Aug 02

Today’s News 2nd August 2018

  • Terror Charges Dropped Against British Ex-Soldier Who Fought In Syria

    As the war in Syria is showing signs that it could be winding down, more “foreign fighters” from Europe and the West are returning to their home countries, most especially jihadists who are in some instances (though notably not all) being charged and tried upon their return for violating anti-terror laws.

    But the more interesting “hard” cases are currently playing out in UK courtrooms as more and more “volunteers” for the Syrian Kurdish YPG (or Kurdish “People’s Protection Units”) are also returning home.

    And though in the instance of the secular Kurdish armed movement which currently holds up to 20% of Syrian territory in the north and east of the country American, British and French troops are actually directly supporting the YPG (which is the core component of the US-backed SDF), still — British men and women previously embedded with the group face arrest and trial upon their return on terrorism related charges, as demonstrated this week in the case of a British ex-soldier.  

    James Matthews, from east London, was charged with receiving training in Iraq and Syria on or before February 2016 “for purposes connected to the commission of preparation of terrorism.” He was set to face trial in November. The 43-year-old is the first person to face prosecution for terrorism in the UK for volunteering with a group already helped by the British and American governments.

    As Al-Masdar News reports, James Matthews pleaded not guilty to terror-related charges at a London court and has had the charges against him dropped, The Guardian revealed of the proceedings on Tuesday.

    Prosecutor Tom Little QC told the Old Bailey that the Crown Court was dropping the charges against Mr. Matthews as they believed there wasn’t a realistic chance of getting a conviction due to a lack of evidence.

    The defendant, from East London, volunteered with Kurdish forces to battle ISIS terrorists in Syria, and was surprised to be accused of “attending terrorist training camps in the war-torn state” upon his return to the UK.

    Speaking on his behalf, his lawyer insisted that they always said the allegations against Mr. Matthews were “extraordinary and totally unjustified,” but described his client as happy the charges had been dropped.

    When the charges were first announced it sparked anger from different segments of the UK, with pro-Kurdish activists accusing the government of letting returning ISIS and other jihadist terrorists off the hook while seeking to prosecute YPG volunteers. NATO ally Turkey considers the YPG a terrorist group and likely lobbied the UK to pursue arrests of returning volunteers.

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

    James Matthews isn’t the only Briton to have smuggled himself to Syria to engage in the conflict, with dozens of others also doing so, and at least seven being killed there.

    The Foreign Office continues to urge British nationals to avoid Syria and hasn’t provided specific details about the number of Brits embedded in Kurdish forces there, saying “As all UK consular services are suspended in Syria, it is extremely difficult to confirm the whereabouts and status of British nationals in the country.”

    The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have been significantly propped up by foreign fighters over the course of the conflict, primarily fighting ISIS, but some also elected to battle Turkey-backed forces which attacked Afrin earlier this year.

  • NATO: Time To Re-Examine An Alliance

    Authored by Conn Hallinan via Dispatches From The Edge blog,

    The outcome of the July11-12 NATO meeting in Brussels got lost amid the media’s obsession with President Donald Trump’s bombast, but the “Summit Declaration” makes for sober reading. The media reported that the 28-page document “upgraded military readiness,” and was “harshly critical of Russia,” but there was not much detail beyond that.

    But details matter, because that is where the Devil hides.

    One such detail is NATO’s “Readiness Initiative” that will beef up naval, air and ground forces in “the eastern portion of the Alliance.” NATO is moving to base troops in Latvia, Estonia Lithuania, the Czech Republic and Poland. Since Georgia and Ukraine have been invited to join the Alliance, some of those forces could end up deployed on Moscow’s western and southern borders.

    And that should give us pause.

    A recent European Leadership’s Network’s (ELN) study titled “Envisioning a Russia-NATO Conflict” concludes, “The current Russia-NATO deterrence relationship is unstable and dangerously so.” The ELN is an independent think tank of military, diplomatic and political leaders that fosters “collaborative” solutions to defense and security issues.

    High on the study’s list of dangers is “inadvertent conflict,” which ELN concludes “may be the most likely scenario for a breakout” of hostilities. “The close proximity of Russian and NATO forces” is a major concern, argues the study, “but also the fact that Russia and NATO have been adapting their military postures towards early reaction, thus making rapid escalation more likely to happen.”

    With armed forces nose-to-nose, “a passage from crisis to conflict might be sparked by the actions of regional commanders or military commanders at local levels or come as a consequence of an unexpected incident or accident.” According to the European Leadership Council, there have been more than 60 such incidents in the last year.

    The NATO document is, indeed, hard on Russia, which it blasts for the “illegal and illegitimate annexation of Crimea,” its “provocative military activities, including near NATO borders,” and its “significant investments in the modernization of its strategic [nuclear] forces.”

    Unpacking all that requires a little history, not the media’s strong suit.

    The story goes back more than three decades to the fall of the Berlin Wall and eventual re-unification of Germany. At the time, the Soviet Union had some 380,000 troops in what was then the German Democratic Republic. Those forces were there as part of the treaty ending World War II, and the Soviets were concerned that removing them could end up threatening the USSR’s borders. The Russians have been invaded—at terrible cost—three times in a little more than a century.

    So West German Chancellor Helmet Kohl, U.S. Secretary of State James Baker, and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev cut a deal. The Soviets agreed to withdraw troops from Eastern Europe as long as NATO did not fill the vacuum, or recruit members of the Soviet-dominated Warsaw Pact. Baker promised Gorbachev that NATO would not move “one inch east.”

    The agreement was never written down, but it was followed in practice. NATO stayed west of the Oder and Neisse rivers, and Soviet troops returned to Russia. The Warsaw Pact was dissolved in 1991.

    But President Bill Clinton blew that all up in 1999 when the U.S. and NATO intervened in the civil war between Serbs and Albanians over the Serbian province of Kosovo. Behind the new American doctrine of “responsibility to protect,” NATO opened a massive 11-week bombing campaign against Serbia.

    From Moscow’s point of view the war was unnecessary. The Serbs were willing to withdraw their troops and restore Kosovo’s autonomous status. But NATO demanded a large occupation force that would be immune from Serbian law, something the nationalist-minded Serbs would never agree to. It was virtually the same provocative language the Austrian-Hungarian Empire had presented to the Serbs in 1914, language that set off World War I.

    In the end, NATO lopped off part of Serbia to create Kosovo and re-drew the post World War II map of Europe, exactly what the Alliance charges that Russia has done with its seizure of the Crimea.

    But NATO did not stop there. In 1999 the Alliance recruited former Warsaw Pact members Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic, adding Bulgaria and Romania four years later. By the end of 2004, Moscow was confronted with NATO in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia to the north, Poland to the west, and Bulgaria and Turkey to the south. Since then, the Alliance has added Slovakia, Slovenia, Albania, Croatia, and Montenegro. It has invited Georgia, Ukraine, Macedonia and Bosnia and Herzegovina to apply as well.

    When the NATO document chastises Russia for “provocative” military activities near the NATO border, it is referring to maneuvers within its own border or one of its few allies, Belarus.

    As author and foreign policy analyst Anatol Lieven points out, “Even a child” can look at a 1988 map of Europe and see “which side has advanced in which direction.”

    NATO also accuses Russia of “continuing a military buildup in Crimea,” without a hint that those actions might be in response to what the Alliance document calls its “substantial increase in NATO’s presence and maritime activity in the Black Sea.” Russia’s largest naval port on the Black Sea is Sevastopol in the Crimea.

    One does not expect even-handedness in such a document, but there are disconnects in this one that are worrisome.

    Yes, the Russians are modernizing their nuclear forces, but the Obama administration was first out of that gate in 2009 with its $1.5 trillion program to upgrade the U.S.’s nuclear weapons systems. Both programs are a bad idea.

    Some of the document’s language about Russia is aimed at loosening purse strings at home. NATO members agreed to cough up more money, but that decision preceded Trump’s Brussels tantrum on spending.

    There is some wishful thinking on Afghanistan—“Our Resolute Support Mission is achieving success”—when in fact things have seldom been worse. There are vague references to the Middle East and North Africa, nothing specific, but a reminder that NATO is no longer confining its mission to what it was supposedly set up to do: Keep the Americans in, the Russians out, and the Germans down.

    The Americans are still in – one should take Trump’s threat of withdrawal with a boulder size piece of salt – there is no serious evidence the Russians ever planned to come in, and the Germans have been up since they joined NATO in 1955. Indeed, it was the addition of Germany that sparked the formation of the Warsaw Pact.

    While Moscow is depicted as an aggressive adversary, NATO surrounds Russia on three sides, has deployed anti-missile systems in Poland, Romania, Spain, Turkey, and the Black Sea, and has a 12 to 1 advantage in military spending. With opposing forces now toe-to-toe, it would not take much to set off a chain reaction that could end in a nuclear exchange.

    Yet instead of inviting a dialogue, the document boasts that the Alliance has “suspended all practical civilian and military cooperation between NATO and Russia.”

    The solution seems obvious.

    First, a return to the 1998 military deployment. While it is unlikely that former members of the Warsaw Pact would drop their NATO membership, a withdrawal of non-national troops from NATO members that border Russia would cool things off. Second, the removal of anti-missile systems that should never have been deployed in the first place. In turn, Russia could remove the middle range Iskander missiles NATO is complaining about and agree to talks aimed at reducing nuclear stockpiles.

    But long range, it is finally time to re-think alliances. NATO was a child of the Cold War, when the West believed that the Soviets were a threat. But Russia today is not the Soviet Union, and there is no way Moscow would be stupid enough to attack a superior military force. It is time NATO went the way of the Warsaw Pact and recognize that the old ways of thinking are not only outdated but also dangerous.

  • Meet China's "Secret" Space Control Listening Base In Argentina Now Alarming US Officials

    A recent New York Times piece has sounded the alarm over what Washington perceives as China’s “expanding reach into Latin America,” related to a space mission control center located in the heart of the Patagonia region of Argentina.   

    It begins with an eerily beautiful description of an imposing structure, guarded by Chinese military personnel, unexpectedly rising out of Patagonian desert:

    The giant antenna rises from the desert floor like an apparition, a gleaming metal tower jutting 16 stories above an endless wind-whipped stretch of Patagonia. The 450-ton device, with its hulking dish embracing the open skies, is the centerpiece of a $50 million satellite and space mission control station built by the Chinese military. The station began operating in March, playing a pivotal role in China’s audacious expedition to the far side of the moon — an endeavor that Argentine officials say they are elated to support.

    Via The New York Times

    The underlying perspective of the New York Times report over what is otherwise ostensibly a peaceful Argentine-Chinese space communications partnership is presented bluntly in the third stanza: “The isolated base is one of the most striking symbols of Beijing’s long push to transform Latin America and shape its future for generations to come — often in ways that directly undermine the United States’ political, economic and strategic power in the region.”

    For Washington strategists the Chinese military-constructed “deep space research” communications base, defined visually by the massive antenna that juts out of the otherwise small facility in an isolated country area of Neuquen province, represents China’s growing ability to sow deep economic inroads and expanding political influence in Latin America via secretive negotiations. 

    The NYT notes “concerns” over Chinese tech infrastructure being established as part of an extension to China’s global Belt and Road initiative:

    But the way the base was negotiated — in secret, at a time when Argentina desperately needed investment — and concerns that it could enhance China’s intelligence-gathering capabilities in the Western Hemisphere have set off a debate in Argentina about the risks and benefits of being pulled into China’s orbit.

    Base construction moved forward after a 50-year contract for was negotiated between the government of Argentina’s former President Christina Fernandez de Kirchner (2007-2015) and the administration of Chinese President Xi Jinping, and approved by Argentinian parliament in February 2015. It finally went online in March of 2018.

    A 2017 handout picture provided by local authorities shows the Chinese space station in Neuquen, Argentina. Reports say Chinese military personnel provide security around the base. Via Agencia EFE

    The NYT charts China’s significant economic inroads into both Argentina and Latin America in general, starting with the fact that China eclipsed the United States as South America and the Caribbean’s top trading partner starting in 2015, topping $244 billion last year, over twice that of a decade earlier. 

    This, the Times says, is what allowed China to make deep trade, infrastructure, and military inroads into Latin America at a time when both the Obama and Trump administrations focused their attention elsewhere in the globe, for example, on China’s expanding trade corridor in central Asia.

    And more specifically, the secret negotiations for the space control station with Argentina’s president occurred at a time when the country and its neighbors were desperate to secure external loans and in some cases urgent bail outs:

    Perhaps more significantly, China has issued tens of billions of dollars in commodities-backed loans across the Americas, giving it claim over a large share of the region’s oil — including nearly 90 percent of Ecuador’s reserves — for years.

    China has also made itself indispensable by rescuing embattled governments and vital state-controlled companies in countries like Venezuela and Brazil, willing to make big bets to secure its place in the region.

    Here in Argentina, a nation that had been shut out of international credit markets for defaulting on about $100 billion in bonds, China became a godsend for then-President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

    At the very moment China “was extending a helping hand” it then “began the secret negotiations that led to the satellite and space control station here in Patagonia”. 

    The NYT goes on the cite a number of Washington defense officials and analysts who present an alarmist scenario of what’s described as China’s discreet and “far-reaching plans” to hitch “the fate of several countries in the region to its own” in order to feed its “voracious appetite for the region’s oil, iron, soybeans and copper” — all the while surreptitiously laying down security and intelligence infrastructure. 

    An arms control official under the Obama administration, Frank A. Rose, told the Times, “They are deploying these capabilities to blunt American military advantages, which are in many ways derived from space,” which he identifies as sophisticated jamming techniques that could “disrupt and destroy satellites” — though without citing specific examples of such aggressive acts happening. 

    And further, the Times describes the potential ulterior capabilities and uses of the 450-ton Chinese antenna and space communications station: 

    Antennas and other equipment that support space missions, like the kind China now has here in Patagonia, can increase China’s intelligence-gathering capabilities, experts say.

    “A giant antenna is like a giant vacuum cleaner,” said Dean Cheng, a former congressional investigator who studies China’s national security policy. “What you are sucking up is signals, data, all sorts of things.”

    Lt. Col. Christopher Logan, a Pentagon spokesman, said American military officials were assessing the implications of the Chinese monitoring station. Chinese officials declined requests for interviews about the base and their space program.

    Though certainly worrisome that Americans’ telecommunications data could be swept up by such a Chinese space listening post, it could simply be that China first and foremost seeks trade as well as tech partners throughout the world to allay the massive costs that come which such endeavors as space exploration (like most any other advanced industrial power today).

    But then again as we’ve reported with increased frequency over the past year, China’s rapid military and advanced telecommunications and weapons modernization —  undergirded by a burgeoning defense budget (it recently unveiled its largest in three years) – has been nothing short of remarkable, and is set to challenge the West on several fronts.

    Perhaps, in what would be a nightmare scenario for Western officials who’ve been caught off guard, China has indeed already staked out a new massive intelligence-collecting outpost south of America’s border under the guise of space exploration. 

  • Conservatives Banned From Social Media? Here's What They Can Do About It

    Authored by Brandon Smith via Alt-Market.com,

    The past two years have seen a rather aggressive change in corporate policies toward the very customers they used to covet. Not long ago, CEOs tended to keep their political views mostly in the closet. Companies remained publicly neutral because their goal was first and foremost to make money. When they wanted to influence politics or social norms, they bought politicians – you know, the good old-fashioned way. The big banks still do this by funneling cash to both Republicans and Democrats alike.

    However, in the wake of the social justice cult frenzy some companies have decided that ideology is more important than profit, and most of these companies are deeply involved in various forms of media.

    Some people will argue that the media has always been leftist in its orientation and that this trend is nothing new. But, I think it is clear to anyone who has worked in countering mainstream media disinformation that something is very different today. Conservatives are being “cleansed” from participation in these communications platforms, and conservative ideals are being erased or misrepresented on a massive scale. Not long ago, media companies at least pretended to be “fair and balanced” by tolerating a certain level of participation by conservatives. No longer.

    With the advent of the internet and social media, participation in political discussion has become more open to the common citizen than ever before. This is apparently an intolerable side effect that corporate elites would like to do away with.

    It is a slightly complex problem, so I’ll try to break it down point by point:

    First, companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter are not honest in the presentation of their own image. They initially depicted themselves as bastions of social commerce without any interest in ideological battles. If they had come right out in the open from the beginning and admitted they are running their platforms based on social justice lunacy, then perhaps conservatives would not have bothered to join in the first place. Then Facebook and others could keep their forums “ideologically pure” without misleading people.

    Second, while these companies do have standards of behavior and rules for participants, the rules are deliberately broad and vaporous. They claim their rules focus on more abhorrent behaviors like overt racism, but then go on to define almost EVERYTHING that they disagree with as “racist.” This includes most conservative viewpoints and arguments. Therefore, it appears that social media corporations want to fool as many people as possible into joining their platforms, getting them addicted to participation, and then these companies want to have the option of controlling those people’s behavior through the fear of losing access.

    Third, while this is clearly ideological zealotry, social media websites are also private property.  They are not “free speech zones”. They can invite people in, and they can demand people leave anytime they wish. If conservatives are going to argue in favor of private property rights and voluntary participation rights, then they must include private websites in this.

    So then, what is the solution?

    Some will claim that social media giants represent a public utility rather than private property and that they should be subjected to regulation by government in terms of political discrimination. I disagree.

    Giving government EVEN MORE intrusive powers into how businesses function from day to day is not the answer. Allowing government to indiscriminately label a business or website a “public utility” is essentially nationalization of private property; something very common in communist countries but a habit that should be avoided in America. We need less government and less bureaucracy, not more, and conservatives need to remember that while leftists present a constant annoyance, it is big government that remains the ultimate threat to individual freedom.

    They may start with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc., but where does it stop?  How long before government is enforcing participation rules on all websites?  How long before conservative websites are required to allow leftist trolls and disinformation agents of every stripe the freedom to rampage through their forums without any recourse to remove them?  How long before government shifts over to the other side of the aisle and conservatives start kicking themselves for passing laws that are then used against them?

    That said, there are some issues with corporations in general that need to be addressed when considering this conundrum. For example, many corporations are not normal businesses in the free market sense. Corporations only exist because of government charter and protections like limited liability. This is where many hardcore Anarcho-capitalists I have dealt with in the past tend to go wrong in their rabid defense of corporations and monopolies. The reality is that corporations are a product of government and are not a natural function of free markets.

    Facebook has received considerable government aid. For years Facebook has been offered special tax breaks to the extent that in some cases they have avoided taxes to the IRS altogether. Show me how many small-business owners get that kind of treatment from the government!

    Facebook has also allowed intrusive data mining operations including government operations and corporate operations to spy on its users and has so far suffered little consequences beyond a slap on the wrist. Facebook has even maintained partnerships with foreign entities considered national security threats to the U.S.

    This does not mean that companies like Facebook should be nationalized and turned into public utilities in a socialist free-for-all. But it does mean that corporations should not exist in the form they do today if we are to ever find balance.

    I would first advocate for the end of the legal protections afforded under “corporate personhood.”  When a company like Facebook is sued or prosecuted for its trespasses and criminality, the company itself is treated as if it is a legal person. Mark Zuckerberg and his ilk are not punished: the company is punished.  This usually ends in fines which amount to nothing more than pocket change.

    Under Adam Smith’s model of free markets, corporations (or joint stock companies as they were called in his day), were not acceptable. As mentioned, they are not a function of free markets. Partnerships are, though. Reducing corporations down to partnerships and removing corporate welfare and government protections would go a long way in solving the dangers of business elites and their control of entire swaths of public communication (among many other sectors).

    This is why I am also a proponent of the breakup of corporate monopolies. If a corporation, unfairly aided by government in numerous ways, becomes so large and influential that free market competition with that company is impossible, then it should be broken up into separate competing companies so that there is more incentive to keep customers rather than discriminate against them. This is just one solution to the problem of social media outlets that are attempting to cut out one-half of the American public.

    If the breakup of monopolies is not possible, or if one company is separated into competing parts and these parts STILL cling to ideological zealotry rather than pursuing sound business practices, then it is up to conservatives themselves to create an alternative.

    That’s right — I’m saying it’s time for a conservative (or truly neutral) Facebook, a conservative Twitter, a conservative YouTube, etc.

    More government domination of business is not an option, and it’s certainly not conservative in spirit. What is conservative in spirit is industry and self-reliance. I see no reason why a conservative or neutral social media outlet would not be financially successful, as long as it is not interfered with by government.

    If the system is not offering a necessity or service, or it is restricting a necessity or service, then it is up to free people to provide that necessity or service for themselves instead of relying on others to do it for them.

    I do fear that that the social justice aggression within corporations against conservatives is part of a larger and more subversive plan. If one studies the leftist tactics of socialist gatekeeper Saul Alinsky, one would discover that they often use the strategy of harassing their enemies to illicit a vicious overreaction. Meaning, it may be the goal of the leftists or globalists (who have no loyalty to either side) to manipulate conservatives through their own anger.

    Conservatives are portrayed as evil and monstrous tyrants, or as dumb bumbling bigots in most current media. The social justice ideology is placed on a pedestal as unassailable and untouchable in movies, television shows and even commercials. It is treated as absolute truth that cannot be questioned or debated. In the meantime, social media companies seek to gain vast market share of communications spaces and then reduce conservative presence there so that we cannot argue our side of the issues.

    I get it. There is every reason for conservatives to be pissed off. But, we need to look at the bigger picture.

    It is possible that the goal on the part of these companies is not necessarily to merely silence conservative voices on their forums or to slander us in ridiculous misrepresentations. It could be that they hope we will become enraged, and that we will respond by abandoning our own principles to attack them back. They want us to become the monsters that they are portraying us as. Even if we win, we lose.

    I have already outlined examples of how we can fight back without breaking our own ideals and morals; moving to expand government power in this area is completely unnecessary.   The fight is not just over modes of communication, it is over conscience and identity. The latter must not be sacrificed to obtain the former.

    *  *  *

    If you would like to support the publishing of articles like the one you have just read, visit our donations page here.  We greatly appreciate your patronage.

  • War Is A Racket: After 17 Years And Billions Wasted, US Seeks Peace With Taliban

    Afghanistan, long acknowledged to be America’s “forgotten war”, has finally returned to the news of late. But this time, in a shocking twist on the now 17-year long conflict, the US is negotiating with the Taliban.

    Perhaps this is why the mainstream media has by and large not given this bombshell story the coverage it deserves? Or do the major networks feel the American public has long ago stopped paying attention and will therefore yawn at any headlines containing the words ‘US Troops/Afghanistan’?

    Image source: Getty via The Telegraph

    As Daniel McAdams explains, last week US State Department officials met with Taliban leaders in Qatar. At the request of the Taliban, the US-backed Afghan government was not invited. The officials discussed ceasefires and an end to the war.

    Meanwhile, the US inspector general charged with monitoring US spending on Afghanistan reconstruction has reported that since 2008, the US has completely wasted at the least $15.5 billion. He believes that’s just the tip of the iceberg, though.

    On Sunday, Reuters had this report on the latest surprising developments:

    A meeting between a senior U.S. diplomat and Taliban representatives in Doha last week to discuss a possible ceasefire ended with “very positive signals” and a decision to hold more meetings, people with knowledge of the talks said on Sunday.

    The meeting between a delegation led by Alice Wells, deputy assistant secretary in the State Department’s Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, and Taliban representatives was first reported in The Wall Street Journal but has not been officially confirmed.

    According to one Taliban official, who said he was part of a four-member delegation, there were “very positive signals” from the meeting, which he said was conducted in a “friendly atmosphere” in a Doha hotel.

    Could we be witnessing the very beginning stages of a negotiated face-saving exit from this nearly two decade long American quagmire in central Asia? 

    The prospect is discussed in today’s Liberty Report:

  • Which Companies Lost The Most Fake Followers In The Twitter Bot Purge?

    Submitted by Priceonomics

    On July 11, 2018, Twitter announced in a blog post they would be removing all “locked” accounts – those exhibiting suspicious or spammy behavior – from the service and warned that by doing a sweep of these accounts, many users would lose a pretty significant number of followers.

    One of the metrics Craft tracks on companies is social media engagement, so we looked through our database before and after the purge to see which company Twitter accounts lost the most followers.

    The table below shows the 25 companies with the highest number of lost followers:

    Ironically, Twitter itself was the account that lost the most followers by a wide margin. Other social media platforms, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook also appeared on the list, as did other news/entertainment companies including The New York Times, ESPN, CNN and others.

    Next, we looked at which of the largest accounts were least affected by this purge. We filtered our list of companies to those with more than 500,000 Twitter followers. Of those, twenty-five companies were in fact so unaffected, they actually gained followers in this period.

    Blockchain and Cryptocurrency-related companies (Coinbase, Bittrex, Bitcoin, and others) are heavily represented in this list above, perhaps surprisingly showing themselves relatively immune to the Twitter purge of bot accounts.

    It is possible these accounts gained followers so rapidly that the followers they lost in the purge were quickly gained back, yielding a net positive increase in followers. Epic Games (creator of Fortnite), for example, gained 86,600 followers in the two week period after July 19. Similarly, the Blockchain and Cryptocurrency-related accounts each gained under 10,000 new followers in the two week period after the purge was complete. And therefore, as these post-purge numbers are similar to the increase in followers during the purge, this suggests there were not a huge number of accounts removed from their follower counts.

    For companies with over 500,000 followers, the chart below shows how many companies lost what percentage of their followers:

    *Note: the <1% category includes the 25 companies that gained followers during the period.

    The mean decrease in Twitter followers for these larger accounts was 2.6%. The median loss, however, was 1.7% – the difference is due to a skewed right distribution from a handful of accounts that suffered heavy losses. Four accounts lost over 40% of their followers: CEOWORLD Magazine (-64%), Andrew Christian Inc. (-60%), Yes Bank (-44%), and MusclePharm (-44%).

    As markets look beyond financials to measure the health, value, and future potential of a company, alternative metrics can be used to gauge company vitality. One of these metrics is audience engagement on social media. Bots and spam accounts were clearly distorting the true picture regarding companies’ real social media followings, so it was a helpful move from Twitter to reduce fake accounts and improve the signal to noise ratio on the platform.

  • California's Native Americans Now Want to Secede From Trump's America

    While the left-er members of California’s sanctuary state decry those who refuse to hug a tree/illegal-immigrant/paper-straw, it was a Silicon Valley Venture Capitalist that most recently attempted to split the state into more co-operative communities (but was denied by the California’s Supreme Court despite over 365,000 signatories believing in the plan).

    California

    Now, a month later, a different group of well-meaning Californians wants out of America as it stands.

    As RT reports, supporters of a long-running effort to see California secede from the United States have revamped their plans to include the creation of an “autonomous Native American nation,” which would encompass almost half of the new state.

    The Calexit campaign held a rally at the California state capitol in Sacramento on July 4, calling for an end to the American “occupation” of the state. A statement released by the campaign said that US Independence Day was “no longer a day to celebrate.”

    Having failed in 2017 with CalExit 3.0…

    CalExit 4.0 is about to be relaunched with a whole new angle – instead of simply seceding from the US, however, the new plans involve creating a special Native American “autonomous nation” within the new independent state, creating a “buffer zone between between Donald Trump’s America and the new independent California Republic,” according to Yes California co-founder Marcus Ruiz Evans.

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

    Now bear in mind that CalExit 4.0 will also have to get the 365,880 signatures required (just as Tim Draper did above before the Supreme Court banned it) to get the question of California independence on a special 2021 ballot.

    Another movement co-founder, Louis J. Marinelli – whose wife is Russian and had previously run into trouble for asking that California “independence” be recognized by Putin, explained the decision as a way to “right the some of the wrongs of the past” by giving back land to Native American people.

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

    The Calexit campaign said on Twitter that the new Native American autonomous buffer zone would help the new California advance its progressive platform “without all those Trump supporters trying to derail” the new state “at every turn.”

    We have two awkward questions – do the native Americans know they are being ‘given back’ the least productive part of the state? And what will happen to the Trump-Buffer-Zone when President Trump’s term expires?

  • A Fork-In-The-Road Approaches: 95 Revelations From July, 2018

    Authored by Doug “Uncola” Lynn via TheTollOnline.com,

    Beginning in May of this year (for April), this blogger had the idea to track linked internet headlines from various link-aggregating websites as documented transitions and arrange them into catalogued anthologies. The goal was to map a veritable road, if you will, on the way toward future revelations.

    Beyond that, the series of encyclopedic atomization was meant for posterity, a means to compare tracking from previous months, and assembled in outright defiance against increasing internet censorship and memory-holed search engine results.

    Predictably, like dots formulated into patterns on a grid, or in a matrix, so too have trends come into better focus as we continue our monthly trek toward the 2018 Midterm Elections.

    As stated by this blogger before, President Donald Trump is the manifestation of one of the following three possibilities:

    A.) The Real Thing

    B.) Serving the agenda of the global financial elite unwittingly

    C.) Controlled opposition as a Judas Goat or Trojan Horse

    If B or C, he was installed to bleed the remaining air out of the brake-lines before the big stop; a last gasp, if you will.  America’s death rattle.

    If A – then Trump is truly at war against the Financial-Military Industrial Complex, and if he loses, then the musical artist Frank Zappa described what will happen next:

    The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it’s profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater.

    – Frank Zappa

    Therefore, if the war in government is real, the midterm elections would represent a fork-in-the road, so to speak.  If the Republicans do well, Trump could (possibly) be provided some breathing room to continue with his professed agenda.  If, on the other hand, the Democrats win big – it would be perceived as a mandate against Trump, and ensure a further loss of support for the President in the GOP; even as congressional impeachment proceedings commence in the House.

    In any case, while traveling toward the approaching fork-in-the-road, it should be no surprise that July was a very eventful month.  In fact, the overall itemized compilation was likely too sizable (over 8,000 words) for most web surfers to process adequately and enjoyably during the course of their busy day.

    Consequently, and with that in mind, the FULL LIST for July 1-31, 2018 was compiled and placed right here  should anyone wish to take the time to read it all through.

    Accordingly, the items below represented what I consider to be the most identifiable 95 signposts on our mid-summer’s journey to either making America Great Again or into a neo-Orwellian hell on earth.

    Again, for the reader’s convenience, the revelations are sorted into the same category headings that were utilized last month and the month prior.  For those blog-rolling on a breakneck blitz and wanting to bypass the piddling incidentals, there are some concluding comments and questions at the very end:

    The American Experiment

    (Short List # / Full List #)

    1 / 4.)  Two days prior to the Fourth of July, vandals threw a brick through the window of the Nebraska Republican Party’s headquarters in Lincoln, Nebraska and spray-painted “ABOLISH ICE” in blood-red capital letters there.

    2 / 7.) In the Democratic National Committee’s annual Fourth of July statement, chairman Tom Perez said “our most fundamental values are under attack” and lamented the “problems” of low-paying jobs, health care, immigration, injustice to people of color and members of the LGBTQ community, a recent Supreme Court decision on public unions,  and the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy. He also expressed concerns that “thousands of children have been separated from their parents at our southern border,” and added:

    At our highest court, workers’ rights are being taken away, voting rights are under assault, Muslim Americans are being discriminated against for their faith, and women’s right to choose is under threat like never before.

    3 / 9.) In the aftermath of Rep. Maxine Waters calling for unwarranted harassment of Trump administration officials,  nearly 200 black female leaders and allies wrote a letter to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer excoriating them for their “failure” to protect Rep. Maxine Waters from “unwarranted attacks from the Trump administration and others in the GOP”.

    4 / 11.) A Reuters/Ipsos opinion showed immigration as a top issue for U.S. voters, with the economy as a close second.

    5 / 14.)  Texas land owners reported receiving letters from the government notifying them that their land will be surveyed for “tactical infrastructure, such as a border wall”.

    6 / 15.) As President Trump nominated U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court who believes judges must “interpret the U.S. Constitution as written” and “not make law”, the Democrats, in turn, vowed “the fight of a lifetime” to keep Kavanaugh off the Supreme Court.  Senate Democrats later conspired in a plan to stall Kavanaugh’s nomination process.

    7 / 18.) Republican alarm bells were sounded upon reports of Democrats having registered 12 million more voters.

    8 / 19.)  It was reported that a huge child-sex-trafficking ring was exposed by Trump’s enforcement of the Zero-Tolerance border policy.

    9 / 24.) Non-citizens legally registered to vote in San Francisco school elections as Republicans pushed back against the “noncitizen voting push in liberal jurisdictions”.

    10 / 26.) July was revealed to have been a “busy month for illegal immigrants committing heinous crimes” as “an illegal immigrant who had been deported eleven times attacked his wife with a chainsaw in front of their children, another got charged with a series of violent rapes and dozens were arrested for operating a major human and drug smuggling enterprise in a major U.S. city”.

    11 / 27.) Authorities in Sioux Falls, South Dakota arrested a 43-year-old man after they found explosive devices at his residence, as well as ammonium nitrate, aluminum powder, firearms, and multiple items related to the anti-fascist militant group, Antifa.

    12 / 28.) Students at Lee University in Tennessee petitioned to override Vice President Mike Pence’s First Amendment right because they perceived his political views as being “at odds with Christian values” and accused Pence of “outright bigotry against the working and poor classes, the LGBTQI+ community, immigrants, and the black community”.

    13 / 30.) A report from the Migration Policy Institute  found that 22% of the U.S. population does not speak English at home.

    14 / 32.)  Donald Trump’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame was destroyed with a pickaxe.  The stars of Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, and Kevin Spacey were not damaged in the least.

    15 / 33.) As California Rep. Maxine Waters said that Americans should be “out in the streets screaming” about President Trump, a Marine veteran and a man wearing a Trump shirt were violently attacked in Los Angeles.

    16 / 35.) According to a new analysis by David Wasserman of the Cook Political Report, the Democrats “remain substantial favorites for House control” because “Republicans are defending 42 open or vacant seats, a record since at least 1930”.

    17 / 36.) President Trump tweeted that he would be willing to “shut down” government if the Democrats did not give Republicans the votes for Border Security, which includes the Wall.  He added:

    Please understand, there are consequences when people cross our Border illegally, whether they have children or not – and many are just using children for their own sinister purposes. Congress must act on fixing the DUMBEST & WORST immigration laws anywhere in the world! Vote “R”

    18 / 37.) Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell saidborder “wall funding looked unlikely to be included in the current legislation”.

    19 / 39.) There were reports of a violent Portland, Oregon Antifa cell planning a “direct confrontation” with participants of an upcoming pro-Trump rally.

    20 / 40.) Republican strategists claimed President Trump’s approval was sinking “in some educated, affluent congressional districts with lots of independent voters the party needs to hold the House”.  The “current anguish” of the Republican strategists was due to the fact they have swallowed hook-line-and-sinker the Mainstream Media’s false narratives of “Trump’s decision to separate families crossing illegally into the United States” and “his performance at the Helsinki summit”.

    Capitalism & Marxism

    21 / 44.)  Democratic National Committee (DNC) chairman, Tom Perez, declared the Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez  to be the future of the Democratic Party.

    22 / 50.) The Census Bureau released data showing the U.S. merchandise trade deficit with China set a record through May, hitting $152,237,500,000 for the first five months of 2018.

    23 / 56.) The new darling of the Democratic Party, Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, said: “Capitalism will not always exist”.

    24 / 58.) The Wall Street Journal reported expectations by the Trump administration for annual budget deficits to rise nearly $100 billion more than previously forecast in each of the next three years, pushing the federal deficit above $1 trillion starting next year.

    25 / 59.) After President Trump Tweeted that “China, EU are manipulating their currencies” and that “Fed “tightening now hurts all that we have done”, the U.S. dollar tumbled; because truth should be seen but not heard.  Trump also added that “the U.S. should be allowed to recapture what was lost due to illegal currency manipulation and BAD Trade Deals” and said:

    Debt coming due & we are raising rates – Really?

    26 / 60.)  As the Associated Press (AP) reported that Democratic socialism was surging in the age of Trump, former FBI Director, James Comey, implored his perceived saviors in the Democrat Party to “dump the Socialist Left” because “America’s great middle wants sensible, balanced, ethical leadership”.

    27 / 61.) In an interview on CNBC, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) said that Democrats will end the Trump tax cuts if they take power in November and also promoted a 50% tax hike on American earners.

    28 / 64.)  Facebook stock entered bear market territory, losing 20 percent off its 52-week highas the company’s daily active users declined and its worldwide daily user growth slid for its sixth straight quarter.  The more than 100 billion dollar rout was reported as the biggest loss in stock market history.

    29 / 65.) Unsurprisingly, The New York Times blamed Russian fake news and the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica (i.e. alleged scandal of data-harvesting on behalf of Donald Trump) for Facebook’s stock rout instead of the company’s increasingly Orwellian inclinations.

    30 / 68.) As America’s second-quarter Gross Domestic Product (GDP) jumped 4.1%, The New York Times warned its readers:  “don’t expect the boom to last” because the growth was skewed by “a surge in soybean shipments” in advance of “President Trump’s trade policies”.

    Global Geopolitics

    31 / 75.) European Union leaders announced that officials from the EU and China were coming together to strengthen and protect their international trade relations from Trump’s “America First” agenda.

    32 / 77.) At the NATO Summit in Belgium on July 11, 2018 President Trump told the Secretary General of NATO that it was “totally unfair to the American taxpayer to have to pay to defend Germany from Russia, only to have Germany turn around a pay billions for fuel to Russia and that “something’s got to be done about this”.

    33 / 81.) The New York Times admitted that: “Trump Got From NATO Everything Obama Ever Asked For”.

    34 / 83.) In an interview with CBS Evening News anchor Jeff Glor in Scotland, President Trump named the European Union his “biggest foe globally right now”.

    35 / 87.)  Knife attacks, gun attacks, rape attacks, and homicide, continued to rapidly rise in England; quite possibly due in part to “Leftist London Mayor Sadiq Khan” doing everything in his power to cut “police stop and search tactics” that have “unfairly targeted minority ethnic groups” before “reversing his stance as crime began to surge”.

    36 / 88.) In response to Iranian President Rouhani’s warning to U.S. President Donald Trump that hostile policies could lead to the “mother of all wars”, Trump Tweeted back in all capital letters that Rouhani better stop the threats or suffer historic consequences;  as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, lowered the boom on Putin and put Iran on notice.

    37 / 89.)  Two days after he sent an all-caps warning of future conflict with Iran, President Donald Trump “tempered his threatening rhetoric” and said “his administration stands ready for Iran to come back to the negotiating table”.

    38 / 91.) The EU chief caved-in to Trump’s art of the deal and pledged to lower trade barriers with the US.

    Sex Crimes

    39 / 95.)  It was reported that “President Donald Trump’s longtime lawyer, Michael Cohen, secretly recorded a conversation with Trump two months before the presidential election in which they discussed payments to a former Playboy model”.  In response, Trump waived his attorney-client privilege on the secret recordings and Tweeted that he “did nothing wrong”.   It was later reported that U.S. Prosecutors were reviewing 12 audio recordings seized in the April 2018 raid of Cohen’s home, office and hotel room.

    40 / 96.) CNN broadcast an audio recording of Presidential Candidate Donald Trump discussing with his attorney Michael Cohen how they would buy the rights to a Playboy model’s story about an alleged affair Trump had with her years earlier.

    The President & the Porn Star

    41 / 97.) In the investigation of President Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, it was revealed that federal prosecutors had 1.3 million of Cohen’s files.

    42 / 98.) President Donald Trump’s longtime lawyer Michael Cohen hired Lanny Davis who once served as special counsel to former President Bill Clinton.

    43 / 99.) President Trump’s attorney and spokesman, Rudy Giuliani, said Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen should cooperate with federal investigators.

    The President, Lawyers, Spies, & Media Lies

    44 / 101.) Ten days after Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) told Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein to release whatever evidence he had in the Russia investigation and “finish it the hell up because this country is being torn apart”, Special Counsel Robert Mueller tapped even more prosecutors to help with his growing Trump probe.  According to Bloomberg’s update on the inquisition of Trump’s suspected treason with Russia:

    …more money is being spent on work done by permanent Department of Justice units than on Mueller’s own dedicated operation. The DOJ units spent $9 million from the investigation’s start in May 2017 through March of this year, compared with $7.7 million spent by Mueller’s team.

    45 / 103.) In apparent “violation of Justice Department policies and, perhaps, legal prohibitions on disclosure of grand jury secrets”, claims were bolstered that AP reporters and FBI agents colluded in a conspiracy  against Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort.

    46 / 106.) During Peter Strzok’s testimony to Congress, Jim Jordon (R-Ohio) got the former FBI agent to admit that the FBI received the Hillary Clinton Funded “Golden Shower” dossier on Trump from the FBI’s Bruce Orr (whose wife worked for Fusion GPS) – which was an astounding admission on internal collusion – before Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) interrupted the exchange.

    47 / 107.) Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas said during the hearing with former FBI official, Peter Strzok, that the Inspector General discovered that nearly all of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s emails were sent to a foreign entity and that the FBI didn’t follow-up on that finding.

    48 / 108.) Furthermore, it was revealed that Strzok, himself, actually knew Clinton’s emails were in the hands of a foreign entity, that a whistleblower from the State Department tried delivering significant evidence in the Clinton email investigation which went nowhere, and that Inspector General, Michael Horowitz, was called four times from someone wanting to brief him about this, and he never returned the call.

    49 / 109.) In an effort to divert publicity away from the Capitol Hill testimony of disgraced FBI agent Peter Strzok, and to subvert President Trump’s efforts toward peace with Russia, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein announced the Mueller Investigation’s single indictment of Twelve Russian intelligence officers for alleged election hacking under President Obama’s watch; even though, according to Rosenstein , “no American was a knowing participant” in the Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election and there was “no allegation in the indictment of any effect on the outcome of the election” .

    50 / 110.) Regarding the Russia indictment, President Trump Tweeted questions as to “why didn’t Obama do something”, especially when it was reported that President Obama was informed by the FBI in September [2016], before the election”.  Trump also Tweeted these questions:  “Where is the DNC Server, and why didn’t the FBI take possession of it? Deep State?

    51 / 111.) In the wake of Robert Mueller’s 29-page (evidence free) indictment of 12 Russians for election hacking, some in the media once more began to question the extent of American involvement.

    52 / 112.) The veteran GOP political operative, Roger Stone, said he was the ‘US person’ mentioned in the Mueller indictment of the 12 Russians.

    53 / 113.) Initial  claims were made that Republicans were preparing to impeach Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein because they felt Rosenstein had “continually stonewalled their investigation into corruption at the FBI” but Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) later ruled out the possibility of impeaching Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, saying there was “not enough support for his ouster”.

    54 / 114.)  In the aftermath of FBI agent Peter Strzok’s appearance before Congress, the full Editorial Board of The Wall Street Journal said: “President Trump will have to declassify a host of documents if he wants Americans to learn the truth about what happened in 2016”.

    55 / 120.) In the press conference following the Trump-Putin meeting in Helsinki, Trump shocked the Mainstream Media by again raising legitimate (and still unanswered) questions regarding the Democratic National Committee’s missing server and Hillary Clinton’s missing emails; as Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed U.S. intelligence agents funneled $400 Million to the Hillary Clinton Campaign.

    56 / 121.) The AP later reported on Trump’s “week of walk-backs” on Russia and the Federal Reserve and cited the Russian general prosecutor’s office retraction of Vladimir Putin’s claims of his Helsinki reference to $400 million being funneled to Hillary Clinton because, according to the AP:  “The notion of a $400 million donation to the Democrat’s campaign would be out of the question”.

    57 / 122.)  In the immediate aftermath of the Trump-Putin meeting, the Obama Administration’s CIA director, John Brennan, charged that President Trump’s post-summit press conference with Russia President Vladimir Putin was an act of treason; as disgraced former FBI Director, James Comey, called for a coup against the sitting president by means of patriots standing up and rejecting Trump’s behavior.

    58 / 123.) In a continuing effort to demonstrate his unquestionable professionalism and complete lack of bias, former FBI Director, James Comey, also Tweeted that “anyone voting Republican this fall is un-American”.

    59 / 125.) “Just days after special counsel Robert Mueller charged 12 Russian intelligence officials with directing a sprawling hacking effort aimed at swaying the 2016 election” and “just hours after President Donald Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin”, federal prosecutors charged an alleged Russian agent and “Gun Rights Activist”, named Maria Butina, for using the National Rifle Association (NRA) as a conduit to influence members of the Republican Party.  It was later discovered that Butina had high-level contacts in Washington DC; even taking part in 2015 meetings between a visiting Russian official and two senior officials at the U.S. Federal Reserve and Treasury Department.

    60 / 126.) In the wake of the Trump-Putin meeting, Russia’s elite and media celebrated the meeting as victory for Putin and “an end to the West’s attempt to isolate Russia”, as U.S. cable news networks saw “the apocalypse”, Trump as a worse-case-scenario Russian mole, and Trump’s performance as an act that will ‘Live in Infamy’ as much as Pearl Harbor or Kristallnacht.

    61 / 132.) During a Q&A with CNN’s Lester Holt at the Aspen Security Forum, FBI Chief Christopher Wray threatened to quit if Trump invited Russian agents to the U.S. and said:

    I do not believe Special Counsel Mueller is on a witch hunt. I think it is a professional investigation conducted by a man I’ve known to be a straight shooter.

    62 / 137.) As it was announced that Special Counsel Robert Mueller would give Democratic lobbyist, Tony Podesta, immunity to testify against Trump’s former campaign chair, Paul Manafort, claims were made that the Deep State was “using the Mueller probe to protect Clinton insiders from criminal investigation”.

    63 / 139.) An author by the name of Tim Wiener, who won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for reporting and writing on American intelligence, wrote the following in a Reuters commentary:

    …Trump has made real enemies in the realm of American national security. He has struck blows against their empire. One way or another, the empire will strike back.

    64 / 140.) The Wall Street Journal identified former CIA Director John Brennan as an “Obama-Clinton partisan” who “was pushing information to the FBI and pressuring it to act” and who “then took the lead on shaping the narrative that Russia was interfering in the election… which quickly evolved into the Trump-collusion narrative”.

    65 / 141.) Former Director of National Intelligence (DNI) James Clapper admitted in a CNN interview that former President Obama instigated the ongoing investigations into Donald Trump and those in his orbit.

    66 / 142.)  In an example of apparent selective cooperation, the Department of Justice released a heavily redacted copy of the Carter Page FISA warrant application and several renewals to The New York Times, which accused Page of being a Russian spy; even though Page hasn’t been charged in the nearly two years since the application was filed with any of the allegations contained therein.

    67 / 143.) The National Review’s Andrew McCarthy described why the FISA applications on Carter Page confirmed the FBI’s reliance on the unverified Steele Dossier.

    68 / 145.) As the DoJ released the redacted FISA applications on former Trump aide Carter Page, President Trump Tweeted that it was “Looking more & more like the Trump Campaign for President was illegally being spied upon (surveillance) for the political gain of Crooked Hillary Clinton and the DNC”, before Republican Senator Marco Rubio refuted Trump’s contentions by telling CBS’s “Face the Nation” that he “wouldn’t consider that spying on a campaign”.  Rubio’s soundbite refutation was then conveniently proliferated all throughout the mainstream media to counter the reporting of Trump’s Tweet on Spygate.

    69 / 146.) Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said during a Fox News Sunday interview that President Donald Trump’s advisers should consider leaving the White House if Trump “continues to publicly disparage the nation’s intelligence community and cast doubt on the evidence that Russia interfered in the 2016 election” before saying:  “if there were any evidence that President Trump committed any crime with regard to Russia, [the Ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee] Adam Schiff would have leaked it”.

    70 / 147.)  It was reported that President Trump was looking into revoking the security clearances of several top Obama-era intelligence and law enforcement officials, including former FBI Director James Comey, former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe, former CIA Director John Brennan, former National Security Adviser Susan Rice and former Director of National Security Michael Hayden (who worked under President George W. Bush).  Of course, Congress pushed back against revoking the clearances.

    71 / 149.) The New York Times reported that Special Counsel Robert Mueller was now examining President Trump’s tweets in a wide-ranging Obstruction of Justice inquiry.  But the times did not identify Mueller in that article as the man who delivered highly enriched stolen uranium to Russia in 2009 on behalf of Hillary Clinton.

    72 / 150.)  Pursuant to # 53 / 113 above, Republicans began impeachment proceedings against Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein before backing down once again; this time saying “contempt charges will do”.

    73 / 153.) As the New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger warned President Trump about his “divisive but increasingly dangerous” language that could generate “potential” violence against reporters, it was reported that The New York Times had ignored over 538 violent attacksagainst Trump supporters since the 2016 election season.

    74 / 154.) In another Tweetstorm, President Donald Trump challenged Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s “conflicts of interest” and questioned why Mueller wasn’t “looking at all of the criminal activity & real Russian Collusion” by the Democrats.

    Guns R Us

    75 / 157.) Just as a headlined-link on The Drudge Report revealed porn websites as dominating online traffic rankings for all internet categories in United States, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared sex addiction a mental-health disorder termed ‘compulsive sexual behaviour’.

    76 / 158.) It was reported that the United States, under United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, had signed on to a measure to track every gun in America.

    77 / 159.) Ontario police identified the man responsible for a shooting rampage in Toronto’s Greektown as Faisal Hussain. The Islamic State (ISIS) claimed responsibility for the shooting.  In response to the shooting, Toronto Mayor John Tory told reporters the city has a gun problem, with weapons too readily available to too many people.

    78 / 160.) Since the tragic shooting in Parkland Florida in February 2018, the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence has tracked and recorded a whopping 55 new gun control measures in 26 states.

    Big Brother Cometh

    79 / 162.) Because a Democratic Party caucus server was replaced by a look-alike, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) stated there was “no evidence” that house computer systems were compromised by Pakistani-American information technology worker Imran Awan.  The judge presiding over the case was Tanya Chutka, who was appointed by Obama after years of contributing to him, was a partner at a very Clinton-friendly law firm, and her husband was also appointed by Obama to the D.C. Superior Court in 2011.

    80 / 163.) On July 4th, 2018 it was reported that a Facebook algorithm flagged the Declaration of Independence as hate speech. Ten days later, Facebook’s non-biased algorithms also censored a new gospel song, entitled “What Would Heaven Look Like”, for political content.

    81 / 165.) It was revealed that Facebook uses foreign state-run news outlets to online fact-check U.S. “conservative sites into oblivion”.

    82 / 167.) In the aftermath of Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) claiming that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had “personally redacted information and threatened House Intelligence Committee staffers” and Republican Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert telling a TV morning show that he believed government personnel working for Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein were spying on his office, NBC News reported the following:

    Powerful GOP Rep. Jim Jordan accused of turning blind eye to sexual abuse as Ohio State wrestling coach

    “It’s sad for me to hear that he’s denying,” said one former wrestler. “I don’t know why he would, unless it’s a cover-up.”

    83 / 168.)  It was later reported that the law firm investigating the accusations against Jim Jordan were also involved in the FISA abuse scandal by assisting both the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee to fund the now discredited Steele Dossier.

    84 / 173.) After the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that Hispanic unemployment in the United States had reached its lowest level ever, in the 45 years since the agency first started keeping records on the statistic, the findings were ignored by the Spanish television networks, Univision and Telemundo.

    85 / 179.) Jack Burkman, a Washington-based attorney and lobbyist who has worked with a private investigative team to find the killer of DNC staffer, Seth Rich, claimed to have found a “credible” witness who will identify the murderers as “a current DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) agent” and a “current ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) agent”.

    86 / 186.) Lawmakers clashed during a contentious hearing over claims that social media platforms and tech companies are biased against conservative viewpoints.

    87 / 188.)  Rick Newman, a Senior Columnist for the Finance Division of 5th most visited online platform in the world said President Trump made “Hillary Clinton and her husband Bill look like ethical exemplars” and lamented “Trump’s knifing of American law-enforcement agencies, while on a podium at the Helsinki “summit” with American enemy Vladimir Putin”.

    88 / 190.) Just two days after Twitter told Congress that they aren’t politically biased when censoring content, the online social media platform was caught censoring conservative journalists with site-wide shadowbans.

    89 / 191.) Days later, it was again reported that Twitter was shadow-banning prominent Republicans including the RNC chair and Trump Jr.’s spokesman.

    90 / 192.) President Donald Trump accused Twitter regarding the company’s “discriminatory and illegal practice,” and vowed in a tweet to “look into” the matter and Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA), the Chair of the House Intelligence Committee, said he was looking at “legal remedies” to deal with Twitter’s censorship of conservatives.

    91 / 193.)  A study for the House Judiciary’s Constitution & Civil Justice Subcommittee showed that Facebook has eliminated 93% of traffic to top conservative websites since the 2016 election.

    92 / 195.) In early July, “it came out that among Facebook’s myriad algorithmically induced advertising categories was an entry for users whom the platform’s data mining systems believed might be interested in treason against their government”, causing a contributor writing for Forbes Magazine to question if Facebook was the “ultimate government surveillance tool”.

    93 / 196.) New York Governor Andrew Cuomo revealed that facial recognition camerasinstalled at bridge and tunnel toll plazas across New York City were scanning every driver’s face and feeding them into a massive database.

    94 / 198.)  A study revealed that immigration had received more airtime on the three broadcast evening news shows than any other policy topic during the 18 months of the Trump presidency with 92% “relentlessly hostile to the administration” and “just 8% positive” while all networks “virtually ignored law enforcement or anyone harmed by illegal immigration”.

    95 / 208.) Twitter hired academics from institutions including Oxford University and the University of Amsterdam to study the spread of “hate speech” and combat “intolerant discourse”. Of course, the woman selected to help Twitter develop the algorithm which will target the “hate speech” was reported as a hardcore leftist who hates President Donald Trump.

    Conclusion

    America continues to break apart as the Political Left grows increasingly unhinged and, now, more violent.  Immigration and the battle for the Supreme Court further divide the country just as Socialism now threatens a burgeoning rift within the Democratic Party.

    On the economic front, interest rates continued to rise as deficits soared and rumors of trade wars, and threats of literal wars, created a sense of impending unease around the world.

    As the Political Left leveled accusations against Trump for alienating allies while coddling to Russia’s Putin, Trump’s domestic battle raged on across many fronts – from Cohen and sex crimes, to the ongoing work of Special Counsel Robert Mueller and Attorney Rod Rosenstein as they continue to fabricate a political gallows and knot an imaginary rope into a legal noose around the President’s neck.

    Nevertheless, as the nation divides in two like Sean Hannity’s and Rachel Maddow’s childhood friends at a junior high dance, Big Brother runs forward, unencumbered, and with ever-accelerating  speed; in an obvious race to the inevitable finish-line at the end of nowhere good.

    In the full compilation of 209 transitional revelations for July, and according to this blogger, 28 could be considered making America (and/or the world) great again, with 27 as being neutral or questionable, and 154 as representing the ever-accelerating slide into Orwellian hell.  These counts were 32, 8, and 104 last month and 40, 8, and 75, respectively, the month prior.

    Does it appear the nation is transitioning in the right direction?  Or is it too soon to tell?

    Can even a fork in the road make a difference at this point for good or bad?

    We’re about to find out.

    In the meantime, prepare to round the next corner toward the midterm elections in a final thrust.

    It’s August.

  • Iran Preparing Massive Military Exercise To "Demonstrate Ability" To Block Persian Gulf: Report

    After days of heated barbs exchange back and forth between Washington and Tehran, Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard forces are expected to begin a major exercise in the Persian Gulf as soon as the next 48 hours, which could be aimed at demonstrating their ability to shut down the Strait of Hormuz, CNN reports citing two US officials.

    “We are aware of the increase in Iranian naval operations within the Arabian Gulf, Strait of Hormuz and Gulf of Oman. We are monitoring it closely, and will continue to work with our partners to ensure freedom of navigation and free flow of commerce in international waterways,” Captain William Urban, chief spokesman for US Central Command, told CNN.

    The Strait of Hormuz – a strategically critical passageway linking the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea which is crucial to shipping of global energy supplies – has emerged as a focal point in the escalating war of words between presidents Trump and Rouhani, after Iran threatened to block off the Persian Gulf if the US proceeds with fully implementing oil export sanctions on Iran.

    Officials told CNN that while the US sees no immediate signs of hostile intent from Iran, the IRGC show of force has US military intelligence “deeply concerned” for three fundamental reasons according to officials:

    • The exercise comes as rhetoric from the IRGC towards the US has accelerated in recent days.
    • It appears the IRGC is ramping up for a larger exercise this year than similar efforts in the past.
    • The timing is unusual. These types of IRGC exercises typically happen much later in the year.

    In the US military’s assessment, the IRGC has assembled a fleet of more than 100 boats, many of them small fast moving vessels. It’s expected Iranian air and ground assets including coastal defensive missile batteries could be involved, while  hundreds of Iranian troops are expected to participate and some regular Iranian forces could be involved as well.

    The IRGC exercise comes as the US has only one major warship, the USS The Sullivans inside the Persian Gulf, several officials say. Other US warships are nearby and there are numerous combat aircraft in the region.

    The US military has been trying to encourage other nations in the region, especially Saudi Arabia to take a strong line on keeping the Gulf open in the face of rising Iranian rhetoric. They have also expressed concern about keeping open the waterways off Yemen where Iranian backed rebels have attacked oil tankers.

    Defense Secretary James Mattis, responding to rising Iranian rhetoric said on Friday, “Iran has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz. They’ve done that previously in years past. They saw the international community put — dozens of nations of the international community put their naval forces in for exercises to clear the straits.”

    And the punchline:

    “Clearly, this would be an attack on international shipping, and — and it would have, obviously, an international response to reopen the shipping lanes with whatever that took, because of the world’s economy depends on that energy, those energy supplies flowing out of there.”

    And with the public response to any attack on Syria now virtually nil after two consecutive military strikes, if Trump feels he is in urgent need of an international distraction from mounting domestic problems, namely the upcoming conclusion of the Mueller probe which now includes questions about obstruction of justice, Trump may have no choice than to aim for Iran… and outcome Israel would be delighted to assist with.

Digest powered by RSS Digest