidential election, the legacy media declared the laptop scandal to be a hoax, with Politico and others citing “dozens of former intel officials” who declared it to be “Russian disinfo.”
This prompted social media giants like Twitter and Facebook to censor discussion of the story, even locking out major news outlets like the New York Post from their accounts.
Why hasn’t this been retracted as disinformation? https://t.co/Ratr4cUYhV
— Cernovich (@Cernovich) March 17, 2022
However, the story was completely true and (if it were even necessary), this has again been confirmed by the New York Times, which reported this week that emails from the abandoned laptop were “authenticated” as real.
Journalist Glenn Greenwald described the legacy media’s attempt to cover up the scandal as “one of the most successful disinformation campaigns in modern American electoral history.”
That cover up was aided by top ‘fact checking’ organizations, including NewsGuard, whose co-founder labeled the story a Russian “hoax” at the time.
“My personal opinion is there’s a high likelihood this story is a hoax, maybe even a hoax perpetrated by the Russians again,” said NewsGuard’s Steven Brill during an appearance on CNBC.
As Allum Bokhari notes, this spectacularly incorrect call is crucial because NewsGuard champions itself as an ultimate arbiter on the trustworthiness of news sources.
“NewsGuard has a track record of giving negative ratings to conservative-leaning publications, while giving a positive “green” rating to establishment media outlets with a track record of publishing hoaxes, like Rolling Stone,” writes Bokhari.
This once again proves that ‘fact checker’ organizations are merely partisan tools used to bludgeon free speech and censor information that’s inconvenient to the regime.
Despite innumerable examples of brazen disinformation and hoaxes over the last month, including the Snake Island hoax, the fake attack on a Kiev Holocaust memorial and the Ghost of Kiev farce, fact checkers have been largely AWOL.
Whenever stories emerge that are hugely damaging to the regime and the military-industrial complex, fact checkers are weaponized to bury them by falsely labeling such stories ‘misleading’ or hoaxes even if they are completely authentic.
This then serves to justify their censorship by social media algorithms and the targeted banning and deplatforming of anyone who tries to amplify them.
Fact checkers aren’t impartial, independent outlets, they are merely information attack dogs working on behalf of the regime.
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Thursday, March 17, 2022
The NYT Now Admits the Biden Laptop -- Falsely Called "Russian Disinformation" -- is Authentic
One of the most successful disinformation campaigns in modern American electoral history occurred in the weeks prior to the 2020 presidential election.
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Reading Ability of Children Plummets Compared to Pre-COVID Times
The reading ability of children has plummeted compared to pre-COVID times thanks to lockdown policies that led to the closure of schools, according to a new study.
“A study by researchers from TU Dortmund has found that German children in the fourth grade of primary school are far less capable of reading than their predecessors who passed through the grade pre-pandemic,” reports Breitbart.
A standard reading test taken by fourth graders from 2021 was compared to results using the same test from 2016.
The number of children who had a reading level rated “good” to “very good” has dropped by 7 per cent while over a quarter of students who took the test in 2021 now have problems with reading comprehension.
“If you express it in years of learning, the children are missing an average of half a year of learning,” said Dr. Ulrich Ludewig, who helped to lead the study. “If the change in the composition of the student body is taken into account, the gap while slightly smaller, the significant decline in mean reading ability remains.”
With reading being a crucial aspect of every subject, the impact also had a knock on effect in other areas of learning.
The study once again highlights the devastating impact that COVID lockdowns had on children and the morally vacant position of those who supported them.
UNICEF previously warned that pandemic school closures led to a “nearly insurmountable scale of loss to children’s schooling” and that “intensive support” is needed to get kids back on track.
As we previously highlighted, for many children, the damage could be permanent.
Speech therapist Jaclyn Theek says that mask wearing during the pandemic has caused a 364% increase in patient referrals of babies and toddlers.
“They’re not making any word attempts and not communicating at all with their family,” she said, adding that symptoms of autism are also skyrocketing.
A speech therapist says her clinic has seen a "364% increase in patient referrals of babies and toddlers".
"It's very important kids do see your face to learn, so they're watching your mouth."
What the hell have we done?!
End this cruel insanity. pic.twitter.com/DN6J4yQfju
— Darren Grimes (@darrengrimes_) January 26, 2022
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Wuhan Lab Scientists confirm Covid-19 kills T-Cells just like HIV; Have 5 billion people been injected with the AIDS causing Virus?
Is the Covid-19 virus airborne HIV? And have five billion people now been injected with HIV numerous times in the form of a Covid-19 vaccine? A scientific paper on the Covid-19 virus […]
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Wednesday, March 16, 2022
Judge orders Navy commander seeking vax exemption to remain in charge of ship despite DOD objection
Defense Department has appealed the judge's ruling to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
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'Incompetence or corruption': Sen. Ron Johnson on Secret Service missing Hunter Biden emails
"They're completely arrogant. It's unacceptable," the Wisconsin Republican said.
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Millions of people people 'fully vaccinated' for COVID now suffering excruciating illnesses
(UNCANCELED NEWS) – A blogger who calls himself “A Midwestern Doctor” has issued a warning that Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) “vaccine” adverse events are far more prominent than many people realize.
Potentially millions of “fully vaccinated” people are now suffering with a range of jab-induced illnesses that may or may not be curable. And the unfortunate reality for them is that they will probably never find the answers or solutions they need. “I’ve tried to use very neutral language to describe these events, but this has been a very difficult process for me to watch,” the doctor wrote, referring to the many stories that are pouring in from jab-damaged folks.
“Many of the people I know and have guided through the process have access to options for mitigating these injuries, something most people don’t. I’ve read through various support groups, and in general found their experiences are typically worse than what I am describing here as they are not privileged to have access to way to mitigate the harm.”
The post Millions of people people 'fully vaccinated' for COVID now suffering excruciating illnesses appeared first on WND.
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‘Truly Frightening:’ Feds Give Tech Companies Until May 2 to ‘Turn Over COVID-19 Misinformation’
Two U.S. Senators this week introduced a bill that could criminalize First Amendment rights, while the U.S. Surgeon General formally demanded tech companies turn over data on organizations and individuals who post “COVID-19 misinformation” on social media platforms.
By Meryl Nass, M.D.
Two news stories this week reveal how the federal government plans to treat COVID “misinformation” as a crime, and what role tech companies will play in rounding up the “criminal.”
This is truly frightening.
Two U.S. Senators this week introduced a bill to provide tech companies cover via legislation that could make it possible for Congress to “legalize” censorship and criminalize First Amendment rights to freedom of speech.
Here’s a press release describing the bill:
“U.S. Senators Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), both members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, on Wednesday introduced legislation to counter the threat that misinformation and disinformation pose to public health as evidenced by the widespread false narratives throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The Promoting Public Health Information Act would support efforts across the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and with outside stakeholders to communicate effectively during a public health emergency and address health misinformation.”
Here is what Murphy had to say about the bill:
“Throughout this pandemic, the impact of misinformation has been devastating. Rumors and conspiracy theories about the efficacy of masking or the safety of vaccines still run rampant on social media and have caused thousands of deaths that could have been prevented.
“This legislation will help us get smart about how to tackle misinformation and effectively promote science-based health information, especially as we continue fighting COVID-19 and prepare for future public health emergencies.”
In other words, the feds are asking detailed information about the demographics “exposed to misinformation,” allowing them to determine who’s reading what, and to obtain their names.
Next, in the last paragraph of this New York Times article, “The surgeon general calls on Big Tech to turn over Covid-19 misinformation data,” we learn that the federal government wants citizens to start “sharing” information on “misinformation:”
“‘We’re asking anyone with relevant insights — from original research and data sets to personal stories that speak to the role of misinformation in public health — to share them with us,’ Dr. [Vivek] Murthy said.”
Isn’t that sweet?
This is how they dress up the Stasi in 21st-century euphemism to encourage ratting out your friends and neighbors: “Please share with the feds. They care what you think.”
Sure they do.
According to the Times:
“President Biden’s surgeon general on Thursday formally requested major tech platforms submit information about the scale of COVID-19 misinformation on social networks, search engines, crowdsourced platforms, e-commerce platforms and instant messaging systems.
“The request for information from the surgeon general’s office demanded tech platforms send data and analysis on the prevalence of COVID-19 misinformation on their sites, starting with common examples of vaccine misinformation documented by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“The notice asks the companies to submit ‘exactly how many users saw or may have been exposed to instances of COVID-19 misinformation,’ as well as aggregate data on demographics that may have been disproportionately exposed to, or affected by, the misinformation.
“The surgeon general, Dr. Vivek Murthy, also demanded information from the platforms about the major sources of Covid-19 misinformation, including those that engaged in the sale of unproven Covid-19 products, services and treatments.
“‘Technology companies now have the opportunity to be open and transparent with the American people about the misinformation on their platforms,’” Murthy said in an emailed statement. He added: “‘This is about protecting the nation’s health.’”
“Companies have until May 2 to submit the data. Denying requests for information does not carry a penalty, but the notice is the first formal request from the Biden administration of the tech companies to submit COVID-19 misinformation data, according to the surgeon general’s office.
“Six months ago, Murthy used his first formal advisory to the U.S. to deliver a broadside against tech and social media companies, which he accused of not doing enough to stop the spread of dangerous health misinformation — especially about COVID-19. He called the misinformation “an urgent threat to public health.”
“The request for information is part of President Biden’s National COVID-19 Preparedness Plan, which the White House detailed on Wednesday and which is a road map for a new stage of the pandemic where COVID-19 causes ‘minimal disruption,’ according to the White House.
“Biden first revealed details of the plan during his State of the Union address Tuesday night.
“In addition to demanding misinformation data from the tech platforms, the surgeon general called on healthcare providers and the public to submit information about how COVID-19 misinformation has negatively influenced patients and communities.
“‘We’re asking anyone with relevant insights — from original research and data sets to personal stories that speak to the role of misinformation in public health — to share them with us,’” Murthy said.”
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