Jun 23

Today’s News 23rd June 2023

  • "A Global Digital Compact" – UN Promoting Censorship, Social Credit, & Much More…
    “A Global Digital Compact” – UN Promoting Censorship, Social Credit, & Much More…

    Authored by Kit Knightly via Off-Guardian.org,

    Late last month the office of the United Nation’s Secretary General published a policy document on aims for the future of the internet.

    A follow-up to the 2021 report “Our Common Agenda”, the new report’s title says it all really, “A Global Digital Compact”. That’s the goal, international legislation that would seek to control and enforce the use of digital technology.

    The proposed clauses promote everything you’d expect them to promote.

    Digital identities linked with financial access:

    Digital IDs linked with bank or mobile money accounts can improve the delivery of social protection coverage and serve to better reach eligible beneficiaries. Digital technologies may help to reduce leakage, errors and costs in the design of social protection programmes

    Environmental or climate change-based social credit systems:

    Sensors and monitors connected to the Internet of things, cloud-based data platforms, blockchain-enabled tracking systems and digital product passports unlock new capabilities for the measurement and tracking of environmental and social impacts across value chains.”

    Public-Private Partnership:

    Partnerships between States, private sector and civil society leverage the capacity of digital tools to provide solutions for development across the Sustainable Development Goals. Examples include the Digital Public Infrastructure Alliance, the Coalition for Digital Environmental Sustainability and public-private partnerships for disaster response.”

    Countering online “harm”:

    Disinformation, hate speech and malicious and criminal activity in cyberspace raise the risks and costs for everyone online […] we must strengthen accountability for harmful and malicious acts online.

    Those are the obvious ones, there’s also more sneaky, insidious language regarding “equity” and “access”. The report is concerned there are many people in the world (mostly the developing world) who don’t have regular access to the Internet.

    This concern would be more honestly expressed in the language of control – people who don’t consume digital media can’t be hypnotised, people who don’t communicate online can’t be censored, and people who don’t rely on digital banking can’t be controlled.

    To sum up, the Digital Global Compact is a piece of globalist legislation serving the final aim of globalist policy: Control of all aspects of life, achieved by inserting a digital filter between people and reality.

    Banking, communication, media consumption, shopping. Every interaction you have will be through a digital membrane which can both monitor your exchanges with the world and – if deemed necessary – deny you access to that world.

    An interesting final point to note is the words the report doesn’t use. “Globalist” and “globalism” do not appear once, “vaccine passports” or “vaccine certificates” are likewise not mentioned. Neither are “social credit” or “central-bank digital currency”. They are discussed, but not mentioned.

    They seem to be avoiding buzzwords they know will trigger resistance or set off alarm bells. Would they have done that before the skeptics started winning the Covid conversation? I don’t think so.

    You don’t have to take my word for any of this, of course, you can read the whole report yourself.

    There’s nothing surprising in there at all, obviously. But it’s definitely a “quiet part out loud moment”, and a link to send to those people who still dismiss you as a conspiracy theorist.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 06/23/2023 – 02:00

  • FBI Make-Work Entrapment Schemes: Creating Criminals in Order to Arrest Them
    FBI Make-Work Entrapment Schemes: Creating Criminals in Order to Arrest Them

    Authored by John & Nisha Whitehead via The Rurtherford Institute,

    “Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster.”

    – Friedrich Nietzsche

    We’re not dealing with a government that exists to serve its people, protect their liberties and ensure their happiness.

    Rather, we are the unfortunate victims of the diabolical machinations of a make-works program carried out on an epic scale whose only purpose is to keep the powers-that-be permanently (and profitably) employed.

    Case in point: the FBI.

    The government’s henchmen have become the embodiment of how power, once acquired, can be so easily corrupted and abused. Indeed, far from being tough on crime, FBI agents are also among the nation’s most notorious lawbreakers.

    Whether the FBI is planting undercover agents in churches, synagogues and mosques; issuing fake emergency letters to gain access to Americans’ phone records; using intimidation tactics to silence Americans who are critical of the government, or persuading impressionable individuals to plot acts of terror and then entrapping them, the overall impression of the nation’s secret police force is that of a well-dressed thug, flexing its muscles and doing the boss’ dirty work.

    Clearly, this is not a government agency that appears to understand, let alone respect, the limits of the Constitution.

    Indeed, this same government agency has a pattern and practice of entrapment that involves targeting vulnerable individuals, feeding them with the propaganda, know-how and weapons intended to turn them into terrorists, and then arresting them as part of an elaborately orchestrated counterterrorism sting.

    Basically, it works like this: in order to justify their crime-fighting superpowers, the FBI manufactures criminals by targeting vulnerable individuals and feeding them anti-government propaganda; then, undercover agents and informants equip the targeted individuals with the training and resources to challenge what they’ve been indoctrinated into believing is government corruption; and finally, the FBI arrests the targeted individuals for engaging in anti-government, terrorist activities.

    This is what passes for the government’s perverse idea of being tough on crime.

    For example, undercover FBI agents pretending to be associated with ISIS have been accused of seeking out online and befriending a 16-year-old with brain development issues, persuading him to secretly send them small cash donations in the form of gift cards, and then the moment Mateo Ventura, turned 18, arresting him for providing financial support to an Islamic terrorist group.

    If convicted, the teenager could spend up to 10 years in prison.

    Yet as The Intercept explains, “the only ‘terrorist’ he is accused of ever being in contact with was an undercover FBI agent who befriended him online as a 16-year-old… This law enforcement tactic has been criticized by national security researchers who have scrutinized the FBI’s role in manufacturing terrorism cases using vulnerable people who would have been unable to commit crimes without prolonged government assistance and encouragement… the Ventura case may indicate that authorities are still open to conjuring terrorists where none existed.”

    In another incident, the FBI used an undercover agent/informant to seek out and groom an impressionable young man, cultivating his friendship, gaining his sympathy, stoking his outrage over injustices perpetrated by the U.S. government, then enlisting his help to blow up the Herald Square subway station. Despite the fact that Shahawar Matin Siraj ultimately refused to plant a bomb at the train station, he was arrested for conspiring to do so at the urging of his FBI informant and used to bolster the government’s track record in foiling terrorist plots. Of course, no mention was made of the part the government played in fabricating the plot, recruiting a would-be bomber, and setting him up to take the fall.

    These are Machiavellian tactics with far-reaching consequences for every segment of the population, no matter what one’s political leanings, but it is especially dangerous for anyone whose views could in any way be characterized as anti-government.

    As Rozina Ali writes for The New York Times Magazine, “The government’s approach to counterterrorism erodes constitutional protections for everyone, by blurring the lines between speech and action and by broadening the scope of who is classified as a threat.”

    For instance, it was reported that the FBI had been secretly carrying out an entrapment scheme in which it used a front company, ANOM, to sell purportedly hack-proof phones to organized crime syndicates and then used those phones to spy on them as they planned illegal drug shipments, plotted robberies and put out contracts for killings using those boobytrapped phones.

    All told, the FBI intercepted 27 million messages over the course of 18 months.

    What this means is that the FBI was also illegally spying on individuals using those encrypted phones who may not have been involved in any criminal activity whatsoever.

    Even reading a newspaper article is now enough to get you flagged for surveillance by the FBI. The agency served a subpoena on USA Today / Gannett to provide the internet addresses and mobile phone information for everyone who read a news story online on a particular day and time about the deadly shooting of FBI agents.

    This is the danger of allowing the government to carry out widespread surveillance, sting and entrapment operations using dubious tactics that sidestep the rule of law: “we the people” become suspects and potential criminals, while government agents, empowered to fight crime using all means at their disposal, become indistinguishable from the corrupt forces they seek to vanquish.  

    To go after terrorists, they become terrorists.

    To go after drug smugglers, they become drug smugglers.

    To go after thieves, they become thieves.

    For instance, when the FBI raided a California business that was suspected of letting drug dealers anonymously stash guns, drugs and cash in its private vaults, agents seized the contents of all the  safety deposit boxes and filed forfeiture motions to keep the contents, which include millions of dollars’ worth of valuables owned by individuals not accused of any crime whatsoever.

    It’s hard to say whether we’re dealing with a kleptocracy (a government ruled by thieves), a kakistocracy (a government run by unprincipled career politicians, corporations and thieves that panders to the worst vices in our nature and has little regard for the rights of American citizens), or if we’ve gone straight to an idiocracy. 

    This certainly isn’t a constitutional democracy, however.

    Some days, it feels like the FBI is running its own crime syndicate complete with mob rule and mafia-style justice.

    In addition to creating certain crimes in order to then “solve” them, the FBI also gives certain informants permission to break the law, “including everything from buying and selling illegal drugs to bribing government officials and plotting robberies,” in exchange for their cooperation on other fronts.

    USA Today estimates that agents have authorized criminals to engage in as many as 15 crimes a day (5600 crimes a year). Some of these informants are getting paid astronomical sums: one particularly unsavory fellow, later arrested for attempting to run over a police officer, was actually paid $85,000 for his help laying the trap for an entrapment scheme.

    In a stunning development reported by The Washington Post, a probe into misconduct by an FBI agent resulted in the release of at least a dozen convicted drug dealers from prison.

    In addition to procedural misconduct, trespassing, enabling criminal activity, and damaging private property, the FBI’s laundry list of crimes against the American people includes surveillance, disinformation, blackmail, entrapment, intimidation tactics, and harassment.

    For example, the Associated Press lodged a complaint with the Dept. of Justice after learning that FBI agents created a fake AP news story and emailed it, along with a clickable link, to a bomb threat suspect in order to implant tracking technology onto his computer and identify his location. Lambasting the agency, AP attorney Karen Kaiser railed, “The FBI may have intended this false story as a trap for only one person. However, the individual could easily have reposted this story to social networks, distributing to thousands of people, under our name, what was essentially a piece of government disinformation.”

    Then again, to those familiar with COINTELPRO, an FBI program created to “disrupt, misdirect, discredit, and neutralize” groups and individuals the government considers politically objectionable, it should come as no surprise that the agency has mastered the art of government disinformation.

    The FBI has been particularly criticized in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks for targeting vulnerable individuals and not only luring them into fake terror plots but actually equipping them with the organization, money, weapons and motivation to carry out the plots—entrapment—and then jailing them for their so-called terrorist plotting. This is what the FBI characterizes as “forward leaning—preventative—prosecutions.”

    The FBI has also repeatedly sought to expand its invasive hacking powers to allow agents to hack into any computer, anywhere in the world.

    Suffice it to say that when and if a true history of the FBI is ever written, it will not only track the rise of the American police state but it will also chart the decline of freedom in America: how a nation that once abided by the rule of law and held the government accountable for its actions has steadily devolved into a police state where justice is one-sided, a corporate elite runs the show, representative government is a mockery, police are extensions of the military, surveillance is rampant, privacy is extinct, and the law is little more than a tool for the government to browbeat the people into compliance.

    This is how tyranny rises and freedom falls.

    The powers-that-be are not acting in our best interests.

    Almost every tyranny being perpetrated by the U.S. government against the citizenry—purportedly to keep us safe and the nation secure—has come about as a result of some threat manufactured in one way or another by our own government.

    Think about it.

    Cyberwarfare. Terrorism. Bio-chemical attacks. The nuclear arms race. Surveillance. The drug wars. Domestic extremism. The COVID-19 pandemic.

    In almost every instance, the U.S. government (often spearheaded by the FBI) has in its typical Machiavellian fashion sown the seeds of terror domestically and internationally in order to expand its own totalitarian powers.

    Consider that this very same government has taken every bit of technology sold to us as being in our best interests—GPS devices, surveillance, nonlethal weapons, etc.—and used it against us, to track, control and trap us.

    Are you getting the picture yet?

    The U.S. government isn’t protecting us from threats to our freedoms.

    The U.S. government is creating the threats to our freedoms. It is, as I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People and in its fictional counterpart The Erik Blair Diaries, the source of the threats to our freedoms.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 06/22/2023 – 23:40

  • According To Americans, These Are The United States' Biggest Enemies
    According To Americans, These Are The United States’ Biggest Enemies

    After years of ups and downs in the list of countries regarded as America’s biggest enemy, views on the topic have consolidated, with two countries – China and Russia – emerging as America’s biggest foes.

    However, as Statista’s Katharina Buchholz reports, if Americans had to name one country as their nation’s top enemy, it would currently be China. 

    In a poll that has been conducted by Gallup on and off since 2005, 50 percent of respondents pointed their finger towards Beijing most recently.

    Infographic: The United States’ Biggest Enemies | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    Five years ago, the culprit had been North Korea (51 percent) but the country has settled into third place this year, with Russia being identified as enemy of the state number two (32 percent).

    In 2020, the survey was conducted just after the killing of General Qasem Soleimani and 19 percent of U.S. respondents named Iran as their country’s biggest enemy then. That number was down to 2 percent this year.

    2017 saw heightened tensions with North Korea over the country’s long-range missile capabilities, which caused the number of Americans viewing the country as the biggest threat to spike. In September of that year, President Donald Trump famously threatened to “totally destroy” the country in a speech at the U.N. and nicknamed Kim Jong-un “rocket man” on Twitter. Tensions eased in the coming years after two highly publicized summits between the two leaders in Singapore in June 2018 and Hanoi in February 2019. As a result, the perceived threat emanating from the country decreased again.

    Iran and Iraq were most frequently named as the United States’ biggest enemies in the late 2000s. Since 2011, the latter has fallen into the single digits, registering less than 1 percent of responses since 2021.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 06/22/2023 – 23:20

  • Israel Conducts First Drone Assassination In West Bank Since 2nd Intifada
    Israel Conducts First Drone Assassination In West Bank Since 2nd Intifada

    Via The Cradle,

    On Wednesday, Israel carried out the first targeted assassination in the occupied West Bank since the Second Intifada ended 18 years ago, killing three Palestinian fighters north of Jenin via drone strike.

    The attack targets were Al-Quds Brigades Commander of the Jenin Battalion Suhaib Adnan al-Ghoul, Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades leader Muhammad Bashar Owais, and Ashraf Murad al-Saadi of the Jenin Battalion.

    Getty Images

    Al-Quds Brigades is the military wing of the Gaza-based Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), while the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades is loosely affiliated with the West Bank-ruling Fatah political party.

    The Israeli army and the Shin Bet intelligence agency said in a statement that the three resistance fighters were responsible for a shooting operation at the Jalameh Checkpoint, north of Jenin, earlier in the night.

    “We identified a vehicle shooting at the checkpoint and removed the threat,” army spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari told reporters on Wednesday night, stressing that the assassination was “not a targeted killing.”

    Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant personally authorized the strike, as it represents a marked escalation in the violence gripping the occupied West Bank.

    “We will use all the means at our disposal, and we will exact the heaviest price from every terrorist or terrorist emissary,” Gallant told reporters.

    This is the second aerial strike in the occupied West Bank in less than a week. Following the attack, the spokesman for the Palestinian group Hamas, Hazem Qassem, warned that it “would not go unpunished.”

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    “The Zionist enemy’s use of aircraft to assassinate our people is a dangerous escalation that confirms their efforts to ignite the situation after failing to resolve the battle through direct confrontation on the battlefield,” Qassen said. “The assassination in Jenin will receive a response and will not go unpunished from our people and the resistance,” he added.

    Tel Aviv launched the rare drone strike mere hours after gangs of masked settlers descended on the Ramallah village of Turmus Aya under the protection of the Israeli army, torching homes, stores, and vehicles and assaulting Palestinians along the way. At least one Palestinian was killed during the Israeli pogrom. While the military “condemned” the violence, no arrests were made.

    Wednesday’s rampage came less than a day after settlers stormed several areas of Nablus and set fire to around 140 vehicles, as well as huge swathes of Palestinian farmland.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 06/22/2023 – 23:00

  • Boeing Charges Pentagon $52,000 For Trash Can Previously Priced At $300
    Boeing Charges Pentagon $52,000 For Trash Can Previously Priced At $300

    As Democrat and Republican members of the executive and legislative branches trip over each other trying to see who can jack up the Pentagon’s budget more, an investigation by Responsible Statecraft has uncovered some glaring examples of Department of Defense contractors raising the price of their products by astronomical multiples. 

    Boeing used to charge about $300 for trash receptacles used aboard E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) planes, which use the chassis of a Boeing 707 airliner. After that aircraft vanished from civilian fleets, the trash can lost its status as a “commercial” item, freeing Boeing to stick it to American taxpayers. 

    The E-3 Sentry AWACS: As of 2020, the United States Air Force had 33 in service (USAF photo via Airforce Technology)

    How badly? “In 2020, the Pentagon paid Boeing over $200,000 for four of the trash cans, translating to roughly $51,606 per unit,” reports Responsible Statecraft’s Connor Echols. The next year brought an apparent volume discount: In 2021, the Pentagon bought 11 trash cans at “only” $36,640 each. Together, the price on the two years of purchases represented a whopping $600,000 markup over previous prices.  

    Boeing isn’t the only one sticking it to taxpayers. For starters:

    • In 2022, New York-based Jamaica Bearings Company sold the Pentagon 13 radio filters. While it had previously priced them at $350 each, this time Jamaica Bearings charged $49,000 each.
    • Lockheed Martin jacked up the price of an electrical conduit for the P-3 Orion anti-submarine and maritime surveillance plane by upwards of 1400%, raking in an extra $133,000 from 2008 to 2015. 

    In the wake of a May 60 Minutes investigation into defense contractor price-gouging, five senators sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin asking for the Pentagon to perform its own follow-on inquiry.

    “These companies have abused the trust government has placed in them, exploiting their position as sole suppliers for certain items to increase prices far above inflation or any reasonable profit margin,” wrote Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Charles Grassley (R-IA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Mike Braun (R-IN) and Ron Wyden (D-OR).  

    Consolidation of the defense industry is one factor feeding the price-gouging. “In the 1990s, there were more than 50 ‘prime’ DoD contractors capable of competing for major contracts. Now, there are only five,” writes Echols. 

    Per the latest iteration of the National Defense Authorization Act, the federal government will spend over $850 billion on “defense” in the 2023 fiscal year, roughly half of which will be devoured by contractors. 

    As is often said, the US government spends more on its military than the next 10 countries combined. What’s usually not noted, however, is that only two of those next 10 are even considered adversaries of the late-stage US empire.  

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 06/22/2023 – 22:40

  • "Staggering": Children From Fatherless Homes Most Affected By Mental Health, Behavioral Issues: Report
    “Staggering”: Children From Fatherless Homes Most Affected By Mental Health, Behavioral Issues: Report

    Authored by Wim De Gent via The Epoch Timers (emphasis ours),

    Roughly one in four U.S. children are living in fatherless homes, causing undeniable negative effects on the children’s behavior and mental health, according to a report published by the America First Policy Institute (AFPI).

    Gan Jing World hosts its first Father’s Day Photo Awards event that starts on June 1, running throughout the month of June. The company encourages readers to participate in the event. (Composite by The Epoch Times)

    Comparing several dozen studies conducted from 1987 up to 2022, the AFPI—a non-partisan research institute working “to advance policies that put the American people first”—found clear correlations between children raised in fatherless homes and developmental challenges ranging from bad grades, anxiety, and suicide to violent behavior, drug use, and criminality.

    According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, approximately 18.3 million children across America live without a father in the home, comprising about one in four American children. Eighty percent of single-parent homes are fatherless.

    “Children with an actively engaged father perform much better in school,” the AFPI noted, being 33 percent less likely to repeat a class and 43 percent more likely to score top grades.

    With fathers present at home, data suggest that the average school-aged boy spends 30 minutes per week in one-on-one conversations with his father, while spending 40–60 hours per week online, playing video games, or watching TV.

    Still, even that much time together would seem to make a world of difference. The report said the effect of fathers being absent was “staggering,” with their children having far worse overall mental health and behavior.

    “These children are often burdened with lower self-esteem than other children, and they do not understand why their fathers abandoned them. This leads to a number of emotional problems like anxiety, social withdrawal, and depression, and it also leads to an increased risk of suicide and other forms of self-harm,” the AFPI wrote.

    Data from the Department of Justice suggest that—even though this group comprises just a quarter of all youth—63 percent of youth suicides occur in fatherless homes, as do 85 percent of children with behavioral disorders.

    The link to crime and incarceration is also clear. “Some data suggests that fatherless kids are 20 times more likely to be incarcerated,” the report states.

    It also reveals that the absence of fatherly guidance is a far greater factor in youth delinquency than the absence of a father’s income.

    The issues associated with broken homes, and especially with absent fathers, are well known by professionals in the field, the report states: “71 percent of teachers and 90 percent of law enforcement officials state that the lack of parental supervision at home is a major factor that contributes to violence in schools.”

    A 2022 Rasmussen poll showed that 84 percent of Americans believe a strong family is the foundation of a strong nation. They also believe that parents bear the primary responsibility for raising their children—or at least that they should. Only 11 percent said that raising children is a community responsibility. Sixty-five percent were convinced that children who grow up fatherless face significant disadvantages in life.

    The AFPI said it wishes to address the disincentives to both marriage and family embedded in federal tax and social welfare policies, and to amend them on a legislative and policy basis.

    At the same time, the AFPI understands that no “one-size-fits-all” government solution to the crisis exists.

    “Americans believe that it is the community’s responsibility, more so than the government, to take care of fatherless children,” it said, adding that local churches and faith-based organizations are in a good position to play a positive role, as could mentorship programs, athletic leagues, and civic service opportunities.

    The AFPI is calling on officials and community leaders to support a pro-fatherhood campaign that would share the joys of fatherhood. “Amplification from athletes, celebrities, musicians, actors, and national role models can push the importance of fatherhood to the forefront of public consciousness,” it said.

    The AFPI believes that resolving the fatherhood issue can have a unifying impact on all of society.

    A number of Republican lawmakers have been active in introducing pro-family legislation in the last couple of years. Notably, Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) has introduced seven bills that seek to help young families, focusing mostly on pregnant women and new moms.

    With many families now having two income providers, parenting is often burdened by busy agendas. “Laws in our country should work to chart a new course and help parents balance child-rearing, work, and other priorities throughout day-to-day life,” Rubio wrote earlier this year.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 06/22/2023 – 22:20

  • Half Of Russia's Strategic Missile Units Have Been Rearmed With Hypersonics: Putin
    Half Of Russia’s Strategic Missile Units Have Been Rearmed With Hypersonics: Putin

    Russian President Vladimir Putin has in fresh statements revealed the status of Russia’s hypersonic and nuclear-capable arsenal within the context of the Ukraine war.

    In early May, Ukraine’s military claimed to have intercepted Russian ballistic missiles for the first time in the conflict, using a US-made anti-air defense system. The Kremlin rejected the claims, but did confirm it had been using hypersonic missiles within specific or limited operations and long-range launches.

    Putin said Wednesday, as translated in TASS: “About half of the units of Russia’s Strategic Missile Force have been equipped with the latest Yars missile systems and are being rearmed with modern Avangard warheads.”

    He was speaking at an event honoring graduates of military academies and stressed the “unconditional priority” of missile readiness.

    The Russian president continued:

    “In light of the new challenges and invaluable experience of the special military operation we will continue to improve the Armed Forces in every possible way,” he said, adding that the most important task here was to develop the nuclear triad as the key guarantee of Russia’s military security and global stability.

    Putin also announced that new Sarmat missile launchers would enter duty soon.

    “In the near future, the first launchers of the Sarmat complex with a new heavy missile will be put on combat duty,” he said.

    “The arsenals of aviation and naval components of strategic nuclear forces are being replenished in strict accordance with the timetable,” he emphasized. “Russia’s nuclear triad allows for effective and guaranteed strategic deterrence and maintains the global balance of power,” Putin concluded.

    As for the feared Sarmat, which is Russia’s new super-heavy intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), state media has also continued touting it will soon be deployed.

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    The ultra-large Sarmat missile has been dubbed in the West as the ‘Satan II’ – which is nuclear capable. In February of this year there were reports the Russian military tested the weapon, but the test may have failed. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 06/22/2023 – 22:00

  • Victor Davis Hanson: America Wakes Up To Woke
    Victor Davis Hanson: America Wakes Up To Woke

    Authored by Victor Davis Hanson,

    Wokeness was envisioned as a new reboot of the coalition of the oppressed.

    Those purportedly victimized by traditional America would find “intersectional” solidarity in their victimhood owing to the supposed sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, and other alleged American sins, past and present.

    The so-called white male heterosexual victimizing class was collectively to be held responsible for their sinful triad of white “rage,” “supremacy,” and “privilege.”

    Class considerations became passe. The Duchess of Sussex, and the billionaires Oprah Winfrey and LeBron James, shared grievances against all whites, whether they hailed from Martha’s Vineyard or impoverished East Palestine, Ohio.

    A bicoastal elite would draft the woke agenda and the oppressed would follow as ordered.

    That top-down blueprint would embrace massive multibillion-dollar reparations to blacks.

    In lockstep, all victims would rally around a Green New Deal that mandated high energy costs to discourage consumption of fossil fuels.

    The new transgender canon mandated three sexes. Sex is socially rather than biologically determined. And there is a large, oppressed, and transgender population, which presents the next great civil rights struggle for America.

    Historical wokeism lodged a list of grievances against the supposedly flawed American past. Indicting the dead required statues to be toppled. Names had to be changed. Histories were to be rewritten. Even the foundational date of America was to be reconsidered and altered.

    Yet, the rainbow fabric of woke is now fraying — and for a variety of reasons.

    For one thing, woke took off after the perfect storm of the COVID-19 pandemic, the devastating lockdowns, the 120 days of violent rioting and looting following the death of George Floyd, and years of endemic Trump Derangement Syndrome. Most of those catalysts are waning. Temporarily unhinged Americans are slowly reviving. Millions of the comatose are waking up to normality — and don’t recognize their own country.

    Two, woke is retrogressive, reactionary, and anti-civilizational. Decriminalizing the legal code, defunding the police, failing to apply norms to the homeless population, and destroying meritocracy have all hollowed out our major cities.

    San Francisco was a far cleaner, safer, and kinder city 20, 40, or 80 years ago than it is today.

    A woke FBI, Pentagon, or airline industry becomes a matter of life and death.

    Three, in modern America, class is now a far more accurate metric of oppression than race or gender.

    It is one thing to restrict fossil fuel development if you are in the upper one percent income bracket, quite another if you commute 50 miles a day in a used car. If there are to be reparations, why include Eric Holder or Al Sharpton, but not indigent Hispanics, Asians, and poor whites?

    The multimillionaire, and prep-school and Ivy-League educated former President Barack Obama may castigate the unwoke Senator Tim Scott, R-S.C., for his absence of victimhood. But from which of his three enclaves does Obama do so — the Kalorama mansion, the Martha’s Vineyard estate, or the restricted-access beachfront retreat in Hawaii?

    Four, religions also trump race. Hispanic-American Catholics and Middle-Eastern-American Muslims have more in common with so-called white Christians than they do with an atheist, or agnostic woke elite who pushes the lie that the anti-religion Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence are a mere charity group.

    Muslim-American communities in Michigan do not want children seeing drag queen shows or the pride flag flying with equal status to the American flag. The Catholic Hispanic community of Los Angeles has little tolerance for lurid anti-Christian motifs that preview a Los Angeles Dodgers game.

    Five, wokeism is cannibalistic. Even the children of woke architects with perfect SAT scores and 4.0 grade point averages are being rejected on the basis of their race at their coveted Ivy League schools.

    Neither the mansions of Beverly Hills nor estates of Presidio Heights qualify as sanctuaries from violent criminals, who are now exempted by the anointed from legal consequences.

    The wokest of Hollywood celebs will soon lose movie roles and be disqualified for film awards on the basis of their race.

    Even the most left-wing of movie directors do not want to be ordered by Soviet-style commissars to hire their crews, actors, and writers on the basis of race.

    Six, wokeism is a dangerous diversion of American resources.

    The United States may have sponsored gender studies programs, flown pride flags, and bragged of George Floyd murals in Kabul. But meanwhile its military suffered the most humiliating defeat in a half-century, as it skedaddled from Afghanistan, leaving behind billions of dollars in deadly arms for terrorists.

    Our elite work to ban plentiful natural gas, subsidize transgender activism abroad, and lecture on sexual identities in the military. China’s elite builds dozens of coal and nuclear plants, and doubles the size of its navy, while preparing to absorb Taiwan.

    Americans are rejecting wokeism because they finally are realizing that if they do not, they will not have a civilization left.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 06/22/2023 – 21:40

  • Distraction? Questions Swirl Over Timing Of Sub Story As Biden Bombshells Hit Target
    Distraction? Questions Swirl Over Timing Of Sub Story As Biden Bombshells Hit Target

    As two IRS whistleblowers prepared to go public with more damning information implicating the Biden administration in a scheme to bury evidence of Hunter Biden’s tax crimes – as well as the revelation that Joe Biden was ‘in the room’ when Hunter shot a threatening message to a Chinese business associate demanding payment, a story which some have called “the biggest political scandal this country has ever seen”, another story captivated the nation: the deaths of missing submarine passengers who set off last weekend to see the Titanic, only to lose contact shortly into the trip.

    Late Thursday the Wall Street Journal reported that “A top secret military acoustic detection system designed to spot enemy submarines first heard what the U.S. Navy suspected was the Titan submersible implosion hours after the submersible began its voyage,” and that “the U.S. system detected what it suspected was the sound of an implosion near the debris site discovered Thursday.”

    What’s more, it’s not like the military took days to try and figure out what the sound was. “While not definitive, this information was immediately shared with the Incident Commander to assist with the ongoing search and rescue mission.”

    So, the Biden administration knew on Sunday (while not definitive), that the submarine sounded as if it had imploded hours into its journey. What’s more, they let everyone think the passengers were alive.

    This has led many to wonder whether the Biden administration allowed people to think the sub passengers were still alive, despite information and belief that the sub had likely imploded early into the voyage, a story arc that would have fizzled out much sooner and turned the public’s attention to the far greater bombshell of a story surrounding the latest alleged crimes by the Bidens.

    Furthermore, while an official death announcement from submersible company OceanGate was predicated on the discovery of a debris field, that may not be enough for those questioning how the sub story came to captivate the nation on the same day the most damning evidence to date against the president’s family emerges.

    Let’s see what the administration comes up with. Now that the story has served its purpose and the White House’s “historic” press secretary looks to move to even more dramatic geopolitical shocks, we are confident that it will be some variation of ‘out of respect for the families,’ or ‘at the company’s request.’

    In the end, however, it’s not like a diversion was even needed: for those wondering how many minutes the mainstream media has devoted today to the IRS whistleblowers’ story, we have the answer: 0.

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    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 06/22/2023 – 21:20

  • Schools Are Now Allowing Children To Identify As Cats, Horses, Dinosaurs…
    Schools Are Now Allowing Children To Identify As Cats, Horses, Dinosaurs…

    Authored by Michael Snyder via TheMostImportantNews.com,

    I seriously should have thought of this when I was a kid.  If I could have answered every question a teacher asked by meowing like a cat or roaring like a dinosaur, there is no way they could have ever accused me of getting an answer wrong.  And when it was time for a quiz or a test, I could have just responded to every question with a paw print.  Of course nobody would have actually been able to get away with such a thing decades ago.  When I was a kid, anyone that tried to pull this kind of a stunt would have been immediately marched down to the principal’s office.  But now we live at a time when we are supposed to allow people to identify as anything that they want.

    Things have gotten particularly absurd in the United Kingdom.  According to an investigation that was conducted by the Telegraph, schools in the UK are now allowing children to identify as all sorts of things…

    At a state secondary school in Wales, one student is said to ‘meow’ when asked questions by a teacher, rather than answering in English, the Telegraph reports.

    In other schools, one apparently insists on being addressed as a dinosaur, one claims to identify as a horse while another is said to wear a cape and demands to be acknowledged as a moon.

    In the old days, teachers knew how to deal with this kind of nonsense.

    But today they are instructed not to correct the children because that would be “discriminatory”…

    Pupils claim teachers are ‘not allowed to get annoyed’ about such behaviour in case it is seen as being discriminatory.

    However, lessons are reportedly becoming completely derailed by these interactions, impacting the quality of their classmates’ education.

    So these teachers in the UK literally have to sit there and make the best of it when students respond to their questions with “animal noises”…

    In some reported instances, classes have faced severe disruption as pupils insist on answering teacher’s questions and communicating via animal noises.

    I couldn’t take that.

    If I was told that I had to allow students to make animal noises all day, I would just quit.

    Apparently one student that identifies as “a cat” has been doing this for three years…

    In a particularly disruptive case, the newspaper spoke to a student in Wales who claimed a classmate had identified as a cat for three years.

    The pupil complained: “When they answer questions, they meow rather than answer a question in English.

    Are you kidding me?

    In the old days, that kid would have been corrected on day one.

    But these days you are not allowed to say anything.

    That just wouldn’t be proper.

    In fact, a 13-year-old girl was recently called “despicable” by her teacher when she confronted a classmate that identifies as “a cat”…

    A 13-year-old girl was called “despicable” by her teacher at a Church of England school in the United Kingdom on Friday after asking a classmate how she identifies as a cat.

    The schoolgirl and her friend were reprimanded by their teacher at Rye College in East Sussex at the end of an eighth-grade “life education” class, where they were told that they could “be who you want to be and how you identify is up to you,” The Telegraph reported.

    Here in the United States, we are moving very rapidly in the same direction.

    In fact, we just learned that public school teachers in New York are now being instructed to keep “children’s gender transitions a secret from parents in some cases”…

    The New York State Education Department (NYSED) released 42 pages of new guidance for public schools Monday that includes a section about keeping children’s gender transitions a secret from parents in some cases.

    The report, titled “Creating a Safe, Supportive, and Affirming School Environment for Transgender and Gender Expansive Students,” maintains that a student’s gender identity should be based on the student’s own assertion and that administrators should keep such information from families if they deem it necessary.

    Can you believe that?

    How do you think parents that have been purposely deceived by teachers will react once they find out the truth?

    The stage is being set for some very messy lawsuits.

    And sometimes allowing students to identify as whatever they want can have some really tragic consequences.

    For example, earlier today I read about a 12-year-old girl that was brutally raped at a middle school in New Mexico…

    The diary entry referred back to an incident in October 2021, when her daughter Ray*, a 6th grader at ASK Academy charter school in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, was allegedly raped inside the girls’ bathroom by an older biological male student.

    When the male student first entered the girls’ restroom, Ray said she was washing her hands and didn’t take particular notice of the student’s sex, nor was she aware of his “gender identity.”

    But before she knew it, the male student walked over to her, pinned her against the counter, and wrestled her to the floor. After hitting her head, he allegedly held her down, ripped her pants, and raped her.

    I’m sorry, but if I see a man try to follow a young lady into a restroom there is going to be a problem.

    As a society, we have lost all common sense.

    If I say that I am a chicken, that does not make me a chicken.

    But now we are teaching our children that they can “identify” as anything that they want.

    When I say that time is short, I am not exaggerating one bit.

    The social cohesiveness of our society is literally coming apart at the seams all around us.

    The inmates are running the asylum at this point, and we are raising an entire generation of children that are going to be completely and totally messed up if they ever get the opportunity to become adults.

    *  *  *

    Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 06/22/2023 – 21:00

  • Wawa Shuttering Another Philadelphia Location, Marking Three Center City Closures In A Year
    Wawa Shuttering Another Philadelphia Location, Marking Three Center City Closures In A Year

    Yet another Philadelphia Wawa is packing it up and calling it quits from the city.

    The most recent location is at Headhouse Square, located in the middle of Society Hill, an otherwise affluent neighborhood on extending north from the tourist-area of South Street.

    Resident Howard Wool said in reaction to a statement from the Society Hill Civic Association: “It’s really shocking. This is a nice neighborhood. They got nice people here, but I guess it can happen anywhere in the city.”

    The statement, reported by Fox 29, warned of two different two strong-armed robberies over the last week at the TD Bank which is adjacent to the Wawa. The CVS located across the street from the Wawa had announced it would be closing down last year. 

    Wawa said in a statement that it “Constantly conducts careful and extensive evaluations of business performance and operational challenges of all stores on an ongoing basis.”

    Neighbor Dayna Sacharov said: “A lot of the homeless, but it’s not that. It’s like the kids on the bikes and the late-night people. They come in there and they steal stuff. They even hired a security guard.”

    “I think they’re not taking care of this district. It’s out of control and they don’t care anymore,” Sacharov said of the Philadelphia Police. “This neighborhood is very exclusive. People see rich people here and they rob them too. It’s not good for business,” Wool added.

    Philadelphia, and specifically Society Hill, leans far left and has consistently helped elect Democratic leaders who stand at odds with the city’s police instead of supporting them.

    This Wawa now joins a list of locations and companies that have closed up shop in Center City Philadelphia amidst a crime wave that has been sweeping U.S. cities following Covid lockdowns and George Floyd related protesting. 

    Recall back in October we wrote about Wawa closing 2 other locations in Philadelphia. 

    “We are very sorry we can’t be there for our friends and neighbors at these two locations, but we continue to serve the community from our other nearby stores and our commitment to the greater region remains strong. Philadelphia is our hometown and that’s something that will never change,” the chain said last year. 

    Locations at 12th and Market and 19th and Market in Philadelphia have both shuttered. 

    Wawa spokesperson Lori Bruce said at the time: “Despite reducing hours and investing in additional operational measures, continued safety and security challenges and business factors have made it increasingly difficult to remain open in these two locations.”

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 06/22/2023 – 20:40

  • AMC Cancels Documentary Detailing Long-Term Health Implications Of Gender Transitioning After Backlash
    AMC Cancels Documentary Detailing Long-Term Health Implications Of Gender Transitioning After Backlash

    Authored by Katabella Roberts via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    AMC Theatres has canceled screenings of a documentary film detailing the negative side effects and risks of so-called “gender-affirming” surgeries following backlash from a trans-led organization.

    People walk by the AMC 34th Street theater in New York on March 5, 2021. (Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

    The 90-minute documentary, titled “No Way Back: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care,” was set to premiere at AMC throughout the United States beginning June 21, according to a press release from Panacol Productions and Deplorable Films, the distribution companies behind the documentary.

    It features interviews with five young people discussing the medical treatments and care they received for gender dysphoria, and how they “subsequently realized they were given the wrong treatment,” according to the press release.

    Additionally, the documentary features input from 12 experts in pediatrics, mental health, sociology, and endocrinology—among them an Oxford professor—who collectively have “decades of clinical practice” examining the pros and cons of the current practices surrounding medical transitioning for adolescents and young adults.

    The press release states that the documentary is also produced by “lifelong California Democrats and LGBT activists” and takes a “non-religious, non-political, and non-ideological look on the subject of gender-affirmative medical practices, the risks and side effects of cross-sex hormones, surgeries, and the long-term health implications of gender medicalization.”

    Following the announcement of the premiere, the Queer Trans Project, which describes itself as a “black and trans-led organization” on a mission to “provide gender-empowering resources to LGBTQ+ individuals all across the world” protested the screening and demanded it be canceled.

    Documentary Branded ‘Anti-Trans’

    In a series of Instagram posts, the organization claimed that AMC were “caving to the right-wing backlash” by showing the “anti-trans” documentary in theaters across the nation and called on supporters to take “urgent action” by calling AMC executive leadership and demanding they block the documentary from being shown.

    On June 17, the organization announced the documentary had been pulled from AMC theaters nationwide.

    “We did it! Our community’s swift action is a testament to the power of advocacy and the importance of raising our voices against harmful content,” the organization said in a statement. “Your collective efforts have made a significant impact, and the decision to pull No Way Back from AMC theaters is a step towards fostering a more inclusive and respectful environment. Thank you for your dedication and commitment to creating positive change.”

    AMC has not commented on the move, however Deplorable Films also confirmed in a statement that the documentary had been pulled in response to what it said were “recent histrionic and intolerant calls for screenings of this important film to be canceled.”

    The distributors also took aim at the “absurd” claim that the film is “right-wing,” noting that the filmmakers, some of whom are gay or have gay children, are “dedicated, life-long, Liberal Democrats.”

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 06/22/2023 – 20:20

  • RV Bust Kicks Into High Gear As Winnebago Records Big Revenue Miss
    RV Bust Kicks Into High Gear As Winnebago Records Big Revenue Miss

    Let’s look back at our coverage of the boom and bust in the RV industry over the previous two years: 

    We previewed last month that RV dealerships nationwide were heavily discounting motorhomes and towable trailers. The RV bust has now clobbered motorhome maker Winnebago Industries, who reported the third quarter (ended May 27) revenues that missed amid higher discounts and waning sales volumes.

    Winnebago reported a 38.2% year-over-year plunge in the quarter due to sliding unit sales related to souring RV retail market conditions. Discounts were much higher than in the same quarter last year, an attempt by management to spark demand. However, high interest rates are curbing demand. 

    Revenue fell the most in the Towable RV segment, down 52% to $384.1 million. The decline is primarily due to lower unit volume associated with ‘challenging’ retail market conditions and discounts and allowances versus a year ago. Revenues declined 27.5% in the Motorhome RV segment. 

    Winnebago shares were flat in Wednesday morning trading in New York while investors digested the news. Shares remain 26% below the peak established in early 2021 during the boom. 

    Taking a look at the results from the RV Industry Association’s April 2023 survey of all manufacturers showed that total RV shipments ended the month with 31,216 units, a decrease of (-45.4%) compared to the 57,192 units shipped in April 2022. RV shipments are down (-52.1%) through April, with 109,816 units.

    A record monthly drop in data going back three decades is an ominous sign of an impending recession. 

    Gues who killed the RV bubble? Well it’s the very same ones who allowed for record low interest rates… 

    Towable RVs, led by travel trailers, ended the month down (-48.6%) compared with last April with 26,860 shipments. Motorhomes finished the month down (-12.4%) compared to last year’s with 4,356 units.

    One surprising data point from the report is that parked mobile home shipments continue to surge because of the worst housing affordability in a generation. For some, the ‘American Dream’ consists of a trailer home, or as millennials call it, a ‘tiny home,’ as inflation eats away wages for two years. 

    The boom is over. The bust is underway. Those who didn’t panic during the Covid era can find great deals this summer. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 06/22/2023 – 20:00

  • It's Not Just People – Illinois Suffered The Nation's 3rd-Worst Loss Of Businesses
    It’s Not Just People – Illinois Suffered The Nation’s 3rd-Worst Loss Of Businesses

    Authored by Ted Dabrowski and John Klingner via Wirepoints.org,

    Illinois’ constant bleed of residents to other states has been well documented by the Census Bureau, the IRS, U-Haul, United Van Lines and others.

    Now the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has released data that shows businesses are leaving Illinois, too.

    Illinois lost a net 208 single-establishment firms to out-migration in 2021, the 3rd-worst loss behind only New York (-487) and California (-456).

    The biggest winner was Florida, which gained, on net, nearly 400 businesses that year. North Carolina (149) was 2nd and Nevada and Texas tied for 3rd (103).

    Wirepoints also calculated the business gains/losses per 1 million residents to take into account state size. Illinois ranked 2nd-worst nationally, with only New York experiencing a bigger loss. The full data table of all states is included in the appendix below. 

    The BLS report only tracked single-establishment firms, which likely underestimates the gains and losses from the movement of headquarters and other large firm workforces. 

    That means big HQ losses including those of Citadel, Boeing and Caterpillar are not captured in the data, nor are the losses from closures like those of Walmart, which shut stores in Illinois earlier this year.

    Florida’s gains and Illinois’ losses were part of a larger trend where the South is winning the competition for businesses at the expense of the Northeast, the Midwest and the West. The West experienced overall losses due to California’s surge in business losses. 

    Cross-state migration across the country was led by small services companies including law, accounting and consulting firms, as well professional and technical companies. The Chicago metropolitan area’s diverse economy has lots such firms and they are extremely mobile, likely impacting Illinois overall numbers. From the BLS study:

    “Firm migration has been higher in the professional, scientific, and technical services industry sector than it has been in other industries. Businesses in professional, scientific, and technical services conduct activities that require a high degree of training and expertise, such as legal advice and representation; accounting, bookkeeping, and payroll services; computer services; consulting services; and research services to clients in a variety of industries.”

    In 1994, 16 percent of all migration was in this sector. In 2010, this share rose to 28 percent. In 2021, it reached an all-time high of 30 percent…most of the growth in firm migration occurred in this sector, causing the industry’s share of overall migration to rise. In 2021, firm migration in the professional, scientific, and technical services was 390 percent of its 1994 levels, compared with 145 percent for all other industries.”

    Expect more information from the BLS in the future, but this preliminary data does prove one thing, that “as people migrate, so too does economic activity.”

    So as Illinois continues to bleed people, it will also bleed jobs and opportunity.

    Appendix

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 06/22/2023 – 19:40

  • Missing Titanic Sub Crew Presumed Dead: OceanGate
    Missing Titanic Sub Crew Presumed Dead: OceanGate

    Update (1453ET): In a somber statement Thursday afternoon, submersible company OceanGate  announced that it believes all passengers on the Titanic-bound submersible have “sadly been lost.”

    From left, Hamish Harding, Shahzada Dawood, Suleman Dawood, Paul-Henri Nargeolet and Stockton Rush Obtained by CNN

    “We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, have sadly been lost,” the company said in a statement relayed by CNN.

    “These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans,” the statement continues. “Our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families during this tragic time. We grieve the loss of life and joy they brought to everyone they knew.”

    *  *  *

    Update (1335ET):

    A rescue expert told Sky News the “debris field” near the wreckage site of the Titanic includes “a landing frame and a rear cover from the submersible.”

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    Piers Morgan says the report is “unconfirmed.” 

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    The US Coast Guard will share more details about the findings at 3 pm est. 

    *   *   *

    US Coast Guard officials announced a “debris field was discovered” by a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) near the Titanic wreckage site. Search and rescue teams have been scouring the ocean 900 nautical miles east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, for the missing tourist submersible craft with five people for several days. Time is running out as the oxygen supply on the vessel may be depleted. 

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    “It is estimated to have a 96-hour supply of oxygen, meaning the vessel could run out of air this morning,” NBC News said. 

    “Experts within the unified command are evaluating the information,” the Coast Guard said.

    The Coast Guard will hold a press briefing to discuss findings at 3 pm est. 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 06/22/2023 – 19:20

  • "We Need Rain": Corn, Soy, Wheat Prices Soar As Drought Conditions Worsen In Midwest
    “We Need Rain”: Corn, Soy, Wheat Prices Soar As Drought Conditions Worsen In Midwest

    Corn, soy, and wheat prices have been soaring this month as growing conditions across the Midwest, a top-producing crop region, have rapidly deteriorated due to the lack of rainfall.

    US corn crop rated good to excellent slid to 55% in June, the lowest for this time of the growing season since 1992, reported Bloomberg. 

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    “I’m very concerned about the weather,” said Sherman Newlin, who grows corn and soybean in Illinois. He said persistent “low humidity, 90-degree temperatures and now the wind is sucking the moisture out of crops really fast.” 

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    Corn growing conditions have been terrible in Illinois, the second largest US producer. About 36% of the state’s crop was rated good to excellent for the week ending June 18, down 12 percentage points versus the prior week. 

    “I was shocked at the big drop in Illinois ratings,” Newlin said. “I knew we were bad, but: Wow.”

    The latest U.S. Drought Monitor Map reveals Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio, and Wisconsin, often called the “Corn Belt” states, are experiencing “moderate drought” to “exceptional drought.” The timing of the worsening drought could stress young plants. 

    We’ve outlined for readers the worsening drought situation and its subsequent effect on crop price volatility:

    “There’s little sign of relief for crops in the forecast,” Bloomberg wrote in a note. 

    Prices of wheat futures are up 20% on the month. Soy futures are up 14%. Corn futures are up 13%. 

    The official summer start was Wednesday, which will coincide with hotter and drier days. 

    Bloomberg warned: “Without substantial rain in the next month or so, the consequences could be dire, with farmers abandoning their fields and the harvest plunging.” 

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 06/22/2023 – 19:20

  • Watch: Tucker Calls Out 'Media Hysteria Typhoon' Over RFK Jr.
    Watch: Tucker Calls Out ‘Media Hysteria Typhoon’ Over RFK Jr.

    In his latest episode, Tucker Carlson discussed the media’s absolute hatred for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was immediately attacked by the press upon his announcement that he would run against President Joe Biden in 2024.

    “CBS News viewers likely were appalled in its coverage of Kennedy’s announcement. CBS denounced the candidate’s views as ‘misleading’ and ‘dangerous,'” noted Carlson, adding “The LA Times called him a threat to democracy.”

    “At the offices of National Public Radio in Washington, a full-blown category-5 hysteria typhoon broke out. NPR devoted an entire segment to savaging Kennedy – not just as a candidate, but as a human being,” Carlson continued. “NPR described him as someone who, for his own perverse reasons, has made “debunked and false and misleading claims that undermine trust in vaccines. And who, in his spare time, provides moral support to crazed extremists who “rally under the banner of what they call liberty, or freedom.””

    “People Magazine didn’t even bother to report a single word of anything Kennedy said!” Carlson exclaimed, “and instead wrote an entire story about his relatives hate him.” 

    “Kennedy Jr. faced censorship on Instagram and YouTube for expressing his views,” he continued, adding that RFK Jr. raised questions about “the rise in allergies, asthma, autism, and other conditions related to vaccines,” while “the media and medical establishment vilified Kennedy Jr. for his views, calling him a lunatic, Nazi, and extremist supporter.“

    Carlson then goes into a defense of Kennedy’s right to raise questions over vaccines, and the response one gets for doing so.

    “Bobby Kennedy won’t stop asking, and that’s why they hate him,” Carlson said.

    Carlson then went after debate-dodging doctor, Peter Hotez – who he says will “never debate Bobby Kennedy Jr., but it doesn’t matter. Kennedy has already won.”

    “Hotez attacked Kennedy Jr. and called for vaccine mandates, accusing those who disagree of being white nationalists and Russian agents,” said Carlson, who then noted how Hotez chickened out of a debate with RFK Jr.

    Watch:

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    In closing, Carlson notes: “The gatekeepers are transparently ridiculous. Everyone can see that. And the people have started to notice.”

    Here is a full must-read transcript of Tucker’s latest episode.

    There’s never been a candidate for president the media hated more than Robert F Kennedy Jr. You thought that title belonged to Donald Trump, of course it must. But go check the coverage: Trump got a gentle scalp massage by comparison. When he announced when Trump rolled out his presidential campaign in 2015 the New York Times waited until the 17th paragraph of the story to attack him. But as well-known as he is, the paper said at the time Trump is also widely disliked then they cited a poll to back it up. That was the attack on Trump.

    Eight years later the Times attacked Bobby Kennedy in the very first sentence of the story: quote
    “Robert F Kennedy Jr” the paper declared “announced a presidential campaign on Wednesday built on relitigating covid-19 shutdowns and shaking Americans faith in science?”

    Shaking Americans faith in science – imagine if you’re an ordinary New York Times subscriber reading that over coffee in your pre-war rent-controlled duplex on Columbus Avenue. You’d think Bobby Kennedy just declared war on the enlightenment: ”my fellow Americans I have come to shake your faith in science. Join me as I drag our nation back to the medieval period.”

    You’d be appalled; CBS News viewers likely were appalled in its coverage of Kennedy’s announcement. CBS denounced the candidates views as “misleading and dangerous.” The LA Times called him “a threat to democracy.”

    At the offices of national public radio in Washington a full-blown Category 5 hysteria typhoon broke out. NPR devoted an entire segment to savaging Kennedy not just as a candidate but as a human being.  NPR described him as someone who – for his own perverse reasons – has made “debunked and false and misleading claims that undermine trust in vaccines and who in his spare time provides moral support to crazed extremists Who rally under the banner of what they call Liberty or freedom.”

    People magazine didn’t even bother to report a single word of anything Kennedy said at his announcement and instead wrote an entire story about how his relatives hate him.  Kennedy’s younger sister Carrie, the magazine reported solemnly, does not approve of Bobby Jr’s harmful views… his harmful views.

    Bobby Kennedy’s thoughts alone are evil enough to hurt people – that’s been the tone of the media coverage around Bobby Kennedy Jr for the past 18 years since July of 2005. That’s the moment that Kennedy published a magazine article suggesting there might be a link between the rise in diagnosed autism cases and the ever expanding schedule of mandatory childhood vaccines.

    The day that story was published Kennedy’s reporting was considered so solid that two outlets ran it simultaneously: Rollingstone and Salon.com. Unfortunately neither one of them understood what they were up against. The Pharma Lobby rolled out the most ferocious public relations campaign in memory and both publications swiftly caved; both pulled the story and then disavowed it, groveling as they did.

    No one in the National media bothered to explain why autism diagnoses had skyrocketed. If it wasn’t the vaccines – and maybe it wasn’t – then what was it? To this day there has not been a convincing explanation. Instead reporters just attack Bobby Kennedy. They’ve called him a lunatic and a Nazi. Instagram shut down his account. YouTube just last week pulled down a perfectly reasonable interview he did with Jordan Peterson citing unspecified misinformation.

    And so on – Kennedy became the most censored famous person in the United States. At this point most Americans have heard a lot more about Bobby Kennedy Jr than they’ve heard from him. He doesn’t get many offers to speak from Big platforms

    But last week Joe Rogan gave him one. Here’s some of what he said:

    “Why do five of my seven kids have allergies. Of course, we know why: aluminum adjuvants give you allergies, they’re designed to create a hyper immune response to foreign particles. And the last category is the Allergic Diseases – peanut allergies, food allergies, eczema which I never knew anybody with eczema when I was a kid. I knew people with asthma but it wasn’t one in every four black kids like it is today. We went from six percent of Americans having chronic disease. By 1986 we’re starting to add the vaccines and 11.8% of kids now. so it’s doubled.”

    Why do five of my seven children have allergies? Now we don’t know the answer of course, but it’s an interesting question in fact it’s an important question that deserves an adult answer not that you should hold your breath waiting to get one.

    Bobby Kennedy asks a lot of questions like that; he notices things. Kennedy pays attention to the world around him and he wonders why it’s changing. He’s an Outdoorsman, a falconer and a fly fisherman. He’s interested in how nature works. He’s curious.

    Not so long ago these qualities were considered essential to the practice of science. All scientific discovery comes from observation: empiricism, patient watching. Without the willingness to put aside your pre-assumptions and assess with honesty the things you see and touch and smell, the changes taking place right in front of your face, you can’t do science; you can’t create art either, or journalism or theology. You have to be willing to notice the obvious and when they tell you you’re not allowed to notice the obvious you should be concerned.

    Imagine you’re on a commercial airline flight, the plane is just leveled out at 37 000 feet you’re closing your eyes for a nap. And suddenly you smell smoke and it’s not your imagination you can see it, it’s starting to fill the cabin – all around you people are hacking and choking. The guy in the next seat has a napkin pressed against his mouth and he’s mumbling what sounds like Psalm 23: “yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death.”  So clearly the airplane is on fire but almost unbelievably no one has said a word about it – not a single person is acknowledging this is happening. Everyone is silent: so in panic you yell for the flight attendant “there’s smoke in the cabin” you say as if she hasn’t noticed, but she stares at you with hard eyes “Shut up racist” she replies. “That’s a dangerous Russian conspiracy theory. Stop spreading misinformation or I’ll call TSA and have you arrested when we land.”

    That sounds like a fever dream, but it’s also pretty close to the experience of living in the United States at the moment. All around you things seem to be fraying and getting worse,  your gut tells you there’s something very bad going on and all the evidence suggests that there is. But the people in charge won’t acknowledge that. “Everything’s fine” they scream “stop noticing.”

    But wait: I don’t remember this many kids having allergies or asthma or eczema or autism or for that matter body dysmorphia. And why so many suicides? What’s going on here? “Shut up, stop asking questions” that’s their answer.

    But Bobby Kennedy won’t stop asking and that’s why they hate him.

    As Kennedy spoke on the Rogan show, a reporter for vice.com called Anna Merlin was watching. Merlin was so enraged by what she saw that she dashed off an article attacking Joe Rogan’s employer for allowing the conversation to take place. “Spotify has stopped even sort of trying to stem Joe Rogan’s vaccine misinformation” read the headline. The piece never even described much of what Bobby Kennedy had actually said. Merlin dismissed the entire interview, was “a detailed survey of Kennedy’s most dangerously incorrect views a far too extensive list to outline in full.” In other words “we here at vice don’t have time to describe all of Bobby Kennedy’s lies but trust us they’re lies.”

    Then Merlin called Spotify to see if she could get the episode censored. Much to her profound frustration Spotify refused to censor the episode and kept the interview on its website. So she spent the next several days ranting about all of this on Twitter. People were listening to the wrong things and Anna Merlin was mad about it.

    So is Peter Hotes. Hotes is a pediatrician from Texas who became moderately famous on MSNBC during the coveted lockdowns as a Biden shill and a vaccine promoter.  Hotes read Anna Merlin’s piece and then huffily retweeted it. Effectively “why is Bobby Kennedy allowed to talk in public” and that gave Joe Rogan an idea: why not have Peter Hotes debate Bobby Kennedy on his show. “You claim he’s wrong why don’t you explain why he’s wrong” that seemed fair.

    But Hotes wouldn’t bite so Rogan offered to give a hundred grand to Hotez’s favorite charity if he agreed to come on. Soon others made their own pledges and the pot swelled to over a million dollars. But still Peter Hotes wouldn’t come instead he scampered back to MSNBC where one of the channel’s oilier hosts assured him he was doing the right thing by dodging the debate. “Arguing with Bobby Kennedy is morally equivalent to debating a holocaust denier” the host said. “No decent person would do that.” And of course Hotes agreed: “200 000 Americans needlessly perished because they believed the anti-vaccine disinformation and refused to get a covid shot.“

    So really talking to Bobby Kennedy would be a lot like abetting murder and Peter Hotes, MD PhD, was not going to do that. But wait a second, you ask yourself – let’s think about those numbers. 200 000 people died because of vaccine disinformation from Bobby Kennedy and people like him. How do we know that? Is that really science? No it’s not science, because we don’t know that, we can’t know that – there is no way to know that.

    Peter Hotez’s claim is a political attack posing as science and he specializes in those. Here he is on television during the so-called pandemic.

    “It’s all about mass compliance. That’s going to be absolutely critical because if you don’t have mass – remember this virus aerosolizes so even six feet is not enough. It can go 17 18 feet, several meters… what you really have to do is have vaccine mandates in the schools. We should have a rule that anyone who walks into a school over the age of 12 has to be vaccinated… This is the nature of the anti-vaccine movement in this country. it’s somehow married now to far right-wing extremism and white nationalist groups…. Anyone who’s unvaccinated and has been lucky enough to escape covid your luck is about to run out… and I call it anti-science aggression coming from Senator Rand Paul, Senator Johnson. Members of the House of Representatives in addition to those two senators are killers.”

    It’s all about Mass compliance – we must have vaccine mandates for children.  Take the vax or you will die. Anyone who disagrees with me is a white nationalist and a killer and probably an agent of Putin. Did we say probably? Let’s revise that: certainly an agent of Putin.  

    Again here is Dr Peter Hotes:

    “We’re starting to see now those same anti-vaccine messages that’s coming out of the U.S and now we’re finding it in Africa and Latin America, and remember what the other reason we’re seeing this is the Putin government has – this has been reported by U. S and British intelligence – has been piling on with this whole systematic program of what’s been called weaponized Health Communications, trying to destabilize democracies with anti-vaccine, anti-science messages and targeting.”

    So according to British and U.S intelligence anyone who disagrees with Dr Peter Hotez is a disloyal American working to destabilize our democracy on behalf of Vladimir Putin. Now by comparison, never in his life has Bobby Kennedy Jr said anything half that demented. But keep in mind Peter Hotes claims to have a valid medical license,  he is allowed to treat patients.

    After a while even MSNBC viewers were going to have some questions about a guy who talks like that and apparently some of them did. As the lockdowns were on the population started to notice that many of the core claims the TV doctors were making were untrue – you only need one shot, if you got the shot you would never get sick, you would never pass the virus to others and so on. They said these things as you know again and again. Ultimately they were proven wrong but they never admitted it they just attacked the people who noticed.

    Here’s Dr Peter Hotes calling for the Biden Administration to arrest anyone who questions the covet vaccine:

    “The Biden Administration has to realize that that anti-science is a killer. Disinformation – it’s not even just disinformation – this is an anti-science Empire right now, and we need Homeland Security, we need the justice department, we’ve really got to figure this out in the health in Health and Human Services will not be able to figure this out on their own.”

    It’s not a medical problem, it’s a law enforcement problem: “They’ve doubted me arrest them.”

    it’s a horrifying outburst if you think about. If you were on tape saying something like that you would be deeply ashamed. But Peter Hotes is not ashamed, he’s become even more grandiose. Hotes has written as self-congratulatory new book called “The Deadly rise of anti-science: a scientist warning” as if you were a scientist. Here’s how Hotes describes himself in the book’s promotional literature:

    “During the height of the covid-19 pandemic, one renowned scientist in his famous bow tie appearing daily on major news networks such as MSNBC, NPR and BBC and others, Dr Peter J Hotes, often went without sleep working around the clock to develop a non-profit Covid-19 vaccine and to keep the public informed. During that time he was one of the most trusted voices on the pandemic and was even nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his selfless work. He also became one of the main targets of anti-science rhetoric that gained traction through conservative news media” though we could go on.

    So here you have a renowned scientist – selfless, trusted, going without sleep, self-denying, persecuted by extremists for daring to tell the truth. The Albert Schweitzer of cable news – that’s Dr Peter J Hotes.

    The fact that a partisan buffoon like Peter Hotes can describe himself this way with a straight face – and the backing of a publisher – makes you despair for the country’s future. But don’t despair, there is hope. Hotes will never debate Bobby Kennedy Jr but it doesn’t matter, Kennedy has already won. He’s more honest than Dr Peter Hotes and that’s obvious to anyone who’s paying attention.

    A new Economist poll shows that Kennedy is more popular and far less hated than either major party front-runner. After almost 20 years of being silenced Bobby Kennedy Jr is being heard, and why wouldn’t he be. Kennedy’s theories about vaccines may be right, may be partially right, they could be even utterly wrong – no one’s proved it either way.

    But what we can say was certainty is that America’s Medical establishment has beclowned itself for all time.

    It’s official positions on vaccines, psychiatric drugs, puberty blockers, reassignment surgeries, a long list of other politically factual priorities – have no connection whatsoever to legitimate science. It’s all effectively witchcraft.

    At the annual meeting of the American Medical Association in Chicago last week for example, delegates issued a statement attacking the body mass index as a tool of quote racist exclusion which has caused historical harm.  Next year they will denounce thermometers and stethoscopes.

    They’re insane. Compared to them Bobby Kennedy is a mainstream figure, and people understand – that that’s why he’s winning. And you know he’s winning by how his critics are doing. So it is four years ago Anna Merlin was regarded as an important expert on conspiracy theories and misinformation. She’d written a book on the topic. Here she is talking about it

    “I’ve always thought that in the case of conspiracy peddlers it’s not necessarily a super profitable enterprise to ask whether they really believe it or not because I don’t know what’s in their hearts I don’t know what’s in their minds. All I know is what they spend their time doing, which is promoting conspiracy theories. In the case of ordinary people, conspiracy consumers – and most Americans are to some degree consumers of conspiracy theories – all the studies that we have show that like one in three Americans believe in some conspiracy theory to some extent.  

    For the people in the very deep end of the conspiracy pool, people are consuming a lot of conspiracy content, I think it’s really important to look at the way it helps them make sense of the world and make sense of our political moment, and make sense of a lot of times like what’s happening in their own lives.”

    “All the studies that we have show that like one in three Americans believe in some conspiracy theory, uh” You’ll notice the upspeak the rising inflection at the end of the sentence that’s a familiar tick in Brooklyn, it’s designed to turn a declarative sentence into a question and thereby belittle the listener: “Do you follow me, is this too complicated for you.”

    So the lady in the nose ring wants you to know she’s smart… but she’s not.

    When Merlin recorded that interview Vice where she now works was valued at more than five billion dollars: genius investors like James Murdoch were showering the company with money. Everyone wanted it on the future of media which was up talkers like Anna Merlin lecturing you about racism and misinformation but that has changed.

    Last month Vice filed for bankruptcy. Anna Merlin is still on Twitter screeching about how her critics are transphobic… but nobody cares; nobody wants to hear from Anna Merlin anymore.

    The Gatekeepers are transparently ridiculous. Everyone can see that. People have started to notice.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 06/22/2023 – 19:11

  • Chris Hedges: The Imminent Extradition Of Julian Assange & The Death Of Journalism
    Chris Hedges: The Imminent Extradition Of Julian Assange & The Death Of Journalism

    Authored by Chris Hedges via Scheerpost.com,

    Julian Assange’s legal options have nearly run out. He could be extradited to the U.S. this week. Should he be convicted, reporting on the inner workings of power will become a crime…

    High Court Judge Jonathan Swift — who previously worked for a variety of British government agencies as a barrister and said his favorite clients are “security and intelligence agencies” — rejected two applications by Julian Assange’s lawyers to appeal his extradition last week. The extradition order was signed last June by Home Secretary Priti Patel. Julian’s legal team have filed a final application for appeal, the last option available in the British courts. If accepted, the case could proceed to a public hearing in front of two new High Court judges. If rejected, Julian could be immediately extradited to the United States where he will stand trial for 18 counts of violating the Espionage Act, charges that could see him receive a 175-year sentence, as early as this week. 

    The only chance to block an extradition, if the final appeal is rejected, as I expect it will be, would come from the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). The parliamentary arm of the Council of Europe, which created the ECtHR, along with their Commissioner for Human Rights, oppose Julian’s “detention, extradition and prosecution” because it represents “a dangerous precedent for journalists.” It is unclear if the British government would abide by the court’s decision — even though it is obligated to do so — if it ruled against extradition, or if the U.K. would extradite Julian before an appeal to the European court can be heard. Julian, once shipped to the U.S., would be put on trial in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia where most espionage cases have been won by the U.S. government. 

    Judge Vanessa Baraitser at Westminster Magistrates’ Court refused to authorize the U.S. government’s extradition request in Jan. 2021 because of the severity of the conditions Julian would endure in the U.S. prison system. 

    “Faced with the conditions of near total isolation without the protective factors which limited his risk at [Her Majesty’s Prison] Belmarsh, I am satisfied the procedures described by the U.S. will not prevent Mr. Assange from finding a way to commit suicide,” said Baraitser when handing down her 132-page ruling, “and for this reason I have decided extradition would be oppressive by reason of mental harm and I order his discharge.”

    Baraitser’s decision was overturned after an appeal by U.S. authorities. The High Court accepted the conclusions of the lower court about increased risk of suicide and inhumane prison conditions. But it also accepted four assurances in U.S. Diplomatic Note no. 74, given to the court in Feb. 2021, which promised Julian would be well treated. The U.S. government claimed that its assurances “entirely answer the concerns which caused the judge [in the lower court] to discharge Mr. Assange.” The “assurances” state that Julian will not be subject to Special Administrative Measures (SAMs). They promise that Julian, an Australian citizen, can serve his sentence in Australia if the Australian government requests his extradition. They promise he will receive adequate clinical and psychological care. They promise that, pre-trial and post-trial, Julian will not be held in the Administrative Maximum Facility (ADX) in Florence, Colorado. No one is held pre-trial in ADX Florence. But it sounds reassuring. ADX Florence is not the only supermax prison in the U.S. Julian can be placed in one of our other Guantanamo-like facilities in a Communications Management Unit (CMU). CMUs are highly restrictive units that replicate the near total isolation imposed by SAMs.

    None of these “assurances” are worth the paper they are written on. All come with escape clauses. None are legally binding. Should Julian do “something subsequent to the offering of these assurances that meets the tests for the imposition of SAMs or designation to ADX” he will, the court conceded, be subject to these harsher forms of control. 

    If Australia does not request a transfer it “cannot be a cause for criticism of the USA, or a reason for regarding the assurances as inadequate to meet the judge’s concerns,” the ruling read. And even if that were not the case, it would take Julian 10 to 15 years to appeal his sentence up to the U.S. Supreme Court, which would be more than enough time to destroy him psychologically and physically. 

    No doubt the plane waiting to take Julian to the U.S. will be well stocked with blindfolds, sedatives, shackles, enemas, diapers and jumpsuits used to facilitate “extraordinary renditions” conducted by the CIA.  

    The extradition of Julian will be the next step in the slow-motion execution of the publisher and founder of WikiLeaks and one of the most important journalists of our generation. It will ensure that Julian spends the rest of his life in a U.S. prison. It will create legal precedents that will criminalize any investigation into the inner workings of power, even by citizens from another country. It will be a body blow to our anemic democracy, which is rapidly metamorphosing into corporate totalitarianism. 

    I am as stunned by this full frontal assault on journalism as I am by the lack of public outrage, especially by the media. The very belated call from The New York Times, The Guardian, Le Monde, Der Spiegel and El País — all of whom published material provided by WikiLeaks — to drop the extradition charges is too little too late. All of the public protests I have attended in defense of Julian in the U.S. are sparsely attended. Our passivity makes us complicit in our own enslavement.

    Julian’s case, from the start, has been a judicial farce.

    Former Ecuadorian President Lenin Moreno terminated Julian’s rights of asylum as a political refugee, in violation of international law. He then authorized London Metropolitan Police to enter the Ecuadorian Embassy — diplomatically sanctioned sovereign territory — to arrest a naturalized citizen of Ecuador. Moreno’s government, which revoked Julian’s citizenship, was granted a large loan by the International Monetary Fund for its assistance. Donald Trump, by demanding Julian’s extradition under the Espionage Act, criminalized journalism, in much the same way Woodrow Wilson did when he shut down socialist publications such as The Masses.

    The hearings, some of which I attended in London and others of which I sat through online, mocked basic legal protocols. They included the decision to ignore the CIA’s surveillance and recording of meetings between Julian and his attorneys during his time as a political refugee in the embassy, eviscerating attorney-client-privilege. This alone should have seen the case thrown out of court. They included validating the decision to charge Julian, although he is not a U.S. citizen, under the Espionage Act. They included Kafkaesque contortions to convince the courts that Julian is not a journalist. They ignored Article 4 of the U.K.-U.S. extradition treaty that prohibits extradition for political offenses. I watched as the prosecutor James Lewis, representing the U.S., gave legal directives to Judge Baraitser, who promptly adopted them as her legal decision. 

    The judicial lynching of Julian has far more in common with the dark days of Lubyanka than the ideals of British jurisprudence.

    The debate over arcane legal nuances distracts us from the fact that Julian has not committed a crime in Britain, other than an old charge of breaching bail conditions when he sought asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy. Normally this would entail a fine. He was instead sentenced to a year in Belmarsh prison and has been held there since April 2019. 

    The decision to seek Julian’s extradition, contemplated by Barack Obama’s administration, was pursued by the Trump administration following WikiLeaks’ publication of the documents known as Vault 7, which exposed the CIA’s cyberwarfare programs designed to monitor and take control of cars, smart TVs, web browsers and the operating systems of most smart phones, as well as Microsoft Windows, MacOS and Linux. 

    Julian, as I noted in a column filed from London last year, is targeted because of the Iraq War Logs, released in Oct. 2010, which document numerous U.S. war crimes, including images seen in the Collateral Murder video, of the gunning down of two Reuters journalists and 10 other civilians and severely injuring two children.

    He is targeted because he made public the killing of nearly 700 civilians who had approached too closely to U.S. convoys and checkpoints, including pregnant women, the blind and deaf, and at least 30 children

    He is targeted because he exposed more than 15,000 unreported deaths of Iraqi civilians and the torture and abuse of some 800 men and boys, aged between 14 to 89, at Guantánamo Bay detention camp. 

    He is targeted because he showed us that Hillary Clinton in 2009 ordered U.S. diplomats to spy on U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and other U.N. representatives from China, France, Russia, and the U.K., spying that included obtaining DNA, iris scans, fingerprints, and personal passwords, all part of the long pattern of illegal surveillance that included eavesdropping on U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan in the weeks before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. 

    He is targeted because he exposed that Obama, Hillary Clinton and the CIA backed the June 2009 military coup in Honduras that overthrew the democratically-elected president Manuel Zelaya, replacing him with a murderous and corrupt military regime. 

    He is targeted because he released documents that revealed the United States secretly launched missile, bomb and drone attacks on Yemen, killing scores of civilians. 

    He is targeted because he made public the off-the-record talks Hillary Clinton gave to Goldman Sachs, talks for which she was paid $657,000, a sum so large it can only be considered a bribe, as well as her private assurances to Wall Street that she would do their bidding while promising the public financial regulation and reform. 

    For revealing these truths alone he is guilty.

    The U.S. court system is even more draconian than the British court system. It can use SAMs, anti-terrorism laws and the Espionage Act to block Julian from speaking to the public, being released on bail, or seeing the “secret” evidence used to convict him. 

    The CIA was created to carry out assassinations, coups, torture, kidnapping, blackmail, character assassination and illegal spying. It has targeted U.S. citizens, in violation of its charter. These activities were exposed in 1975 by the Church Committee hearings in the Senate and the Pike Committee hearings in the House. 

    Working with UC Global, the Spanish security firm in the embassy, the CIA put Julian under 24-hour video and digital surveillance. It discussed kidnapping and assassinating him while he was in the embassy, which included plans of a shoot-out on the streets with involvement by London Metropolitan Police. The U.S. allocates a secret black budget of $52 billion a year to hide multiple types of clandestine projects carried out by the National Security Agency, the CIA, and other intelligence agencies, usually beyond the scrutiny of Congress. All these clandestine activities, especially after the attacks of 9/11, have massively expanded.

    Senator Frank Church, after examining the heavily redacted CIA documents released to his committee, defined the CIA’s covert activity as “a semantic disguise for murder, coercion, blackmail, bribery, the spreading of lies.” 

    The CIA and intelligence agencies, along with the military, all of which operate without effective Congressional oversight, are the engines behind Julian’s extradition. Julian inflicted, by exposing their crimes and lies, a grievous wound. They demand vengeance. The control these forces seek abroad is the control they seek at home. 

    Julian may soon be imprisoned for life in the U.S. for journalism, but he won’t be the only one.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 06/22/2023 – 19:00

  • Modi & Biden's Unprecedented Defense & Technology Deals Intended To Lure India From Russia
    Modi & Biden’s Unprecedented Defense & Technology Deals Intended To Lure India From Russia

    A lot has come out of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to meet with President Biden at the White House on Thursday, seen also in the very lengthy 58-point joint statement put out by the countries, which runs into many dozens of pages.

    First, both sides reached agreement on terminating six outstanding disputes at the World Trade Organization, while India also agreed to remove retaliatory tariffs on some US products, among them chickpeas, lentils, and other goods, according to a statement.

    But more interesting are the deals which greatly expand on technology and defense cooperation, given that looming large in the background is the US desire to lure India away from closeness with China and Russia. 

    Getty Images

    The section of the readout focusing on defense, technology, and space partnership spans multiple pages. The Wall Street Journal has commented that some of the deals are intended to wean New Delhi off Russian arms purchases in particular.

    “India is set to buy state-of-the-art U.S. drones and jointly produce jet-fighter engines in a multibillion-dollar deal designed to wean New Delhi off arms purchases from Russia,” WSJ wrote Thursday.

    Until now, “Washington was reluctant until now to share such sensitive technology because of India’s past, and continuing, purchases of Russian military gear,” the newspaper continued.

    “The U.S. and India are also discussing strengthening ties between their militaries, including in logistics and intelligence-sharing, Pentagon officials said,” the report said.

    “U.S. ships could more frequently call at Indian ports, and the two militaries could hold more joint exercises, for example,” WSJ noted.

    https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

    Both on the White House lawn, where an estimated 7,000 mostly Indian-Americans chanted Modi’s name, and at the state dinner in his honor, the prime minister enjoyed rock star status.

    Tyler Durden
    Thu, 06/22/2023 – 18:40

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