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Neoliberal war on reality

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false" ~ CIA Director William Casey (attributed)

"Empire of illusions": The  triumph of entertainment and fake news under neoliberalism

News Elite [Dominance] Theory And the Revolt of the Elite Recommended Links Media as a weapon of mass deception Lewis Powell Memo Deception as an art form
Groupthink Disciplined Minds Belief-coercion in high demand cults Fake News scare and US NeoMcCartyism Conspiracy theory label as a subtle form of censorship Discrediting the opponent as favorite tactic of neoliberals
Neoliberal newspeak US and British media are servants of security apparatus British elite hypocrisy Anti-Russian hysteria in connection emailgate and DNC leak Anti Trump Hysteria Pathological Russophobia of the US elite
Corruption of the language Doublespeak Patterns of Propaganda Diplomacy by deception War propaganda Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle
Inside "democracy promotion" hypocrisy fair Patterns of Propaganda Bullshit as MSM communication method Manipulation of the term "freedom of press" Identity politics as divide and conquer The Guardian Slips Beyond the Reach of Embarrassment
Color revolutions Co-opting of the Human Rights to embarrass governments who oppose neoliberalism Democracy as a universal opener for access to natural resources What's the Matter with Kansas Understanding Mayberry Machiavellians  
Neo-fascism Nation under attack meme Nineteen Eighty-Four Manufactured consent Groupthink Big Uncle is Watching You
Who Shot down Malaysian flight MH17? Ukraine: From EuroMaidan to EuroAnschluss Pussy Riot Provocation and "Deranged Pussy Worship Syndrome" MSM Sochi Bashing Rampage Is national security state in the USA gone rogue ? Totalitarian Decisionism & Human Rights: The Re-emergence of Nazi Law
Soft propaganda Classic Papers Media Ownership Propaganda Quotes Humor Etc

"The truth is that the newspaper is not a place for information to be given, rather it is just hollow content, or more than that, a provoker of content. If it prints lies about atrocities, real atrocities are the result."

Karl Kraus, 1914

WAR IS PEACE. FREEDOM IS SLAVERY. IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH

1984

We are the world, we are exceptional, we cannot fail. The elite will lie, and the people will pretend to believe them. Heck about 20 percent of the American public will believe almost anything if it is wrapped with the right prejudice and appeal to passion. Have a pleasant evening.

jessescrossroadscafe.blogspot.com, Feb 04, 2015


Introduction

Controlling the narrative is how society operate -- it is a tool for preserving the society cohesion. Which is a good thing, unless the price is too high. If the question of controlling the narrative arise, that means  that the elite became too detached from the regular people ("let them eat cakes" situation), and there are cracks in the society facade, like now there are obvious cracks in neoliberals facade. They are patched with lies and distortions. In this sense Russiagate is a completely natural reaction  on the US neoliberal elite on the loss of legitimacy (which actually happened in 2008 and only accelerated under Trump) -- an attempt to find a scapegoat for the society ills. And such strategy works until it does not.  In this sense Trump provided to be a huge wrecking ball that created more cracks on the facade of neoliberal society and this is one of the few positive things about its administration.

In such cases the elite usually resort to policies which in the USA are called McCarthyism: attempt to smear and suppress dissidents claiming that they are associated with the particular (presented as hostile like Russia today, or really hostile like the USSR was) power.

While MSM supporting the "Party line" are masquerading as independent new outlets for all practical purposes they serve as an extension of the USA intelligence agencies and the State Department. This is especially visible in the area of foreign policy and the most contentious US internal issues like the question of the integrity of the recent US Presidential elections.

Correlation with the foreign power policies might  be actually accidental if this particular power "see future deeper" as unforgettable  Madeline "Not So Bright" Allbright quipped. For example, now RT coverage does undermine the US foreign policy. We need only decide whether this is a good or bad thing and whether the US imperial policies are good for American people, or only for large transnational corporations. I think Tucker Carlson also undermines the US foreign policy and as such you can find a correlation between his positions and RT position. Now what ?

In such case elite presents association with the foreign power as the "politically correct" reason for suppression. Which is a blatant hypocrisy. But that's how all societies work and in this sense there is nothing special in the fact that dissident voices are suppressed. In middle ages heretics were burned at the stake. They were send to the GULAG in the USSR.   If you are a dissident you fate in most societies are far from rosy.

The current situation in the USA is interesting because neoliberalism is definitely on the decline and as such represent now (unlike say 10 year ago) a rich target of attacks. And as the USA imperial power which it acquired since WWII, and expanded after collapse of the USSR is starting to collapse. Attempt to preserve the neoliberal empire necessitates the attack on dissidents, as dissidents usually undermine the legitimacy of the US foreign policy and ask inconvenient questions about neoliberal elite handing of foreign and domestic affairs.  The real question about dissidents is what alternative the particular dissident outlet proposes -- the return to the New Deal Capitalism in some form or shape, or new socialist experiment is some form of shape, or some far-right utopia.

We all agree that neoliberalism with its unlimited rule of financial oligarchy and lowering of the standard of living of lower 80% of population is bad and probably will self-destruct like Bolshevism in the past. But the real question is what social order will replace it ?  It this is a some variant of neo-fascism you might regret its destruction.

Meanwhile the US became "an empire of illusions", when both elite and common people entertain various myths, which have nothing to do with the reality, the process that started after WWII and entered a new phase in 1962, when an important historic event (JFK assassination) became distorted by the CIA and part of government bureaucracy who were discontent with JFK's policies, which fabricated a false narrative. The narrative which eventually became an official version of the event  (The United States of America’s Doll House, by Edward Curtin):

In a 1969 interview, Jim Garrison, the District Attorney of New Orleans and the only person to ever bring to trial a case involving the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, said that as a result of the CIA’s murderous coup d’état on behalf of the military-industrial-financial-media-intelligence complex that rules the country to this day, the American people have been subjected to a fabricated reality that has rendered them a nation of passive Eichmanns, who sit in their living rooms, popping pills and watching television as their country’s military machine mows down people by the millions and the announcers tell them all the things they should be afraid of, such as bacteria on cutting boards and Russian spies infiltrating their hair salons. Garrison said:

The creation of such inanities as acceptable reality and unacceptable reality is necessary for the self-preservation of the super-state against its greatest danger: understanding on the part of the people as to what is really happening. All factors which contribute to its burgeoning power are exaggerated. All factors which might reveal its corrosive effect on the nation are concealed. The result is to place the populace in the position of persons living in a house whose windows no longer reveal the outside but on which murals have been painted. Some of the murals are frightening and have the effect of reminding the occupants of the outside menaces against which the paternal war machine is protecting them. Other murals are pleasant to remind them how nice things are inside the house.

But to live like this is to live in a doll’s house. If life has one lesson to teach us, it is that to live in illusion is ultimately disastrous.

In the doll’s house into which America gradually has been converted, a great many of our basic assumptions are totally illusory.[1]Interview with Jim Garrison, District Attorney of Parish of Orleans, Louisiana, May 27, 1969, kennedysandking.com

That is not the case for most Americans. When approximately 129 million people cast their votes for Donald Trump and HilIary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election, you know idiocy reigns and nothing has been learned. Ditto for the votes for Obama, Bush, Clinton, et al. You can keep counting back. It is an ugly fact and sad to say. Such a repetition compulsion is a sign of a deep sickness, and it will no doubt be repeated in the 2020 election. The systemic illusion must be preserved at all costs and the warfare state supported in its killing. It is the American way.

It is true that average Americans have not built the doll’s house; that is the handiwork of the vast interconnected and far-reaching propaganda arms of the U.S. government and their media accomplices. But that does not render them innocent for accepting decades of fabricated reality for so-called peace of mind by believing that a totally corrupt system works. The will to believe is very powerful, as is the propaganda. The lesson that Garrison spoke of has been lost on far too many people, even on those who occasionally leave the doll house for a walk, but who only go slightly down the path for fear of seeing too much reality and connecting too many dots. There is plain ignorance, then there is culpable ignorance, to which I shall return.

Does the cocoon of lies spread by MSM protects the society, or undermines  it, or it does both

In many respects, the media creates reality, so perhaps the most effective route toward changing reality runs through the media.  "Controlling the narrative" is the major form of neoliberal MSM war on reality. By providing "prepackaged" narrative for a particular world event and selectively suppressing alternative information channels that contradict the official narrative, neoliberals control and channel emotions of people in the direction they want.  Often in the direction of yet another war for the expansion of the global neoliberal empire led from Washington, DC.

libezkova said in reply to Fred C. Dobbs...  January 29, 2017 at 08:31 AM 

Neoliberal MSM want to control the narrative. That's why "alternative facts" should be called an "alternative narrative". https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/06/09/controlling-the-narrative/?_r=0

== quote ==

Maybe this is the same kind of clinical detachment doctors have to cultivate, a way of distancing oneself from the subject, protecting yourself against a crippling empathy. I won’t say that writers or artists are more sensitive than other people, but it may be that they’re less able to handle their own emotions.

It may be that art, like drugs, is a way of dulling or controlling pain. Eloquently articulating a feeling is one way to avoid actually experiencing it.

Words are only symbols, noises or marks on paper, and turning the messy, ugly stuff of life into language renders it inert and manageable for the author, even as it intensifies it for the reader.

It’s a nerdy, sensitive kid’s way of turning suffering into something safely abstract, an object of contemplation.

I suspect most of the people who write all that furious invective on the Internet, professional polemicists and semiliterate commenters alike, are lashing out because they’ve been hurt — their sense of fairness or decency has been outraged, or they feel personally wounded or threatened.

It is hard to disagree with the notion which was put by several authors that American society is living  in a cocoon of illusion which conveniently isolates them from reality: entertainment and escapism infuse our society, economy, and political system with severe consequences. Among such authors are Aldous Huxley, C. Wright Mills, Sheldon Wolin, Ralph Nader, Karl Polanyi, Jared Diamond, Paul Craig Roberts, Chris Hedge and several others.

If we compare dystopias of Huxley and Orwell, and it clear that Huxley in his famous  New Brave World predicted the future much better:

"Huxley feared was that would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one... the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance."

The central idea here is that we now live as a society in which citizens become so distracted (and by extension detached) from reality that they lost any ability to influence their political or economic destiny. Droning anything inconvenient to the elite in a sea of irrelevance proved to be very successful tactic and less brutal then direct repression in the style of 1984.  It is the same phenomenon that later was described by the political philosopher Sheldon Wolin in 2003 under the label of Inverted Totalitarism

This is one of the truly malevolent aspects of today's modern neoliberal world order and we need to confront it. It allows the old game of blaming the weak and the marginal, a staple of neo-fascist and despotic regimes; this illusion empower the dark undercurrents of sadism and violence in American society and deflect attention from the neoliberal financial vampires who have drained the blood of the country

"The tragedy is that we have become a screen culture, televisions, computers, phones, tablets, etc. Our electronic hallucinations have produced a society that has little time or patience for introspection or deep thinking. It reinforced my decision to maintain a television free life. For some, what Chris has to say may cut to close to the bone. But those with the courage to do so are usually the ones that care the most."

The biggest and most invisible elephant in the American psyche is this: our government has long since abandoned the goal of managing this nation as a nation. Instead, America as a nation is managed as a means to global empire.

For example the loss of the critical skills of literacy (seven million total illiterates, another 27 million unable to read well enough to complete a job application, and still another 50 million who read at a 4th-5th-grade level)  have led large part of the US population to become incapable of thinking for ourselves.

In fact they have become as malleable as children. 80% of U.S. families did not buy or read a single book in a year.  Despite technology and internet access we are becoming a society of functionally ignorant and illiterate people.

For example there is widespread illusion of inclusion. This is the illusion that we are or will be included among the fortunate few because misfortune happens only to those who deserve it. There are plenty of people who understand that the corporate model is one in which there are squeezers and those who are to be squeezed. So the illusion of inclusion provides what can be called "a plantation morality" that exalts the insiders and denigrates the outsiders. Those content with this arrangement obviously view themselves as insiders even when they work for companies that are actively shedding employees. Many of these people are happy to be making good money for digging graves for others, never stopping to wonder if maybe someday one of those graves might be their own.

One of the first recorded metaphors which explained this phenomenon of substitution of reality with  illusion was Plato's tale about cave dwellers, who thought the shadows on the wall were the actual reality. Illusion can also serve as a deliberate distraction, isolation layer that protects form unpleasant reality. The point is that now it is illusions that dominate American life; both for those that succumb to them, and for those that promote and sustains them. It is the use of illusions in the US  society that become  prevalent today, converting like into the cinema or theater, where primary goal is entertainment.

Modern MSM are driven by postmodernism which includes among other things substitution of reality with artificial reality, fragmentation of history and push for historical amnesia, substitution of the subject with emotions,  and juxtaposition of opposites. But the key feature is controlling the narrative.

Controlling the narrative means control and deliberate selection of the issues which can be discussed

The Journalist Udo Ulfkotte ashamed today that he spent 17 years in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. ...he reveals why opinion leaders produce tendentious reports and serve as the extended Arm of the NATO press office. ...the author also was admitted into the networks of American elite organizations, received in return for positive coverage in the US even a certificate of honorary citizenship.

In this book you will learn about industry lobby organisations. The author calls hundreds of names and looks behind the Scenes of those organizations, which exert bias into media, such as: Atlantic bridge, Trilateral Commission, the German Marshall Fund, American Council on Germany, American Academy, Aspen Institute, and the Institute for European politics. Also revealed are the intelligence backgrounds of those lobby groups, the methods and forms of propaganda and financing used, for example, by the US Embassy. Which funds  projects for the targeted influencing of public opinion in Germany 

...You realize how you are being manipulated - and you know from whom and why. At the end it becomes clear that diversity of opinion will now only be simulated. Because our "messages" are often pure brainwashing.

Gekaufte Journalisten - Medienwelt Enthüllungen Bücher - Kopp Verlag

Controlling the narrative means control and deliberate selection of the issues which can be discussed (and by extension which are not)  in MSM. It represents real war on reality.  Non-stop, 24 by 7 character of modern media help with this greatly (The Unending Anxiety of an ICYMI World - NYTimes.com):

We used to receive media cyclically. Newspapers were published once (or sometimes twice) a day, magazines weekly or monthly. Nightly news was broadcast, well, each night. Television programs were broadcast on one of the major networks one night a week at a specific time, never to return until a rerun or syndication. Movies were shown first in theaters and on video much later (or, before the advent of VCRs, not until a revival). There were not many interstices, just discrete units — and a smaller number of them.

Now we’re in the midst of the streaming era, when the news industry distributes material on a 24-hour cycle, entire seasons of TV shows are dumped on viewers instantaneously, most movies are available at any time and the flow of the Internet and social media is ceaseless. We are nearly all interstitial space, with comparatively few singularities.

Media became out windows to the world and this window is broken. The notion of 'controlling the narrative' points to dirty games played by PR gurus and spin merchants with event coverage (especially foreign event coverage) to ensure the rule of elite.  A good part of the White House budget and resources is spent on controlling the narrative. Creation of the narrative and "talking points" for MSM is the task of State Department. Former State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki was a pretty telling "incarnation"  of the trend. 

And MSM are doing an exemplary job controlling the political narrative. This way they demonstrate their faithful service to the state and the ruling political class. Nowhere is more evident then in coverage of wars.

Only social media can smash the official version of events. And in some case that has happened. The USA MSM honchos are now scratching heads trying to understand  how to control their version of events despite Twitter, Facebook and other social networks.

On Ukraine, despite the most coordinated propaganda offensive of Western MSMs, the Western elite failed to fully control the narrative:  a sizable number of Europeans are still clinging to the notion that this story had two sides. You can see this trend from analysis of Guardian comments (The Guardian Presstitutes Slip Beyond the Reach of Embarrassment ). More importantly the EU political establishment has failed to maintain a central lie inside official narrative -- that the EU is benign and a force for good / peace / prosperity. EU elite has shown its ugly face supporting Ukrainian far right.

Another example were initially MSM totally controlled the narrative (the first two-three weeks) and then when the narrative start slipping away they need to silence the subject  Shooting down Malaysian flight MH17

The thing is, once you've lost control of the narrative, as happened with coverage MH17 tragedy, there's no way back. Once Western MSM lost it, no-one any longer believed  a word they said about the tragedy.

And little can be done to win back that credibility on the particular subject. Moreover, due to this Europeans are becoming more and more receptive of a drip of alternative media stories that completely destroy official EU narrative. They came from a multitude of little sources, including this site and they collectively  cements the loss of trust to the EU elite. 

More subtle nuances of controlling the narrative: the role of the scapegoat

 There also more subtle nuances of controlling the narrative. Actually controlling the narrative does not mean that you need to suppress all the negative news (like propagandists in the USSR often did -- leading to complete discreditation of official propaganda in minds of the USSR people -- it simply became the subject of jokes). As John V. Walsh noted:

There is a simple rule that is followed scrupulously by U.S. commentators of every stripe on world affairs and war – with a very few notable exceptions, Paul Craig Roberts and Pepe Escobar among them.

This rule allows strong criticism of the U.S. But major official adversaries of the U.S., Iran, Russia and China, must never, ever be presented as better than the US in any significant way. The US may be depicted as equally bad (or better) than these enemies, but never worse.

In other words, any strong criticism of the US presuppose scapegoating and vicious propaganda campaign against  major official adversaries of the US such as Russia. It  must never, ever be presented in a better light then the US in any significant way. In selected cases, the US may be depicted as equally bad, but never worse.

The most recent incarnation of this rule was during Hillary Clinton campaign for POTUS in 2016.

Chris Hedge book Empire of Illusion

 
The informational function of the media would be this to help us forget, to serve as the very agents and mechanism for our historical amnesia.

But in that cast of two features of postmodernism on which I have dwelt here -- the transformation of reality into images, the fragmentation of 'me' into a series of perpetual presents -- are bother extraordinary consolant with this process.

... We have seen that there is a way in which postmodernism replicates or reproduces -- reinforces -- the logic of consumer capitalism.

Frederic Jameson “Postmodernism and Consumer Society

Chris Hedge Empire of Illusion  is a penetrating analysis of this effort of "entertainment society" and converting everything including politics into entertainment. It was published in 2010. Hedges discuss  complex issues and a clear, succinct way. You might agree with him, you might disagree with him but you will enjoy his brilliant prose. 

Those who manipulate  from the shadows our lives are the agents, publicists, marketing departments, promoters, script writers, television and movie producers, advertisers, video technicians, photographers, bodyguards, wardrobe consultants, fitness trainers, pollsters, public announcers, and television news personalities who create the vast stage for the Empire of Illusion. They are the puppet masters. No one achieves celebrity status, without the approval of cultural enablers and intermediaries. The sole object is to hold attention and satisfy an audience. These techniques of theater leeched into politics, religion, education, literature, news, commerce, warfare, and even crime. It converts that society into wrestling ring mesh with the ongoing dramas on television, in movies, and in the news, where "real-life" stories, especially those involving celebrities, allow news reports to become mini-dramas complete with a star, a villain, a supporting cast, a good-looking host, and a neat, if often unexpected, conclusion (p. 15-16).

The first big achievement of Empire of Illusion was "glorification of war" after WWIII. As the veterans of WW II saw with great surprise their bitter, brutal wartime experience were skillfully transformed into an illusion, the mythic narrative of heroism and patriotic glory sold to the public by the Pentagon's public relations machine and Hollywood. The extreme brutality and meaninglessness of war could not compete against the power of the illusion, the fantasy of war as a ticket to glory, honor, and manhood. It was what the government and the military wanted to promote. It worked because it had the power to simulate experience for most viewers who were never at Iwo Jima or in a war. Few people understood that this illusion was a lie. p. 21-22.

Media evolved into branch of entertainment. He gives great insight on American society. Several chapters should be a required read for all sociology, film, journalism students, or government leaders. Much like Paul Craig Robert's How America Was Lost you might feel unplugged from the matrix after reading this book. This is the book that corporate America, as well as the neoliberal elite, do not want you to read. It's a scathing indictment against everything that's wrong with the system and those that continue to perpetuate the lie in the name of the almighty dollar. In a way the USA as the rest of the world are amusing itself into a post apocalyptic state, without an apocalypse. It is simply cannibalizing itself.

That books also contains succinct, and damning condemnation of globalization (and, specifically, the USA's role in it). You can compare it with Klein's 'Shock Doctrine', but it cuts a wider swath. 

The discussion the follows was by-and-large adapted from  D. Benor  Amazon review of the book

We consume countless lies daily, false promises that if we buy this brand or that product, if we vote for this candidate, we will be respected, envied, powerful, loved, and protected. The flamboyant lives of celebrities and the outrageous characters on television, movies,  and sensational talk shows are peddled to us, promising to fill up the emptiness in our own lives. Celebrity culture encourages everyone to think of themselves as potential celebrities, as possession unique if unacknowledged gifts. p. 26-7. Celebrity is the vehicle used by a corporate society to sell us these branded commodities, most of which we do not need. Celebrities humanize commercial commodities. They present the familiar and comforting face of the corporate state. p. 37.

Reporters, especially those on television, no longer ask whether the message is true but rather whether the pseudo-event worked or did not work as political theater for supporting particular (usually State Department in case of foreign events) talking points.  Pseudo-events are judged on how effectively we have been manipulated by illusion. Those events that appear real are relished and lauded. Those that fail to create a believable illusion are deemed failures. Truth is irrelevant. Those who succeed in politics, as in most of the culture, are those who create the most convincing fantasies. This is the real danger of pseudo-events and why pseudo-events are far more pernicious than stereotypes. They do not explain reality, as stereotypes attempt to, but replace reality. Pseudo-events redefines reality by the parameters set by their creators. These creators, who make massive profits selling illusions, have a vested interest in maintaining the power structures they control. p. 50-1.

A couple quotes: "When a nation becomes unmoored from reality, it retreats into a world of magic. Facts are accepted or discarded according to the dictates of a preordained cosmology. The search for truth becomes irrelevant." (p. 50) "The specialized dialect and narrow education of doctors, academics, economists, social scientists, military officers, investment bankers, and government bureaucrats keeps each sector locked in its narrow role. The overarching structure of the corporate state and the idea of the common good are irrelevant to specialists. They exist to make the system work, not to examine it." (p. 98) I could go on and on citing terrific passages.

The flight into illusion sweeps away the core values of the open society. It corrodes the ability to think for oneself, to draw independent conclusions, to express dissent when judgment and common sense tell you something is wrong, to be self-critical, to challenge authority, to grasp historical facts, to advocate for change, and to acknowledge that there are other views, different ways, and structures of being that are morally and socially acceptable. A populace deprived of the ability to separate lies from truth, that has become hostage to the fictional semblance of reality put forth by pseudo-events, is no longer capable of sustaining a free society.

Those who slip into this illusion ignore the signs of impending disaster. The physical degradation of the planet, the cruelty of global capitalism, the looming oil crisis, the collapse of financial markets, and the danger of overpopulation rarely impinge to prick the illusions that warp our consciousness. The words, images, stories, and phrases used to describe the world in pseudo-events have no relation to what is happening around us. The advances of technology and science, rather than obliterating the world of myth, have enhanced its power to deceive. We live in imaginary, virtual worlds created by corporations that profit from our deception. Products and experiences - indeed, experience as a product - offered up for sale, sanctified by celebrities, are mirages. They promise us a new personality. They promise us success and fame. They promise to mend our brokenness. p. 52-3.

We have all seen the growth of a culture of lies and deception in politics, banking, commerce and education. Hodges points out how this has been facilitated by our abandoning the teaching of values and analysis in our schools.

The flight from the humanities has become a flight from conscience. It has created an elite class of experts who seldom look beyond their tasks and disciplines to put what they do in a wider, social context. And by absenting themselves from the moral and social questions raised by the humanities, they have opted to serve a corporate structure that has destroyed the culture around them.

Our elites - the ones in Congress, the ones on Wall Street, and the ones being produced at prestigious universities and business schools - do not have the capacity to fix our financial mess. Indeed, they will make it worse. They have no concept, thanks to the educations they have received, of how to replace a failed system with a new one. They are petty, timid, and uncreative bureaucrats superbly trained to carry our systems management. They see only piecemeal solutions that will satisfy the corporate structure. Their entire focus is numbers, profits, and personal advancement. They lack a moral and intellectual core. They are as able to deny gravely ill people medical coverage to increase company profits as they are to use taxpayer dollars to peddle costly weapons systems to blood-soaked dictatorships. The human consequences never figure into their balance sheets. The democratic system, they believe, is a secondary product of the free market - which they slavishly serve. p. 111.

I quote Hodges at some length because of his cogent, clear summaries of the problems leading us to self-destruction and to ways we might someday restructure society to be supportive and healing to the individual - rather than exploiting people and viewing them only as valuable as they can be manipulated into being gullible consumers.

This is one of the clearest and best focused discussions I have seen on the problems of modern society that are leading us to societal suicide

Hedges points out how a cycle sustains itself between elite educational institutions (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, etc.), the Government (think Congress in particular) and Corporations. Ivy league schools basically turn-out lackeys that do whatever is necessary to maintain their elite, self-absorbed status. The last chapter is entitled, "The Illusion of America," and this is where Hedges does a fantastic job of pulling together all the elements of this dysfunctional society. Other books touch the same themes, sometimes more forcefully but in this book most important elements of this picture put together.

Among the booksHedges cites:

Gekaufte Journalisten by Udo Ulfkotte

The book Gekaufte Journalisten by Udo Ulfkotte was a revelation. Of cause, we suspected many things he  described, but now we know detailed methods and mechanisms of suppressing alterative opinion in German society, methods that are probably more effective that anything propagandists in the DDR and the USSR ever attempted.  One of the central concept here is the concept of "Noble Lie".

Guardian became neoliberal as soon as Tony Blaire became Prime minister. As any neoliberal publication is subscribes to the notion of "noble lie". The latter actually came from neocons playbook.   No they knowingly try to dumb down their reader substituting important topic with celebrity gossip and hate speech. Even political issue now are "served" to the public as dishes under heavy sauce of personalities involved, which is a perfect way to obscure the subject and distract the readers.

geronimo -> MurkyFogsFutureLogs 14 Mar 2015 12:31

Indeed...

Under the retiring editor, all politics seems to have been reduced to 'identity' politics. Forget about class, war, class war and so on... If it can't be reduced to Hillary's gender or Putin's, er... transcendental evil... then it's barely worth a comment above the line.

As I've said before, for the Guardian 'the personal is the political' - or rather, for the Guardian as for Hillary, the political reduces to the personal.

A marriage made, not so much in heaven, but somewhere in political-fashionista North London.

In reality most prominent journalists are on tight leash of "'deep state". As Udo Ulfkotte book attests this is a rule, not an exception. While this was known since Operation Mockingbird  was revealed, nothing changed. As revealed by Senator Frank Church investigations (Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities) in 1975. In his Congress report published in 1976 the authors stated:

"The CIA currently maintains a network of several hundred foreign individuals around the world who provide intelligence for the CIA and at times attempt to influence opinion through the use of covert propaganda. These individuals provide the CIA with direct access to a large number of newspapers and periodicals, scores of press services and news agencies, radio and television stations, commercial book publishers, and other foreign media outlets."

According to the "Family Jewels" report, released by the National Security Archive on June 26, 2007, during the period from March 12, 1963, and June 15, 1963, the CIA installed telephone taps on two Washington-based news reporters. Church argued that misinforming the world cost American taxpayers an estimated $265 million a year.[20]

In February 1976, George H. W. Bush, the recently appointed Director of the CIA, announced a new policy:

"Effective immediately, the CIA will not enter into any paid or contract relationship with any full-time or part-time news correspondent accredited by any U.S. news service, newspaper, periodical, radio or television network or station." He added that the CIA would continue to "welcome" the voluntary, unpaid cooperation of journalists.[21]

But at this point only handlers and methods changed, not the policy. They are still all controlled by deep state. The most recent revelations of this fact were published by Udo Ulfkotte’s in his bestseller book  Bought Journalists. Here is one Amazon review of the book: 

Unicorns & Kittenson May 1, 2015

I've managed to read a bit of the German version ...
 
I've managed to read a bit of the German version and now I think I understand why this is still not available in English although it was supposed to be released in this and other languages seven months ago. I will be very surprised if this shocking and destabilizing book (which names names) is made available to Americans ... even though it's primarily about the abusive tactics of American intelligence agencies. Please keep asking why it isn't published - despite being a best-seller in Germany -- and how we can get it here on Kindle.

As one Amazon reviewer said "This book will change for ever the way you read and watch the mainstream media! " Here is some additional information from russia-insider:

... ... ...

Ironically, however, it’s likely that one of the biggest threats (especially in Europe) to Anglo-American media credibility about Ukraine and other issues is coming from a very old-fashioned medium – a book.

Udo Ulfkotte’s bestseller Bought Journalists has been a sensation in Germany since its publication last autumn. The journalist and former editor of one of Germany’s largest newspapers, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, revealed that he was for years secretly on the payroll of the CIA and was spinning the news to favour U.S. interests. Moreover he alleges that some major media are nothing more than propaganda outlets for international think-tanks, intelligence agencies, and corporate high-finance.

“We’re talking about puppets on a string,” he says, “journalists who write or say whatever their masters tell them to say or write. If you see how the mainstream media is reporting about the Ukraine conflict and if you know what’s really going on, you get the picture. The masters in the background are pushing for war with Russia and western journalists are putting on their helmets.” [8]

In another interview, Ulfkotte said:

“The German and American media tries to bring war to the people in Europe, to bring war to Russia. This is a point of no return, and I am going to stand up and say…it is not right what I have done in the past, to manipulate people, to make propaganda against Russia, and it is not right what my colleagues do, and have done in the past, because they are bribed to betray the people not only in Germany, all over Europe.” [9]

... ... ...

Apparently, Pomeranzev has forgotten that important October 2004 article by Ron Suskind published in the New York Times Magazine during the second war in Iraq (which, like the first, was based on a widely disseminated lie). Suskind quoted one of George W. Bush’s aides (probably Karl Rove): “The aide said that guys like me [journalists, writers, historians] were ‘in what we call the reality-based community,’ which he defined as people who ‘believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality…That’s not the way the world really works anymore,’ he continued. ‘We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality – judiciously, as you will – we’ll act again, creating other new realities which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors…and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do’.” [12]

It’s a rather succinct description of Orwellian spin and secrecy in a media-saturated Empire, where discerning the truth becomes ever more difficult.

That is why people believe someone like Udo Ulfkotte, who is physically ill, says he has only a few years left to live, and told an interviewer,

 “I am very fearful of a new war in Europe, and I don’t like to have this situation again, because war is never coming from itself, there is always people who push for war, and this is not only politicians, it is journalists too… We have betrayed our readers, just to push for war…I don’t want this anymore, I’m fed up with this propaganda. We live in a banana republic and not in a democratic country where we have press freedom…” [13]

Recently, as Mike Whitney has pointed out in CounterPunch (March 10), Germany’s newsmagazine Der Spiegel dared to challenge the fabrications of NATO’s top commander in Europe, General Philip Breedlove, for spreading “dangerous propaganda” that is misleading the public about Russian “troop advances” and making “flat-out inaccurate statements” about Russian aggression.

Whitney asks, “Why this sudden willingness to share the truth? It’s because they no longer support Washington’s policy, that’s why. No one in Europe wants the US to arm and train the Ukrainian army. No wants them to deploy 600 paratroopers to Kiev and increase U.S. logistical support. No one wants further escalation, because no wants a war with Russia. It’s that simple.” [14] Whitney argued that “the real purpose of the Spiegel piece is to warn Washington that EU leaders will not support a policy of military confrontation with Moscow.”

So now we know the reason for the timing of the April 15 U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, “Confronting Russia’s Weaponization of Information.” Literally while U.S. paratroopers were en route to Kiev, the hawks in Washington (and London) knew it was time to crank up the rhetoric. The three witnesses were most eager to oblige.


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[Jul 24, 2021] New variation of the old saying

Apr 07, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

OldNewB

Give a man a gun and he can rob a bank.

Give a man a bank and he can rob the world.

[Jul 21, 2021] Big Tech- -Our Terms Have Changed

Jul 21, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

BY TYLER DURDEN WEDNESDAY, JUL 21, 2021 - 11:09 AM

Authored (satirically) by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,

So go ahead and say whatever you want around all your networked devices, but don't be surprised if bad things start happening.

I received another "Our Terms Have Changed" email from a Big Tech quasi-monopoly, and for a change I actually read this one. It was a revelation on multiple fronts. I'm reprinting it here for your reading pleasure:

We wanted to let you know that we recently updated our Conditions of Use.

What hasn't changed:

Your use constitutes your agreement to our Conditions of Use.

We own all the content you create on our platform, devices and networks, and are free to monetize it by any means we choose.

We own all the data we collect on you, your devices, purchases, social networks, views, associations, beliefs and illicit viewing, your location data, who you are in proximity to, and whatever data the networked devices in your home, vehicles and workplaces collect.

We have the unrestricted right to ban you and all your content, shadow-ban you and all your content, i.e., generate the illusion that your content is freely, publicly available, and erase your digital presence entirely such that you cease to exist except as a corporeal body.

What has changed:

If we detect you have positive views on anti-trust enforcement, we may report you as a "person of interest / potential domestic extremist" to the National Security Agency and other federal agencies.

Rather than respond to all disputes algorithmically, we have established a Star Chamber of our most biased, fanatical employees to adjudicate customer/user disputes in which the customer/user refuses to accept the algorithmic mediation.

If a customer/user attempts to contact any enforcement agency regarding our algorithmic mediation or Star Chamber adjudication, we reserve the unrestricted rights to:

a. Prepare voodoo dolls representing the user and stick pins into the doll while chanting curses.

b. Hack the targeted user's accounts and blame it on Russian or Ukrainian hackers.

c. Rendition the user to a corrupt kleptocracy in which we retain undue influence, i.e., the United States.

Left unsaid, of course, is the potential for "accidents" to happen to anyone publicly promoting anti-trust enforcement of Big Tech quasi-monopolies. Once totalitarianism has been privatized , there are no rules that can't be ignored or broken by those behind the curtain . So go ahead and say whatever you want around all your networked devices, but don't be surprised if bad things start happening.

Editor's note: this is satire. If I disappear, then you'll know who has no sense of irony or humor.

* * *

If you found value in this content, please join me in seeking solutions by becoming a $1/month patron of my work via patreon.com .

* * *

My recent books:

A Hacker's Teleology: Sharing the Wealth of Our Shrinking Planet (Kindle $8.95, print $20, audiobook $17.46) Read the first section for free (PDF) .

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[Jul 21, 2021] Sen. Paul accused Dr. Fauci of lying that the US had never financed gain-of-function projects at the Wuhan Institute of Virology

Jul 20, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

mikka 30 minutes ago remove link

Reminds me of Bill's definition of "I did not have sex with that woman".

Donnie Duvanie 11 minutes ago (Edited)

Fauci: "I did not have sex with that bat!"

[Jul 21, 2021] Looks like Russians have a pretty sophisticated sense of humor

Jul 21, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org

spudski , Jun 17 2021 15:37 utc | 11

i liked this - "To be eligible for prisoner swap with US, Washington would have to confirm Navalny works for American intelligence, says Kremlin"..

Posted by: james | Jun 17 2021 16:05 utc | 13

On a previous thread, two readers linked to a transcript in Russian of VVP's interview on NBC. A full English transcript is now available on katehon.com. Apologies if this is old news.

[Jul 21, 2021] Neolibelal MSM want to have the monopoly on truth, much like the press in the USSR

Jul 18, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

Controversial author Michael Wolff (of dubious Trump White House 'tell-all' and earpiece malarkey fame) was trotted out on CNN Sunday, where he proceeded (was allowed) to excoriate "Reliable Sources" host Brian Stelter for doing a "terrible job" and being "full of sanctimony."

"You become part of, one of the parts of the problem of the media. You know, you come on here, and you have a monopoly on truth - you know, you know exactly how things are supposed to be done. You know, you are why one of the reasons people can't stand the media, I'm sorry." said Wolff.

... ... ...

Were Wolff's comments truly off-the-cuff? Or as one Zero Hedge reader suggested, could CNN be resorting to a "very strategic capitulation" in order to "turn over a new leaf" and regain credibility amid dismal ratings and all-time low trust in the media?

[Jul 20, 2021] Neolibelal MSM want to have the monopoly on truth, much like the press in the USSR

Jul 18, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

Controversial author Michael Wolff (of dubious Trump White House 'tell-all' and earpiece malarkey fame) was trotted out on CNN Sunday, where he proceeded (was allowed) to excoriate "Reliable Sources" host Brian Stelter for doing a "terrible job" and being "full of sanctimony."

"You become part of, one of the parts of the problem of the media. You know, you come on here, and you have a monopoly on truth - you know, you know exactly how things are supposed to be done. You know, you are why one of the reasons people can't stand the media, I'm sorry." said Wolff.

... ... ...

Were Wolff's comments truly off-the-cuff? Or as one Zero Hedge reader suggested, could CNN be resorting to a "very strategic capitulation" in order to "turn over a new leaf" and regain credibility amid dismal ratings and all-time low trust in the media?

[Jul 20, 2021] Sen. Paul accused Dr. Fauci of lying that the US had never financed gain-of-function projects at the Wuhan Institute of Virology

Jul 20, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

mikka 30 minutes ago remove link

Reminds me of Bill's definition of "I did not have sex with that woman".

Donnie Duvanie 11 minutes ago (Edited)

Fauci: "I did not have sex with that bat!"

[Jul 19, 2021] Capitol 'Rioter' Sentenced To 8 Months, Not Accused Of Assaulting Anyone Or Damaging Property

Jul 19, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

This is no longer fight club 5 hours ago

And yet Hunter still walks free. No questions asked.

Dis-obey 5 hours ago

He paid the 10% to the big man so he was covered.

snatchpounder PREMIUM 5 hours ago

And an agent of the state executes an unarmed woman and he'll never be prosecuted for it.

Poppavein 5 hours ago

That's because we didn't burn down cities in protest.

[Jul 19, 2021] Leak Exposes Global Abuse Of Israel Made Cyber-Spying Weapon To Target Politicians, Activists, Journalists

How many people in the positions of authority are being blackmailed?
Jul 19, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com
Watt Supremacist 12 hours ago

My fellow whites...Israel is our greatest ally. We must daily remind ourselves of the 6 million **** who died at the hands of our fellow whites! And those 6 Isreali subs full of innocent sailors that were torpedoed to the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea by the USS Liberty! Israel is a tiny nation of 9 million honest and industrious people that needs our support like never before. The mere $3.3 BILLION dollars we send them every year for military aid is a fine start as it keeps them safe from the millions of stone age Palestinian terrorists on their doorstep. Think of the thousands of incendiary kites our tax dollars have stopped from landing on Israeli soil! But, my fellow whites, military aid does not go nearly far enough. There are literally thousands of elderly Israeli women on the verge of starvation who will perish without our help. We must therefore open our pockets as well as the coffers of our churches across this great nation and shower the tiny nation of Israel with all the blessings our forefathers and God has bestowed upon us. As our Israeli friends are truly God's Chosen people, we all know they certainly deserve it and we will be rewarded many times over for our generosity.

UnicornTears 12 hours ago

/s

Ronaldo PREMIUM 12 hours ago (Edited)

Sounds like software that is very beneficial. It backs up all your important files, manages your contacts list, and keeps track of your calendar. All without any bother to you! /s

StaySunny3000 12 hours ago

Israel again. Are we surprised? They've got global communications cornered both literally and figuratively.

DEMIZEN 2 hours ago remove link

meanwhile the cnn news:

Ben & Jerry's will stop selling ice cream in Palestinian territories

Victory_Rossi 5 hours ago

Just 37 phones? The CIA/NSA laughs ...

[Jul 14, 2021] Ransomware -- it is time to stop blaming Russia and tackle the real villains - cryptocurrencies

Jul 13, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org

Seer , Jul 11 2021 6:56 utc | 60

Hm... Could this be the new opium market? CIA has to have a means of off-the-books financing of their black ops...

[Jul 13, 2021] AstraZeneca, J J Working On 'Modifications' To Eliminate Potentially Deadly Side Effects

Jul 13, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

y_arrow

HonestLee 7 hours ago

Overhead in lab -

Rat 1: "Hey, have you gotten your Covid jab yet?"

Rat 2: "Nah, I'm waitin til the human trials are over"

IDESofMARCH 7 hours ago

My first vaccine shot, I started to grow a tail.

Now with my second shot I got horns coming out of my head.

My Dr. told me not to worry, it's transitory.

[Jul 12, 2021] Pfizer Sells Booster Jabs To Israel As COVID Cases Rebound despite mass vacciantion -- if booster shots are needed why people should get old Pfizer vaccine and simply wait untill "final" version eventually arrive

Jul 12, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

link

Imagine being dumb enough to fall for it, again.

In Lies We Trust: The CIA, Hollywood and Bioterrorism Full Length Documentary play_arrow 32 play_arrow


takeaction 1 hour ago

Imagine realizing that you didn't do your research and take it...then learn the truth.

Timmay 1 hour ago

It's the subscription model.....

bigjim 58 minutes ago

MicroSoft Vaccine365

MoonWatcher 35 minutes ago

Just imagine all the mental gymnastics they are doing to convince themselves that their persuasion was medically based. And not a lie being driven by mainstream media, especially if they took the shots out of social pressure and coercion. Hilarious.

Musum 1 hour ago

I heard that if you take Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and J&J in that order. And then in reverse order. And then a booster shot in random order, the effectiveness jumps from 64% to 65%.

[Jul 04, 2021] The most bitterly funny story of the week is that a defector from North Korea thinks that even her homeland is 'not as nuts' as the indoctrination now forced on Western students

Jul 04, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com


As Peter Hitchens noted recently "the most bitterly funny story of the week is that a defector from North Korea thinks that even her homeland is 'not as nuts' as the indoctrination now forced on Western students."

One of Yeonmi Park's initial shocks upon starting classes at Colombia University was to be met with a frown after revealing to a staff member that she enjoyed reading Jane Austen. "Did you know," Ms. Park was sternly admonished, "that those writers had a colonial mind-set? They were racists and bigots and are subconsciously brainwashing you."

But after encountering the new requirement for the use of gender-neutral pronouns, Yeonmi concluded: "Even North Korea is not this nuts North Korea was pretty crazy, but not this crazy." Devastatingly honest, but not exactly a compliment to what once might have been the land of her dreams.

Sadly, Hitchens reports that her previous experience served Yeonmi well to adapt to her new situation: "She came to fear that making a fuss would affect her grades and her degree. Eventually, she learned to keep quiet, as people do when they try to live under intolerant regimes, and let the drivel wash over her."

Eastern European readers will unfailingly understand what it is that Hitchens meant to say.

[Jul 03, 2021] Neoliberal game with "Oppressive Language" is a pure Orwellian linguistic madness

You need to drink a lot of "woke coke" and wearing exclusively "woke Nike" to digest those recommendations without laughing.
History repeats, first as tragedy, second as farce. White Guard rebels during Russian civil War called Bolsheviks "Tovatitcshi"(Comrades) as they prohibited to say Sir to the officers.
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less." "The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."
Jul 03, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

As George Orwell has taught us, language manipulation is at the frontline (yes, I have just broken one of the cardinal rules of his " Politics and the English Language ," but not his final injunction to "break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous") of politicised mind-bending. The sort of language we are permitted to use circumscribes the thinking that we shall be allowed to engage in. The assault on language is, therefore, an integral component of the unrelenting warfare being waged for the conquest and control of the mind. Word elimination and reassignment of meaning, as Orwell also presciently noted, are essential elements of the campaign to reformat the mind and eventually to subjugate it.

A breath-taking example of how this process works was recently unveiled by the thoroughly brain-washed students of the once prestigious Brandeis University who, this time without prompting from their faculty elders and betters, voted to ban from their campus such odious words and phrases as "picnic" and "you guys," for being "oppressive". "Picnic" is prohibited because it allegedly evokes the lynching of Blacks.

The precocious young intellectuals took pains to produce an entire list of objectionable words and phrases, shocking award-winning novelist Joyce Carol Oates who tweeted in bewilderment: "What sort of punishment is doled out for a faculty member who utters the word 'picnic' at Brandeis? Or the phrase [also proscribed – S.K.] 'trigger warning'? Loss of tenure, public flogging, self-flagellation?"

Oppressive Language Possible Alternatives Explanation
Killing it Great job! If someone is doing well, we
don't need to equate that to
Awesome! murder!
Take a shot at Give it a go These expressions needlessly use
imagery of hurting someone or
Take a stab at Try something.
Trigger warning Content note The word "trigger" has
connections to guns for many
Drop-in people; we can give the same
head's up using language less
connected to violence.
Rule of thumb General rule This expression comes from an
old British law allowing men to
beat their wives with sticks no
wider than their thumb.
Pknk Outdoor eating Tlie term picnic is often
associated with lynchings of
Black people in the United
States, during which white
spectators were said to have
watched while eating, referring
to them as picnics or other terms
involving racial slurs against
Black people.
Go off tlte reservation Disagree with tlie group, defect This phrase has a harmful
from the group history rooted in the violent
removal of indigenous people
from their land and the Itorrible
consequences for someone that
left the reservation.
_arrow
Not Your Father's ZH 8 hours ago (Edited)

"Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. " ― George Orwell

Not Your Father's ZH 8 hours ago (Edited)

Like Water for Coca-Cola by Theodore Dalrymple . . . Google, the 21st Century Oracle at Delphi.

I Consume, Ergo Sum.

"Each new generation born is in effect an invasion of civilization by little barbarians, who must be civilized before it is too late." ― Thomas Sowell, A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles

Read more quotes from Thomas Sowell Happy 91st Birthday to Thomas Sowell

Lordflin 10 hours ago

The constant reconstruction of language is a highly effective tool when employed against weak minds... as most folks have only a loose association with the words in their heads...

As meanings of words are changed the ideas associated with those words change... consequently a society can be transformed into a different society without ever answering a single argument...

Not Your Father's ZH 8 hours ago (Edited)

"I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time . . . My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of higher-ups." ~ War Is A Racket, by Major General Smedley Butler, 1935

A_Huxley 7 hours ago

Maoism.

zorrosgato 10 hours ago

picnic (n.)

1748 (in Chesterfield's "Letters"), but the thing itself apparently was rare before c. 1800 as an English institution [OED]; it originally meant "a fashionable social affair (not necessarily out of doors) in which every partaker contributed something to the general table;" from French piquenique (1690s), perhaps a reduplication of piquer "to pick, peck," from Old French (see pike (n.1)), or the second element may be nique "worthless thing," from a Germanic source.

As in many other riming names, the elements are used without precision, but the lit. sense is appar. 'a picking or nibbling of bits,' a snatch, snack .... [Century Dictionary]

The word also turns up 18c. in German, Danish, Swedish. Later "pleasure party the members of which carry provisions with them on an excursion, as to some place in the country." Figurative sense of "something easy" is from 1886. Picnic basket is by 1857. Picnic table is by 1858, originally a folding table used for outdoor dining.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/picnic

MoonWatcher 5 hours ago

Meanwhile the top Japanese, Chinese, Russian, Indian etc. schools concentrating on STEM are laughing their asses off.

John Grady 6 hours ago

Activism is now a career path so to differentiate yourself as an activist you have to have an angle so you look busy. Endless bickering about minutia makes it look like they're doing something.

amerikan 6 hours ago

"Mission Creep" for creeps

[Jul 03, 2021] In MSM we trust, or not: United States Ranks Last In Global Media Trust, New Report Finds - ZeroHedge

Jul 03, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

Authored by Jonathan Turley,

For years, we have been discussing the decline of journalism values with the rise of open bias in the media. Now, a newly released report from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford has found something that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. The United States ranked dead last in media trust among 49 countries with just 29% saying that they trusted the media.

[Jul 03, 2021] They're not real humans. I think Rogan might be closer to the truth than he realizes on that one

The are "apparatchiks" and that means that Rogan unfortunatly is closer to the truth then one might suspect. "Ideological warriors" so to speak if we reuse Soviet term for such creatures.
Jul 03, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

snatchpounder

PREMIUM

6 hours ago

Stetler isn't the only CIA script reader there's thousands of those cockroaches, they're on every 'news' channel in this country. Stetler looks like a pedo, he's a fat idiot he proves that every time he opens his candyass mouth.

play_arrow 170 play_arrow

TerminalDebt

6 hours ago

I stopped at fat idiot, no proof needed

play_arrow 35 play_arrow

NoDebt

6 hours ago

They're not real humans.

I think Rogan might be closer to the truth than he realizes on that one.

[Jul 01, 2021] Putin Signs Law Forcing Foreign Social Media Giants To Open Russian Offices

Comments are mostly idiotic/uninformed/biased as typical for Slashdot on topics related to Russia
Jul 01, 2021 | tech.slashdot.org
Putin Signs Law Forcing Foreign Social Media Giants To Open Russian Offices (reuters.com) 47 Posted by msmash on Thursday July 01, 2021 @12:45PM from the how-about-that dept. President Vladimir Putin has signed a law that obliges foreign social media giants to open offices in Russia , a document published by the government on Thursday showed, the latest move by Moscow to exert greater control over Big Tech. From a report: The Russian authorities are keen to strengthen their control of the internet and to reduce their dependence on foreign companies and countries. In particular, they have objected in the past to political opponents of the Kremlin using foreign social media platforms to organise what they say are illegal protests and to publicise politically-tinged investigations into alleged corruption. Moscow has fined firms for failing to delete content it says is illegal, slowing down the speed of Twitter as punishment, and on Wednesday opened a new case against Alphabet subsidiary Google for breaching personal data legislation. by Vlijmen Fileer ( 120268 ) on Thursday July 01, 2021 @12:47PM ( #61540686 )

Other countries do the same. But somehow get less media attention for it

[Jul 01, 2021] Fauci: There Are Now Two Americas, The Vaccinated The Unvaccinated ; ZH commenter: There are now two Americas. One that's retarded. And one that wants Fauci on a lamppost.

Authorities doe not telling truth: people who already have COVID do not need to be vaccinated. Also if Delta varient can infect vaccineted in conserable quantities how any resobale person can maintain this goal of "herg immunity". How it can be achieved if a vaccinated person can be infected and thus spread the disease both amoung vaccinated cohort and among the unvaccinated cohort. The fact the vaccinated people are infected with Delta changes the game and here Senator Paul is wrong.
Pushing vaccination on chidren in such curcumstances changes nothing is became a very questionable move both from scientific an from ethical perspective.
Jul 01, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

America's favourite Chinese lab funding coronavirus doomonger doctor Anthony Fauci announced Tuesday that there are now two Americas, a vaccinated America and an unvaccinated America.

As Senator Rand Paul noted earlier this week , there is a boat load of misinformation on the matter coming from a government that is indiscriminately pushing vaccinations:

Rand Paul TEARS Into Senate Witness for Indiscriminately Pushing Vaccines


SexyJulian 3 hours ago

There are now two Americas. One that's retarded. And one that wants Fauci on a lamppost.

liberty2 1 hour ago (Edited)

Note that the officials said there's no such thing as "herd immunity" last year. Now this year they keep saying that we can reach "herd immunity" if we are 70% vaxxed! Terms are used if it fits their narrative.

Ride_the_kali_yuga 3 hours ago (Edited)

In the Covidian Cult, there is true believers in one side and heretics on the other side. Vaxxed and unvaxxed.

Divide and rule strategy, as always. Do not undurestimate the ratio of retarded people among the population, it has been growing like a cancer for decades. It amazes me how perfectly coordinated those MSM Covidian propaganda events appears worldwide.

In here France, 2 days ago, most MSM have all simultaneously gone full berserk (without any reason) blaming the reluctant ones. One of them on TV said something like : "if it was me, i will use police to drag those who refuse these "vaccines" from their home and force it on them"

This was priceless, this little man has morbid obesity. We now officialy all live on the twilight zone on steroids. Land whales dictate how people should consider their own health. This ride seems to never end.

We now have officialy entered the dehumanization phase of the unvaxxed. The sanitary gulag is not far from here.

NIRP-BTFD 1 hour ago

There are 2 Americas. The 0.01% (the rulers that own everything) and the serfs.

DemandSider 1 hour ago

Exactly, parasite and host. Fauci would be the former, obviously.

[Jun 30, 2021] There are two types of people today, those who still listen to media and authority figures that are proven liars, and those who remember and are immune to further lies FROM PROVEN LIARS

Jun 30, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

. _arrow 1


Son of Loki 10 hours ago (Edited)

"Recent research shows the vaxxinated group had a 18 point lower IQ score then the unvaxxinated group and a 128 point higher gullibility score."

Fact Checked : True ✔️

Cirdan PREMIUM 9 hours ago

Wow! I didn't know they had a gullibility score!

bidennotmyprez99 9 hours ago remove link

Sure that's true but in my circle, it's all the super intellectual types who are getting "vaxxed". You know, the ones who read the Guardian in the UK or the NYT in the US and sneer at we deplorables. They pride themselves on being free and critical thinkers. Yet, they are the ones getting the jab. Incredible. The other group I see all aroujnd me getting jabbed are the fundamental christians: the ones who vowed never to bow to Caesar. Yeah, right. They've been warning all their lives about the Mark of the Beast and fall at the first hurdle. In contrast, all the ordinary working class Joes I know see it for the nasty ******** that it is.

No-Go zone 6 hours ago

The ordinary working class still has a common sense.

Smiddywesson 11 hours ago

There are two types of people today, those who still listen to media and authority figures that are proven liars, and those who remember and are immune to further lies FROM PROVEN LIARS. Faucci and company are proven liars, he can't tell me the time of day with any credibility at all.

Gunston_Nutbush_Hall 7 hours ago (Edited)

h/t ZH Johnny Walker http://whale.to/vaccines.html
"If this is preventive medicine, I'll take my chances with disease." ~ Mendelsohn M.D

Dis-obey 8 hours ago

The Delta strain is weak sauce. With a mortality rate of 0.1% it's the same as H1N1. H1N1 has been with Humanity since at least 1918 and human immunology has coped to deal with it. Don't be fooled.

BendGuyhere 11 hours ago

1)The "case" number is pure JUNK SCIENCE. Meaningless. It is PCR cycles jacked up until it gives a "positive". This is for people (Idiots) who get their 'science' from the National Enquirer.

2) Corona viruses are NOTORIOUS for constantly rapidly mutating, like the Common Cold.

3) ALL pathogenic viruses, to the extent that there even is a pathogenic covid virus anymore, attenuate over time. That is they become LESS pathogenic and the human immune system becomes more and more competent at recognizing and neutralizing viruses within the same family.

4) Well "What about India?" What ABOUT India? Outside of the MSM, which has mutated into a vast labyrinth of lies geared towards social control, we have no way of verifying what actually happened in India.

BugMan 5 hours ago

The microorganism must be identified in all individuals affected by the disease, but not in healthy individuals.

The microorganism can be isolated from the diseased individual and grown in culture.

When introduced into a healthy individual , the cultured microorganism should cause disease.

The microorganism must then be re-isolated from the experimental host , and found to be identical to the original microorganism.

Robert Koch and Koch's Postulates | Basic Microbiology | Microbe Notes

dot_bust 7 hours ago

I'm struck by the fact that the news media constantly push the so-called Covid-19 "vaccines." Have the news media become pharmaceutical company sales reps ?

Every day, I see news articles proclaiming that the Covid-19 "vaccines" are effective against the variants. They cite new studies even though such studies take a lot more time to conduct than has been alloted for concrete conclusions.

Overall, the pimping of the Covid shots by reporters is suspect at best. These so-called journalists never mention treatments, only vaccines.

Bill of Rights 7 hours ago (Edited)

When was the last time the MEDIA was actually just that the Media? 1960s perhaps..

What you are subjected to now, or for the better term, Choose to watch now is trash where 99% of it is made up and false.

Conductor "Corn Pop" Angelo 8 hours ago

Following a citizen's petition, a Lisbon court was forced to provide verified COVID-19 mortality data, reports AndreDias.net .

According to the ruling , the number of verified COVID-19 deaths from January 2020 to April 2021 is only 152, not about 17,000 as claimed by government ministries.

All the "others" died for various reasons, although their PCR test was positive.

"We live in a fraud of unprecedented dimensions," wrote Dias.

https://americasfrontlinedoctors.org/frontlinenews/lisbon-court-rules-only-0-9-of-verified-cases-died-of-covid-numbering-152-not-17000-claimed/

[Jun 30, 2021] I plan on catching the Delta Variant on Delta Airlines. Its the kind of story I want to tell my grandchildren

Jun 30, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com


38 play_arrow


Sigh. 11 hours ago

Not a pandemic but a manufactured DemPanic. These snarling rabid far-left-wing dogs will seize and shake any opportunity they can get to further their RESET utopian agendas, including population reductions and striking down capitalism. So close to their goals now, they are gone wild in their attacks and without any reservations whatsoever.

Fear for this little Republic. Its time is almost up.

Kugelhagel 11 hours ago

It's like a priest in stone age: if harvest was low because weather was bad a priest said "gimme all your sheet and I'll talk to the gods" . When that doesn't work he says "of course it not worked, you not gave me enough! gimme more!" ... and some day it worked and weather was good and the priest was celebrated.
Same here ... Snakeoil sellers.

No-Go zone 7 hours ago remove link

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_hat

The Bidet Administration Goes Haywire 11 hours ago (Edited)

I plan on catching the Delta Variant on Delta Airlines. Its the kind of story I want to tell my grandchildren.

[Jun 26, 2021] 'You Were Wrong About A Lot Of Sh-t'- Maher Blasts Big Tech, CDC Over Lab-Leak Censorship - ZeroHedge

Jun 26, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

Bill Maher slammed Big Tech on Friday's episode of his show, "Real Time with Bill Maher," criticizing Facebook and Google for censoring content discussing the COVID-19 lab-leak theory.

"I find this outrageous. Facebook banned any post for four months about COVID coming from a lab," said Maher, adding "Now, even the Biden administration is looking into it."

incharge1976 PREMIUM 1 hour ago (Edited)

Google and the like are not search engines, video sites, or social media sites. They are propaganda machines

The First Rule 42 minutes ago (Edited)

Yeah, Yandex.com is head and shoulders above the rest when it comes to getting around pretty much any US based web search censorship.

It will show you the things Google is trying to hide.

[Jun 26, 2021] U Of Ottawa Adjuct Professor smoked something really strong and claimed that Sex Work Is The Best Thing Young People Can Do Early In Their Careers

Too may crazies among adjunct professors were discovered recently in the ocntext of Woke ideology and Critical race theory. This is another one. What is interesting is the she is a female.
Jun 20, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

Authored by Addison Smith via Campus Reform,

[A person the claims to be] University of Ottawa adjunct professor and Canadian Lawyer Naomi Sayers took to Twitter recently to endorse sex work for "young people," calling it "the best thing" they can do early in their careers.

"unpopular opinion: the best thing young people can do early in their careers is do #SexWork on the side because your early career prospects will be unstable, unpredictable, low pay, likely contract work and very much exploitative," Sayers wrote on Twitter Sunday.

... ... ...

Campus Reform reached out to Exodus Cry , a non-profit organization committed to fighting back against sex work and human trafficking. Director of Intervention Helen Taylor replied calling Sayers' comments "deeply irresponsible."

"For Professor Sayers to flippantly encourage young vulnerable students to engage in such a harmful industry is deeply irresponsible and extremely offensive to survivors who are working hard to heal and recover from the damage prostitution inflicted on their lives," Taylor wrote

"The sex industry is a system of violence and gender inequality. It is not a 'job like any other.' It puts girls at higher risk daily of rape, theft and murder. It causes long-term PTSD comparable to torture victims"¦ We believe education leaders ought to be protecting young women, and empowering them to aim high, not echoing pimp's advertisements for the sex trade."

UPDATE: Sayers' publicist contacted Campus Reform after publication and insisted Sayers has no relation with the University of Ottawa as a professor.

When Campus Reform reached out to Sayers for an interview, she replied, "my policy is not to answer questions from media in which the answer can be found on google [sic] , which tweets are searchable on google now (aka do their research)".

Research conducted by Campus Reform found that in Sayers LinkedIn profile, she currently touts herself as "adjunct professor" at the university.

[Jun 26, 2021] Take your communion with woke coke: The birth of wokeism cult was a godsend to corporations

Notable quotes:
"... It helped defang the left. "Wokeism lent a lifeline to the people who were in charge of the big banks. They thought, 'This stuff is easy!' " They applauded diversity and inclusion, appointed token female and minority directors, and "mused about the racially disparate impact of climate change." So, in Mr. Ramaswamy's narrative, "a bunch of big banks got together with a bunch of millennials, birthed woke capitalism, and then put Occupy Wall Street up for adoption." Now, in Mr. Ramaswamy's tart verdict, "big business makes money by critiquing itself." ..."
"... Davos is "the Woke Vatican," Mr. Ramaswamy says; Al Gore and Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock , are "its archbishops." CEOs "further down the chain" -- he mentions James Quincey of Coca-Cola , Ed Bastian of Delta , Marc Benioff of Salesforce , John Donahoe of Nike and Alan Jope of Unilever -- are its "cardinals." ..."
Jun 26, 2021 | www.wsj.com

It helped defang the left. "Wokeism lent a lifeline to the people who were in charge of the big banks. They thought, 'This stuff is easy!' " They applauded diversity and inclusion, appointed token female and minority directors, and "mused about the racially disparate impact of climate change." So, in Mr. Ramaswamy's narrative, "a bunch of big banks got together with a bunch of millennials, birthed woke capitalism, and then put Occupy Wall Street up for adoption." Now, in Mr. Ramaswamy's tart verdict, "big business makes money by critiquing itself."

Mr. Ramaswamy regards Klaus Schwab, founder and CEO of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, as the "patron saint of wokeism" for his relentless propagation of "stakeholder capitalism" -- the view that the unspoken bargain in the grant to corporations of limited liability is that they "must do social good on the side."

Davos is "the Woke Vatican," Mr. Ramaswamy says; Al Gore and Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock , are "its archbishops." CEOs "further down the chain" -- he mentions James Quincey of Coca-Cola , Ed Bastian of Delta , Marc Benioff of Salesforce , John Donahoe of Nike and Alan Jope of Unilever -- are its "cardinals."

E

Ed Baron

That Leftist "wokeism" is the brainchild of a religious cult should've been obvious decades ago. The purely religious belief in anthropogenic global warming, for example, which closely mimics the spiritual rituals of ancient cultures by worshiping nature over man. The hierarchy of color and gender as fetishes through which human relative value can be determined also mimics the hierarchy of priests or shamans in other religions. Thus, a fairly vapid group like BLM is exalted based purely on the melanin content of their skin, even though their claims are ridiculously flawed (They "care" about the lives of 90 or so armed felons killed by police, but call the 7,000+ black people killed by Blacks a "distraction"). Like many religions that plagued humanity throughout history, they will torment and punish all "deniers." Four years of the Trump Presidency made this clear. He faced the Grand Inquisition because he refused to kneel.
John Harris

[Jun 26, 2021] On a long enough timeline.... they want us ALL "vaccinated"

Jun 23, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

Eyes Opened 19 hours ago

On a long enough timeline.... they want us ALL "vaccinated"... 😒

[Jun 26, 2021] Neoliberal elite hypocrisity: rule for thee but not for me

UK Lockdown Architect Apologizes For Breaking COVID Rules Over Affair With Aide, Won't Resign
Jun 25, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com
JUN 25, 2021

Update (0815ET) : British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said he was "very sorry" after pictures of him kissing and embracing his top aide, a friend hired last year, were splashed on the front page of the Sun newspaper. However, he has said he will not resign .

As Summit News' Paul Joseph Watson detailed earlier, yet another architect of the UK's lockdown has been caught violating it as photos revealed Health Secretary Matt Hancock passionately kissing his mistress at a time when Brits were being told they shouldn't even shake hands.

[Jun 26, 2021] Then it's just CHINA

Jun 23, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

Jim in MN 15 hours ago

Once again, with feeling: None of the 'control measures' does anything. End it all now. They just want us all in their databases anyway. They don't care about death tolls, or even vaccines. It's not about that.

The vaccine passports in the UK already link to your entire medical history, biometric, genetic and ethnic data, criminal history, vehicle registration and employer data.

All they need is your bank account and internet/social media.

Then it's just................................CHINA.

And THAT is what they want, and what they are doing.

Jim in MN 15 hours ago remove link

https://theconversation.com/nhs-vaccine-passports-are-here-but-will-they-be-used-beyond-international-travel-161122

[Jun 24, 2021] Rabobank- Current Reality Can Only Be Described As Anarchic Surrealism

Jun 24, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

By Michael Every of Rabobank

The Dove From Above

Back in the mid-1990s when irony was still a thing, British TV had a popular celebrity gameshow called Shooting Stars hosted by comedians Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer. It was filled with slapstick, surreal, anarchic humor, and while it appeared to stick to standard gameshow conventions, everything was actually arbitrary: rules could be made up or ignored as and when Vic and Bob felt like it

[Jun 22, 2021] When John Steward said the scientists (especially financed by government) often push things too far to the detriment of mere mortals

As he said "curiosity killed the cat and now scietista want to kill ten thousand cats to study why"
Jun 22, 2021 | www.unz.com

Schuetze , says: June 16, 2021 at 7:54 pm GMT • 6.1 days ago

When John Stewart and Stephan Colbert finally cover it, then it is officially a limited hangout

https://www.youtube.com/embed/sSfejgwbDQ8?feature=oembed&rel=0&autoplay=1

[Jun 22, 2021] The Imperial Pottery Barn rule: "What cannot be owned must be broken"

Highly recommended!
Jun 22, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org

robin , Jun 22 2021 19:33 utc | 14

Posted by: Down South | Jun 22 2021 18:01 utc |

They say madness is doing the same thing over and over again and each time expecting a different result.

There's nothing mad about this strategy. If it doesn't make sense, your premise is probably wrong.


Think of it as the Imperial Pottery Barn rule :

"What cannot be owned must be broken"

Weaver , Jun 22 2021 19:50 utc | 18

Robin, "the Imperial Pottery Barn rule" is an extremely good analogy. I'm going to have a hard time citing you if I ever use that. I've also seen US foreign policy described as "rubblization," with regard to Syria especially.

[Jun 21, 2021] Woke Coca-Cola faces some headwinds and not only with US customers. Woka Cola can kiss my *** movement is emerging

I wonder who is still buying this brown high-fructose corn syrup carbonated water. Only people completely obvious to their health do so. Boycotting Coca-cola is probably the easiest and healthiest boycott possible. From commnets: " Woka Cola can kiss my ***. "
In a letter dated June 11, the American Civil Rights Project (ACRP) noted that on Jan. 28, the general counsel of Coca-Cola demanded law firms seeking to keep the company as a client must commit that at least 30 percent of billed time would be from "diverse attorneys," and at least half of that time would be from black attorneys.
Jun 21, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

The ACRP, speaking on behalf of "a set of concerned Coca-Cola Company shareholders," demanded that the soft drink company either "publicly retract the discriminatory outside-counsel policies" or otherwise "provide access to the corporate records related to the decision of Coca-Cola's officers and directors to adopt and retain those illegal policies."

Coca-Cola's race-specific contracting policy , according to the ACRP, has exposed the corporation and its shareholders to "material risk of liability" for potentially violating anti-discrimination laws, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin.

The letter further alleged that all of Coca-Cola's decision makers knew, or should have known, that the policy was potentially illegal. It said those who were not so aware of the legal risks either have failed their responsibility or "relied on the inexcusably flawed advice of counsel."

... ... ...

Coca-Cola, one of the largest food and beverage companies in the world, came under fire in February, when its employees were allegedly instructed to be "less white" as part of a "Confronting Racism" training course featuring interviews with sociologist Robin DiAngelo, the author of a 2018 book called "White Fragility."

"In the U.S. and other Western nations, white people are socialized to feel that they are inherently superior because they are white," reads one of the slides, allegedly sent from an "internal whistleblower" and posted on Twitter by YouTube commentator Karlyn Borysenko. The post went viral.


1 hour ago remove link

Coca Cola is brown high-fructose corn syrup carbonated water that makes one fat through empty calories. It's perhaps the easiest and healthiest boycott possible. Do it, white man... do it. play_arrow 51 play_arrow


Ghost of SilverIsMoney 59 minutes ago

I got off my sugary soda addiction 6years ago by switching to Seltzers.

They still have the soda bite without any garbage attached.

TacoNasty 50 minutes ago

I unfortunately got addicted to diet soda because my parents gave it to me since I was a young toddler.

Coke's anti-White racism finally got me to quit.

I feel so much healthier... especially, my sleep is so much better!

ted41776 1 hour ago

yelp, a publicly traded company, has a category named "black-owned businesses" that they regularly promote

discrimination laws?

crickets

overbet 1 hour ago

I regret that I already dont drink that **** so I cant boycott it any further. Avoiding anything processed got me from a flabby 250lb desk jockey to a lean 190lb heavy lifting gym rat after a few years.

Automatic Choke PREMIUM 49 minutes ago

you can short the stock.

TacoNasty 50 minutes ago

Good job!!! Props to you. I dropped from 220 to 180 during quarantine due to watching my diet much more closely and lifting.

MaskTard 53 minutes ago

Woka Cola can kiss my ***. All Coke products in this household were poured down the drain long ago.

sleepyhollow 51 minutes ago

Same here. Stopped drinking Coke, buying woke products and watching woke sports such as the NFL, NBA, etc.

Virgil Krenshaw PREMIUM 31 minutes ago (Edited)

Sue. Them. Silly. Go on the offensive against wokeness. It's discrimination. It's race-based harassment. And it's against the law. Document any HR sessions that are woke. Build evidence of a pattern of behavior. Then go for the throat.

Very interesting to see shareholders threatening to sue. Courts recognize management's fiduciary duty to shareholders, but overwhelmingly defer to executives' "business judgment" on what's best for a company. But these woketards are now so obviously undermining company value that I think courts will probably intervene.

How could A&E ever justify its decision to cancel "Cops," AKA the source of half its revenue, as a sound business judgment that would add shareholder value?

William Dorritt 44 minutes ago

The following list presents notable Coca-Cola subsidiaries, brands and products:

  • Coca-Cola (Coke)

  • Diet Coke

  • Coca-Cola Zero

  • Sprite

  • Fanta

  • Dasani

  • Ciel

  • Smartwater

  • Minute Maid

  • Simply Orange

  • Del Valle

  • Powerade

  • Vitaminwater

  • Odwalla

  • Fuze Beverage

  • Honest Tea

Chimesickle007 17 minutes ago

Thank god none of them are on my shopping list

tyberious 52 minutes ago (Edited)

Started out as a poison, got rid of Cocaine and added an even more addictive and far deadlier substance, GMO high fructose corn syrup with a healthy dose of glyphosate!

Lt. Shicekopf 42 minutes ago

I do not drink Coke, watch the NFL, use Gillette products, I eschew Starbucks, shun the airlines, avoid the NBA like the plague...and I feel much better about myself.

Automatic Choke PREMIUM 59 minutes ago

Stop "woke"
dump Coke.

MoneyMonkey 50 minutes ago

Incidence of diabetes (aka "the sugars") is highest amongst jogger Americans, so it seems fair they get to be scum sucking lawyers for a company slowly killing their own kind.

Southern_Boy 9 minutes ago (Edited)

Drank Coke daily (3 to 6 cans or bottles) for almost 60 years. They've lost my business thanks to this "Woke Business". As I understood it, they hired an activist lawyer who basically has cost them billions in sales.

[Jun 20, 2021] Freedom of press under Bolshevism and under neoliberalism

Jun 20, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

play_arrow


Rainman 9 minutes ago

Back in the day of newspapers, the Bolsheviks had PRAVDA ( which laughingly means TRUTH )

thoughtbubble 3 minutes ago

Democrats have Twitter (which not ironically means TWITS).

AriusArmenian 3 minutes ago remove link

All the major social media companies in the US were funded and controlled by the CIA from startup.

There is not a future end-game - it has been the CIA's agenda from the beginning.

The CIA along with Watt Street and the MIC owns and controls the US from top to bottom - and they intend for the lumpen white people to fall on their swords. This is all to the interests of the rich and powerful button pushers. I pity the young people like idiots so easily used by the elites.

[Jun 20, 2021] Your Show's F-cking Terrible! -- Joe Rogan Destroys CNN's Brian Stelter In Podcast Rant

Jun 19, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

Rogan took exception with Stelter being incensed that more people were watching shows on YouTube than watching his show, according to Fox News .

"They didn't even understand the way they were describing it. They were describing it as if they're entitled to viewers," Rogan ranted.

"They were saying, "˜There are shows on YouTube right now that get more views than this show.' This is because the market has spoken and your show's f***in terrible . Well, Brian Stelter's show keeps slipping and slipping and slipping in the ratings."

"How about Brian Stelter talking to the press secretary, "˜What are we doing wrong? What are we doing wrong?' Like, hey motherf---er, you're supposed to be a journalist ," Rogan said. "They're obviously being told a certain amount of what to do. And maybe he'd be an interesting guy if he had his own f---in podcast that you can rely on his own personality and be himself. I don't know. I can't imagine doing that gig."

"He's the worst," Rogan guest and progressive commentator Kyle Kulinski said. Stelter has "outright [called] for censorship under the guise of combatting the spread of conspiracy theories."

They "use that for f---ing everything," Kulinski said.

Rogan then turned his ire to Don Lemon's show: "So is Don Lemon's. It's the same thing. Everyone knows they're not real. They're not real humans."

"And they wonder why they get no views," Kulinski concluded.

Recall, this week we noted that Stelter, who just last week groveled at the feet of White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki - asking how the media can better cover President Biden - has failed to attract at least one million viewers for 11 straight weeks , and averaged just 752,000 on Sunday, his smallest audience of the year.

[Jun 20, 2021] Jon Stewart, The High Priest Of Cultural Liberalism, Reprimands His Flock - ZeroHedge

Jun 20, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

Jon Stewart, The High Priest Of Cultural Liberalism, Reprimands His Flock BY TYLER DURDEN SATURDAY, JUN 19, 2021 - 11:30 AM

Authored by Michael Tracy via mtracey.substack.com (emphasis ours),

If contemporary American liberalism has any High Priests, foremost among them would have to be Jon Stewart. Arguably, he's the functional equivalent of a supreme pontiff. So much of contemporary American liberalism hinges on aesthetic presentation" the ever-present need to convey that you and your peers "get it"" and Stewart pioneered the perfect public sensibility tailored to this ambition. For years, cultural liberals' sense of savviness and ironic detachment, coupled with an underlying pretension to earnestness, was cultivated and affirmed by Stewart. His method of communicating political information on The Daily Show became the dominant style not just of mainstream corporate comedy, but of left-liberal politics as a whole. Everyone from establishment Democrats to cynical online leftists speaks of Stewart with worshipful reverence.

Photo by Gary Gershoff/WireImage

Stewart is also very smart. Like any good leader of a religious order, he knows on occasion he must chide his fellow clergymen for their doctrinal blindspots, tactical blunders, or personal indiscretions . He knows how to gently but firmly advise parishioners when they've gone astray, or gone too far. He also mostly kept his head down throughout the Trump presidency" declining to weigh in on every fleeting micro-scandal" which was a wise decision, so as to not get himself too brain-melted by the endless frenzy of that period. He didn't even join Twitter until this past January.

Empathizing with the habits and tastes of those who are culturally dissimilar is always healthy, but it's a major struggle to understand why some people still voluntarily watch late-night network TV. Nonetheless, Stewart appeared this week on the first back-in-studio taping of his protégé Stephen Colbert's late-night show. There he issued what amounted to a new Papal encyclical. In that signature weary, deadpan delivery everyone knows and loves, he averred that the "lab leak" theory of COVID origins" previously a contemptible heresy" should not just be seriously considered as plausible, but had in fact become trivially obvious . So obvious that you're now the dummy if you don't think so. Watch as Colbert awkwardly wrestles with the implications of what his longtime hero Jon Stewart is saying ; he looks almost pained. Six months ago, anyone who broached this topic on Colbert's show would've been assumed to be some sort of QAnon crank. But here's Jon Stewart, repeating Steve Bannon talking points. Colbert, understandably, appears quite disoriented.

Stewart recognizes when to "read the room" and direct a course correction in the prevailing sentiments of popular liberalism when its dogmas have become too untenable to continue. Who else was going to do it, Joe Biden? Nowhere near enough funny-guy sway. It takes the cultural prestige of a leader like Stewart to truly make a difference. And when he decides it's time for one of those gentle-but-firm course corrections, liberals listen intently" because liberalism is underrated for its ability to adapt and self-correct, at least in the arena of public presentation. This is best accomplished by reframing its past failures as a big joke, and there's no one better positioned to do so than Stewart.

Accordingly, the rapid transformation of the lab leak theory from shameful racist trope into cool-kid conventional wisdom need not occasion any recriminations or blame" just more self-deprecating laughter. Never mind that during all the Zoom banter Stewart presumably participated in over the past 15 months, the theory was either scornfully dismissed or ignored. That's all in the past; Trump is gone. Eventually Stewart got it.

But he wasn't imparted with this knowledge by some divine revelation. A campaign of Twitter sleuths and Medium posts is what punctured a false consensus. Stewart merely consecrated the shift within a certain strand of the cultural mainstream, thereby granting license to liberals who need permission from their entertainment idols before they form opinions about anything.

This volatility within liberalism is often fodder for mockery. It can make adherents look and sound incoherent. But malleability is part of liberalism's strength; after all, conservatives are always complaining that liberals control most every institution. To what do they attribute this...?

It's why the big "face-off" this week between Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden, desperately hyped by the flagging corporate news industry, could result in Putin lavishing Biden with praise for his statesmanship and sterling moral character, and no Democratic elected official taking issue. Memories of how similar diplomatic niceties were portrayed vis-a-vis the previous President simply vanish. Stephen Colbert didn't sneer at the "collusive" implications. The last five years of spy-thriller hype can just wash away, with the snap of a finger.

It's why Ashli Babbitt "" an unarmed protester shot dead at point-blank range by an agent of the state" was presumed worthy of summary execution by the nation's liberal class, even as they make other questionable police killings the guiding impetus of their entire political program. Babbitt had bad ideas, she was deluded by YouTube misinformation, she was a de facto white supremacist, whatever. She might've even been trespassing at the time the bullet was pumped into her throat. The public still doesn't have the name of her assailant" this information has been concealed by the relevant police agency . But Jon Stewart wouldn't go near that one... yet. Promoting a certain interpretation of January 6 still has a utility for liberals that clinging to lab leak denialism no longer does.

So much of it all is a facade" but facades can overlay the accrual of real power . Stewart just has enough self-awareness to poke his head through the facade every now and then, when the conditions are safe, and help right the ship.

* * *

Subscribe to Michael Tracey here .

[Jun 18, 2021] Bill Maher Diagnoses Liberal 'Progressophobia' - WSJ

Jun 18, 2021 | www.wsj.com

Here's a statement that deserves amplification.

Last week Bill Maher of HBO's "Real Time" did a commentary on something he believes deeply destructive. Maher, who has described his politics as liberal, libertarian, progressive and practical, is a longtime and occasionally brave foe of wokeness in its extreme manifestations. He zeroed in on one aspect that fuels a lot of grievance, and that is the uninformed sense that America has largely been impervious to improvement.

Mr. Maher called this "progressophobia," a term coined by the cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker. Mr. Maher defines it as "a brain disorder that strikes liberals and makes them incapable of recognizing progress. It's like situational blindness, only what you can't see is that your dorm in 2021 is better than the South before the Civil War."

His audience laughed uncertainly. You could tell they didn't want to get caught laughing at the wrong thing and weren't certain what the wrong thing was. Normally they're asked to laugh at right-wing idiocy, which is never in short supply.

"If you think that America is more racist now than ever, more sexist than before women could vote, you have progressophobia," Mr. Maher said. Look at the changes America has made on disputed issues like gay marriage and marijuana legislation. "Even something like bullying. It still happens, but being outwardly cruel to people who are different is no longer acceptable. That's progress. Acknowledging progress isn't saying, 'We're done,' or, 'We don't need more.' And being gloomier doesn't mean you're a better person."

He was asking for perspective, a hard thing to do when you're a comic because a comic's tools are exaggeration, satire and sarcasm. But Mr. Maher maintained earnestness.

"In 1958," he said, "only 4% of Americans approved of interracial marriage. Now Gallup doesn't even bother asking. But the last time they did, in 2013, 87% approved. An overwhelming majority of Americans now say they want to live in a multiracial neighborhood. That is a sea change from when I was a kid." Mr. Maher was born in 1956.

He barreled on: "In a country that's 14% black, 18% of the incoming class at Harvard is black. And since 2017, white students are not even a majority in our public colleges. Employees of color make up 47% of Microsoft , 50% of Target, 55% of the Gap, as companies become desperate to look like their TV commercials."

"The 'Friends' reunion we just had looked weird, because if you even suggested a show today about six people all of whom were straight and white, the network would laugh you out of the room and then cancel you on Twitter . And yet there is a recurrent theme on the far left that things have never been worse."

The comedian Kevin Hart had recently told the New York Times , "You're witnessing white power and white privilege at an all-time high." Mr. Maher: "This is one of the big problems with wokeness, that what you say doesn't have to make sense or jibe with the facts, or ever be challenged, lest the challenge itself be conflated with racism."

He added: "Saying white power and privilege is at an all-time high is just ridiculous. Higher than a century ago, the year of the Tulsa race massacre? Higher than when the KKK rode unchecked and Jim Crow unchallenged?" He acknowledged that "racism is unfortunately still with us," and its "legacy of injustice" lingers. "I understand best I can how racism singes a person's soul so much they might see it everywhere. But seeing clearly is necessary for actually fixing problems, and clearly racism is no longer everywhere. It's not in my home, and it's probably not in yours if I read my audience right, and I think I do. For most of the country the most unhip thing you could ever be today is a racist."

C

Chris Hunsaker

You know leftist overreach is extreme when Bill Maher and Jon Stewart are calling out its absurdities. Maher's bit is interesting--if you watch the video you'll see that he hasn't totally wandered off the reservation of the left, but he is objectively looking around and recognizing that all of this progressive indoctrination is causing problems.

Jon Stewart's rant brilliantly illustrated the folly of the Never Trumpers who have allowed their disdain for the Orange Man to cloud their view of reality. He was 12 months too late to point it out, but at least he got there eventually.

Chris Breidenbaugh
Marxist and Fascist tyrants have always required a boogey man. The Bolsheviks had the bourgeoisie. Nazi Germany had the Jews, Castro, Chavez and the North Koreans have the US. Today's US marxists have racism. An undeniable, invisible scourge that must be irradiated, no matter how irrelevant it is in modern society. But it will never and can never be irradiated. How will BLM rally the troops if there is no racism? Who will pay for Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson's limos if racism were "gone"? For todays US marxists, the goal is not to end racism. It's to enact marxist policies to control the masses. Racism is just a tool; a means to an end. You can see a direct correlation to the rise of marxist policies and the prevalence of anti-racism fervor. When racism no longer serves it purpose for these marxists, it will be kicked to the curb. They'll find a new boogey man and start the whole process over.
Patricia Barnes
Cultural elites (i.e. Hollywood, publishers) for decades have pushed the narrative that all whites are one grandfather removed from a cruel Southern plantation owner wielding a bull whip over a sniveling black slave on his knees. All to sell movie tickets and books.
RICHARD SANDOR
Patrica : Yes, I have learned quite a bit about this inter-racial part of America History from watching " Finding Your Roots ." Quite an insight into how complicated slavery was because even some African Americans owned slaves . The cultural divisions between the North and South were huge . And finding a solution to this cultural divide was terribly difficult. mrs
r fortin
To quote the racist Maxine Waters, we have to "push-back" against rewarding and giving more power to the racist woke mob or we will become more divided than ever!
BRIAN MOORE
Maher's point will gain no traction on the left. Without "you're a racist", they would have to produce cogent arguments, and they cannot.
SEAN ESSIG
"progressophobia," a term coined by the cognitive psychologist Steven Pinker. Mr. Maher defines it as "a brain disorder that strikes liberals and makes them incapable of recognizing progress.
Absolute genius!
Gary Blakely
In the past we only had two genders, now we have 72 genders. That's progressive.

In the past we had 3,446 black hangings in the US, now we have had 40,000 black people murdered in Chicago alone. That's progressive.

I could go on. Please feel free to enhance this list.

[Jun 18, 2021] Rumors, wild rumors and the US intelligence community attempts to frame China using Q-anon tricks

Looks like Q-anon is alive and well
Jun 18, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

The Free Beacon reports that U.S. intelligence officials haven't come to a conclusion about whether or not the students being investigated were spies, but RedState is told that whether or not one wants to use the term "spy," those students were sent back to the United States with specific information-gathering directives with the purpose of helping Beijing understand the US government's response to the pandemic at a much deeper level than they could through publicly-available documents. Those students (spies) were charged with reporting back on public policy changes, economic response and damage, impacts on the healthcare system (equipment/hospital bed shortages, etc), supply chain impacts (including how long it took things like semiconductors from China to reach the United States), civil unrest, and more.

In addition, Dong has provided DIA with the following information:

Dong also has provided DIA with copies of the contents of the hard drive on Hunter Biden's laptop, showing the information the Chinese government has about Hunter's pornography problem and about his (and Joe's) business dealings with Chinese entities. Some of the files on Dong has provided shine a light on just how it was that the sale of Henniges Automotive (and their stealth technology) to Chinese military manufacturer AVIC Auto was approved.

Again, according to sources, Dong told DIA debriefers that at least a third of Chinese students attending US universities are PLA assets or part of the Thousand Talents Plan and that many of the students are here under pseudonyms. One reason for using pseudonyms is that many of these students are the children of high-ranking military and party leaders.

As we initially reported, DIA has high confidence in the veracity of Dong's claims. The fact that since our original report, which was pooh-poohed by Langley apologists, the New York Times published a rare interview with Dr. Shi Zhengli (the WIV "Bat Woman"), ABC News has started an "investigation" into COVID-19 origins, and now the actual name of the defector has been published in an anti-Trump, CIA-friendly blog, demonstrates what sources told RedState today: "This defector has the rest of the intelligence community and the LEO community scared sh**less."

The Free Beacon reports that U.S. intelligence officials haven't come to a conclusion about whether or not the students being investigated were spies, but RedState is told that whether or not one wants to use the term "spy," those students were sent back to the United States with specific information-gathering directives with the purpose of helping Beijing understand the US government's response to the pandemic at a much deeper level than they could through publicly-available documents. Those students (spies) were charged with reporting back on public policy changes, economic response and damage, impacts on the healthcare system (equipment/hospital bed shortages, etc), supply chain impacts (including how long it took things like semiconductors from China to reach the United States), civil unrest, and more.

In addition, Dong has provided DIA with the following information:

Dong also has provided DIA with copies of the contents of the hard drive on Hunter Biden's laptop, showing the information the Chinese government has about Hunter's pornography problem and about his (and Joe's) business dealings with Chinese entities. Some of the files on Dong has provided shine a light on just how it was that the sale of Henniges Automotive (and their stealth technology) to Chinese military manufacturer AVIC Auto was approved.

Again, according to sources, Dong told DIA debriefers that at least a third of Chinese students attending US universities are PLA assets or part of the Thousand Talents Plan and that many of the students are here under pseudonyms. One reason for using pseudonyms is that many of these students are the children of high-ranking military and party leaders.

As we initially reported, DIA has high confidence in the veracity of Dong's claims. The fact that since our original report, which was pooh-poohed by Langley apologists, the New York Times published a rare interview with Dr. Shi Zhengli (the WIV "Bat Woman"), ABC News has started an "investigation" into COVID-19 origins, and now the actual name of the defector has been published in an anti-Trump, CIA-friendly blog, demonstrates what sources told RedState today: "This defector has the rest of the intelligence community and the LEO community scared sh**less."

lay_arrow
Chief Joesph 2 hours ago

This story is totally unbelievable. First of all, the DIA is the wrong agency to turn over information to, since it only analyze stuff that has military implications, (which of course bioagents would be of an interest to them), but they never make any releases of information available to the public. So, it's very doubtful the author would have gotten any information directly from them. They are literally more secretive than the CIA. And, the business of who had F/J visas and who went to American schools is totally irrelevant to DIA too, which also makes this report suspicious about it's authenticity. This is simply not the way military intelligence works.

Rudolph 1 hour ago (Edited)

Reads like a fiction. Mass number of spies in US gov't even CIA FBI must not be told of Dong's defection ?

AmadausVoltaire 1 hour ago

Yeah, my tolerance for Hopium is so high that this story barely took the edge off...

Drowsapp123 3 minutes ago

Oh so now the Deep State is going to give me the straight story!

Wow they must have gotten jeeeeeeesus.

Never mind our military wants to go after China. This information will be totally unbiased. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

Someone tell the block heads in the military that we're not going to win when all the parts to our war machine come from China. Seriously. This. Is. Dumb.

It was Fauci who had this crap going on in labs of Fort Detrick. When it was made illegal here the research effort was shipped to Wuhan. There it was funded by Fauci / USSA. China is being used as a patsy. Did China put on Event 201 where they did an exercise of a corona pandemic in Sept 2019?? NO. It's the Davos Crowd. The Banking Cartel. Never forget it or we'll have yet ANOTHER world war where your sons / daughters die for them. WW1 / WW2 were fought to make the world safe for the Banking Cartel and allow them to loot the world.

pro·le·tar·i·at 35 minutes ago
  • Names of US citizens who provide intel to China

Dr. Anthony Fauci

bombdog PREMIUM 34 minutes ago

Financial records showing US businessmen and public officials who've received money from the Chinese government

Joe Biden

Huginn 33 minutes ago

Swallwell

Captain Carrot 28 minutes ago

Don't forget Sheldon Adelson (Trumpy's Boss)...!

Johnny Walker 2 hours ago

US has bio weapons labs in 25 countries.

"They kept tampering with the virus for a few years, trying to make it more infectious and more deadly. After gain-of-function research was forbidden by the US government in 2014, it was promptly offshored to Wuhan lab. The research was quietly continued with US grants coming (partly) from the notorious Dr Fauci via the equally notorious Peter Daszak and his EcoHealth Alliance, the beneficiary of $39 million grant from the Pentagon . The Pentagon is a great humanitarian organization known for its love of mankind, right? "

https://www.unz.com/ishamir/the-can-of-worms/

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2021/06/joseph-mercola/covid-ivermectin-and-the-crime-of-the-century/

RiverRoad 1 hour ago

NGOs are so handy.

lay_arrow
tedstr 1 hour ago (Edited)

4.5% (inflated) infection rate and 99.7% (deflated) survival rate is not any kind of weapon. Perhaps the research was leading to it, but covid was not any kind of obviously effective weapon. Dont believe the neocon jibberish. The weapon was the a test of the ability to manipulate the media and politicians to create panic and fear and submission. Obviously totally effective.

hestroy 3 hours ago (Edited)

Not Epoch Times today? But the same joo****. Wuhan was only one of the labs where the virus was created in 2015: A SARS-like cluster of circulating bat coronaviruses shows potential for human emergence

Fluff The Cat 3 hours ago

Gotta try and keep us distracted from the tribe going on a real-estate shopping spree via BlackRock while small hat AG Garland calls "white supremacy" the greatest terrorist threat.

"Look over there!! It's CHINA!!!"

BaNNeD oN THe RuN 1 hour ago
  • Models of predicted COVID-19 spread and damage to the US and the world

So what, they obtained a copy of the Event 201 document from the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

Still it was pleasant to read a speculative propaganda piece not written by Epoch Times, well done.

Sid Finch 32 minutes ago

This feels like more theatre to keep narrative alive. If the CDC or anyone proved a virus exists, it would be good start. Their own PCR manuals concede that it hasn't. Anyone can read them. It's more about creating panic to get more to want the magic mystery potion injection. I see 4 healthy British Airways pilots died this week, and fllying does increase clotting risks.

Son of Captain Nemo 2 hours ago (Edited)

Nothing compares to the "dirt" and $USD to be "dumped" completely which will see THIS ( https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/944-trillion-reasons-why-fed-quietly-bailing-out-hedge-funds )x3

And the $Buck in perpetuity $tops right here ( https://911research.wtc7.net/wtc/groundzero/cleanup.html ) for the "parties" that made that deal!...

me or you 22 minutes ago

Believing this nonsense is like believing in Santa Claus .

roger29palms 34 minutes ago

It seems a bit difficult to believe such a knowledgeable person was allowed out of the country with his daughter to boot.

not-me---it-was-the-dog 32 minutes ago

oh, but it must be true! i done seen it on the interwebs!

calculator 23 minutes ago

You mean like Snowden?

El_Puerco 53 minutes ago

https://youtu.be/vUrp5PlnBwQ

MP Derek Sloan raises concerns about censorship of doctors and scientists – June 17, 2021

WOW!

not-me---it-was-the-dog 18 minutes ago

well, i just checked faux news. nothing about a defective chineser, but i did learn " Kardashian admits she broke up with ex-husband 'in the worst way,' owes apology "

seems the public has become bored with the china/wuhan/bats/commies narrative, so we needs to spice it up. facts or no facts, doesn't matter. it's all about the clicks...........

so, umm......until some real news organizations update us on this world-shattering story, ima take it with lott's wife.

VladLenin 2 hours ago

This sounds like BS. Someone here called it... Steele...

  1. He approached the DIA after being in the US for 2 weeks? As a counter-intel guy, he should know DIA HUMINT is for sh!t. They're the JV team. The only reason he might go to them is if they had already pitched him (and maybe the Chinese found out).
  2. So in a world of compartmentalization, this guy knows everything about everything. Even being a high level guy, we all know executive types are incapable of doing stuff for themselves. So, in between budget meetings and picking the new picture of Mao for the lobby, he was downloading data to a thumb drive?

If I had to guess, this guy probably did defected. But his exploits are an amalgamation of many potential intel sources. Pin some sh!t on him so he won't re-defect.

[Jun 18, 2021] Top Chinese Epidemiologist Urges Probe Of US Bio-Weapons Labs

Jun 18, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com
BeePee 6 hours ago remove link

==But can we trust the US government any better?==

Yes. We are an open society. With a free press. And freedom of speech.

You are spreading falsehoods.

[Jun 18, 2021] PATRICK LAWRENCE- The US-Russia Summit

Jun 15, 2021 | consortiumnews.com

C urious it was to read that the Russian judiciary ruled last Wednesday that Alexei Navalny's political network is an extremist movement. Its members should be grateful that the courts recognized it as a movement, given Navalny's nationwide support has never exceeded 3 percent or so, but on paper they are now liable to arrest and prosecution and, if convicted of one or another charge, could be fined or imprisoned.

There have been no arrests, so far as has been reported. But think of all those chances Western intel agencies and their clerks in the press may now have to lionize a new cohort of oppositionists as Navalny's heroic followers. Let us not forget, a kooky poseur journalist named Oleg Kashin had the nerve to call Navalny "Russia's true leader" in a recent New York Times opinion piece .

There is no limit to the silliness in all matters Russian, it seems. At least not at the Times .

I say "curious" because, in the ordinary conduct of statecraft as we have had it for the past seven decades, the Moscow's court's ruling, exactly a week prior to President Joe Biden's first summit with President Vladimir Putin, would have to be counted obtuse. Wouldn't minding one's manners -- especially given that the Navalny network's significance resides solely in the minds and news pages of Western propagandists -- be the wise course?

I don't think so. I have no clue as to the independence or otherwise of the Russian judiciary, but it is unthinkable the Russian leader did not know in advance of what the courts were about to determine. I think Russia was indeed minding its manners -- a different and altogether more honorable set of manners than American pols and diplomats have exhibited lo these many decades.

In a sensible read, the court ruling was a calculated gesture in response to Biden's commitment, announced during a Memorial Day speech, to confront Putin in Geneva on June 16 with the question of human rights in the Russian Federation. "We will not stand by and let him abuse those rights," saith the man from Scranton.

We will not stand by, Moscow replied in so many words, as you grandstand at Russia's expense. Recall in this connection, Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, has lately made it a habit to note that Moscow is monitoring human rights in the U.S. since the Jan. 6 protests at the Capitol. "We have no taboo topics," Lavrov said in evident response to Biden's speech. "We will discuss whatever we think is necessary."

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, left, and President Vladimir Putin meeting with China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi, 2017. (President of Russia)

It would be very wrong to take this matter as a passing spat as the Russian and American presidents find their feet with one another. In my view, the court judgment last week and Lavrov's remarks on human rights as a two-way street make the Geneva encounter far more important than it may have otherwise turned out to be.

Five Principles

To understand this, we must go back and back and back some more until we reach the early 1950s, when newly independent India and newly socialist China were working out how two very large neighbors ought best to conduct their relations. It was while negotiating a bilateral agreement on this question in 1953 that Zhou Enlai, Mao's cultured, subtle, farsighted premier, first articulated his Five Principles, the ethical code by which the People's Republic would conduct its relations with all nations.

These were incorporated into the Sino–Indian Agreement of 1954 and have been justifiably well-known since. Note that four of the five have to do with respectful conduct and parity:

– Mutual respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty;

– Mutual nonaggression;

– Noninterference in the internal affairs of other nations;

– Equality and mutual benefit among nations;

– Peaceful coexistence.

A year after New Delhi and Beijing signed their accord, Zhou's principles were reiterated at the historically monumental conference of nonaligned nations Sukarno hosted at an Indonesian hill station called Bandung. When the Non–Aligned Movement was formally constituted six years after that, the Five Principles effectively became the non–West's statement -- of aspiration, of intent -- to the West: This is what we have to offer the postcolonial world, the NAM said in so many words. This is our contribution to a new and peaceable world order. This is how we will manage our relations with others.

The Grand Mosque of Bandung, Indonesia, with its twin minarets, adjacent to the city square in Asia-Afrika Street, 2008. (Prayudi Setiadharma, Wikimedia Commons)

The United States never had any time for the NAM. As readers of a certain age will recall, it dismissed the movement, with-us-or-against-us style, as a badly dressed bunch of crypto–Communists or Soviet dupes. The decades since are an easy lesson in why Washington took this utterly awful position: It has not once, not in any given year, observed even one of Zhou's principles. It has always, in any given year, abused all five.

Vladimir Putin

One may admire or detest Vladimir Putin, but he is undeniably possessed of an excellent grasp of history, as many of his speeches attest. I doubt he thinks very specifically about the NAM or Zhou's principles, but, without naming them, these are what he will have on the table when he meets Joe Biden.

This is the meaning of the oddly timed court judgment against Navalny's apparatus and the message Lavrov conveyed in response to Biden's Memorial Day speech: Internal affairs are to be resolved internally.

Geneva will mark the start of a long and welcome process. Its importance will lie in its formalization of a stance Russia -- and China, too -- have adopted since those two catastrophically stupid mistakes Biden and Secretary of State Blinken made last March, when Biden called Putin a murderer and tin-eared Blinken hollowly lectured the Chinese about human rights and democracy.

President Joe Biden in Oval Office, April 27. (White House, Adam Schultz)

Beijing and Moscow have ever since stiffened their backs toward the U.S., giving as good as they get on all the questions with which Washington customarily browbeats others.

If we have begun a process, where will it lead? In my read to an excellent place, where nations mind the better set of manners noted above -- Zhou Enlai's manners, let us say.

Before this century is out, and very possibly before the midway mark, Zhou's Five Principles stand to become the norm in international relations. Zhou's true topic was parity between West and non–West. This will be achieved, and strange it is that the opening months of the Biden administration have opened us to this salutary prospect. The U.S. will otherwise lead us all into an egregiously messy period of history, and I do not think rising powers -- Russia, China, India, others -- will find this acceptable.

One other matter must be clarified as Geneva approaches.

I do not know the merits of the case against Navalny or, since last week, the ruling against his followers. But I have always found it curious that The New York Times and the other major dailies recite as rote that Navalny and his people consider the two charges of embezzlement (and the two convictions) that put him in jail in the first place to be "trumped up" or "politically motivated." Why doesn't the Times ' Moscow bureau do the gumshoe work and inform readers whether or not this is so?

True, Times ' Moscow correspondents are among the worst in my lifetime, but this kind of kabuki requires one to consider carefully whether the charges are indeed legitimate. My read: The legal case against Navalny probably holds water, and the American press uses the power of omission to avoid acknowledging this.

Pitiful, if this is the case.

The larger point here: We must learn to put all such questions aside in contexts such as we have now in U.S.–Russia relations. Anyone who has ever been in a Marxist reading group knows the importance of distinguishing between primary and secondary contradictions. Let us not forget the essential lesson, no matter anyone's political stripe.

What is the primary contradiction here? It is Washington's refusal to observe the principles of noninterference and sovereignty, and it is vital far, far beyond bilateral relations that Russia defends these. The Navalny case and the associated matter of human rights are, plainly and simply, a secondary contradiction -- and one it is imperative to leave to Russians to resolve.

Geneva in June, a rather nice place to be. Let us see if Biden and Putin mind their manners -- and whose manners these turn out to be.

Patrick Lawrence, a correspondent abroad for many years, chiefly for the International Herald Tribune , is a columnist, essayist, author and lecturer. His most recent book is Time No Longer: Americans After the American Century . Follow him on Twitter @thefloutist . His web site is Patrick Lawrence . Support his work via his Patreon site .

The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News .

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Tags: Alexei Navalny Bandung Conference Non Aligned Movement Patrick Lawrence Sergei Lavrov


[Jun 17, 2021] Biden will cure cancer now. I just know it.

Jun 17, 2021 | turcopolier.com

Deap says: June 17, 2021 at 12:21 pm

After four years of Russia, Russia, Russia is our mortal enemy and has compromised the former US President to our great national peril, don't you think it is wonderful Biden brought a thaw to those very same hostilities he and his party spent the last four years trying to foment? ( /s)

Biden will cure cancer now. I just know it.

[Jun 17, 2021] Jon Stewart Causes Liberal Heads to Explode - TurcopolierTurcopolier

Jun 17, 2021 | turcopolier.com

Boy, was this unexpected and fun. Jon Stewart, former star of the Daily Show (back when it was funny), hooked up Monday night with his old protege, Stephen Colbert. When Stewart was running the Daily Show, he had a liberal bent but he would also take on liberal hypocrisy. That bit of integrity was on display again last night (today is Tuesday) when the insufferable Stephen Colbert asked his old boss what he thought about the Covid-19 pandemic. Here is the exchange:

"I think we owe a great debt of gratitude to science. Science has, in many ways, helped ease the suffering of this pandemic, which was more than likely caused by science ," Stewart said after Colbert asked how he was feeling about the scientific response to COVID-19.

"Do you mean perhaps there's a chance that this was created in a lab?" asked Colbert, adding "There's an investigation."

" A chance? " shot back Stewart – kicking the door open.

" Oh my god, there's a novel respiratory coronavirus overtaking Wuhan, China, what do we do? Oh, you know who we could ask? The Wuhan novel respiratory coronavirus lab. The disease is the same name as the lab. That's just a little too weird, don't you think? And then they asked those scientists – they're like 'how did this so wait a minute, you work at the Wuhan respiratory coronavirus lab. How did this happen?' and they're like ' mmmm – a pangolin kissed a turtle? ' and you're like 'no the name of your lab! If you look at the name! Can I let me see your business card. Show me your business card. Oh – I work at the coronavirus lab in Wuhan. Oh, cause there's a coronavirus loose in Wuhan. How did that happen? '

'Maybe a bat flew into the Cloaca of a turkey and then it sneezed into my chili. And now we all have Coronavirus."

Stewart landed one final joke as Colbert desperately tried to control the situation;

"HOLD IT, HOLD IT! What about this, what about this listen to this! 'OH MY GOD, there's been an outbreak of chocolately goodness near Hershey, Pennsylvania. What do you think happened?'

'Oh I don't know, maybe a steam shovel mated with a cocoa bean?'

" Or it's the fucking chocolate factory ! Maybe that's it!" Stewart screamed.

https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=true&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=eyJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2hvcml6b25fdHdlZXRfZW1iZWRfOTU1NSI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJodGUiLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X3R3ZWV0X2VtYmVkX2NsaWNrYWJpbGl0eV8xMjEwMiI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJjb250cm9sIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH19&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1404665481886195717&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fturcopolier.com%2F&sessionId=98a7c6592999aaa8a5ecd60f9471746654270e8a&theme=light&widgetsVersion=82e1070%3A1619632193066&width=550px

Boy oh boy. Liberal land did not like that. Click here to enjoy the tsunami of liberal hysteria in the aftermath of getting punched in the nut sack by truth.

Polish Janitor says: June 15, 2021 at 6:52 pm

John Stewart always stroke me as an old-school 'New-Deal' type liberal who had a nuanced view of the world. Ironically, when Dubya was in office Stewart was always there to criticize and poke fun at him and the Republicans so he was pretty much their enemy no.1 in the media, but this time around it is the batshit crazy progressives that are foaming on their mouths for seeing him apply the same stuff he used to unleash against the Republicans. The Colbert's interview actually sums up the insanity of the progressives nicely.

My hats off to John Stewart for standing up to non-sense when he sees it. James says: June 17, 2021 at 9:48 am

Krystal & Saager were on Joe Rogan yesterday and the three of them watched the clip together – quite approvingly.

Not everyone on the left is an idiot or a sellout. These three people, and Jon Stewart, have great integrity and intelligence. Krystal & Saager are living proof that the left and the right can work together to take on the establishment.

[Jun 17, 2021] Vlad vs Volodaya controversy

Jun 17, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org

Andrew Ho , Jun 17 2021 0:55 utc | 74

I see many commenters referring to President Putin as Vlad. For the last time, the shortening of Vladimir is not Vlad, it's Volodya. Vlad is short for Vladislav. Just because American idiots journalists didn't bother to do a little research doesn't mean you couldn't either.


Wolle , Jun 17 2021 1:09 utc | 76

@Andrew Ho(#74): The most used shortcut for Владимир is Вова, IMHO.
Volodya is not really shorter like Vladimir.

Hoarsewhisperer , Jun 17 2021 5:28 utc | 85

I see many commenters referring to President Putin as Vlad. For the last time, the shortening of Vladimir is not Vlad, it's Volodya. Vlad is short for Vladislav.
...
Posted by: Andrew Ho | Jun 17 2021 0:55 utc | 74

You're forgetting that this is an English Language conversations among Speakers of English. Their most common method of shortening a person's name is by omitting the surplus syllables from the end of a long name.
In English, if the short version of a person's name bears no resemblance to the name itself, then it's a Nickname.

It's not disrespectful to talk ABOUT someone using a conventional shortening of their name. It would only be disrespectful if one used it when speaking TO the individual without first asking how he/she prefers to be addressed. And that's a universal precaution.

steven t johnson , Jun 17 2021 12:55 utc | 109

Queen Elizabeth is nicknamed "Liz" by the irreverent and "BoJo" is widely recognized for Boris. Somehow I have a vague notion Merkel has been dubbed "Tante," but this may be the onset of dementia. ("Lilibet" has been revived for a great-granddaughter, but that was more a WWII thing for Elizabeth II.) Before Macron was elected I off-handedly referred to him as "monster," but that really provoked one of the regulars at another blog, Crooked Timber. (Our host may be pleased to know they are allergic to MoA?)

Nicknames may be both expressions of affection and of scorn.

corvo , Jun 17 2021 14:43 utc | 111

The reason the Russian President is commonly referred to as "Vlad" is to make the mental association with Vlad the Impaler.

[Jun 17, 2021] The three Realities (Tenors)

Jun 17, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org

Christian J. Chuba , Jun 17 2021 11:51 utc | 107

CNN - Biden set the ground rules for Putin (it was a strong showing)

FOX - Putin played Biden like a violin and made the U.S. look weak because he's a naïve, doddering old man

mine - We are narcissists to believe that we need to scare people to save the world. Nothing changes, our Military Budget will continue to increase.

[Jun 16, 2021] I guess the crazy conspiracy theorists were right again: FBI Operatives "highly likely" were the organizers Of Capitol Riot

FBI sponsored Arab Spring in the USA ?
Jun 16, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com
WeNamedTheDogIndiana 7 hours ago

Shocked, I tell you. Shocked.

LeadPipeDreams 3 hours ago

The men on the street corners with "The End is Nigh" placards are beginning to resemble Walter Kronkite in demeanor as well as credibility.

But then again Walter was one of the CIA's finest...

Nona Yobiznes 7 hours ago

I guess the crazy conspiracy theorists were right again.

benb 3 hours ago (Edited)

Dumb Hannity used to call the FBI "The Crown Jewel of Law Enforcement,."

C Rabbit PREMIUM 7 hours ago

Why has the FBI never released the surveillance videos from the Alfred P. Murrah Buildings and the others around it from the morning of April 19, 1995. "It's still under investigation."

Why have the videos from all around the Pentagon taken on the morning of 9/11 never been released?

Why does the CIA refuse to release all of their files on the JFK assassination?

Why? Why? Why?

Muffdiver2269vIII 7 hours ago

Ahh, they are waiting for Durham to complete the reports?

wootendw PREMIUM 6 hours ago

"Congressman Matt Gaetz calls on FBI Director Christopher Wray to fully disclose the role and involvement of FBI operatives during the January 6th Capitol riot."

That would be self-incrimination.

radical-extremist 7 hours ago (Edited)

FBI will never talk because that would be revealing "classified methods and procedures".

Why of course they troll the boards looking for "extremists" to exploit. They befriend them and groom them, until they eventually enable them to commit the crime itself. Conspiracy to commit the crime isn't near as sexy as the real thing, let's put these people away for life. If there's collateral damage now and then, so be it. "Justice" comes at a cost. /s

Jim in MN 7 hours ago remove link

WELL WORTH a minute of your time.

https://www.roberthjackson.org/speech-and-writing/the-federal-prosecutor/

The Federal Prosecutor, 1940

If the prosecutor is obliged to choose his cases, it follows that he can choose his defendants. Therein is the most dangerous power of the prosecutor: that he will pick people that he thinks he should get, rather than pick cases that need to be prosecuted. With the law books filled with a great assortment of crimes, a prosecutor stands a fair chance of finding at least a technical violation of some act on the part of almost anyone. In such a case, it is not a question of discovering the commission of a crime and then looking for the man who has committed it, it is a question of picking the man and then searching the law books, or putting investigators to work, to pin some offense on him. It is in this realm-in which the prosecutor picks some person whom he dislikes or desires to embarrass, or selects some group of unpopular persons and then looks for an offense, that the greatest danger of abuse of prosecuting power lies. It is here that law enforcement becomes personal, and the real crime becomes that of being unpopular with the predominant or governing group, being attached to the wrong political views, or being personally obnoxious to or in the way of the prosecutor himself.

[Jun 14, 2021] A note on iden-Putin Summit

Jun 14, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

smellmyfingers 18 hours ago

It will be a bust.

One of them is only capable of having 2-3 sentence discussions and then needs to be shuffled off out of the public eye.

toady 14 hours ago

It's amazing how he's managed to "fail up" for his entire life.

brown_hornet 14 hours ago

That's what [neoliberal] dems do.

RattieNomNom 18 hours ago

where is his cocaine-infused son? he could keep talks going

Stormtrooper 17 hours ago

This Summit will be a victory for Biden because it will be just a media show for the American (or whatever we are now that we do not have a legitimate Federal government tying the states into a Constitutional union) sheeples.

The Summit will be in one of the movie studios where the Biden "White House" exists. Putin will be an actor and the whole episode will be structured to make Biden appear to know where he is at.

Enjoy the show.

JohnnyCrypto 18 hours ago remove link

Is Obama going with them?

yerfej 18 hours ago

No, Rice and Jarrett will be there instead. Oblama will be busy ginning up race hatred somewhere in some inner city shythole.

[Jun 14, 2021] Putin send NBC presssitute with his claims about Russian hacking to the "International League of Sexual Reform"

This is pretty impressive demonstration of the sense of humor
Jun 14, 2021 | www.theburningplatform.com

You are conveying information to me as to who said that. But where is evidence that this was indeed done? I will tell you that this person has said that, that person has said this. But where is the evidence? Where is proof? With -- when there is -- when there are charges -- without -- evidence, I can tell you, you can take your complaint to the International League of Sexual Reform.

[Jun 14, 2021] RT is sometimes funny.

Jun 14, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org

m , Jun 13 2021 15:49 utc | 11

In his article Paul Robinson details how since the 16th century Russian imperialism had been rooted in a specific Russian form of Christian messianism ("Third Rome") which in turn has lead to imperial over-extension and internal break-down. But no more! Russia has learned it`s lesson and is now a pragmatic country without exceptionalism and imperial ambitions.

In the lower half of the article RT links to another article with the headline: "Love thy neighbor? Putin says religious values of 'mercy' & support for vulnerable underpin Russian civilization through history "

Roger , Jun 13 2021 17:15 utc | 19

@11 m,

Russia's peak was after the defeat of Napoleon's Grand Army at the start of the 1800s. Britain and France then focused on it as the main European enemy (with Napoleon finally defeated at Waterloo and Germany not yet unified) and destroyed its military during the Crimean War (1853-1856). The Japanese administered the coup de grace with the Russo-Japanese war (1904-1905) during which they destroyed the Russian fleet. The taking of Eastern Europe after WW2 was a defensive maneuver by Stalin, as any detailed reading of the correspondence and actions of the day would attest - for example, Stalin handed back Austria and allowed the US/UK a free hand in Greece, Italy and Western Europe when many were ripe for socialist/communist victories.

Russia is a weak shadow of the USSR and the Russian Empire, it has to accept the reality of its situation. Unfortunately it will take much longer for the US to do so.

[Jun 12, 2021] Putin Reveals Personal Thoughts On Trump Biden In Rare NBC Interview

NBC pushed regular neocon garbage, so it is not very interesting interview. We saw better executed similar attempts to attack Putin in the past. The guy is really second rate: too pushy, too opinioned to be a good interviewer. He really is not interested in Putin opinions, he need to push the agenda of his handlers. He demonstrated zero respect as if Russia is a US vassal (it was in 1990 under alcoholic Yeltsin) . In other words he is a regular Pressitute. This neocon pushed the label killer on Putin, while this label is appropritate to any recent US presendent to much greater measure. Just look at how many people were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan in attempt to achive "full spectrum Dominance" and enhance andcement global neoliberal empire. But some moments when Putin destroyed neocon agenda are pretty educational.
Jun 12, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

Russian President Vladimir Putin this week sat down for an interview with a US media outlet for the first time in nearly three years . NBC's Keir Simmons talked to Putin for about 90 minutes, and released a teaser segment Friday night.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the conversation centered on the Russian leader's perspective on American politics and his personal thoughts and comparison of Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Putin called the former president "extraordinary" and "talented" while noting that Biden is "radically different" and is a quintessential "career man" in politics .

https://www.youtube.com/embed/oh_obIUJ7HA

"Well even now, I believe that former U.S. president Mr. Trump is an extraordinary individual, talented individual, otherwise he would not have become U.S. President," Putin told Simmons.

" He is a colorful individual. You may like him or not. And, but he didn't come from the US establishment, he had not been part of big time politics before , and some like it some don't like it but that is a fact."

In contrast, he said of President Biden :

"...President Biden is a career man. He has spent virtually his entire adulthood in politics," Putin said in part.

"That's a different kind of person, and it is my great hope that yes, there are some advantages, some disadvantages, but there will not be any impulse-based movements, on behalf of the sitting U.S. president."

https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=eyJ0ZndfZXhwZXJpbWVudHNfY29va2llX2V4cGlyYXRpb24iOnsiYnVja2V0IjoxMjA5NjAwLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X2hvcml6b25fdHdlZXRfZW1iZWRfOTU1NSI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJodGUiLCJ2ZXJzaW9uIjpudWxsfSwidGZ3X3R3ZWV0X2VtYmVkX2NsaWNrYWJpbGl0eV8xMjEwMiI6eyJidWNrZXQiOiJjb250cm9sIiwidmVyc2lvbiI6bnVsbH19&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1403486131132506119&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fpolitical%2Fputin-reveals-personal-thoughts-trump-biden-rare-us-media-interview&sessionId=1e2973eddbbb4bb3a4de25e2928af1d7e080705f&siteScreenName=zerohedge&theme=light&widgetsVersion=82e1070%3A1619632193066&width=550px

Also interesting is Putin's response to the March George Stephanopoulos interview with Biden wherein the US President dubbed Putin a "killer" with "no soul". Putin responded in this new NBC clip:

"Over my tenure, I've gotten used to attacks from all kinds of angles and from all kinds of areas under all kinds of pretext, and reasons and of different caliber and fierceness and none of it surprises me."

Putin called the "killer" label "Hollywood macho."

Putin also took aim at a recent Washington Post report over Russia-Iranian military relations and the transfer of advanced satellite systems. "It's just fake news," Putin dismissed. "At the very least, I don't know anything about this kind of thing. Those who are speaking about it probably will maybe know more about it. It's just nonsense, garbage."


activisor 2 hours ago

Funny how Putin has become leader of the free world! He and Lavrov are streets ahead of the rest, and have massive support outside Russia based on their common sense approach to world events. He will be hard to replace.

yerfej 2 hours ago

EVERYONE with common sense realize Putin is the ONLY current leader who gives a **** about his country and people and is willing to cooperate with any country that isn't wandering around the globe looking to tell everyone else what they can say or do or think.

No_Pretzel_Logic 2 hours ago

How fascinating that you speak for "everyone" with common sense. That's quite a skill.

Do tell us about the responses from people you've polled in the Scandinavian countries, Poland, UK, France, etc.?

George Bush League 2 hours ago

You can start by not being such an pathetic condescending azzhole.

smellmyfingers 54 minutes ago

Putin, articulate, intelligent, answers without a teleprompter and without babbling or stumbling.

Is he perfect? Obviously not nor is he a messiah. But I'd bet people have more confidence in him out in front than the corruption and lies the USA and many other western nations have that are completely compromised.

chunga 2 hours ago remove link

Dmitry Orlov has got some interesting translations from Putin at the thing in St. Petersburg.

https://cluborlov.blogspot.com/

Here's the money shot.

"The United States are making sure-footed strides directly along the path of the Soviet Union."

Orlov concludes.

If there is anything at all that you can do to prepare, your time is short. This is not a drill.

[Jun 12, 2021] A new criteria for a miraculous, smashing success

Jun 10, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

Lord Raglan 1 hour ago (Edited)

For these Fauci religious cultists, if the death rate from Covid is 0.074% but the death rate from the "vaccine" is 0.073%, the "vaccine" will be a miraculous, smashing success.

[Jun 12, 2021] Putin warns US may regret using dollar as sanctions weapon - Nation - postguam.com

Jun 10, 2021 | www.postguam.com

President Vladimir Putin said Russia doesn't want to stop using the dollar as he accused the U.S. of exploiting the currency's dominance for sanctions and warned the policy may rebound on Washington.

Russia has to adopt other payment methods because the U.S. "uses its national currency for various kinds of sanctions," Putin said late Friday in St. Petersburg at a videoconference with representatives of international media organizations. "We don't do this deliberately, we are forced to do it."

Settlements in national currencies with other countries in areas such as defense sales and reductions in foreign-exchange reserves held in dollars eventually will damage the U.S. as the greenback's dominance declines, Putin said. "Why do U.S. political authorities do this? They're sawing the branch on which they sit," he said.

me title=

Putin spoke a day after Russia announced it will eliminate the dollar from its oil fund to reduce vulnerability to sanctions, a largely symbolic move as the switch in holdings will take place within the central bank's reserves. Russia has tried with limited success to shift away from the dollar for years amid international sanctions over Putin's 2014 annexation of Crimea and support for separatists in eastern Ukraine, as well as for alleged cyber attacks, election meddling and espionage operations.

The Russian leader's comments came ahead of his first summit meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden in Geneva on June 16. While he praised Biden as one of the world's most experienced leaders, Putin said he expects no breakthrough in relations with the U.S. at the talks.

And he offered a warning at Friday's meeting for the U.S., based on what he said was his own experiences "as a former citizen of the former Soviet Union."

"The problem with empires is that they think they can afford small errors and mistakes," which gradually accumulate, Putin said. "There comes a time when they can no longer be dealt with. And the U.S., with a confident step, a confident gait, a firm step, is walking straight along the path of the Soviet Union."

[Jun 12, 2021] Fifteen percent of Americans agree that the government, media and financial worlds are controlled by pedophiles

Jun 06, 2021 | www.wsj.com

The problem with conspiracy theories (CIA invented term to whitewash CIA participation in killing of JFK) that some of them in ten to twenty years no longer viewed as conspiracies. They enter mainstream.

An online poll this week from Ipsos reported 15% of Americans agree that the government, media and financial worlds are controlled by Satan-worshiping pedophiles. Not 15% of Republicans or conservatives, but of Americans. That's a lot.

... ... ...

America is a lonely place. When you hold to a conspiracy theory, you join a community. You're suddenly part of something. You have new friends you can talk to on the internet ...

... One of the enduring and revealing songs of America asks "Which side are you on / Which side are you on? / You go to Harlan County / There is no neutral there / You'll either be a union man / Or a thug for J.H. Blair."

... ... ...

Conspiracy believers don't believe what the mainstream media tell them. Why would they? Newsrooms are undergoing their own revolution, with woke progressives vs. journalistic traditionalists, advocacy versus old-school news values. It is ideological. "We are here to shape and encourage a new reality." "No, we are here to find and report the news." It is generational: The young have the upper hand and the Slack channel. The woke are winning.

...

When you think your country has grown completely bizarre...Think of what normal human beings have been asked to absorb the past year. The whole country was shut down and everyone was told to stay in the house. They closed the churches, and the churches agreed. There was no school and everyone made believe""really, we all made believe!""screens were a replacement. A bunch of 13-year-old girls in the junior high decided they were boys and started getting shots, and no adults helped them by saying, "Whoa, slow down, this is a major life decision and you're a kid." The school board no longer argues about transgender bathrooms, they're on to transgender boys wanting to play on the girls team. Big corporations now tell you what you should think about local questions, and if this offends you, they don't care. There were riots and protests last summer and local government seemed overwhelmed.

[Jun 12, 2021] Passengers on first fully vaccinated North American cruise test positive for COVID

Jun 10, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

Youri Carma 1 hour ago remove link

As predicted***.

Passengers on first fully vaccinated North American cruise test positive for COVID
Jun 10, 2021
https://breaking911.com/2-passengers-on-first-fully-vaccinated-north-american-cruise-test-positive-for-covid/

Covid in Scotland: Recorded cases in children reach highest level
Jun 10, 2021
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-57398757

***The insidious face of a pandemic of variants
Jun 1, 2021 Geert Vanden Bossche
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGBDETOPAJA

[Jun 12, 2021] Have You Crossed the COVID-19 Rubicon?

Jun 10, 2021 | uncontrolledop.com

Posted on April 25, 2021 by Tom Hanx

We're talking about the COVID-19 injections, of course. They were always the end game; that's why the COVID-19 "vaccine" propaganda is so relentless. It's everywhere. The syndicate news channels, newspapers, websites, celebrities, professional sports figures etc. continuously pimp the toxic injection message. They don't call them injections but "vaccines", of course, even though by definition they are not vaccines and thus it's technically illegal to formally classify them as such. Words matter, especially when it comes to the subject of our health, and thus we refuse to use the word "vaccine" when referencing these gene therapy experiments.

Meanwhile, people are now literally virtue-signaling that they've either already received or are intending to get these Big Pharma injections. Shockingly, parents are subjecting their own children to these toxic treatments ; for a disease that for anyone under the age of 70 and in reasonably good health has effectively a zero percent chance of dying from. We'll wager many of your friends and family members are getting it.

[Jun 09, 2021] Flench joke: "Lab rat 1 to lab rat 2: When are you going to get the vaccine? Lab rat 2: As soon as the human trials are finished

Jun 09, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

Buckwheat 8 hours ago

Lab rat 1 to lab rat 2: When are you going to get the vaccine?

Lab rat 2: As soon as the human trials are finished.

Mister E 6 hours ago (Edited)

As soon as the human trials are finished.

seen it, that was a french joke I even posted the cartoon on FB

[Jun 09, 2021] I wonder if they could have Mueller do another 30 million dollar investigation into the covid19 origin?

Jun 09, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com
NotWoke.F.O. 7 hours ago

I wonder if they could have Mueller do another 30 million dollar investigation? Is he still available ? ...

[Jun 09, 2021] Why they need children vaccinated against Covid-19?

Jun 09, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

Hiros Edge 3 hours ago remove link

why they need children who would be immune from this virus vaccinated?

#becausePSLM

Pharmaceutical Salesmen Lives Matter.

Just imagine the bonuses a salesman gets for contracting a school district to deploy their vaccine for x number years....

[Jun 09, 2021] And they wonder why we keep buying guns

Jun 09, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

Dragonlord 7 hours ago (Edited)

The left love their saint Dr Fraud and he could do no wrong in their eyes.

And they see democrats as superheroes who try to save the world when the latter are only good at stealing.

Meat Hammer 6 hours ago

That's all of this in a nutshell: liberals see themselves as enlightened, superior beings, and conservatives as vermin who deserve extermination. And they wonder why we keep buying guns.

Plus Size Model 18 minutes ago remove link

Both groups see themselves this way because they have been cognitively conditioned accordingly. It's all part of the plan.

I can go into any liberal bookstore and pick up a stack of books on protesting, civil action, making stickers, posters, organizing, setting up fundraisers, etc. I come to ZH and alI I see are bots and the occasional poster complaining about how things are never going to get better. Think long and hard about this!!!

I can't emphasize enough how much people should read up on information operations and long term strategic psychological warfare. There are plenty of good books in the open domain and the US military does not copyright their work.

[Jun 08, 2021] I am fine with subsidizing Bezos' or Musk's flights to space. But don't make it round-trip tickets.

Jun 08, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org

vk , Jun 7 2021 17:49 utc | 4

Bezos, Musk and other billionaires are errors in our economic-political systems. They should be eliminated.

I am fine with subsidizing Bezos' or Musk's flights to space. But don't make it round-trip tickets.

It is hard to make an anti-billionaire narrative work in the West for ideological reasons. See this as a recent example:

China executes 14 billionaires in 8 years, Culture News reports

If you read the replies to this tweet, you can clearly see why Americans tolerate the existence of billionaires: according to liberal ideology, the alternative would simply be too much worse.

The whole legitimacy of capitalism to masses lies in the assumption it is a pure and limitless meritocracy: you get monetarily rewarded in the exact proportion of your individual qualities and hard work.

The moment you start to arrest and even execute billionaires for crimes related to the economy (white collar crime), you're tacitly admitting the free market has a ceiling: you cannot get indefinitely rich, therefore you're not entirely free. It may be a tall cage, but it is still a cage - a precept that would kill the liberal concept of individual freedom.

That's why Westerners are completely ok with death penalties for crimes related to individual defects (i.e. serial killers, rapists) or related to a violation of the game (crimes against private property; robbery; rigging), but not with "white collar crimes" - no matter how much more damaging white collar crimes are to society (e.g. only one middle management guy got arrested in the aftermath of the crisis of 2008, and he got very little time).

So, the problem isn't in the fact that Westerners don't recognize that extreme wealth concentration is a problem, but that they think that this is a necessary evil, the price of freedom. It's like the Egyptians servants building the pyramids for their dead pharaohs under the fear the world will literally end if they don't.

ak74 , Jun 7 2021 19:38 utc | 20

"I am fine with subsidizing Bezos' or Musk's flights to space.

But don't make it round-trip tickets."

LOL.

Better yet, make them cadets in America's new Space Force and outfitted in the appropriate Star Wars imperial stormtroopers uniforms.

And then blast them off on a one-way ticket to their outer space destination of choice.


[Jun 07, 2021] Fifteen percent of Americans agree that the government, media and financial worlds are controlled by pedophiles

Jun 06, 2021 | www.wsj.com

The problem with conspiracy theories (CIA invented term to whitewash CIA participation in killing of JFK) that some of them in ten to twenty years no longer viewed as conspiracies. They enter mainstream.

An online poll this week from Ipsos reported 15% of Americans agree that the government, media and financial worlds are controlled by Satan-worshiping pedophiles. Not 15% of Republicans or conservatives, but of Americans. That's a lot.

... ... ...

America is a lonely place. When you hold to a conspiracy theory, you join a community. You're suddenly part of something. You have new friends you can talk to on the internet ...

... One of the enduring and revealing songs of America asks "Which side are you on / Which side are you on? / You go to Harlan County / There is no neutral there / You'll either be a union man / Or a thug for J.H. Blair."

... ... ...

Conspiracy believers don't believe what the mainstream media tell them. Why would they? Newsrooms are undergoing their own revolution, with woke progressives vs. journalistic traditionalists, advocacy versus old-school news values. It is ideological. "We are here to shape and encourage a new reality." "No, we are here to find and report the news." It is generational: The young have the upper hand and the Slack channel. The woke are winning.

...

When you think your country has grown completely bizarre...Think of what normal human beings have been asked to absorb the past year. The whole country was shut down and everyone was told to stay in the house. They closed the churches, and the churches agreed. There was no school and everyone made believe""really, we all made believe!""screens were a replacement. A bunch of 13-year-old girls in the junior high decided they were boys and started getting shots, and no adults helped them by saying, "Whoa, slow down, this is a major life decision and you're a kid." The school board no longer argues about transgender bathrooms, they're on to transgender boys wanting to play on the girls team. Big corporations now tell you what you should think about local questions, and if this offends you, they don't care. There were riots and protests last summer and local government seemed overwhelmed.

[Jun 07, 2021] Biden to continue unpopular Trump-Obama-Bush-Clinton-Bush-Reigan-Carter-Ford-Nixon Era policies

Jun 04, 2021 | www.reddit.com

r/WayOfTheBern • Posted by

u/_MyFeetSmell_ a self aware Russian Bot 6 days ago

Wholesome 2 Silver This isn't even satire r/WayOfTheBern - This isn't even satire 58 Comments Share Save Hide Report Vote PROMOTED • Posted by u/amazonbooks 2 days ago

58 Comments

leftofmarx 5 days ago

Onion is the real news these days.

EseJandro 5 days ago

Bipartisanship

WesternEmploy949 5 days ago

Guess who has been overseeing this and making sure that it happens? Biden. Schumer. Pelosi. McConnell, Feinstein and many others who have spent their entire life working against we the people for their donors.

They stripped us of our jobs, wages, pursuit of happiness and well being. They wrote away our health care through trade agreements and imported foreign workers to keep our wages low. During Reagan people could work full time in a grocery store and have a car, vacation home and great benefits from their employer. Now both parents have to work full time and then some and still can't make ends meet. They did that to us.

But they get to do insider trading, get great benefits that WE FCKING PAY FOR while they deny us the same thing.

And yet we've been returning them to office time after time and they keep doing it. Duh! We can't vote our way out of the current mess because the people who run the country don't get voted on. 23 Reply Share Report Save

voice-of-hermes anarchist 5 days ago

Well, don't forget the masters they serve (capitalists). Politicians aren't the root of the problem. It's just important that we remember that they sure as fuck are part of the problem and not the cure for it. 6 Reply Share Report Save

goshdarnwife 6 days ago

Nothing will fundamentally change.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 38 Reply Share Report Save View Entire Discussion (58 Comments) More posts from the WayOfTheBern community 2.3k Posted by u/_MyFeetSmell_ a self aware Russian Bot 6 days ago

1 day ago

Pretty much r/WayOfTheBern - Pretty much 400 Comments Share Save Hide Report 1.4k Posted by u/cloudy_skies547 6 days ago
Gold Wholesome Silver Why leftists oppose Democrats r/WayOfTheBern - Why leftists oppose Democrats 166 Comments Share Save Hide Report

[Jun 01, 2021] Shades of dementia: Bidden claims that human rights R us.

May 31, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org

Don Bacon , May 31 2021 0:12 utc | 29

Believe it or not, the president says that human rights R us.

Hear that, BLM? Women? Asian Americans? Hispanics? homeless? heavily indebted students? . . the list goes on.

Biden said so, May 30, 2021

"I had a long conversation -- for two hours -- recently with President Xi, making it clear to him that we could do nothing but speak out for human rights around the world because that's who we are. I'll be meeting with President Putin in a couple of weeks in Geneva, making it clear that we will not -- we will not stand by and let him abuse those rights." . . here

..reminds me of Aeschylus: "In war, truth is the first casualty."

[May 31, 2021] Why doesn't Covid seem to affect the Amish people?

May 15, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

Gwar6.0 45 minutes ago

Local reporter to Amish leaders: "Why doesn't Covid seem to affect the Amish people?"

Amish: "We don't have TV"

[May 31, 2021] Soma is your internet-connected device

Is this what legalization of Marijuana was about?
May 06, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

Permitted Special Characters 6 hours ago

"There will be in the next generation or so a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude and producing dictatorship without tears , so to speak, producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies so that people will in fact have their liberties taken away from them but will rather enjoy it."

People keep expecting a drug that you "take." We have been taking this drug willingly, after knowing all the risks, for the last ten years.

Soma is your internet-connected device.

[May 31, 2021] There s a difference between hate speech speech that you hate

May 10, 2021 | twitter.com
Dr. Willie J. Montague @RepMontague · 21h

There's a difference between hate speech & speech that you hate ?

[May 29, 2021] I think it's pretty safe to say I won't be getting a glowing performance review this year

May 27, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

BigDawgz 4 hours ago remove link

My ultra-Liberal boss announced this AM, almost with a sense of glee, that COVID cases in our county allegedly went back up so we'd be forced to submit to once-a-week testing again....except for those who are vaccinated. They don't have to be tested. Immediately, I piped up that that seemed odd the vaccinated didn't require testing seeing as the CDC says that they can still Harbor & pass on the virus. She got pissed & screamed at me, "I don't make the rules!". To which I responded, "If you'll notice, I never said you did. I simply stated that the CDC says the vaccinated can still pass the virus so the rule they don't need testing is contradictory to the "science". Either the vaccine you all are pushing works...or it doesn't. Time for "the science" to be consistent or it's all a bunch of crap."

I think it's pretty safe to say I won't be getting a glowing performance review this year. Too bad... they're so flipping short-staffed she can't possibly afford to fire me.

[May 28, 2021] The difference between "die from" and die with"

May 23, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com


5 play_arrow


NotaSheep 4 hours ago

While a lot of people have died with the WuFlu virtually no one has died from it.

JOHNLGALT. 4 hours ago

You might want to read what you just typed & see if it makes sense.

russellthetreeman PREMIUM 4 hours ago (Edited)

I think this is what notasheep is referring to. Only 6% died of covid per cdc.

CDC: 94% of Covid-19 deaths had underlying medical conditions

NotaSheep 3 hours ago

And they underestimated. By a lot.

[May 28, 2021] The Biden administration 'is being run by hardcore Neo-Marxists'

They are definitely neocons. Not so sure about Marxists. Rather Trotskyites and Mao "Cultural revolution" adepts.
May 07, 2021 | www.youtube.com

Sky News host Rowan Dean says proof of how the Biden administration "is being run behind the scenes by hardcore neo-Marxists" is the administration's embrace of the Durban Declaration.

[May 28, 2021] The globalists who claim to care about carbon footprints are being disingenuous

Highly recommended!
Notable quotes:
"... I can't wait to see the 1000 foot long cargo ships, the 80,000 pound carrying semi trailers, the 42 million pound trains and above all (sorry) the 400 passenger jet airliners run off of solar panels or wind generators. Especially the airliners using a windmill! (We used to have much of this. It was called "the Age of Sail"). ..."
May 16, 2021 | www.unz.com

ThreeCranes , says: May 16, 2021 at 2:36 pm GMT • 12.2 hours ago

@Astuteobservor II

Won't the future be just grand?

I can't wait to see the 1000 foot long cargo ships, the 80,000 pound carrying semi trailers, the 42 million pound trains and above all (sorry) the 400 passenger jet airliners run off of solar panels or wind generators. Especially the airliners using a windmill! (We used to have much of this. It was called "the Age of Sail").

In other words, we can have globalism with its demands for unlimited movement of goods and people or we can have local economies, autarky and nativism. The globalists who claim to care about carbon footprints are being disingenuous.

[May 28, 2021] Rabobank- Biden Is Finally Searching For The Origin Of COVID- Will It Be Russia

May 27, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

It should serve as a warning. 14 years ago, obscure corners of banking businesses became hotbeds of regulatory arbitrage, speculation and leverage. The contagion of US subprime brought the financial system to its knees. Now, after years of low or negative interest rates, equity finance may have become a similar hotbed.

[May 28, 2021] 'We chose freedom over Fauci-ism!' Ron DeSantis slams bureaucrats like Dr. Fauci for lockdowns

May 21, 2021 | www.youtube.com


gunz300 , 3 hours ago

It's amazing that people still see Fauci as an expert when he's the biggest reason why covid even happened.

Carolyn Green , 1 hour ago

You can't subcontract leadership to health bureaucrats. Wow

[May 28, 2021] Obama's follow-up to "Dreams from My Father" will be "Sins of My Mother"

May 19, 2021 | www.unz.com

Wokeness is just a detail, not the biggest one by any means, of a vast socio-economic collapse of neoliberalism.

chris , says: May 14, 2021 at 7:13 am GMT • 5.8 days ago

What wokeness does mandate for my son (who is studying biology) to be told in his class that he is the carrier of "white guilt" even though his ancestors never interacted with blacks, let alone blacks in the USA.

Obama's follow-up to "Dreams from My Father" will be "Sins of My Mother"

Stephen Paul Foster , says: Website May 14, 2021 at 10:58 am GMT • 5.7 days ago

" [C]orporate "America" which is now flooding all its advertisements with the "correct" races in total disregard to that race's real percentage of the population "

Yes, for corporate America, the U.S. demographic is composed mainly of young, beautiful, smart looking "black folks" with a few flabby, pasty white dullards to heighten the contrast.

[May 28, 2021] Snopes and the Babylon Bee

Money quote: "[Snopes] concerned about neither facts nor checks"
May 28, 2021 | www.wsj.com
SUBSCRIBER 1 day ago When Snopes fact checks the Babylon Bee, its easy to see that they concerned about neither facts nor checks

[May 28, 2021] Sky News host Alan Jones says putting Joe Biden in the position of "leading the world's democracies" is "elder abuse"

Why Biden did not resign and give Kamala the chance yet?
May 14, 2021 | www.youtube.com

The 'leader of the free world' is 'cognitively delinquent' - YouTube



ncsteeltoe
,
1 week ago

As an American I have to look to other countries to get news on my own country.


Paul Keith
, 2 weeks ago

The most common phrase in America is ..... "I didn't vote for him".

Bob - Enough , 2 days ago (edited)

LOL, harsh and spot on. Whahahaha. I wish we had this channel in the UK.

Jimmy P1976 , 2 weeks ago

I love Alan Jones facial expressions when referring to Biden's dementia. He's an Australian Lou Dobbs.

poione42 , 17 hours ago

Love watching news about my country from a outsiders perspective. Probably the most informative non-biased news aroundðŸ'

LogicalQ , 2 days ago

As an American, it is so refreshing to hear real news instead of the endless domestic propaganda. Thank you for publishing this.

[May 28, 2021] More Hacks, More Baseless Accusations Against Russia

May 11, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org

More Hacks, More Baseless Accusations Against Russia

In January police in various countries took down the Emotet bot-network that was at that time the basic platform for some 25% of all cybercrimes.

Based on hearsay Wikipedia and other had falsely attributed Emotet to Russian actors. The real people behind it were actually Ukrainians :

The operating center of Emotet was found in the Ukraine. Today the Ukrainian national police took control of it during a raid (video). The police found dozens of computers, some hundred hard drives, about 50 kilogram of gold bars (current price ~$60,000/kg) and large amounts of money in multiple currencies.

bigger

Emotet had nothing to do with Russia.

Now the U.S. is accusing Russia of somehow having part in another cybercrime :

President Joe Biden said Monday that a Russia-based group was behind the ransomware attack that forced the shutdown of the largest oil pipeline in the eastern United States.

The FBI identified the group behind the hack of Colonial Pipeline as DarkSide, a shadowy operation that surfaced last year and attempts to lock up corporate computer systems and force companies to pay to unfreeze them.

"So far there is no evidence ... from our intelligence people that Russia is involved, although there is evidence that actors, ransomware is in Russia," Biden told reporters.

"They have some responsibility to deal with this," he said.

Three days after being forced to halt operations, Colonial said Monday it was moving toward a partial reopening of its 5,500 miles (8,850 kilometers) of pipeline" the largest fuel network between Texas and New York.

Biden however is badly informed. There is no evidence that DarkSide has anything to do with Russia. It is, like Emotet, a commercial 'ransomware-as-a-service' criminal entity that wants to make money and does not care about geopolitics.

Yes, a version of the DarkNet software does exclude itself from running on system with specific language settings :

The DarkSide malware is even built to conduct language checks on targets and to shut down if it detects Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Armenian, Georgian, Kazakh, Turkmen, Romanian, and other languages ...

That is a quite long list of east European languages and Russian is only one of it. Why the authors of DarkNet do not want their software to run on machines with those language settings is unknown. But why would a Russian actor protect machines with Ukrainian or Romanian language settings? Both countries are hostile towards Russia. To claim that this somehow points to Russian actors is therefore baseless.

Russia strongly rejected Biden's accusation:

The Kremlin has once again pointed out the importance of cooperation between Moscow and Washington in tackling cyberthreats amid a cyber-attack on Colonial Pipeline, a US company. "Russia has nothing to do with these hacker attacks, nor with the previous hacker attacks," Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Preskov assured reporters on Tuesday.

"We categorically reject any accusation against us, and we can only regret that the US is refusing to cooperate with us in any way to counter cyber-threats. We believe that such cooperation - both international and bilateral - could indeed contribute to the common struggle against this scourge [known as] cyber-crime," Peskov said.

The U.S. seems notoriously bad at attributing computer hacks. It claims that the recent SolarWinds attack which intruded several government branches was also done by Russia. But that attack required deep insider knowledge and access to SolarWinds' computers and processes :

The recently discovered deep intrusion into U.S. companies and government networks used a manipulated version of the SolarWinds Orion network management software. The Washington borg immediately attributed the hack to Russia. Then President Trump attributed it to China. But none of those claims were backed up by facts or known evidence.

The hack was extremely complex, well managed and resourced, and likely required insider knowledge. To this IT professional it 'felt' neither Russian nor Chinese. It is far more likely, as Whitney Webb finds, that Israel was behind it .

Indeed - the programmers of an Israeli company, recently bought up by SolarWinds, had all the necessary access for such a hack. However the U.S. sanctioned Russia over the SolarWinds hack without providing any evidence of its involvement.

If the U.S. continues to blame Russia without any evidence for each and every hack there may come a time when Russia stops caring and really starts to hack into or destroy important U.S. systems. The U.S. should fear that day.

Posted by b on May 11, 2021 at 17:31 UTC | Permalink


David G Horsman , May 11 2021 17:48 utc | 1

Thanks b. I don't think Russia is going to escalate destructive attacks any time soon. There's no upside.
They might even be reluctant to reveal their capabilities in the Ukraine.
For the moment, mockery is the best remedy while they up their game.
psychohistorian , May 11 2021 17:56 utc | 2
@ b who ended with
"
If the U.S. continues to blame Russia without any evidence for each and every hack there may come a time when Russia stops caring and really starts to hack into or destroy important U.S. systems.
"

How can you write such assertions that vary from the approach that both Russia and China are taking?....strong defense but no offense.

Now if empire tried to hack into a Russian or Chinese system/network then appropriate takedowns of malicious systems/networks would seem logical....and I expect they know how...but will not do it on the basis of another avenue of empire lies and deceit.

anon48 , May 11 2021 18:20 utc | 3
You should have titled the post "Killing Two Birds With One Stone".
This pipeline is huge, running from Texas through the Southeast and all the way up to New England. It's condition is beyond awful with multiple leaks along the route some of which lose more than a million gallons per month and much more than can be determined since some of the gasoline / jet fuel went into the aquifers. These faults have been well known for decades and although some of the areas are heavily populated no remediation was done. The local outcry recently caught the attention of the press when kids reported a gasoline smell along the pipeline route to the police. The locals demanded the pipeline be closed for repairs and sought answers from state officials and Federal authorities as to why this situation was allowed. To blame the Russians for the closure of the pipeline which results in a surge in prices and limited availability of gas for the summer is an absolute stroke of genius.
https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/local/ncdeq-colonial-pipeline-spill-huntersville/275-70e16fb6-c945-4634-b933-3975d0573f2e
Ike , May 11 2021 18:27 utc | 4
Great article. Russia must be getting so pissed off with the idiots in Washington.The uninformed and easily manipulated Western people surely get the governments they deserve.
Paul Craig Roberts highlights this with another bit of truth telling from Tucker Carlson
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2021/05/11/the-proof-is-in-tony-fauci-is-responsible-for-the-creation-of-the-covid-19-virus/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=the_proof_is_in_tony_fauci_is_responsible_for_the_creation_of_the_covid_19_virus&utm_term=2021-05-11
DG , May 11 2021 18:43 utc | 5
@all

I need to ask this: What do you think about the vaccination of children?

...

Josh , May 11 2021 18:44 utc | 6
It is odd that certain elements of the us intelligence community, along with negative factions within the us political establishment, continue to absolutely refuse to enter into verifiable and mutually binding international agreements on cyber security with exactly the nation states that they accuse (without evidence) of malicious activity in the same sphere, while at the same time operating in this field in an openly declared hostile manner under the secrecy deemed necessary for 'national security'.

[May 28, 2021] More Hacks, More Baseless Accusations Against Russia

May 17, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org

librul , May 16 2021 13:24 utc | 1

Related:
- MI6 spy Christopher Steele 'produced second dossier on Donald Trump for FBI' - Telegraph
- Master List Of Official Russia Claims That Proved To Be Bogus - Matt Taibbi
- Secret Sharers: The Hidden Ties Between Private Spies and Journalists - NYT
> In a recent book, Luke Harding, an investigative reporter at The Guardian, described how Mr. Steele had dispatched his "collector" to surreptitiously approach a real estate broker, Sergei Millian, who was a peripheral figure in the Trump/Russia saga. "Millian spoke at length and privately to this person, believing him or her to be trustworthy "" a kindred soul," Mr. Harding wrote.

But the trouble for Mr. Harding, who is close to both Mr. Steele and Mr. Simpson, was that he wrote those lines before the release of the F.B.I. interview of Mr. Danchenko.

In the interview, the collector said that he and Mr. Millian might have spoken briefly over the phone, but that the two had never met.

Mr. Harding did not respond to requests for comment. <

Here are Ten Things We Have Learned During the Covid Coup.

1. Our political system is hopelessly corrupt. Virtually all politicians are hopelessly corrupt. No political party can be trusted. They all can be, and have been, bought.

2. Democracy is a sham. It has been a sham for a very long time. There will never be any real democracy when money and power amount to the same thing.

3. The system will stop at nothing to hold on to its power and, if possible, increase its levels of control and exploitation. It has no scruples. No lie is too outrageous, no hypocrisy too nauseating, no human sacrifice too great.

4. So-called radical movements are usually nothing of the sort. From whatever direction they claim to attack the system, they are just pretending to do so, and serve to channel discontent in directions which are harmless to the power clique and even useful to its agendas.

5. Any "dissident" voice you have ever heard of through corporate media is probably a fake. The system does not hand out free publicity to its actual enemies.

6. Most people in our society are cowards. They will jettison all the fine values and principles which they have been loudly boasting about all their lives merely to avoid the slightest chance of public criticism, inconvenience or even minor financial loss.

7. The mainstream media is nothing but a propaganda machine for the system... ...and those journalists who work for it have sold their sorry souls, placing their (often minimal) writing skills entirely at the disposition of Power.

8. Police are not servants of the public... ...but servants of a powerful and extremely wealthy minority which seeks to control and exploit the public for its own narrow and greedy interests.

9. Scientists cannot be trusted. They will use the hypnotic power of their white coats and authoritative status for the benefit of whoever funds their work and lifestyle. He who pays the piper calls the tune.

10. Progress is a misleading illusion. The "progress" of increasing automation and industrialisation does not go hand in hand with a progress in the quality of human life, but in fact will "progressively" reduce it to the point of complete extinction.


vk , May 16 2021 15:19 utc | 15

Corpses Disposed in India's Rivers, Causing Environmental Experts Grave Concern

Cannot fake that. The pandemic is real.

--//--

The West has created an imaginary, evil China for its people to hate and fear -- and it's working

Irrelevant how much the Western peoples hate China. China is not Iran, Afghanistan, Russia or some other random Third World country, it is above the pay grade of Western public opinion.

However, it is true China is not up to the level achieved by the Soviet Union. It still has a military disproportionately weak compared to its economic might. That problem will still take some three or more decades to solve, but it is being worked on.

--//--

After Years of Quiet, Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Exploded. Why Now?

This headline by the NYT (in the upper right corner of the Home Page) reflects the West's frustration with Israel. In the first part, they try to tell the reader that the Israeli are waging a war of equals, and not genociding, the Palestinians (and that the USA has nothing to do with it). In the second part, it laments the bad timing by the Israelis, who interrupted their propaganda warfare operation against China on the "Uighur genocide" campaign.

It urges Israel to clean the mess as quick as possible in order for the anti-China propaganda campaign to resume.

--//--

America Is Failing Its Moral Test on Vaccine [NYT Editorial Board]

Can't lose what you never happened to begin with.

In the case of the COVID-19 vaccines, the above statement is literal, as the USA has, so far, exported zero - I repeat, zero (not rounding down) - vaccines so far.

Meanwhile, China has already exported 250 million doses and counting (last time I checked, a week ago) - more than the entire Indian production (India had just exported some 60 million doses).

--//--

Unemployment Pay May Again Require a Job Search. Is It Too Soon?

The inner contradictions of capitalism in plain sight.

On the one side, you have to give people money so they can keep themselves quarantined. On the other side, capitalism requires people to keep working or to keep searching for work in order to pull down wages, thus increasing the rate of surplus value. That's why conservatives are usually in favor of the Christian charity, that gives only food and shelter, but not cash, to the unemployed, but not of wage raises and unemployment benefits - the fact that you're paid in cash and not in kind makes all the difference in the world in the capitalist system.

Unemployment benefits only help capitalism is it is low enough just to keep one physically alive and in constant search for jobs. That way, he/she incorporates the industrial reserve army, which brings wages down. The problem with the USA is that wages were already so low before the pandemic that those USD 600.00 checks made 35% (!!) of its recently unemployed recipients richer than when they were employed. Logically, those 35% don't want to go back to work, as their lives are objectively better now than they were before the pandemic, and that's why the Republican congressmen and senators are pressuring Biden (as they pressured Trump) to outright extinguish those checks.

P.S.: the top rated commentary in the article ("Great generations of Americans came here 100 years ago...") by the time I typed this is hilarious, shows the delusion of the average American towards their own system almost perfectly. The other comments are also very funny. The narrative that "there are a lot of jobs available, but no one is skilled enough/wants it" is used by the capitalists every time there's an economic crisis, just search your favorite newspaper for the years of 1980-1982, 1975 etc. etc. and you'll see the same bullshit being preached over and over again.

--//--

Israel has chosen a two-tiered society. Violence is the inevitable result.

Talks about apartheid as the only possible synthesis between a Jewish theocratic state and a liberal bourgeois state, which I mentioned in the past two threads about the subject.

As I said before, the system is unstable and is doomed to fail. Either Israel abandons its Zionist project and gives up the idea of being an 100% Jewish state and thus becomes a liberal bourgeois state or it will continue to wither and degenerate until it falls to a civil war.

--//--

China Becomes Second Nation to Land on Mars

It would've been the first if not for a providential last grasp effort by NASA, who used the resources it had and didn't have to pull that off, by a few months.

The tendency, however is clear. NASA will soon cease to exist as we know it and essentially become the State façade of SpaceX. The USA's space program will then be entirely dependent on the genius of Elon Musk.

--//--

Cuban vaccines (Abdala and Soberana 02) continue advancing on their trials:

Va Abdala, como marca de vida en los brazos de Cuba (+Video)

Lemming , May 17 2021 4:03 utc | 99

If you had read and understood the Mars 3 link I provided you would have learned that it wasn't a rover either. Which the first rover was has already been told. End of story.

Posted by: Norwegian | May 16 2021 18:37 utc | 37

Yes, but no. Mars 3 actually had a rover on board, PROP-M. To quote Wikipedia:

"The Mars 3 lander, a so called Passability Estimating Vehicle for Mars, was designed and manufactured in Mobile Vehicle Engineering Institute by a team of approximately 150 engineers, led by Alexander Kemurdzhian. The vehicle had a small 'Mars rover' on board, which was planned to move across the surface on skis while connected to the lander with a 15-meter umbilical cable. Two small metal rods were used for autonomous obstacle avoidance, as radio signals from Earth would take too long to drive the rovers using remote control. The rover carried a dynamic penetrometer and a gamma ray densitometer."

... although it seems it never was deployed because of the communication failure, so it cannot count as the first rover to function on Mars.

[May 28, 2021] Was the Colonial Pipeline Co. ransomware attack a false flag operation ?

Probably it was not a false flag. First of all the state of IT security at Colonial Pipeline was so dismal that it was strange that this did not happened before. And there might be some truth that they try to exploit this hack to thier advantage as maintenance of the pipeline is also is dismal shape.
Notable quotes:
"... "As for the money-nobody really knows where it really went." If you are right about the perpetrators, my guess would be that it went into the black-ops fund, two birds one stone. ..."
"... I have become so used to false flags, I am going to be shocked when a real intrusion happens! ..."
"... an in depth article researching solarwinds hack - looks like it was Israel, not a great leap to see that colonial was a false flag https://unlimitedhangout.com/2021/01/investigative-reports/another-mega-group-spy-scandal-samanage-sabotage-and-the-solarwinds-hack/ ..."
"... Regarding the ownership of Colonial Pipeline: 'IFM Investors, which is owned by 27 Australian union- and employer-backed industry superannuation funds, owns a 16 per cent stake in Colonial Pipeline, which the infrastructure manager bought in 2007 for $US651 million.' ..."
"... 'The privately held Colonial Pipeline is valued at about $US8 billion, based upon the most recent sale of a 10 per cent stake to a unit of Royal Dutch Shell in 2019.' ..."
May 19, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org

Blackhat , May 19 2021 18:51 utc | 6

The Colonial Pipeline Co.,ransomware attack was a false flag. They wanted to blame Russian hackers so they could derail Nordstream II

It is common knowledge that the only real hackers that are able of such sabotage is CIA and Israeli. It's the same attack types they do to Iranian infrastructure on a regular basis.

The Russians are not that stupid to do something they know will be blamed on them and is of no political use to them. And could derail Nordstream2.

As for the money-nobody really knows where it really went. CEO is ultra corrupt. They never ever invested in their infrastructure so when it went down they came up with a profitable excuse. Just look at their financials/balance sheet over the years. No real investment in updating and maintaining infrastructure. Great false flag. Corruption and profiteering.


MarkU , May 19 2021 19:04 utc | 7

@ Blackhat | May 19 2021 18:51 utc | 6

"As for the money-nobody really knows where it really went." If you are right about the perpetrators, my guess would be that it went into the black-ops fund, two birds one stone.

james , May 19 2021 19:08 utc | 9

@ 6 blackhat..

I have become so used to false flags, I am going to be shocked when a real intrusion happens!

abee , May 19 2021 19:21 utc | 10

@ blackhat 6

an in depth article researching solarwinds hack - looks like it was Israel, not a great leap to see that colonial was a false flag https://unlimitedhangout.com/2021/01/investigative-reports/another-mega-group-spy-scandal-samanage-sabotage-and-the-solarwinds-hack/

vinnieoh , May 19 2021 20:05 utc | 15

Blackhat | May 19 2021 18:51 utc | 6

I'm not familiar with your handle - hello. IMO, it would be counterproductive for Russia to initiate such a hack. What really affects and debilitates US oil and gas interests is low prices, both at the pump and on the stock exchange. The hack helped jack up prices (which were already being jacked-up despite demand still lagging behind supply) which only HELPS those energy interests. It has long been known, the math isn't complicated, what level crude must trade at for US domestic oil & gas operations to be profitable. Remember that just as the pandemic was emerging Russia and Saudi Arabia once again sent the global crude market into the depths of despair.

I do agree the hack can be interpreted in light of the desperation of US energy interests to try to kill NS2. I have not yet read the recent articles discussing Biden's recent moves in that regard. If these moves are a recognition that US LNG to Europe (and elsewhere) are diametrically opposed to climate responsibility, I'd welcome those moves. As is usually the case though, environmental responsibility is probably the least likely reason.

vk , May 19 2021 22:31 utc | 35

Colonial Pipeline CEO confirms paying $4.4 million ransom to hackers, says he did it for America

This is USSR-of-the-1980s level of propaganda. Either way, give that man a statue in D.C.!

P.S.: this is the quotation of what the CEO really said, so you don't accusing me of just reading the headline:

"[it was very hard, difficult to me etc. etc.] But it was the right thing to do for the country," Blount, who leads the company since 2017, added.

--//--

No shit, Sherlock:

Russian Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine hasn't been approved by EU due to political pressure from top officials – Moscow's spy chief

Paul , May 19 2021 23:42 utc | 42

Posted By Oldhippy @28

Thanks for your comment.

Regarding the ownership of Colonial Pipeline: 'IFM Investors, which is owned by 27 Australian union- and employer-backed industry superannuation funds, owns a 16 per cent stake in Colonial Pipeline, which the infrastructure manager bought in 2007 for $US651 million.'

also

'The privately held Colonial Pipeline is valued at about $US8 billion, based upon the most recent sale of a 10 per cent stake to a unit of Royal Dutch Shell in 2019.'

see Australian Financial Review 6 days ago.

Koch may well own another multi million $ stake.

[May 27, 2021] Ohio sees COVID vaccination rate soar 45% since announcing Vax-A-Million lottery

May 27, 2021 | www.msn.com

Looks like the chance to win a million bucks can give vaccination rates a real shot in the arm.

Ohio saw its COVID-19 vaccination rate jump 45% between May 14-19 as compared to the previous week, thanks in part to the state's Vax-A-Million lottery, Gov. Mike DeWine told reporters on Wednesday . Last week, the state said it recorded a 28% spike in vaccinations in the days following the lottery announcement.

An Associated Press analysis found that the number of Ohio residents ages 16 and up who got their first COVID shot spiked 33% in the week after DeWine announced the state would be giving away $1 million prizes and in-state public college scholarships as incentives to get more residents inoculated.

Each week, adult Ohioans who have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose will enter a random drawing to win a million dollars. And younger vaccinated Ohio residents between the ages of 12 and 17 will be part of a weekly random drawing to get a four-year scholarship to an Ohio public university, which will include tuition, room, board and books. There will be five winners for each prize selected over the next five weeks.Wednesday night, the Ohio lottery announced the first two winners: Abbigail Bugenske of Silverton, near Cincinnati, won $1 million, while Joseph Costello of Englewood, near Dayton, won the college scholarship. Each Wednesday moving forward, another adult and another teen winner will be revealed at 7:29 p.m. through June 23.

More than 2.7 million adults registered for the cash prizes, and more than 100,000 teens are vying for the scholarships.

[May 24, 2021] Pretty soon we are going to hear a variation of the Casablanca "gambling at Rick's" line. I'm shocked, shocked that there's gain-of-function research being done at the Wuhan lab.

May 24, 2021 | www.wsj.com

Pretty soon we are going to hear a variation of the Casablanca "gambling at Rick's" line. I'm shocked, shocked that there's gain-of-function research being done at the Wuhan lab. K R HANINGTON

Pretty soon we are going to hear a variation of the Casablanca "gambling at Rick's" line.
I'm shocked, shocked that there's gain-of-function research being done at the Wuhan lab.
Pretty soon we are going to hear a variation of the Casablanca "gambling at Rick's" line. I'm shocked, shocked that there's gain-of-function research being done at the Wuhan lab. K R HANINGTON
Pretty soon we are going to hear a variation of the Casablanca "gambling at Rick's" line.
I'm shocked, shocked that there's gain-of-function research being done at the Wuhan lab.
Pretty soon we are going to hear a variation of the Casablanca "gambling at Rick's" line. I'm shocked, shocked that there's gain-of-function research being done at the Wuhan lab. K R HANINGTON
Pretty soon we are going to hear a variation of the Casablanca "gambling at Rick's" line.
I'm shocked, shocked that there's gain-of-function research being done at the Wuhan lab.

[May 24, 2021] Who reports top whom

May 24, 2021 | www.wsj.com

T

Who reports top whom T Tw Allen

Thanks for the article: For some reason, this past year I had been thinking that Xi from China was Fauci's boss.
Who reports top whom T Tw Allen
Thanks for the article: For some reason, this past year I had been thinking that Xi from China was Fauci's boss.

[May 22, 2021] Progress in CDC reporting of COVID victims

May 22, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

lay_arrow

Kelley 15 hours ago (Edited) remove link

With the old rules a motorcycle fatality and a shooting victim were counted as covid deaths.

With the new rules if a vaxxinated person has had a previous motor vehicle accident 20 years ago, but dies of covid now they will be counted as a car accident death or an unsolved murder.

[May 18, 2021] Spanish Politician Banned From Twitter For -Hate Speech- After Saying -A Man Cannot Get Pregnant- - ZeroHedge

May 18, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

..Francisco José Contreras was banned from his account for 12 hours, according to Fox News , for making the argument and backing it up by stating men have "no uterus or eggs."

He was making the comments in response to an article about a transgender male who announced that they had "given birth" to a baby girl and were now a father.

[May 18, 2021] Trump and draining the swamp: Trump was just a real estate agent. He doesn't drain but sell the swampland of MAGA

May 18, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org

Bernard F. , May 17 2021 23:31 utc | 52

draining the swamp

If you want to drain it, you need time and a lot of people. [we needed 600 years and twelve Abbey, to drain 100.000 acres of swamp in Poitou].

Unfortunately Trump was just a real estate agent.

He doesn't drain but sell the swampland of MAGA [And one of the original sellers of swampland was Charles Ponzi.]

[May 17, 2021] Fauci Declares Pandemic Has Highlighted How Racist America Is

Notable quotes:
"... "My bureaucracy in no way funded gain of function research at the Wuhan lab on a bat virus that came to be known as Covid19." ..."
"... You've been at the top of the public health heap for at least four decades. So what have YOU done to address this situation? If your answer is "Nothing." you should consider jumping off a tall building because YOU are a racist. ..."
"... When you've got nothing intelligent to say, declare something is racist! ..."
May 17, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

CheapBastard 2 hours ago (Edited) remove link

Where is Fauci's African kente scarf?

Bold statements like that require the proper attire!

SharkBit 2 hours ago

Oh please! Dr Fraudci virtue signalling. Total embarrasment.

nmewn 2 hours ago

Dr.StrangeElf: "My bureaucracy in no way funded gain of function research at the Wuhan lab on a bat virus that came to be known as Covid19."

That infected millions of people of color. Oh. And America is raaayzist.

NotaSheep 2 hours ago

Racism? Really? Because of inadequate access to "public health"? Really?

Well gosh, Dr. F. You've been at the top of the public health heap for at least four decades. So what have YOU done to address this situation? If your answer is "Nothing." you should consider jumping off a tall building because YOU are a racist. The rest of us, not so much.

FreeSpeech1A PREMIUM 2 hours ago

When you've got nothing intelligent to say, declare something is racist!

[May 16, 2021] Biden remarks on filibuster reform degenerates into word salad

Notable quotes:
"... Asked about the issue, Biden began, "I believe we should go back to what existed when I came to the Senate 120 years ago" – a statement that supporters defended as a joke. He then noted that there were only 58 filibuster motions in 54 years, through 1971, but five times that many in 2020. He may have forgotten that all of last year's motions came from his party, which was then the Senate minority. ..."
Mar 25, 2021 | www.rt.com
WATCH: Biden adds fodder to dementia speculation as spirited response on filibuster reform degenerates into word salad Leah Millis 170

President Joe Biden apparently had some crucial things to say about reforming the Senate filibuster, the legislative speed bump against ruling-party dominance, but his descent into unintelligibility left his plans a mystery.

Speaking on Thursday at his first formal press conference since taking office – having taken almost twice as long as any president in 100 years to invite reporters to ask questions – 78-year-old Biden at times struggled to express his thoughts, particularly on the filibuster. At issue was the longstanding Senate rule that makes it more difficult for the ruling party to force through partisan legislation, which Democrats have called for eliminating now that they control the White House and both chambers of Congress.

Asked about the issue, Biden began, "I believe we should go back to what existed when I came to the Senate 120 years ago" – a statement that supporters defended as a joke. He then noted that there were only 58 filibuster motions in 54 years, through 1971, but five times that many in 2020. He may have forgotten that all of last year's motions came from his party, which was then the Senate minority.

BIDEN: "I believe we should go back to a position of a filibuster that existed just when I came to the United States Senate 120 years ago." pic.twitter.com/7X7VKDkLcn

-- Breaking911 (@Breaking911) March 25, 2021

"Do you think he knows?" former Wisconsin governor Scott Walker asked on Twitter. "He's either cynical or incompetent."

Biden said he supports reform, such as requiring opposition senators to actually deliver marathon filibuster speeches to block action on a bill, and spoke of his desire and ability to "get things done" in the Senate. But then the mental wheels appeared to come off.

"The best way to get something done, if you hold near and dear to you that you uh, um like to be able to uh anyway," Biden said. "I, we're going to get a lot done. And if we have to, if there's complete lockdown and chaos as a consequence of the filibuster, then we'll have to go beyond what I'm talking about."

READ MORE Biden's press conference is a Big Yawn, and it's loyal media to be blamed for this sycophantic display of verbal boot-licking

Biden drifted off similarly as other reporters came back to the topic. "Our preoccupation with the filibuster is totally legitimate, but in the meantime, there's a lot we can do while we're talking about what we can do with the filibuster," he said.

After agreeing with a previous statement by former president Barack Obama that the filibuster is "a relic of the Jim Crow era," meaning it's racist, Biden was pressed on why he wouldn't therefore abolish it. After a long pause, Biden said, "Successful electoral politics is the art of the possible. Let's figure out how we can get this done and move in the direction of significantly changing the abuse of even the filibuster rule, first. It's been abused from the time it came into being by an extreme way in the last 20 years. Let's deal with the abuse first."

Apparently mystified by Biden's comments, the reporter asked if that meant he was moving closer to eliminating the filibuster. "I answered your question," he replied.

The performance likely did little to inspire confidence at a time when Biden was perceived by many to be avoiding being put in a position of having to speak off script. A Rasmussen Reports poll earlier this month found that 50% of Americans aren't confident that Biden is physically and mentally fit to be president, and 52% were troubled that he hadn't held a press conference. It took until day 65 of his administration to hold such an event.

[May 16, 2021] BLM co-founder blasts 'white supremacy' in housing market after $3 million property spending spree -- RT USA News

May 16, 2021 | www.rt.com

BLM co-founder blasts 'white supremacy' in housing market after $3 million property spending spree 16 May, 2021 21:54 / Updated 2 hours ago Get short URL FILE PHOTO: Co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement, Patrisse Cullors, attending the 90th Academy Awards in Hollywood, California, March 4, 2018 © Reuters / Carlo Allegri 27 Follow RT on A co-founder of Black Lives Matter, Patrisse Cullors, has highlighted the "history of racism inside of the housing market," after making waves for spending millions on homes in predominantly white neighborhoods.

In an Instagram post over the weekend, Cullors praised a National Public Radio report that "highlighted" the history of racism in the US housing market.

"Thank you @npr for highlighting the history of racism inside of the housing market and why Black homeownership has always been a way to disrupt white supremacy," she wrote, adding a link to the report, titled 'We Hold These Truths.'

[May 15, 2021] Covid-19 knocked out flu out of the USA. Such a miracle...

Notable quotes:
"... On a bright note .. not a single person died from the flu! Its a miracle ! ..."
May 15, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

RaAvimisnthere 42 minutes ago

There is a viral pneumonia. I doubt bacterial and viral are separated in the numbers.

Giant Meteor 3 hours ago remove link

On a bright note .. not a single person died from the flu! Its a miracle !

aztrader 1 hour ago

They made everything look like a COVID death. What are the real numbers with only COVID involved and not diabetes, heart conditions, cancer and motorcycle accidents?

[May 14, 2021] Wuhan Mistake (Honest Mistake Parody) - Louder With Crowder

May 14, 2021 | www.youtube.com

Cathy Snyder , 11 months ago

That was pretty excellent...loved the little clips of President Trump saying "China" and "Chinese"! The media's reactions are priceless!

Thong Slapping V8 , 11 months ago

The Crowder team has some serious musical talent

Shadow Banned , 11 months ago

I would love to see a "HOTEL CHINAFORNIA" parody!

XSquibX , 1 month ago

Wuhan
Where I keep a bio lab
Next to wet markets
That's how we do

But this time
Something just escaped
And I just wanted to
Just I thought you'd wanna know
Oops my bad

I swear I never meant for this
I never meant

Don't look at me that way
It was a Chinese mistake
Don't look at me that way
It was a Chinese mistake
An honest mistake

Sometimes
When I'm in the lab
I F up
And pathogens get away
Chinese flu

I swear I never meant for this
I never meant

Don't look at me that way
It was a Chinese mistake
Don't look at me that way
It was a Chinese mistake
An honest mistake

Don't look at me that way
It was a Chinese mistake 
Don't look at me that way
It was a Chinese mistake

[May 14, 2021] Rachel Maddow Says She Will Have To Rewire Her Brain To Not View Maskless As A -Threat- - ZeroHedge

She would need to rewire her brain to have a thought that was not programmed into her... After her Russiagate adventures there are some doubts that this is possible. But money do not smell.
"Faucists" is a good new term: Faucists Under Attack and in Retreat
May 14, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

Perhaps Maddow is just sad that there's no longer official justification to intimidate and harass those who choose not to wear masks, something that leftists have enjoyed doing for the best part of a year.

The notion that people who don't wear masks are a "threat" is of course completely ludicrous since the COVID-19 virus particle is 1,000 times smaller than the holes in the mask anyway.

After Texas ended its mask mandate, COVID cases dropped to a record low and a similar pattern was observed in Florida and South Dakota.


Lordflin 46 minutes ago (Edited)

She would need to rewire her brain to have a thought that was not programmed into her...

What a mindless shill... first that singer... what's her name... and now this creature...

What is the effect ZH is going for here exactly...?

takeaction 36 minutes ago (Edited)

Rachel...Pelosi...Schumer...Swalwell.....Cuomo (Both of them) Lemon, Anderson, Fauci, AOC, Maxine, etc.

With or without a mask...

takeaction 18 minutes ago (Edited) remove link

All calm....Gorgeous weather.....78 today.

Hamilcar 28 minutes ago remove link

Branch Covidians like Madcow "Love F$#%ing Science".

And by "science" they mean believing whatever braindead politicians or left-wing corporate media make up as they go along without any critical analysis and hysterically denouncing any evidence that contradicts the narrative as heresy.

It's going to be fun when all these people become the object of universal mockery they deserve. In a JUST world they would be severely punished though.

Lordflin 24 minutes ago

I have always been impressed by the willingness of those who know virtually nothing of the sciences to believe almost anything if it is told to them in the name of science...

signer1 9 minutes ago

To quote Mark Twain, "It's easier to fool people than to convince them they have been fooled".

Citxmech 18 seconds ago

Apparently, it's also easier to get people to believe illogical arguments by telling them it's "science" than it is to get them to actually think critically about the stupid shlt they're being asked to believe.

toiler4fiat 26 minutes ago

Madcow, like [neo]liberalism, is a disease. You can't repair a damaged brain like you can't turn a pickle into a cucumber.

[May 12, 2021] Cadillac Marxists: woke perversion of Marxism can be very lucrative

Apr 11, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

thinking1234 31 minutes ago

I don't know if anyone read about this?

"Inside BLM co-founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors' million-dollar real-estate buying binge. Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors has gone on a real-estate buying binge in recent years, snagging four high-end homes for $3.2 million in the US alone, according to property records.":

https://nypost.com/2021/04/10/inside-blm-co-founder-patrisse-khan-cullors-real-estate-buying-binge/

[May 12, 2021] Biden achievements

May 12, 2021 | www.wsj.com
R RODGER POTOCKI
...Biden has demonstrated an ability to do only two things; give taxpayer money away and wear a mask. Perhaps the mask is appropriate ( See Jesse James.)

[May 12, 2021] Reporters Once Challenged The Spy State. Now, They're Agents Of It

May 12, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

safelyG 1 hour ago

we need to find a way to keep stories like this from being reported.

lovingly,

rachel maddow's wife

[May 12, 2021] Onion: IDF Soldier Recounts Harrowing, Heroic War Story Of Killing 8-Month-Old Child

May 12, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org

Biswapriya Purkayast , May 13 2021 0:34 utc | 74

"IDF Soldier Recounts Harrowing, Heroic War Story Of Killing 8-Month-Old Child"

https://www.theonion.com/idf-soldier-recounts-harrowing-heroic-war-story-of-kil-1826048745

I thought the Onion was a satire site, not a news portal.

[May 10, 2021] Why is healthy 24-year-old Jennifer Gates jumping the line to get the vaccination

Notable quotes:
"... Why is healthy 24-year-old Jennifer Gates jumping the line to get the vaccination when older at-risk Americans can't get an appointment? You may not have inherited your father's genius as you claim, but you certainly have his sense of entitlement. ..."
May 10, 2021 | twitter.com

BeaglesForTrump @nice1959 · Feb 14

Why is healthy 24-year-old Jennifer Gates jumping the line to get the vaccination when older at-risk Americans can't get an appointment? You may not have inherited your father's genius as you claim, but you certainly have his sense of entitlement.

Show this thread Daniel Kotzin @danielkotzin · 7h

Why do so many people who are fully vaccinated care whether I have been vaccinated or not? They seem to think that vaccines only "work" if everyone is vaccinated.

Roar Still Not Restored @DETROlTLions313 · 22h

I am getting vax shamed by my family for not getting the vaccine yet, especially from my brother who is a surgeon. What's wrong with waiting until there is more data if you're young and healthy with no underlying conditions?

[May 10, 2021] Service with Pride

Quantity never equal to quality " The agency defended itself, remarking that the ad campaign had been effective. "2020 was a standout recruitment year for the CIA, despite the pandemic... Our 2021 incoming class is the third-largest in a decade," a spokesperson told Fox News."
May 10, 2021 | www.rt.com

Journalist Kyle Becker tweeted that the CIA needed to "stay out" of domestic politics. "You're there to serve the U.S. flag, not the rainbow flag," he wrote.

Kyle Becker @kylenabecker · May 8 You're there to serve the U.S. flag, not the rainbow flag. I wonder how much of this is about inclusivity and how much is about redefining the CIA and leading it away from its core mission of defending the U.S. from enemies abroad. The CIA needs to stay out of domestic politics.

Other users paraphrased the lanyard rainbow anecdote to note how "much better" they now felt about CIA airstrikes and other unpalatable dealings around the world.


St. Antonios @LoneStarTexian "I love that, as a gay man, I too can do my part in destabilizing black & brown countries, droning their women & children & spying on my fellow Americans..."

St. Antonios

■ @LoneStarTexian

Replying to @ING2Firebrand

"I noticed a rainbow on CIA Director Brennan's lanyard & felt so much better green lighting airstrikes on starving Yemeni citizens &

8:55 PM • May 7, 2021 ©

Since its launch in 2019 as part of a broader recruitment strategy, the 'Humans of CIA' social media series has depicted real agency officers sharing their "first-hand experiences" in the intelligence organization, a CIA spokesperson told the Guardian.

While the majority of the series has attracted little pushback, part of the backlash to the Latina officer video was directed at the agency's perceived willingness "to weaponize their power to target their political opponents: conservatives."

The agency defended itself, remarking that the ad campaign had been effective. "2020 was a standout recruitment year for the CIA, despite the pandemic... Our 2021 incoming class is the third-largest in a decade," a spokesperson told Fox News.

[May 09, 2021] Empty Offices and a quote from Office Space: Looks like you've missed a lot of work lately. I wouldn't say I've missed it, Bob.

Notable quotes:
"... In 20 years, the movie Office Space will seem to young people like watching a Western. ..."
"... Possibly--but like a good western. The themes and characters in the movie are universal and timeless. Nearly everyone has worked for Lumberg at one time or another. It may seem far-fetched to future generations that there were ever programmers in this country. ..."
"... Office buildings could all readily be re-purposed to grow weed. ..."
May 09, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

LetThemEatRand 3 hours ago (Edited) remove link

In 20 years, the movie Office Space will seem to young people like watching a Western.

Midas 21 minutes ago

Possibly--but like a good western. The themes and characters in the movie are universal and timeless. Nearly everyone has worked for Lumberg at one time or another. It may seem far-fetched to future generations that there were ever programmers in this country.

Kickaha 1 hour ago

Office buildings could all readily be re-purposed to grow weed.

[May 09, 2021] Cisgende millennial woman of color with generalized anxiety disorder is CIA as CIA Wokeness bulls*t

I think CIA counter-intelligence now is in very unenviable position. This woman is a poster girl for recruitment by foreign agencies. This level of narcissism and lack of introspection means that she can be easily manipulated and support "the right cause"
Katie Halper and Esha Krishnaswamy roast the "brilliance intoxicator": The CIA Gets Woke (8 min "" Katie Halper's YouTube channel, May 4, 2021)
Notable quotes:
"... In a mind-blowing marketing video first published on March 25, but which had escaped widespread notice until recent days, the CIA enthusiastically endorsed several key tenets of what has now indisputably become a hegemonic left/liberal ideological and rhetorical construct: ..."
"... my existence is not a box-checking exercise ..."
"... She continues, "I used to struggle with imposter syndrome . But at 36, I refuse to internalize misguided patriarchal ideas of what a woman can or should be. I am tired of feeling like I'm supposed to apologize for the space I occupy ." ..."
"... if the CIA wants to hire more such people I am all for it. Folks who can not leave their personal issues at the door typically muck up their workplace and create productivity problems. A less effective CIA will be a plus for the rest of the world. ..."
"... And for some levity, here's some much deserved satire on the CIA vid. https://twitter.com/blaireerskine/status/1389313897304399877?s=20 ..."
"... Like b suggests: never stop/prevent the enemy (which is what CIA is, for most people) from making a mistake. The sooner they replace their cadre with woke idiots the better for humanity and the chances of our survival. ..."
"... Over 50% of The Company's light lifting is subbed out to contractors, and most of the Langley smurfs are busy "analyzing" data, soooo desk jockey much? It would be fun to track where the diversity hires actually go ..."
"... Utter bullshit indeed. Listing all the boxes she checks and then adding "my existence is not a box-checking exercise" is comical in itself. Hopefully b is right and the CIA will be less effective for the inclusion of people like her. ..."
May 09, 2021 | www.moonofalabama.org

librul , May 5 2021 16:03 utc | 30

Michael Tracey writes about a weird CIA video that is making the rounds (emphasis added):

In a mind-blowing marketing video first published on March 25, but which had escaped widespread notice until recent days, the CIA enthusiastically endorsed several key tenets of what has now indisputably become a hegemonic left/liberal ideological and rhetorical construct:

" I am a woman of color ," the video's protagonist, an unnamed CIA officer, triumphantly proclaims. "I am a cisgender millennial who's been diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder. I am intersectional , but my existence is not a box-checking exercise ."

She continues, "I used to struggle with imposter syndrome . But at 36, I refuse to internalize misguided patriarchal ideas of what a woman can or should be. I am tired of feeling like I'm supposed to apologize for the space I occupy ."

I have to admit that I do not know what the words in bold are supposed to mean. (Nor does my Firefox spellchecker. It flags them.)

I also do not understand the italicized phrases. To me they sounds like utter bullshit. But if the CIA wants to hire more such people I am all for it. Folks who can not leave their personal issues at the door typically muck up their workplace and create productivity problems. A less effective CIA will be a plus for the rest of the world.

CIA

Cisgender
Intersectional
Anxiety disorder

Skuppers , May 5 2021 19:06 utc | 79

And for some levity, here's some much deserved satire on the CIA vid. https://twitter.com/blaireerskine/status/1389313897304399877?s=20

Mao Cheng Ji , May 5 2021 19:17 utc | 82

It would be interesting if 'em spooks started cancelling each other for some 10 yo tweets, or for not being transsexual, or for the white supremacist mindset demonstrated by remembering the multiplication table.

Idiocrates , May 5 2021 14:20 utc | 2

Oh! You definitely should learn that NewSpeak. Yes, it's ridicelous, knowing this babble hasn't any intrinsic value. It is ,however, the current ruling ideology of the USA and by extension the broader West. It's like understanding the babble of some obscure theoretician or the basic terminology of some remote religion. You can safely ignore all of this as nonsense - as long as such people don't run a country!

Posted by: m | May 5 2021 14:13 u

Like b suggests: never stop/prevent the enemy (which is what CIA is, for most people) from making a mistake. The sooner they replace their cadre with woke idiots the better for humanity and the chances of our survival.

Chevrus , May 5 2021 14:23 utc | 3
Yeah this video took a nice beating on The Hedge....frikkin hilarious!

Over 50% of The Company's light lifting is subbed out to contractors, and most of the Langley smurfs are busy "analyzing" data, soooo desk jockey much? It would be fun to track where the diversity hires actually go, but hey I've got a garden to build!

MarkU , May 5 2021 14:28 utc | 4
Utter bullshit indeed. Listing all the boxes she checks and then adding "my existence is not a box-checking exercise" is comical in itself. Hopefully b is right and the CIA will be less effective for the inclusion of people like her.

@b In your last sentence 'the' before CIA is superfluous, it appears you cut down a larger sentence incorrectly.

[May 08, 2021] Something is rotten in the state of Denmark: is Kamala like her boss yet another "pharmaceutically enhanced" human being: Kamala Harris tendency of laughing as she walked away might be a sign of pharmaceuticals, either legal or illegal

May 08, 2021 | www.wsj.com

Eugene Boutz

Regarding your

*Harris ..... laughing as she walked away*

wording, I've noticed her tendency to do this, laugh at all of the truly serious questions and issues, for more than a year.

Such behavior is often an indication of either:

  1. Contempt for others or even for civilization itself and/or
  2. Pharmaceuticals, either legal or illegal.

[May 08, 2021] Fauci and gain of fuinction research: Ah, yes, the "government disease" expert Fauci...at it again

May 08, 2021 | www.wsj.com

Jean Bieluczyk

Ah, yes, the "government disease" expert Fauci...at it again.

[May 08, 2021] Demand For Ass Implants Booms During Pandemic

May 08, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

In the early days of the virus pandemic, things didn't look so hot for the field of plastic survey. Hospitals were overrun with COVID-19 infections and banned all elective procedures, limiting plastic surgeries. But sometime after, when the economy reopened, and hospitals allowed elective surgeries, demand for butt implants soared.

Bloomberg , citing data from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), says there were broad declines for minimally invasive and surgical cosmetic procedures during 2020. Botox and soft-tissue fillers remained popular with consumers.

But it was buttock augmentation, or butt implants were a massive hit among consumers.

Cosmetic procedures for the implants last year were up 22%, from 970 to 1,179.

[May 08, 2021] Harris ..... laughing as she walked away

May 08, 2021 | www.wsj.com

Eugene Boutz

Regarding your

*Harris ..... laughing as she walked away*

wording, I've noticed her tendency to do this, laugh at all of the truly serious questions and issues, for more than a year.

Such behavior is often an indication of either:

  1. Contempt for others or even for civilization itself and/or
  2. Pharmaceuticals, either legal or illegal.

[May 05, 2021] Regularity of changes from "more stupid" to "more evil" in the US politics: Bush is more stupid. Obama is more evil. Trump more stupid. Creepy Joe -- more evil.

May 05, 2021 | www.nakedcapitalism.com

albrt , , April 25, 2021 at 7:20 pm

I view the 2008 election as the major failing-to-turn-back-when-we-had-the-chance point. Obama could have undone Bush's worst policies, but instead he cemented them into place forever.

Our elites are both stupid and evil, but Bush is more stupid and Obama is more evil .

[May 05, 2021] Institutional idiotism in full bloom: To Promote Equality, California Proposes A Ban On Advanced Math Classes

May 05, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

Authored by Mike Shedlock via MishTalk.com,

In the name of equality, the California Department of Education seeks to dumb down the brightest kids .

A friend of mine emailed an article the likes of which always prompts me to say "really?"

Please consider the Reason article In the Name of Equity, California Will Discourage Students Who Are Gifted at Math .

Culturally Responsive Framework

I like to verify things myself and you can do so as well by reading the California Department of Education Mathematics Framework .

In its framework, the Department of Education seeks " Culturally responsive mathematics education ."

Introduction Highlights Teaching for Equity Highlights Need to Broaden Perceptions of Mathematics

I did not go through all the chapters. Reason uncovered these gems.

Sabotage the Best

Reason concludes, and I agree " If California adopts this framework, which is currently under public review, the state will end up sabotaging its brightest students . The government should let kids opt out of math if it's not for them. Don't let the false idea that there's no such thing as a gifted student herald the end of advanced math entirely."

Instead, and in the name of "equity", the proposed framework aims to keep everyone learning at the same dumbed down level for as long as possible.

The intention is clear. The California Board of Education intends to sabotage the best and brightest, hoping to make everyone equal.

The public does not support these polices. Indeed, it is precisely this kind of talk that nearly got Trump reelected.

Biden should speak out against such nonsense, but he won't. He is beholden to Teachers' Unions and Boards of Education.

Care to complain? If so the California Department of Education posted these ways.

Phone Number and Address

Phone: 916-319-0598

Instructional Quality Commission
1430 N Street, Room 3207
Sacramento, CA 95814
Fax: 916-319-0172

[May 04, 2021] Neoliberal MSM now rank in public trust a little below emailed pleas from deposed Nigerian princes

May 04, 2021 | www.wsj.com


It's easy to become inured to the daily procession of flagrant falsehoods, tendentious misrepresentations, deceitful exaggerations and narrative-driven editorial distortions from many of the nation's leading media outlets. As opinion surveys suggest that most of these organizations now rank in public trust a little below emailed pleas from deposed Nigerian princes, it's easy to think the power they once wielded has been so diminished that they are little more than a mildly diverting source of contemporary color in our lives.

[May 03, 2021] Not a single resource on the Pfizer Executive team or Board of Directors has been injected with the Pfizer (experimental poison yet) vaccine yet. - C Weissman

Fact check- Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla has received COVID-19 vaccine "That report is categorically false," Pfizer spokeswoman Sharon Castillo told USA TODAY via email. "Dr. Bourla has been fully vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine."
See also The ex-Pfizer scientist who became an anti-vax hero
Notable quotes:
"... Not a single resource on the Pfizer Executive team or Board of Directors has been injected with the Pfizer (experimental poison yet) vaccine yet. - C Weissman. Excuses allegedly provided offering the less fortunate an opportunity to go first. Don't laugh. True story. Some real humanitarians. ..."
May 03, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

End Times Prophecy

Not a single resource on the Pfizer Executive team or Board of Directors has been injected with the Pfizer (experimental poison yet) vaccine yet. - C Weissman. Excuses allegedly provided offering the less fortunate an opportunity to go first. Don't laugh. True story. Some real humanitarians.

... ... ...

[May 03, 2021] 53 prominent German actors/actresses have become satirical too! They've simultaneously released 1-minute satirical statements.

May 03, 2021 | off-guardian.org

Penelope , Apr 26, 2021 10:34 PM

53 prominent German actors/actresses have become satirical too! They've simultaneously released 1-minute satirical statements. https://notrickszone.com/2021/04/24/shock-wave-50-prominent-german-actors-launch-campaign-satiring-corona-l

[May 03, 2021] It's like the neolibel elite is testing the level of our stupidity

May 03, 2021 | off-guardian.org

Apr 27, 2021 12:28 AM

Yes just finished listening to my dose of bullshit on ABC. The amazing thing is they actually telling you it's bullshit if people listen closely. The number of new infections in India. Hundreds of thousands. Deaths a few hundred. In a country where the normal annual death rate is 9.6 Million and 26,000 people die EVERY DAY. It's like a joke. Like they testing our stupidity. And you can't say; No we not falling for it because there is no longer anywhere to say it! I feel like I have permanent road rage over this crap.

Researcher , Apr 27, 2021 4:11 AM Reply to Dick

It's the tone and emotive words like crisis, and other exaggerated terms they use that triggers fear. The viewer remembers the number of cases, not deaths because the number is larger. But the cases are based on testing.

[May 03, 2021] Guess Who's Testifying In Congress US Troops Must Stay In Afghanistan Forever

May 03, 2021 | www.zerohedge.com

Why they dusted off those remnants from Bush and Obama neocon gangs?

When interventionists and national security deep state hawks need to prolong what's already the longest war in in US history, who're they gonna call?...

"Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice told members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee they're worried about President Biden's plan to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan, with Rice suggesting the US may need to go back," Axios reports.

The pair's "expert" testimony was given over Zoom and appears to have been kept relatively quiet, given it was a 'closed door' members only call, until Axios learned of it.

Rice of course infamously served as George Bush's National Security Advisor during the initial invasions of both Afghanistan and Iraq, and crucially helped make the case for war to the American public, later serving as Bush's Secretary of State through 2009.

Having helped start two failed wars, both of which have long remained deeply unpopular among the American public, naturally Condi Rice as a pre-eminent neocon voice would be consulted as a "stay the course" point of view . It's also deeply revealing that there's no foreign policy space in terms of viewpoint whatsoever between Rice and Clinton - latter who pushed for the US-NATO invasion of Libya and planned covert regime change in Syria against Assad.

Little is known about precisely what Hillary testified, but it's not difficult to imagine. Here are a few key insights via Axios :

One unnamed committee member told Axios further that "they both agreed we're going to need to sustain a counterterrorism mission somehow outside of that country."

Well of course!...there always needs to be a war going on somehow and somewhere - otherwise how would these warmongering ladies sleep at night?

[May 03, 2021] I wonder how much Harry and Meghan will be paid for this promotion?

Notable quotes:
"... We can’t leave anybody behind. We will all benefit, we will all be safer when everyone everywhere has equal access to the vaccine. ..."
"... “We must pursue equitable vaccine distribution, and in that, restore faith in our common humanity. This mission couldn’t be more critical.†..."
May 03, 2021 | off-guardian.org

Generous and fair-minded Harry and Meghan have said: “ We can’t leave anybody behind. We will all benefit, we will all be safer when everyone everywhere has equal access to the vaccine.

“We must pursue equitable vaccine distribution, and in that, restore faith in our common humanity. This mission couldn’t be more critical.â€

I wonder how much Harry and Meghan will be paid for this promotion?

[May 03, 2021] Can any sound mind be OK with this idiotism?

May 03, 2021 | off-guardian.org

fame , Apr 27, 2021 8:36 PM

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ExT3lpQWYAAewAE?format=jpg

Denny KirkQ , Apr 27, 2021 8:46 PM Reply to fame

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!