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Conquering the Earth — The Expansion of the US Empire

Posted by M. C. on August 27, 2019

During his presidency, he did such a good job at his invasions that, in 1906, he was the first US President to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Considering the enormous head of steam that the US government is building up toward these countries, it would be surprising in the extreme if the world did not find itself in a state of world war…

https://internationalman.com/articles/conquering-the-earth/

by Jeff Thomas

The Akkadian Empire is often regarded as the world’s first empire, reaching its peak between the 24th and 22nd centuries BC, some 4,400 years ago.

It was in the Middle East, home of quite a few empires over the millennia. It began with King Sargon, who, having succeeded at conquering his neighbours in Babylonia, decided to expand further into Syria and Canaan.

King Sargon established a fad that has remained until the present day. In any era since his time, there have been those nations that, having had initial successes at conquest, couldn’t resist the temptation to “have it all.”

Each, in turn, had occasion to learn why this is not the most sensible objective for a nation to pursue.

The Roman Empire collapsed, in part, because it attempted to gobble up as much of the known world as possible and found that, once another civilisation had been conquered and looted, a military and other resources were then necessary to maintain control. Rome learned too late that, whilst conquest is often profitable, maintaining a conquered land is a liability.

Over the millennia, history has seen many empires come and go. By the time of the Spanish Empire (peaking in 1521–1643), kings had a rough idea of how very big the world was and recognized that controlling it all was quite a task.

This did not, however, stop ambitious leaders. Every century has seen its Genghis Khan or Napoleon, whose desire for conquest was insatiable. Repeatedly, such leaders came to a bad end, specifically because they tried to bite off more than they could chew.

Britain owned the nineteenth century, with colonies worldwide, but today, we British eat humble pie, as we were eclipsed due to excessive warfare and government spending.

Then the US owned the twentieth century, not only colonizing parts of the world, but seeking to police the rest of it.

This began in 1899. Future President Theodore Roosevelt stated publicly that “Peace may come only through war.” …

And to maintain a geographic balance, the US government dispenses weekly notices to the media of the growing need for aggression in Venezuela and North Korea.

Why? Well, just like King Sargon, the US military interests are ever-conscious that there are still a few countries out there that are not US-dominated. As can be seen in the map above, the US has a military presence in all the countries that are coloured pink.

The US has some 800 military bases and has military personnel deployed in 177 countries – a total of 1.3 million troops. In addition to these bases, there are numerous “lily pads,” or mini-military bases. Such bases generally house weaponry and supplies, at the ready for larger troop deployments.

Further, the US has a host of “militarily active advisors” and “peacekeeping forces” deployed across the globe.

No surprise then, that the US tends to work towards the day when 100% of the world has US military boots on the ground.

For example, that grey collection of islands on the map, just above Norway, are the Svalbard and Jan Mayen islands. Although they’re presently inhabited by Russians and Norwegians, are in the Arctic Circle and have virtually no value, when US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis visited Svalbard in 2018, he saw it as a good site for a US base, saying, “Certainly America’s got to up its game in the arctic. There’s no doubt about that.”…

Considering the enormous head of steam that the US government is building up toward these countries, it would be surprising in the extreme if the world did not find itself in a state of world war in the not-too-distant future.

The US Empire, like its predecessors throughout history, is about to bite off more than it can chew and the world will pay the price.

Editor’s Note: The US government is overextending itself by interfering in every corner of the globe. It’s all financed by massive amounts of money printing. However, the next financial crisis could end the whole charade soon.

The truth is, we’re on the cusp of a global economic crisis that could eclipse anything we’ve seen before. That’s exactly why Doug Casey and his team just released this urgent video. Click here to watch it now.

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‘Right-Wing Extremists’ – LewRockwell

Posted by M. C. on August 27, 2019

If the government gains new powers to treat those with abhorrent beliefs as potential criminals, it will not be long before those powers are used against anyone who challenges the welfare-warfare status quo.

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2019/08/ron-paul/who-are-the-real-extremists/

By

Ron Paul Institute

The recent mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton have re-ignited efforts to pass “Red Flag” laws, which allow the government to take away a person’s guns without due process, and expanded background checks on those wishing to purchase a gun. Some supporters of these measures acknowledge they would not have prevented the Dayton and El Paso shootings, but they think the government must “do something,“ even if that something only makes it more difficult for average Americans to exercise their Second Amendment rights.

The fact that one of the shooters may have been motivated by anti-immigrant views has led to calls for government surveillance of “right-wing extremists.” There are talks of developing computer programs to search social media and identify those whose extreme views supposedly make them likely to commit violence. There are also calls for legislation giving the government new powers to prevent “domestic terrorism.”

Proposals targeting individuals based on their political beliefs — no matter how noxious they are — are a step toward criminalizing those beliefs. If the government gains new powers to treat those with abhorrent beliefs as potential criminals, it will not be long before those powers are used against anyone who challenges the welfare-warfare status quo.

The current use of “right-wing extremism” as a justification for expanding the surveillance state is the mirror image of the use of “Islamo-fascism” to justify the post 9-11 infringements on civil liberties. That is why it is distressing to see progressives and Muslim advocacy groups pushing for new federal authority to crack down on “domestic terrorism,” just as it was disappointing when so many conservatives who opposed Bill Clinton’s attempt to expand the surveillance state endorsed the exact same proposals when they were included in the PATRIOT Act. It is ironic that progressives are supporting new laws against domestic terrorism while simultaneously protesting FBI targeting of Black Lives Matter activists as domestic terrorists.

This is not to say there are not those with extreme ideologies who threaten our liberty and safety, but they are the Republicans and Democrats located in Washington, DC! The most obvious example of DC-based violent extremism is the war party propagandists who spread falsehoods to build support for regime change wars. By the time their falsehoods have been exposed, it is too late: America is stuck in another no-win quagmire and the war party has moved on to its next target.

Demagogic politicians also fan fear and hatred to protect and expand the welfare state. Right-wing nationalists scapegoat illegal migrants without distinguishing between those who come here to take advantage of the welfare system from those who come here seeking economic opportunity — while left-wing progressives demonize the wealthy without distinguishing between those who made their fortunes in the market serving consumers and those who made their fortunes by manipulating the political process. These extremists use scapegoating and demagoguery to gain power and keep the people from focusing on the real source of their discontent: the welfare-warfare state and the fiat money system that makes it possible.

As the welfare-warfare-fiat money system collapses, we will see increased violence. This will result in an increase in police state power. The only way to avoid this fate is for good people to unite and replace the extremist ideologies of the mainstream of both left and right with the ideas of liberty. A good start would be applying “Red Flag” laws to remove neocons from any influence over US foreign policy!

The recent mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton have re-ignited efforts to pass “Red Flag” laws, which allow the government to take away a person’s guns without due process, and expanded background checks on those wishing to purchase a gun. Some supporters of these measures acknowledge they would not have prevented the Dayton and El Paso shootings, but they think the government must “do something,“ even if that something only makes it more difficult for average Americans to exercise their Second Amendment rights.

The fact that one of the shooters may have been motivated by anti-immigrant views has led to calls for government surveillance of “right-wing extremists.” There are talks of developing computer programs to search social media and identify those whose extreme views supposedly make them likely to commit violence. There are also calls for legislation giving the government new powers to prevent “domestic terrorism.”…

As the welfare-warfare-fiat money system collapses, we will see increased violence. This will result in an increase in police state power. The only way to avoid this fate is for good people to unite and replace the extremist ideologies of the mainstream of both left and right with the ideas of liberty. A good start would be applying “Red Flag” laws to remove neocons from any influence over US foreign policy!

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Tulsi’s Fight Against Big Tech – LewRockwell

Posted by M. C. on August 27, 2019

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2019/08/atilla-mert-sulker/tulsis-fight-against-big-tech/

By

Recently, Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard went on Tucker Carlson, defending her decision to sue google for suspending her campaign ads. According to Gabbard, this move on behalf of google constitutes “election interference”. Gabbard further went on to say that her lawsuit would underscore the extensive power of big tech, and shed light on its violation of free speech. Gabbard’s gripes are very reminiscent of the feelings many conservatives also have towards big tech.

Day by day, big tech companies such as Facebook and Twitter have been shutting down the accounts of various figures they deem “controversial”. Among these, are of course Alex Jones and Louis Farrakhan. Like Gabbard, many conservatives proclaim that this is an infringement on the right to free speech, and liken big tech companies onto monopolies. Thus the solution is for the government to punish these companies, they assert.

This line of thinking has been the traditional method in which conservatives have sought for repercussions against the so called injustices of censorship. But what many people have failed to realize, is that this pursuit in favor of regulation, has only made matters worse. It has guided many well intentioned people down a path of unfruitfulness…

The fact of the matter is that introducing a government regulation to counter Facebook would be a dangerous step in the wrong direction. If we handed this power over to the government, rather than the consumer, who’s to say that they won’t sway in the wrong direction, and later impose regulations against platforms that would actually respect speech? It is these regulations that will be keeping out genuine competitors and protecting giant big tech platforms. Bloated big tech platforms are just a symptom of government intervention.

We should not be calling to regulate Facebook, but rather demanding an end to government partnerships with such corporations, and welcoming a truly free market that allows different platforms to cater to different types of people. If Facebook decides not to cater to conservatives, a new social media outlet will rise to serve this purpose. Let the rugged individualists and the safe space junkies go their separate ways.

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The Mark of the Beast

 

 

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The Hidden Costs Behind Every Government Program | Mises Wire

Posted by M. C. on August 27, 2019

Behind every million dollar tax-funded high school, for example, there hides a million dollars’ worth of other goods and services that these taxpayers never got to purchase, but would have preferred…

https://mises.org/wire/hidden-costs-behind-every-government-program

When the state constructs a new bike lane, school, or begins a new space mission, the natural inclination of the majority is to cheer this new endeavor as progressive. We possess one new structure or have accomplished one new task than before; society has moved forward, the thinking goes.

The state is responsible for truly technically impressive or beautiful accomplishments like the Apollo missions, the Moscow Metro, the Palace of Versailles, etc. that most would agree clearly produce benefits for society.

Confronted with these concrete and widely celebrated examples of government accomplishments, how can libertarians deny that state action is sometimes a benevolent force in society?

Opportunity Cost

Leaving aside moral considerations and focusing on utilitarian considerations, the answer revolves around opportunity cost and demonstrated preference.

Opportunity cost is the benefits that could have been obtained through the best forgone alternative to an actual employment of resources. If a slice of pizza costs two dollars, and a hamburger costs two dollars, then the opportunity cost of a slice of pizza is a hamburger, and visa-versa.

The resources of any given country are scarce, and the “economic question” that must be solved is, how should the limited resources available be applied to best satisfy people’s subjective preferences?

Even if, for example, the state builds a library that is beautiful, the books are neatly organized, the librarian is competent and cordial, the temperature is well-regulated, and the computers are state of the art, we still need to hold our applause.

In order to be able to celebrate the employment of resources by the state in a particular application, it’s necessary to consider the alternative uses that could have been possible with those resources. If there exists an alternative option that could have better satisfied subjective preferences, then the actual employment, even if it produced benefits, was a relative failure.

Voluntary Exchange and Demonstrated Preference

Now the question is: by what standard can it be determined which employment of resources is best, relative to the subjective preferences of consumers, in any given case?

In instances of voluntary exchange, every exchange is not only ex-ante mutually beneficial, it’s ex-ante the best employment of the resources being exchanged, from the perspectives of the respective property owners. This is called demonstrated preference, which Rothbard explains to mean, “simply this: that actual choice reveals, or demonstrates, a man’s preferences; that is, that his preferences are deducible from what he has chosen in action.”

For example, if Smith sells Jones a lamp for twenty dollars, we can know that of all of the alternative uses of the lamp Smith had available to him, such as using it to read, using it as a decoration, keeping it in storage, etc., selling it to Jones for twenty dollars was his most highly preferred option, because that is the option that he freely chose.

Likewise, Jones thought buying Smith’s lamp was the best of all possible uses available to him of his twenty dollars. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have executed that option.

Involuntary Exchange

On the other hand, sometimes exchange, production, and consumption are not conducted as a result of the voluntary decisions of all of the owners of the property involved, but rather under compulsion of physical force. Then, in the absence of demonstrated preference, it can never be known whether the act benefited any of the involved parties or caused them harm, let alone that it was the most beneficial employment of resources for every party involved.

Given that usually countless options are available to actors at any given time, if would be an astronomically unlikely coincidence for the state to happen to dictate what consumers would have voluntarily chosen to do at a particular moment in time anyway. In this way, it’s metaphysically possible for state action to be equally ex-ante beneficial to all parties involved as voluntary exchange, but never more.

Fundamentally, acts of taxation and regulation, due to their involuntary nature, sever the link between consumers’ subjective preferences and the way in which their resources are deployed.

The Seen and the Unseen

Behind every million dollar tax-funded high school, for example, there hides a million dollars’ worth of other goods and services that these taxpayers never got to purchase, but would have preferred over the high school. Perhaps these goods would have been a million dollars’ worth of flowers, food, board games, medical services, books, cutlery, home renovations, farming equipment, computer software, and math tutor services.

There’s nothing stopping taxpayers from funding a high school on their own and sparing themselves the deadweight loss of bureaucracy. It really is simply the case that if consumers want a high school, they can pay for one, and as private high schools demonstrate, they often do.

However, the state using taxation to build a particular high school can only divert funds from more highly valued opportunity costs to the lower ranked high school. Otherwise, no compulsion would have been necessary. Despite this undeniable and simple logic, in the U.S., tax-funded expansions of the government K-12 education system, among other interventions, are widely celebrated.

In terms of public opinion, part of the explanation is that the high school can be seen and cheered because it actually exists, whereas the lost opportunity costs, by their very nature as forgone alternatives, never occurred, as so mourning their loss requires abstract reasoning and imagination on the part of the public.

Frédéric Bastiat described this phenomenon in his classic work “That Which is Seen, and That Which is Not Seen.” Conspicuous state projects win the public relations war over quietly letting people spend their money as they actually wish to.

The interstate highway system, the Louvre, and the Sixth Fleet may be impressive, but they’re not cause for applause. Relative to the preferences of the taxpayer, no matter how grand and awe-inspiring a project the state completes, it will always and everywhere ex-ante fall short of voluntary exchange.

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If it please the crown, may I work for a living? | The Daily Bell

Posted by M. C. on August 26, 2019

https://www.thedailybell.com/all-articles/news-analysis/if-it-please-the-crown-may-i-work-for-a-living/

By Joe Jarvis

The Sheriff of Nottingham in the tale of Robin Hood didn’t just collect taxes.

He didn’t consult a chart and calculate what each person owed for the maintenance of the paths through the Sherwood Forest. It would be hard to make such a mundane bean-counter evil.

The reason the Sheriff of Nottingham could abuse his power was that it was so arbitrary.

There was no tax rate. The Sheriff simply took what he wanted. He kept most for himself and gave some to the crown, in exchange for his power.

This is the type of power all tyrants want. Specific laws and taxes are no fun.

But with arbitrary power, you can take vengeance on your enemies. You can reward your friends. You can grant monopolies, destroy businesses, impoverish entire demographics, and trade leniency for status.

That’s how the Sheriff of Nottingham’s power and wealth came to rival Prince John’s.

Unfortunately the “Sheriff of Nottinghams” exist in real life, in bureaucratic offices across America.

For example, last year two freelance novelists from Charlottesville, North Carolina received letters from the tax collectors, ordering them to pay thousands of dollars in back taxes.

The city said they failed to pay for a business license. To work from home, and write.

Officials think these writers need a license to put words on paper.

It’s bad enough if the city expects every freelancer who lives in the city to read the tax code and pick out whatever few sentences mandate that they pay for a business license.

But it’s even worse when reading the code wouldn’t help anyway…

The city claims completely arbitrary authority to demand taxes for “personal or business service, not specifically included” in the ordinance.

The words “freelance” or “novelist” or “writer” do not appear in city code at all. The city can tax– or not– whoever they wish, based on that vague line in the city code.

There is a Robin Hood in this story…

And that’s what all these licensing laws come down to, restriction on the freedom of expression.

Free people have the right to work, to sell their labor, and to contract with whoever they wish. That’s freedom of expression.

And yet so many cities and states demand that you ask permission to make a living.

This one is especially personal to me since I make a living as a self-employed writer.

I’m glad that these writers are fighting back against Charlottesville.

But personally, I find the best way to combat small-time tyrants is to vote with my feet.

Maybe the peasants of Sherwood forest had nowhere else to go. But these days, why stick around and let the Sheriff of Nottingham abuse you?

Puerto Rico has been welcoming freelancers and self-employed with open arms…

That’s why I recently started the application process so that I can move to Puerto Rico by the end of the year, and start paying a 4% tax rate.

And it isn’t even too expensive to form the company and apply.

I am using a service provider called PRelocate. They actually walk you through the process and file your application for you, all for free. They make their money from getting a small slice of the taxes your company pays to the government.

That means the only costs will be for the government fees, about $1,100 total.

A small price to pay for the amount I’ll save in taxes.

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Is Amazon’s Surveillance Machine Secretly Infiltrating Police Departments?

Posted by M. C. on August 26, 2019

Amazon is building a privately run, for-profit surveillance state—and they’re getting local police to market it for them in exchange for VIP access to Amazon’s on-demand surveillance system.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-08-25/amazons-surveillance-machine-secretly-infiltrating-police-departments

by Tyler Durden
Sun, 08/25/2019 – 16:35

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Authored by Eta Onrish via The Organic Prepper blog,

Big Tech has come under fire quite consistently for privacy concerns and has even faced big fines for violations (which they can afford). It seems that public attention on this matter has forced them to start going underground, with secret back-end deals with the government at local levels to expand their surveillance capabilities.

 

If you haven’t heard, there is a very useful doorbell camera called Ring. Ring started out as a product called, Doorbot, on the Shark Tank TV show but was rejected. The owners got immediate exposure and millions of dollars from investors after the show, changing the name from Doorbot to Ring. Fast forward five years, and Amazon decides to compete with Google’s friendly surveillance system called Nest, and buys Ring for A Billion Freaking Dollars.

Using Ring to expand a surveillance network

Ok, so what? It’s a very useful thing to be able to see who’s at the door and have a record of someone breaking into your home. The systems, in themselves, aren’t an issue. It’s when governments start to get involved and big money starts being made that conflicts of interest can lead to misuse and violations of privacy.

It’s these very expansions outside of the homeowner’s benefit that need scrutiny.

In addition to the actual doorbell surveillance camera itself, Ring/Amazon added a handy online app called, Neighbors, to use these systems to help reduce crime. According to Jamie Siminoff, Chief Inventor and Founder of Ring,

“At Ring, we come to work every day with the mission of reducing crime in neighborhoods. Over the past few years we have learned that, when neighbors, the Ring team and law enforcement all work together, we can create safer communities. Neighbors is meant to facilitate real-time communication between these groups, while maintaining neighbor privacy first and foremost. By bringing security to every neighbor with the free Neighbors app, communities can stay on top of crime and safety alerts as they happen.”

That sounds very good, doesn’t it? This may not seem all that much of an issue on the surface (if we ignore the obvious conflict of interest), but let’s dig deeper…

In addition to a system that allows people to monitor their homes, and then has expanded to help them monitor their neighborhoods, they’ve also developed a government-only backend portal to this system that they provide for free.

According to this article,

“Ring, Amazon’s home security company most known for its doorbell camera, has been quietly creating a massive private surveillance network. The company has formed partnerships with at least 225 law enforcement agencies, enticed cities to finance discounts on its cameras with taxpayer money, and worked with police to organize package theft sting operations in several U.S. cities.”

This portal not only gives the government backdoor access to the Neighbors app to directly contact users, they also have a map of all cameras in the area that they can access.

But it gets worse.

Using police departments to help expand the network

Ring is starting to leverage these backdoor agreements to require these agencies to help them expand their network. According to another article from someone who received private communications between Ring and government agencies, “Police are contractually required to …

“Engage the Lakeland community with outreach efforts on the platform to encourage adoption of the platform/app.”

To assist in that endeavor, Ring is coaching agencies, by way of an assigned Ring Partner Success Associate, on how to leverage social media and community outreach programs to expand their reach by,

“… provid[ing] templates and educational materials for police departments.”

Here is an example of one, obtained by an investigator/staff writer at motherboard:

and from obtained correspondence to that same police department,

“You are doing a great job interacting with them and that will be critical in increasing the opt-in rate.”

“The more users you have, the more useful the information you can collect,” the representative added.

But they also stipulate,

Ring requests to look at press releases and any messaging prior to distribution to ensure our company and our products and services are accurately represented.”

The agreement also requires Ring and the Lakeland Police to coordinate on all public communications regarding their partnership.

“The parties shall agree to a joint press release to be mutually agreed upon by the parties,”

Motherboard/Vice also found this is isn’t limited to Lakeland, stating it found similar requirements in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Frisco, Texas…

but they’re also putting pressure on police departments to control the information the public receives about the program:

For nearly three weeks in June, the Boca Raton Police Department was engaged in a partnership with Ring that went publicly unreported. The delay in announcing the city’s deal with Ring occurred at the company’s request. Emails show that Ring was interested in keeping the public’s attention focused on a separate subsidy deal it struck with the city designed, according to the city’s press release, to “incentivize the purchase of Ring Video Doorbells and Ring security devices.”

According to another Vice article,

A signed memorandum of understanding between Ring and the police department of Lakeland, Florida, and emails obtained via a public records request, show that Ring is using local police as a de facto advertising firm. Police are contractually required to “Engage the Lakeland community with outreach efforts on the platform to encourage adoption of the platform/app.”

Not all agencies, however, are laying down as easily. According to Gizmodo:

In Boca Raton, however, city attorneys Thomas Collery and Joni Hamilton refused to accept the terms and managed to get them amended, noting, for example, that Ring’s conditions would run afoul of Florida’s public records laws. The phrase “Unless otherwise required by law, including, but not limited to, public records laws” was added to the agreement Boca Raton ultimately signed. It was also altered to remove the requirement for a “joint press release,” with the city opting instead to give each party the right to approve the other’s individual statements.

At least THEY are requiring their expansion of the surveillance machine be legal. Of course, adopting systems such as this, and then manipulating public perceptions, starts this slippery slope. According to Chris Gilliard, a professor of English at Macomb Community College who studies digital redlining and discriminatory practices enabled by data mining,

When really powerful companies, or police for that matter, are incentivized to find crime, they’re going to find it no matter what. It’ll ultimately shift the definition of what is a crime and lead to over-policing in some ways. Frankly, [it’s] the broken windows style that tends to harm marginalized communities more.”

Bypassing your rights

Keep in mind that this video footage that you’re recording for your own use can be taken by law enforcement via a warrant, but Ring/Amazon is also coaching the agencies on how to influence people to give up the information willingly. According to Vice,..

Amazon is building a privately run, for-profit surveillance state—and they’re getting local police to market it for them in exchange for VIP access to Amazon’s on-demand surveillance system.

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Amazon.com: Spy Net Spyclops Bionic Eye: Toys & Games

 

 

 

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Hypocrisy: New York Times Alleges Conspiracy After Backing Boycotts of Conservative Media

Posted by M. C. on August 26, 2019

Why The New York Times is Unreformable and Must Die

by Ann Coulter

You may think Ann is crazy but she isn’t stupid.

https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2019/08/26/hypocrisy-new-york-times-alleges-conspiracy-after-backing-boycotts-of-conservative-media/

by Joel B. Pollak

New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger alleged that his newspaper was the target of a vast right-wing conspiracy on Sunday — after the paper boosted an effort to shut down conservative media by encouraging boycotts since early 2017.

Last week, Breitbart News exposed a history of racist and antisemitic tweets by a Times politics editor, Tom Wright-Piersanti. The Times admitted Sunday, in a news article, that the tweets were racist and antisemitic — though it did not indicate what action, if any, it was taking against the editor. In a statement to newsroom staff, Sulzberger — who did not acknowledge that the tweets were racist and antisemitic — alleged that the Times had been the victim of “a coordinated campaign by President Trump’s allies to attack hundreds of journalists in retaliation for coverage of the administration.”

The Times‘ objection is rich, given that it boosted an effort by left-wing activists to shut down conservative media solely for their journalists’ coverage of the left and their editorial support for President Donald Trump.

In January 2017, the Times published an op-ed by an author named Pagan Kennedy, titled “How to Destroy the Business Model of Breitbart and Fake News.” The article was a puff piece boosting the efforts of Sleeping Giants (whose ringleader was later unmasked by the Daily Caller as advertising executive Matt Rivitz). The piece even reprinted instructions for helping the boycott. It concluded, admiringly: “[A] new consumer movement is rising, and activists believe that where votes failed, wallets may prevail. This struggle is about much more than ads on Breitbart News — it’s about using corporations as shields to protect vulnerable people from bullying and hate crimes.”

The Times is attempting to play the victim rather than applying the same standard toward hate speech in its own room that it applies to others. Sulzberger, who took over the paper in 2018, claims the Times has “high standards,” but in effect he is arguing that that Times journalists ought to be held to a lower standard — that it is unfair to report “on news organizations in the same way that news organizations report on elected officials and other public figures.”

Perhaps the most laughable claim in Sulzberger’s statement is that the Times‘ critics are “[u]nable to challenge the accuracy of our reporting.” This is a newspaper that chased the Russia collusion hoax for the better part of three years, and whose executive editor, Dean Banquet, recently described plans to build the next year of news around the idea that “racism and white supremacy” are “the foundation of all of the systems in the country.”

That is not journalism; that is propaganda. And for years the Times has been propagandizing against conservative media outlets, hoping to destroy them, even printing instructions to guide readers in the effort. Far from being a victim, the Times is one of the great bullies of the mainstream media. Scrutiny is long overdue.

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All The News Fit To Puff by HMontes on DeviantArt

 

 

 

 

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22nd MEU Marines rocked ISIS fighters in Libya in 2016 with naval gunfire

Posted by M. C. on August 26, 2019

Libya has struggled to rebuild and unify the country following the death Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi in Oct. 2011,

Libya was as unified as it could get under Muammar Gaddafi…until Hillary came to the rescue.

This is what happens when countries stop nuclear development based on government promises. This is not lost on North Korea’s Kim.

https://www.marinecorpstimes.com/flashpoints/2019/08/23/22-meu-rocked-isis-fighters-in-libya-with-naval-gunfire/

By:

On Aug. 1, 2016, a large-scale operation to push ISIS fighters out of the embattled Libyan city of Sirte was launched.

The fight, dubbed Operation Odyssey Lightning, would include support from attack helicopters and Harriers embarked with the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit and fires from the 5-inch gun aboard the Arleigh Burke-class destroyer Carney.

Details of the 22nd MEU’s combat operations in Libya were detailed in command chronology, obtained through a government records request, which described the operation as “one of the largest counterterrorism campaigns to be conducted from amphibious shipping.”

That chronology also noted it was the first time that naval gunfire was coordinated from the arms coordination center in support of combat operations during the war on terrororism.

About 285 rounds fired from the Carney’s 5-inch gun were coordinated from the 22nd MEU’s amphibious assault ship Wasp, according to details in the command chronology.

The 22nd MEU flew 600 close-air support and strike missions, dropped 290 bombs, fired 164 Hellfire missiles, destroyed 25 pieces of enemy equipment and 197 defensive positions, and killed hundreds of enemy fighters in support of the Libya operation, the chronology detailed.

Following a training exercise off the coast of Morocco in July 2016, dubbed African Sea Lion, the 22nd MEU and Wasp were ordered by U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa to head to the Gulf of Sidra, off the coast of Libya to “prepare for combat operations,” the command chronology detailed.

Odyssey Lightning was launched to clear ISIS fighters from the embattled city of Sirte at the request of the UN and U.S. backed Libyan Government of National Accord…

 

Libya has struggled to rebuild and unify the country following the death Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi in Oct. 2011, leaving rival factions and tribes jockeying for control over the country and its vast oil wealth.

The Associated Press reported that 90 people have died during the month of August from clashes between rival tribes in southern Libya.

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Is the Syrian War About to Experience a Major Escalation ...

 

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Confirmed: Obama knew about, and was DIRECTING, the “Spygate” coup attempt against Trump from the very beginning – NaturalNews.com

Posted by M. C. on August 26, 2019

Earlier this week during an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Andrew McCarthy, attorney and former federal prosecutor who specialized in national security cases, said “counterintelligence operations” which is what Spygate was, at its core, are “done for the president.”

There is a reason it is called the swamp and EVERYONE is in the muck.

https://www.naturalnews.com/2019-08-23-obama-knew-about-and-was-directing-spygate-coup-attempt-against-trump.html

by:

Confirmed: Obama knew about, and was DIRECTING, the “Spygate” coup attempt against Trump from the very beginning

Friday, August 23, 2019 by:

Image: Confirmed: Obama knew about, and was DIRECTING, the “Spygate” coup attempt against Trump from the very beginning

(Natural News) For nearly two years as information about the coup attempt against President Donald Trump known as “Spygate” dripped out, observers long suspected that an operation of this scope – involving the Justice Department, the FBI, U.S. and foreign intelligence assets – had to have come from the very top.

That is, former President Obama, who was in the Oval Office when Spygate was hatched and began as the 2016 presidential election cycle kicked off, had to have not only known about it but approved it.

Now, the speculation is over: Of course, he did.

Earlier this week during an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Andrew McCarthy, attorney and former federal prosecutor who specialized in national security cases, said “counterintelligence operations” which is what Spygate was, at its core, are “done for the president.”

That means, as The Gateway Pundit notes, they are executed specifically to inform the commander-in-chief.

“What I’m saying is not that the president sits there and directs that there be counter-intelligence investigations. What I’m saying is that unlike criminal investigations, counter intelligence investigations are done for the president,” McCarthy said.

“The only reason to do them is for the president with the information he needs to protect the United States from foreign threats. They’re not like criminal investigations in that regard. So, in principle, the information is for the president. And here we know at various junctures we have actual factual information that this investigation was well known to President Obama,” he added.

Hannity asked if the president knew about the investigation from the outset, wouldn’t he have been updated on its progress?

“Sean, if things were working properly the president should have been alerted about it and informed. It was a very important investigation,” McCarthy added.

“If they actually believed what they were telling the court that it was a possibility that Donald Trump was actually a plant of the Kremlin, it would have been derelict on their part not to keep the president informed,” he added. (Related: What did Obama know about Trump collusion hoax and when did he know it? Everything, and from the beginning.)

Assumptions have been confirmed

This isn’t the first crumb of evidence indicating that Obama was in on Spygate from the outset. In fact, previous information indicates that Obama actually orchestrated the coup attempt.

As The National Sentinel reported in May 2018, former Bush White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said during a Fox News interview that there was no way Obama would not have been kept in the loop.

Investigative reporter Paul Sperry tweeted the information: “BREAKING: Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer said “I guarantee the answer is yes” to whether Obama knew Halper & others were deployed to spy on Trump campaign. Fleischer explained that no FBI director would put informants inside a presidential campaign w/o the prez authorizing it.”

Earlier that same week, President Trump pretty much said the same thing – and he should know, since he now occupies the Oval Office.

“Would he know? I would certainly hope not. But I think it’s going to be pretty obvious after awhile,” POTUS teased in response to a question from a reporter.

There’s more.

As The National Sentinel noted further, then-FBI counterintelligence official Peter Strzok, in a text to his lover, then-FBI lawyer Lisa Page, discussed the preparation of talking points for then-FBI Director James Comey to give to President Obama. Page said it was important to do so because “potus wants to know everything we’re doing.”

Also, since the spying against Team Trump was set up as a counterintelligence operation, Obama would have been updated regularly via the President’s Daily Intelligence Brief.

It’s one thing to have assumed that former President Obama was in on the Spygate scandal from the outset. But it’s another to now have had that assumption verified and confirmed.

The question is, will he ever be held accountable for his role?

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Bookworm Beat 5/23/2018 -- the #Spygate edition and open ...

 

 

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The Remnant Newspaper – VATICAN PRIORITIES: Melting Ice Trumps Aborting Babies

Posted by M. C. on August 26, 2019

Just when you think the world can’t get any weirder…in steps the Vatican.

https://remnantnewspaper.com/web/index.php/fetzen-fliegen/item/4582-downs-and-glaciers

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Iceland is aborting Downs babies into extiction while the Vatican helps the country mourn the loss… of a glacier.

A monument to future generations, a bronze plaque, that apologises to our descendents for our stupidity, really doesn’t sound like that bad an idea, right?

I mean… assuming there are any descendents…

I mean, the whole Demographic Winter issue is getting to be a pretty big concern, right?

 

The government of Iceland has just erected one that reads, in part:

In the next 200 years, our demographics are expected to follow the same path. This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it.”

Haha… just kidding. It’s a glacier. It doesn’t mention demographics. Just a big field of ice.

The plaque reads:

A letter to the future. [Okjokull] is the first Icelandic glacier to lose its status as a glacier. In the next 200 years all our glaciers are expected to follow the same path…”

Yes, there’s a monument erected by the Icelandic government, with a ceremony attended by 100 people, including government representatives and foreign diplomats, to a “dead” glacier.

I’m really not making it up. The BBC reports:

Mourners have gathered in Iceland to commemorate the loss of Okjokull, which has died at the age of about 700. The glacier was officially declared dead in 2014 when it was no longer thick enough to move. What once was glacier has been reduced to a small patch of ice atop a volcano.

The CIA World Factbook, a rare goldmine for these times of totally un-editorialized… well… facts, tells us that on the whole, things are looking up in Iceland, economically speaking.

Iceland enjoys a slightly better than usual Total Fertility Rate in Europe and other first world nations, with 1.99 children born per woman. Her median female age is 37.3 years and the mean age of mothers at their first birth is 27.4 years.

Only that pretty much no one seems to want to think about one little thing. The minimum for maintaining a stable population is 2.1 births/woman (and it’s a pretty good sign for your nation’s future if the median female age is below a certain stage of life). The math is pretty simple. That’s one child to replace each parent plus one to make up for the people in your community who don’t have children for whatever reason. So, though it has slightly healthier demographics than most nations of the EU, (the country is criticised by the medical community for “lagging behind” in contraceptive use among Nordic countries) Iceland is starting the same slide down the icy slope of auto-extinction as the rest of the Developed World…

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History Of The World, Part 1 Cast and Crew | TVGuide.com

Yet another strange chapter.

 

 

 

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