We Are All Canadian Truckers Now!

We all remember where we were when the Berlin Wall came down. While it may have seemed that communist rule would go on forever, when the people decided that they had enough suddenly the wall fell. Just like that. Thus it is after two years of Covid authoritarianism that in Canada the largest truck convoy in history has smashed through the Berlin Wall of tyranny. I have watched as the Canada I once respected as a haven for antiwar Americans in the 1960s turned into one of the most repressive...

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from We Are All Canadian Truckers Now!

The Pressure Campaign on Spotify to Remove Joe Rogan Reveals the Religion of Liberals: Censorship

American liberals are obsessed with finding ways to silence and censor their adversaries. Every week, if not every day, they have new targets they want de-platformed, banned, silenced, and otherwise prevented from speaking or being heard (by "liberals,” I mean the term of self-description used by the dominant wing of the Democratic Party). For years, their preferred censorship tactic was to expand and distort the concept of "hate speech” to mean "views that make us uncomfortable,” and then...

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Now is the Time for Mass Resignations from Within the Ruling Class

If there is a historical precedent for the truckers’ revolt in Canada, and the populist protests in so many other parts of the world, I would like to know what it is. It surely sets the record for convoy size, and it is historic for Canada. But there is much more going on here, something more fundamental. The two-year imposition of bio-fascist rule by diktat seems ever less tenable – the consent of the governed is being withdrawn – but what comes next seems unclear.  We now have two of the...

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from Now is the Time for Mass Resignations from Within the Ruling Class

Censorship By Algorithm Does Far More Damage Than Conventional Censorship

Journalist Jonathan Cook has a new blog post out on his experience with being throttled into invisibility by Silicon Valley algorithmic suppression that will ring all too familiar for any online content creators who’ve been sufficiently critical of official western narratives over the last few years. “My blog posts once attracted tens of thousands of shares,” Cook writes. “Then, as the algorithms tightened, it became thousands. Now, as they throttle me further, shares can often be counted in...

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America’s Armed ‘Sentinel State’ Encirclement

The key to China’s security riposte to the US is linked to two words that go unstated in US formal policy documents, but whose silent presence nevertheless suffuses and colour-washes the text of the 2022 National Defence Authorisation Act. The term ‘containment’ never appears, neither does the word ‘encirclement’. Yet, as Professor Michael Klare writes, the Act “provides a detailed blueprint for surrounding China with a potentially suffocating network of US bases, military forces, and...

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The Cold War Racket Never Ended for the US

There is something important to recognize about the Cold War: It was not ended by the US government. Instead, it was ended by the Soviet Union. If it had been up to the US national-security establishment, the Cold War would have gone on forever because it is the best racket in US history, one that continually expanded the tax-funded largess, power, and influence of the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA. In a sense, the US national-security establishment considered the Soviet Union’s unilateral...

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Justin Trudeau Ducks the Great Trucker Revolt

The resistance reveals itself always in unexpected ways. As I type, thousands of truckers (numbers are in flux and are in dispute) are part of a 50-mile-long convoy in Canada, headed to the capital city of Ottawa in protest against an egregious vaccine mandate imposed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. They will be joined upon arrival by vast numbers of protestors who are defying the restrictions, closures, and mandates of the last nearly two years.  The triple-vaccinated Trudeau, meanwhile,...

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from Justin Trudeau Ducks the Great Trucker Revolt

US Surgeon General: Silence Joe Rogan!

Biden's Surgeon General Vivek Murthy went on MSNBC to join the pile-on on the world's most popular podcaster, Joe Rogan. According to the bureaucrat, Rogan must be silenced because he expresses opinions not endorsed by him or his bosses in the Administration. Meanwhile, Sen. Warren is being sued for trying to get a book she doesn't like censored. Also today: Biden's curious Supreme Court criteria and...why is the media ignoring the largest truck convoy in history? Watch today's Liberty Report:



from US Surgeon General: Silence Joe Rogan!

Study: Sixty-Five Percent of College Students Believe that They Cannot Speak Freely on Campus

We often discuss (including a controversy today) the growing intolerance for opposing views on our campuses and the rising generation of censors in our society. Students and even faculty members increasingly call for the silencing or firing of those who espouse opposing views on a range of different subjects. The speech codes and sanctions on campuses have silenced many who might voice dissenting views, as we have seen in prior polling. That has created a type of academic echo chamber in scholarship and classrooms.

Now, a new study offers insights into the extent of that chilling effect for our students. The Knight Foundation released a new study showing that sixty-five (65) percent agreed that people on campus today are prevented from speaking freely. The poll is additional evidence of the failure of administrators and faculty to maintain campuses as forums for free thought and intellectual engagement.

The Foundation enlisted Ipsos to assemble a “nationally representative sample of over 1,000 college students ages 18-24 enrolled in all types of higher education institutions, along with 4,000 American adults.” The report, “College Student Views on Free Expression and Campus Speech 2022,” is part of the Knight Free Expression (KFX) Research Series.

The polling also showed that fifty-nine (59) percent say that they believe schools should be places where students hear all types of speech, even speech considered offensive or biased. Less than half felt that their free speech rights are secure today.

This study shows that conservatives and Republicans on campus feel the loss of free speech most acutely. That is consistent with other studies. For example, an earlier poll at the University of North Carolina found that conservative students are 300 times more likely to self-censor themselves due to the intolerance of opposing views on our campuses.

What was most striking about the study was the comparative decline among independents and republicans in just three years. From 2019 to 2021, independents feeling that free speech is secure in the country went from 59 percent to 46 percent. For republicans, it went from 52 percent to 27 percent. For democrats the decline was only 2 percent. One obvious take from those figures is that speech codes and enforcement actions favor Democratic speakers and groups. Their speech has not been curtailed as the dominant group on campuses.

The poll is an indictment of our educational system and, yes, our educators. Faculty have remained silent (or supported) the establishment of a new orthodoxy on our campuses. The speech intolerance shown on many campuses stifles intellectual discourse and chills the free speech of many of our students. However, most faculty members remain conspicuously silent rather than risk being tagged or targeted in the next cancelling campaign.

Reprinted with permission from JonathanTurley.org.

from Study: Sixty-Five Percent of College Students Believe that They Cannot Speak Freely on Campus

What happened to the mRNA 'miracle'?

With the initial roll out of the “the cure for COVID-19,” the “experts” assured us that these mRNA vaccines — a first of its kind platform developed and distributed to the masses by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna — were akin to a miracle cure. 

“Public health experts” in the form of government health bureaucrats and academics, in addition to a complete roster of corporate press stenographers, exclaimed that the United States and first mover Western nations had access to a technology that is far superior to the vaccines of the past. Not to worry, the cure was here, and the mRNA miracle would save us from the despair of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The remarkable story about how mRNA vaccines were made — that a group of scientists would labor in obscurity for so long in order to create this miracle — was incredibly inspirational.” #NYTLetters https://t.co/qFY6xmC7Er

— New York Times Opinion (@nytopinion) January 22, 2022

The Vast Promise of mRNA Technology - WSJ
Deep dive into the miracle of mRNA https://t.co/fPMCuF1mIu

— Thomas Heath (@addedvalueth) December 5, 2021

The COVID-19 mRNA vaccine is a modern miracle pic.twitter.com/ziixH0q8UU

— Neal Rogers (@nealrogers) November 13, 2021

Everyone seemingly bought in, before this hardly tested, novel technology made its way into the arms of the masses. Stunning infographic videos were created to highlight how exactly this revolutionary technology, a “modern miracle,” would attack and destroy the virus, rendering it helpless to spread among populations that were mRNA vaccinated.

The mRNA superiority narrative continues to this day. At the end of 2021, Time Magazine honored the “vaccine pioneers” behind the mRNA platform as the magazine’s “Heroes of the Year.”

For Pfizer, BioNTech, and Moderna, this relentless praise and positive press was incredibly lucrative. mRNA orders from government customers were flying off the shelves, with countries buying up years worth of supplies in advance, leading to record revenue and profits. Everyone needed access to this “miracle cure,” and government customers were willing to pay big bucks for the supplies.

By all indications, these mRNA shots were a revolutionary game changer. Surely, the data would bear this out in emphatic fashion.

Well, we’re now over one full year into the deployment of the “miracle cure,” and countries that have bought mRNA vaccines in droves cannot demonstrate any discernible difference from nations that decided not to accommodate the mRNA hype.

It did not provide the sterilizing qualities touted by Big Pharma CEOs. Israel, which led the fastest and earliest deployment of mRNA shots, is now staring down an unprecedented 4th dose in a year’s time, and it currently has the highest COVID-19 case rate in the world. As Omicron becomes the world’s ultra dominant variant (with almost every sequenced case in the United States now being reported as Omicron), it is now not clear at all that the shots being sold by pharmaceutical companies provide any benefit at all for Omicron. After only one year, and now 2, 3 or 4 shots deep, depending on where you live, the “miracle cure” doesn’t seem to do anything at all to resolve the continuing virus problem.

On the world stage, the supposed advantage of mRNA is nowhere to be found. It’s very difficult to compare countries, given their different reporting methods. However, given the amazing hype surrounding it, mRNA should be standing out at least to a somewhat noticeable degree. Studies are continuing to reflect the reality that there is no relationship on a global level between particular “vaccinations” and positive outcomes related to COVID-19.

Many are not aware of the fact that China and India, the two biggest countries in the world by population, never adopted the mRNA technology. China is currently using inactivated virus vaccines, while India is mostly using a homemade version of the Astrazeneca viral vector formulation. 

Russia, the world’s 10th most populated country, has also balked on mRNA, and Moscow uses its own “Sputnik” viral vector shot.

There are also no discernible statistical differences between countries with a population that has widely accepted novel COVID-19 vaccinations, and nations where citizens have skipped the injection protocol entirely. 

Throughout the continent of Africa, hardly anyone at all is “vaccinated” with COVID-19 shots, and there remain no reports of a horrific plague making its way through the continent. In Nigeria, the 7th most populated country, only 2.5% of a 211 million strong population is “fully vaccinated.” 

One year into our vaccination campaign, with a reported 10 billion shots in arms, our mRNA “miracle” now seems rather… insignificant. Countries that said no to mRNA ended up with no worse issues than nations that financed tens of billions of dollars in endless supplies of mRNA shots on the backs of their taxpayers. One year into the deployment of this supposed groundbreaking technology, mRNA now seems more mirage than miracle.

Reprinted with permission from The Dossier.
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from What happened to the mRNA 'miracle'?

Americans’ Rejection of Coronavirus Shots Is a Reason for Hope for the Country

For over a year, Americans have been subjected to relentless pressure to take experimental coronavirus “vaccine” shots and, more recently, to even have the shots given to children who have a miniscule risk of becoming seriously sick or dying from coronavirus. The shots are widely available, free for the taking, and nonstop marketed by politicians, government bureaucrats, and people in the media as “safe and effective.” But, many Americans have been smartly rejecting claims pushed on them by...

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from Peace and Prosperity http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/peace-and-prosperity/2022/january/26/americans-rejection-of-coronavirus-shots-is-a-reason-for-hope-for-the-country/

Pentagon Vs. State: Biden Team At War With Itself Over Russia-Ukraine Invasion Narrative

While the US Embassy in Kiev released a statement urging Americans to leave Ukraine due to the threat of a Russian invasion, the Pentagon continues to back down from the scare stories. The government of Ukraine continues to pour cold water on Biden Admin scare stories. Is this whole thing a dangerous propaganda play? Also today: Most expensive US Naval ship can't even defend itself, which countries are most corrupt, and Fairfax County Schools declare war on new Republican governor (and parents) over masks. Today on the Liberty Report:



from Pentagon Vs. State: Biden Team At War With Itself Over Russia-Ukraine Invasion Narrative

Stop the Neocons From Starting a War!

Amid surging tensions over Ukraine, the head of Germany’s navy had the courage to voice Europe’s fears over this totally unnecessary, contrived crisis.

In a speech to an Indian think tank, Vice-admiral Kay-Achim Schonbach proposed the Western powers ‘respect’ Russian leader Vladimir Putin and accept that Crimea would remain in Moscow’s hands.

The German admiral’s remarks produced a major uproar in Washington and tut tuts in Europe where hatred of Russia has become a state fetish. Most aggrieved were the British and Americans who deeply fear an alliance or at least entente between Germany and Russia that might undermine US domination of the continent.

Germany, Europe’s leading military force and mainstay of NATO, has hollowed out its military power. Thanks to unqualified female defense ministers, Germany’s armed forces have degenerated into parade troops. Armor and aircraft, once hallmarks of German military power, have become feeble toys, lacking in munitions, spare parts and capable crews.

Polls show Germans have very little interest in confronting Russia. Memories of World War II are still raw. Today’s Germans live in a nation that was 50% destroyed by US and British bombing. Millions of Germans come from families driven out of eastern Europe.

There is not a lot of sympathy for Ukraine’s current government that was installed by a US-financed and stage-managed coup in 2013-2014. Germany’s US-dominated media and government support Washington’s hard line on Ukraine but many ordinary Germans and French don’t agree.

America’s media and politicians strongly support the military confrontation with Russia, a low-cost way of being loudly patriotic without actually doing anything serious.

Only Poland, the Baltic states and American neocons really hunger for war – provided it is waged by the US. US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, a rising star among the pro-war neocons, is pushing the confrontation with Russia – yet another bureaucrat with no military experience.

Military men quickly understand the logistic and climactic problems of fighting in the Black Sea region, but not Washington’s desk warriors and their European satraps. The US has been unwise to provoke a confrontation with Russia in its backyard. Though Russia has lost much of its Soviet-era military power, it would be a mistake to underestimate its combat capabilities and overestimate those of NATO.

Remember, Napoleon (who was seriously defeated in Russia) prayed ‘oh Lord, if I must go to war, please make it against a coalition.’

Washington’s sofa samurais are playing with fire. The neocons’ latest effort to overthrow President Putin risks backfiring badly by drawing China into the fray and undermining US domination of the continent. Let’s say US-led NATO forces thrash the 106,000 Russian troops around Ukraine’s borders. What then? An advance on Moscow? An assault on Crimea? Might Romania join the war to recover Moldova lost in WWII? Or tiny Finland? The Russians are unlikely to be quivering in their boots. Romanian troops, let’s recall, were defending the flank of Germany’s 6th Army at the Stalingrad disaster.

We are not going to see a rerun of the Great Northern War of the early 1700’s. What we are seeing is the re-birth of Russian power in its traditional sphere of influence. Admiral Schonbach is quite right. Russia will never relinquish Crimea any more than Germany would give over Hamburg or the US cede Baltimore to Cuban control.

Luckily for us, Russia is currently being run by hard men from the old KGB who are experienced and cautious. It is well that they are because Russia has thousands of nuclear weapons pointed at the US and its allies. No one in their right mind should contemplate a nuclear confrontation. Russia has repeatedly made clear that if backed into a corner, it may well use tactical nuclear weapons. China is coming around to the same thinking.

Beaten in Vietnam, Iraq and now Afghanistan, the US is seeking a cheap victory in Ukraine. But the northern rim of the Black Sea is not known for its low-hanging geopolitical fruit. And Russia always surprises.

Mr. Blinken, be cautious lest a hypersonic Russian missile comes flying through your office window.

Reprinted with permission from EricMargolis.com.

from Stop the Neocons From Starting a War!

A Time for Introspection

With the crisis over Ukraine getting bigger by the day, this would be a good time for the American people to engage in some serious introspection, especially given the recent withdrawal of US forces from their forever deadly and destructive war in Afghanistan. 

One option, of course, is to continue business as usual. That’s what is clearly going on today. Congress continues to dole out hundreds of millions of dollars to the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA, the three principal components of the national-security establishment. The Pentagon and the CIA continue to maintain their foreign empire of foreign military bases in different parts of the world, along with their massive empire of domestic military bases. In the meantime, the Pentagon and the CIA have succeeded in reviving their old Cold War racket against China and Russia and continuing their never-ending Cold War racket against North Korea, Cuba, and Venezuela, with North Vietnam no doubt being kept on standby status.

The other option is to put a stop to all this dangerous and destructive mayhem, which necessarily involves changing the United States in two fundamental respects:

First, restore America’s founding foreign policy of non-interventionism. This would entail abandoning all US foreign military bases, including the Pentagon’s and CIA’s torture and prison center at Guantanamo, Cuba, and bringing all US forces home and discharging them into the private sector. In other words, no more foreign empire of military bases, state-sponsored assassinations, kidnappings, coups, wars of aggression, alliances with dictatorial regimes, foreign aid, and regime-change operations. 

Second, restore America’s founding governmental system of a limited-government republic, which necessarily would mean a dismantling of the national-security state form of governmental structure that came into existence after World War II. That means the US government would have a relatively small, basic military force and no more Pentagon, CIA, NSA, and massive military-industrial-congressional complex. 

Today, Americans have a tremendous opportunity to restore these two fundamental founding principles to our country. There is no possibility of any nation-state invading and conquering the United States in the near term. No nation-state, including Russia and China, have the money, armaments, troops, supply lines, ability, or even the interest of crossing the oceans and successfully invading and occupying our nation. This gives us a window of opportunity to restore these two founding principles to our land.

Obviously, the restoration of these two founding principles would not be in the interests of the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA, along with their massive army of “defense” contractors and subcontractors who have long fed at the public trough. It is in their interest that America continue to be besieged by an endless array of foreign-policy crises and an ever-growing list of scary foreign-policy monsters. In that way, they can continue to convince the American people to continue business as usual in foreign affairs. 

That’s what the current crises with China and Russia are all about. It’s what the Cold War was all about. It’s what the current revival of the Cold War is all about. It’s what the 9/11 attacks were all about. It’s what the war on terrorism is all about. It’s what the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq were all about. It’s what the deadly sanctions against Iran, North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, and others are all about. It’s what the trade war against China is all about. As long as the Pentagon and the CIA can continue stirring up crises and chaos around the world, along with an growing and shifting array of official enemies (or opponents, rivals, or adversaries), such as communists, terrorists, Muslims, Iran, Syria, ISIS, China, Russia, Venezuela, and Cuba, they can frighten Americans into continuing business as usual.

Meanwhile, with each new crisis, Americans lose more of their rights and liberties to the national-security establishment. That’s what the USA PATRIOT Act, the NSA’s massive secret surveillance schemes, the power of engaging in state-sponsored torture, assassinations, indefinite detention, and denial of due process of law (including of American citizens), and other violations of civil liberties are all about. 

Fortunately, there is a way out of this statist morass, if Americans want it. The way out is by restoring America’s founding principles of non-interventionism and a limited-government republic. 

That’s the big issue that Americans should be thinking about, reflecting, discussing, and debating right now—not just how to resolve the latest crisis in Ukraine but, more important, how to get our nation back on the road toward liberty, peace, prosperity, and harmony with the people of the world.

Reprinted with permission from Future of Freedom Foundation.

from A Time for Introspection

Secret of ‘Microwave Weapons’ Targeting US Diplomats Revealed

US diplomats and security officials suffering from a spate of unexplained health problems were victims of Russian microwave weapons, we were told time and time again. But now the CIA admits Moscow wasn’t actually behind “Havana Syndrome.” The story fits a disturbingly familiar pattern of misinformation.

With each passing week, the list of discredited allegations against Russia grows and grows. Time and time again, Western governments and the media have sprung into action to inform us of some new evil plot, only to backpedal later when it became clear that there was nothing to it.

Take, for instance, the multi-year saga that was Russiagate, built on the idea that Donald Trump was a Russian agent. There are still some believers, but for the most part people lost interest once it became clear that it was a load of baloney and that the “Steele Dossier” that sparked it off wasn’t worth the paper it was written on.

Then there were the claims that Russia was arming the Taliban, that it had inserted malware into the Vermont electrical grid, that it had bankrolled Brexit via British businessman Arron Banks, and so on. All are now discredited.

Yet the allegations keep on coming. A case in point is the story of Havana Syndrome, which was in the news again this week. For those of you who have missed it, Havana Syndrome is the name given to mysterious symptoms experienced by hundreds of American diplomats and CIA agents around the world, including “headaches, fatigue, hearing and vision loss, severe and debilitating cognitive impairment, tinnitus, brain fog, vertigo, and loss of motor control.” 

Such a wide set of symptoms casts immediate doubt on whether there is a single cause. Nevertheless, speculation soon ran rife that they were all examples of a single “syndrome,” and that American diplomats were being targeted by some sort of unknown microwave emitter designed to fry peoples’ brains.

After examining four possible causes of Havana Syndrome – infection, chemicals, psychological factors, and microwave energy – a US government report concluded that “directed pulse RF [radio frequency] energy… appears to be the most plausible mechanism.” Havana Syndrome was “real, and it is serious,” remarked CIA Director William Burns, adding that there was a “very strong possibility” that it was the result of intentional actions. 

Who might be doing such a thing? In public, US government officials avoided naming names, admitting that they lacked the evidence to do so. In private, however, the finger was pointed firmly at the Russian Federation, a charge rapidly amplified by the international media.

Thus the New York Times reported that officials “familiar with the report” mentioned above said that the country behind the “attacks” was Russia. CIA veteran Lewis Regenstein claimed that Russian/Soviet attacks of this sort had been going on since the 1950s, penning an article for the Washington Times headlined “68 years of Russian microwave radiation attacks on Americans with impunity.” “Russians use ‘secret microwave weapon’ to target American spies across the globe,” claimed The Sun. And so on. The media had made its mind up – Russia was to blame.

Why the Russian secret services might be doing this has never been explained, with some experts speculating that Havana Syndrome was the result of deliberate attacks, and others believing that the harm to humans was an unintended side effect of some scanning machine designed to extract intelligence from diplomats’ electronic devices. Either way, the Russians were responsible, even though not the slightest jot of evidence in support of this thesis has ever been publicly produced.

It didn’t take long, though, for skeptics to come up with other theories. One was that the syndrome was caused by the loud noise made by crickets. Support for this theory later came in a report commissioned by the US State Department that concluded crickets were the most likely culprits in 21 recorded cases. 

Late last year, another theory emerged. Havana Syndrome was “a mass psychogenic illness,” a group of US scientists decided. It was, they said, an example of the “nocebo effect,” the opposite of the placebo effect. In this, expectations of something negative happening to one’s health causes something negative to happen. After the initial incident in Cuba, US diplomats were told to look out for “anomalous health” issues, and as a result they started feeling them. In effect, it was all in their heads.

Whatever the truth, the story of Russian microwave weapons continued to gain traction. But it now seems that even the CIA is having doubts. According to reports this Thursday,

“In a new intelligence assessment, the CIA has ruled out that the mysterious symptoms known as Havana Syndrome are the result of a sustained global campaign by a hostile power aimed at hundreds of US diplomats and spies, six people briefed on the matter told NBC News.

In about two dozen cases, the agency cannot rule out foreign involvement, including many of the cases that originated at the US Embassy in Havana beginning in 2016. Another group of cases is considered unresolved. But in hundreds of other cases of possible symptoms, the agency has found plausible alternative explanations, the sources said. 

The idea that widespread brain injury symptoms have been caused by Russia or another foreign power targeting Americans around the world, either to harm them or to collect intelligence, has been deemed unfounded, the sources said.”

Oh dear! How embarrassing. For sure, there are still a few cases in which the cause of illness remains unknown and so foreign involvement “cannot be ruled out.” But that is hardly evidence for ruling it in. This latest assessment knocks the “Russia done it” narrative for six.

In short, once again we found that we’ve been fed a tissue of lies. By now, we should hardly be surprised, but the whole affair speaks to the credulity of much of our political and media establishment, and to the need for a much more cautious and evidence-based approach to allegations of wrongdoing.

It’s common nowadays to complain of the public’s lack of trust in traditional political and media institutions. One of the reasons for this is that people have become skeptical of the old “gatekeepers” of the truth due to their tendency to shout wolf at every available opportunity. If people believe disinformation coming from newer sources, it’s because they’ve become disenchanted by the misinformation coming from the old ones. The latter are under threat, but they have only themselves to blame.

Reprinted with permission from RT.

from Secret of ‘Microwave Weapons’ Targeting US Diplomats Revealed

Anonymous Officials Claim There's An Evil Russian Plot Again But The Evidence Is Secret Again

Major western news publications are running a story about a sinister plot by the Russian government, and—you may want to sit down for this—the sources of the report are anonymous, and the evidence for it is secret.

The New York Times reports that according to anonymous individuals within the US and British governments, Russia is currently plotting to topple the existing government of Ukraine in some way using some method and then somehow install a puppet regime that is sympathetic to Moscow using some sort of means. What specifically those means and methods might be are not revealed to us in this very serious news report.

"The communiqué provided few details about how Russia might go about imposing a new government on Ukraine, and did not say whether such plans were contingent on an invasion by Russian troops," the Paper of Record informs us. "British officials familiar with the situation, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the intent was both to head off the activation of such plans as well as to put Mr. Putin on notice that this plot had been exposed."

Sounds like Britain has taken what the US actually did to Ukraine in 2014, and rebooted it for Russia. Here's Obama-Biden official Victoria Nuland & then-US Amb. Geoffrey Pyatt privately deciding to install Arseniy Yatsenyuk ("Yats is the guy") as Ukraine's next Prime Minister: https://t.co/PDoXBIY5kM pic.twitter.com/0fTraRMEvl

— Aaron Maté (@aaronjmate) January 22, 2022

Now if you are hoping to be provided with some sort of evidence for these incendiary claims, I'm afraid I'm going to have to disappoint you, because get this: the journalists reporting on this story have not seen any evidence. Apparently they're just passing on unverified government assertions made by unknown spies to their readers because they were told to, which I guess is something journalists can do now?

I know, I know, I was a little surprised when I learned that too. But here it is, straight from the horse's mouth:

"The British communiqué provided no evidence to back up its assertion that Russia was plotting to overthrow the Ukrainian government," the Times reports.

You will be reassured however to learn that despite the actual evidence of the actual Russian nefariousness being kept invisible to us, anonymous officials within the US government have reviewed the intelligence gathered by anonymous British spies for us and concluded on our behalf that the evidence is solid.

"In Washington, officials said they believe the British intelligence is correct. Two officials said it had been collected by British intelligence services," The New York Times informs us.

You see that? These claims about a devious Russian conspiracy have been confirmed by anonymous government operatives in both the US and the UK. That's two separate, completely unconnected governments independently verifying that these claims are true. That's called independent corroboration, gentlesirs. Basically the same as ironclad proof.

This story – which the British government has handed to media outlets – is so fake that it doesn't sound remotely credible to anyone who knows anything about Ukraine.

If Russia were to conjure a scheme like this, Moscow would choose someone from the largest opposition party. https://t.co/9JfyZ6Atb0

— Bryan MacDonald (@27khv) January 23, 2022

It does seem a little strange to me, though, that after taking great license to report anonymous government assertions without evidence The New York Times seems to take issue with the Russian government making unevidenced claims.

"Russian officials have repeatedly denied any intention of launching an attack against Ukraine, dismissing such accusations as 'hysteria' and claiming without providing evidence that it is the government in Kyiv that is seeking to escalate tensions," write the article's authors.

When this report came out I was a bit surprised by the way unproven claims by anonymous government sources are treated as actual news stories for grown adults to read instead of empty nothing stuff to be ignored and flushed down our mental toilet tubes, as I'm sure you were too. But I did a little digging and it turns out that this sort of thing is actually quite commonplace within western news media institutions, like when we were told without evidence that the Russians were plotting a false flag operation in Ukraine, or like when we were told without evidence that the Russians are using high-tech ray guns to scramble the brains of US diplomats and spies and it turned out to be baseless, or like when we were told without evidence that the Russians were paying Afghan resistance fighters to kill western occupying troops and it turned out to be false and wrong, or like when we were told without evidence that Russians interfered in the United States election and it monopolized all news reports and political discourse for years, or like when we were told without evidence for years and years that Russia was about to invade Ukraine any minute now and then it kept not happening.

I'm sure this time is different, though. After all that practice and all that trial and error, I'm sure our trusted news media institutions have perfected their craft and are now masters at reporting the truth.

Reprinted with permission from Caitlin's Newsletter.
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from Anonymous Officials Claim There's An Evil Russian Plot Again But The Evidence Is Secret Again

America’s Most Dangerous Unknown Man

The US Senate will soon vote on Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s nomination to a second term. One of the senators opposing Powell is Elizabeth Warren. I don’t often agree with Senator Warren, but I do agree with her assessment that Powell is “dangerous.” However, Warren actually doesn’t understand what makes Powell, or any Fed chairman, intrinsically dangerous to liberty and prosperity.

Warren thinks Powell is dangerous because she thinks he will not be supportive enough of imposing her desired new regulations on banks and other financial institutions. Senator Warren, like most progressives, clings to a fantastical notion that regulations benefit workers, consumers, and small businesses. The truth is most regulations benefit large corporations by imposing costs that big businesses can easily absorb, but that their smaller competitors cannot.

Powell is a threat to the American people. Under his tenure, the Fed has kept interest rates at or near zero. The Fed’s balance sheet has grown to over eight trillion dollars. This has caused prices to climb at a rate America has not seen in several decades.

At his nomination hearing before the Senate Banking Committee, Powell reiterated the Fed's intention to fight inflation by reducing its monthly 120 billion dollars purchase of Treasury and mortgage-backed securities. Powell also stated that the Fed is planning to increase interest rates this year. However, even if the Fed follows through on this, interest rates will remain at historically low levels.

Powell, like Elizabeth Warren and other progressives, dangerously believes that the Fed should go “woke.” However, Powell is still not “woke” enough for progressives who lobbied President Joe Biden to replace Powell with Fed board member Lael Brainard, the biggest supporter of Elizabeth Warren-style regulations on the Fed board. Brainard is more committed than Powell to using monetary and regulatory policies to advance the “woke” agenda. President Biden did end up nominating Brainard to become vice chairman at the Fed.

A Powell-Brainard Fed would likely use “social and climate justice” as a justification for expanding the Fed’s easy money policies. President Biden has recently nominated Sarah Bloom Raskin to the Fed board, who also has advocated for the Fed to use its power to fight climate change.

A central bank committed to the social justice and climate change agendas will inevitably increase the Fed’s “inflation tax.” Contrary to the claims of some progressives, lower-income Americans are primary victims of this hidden and regressive tax.

Powell prefers to push his rather zealous and extremist philosophies behind the scenes. Thus, not surprisingly, he is a leading opponent of Audit the Fed. Powell claims that bringing transparency to the Fed's conduct of monetary policy would somehow jeopardize the Fed's independence. Powell’s claim is truly fake news. There is nothing in the Audit the Fed bill giving Congress or the executive branch any new power over monetary policy.

Any group of individuals given the power to manipulate the money supply, and manipulate the interest rates that are the price of money, poses a threat to our liberty and prosperity. The solution is not to replace Powell with a “better” Fed chairman, or to force the Fed to follow a “rule” that still allows it to erode the dollar’s value. The only way to protect the people from dangerous individuals like Jerome Powell, Lael Brainard, and the rest of the Fed board is to audit and then end the Fed.

from America’s Most Dangerous Unknown Man

Biden's Ukrainian Albatross

Then-Secretary of State Colin Powell is given credit for popularizing the "Pottery Barn" rule of foreign policy. Though he denies using that exact phrase, in arguing against what became the disastrous 2003 US attack on Iraq Powell made the point that, as in Pottery Barn, "if you break it, you own it."

Bush and his neocons - ironically with the help of Colin Powell himself - did indeed break Iraq and the American people as a result "owned" Iraq for the subsequent 22 years (and counting). It was an idiotic war and, as the late former NSA chief Gen. Bill Odom predicted, turned out to be "the greatest strategic disaster in American history."

Attacking and destroying Iraq - and executing its leader - not only had no value in any conceivable manner to the United States, it had negative value. In taking responsibility for Iraq's future, the US government obligated the American people to pick up the tab for a million ransacked Pottery Barns.

There was no way out. Only constant maneuvering and manipulation to desperately demonstrate the impossible -  that the move had any value or even made any sense.

So it is with Ukraine. In 2014 the Obama/Biden Administration managed to finish what Bush's neocons started a decade before. With the US-backed overthrow of the Ukrainian government that year, the US came to "own" what no one in their right mind would ever seek: an economic basket case of a country with a political/business class whose corruption is the stuff of legend.

Rather than admit what a colossal blunder the whole thing had been, the US foreign policy establishment doubled down.

"Oh, this might be a neat tool to overthrow our own election: let's pretend Trump is Putin's agent!"

In fact Trump was impeached because a certain Col. Alexander Vindman - himself of Ukrainian origin and doing the bidding of a Ukrainian government installed by Washington - solemnly testified to Adam Schiff and his Democrat colleagues in charge of the House that Trump was clearly Putin's puppet because his lack of enthusiasm for continuing to "own" Ukraine went against "the Inter-Agency Consensus."

We "own" Ukraine and there is no way back - at least if the US foreign policy establishment has its way.

That is why our hapless State Department today continues to peddle the fiction that Russia is about to invade - and thus "own" - Ukraine. US foreign policy is one of projection: accuse your rivals of doing what you yourself are doing. No sane country would want to "own" Ukraine. Except the Beltway Think Tank class, thoroughly infused with military-industrial complex money.

That is why the US government, though its Embassy in Kiev, is bragging about the arrival of $200 million in lethal aid, all pointed directly at Russia.

That is why the US State Department is maintaining the fiction that Russia is about to launch a ground war to occupy Ukraine by dramatically announcing an "evacuation" of all "non-essential personnel" from its Embassy in Kiev.

It's just too bad that we don't share the opinion of who are really "non-essential" State Department personnel in Kiev: the last person out could be asked to turn off the lights.

By overthrowing an elected government in Kiev in 2014, the US government disenfranchised millions of voters in eastern Ukraine who voted for the overthrown president. Those voters unsurprisingly came to view the US-installed regime as illegitimate and sought self-rule under the concept of self-determination. As ethnic Russians, many of these successfully sought Russian passports.

Russia has been clear for a long time about Ukraine: it will not allow an armed invasion of eastern Ukraine that would result in the deaths of thousands of Russian citizens. Were the shoe on the other foot, the US - and any country - could be expected to react the same way.

The US is nearly the last country on earth that still holds to the WWII-era concept of war for territorial gain. Russia wants to "own" Ukraine like most people want to "own" a 2003 Saturn. That is why despite neocon/neo-liberal hype, magnified by the lock-step US media, Russia is not about to invade Ukraine.

This fantasy is being pushed by those who desperately need to continue to gin up enthusiasm for a thoroughly idiotic and counterproductive imperial enterprise.

Biden while vice president sowed the regime change winds in Ukraine. Now his inept Administration will reap the whirlwind of that continuing train wreck and eventual dissolution of the country. No matter what Antony Blinken peddles to the contrary.

Even the comedian Zelensky knows this is a really bad joke.

from Biden's Ukrainian Albatross

'I Ain’t Dying in the Ukraine'

Less than a week after the US claimed they had intel which showed that Russia was planning a false-flag operation in order to induce a conflict with Ukraine, the Ukrainian self-proclaimed state known as the Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR), which has received assistance from Russia in the past, is now accusing the US of planning a false-flag operation of their own. 

Both accusations are similar, accusing the other side of using commandos to commit acts of terrorism in order to instigate a conflict. The accusation coming from the DNR seems baseless due to there not being any proof for their claims. As for the US’s accusations however, they do not make sense. “Ukraine is the poorest and most corrupt country in Europe, that’s before it’s been bombed…so if it’s bombed it’s going to be in even worse shape. So Russia inherits an absolute nightmare. What’s that going to do to Putin’s popularity at home?... He got back Crimea without bloodshed at all, and that boosted his popularity. If he goes into Ukraine, just for the fun of it, and loses a few thousand Russians and inherits this huge, messed up, worthless country…there’ll be no benefit.” said Daniel McAdams on the Ron Paul Liberty Report. 

While the DNR’s accusations may seem baseless, what is to be made of the US’s accusations? It is shocking that the US is now admitting false-flags are real, since they have denied their planning of and participation in them throughout America’s history. History should show, however, that their accusations are not to be trusted and there is something deceiving behind them. Keep in mind too, there are many Islamic extremists residing in Russia who very well may have received CIA training and may be keen to US intel they plan to act on, so there is some more weight to the possibility that the US may be planning their own false-flag event.

What does the US have to gain from a conflict in Ukraine? Well, with the virus narrative crumbling in front of their eyes the government needs something they can use to justify keeping and expanding their control over the citizenry. This conflict has the potential of turning into an all out war, perhaps even World War 3 given the US and Russia’s respective allies. War is the healthline of the state, and a war on this level would allow them to justify any kind of control they want over us. 

The warmongers in Washington had a moment of panic this week, however. 

From the New York Post: 

President Biden blundered during his White House news conference Wednesday by saying that Russia’s military “will be able to prevail over time” if it launches an invasion of Ukraine — moments after suggesting that a “minor incursion” by Moscow on Kiev’s territory may see a less severe response from Washington and its NATO allies…Biden was asked by Alex Alper of Reuters to clarify his “minor incursion” comment.

'Are you saying that a minor incursion by Russia into Ukrainian territory would not lead to the sanctions that you have threatened or are you effectively giving Putin permission to make a small incursion into the country?' Alper asked.

After initially responding that 'big nations can’t bluff,' the president doubled down on his initial statement, saying: 'The question is, if it’s something significantly short of a significant invasion — or not even significant, just major military forces coming across. For example, it’s one thing to determine that if they continue to use cyber efforts, well, we could respond the same way, with cyber.'

“But it’s very important that we keep everyone in NATO on the same page,” Biden went on before acknowledging that “there are differences” among the allies about what their response to a Russian invasion should be.

The RINO’s were quick to complain that Biden was not hawkish enough for their liking:

Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) tweeted that he was “deeply troubled” by Biden’s “minor incursion” comment, saying it was “the wrong way to view this threat.”

Any Russian military incursion into Ukraine should be viewed as a major one that could likely destabilize Ukraine and Europe,” Portman added.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) was more blunt, tweeting that the president had “just green-lighted Putin to invade Ukraine.”

Biden’s caretakers were quick to rush in and clarify he has not stopped beating the war drum yet:

White House press secretary Jen Psaki later rushed out a statement saying that Biden “has been clear with the Russian President: If any Russian military forces move across the Ukrainian border, that’s a renewed invasion, and it will be met with a swift, severe, and united response from the United States and our Allies. 

“President Biden also knows from long experience that the Russians have an extensive playbook of aggression short of military action, including cyberattacks and paramilitary tactics,” Psaki added. “And he affirmed today that those acts of Russian aggression will be met with a decisive, reciprocal, and united response.”

A big deal was made out of this when there should not have been any worry at all from the warmongers. Everyone knows Biden is slowly deteriorating mentally in front of all of America’s eyes. It is sad and makes one wonder why he was made one of the New World Order’s main puppets through a stolen election if he is so incompetent of even acting the part. However, that does not mean the war drum has or will stop beating.

In the same presser, Biden remarked that he had already given “over $600 million worth of sophisticated equipment, defensive equipment to the Ukrainians.”

The US leans towards one path, and it is not a path of peace. Victoria Nuland, who orchestrated the US-led coup in Ukraine in 2014, and who is now Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, hinted about the 18 “different scenarios” the US has planned to use against Russia if they attack Ukraine in any way. “I’m not going to preview 18 different scenarios ... I would simply say that our commitment and the conversation that we have with our allies is around inflicting very sharp pain very fast, if Russia makes this move in any form,” Nuland said.

The same woman who helped set the history in motion to lead us to this potential conflict between Ukraine and Russia (that could easily become something bigger) is now helping call the shots in the US’s plans surrounding this situation. Do you believe in coincidences?

While there is no telling what will end up happening, the American people should be ready to protest and resist the next war before it happens. It will not do our country any good losing more American lives or letting the government spend and debase our money. It will fill those in government and the military-industrial complex’s pockets, and help them grow in power.

One should also consider the irony in the US criticizing Russia for setting up troops along their own border. After all, the Russian military is still in its own country, unlike the US which has bases all over the world. Also, why does a democrat administration suddenly care about borders? And why are they not seeming to care about our own?

All these contradictions in our politics and government are quite confusing, but one message should be clear: going to wars that induce international mergers because of foreign entanglements is not putting America first. War in general breeds nothing but destruction and gives the state more power. There is no good in it.

To make sense of all the contradictions, just start by knowing this: the US has conducted false-flag events and has had intel they chose not to act on or chose to take advantage of, in order to launch wars they had planned well in advance, and you should not put it past them to do it again. 

 If you believe in peace and have hope for prosperity, it is time you realize this truth and spread this message across the land, before it is too late.

Reprinted with permission from The Societal Scope.

from 'I Ain’t Dying in the Ukraine'

Unmask America

Enough is enough. It is time to stop wearing masks, or at the very least to eliminate mask mandates in all settings. 

This is especially urgent for children in schools and universities, who suffer the effects of masks for long hours each day despite being at exceedingly low risk for death or serious illness from covid.

We have a responsibility, once and for all, to reject the ludicrous, ever-shifting narratives underpinning masks as effective impediments to the spread of covid infections.

Seriously people—STOP BUYING MASKS! They are NOT effective in preventing general public from catching #Coronavirus 

—former US Surgeon General Jerome Adams in February 2020. 

The story changed from "masks don't work," to "masks may work," to "masks work and you must wear one." Now the narrative switches yet again: "cloth masks don't work, so you should wear a surgical or 'well-fitted' mask," or even wear two!

Note that even as covid evolves into a less dangerous omicron variant, we are supposed to increase the hysteria level by wearing masks intended for surgeons maintaining a sterile environment over open wounds. We are told this by the same political, medical, and media figures who have been "frequently wrong but never in doubt" about all things covid over the past two long years. And they spoke with just as much bogus certainty then as they do now.

Perversely, the Biden administration recently ordered 400 million surgical N95 masks for distribution across the country. Since N95 masks are considered disposable, and meant to be worn at most perhaps 40 hours, it is unclear what happens in a week or two when 330 million Americans run out of their "free" personal protective equipment.

The UK has sensibly ended its mask mandates, both in public places (offices and other workplaces, bars, restaurants, sporting events, theaters) and thankfully schools. One young university student broke down in tears at the news, lamenting the inhumanity of her experience over the past two years. As British Health secretary Savid Javid stated, "We must learn to live with covid in the same way we live with flu."

Amen.

The arguments against masks are straightforward.

Masks don't work. Or at least cloth masks don't.

Even the CDC now admits what Dr. Anthony Fauci told the world in February 2020: cloth masks don't work and there is no reason to wear one: 

The typical mask you buy in the drug store is not really effective in keeping out virus, which is small enough to pass through material. It might, however, provide some slight benefit in keep out gross droplets if someone coughs or sneezes on you.

I do not recommend that you wear a mask, particularly since you are going to a very low risk location.

CNN's dubious medical expert Dr. Lena Wen, previously an uber-masker, now tells us cloth masks are "little more than facial decorations. And heroic skeptic Dr. Jay Bhattacharya cites both a Danish study and a Bangladeshi study which found cloth masks show little efficacy in preventing covid. 

Are we seriously prepared to wear tight and uncomfortable surgical masks all day to evade omicron?

Masks are filthy.

Humans lungs and our respiratory system are designed to inhale nitrogen and oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is literally a waste product, removed from the blood via our lungs. Masks may not trap injurious levels of carbon dioxide against our nose and mouth, but they certainly get filthy very quickly unless changed constantly. They also encourage mouth breathing, which can cause "mask mouth" symptoms including acne, bad breath, tender gums, and lip irritation.

Why would we ever interfere with natural breathing unless we felt sick, displayed symptoms, and were worried about infecting others? And in that case, why not just stay home?

Masks are dehumanizing.

Humans communicate verbally and nonverbally, and masks impede both forms. Masks muffle and distort our words. Our facial expressions are important cues to everyone around us; without those cues communication and understanding suffer. Infants and toddlers may be most affected, as a lack of facial engagement with parents and loved ones impedes the human connections and attachments formed during childhood.

Perhaps most disturbing, however, are the symbolic effects when millions of Americans dutifully wear masks based on flimsy evidence provided by deeply unimpressive people. Facelessness--the lack of individual identity, personality, and looks-- is inherently dehumanizing and dystopian. Like prison or military uniforms, masks reduce our personal characteristics. Mask are muzzles, symbols of rote acquiescence to an ugly new normal nobody asked for or voted for.

Risk is inevitable.

Risk is omnipresent, and heavily subjective (e.g., covid risk varies enormously with age and comorbidities). Nobody has a right to force interventions like masks onto others, just as nobody has a right to a hypothetical germ-free landscape. Exhalation is not aggression, short of purposefully attempting to sicken others. People wearing masks arguably shed slightly fewer covid virus particles than those not, but this does not justify banning the latter from public life. As always, the overwhelming burden of justification for any intervention—including mask mandates—must rest on those proposing it, not those opposing it. 

In sum, Americans are not children. Tradeoffs are part of every policy, whether government officials admit this or not. We know how to coexist with flu, just as we live with countless bacteria and viruses in our environment. We will similarly coexist with covid. The goal is not to eliminate germs, and zero covid is an absurdity. A healthy immune system, built up through diet, exercise, and sunlight will always be the best frontline defense against communicable disease. But diet, exercise, and sunlight cannot be outsourced to health officials or mandated by politicians.

Whatever slight benefits masks may provide are a matter for individuals to decide for themselves. People who feel sick with symptoms should stay home. We can all wash our hands frequently and thoroughly. Otherwise it is time for Americans to assert themselves against the dubious claims and non-existent legality of government covid measures. 

It is time to get back to normal life, and that starts with visible human faces.

Reprinted with permission from Mises.org.

from Unmask America

Judge Enjoins President Biden’s Vaccine Mandate for US Government Employees

On Friday, another of President Joe Biden’s national vaccine mandates was ruled against by a federal judge. Judge Jeffrey Vincent Brown of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas issued a preliminary injunction against the United States government implementing or enforcing Biden’s mandate that US government employees take experimental coronavirus “vaccine” shots. Read here Brown’s Friday decision issuing the preliminary injunction in the case of Feds for Medical...

Read the full report by clicking the title, below...

from Peace and Prosperity http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/peace-and-prosperity/2022/january/21/judge-enjoins-president-biden-s-vaccine-mandate-for-us-government-employees/

American Airlines throws face mask hissy fit

An American Airlines plane headed to London was more than hour into its flight when its pilot decided to turn around and head back to the departure point, Miami, because a female passenger declined to wear a face mask.

What a petty, unnecessary move.

On top of that, the airline then canceled the flight, screwing over 129 passengers who were told to exit, stage right, the plane in Miami, alongside the woman.

And now American Airlines is patting itself on the back for a job well done.

“We thank our crew for their professionalism and apologize to our customers for the inconvenience,” the airline said in a statement.

American, no doubt, is hiding behind the January 2021 announcement from the Federal Aviation Administration of a “zero tolerance” policy for unruly passenger behavior — defined by this coronavirus crazed government we now have in place in the United States as anyone who dares disobey the government dictates. And plenty in America, too many in America, are probably on the side of the airline, saying American was just doing its job to keep passengers safe; American was just abiding the mandates put in place by the Joe Biden presidency; American was just simply trying to keep the peace and make sure all passengers were treated equally, fairly, equitably, safely, securely. Yada, yada, yada. Yawn, yawn, yawn.

Enough.

Enough of the pretend care and concern on the part of businesses toward customers — care and concern that manifests in outright tyrannical crackdowns on freedoms and choice of customers. And all the sheep bleat, “But nobody made this women fly! Nobody forced her to take a plane! She knew the rules; she broke the rules!”

Let’s remember: these rules aren’t so much rules as fabricated dictates by overreaching bureaucrats. In America, law and order is supposed to guide, not government orders. Legislators are supposed to pass laws based on voters’ wills — and two-plus years into this pandemic, America has yet to see a federally passed law about face masking.

We’re all still living under executive orders that were created out of fear and that continue on because of fear, bad science and the political exploitation of bad science.

Besides, with American Airlines, there’s this consideration: the multibillion-dollar bailout it received, courtesy taxpayers. 

“American Airlines said it would receive $5.8 billion as part of the [bailout deal], with more than $4 billion in the form of grants and the remaining $1.7 billion as a low-interest loan,” The New York Times wrote in March, 2021. “The airline also plans to apply for a nearly $4.8 billion loan from [the government].”

It wasn’t just American; a total of $79 billion went to several different airlines whose executives cried wolf about dwindling revenues due to the coronavirus economic shutdowns. But American took a lion’s share. That — so American could turn around and cancel hundreds of flights due to staffing issues, while taking big tax bucks. That — so American’s CEO, Doug Parker, could turn around and rake in $10 million plus in compensation while taking big tax bucks.

And now that — so American can climb high and mighty and throw a hissy fit to boot a passenger for refusing to wear a face mask.

If airlines are going to take tax dollars, they better treat tax paying passengers like the employers they then become. Instead of booting this woman for refusing to comply with an unconstitutional demand from public servants, i.e., the political class, American Airlines ought to have extended her a red carpet for keeping the company in business. Biting the hand that feeds never ends well.

Reprinted with author's permission from Washington Times.

from American Airlines throws face mask hissy fit

State Dept. to Americans: Only Watch Pro-War News!

Jan. 21 - I just finished doing an interview on RT International about a new US State Department report on "Russia's Disinformation and Propaganda Ecosystem." I expect the black SUVs to be rolling into my driveway here in Lake Jackson any minute. I wish that were a joke, but these days you never know. An American foreign policy expert friend of mine who for many years wrote a column in a publication that the US government deemed "Russia-connected" got a visit from the FBI (in black cars) warning him of serious consequences should he continue to share his views on that particular outlet. So much for that old US embrace of the free press and media pluralism!

So tonight, as is par for the course, on the eve of renewed US/Russia talks in Geneva the US side feels compelled to drop a stink bomb on the party, like a dog marking his territory. This one comes in the form of a new report on how evil and dangerous are RT and Sputnik, two Russia-affiliated alternative news outlets.

I had a half hour to plow through the 30-ish page report before I went live, so I tried to hone in on any legitimate criticism. Had RT and Sputnik been making up false stories? Nope. No mention of that. Are they reporting in any manner outside of accepted journalistic practices? Nope. Have they been peddling disproven conspiracy theories, like four years of US mainstream media fake conspiracies about Russiagate? Nope. 

So, as our older readers might remember that old ad slogan, "where's the beef"?

 Well...Antony Blinken's State Department is furious because according to one study Americans who watch RT don't seem as susceptible to US government's pro-interventionist propaganda.

As the State Department report puts it:

One recent study reported that American consumers exposed to RT content are more likely than those not exposed to prefer that the United States withdraw from its global leadership position, even when the consumers are aware that RT is funded by the Russian government.


Oh noes! Some Americans dare to not prefer a "global leadership position" for the US government! Some Americans may not prefer the largest military budget on the planet, troops in 150 foreign countries, endless US-backed color revolutions, the murder of foreign leaders, and 20 year occupations in wars that are lost by everyone except the US military-industrial-Congressional-think tank-complex!

 But if the State Department thinks it is dealing with just a handful of Ron Paul supporters, they are victims of their own circular thinking and mirror-imaging. As I said in the interview, according to a December, 2021 YouGov/Koch Institute poll, some 73 percent of Americans actually prefer that the US government "withdraw from its global leadership position."

Are 73 percent of Americans "anti-American" as defined by the State Department? Maybe the State Department is wrong instead of the 73 percent of Americans who pay their salaries!

The other big beef the State Department has with RT and Sputnik is that they accuse the networks of taking a position in favor of Russian government positions on foreign policy. Whoa, they got me there. Good thing the US media is always out there opposing Washington's endless interventionism! If we non-interventionists didn't have the mainstream media - and especially US government-funded VOA and RFE/RL - on our side, I don't know what we'd do!

Of course all US mainstream media networks - including those catering to conservatives like Fox News - take the US government position on foreign policy, with extremely few exceptions. Even the otherwise very watchable Tucker Carlson will criticize US government aggressive policies toward Russia not because they are dumb policies...but because that aggression should be focused on China!!!!

The American media, like the US government it serves, is obsessed with enemies. Enemies sell. Enemies get views and clicks. That's all that counts. They condition Americans to think of the entire rest of the world as desperate to destroy our way of life and drain our precious bodily fluids.

As Ron Paul said in his latest column, "It’s all fun and games until the missiles start flying."

The State Department report also points to the close ties between Russian media figures and the Russian government. Seriously? Have they watched the US mainstream media lately? As Australian writer Caitlin Johnstone put it not long ago, "The CIA Used To Infiltrate The Media. Now The CIA Is The Media." Additionally, US journalist Matt Taibbi gives us a partial list of US intelligence agents who went on to serve their masters in the US mainstream media.

Has the State Department not noticed how many senior US Administration officials of both parties went on to senior and high-paid positions with US mainstream media outlets? Surely they need to get out more.

As with everything coming out of the US Administration (and the ones before it), US foreign policy is best defined as one of projection. They claim that others are doing precisely that which they themselves are doing. This report is no different.

But we should all reserve some righteous anger for our own government believing us to be so stupid and ignorant that a few minutes of watching RT - or maybe even reading Caitlin Johnstone or Matt Taibbi or Glenn Greenwald - will turn us into Manchurian candidates out to do the bidding of a 1950s era global menace waiting to turn us all into slithering communist salamanders. Shame on them!

from State Dept. to Americans: Only Watch Pro-War News!

The danger of the momentum behind N95 respirators

Were the cloth masks just for psychological training purposes to get us to the main course of obsequious servitude to the gods of Fauci?

It took nearly two years, but the “public health experts” are finally admitting what industrial hygienists knew from day one: Masks do not work against airborne viruses. Yet rather than immediately remove these draconian restrictions – including masking 2-year-olds on airplanes and schoolchildren for hours on end in many states – they are seamlessly gliding into the new position of promoting N95 respirators. Following the inveterate patterns of the past two years, they use the failure of their first position to their advantage to further panic people into blindly following their next recommendation ... until that becomes a mandate as well.

On Jan. 2, former FDA administrator Scott Gottlieb, the media’s go-to “expert” on all things pandemic, admitted what we all knew since 2020 but that got us banned from social media for saying so. “Cloth masks aren't going to provide a lot of protection, that's the bottom line,” said Gottlieb on Meet the Press. “This is an airborne illness. We now understand that, and a cloth mask is not going to protect you from a virus that spreads through airborne transmission.”

Well, some of us knew that early on in the pandemic.

Two days later, the New York Times ran an article telling people where to get N95s, states began mailing out N95 variations, and the CDC put out a new message, which between the lines, gives the impression that if you are not wearing an N95, you don’t really have protection. The Biden administration plans to distribute millions of them to local pharmacies. But is there really any evidence that the same people who were wrong about masks are now suddenly connected to God’s word when it comes to respirators? And who says it is safe for people to wear something like that for long periods of time, which until now required rigorous testing, medical exams, and training?

Yes, N95s, unlike masks, actually meet the standard for PPE in hazardous environments. But for which sort of hazard? Not an airborne respiratory virus. Stephen Petty, a certified industrial hygienist and hazardous exposure expert, sent me a copy of an N95 usage label made by 3M that he enlarged into an infographic. It turns out the company's own disclosure blows up the myth of using an N95 for viral protection.

The label confirms what everyone understood prior to the mask mania of COVID: Neither masks nor N95 respirators can stop aerosols, certainly not viral ones, which are much smaller than bacteria. What's truly revealing is that the label recommends against relying on them for source protection even against asbestos particles, which are on average 5 microns – 50 times larger than SARS-CoV-2 virions.

A large randomized controlled trial published just months before the discovery of SARS-CoV-2 — before masking became a political and social control tool — showed no benefit to N95s over surgical masks in terms of protection against the flu. "Among outpatient health care personnel, N95 respirators vs medical masks as worn by participants in this trial resulted in no significant difference in the incidence of laboratory-confirmed influenza," concluded the authors of the large trial, published in JAMA on Sept. 3, 2019.

Also, remember, that most people are not wearing sealed N95s. They wear the respirators loosely on their faces as they do surgical masks. Also, many of them are the Chinese version KN95s. Even the CDC admits, “About 60% of KN95 respirators NIOSH evaluated during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 did not meet the requirements that they intended to meet.”

Fair use excerpt. Read the rest here.

from The danger of the momentum behind N95 respirators

Is Biden Admin Provoking Russian Attack On Ukraine For Political Gain?

There's nothing like a nice little war to rescue sagging popularity ratings and Biden's approval is deep underwater. So is the plan to urge Ukraine to provoke Russia to attack? Republicans will cheer and Democrats will cheer. Only the dead will fail to cheer. Also today: Czech drops vax mandate, Starbucks drops vax mandate, Carhartt...insists on Vax mandate! Watch today's Liberty Report:



from Is Biden Admin Provoking Russian Attack On Ukraine For Political Gain?

America’s Secret Government Crisis

America’s founding generation believed that an informed citizenry was vital to the survival of the Republic. Writing to theologian and philosopher Richard Price on January 8, 1789, Thomas Jefferson observed with satisfaction how his countrymen had come to largely embrace the new constitutional form of government just recently adopted.

“A sense of this necessity, and a submission to it,” Jefferson told Price, “is to me a new and consolatory proof that wherever the people are well informed they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.”

But what if that same government takes deliberate, calculated steps to try to ensure that the public is not well informed about the government’s own actions, especially those carried out under a legal cloak of secrecy?

Over 200 years after Jefferson’s missive to Price, the United States now has a sprawling national security bureaucracy that has created tens of millions of classified documents. In 2017 alone (the last year for which figures are available), federal employees created some 50 million classified records. Estimated cost to you, the taxpayer? Around $18 billion.

What’s worse is that many of the classified records created since World War I (when the US government classification system essentially began) – tens of millions of pages – remain classified to this day, out of the reach of the public, historians, journalists and others interested in understanding the totality of America’s history. Here are some examples, based on just the last six years of my own research at the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) and from using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

Martin Luther King, Jr.: According to National Archives locator documents I examined, at least 17,000 pages of material on King remain classified to this day, over 50 years after his murder by James Earl Ray.

Frank Wilkinson: Founder of the National Committee to Abolish the House Un-American Activities Committee, Wilkinson’s file is over 130,000 pages and would take years to review and release, according to an August 2019 email exchange I had with a NARA archivist.

TALON/CIFA programs: The Department of Defense’s Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA) and the Threat and Local Observation Notice (TALON) report program were major sources of controversy during George W. Bush’s presidency, as they targeted domestic dissidents opposed to the Iraq War. According to the G.W. Bush Presidential Library, there are potentially over 60,000 pages of relevant records on CIFA and TALON that, per January 2022 letters to me from NARA officials, will take anywhere from 12 to 20 years to process and release.

Operation VULGAR BETRAYAL: A massive and illegitimately predicated FBI counterterrorism investigation of Arab and Muslim Americans dating from the mid-1990s through the early 2000s, which a November 23, 2021 FBI letter to author revealed that the Bureau has at least 1,290,010 pages of records potentially responsive” to the Cato Institute’s FOIA request.

Since the Bureau will never release more than 500 pages per month to a FOIA requester, absent the rare order from a federal judge, it would take 215 years for Cato to receive all the records.

Existing federal agency and department records review and release polices practically ensure that requesters will be either very old or long dead before the mountain of previously secret government records they seek see the light of day. And while federal courts could compel agencies and departments to produce the records at a far faster rate, they rarely do. The effect is to keep the public in the dark about lots of potentially dirty deeds done in secret, in their name, at taxpayer expense.

The late Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY), who co-chaired the Clinton-era Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy, wrote in his 1998 book Secrecy (pp. 216-217) that “Eighty years from the onset of secrecy as an instrument of national policy, now is the time for a measure of definition and restraint.”

We are now over 100 years into the American Age of Secrecy, with even fewer restraints on the federal government’s ability to keep its citizens in the dark about what it is doing secretly in the name of national security. The commission Moynihan led proposed legislation to address the problem, but in the author’s view it still left entirely too much discretion to executive branch officials about what, why, and for how long a given document could be classified.

It’s important to remember that the Constitution only mentions secrecy once, and not in connection with the executive branch but Congress – Article I, Section 5. Congress was the original arbiter of what should or should not be kept from the public, and if America’s governmental secrecy sickness is to be cured, it must reclaim that leading role.

Any secrecy reduction legislation must do, at a minimum, several key things.

First, it should be a felony to classify a document to conceal waste, fraud, abuse, negligence, mismanagement, criminal conduct, or anything deemed “embarrassing” to the executive branch entity.

Second, in no case should a record remain classified unless it deals with current or projected military operations; cryptologic systems in active use by the United States or a foreign power; an active, ongoing, and legitimately predicated criminal investigation; the need to protect a current, confidential human source; or maters dealing with an ongoing treaty negotiation process.

Third, it should repeal existing, sweeping agency- or department specific legal carve outs that allow those governmental entities to withhold entire bodies of information.

Fourth, the Government Accountability Office should be given the mandate and the resources to monitor, on an annual basis, executive branch compliance with the statute.

Finally, the new law should apply to the operations of House and Senate committees, many of which deal with classified issues on a daily basis.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, neither the House or Senate Intelligence Committees had sent a single one of their records to NARA for review and release, according to NARA officials with whom I spoke. If the American people are ever to know whether or not Congress is doing a proper job of preventing executive branch overreach on secrecy, it should open its own records for public inspection.

Jefferson’s vision of an informed citizenry holding its government accountable will only be realized when government secrecy becomes the exception, not the rule.

Reprinted with permission from Antiwar.com.

from America’s Secret Government Crisis