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Mandatory Mask Theater Returns, CDC Announces Long Term Extension for Biden Transporation Mask Mandate, No Expiration Date, Planes, Trains and Busses

Posted by M. C. on May 5, 2022

The Covidians who define themselves by their adherence to the dictates of the U.S. government, will be happy with this position from the CDC today. They worship at the altar of COVID science and use masks as an expression of their sanctimonious feeling of superiority.  

Mandatory Mask Theater Returns, CDC Announces Long Term Extension for Biden Transporation Mask Mandate, No Expiration Date, Planes, Trains and Busses

 Sundance

Previously a federal judge overturned the federal mask mandate for transportation, thereby allowing travelers to make their own choices.  The DOJ has appealed that decision after the CDC said it wanted the mask mandate to remain in place.  The status of that litigation is unknown.

Today, the CDC has announced a semi-permanent extension of the federal transportation mask mandate with no expiration date noted. [Announcement Here] That means all travelers on airplanes, trains, busses and ridesharing will be required to wear facemasks again, including inside the terminals and operational hubs of those transportation nodes, pending the outcome of the DOJ appeal to the federal court.

CDC Announcement – “At this time, CDC recommends that everyone aged 2 and older – including passengers and workers – properly wear a well-fitting mask or respirator over the nose and mouth in indoor areas of public transportation (such as airplanes, trains, etc.) and transportation hubs (such as airports, stations, etc.).

[…] This public health recommendation is based on the currently available data, including an understanding of domestic and global epidemiology, circulating variants and their impact on disease severity and vaccine effectiveness, current trends in COVID-19 Community Levels within the United States, and projections of COVID-19 trends in the coming months.

[…]  “CDC continues to recommend that all people—passengers and workers, alike—properly wear a well-fitting mask or respirator in indoor public transportation conveyances and transportation hubs to provide protection for themselves and other travelers in these high volume, mixed population settings. […] Additionally, it is important for all of us to protect not only ourselves, but also to be considerate of others at increased risk for severe COVID-19 and those who are not yet able to be vaccinated. Wearing a mask in indoor public transportation settings will provide protection for the individual and the community.”  ~ Rochelle Walensky, CDC Director

If the Biden administration lose the court appeal to reinstitute the mask mandate, this announcement by the CDC would appear to be moot, they couldn’t enforce it.  However, if the Biden administration is successful in their appeal, the mandatory mask wearing returns.

Put another way….. If the Biden administration lose the appeal, the people wearing masks will be the COVID worshippers.  If the Biden administration win their appeal we all have to wear them.

The mandate created by Joe Biden did not have legal structure.  It was a dictatorial fiat that exceeded the capacity of the executive branch to create.  U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle found the CDC exceeded its statutory authority with the mask mandate and violated the rules that guide CDC regulations.   {LINK} After Joe Biden arbitrarily announced the federal transportation mandate, the CDC triggered enforcement of the mask mandate without any required time for public feedback on a new regulation.

Congress could easily write a law authorizing mechanisms for the CDC and TSA to use in enforcement of a federal Transportation mask mandate; but they won’t – because the public doesn’t support it.  However, the Biden administration doesn’t care about majority public opinion, they are fine-tuned to push virtue signaling as a political strategy.

The White House is very committed to all their mandates around COVID-19, the mask mandate is no different.  From the perspective of the professional political left, the theater of forced mask wearing represents the visible power and authority of government to rule the lives of the irrelevant proles.

Any pesky legal rulings, that seek to reduce or remove the power of government, are viewed by the left as arbitrary and insignificant efforts to block their almighty power of government.  They can choose to wear a mask if they want, but that’s not really the issue behind the mask mandate.  The true power of the left is in the ability to force everyone to comply to their whims regardless of individual freedom.

The Covidians who define themselves by their adherence to the dictates of the U.S. government, will be happy with this position from the CDC today. They worship at the altar of COVID science and use masks as an expression of their sanctimonious feeling of superiority.  However, in an election year where the overwhelming majority of the American people have had enough of this political science, this CDC position may fuel an even more angry response.

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Schiff: GDP Spin Is Orwellian Doublespeak

Posted by M. C. on May 4, 2022

Nothing to do with upcoming elections

Tyler Durden's Photo

BY TYLER DURDEN

Via SchiffGold.com,

https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/schiff-gdp-spin-orwellian-doublespeak

Despite all the talk about a “strong economy,” nobody was expecting a blistering hot GDP for the first quarter. The consensus was for around a 1% gain. As it turned out, it was even worse than expected. GDP shrank in Q1, contracting by 1.4%.

Despite the awful number, the mainstream spun it as a positive. Peter Schiff called it an outrageous positive spin on negative GDP and a great example of Orwellian doublespeak.

A New York Times headline proclaimed, “GDP Report Shows US Economy Shrank, Masking a Broader Recovery”

Basically, the NYT and others in the mainstream media are claiming the economy is really strong. You just can’t see that strength because it’s hidden behind this weak economy. Peter wondered out loud what in the hell they are talking about.

The first point to consider is that of negative GDP in one quarter means we’re halfway to a recession. A recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of contracting GDP.

Jerome Powell and the other central bankers at the Federal Reserve have hung their hats on the fact that the US has a super-strong economy. They claim the economy is strong enough to handle rate hikes and quantitative tightening without spinning into a deep recession. Peter asks the operative question.

If the economy is so strong, why is it contracting? How is a -1.4% GDP a strong economy?”

See the rest here

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The Long, Lucrative, and Bloody Road to World War III

Posted by M. C. on May 4, 2022

by Connor Freeman 

Nor do our all-knowing rulers appear concerned with the fact that they have “almost zero” ability to keep track of the myriad sophisticated weapons systems they are sending to Ukraine. CNN quoted briefed sources saying intelligence shows American arms are falling into a “big black hole.” They say it’s worth it.

https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/the-long-lucrative-and-bloody-road-to-world-war-iii/

Well, this war in Ukraine will last “months and years.” At least, that is what the leaders of the D.C. foreign policy blob, the media, President Joe Biden’s men, Pentagon and NATO leadership have decided. Their plan is to pour oil on the flames and keep the fire raging. Also, Americans are going to have to cough up the dough for another massive aid package, with $20 billion worth of weapons to keep the blood flowing. In total, this next package will cost the taxpayer $33 billion. With Biden’s proposed $813 billion “defense” budget for 2023, the U.S. is spending more on the military and war now than ever before in the country’s history.

Now that we have our very own Ministry of Truth, it would appear any national debate over these polices, indeed if such a debate is ever allowed to take place, will likely have to be moderated by cockroaches and Keith Richards.

NATO is set to expand again, bringing in Finland and Sweden. This will extend the alliance’s border with Russia by greater than 800 miles and further stoke nuclear tensions, bringing the current brinksmanship to a whole new level. Moscow plans to respond including by increasing air and naval forces in the Baltic Sea and reinforcing its Kaliningrad exclave, which lies between NATO members Poland and Lithuania, with additional nuclear weapons and hypersonic missiles. Until 2004, it was unthinkable that NATO would ever expand to Russia’s borders until that actually happened. Like most of our issues with Russia, this is all Bill Clinton and George W. Bush’s fault.

Even as Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and other leaders in Moscow repeatedly warn of nuclear conflict and World War III, even directly comparing the current situation to the Cuban Missile Crisis, senior Pentagon officials say they are not concerned.

See the rest here

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No, Disney World Isn’t the First of ‘One Thousand Liechtensteins’

Posted by M. C. on May 4, 2022

Nothing about the creation of a special district is unique, either. The United States has literally tens of thousands of special districts, which are corporate entities with special prerogatives and which are governed by boards separate from local municipal and county governments. Special districts have been created for many purposes, such as fire suppression, water and sewage, private toll roads, and education.

by Ryan McMaken

One of the stranger narratives coming out of the controversy over Disney’s “special district” in Florida is the notion that Disney’s Florida property is some sort of truly independent self-governing entity operating without government oversight.

Most claims in this regard wildly overestimate the degree to which Disney enjoys self-governance. Some also claim that Disney’s Florida special district represents some sort of model for a truly “private city” in the model of a sovereign city-state. Or as one Twitter commenter put it, “Unironically, Walt Disney style private city-states is my ideology.”

unironically, Walt Disney style private city-states is my ideology

— Confederate Kierkegarchist (@Kierkegarchy) July 19, 2018

Yet the Disney “special district” means only this:

  • Its “self-governance” exempts it from local ordinances only.
  • It is a plot of private land fully subject to all state and federal laws.
  • The special district has no sovereignty, and exists only at the pleasure of the state legislature.
  • It has no veto power in regard to laws that could affect it or abolish it.
  • It is not a peer of government entities that exercise some level of real sovereignty, such as a US state or an Indian reservation. It doesn’t even rise to the level of a self-ruling city.

Nothing about the creation of a special district is unique, either. The United States has literally tens of thousands of special districts, which are corporate entities with special prerogatives and which are governed by boards separate from local municipal and county governments. Special districts have been created for many purposes, such as fire suppression, water and sewage, private toll roads, and education. The only thing that’s arguably unique about the Disney special district is that it was created explicitly to benefit a single private for-profit corporation for general purposes. This also means Disney is essentially a private corporation that can issue tax-free “municipal” bonds.

On the other hand, the fact that Disney has its own police force, maintains its own roads, and can exclude people who don’t “follow the rules” means nothing special at all. All this means is that Disney World functions in this respect like a huge shopping mall that employs its own private security and maintains the roads, parking structures, and general infrastructure in its immediate vicinity. (It would be quite wrong, for instance, to think that Disney’s law enforcement institutions are somehow independent from state and local law enforcement. Disney parks are very much within the jurisdiction of the local county sheriff.)

So, needless to say, this idea that Disney World is some sort of revolutionary form of “privatization,” a city-state, or a shining example of a “private city” is misleading and unhelpful.

For example, the use of the phrase “city-state” implies that Disney World is in the same league as modern-day polities like Vatican City or Monaco—or Renaissance states like Cospaia or the Republic of Florence. Indeed, to look at real city-states—which by definition enjoy some actual de facto degree of sovereignty—illustrates just how very wrong it is to portray the Disney World model as revolutionary or somehow contrary to the prerogatives of centralized states. Disney doesn’t even enjoy the status of a “client state” or a “protectorate,” which generally exercises independence in internal affairs. No, Disney World is directly subject to state law and is in every way a fully integrated part of the political jurisdiction known as Florida.

In fact, the Disney World model is best portrayed a just another “public-private partnership” employed by the state government to benefit the state government. The provenance of the Disney special district lies in nothing more than a calculation made by state agents that exempting Disney World from some local government ordinances would benefit the government of the state of Florida in the long run. In this, Florida politicians were probably right, and the Disney special district has helped produce immense amounts of tax revenue that have allowed the Florida government to greatly expand its powers elsewhere. (In this state-corporate bargain, it is Disney’s potential competitors who lose most.)

One can certainly argue in favor of exempting property owners from certain building codes and taxes. That’s a good thing, but it hardly suggests the creation of a city-state or private city. Decentralizing municipal power across smaller jurisdictions—i.e., urban secession—is a good thing as well. This helps to disperse and limit political power. But as with the Disney special district, such changes do not limit the powers or jurisdiction of higher levels of government, such as state or federal governments.

Yet one will still occasionally hear from a libertarian activist that Disney World is a radical model for “private governance” allegedly independent from government oversight. The Disney situation is not nearly as groundbreaking as such statements contend. In fact, the Disney World model only proves that—with an army of lobbyists—a large property owner can enter into a special arrangement with the government in which said property owners are exempted from some local ordinances. That’s all it is.

This article was originally featured at the Ludwig von Mises Institute

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The Irrational, Misguided Discourse Surrounding Supreme Court Controversies Such as Roe v. Wade

Posted by M. C. on May 4, 2022

The Irrational, Misguided Discourse Surrounding Supreme Court Controversies Such as Roe v. WadeThe Court, like the U.S. Constitution, was designed to be a limit on the excesses of democracy. Roe denied, not upheld, the rights of citizens to decide democratically.

Politico on Monday night published what certainly appears to be a genuine draft decision by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito that would overturn the Court’s 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade. Alito’s draft ruling would decide the pending case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which concerns the constitutionality of a 2018 Mississippi law that bans abortions after fifteen weeks of pregnancy except in the case of medical emergency or severe fetal abnormalities. Given existing Supreme Court precedent that abortion can only be restricted after fetal viability, Mississippi’s ban on abortions after the 15th week — at a point when the fetus is not yet deemed viable — is constitutionally dubious. To uphold Mississippi’s law — as six of the nine Justices reportedly wish to do — the Court must either find that the law is consistent with existing abortion precedent, or acknowledge that it conflicts with existing precedent and then overrule that precedent on the ground that it was wrongly decided.

Alito’s draft is written as a majority opinion, suggesting that at least five of the Court’s justices — a majority — voted after oral argument in Dobbs to overrule Roe on the ground that it was “egregiously wrong from the start” and “deeply damaging.” In an extremely rare event for the Court, an unknown person with unknown motives leaked the draft opinion to Politico, which justifiably published it. A subsequent leak to CNN on Monday night claimed that the five justices in favor of overruling Roe were Bush 43 appointee Alito, Bush 41 appointee Clarence Thomas, and three Trump appointees (Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett), while Chief Justice Roberts, appointed by Bush 43, is prepared to uphold the constitutionality of Mississippi’s abortion law without overruling Roe.

Draft rulings and even justices’ votes sometimes change in the period between the initial vote after oral argument and the issuance of the final decision. Depending on whom you choose to believe, this leak is either the work of a liberal justice or clerk designed to engender political pressure on the justices so that at least one abandons their intention to overrule Roe, or it came from a conservative justice or clerk, designed to make it very difficult for one of the justices in the majority to switch sides. Whatever the leaker’s motives, a decision to overrule this 49-year-old precedent, one of the most controversial in the Court’s history, would be one of the most significant judicial decisions issued in decades. The reaction to this leak — like the reaction to the initial ruling in Roe back in 1973 — was intense and strident, and will likely only escalate once the ruling is formally issued.

Every time there is a controversy regarding a Supreme Court ruling, the same set of radical fallacies emerges regarding the role of the Court, the Constitution and how the American republic is designed to function. Each time the Court invalidates a democratically elected law on the ground that it violates a constitutional guarantee — as happened in Roe — those who favor the invalidated law proclaim that something “undemocratic” has transpired, that it is a form of “judicial tyranny” for “five unelected judges” to overturn the will of the majority. Conversely, when the Court refuses to invalidate a democratically elected law, those who regard that law as pernicious, as an attack on fundamental rights, accuse the Court of failing to protect vulnerable individuals.

This by-now-reflexive discourse about the Supreme Court ignores its core function. Like the U.S. Constitution itself, the Court is designed to be an anti-majoritarian check against the excesses of majoritarian sentiment. The Founders wanted to establish a democracy that empowered majorities of citizens to choose their leaders, but also feared that majorities would be inclined to coalesce around unjust laws that would deprive basic rights, and thus sought to impose limits on the power of majorities as well.

The Federalist Papers are full of discussions about the dangers of majoritarian excesses. The most famous of those is James Madison’s Federalist 10, where he warns of “factions…who are united and actuated by some common impulse of passion, or of interest, adverse to the rights of other citizens, or to the permanent and aggregate interests of the community.” One of the primary concerns in designing the new American republic, if not the chief concern, was how to balance the need to establish rule by the majority (democracy) with the equally compelling need to restrain majorities from veering into impassioned, self-interested attacks on the rights of minorities (republican government). As Madison put it: “To secure the public good, and private rights, against the danger of such a faction, and at the same time to preserve the spirit and the form of popular government, is then the great object to which our enquiries are directed.” Indeed, the key difference between a pure democracy and a republic is that the rights of the majority are unrestricted in the former, but are limited in the latter. The point of the Constitution, and ultimately the Supreme Court, was to establish a republic, not a pure democracy, that would place limits on the power of majorities.

Thus, the purpose of the Bill of Rights is fundamentally anti-democratic and anti-majoritarian. It bars majorities from enacting laws that infringe on the fundamental rights of minorities.

See the rest at Glenn Greenwald on Substack

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No, it’s NOT “fake news.” It’s Nazi propaganda.

Posted by M. C. on May 4, 2022

Someone who’s over there demolishes three whopping lies about “Ukraine,” with visual evidence beyond dispute

https://markcrispinmiller.substack.com/p/no-its-not-fake-news-its-nazi-propaganda?s=r

This exemplary takedown of the “Ukraine” propaganda comes from Russell Bentley of Texas, now living in the Donbas (and some of whose interviews I’ve posted here):

There’s a wise old maxim that says, “The first step on the road to wisdom is to call things by their right names.” So, let’s do that.

“Fake News” has been around a long while, The New York Sun’s “Great Moon Hoax” of 1835 is a good (and amusing) example. An absolute falsehood and fantasy was published as fact to a credulous public who ate it up. This fake news story about the moon established The Sun as a major and highly profitable newspaper throughout the United States. Fifty years later, Hearst and Pulitzer were competing with each other for readership by publishing preposterous and sensationalist phony stories that became known as “yellow journalism”, or as I simply call it, “urinalism”. Because the media that publish such swill, and the hacks that write for them, are fit only for cleaning toilets. But those carefree days are long in the past, and fake news is no longer funny.

The practice of publishing false stories for financial or political motives has probably been around much longer than that, but today it has been elevated to a science and an art form, a black art form, that is truly one of the greatest threats to the future of Humanity in the world today. It is mass brainwashing on a global scale, abetted by science and technology, a war on human consciousness, a concentrated and deliberate attack on people’s ability to see reality, to discern fact from lies, it is a war against the truth.

It has been correctly said that a respect for the truth is the basis for all morality, so a war against the truth is a war against morality, against all that is good and decent. Without an ability to see reality and detect lies, without a moral compass, people are literally no more than dumb beasts, mules to be worked and exploited by their owners, or sheep to be led to the slaughter. “Fake news” is a term a bit too cute and cozy for the black art of intentionally erasing the very intellect and morality that makes us human. It seeks to dumb down and degrade Humanity to the point to where people are no longer human. And that point is fast approaching, and for many, is already here.

I want to give three concrete and irrefutable examples of genuine nazi propaganda, produced by the West, (US and EU) about the war in Ukraine in just the last month, which not only attempt to cover up the crime of intentional mass murder attacks on civilians, but go further still and attempt to blame the actual victims for the crimes of US, EU and Ukrainian nazis. You will see by these three indisputable examples how disinformation is used as a truly evil weapon, how to defend against it, and how to destroy it with the truth.

Example #1 La Stampa (Italy) FRONT PAGE PHOTO – “THE CARNAGE”

The Italian propaganda rag La Stampa published the photo above on 15 March, 2022, showing a horrific scene of mass murder of civilians by illegal cluster munitions delivered to a city center by a ballistic missile. 24 civilians (including an entire family with 2 kids) were murdered, and dozens more gravely injured. The headlines in red across the top – “Russia kills 400 in Mariupol, Kiev prepares for Russian attack”. Emblazoned across the photo, “The Carnage”. The photo is real, and while the headlines are intentionally misleading, they are not outright lies. They don’t have to be. The liars at La Stampa don’t have to actually lie, most Europeans, like most US citizens are far too stupid to actually look beyond the headlines, and are easily deceived by nothing more than insinuations. And pro-nazi propagandists like those at La Stampa know it.

I could tell you that the photo actually shows the results of a Ukrainian Army war crime by a Tochka-U missile that was intentionally launched at Donetsk city center around 12:00 noon on Monday March 14th, that in fact it was intended to kill many times more than the 24 civilians who were murdered. I could tell you that the weekend before, fake ukrop troll accounts on Russian and other social media spread false stories that the DPR administration would be giving news about the status of DPR soldiers at 12:30 on March 14th at the Administration Building in central Donetsk, and wives, mothers, daughters of soldiers should come there then. 

See the rest here

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A Medical Hydraulic Empire

Posted by M. C. on May 4, 2022

By Charles Curley

Fran Van Cleave

 The United States’ health outcomes place us at either 18th or 30th in the world, depending on which study you look at.  Neither ranking is particularly glorious, especially considering that the US has the most expensive health care in the world. Our doctors are punished by insurance companies when they take extra time to look for causes rather than just treat symptoms. The end result is the equivalent of putting duct tape over the “check engine light.” Who wants to pay for that, even with a zero co-pay? Anyone?

A Medical Hydraulic Empire

Never let a good crisis go to waste. — Winston Churchill

In the headlong rush toward socialized medicine in America, all sorts of arguments have been made. Here’s one we haven’t heard, and we find it one of the most unsettling.

Wikipedia says, “A hydraulic empire (also known as a hydraulic despotism, or water monopoly empire) is a social or government structure which maintains power and control through exclusive control over access to water. It arises through the need for flood control and irrigation, which requires central coordination and a specialized bureaucracy.” But a hydraulic empire need not be based on water. It can be some other commodity precious to human life. Like medicine.

Larry Niven wrote a novel about a hydraulic empire based on vitamins, Destiny’s Road. (1998) It should scare the hell out of you.

What is socialized medicine but a hydraulic empire based on medicine?

When one of us first wrote about this on Facebook in 2018, the post foresaw Soviet style direct political intervention in the health care system. “Sorry, Comrade, no vitamins for you today. You shouldn’t buck the Party.” “Your surgery has been postponed, Comrade. Comrade O’Brien took sick, and the party needs him.” Or maybe Venezuelan style socialism.

But recent events show it doesn’t take Soviet style authoritarianism. All it takes is political correctness and Critical Race Theory (CRT) as now practiced by a country’s governing elite. Britain’s National Health Service (NHS), under a Conservative government, may deny health care to “Racist” or “Homophobic” patients. While racism apparently is a problem in British health care, denying health care simply because a patient is racist is the wrong (but oh-so-politically-correct) solution.

Oh, and they are also using it to enforce so-called “equity”. For example, New York will prioritize non-White people in the distribution of COVID-19 treatments in short supply. “Non-white race or Hispanic/Latino ethnicity should be considered a risk factor, as longstanding systemic health and social inequities have contributed to an increased risk of severe illness and death from COVID-19.”

Similarly, Minnesota now requires healthcare providers to provide non-white patients with preferential access to monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). mAbs are used to treat and to avoid infections of COVID-19. Since the article was published, Minnesota has removed the specific mention of BPIOC in the scoring factors. Instead, as of January 12, 2022, providers are supposed to “Strive for fairness and protect against systematic unfairness and inequity. It’s anyone’s guess as to what that actually means and how it will be implemented. But worry not: Minnesota has a “Resource Library for Advancing Health Equity in Public Health”[https://www.health.state.mn.us/communities/practice/resources/equitylibrary/index.html]. Utah was apparently also following race-based guidelines in providing medical care for COVID-19 patients, and now both Utah and Minnesota are threatened with lawsuits from America First Legal, a conservative law firm founded by Stephen Miller.

In democratic Germany, rules banning adults unvaccinated for COVID from public places are being applied to the Bundestag, prohibiting citizens from participating in the national legislature. It also applies to MPs, thereby denying thousands of Germans their right to parliamentary representation. Now that the left-leaning Social Democrats (SDP) and Greens are in power (in a coalition with the liberal Free Democrats), the political target is clear: the right-wing Alternative for Germany party (AfD). The AfD has the largest number of unvaccinated MPs and has campaigned against vaccine mandates.

For some months now, patients on waiting lists for organ transplants have been ordered to get the COVID vaccine or be taken off the waiting list for the limited number of organs available, which usually means death when their own organs fail. Strangely, the fact that myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle) is a known and listed side effect for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines has not altered the demand by medical authorities that all patients must have the COVID vaccine in order to make them better transplant candidates.

See the rest here

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SUSPECTED AND KNOWN TERRORISTS WALKING FREELY IN THE US

Posted by M. C. on May 4, 2022

See link for Rumble video

Suspected AND Known Terrorists Walking Freely in the US

by Project Veritas

A source within the Federal Government has come forward to reveal suspected and known terrorists are roaming freely in the United States following the Biden administration’s exit strategy in Afghanistan, and subsequent initiatives launched by the Department of Homeland Security [DHS] to shelter fleeing refugees, known as Operation Allies Welcome.

Here are some of the highlights from today’s video:

• The records obtained by Project Veritas confirm numerous suspected terrorists are currently living throughout the country, many of whom have work visas despite being flagged by the Terrorist Watchlist for violent offenses like murder and using explosive devices and arms.

• Project Veritas published redacted government records of suspected terrorists who fall under the “Tier 1” threat level which is labelled as “Armed and Dangerous.” Most of these individuals flagged by the Department of Homeland Security were admitted because of an initiative to shelter fleeing refugees called Operation Allies Welcome.

• The whistleblower inside the Federal Government has identified numerous cases. The suspected terrorists verified by Project Veritas appear to only be a small sample size. These threats live throughout the country including the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C.

Contributed by Alexandra Bruce

Contact

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US Should Stop Playing the Supplicant to Saudi Arabia

Posted by M. C. on May 4, 2022

America, Not the Corrupt Medieval Dictatorship, Is the Superpowerby Doug Bandow

antiwar.com

Pity President Joe Biden. His spendthrift fiscal policies spurred an inflationary wave. His sanctions against Russia roiled energy markets, already suffering from long-standing restrictions on the sale of Iranian and Venezuelan oil. When he went, hat-in-hand, to the oppressive Saudi monarchy the king refused to take his call.

The Emiratis treated him no better. Even though the US rushed to Abu Dhabi’s aid when Yemen’s Houthi rebels finally began shooting back after years of attacks on civilian targets, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayad al-Nahyan complained that Washington did not act sooner. Obsequious Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Abu Dhabi, prostrating himself while promising to do better in the future.

So far neither “friend” of America has produced any extra oil. Indeed, it appears that the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MbS, is gambling on the return to power of Donald Trump, who acted as consigliere to the bin Salman crime family. The Saudi list of grievances is long, but all reflect anger that Washington sometimes puts America’s interests before those of the Kingdom: “the administration’s restrictions on arms sales; what [MbS] saw as its insufficient response to attacks on Saudi Arabia by Houthi forces in Yemen; its publication of a report into the Saudi regime’s 2018 murder of the dissident and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi; and Biden’s prior refusal to deal in person with the crown prince.” For Crown Prince “Slice ‘n Dice,” used to kidnapping, jailing, killing, and even dismembering his critics, such behavior by Washington is unforgivable.

The Biden administration’s current fixation is finding increased oil supplies as it pushes to ban Russian sales. Going to America’s Persian Gulf “allies,” particularly the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, was Washington’s most natural move. However, both benefit from higher oil prices, collecting more revenue and stretching out production. Without being offered something in return, they had no reason to agree.

The administration also could satisfy its objectives by relaxing sanctions on Venezuela – Trump’s attempt to achieve regime change by starving an already impoverished people failed spectacularly. The Maduro regime is malign, but Washington has punished the Venezuelan people more than the government. Biden officials recently ventured to Caracas to discuss oil exports but so far have failed to act, presumably fearing the domestic political consequences.

Similarly, restoring the JCPOA, the nuclear deal with Iran, would bring substantially more oil onto the international market. The Trump administration’s decision to wreck the agreement, a political gift to Riyadh and Jerusalem, proved disastrous. Although candidate Biden said he favored America’s return to the pact, which limited Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, President Biden retreated, fearing congressional criticism. So far he has refused to lift poison pill sanctions imposed by Trump to forestall revival of the deal, and the agreement is in limbo.

So oil prices remain painfully high with mid-term elections just six months away.

Now members of the infamous Blob, America’s foreign policy establishment, are urging Biden to do a full kowtow to Riyadh (and presumably Abu Dhabi as well), doing the royals’ bidding as before. 

See the rest here

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Alleged Russian Cyber Threats Fueled Nearly 2 Million Warrantless FBI Searches of Americans’ Data in 2021

Posted by M. C. on May 4, 2022

In total, the FBI ran 3.39 million warrantless data searches in 2021

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The Office of the Director of National Intelligence released its Annual Statistical Transparency Report for 2021, which for the first time included the number of warrantless searches of US citizens’ electronic data conducted by the FBI.

According to the report, the FBI conducted about 3.39 million searches of Americans’ data without a warrant. The searches are technically legal under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Of the 3.9 million searches, the majority were conducted in response to claims of Russian cyber threats. According to The Washington Times, about 1.9 million of the searches were made in response to one alleged Russian cyber threat to critical US infrastructure.

It’s not clear what threat the FBI was responding to, and the US often accuses the Russian government of launching cyberattacks without offering evidence to back up the accusations. However, the US blamed the 2021 Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack on the Russian hacking group REvil, and the Russian government responded by dismantling REvil at the behest of Washington.

The searches for 2021 marked a significant increase from the prior year. According to the report, in 2020, the FBI conducted 1.32 million warrantless data searches. The report said the FBI can conduct such searches on persons “that are both reasonably likely to return foreign intelligence information and … queries that are reasonably likely to return evidence of a crime.”

The release of the search numbers was the result of legislation led by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) aimed at protecting Americans’ privacy. “The public deserves to know whether the FBI has fully addressed the extensive abuses of its 702 search authorities that have been documented for years. Baseline transparency is essential if the federal government wants to hold such sweeping surveillance powers,” Wyden said.

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