WHO Holds Secret Talks With Tech Giants To Stop Spread Of Coronavirus "Misinformation"

The World Health Organization has held talks with tech giants to stop the spread of coronavirus “misinformation,” despite the fact that some things once labeled “misinformation” have since turned out to be true.

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Why Did Twitter Just "Lockdown" WikiLeaks Account?

Just hours after a secret meeting with Silicon Valley tech giants to discuss censorship of "misinformation" surrounding coronavirus, and just days before Julian Assange's extradition hearings are set to continue, Kristin Hrafnsson - a WikiLeaks' journalist - reports that the WikiLeaks' Twitter accou

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The Last Honest President

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Guest Post by Bill Bonner

“He who goes a-borrowing, goes a-sorrowing.”

The quote comes from Ben Franklin. But it was recalled to us neither by America’s president nor Britain’s prime minister.

Instead, the Telegraph in London reported it from the mouth of Cheng Siwei, a “top member of the Communist hierarchy.”

What goes around comes around. The Anglo-Saxons have forgotten what makes a successful economy. The Chinese have remembered.

Long List of Disasters

History is nothing but a long list of disasters in chronological order.

Historians love calamity. And they reserve their highest accolades for those who cause them. The same is true in financial history. Those who make it big are those who make it worse.

It is safe to assume that no one working at the Federal Reserve or at the White House has a picture of Warren Gamaliel Harding over his desk.

Yet if American presidents were ranked on the basis of how well they faced up to financial disaster, Warren G. Harding might be somebody. His handsome face would be carved on Rushmore. His likeness would grace the $100 bill.

Harding was the last American president to deal honestly with a major financial crisis. Every president since has tried to scam his way out of it.

Moral World

By the time Harding took office in 1921 the Panic of 1920 was taking the unemployment rate from 4% to nearly 12%. GDP fell 17%. Then, as now, the president’s subordinates urged him to intervene.

Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover wanted to meddle – as he would 10 years later. But Harding resisted. No bailouts. No stimulus. No monetary policy. No fiscal policy. Harding had a better approach; he cut government spending and went out to play poker:

We will attempt intelligent and courageous deflation and strike at government borrowing which enlarges the evil, and we will attack high cost of government with every energy and facility which attend Republican capacity… it will be an example to stimulate thrift and economy in private life.

Let us call… for a nationwide drive against extravagance and luxury, to a recommittal to simplicity of living, to that prudent and normal plan of life which is the health of the republic.

Within a decade, Harding’s views were collectibles. But in 1921, he still saw the economic world as a moral world ordered not by man, but by God.

This was not the result of long study or deep reflection on his part. He was probably the dummy everybody said he was. As John Maynard Keynes (himself an economist) pointed out, politicians are always in thrall to some dead economist. At least Harding was in thrall to the good ones.

“No statute enacted by man can repeal the inexorable laws of nature,” he announced. “Our most dangerous tendency is to expect too much of government…”

Product of Virtue

Harding was not the first to see the economy as a natural order… one that you disturbed at your peril. A Taoist named Zhuangzi, who lived about the same time as Alexander the Great, observed: “Good order results spontaneously when things are let alone.”

Later, economists of the Scottish enlightenment, notably Adam Smith and Adam Ferguson, elaborated.

Smith, like Harding, saw the economy ordered by the invisible hand of God. Ferguson saw markets as a “spontaneous order,” which were the “result of human action, but not the execution of any human design.”

The same basic insight led Irving Fisher – the greatest economist of the 1920s – to come up with his debt-deflation theory of depressions. After people had borrowed, they needed to pay back. Busts followed booms; there was no getting around it.

Warren Harding may never have been the brightest bulb on the White House porch, but intuitively he understood that proper macroeconomic policies were more the product of virtue than of genius.

Debt led to trouble; that’s all he needed to know.

Lost Lesson

Keynes came along a few years later. Keynes was a genius; everybody said so. And he had an answer for everything.

Nature? Government could do better. Debt? Don’t worry about it, he said. Why not just let capitalism sort itself out? Without government intervention, it will only get worse, said Keynes.

But Harding had already proved him wrong. Harding did the very opposite of what Keynes recommended. Instead of increasing government spending, he reduced it. He cut the budget almost in half. He slashed taxes too… and cut the national debt by a third.

Japan at the time struggled with the same downturn. But it had no Harding at the helm. Instead, its masters prefigured Keynes, trying to stay the correction using price controls and other interventions. The result was a long-drawn-out affair that lasted until 1927 and ended in a bank crisis.

In America, meanwhile, by 1922 unemployment was back down to 6.7%. By 1923 it was down further – to 2.4%.

This lesson was entirely lost on the world’s economists. When the next crisis hit a decade later, they turned to Keynes.

Of course, it turned out to be a moral world after all. They got what they deserved.

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The Death Of Free Speech: Zuckerberg Asks Governments For Instructions On "What Discourse Should Be Allowed"

I have written for years on the effort of European countries to expand their crackdown on free speech globally through restrictions on social media and Internet speech.

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New Illinois Bill Would Require 6th Graders in Public, Private, and Religious Schools to Get the Gardasil HPV Vaccine

A new proposed bill would require some Illinois students to get the HPV vaccine. The bill was filed by Rep. Robyn Gabel, D-Evanston, on Feb. 11. HB 4870 amends

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Israel’s Netanyahu boasts of having Destroyed US 1st Amendment and Free Speech

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Israeli caretaker prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who has been indicted for corruption and is facing an election soon, just boasted that his ministry of strategic affairs has managed to undermine first amendment protections for free speech in the United States by

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Leaktivists Pose “Significant Threat” at Same Level as ISIS and Al-Qaeda, US Gov’t Warns

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(TMU) — The U.S. National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC) has stressed in its latest report that hacktivists and “public disclosure organizations” like WikiLeaks pose a “significant threat” similar to that of Islamic State and Al-Qaeda terrorists, as well as Russia, Iran, and China.

“Ideologically motivated entities such as hacktivists, leaktivists, and public disclosure organizations” pose “significant threats” to the U.S. at the same level as non-state terrorist organizations, according to the report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence’s biannual National Counterintelligence Strategy.

Although the report fails to mention WikiLeaks by name, it references “unauthorized disclosures of US cyber tools” and “public disclosure organizations.” In others words, the CIA hacking tools released under Vault 7 and Vault 8 and the NSA surveillance dragnet revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

In 2017, the U.S. Senate considered a bill that would have classified WikiLeaks as a “non-state hostile intelligence service” bundled as part of the 2018 Intelligence Authorization Act. Presumably, that classification would authorize the use of force against WikiLeaks.

Those same words were echoed by former CIA director and current Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during the same year.

“It’s time to call out WikiLeaks for what it really is: A non-state hostile intelligence service often abetted by state actors like Russia,” Pompeo said at the time.

The NCSC argues that leaks “open up new opportunities for adversaries to use information as a strategic resource in achieving their economic security aims, and exert leverage over their competitors.” The report also insinuates that “emerging technologies” like AI, encryption, and the Internet of Things will benefit U.S. adversaries more than the U.S.

“The United States is facing increasingly aggressive and complex threats from foreign intelligence services, as well as state and non-state actors,” said William Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center.

The NCSC also indicated that Russia and China are using “all instruments of national power to target the United States.” Cuba, Iran, and North Korea were referred to as “significant threats” on the same level as terrorists, hacktivists, and “transnational criminal organizations.”

This comes as WikiLeaks founder and journalist Julian Assange is set to face trial for extradition on February 24 for publishing documents that exposed corruption and U.S. war crimes. Protests are planned all over the world as the future of press freedom lies in the outcome of just one man’s case.

Extradite Julian Assange & the UK extradites our rights: freedom of the press, rule of law, human rights…

Join the global protest on day 1 of the extradition hearing. More info+event pages: https://t.co/I8AXRKeJUq Update of the updated map: #FreeAssange #DontExtraditeAssange pic.twitter.com/0uNS0Qp2wE

— Bean (@SomersetBean) February 10, 2020

Last year in April, Assange was dragged out of the Ecuadorian Embassy in violation of 2 UN rulings following the withdrawal of his asylum status by the Ecuadorian government.

Assange faces 175 years in the United States if convicted of exposing war crimes and various corruption within the United States, 17 charges of which are under the Espionage Act. In total, Assange faces 18 charges including an absurd charge under the CFAA for “computer hacking” by helping his source, Chelsea Manning, protect herself against being discovered to leak him information.

We are now watching as not only our press freedoms are eroded but those who seek to expose corruption are being labeled as terrorists.

By Aaron Kesel | Creative Commons | TheMindUnleashed.com

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Why Wasn’t Andrew McCabe Charged?

The proof that he willfully deceived investigators appears strong, but the Justice Department likely felt there were too many obstacles to convicting him.

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Coronavirus And Credit - A Perfect Storm

This article posits that the spread of the coronavirus coincides with the downturn in the global credit cycle, with potentially catastrophic results.

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Trump Supporters Are George W Bush Supporters LARPing As Ron Paul Supporters

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The Trump administration has released its official statement to Congress justifying its drone assassination of Iran’s top military official Qassem Soleimani last month. Surprising exactly zero people, the formal notification makes no mention whatsoever of any imminent threat posed by Soleimani, a direct contradiction of this administration’s previous claims defending the assassination.

“The Trump administration has been accused of lying after the publication of a new report that undermined its reasoning for assassinating Iranian General Qassem Soleimani last month,” reports Middle East Eye. “The chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Friday that President Donald Trump’s official notification to Congress defending the 3 January strike failed to specify an ‘imminent threat’ posed by Soleimani.”

“This official report directly contradicts the president’s false assertion that he attacked Iran to prevent an imminent attack against United States personnel and embassies,” Democratic Representative Eliot Engel of New York said.

“President Trump and top officials lied about the existence of an imminent threat to excuse his having engaged in an act of war without congressional approval,” tweeted independent Michigan Representative Justin Amash. “For Americans’ safety, the Constitution forbids unauthorized offensive actions regardless of the president’s justification.”

Pres. Trump and top officials lied about the existence of an imminent threat to excuse his having engaged in an act of war without congressional approval. For Americans' safety, the Constitution forbids unauthorized offensive actions regardless of the president's justification. https://t.co/EQLT1T63iY

 — @justinamash

It has been obvious to many analysts for quite some time that the world was lied to about yet another act of war against yet another Middle Eastern nation by yet another US president; the Trump administration’s tacit admission just confirms it. Add this confirmation to the lies we were told about no US soldiers being injured by Iran’s missile retaliation against US military bases, as well as the revelation that the initial rocket strike which sparked the exchanges of violence in Iraq likely came from ISIS and not Iran-backed militias as claimed by the US.

What this means legally is that Soleimani’s assassination was a war crime. On a practical level, since the US is never prosecuted for war crimes it commits, what it means is that we now know we were lied to about an assassination which by Trump’s own admission brought us “closer than you thought” to a disastrous full-scale war.

What I personally find interesting about the destruction of the “imminent threat” narrative is that none of the many Trump supporters I spent time arguing with last month about Soleimani’s assassination ever attempted to claim that he posed an imminent threat to Americans. They’d argue that Soleimani was a bad man who deserved to die, they’d attempt to spin unfounded claims that he was directly behind the embassy attack or the aforementioned rocket strike, they’d accuse me of being a terrorist-supporting terrorist lover, but I never once encountered anyone who tried to argue that there was an imminent threat to American lives.

They made no attempt to make this argument because they knew it wasn’t a good one. They knew the Trump administration was making bogus claims that they couldn’t defend. They knew this. They just didn’t care.

This is very telling. I have read every single reply. Not one produced even the slightest shred of indication that he posed an imminent threat to the US. Seriously, Stalin himself would've been proud of such a display of blind, unflinching acceptance of the deep state narrative. https://t.co/GrzzkKBy63

 — @DanVMaul

They didn’t care because they weren’t approaching the situation from any interest in truth or facts. Their sole interest was, and is always, in defending their president and promoting narratives which help ensure his re-election in November. It’s a game to them. A game of imagination which consists entirely of narratives that have little to no relationship with objective reality. They are LARPing.

Well, not all of them to be fair. There are two kinds of Trump supporters: there’s the straight-ticket Republicans who’d support an animatronic Chuck E Cheese robot as long as it had an (R) next to its name, and then there’s the so-called “populists” who say everything Trump does is secretly a brilliant strategic maneuver against the Deep State.

There’s some overlap between these two categories (neocon swamp monster Sean Hannity now posing as a swamp-fighting enemy of the Deep State is the most hilarious example), but there’s a distinction that’s worth noting. After the Soleimani assassination the straight-ticket Republicans were online acting like the Bush voters they are yelling “Yeeehaw, we kill whoever we want!”, whereas the “populists” were claiming that this was yet another strategic 4-D chess maneuver against the enemies of peace. I had one former reader sincerely attempt to argue with me that Soleimani was actually working for the Deep State, and had been protected by Obama and Hillary Clinton.

This latter category of Trump supporter is the type I generally encounter in doing what I do. Openly partisan Republicans who are honest about their partisanship tend to take little interest in writers like myself, whereas Trump supporters who see themselves as anti-establishment, anti-war and anti-propaganda often make their way into my orbit. These are also the type that my readers will generally run into for the same reason, so they’re the category of Trump supporter I’m writing about here.

First there were no injuries. Then there were a dozen. Then more. Then they were called 'headaches' by Donald Trump. Now, this. What is clear is that the initial reports were very, very wrong, but sold to Americans as truth. https://t.co/PyMh3kzsM5

 — @votevets

When the news first broke of Soleimani’s assassination I wrote the following:

“A proportionate retaliatory strike would necessarily entail an attack on US military targets, or the military targets of US allies. If that happens, either the empire stands down or we’re looking at an all-out war of a size that is potentially almost limitless.”

And indeed that is exactly what happened. Iran did retaliate, against US military targets, injured more than 100 US soldiers, and then the US empire stood down. Trump’s reckless act of brinkmanship resulted in a dead Iranian general, a badly damaged airbase, scores of injured soldiers, a tail-between-the-legs retreat, and brought the US and Iran “closer than you thought” to war, for no real strategic benefit. Yet for days after the military exchange I was getting Trump supporters in my social media mentions telling me I’d been crazy and hysterical for warning of the risk of war.

These bizarre mental gymnastics are possible because these Trump supporters aren’t interfacing with reality in any way. They’re engaged in a weird Live Action Role-Playing (LARP) game where they pretend to be knowledgeable patriots cheering for a Ron Paul-like champion of peace and anti-authoritarianism, while in real life they’re acting exactly like garden variety Republicans cheering for a standard Republican president who’s been advancing longstanding agendas of neoconservatives and the CIA.

In real life Trump has imprisoned Julian Assange, has re-started the Cold War, has killed tens of thousands of Venezuelans with starvation sanctions, has vetoed attempts to save Yemen from US-backed genocide, is working to foment civil war in Iran using starvation sanctions and CIA ops with the stated goal of effecting regime change, has occupied Syrian oil fields with the goal of preventing Syria’s reconstruction, has greatly increased the number of troops in the Middle East and elsewhere, has greatly increased the number of bombs dropped per day from the previous administration, killing record numbers of civilians, and reduced military accountability for those airstrikes.

Every single one of these longstanding deep state agendas that Trump has advanced have been defended by Trump supporters in my social media mentions as brilliant strategic maneuvers against the deep state. Literally every single one of them, without a single, solitary exception. Every time Trump advances an evil establishment agenda and I speak out about it, I am guaranteed to receive comments explaining why the thing I’m speaking out against is actually an ingenious move by Trump against the establishment. Trump arresting Assange is actually Trump helping Assange. Trump helping the neocons is actually Trump hurting the neocons. Those sure are some elegant invisible clothes the emperor is wearing today.

Trump’s words say one thing, and his actions say something very different. He gives lip service to anti-interventionism and opposition to the swamp, and his supporters play along with the narratives he’s spoon feeding them. He’s another George W Bush, concealed by a thin overlay of narrative and imagination. But in the LARP he’s Ron Paul.

I started this job a few months before Trump took office, and ever since January 2017 I’ve been pointing out evil things this president has been doing and having Trump supporters tell me “Wait and see.”

“Calm down,” they tell me (they always want me to calm down). “Trump is doing something big here. You’ll see.”

They’ve been saying “you’ll see” for years now. Trump’s term is almost over. It’s time to admit you were wrong, guys.

You’ve been had. You were duped by narrative and empty words into supporting a garden variety Republican president who’s been advancing garden variety Republican agendas. Your anti-establishment sentiments were successfully corralled by propaganda into a standard GOP ideology with some populist-looking window dressing. You’ve been sitting very pretty lately while the Democrats make complete asses of themselves with ill-advised impeachment agendas and a scandalous primary race, but in reality you’re just as blinkered and duped as they are.

Believing that a US president is going to save you is just as dumb as believing the FBI and CIA are going to save you. Republicans have been doing the former while Democrats have been doing the latter. Both have been duped by custom-made establishment propaganda into cheering for different aspects of the establishment, and the only one who wins is that very same establishment.

Stop getting duped into believing in America’s two-handed sock puppet show. It’s always fake, and it always ends the same: all your money goes to the performers, and you get screwed. Start seeing through the illusion.

_______________________

Thanks for reading! The best way to get around the internet censors and make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for my website, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking me on Facebook, following my antics on Twitter, checking out my podcast on either Youtube, soundcloud, Apple podcasts or Spotify, following me on Steemit, throwing some money into my hat on Patreon or Paypal, purchasing some of my sweet merchandise, buying my new book Rogue Nation: Psychonautical Adventures With Caitlin Johnstone, or my previous book Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish or use any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge.

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