Jan 29

Today’s News 29th January 2022

  • Authoritarian Madness: The Slippery Slope From Lockdowns To Concentration Camps
    Authoritarian Madness: The Slippery Slope From Lockdowns To Concentration Camps

    Authored by John W. Whitehead & Nisha Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

    “All the Dachaus must remain standing. The Dachaus, the Belsens, the Buchenwald, the Auschwitzes—all of them. They must remain standing because they are a monument to a moment in time when some men decided to turn the Earth into a graveyard. Into it they shoveled all of their reason, their logic, their knowledge, but worst of all, their conscience. And the moment we forget this, the moment we cease to be haunted by its remembrance, then we become the gravediggers.”

    – Rod Serling, Deaths-Head Revisited

    In the politically charged, polarizing tug-of-war that is the debate over COVID-19, we find ourselves buffeted by fear over a viral pandemic that continues to wreak havoc with lives and the economy, threats of vaccine mandates and financial penalties for noncompliance, and discord over how to legislate the public good without sacrificing individual liberty.

    The discord is getting more discordant by the day.

    Just recently, for instance, the Salt Lake Tribune Editorial Board suggested that government officials should mandate mass vaccinations and deploy the National Guard “to ensure that people without proof of vaccination would not be allowed, well, anywhere.”

    In other words, lock up the unvaccinated and use the military to determine who gets to be “free.”

    These tactics have been used before.

    This is why significant numbers of people are worried: because this is the slippery slope that starts with well-meaning intentions for the greater good and ends with tyrannical abuses no one should tolerate.

    For a glimpse at what the future might look like if such a policy were to be enforced, look beyond America’s borders.

    In Italy, the unvaccinated are banned from restaurants, bars and public transportation, and could face suspensions from work and monthly fines. Similarly, France will ban the unvaccinated from most public venues.

    In Austria, anyone who has not complied with the vaccine mandate could face fines up to $4100. Police will be authorized to carry out routine checks and demand proof of vaccination, with penalties of as much as $685 for failure to do so.

    In China, which has adopted a zero tolerance, “zero COVID” strategy, whole cities—some with populations in the tens of millions—are being forced into home lockdowns for weeks on end, resulting in mass shortages of food and household supplies. Reports have surfaced of residents “trading cigarettes for cabbage, dishwashing liquid for apples and sanitary pads for a small pile of vegetables. One resident traded a Nintendo Switch console for a packet of instant noodles and two steamed buns.”

    For those unfortunate enough to contract COVID-19, China has constructed “quarantine camps” throughout the country: massive complexes boasting thousands of small, metal boxes containing little more than a bed and a toilet. Detainees—including children, pregnant women and the elderly— were reportedly ordered to leave their homes in the middle of the night, transported to the quarantine camps in buses and held in isolation.

    If this last scenario sounds chillingly familiar, it should.

    Eighty years ago, another authoritarian regime established more than 44,000 quarantine camps for those perceived as “enemies of the state”: racially inferior, politically unacceptable or simply noncompliant.

    While the majority of those imprisoned in the Nazi concentration camps, forced labor camps, incarceration sites and ghettos were Jews, there were also Polish nationals, gypsies, Russians, political dissidents, resistance fighters, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and homosexuals.

    Culturally, we have become so fixated on the mass murders of Jewish prisoners by the Nazis that we overlook the fact that the purpose of these concentration camps were initially intended to “incarcerate and intimidate the leaders of political, social, and cultural movements that the Nazis perceived to be a threat to the survival of the regime.”

    As the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum explains:

    “Most prisoners in the early concentration camps were political prisoners—German Communists, Socialists, Social Democrats—as well as Roma (Gypsies), Jehovah’s Witnesses, homosexuals, and persons accused of ‘asocial’ or socially deviant behavior. Many of these sites were called concentration camps. The term concentration camp refers to a camp in which people are detained or confined, usually under harsh conditions and without regard to legal norms of arrest and imprisonment that are acceptable in a constitutional democracy.”

    How do you get from there to here, from Auschwitz concentration camps to COVID quarantine centers?

    Connect the dots.

    You don’t have to be unvaccinated or a conspiracy theorist or even anti-government to be worried about what lies ahead. You just have to recognize the truth in the warning: power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

    This is not about COVID-19. Nor is it about politics, populist movements, or any particular country.

    This is about what happens when good, generally decent people—distracted by manufactured crises, polarizing politics, and fighting that divides the populace into warring “us vs. them” camps—fail to take note of the looming danger that threatens to wipe freedom from the map and place us all in chains.

    It’s about what happens when any government is empowered to adopt a comply-or-suffer-the-consequences mindset that is enforced through mandates, lockdowns, penalties, detention centers, martial law, and a disregard for the rights of the individual.

    The slippery slope begins in just this way, with propaganda campaigns about the public good being more important than individual liberty, and it ends with lockdowns and concentration camps.

    The danger signs are everywhere.

    Claudio Ronco, a 66-year-old Orthodox Jew and a specialist in 18th-century music, recognizes the signs. Because of his decision to remain unvaccinated, Ronco is trapped inside his house, unable to move about in public without a digital vaccination card. He can no longer board a plane, check into a hotel, eat at a restaurant or get a coffee at a bar. He has been ostracized by friends, shut out of public life, and will soon face monthly fines for insisting on his right to bodily integrity and individual freedom.

    For all intents and purposes, Ronco has become an undesirable in the eyes of the government, forced into isolation so he doesn’t risk contaminating the rest of the populace.

    This is the slippery slope: a government empowered to restrict movements, limit individual liberty, and isolate “undesirables” to prevent the spread of a disease is a government that has the power to lockdown a country, label whole segments of the population a danger to national security, and force those undesirables—a.k.a. extremists, dissidents, troublemakers, etc.—into isolation so they don’t contaminate the rest of the populace.

    The world has been down this road before, too.

    Others have ignored the warning signs. We cannot afford to do so.

    As historian Milton Mayer recounts in his seminal book on Hitler’s rise to power, They Thought They Were Free:

    “Most of us did not want to think about fundamental things and never had. There was no need to. Nazism gave us some dreadful, fundamental things to think about—we were decent people‑—and kept us so busy with continuous changes and ‘crises’ and so fascinated, yes, fascinated, by the machinations of the ‘national enemies’, without and within, that we had no time to think about these dreadful things that were growing, little by little, all around us.”

    The German people chose to ignore the truth and believe the lie.

    They were not oblivious to the horrors taking place around them. As historian Robert Gellately points out, “[A]nyone in Nazi Germany who wanted to find out about the Gestapo, the concentration camps, and the campaigns of discrimination and persecutions need only read the newspapers.”

    The warning signs were there, blinking incessantly like large neon signs.

    “Still,” Gellately writes, “the vast majority voted in favor of Nazism, and in spite of what they could read in the press and hear by word of mouth about the secret police, the concentration camps, official anti-Semitism, and so on. . . . [T]here is no getting away from the fact that at that moment, ‘the vast majority of the German people backed him.’”

    Half a century later, the wife of a prominent German historian, neither of whom were members of the Nazi party, opined: “[O]n the whole, everyone felt well. . . . And there were certainly eighty percent who lived productively and positively throughout the time. . . . We also had good years. We had wonderful years.”

    In other words, as long as their creature comforts remained undiminished, as long as their bank accounts remained flush, as long as they weren’t being locked up, locked down, discriminated against, persecuted, starved, beaten, shot, stripped, jailed or killed, life was good.

    Life is good in America, too, as long as you’re able to keep cocooning yourself in political fantasies that depict a world in which your party is always right and everyone else is wrong, while distracting yourself with bread-and-circus entertainment that bears no resemblance to reality.

    Indeed, life in America may be good for the privileged few who aren’t being locked up, locked down, discriminated against, persecuted, starved, beaten, shot, stripped, jailed or killed, but it’s getting worse by the day for the rest of us.

    Which brings me back to the present crisis: COVID-19 is not the Holocaust, and those who advocate vaccine mandates, lockdowns and quarantine camps are not Hitler, but this still has the makings of a slippery slope.

    The means do not justify the ends: we must find other ways of fighting a pandemic without resorting to mandates and lockdowns and concentration camps. To do otherwise is to lay the groundwork for another authoritarian monster to rise up and wreak havoc.

    If we do not want to repeat the past, then we must learn from past mistakes.

    January 27 marks Remembrance Day, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, a day for remembering those who died at the hands of Hitler’s henchmen and those who survived the horrors of the Nazi concentration camps.

    Yet remembering is not enough. We can do better. We must do better.

    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 world is teetering on the edge of authoritarian madness.

    All it will take is one solid push for tyranny to prevail.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 01/28/2022 – 23:40

  • Visualizing The Russia-Ukraine Military Imbalance
    Visualizing The Russia-Ukraine Military Imbalance

    The fact that Russia has a larger military than Ukraine will hardly come as a surprise to most, but the extent to which the smaller nation is outnumbered in virtually every area may not be immediately clear.

    GlobalFirepower has assessed the military forces of both countries for 2022, and as Statista’s Martin Armstrong shows in the following infographic, Russia has everything in its favor on paper, and without the support of Ukraine’s allies, in practice surely, too.

    Infographic: The Russia-Ukraine Military Imbalance | Statista

    You will find more infographics at Statista

    Whether Russian President Putin makes the decision to invade the country, and on a far larger scale, remains to be seen.

    What we are being told by western media and warmongers is that there is a new and significant military build up on the Russian side of the border (while Ukraine President Zelensky said his intelligence officials, looking at satellite images, do not see such an unusual build up); diplomatic efforts have failed; and the West seems currently focused on warmongering, projecting solidarity, and threatening dire (economic, at least) consequences should an invasion occur.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 01/28/2022 – 23:20

  • Xi Jinping Seeking "Global Domination": Mike Pompeo
    Xi Jinping Seeking “Global Domination”: Mike Pompeo

    Authored by Nathan Worcester via The Epoch Times,

    Mike Pompeo said Chinese leader Xi Jinping wants “global domination—hegemony for the Chinese Communist Party,” warning that the rise of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could destroy the rules-based international order in place since the end of World War II.

    “It’s not about putting a Chinese tank division in Taiwan. It’s about accreting political power and influence throughout the world,” Pompeo said.

    Pompeo, who served first as CIA director and later as Secretary of State under President Donald Trump, made the statement in an appearance at the Argus Americas Crude Summit 2022.

    He said his tenure as CIA director came at a time when U.S. attention had to shift from terrorism to other threats, foremost among them the CCP.

    He added that a “global awakening” is taking place about what he sees as the ambitions of the CCP.

    “Most of the credit goes to Xi Jinping. He foisted a virus on the world, for goodness’ sake, and refuses to let anybody go figure out where it came from,” Pompeo said.

    The CCP has met with international criticism for blocking access to the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) and related facilities in Wuhan by the United Nations. Many scientists and journalists suspect the CCP virus that causes COVID-19 originated at the WIV.

    Pompeo also commented on ongoing trade-related conflict between the United States and China, raising questions about the United States’ initial decision to open up to China in the context of its primary Cold War conflict with China’s then-rival, the Soviet Union.

    “The trade war began maybe in 1972,” he said, referring to Henry Kissinger and President Richard Nixon’s visit to the People’s Republic of China in the context of restoring diplomatic ties.

    “Maybe it was the right thing to do in 1972—but the trade war long predates the Trump administration.”

    “We encouraged business together. I don’t fault the businesses who went there. Notice the past tense of this. America’s policy encouraged connectivity with the Chinese Communist Party. Today, that is an enormous liability for the world, and Xi Jinping knows that,” Pompeo said.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 01/28/2022 – 23:00

  • Watch: Sikorsky-Boeing Conduct First Army Air Assault Mission With Very Unusual Helicopter
    Watch: Sikorsky-Boeing Conduct First Army Air Assault Mission With Very Unusual Helicopter

    The Lockheed Martin Sikorsky-Boeing team completed mission profile flight tests for the Army’s Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA) competition. 

    The flights were conducted with the Defiant X, a co-axial helicopter that derives most of its forward thrust from a tail-mounted propeller. Earlier this month, it flew its first mission profile of low-level flight operations and confined area landings.

    “We fully demonstrated Defiant’s ability to execute the FLRAA mission profile by flying 236 knots in level flight, then reducing thrust on the propulsor to rapidly decelerate as we approached the confined, and unimproved, landing zone,” said Bill Fell, Defiant chief flight test pilot at Sikorsky and a retired U.S. Army Master aviator.

    “This type of level body deceleration allowed us to maintain situational awareness and view the landing zone throughout the approach and landing without the typical nose-up helicopter deceleration. This confined area was extremely tight, requiring us to delay descent until nearly over the landing spot, followed by a near-vertical drop. We landed Defiant precisely on the objective with little effort as we descended into this narrow hole while maintaining clearance on all sides,” Fell said. 

    A YouTube video released by “Team Defiant,” dated Jan. 18, shows the helicopter flying at low-altitude operations in a wooded area at low-level speeds. It will fly soldiers and cargo into battle at more than double the speed of the Army’s current helicopters. 

    Defiant is competing with the Bell V-280 Valor tiltrotor aircraft for the FLRAA program. By the end of the decade, one of these high-tech helicopters could replace the Army’s convention helicopters, like the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 01/28/2022 – 22:40

  • US Warns Against Travel To UAE After Drone Attacks From Yemen
    US Warns Against Travel To UAE After Drone Attacks From Yemen

    Authored by Jason Ditz via AntiWar.com,

    Missile and drone attacks on the UAE have killed three people in the past two weeks. Much more importantly, they changed the way people view the UAE, long a safe, stable country in the Middle East.

    Adding to that concern, the US State Department has issued a warning against travel to the UAE going forward. They warned attacks hitting US interests in the country remain a serious concern.

    Aftermath of Jan.17 drone and missile attacks on Abu Dhabi carried out by Yemen’s Houthis.

    “The possibility of attacks affecting US citizens and interests in the Gulf and Arabian Peninsula remains an ongoing, serious concern,” the travel advisory said.

    It added: “Rebel groups operating in Yemen have stated an intent to attack neighboring countries, including the UAE, using missiles and drones. Recent missile and drone attacks targeted populated areas and civilian infrastructure.”

    If the UAE becomes too dangerous, the country could face staggering losses. The US warnings should be another warning sign for the UAE, suggesting they should find a way to extricate themselves from the conflict in Yemen, now that the damage is no longer confined to Yemen.

    UAE officials remain somewhat in denial about this, saying the threats will not be “the new normal.” Bragging about their advanced defense systems, the UAE is still convinced that with this war they can have their cake and eat it too. It’s a mistake more than a few nations have fallen into.

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    With no military solution to Yemen, spillover violence is only going to be a bigger concern going forward, with tit-for-tat escalations encouraging more strikes.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 01/28/2022 – 22:20

  • China Jails 50 Steel Mill Executives As Environmental Crackdown Intensifies
    China Jails 50 Steel Mill Executives As Environmental Crackdown Intensifies

    The CCP has just fired off a warning shot to anybody who even thinks about trying to undermine its “climate” agenda, while simultaneously putting on a show to the international community to try and convince them that it is serious about curbing emissions.

    According to Bloomberg, 47 steel company officials are being jailed for between six and 18 months following a “crackdown” on companies breaking environmental rules that went unenforced for a long time. The officials worked at four steel mills in Tangshan, not far from Beijing. The city is known as China’s biggest steelmaking hub.

    The ruling was handed down by the Tangshan Intermediate People’s Court, which said in a statement that the companies had also been fined millions of yuan and that fines had also been assessed against the defendants.

    Read the full statement – written in English, a sign that the CCP wants the international community to take notice – below:

    On January 27, 2022, the Tangshan Intermediate People’s Court organized four courts of Lunan, Lubei, Kaiping and Guye to pronounce judgments on 4 environmental pollution cases in our city. Courts in the four places sentenced 47 defendants in charge, directly responsible and directly involved in the four steel enterprises involved in the case, to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from 6 months to 1 year and 6 months, and fined them. The two iron and steel enterprises that committed the crime of the environmental pollution crime unit were sentenced to fines of 4 million and 7 million yuan respectively. The courts of the four places invited deputies to the National People’s Congress, members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and the principals of key iron and steel enterprises in their jurisdictions to participate in this centralized sentencing event.

    Tangshan Songting Iron and Steel Co., Ltd., Hebei Xinda Iron and Steel Group Co., Ltd., Tangshan City Medium and Thick Plate Co., Ltd., and Tangshan Jinma Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. are key pollutant discharge units in Tangshan City. In March 2021, in order to evade the supervision of the environmental protection department, the four companies carried out illegal production by interfering with automatic monitoring facilities and falsifying automatic detection data, and released a large amount of pollutants such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides. After the court trial, it was found that the four companies had falsified data, discharged pollutants in excess of the standard, seriously polluted the atmosphere, endangered the health and safety of the people, and constituted the crime of polluting the environment. Among them, Tangshan Songting Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. and Hebei Xinda Iron and Steel Group Co., Ltd. constituted the crime of environmental pollution crime units.

    In recent years, the Tangshan Intermediate People’s Court has given full play to the functions of criminal trial, punishment and education of environmental resources, and severely punished criminal acts that pollute the environment and cause serious consequences and subjective viciousness in accordance with the law. Through this centralized judgment, it can effectively deter potential polluting enterprises, educate and guide enterprises to consciously protect the ecological environment, and escort the construction of clear water and blue sky and the high-quality economic and social development of our city.

    All of the officials being jailed were found to be complicit in the faking of air pollution data submitted to the government.

    The jail sentences “underscore Beijng’s push to clean up a major source of air pollution”, Bloomberg reported.

    Over the past decade, Beijing has tried to tighten environmental controls to clean up China’s notoriously dirty air. Their goal is to have more than 530M tons of steelmaing capacity in the “ultra-low emissions” category by 2025.

    The sentences mark the end of a long-running environmental crackdown on the steelmaking hub. Tangshan Jinma and another three mills were found guilty last March of not complying with production cuts put in place to reduce pollution.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 01/28/2022 – 22:00

  • Shellenberger: Why San Francisco Is Denying Reality
    Shellenberger: Why San Francisco Is Denying Reality

    Authored by Michael Shellenberger via Substack,

    The San Francisco Chronicle has acknowledged that the city is operating a supervised drug site, but the city continues to deny it. Why?

    The San Francisco Chronicle today published an article confirming that San Francisco city government is operating a supervised drug use and drug dealing site on public property and within the auspices of a “Linkage Center” ostensibly to link homeless addicts to rehab. “The revelation that people are using drugs at the site was first reported on the Substack newsletter of Michael Shellenberger,” acknowledged The Chronicle.

    San Francisco city government officials are denying that they are operating a supervised drug consumption site.

    A “spokesperson for the Department running the linkage center denied the city was operating a supervised consumption site,” reported The Chronicle.

    “When asked by The Chronicle what happens if someone tries to use drugs in the outdoor or indoor areas of the linkage center, and whether staff will allow the practice to continue, [spokesperson] Zamora did not answer directly.”

    San Francisco Mayor London Breed and members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors have advocated a supervised drug consumption site, and purchased two properties in the Tenderloin to serve people suffering from addiction.

    There is a reasonable debate to be had about whether there should be supervised drug use sites for hard-core drug addicts. The Netherlands, which is a model nation for dealing with addiction and untreated mental illness among the homeless, has 28 drug consumption rooms.

    But San Francisco city government never approved the creation of a supervised consumption site at the linkage center and is moving forward with supervised drug consumption and drug dealing in ways that are totally inconsistent with the successful approach used by Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Lisbon, Vienna, and Zurich.

    There is no doubt that the city is operating a supervised drug site. City contractors not only confirmed it to reporters Erica Sandberg, Leighton Woodhouse, and me, we witnessed drug use, another reporter witnessed a drug deal, and the San Francisco Chronicle’s reporter witnessed drug use at the supervised site.

    But rather than be open about what it is doing, the San Francisco city government is denying it.

    This is curious because the operators of the supervised open drug scene claim to want to reduce stigma around drug use. And it is curious because, in addition to the coverage by my Substack and The San Francisco Chronicle, The Daily Mail has published a second long article with 44 horrifying photos of the scene.

    Why is that? Why is San Francisco’s city government denying that it is operating a supervised site for drug consumption and drug dealing?

    The Denial Of Humanity

    This is the view of the taxpayer-funded supervised drug consumption and drug dealing site in United Nations Plaza, a public space in downtown San Francisco. Around this site, which was taken over without authorization, are armed and violent drug dealers whose deadly, addictive, and intoxicating products kill two San Franciscans per day.

    Read more here…

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 01/28/2022 – 21:40

  • China Rips Off US Military With New "Mechanical Yak" Robot
    China Rips Off US Military With New “Mechanical Yak” Robot

    In what appears to be a direct ripoff of the US Army’s quadrupedal robot, China showed off its new “mechanical yak,” designed to go places deemed too risky for humans. 

    Footage published on state-run media outlet People’s Daily Online’s YouTube page shows the quadrupedal robot performing maneuvers on all sorts of rugged terrain. The yak can carry 160 kilograms (334 pounds) while operating at 10 kilometers (six miles) per hour.

    The robot is designed to haul military equipment in the most challenging terrains, such as cliffs, mountains, trenches, deserts, snowy areas, and muddy roads.

    According to the state media, the yak has highly-advanced sensors that sense its environment and can avoid obstacles. It could be a game-changer for military logistics and reconnaissance missions on the heavily contested China-India border. 

    The yak is nearly identical to the US Army’s Boston Dynamics-built Legged Squad Support System, a powerful quadrupedal robot meant to carry gear, weapons, and other equipment. However, there’s one big difference. The yak is battery powered while the US’ is very noisy with a two-stroke petrol engine. 

    In the age of killer robots, the modern battlefield will be fought with AI combat robots, fifth-generation fighter jets, jet packs, lasers, new main battle rifles, and whatever other new technology that can be easily molded into a killing machine. 

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 01/28/2022 – 21:20

  • Biden Admin To Regulate Bitcoin 'As A Matter Of National Security'; Report
    Biden Admin To Regulate Bitcoin ‘As A Matter Of National Security’; Report

    Authored by ‘NAMCIOS’ via BitcoinMagazine.com,

    The White House wants to bring order to the ‘haphazard approach’ that is currently being employed by regulators to Bitcoin and cryptocurrency.

    The White House wants to set out a cohesive set of policies to regulate Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as currently legislation and its enforcement are scattered across sectors and agencies, according to multiple reports.

    The Biden administration will release an executive order in the coming weeks to task federal agencies with assessing the risks and opportunities that Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies pose, Bloomberg first reported.

    The order is set to come under the umbrella of national security efforts as the administration seeks to analyze cryptocurrencies and employ a cohesive regulatory framework that would cover Bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and NFTs, Barron’s reported Thursday.

    “This is designed to look holistically at digital assets and develop a set of policies that give coherency to what the government is trying to do in this space,” a person familiar with the White House’s plan told Barron’s.

    “Because digital assets don’t stay in one country, it’s necessary to work with other countries on synchronization.”

    The regulatory efforts would reportedly involve the State Department, Treasury Department, National Economic Council, and Council of Economic Advisers, as well as the White House National Security Council as the administration gauges that cryptocurrencies have “economic implications for national security,” per the Barron’s report.

    The White House’s plan is to “bring order to the haphazard approach that the government is now using to regulate crypto,” the person told Barron’s. Currently, different aspects of the cryptocurrency market are dealt with by different agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, but there’s little coordination and consensus when it comes to the classification of the many different assets in the market.

    According to the Bloomberg report, senior officials at the administration had held multiple meetings on the plan, and the directive is expected to be presented to President Joe Biden in the coming weeks.

    [ZH: So let’s just remind ourselves of how perceptions of bitcoin have changed over the years…]

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    [ZH: May we dare to suggest crypto has only become a ‘matter of national security’ for the US since the idea of Putin using it to get around US sanctions and the nuclear-threat of SWIFT-deactivation started to circulate.]

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 01/28/2022 – 21:00

  • Rare Breed Triggers Responds To Alleged Leaked ATF Memo To Seize FRT-15s From Dealers
    Rare Breed Triggers Responds To Alleged Leaked ATF Memo To Seize FRT-15s From Dealers

    Lawrence Demonico, the president of Rare Breed Triggers, has just released a YouTube video responding to the alleged leaked ATF memo circulating the internet in the last 24 hours. 

    “We have all seen the ATF letter that is spreading like wildfire across the internet, regarding the ATF plans to steal private property from dealers, and of course, I’m referring to the FRT-15 trigger,” Demonico said. 

    “All though I cannot authenticate this letter that is allegedly being circulated by the ATF. I can tell you we’ve received word from one dealer in Illinois late yesterday afternoon stating that the ATF visited him and handed him a cease and desist order and seized FRT-15 triggers,” he continued. 

    Demonico said he has a lot of experience dealing with the “corrupt and dirty practices of the ATF.” He said, “my jaw is absolutely on the floor in complete disbelief that they’re choosing to take action based on an illegitimate examination and report that was conducted by David Smith and approved by Earl Griffith at the ATF technology branch.”

    Demonico went on to say the report is full of “outright lies,” labeling the forced reset trigger as a machine gun. He pointed to a video on the Rare Breed website that demonstrates the FRT-15 trigger is not a machine gun.

    Demonico said the news of the alleged ATF memo was first put out by Gun Owners of America (GOA). He said the GOA has yet to support him but has a meeting with them, adding that since the ATF is attacking dealers, maybe the group will finally provide some assistance.

    Demonico ends the video by saying, “we’re not back down, and we’ll see this through to the end,” adding “if the ATF can simply just say the FRT-15 is a machine gun without a claim being based on actual laws in the US code — what’s to stop them from reinterpreting the AR-15 altogether is a machine gun — there’s nothing to stop them from doing that.” 

    Here’s Demonico’s full video responding to the alleged leaked ATF letter:

    Maryland-based gun advocacy group The Machine Gun Nest (TMGN) has pointed out this slippery slope numerous times. Here’s what they have to say about the latest alleged ATF memo: 

    The fact that the ATF is allowed on a whim to change the definition of a machine gun from “Any weapon which shoots, is designed to shoot, or can be readily restored to shoot, automatically more than one shot without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger” to “any device that increases the rate of fire” sets an extremely dangerous precedent.

    In this video, TMGN sums up the entire current situation happening between the ATF and Rare Breed Triggers.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 01/28/2022 – 20:40

  • Florida Trucker In Canada Convoy: "We're Here To Join A Movement"
    Florida Trucker In Canada Convoy: “We’re Here To Join A Movement”

    By Nate Tabak of Freight Waves,

    Florida-based owner-operator DeAndre Mahadeo, like other truckers who rolled past throngs of supporters just outside Toronto, got a rousing send-off on Thursday as he prepared to head to the capital, Ottawa, in a protest against COVID-19 vaccine mandates at the border.

    Hundreds of people of all ages called them heroes and even freedom fighters as 15 to 20 trucks and a few hundred passenger vehicles paraded through a mall parking lot in Vaughan. Some handed over boxes of cookies, brownies and other snacks. 

    “We’re here to join a movement,” said Mahadeo, 30, a dual U.S.-Canadian citizen who regularly moves freight in both countries. “We need to end these restrictions once and for all.”

    Trucker DeAndre Mahadeo poses for a photo as he prepares to join the Freedom Convoy. (Photo: Nate Tabak)

    Across the Toronto area, supporters on overpasses cheered on convoys as they made their way along Canada’s busiest freight routes. 

    Mahadeo is fully vaccinated against COVID-19 so the mandates at the border haven’t affected his job. He continues to move auto parts back and forth between the countries.

    But the long-haul trucker — who considers both countries his home — believes more is going on behind the vaccination requirements.

    “There is a whole lot of overreach of the government, certainly in the U.S. and Canada and around the world,” said Mahadeo, who was born in Guyana. “Governments are using this as an opportunity to gain more leverage against the people.”

    Mahadeo spoke as he inched his truck forward as his convoy prepared to join a larger one that had come from Niagara, Ontario. Multiple convoys under the auspices of the Freedom Convoy have been making their way toward Ottawa since the weekend — with the largest coming from western Canada.

    A few trucks ahead of Mahadeo, Ontario owner-operator Tom Slawinski expressed frustration at the U.S. and Canadian governments. But for the unvaccinated driver, the consequences were more immediate since he can only run domestic freight now unless he gets the shot.

    “I can’t make money,” Slawinski said. 

    The protest convoys bound for Ottawa started in response to the vaccine mandates that the U.S. and Canada imposed on cross-border drivers earlier this month. But they have emerged as a rallying point for Canadians against pandemic-related restrictions and the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau itself.

    “I tried to join groups that have done this, but it’s always just kind of fizzled out. I feel now like it’s getting momentum,” said Carolyn Carey, of Newmarket, Ontario, one of the many nontruckers in the convoy.

    Carey said she identified with the unvaccinated cross-border drivers, having been fired from her job in housekeeping at a hospital after refusing to get the shot.

    “I should be able to choose and not have to be forced to take the vaccine,” she said.

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    Adding to the anger in the crowd were comments Trudeau made on Wednesday about the convoy.

    “The small fringe minority of people who are on their way to Ottawa, who are holding unacceptable views that they are expressing, do not represent the views of Canadians,” Trudeau said.

    Many in the crowd held signs calling out the prime minister, including some that read “Truck Frudeau.”

    Organizers of the Freedom Convoy say that 50,000 trucks will converge in Ottawa. As of yet, reports from across Canada point to a smaller figure, with individual convoys numbering in the hundreds of vehicles to over 1,000, in the case of one spotted in Saskatchewan. On Wednesday, Ottawa police said they are expecting 1,000 to 2,000 protesters. 

    A GoFundMe campaign for the Freedom Convoy continues to see donations pour in. As of Thursday evening, it had raised over CA$6.3 million (US$5 million). The organizers have reportedly withdrawn CA$1 million after submitting a distribution plan to GoFundMe, which had been withholding the funds.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 01/28/2022 – 20:20

  • George Soros Pledges 'Unprecedented' $125 Million To Help Democrats Win In November
    George Soros Pledges ‘Unprecedented’ $125 Million To Help Democrats Win In November

    With President Biden’s approval rating in the gutter and Democrats increasingly concerned about their chances of holding on to Congress (as evidenced by Justice Breyer’s decision to retire), the Democratic Party is turning once again to one of its most reliable megadonors for a massive influx of campaign cash, which it will need if it wants to stave off massive Congressional losses in November, not to mention at the state level.

    Politico reports that the nonagenerian billionaire is committing $125 million – an enormous and unprecedented (even for Soros) sum – to help Democrats win as many Congressional races of possible in November, and beyond.

    It appears Soros’s top issue is voting rights, which also happens to be near the top of President Biden’s agenda as he and his Congressional allies struggle to pass a new voting rights bill.

    The group, Democracy PAC, has served as Soros’ campaign spending vehicle since 2019, channeling more than $80 million to other Democratic groups and candidates during the 2020 election cycle.

    The new, nine-figure investment from Soros is aimed at supporting pro-democracy “causes and candidates, regardless of political party” who are invested in “strengthening the infrastructure of American democracy: voting rights and civic participation, civil rights and liberties, and the rule of law,” Soros said in a statement shared first with POLITICO.

    Soros added that the donation to the super PAC is a “long-term investment,” intended to support political work beyond this year.

    Democracy PAC, the PAC tasked with doling out Soros’s millions, will be led by his son, Alexander Soros.

    The donation places Soros among only a handful of donors who have managed to hit the 9-figure level. Already, his PAC has cut two large checks: one for $2.5 million to Senate Majority PAC, and the other for $1 million to House Majority PAC.

    Of course, news of Soros’ involvement always has the chance of becoming a political liability for Democrats. Take for instance the fact that the newly elected Manhattan DA, Alvin Bragg, has essentially ordered his prosecutors to stop seeking prison sentences for most low level felonies, including armed robberies and drug dealing.

    From here on out, “carceral” sentences will be reserved for “homicides and a handful of other cases.” Soros gave Bragg’s campaign $1 million. And he also supported the previous occupant, DA Cyrus Vance Jr., who was accused of going easy on Harvey Weinstein years before the NYT got involved. In Baltimore, a DA he backed ended up indicted on perjury charges.

    It’s not just the east coast: LA has seen a sharp 36% increase in crime since Soros-backed LA County DA George Gascón.

    And let’s not forget about San Francisco’s Chesa Boudin, who has become downright infamous as nary a week goes by without some new viral video portraying some egregious example of legalized shoplifting in the City by the Bay.

    And Soros’s political interests aren’t ending at the federal level. He has also donated $1 million to the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State, a group dedicated to electing Democrats to be the chief official in charge of elections in a state. As Politico adds, once “little-known”, posts like these are drawing increasingly more attention from donors. We’ll let you, dear reader, take a guess as to why.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 01/28/2022 – 20:00

  • Censorship By Algorithm Does Far More Damage Than Conventional Censorship
    Censorship By Algorithm Does Far More Damage Than Conventional Censorship

    Authored by Caitlin Johnstone via Medium.com,

    Journalist Jonathan Cook has a new blog post out on his experience with being throttled into invisibility by Silicon Valley algorithmic suppression that will ring all too familiar for any online content creators who’ve been sufficiently critical of official western narratives over the last few years.

    “My blog posts once attracted tens of thousands of shares,” Cook writes. “Then, as the algorithms tightened, it became thousands. Now, as they throttle me further, shares can often be counted in the hundreds. ‘Going viral’ is a distant memory.”

    “I won’t be banned,” he adds. “I will fade incrementally, like a small star in the night sky — one among millions — gradually eclipsed as its neighbouring suns grow ever bigger and brighter. I will disappear from view so slowly you won’t even notice.”

    Cook says this began after the 2016 US election, which was when a major narrative push began for Silicon Valley corporations to eliminate “fake news” from their platforms and soon saw tech executives brought before the US Senate and told that they must “quell information rebellions” and come up with a mission statement expressing their commitment to “prevent the fomenting of discord” online.

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    Arguably the most significant political moment in the United States since 9/11 and its immediate aftermath was when Democrats and their allied institutions concluded that Donald Trump’s election was a failure not of establishment politics but of establishment narrative control. From that point onwards, any online media creator who consistently disputes the narratives promoted by the same news outlets who’ve lied to us about every war has seen their view counts and new follows slashed.

    By mid-2017 independent media outlets were already reporting across ideological lines that algorithm changes from important sources of viewership like Google had suddenly begun hiding their content from people who were searching for the subjects they reported on.

    “In case anyone wants to know how Facebook suppression works — I have 330,000 followers there but they’ve stopped showing my posts to many people,” Redacted Tonight host Lee Camp tweeted in January 2018.

    “I used to gain 6,000 followers a week. I now gain 500 and FB unsubscribes people without their knowledge — so my total number never increases.”

    I saw my own shares and view counts rapidly diminish in 2017 as well, and saw my new Facebook page follows suddenly slow to a virtual standstill. It wasn’t until I started using mailing lists and giving indie media outlets blanket permission to republish all my content that I was able to grow my audience at all.

    And Silicon Valley did eventually admit that it was in fact actively censoring voices who fall outside the mainstream consensus. In order to disprove the false right-wing narrative that Google only censors rightist voices, the CEO of Google’s parent company Alphabet admitted in 2020 to algorithmically throttling World Socialist Website. Last year the CEO of Google-owned YouTube acknowledged that the platform uses algorithms to elevate “authoritative sources” while suppressing “borderline content” not considered authoritative, which apparently even includes just marginally establishment-critical left-of-center voices like Kyle Kulinski. Facebook spokeswoman Lauren Svensson said in 2018 that if the platform’s fact-checkers (including the state-funded establishment narrative management firm Atlantic Council) rule that a Facebook user has been posting false news, moderators will “dramatically reduce the distribution of all of their Page-level or domain-level content on Facebook.”

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    People make a big deal any time a controversial famous person gets removed from a major social media platform, and rightly so; we cannot allow such brazen acts of censorship to become normalized. The goal is to normalize internet censorship on every front, and the powerful will push for that normalization to be expanded at every opportunity. Whether you dislike the controversial figure being deplatformed on a given day is entirely irrelevant; it’s not about them, it’s about expanding and normalizing internet censorship protocols on monopolistic government-tied speech platforms.

    But far, far more consequential than overt censorship of individuals is censorship by algorithm. No individual being silenced does as much real-world damage to free expression and free thought as the way ideas and information which aren’t authorized by the powerful are being actively hidden from public view, while material which serves the interests of the powerful is the first thing they see in their search results. It ensures that public consciousness remains chained to the establishment narrative matrix.

    It doesn’t matter that you have free speech if nobody ever hears you speak. Even in the most overtly totalitarian regimes on earth you can say whatever you want alone in a soundproof room.

    That’s the biggest loophole the so-called free democracies of the western world have found in their quest to regulate online speech. By allowing these monopolistic megacorporations to become the sources everyone goes to for information (and even actively helping them along that path as in for example Google’s research grants from the CIA and NSA), it’s possible to tweak algorithms in such a way that dissident information exists online, but nobody ever sees it.

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    You’ve probably noticed this if you’ve tried to search YouTube for videos which don’t align with the official narratives of western governments and media lately. That search function used to work like magic; like it was reading your mind. Now it’s almost impossible to find the information you’re looking for unless you’re trying to find out what the US State Department wants you to think. It’s the same with Google searches and Facebook, and because those giant platforms dictate what information gets seen by the general public, that wild information bias toward establishment narratives bleeds into other common areas of interaction like Twitter as well.

    The idea is to let most people freely share dissident ideas and information about empire, war, capitalism, authoritarianism and propaganda, but to make it increasingly difficult for them to get their content seen and heard by people, and to make their going viral altogether impossible. To avoid the loud controversies and uncomfortable public scrutiny brought on by acts of overt censorship as much as possible while silently sweeping unauthorized speech behind the curtain. To make noncompliant voices “disappear from view so slowly you won’t even notice,” as Cook put it.

    The status quo is not working. Our ecosystem is dying, we appear to be rapidly approaching a high risk of direct military confrontation between nuclear-armed nations, and our world is rife with injustice, inequality, oppression and exploitation. None of this is going to change until the public begins awakening to the problems with the current status quo so we can begin organizing a mass-scale push toward healthier systems. And that’s never going to happen as long as information is locked down in the way that it is.

    Whoever controls the narrative controls the world. And as more and more people get their information about what’s happening in the world from online sources, Silicon Valley algorithm manipulation has already become one of the most consequential forms of narrative control.

    *  *  *

    My work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following me on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud or YouTube, or throwing some money into my tip jar on Ko-fi, Patreon or Paypal. If you want to read more you can buy my books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I’ve written) in any way they like free of charge. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I’m trying to do with this platform, click here.

    Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 01/28/2022 – 19:40

  • US Asks Hungary To Host Troops Aimed At Russia, Despite Long Snubbing Orbán
    US Asks Hungary To Host Troops Aimed At Russia, Despite Long Snubbing Orbán

    It’s been revealed that the United States approached Hungary this week to ask the country to host a temporary troop deployment related to the Russia-Ukraine crisis. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto “received an American request about temporary deployment of troops” – CNN reports. 

    Hungary’s Defense Ministry is said to be discussing the formal request; however, given the tense US administration relationship with the Viktor Orbán government since Biden took office – centered on seeking to isolate the conservative prime minister known for his unapologetic ‘Hungary first’ policies – the prospect remains highly unlikely. This comes as Biden announced Friday that he’ll be sending a small number of American forces to Eastern Europe: “I’ll be moving troops to eastern Europe in the NATO countries in the near term.” He qualified in the remarks reporters at Joint Base Andrews after returning from Pittsburg that this will be “not too many” troops. 

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    A mere less than two months ago, Biden tried to humiliate Hungary’s “human rights backsliding” leader:

    On Thursday and Friday, U.S. President Joe Biden will gather leaders from over 100 countries to a virtual “Summit for Democracy.” He invited rule-of-law troublemaker Poland. He invited Serbia, despite some questionable democratic credentials. He invited every EU member but one. 

    That one was Hungary.

    CNN further reports that Romania and Bulgaria are also mulling the acceptance of additional US deployments. Both eastern European NATO countries are typically much more amenable to US security requests, and Romania already provocatively hosts coastal defense missiles on the Black Sea.

    Suddenly Washington wants something from Hungary, after seeking to isolate and humiliate Budapest…

    Viktor Orbán via Reuters

    Among the security guarantees Russia is currently seeking from Washington and Brussels is precisely that NATO forces leave Bulgaria and Romania.

    Thus when it comes to Hungary, from the point of view of officials in Budapest they are unlikely to want to see their country thrust into the middle of the tense escalating Russia vs. West standoff. 

    “The deployments would number approximately 1,000 personnel to each country and would be similar to the forward battle groups currently stationed in the Baltic States and Poland,” CNN notes of the numbers under initial discussion – though without doubt this would be ramped up in the instance of any potential Russian incursion into Ukraine. 

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    Meanwhile, in a Russian media interview FM Sergey Lavrov said Friday “If it’s up to the Russian Federation, there will be no war. We do not want wars. But we won’t allow the West to grossly ignore our interests, either,” according to Sputnik.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 01/28/2022 – 19:20

  • Durham Court Filing Reveals DOJ Inspector General Horowitz Withheld Key Evidence From Special Counsel
    Durham Court Filing Reveals DOJ Inspector General Horowitz Withheld Key Evidence From Special Counsel

    Authored by Jeff Carlson and Hans Mahncke via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

    A new court filing by special counsel John Durham reveals that Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General Michael Horowitz concealed crucial information from Durham in connection with the ongoing prosecution of Michael Sussmann, a former attorney to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign. 

    Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz testifies in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee in Washington on Dec. 11, 2019. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times)

    The filing also reveals that Horowitz failed to disclose that his office is in possession of two cellphones used by former FBI general counsel James Baker. The phones may contain information that’s important to the Sussmann case, as well as to a separate criminal leak investigation of Baker that Durham personally conducted between 2017 and 2019.

    Horowitz first came to public prominence in June 2018 when he issued a report on the FBI’s actions leading up to the 2016 presidential election. Horowitz followed up in December 2019 with another report on the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation and the bureau’s pursuit of a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant on Trump campaign aide Carter Page.

    Durham’s filing on Jan. 25 involves discovery issues surrounding Sussmann’s upcoming trial for allegedly making a materially false statement to the FBI’s then-general counsel James Baker. As part of Durham’s discovery obligations, the Special Counsel’s Office met with Horowitz and his team on Oct. 7, 2021, and subsequently requested any materials, including any “documents, records, and information” regarding Sussmann that may have been in the possession of the Office of Inspector General (OIG). 

    On Dec. 17, 2021, Horowitz’s office provided Durham with information that Sussmann had given the OIG information in early 2017, that an OIG “employee’s computer was ‘seen publicly’ in ‘Internet traffic’ and was connecting to a Virtual Private Network in a foreign country.” It isn’t clear what this information was about, why Sussmann would know about this information, or why he would have been interested in the internet activities of OIG employees. 

    It also isn’t known why Sussmann, a private citizen, would have been seeking out the OIG shortly after he was pushing information detrimental to Trump to both the FBI and the CIA. 

    At the time of the Dec. 17 disclosure, “the OIG represented to [Durham’s] team that it had “no other file or other documentation” relating to this cyber matter.” However, last week, Sussmann’s attorneys informed Durham that there was additional information, including the fact that Sussmann had met with Horowitz in March 2017 to personally pass along the information about the OIG employee’s computer VPN use. This meeting between Horowitz and Sussmann hadn’t been disclosed by Horowitz to Durham during their previous meetings and interactions.

    It isn’t known why Horowitz would have taken a personal meeting from Hillary Clinton’s campaign lawyer. According to Bill Shipley, a former federal prosecutor, “[y]ou don’t generally just call the IG and get a meeting with him personally.” It also isn’t clear why Horowitz chose not to inform Durham of the meeting—particularly as it pertained directly to information that Horowitz’s office had been specifically requested to relay to Durham’s special counsel probe.

    Sussmann’s attorneys further informed Durham that the VPN information had come from Rodney Joffe, a computer expert with close connections to the FBI. This was another material fact that hadn’t been disclosed by Horowitz. Joffe is of great import to Durham’s case against Sussmann and to the wider investigation into the origins of the Russia collusion investigation, since he was alleged to have provided Sussmann with falsified data about contacts between the Trump Organization and Russia’s Alfa Bank.

    Those alleged contacts were used by Hillary Clinton and her campaign to push the narrative that Trump was compromised by the Kremlin. Durham had noted in a previous filing that “[Joffe’s] goal was to support an ‘inference’ and ‘narrative’ regarding Trump that would please certain ‘VIPs.’” A subsequent filing by Durham noted that these VIPs were “individuals at the defendant’s [Sussmann’s] law firm and the Clinton Campaign.” Joffe also is alleged to have been offered a high-ranking position in a Clinton administration.

    The omission of information by Horowitz didn’t end with his meeting with Sussmann or the information on Joffe. Durham’s office has since discovered that the OIG “currently possesses two FBI cell phones” that belonged to Baker, the former FBI general counsel. Durham’s discovery of Horowitz’s possession of Baker’s two phones does not appear to have come through Horowitz or his office.

    According to Durham’s filing, “in early January 2022, the Special Counsel’s Office learned for the first time that the OIG currently possesses two FBI cellphones of the former FBI General Counsel.”

    Sussmann is alleged to have lied to Baker when he tried to push incriminating data about Trump and Alfa Bank to the FBI; that data later turned out to be false.

    That makes Baker, and his cellphones, central to the case against Sussmann.

    There’s also another matter that relates directly to Baker and his undisclosed phones. Baker had been the subject of a criminal leak investigation for “unauthorized disclosures to the media” that was being conducted by Durham when he was the U.S. attorney for the District of Connecticut.

    During this investigation, Durham or a member of his team reportedly questioned Baker’s credibility. That memo is currently being sought by Sussmann’s attorneys. Although it’s not known with certainty, it’s believed that the leak investigation into Baker ultimately was closed without any charges. The disclosure about Baker’s cellphones would appear to be material not only to the Sussmann case, but also to the Baker leak investigation.

    High Profile Investigations

    Horowitz was in charge of a sequence of highly influential investigations into events leading up to and following the 2016 presidential election. Horowitz examined the FBI’s investigation of Clinton’s private email server as well as the FBI’s investigation of the Trump campaign, alleged Russian collusion, and the resulting Carter Page FISA and abuse of the FISA court.

    The Clinton email investigation review resulted in a 2018 OIG report that outlined a number of failures on the part of the FBI and made recommendations such as improving the FBI’s media contact policy and clarifying guidelines on making public statements. However, certain crucial issues, such as the fact that then-FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe was supervising the investigation while his wife was running for a Virginia state Senate seat and had received large sums of campaign funding from Clinton ally Terry McAuliffe, were glossed over by Horowitz.

    The IG merely recommended that “ethics officials include the review of campaign donations for possible conflict issues when Department employees or their spouses run for public office.”

    Carter Page, petroleum industry consultant and former foreign policy adviser to Donald Trump, in New York City on Aug. 21, 2020. (Brendon Fallon/The Epoch Times)

    Horowitz’s 2018 review was followed by a deeper, more thorough investigation that resulted in the Carter Page FISA review report in 2019. Although this report detailed a litany of failures by the FBI and “at least 17 significant errors or omissions in the Page FISA applications,” the IG’s report concluded that there were valid grounds for opening the Crossfire Hurricane probe into the Trump campaign for alleged collusion with Russia. 

    Immediately following the release of the IG’s 2019 report, then-Attorney General William Barr and John Durham, the U.S. attorney who Barr appointed to run a parallel criminal investigation into the origins of the FBI’s investigation, issued statements disputing Horowitz’s conclusion regarding the opening of Crossfire Hurricane.

    Durham, who was later appointed special counsel by Barr, noted that, unlike the IG, his investigation wasn’t limited to “developing information from within component parts of the Justice Department” and included information from “other persons and entities, both in the U.S. and outside of the U.S.” Durham stated that based on the information he had collected, he advised Horowitz a few weeks before the IG’s report was made public that “we do not agree with some of the report’s conclusions as to predication and how the FBI case was opened.”

    Then-Attorney General William Barr participates in a news conference at the Department of Justice in Washington on Dec. 21, 2020. (Michael Reynolds/Pool via Reuters)

    The issue of whether the FBI’s Trump–Russia investigation was properly predicated is critical. If FBI leadership opened the investigation based on false pretenses, this would be direct evidence that the FBI’s top leadership had interfered in a presidential campaign. However, if the investigation was found to be properly predicated and legitimately opened, then the FBI’s leadership would effectively be cleared of any legal wrongdoing, and any blame for subsequent investigative failures could fall on mistakes by lower-level staff.

    Although it has never been entirely clear how or why Horowitz had determined that the information used by the FBI was sufficient to open the investigation, there had been speculation that Horowitz was hampered by the fact that an IG’s investigative reach is limited to their own department and therefore, he might have reached the wrong conclusion. But this explanation fails to account for the fact that Horowitz could have left his conclusion on the FBI’s opening of its investigation out of his report, precisely because of his limited investigative powers.

    Horowitz’s conclusion was all the more surprising, given the damning information contained within his 2019 report. It cited material failures of the FBI, including “not only the operational team, but also of the managers and supervisors, including senior officials, in the chain of command”—with regard to the FISA warrant application on Trump campaign aide Carter Page. 

    Horowitz’s findings were so significant that he recommended the FBI’s “entire chain of command” outlined in his report for “consideration of how to assess and address their performance failures.”

    During congressional testimony, Horowitz also appeared to directly contradict assertions regarding his own report’s conclusion of FBI exoneration.

    “It’s unclear what the motivations [of the FBI] were,” he noted. “On the one hand, gross incompetence, negligence? On the other hand, intentionality, and where in between? We weren’t in a position—with the evidence we had—to make that conclusion. But I’m not ruling it out.”

    New Questions

    However, the new disclosure of Horowitz’s failure to fully cooperate with Durham might raise new questions about the conclusions the IG drew in his reviews of the Clinton email investigation, the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane inquiry, and the Carter Page FISA warrant applications.

    Both of the Horowitz reports from 2018 and 2019 found significant errors on the part of the FBI, but in a manner that could be described as a “limited hangout,” his reports stopped short of formally declaring fundamental wrongdoing that would have invalidated the FBI probes—despite seemingly overwhelming evidence.

    Notably, despite the lengthy list of FBI errors and misdoings, only one individual was ultimately charged—and he received only probation, despite having fabricated evidence that allowed the Page FISA to go forward.

    Media organizations echoed the report’s 2019 conclusion with headlines such as “Justice Department watchdog finds Trump-Russia probe was not tainted by political bias” or “Report sharply criticizes FBI but finds no partisan bias in Russia probe.”

    To this day, there has been no resolution of Horowitz’s questionable finding that the Trump–Russia collusion investigation was properly predicated. Horowitz claimed that the investigation began because of a tip from the Australian ambassador in London that a Trump aide, George Papadopoulos, had made a “suggestion of a suggestion” that Russia might be able to help Trump get elected.

    At the time the tip was made, July 26, 2016, the author of a dossier on Trump, former MI6 agent Christopher Steele had already shared early dossier reports with his FBI handler, Michael Gaeta, who noted that those reports were already circulating within the FBI and at a “high level in our nation’s capital.” 

    The FBI’s investigation also immediately targeted Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, as well as Page, even though Papadopoulos had never mentioned either of the two. A few days later, the investigation added retired Gen. Michael Flynn—at that point an adviser to the Trump campaign—to its list of targets, again without Papadopoulos having ever mentioned Flynn. 

    It has long been suspected that the FBI’s Trump–Russia investigation had been underway for some time before it was formally opened on July 31, 2016. And we know that the FBI had previously opened a counterintelligence investigation into Carter Page months earlier, on April 6, 2016, immediately after his appointment to the Trump team was announced. The tip from the Australian ambassador appears to have been a convenient excuse to formalize the investigation, rather than to cause its inception. 

    Based on the limited information that can be gleaned from Durham’s latest filing, it isn’t yet clear what connection, if any, exists between Horowitz’s early contact with Clinton campaign lawyer Sussmann, and his subsequent findings on the Clinton email investigation, the larger Trump–Russia investigation, and the Page FISA application.

    Sussmann’s defense will no doubt use this latest revelation to cast doubt on Durham’s investigation. It appears his attorneys already are attempting to cast doubt on Baker’s character as a witness. 

    For Durham, the issue goes far beyond his investigation of Sussmann. It was already known that Durham was threading a political needle between pursuing his investigation and keeping the heads of the Justice Department at bay.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 01/28/2022 – 19:00

  • Russia-Ukraine War Would Be "Horrific", Civilians "Will Suffer Immensely": Pentagon
    Russia-Ukraine War Would Be “Horrific”, Civilians “Will Suffer Immensely”: Pentagon

    In a Friday briefing on the Russia-Ukraine situation, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Russia’s military build-up near Ukraine’ border is “larger in scale and scope than we have seen in recent memory” and that there’s been nothing like it since the Cold war. Austin said of Putin that he “clearly now has that capability” to invade Ukraine.

    However, this contradicts Ukrainian defense leaders’ own assessment. The head of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov told a foreign correspondent that “As of today, a full-scale invasion with the resources they have on our borders will be insufficient.”

    While standing alongside Joint Chiefs chairman Mark Milley, Secretary Austin still admitted it’s as yet unclear if Putin intends to order an invasion. Milley, for his part, was blunt in terms of what a full-scale war would mean: “the civilian population [of Ukraine] will suffer immensely” if war breaks out there, he said. 

    DoD file Image

    Gen. Milley for the first time gave a realist Pentagon view of what war would actually mean: 

    “If that was unleashed on Ukraine, it would be significant, very significant, and it would result in a significant amount of casualties,” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley said.

    “And you can imagine what that might look like in dense urban areas, along roads and so on and so forth. It would be horrific, it will be terrible.”

    The remarks are significant given the two top American generals have been quiet over the past week of bellicose statements and predictions coming from the White House. For example, both Jen Psaki and Antony Blinken have been using the sensational word “imminent” to describe the “Russian invasion threat”. In a Thursday phone call, Ukraine’s President Zelensky himself had to tell Biden to calm down the dangerous rhetoric. 

    The generals also took the opportunity to warn Russia, saying it too will suffer greatly duee to any aggression: 

    “If Russia chooses to invade Ukraine it will not be cost-free, in terms of casualties or other significant effects.”

    …However, they stressed, the United States was prepared to send troops to reinforce and protect NATO allies in eastern Europe that faced a potential threat from a Russian attack on Ukraine, which is not part of the Atlantic alliance.

    “An attack on one NATO ally is an attack against all,” Milley warned.

    …Though it’s hard to know exactly what’s meant by this, given Ukraine is not a NATO member and does not enjoy the benefits of the Article 5 collective defense treaty.

    Earlier on Friday, Zelensky in televised remarks said “we do see” the 100,000 Russian troops across the border (albeit still on Russia’s own sovereign territory) – “If it happens, it will be open war. A horrible war, and we understand these things.” But he also expressed hope that a diplomatic resolution remains, saying that Russia can take steps to clearly confirm it does not plan to attack Ukraine.

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    Crucially the Ukrainian president also said he’s ready to meet Putin “in any format” to discuss the Donbas standoff:

    Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has said that he is prepared for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in any format.

    “I do wish to have such a meeting. I am not afraid of any format, bilateral (with the Russian president – TASS) or whatever. It does not matter. I am ready,” he told a news conference attended by foreign mass media, telecast on the Ukraine-24 television channel.

    Statements in Russian media indicate that urgent communications may be taking place on this. Such a meeting, if it materializes, would without doubt indicate that there will be no Russia-Ukraine war anytime in the near future. 

    As for other comments of US Defense Secretary Austin, he appears to be in agreement that there’s a diplomatic way forward. “Conflict is not inevitable. There is still time and space for diplomacy,” he asserted.

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    “Mr. Putin can do the right thing as well,” Austin added. “There is no reason that this situation has to devolve into conflict. He can choose to de-escalate. He can order his troops away.”

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 01/28/2022 – 18:40

  • Lax Prosecution Contributing To LA Cargo Theft Surge, Experts Say
    Lax Prosecution Contributing To LA Cargo Theft Surge, Experts Say

    By Cara Ding of The Epoch Times,

    In recent weeks, national attention became focused on photos and videos showing Union Pacific rail tracks littered with discarded cartons and boxes following organized looting just east of downtown Los Angeles.

    Many of the packages that hadn’t been stolen or damaged would head toward Chicago or Canada before they finally reach the doorsteps of their recipients, including one that contained a picture of a family dressed in festive attire.

    Many factors are said to be behind the cargo theft surge in Los Angeles, including the supply chain bottleneck that causes trains to pause longer on tracks, a lack of Union Pacific special agents patrolling along the tracks, the presence of homeless encampments near rail lines, and—according to several experts who spoke with The Epoch Times—the lax prosecution policies under Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón.

    Between October and December of 2021, Union Pacific special agents and other law enforcement agencies made at least 100 arrests along the tracks in Los Angeles, according to a company statement.

    The Union Pacific Police Department has primary jurisdiction over crimes committed on the company’s rail tracks.

    Its special agents have arresting powers and work with local law enforcement agencies, such as the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, and California Highway Patrol.

    Shredded boxes, packages, and debris are strewn along at a section of the Union Pacific train tracks in downtown Los Angeles on Jan. 14, 2022.

    Police can arrest people on tracks for trespassing, but not theft, often due to lack of evidence.

    “Theft is hard to prove unless you actually catch them in the act,” John Jay College of Criminal Justice adjunct professor Joseph Giacalone, a retired detective sergeant, told The Epoch Times. “If you did not catch them in the act, they say, ‘Well, I found this on the street.’ How do you prove or disprove that?”

    However, trespassing is one misdemeanor that Gascón has ordered his office to no longer prosecute.

    On Dec. 7, 2020, his first day in office, Gascón told his staff to stop prosecuting a group of misdemeanors including trespassing, disturbing the peace, loitering, being under the influence of a controlled substance, and resisting arrest.

    While each district attorney has the discretion to deviate from Gascón’s new policy, they must consult with a supervisor, document their reasoning in writing, and record the supervisor’s determination in the case file.

    Most of the 100 arrests made by Union Pacific and other agencies during the past three months didn’t go anywhere. Fewer than half of those arrested were booked, according to a Union Pacific spokesperson.

    “Gascón’s misdemeanor policy does not permit prosecutors to file trespass or loitering in most situations,” Kathleen Cady, a former Los Angeles prosecutor, told The Epoch Times. “Without these tools, criminals can trespass, loiter, steal, get arrested, get released, and repeat over and over again.”

    Giacalone thinks Gascón’s policy invites more people to commit crimes.

    “The problem that comes into this now is that people who would normally not partake in this type of behavior look at it and say, ‘There is really no risk to this. If I get caught, I’m just going to get let go. No big deal,’” he said.

    In 2021, Gascón’s office received only 47 cases from law enforcement in which Union Pacific was a victim. That number was 56 in 2020, according to the office.

    Contract workers Adam Rodriguez (C) and Luis Rosas pick up vehicle tires from among the shredded boxes and packages along a section of the Union Pacific train tracks in downtown Los Angeles on Jan. 14, 2022. (Ringo H.W. Chiu/AP Photo)

    However, in 2021, Union Pacific saw a 160 percent increase in criminal rail theft in Los Angeles County compared to 2020, according to a company statement.

    John Jay College of Criminal Justice emerita professor Dorothy Schulz thinks that one of the reasons behind the drop in the number of cases brought to prosecutors in 2021 was a demoralized police force.

    “When prosecutors just won’t prosecute, after a while it becomes not sensible for police to continue to bring those cases to them,” Schulz told The Epoch Times.

    Out of the 47 cases, 27 were charged by Gascón’s office, including both felonies and misdemeanor offenses alleging burglary, theft, and receiving stolen property.

    Ten cases were declined for filing because of a lack of evidence.

    Another 10 were declined because Gascón’s office deemed the alleged offenses unfit for prosecution, such as a homeless person being within 20 feet of the tracks and simple possession of drugs for personal use, according to Gascón’s office.

    The Epoch Times reached out to Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office for comment, but didn’t receive a reply by press time.

    In a public letter to Union Pacific, Gascón said the railroad company had done a poor job of securing containers and had lowered the number of agents patrolling the area in 2021.

    “We can ensure that appropriate cases are filed and prosecuted; however, my office is not tasked with keeping your sites secure and the District Attorney alone cannot solve the major issues facing your organization,” Gascón said.

    Union Pacific just transferred more special agents to the Los Angeles tracks, according to an email to The Epoch Times. The company also added drones, fencing, and trespass detection systems.

    California Gov. Gavin Newson plans to send $255 million to local law enforcement agencies to hire more officers to combat theft-related crimes, as part of his Real Public Safety Plan.

    Tyler Durden
    Fri, 01/28/2022 – 18:20

  • "Pulling The Plug": After Multiple Recalls, GM May Be On The Verge Of Ending Production Of Its Chevy Bolt
    “Pulling The Plug”: After Multiple Recalls, GM May Be On The Verge Of Ending Production Of Its Chevy Bolt

    After numerous recalls and the ensuing bad press that comes with them, it looks like General Motors could be set to literally “pull the plug” on its Chevy Bolt EV. 

    “GM announced a $35 billion investment in EVs by 2025, including $4 billion to build electric versions of its best-selling pickups,” CNN reported this week. Worth noting is that GM is planning to build those models at its plant in Orion Township, Michigan, the report says.

    That plant is currently the home to the GM Bolt and its cousin, the Bolt EUV. The company didn’t make any new announcement as to where, if anywhere, Bolt production would continue.

    GM spokesperson Dan Flores gave a statement this week that didn’t drip with optimism about the Bolt, either: “Production of the Chevrolet Bolt EV and EUV will continue during the plant’s conversion activities to prepare the facility for production of the Silverado EV and Sierra EV pickups. We are not disclosing any additional information at this time about Bolt EV or Bolt EUV production.”

      Recall, in September, we noted that after two recalls about fires, GM had finally resorted to telling Bolt owner just not to park their car within 50 feet of another car.

      Flores, who we we’re sure wasn’t getting paid enough to deliver this line with a straight face, said in Fall 2021: “In an effort to reduce potential damage to structures and nearby vehicles in the rare event of a potential fire, we recommend parking on the top floor or on an open-air deck and park 50 feet or more away from another vehicle. Additionally, we still request you do not leave your vehicle charging unattended, even if you are using a charging station in a parking deck.”

      “We are aware of 12 GM confirmed battery fires that have been investigated involving Bolt EVs vehicles in the previous and new recall population,” he continued, telling The Detroit News. “We’re still working with LG around the clock to resolve the issue. Both companies understand the urgency to move as quickly as possible, but, again, the most important thing here is we have to get this right.”

      Recall, back in July 2021, General Motors issued their second recall for the Chevy Bolt after it announced that two Bolts had caught fire without impact and that at least one of the two was related to the battery and happened despite the owner getting a fix from a previous recall.

      The second recall included all Bolt EVs from 2017 to 2019, encompassing 68,000 vehicles. 50,925 of those vehicles were located in the U.S. and they have batteries that are produced at LG Chem’s Ochang, South Korea, facility, the report notes.

      A spokesman for GM said last summer: “As part of GM’s commitment to safety, experts from GM and LG have identified the simultaneous presence of two rare manufacturing defects in the same battery cell as the root cause of battery fires in certain Chevrolet Bolt EVs. As part of this recall, GM will replace defective battery modules in the recall population. We will notify customers when replacement parts are ready.” 

      GM may have finally figured out that one way to stop the fires is to stop producing the vehicle that keeps combusting…

      Tyler Durden
      Fri, 01/28/2022 – 18:00

    • War On Cash: The Digital Dollar
      War On Cash: The Digital Dollar

      Via SchiffGold.com,

      Last week, the Federal Reserve released a “discussion paper” examing the pros and cons of a potential US central bank digital dollar. According to the Federal Reserve press release, the central bank hopes to get public feedback on the idea.

      “We look forward to engaging with the public, elected representatives, and a broad range of stakeholders as we examine the positives and negatives of a central bank digital currency in the United States,” Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell said.

      Government-issued digital currencies are sold on their promise of convenience and security. But there is a darker side – the promise of control.

      Digital dollars would be similar to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. They would exist as virtual banknotes or coins held in a digital wallet on your computer or smartphone. The difference between a government digital currency and bitcoin is the value of the digital currency is backed and controlled by the state, just like traditional fiat currency.

      The digital dollar could ultimately replace physical cash. Proponents tout its convenience and security. A Business Insider article gushed over the idea.

      A Fed-backed digital dollar would then provide many of the benefits touted by cryptocurrencies without their wild price swings and usage fees. In theory, a CBDC would meld the best aspects of physical and digital currencies for the average American.”

      Last year, China launched a digital yuan pilot program. The Chinese government-backed digital currency got a boost when the country’s biggest online retailer announced the first virtual platform to accept the Chinese digital currency. China isn’t the only government exploring the possibility of digital money. Sweden has developed a digital currency of its own. The European Central Bank is pushing for a digital euro. And Russian central bank governor Elvira Nabiullina told CNBC that digital currency is “the future of our financial system.”

      Ultimately, it would take a congressional act to establish a digital dollar as legal tender.

      US officials toyed with the possibility of a digital dollar at the height of the pandemic. A Democratic proposal for stimulus payments in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic featured digital currency deposited into digital wallets.

      Government digital currency is sold to the public as a safe and convenient alternative to physical cash. We’re also told it will help stop dangerous criminals who like the intractability of cash.

      But at the root of the move toward government digital currency is “the war on cash.” Fundamentally, it’s about control.

      The elimination of cash creates the potential for the government to track and even control consumer spending, and it would make it even easier for central banks to engage in manipulative monetary policy such as negative interest rates.

      Imagine if there was no cash. It would be impossible to hide even the smallest transaction from government eyes. Something as simple as your morning trip to Starbucks wouldn’t be a secret from government officials. As Bloomberg put it in an article published when China launched its digital yuan pilot program, digital currency “offers China’s authorities a degree of control never possible with physical money.”

      The government could even “turn off” an individual’s ability to make purchases. Bloomberg describes just how much control a digital currency could give Chinese officials.

      The PBOC has also indicated that it could put limits on the sizes of some transactions, or even require an appointment to make large ones. Some observers wonder whether payments could be linked to the emerging social-credit system, wherein citizens with exemplary behavior are ‘whitelisted’ for privileges, while those with criminal and other infractions find themselves left out. ‘China’s goal is not to make payments more convenient but to replace cash, so it can keep closer tabs on people than it already does,’ argues Aaron Brown, a crypto investor who writes for Bloomberg Opinion.”

      Economist Thorsten Polleit outlined the potential for Big Brother-like government control with the advent of a digital euro in an article published by the Mises Wire. As he put it, “the path to becoming a surveillance state regime will accelerate considerably” if and when a digital currency is issued.

      Governments around the world have quietly waged a war on cash for years. Back in 2017, the IMF published a creepy paper offering governments suggestions on how to move toward a cashless society even in the face of strong public opposition.

      As with most things the government does, you should be wary of the digital dollar. It has a dark side you can be sure the mainstream will mostly ignore.

      Tyler Durden
      Fri, 01/28/2022 – 17:40

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